Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

For retail businesses, being able to provide real-time, precise inventory is key to exceeding customer expectations. Ronald Blahnik, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategy, Innovation, Customer Experience, and Retail Analytics of Hibbett Sports, knows that providing customers with what they want, when they want it, has been essential to Hibbett’s growth over the last six years.

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.

With a growing family, Tony Newcome took a major risk in returning to his software engineering roots after years in leadership—pay cut and all. Ultimately, the risk was rewarded. During his two decades of experience in the industry, Tony has held significant roles during critical growth moments at ExactTarget and Salesforce, and he currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at ActiveCampaign, where he specializes in product development and software engineering. 

Today we’re sharing another insightful presentation from our most recent Innovative Executives League Summit, where Deepika Duggirala, former SVP of Global Technology Platforms at TransUnion, spoke about how focusing on your people and the developer experience leads to improved business performance.

In an industry deeply focused on the “now”— scheduling down to the minute—and dedicated to safety above all else, how can innovation with an eye to the future and taking risks fit in? In aviation, United Airlines found a solution by tasking Jorie Sax with launching and leading its first innovation lab, Airshop.

How do I use cloud services intentionally? What might I build out on-prem? What might my edge architecture look like? – These are just some of the questions Amanda Blevins is hearing from technology leaders these days. Finding solutions to those challenges is a big part of her current role as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Americas at VMware.

Adaptability is an essential skill for anyone navigating their career in a company experiencing growth. Chief Information Officer James Gray curates his teams with this priority due to REEF’s exponential growth in recent years, especially as the neighborhood-focused company saw the desire for the proximity of goods and services increase during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only an exceptional innovator would look at a burgeoning career in operations and pause to examine their reputation and evaluate their goals. With the help of an executive coach, Deborah Spence-Cummings did just that and now serves as the Director of AI/ML Operations at Apple.

With a decorated thirty-year career in the U.S. Army behind him, General James Mukoyama’s retirement is one of passionate advocacy and aid for veterans. In the organizations he leads, Military Outreach USA and Enabled Enterprises, as well as other faith-based acts of service, General Mukoyama believes in leading by example and with care while maintaining balance in your life.