Bill Murphy Keynotes Upcoming Data and Technology Virtual Assembly!

It’s almost time for our Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Transformation Virtual Assembly, and we have some very exciting news to share. Bill Murphy, Former Senior Managing Director and CTO at Blackstone, is set to kick off the event as our Featured Keynote Speaker! Bill Murphy is a true technology expert who led Blackstone’s Innovations team for over 8 years.

Click here to RSVP for the Virtual Assembly!

About Bill Murphy

Bill Murphy is a Managing Partner at Cresting Wave, bringing Innovative technologies to the enterprise technology community. Bill is also a board member at Accurics and a Senior Advisor to McKinsey.

Bill was a Senior Managing Director and the Chief Technology Officer at Blackstone, leading the Blackstone Innovations team from 2011-2020, responsible for the firm’s use of technology along with a strategic technology investment portfolio. Mr. Murphy also served on many boards of directors of our investments along with the board of the Blackstone Charitable foundation.

From 1999 – 2011, Bill was founding Chief Technology Officer for Capital IQ where he was responsible for overseeing all product design, development, infrastructure and technology support and was involved with all operations of the business. Before Capital IQ, Mr. Murphy led teams at Sapient, delivering solutions for large clients primarily in financial services. Mr. Murphy received a BSE in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, Class of ‘96.

Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Transformation Virtual Assembly

data-det-event

In the midst of a global crisis, innovation and leadership are more important than ever, and The Millennium Alliance is here to facilitate collaboration among industry leaders. We are hosting our Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Transformation Virtual Assembly to promote Executive Education and Digital Transformation through peer-to-peer connection, thought leadership, and more. We’re excited to open up the lines of communication among industry executives and thought leaders so that we come out of the pandemic smarter, stronger, and more united than ever.

The Digital Enterprise CIO and Data Transformation Virtual Assembly provides a platform for cybersecurity leaders to debate and strategize. With high-level content, disruptive solution providers, and enhanced networking opportunities, this two-day, intimate virtual assembly promises to provide you with the latest data strategies, technologies, and real-life experiences to take your business to the next level.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

You’ve Uncovered the Weak Spots in Your Omnichannel Approach: Now What?

The COVD-19 crisis fundamentally changed the ways companies interact with their customers. Over a very short period of time, the traditional channels organizations used to communicate and transact with customers before the pandemic evaporated or changed dramatically.

Any channels that relied on direct face-to-face interactions became at least temporarily unavailable. From in-store shopping to in-home services or in-person appointments, social distancing has put a never-before-seen strain on large parts of organizations’ omnichannel strategies.

Aside from direct person-to-person interaction with customers, the global pandemic also applied tension to other channels in surprising ways. Social distancing and the resulting shift to remote work has affected customer interactions that weren’t conducted face to face. Many customer service call centers, for example, that were previously operating on either outsourced models or simply ill-equipped for remote work, weren’t able to handle the transition. This resulted in long on-hold times or the complete inability to reach a live person at all, forcing them to immediately scale up online support functions.

In short, even the most advanced players are finding it hard to adjust and meet new demands, whether in the form of increased online traffic, new fulfillment and delivery expectations, or always-on availability for customers from remote locations.

Go here to download the full report!

Denise Lee Yohn Asks, “Who Owns Culture?”

As originally published by Denise Lee Yohn on Linkedin.

A couple of people have recently posed to me the question, “Who owns culture in an organization?”

On the one hand, it seems that everyone owns the culture – meaning, everyone plays a role in manifesting it. But on the other hand, the adage “if everyone is responsible, then no one is responsible” applies, because someone(s) need to be accountable for the culture.

The way I’ve come to think and talk about it goes like this: The leaders of an organization are responsible for identifying the desired culture and everyone in the organization is responsible for cultivating it. The leaders must determine the kind of culture the company needs to achieve its goals, since they are in the best position to develop that vision and understand what it will take to get there. And then they must cultivate that culture through communication and role-modeling, as well as the design and management of the organization. Everyone else in the organization must align their attitudes and actions with the desired culture, nurturing and reinforcing it in their scope of work.

But that is not to say that people within an organization shouldn’t influence the definition or understanding of the desire culture. I’ve heard from many people in non-leadership roles who have far more enlightened perspectives not only on the current state of the culture at their companies, but also how it needs to change and how to achieve the changes. Plus a couple of pieces I’ve come across recently shed light on the role of employees in driving culture.

First, a paper recently published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review observes, “Employees often know a great deal about how to navigate their organization’s culture and are very savvy at using aspects of it to introduce new issues or to generate fundamental change.” The paper, “Organizational Culture as a Tool for Change” (subscription required), goes on to reframe culture, saying that, “In an effort to acknowledge culture’s pervasiveness and fluidity, management and organizational scholars are now regarding organizational culture as composed of an open, varied, and malleable ‘toolkit’ of resources” (emphasis mine).

The authors describe one example of how the employees at an athletic-apparel company with a culture strongly oriented toward innovation for athletic performance initiated an effort to make sustainability an organizational priority. By demonstrating the potential for sustainability criteria to connect with the company’s commitment to innovation, employees “successfully instigated a significant internal shift.”

The paper argues that culture is less an “internal code” that is established and entrenched by organizational leaders and is more something persists through the distributed actions of all people in the organization. Employees draw from the cultural toolkit as they see fit, and in doing so, can shift the culture either intentionally or inadvertently. The authors conclude, “Culture is expressed and reified through practice; it is not merely established by proclamation.”

The second piece that caught my attention recently is an article by Andrew Hill from the Financial Times, “How remote staff will build a new corporate culture.” The article observes that, given how many employees are working remotely because of the pandemic, “Keeping even long-serving staff aligned with the corporate mission will become harder, the longer they spend away from the workplace.”

It reports that remote working has loosened the physical connections between employee and employer, and staff now has the license to make connections at their own discretion. The article describes how employees at McKinsey organized a sing-a-long (yes, at McKinsey) and how university professors, in a departure from the hard-nosed competitive cultures that usually exist between academic institutions, spontaneously shared wisdom about online teaching to aid their peers in adjusting to remote classroom settings.

Hill writes, “Organisations that were always good at shaping the way their employees work and behave — McKinsey, AB InBev, and others — will probably find that the shift to hybrid work helps them to reinforce their strong cultures.” Other companies with weaker cultures may find that #WFH causes them to fall apart. And, he concludes, “All companies are likely to discover, that often it will be the staff who set the norms of the new working culture, rather than the CEO.”

So, perhaps “who owns culture” is not the right question to begin with. Ownership implies possession and, if culture is malleable and fluid as these pieces suggest, it doesn’t seem like anyone can own it. But accountability may be a more appropriate emphasis. Accountability can be both given and taken – and when it comes to organizational culture, it should given and taken by different people in different roles in different ways.

What do you think? I expect many of you have a point of view on this topic, so I’m looking forward to hearing your comments.

***

More resources from Denise on brand + culture:

Digital Workplace Transformation: Understanding and Improving Employee Experience

If you’re responsible for creating a digital workplace experience that supports the long-term success of both the business and the workforce, then you deserve a medal – that’s no easy task.

To help take a little of the stress and uncertainty off your plate, Workgrid has put together a guide that details:

  • The digital workplace challenges companies face today and why it’s so important to continue striving for the best possible employee experience
  • 7 elements of a successful employee-centric digital experience
  • The path other companies took to achieve employee experience success

Click here to download the guide

Digital Enterprise CIO

data-det-event

In the midst of a global crisis, innovation and leadership are more important than ever, and The Millennium Alliance is here to facilitate collaboration among industry leaders. We are hosting our Digital Enterprise CIO Transformation Virtual Assembly to promote Executive Education and Digital Transformation through peer-to-peer connection, thought leadership, and more. We’re excited to open up the lines of communication among industry executives and thought leaders so that we come out of the pandemic smarter, stronger, and more united than ever.

Join us for a series of virtual executive education roundtables, keynote presentations, collaborative think tanks, educational workshops, and networking sessions that will offer industry-specific topics and trends to ensure your company maintains its competitive advantage.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium

#MillenniumLive & Code42 on Re-thinking Data Protection in a Remote Workplace

#MillenniumLive has a virtual chat with Rob Juncker, CTO & SVP of Product at Code42. In this episode, we talk through the pure innovation we’ve seen over the last few months: like the shift to remote work, the way consumers are buying products & the impact of ZOOM in our daily lives. Now that we’re out of the panic phase, Rob claims that building a “collaboration culture” in a remote workplace should be a top priority for in your digital transformation strategy. He also shares his thoughts on what the landscape may look like as we approach 2021, and how leaders should start re-think their data protection.

powered by Sounder

Watch the video interview below, or go here to listen to the podcast episode. 

About Code42

Data is more portable than ever. Employees are more mobile than ever. People are changing jobs more frequently than ever, and 60 percent of them take data with them. And it’s not always their photos and contacts, it’s your trade secrets, roadmaps, source code, customer lists and strategy. Ninety percent of the time it goes undetected. By the time you find out, the brand damage is already done. Most organizations try to prevent such data loss, but the truth is relying only on prevention is futile.

Legacy data loss prevention’s narrow rules-based focus creates blind spots, leaving you vulnerable. With Code42, at any point, you can tell where your data lives, who has or ever had access to the data, when it leaves and most importantly what leaves.

With security as a guiding principle, Code42 can help you comply with regulations governing where and how your data is stored, who can access it, and who can decrypt it.

Transformational CISO Virtual Assembly

ciso-virtual-assemblyIn the midst of a global crisis, innovation and leadership are more important than ever, and The Millennium Alliance is here to facilitate collaboration among industry leaders. We are hosting our Transformation CISO Virtual Assembly to promote Executive Education and Digital Transformation through peer-to-peer connection, thought leadership, and more. We’re excited to open up the lines of communication among industry executives and thought leaders so that we come out of the pandemic smarter, stronger, and more united than ever.

The Transformation CISO Virtual Assembly provides a platform for cybersecurity leaders to debate and strategize. With high-level content, disruptive solution providers, and enhanced networking opportunities, this two-day, intimate virtual assembly promises to provide you with the latest cybersecurity strategies, technologies, and real-life experiences to take your business to the next level.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

The Total Commerce Playbook

Commerce is more than just the moment of monetization. As a result of rapidly evolving technology, consumers are “always shopping”, giving brands the opportunity to engage with their customers throughout the entire consumer experience and create lasting relationships. In other words, total commerce strategy is the key to successful brand.

The Total Commerce Playbook from Dentsu Aegis Network has all of the information your brand needs on total commerce: what it is, why it’s important, how to go about creating a total commerce strategy, and more.

Click here to download the playbook

Transformational CMO Virtual Assembly

marketing retail event

In the midst of a global crisis, innovation and leadership are more important than ever, and The Millennium Alliance is here to facilitate collaboration among industry leaders. We are hosting our Transformational CMO Virtual Assembly to promote Executive Education and Digital Transformation through peer-to-peer connection, thought leadership, and more. We’re excited to open up the lines of communication among industry executives and thought leaders so that we come out of the pandemic smarter, stronger, and more united than ever.

The Transformational CMO Virtual Assembly provides a platform for marketing leaders to debate and strategize. With high-level content, disruptive solution providers, and enhanced networking opportunities, this two-day, intimate virtual assembly promises to provide you with the latest digital marketing strategies, technologies, and real-life experiences to take your business to the next level.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>

Cybersecurity Q/A with Our Upcoming Keynote, Robert Bigman!

The cybersecurity landscape is being disrupted in a historic way – with much of the workforce going remote overnight, a dramatic rise in ransomware & the development of new technologies tasked with flattening the curve, it’s become all the more crucial for businesses to remain vigilant in their approach to security. Our upcoming virtual assembly offers just that – leaders have the opportunity to brainstorm, collaborate & network in a 2-day high-level think tank for C-Suite executives from leading organizations.

In these high-pressure times, no one is better equipped to speak on the evolving cybersecurity landscape than our Featured Keynote Speaker, Robert Bigman, Consultant & Former CISO for the Central Intelligence Agency. At our Transformational CISO Assembly, Robert Bigman will share what he’s learned from performing 60-odd assessments of both public and private organizations, and provide insights so executives can avoid the same mistakes. For a taste of what to expect at the assembly, check out our brief Q/A with him below! Go Here to RSVP for the Virtual Assembly.

Q: Q1 in the US saw a 61% increase in cyber attacks – what lessons can be learned from this moving forward for prevention?

RB: Two.  First, we have a bigger cyber security issue than simply trying to defend against evolving attacks.  We have very vulnerable software, systems and networks and we need regulation to change the course of cyber risk.  Second, cyber security intelligence and threat sharing is not working as malware payloads are changing faster than we can identify the threat.

Q: Having spent 30 years with the CIA, how do you feel the threat landscape has changed since your time there?

RB: The biggest change in the threat landscape has become the ability of criminal cyber gangs to obtain and develop very sophisticated malware code, delivery and installation tools and command and control communications. Second, is the ability of hackers to obtain access and use capabilities already available on the system (e.g., Powershell) to obtain credentials and steal data.

Q: We are thrilled to have you as our Transformational CISO Virtual Assembly Keynote Speaker. Can you give us a preview about the message you want to convey to our audience in terms of cyber assessment?

RB: That after 60 odd assessments and reviews, there are a number of common mistakes that almost every organization makes (both programmatic and technical) that interfere with their ability to defend their systems and protect their data.

About Robert Bigman

Robert Bigman retired from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after serving a thirty year distinguished career. Recognized as a pioneer in the field of classified information protection, Mr. Bigman developed technical measures and procedures to manage the nation’s most sensitive secrets. As an information security trailblazer, Mr. Bigman participated in developing security measures for Government computers well before commercial industry found the Internet. He then developed creative solutions to allow the CIA to use the Internet to further its mission without exposure.

With twenty-five years of experience, Mr. Bigman worked in every area of information and data security, the last fifteen years as the Agency’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). As the Agency CISO, Mr. Bigman managed a large organization of technical and program officers responsible for the protection of all Agency information. As the CISO, his responsibilities included cryptography, information security policy/processes, standards and requirements, testing and network defense/response. Mr. Bigman also served as the Agency’s designated officer for all discussions with the information security industry and its commercial partners. Mr. Bigman has contributed to almost every Intelligence Community information security policy/technical standard and has provided numerous briefings to the National Security Council, Congress and presidential commissions.

Mr. Bigman’s earlier assignments at the CIA included participation in the technical design of the Intelligence Community’s first counterterrorism database and delivery of the Agency’s first secure TCP/IP local and wide area network for the Counterintelligence Center. In recognition of his expertise and contributions, Mr. Bigman has received numerous CIA and Director of National Intelligence awards.

Disruption is Done. Welcome to the Age of Ingenuity.

As originally published by David Sable on Linkedin. Subscribe to the newsletter!

How do I know that disruption is dead? Check Google Trends.

On a global all-categories basis, the word “Ingenuity” is more searched than the word “Disruption.” But that’s not the story.

What’s fascinating to me, is that when looking at the “Business & Industrial” sector, “Disruption” far outpaces “Ingenuity.”

However, when you look at “People & Society,” “Ingenuity” is in the lead.

We are entering into an era where people and society might just take back the world…not in the faux purposeful jargon of financial markets way (Blackrock for example), but in a real, powerful and impactful way.

The challenges we face require more than the application of some singular end-goal piece of technology or app. Facebook, Amazon, Uber and faster pizza delivery are all great innovations (for some), but none of them solve for the X in society’s problems, particularly when the chips are down.

Think about the lack of ventilators during the early days of the COVID crisis. They were expensive and took a long time to manufacture. Ingenuity found ways to make cheaper ones that could be delivered quickly and efficiently. Same for the crisis of mask shortages. How about people locked up at home with their kids and the amazing projects they all concocted? It was all ingenuity. None of it disruptive.

Disruption is a word that is overused, misused…cliched, and frankly, in my opinion, boring.

My readers know that I have a long harbored the belief that we are so bedazzled by the very word, the sound of it (see Mel Brooks onomatopoetica), that unless it’s said multiple times in meetings, “we need disruption”…“we have to be disruptive”…“let’s disrupt the market”… “it’s not disruptive enough”…ad nauseam, we feel that we haven’t gotten our money’s worth.

The truth is, few ever get beyond the idiomatic exercise because they have no idea what to disrupt or are not sure what it really means. They want to be Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb rolled into one, but are so focused on these company’s so-called “disruption,” rather than their secret sauce—the real reason for their success—that most clients miss the forest for the trees.

I won’t go into a deep analysis as to what disruption actually means. That is for another day and another article entirely. But what I will say, is that the only disruption at play when applied to companies like Amazon and Uber has mostly been financial and regulatory. That is, these companies were not held accountable to the same quarterly earnings rigor their established competitors were anchored to, nor did they ever seem to worry about the rules, regulations and even laws that governed their respective industry categories.

Ask yourself—were buyers disrupted? How about riders? Vacationers? Maybe? Not a single one. Rather, their journey to purchase or service was made simpler. In other words, their achievement was not “disruption” but simplicity.

The way I articulate this phenomenon is as follows: disruption is companies talking about themselves—or investors talking about them—in order to increase their valuations…not about the company’s ability to solve any issues in a novel way.

Ingenuity is what we need more of. Amazon is not a company that is impressive because of its “disruption.” It’s a company that has excelled because of its ingenuity and should be studied for that alone. One current example demonstrating Amazon’s ingenuity is the company’s discussions with Simon Malls about buying their dead real estate, where Amazon would be able to build more fulfillment centers. Amazon has done this before, and so have others in the logistics business. It’s not a new idea, despite the hype, it’s just one makes sense and that further streamlines and simplifies their services. Here is my bet: Amazon will use the new spaces to build retail stores as well.

Amazon isn’t caught in some DIGIBABBLE time-warp that compels them to think in only digital terms (remember my motto, Digital is everything…but not everything is Digital). Amazon opens stores when others pontificate. They create products while others opine. They focus on customers while others abandon them.

Amazon wins through ingenuity in my book. Think about that next time you or your clients want to “disrupt” like them.

I could go on and on, and I have written about this in the past, citing the incredible ingenuity in developing countries, where the things we take for granted like lightning fast WIFI don’t exist. And yet, we can have an impact on disease control, for example, even without the kind of connectivity and smart phone infrastructure we have in the West.

Bottom line, while I sit here writing this, I’m seeing reports that Russia claims to have already created a vaccine for Coronavirus. And as I watch the global financial markets react upwards, I am concerned that we are truly losing our perspective and ability to focus on anything beyond politics and finance. But we can only focus on those concepts once we have a grasp on the fundamentals. And right now, we don’t.

I am a believer in people…nothing more, nothing less. The best VC’s will tell you that they invest in people not just their ideas. INGENUITY…Listen:

“Who indeed will set bounds to human ingenuity?” –Galileo

Who indeed?

Disrupt or solve problems? History, in my view, will be on the side of humanity. What do you think?

CISOs, Are You Ready for Robert Bigman’s Upcoming Keynote?

Our Transformational CISO Assembly is just around the corner, and we’re thrilled to announce our Keynote Address will be presented by Robert Bigman, Cybersecurity Consultant and Former CISO at The Central Intelligence Agency. Robert worked in every area of information and data security, with the last fifteen years in his CISO role. He now serves as a Cybersecurity Consultant for 2BSecure, a subsidiary of Matrix – the largest IT Company in Israel. In his upcoming keynote, he will uncover the challenges CISOs are facing in cybersecurity assessments and learning right from wrong in the new world brought on by COVID-19.

Don’t want to miss it? Go here to RSVP for the Virtual Assembly!

About Robert Bigman

Robert Bigman retired from Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after serving a thirty year distinguished career. Recognized as a pioneer in the field of classified information protection, Mr. Bigman developed technical measures and procedures to manage the nation’s most sensitive secrets. As an information security trailblazer, Mr. Bigman participated in developing security measures for Government computers well before commercial industry found the Internet. He then developed creative solutions to allow the CIA to use the Internet to further its mission without exposure. With twenty-five years of experience, Mr. Bigman worked in every area of information and data security, the last fifteen years as the Agency’s Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). As the Agency CISO, Mr. Bigman managed a large organization of technical and program officers responsible for the protection of all Agency information. As the CISO, his responsibilities included cryptography, information security policy/processes, standards and requirements, testing and network defense/response. Mr. Bigman also served as the Agency’s designated officer for all discussions with the information security industry and its commercial partners. Mr. Bigman has contributed to almost every Intelligence Community information security policy/technical standard and has provided numerous briefings to the National Security Council, Congress and presidential commissions. Mr. Bigman’s earlier assignments at the CIA included participation in the technical design of the Intelligence Community’s first counterterrorism database and delivery of the Agency’s first secure TCP/IP local and wide area network for the Counterintelligence Center. In recognition of his expertise and contributions, Mr. Bigman has received numerous CIA and Director of National Intelligence awards.

Workgrid’s Six Strategies for Creating a Successful Digital Workplace

A global pandemic has turned the business environment on its ear, accelerating the growth of the remote work trend and requiring organizations to make rapid, often creative adjustments to their digital workplace strategies in order to keep the business up and running.

While the shift has mostly been successful, many workers are reporting feeling burnt out from the stress of having to manage conflicting priorities and organizations are figuring out that in order to be productive and efficient, employees need to feel supported and be given the right resources.

So how can companies empower every employee in all of the unique situations that this “New Abnormal” has created? And how can they continue to create experiences that support the success of employees and the organization over the long-term?

Workgrid’s guide has the answers.

Digital Enterprise CIO

data-det-event

In the midst of a global crisis, innovation and leadership are more important than ever, and The Millennium Alliance is here to facilitate collaboration among industry leaders. We are hosting our Digital Enterprise CIO Transformation Virtual Assembly to promote Executive Education and Digital Transformation through peer-to-peer connection, thought leadership, and more. We’re excited to open up the lines of communication among industry executives and thought leaders so that we come out of the pandemic smarter, stronger, and more united than ever.

Join us for a series of virtual executive education roundtables, keynote presentations, collaborative think tanks, educational workshops, and networking sessions that will offer industry-specific topics and trends to ensure your company maintains its competitive advantage.

Are you interested in becoming a sponsor for this event? Click here today to learn more >>

Are you interested in attending this event? Inquire here today to find out if you qualify for Millennium Membership >>