Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans

The Big Themes:Top CEO priorities: To drive digital business, top CEOs are focusing on acquiring and retaining talent, and leveraging and deploying emerging technologies such as AI and ML. Regardless of the company, all businesses must be "tech-enabled" now.New business models: The new (and multiple) business models of today are geared to adapt to meet customers where they are. Companies are shifting to subscription-based models and consumption-based models.Access to AI and ML data: Many strong point solutions that use AI and ML are out there, but companies cannot access the data from these tools. On the "HR side," Workday has access to the data from over 16 million records.The Big Quote: "Well, I think our customers are deploying AI and ML, pretty aggressively. You know, as I mentioned, in their core business up front, and now they're turning to HR and financials. ChatGPT is a really powerful technology, it's gotta be used the right way. There's wrong ways to use it. And what I worry about a little bit is that traditional AI and ML... the analytics that you can do with traditional AI and ML are still really, really valuable. And what I see from customers is high uptake in that area. They want products powered by AI and ML. So Skills Cloud would be a great instance of that, where we enable jobs to be broken down into skills and put it in a canonical format, normalized across all of our customers, and then we can help our customers do matching in terms of people they want to hire against the skills they're looking for. So that's all AI and ML-driven." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:What it takes to be great: companies must strongly consider incorporating DEI initiatives into their businesses but must be careful not to let the focus on talent and culture fall by the wayside.Go back to the "foundational" piece: The "big initiative" of today's companies should be addressing exactly what the priorities are.Attract talent, but know how to retain it: A strong focus on acquiring talent, and a lack of thought about retaining talent, had created a "gap that has really widened in the last few years."The Big Quote: "What I'm hearing and what I'm seeing in the market today is that DEiI is the only focus. Now, I'm not saying that across the board, I'm just saying generalities. There are great companies that have been corrupted into a single focus over the last couple of years... but it's one of three priorities. It needs to be one of three priorities. It can't be the only priority. And I think what I'm hearing from a lot of my friends in the big companies...they overhired to meet these DEI agendas. And now, they're laying off some of these people that they hired because they didn't focus on the other two priorities: culture and talent. You have to have all three to make, you know, to make a great hire." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Episode 28 | Supply Chains: The "Orchestrator" of Today's BusinessThe Big Themes:Why AWS entered the supply chain space: The company has the knowledge and expertise to solve critical issues for businesses today. AWS is "putting its competency to work for its customers."Customers want to create their own roadmap: AWS Supply Chain is not a "rip and replace solution." The product leverages the already-existing solutions customers are using to further inform decision-making.A supply chain is the "orchestrator" of today's business: AWS Supply Chain is industry-agnostic and is a "backbone" to the various solutions already being utilized by customers.The Big Quote: "Everybody needs to have a good orchestrator, a good supply chain, that can really help this business to be successful. So we're not building this application focused in any specific industry, but we're making the solution, the backbone of the solution, very strong to serve all these different industries. So customers can leverage our investments and in our cloud-native architecture, so they can leverage this technology in different industries like I mentioned before. So, the exciting thing is that since our preview launch, we've been able to have those discussions across multiple industries." Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Fixing human error: The biggest cybersecurity vulnerability companies have is their people, and there's no software tool or system that is more powerful than cultivating an awareness of secure practices among employees.Setting the right example: Business leaders must practice what they preach. No more leaving laptops open to email inboxes on our desks. Demonstrate the company's mindset by taking data security seriously and preach it to the whole team.How to lead externally: Christian talks about the dangers of "convergence for the sake of convergence," where manufacturers are creating digital products without being thoughtful about the cybersecurity implications of, for example, a poorly designed app for an oven.The Big Quote: "Unless you start building a culture around the proper treatment of information—who can access it under what circumstances, etc.—and then put real consequences associated with violating the proper handling and use of it, you're never going to really address the weakest link in security." Want more leadership inspiration from Christian? Connect with him on LinkedIn. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:The automation of knowledge work: This has been happening for a while now—just think of the hours of labor eliminated by search engines—but generative AI takes this automation to a different, higher level.ChatGPT is overhyped: The panic over AI tools replacing journalists, teachers, and all human workers is overblown, Tony says. Businesses should be focused on augmenting the work done by people with new technologies.ChatGPT is underhyped: "Technological change always precedes cultural change," Tony says, and there are likely to be massive cultural shifts following widespread access to and use of generative AI tools.The Big Quote: "Oftentimes, we look at these emerging technologies, and we see dollar signs. We think, Oh, my gosh, we're gonna automate this over here, which means we don't have to do that over there... And then we learn over time that these are augmented technologies that are actually accelerating what human beings can do. I would say to senior level executives: train and prepare a workforce to uplevel problem solving and creativity and innovation." Looking for more insights to transform your business? Connect with Tony on LinkedIn or through his AE Analyst page. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Episode 26 | AI and the Rise of the Intellectual CapitalistNote: this episode contains explicit language.The Big Themes:Knowledge workers are no longer at the top of the pyramid: Careers like lawyer, doctor, and engineer have long been highly valuable and widely esteemed, but by making tons of knowledge readily accessible and mostly free, tools like ChatGPT are going to push knowledge workers down in the career pyramid.The rise of the intellectual capitalist: The creation of "net-new knowledge" (intellectual capital, or IC) is going to define the highly valuable and esteemed careers of tomorrow.ChatGPT and other AI tools should be embraced: Yes, there will be jobs lost and people who use these tools for nefarious reasons, but as a society we must embrace the possibilities and opportunities they present. For example, these tools should not be banned in schools, but instead used to spark conversation and creativity.The Big Quote: "If you've ever created anything new of value for yourself and or your company, in your work, whether you realize it or not, you're an intellectual capitalist... And the big aha now is to take that from the back of your mind to the front of your mind. Ask yourself, what IC have I created already? How am I being super thoughtful about leveraging my IC to make a difference, to create value for others, and for myself?" Want more from Christopher Lochhead? Connect with him on LinkedIn and explore his podcasts, blog, and books. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Apex's culture of curiosity: While the CFO's domain is traditionally finance, JJ explains that at Apex, he is focused on business forecasting, not just financial. Workday Adaptive Planning was the perfect tool for the inclusive and cooperative culture at Apex.Effective planning keeps Apex ahead of disruption: The ability to create scenarios that incorporate many shareholders' voices has kept Apex strong and solvent during major challenges like the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.Investing in high-growth tech attracts talent: JJ contrasts the boring "plug and chug" culture he has seen in other finance departments with the dynamic environment at Apex, noting that investments in tech like Workday Adaptive is a draw for talent.The Big Quote: "We're proud of that. When we go to the market, recruiting people, we're talking about, number-one best place to work in Fort Worth, number-six in Texas... And part of that is, we've invested in the tech, right? We've invested in Workday." Want to learn more about Workday Adaptive Planning? Watch a demo and explore use cases here.This episode is sponsored by Workday. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

Discussing the threat and possibilities of ChatGPT for Google and Microsoft, emphasizing the importance of transparency and trust in using interactive AI. Exploring the impact of technology on leadership, business strategies, job sectors, and organizational adaptation to future trends.

The Big Themes:The WFH challenge for young talent: creating a personal network and building personal credibility are incredibly important early in a career, and Pat worries that young people are not getting the networking and mentorship opportunities that working shoulder-to-shoulder offers.Work ethic in today's world: Pat defines work ethic not as being the first-in, last-out team member, but rather the cultivation of a reputation among bosses and peers as someone who always gets the job done and gets it done right.Responsibility and accountability: the only person who is responsible for the success of your career is you. Some companies and bosses are terrible, but there are still lessons to be learned and experience to be had. Make the most of every job.The Big Quote: "It takes a full time job to find a good job. It takes a full career to manage and navigate the right career. You're gonna make mistakes... Learn how to actually build a career, a work ethic, and be able then to navigate how you want to manage your career."--Want additional insights to help you win the war for talent? Connect with Pat on LinkedIn. Visit Cloud Wars for more.

The Big Themes:Similarities between Madoff and SBF: Both men "wrapped themselves" in celebrity, fancy parties, and politics. They were able to pull off the deception they created by being good "talkers" and schmoozers.Differences between Madoff and SBF: Where Madoff admitted his wrongdoing virtually immediately, SBF has been spinning a story of incompetence rather than crime. Christopher makes connections between this behavior to SBF's identity as a Native Digital.Is the end of FTX also the end of crypto? Christopher says no way. This type of scandal will probably help to move regulation of crypto in the right direction, and the market will calm down eventually. Native Digitals don't believe in "analog money," and the promise of crypto remains.The Big Quote: "What we have here is a classic situation where when something's new, when something is generally not well understood, and when something's generally not regulated, you're going to end up here. So I think at the end of the day, the crypto world will be stronger for this because we'll get some of the regulation that we have that makes some of these things hard, although Madoff proved you can get away with bad shit in the legacy world very easily... But I think it's a mistake to say this is the end of crypto." Want more from Christopher Lochhead? Connect with him on LinkedIn and explore his podcasts, blog, and books. Visit Cloud Wars for more.