THE FUTURE WE OWE EACH OTHER IN TECH with PETER HIGH, Part 1

Alloutcoach

This is a memorable conversation I recently had with Peter High, President at Metis Strategy, a premier advisory firm in business strategy, data transformation, international growth, mergers & acquisitions. Peter is the host of the first, longest-running technology podcast called "Technovation", keynote speaker, regular Forbes columnist, and author of the book "Getting to Nimble". In this part 1 of our discussion, he shares his lessons on the real world role and reality of competition, innovation, and culture in business today. 2:59 - Q1: Can you describe your personal transformation over the years? 5:32 - Pharma Med Data Culture Integration – Limited by Legal Restrictions COMPETITION 6:13 - Q2: How does a company's Chief Data or Information Officer / leader enable it to stay competitive despite the legal restrictions in some industries? 6:26 - Cybersecurity. RISK MITIGATION strategy has to be balanced with a RISK TAKING/TOLERANCE strategy. 9:20 – Q3: How does the ecosystem of a business impact its competitive power? 10:05 - Business has become global, so competition is no longer company to company but ecosystem to ecosystem. Examples: joint ventures, service providers, partnerships with venture backed companies, venture capitalists. INNOVATION 11:55 - Q4: How can modern enterprises continue to innovate during crisis, inflation, uncertainty, or during expansion and growth? 12:35- Some of the best companies are born during down-turns. #1. Challenging times require the best thinking to succeed and prevail regardless. 13:23 - 2. Constraint is your friend. Story of a billion-dollar company executives who visited an augmented reality startup with a very small leadership team. Constraint forces prioritization. "The work fits that staff/scale" once a company grows in scale, rather than the "scale/staff fitting the work". It's during success and growth that leaders exaggerate their sense of security for the foreseeable future. 16:16 - Q5: How realistic is the exemplary image of teamwork, innovation, and agility in Tech today as it is becoming so invasive and prominent across the organizations? What are some of its qualities to emulate vs. biggest gaps and challenges today and how can Tech continue to lead the way as a role model for other industries? 17:03 - So much of the venture capital is backing tech companies which demands hyper-scaling. 18:09 - Amount of venture capital money invested into software and tech companies however does not automatically imply that they become modern, their processes are optimized, and talent is used most appropriately. They also lack legacy to some extent. 20:26- Q6: Tech is a role model for many industries. What are some of the gaps among technology organizations, leaders, and startups? 21:02 - A greater range of diversity to reflect our society is needed in Tech. Venture capitalist community is a catalyst for innovation, but the pressure of an exit on the back end. you need to go public or get acquired at some point. 23:37 – Q7: What are some resources or tools IT leaders can use as frames of reference in order to manage people, their emotions, and their lives rather than their data, work or technology alone in this environment in which employees are changing the world of work and are struggling to continue to be engaged? CULTURE 26:45 - Managing People particularly challenging across IT working virtually. We must be more intentional about the reasons we collaborate, career plan, celebrate, and create, get together for meetings in person or for projects. 27:58 – Q8: Are there any specific companies that you are advising that have excelled at managing people and culture well throughout a transformation? 30:20 - 70% difference in job engagement between executives and front-line workers. Great revelation is that the reason ~2/3 of employees do not want to go back to the office is they may not feel like they "belong" and are not "engaged", not that they are more productive.