deal architect

New Normal: A conversation with Lou Von Thaer of Battelle

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. Here is the index to the growing list of interviews. 

This time, it is Lou Von Thaer, who is President and CEO of Battelle which is a major force in science and technology discovery. Over 90 years, they have helped in a wide range of strategic national R&D projects and innovation - including around nuclear research, space technology, biotech and cyber defense. Today the company is focused on three major market sectors: National Security, Healthcare and Large Research Infrastructure.

Lou has had an impressive career starting at Bell Labs, then General Dynamics and a number of other defense technology companies. He has been CEO at Battelle for 3 years and as you can see he is comfortable talking across a wide range of STEM disciplines.

You can feel the intensity as he describes starting around 6:15 how quickly their vaporized hydrogen peroxide-based Critical Care Decontamination System scaled when N95 masks were in critically short supply in March. In 4 months, they have already disinfected and extended lives of over 2 million masks. (he mistakenly said 2 thousand in the interview).

In addition, they have been working on new forms of CV19 tests, more affordable ventilators, and even a sensor to detect CV19 in the air. He also describes work around vaccines, environmental models, "forever" chemicals and brain-machine interfaces to help paraplegics. They have also had a role in a number of consumer products like CD-ROMs, candy coatings and golf balls. He says he feels like he is back at Bell Labs in its heyday when they were patenting a new product a day.

I especially liked the section where we talk about his leadership style. He says "CEOs never get to choose between two good options - those decisions are made lower in the organization - you are always being asked to choose between the bad choices."  He says he benefits from "standing on the shoulders of 10 previous CEOs " and talks about "prioritizing safety of your employees and society".

In many ways it is a feel-good conversation: Normally vaccines take 6 years or longer to develop and get approved. He was initially skeptical, but now says he is optimistic about CV19 vaccines by end of year. Over and over he talks about how well public/private/academic partnerships have worked during the crisis, including 11 pm calls with the Governor of Ohio and FDA leadership. "Fail faster" comes up early and often. He says as a country "we are not great planners, but we do stand together and react when there is a major threat.". He is proud of how businesses have reacted in the last few months "People did not sit around feeling sorry for themselves." Indeed.

It is a must-watch session. You will feel uplifted by this man fluent in so many STEM disciplines.  

New Normal: A conversation with Bob Stutz of SAP

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Bob Stutz, President of SAP's Customer Experience unit. He is Mr. CRM with a long, storied career at Siebel, Microsoft, Salesforce and now back at SAP for the second time.

Asked about heroics during the current crisis, he singles out supermarkets and grocery chains for staying up and running nearly 24x7. What used to be a routine, boring shopping experience has become a lifeline for people. He points out how much volume has moved to eCommerce - "every day has been like Black Friday" (SAP's commerce engine handles 561 GMV - Gross Merchandise Volume - that's larger than at Amazon and other online retailers).

He sees a resurgence in CRM with a focus on multiple ways - true omni-channel thinking - to get to your customers. "Simple phone calls are being appreciated". "How do we service customers when our stores are closed?" (BTW - see my related post about focusing on Omni, not just Digital, transformation based on my C level interviews during the crisis )

He also says the debate between on-premise and cloud has been settled once and for all. "Early adopters of cloud have weathered the crisis better" Of course, in a challenged economic environment, the migration to clouds will have to be done very differently at much lower cost, and with much more remote support.

I particularly enjoyed his comments about how he leads and stays calm during a crisis this deep.  He credits 22 years in the military for having taught him to deal with any crisis. "You need peripheral, not tunnel vision during a crisis".

I also appreciated his empathy for his people - points out the challenges of work from home that few executives acknowledge. He is generous to Marc Benioff - points out his Zen Buddhist influence in the meditation he does every day. He also says it helps to look at the world from a child's eyes. It's the Beginner's Mind - the Zen concept of shoshin - that I had written about in The New Polymath.

Very calming and very generous to "unsung" supermarket heroes, his employees and to Marc.  

New Normal: Conversation with Doug Belden of Hillsborough County, FL

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up. See a growing list of interviews here.

This time we focus on local governments which have gone through a gut wrenching time as they are making stay-at-home, re-opening decisions, and having to continue to provide citizen services while facing daunting fiscal realities. I turned to Doug Belden, Tax Collector of Hillsborough County. The county spread over 1,200 sq miles and with a population in excess of 1.4 million, is the fourth largest in the state of Florida.

He is a straight shooter, and I urge you to listen to the whole conversation, not just focus on individual statements. He is a public servant, not a politician, and brings a nice blend of science, economics and public policy to the conversation. He is a winner of the Florida Governor's Sterling award and I have written about the impressive efficiency of his operation. Here he is being honored by the former Governor, Rick Scott. 

His group is taking elaborate steps to protect both his customers (the taxpayers) and his employees during the COVID-19 crisis. They applied an antimicrobial shield called mPerial to every office surface and kiosk. That provides a first level barrier for a month. Then employees disinfect surfaces several times a day. Customers and employees go through thermal temperature screening. There are plenty of hand sanitizers.

For recently re-opened driving tests, the steps are even more elaborate to protect older testers from potentially asymptomatic young drivers. The testers stay outside the car and communicate with the driver via the mobile speakerphone or the bluetooth audio in the car. They grade 5 maneuvers on a tablet. Plenty of masks, thermal checks and whistles are involved during the steps he describes

He presents the pressure to reopen the county and state against the backdrop of low rate of testing and the need to safeguard our large elderly demographic. And if you think he is opposed to re-opening, he paints the daunting economics the county faces as sales taxes drop with small business bankruptcies looming, as driving and fuel taxes decline and as real estate tax delinquencies increase. He also points to the as-yet unaccounted costs of stay-at-home policies and social isolation - suicides, abuse, delayed chemotherapy, other elective medical procedures among other conditions.

I have profiled many acrobatics in the private sector during this crisis. Doug and other public officials are doing similar as they walk the tightrope balancing economics and health. They are doing their best, and as he repeatedly points out, he gets his decisions and protocols vetted by public health and medical professionals.

I appreciate Doug making himself available for the session from his home. He has underlying conditions and has to be careful. He is nearing retirement after a lifetime of public service and deserves a long salute for his work.

New Normal: Conversation with Dean Daniel Pullin of TCU

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Dean Daniel Pullin at the Neeley School of Business at TCU in Fort Worth, TX.

He describes acrobatics he has seen in telemedicine and retail in the DFW area. More impressively, his staff developed a new offering in 3 weeks - a Master of Science in Business Analytics. They also migrated their classes from in-person to on-line in 2 weeks. They are spending the summer rethinking course content for a digital delivery world. The dramatically changed world also is giving them opportunities to rethink curriculum - he describes a hackathon to design new services to address mental health issues during the crisis.

He talks about how their student demographics are likely to change with international travel in particular being challenged. He also describes how students are innovating in a very challenging job market.

I particularly liked his thoughtful response to my question whether we will see a V, U, W or L recovery - starting around 18:00

He was plagued by bandwidth issues at his home office. He graciously drove to campus to continue the session. As you can see, the connectivity was not much better. The audio is fine all the way, the video improves in the last third. He is very good - worth putting up with the video lag

New Normal: Conversation with Sanjay Poonen of VMware

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Sanjay Poonen, COO of VMware.

He describes about how the "trifecta" of VMware products has helped companies perform their version of acrobatics - virtual desktops through their Workspace One offering, security via Carbon Black and "edge" network acceleration via Velocloud and how they have helped companies as they massively scaled work from home, pop-up clinics and other "edge" usage.

He describes how they made virtual their global sales kick off meetings at a weekend's notice in response to travel restrictions due to the crisis. To my question about other acrobatics, he invokes Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom and the massive scaling they have accomplished. "I am learning speed from Eric, he is learning scale from me" starting around 17:15

Even more inspirational are Sanjay's thoughts about leadership starting around 26:30.

Overall, a very enjoyable, educational conversation.   

New Normal: A conversation with Aneel Bhusri, CEO of Workday

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Aneel Bhusri, CEO of Workday.

He talks about leadership during this crisis and likely changes in executive suites as healthcare becomes a major market opportunity and bigger HR challenge for every entity. He talks about conversations with fellow leaders on how best to re-open work places as the economy wakes up. He describes acrobatics in his customer base like running a million-person payroll and financial closes with nobody in the office. He also describes how cloud applications have scaled very well during the crisis and easily supported work-from-home efforts of customers.

Aneel is one of the nicest guys in the industry and while he credits his mentor and co-founder, Dave Duffield for that trait, his calmness comes across throughout the recording. Workday has done backflips for its employees and customers during the crisis - he describes some of each.

There is a definite feel-good, "be kind to each other", "have fun" vibe during the conversation. It is a small detail in the conversation, but I particularly appreciated his generosity with the Zoom background of Giorgio's Pizzeria, one of his favorite comfort-food places and his hope they survive the crisis.

I could almost hear 'Peaceful, easy feeling" by the Eagles playing as I was talking to him. Enjoy

The New Normal: A conversation with Dennis Hodges, CIO, Inteva Products

I have been doing video interviews with a number of CIOs, software executives and practitioners about acrobatics they have been seeing in various vertical sectors during the COVID-19 crisis and the "New normal" they can expect as the economy wakes up.

This time it is Dennis Hodges, CIO of Inteva Products, in Troy, Michigan, US. Inteva is a leading global automotive supplier of engineered components and systems. I had profiled Dennis and Inteva in a case study in SAP Nation . It described their journey to the Plex cloud 12 years ago when they were spun off from Delphi, a major tier 1 auto supplier.

Dennis and I cover wide ground in the video below. He sounds optimistic about a rapid rebound for the auto industry, with pent-up demand and especially with gas prices so low. He has retained his sense of humor and told me he had gifted his CFO a mug like one on left. We covered how easy it was for them with their cloud applications to transition from 90% in office or field to home based work during the recent shut down. We also talked about likely changes coming to the manufacturing sector  - more making in the US, more automation, workstation hygiene etc.

Stay tuned for many more such video interviews.

Resilience and leadership during crisis: A conversation with Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront

Alex Shootman, CEO of Workfront is one of my favorite tech execs because he is always positive - and that in an authentic way. I had enjoyed his book, Done Right (my review here) because he had so many examples of inspiring leadership and motivated employees. He had written a blog post couple of weeks ago about leadership during a crisis and I jumped at the opportunity to learn more from him.

The video below runs a bit over 15 minutes - you will learn a lot from it about resilience and heroics during crisis. He weaves in Napoleon and Dwight Eisenhower, Navy SEALs, human biology (hormones which can trigger positive behavior during this crisis), and true to form, he also blends in humor.

I promise it will brighten your day. I plan to interview several other executives about their leadership style and want to thank Alex for kicking this off.