The Data Chief

Today’s guest is Max Chan. Max is the CIO of Avnet where he is responsible for the delivery of all strategic business IT and digital transformation initiatives. Max sits down with Cindi to discuss Avnet’s long history, digital transformation and innovation in IT, and why the companies that leverage data to find valuable insights are miles ahead of the pack. Plus, Max shares some of the strategies he’s used to keep his team sharp in today’s fast-paced technology landscape. Key Discussion Points: A Little About Avnet. Avnet may not be a household name, but it’s a company that’s about to celebrate its 100th anniversary — and the technological components it distributes are in everything from your iPhone’s charging connector to various IoT devices. From Collected Data to Insightful Data. How the technological leaps of the past five to eight years have allowed Avnet to truly leverage the wealth of data it has at its disposal. Complimenting Your Internal Team with External Experts. The challenges faced when blending the hands-on experience of Avnet’s long-standing team with the technical savvy of external experts to utilize new tools in a way that’s best for business and morale. More About Max: Max Chan is the CIO of Avnet. Max and his team work closely with senior executives to translate business strategies to IT roadmaps and drive prioritization of these initiatives through a global governance process. Max joined Avnet in 2013 as VP of IT for the Technology Solutions business in Asia Pacific. In this role, he led critical system implementations and enhancements, helping build Avnet’s Global Development Centers, while driving process improvement initiatives in the region. Max was later transferred to Phoenix, Arizona to take on global application and business relationship management roles, before being promoted to his current role in Dec 2018. Prior to Avnet, Max held several IT leadership roles including; CIO, Asia at VF Corporation, and VP, IT building efficiency, Asia at Johnson Controls. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Joining Cindi today is Scott Peck, the Senior Director of the Data & Analytics Center of Excellence at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he’s worked for the past 13 years. In that time, he’s played a vital role in revolutionizing reporting systems, as well as helped revolutionize the role of the data analyst. In today’s episode, Cindi and Scott discuss what it means to be an ‘Analyst of the Future’, their thoughts on leadership, and why data storytelling is a must-have skill. Key Takeaways: Analyst of the Future. How Scott and his team transformed a report factory into proactive, business partners and analytics rock stars. What is Your Customer Really Asking? Why design thinking and including every level of an organization in problem-solving is the key to finding answers to the questions that customers are really asking.  Creating a Culture of Leadership. How Scott empowers everyone on his team to be a leader and why he thinks cross-training employees in different skill sets is so important. More About Scott: Scott Peck is the Senior Director of the Data & Analytics Center of Excellence at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he has a vision to build value for the company and its clients through analytics and innovation while promoting an environment where each team member acts as a confident, motivated, innovative leader essential to that vision. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Today’s guest is Stephen Harris, the CDO of VMware. Stephen has more than 20 years in the data, analytics, and professional services fields. He and Cindi discuss growth, diversity in tech, being a change agent within your organization, bias in AI, data for good, the talent gap, data fluency, and more! Key Takeaways: The importance of understanding the role of data and its potential impact when there is an absence of fact or misinterpretation of data. How Stephen and his team at VMware are using data to navigate the current COVID-19 coronavirus crisis -- internally and externally. What a flawed facial recognition demo tells us about AI and the risk of bias at scale. More About Stephen: Stephen Harris is the CDO and VP Head of Enterprise Data & Analytics of VMware, reporting directly to the company's CFO. His team takes a customer-centric approach to evolving VMware's data and analytic insight capabilities; these capabilities are anchored around four strategic pillars of execution to drive business outcomes. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Cindi Howson is the Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot and our host of The Data Chief. To kick off this new podcast, we wanted to switch the roles… today, Cindi is our guest! Tune in for a discussion between Cindi and Ian Faison, Executive Producer of The Data Chief, about culture, leadership, innovation, data for good, and what you can expect from future episodes of The Data Chief. Key Takeaways: How being an aspiring writer – but a lousy typist – got Cindi into technology. The biggest changes Cindi has witnessed over the last 20 years. Where the new role of CDO (Chief Data Officer) fits into the hierarchy among the CIO and CAO, the barriers someone in this position can expect to face, and the ways we can expect this role to evolve in the months and years to come. More About Cindi: Cindi Howson is the Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot, formerly a Gartner Research Vice President in Data and Analytics, and the Founder of BI Scorecard, an independent analyst firm focused on helping customers select BI tools and manage their BI portfolio and achieve more impact with data. She is also the author of several books, including Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI & Big Data and SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

Data is transforming how we think about life, work, business, healthcare, education, and everything in between. Meet the world’s top data and analytics leaders bringing this data revolution to life. In each episode of The Data Chief, host Cindi Howson, Chief Data Strategy Officer at ThoughtSpot, sits down with data and analytics leaders to discuss the trends, technologies, and cultures transforming fact-driven companies around the globe. -- The Data Chief is presented by our friends at ThoughtSpot. Searching through your company’s data for insights doesn’t have to be complicated. With ThoughtSpot, anyone in your organization can easily answer their own data questions, find the facts, and make better, faster decisions. Learn more at thoughtspot.com.  --  For full show notes and more, go to thedatachief.com. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.