Inside every transformation is a story about leadership

Posted by Mike Walsh

Jun 9, 2021 5:00:45 AM

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Almost every industry today is undergoing a radical reimagining. Yet simple catchphrases like 'strategic pivot' and 'disruptive innovation' do little to encapsulate the complex challenges that organizations face in the accelerated world unleashed by the pandemic. The problem is particularly acute for technology companies. When decision-makers are inundated with marketing hype, white papers, and all-encompassing positioning statements, how do you articulate the specific value you bring while also being engaging, relevant, and insightful?

 

Consider AVEVA. Born in Cambridge (UK) during the late sixties, AVEVA began as a government-funded research institute dedicated to the wider adoption of computer-aided design. After several high-profile acquisitions and mergers over the last twenty years, AVEVA scaled up to become a global leader in industrial software. That meant that whether you were running a biscuit company or an oil rig - you could use their software to combine engineering information with real-time operational data to create digital twins of all your assets.

The traditional customers of an industrial software company like AVEVA were senior leaders in technology, engineering, project management, or sustainability. However, during the pandemic, technologies like automation, AI, data visualization, and analytics became a critical differentiator between the companies that survived and the ones that did not. Not surprisingly, that led to a more diverse group of leaders who were not only interested in more technical topics but wanted to be in the driving seat for digital transformation as well.

So, on the one hand, you had business leaders seeking to upgrade their technology capabilities, while on the other, you also had senior IT and operations executives realizing they needed more leadership skills to widen their influence in their organization. Connecting with this newly converged audience, in our view, demands a new approach: a platform capable of articulating the more profound implications of enabling technologies and how they relate to shifts in customer behavior, new business models, and organizational strategy.

 



'Working with Tomorrow has been fantastic,' says Sara Volpe, VP Portfolio Marketing at AVEVA. 'We have been able to benefit from Mike Walsh's unique perspective on industrial digital transformation and also collaborate on bringing the benefits of Performance Intelligence to the market.'

Performance Intelligence shows how real-world leaders are harnessing AI and data-driven insights to reimagine their industries and organizations. AVEVA partnered with Tomorrow on the Leadership Stories series to capture and share the perspectives of top leaders, innovators and customers, showing how Performance Intelligence is reshaping industries by driving engineering efficiency and operational agility.

To launch the initiative with AVEVA, we facilitated a virtual conversation with Antonio Buendia, Head of Automation at GlaxoSmithKline, and Rashesh Mody, SVP Monitoring and Control, AVEVA - to explore how the pandemic impacted the reinvention of the pharmaceutical industry. The discussion was published as a video, podcast and a series of audiograms

'At AVEVA, we see digital transformation as a partnership and we are proud to work with global industry leaders, harnessing the IIOT and the power of the connected industrial economy, cloud and digital twin to drive innovation: this is what we call performance intelligence,' says Rashesh Mody.

The virtual conversation between myself, Antonio Buendia and Rashesh Mody spanned the role of people and culture in digital transformation, Agile 4.0 and the factories of the future, remote training, and sustainability. The resulting audio podcast and video interview became a key asset in AVEVA's strategy to engage a wider audience of transformational leaders.

'Bringing together our innovative customers' insights with Mike's perspective enables us to dig into the concept of performance intelligence and the unique benefits AVEVA can offer customers who are accelerating innovation and driving digital transformation using the power of IIOT, industrial intelligence, cloud and digital twin,' says Sara Volpe.

Topics: United Kingdom, Leadership