1 00:00:00,119 --> 00:00:01,710 When I first joined a year ago, we 2 00:00:01,710 --> 00:00:03,619 were in the news and you know, we 3 00:00:03,619 --> 00:00:05,846 we had a cyber incident that impacted us. 4 00:00:06,244 --> 00:00:06,482 Obviously, 5 00:00:07,214 --> 00:00:09,681 of the biggest learnings from that incident is, 6 00:00:09,841 --> 00:00:12,946 you, everyone typically focuses on technology. Right? And 7 00:00:13,025 --> 00:00:16,143 I always break it into people process and 8 00:00:16,143 --> 00:00:19,478 technology and unless you get all 3 legs 9 00:00:19,478 --> 00:00:21,542 of a stool in order, you know, you're 10 00:00:21,542 --> 00:00:22,336 never safe. 11 00:00:23,940 --> 00:00:25,690 Welcome to techno activation I'm your host Pure 12 00:00:25,769 --> 00:00:28,473 High. My guest today is Ses K. Ses 13 00:00:28,473 --> 00:00:30,882 as is the Chief Information Officer of Western 14 00:00:30,938 --> 00:00:33,418 digital, a leader in digital storage solutions it 15 00:00:33,418 --> 00:00:35,877 earns in excess of 12000000000 dollars in annual 16 00:00:35,877 --> 00:00:38,020 revenue. He's been enroll for roughly a year, 17 00:00:38,258 --> 00:00:40,162 and in that time, has led a transformation 18 00:00:40,162 --> 00:00:42,564 of It and the company. He's focused on 19 00:00:42,564 --> 00:00:44,641 cyber security and risk management as well as 20 00:00:44,641 --> 00:00:47,678 culture, employee experience and engineering excellence, some other 21 00:00:47,678 --> 00:00:49,676 other topics of focus. I look forward to 22 00:00:49,676 --> 00:00:51,369 speaking with him about each and more. He's 23 00:00:51,369 --> 00:00:54,189 a past chief information officer, of Pager duty 24 00:00:54,250 --> 00:00:56,649 and of ana plan, and a past Cio 25 00:00:56,649 --> 00:00:58,729 of a 10000000000 dollar. Everything is a service 26 00:00:58,729 --> 00:01:01,545 offering at Cisco as well. Ses welcome to. 27 00:01:01,704 --> 00:01:02,824 It's great to speak with you today. 28 00:01:03,704 --> 00:01:05,384 Thank you, Peter. So Excited to be you. 29 00:01:06,104 --> 00:01:07,704 It's a great pleasure. Well, maybe we begin 30 00:01:07,784 --> 00:01:09,784 Ses with an overview of Western Digital business. 31 00:01:10,119 --> 00:01:11,314 A bit about the business you're in, please. 32 00:01:12,031 --> 00:01:14,341 Western digital is in the business of data 33 00:01:14,341 --> 00:01:17,847 storage solutions. It's all about high capacity, data 34 00:01:17,847 --> 00:01:20,967 storage and high performance, data storage. So essentially, 35 00:01:21,205 --> 00:01:22,899 we have a hard disk drive business 36 00:01:23,274 --> 00:01:25,819 and a solid state drive business, and we're 37 00:01:25,819 --> 00:01:28,069 pretty much in laptops, desktops, 38 00:01:28,539 --> 00:01:31,897 data centers, lot of our large customers are 39 00:01:31,953 --> 00:01:33,859 cloud providers whether it's Amazon, Google, 40 00:01:34,494 --> 00:01:36,082 Microsoft, meta, etcetera, etcetera. 41 00:01:36,655 --> 00:01:38,174 Again, I think the company has been an 42 00:01:38,174 --> 00:01:40,655 existence for decades, and now with the, 43 00:01:41,295 --> 00:01:43,694 buzz of generative Ai, obviously, we saw the 44 00:01:43,694 --> 00:01:46,265 first wave of lot of the Gpu growth, 45 00:01:46,823 --> 00:01:48,977 and I think from a data storage perspective, 46 00:01:49,136 --> 00:01:50,652 we see that as a second follow. So 47 00:01:50,652 --> 00:01:52,805 again, super excited in terms of the industry 48 00:01:52,805 --> 00:01:53,922 and where currently. 49 00:01:55,132 --> 00:01:56,723 Excellence. And I I wonder if you could 50 00:01:56,723 --> 00:01:57,996 talk a bit about your role as chief 51 00:01:57,996 --> 00:02:00,223 information officer. What's within your purview as Cio, 52 00:02:00,382 --> 00:02:00,780 please, S? 53 00:02:01,988 --> 00:02:03,917 From my day to day responsibility 54 00:02:04,291 --> 00:02:06,594 perspective, I have what is classic It, I'm 55 00:02:06,594 --> 00:02:09,770 also responsible for the security organization, so the 56 00:02:09,849 --> 00:02:12,653 Cis reports to me. And then, I'm also 57 00:02:12,653 --> 00:02:14,731 responsible for a lot of the data and 58 00:02:14,731 --> 00:02:17,128 analytics. And, lastly, given that we are a 59 00:02:17,128 --> 00:02:17,628 global 60 00:02:18,007 --> 00:02:18,807 manufacturing company, 61 00:02:19,446 --> 00:02:20,585 lot of the factory 62 00:02:21,058 --> 00:02:22,034 It systems 63 00:02:22,565 --> 00:02:25,262 that manage our 12 14000000000 dollar business. 64 00:02:26,135 --> 00:02:28,293 You know, I'm also responsible for those So 65 00:02:28,293 --> 00:02:30,843 so essentially, it's classic It, data and analytics, 66 00:02:31,161 --> 00:02:32,436 security and the factory systems. 67 00:02:33,551 --> 00:02:35,954 Very interesting. Well, I know from early on 68 00:02:35,954 --> 00:02:38,415 in your role and makes the first days 69 00:02:38,415 --> 00:02:41,034 of your time with the organization, it experienced 70 00:02:41,034 --> 00:02:43,592 as so many companies have experience a cyber 71 00:02:43,592 --> 00:02:44,707 incident. And I wonder if you could talk 72 00:02:44,707 --> 00:02:46,620 a bit about that trial by fire in 73 00:02:46,620 --> 00:02:48,612 those early days and how it created a 74 00:02:48,612 --> 00:02:50,859 kind of focus you probably weren't expecting in 75 00:02:50,859 --> 00:02:52,451 those early days. Can you talk about that, 76 00:02:52,610 --> 00:02:55,238 Sorry, please? Yeah. Absolutely. Right? So so, again, 77 00:02:55,317 --> 00:02:56,910 when I first joined a year ago a 78 00:02:56,910 --> 00:02:58,423 little more than a year ago, so we 79 00:02:58,423 --> 00:03:00,346 win in the new and, you know, we 80 00:03:00,346 --> 00:03:02,650 we had a cyber incident that impacted us. 81 00:03:03,444 --> 00:03:05,986 And the team really did a phenomenal job 82 00:03:05,986 --> 00:03:07,280 in rallying behind 83 00:03:07,749 --> 00:03:09,897 and then really ensuring that, you know, we'd 84 00:03:09,897 --> 00:03:12,442 remediate the incident, and we got all our 85 00:03:12,442 --> 00:03:13,795 systems back up and running. 86 00:03:14,590 --> 00:03:17,154 Obviously, 1 of the biggest learnings from that 87 00:03:17,154 --> 00:03:20,191 incident is, you know, everyone typically focuses on 88 00:03:20,191 --> 00:03:22,928 technology. Right? And I always break it into 89 00:03:23,068 --> 00:03:26,359 people process and technology and and unless you 90 00:03:26,359 --> 00:03:28,593 get all 3 legs of the stool in 91 00:03:28,593 --> 00:03:31,225 order, you know, you're never safe. Right? Or 92 00:03:31,225 --> 00:03:34,188 you're never built enough guard rails in in 93 00:03:34,188 --> 00:03:36,172 in your ecosystem. And then, obviously, we're a 94 00:03:36,172 --> 00:03:37,228 very complex 95 00:03:38,236 --> 00:03:40,909 manufacturing, supply chain organization, so we work with 96 00:03:41,108 --> 00:03:44,144 external, you know, partners, logistic partners, customers. 97 00:03:45,070 --> 00:03:46,893 So so the perimeter is... There is no 98 00:03:46,893 --> 00:03:49,604 perimeter technically. Right? Again, for us, I think, 99 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:50,873 we are the incident, 100 00:03:51,429 --> 00:03:53,174 what we learned is, how do we tighten 101 00:03:53,174 --> 00:03:55,340 up our change process systems 102 00:03:55,649 --> 00:03:57,244 how do we also look at our help 103 00:03:57,244 --> 00:03:59,717 desk systems because when somebody calls in for 104 00:03:59,717 --> 00:04:02,450 a password reset? How do you really validate 105 00:04:02,668 --> 00:04:04,502 who the actors are. Right? And and do 106 00:04:04,502 --> 00:04:07,064 you train in many time, you know, you 107 00:04:07,064 --> 00:04:07,382 outsource, 108 00:04:07,939 --> 00:04:10,403 your, helped desk function. Right? And and how 109 00:04:10,403 --> 00:04:12,867 do you ensure that even within your 4 110 00:04:12,867 --> 00:04:16,250 walls and partners that you engage with are 111 00:04:16,310 --> 00:04:20,149 trained with best in class mechanisms of validation. 112 00:04:20,389 --> 00:04:22,310 Just like in your personal life, you know, 113 00:04:22,550 --> 00:04:24,562 I mean, even though you have an Fe, 114 00:04:24,722 --> 00:04:26,233 and you got all validation. 115 00:04:26,949 --> 00:04:28,937 There's always a, you know, a loophole. So, 116 00:04:29,017 --> 00:04:30,528 again, I think, you know, the team did 117 00:04:30,528 --> 00:04:33,012 a phenomenal job in terms of again, thinking 118 00:04:33,012 --> 00:04:35,084 those lessons learned in terms of our help 119 00:04:35,084 --> 00:04:36,380 desk processes, 120 00:04:37,155 --> 00:04:37,815 our technology, 121 00:04:38,763 --> 00:04:41,146 do we also communicate, you know, with external 122 00:04:41,146 --> 00:04:43,925 customers and really remediate. Right? So so again, 123 00:04:44,164 --> 00:04:46,626 I think from that fortunate, we were fortunate 124 00:04:46,626 --> 00:04:48,189 that, you know, there was no 125 00:04:48,787 --> 00:04:50,323 impact from a revenue perspective 126 00:04:50,779 --> 00:04:53,807 or from our ability to ship product and 127 00:04:53,807 --> 00:04:55,321 continue our R and D, but but it 128 00:04:55,321 --> 00:04:58,044 really shed light in terms of our people 129 00:04:58,044 --> 00:05:00,673 process technology. And since then, you know, as 130 00:05:00,673 --> 00:05:02,367 a part of my own It strategy, 131 00:05:02,903 --> 00:05:04,709 my number 1 priority is 132 00:05:05,389 --> 00:05:07,149 risk compliance and cyber cybersecurity. 133 00:05:07,870 --> 00:05:09,550 That makes sense. I'd love to get further 134 00:05:09,550 --> 00:05:12,029 into, your strategy as well. But before we 135 00:05:12,029 --> 00:05:14,245 do, so you you rightly call out people 136 00:05:14,364 --> 00:05:16,114 as a critical component here in order to 137 00:05:16,114 --> 00:05:17,467 get to all of that you've described right 138 00:05:17,467 --> 00:05:18,899 and more for that matter. And I know 139 00:05:18,899 --> 00:05:19,774 that you, 140 00:05:20,411 --> 00:05:22,081 have put a lot of thought into culture, 141 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:23,926 the sort of culture you hope losses within 142 00:05:23,926 --> 00:05:25,517 the organization. I mean, probably, of course, on 143 00:05:25,517 --> 00:05:27,665 the culture that preceded your time with with 144 00:05:27,665 --> 00:05:29,335 the company. But can you talk a bit 145 00:05:29,335 --> 00:05:31,576 about the the role culture, and and maybe 146 00:05:31,576 --> 00:05:32,608 some of the ways which you would define 147 00:05:32,608 --> 00:05:34,753 it in an environment like Western digital? 148 00:05:35,627 --> 00:05:37,613 Yeah. Absolutely. And and, again, you know, there's 149 00:05:37,613 --> 00:05:40,332 a cliche. Right? Culture strategy for breakfast. Right? 150 00:05:40,491 --> 00:05:42,242 So, again, I think what I find and 151 00:05:42,242 --> 00:05:43,994 and there's, you know, different companies have got 152 00:05:43,994 --> 00:05:47,113 different cultures. And from what I observe and 153 00:05:47,113 --> 00:05:48,782 this is also in general what I've seen 154 00:05:48,782 --> 00:05:50,610 talking to a lot of my peers. So 155 00:05:50,610 --> 00:05:51,962 1 of the biggest things is, you know, 156 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:55,240 how do you avoid stove wipes? Right? Because 157 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:55,959 in It, 158 00:05:56,519 --> 00:05:57,019 culturally, 159 00:05:57,480 --> 00:05:59,560 you know, you're supporting a function. So let's 160 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:01,879 say, you know, you're responsible for supporting sales. 161 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:04,199 So you have a sales It organization. Right? 162 00:06:04,614 --> 00:06:07,877 Or order processing or a financials It. So 163 00:06:07,877 --> 00:06:10,106 so, obviously, you got the functions in how 164 00:06:10,106 --> 00:06:11,721 you support the different stakeholders, 165 00:06:12,589 --> 00:06:13,885 but more importantly, 166 00:06:14,341 --> 00:06:16,013 you need to think of the connective tissue. 167 00:06:16,172 --> 00:06:17,685 Right? 1 of the reasons I allow being 168 00:06:17,685 --> 00:06:19,358 an It is because you get to see 169 00:06:19,358 --> 00:06:20,711 the 03:60 view of the business. 170 00:06:21,363 --> 00:06:23,268 And again, 1 of the things is, you 171 00:06:23,268 --> 00:06:25,412 know, is the Cio more a business leader 172 00:06:25,412 --> 00:06:27,555 or technology leader. Right? And I would say 173 00:06:27,555 --> 00:06:29,223 a combination of both, but it's gotta be 174 00:06:29,223 --> 00:06:29,699 business first. 175 00:06:30,589 --> 00:06:31,886 Gotta be understanding, 176 00:06:32,264 --> 00:06:33,939 you know, the the role of the business, 177 00:06:34,417 --> 00:06:36,411 where do we see growth opportunities, Where do 178 00:06:36,411 --> 00:06:38,485 we see cost savings opportunities, 179 00:06:38,884 --> 00:06:41,633 How do you streamline and simplify your processes, 180 00:06:42,250 --> 00:06:44,805 How do you really delight your customers, your 181 00:06:44,805 --> 00:06:47,280 partners, your employees? So, again, I think that... 182 00:06:47,439 --> 00:06:49,036 That's the exciting part of being an It. 183 00:06:49,769 --> 00:06:50,883 So for me, culturally, 184 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:53,986 what I felt within the organization is everyone 185 00:06:53,986 --> 00:06:56,770 was working very hard within their individual functions 186 00:06:56,770 --> 00:06:59,495 and towers and measuring themselves. But then when 187 00:06:59,495 --> 00:07:01,414 you flip it and come from an outside 188 00:07:01,414 --> 00:07:04,055 in perspective. Right? Don't talk to me about 189 00:07:04,454 --> 00:07:07,014 Microsoft Teams and Slack and Abc b, 190 00:07:07,429 --> 00:07:10,300 But what's the employee's experience in a meeting 191 00:07:10,300 --> 00:07:12,215 in in the in the way they collaborate 192 00:07:12,215 --> 00:07:13,890 and how do you measure that? Right? So 193 00:07:13,890 --> 00:07:15,485 to me, the biggest thing on culture was 194 00:07:15,485 --> 00:07:17,295 around flipping on its head don't be tech 195 00:07:17,414 --> 00:07:20,516 centric, look at it from a process and 196 00:07:20,516 --> 00:07:23,141 outside in perspective and then pass the silos. 197 00:07:23,538 --> 00:07:24,652 And then the second thing is in a 198 00:07:24,652 --> 00:07:26,975 team sport. Right? So you know, I'm... This 199 00:07:26,975 --> 00:07:28,965 is my analogy. There's... What's on the front 200 00:07:28,965 --> 00:07:30,160 of the Jersey and what's on the back 201 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:32,151 of the Jersey. Right? And never forget that, 202 00:07:32,947 --> 00:07:35,110 respect the position that you play. So when 203 00:07:35,110 --> 00:07:36,403 you represent a stakeholder, 204 00:07:36,776 --> 00:07:39,235 you represent all of It. You you can't 205 00:07:39,235 --> 00:07:41,670 say, hey, that's the network team's issue or 206 00:07:41,789 --> 00:07:44,435 the infrastructure team's issue. You gotta take accountability 207 00:07:44,968 --> 00:07:47,432 and represent It as a whole, and then, 208 00:07:47,591 --> 00:07:49,578 you know, be hard internally to hold the 209 00:07:49,737 --> 00:07:50,714 Pos accountable 210 00:07:51,024 --> 00:07:53,960 for improving service levels or operational levels, agreements 211 00:07:53,960 --> 00:07:55,944 in order to deliver the world class experience. 212 00:07:56,102 --> 00:07:57,531 Right? So again, I think the biggest 1 213 00:07:57,531 --> 00:07:58,348 is silo 214 00:07:58,721 --> 00:07:59,118 busting, 215 00:07:59,689 --> 00:08:02,181 Right? And and the second thing is always 216 00:08:02,637 --> 00:08:04,151 respect the position you play, but you're playing 217 00:08:04,151 --> 00:08:05,426 for what's on the front of the Jersey. 218 00:08:05,665 --> 00:08:05,825 Right? 219 00:08:06,542 --> 00:08:08,468 I love that analogy. I appreciate you sharing 220 00:08:08,468 --> 00:08:10,539 that so the Sports team and Jersey analogy. 221 00:08:10,698 --> 00:08:12,928 I think it's particularly apt in in developing 222 00:08:12,928 --> 00:08:15,850 that mentality. You alluded briefly there to 223 00:08:16,208 --> 00:08:18,758 importance of employee experience, and the role that 224 00:08:18,758 --> 00:08:21,548 your team plays there as well. Can you 225 00:08:21,548 --> 00:08:22,982 talk a bit about you know, some of 226 00:08:22,982 --> 00:08:26,017 your your thoughts process on methods of improving 227 00:08:26,017 --> 00:08:28,003 it, and especially from a digital perspective, 228 00:08:28,638 --> 00:08:30,386 the the the means by which you you 229 00:08:30,386 --> 00:08:32,871 can impact that a best. 230 00:08:33,737 --> 00:08:35,567 Absolutely. And again, this is still a, a 231 00:08:35,567 --> 00:08:37,795 work in progress. Right? So we closely work 232 00:08:37,795 --> 00:08:40,204 with both corporate communications and 233 00:08:40,818 --> 00:08:43,695 with our people solutions teams. Right, in terms 234 00:08:43,695 --> 00:08:45,442 of, you know, because, again, you know, is 235 00:08:45,442 --> 00:08:47,189 that a single team within a company that 236 00:08:47,189 --> 00:08:49,968 is responsible for employee experience. Right? And and 237 00:08:49,968 --> 00:08:52,603 the answer is typically no. So Therefore, I 238 00:08:52,603 --> 00:08:55,224 think It has an opportunity to play 51 239 00:08:55,224 --> 00:08:57,710 percent of the decision making. Right? So 240 00:08:58,084 --> 00:09:00,404 so like I said, again, you know, the 241 00:09:00,404 --> 00:09:02,481 the classic... And the traditional thinking is, I 242 00:09:02,481 --> 00:09:04,798 have a team that's responsible for email, 243 00:09:05,677 --> 00:09:05,837 communication, 244 00:09:06,635 --> 00:09:06,795 collaboration. 245 00:09:07,609 --> 00:09:10,081 You work with facilities for your conference rooms 246 00:09:10,081 --> 00:09:12,575 in terms of video conferencing, audio conferencing, 247 00:09:13,192 --> 00:09:15,744 whiteboard boarding, things will lot nature. Then you 248 00:09:15,744 --> 00:09:17,315 have... You... What's your, 249 00:09:17,754 --> 00:09:20,151 obviously, post covid, we still try to get 250 00:09:20,151 --> 00:09:21,908 people as many times in the in the 251 00:09:21,908 --> 00:09:23,746 week to come into the office, but still 252 00:09:23,746 --> 00:09:25,438 give or take it's about you know, 2 253 00:09:25,438 --> 00:09:27,115 to 3 days a week. Right? So, again, 254 00:09:27,274 --> 00:09:28,892 what's that in the office 255 00:09:29,270 --> 00:09:30,068 collaboration experience. 256 00:09:30,786 --> 00:09:32,862 So that's 1 set of capabilities. Then the 257 00:09:32,862 --> 00:09:33,261 second is, 258 00:09:34,074 --> 00:09:36,067 know, when I was getting interviewed for the 259 00:09:36,067 --> 00:09:37,103 job, what's my, 260 00:09:38,140 --> 00:09:41,829 interviewing process? Right? How seamless is the calendar 261 00:09:41,966 --> 00:09:44,294 setup the meeting white setup? Is it a 262 00:09:44,294 --> 00:09:45,910 1 click to join the meeting 263 00:09:46,287 --> 00:09:48,201 because you're already, you know, having butterflies in 264 00:09:48,201 --> 00:09:50,035 your stomach just before an interview, and you 265 00:09:50,035 --> 00:09:51,470 just wanna make sure that the tech just 266 00:09:51,470 --> 00:09:52,121 works. Right? 267 00:09:52,834 --> 00:09:54,895 So once once you finish your interview, if, 268 00:09:54,974 --> 00:09:56,163 let's say you get an offer of what's 269 00:09:56,163 --> 00:09:58,858 your own onboarding experience like. And then, you 270 00:09:58,858 --> 00:10:01,264 know, once you onboard, how do you drive 271 00:10:01,264 --> 00:10:03,657 engagements? So right from, you know, I find 272 00:10:03,657 --> 00:10:04,157 you 273 00:10:04,535 --> 00:10:06,152 to I recruit you 274 00:10:06,544 --> 00:10:09,407 to I onboard you to... I make you 275 00:10:09,407 --> 00:10:11,395 productive, and I drive more and more of 276 00:10:11,395 --> 00:10:13,621 your engagement. And then hopefully, I don't have 277 00:10:13,621 --> 00:10:16,019 to ever leave in the event, 1 does, 278 00:10:16,812 --> 00:10:19,033 this day and age, people do? For different 279 00:10:19,033 --> 00:10:21,492 reasons, then what's your off boarding experience. Right? 280 00:10:21,889 --> 00:10:23,892 So to me, the employee experience is really 281 00:10:23,892 --> 00:10:25,967 about that end to end from, you know, 282 00:10:26,207 --> 00:10:27,744 finding talent to 283 00:10:28,122 --> 00:10:29,957 growing them and nurturing them, I think it's 284 00:10:29,957 --> 00:10:30,516 super important. 285 00:10:31,249 --> 00:10:32,846 And then the second thing is how do 286 00:10:32,846 --> 00:10:35,878 you also create personas? For example, and we 287 00:10:35,878 --> 00:10:37,794 did this you know, in my past company 288 00:10:37,794 --> 00:10:39,764 and here. Day 1 if a software engineer 289 00:10:39,884 --> 00:10:40,604 joins a company. 290 00:10:41,243 --> 00:10:43,661 Can you make he or she fully 291 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,597 productive on day 1, which basically means that 292 00:10:46,597 --> 00:10:48,615 you've provisioned the systems 293 00:10:48,928 --> 00:10:50,594 tools right from writing code, 294 00:10:51,308 --> 00:10:52,499 you should be able to write a code 295 00:10:52,499 --> 00:10:54,323 and and, you know, deploy it on day 296 00:10:54,323 --> 00:10:55,672 1. Right? So how do you have that 297 00:10:55,672 --> 00:10:57,441 mine that it's not just about getting your 298 00:10:57,601 --> 00:10:59,915 Pc or Mac with everything set up, but 299 00:10:59,915 --> 00:11:01,750 knowing that this is a software engineer and 300 00:11:01,830 --> 00:11:04,086 I'm gonna provision a Github or 301 00:11:04,479 --> 00:11:06,552 jenkins or things of that nature, ahead of 302 00:11:06,552 --> 00:11:08,706 time. So you're productive on Day 1. And 303 00:11:08,706 --> 00:11:09,424 likewise, for a sales, 304 00:11:10,221 --> 00:11:12,853 Ae, you know, access to Salesforce and access 305 00:11:12,853 --> 00:11:14,304 to a lot of the critical sales tools. 306 00:11:14,463 --> 00:11:16,057 That's all set up. Right? So then that 307 00:11:16,057 --> 00:11:17,571 way, now all you're trying to do is 308 00:11:17,571 --> 00:11:19,881 get on with your onboarding experience and learning 309 00:11:19,881 --> 00:11:21,809 and being productive on the job. Right? That's 310 00:11:21,809 --> 00:11:23,085 how I look at it in terms of 311 00:11:23,085 --> 00:11:24,941 employee experience. Less about the tech 312 00:11:25,318 --> 00:11:27,174 more about a day in the life off 313 00:11:27,472 --> 00:11:29,487 and can you really make it 314 00:11:29,864 --> 00:11:30,901 efficient and frictionless. 315 00:11:31,793 --> 00:11:33,866 Session, light, what you described, I wonder what 316 00:11:33,866 --> 00:11:36,838 skill sets are rising in importance within your 317 00:11:36,975 --> 00:11:39,367 organization that you would offer some some perspectives 318 00:11:39,367 --> 00:11:39,606 on. 319 00:11:40,338 --> 00:11:42,488 Peter, 1 of the critical factors is also 320 00:11:42,488 --> 00:11:44,798 about taking stock about the skill set within 321 00:11:44,798 --> 00:11:47,107 your organization. Right? And I think it's super 322 00:11:47,107 --> 00:11:48,483 important to map out 323 00:11:48,874 --> 00:11:50,469 what are the current skills that you have 324 00:11:50,469 --> 00:11:52,224 an inventory of all the key skills and 325 00:11:52,224 --> 00:11:55,494 competencies within the It organization? And then look 326 00:11:55,494 --> 00:11:57,249 at where the puck going in the industry? 327 00:11:57,408 --> 00:11:59,338 Right? What are the futuristic skills that you 328 00:11:59,338 --> 00:12:00,536 need and you need to do a fit 329 00:12:00,536 --> 00:12:02,632 gap analysis in terms of what you have 330 00:12:02,771 --> 00:12:04,607 and what skills are in demand and what 331 00:12:04,607 --> 00:12:06,284 you need. And then you need to really 332 00:12:06,284 --> 00:12:09,034 think about how do you bring in talent 333 00:12:09,093 --> 00:12:11,570 from early carrier because you also wanna create 334 00:12:11,570 --> 00:12:14,706 a growth from your career perspective carrier from 335 00:12:15,005 --> 00:12:17,646 hires, uni what's the interns, etcetera. And then 336 00:12:17,646 --> 00:12:19,259 the second thing is where do you need 337 00:12:19,475 --> 00:12:21,622 seasoned hires people that bring in that skill 338 00:12:21,622 --> 00:12:23,372 set and know how because you need to 339 00:12:23,372 --> 00:12:26,590 infuse technology or that business knowledge and capability 340 00:12:26,964 --> 00:12:29,667 within the organization. So I would strongly encourage 341 00:12:29,667 --> 00:12:31,518 all Cios do a regular 342 00:12:32,149 --> 00:12:34,866 skill set inventory analysis between basic, 343 00:12:35,425 --> 00:12:36,484 proficient and advanced 344 00:12:37,103 --> 00:12:39,260 throughout the entire organization, including leadership. 345 00:12:40,073 --> 00:12:42,615 And and really be prepared in terms of, 346 00:12:43,330 --> 00:12:45,237 you know, the feed... Future requirements and needs. 347 00:12:45,952 --> 00:12:47,961 And and that's a super important 348 00:12:48,906 --> 00:12:51,052 you know, success criteria within the organization. 349 00:12:51,847 --> 00:12:53,913 Well, said, like the, like, the notion of 350 00:12:53,913 --> 00:12:55,503 this end to end thought process as you 351 00:12:55,503 --> 00:12:55,741 notes. 352 00:12:56,314 --> 00:12:57,771 Earlier you talked about the 353 00:12:58,148 --> 00:13:01,338 imperative strategically of of security risk and compliance. 354 00:13:01,976 --> 00:13:04,129 Understandably, again, given the incidents in the early 355 00:13:04,129 --> 00:13:05,980 days of your tenure as well. Wonder if 356 00:13:05,980 --> 00:13:07,579 you could talk a little bit about changes 357 00:13:07,579 --> 00:13:10,940 in philosophy or process associated with that. And, 358 00:13:11,100 --> 00:13:13,394 you know, obviously, innovation is about risk taking 359 00:13:13,514 --> 00:13:15,187 the idea of risk doesn't mean being risk 360 00:13:15,187 --> 00:13:17,976 less. But obviously, also understanding that you are 361 00:13:17,976 --> 00:13:21,500 taking into consideration risk tolerances and the security 362 00:13:21,500 --> 00:13:23,339 and compliance implications to all that you and 363 00:13:23,339 --> 00:13:25,019 your team do. Can you talk a bit 364 00:13:25,019 --> 00:13:27,419 about, you know, your your philosophy around security 365 00:13:27,419 --> 00:13:28,459 risk and compliance, please? 366 00:13:29,194 --> 00:13:31,576 Yeah. And it's always a balance between perform 367 00:13:31,576 --> 00:13:34,117 and transform. Right? You gotta make sure that, 368 00:13:34,276 --> 00:13:35,570 you know, you never compromised 369 00:13:36,102 --> 00:13:36,999 the existing, 370 00:13:37,789 --> 00:13:39,470 infrastructure. But at the same time, you can't 371 00:13:39,470 --> 00:13:40,990 swing on the other end where, you know, 372 00:13:41,230 --> 00:13:43,629 every change becomes a bigger change that you 373 00:13:43,629 --> 00:13:45,403 just can't in a way because now these 374 00:13:45,403 --> 00:13:46,839 days, if you don't a innovate, you'll left 375 00:13:46,839 --> 00:13:48,915 behind. Right? So I think it goes back 376 00:13:48,915 --> 00:13:51,470 to how do you create an It engagement 377 00:13:51,470 --> 00:13:54,199 model and the culture of leaning in Right? 378 00:13:54,918 --> 00:13:57,096 And and really, it's a team sport. And 379 00:13:57,155 --> 00:13:59,631 rather than treat the Cs in terms of, 380 00:13:59,791 --> 00:14:00,270 you know, I mean, 381 00:14:01,322 --> 00:14:02,674 people think of... Well, as soon as you 382 00:14:02,674 --> 00:14:04,663 say a security organization, well, it takes for 383 00:14:04,663 --> 00:14:06,493 too long or, you know, there's not enough 384 00:14:06,493 --> 00:14:08,658 resources etcetera. So to me, I think it's 385 00:14:08,658 --> 00:14:11,531 really having a clarity on... As we engage 386 00:14:11,531 --> 00:14:13,048 with the business so the best we can. 387 00:14:13,287 --> 00:14:15,303 Get a sense for the key priorities, 388 00:14:15,761 --> 00:14:17,608 the road map. The investments. 389 00:14:18,324 --> 00:14:19,995 I think it's super important. So that you 390 00:14:19,995 --> 00:14:23,017 you can apply your scarce resources against the 391 00:14:23,017 --> 00:14:24,950 highest order a bit. Right? The second thing 392 00:14:24,950 --> 00:14:26,889 is also being very close to your procurement 393 00:14:27,190 --> 00:14:29,669 organization. Right? Because a lot of the software 394 00:14:29,669 --> 00:14:30,169 purchases 395 00:14:30,709 --> 00:14:32,642 happen through and many of a time even 396 00:14:32,721 --> 00:14:33,758 It is not aware. Right? 397 00:14:34,476 --> 00:14:36,071 And it goes straight to the procurement team. 398 00:14:36,231 --> 00:14:37,985 So again, having a close into lock with 399 00:14:37,985 --> 00:14:40,538 their procurement team and and teaching them and 400 00:14:40,538 --> 00:14:42,788 training them. So that, you know, they push 401 00:14:42,788 --> 00:14:44,866 back and are able to rope in and 402 00:14:44,866 --> 00:14:47,124 bring the Cio and the Cs into the 403 00:14:47,184 --> 00:14:48,163 conversation when, 404 00:14:48,542 --> 00:14:50,860 you know, when certain flags and conditions come 405 00:14:50,860 --> 00:14:53,265 up. Right, during the review process. So so 406 00:14:53,265 --> 00:14:54,380 to me, I think I think those are 407 00:14:54,380 --> 00:14:55,097 2 critical things. 408 00:14:55,894 --> 00:14:58,682 And then continuing to to teach the organization 409 00:14:58,682 --> 00:15:00,768 because, again, let's take rb brains off lee 410 00:15:00,768 --> 00:15:02,836 as an example. Right? Because, again, risk and 411 00:15:02,836 --> 00:15:04,904 compliance socks is a big compliance aspect. It's 412 00:15:04,904 --> 00:15:07,504 not a 1 time done dusted effort. It 413 00:15:07,703 --> 00:15:09,613 gotta be a part of your day to 414 00:15:09,613 --> 00:15:12,638 day performance and Sla and management with all 415 00:15:12,638 --> 00:15:13,138 changes, 416 00:15:13,513 --> 00:15:14,809 you know, sitting with the finance 417 00:15:15,184 --> 00:15:17,830 organization, sitting with a tax organization, making sure 418 00:15:17,830 --> 00:15:20,710 that all the controls are well tested. More 419 00:15:20,710 --> 00:15:22,649 importantly, is it well documented? 420 00:15:23,110 --> 00:15:24,870 The second thing is you have the right 421 00:15:24,870 --> 00:15:26,365 practices to ensure 422 00:15:27,596 --> 00:15:29,819 and compliance. And then when you do with 423 00:15:29,819 --> 00:15:31,805 an external auditor in our case K G, 424 00:15:31,964 --> 00:15:33,711 are you able to demonstrate both as a 425 00:15:33,711 --> 00:15:37,148 business and It organization the adherence to all 426 00:15:37,148 --> 00:15:38,667 the sox controls. Right? So again, 427 00:15:39,546 --> 00:15:40,685 it's funny because 428 00:15:41,224 --> 00:15:42,582 then you have a I have a large 429 00:15:42,582 --> 00:15:45,472 team in India and you know, Asia, etcetera. 430 00:15:46,028 --> 00:15:47,619 And and many your time, you know, early 431 00:15:47,619 --> 00:15:50,165 in carrier people also learn through production support 432 00:15:50,165 --> 00:15:51,756 and sox compliance and testing, 433 00:15:52,328 --> 00:15:53,762 And and I was in in all hands 434 00:15:53,762 --> 00:15:55,355 once, and I was talking to, you know, 435 00:15:55,515 --> 00:15:56,710 people who are early in their career? 436 00:15:57,427 --> 00:15:59,498 And and, you know, I asked this individual 437 00:15:59,578 --> 00:16:00,932 What do you do? And, oh, well, I'm 438 00:16:00,932 --> 00:16:03,203 just doing test thing of these controls and 439 00:16:03,342 --> 00:16:05,179 validation. And then I mentioned it in my 440 00:16:05,179 --> 00:16:07,256 own hand saying that if we fail the 441 00:16:07,256 --> 00:16:07,756 sox 442 00:16:09,267 --> 00:16:11,918 deficiencies and demonstrate that we have material weaknesses. 443 00:16:12,852 --> 00:16:14,286 Guess what? It means that a lot of 444 00:16:14,286 --> 00:16:15,720 the C suite goes to the jail link 445 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:16,596 including the Cio. 446 00:16:17,074 --> 00:16:19,876 Right? So failing a socks out means jail. 447 00:16:20,115 --> 00:16:21,946 Right? And and that light bulb is, you 448 00:16:21,946 --> 00:16:24,095 know, oh my god. This is why it's 449 00:16:24,095 --> 00:16:25,608 important to have fiduciary controls. 450 00:16:26,578 --> 00:16:27,612 This is what it means to be a 451 00:16:27,612 --> 00:16:28,804 publicly traded company. 452 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:31,111 This is why it's important because I think 453 00:16:31,111 --> 00:16:33,178 it's important for people at the lower levels 454 00:16:33,178 --> 00:16:35,743 to understand. Otherwise, what happens is when you're 455 00:16:35,743 --> 00:16:37,261 just testing a control It may sound a 456 00:16:37,261 --> 00:16:39,419 little Monday mundane, but how do you translate 457 00:16:39,419 --> 00:16:40,857 it to the work that you're doing on 458 00:16:40,857 --> 00:16:42,855 a day to day basis is so critical. 459 00:16:43,509 --> 00:16:45,507 That it can, you know, put your company 460 00:16:45,507 --> 00:16:47,184 at risk from a Sec reporting, 461 00:16:47,903 --> 00:16:51,272 financial fiduciary requirements perspective, etcetera. And for a 462 00:16:51,272 --> 00:16:54,379 publicly traded companies, these are something that you 463 00:16:54,379 --> 00:16:57,168 never compromise. Right? So so making that as 464 00:16:57,168 --> 00:16:58,761 a part of your culture and your Dna, 465 00:16:58,920 --> 00:16:59,876 Are they you're so important. 466 00:17:00,528 --> 00:17:02,350 Then likewise, with with Cyber 2, you know, 467 00:17:02,508 --> 00:17:04,648 our past learnings has been that, you know, 468 00:17:04,964 --> 00:17:06,549 we tend to go to the board meetings 469 00:17:06,549 --> 00:17:08,555 and you have these missed frameworks and you 470 00:17:08,555 --> 00:17:11,355 have these, you know, maturity colors that you 471 00:17:11,355 --> 00:17:13,994 basically say where you have green, and and 472 00:17:14,075 --> 00:17:15,848 I always call it the watermelon and right? 473 00:17:16,006 --> 00:17:17,434 It's green on the outside and as soon 474 00:17:17,434 --> 00:17:18,940 as you slice it, It's red in the 475 00:17:18,940 --> 00:17:20,764 inside. So again, how do you ensure that? 476 00:17:21,161 --> 00:17:22,295 You know, you really 477 00:17:22,668 --> 00:17:25,225 are being practical about the this framework, 478 00:17:26,100 --> 00:17:27,771 and you're able to call out the risks. 479 00:17:28,168 --> 00:17:29,441 And again, you don't know what you don't 480 00:17:29,441 --> 00:17:30,808 know. But to the best you can and, 481 00:17:31,126 --> 00:17:33,430 you need to quantify the risk. And, again, 482 00:17:33,589 --> 00:17:36,132 I'd... It's about people process technology. Right? 483 00:17:36,847 --> 00:17:38,933 And it's also about you know, even simple 484 00:17:38,933 --> 00:17:41,271 things like these days, all the phishing emails 485 00:17:41,331 --> 00:17:42,769 you, you know, you get? And how do 486 00:17:42,769 --> 00:17:45,566 you train the organization, when to click and 487 00:17:45,566 --> 00:17:47,894 not click. Right? So So I think all 488 00:17:47,894 --> 00:17:50,202 those are super important just doing a 1 489 00:17:50,202 --> 00:17:52,032 time tabletop top exercise is not enough. 490 00:17:52,748 --> 00:17:55,075 It's gotta be a regular you know, sport 491 00:17:55,075 --> 00:17:57,634 that you that you do, frequently. So again, 492 00:17:57,795 --> 00:17:58,835 I think those are some of the key 493 00:17:58,835 --> 00:18:00,355 learnings. And then the last thing is when 494 00:18:00,355 --> 00:18:01,954 you have an incident and when the going 495 00:18:01,954 --> 00:18:02,434 gets wrong. 496 00:18:03,169 --> 00:18:04,920 You'll truly get to know who's a partner, 497 00:18:05,239 --> 00:18:08,582 and who's a vendor. Right? And we clearly 498 00:18:08,582 --> 00:18:10,117 learned, you know, who was truly 499 00:18:11,144 --> 00:18:13,944 willing to go above and beyond and demonstrate 500 00:18:13,999 --> 00:18:14,737 partnership versus 501 00:18:15,109 --> 00:18:16,061 some languages vendors. 502 00:18:16,775 --> 00:18:18,044 And and then you need to know what 503 00:18:18,044 --> 00:18:18,679 you have to do. 504 00:18:19,567 --> 00:18:20,602 To really, you know, 505 00:18:21,397 --> 00:18:23,624 figure out what's your next step from the 506 00:18:23,624 --> 00:18:23,863 experience. 507 00:18:24,738 --> 00:18:26,741 Very well set. I appreciate those flexi reflections, 508 00:18:27,298 --> 00:18:28,808 and and also, the reit reiterating of the 509 00:18:28,808 --> 00:18:30,636 point of the people the process and the 510 00:18:30,636 --> 00:18:33,101 the technology working in concert in order to 511 00:18:33,101 --> 00:18:36,217 get these frameworks correct. I know another, other 512 00:18:36,217 --> 00:18:38,926 areas of strategic importance to you that you 513 00:18:38,926 --> 00:18:39,665 are driving 514 00:18:40,519 --> 00:18:41,316 transformation through is, 515 00:18:42,192 --> 00:18:44,502 operational and engineering excellence. Can you talk a 516 00:18:44,502 --> 00:18:45,115 bit about 517 00:18:45,792 --> 00:18:48,105 do... How that applies, some of the methods 518 00:18:48,105 --> 00:18:50,419 that you're using, again, early days I recognize. 519 00:18:50,658 --> 00:18:51,158 But 520 00:18:51,535 --> 00:18:54,327 how how that's being enacted within Western Digital 521 00:18:54,327 --> 00:18:54,646 as well. 522 00:18:55,536 --> 00:18:56,885 Yeah. I mean, look, 523 00:18:57,917 --> 00:19:00,957 everybody wants to nowadays work on cool capabilities 524 00:19:01,013 --> 00:19:03,077 and I I call it perform and transform. 525 00:19:03,236 --> 00:19:05,955 Right? But perform is basically... It's like, you 526 00:19:05,955 --> 00:19:08,743 know, water gas electricity. Right? You expect it 527 00:19:08,743 --> 00:19:10,654 to be always on. And when things are 528 00:19:10,654 --> 00:19:13,614 not always on, it creates big issues. Right? 529 00:19:13,773 --> 00:19:14,967 You go, well, what the hell. I don't 530 00:19:14,967 --> 00:19:16,955 get water. I don't get gas electricity. So 531 00:19:16,955 --> 00:19:18,705 same thing from an It perspective. To me, 532 00:19:19,501 --> 00:19:22,626 operation excellence basically means that all our services 533 00:19:22,626 --> 00:19:24,779 are up and running. Right? Email is up. 534 00:19:25,577 --> 00:19:27,172 Collaboration is up. All the mission critical wants. 535 00:19:27,332 --> 00:19:29,188 The ability to message 536 00:19:29,898 --> 00:19:30,057 meet, 537 00:19:30,773 --> 00:19:31,251 collaborate, 538 00:19:31,807 --> 00:19:32,523 place orders, 539 00:19:33,001 --> 00:19:35,069 your, website is up. You can you can 540 00:19:35,069 --> 00:19:37,313 book revenue. You can ship product again, I 541 00:19:37,313 --> 00:19:39,490 call these as always on services. And, 542 00:19:40,028 --> 00:19:42,263 you know, they better have, you know, 3 543 00:19:42,263 --> 00:19:43,940 nines of 4 nines in terms of, you 544 00:19:43,940 --> 00:19:44,759 know, availability. 545 00:19:45,537 --> 00:19:47,384 Again, it's it's a cost versus, you know, 546 00:19:47,940 --> 00:19:50,981 investment balance. But to me, operational excellence is, 547 00:19:51,276 --> 00:19:54,136 you know, always on services, no compromises, etcetera. 548 00:19:54,295 --> 00:19:56,414 No, obviously, in the software world stuff happens 549 00:19:56,535 --> 00:19:58,695 happens, and and and I think, you know, 550 00:19:58,855 --> 00:20:00,934 it's it's important that when things happen, 551 00:20:01,575 --> 00:20:04,215 it's the attitude with which we respond and 552 00:20:04,215 --> 00:20:05,894 and not a fingerprint pointing game on a 553 00:20:05,894 --> 00:20:08,702 bridge. Right? So so, again, what is the 554 00:20:08,702 --> 00:20:11,095 mean meantime to restoration when an incident happens? 555 00:20:11,892 --> 00:20:13,567 And then this was classic with my previous 556 00:20:13,567 --> 00:20:15,880 company pager duty. Right? And the whole premise 557 00:20:15,880 --> 00:20:16,174 was 558 00:20:16,775 --> 00:20:18,455 around, you know, how do we minimize downtime. 559 00:20:18,615 --> 00:20:20,775 So likewise, we implemented page duty when I 560 00:20:20,775 --> 00:20:21,654 first came on board. 561 00:20:22,535 --> 00:20:24,375 So, again, I think the thinking of operational 562 00:20:24,375 --> 00:20:26,650 excellence is measure your always on services. 563 00:20:27,669 --> 00:20:29,669 And anytime there's a there's an issue or 564 00:20:29,669 --> 00:20:32,069 an outage, let's learn from it. And again, 565 00:20:32,230 --> 00:20:33,289 people process technology. 566 00:20:33,924 --> 00:20:35,361 And most of the times, you had to 567 00:20:35,361 --> 00:20:37,197 measure yourself and how good you all a 568 00:20:37,197 --> 00:20:39,991 changes? And and many incidents actually happen due 569 00:20:39,991 --> 00:20:41,987 to changes. So how do you minimize change 570 00:20:41,987 --> 00:20:42,705 related incidents? 571 00:20:43,278 --> 00:20:45,183 Right, which is you're making new features or 572 00:20:45,183 --> 00:20:47,008 code change or etcetera. So how do you 573 00:20:47,008 --> 00:20:49,072 really minimize that. And when things happen or 574 00:20:49,072 --> 00:20:50,921 go solve, have a robust, 575 00:20:51,611 --> 00:20:53,219 rollback plan or a fall back plan, 576 00:20:54,016 --> 00:20:55,051 communicate early. Right? 577 00:20:55,848 --> 00:20:57,920 And escalate early. Asking for help is not 578 00:20:57,920 --> 00:20:58,716 a sign a weakness. 579 00:20:59,368 --> 00:21:00,242 Think it's super important. 580 00:21:00,877 --> 00:21:02,386 We recently had an issue with 1 of 581 00:21:02,386 --> 00:21:04,372 our big software providers, and and the team 582 00:21:04,372 --> 00:21:05,722 did not even know who to call on 583 00:21:05,722 --> 00:21:07,804 the on the partner side. Right? So again, 584 00:21:08,043 --> 00:21:09,421 you know, knowing 585 00:21:09,878 --> 00:21:11,336 who to call, how do to escalate 586 00:21:11,714 --> 00:21:14,267 even with your big software providers and partners 587 00:21:14,267 --> 00:21:15,957 are getting a super important all that I 588 00:21:15,957 --> 00:21:17,972 call as operational excellence and you measure 589 00:21:18,348 --> 00:21:21,377 in terms of uptime, outages, change really related 590 00:21:21,377 --> 00:21:24,585 incidents, time resolution, etcetera. Then on the engineering 591 00:21:24,585 --> 00:21:27,305 excellence, it's about, you know, having the right 592 00:21:27,305 --> 00:21:27,805 process 593 00:21:28,265 --> 00:21:28,765 tooling 594 00:21:29,225 --> 00:21:31,625 to deploy software. And we still have some 595 00:21:31,625 --> 00:21:33,954 work to do to fully embrace agile. Right? 596 00:21:34,192 --> 00:21:36,361 And Agile is not about, you know, producing 597 00:21:36,814 --> 00:21:38,641 clap faster, but you have to have the 598 00:21:38,641 --> 00:21:39,618 right due diligence 599 00:21:40,548 --> 00:21:41,183 across the board. 600 00:21:41,834 --> 00:21:44,621 But it's once your requirements and what your 601 00:21:44,621 --> 00:21:46,930 outcomes are well understood, then how do you 602 00:21:46,930 --> 00:21:49,001 accelerate with with the business. Right? And bring 603 00:21:49,001 --> 00:21:49,877 the business along? 604 00:21:50,687 --> 00:21:52,750 On this journey. So engineering excellence is all 605 00:21:52,750 --> 00:21:54,915 about, you know, do I have 606 00:21:55,447 --> 00:21:56,875 source called automation, 607 00:21:57,604 --> 00:21:59,762 Can I do unit testing and dev testing 608 00:21:59,762 --> 00:22:02,798 and integration testing on scale, and I automate 609 00:22:02,798 --> 00:22:03,517 a lot of things, 610 00:22:04,316 --> 00:22:06,805 both from our cyber and priority perspective and 611 00:22:06,805 --> 00:22:08,160 from a code based perspective, 612 00:22:08,958 --> 00:22:11,349 can all my ml and data engineering and 613 00:22:11,349 --> 00:22:13,821 pipeline engineering, Are they all digital digitized and 614 00:22:13,821 --> 00:22:14,275 automated 615 00:22:15,030 --> 00:22:17,814 are we really leveraging the cloud first mindset? 616 00:22:18,132 --> 00:22:20,201 Right, rather than build everything in your data 617 00:22:20,201 --> 00:22:21,076 center or a c? 618 00:22:21,569 --> 00:22:23,108 So I think a lot of these principles 619 00:22:23,247 --> 00:22:25,963 go into and and think about security first 620 00:22:25,963 --> 00:22:28,575 rather than an afterthought, even during your review 621 00:22:28,694 --> 00:22:28,934 process, 622 00:22:29,893 --> 00:22:32,449 etcetera. So those are the 2 pillars in 623 00:22:32,449 --> 00:22:34,925 terms of operationally excellent and engineering excellence. 624 00:22:35,739 --> 00:22:37,962 And and bring in the software defined paradigm, 625 00:22:38,518 --> 00:22:41,773 even from an infrastructure perspective, Right, especially with, 626 00:22:41,853 --> 00:22:43,282 you know, there's a lot of logging and 627 00:22:43,282 --> 00:22:45,602 monitoring, but what is truly a ob ability. 628 00:22:45,762 --> 00:22:47,516 And and and, again, in the industry too 629 00:22:47,516 --> 00:22:50,067 the word ob ability is super important where 630 00:22:50,067 --> 00:22:52,379 it's, you know, classic It It's a network 631 00:22:52,379 --> 00:22:54,704 issue a data center azure data issue. But 632 00:22:54,704 --> 00:22:56,691 really, how do you... Because the users don't 633 00:22:56,691 --> 00:22:58,757 care whether the issue is. Right? I can't 634 00:22:58,757 --> 00:23:00,824 book an order, or I can't, you know, 635 00:23:00,983 --> 00:23:03,025 I can't engage with you in on your 636 00:23:03,303 --> 00:23:06,167 website. So the end users should never care 637 00:23:06,167 --> 00:23:08,235 on what's broken, but it's our job in 638 00:23:08,314 --> 00:23:09,587 It to ensure. 639 00:23:10,239 --> 00:23:12,387 That we are accountable for that end to 640 00:23:12,387 --> 00:23:13,978 experience. Right? So so I know I said 641 00:23:13,978 --> 00:23:15,513 a lot, but that's all I would categorize. 642 00:23:17,002 --> 00:23:19,804 Very interesting. Again, Appreciate the overview there. Mentioned 643 00:23:19,804 --> 00:23:21,562 in the introduction that you've been its chief 644 00:23:21,562 --> 00:23:23,880 information officer multiple times and an It executive 645 00:23:24,439 --> 00:23:26,777 across a diverse array of technology centric 646 00:23:27,156 --> 00:23:29,967 organizations. You've been at major scaled companies, your 647 00:23:29,967 --> 00:23:31,803 current post of course of with Western digital. 648 00:23:32,522 --> 00:23:34,916 Also Cisco, I mentioned before, you've also been 649 00:23:34,916 --> 00:23:36,215 at scaling technology 650 00:23:36,752 --> 00:23:39,164 organizations like pager in plan in both cases 651 00:23:39,164 --> 00:23:40,924 as chief information officer also. 652 00:23:41,404 --> 00:23:43,484 I wonder what do you draw from your 653 00:23:43,484 --> 00:23:45,664 experiences back and forth? What advantages 654 00:23:46,535 --> 00:23:49,258 you have in having experienced scaled 655 00:23:49,631 --> 00:23:51,932 organizations and helping them sort of foster, continued 656 00:23:51,932 --> 00:23:54,566 growth and and transformation, also being in the 657 00:23:54,566 --> 00:23:57,026 kind of even faster pace growth the organizations 658 00:23:57,026 --> 00:23:58,851 like a like a pager Or anna plan. 659 00:23:59,009 --> 00:24:00,279 What are you drawing from each of those 660 00:24:00,279 --> 00:24:03,550 experiences into 1 like you have today that 661 00:24:03,550 --> 00:24:05,141 that you, might be lightning. 662 00:24:05,936 --> 00:24:07,844 Yeah. Absolutely. I I spent a long carrier 663 00:24:07,844 --> 00:24:10,071 at Cisco and led a lot of transformation, 664 00:24:10,548 --> 00:24:12,554 you know, great journeys across us, you know, 665 00:24:12,634 --> 00:24:15,191 the business. And and, obviously, you know, having 666 00:24:15,191 --> 00:24:16,549 seen the company grow form. Them when I 667 00:24:16,549 --> 00:24:18,228 joined them, they were, like, 4000000000 and when 668 00:24:18,387 --> 00:24:20,465 I left, we were about 51000000000 in Cisco. 669 00:24:20,625 --> 00:24:23,111 So again, just going through the sales go 670 00:24:23,111 --> 00:24:26,537 to market growth, the commerce growth, the shift 671 00:24:26,537 --> 00:24:29,245 towards new business models like, you know, software 672 00:24:29,245 --> 00:24:33,589 as a subscription also for on premise networking 673 00:24:33,648 --> 00:24:35,803 gear, data center gear as a subscription. So 674 00:24:35,803 --> 00:24:38,836 again, thinking through that whole business model shift, 675 00:24:39,649 --> 00:24:41,403 building systems for scale, 676 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:43,578 and with high 677 00:24:43,956 --> 00:24:46,109 operational excellence metrics that I mentioned was a 678 00:24:46,109 --> 00:24:48,103 huge learning from a cisco perspective. And then, 679 00:24:48,263 --> 00:24:50,271 obviously, as a part of your career growth 680 00:24:50,271 --> 00:24:52,503 and movement, I join Ana plan and Pager 681 00:24:52,503 --> 00:24:54,097 duty, and 1 of the biggest things is 682 00:24:54,097 --> 00:24:56,191 when you join companies that are much 683 00:24:56,648 --> 00:24:56,967 smaller. 684 00:24:57,619 --> 00:24:59,376 And and you have a smaller footprint even 685 00:24:59,376 --> 00:25:01,531 within It organization. 1 of the biggest things 686 00:25:01,531 --> 00:25:03,846 is, you know, large company, you you take 687 00:25:03,846 --> 00:25:06,002 things for granted. Right? Because your your budgets 688 00:25:06,002 --> 00:25:06,721 are fairly large, 689 00:25:07,691 --> 00:25:10,388 you have larger teams at your disposal and 690 00:25:10,388 --> 00:25:12,054 things of that nature. And when you soon 691 00:25:12,054 --> 00:25:13,878 realize that when you're in a smaller company, 692 00:25:14,354 --> 00:25:16,275 everyone's got a own up like, you know, 693 00:25:16,434 --> 00:25:18,103 top line and bottom line. Right? And in 694 00:25:18,103 --> 00:25:19,932 the Saas companies, the rule of 40 was 695 00:25:19,932 --> 00:25:22,793 super important between, your profitability and top line 696 00:25:22,793 --> 00:25:24,716 versus your spends and Op and how do 697 00:25:24,716 --> 00:25:26,942 you really thrive to be towards the rule 698 00:25:26,942 --> 00:25:29,247 of 40 and many companies were still not 699 00:25:29,247 --> 00:25:29,723 profitable, 700 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:32,267 you know, despite good growth. Right? Which then 701 00:25:32,267 --> 00:25:32,640 means 702 00:25:33,076 --> 00:25:34,665 that is all about the bottom line. Right? 703 00:25:34,824 --> 00:25:37,603 And driving more efficiency and more automation so 704 00:25:37,603 --> 00:25:39,589 doing more with less. Right? So I think 705 00:25:39,589 --> 00:25:41,733 the biggest learning there was, you know, with 706 00:25:41,733 --> 00:25:45,893 every hiring, value digitize, right, value automate and 707 00:25:45,893 --> 00:25:48,683 and and really look for our, partnership with 708 00:25:48,683 --> 00:25:49,343 the Cfo 709 00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:52,205 on what are the levers towards accomplishing the 710 00:25:52,205 --> 00:25:54,195 rule of 40 and and really trying to 711 00:25:54,195 --> 00:25:55,946 do within It, what can we do. Right? 712 00:25:56,105 --> 00:25:57,219 That was that was a big, you know, 713 00:25:57,378 --> 00:25:59,368 learning and takeaway and and really being a 714 00:25:59,368 --> 00:26:00,482 lead in me an organization. 715 00:26:01,214 --> 00:26:03,199 Then the second thing was just around many 716 00:26:03,199 --> 00:26:04,970 a time, you're selling to, 717 00:26:05,344 --> 00:26:07,806 you know, fellow practitioner, Cio, Cto, 718 00:26:08,282 --> 00:26:09,156 Cis, etcetera. 719 00:26:09,807 --> 00:26:12,034 So how do you also help influence the 720 00:26:12,034 --> 00:26:14,818 product. Right, in terms of the story board, 721 00:26:15,057 --> 00:26:15,852 the pitch deck. 722 00:26:16,663 --> 00:26:19,126 What features and functionalities are important? How do 723 00:26:19,126 --> 00:26:21,930 you unlock relationships and and really provide the 724 00:26:21,987 --> 00:26:24,625 practitioner view back into the product? Right? And 725 00:26:24,625 --> 00:26:26,057 and, again, what drew me back to a 726 00:26:26,057 --> 00:26:27,966 larger was partially a personal, 727 00:26:28,522 --> 00:26:30,511 reason. But at the same time, I I 728 00:26:30,511 --> 00:26:32,701 wanted to... Get back into a a doable 729 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,634 manufacturing, like, you know, footprint from a more 730 00:26:35,634 --> 00:26:37,949 personal carrier perspective. So so again, which made 731 00:26:37,949 --> 00:26:39,626 me come back to a larger organization. 732 00:26:40,279 --> 00:26:42,825 And, again, the complexities of a large organization 733 00:26:42,825 --> 00:26:45,291 having been in small teams where you have 734 00:26:45,291 --> 00:26:47,360 to really be conscious about your investments, 735 00:26:47,837 --> 00:26:50,161 you know, helps me bring that same value 736 00:26:50,161 --> 00:26:51,435 for money. Because I think at the end 737 00:26:51,435 --> 00:26:53,346 of the day, we gotta treat all of 738 00:26:53,346 --> 00:26:55,816 this as your own personal money and really 739 00:26:55,816 --> 00:26:57,807 think about the value for money conversation. 740 00:26:58,539 --> 00:26:59,675 How do you measure Roi? 741 00:27:00,528 --> 00:27:02,756 Right? How do you ensure that, you know, 742 00:27:02,836 --> 00:27:05,143 the costs and and expenses are in line. 743 00:27:05,700 --> 00:27:07,212 And and 1 of the biggest things and 744 00:27:07,212 --> 00:27:09,620 we always get ding in It is takes 745 00:27:09,620 --> 00:27:11,855 to long cost cost too much. Right? That's 746 00:27:11,855 --> 00:27:13,451 that's just the tagline line. No matter where 747 00:27:13,451 --> 00:27:15,527 you are. And and how do you continue 748 00:27:15,527 --> 00:27:17,237 to have us story board 749 00:27:17,612 --> 00:27:19,624 with the right metrics to show 750 00:27:19,999 --> 00:27:21,987 exactly what your costs are. Right? So what's 751 00:27:21,987 --> 00:27:23,044 your annual budget 752 00:27:23,595 --> 00:27:24,815 Let me break it down 753 00:27:25,275 --> 00:27:26,075 between what's fixed. 754 00:27:26,795 --> 00:27:28,335 Right? What's non fixed 755 00:27:28,634 --> 00:27:31,009 and and having that narrative with your Cf 756 00:27:31,049 --> 00:27:32,325 4 and the c suite. I think is 757 00:27:32,325 --> 00:27:34,078 super important. And like I said, 1 of 758 00:27:34,078 --> 00:27:35,832 the beautiful beautiful things of being an It 759 00:27:35,832 --> 00:27:37,744 is, again, you have no dog in the 760 00:27:37,744 --> 00:27:38,541 fight. Right? 761 00:27:39,274 --> 00:27:41,345 And and I find many many a time 762 00:27:41,345 --> 00:27:43,655 being in the middle of breaking log jams 763 00:27:43,655 --> 00:27:45,966 between a, Cfo or a Cro or a 764 00:27:46,125 --> 00:27:48,515 Coo because you you just lay out the 765 00:27:48,515 --> 00:27:50,445 fact and we go well, here's here's what's 766 00:27:50,445 --> 00:27:51,163 being asked to me. 767 00:27:52,041 --> 00:27:52,541 And 768 00:27:52,919 --> 00:27:56,404 here's the scarce resources, and and the business 769 00:27:56,523 --> 00:27:58,900 case, we've we've implemented it, but we don't 770 00:27:58,900 --> 00:28:01,119 see us accomplishing a business case. So do 771 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,179 we continue to feed the beast or do 772 00:28:03,179 --> 00:28:05,349 we cut bait. Right? So again, I think 773 00:28:05,430 --> 00:28:07,029 I think 1 of the things is I 774 00:28:07,029 --> 00:28:09,269 call it courageous decision making and the ability 775 00:28:09,269 --> 00:28:10,650 to influence and bring 776 00:28:11,124 --> 00:28:13,122 we are a steering company committee, the right 777 00:28:13,122 --> 00:28:15,780 leaders of the table to have the uncomfortable 778 00:28:16,319 --> 00:28:18,397 conversations, I think is an expectation of a 779 00:28:18,557 --> 00:28:20,475 Cio. Right? You know, and I think that's 780 00:28:20,475 --> 00:28:22,565 been a good growing opportunity early on. 781 00:28:23,282 --> 00:28:25,117 I've had my own scars where you say 782 00:28:25,117 --> 00:28:27,270 some things and you don't realize the... The 783 00:28:27,270 --> 00:28:28,068 political landscape. 784 00:28:28,467 --> 00:28:30,301 But you gotta be politically savvy and you 785 00:28:30,301 --> 00:28:30,801 gotta 786 00:28:31,113 --> 00:28:32,620 know, you gotta tee it up and grease 787 00:28:32,620 --> 00:28:34,445 the skins a little bit before you're able 788 00:28:34,445 --> 00:28:34,945 to 789 00:28:35,477 --> 00:28:37,460 talk about what what the outcomes are. So 790 00:28:37,460 --> 00:28:38,888 that's how I would categorize that Peter. 791 00:28:39,619 --> 00:28:41,460 It's a really nice reflections. I appreciate you. 792 00:28:41,700 --> 00:28:42,579 You offering those Ses. 793 00:28:43,220 --> 00:28:44,740 You, as you look to the future, or 794 00:28:44,740 --> 00:28:46,819 especially if somebody who's so immersed in technology, 795 00:28:46,900 --> 00:28:48,588 and it has been across these different settings 796 00:28:48,588 --> 00:28:50,997 we just refer to? I wonder what trends 797 00:28:51,611 --> 00:28:53,361 excite you as you look to the future. 798 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:55,705 What are some of the topics that you're 799 00:28:55,842 --> 00:28:58,307 investigating further or perhaps or beginning to make 800 00:28:58,307 --> 00:29:00,217 their way onto the road map. Yeah. So 801 00:29:00,376 --> 00:29:02,224 I think for me, I'm trying to things 802 00:29:02,224 --> 00:29:04,142 to be honest with you between perform and 803 00:29:04,142 --> 00:29:06,858 transform. Right? I still have a few things 804 00:29:06,858 --> 00:29:08,696 or many things to accomplish on the perform 805 00:29:08,696 --> 00:29:11,663 bucket, which is all about you know, cloud 806 00:29:11,663 --> 00:29:11,981 first, 807 00:29:12,617 --> 00:29:13,413 asset light, 808 00:29:14,049 --> 00:29:14,765 beef up our, 809 00:29:15,401 --> 00:29:16,356 risk compliance, 810 00:29:16,833 --> 00:29:17,231 posture, 811 00:29:18,282 --> 00:29:20,355 employee experience a pet peeve. Right? So again, 812 00:29:20,514 --> 00:29:21,950 how do we continue to digitize, 813 00:29:22,747 --> 00:29:24,102 and look for value for money. Are we 814 00:29:24,102 --> 00:29:25,617 getting the value for money from all of 815 00:29:25,617 --> 00:29:27,784 our major plus forms that we're invested in. 816 00:29:27,944 --> 00:29:30,096 Right? Because all these are multi year subscription 817 00:29:30,096 --> 00:29:30,414 deals. 818 00:29:30,972 --> 00:29:32,486 Are we really getting the value for money? 819 00:29:33,283 --> 00:29:35,366 Are we engaging with, you know, the the 820 00:29:35,366 --> 00:29:38,145 web... The partners on a regular basis pushing 821 00:29:38,145 --> 00:29:40,130 for features and functionality. So I think a 822 00:29:40,130 --> 00:29:42,512 big chunk of it is in the perform 823 00:29:42,512 --> 00:29:43,012 category 824 00:29:43,559 --> 00:29:44,759 of employee experience, 825 00:29:45,319 --> 00:29:46,359 customer experience, 826 00:29:47,079 --> 00:29:50,039 improvements in your risk compliance and cyber posture, 827 00:29:50,679 --> 00:29:52,853 and and really being asset light. And then 828 00:29:52,853 --> 00:29:55,960 on the transformed side, potentially, a business model 829 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,111 shift in terms of, as a service, you 830 00:29:58,111 --> 00:29:59,306 know, that is 1. 831 00:30:00,262 --> 00:30:02,665 The second thing is, again, data data analytics. 832 00:30:02,904 --> 00:30:05,127 Right? I I still think that a lot 833 00:30:05,127 --> 00:30:07,747 of our metrics and capabilities are rare view 834 00:30:07,747 --> 00:30:10,128 looking. And again, it's not unique to us 835 00:30:10,128 --> 00:30:13,015 western digital, but again, it's about an industry 836 00:30:13,015 --> 00:30:13,255 too... 837 00:30:13,815 --> 00:30:15,815 It's it's still Admire what happened in the 838 00:30:15,815 --> 00:30:17,335 last quarter and still, if you look at 839 00:30:17,335 --> 00:30:19,494 many companies, culturally, you're running Qb, 840 00:30:19,989 --> 00:30:21,507 you're sitting in Q 4 and you're running 841 00:30:21,507 --> 00:30:23,984 AQ3 Qb. Right? Which it's it's a rare 842 00:30:23,984 --> 00:30:25,901 view looking to begin with, that's a rare 843 00:30:25,901 --> 00:30:28,013 view lens. Right? And we tend to rain 844 00:30:28,307 --> 00:30:30,371 slides and talk about 45 minutes and our 845 00:30:30,371 --> 00:30:32,275 1 hour meeting about what happened last quarter. 846 00:30:32,830 --> 00:30:34,576 Rather than, hey. Here's what I'm gonna predict 847 00:30:34,576 --> 00:30:36,499 is gonna happen this quarter next quarter. 848 00:30:37,057 --> 00:30:38,574 And here are the adjustments I need to 849 00:30:38,574 --> 00:30:40,728 make. And here's, you know, forward looking. Right? 850 00:30:40,888 --> 00:30:42,804 So I still think on the analytics front. 851 00:30:43,202 --> 00:30:44,181 We need to be 852 00:30:44,574 --> 00:30:47,112 forward looking. And for that, I mean, honestly, 853 00:30:47,191 --> 00:30:48,698 we talked about a lot about Gen ai 854 00:30:48,698 --> 00:30:50,126 and the buzz. Right? I think it all 855 00:30:50,126 --> 00:30:51,950 goes back to having a robust data model. 856 00:30:52,839 --> 00:30:55,636 And how do you take opportunity data from 857 00:30:55,716 --> 00:30:58,054 Salesforce, bookings data from an Erp 858 00:30:58,513 --> 00:31:00,990 to an install based data in your install 859 00:31:00,990 --> 00:31:04,429 basis you're entitlement data and really connecting it 860 00:31:04,429 --> 00:31:06,738 from the lens of a customer. Right? You 861 00:31:06,738 --> 00:31:08,728 know, who have you sold it too, you 862 00:31:08,728 --> 00:31:11,602 know, sold to sold through because in an 863 00:31:11,602 --> 00:31:13,745 ecosystem. You're not many of times selling directly 864 00:31:13,745 --> 00:31:15,491 to end customers, you're selling through a channel. 865 00:31:15,809 --> 00:31:17,634 So I I think it's super important to 866 00:31:17,634 --> 00:31:19,964 understand your routes to market, your go to 867 00:31:19,964 --> 00:31:22,625 market motions and really know who your customer 868 00:31:22,924 --> 00:31:23,484 truly is, 869 00:31:24,045 --> 00:31:26,339 and and really focus on the right data 870 00:31:26,460 --> 00:31:29,259 quality and data completeness problems. Right? So so 871 00:31:29,259 --> 00:31:30,619 in a way it's back to basics is 872 00:31:30,619 --> 00:31:32,779 how I say it, Peter. And once your 873 00:31:32,779 --> 00:31:34,859 data model is robust and strong, and you 874 00:31:34,859 --> 00:31:37,752 have the right technology, whether it's, lake house 875 00:31:37,752 --> 00:31:39,830 or data warehouse warehouses in the cloud. I 876 00:31:39,910 --> 00:31:41,268 I think all those are a given table 877 00:31:41,268 --> 00:31:43,666 stakes, and you got enough ample technology choices 878 00:31:43,666 --> 00:31:46,555 to pick and choose from. Then comes, hey 879 00:31:46,555 --> 00:31:48,390 in the future, gone to the days where 880 00:31:48,390 --> 00:31:50,224 somebody's gonna log in into a Tableau or 881 00:31:50,224 --> 00:31:52,138 a Power Bi and run a report. Right? 882 00:31:52,537 --> 00:31:54,212 You you you you're gonna have a prompt. 883 00:31:55,184 --> 00:31:57,497 And you're gonna say, who are my top 884 00:31:57,497 --> 00:31:58,236 3 customers 885 00:31:59,092 --> 00:32:02,145 or which product of mine is generating 886 00:32:02,602 --> 00:32:04,596 more than 10000000 dollars in revenue. 887 00:32:05,169 --> 00:32:07,873 Or who's my top sales rep as an 888 00:32:07,873 --> 00:32:09,544 example. And I all of these are gonna 889 00:32:09,544 --> 00:32:11,532 be prompt based questions. Right? 890 00:32:12,183 --> 00:32:14,164 And and those are things to find information. 891 00:32:14,323 --> 00:32:16,145 The second thing could be is actions. Right? 892 00:32:16,303 --> 00:32:18,126 It's like, hey, I wanna take a Monday 893 00:32:18,126 --> 00:32:20,205 off in July, and let me know what's 894 00:32:20,205 --> 00:32:22,115 the best time to take it. And and 895 00:32:22,115 --> 00:32:24,024 and you get a prompt back and and 896 00:32:24,024 --> 00:32:26,173 the system creates a record in 1 day 897 00:32:26,173 --> 00:32:28,410 as an example Right? And and you get 898 00:32:28,410 --> 00:32:30,234 your time off request to proof. So then 899 00:32:30,234 --> 00:32:32,454 that becomes an action based. So long story 900 00:32:32,454 --> 00:32:34,199 short to me, I think it's about prepping 901 00:32:34,199 --> 00:32:37,232 the data calls, and then embracing the right 902 00:32:37,312 --> 00:32:39,163 L and the right technology 903 00:32:39,696 --> 00:32:40,832 architectures to enable 904 00:32:41,206 --> 00:32:43,705 in truly do we do generative Ai 905 00:32:44,157 --> 00:32:46,616 based on the different department use cases, What's 906 00:32:46,616 --> 00:32:48,758 relevant for sales? What's relevant for engineering? 907 00:32:49,329 --> 00:32:52,028 What's relevant for employees. What's relevant for manufacturing? 908 00:32:52,186 --> 00:32:53,695 I think that's super important. And then the 909 00:32:53,695 --> 00:32:55,600 other area that's super important for us is 910 00:32:55,680 --> 00:32:56,791 It and Ot. Right? 911 00:32:57,680 --> 00:33:01,177 It being information technology, Ot operational technology. So 912 00:33:01,177 --> 00:33:03,084 again, we have a lot of factories and 913 00:33:03,084 --> 00:33:05,230 these are world class factories in Far East. 914 00:33:06,119 --> 00:33:07,494 So again, in these factories, 915 00:33:08,107 --> 00:33:09,539 how do you have the concept of a 916 00:33:09,539 --> 00:33:12,720 digital twin? Right? How do we use imaging 917 00:33:12,720 --> 00:33:15,942 text to videos to predict quality problems or 918 00:33:16,319 --> 00:33:19,031 reliability problems? Right? And and really figure out 919 00:33:19,031 --> 00:33:21,264 from your production line in your manufacturing line? 920 00:33:21,504 --> 00:33:23,918 How do you demonstrate the best operational technology 921 00:33:24,136 --> 00:33:27,101 where yields are super high, failure rate is 922 00:33:27,101 --> 00:33:29,174 super low and that our production lines are 923 00:33:29,174 --> 00:33:29,993 full capacity 924 00:33:30,530 --> 00:33:31,668 with with very minimal 925 00:33:32,045 --> 00:33:33,081 defects on the production line. 926 00:33:33,734 --> 00:33:35,171 So again, we call it the factories of 927 00:33:35,171 --> 00:33:35,730 the future, 928 00:33:36,368 --> 00:33:38,842 fully digitized, fully automated Me systems. 929 00:33:39,561 --> 00:33:41,237 Those are super important. And and then in 930 00:33:41,317 --> 00:33:41,796 Ot, 931 00:33:42,369 --> 00:33:42,927 again, you know, 932 00:33:43,805 --> 00:33:46,356 we're also looking at technologies from a security 933 00:33:46,356 --> 00:33:47,734 and facilities perspective 934 00:33:48,111 --> 00:33:49,945 if there's a fire. Do we have enough 935 00:33:49,945 --> 00:33:50,982 sensors to detect? 936 00:33:51,953 --> 00:33:54,334 There's an issue because you can't physically have 937 00:33:54,334 --> 00:33:56,239 people deployed every everybody? So how do you 938 00:33:56,239 --> 00:33:57,430 respond in terms of a crisis, 939 00:33:58,462 --> 00:34:00,660 right, in terms of Ot technology and large 940 00:34:00,858 --> 00:34:02,925 campuses and large factories and things of that 941 00:34:02,925 --> 00:34:04,992 nature. So so, again, that's the just a 942 00:34:04,992 --> 00:34:06,343 a few things that, you know, we are 943 00:34:06,343 --> 00:34:08,092 we are considering across the realm. Some of 944 00:34:08,092 --> 00:34:09,538 it is back to basics and some of 945 00:34:09,538 --> 00:34:11,603 it is more futuristic and forward looking. 946 00:34:12,954 --> 00:34:14,940 Again, great. Frame reflections all ses. Thank you 947 00:34:14,940 --> 00:34:15,257 for that. 948 00:34:15,908 --> 00:34:17,100 Wanted ask you before I let you go. 949 00:34:17,577 --> 00:34:19,405 Is there anything you recently you've been reading, 950 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:22,186 listening to or and or watching that you 951 00:34:22,186 --> 00:34:23,934 would particularly recommend to our audience? 952 00:34:24,824 --> 00:34:26,018 I mean, the 1 thing is, you know, 953 00:34:26,575 --> 00:34:28,804 there's this book called working backwards. Right? I 954 00:34:28,804 --> 00:34:31,271 think it's written by, you know, some key 955 00:34:31,271 --> 00:34:33,357 people from Amazon and and 1 of the 956 00:34:33,357 --> 00:34:35,911 things in It is it's always about... How 957 00:34:35,911 --> 00:34:37,507 do you tell the story with the end 958 00:34:37,507 --> 00:34:39,742 in mind, and then you work your plan 959 00:34:39,742 --> 00:34:40,141 backwards once? 960 00:34:40,794 --> 00:34:43,111 Right? And many your time in It, when 961 00:34:43,111 --> 00:34:45,588 we communicate, we are talking about widgets and 962 00:34:45,588 --> 00:34:48,119 technology and tools and and less about this 963 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:50,477 story and the narrative and imagine. And if 964 00:34:50,477 --> 00:34:52,315 you wanna think about a product mindset, you 965 00:34:52,315 --> 00:34:54,072 need to think around the finished product and 966 00:34:54,072 --> 00:34:56,882 then work your milestones and plans backwards. Then 967 00:34:56,882 --> 00:34:58,310 the second thing is even in your Powerpoint 968 00:34:58,310 --> 00:35:00,452 points and the ability to create the story 969 00:35:00,452 --> 00:35:03,228 more narrative, What's the punchline? And and how 970 00:35:03,228 --> 00:35:05,622 do you use as few slides possible to 971 00:35:05,622 --> 00:35:06,495 really talk about, 972 00:35:07,130 --> 00:35:08,716 but the bias towards action. So to me, 973 00:35:08,875 --> 00:35:11,040 I think that's a good read in general 974 00:35:11,096 --> 00:35:13,652 to talk about a finished product in mind 975 00:35:13,652 --> 00:35:14,289 and launch, 976 00:35:14,927 --> 00:35:16,679 work your way backwards and Iron not all 977 00:35:16,679 --> 00:35:18,432 the kinks. In a way you're writing your 978 00:35:18,432 --> 00:35:20,756 press release, like, if something's gonna out, let's 979 00:35:20,756 --> 00:35:22,265 say you have a big Erp release in 980 00:35:22,265 --> 00:35:23,932 a year from now. How do you write 981 00:35:23,932 --> 00:35:25,837 the press release as though you're in 12 982 00:35:25,837 --> 00:35:27,901 months from now and answer all the key 983 00:35:27,901 --> 00:35:28,401 questions 984 00:35:28,775 --> 00:35:30,142 and then work your plan backwards. 985 00:35:30,939 --> 00:35:32,932 A great recommendation. Thank you for that. And 986 00:35:32,932 --> 00:35:34,367 and a great rationale as to why it's 987 00:35:34,367 --> 00:35:36,200 a has been an important read for you. 988 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:38,288 Thank you for sharing that such. I still 989 00:35:38,288 --> 00:35:39,485 read your book that's in the back there. 990 00:35:39,645 --> 00:35:41,082 The world oneplus It strategy, Peter. 991 00:35:42,119 --> 00:35:42,279 Yeah. 992 00:35:43,476 --> 00:35:45,312 Thank you so much. I appreciate that as 993 00:35:45,312 --> 00:35:45,791 well as. 994 00:35:46,604 --> 00:35:48,038 And I wanna thank you more generally speaking 995 00:35:48,038 --> 00:35:50,268 for a great conversation. It's fascinating to hear 996 00:35:50,268 --> 00:35:53,056 more about your tenure now, you're in change 997 00:35:53,056 --> 00:35:55,723 in. A Western digital, the various 998 00:35:56,260 --> 00:35:58,912 transformations that you you are leading across the 999 00:35:59,130 --> 00:36:02,021 organization. Also, great to hear more about your 1000 00:36:02,413 --> 00:36:04,902 10 year as chief information officer across multiple 1001 00:36:05,277 --> 00:36:07,188 organizations and how you've drawn from that experience, 1002 00:36:07,506 --> 00:36:09,336 culminating in your current post. It's been a 1003 00:36:09,336 --> 00:36:11,087 really terrific conversation. Thank Thank you again. 1004 00:36:12,373 --> 00:36:13,482 To think for the opportunity.