Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

In his role as Vice President of Enterprise Architecture and Technology Strategy at Aon, Mohan Putcha’s job is to be ahead of the curve in spotting technology trends and understanding how they’ll impact the industry.

It is also about leveraging those trends to deliver better service for Aon’s clients and internal teams, not just in theory, but in practice. Which is why Mohan’s team has taken a different approach to building platforms – one that starts by looking at the full value stream and understanding the real pain points of the people contributing to each piece of it.

This week, Mohan joins Patrick and Shelli to discuss this people-centered approach to building platforms, how to keep your team engaged while accelerating innovation, and his take on the biggest challenges of 2022.

Founders looking to secure funding face a long, arduous process. Founders of color can find it almost impossible and often receive significantly less money than their white counterparts. Desiree Vargas Wrigley believes that the tech ecosystem in Chicago needs to do more to support and nurture the untapped potential of Black and Latinx founders.

Desiree is our guest this week on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise. She shares her experience as one of the two Latinx women in the last decade to have raised over a million dollars and her vision for an inclusive Chicago tech community. Listen to the episode for more from Desiree and her company, P33.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are powerful tools that companies can leverage to create better customer experiences. However, they traditionally require millions of dollars’ worth of investment. Alex Muller believes that every product team, regardless of size, should benefit from the same machine learning capabilities used at the most successful companies in the world.

Alex, the founder of SAVVI AI, is our guest this week on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise. Listen to the episode to learn more about democratizing machine learning.

Analytics can be the difference between winning the World Series and coming in second. Our guest this week, Ari Kaplan, helped usher in the dawn of data science to Major League Baseball. He's now applying those concepts to other industries as the Director of A.I. Strategy with DataRobot.

Ari joined Patrick and Shelli to explain the role of A.I. in analytics, the importance of citizen data scientists, and how data can improve products and efficiency across industries. Take a listen to the episode for more on the up-and-coming applications of data as well as some behind the scenes baseball stories.

Ever wonder about the process of getting your packages from an online store to your door? This seemingly simple, everyday action is thanks to a complex supply chain with hundreds of touchpoints. FourKites is a supply chain management platform, enhanced by machine learning, that aims to make this process easier. Vivek Vaid is FourKites’ Chief Technology Officer and our guest today on Innovation and the Digital Enterprise.

Vivek talked to Patrick and Shelli about technology versus product development, and his approach of doing the work that is in service to customers. He also discussed why organizations need to make decisions that take into account everyone's point of view, from the customer to the tech and sales teams.