Technology is rapidly changing, and so is the need for businesses to find new ways to adapt to evolving industry conditions. That's why Rangle and Capital One created the Digital Transformation track at Elevate. That being said, for our Day Two recap we're going to cover the incredible leaders driving uncharted change across their industries. Let's get started!
Day 2 kicked off with Chandra Dhandapani, Chief Digital & Technology Officer of CBRE talking about staying ahead in today's digital economy. She gave an incredible talk reminding us that despite the fact that we're living in the age of machine learning, deep learning and artificial intelligence, at the end of the day it's people that ultimately make the biggest difference.
Erich Joachimsthaler on Four Eras of Branding
Erich Joachimsthaler, Founder and CEO of VIVALDI, was up next talking about brand reinvention in the age of disruption. Did you know Domino's Pizza stock price increased more than Apple this year on account of digital transformation? That surprising fact Erich provided serves as further proof of just how important it is to stay on top of industry trends (and customer expectations!)
After that, Rola Dagher, President of CISCO Canada implored us to rethink our futures. Seriously, she hit us with the alarming stat that 65% of all current jobs will not exist in 10 years. So how do we, as organizations, take control of our future? Rola says the best way to predict the future is to create it!
Camas Winsor, Mike McDermen, Marie Chevrier
Next up our very own COO, Camas Winsor moderated a conversation between Mike McDermen, CEO of FreshBooks and Marie Chevrier, CEO and Founder of Sampler on the hot topic of the transformation of traditional industries. The candid conversation touched on a lot of things companies struggle with when trying to innovate, such as, monitoring the wrong KPIs or expecting your experimentation to be profitable right away. Ultimately, the consensus was to stay close to your customers so you can unlock new and important business insights.
Pause for a quick lunch - and we were back at it with Gill Haus, SVP & CIO of Retail and Direct Bank at Capital One. Bringing an epic amount of charisma, Gill talked about the often scary idea of embracing disruption and the evolution of an industry. What's more, he talked about building a disruptive tech company - not a bank - to better service customers, businesses, and retailers.
"Always start with your business problem. It's not about the technology, it about solving your business problem." - , Chief Data Scientist at talking with Senior Tech Reporter at about integrating AI at . — Canadian Women's Chamber of Commerce (@can_wcc) September 26, 2018
Following that, Microsoft's Chief Data Scientist Ozge Yeloglu spoke about AI in the workplace and how to successfully transform company culture. Ozge emphasized that although it may sound counterintuitive, start by tackling your business problem - not your technology. She also encouraged us to not get hung up on the terminology of AI but instead look at it as a new way of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.
Next Stacey Louie, founder of AgileCamp, provided some insight into the death of a transformation - how it happens and best of all, how to avoid it. An Agile man after our own heart, Stacey touched on many of the essential Agile processes for a successful business transformation.
Afterward, Fred Santarpia, Chief Digital Officer at Condé Nast gave us some awesome insight on reaching new audiences on new platforms. We loved that he highlighted how no two brands are the same and that means there's no 'one size fits all' solution for connecting with customers. It's no wonder why the crowd went wild!
Finishing up the day, Mark Organ of Influitive put customer experience into the driver's seat for his talk on getting customers involved in every aspect of your business.
That wraps up all of the hot takes that Day 2 had to offer at Elevate's Digital Transformation track. Whether your company has just started to dabble in implementing new technology or is diving head first into a company-wide conversion, digital transformation is critical to maintaining (or achieving) a competitive advantage. We hope that if you attended Day 2 or even just skimmed the highlights in this recap you feel empowered to drive change and tackle your digital transformation.