Lessons Learned from Transforming Global Brands with Marcus East, Chief Digital Officer at T-Mobile

How essential is technology to the success of a business? How can CDOs and CTOs best enable digital transformation in their organizations? 

Marcus East, Chief Digital Officer at T-Mobile, has been fascinated with technology ever since a teacher provided him with access to a computer when he was eight years old. This led him to work in technology for major brands including Apple, Google, National Geographic, and now T-Mobile.

On this episode of Future in Tech, Marcus shares his passion for using technology to transform businesses. Tune in to hear the lessons he has learned throughout his career, his advice for entrepreneurs and CIOs, and more. Enjoy this episode!

 Main Takeaways:

• Technology enables digital transformation: Mark explains that while many companies have a clear vision and understand what they would like their customers to experience, the execution is very important. He argues that “the most important aspect of a digital transformation is the enabling technologies that allow you to bring it to life.” 

• The importance of a diverse workforce: Mark explains why having a workforce that reflects the society that you live in is “good business” and how important it is to get the best person for the job regardless of their background, gender, etc. 

• Guidance for young entrepreneurs: Mark provides three pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs. He explains how essential it is to seek out guidance , to think about the business model in addition to the product and the importance of a strong team.
  
  
• Advice for CIOs and CDOs: Mark provides three pieces of advice for CIOs and CDOs. He dives into the importance of “building relationships” and “stakeholder management,” establishing a “clear vision” and becoming a great “people leader.” 

 

Key Quotes:

[02:52] “The most important aspect of a digital transformation is the enabling technologies that allow you to bring it to life.” 

 

[05:33] “... In some organizations, technology isn't necessarily given a seat at the table. And so strategic decisions are being made without really having a deep appreciation or understanding for technology. And sometimes technologists allow themselves to become order takers. Now this is something I have a strong adversity to…Technology is enabling transformation. It's enabling businesses to innovate in a way they couldn't do before. And so for businesses to be successful, they have to make sure that technology is represented at the top table.”

 

[20:58] “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are incredibly important for a couple of reasons. One of them… is this idea that in the digital space you are building products and experiences for your customers and your customers look different. They have different values. You can't just build products for one particular cohort or one particular segment. So I think it's important for the teams that are building those products and designing those products to basically represent the society that you're operating within… So [it] is just good business.” 

 

[31:52] “I would advise any CIO, CDO, CTO, make sure you build those relationships with your stakeholders because it's a tough job… There are very few people in the organization that will have the same level of skill and experience that you have, but you are so critical to the success of your organization that there'll be times when, if you don't have the strong, personal relationship with all of your stakeholders, it's going to  go wrong.” 

 

[48:37] “When I was at National Geographic… one of the jokes there was that most initiatives, products, [and] programs started on the whiteboard in my office because the environment and the culture that we built there was that if somebody had an idea, they would poke their head in my door and say, ‘Hey, can I just test something with you?’ We'd go onto the whiteboard. We would test it. And it's my belief that as a leader, if I'm not able to do that, then my team loses some of the value of my leadership. So being there for my team is probably my number one priority”