Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

Second City is an iconic Chicago institution training comedic geniuses across generations, but developing the talents of a Vice President of Technology is one of its more under-the-radar accomplishments. Arne Saupe, Vice President of Technology at Farmer’s Fridge, learned more than acting and improvisation when exploring this new arena. He discovered lessons in management, failure, team building, empathy, and communication that bolstered his years of experience as a technologist and growth-stage leader. 

Imagine you are a founder developing a physical product with incredible potential, but the space and resources to advance your product are out of reach and cost-prohibitive. Haven Allen witnessed this hurdle to introducing life-changing HardTech into the world and co-founded a solution: mHUB, a hyper-resourced innovation center in Chicago.

Deploying the most critical systems to the cloud first was a bold strategy for Fitch Group. It’s an approach Derek Ferguson, Global Head of Enterprise Architecture, and Chris Lalor, Senior Director – Technology Enablement, believe was essential to the successful transformation to the cloud for the Group’s companies and is how they continue to manage complex, new technology to date.

When Tommy Richardson enlisted in the United States Army at 18, he narrowed his options to operating a tank or going into computer operations and programming. In selecting the latter, he launched a lasting career in the field, has led several major companies in C-suite positions, and recently arrived as Chief Product and Technology Officer for Litmos, leading product innovation.

Military training can result in a staggering number of injuries, and virtual reality is ready to intervene. HAVIK Chief Operations Officer Glenn Banton is passionate about the role of virtual reality in military training and continued innovations in visual fidelity and acceleration in learning.

Imagine a career sparked from the desire to play a video game that’s out of your budget. Marc Saltzman began his career as a journalist and technologist with a promise of publishing a review. With twenty-five years in the industry, Marc shares insight into automation and electrification alongside the questions these current innovations prompt in consumers and businesses alike.

Extended reality has Jack King animated about innovation and the future of technology. As Chief Information Officer at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Jack sees the countless ways that augmented and virtual realities can accelerate learning and opportunities for the 39,000 members of AAOS.

In this episode, Jack discusses motivation, connection, and encouraging employees to be participants in driving change. He speaks on company culture and his approach to communication, including daily huddles. While sharing his excitement over continuing technological innovations, such as haptic feedback, Jack reflects on lessons from his cross-industry career.

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.

Lawyers and law firms have to handle a massive amount of documentation. Because of antiquated laws and fear of change, the legal industry has traditionally been slow to adapt to digitalization and cloud tools. That is rapidly changing in the era of COVID-19.

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.