Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

With complicated technological tools and processes, companies sometimes fill too many roles with specialists. Generalists are also needed to approach problems with outside-the-box solutions and a fresh set of eyes. Dean Haacker prides himself on being a generalist, a skill that has served him well over the years as he has guided global teams to reimagine the banking industry.

Dean joined Patrick and Shelli for a wide-ranging conversation about the importance of living at the corner of strategy and innovation. Check out the episode for insights from a multiple award-winning CTO/CIO.

Trading exchanges are highly regulated, making the implementation of technological changes a tricky proposition. Catherine Clay, Executive Vice President of Cboe Global Markets, has had to pivot and adapt her thinking when it comes to affecting change in a large, regulated corporation.

Catherine joined Patrick and Shelli for this week’s episode of Innovation and the Digital Enterprise. She stressed the importance of keeping a company’s end goals in mind instead of getting caught up in the immediacy of sprints. Catherine also shared how to keep up the stamina and perseverance when you are met with obstacles. Listen for an industry expert’s tips on affecting change in your organization.

Product managers are visionaries. They are uniquely able to marry engineering knowledge with customer useability in mind. Dustin Kirkland, Chief Product Officer at Apex Clearing, has been in the product space for more than 20 years. During that time, he has developed a deep knowledge of technical processes paired with a desire to help customers achieve the outcome they want.

Dustin joined Patrick and Shelli to discuss what it takes to develop a product manager mindset, why he wishes he would have stuck with controversial ideas early in his career, and the current landscape of product design in IT. Tune in for his story and wisdom.

Nag Vaidyanathan is the EVP and CTO for OneMain Financial. Nag’s organization is over a century old, but when the pandemic hit, the company had to accelerate the pace of its digital offerings.

When it comes to attracting talent, Thomas South believes it’s not necessarily about being specialized or competing based on benefits packages alone. Rather, he believes that maintaining a mission-driven culture is key to recruiting employees that will thrive in your organization.

In a corporate environment, a leader’s main task is to keep their team running efficiently and productively. However, in the startup world, a leader needs to jump in and help out at every level. It was this kind of environment and mindset that best informed the leadership style of our guest today, David Hoag.

David is the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for OCC, the world’s largest equity derivatives clearing organization. His time working at a startup taught him lessons that he’s carried over to his teams throughout the years. David talks to Patrick and Shelli about why it’s so important to look beyond immediate problems, why egos keep business stuck, and why it’s better for managers to lead through inquiry and questions as opposed to dictates and direction.

Tune in for a masterclass in effective leadership.

Failure isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, Sean Brown, CEO of YCharts, wants to hire failures – they are, after all, risk-takers that aren’t afraid to try something new. On this week’s episode, Sean joins Pat for a wide-ranging conversation about the lessons Sean has learned in his 25+ years starting, selling, buying, and running various companies.

Sean talks to us about why he believes the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) philosophy works so well in business and shares his four-part playbook for developing successful companies. Listen in to find out how to best get to know your customers, how to attract top talent, and why you need full transparency at every level of your business.

In this episode of the Innovation and the Digital Enterprise podcast, Randy Rivera stops by to chat with Pat & Shelli. Randy is a long time financial executive, entrepreneur and innovator in the emerging Fintech ecosystem. Randy gives his insights into the Chicago ecosystem, first as an executive then as an entrepreneur with keen advisors, the company he founded in 2018.