It’s important to make sure that people understand why are we embarking on this journey together because there’s going to be storms, ups and downs, battles that we have to engage in across the way, so we have to come together as a team. And I think that making sure that you’ve got a clear objective in mind is key to getting everybody to rally around that objective.
Companies over the years end up going through multiple transformations (…) you have to change and morph to stay competitive; people don’t spend their time on manual things, we need the technology to drive it.
When I think about strategy, it’s about future-casting and reverse-engineering how to get there, focusing on people first, process second, and technology last.
AI isn’t new. What happened with ChatGPT is the output became more visible. The governance around AI is twofold: training people to use it effectively and to double-check results. Predictive models replicate past biases, and we need to prevent harmful effects while harnessing the benefits.
Getting out of our seat and seeing the business is essential. When IT visits maintenance facilities or test kitchens, for example, it creates a two-way exchange where we collaborate with the business to brainstorm and co-create better processes and solutions.
Digital transformations are hard, they are a change in how people do their jobs and in how the business do their work. So the challenge, or you can look at it as the opportunity, with digital transformation is the change. You can look at it as a challenge because it’s hard, or as an opportunity because is going to give you a better outcome than you have today.
I went and talked to everyone—executives, board members, customers, employees. My first question was, ‘Tell me your top three pain points.’ From there, you learn everything. You hear the opportunities and challenges, and start identifying root causes to guide real transformation.
Back in 2015, I applied for a grant, and they sent out Google Cardboard—a literal cardboard box where we inserted cell phones to create VR. If kids tilted their heads, the phones fell out. Fast forward, and today’s VR technology is unrecognizable. It’s amazing how much has changed in just 10 years.
The role of the CIO is to be a trusted advisor. Embed yourself in the business, understand its ‘why,’ and guide it toward leveraging technology to achieve strategic objectives. The CIO is the rudder, steering the organization in the right direction.
About the digital skill set, when we’re talking about digital transformation the place where we’re going is not the place where we’re at and you need to have different tools when you arrive, and you can’t get them afterwards, you have to build them on the way. So, helping those in the organization that will be a part of that path develop those skills it’s important to the process.
An organization should embrace the CIO who’s actually contributing to the bottom line and not just being a call center, who’s also figuring out ways to create new digital products. The CIO now is not just about technology; now he or she also has an entrepreneurial spirit, and they’re contributing to the conversation of driving the bottom line just like other folks in the organization.
Our marketing and communication department is leveraging a number of different systems to understand who our fans are. We play all over the world every year. All of those cultures and fan bases engage with our sport in different ways, and it’s implementing technologies to help us understand who those fans are, how they want to receive content, and then delivering our content in a way where they engage with us more deeply and frequently.
