Tech-Exec Issue 19 by Magazines

TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS LEADERSHIP INNOVATION

WWW.TECH-EXECMAGAZINE.COM JANUARY 2024

A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR New Year, same brilliant content! Welcome to the first Tech-Exec of 2024, and what an issue it is! We speak with cover star James Game of DMT about his extensive expertise in the technology solutions space, Carine Botturi, Director of Data Strategy and Enablement at TELUS, talks about the future and constant evolution of the telecommunications industry, Karsten Stoll, CTO of Interconnection at WAGO group discusses the importance of customer-centricity, Georgina Owens, of William Hill, talks the critical need for more diversity in the industry, and so much more! We also hear from Katie Boucher, on whether current and future tech leaders can manage increasingly challenging responsibilities, discover how Ecovative is unlocking the power of mushrooms, and see the impressive innovation behind WaterLight. At Stroud & Clarke, we look forward to continuing our work on Tech-Exec, our discussions with technology leaders, and our commitment to sharing technological innovations across the industry, whilst also branching out with our upcoming publications. Our Voice, launching on International Women’s Day, and Venue magazine, coming your way this Spring, are just the tip of the iceberg of the new, exciting things we’re working on this year. We hope you join us on our journey. Thank you for continuing to read Tech-Exec.

FOUNDER & CEO

JAMES PEPPER

CREATIVE DIRECTOR

TOM CAMP

EDITOR

TARA QUINN

FOUNDER & COO

CHARLOTTE CLARKE

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

BECKY NORTHFIELD

MID-WEIGHT DESIGNER

KIMBERLEY STOTT

FOUNDER & CRO

JACK PASCALL

PRODUCTION MANAGER

HENRY ALLTON-JONES

PROJECT MANAGER

ALEX NEAGU

GRADUATE DESIGNER

HANNAH LEWIS

Stroud & Clarke is a cutting-edge multichannel digital media company that produces exceptional technology, business and lifestyle content via our portfolio of digital magazines, websites and social media platforms. © Stroud and Clarke Ltd 2024. All rights reserved. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that information is correct upon publishing, Stroud and Clarke Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information in this magazine is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy,timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information. This magazine may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

CONTENTS

6. INSIGHT EXEC SUMMARY

News, views and insight.

12. INTERVIEW JAMES GAME - DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

On the importance of continuous improvement, empathy in the workplace, and spectacular displays.

26. INTERVIEW IAN ROBBINS - GXO

36. PORTFOLIO TECH YOU NEED

46. INTERVIEW GEORGINA OWENS - WILLIAM HILL

58. INNOVATOR WATERLIGHT

How having a strong, supported network can create endless opportunities for any company, and what you can do to create the perfect environment for success.

On the evolving role of technology in organisations, keeping players safe, and the critical need for more diversity in the industry.

Innovations for work, leisure and the environmentally conscious.

WaterLight is a device that creates electrical power from simply salt water.

60. INTERVIEW CARINE BOTTURI - TELUS

68. LEADERSHIP KATIE BOUCHER

72. INTERVIEW KARSTEN STOLL - WAGO

86. INTERVIEW FAUSTO ARTICO - GLAXOSMITHKLINE

102. INNOVATOR ECOACTIVE

104. POP CULTURE TECH & FILMMAKING

On the evolution of the telecommunications industry, and its powerful purpose of connecting people.

On human-centric projects, digital transformation success stories, and strategies for leading geographically distributed teams.

Unlocking the power of mushrooms

On current and future tech leaders and whether they can manage increasingly challenging responsibilities.

On the importance of customer-centricity and the need to adapt to the ever-changing technology landscape.

7 groundbreaking technological advancements in filmmaking

108. EVENTS

The best events for 2023 and 2024.

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A bitesize collection of news, content, ideas, thoughts, and papers from around the industry.

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Helix Designed for ease of flight, built for safety, and ensuring a spirited adventure, Pivotal has kickstarted sales of Helix, a new lightweight, personal aircraft created for experienced pilots and newcomers alike. A pilot’s license is not required to take the Helix up in the air, and whilst extensive simulator and flight training

is required to fly, Pivotal aims to offer support and training to those who need it. Manufactured in Palo Alto, the Helix will be sold exclusively in the United States, beginning in June of 2024. WWW.PIVOTAL.AERO/HELIX 7

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Robotics is ready to make waves in a range of industries in 2024, due to the wide scale of potential applications. Google’s DeepMind Robotics team are highlighting current ongoing research being conducted in order to uncover ways for humans to get the most out of robotics. DeepMind researchers

have announced AutoRT, a new datagathering system, that uses a VLM and LLM, working in tandem, to help robots make safer, more efficient, and faster decisions. It also allows robots to adapt to unfamiliar environments, leading to less need for human intervention. DEEPMIND.GOOGLE

VARIANT PROOF VACCINES We’ve uncovered many uses for AI over the past few years, and yet somehow, industry professionals continue to surprise the public with their research into the power of AI in multiple fields, including the medical industry.

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A recent AI system, developed by Harvard Medical School and named EVEscape, has been able to accurately predict the variants and mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. This system could help medical professionals understand and determine the threat of developing virus strains, and allow them to be accounted for in vaccine developments. HMS.HARVARD.EDU

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STATS According to Finnish Cyber Security expert Mikko Hyppönen, in a discussion with The Next Web, here are five pressing AI concerns for 20204: Deepfakes • Deep scams • LLM-enabled malware • Discovery of zero-days • Automated malware •

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THENEXTWEB.COM

SpaceX has launched six Starlink satellites with the hopes of transmitting advanced connectivity to mobile phones in the near future. Currently, in partnership with T-Mobile, and other telecom companies in Canada, Japan, and Australia, SpaceX has been granted a 180-day test period by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and plans to test up to 840 satellites. The company is looking to provide 4G connectivity for texting, voice and data services, and finally, the internet to mobile phones anywhere on Earth, starting in 2025. SPACEX.COM

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SPACEX SATELLITES

TRAVEL & TECH For many of us, a passport is top of the list of essentials when packing for a vacation. However, that could all change very soon for those of us in the UK. According to a recent report by The Times, UK airports could begin trialling ID replacement facial recognition technology as soon as this year. The “E-Gate” scheme technology is currently being explored in airports in Australia and aims to help ensure a smoother, frictionless experience and create an ‘intelligent border’ for both passengers and border forces. E X EC S U M M A R Y

THETIMES.CO.UK

• The Wi-Fi Alliance has begun to certify devices that support Wi-Fi 7.

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SHORTS

• Perplexity, the AI-powered search engine, is now valued at over $500M. •

McAfee unveils Project Mockingbird to detect AI-generated audio scams. •

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NASA is pushing back its moon mission timelines due to spacecraft delays.

Global trade dropped by 1.3% in December due to the the Red Sea Supply Chain crisis.

W O R D S: B E C K Y N O R T H F I EL D

J A M E S G A M E

THE SPECTACULAR

JAMES GAME, CEO OF DMTG, DISCUSSES HIS EXTENSIVE EXPERTISE IN THE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS SPACE, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT, EMPATHY IN THE WORKPLACE, AND SPECTACULAR DISPLAYS.

To generate this passion we focus on people, culture and innovation with a drive for continuous improvement. This blend sees us highly focussed on the career and skills development of our staff, which ensures we sit at the forefront of technology, always innovating and embracing the challenge. After all, very few good ideas are born out of unchallenged or familiar concepts. To be new means to be different and to be different means to stand out. So, while I don’t want anyone to fail, I encourage my staff to push the boundaries and not be afraid to slip up because failure is sometimes the only way we learn to break through and overcome fear.

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I’m the CEO of Digital Media Technologies Group which specialises in the design, delivery and ongoing services for super large format displays or as we would say, Spectaculars. We offer technology and creativity alongside a huge amount of passion delivering unforgettable experiences for our clients and their audiences.

I have been a business leader for almost 23 years within this industry. I have had an exciting and rewarding career where I have been fortunate to work on a huge range of projects across multiple sectors. One of the largest projects early in my career was for Volvo Car Corporation, and that was a global deployment of digital signage into their retail stores. I caught the eye of Volvo’s HQ following a full roll out of digital signage into every UK showroom and we were quickly appointed to deliver the solution globally as part of the Dealer standard. The project was hugely successful, quickly integrating the sales and customer journeys delivering huge insight and value for the corporation, the dealerships and of course the customers.

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Can you tell us about yourself, your experience and career?

Over the last decade or so, I have found myself working at what I see as the pinnacle of the industry in terms of large format and spectacular displays. I’m very proud of the achievements we’ve been able to make, which have included iconic projects such as Piccadilly Lights, The Outernet and some of the most prestigious sports venues in the UK. 13

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How has technology evolved over time and what do you think have been the key drivers or trends behind it? The evolution of technology is a perpetual and rapidly accelerating process, consistently ushering in new opportunities. Some of the key, pivotal technologies shaping our endeavours are LED Displays and graphics processing, along with playout engines. These technologies are rapidly advancing, enhancing our ability to create immersive digital canvases with resolutions surpassing 8K. Our strategic investments and focus have positioned us to harness these advancements, exemplified by the creation of extraordinary experiences like Piccadilly Lights. 14

These developments come from human nature, completely necessary and created from our desire and need to make things bigger and better and at a higher quality and more immediate than ever before. We see this technical evolution in film, computer games, on our phones and online but it is also a reality in the physical world and this in turn drives further innovation. This trend is unstoppable and will accelerate quicker than ever with the introduction of technologies like AI, which are now disrupting and enabling the creative space more than ever. Despite this acceleration there is one thing that does not change and I believe it’s the

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most valuable of all; integration, and more specifically how you integrate technologies to work together, fusing and blending them to deliver unique highly valuable outcomes. This, to me, is the most important aspect of what we do and it’s the key to unlocking value. Can you share some key features or innovations that make Digital Media Technologies and LED screen solutions stand out in the industry? For me, features, and functionality are super important, but our biggest differentiator is our holistic approach to projects. This means that when we start to investigate a concept, we have to understand its purpose and the

stakeholders expected outcomes, whether that be commercialisation, return on investment, fan, spectator or consumer engagement or a unique blend. Arguably the most important stakeholder in any project is the audience; they must engage. This is why we analyse how and why they are likely to interact and how they will consume the content we are providing. This requires a deep understanding of what works and what doesn’t and this is only gained through experience and experimentation. Keeping those elements in sharp focus is imperative but we also need to understand, structurally design and integrate into the fabric 15

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of the buildings, spaces and structures and then deliver the projects. We need to develop the content and interaction as required before combining all of these considerations, processes, creativity and technology together. Quite the task and I would certainly say we are very unique in this approach! How does DMTG approach technological advancements to ensure a spectacular experience for clients? In this area, we see partnerships as key to the business. We create and develop technology in-house, but we also harness the great technology being created by some of our partners. Many of these companies are some of the largest blue-chip organisations in the world and at the forefront of their fields and products. We like to work with our partners to ensure we’re developing our technology based upon their platforms and indeed leveraging their technology in the right way. It is this commitment to working with partners that helps us to deliver extremely complex solutions with confidence.

The concept of invisible technology is intriguing. Could you elaborate on how DMTG incorporates this idea into its solutions? What benefits does it bring to clients and their experiences with DMTG products? Throughout my career, I’ve explored and experienced a variety of technologies that have changed how we, as humans, communicate and interact with each other. In some cases, it has been very difficult for people to understand or learn those new technologies. Ten to fifteen years ago, online banking was probably one of the best examples of where certain demographics, particularly amongst older age groups within our society, were really challenged by its introduction. Now, with more and more physical closures of bank branches, this problem has been exacerbated for that same group and as a consequence, they see technology as a barrier rather than an enabler and one that at its worst can isolate whole segments of society. So, when we say invisible technology, what we mean is that it should never be

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“WHETHER THIS IS A WORKSTATION OR PC THAT IS TO BE DEPLOYED INTO A FIELD, OUTDOOR TYPE SCENARIO, OR WHETHER IT’S A SERVER THAT’S GOING INTO OUR DATA CENTER, WE FIND THE VALUE THAT WE GET FROM DELL IS ABSOLUTELY EXCEPTIONAL AND FIT FOR PURPOSE.” JAMES GAME DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

WWW.DELL.COM

“Well, it’s great that you’ve mentioned Dell. For me, not just in this business, I’ve traded with Dell for pretty much all my professional career now. So 22, 23 years. And for me, what they offer is a lot of security. Security in terms of reliability, stability for the platforms that we sell to our customers. We are accountable where our clients are concerned for the play out and the performance of their content, whether that be commercial advertising or experiential-based content. And that means that the equipment that we use has to absolutely be top-tier. Dell equipment for us has been put through the paces. We have that installed into some very, very tough environments and into some very, very demanding environments as well. And whether this is a workstation or PC that is to be deployed into a field, outdoor type scenario, or whether it’s a server that’s going into our data center, we find the value

that we get from Dell is absolutely exceptional and fit for purpose. Their access to engineering teams, their collaboration with us behind the scenes before committing to specification project is extremely unique and is something that I don’t find enough of in this world. And just those earlystage partnerships allow us both to ensure that we’re presenting the best solution forward for that performance, for that stability, but also it commits us to do innovation as well. We’re very proud to work with Dell and be able to utilize their solutions within our spectaculars.” JAMES GAME DIGITAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES

People and culture are extremely important as I’ve mentioned, and as a business, we are ultimately only the sum of our people and their skills. The nurturing, mentoring, shadowing, personal development, and training is crucial to the growth of the business, so people benefit from continuous improvement. We’d love everybody to always work for us, but we’re consistently focused on people’s careers as well.

We’re very proud of the culture we continue to promote within the business. However, continuous improvement goes beyond just people, which is the first and most important layer within any organisation. We’re a company that recognises there is always room for improvements, which keeps us on our toes and focused on moving forward with purpose.

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You mentioned a focus on continuous improvement and a specific interest in the four types of human behaviour. How does DMTG foster a culture of continuous improvement within the company?

I feel if we do the right things for our people and support them in the right way with their career ambitions, then ultimately that only benefits the business in the long run, too.

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a barrier to an experience. Instead of the users walking away thinking about the technology, we want them to remember the brand they just interacted with and the emotions it made them feel. Tech enables these activations and connections to the brand, but it should be an invisible and seamless interaction in that regard. Ultimately, this brings benefits with usability to consumers, and gives high value to the brand.

Having said that, there are some elements where we go very deep with people, like behavioural analysis, which can be seen as quite contentious. It’s a structure you would usually encounter in much larger corporate companies and is used to understand how people will interact and interface with each other, our processes and change, and of course our clients. Consequently, we use a lot of different analysis tools to achieve that aim. As an example, disk profiling is something we have been very keen on employing and 21

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that process is applied to everyone in the business, including me. From the top down, we are essentially working out the different behavioural styles of each individual. For those who may not be aware, DISC profiling categorises behavioural style into four different areas, often leading to an identification of a particular style or behaviour. You will have people like myself, who in a DISC world, would be classed as a “High D” (Dominant) – a very typical profile for a CEO – who are task-focused and very much like a challenge. At the same time though, my secondary trait is compliance which dictates the standards that I work to. We introduce and onboard people to the businesses by having them understanding the expectations I put on myself, which demonstrates how this business has been built over the last 13 years. We do like a challenge and we like to deliver it to the highest standards! When it comes to the team we are also looking at their individual profiles. Some people will have a steadier nature. These individuals like a process, want to own that process and to understand the role and they will flourish within a well-defined working framework. With the wrong approach those people will be very hard to change but they remain high performers, so it creates an interesting juxtaposition for management. Using behavioural analysis, we understand how to approach them, explaining the change and most importantly explaining why and how the change will occur and the benefits it will bring to them and others around them. That’s just a brief example but I think it illustrates the benefits of this deeper thinking for our business and the importance of empathy. Can you share more about how DMT tailors its recruitment process to identify and align with the four types of human behaviour? Our recruitment process typically starts either with standard advertising or through agencies and head-hunters, as we look for the best in class for their relevant fields. As part of that, once we start our process, we look at 22

the people’s personal desires and ambitions alongside some light behavioural analysis. We are going to invest in them and as far as possible we look to ensure they are investing with us and that will only happen if they attain job satisfaction and a rewarding culture that they can feel a part of. We have found this to be extremely successful. We haven’t always hired in this way but we get the benefits of this through long tenure, dedication, and lots of passion from our staff, which feeds all the way out to the solutions we provide for our customers and their audience. And what ways do these insights into human behaviour influence the dynamics of teams within DMTG? The biggest benefit we see is a lot of empathy within the business – people consider each other and our customers and instead of just forcing tasks or issues, there is a much more collaborative approach because. In short, it is all about the fundamentals. Understanding how we talk to each other and thinking about how that person could respond to the task or question that’s been posed to them. Involvement in projects like Piccadilly Lights and being the LED partner at Royal Ascot is impressive. Can you share some key aspects of these projects that showcase DMT’s expertise? As mentioned previously It comes down to the integration, the tech leverage and how we utilise that technology within these deployments to create the most spectacular displays in the world. If we take Piccadilly Lights for example. It is arguably the most wellknown billboard in the world. It is an enigma and an anomaly in out-of-home advertising. This site sets itself out way above any other, including Times Square. Piccadilly Lights has an impact on the London skyline. It makes a mark on everybody that sees it. It is one of the greatest tourist attractions in the UK. Advertising and the consumption from this billboard are incredible, both physically in person and across social media. It’s a privilege to be involved with. It’s probably

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the pinnacle of my career. I’m extremely proud of the company and everybody that’s been associated to the project. And again, with Ascot, we take that similar approach and recognise who our audiences are. Ascot is a great case, as it focuses not on fans or spectators as we have in many other sporting venues, but on customers. It means a different method of presenting your messages, of offering interaction, information, and entertainment to people.

What is the future of digital media products? For us, 2024 is truly going to be an incredible year. We are now underway with a new immersive Spectacular being installed in central London and have several other very high profile sports projects in the pipeline, including something different altogether heading out on the high seas.. WWW.DIGITALMEDIA.TECH

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From start to finish, our engagement with the customer was key to the success of the Ascot project. Understanding both what the team was looking for and what they hoped to achieve were crucial to delivering the right solution in the right location for the right audience. As a customer-based business, their digital activations and visitor engagement narratives differ in many ways to a fan-based sport and this needed to be realised on our part to ensure the project was successful.

Dell’s access to their engineering teams, and its collaboration with us behind the scenes before committing to specification project is also extremely unique and is something I don’t find enough of in this world. Those early-stage partnerships allow us to ensure that we’re presenting the best solution forward for that project, and it allows us to innovate as well. We’re very proud to work with Dell and be able to utilise their solutions within our spectaculars. JA M E S G A M E

At Ascot, it is a truly interactive solution. It’s constantly telling people the activities of the day, what the last race result was, when the next race is coming, showing the live broadcasts through to interactive experiences such as singing around the bandstand, where our systems are responsible for displaying real-time lyrics as played by a band. This offers a much higher level of engagement and creates valuable customer loyalty.

of experience. We have their equipment installed into some challenging environments. Whether this is a workstation or PC to be deployed into an outdoor type scenario, or whether it’s a server going into our data centre, we find the value we get from Dell is exceptional and their technology meets our requirements time and again.

How do DMT’s partnerships – like Dell – contribute to the company’s overall vision and goals in the LED and technology solutions space? For me, not just in this business, I’ve traded with Dell for pretty much all my professional career now. They offer a lot of security in terms of performance, and stability for platforms we sell to customers. Where our clients are concerned, we are accountable for the play out and performance of their content, whether that be commercial advertising or experiential based. The equipment we use must be top tier. For us, Dell equipment has been put through its paces through extensive and iterative R&D with decades 25

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I A N ROBBINS

INCLUSIVITY OF DATA

GXO’S IAN ROBBINS DISCUSSES HOW HAVING A STRONG, SUPPORTED NETWORK CAN CREATE ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANY COMPANY, AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO CREATE THE PERFECT ENVIRONMENT FOR SUCCESS.

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Ian Robbins, Business Change Analytics Manager at GXO UK & Ireland, joined the company with a personal mission to meaningfully transform its future, and create a sustainable data culture. And he’s certainly done just that. Currently leading Digital Transformation across the Technology & Consumer Goods Business Unit within GXO in the UK and Ireland, Robbins also influences the global GXO strategic agenda on data and analytics.

In 2021 he joined GXO, the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider, which was formed over just two years ago. He moved to the company after 20 years in the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), where his work was always data and data solution centric across both Waitrose and John Lewis supply chains. “As a qualified industrial engineer by trade, my thought process is always centred around data, process simplification, efficiency, and end user experience,” Robbins says. “In my mind, this toolkit is the most transferable and applicable of skills in the digital age.” 27

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And working in logistics, no two days are ever the same. After being scouted on “LinkedIn by a truly wonderful person”, Robbins began his journey at GXO. “It felt like a seamless transition to the world of logistics. “Forging strong relationships with like-minded colleagues who shared the same vision for data inclusivity and culture was my primary goal. I now have a strong, supportive team and network from which to accelerate our enterprise digital transformation,” he says. And Robbins says digital transformation, which isn’t just “nice to have” anymore, 28

is the fundamental foundation for longevity of success in business. WORLD CLASS “Businesses need to appreciate and accept that the only way a transformation can be truly successful is to engage with everyone in the same way across the organisation. This is a team sport; it cannot be ego led,” Robbins adds. And when it comes to teams, Robbins says the “wonderful” colleagues he had the privilege

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of working alongside in his logistics career were his inspiration for the GXO Data Academy. Partnering with Multiverse, a world-class training and coaching company, Data Academy sets out to increase data literacy and drive efficiency across the GXO organisation in the UK, while providing a clear and rewarding career path for employees. He says there is a drive to be inclusive, as data is everywhere and is all inclusive by nature. “For me, the area that has always

been predominantly exclusive until recent years has been data sharing,” Robbins says. “My ambition has and continues to be democratising data and putting it in the hands of those who can truly drive efficiency and change with every action and interaction. “The challenge has always been the need for fiscal justification, when fundamentally, the need is more primal, driven by a cultural shift and shared strategic vision,” he adds. An example of Robbins’ primal drive is the scale of the Data Academy’s impact, which 29

Transform your workforc professional apprenticesh Equip your employees with tech and data skills through applied learning Grow employee retention, productivity and satisfaction Improve workforce diversity Get in touch >

multiverse.io

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was implemented across different business units in the UK at an incredible rate. Robbins credits this quick turnaround to “sheer grit, determination, and an unwavering ambition to deliver something truly game-changing for GXO. “The applied learning model means individuals are learning new skills and practically applying them into their tasks from day-one to deliver business value,” he says. By far the biggest financial impact the team has seen to-date was a cost avoidance of £240k. By using their new data skills to model the projected ROI of the proposed process change, an apprentice was able to challenge the client request and present it back to demonstrate that their ‘gut feel’ decision would not deliver the desired ROI.

“Forging strong relationships with like-minded colleagues who shared the same vision for data inclusivity and culture was my primary goal.”

As the GXO Data Academy team plans to launch the scheme globally, starting with the U.S., Robbins says they are “extremely fortunate to have the governmentbacked apprenticeship levy within England as the catalyst for the GXO Data Academy, which is now part of the GXO University ‘Grow’ track offering.

demand (reduced programme length, modular approach). We are currently evaluating options to ensure equal opportunity across all regions of the business,” he says.

“With funding in other territories requiring full justification pre-approval, our approach needs to be tailored accordingly to meet

At the beginning of the Data Academy journey, Robbins was only approved for a 20 England-based colleague pilot from

CHERRY PICKING

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“Businesses need to appreciate and accept that the only way a transformation can be truly successful is to engage with everyone in the same way across the organisation. This is a team sport; it cannot be ego led.” helps make us shine as an organisation,” he quips.

“I used my business knowledge to effectively ‘cherry-pick’ some high-performing Tableau users to join the academy pilot,” Robbins says. This enabled them to see almost immediate ROI.

And when leading a team, Robbins reckons communication, trust, integrity, passion, and authenticity are key to being a successful manager. He is “very much a ‘heart on my sleeve’ person and throughout my career, this has led to some interesting conversations at times.

And when it comes to the success of the Data Academy, it wouldn’t be possible without partners. “Throughout my career, I have ensured that hyper-collaboration has been promoted and celebrated, as we don’t know what we don’t know, but someone else might, and we can benefit by working closely with them,” Robbins explains.

“But for me, it’s the positive impact that being myself makes on people’s lives and careers that keeps me motivated,” he explains. And every decision and interaction made contributes to ensuring data-driven decision making across GXO. And for a successful future, he believes the logistics sector is the beating-heart of the economy, but it must remain agile and laser-focused against the tough macro-economic environment.

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“More importantly, by including colleagues from our newly acquired business (Clipper Logistics), we not only retained top talent in the business but also enabled them to achieve their full potential. The pilot cohort success opened the door for any England-based colleagues to apply for the second cohort in September 2023, where we increased our intake from 20 to 170+, from Warehouse Operators to Senior Management,” he explains.

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within his business unit, (due to apprentice levy application).

“AI and other technologies have the power to accelerate growth potential if correctly applied but should always be underpinned by people, and a unified and adaptive change culture to ensure long-term success,” Robbins adds. GXO.COM

For the Data Academy, he chose Multiverse as partner, not just because of what they had delivered, but more for ‘how’ they delivered. “I often comment that the Multiverse team 35

PORTFOLIO

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Innovative and inspired items for work, leisure, and sustainable living

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Action cameras are purchased for a multitude of uses and reasons. Everyone desires versatile cameras, from those filming their intense outdoor adventures to the more casual users who like to capture general lifestyle content. The Insta360 Ace Pro is just that. With 4K120 slow-mo, a 2.4” flip screen, 48-megapixel photos, and an industryleading Leica summarit lens, capturing stunning colours, highlights, and picture clarity has never been easier. The

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INSTA360 ACE PRO camera can also accompany the user to the extremes, navigating depths of 33 feet underwater or rough terrains, with 360-degree horizontal lock. In an online-focused world, the Insta360 Ace Pro also makes editing and uploading photos and videos to social media even easier. STORE.INSTA360.COM

FIRE TV STICK 4K MAX 2ND GENERATION An increase in streaming opportunities means an increase in streaming sticks finding their way onto the market. However, Amazon is keeping itself at the front of the pack with the release of the 2nd gen Fire Stick 4K Max.

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The 2nd generation stick advances on the previous model in many ways, the most notable being Wi-Fi 6E support to

enhance streaming capabilities. The stick’s usage remains flexible and advanced, with enhanced Alexa voice controls, an HDMI extender for tight spaces, 16GB of storage, and Bluetooth 5.2. The 2nd gen Fire Stick 4K Max is the perfect gadget for today’s streaming world. WWW.AMAZON.CO.UK/ FIRE-TV-STICK-4K-MAX

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FAIRPHONE 5 Yes, Fairphone prioritises sustainability with their new handset, but that doesn’t mean that they sacrifice impressive functionality.

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The Fairphone 5 looks to be the brand’s most sustainable phone to date, created with over 70% fair focus and recycled materials, and manufactured using 100% renewable energy. With a five-year warranty, changeable batteries, and easily sourceable spare parts, the Fairphone 5 is built to last a long time.

Fairphone has undoubtedly upped its game with the fifth-generation phone. With its smooth and dynamic OLED screen, long-lasting battery life, stunning replaceable cameras, and dual sim functionality, the Fairphone 5 is the perfect gadget for the technology fan who also likes to take care of the planet. WWW.SHOP.FAIRPHONE.COM

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MALIBU URBANISTA The Malibu Urbanista speaker is “designed for life in motion”. Completely versatile and highly portable, the speaker is perfect for a variety of situations and uses. Equipped with a 20-hour battery life, a durable design, dust and water resistance, and stereo pairing, the Urbanista thrives in busy, outdoor environments such as at the beach or on hikes, but is also perfect for indoor parties.

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Malibu considers the environmental impact of their product both in production and usage. Made of recycled plastics and fabrics, the speaker is also equipped with indoor and outdoor light charging capabilities, saving on electrical charging.

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BOSCH RIDECARE

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With an increase in ride-hailing services across the globe and a push towards ride-sharing to combat emissions, it is more important than ever to ensure safety for everyone involved. The RideCare companion is a camera and wireless SOS button that connects to a Bosch agent with a single press.

With 24/7 support available, drivers can request assistance from an agent to help with multiple difficulties, whether it be keeping a watchful eye on the events inside of the vehicle, retaining video evidence, or helping navigate the best route to a location in the event of an emergency. BOSCH-MOBILITY.COM

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W O R D S: B E C K Y N O R T H F I EL D

GEORGINA O W E N S

INNOVATION IN BALANCE GEORGINA OWENS, CTO AT 888 WILLIAM HILL, TALKS ABOUT THE EVOLVING ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ORGANISATIONS, KEEPING PLAYERS SAFE, AND THE CRITICAL NEED FOR MORE DIVERSITY IN THE INDUSTRY.

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“Change is everything. I love it,” says Georgina Owens, current CTO at British gambling company 888 William Hill. “It gets me out of bed in the morning, thinking about how we’re going to adapt and evolve in an ever-changing landscape in so many ways, from a financial, commercial, technology, and people perspective.” Owens is, as you can tell, a massive advocate for change, and her substantial career mirrors this. She has worked in technology for many years in leadership

positions across multiple different industries, working with a variety of sizes of teams and responsibilities. “Essentially, I look at cross technology functions around engineering. Working across different sectors means I understand key elements of a business, which transforms and changes how it makes you think as a leader. “A big change in technology leadership is the requirement for you to be much more commercially focused than what you ever were before.” 47

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So, what inspired Owens to pursue this exciting career? Her family – who moved to Africa when she was six – came back to the UK in the middle of her informative education years, “which essentially screwed me up. So, I had to look for something, and it just so happened that there was a technology path I was able to take. So, I kind of fell into it. I’ve been very lucky – opportunities have just always arisen,” Owens says. “I’ve done architecture, coding, and strategy. I’ve had the opportunity to have a broad remit 48

across different areas of technology. I then discovered that in the process of doing that, I really liked building teams, mentoring, and coaching people. And I was good at it. I was able to see problems, fix them and take the team with me. That’s what’s led me into more leadership roles,” she explains. And in her leadership style, especially in the dynamic and rapidly evolving field of tech, Owens says adapting it “to minimise impact on people, or at least to take the time to help support them through the change, is important.

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“Change comes in many different flavours and from every direction, and we must deal with that. I thrive on it.”

solutions for your business, you must know all the options. And having a diverse team enables you to do that,” she says.

ELEMENTS OF DIVERSITY

“And that’s diverse from a gender, culture, and ethnicity point of view. There are so many different elements of diversity,” she adds.

Something else that Owens thrives on is being an advocate for diversity and inclusion: “There is no doubt that diverse thinking gives a better result. Thinking and doing the same is not good for business. “Not everybody in your team thinks in the same way. Your customers all think differently. Therefore, when you are contemplating

However, Owens says that the industry is encountering a problem. “I was talking to a group of people recently and we feel that gender diversity is not improving. If anything, it’s going backwards. There are more females leaving the industry than joining. 49

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P H O T O: DY L A N G ILL I S

“I’m unsure as to the cause,” she comments. “I find it all very sad. I think it became a bit worn out, a bit overused, and people have just gone, ‘Oh yeah, gender diversity, we’ve got to do it”. She gives an example: “Recruiters are all about a diverse pipeline. What they’re not about is then following that diverse pipeline through – how many candidates were successful? However, the measurement is stopping at the pipeline. “I was challenging a recruitment agent that was talking to me about, ‘Oh, diversity, they’d really like to have female candidates.’ And I said ‘Why? Where do they want female candidates? How far is that going? How far are you taking that in terms of the process?’” she says.

“A big change in technology leadership is the requirement for you to be much more commercially focused than what you ever were before.”

Owens comments that at William Hill, it’s tough because they’re in a sports gambling environment, so it’s not necessarily the first place that females will choose to join.

“I’m spending more time being visible, which is hard. Balancing home, work, external visibility, and involvement is hard. It’s much easier to just go, ‘Oh, I can’t be bothered. I haven’t got time.’”

However, she sees that her role could be inspiring for the next generation. “Role models are critical, and I have spoken to a lot of women coming into the industry. For them, seeing a senior woman in technology makes them believe it’s possible to have opportunities.

Owens would ask any woman in technology to try hard to get involved and be visible, as it’s only by being visible that other women will consider it a good path to follow. “Starting at an early age – if you’ve got daughters, how can you show them that

P H O T O: FA C H R Y Z ELL A D E VA N D R A

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Owens discusses a call she had the morning of our interview: “I was just looking at a sea of faces and it was all men,” she says. “And it hit me just how many times that happens. So, getting women involved is not going to be straightforward or easy, but it’s worthwhile. “Build yourself a network of like-minded people who can support you, because that is critical,” she comments. PLAYER SAFETY Another critical element for Owens in her leadership and teams is like-minded company culture. “It’s important we have collaboration, that we do not have toxic behaviour, and that we are open, honest,

“Change comes in many different flavours and from every direction, and we must deal with that. I thrive on it.”

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working in technology is positive, enjoyable, and not geeky? However, you must be honest and let them know that in the industry, you won’t necessarily be surrounded by people like you,” she advises.

and transparent with each other within my teams.” She also encourages them to display that same behaviour consistently when they’re interacting with other teams. “By osmosis, that will change the rest of the organisation. Anybody in my team knows that if they see something they dislike, if they feel uncomfortable or unsafe, they can come and talk directly to me. 53

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P H O T O: M A P B OX

“I will not walk by,” Owens says proudly. Something else she takes pride in, is the technical innovations and projects that are consistently released by William Hill, all with player safety in mind. “We are constantly bringing out new, exciting features for customers. “Now, the real challenge for player safety is, if you think about it, what we’re doing is exciting them and encouraging them to use our products more and more,” Owens explains. “But at the same time, we can’t go over the top because we don’t want it to be so exciting that they get addicted and spend beyond their means. “A large part of our innovation is balance,” she says. RESPONSIBLE REGULATION “So, there’s a lot about the brand explaining that we work hard to make gambling safe,” she says, reinforcing that the company’s top focus is player safety and ensuring people do not get addicted, “that they do it for fun and know when to stop.

“Explaining all that is what made me okay to join the company, because it’s not a bad thing. It can be good. It’s great for people to have fun, and that’s what this needs to be,” she reckons. There are many roles within the organisation responsible for player safety, and there are licences to ensure regulations are followed – Owens is a licence holder for technology. “The regulations in gambling are huge, complicated, and require a lot of time and effort to make sure we are meeting those regulations. “We live and breathe that on a day-by-day basis,” she says. “Although we have people who are specifically responsible compliance managers, the rest of us have that responsibility and we take it very seriously,” Owens adds. Another serious component in the organisation is partnerships. “The size and scale of what we deliver is huge around gaming and sports betting,” Owens comments. “Gaming encompasses casino, poker, and slots, and is mostly online, although we have all those available in our retail outlets. So, the games we provide are vast.

P H O T O: B E N C E B A LL A S C H O T T N E R

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“I think we’ve got over 1,400 games.”

“Role models are critical, and I have spoken to a lot of women coming into the industry. For them, seeing a senior woman in technology makes them believe it’s possible to have opportunities.”

So, with constant innovation, accelerating technology, and multiple partnerships, what does Owens think is the future of William Hill, and the gambling industry as a whole? “There will be more and more regulation,” she says. “From a business commercial point of view, that is challenging for us as we constantly find new restrictions that reduce our ability to expand the business. Now we work with the regulation. We have an incredible relationship with them. “We must work with all regulators in the regulated markets for each country we operate in, to understand where they’re heading. We must convince them that we can still offer customers good and safe experiences that can be enjoyable and seen as entertainment without being a danger,” Owens concludes. WWW.CORPORATE.888.COM

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“In the William Hill part of the business, we have a partner, OpenBet. We’ve been working with them for over 14 years now,

“OpenBet helps us with the millions and millions of customers we have across the UK and Europe. They have a great reputation for performance around very big events like Cheltenham. One of their showcases is enabling us to process thousands of bets per minute,” she says.

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Owens says that William Hill builds some games, but also works with third parties. “The race is always to get the top game for people to have the best experience.

and they’ve helped us to grow and build our betting engine.

Innovator

WATERLIGHT Across the globe, around 1.5 billion people do not have consistent access to electricity, and in places where electricity has become a necessity, demand is increasing rapidly. Therefore, any innovation that assists in a switch to more renewable energy should be brought into the light.

WaterLight is a device that creates electrical power from simply salt water. The device, developed in partnership with E-Dina, produces energy from ionisation and transforms the aluminium lining on the inside of the light into electrical energy. The revolutionary product can provide up to 45 days of light with just half a litre of salt water, meaning it can change the lives of communities without access to electricity, but who reside close to a saltwater source.

Inspired by the Columbian Wayuu community, who are deeply connected to their traditional art which represents flora, fauna, and the sea, the WaterLight allows communities to continue crafts and jobs such as art, fishing, and education after the sun goes down. Created from 100% recycled materials, the WaterLight is not only helping those in need gain access to light but is also taking into account the environmental impact when doing so. WWW.WATERLIGHT.COM.CO

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C A R I N E BOTTURI

VALUE FROM THE UNEXPECTED

CARINE BOTTURI, DIRECTOR OF DATA STRATEGY AND ENABLEMENT AT TELUS, TALKS ABOUT THE FUTURE AND CONSTANT EVOLUTION OF THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY, AND ITS POWERFUL PURPOSE OF CONNECTING PEOPLE.

CARINE BOTTURI

And this impactful statement has a lot of clout behind it. Botturi has been working for TELUS for almost a decade and has spent her entire career in the telecommunication sector. “The industry is in constant evolution,” she says. “Between 1996 to 2000, we were observing huge deregulation activity. From a legislation and competition point of view, things were changing. Then there was the introduction of the IP protocol technology,

the convergence of voice and data networks, the impact of the web, and now the new hot topic, 5G.

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“For me, the purpose of telecommunication is still very powerful,” says Carine Botturi, Director of Data Strategy and Enablement at TELUS. “We connect people, families, businesses, whatever distance, and time zone.”

“On top of that, you add AI capabilities, so telecommunication is always at the forefront of introduction of new technology,” Botturi adds. As well as this, the industry is also seeing the transformation of the customer experience. “Introduction of web capabilities have been empowering customers to interact directly with the organisation, without connecting with an agent. We’ve also seen the consolidation of tools to empower team members to be more efficient, like Google Meet,” she 61

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explains, recalling that just a few years ago, the team was working with so many tools to communicate. “Now we see technology that empowers us to do everything at the same place, so it’s a huge efficiency gain.” She also highlights the use of AI, with predictive analysis to understand and foresee customer behaviour, and the impact on predicting churn. “And from a project management perspective, we’ve been going through the evolution of waterfall methodology – very sequential activities to manage projects to the adoption of Agile and DevOps approaches. “Everything is changing, and you are constantly challenged. You keep learning and developing. That’s why it’s great to be in the telecommunication sector,” she quips. Currently, Botturi and her team are leading the implementation of two critical data programs at TELUS – metadata management

“We connect people, families, businesses, whatever distance, and time zone.” and data quality. They are responsible for tool development, implementation, and maintenance, as well as the usage and adoption strategy across TELUS. And you may be surprised to hear that despite Botturi’s significant transformational skills and presence in the sector, her background and education is more business than technology. However, this does not hinder the progress of her team – her qualities complement technical skills of her team members. “Most data leaders come from a technical background, but I think that my more business

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“Everything is changing, and you are constantly challenged. You keep learning and developing. That’s why it’s great to be in the telecommunication sector.” background has been an advantage to truly think through how a data culture can impact an organisation. I bring a business and process mindset as well as a focus on value creation and change management. We all bring different strengths to the table, and every team member will have the opportunity to shine and become the expert in one area,” Botturi explains.

“To do that, you need to cultivate trust and become a very active listener and become your team members’ spokesperson. You must collaborate and openly share in a very safe environment. And you need to be open to learn and understand the value of the new opportunities brought by your team members,” she adds.

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“I don’t micromanage,” Botturi states. “I trust team members, so they deliver on time, on-budget, and according to the plan. And I’m going to give them the opportunity to explore new things – so when we set up goals on a quarterly basis, they have time to continue learning and exploring, and new opportunities come from this exploration work. We find value from the unexpected,” she says.

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Having been a manager of teams since 2010, creating a collaborative environment so people feel they are trusted, empowered, and find opportunity to shine and thrive is Botturi’s “secret sauce”.

Diversity is one of TELUS’ values. “We promote diversity in our activities and recruitment efforts. For example, we make sure that when we publish a posting, it gets reviewed to attract as many women as men,” Botturi explains. “So, who will we employ to build a funnel of talent? Keeping in mind diversity of gender, and diversity of background experience.”

“Don’t be shy, don’t be afraid to learn new things. Know yourself and your strengths and become excellent at what you do. Build your network of allies. Keep friendship outside of the technology industry and avoid creating your own roadblocks.” So, does she have a secret sauce to a successful team?

And Botturi hasn’t been exempt from feeling out of place due to her gender.

“In my team, we are mostly women – it’s not a deliberate strategy,” Botturi says. “We focus on knowledge, experience, and ability to deliver. I’m more attracted by diversity of thought, diversity of gender, and diversity of experience.

“I had my first interview at TELUS 10 years ago, and that interview was with three gentlemen, all of them with engineering backgrounds, all of them in Toronto. And the interview went very well. But I had that little voice running in my head telling me the good reason not to hire me, I am not an engineer by education, I am a woman, my first language is French, and I’m located in Montreal,” she says. “I was almost in denial when I got the phone call of the recruiter telling me I have the job.”

“We can create winning teams that deliver expected outcomes by combining strengths and wealth of experiences from different backgrounds, different training, and different academic backgrounds,” she explains. Botturi states that the beauty of data is that you can thrive in it, whatever your background. “There’s always something you can bring to the table. That’s the way 66

I’ve been able to manage my team. I also do a lot of coaching and mentoring with younger women who want to join STEAMrelated activities at TELUS,” she says.

And having established a successful career in a male-dominated industry, Botturi has a list of advice for women aspiring to pursue leadership roles. “Don’t be shy, don’t be

CARINE BOTTURI

“But how do we avoid these roadblocks? Always look for the next opportunity to grow, to learn, and raise around to tackle a new project, a new program, something that’s going to get you out of your comfort zone and where you will be able to showcase your value.” Botturi says. Something else of value that has been a huge opportunity for TELUS is cloudification. Botturi and the team centralise information about TELUS’ data assets, and support

analytics activities while benefiting from faster process times, and cost reduction for storage. “We made the very conscious decision to ensure proper metadata documentation of assets being migrated to the cloud,” she says. TELUS leveraged Collibra Data Intelligence Platform as its technology enabler, “to ensure every TELUS data stakeholder can find, understand, and trust information about the data asset – the goal of the metadata program. Collibra’s partnership has now given us the opportunity to extend our automation and AI projects”.

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afraid to learn new things. Know yourself and your strengths and become excellent at what you do. Build your network of allies. Keep friendship outside of the technology industry and avoid creating your own roadblocks.

WWW.TELUS.COM

Leadership

LEADERSHIP

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ARE TECHNOLOGY LEADERS READY FOR EVOLVING LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES?

Katie Boucher, consultant at Odgers Berndtson, explores Odgers Berndtson’s latest research on current and future tech leaders and whether they can manage increasingly challenging responsibilities 68

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STRONG STRATEGIC MINDSET The group demonstrated a strategic and innovative mindset, with “strategic clarity” emerging as the strongest competency overall. This is reassuring, particularly as strategic clarity is among the most difficult competencies to develop.

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The study revealed strengths, gaps, and opportunities for development across the technology officer talent pool.

However, whilst both established and next-generation leaders shared the same conceptual, innovative approach to strategic problem-solving, next-generation leaders lacked the long-term vision and focus on formal strategic development. This may simply reflect differing levels of executive maturity, however, given technology’s growing importance to organisational strategy, it should not be ignored.

LEADERSHIP

Senior technology officer roles have transformed significantly, shifting from supporting functions to actively shaping corporate strategy. Technology officers, including the CIO, CTO, CDO, and CISO, now act as both corporate executives and functional leaders. Despite this, many organisations find their technology leaders lack the leadership capabilities to take on these additional responsibilities. To better understand the factors driving this gap, 65 technology leaders were invited to undertake Odgers Berndtson’s “LeaderFit profile”, an online questionnaire based on Saville Wave, which benchmarks individuals’ leadership competencies against a senior leadership population. The group encompassed both current and next-generation technology officers.

The group demonstrated strength as team builders – a crucial capability for technology officers who must oversee a breadth of responsibilities and therefore must rely on a strong team to deliver. In particular, the group showed strength in being decisive and taking control, whilst simultaneously co-ordinating, inspiring, and motivating the team. However, their moderate scores in “team working” indicate a tendency towards a directive, rather than inclusive, approach. This independent style is likely to affect their peer interaction, a concern as insufficient collaboration, stakeholder involvement, and alignment across the business are often cited as among the top reasons why digital transformations fail. 69

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LEADERSHIP

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A GAP IN ORGANISATIONAL ALIGNMENT AND GOVERNANCE

PRACTICAL INSIGHTS FOR FILLING THE GAPS

The group showed a comparative weakness in their “organisational alignment”, or capacity to build up the organisation behind the strategy. This is concerning given the critical role technology officers play in building the digital foundations for effective strategy delivery and revenue growth.

Whilst time and experience may go some way to close the capability gaps, additional interventions may also be necessary to accelerate this development. These include:

The data indicates this gap may be partially driven by over-indexing on experimentation at the expense of rigour and conscientiousness, qualities which underpin a more systematic approach to building long-term organisational capabilities. These innate preferences are likely exacerbated by the “fail fast” mentality dominant across tech.

Finally, the next-gen leaders appeared to lack the execution focus, energy, and ability to operate effectively under pressure compared to the current incumbents. These findings reflect feedback we have received from organisations that are struggling to find stepup candidates capable of “getting things done”. It also underpins broader research showing a high degree of exhaustion and change fatigue across the IT function, and increased levels of stress and burnout risk in Millennials and Gen Z compared with Gen X and Baby Boomers. Future technology officers must be emotionally equipped to handle the increased pressure that will come alongside a rapidly increasing pace of digitalisation, necessitating urgent development of these capabilities.

Ensuring organisational alignment and strong governance: Reassuringly, organisations can mitigate gaps and build leaders’ capabilities in this area easily. This includes thorough exposure to best practices, having a strong, operational right-hand person, ensuring the organisational structure is set up to enable a close partnership with the board (particularly the Risk Committee) and other members of the executive team (such as the COO and CFO), and encouraging co-ownership for digital initiatives.

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GENERATIONAL DIFFERENCES IN DRIVE AND RESILIENCE

Enhancing collaboration: Team coaching or workshops centred on increasing collaboration, or participating in cross-organisational initiatives can help. However, this will also require a mindset shift by the leader.

LEADERSHIP

Notably, the most significant weakness across the group was the focus on governance, suggesting a more casual approach towards rules, procedures, and risk. Given the increasingly critical need for vigilance in cyber security, data governance, and compliance, addressing capability gaps in this area is crucial.

Growing strategic insight: Working with an external senior mentor who can act as a sounding board and provide an external perspective. Likewise, taking on a secondment to a more strategic role, or participating in a formal strategic planning process can help build more robust strategic insight.

Growing resilience: this quality can, in part, be built up like a muscle over time given sufficient exposure to pressurised situations. However, as some of the blockers to resilience and self-confidence can be deep-rooted, more intensive interventions such as coaching might also be necessary. In an increasingly technology-reliant world, it is imperative that organisations address these gaps to equip their IT leaders for the future.

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KARSTEN S T O L L

THE VITAL COMPONENT

KARSTEN STOLL, CTO OF INTERCONNECTION OF WAGO GROUP, AN INTERNATIONAL SUPPLIER OF ELECTRICAL INTERCONNECTION, AUTOMATION, AND ELECTRONIC INTERFACE PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS, DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY AND THE NEED TO ADAPT TO THE EVER-CHANGING TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE.

I’ve been with WAGO for 14 years now and in my current role for the last few years. With our Interconnection Business Unit as our core business, we manufacture little pieces that consist of plastic, steel and copper that link two wires or more – components that seem simple. However, these components are one major enabler for digitalisation in a society that will become more electric and sustainable, so we are at the forefront of that.

How has technology and its role in WAGO Group evolved over time? We make a lot of small parts that are worth a few cents, so we’re very much hardwarefocused on designing, producing, and selling these products, but differentiation with components is getting more difficult.

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I’m responsible for everything in our interconnection business, from first idea at customer level, to realisation of any new product. I’m also responsible for standardised data in a group function, especially product data, all IT and digitalisation topics that go with that, and intellectual property and standardisation across the world. With the business segment I’m responsible for, we make approximately €1 billion in sales. I have about 250 people in my direct team.

What I find is a good guiding principle for management and leadership is to always think of what we can do to make our customers’ lives a little bit easier, faster, cheaper, and better.

K A R S T E N S T OLL

Introducing Karsten Stoll, CTO of Interconnection of WAGO Group. Could you provide some insights into your professional background and expertise?

We see much happening in the market; a lot of strong competition evolving core knowledge around production of components that have become a commodity. So, we must find other ways to help customers solve challenges. Of course, technology and digitalisation software are a possible option and one we can follow. So, we can think about different business models and offerings, and ways to design and produce. 73

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Digitalisation – occurring at a very high speed – has been a key driver across our internal processes, but also throughout our international customer base. They have changed their value chain a lot and we, as a component supplier, are delivering into that. But it can be a challenge to keep up. How do you balance fostering a peoplecentric culture while driving technological advancements within the organisation? We’re a family-owned business and have been a very people-centric company for ages. So, it’s a core principle in my job. And if we think about how we can drive technological advancements in a people-centric culture, it’s easy. You must find the right people and

“What I find is a good guiding principle for management and leadership is to always think of what we can do to make our customers’ lives a little bit easier, faster, cheaper, and better.”

K A R S T E N S T OLL

From my perspective, technology and the corresponding change is not necessarily my job. People and talents are my job. So, I enable the team and organisation to drive tech and innovation. One example of this is when we set up a Kickbox method – everybody puts forward their ideas and if successful, they receive a small budget and a team. Then we develop these ideas to proof-of-concept and then, to implementation or market launch if they succeed.

We’ve developed a few products from this Kickbox process, like our 221 Series Green Range – the first splicing connector with levers, where we use a mixture of recycled and bio-circular plastics. The green levers of the 221 Series Green Range consist of at least 27% reused PET bottles, the transparent housing about 77% of biological residues such as tall oil, old grease, and residues from the production of edible oils. As a result, the consumption of fossil resources is significantly lower for the more sustainable 221 Series than for its orange sister. At the same time, existing plastics remain in circulation. The metal components (spring steel and copper) of both splicing connectors consist largely of recycled materials.

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then give them the correct tasks. That can be people already employed there, not just hiring new people. There’s a German saying, it goes like, “You have to learn to dance with the ladies that are in the ballroom.”

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And the Green Range idea was pitched in the Kickbox by two young colleagues that really had nothing to do with the product itself but had heard about the process of using more climate-friendly materials. And we introduced that product range last September. Another successful exploration project was our 3D printing platform called Creators. People can develop their own accessories around our products, upload them, share, and comment on them. This is a totally new approach to our existing business which again helps our customers. What do you think makes an effective modern leader?

In the rapidly changing technology landscape, how does WAGO Group approach innovation and what strategies do you employ to ensure continuous adoption of new technologies? So, our components were plastic, steel, and copper. We have a deep expertise in that. Technologies that develop quickly change the processes of our customers, as well as the tech we employ. So, we need a lot more expertise in digitalisation and what the customers are doing. Then we adapt our processes internally. When approaching the topic, we must ensure we keep what made it strong in the past, and then add new strategies around that to

What do you see as key trends and challenges in the electrical interconnection and automation industry? And how is WAGO Group positioned to address them?

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At some point in time, that group will have enough energy to move forward by itself and then drive a topic beyond what they were working on. And that’s the best thing that can happen. They will then become unstoppable.

secure the future. A very easy example is if you have a set of product managers that deal with components, you let them manage components because that’s what they’re good at. You don’t try to move them to also manage digital offerings like configuration software or digital twins, we add experts into the team instead. They learn from each other and eventually become an even stronger team.

K A R S T E N S T OLL

I strongly believe people who experience an elevated level of trust can take on almost any challenge; you give trust and ensure the right people are working on the right tasks. Of course, you need some basic knowledge, but if you give a team enough trust, they will be able to tackle challenges. My role is then only supporting them if I can – that might just be having a different perspective. Or maybe getting the budget for a new product, solution, or technology from the owners, or just clearly saying, “I really like that.”

“I strongly believe people who experience an elevated level of trust can take on almost any challenge; you give trust and ensure the right people are working on the right tasks.”

Currently, in the electrical interconnection and automation industry, we see an incredible change in the competitor’s landscape, mainly coming from China. Whereas we come out of a world that was local for global, developing basically everything locally in Germany and then distributing it across the world. We see a lot more local for local, more regulation, and a more digitally connected world. We are in a very strong position, both for what we have set up as offerings, and with our network and value chain partners. But there are very serious challenges that bring major changes to our core business model – we must learn to work more in networks not only with customers, but also with our core competitors, 77

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ways to support our customers to get better, faster, and cheaper products and solutions. Software is an option, which could be configuration or an intelligent product finder. And, of course, this happens differently to component development, which is hardware. Hardware development normally is slow, involving building new plants or machines. The component world is very investment intensive. Software isn’t. Software is much more people and customer centric.

Given the increasing integration of software with hardware and automation products, how does WAGO Group approach development and management of product related software?

Software development is more agile, and with new regulation that comes from the European Union and across the world that we must fulfil. It’s a totally different world we’re now looking at, with totally different skills in the product management and development team.

Differentiation through components is getting more difficult, therefore we must find other

And of course, engineering itself will become more digital; for both hardware and software.

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to solve general challenges with them. Like the International Digital Twin Association here in Germany, we actively developed a new standard for communication of product data called ‘asset administration shell’. That’s something we would’ve always done in competition before in Germany. But now, we’re moving together as an industry initiative within the International Digital Twin Association. And it is also a huge success for our customers – as download numbers are showing.

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Let me quote our partner CADFEM: “Digital engineering involves tapping the full potential of technical creativity, precise data models, and clever workflows. This ensures that a good idea results in an excellent product – for manufacturers, customers, and the environment.” Given the diverse applications of products, how do you foster collaboration and partnerships with other businesses? Differentiation in our existing business of course means excellent hardware products, and excellent new digital products and services. If you think of that, we will only be able to succeed if we are a very digital company concerning our internal processes. Here is where we partner up with various strong partners. One very good example is CADFEM. CADFEM is our long-standing partner in virtual product development technologies, especially advanced physics-based simulation. Simulation software enables us to develop, optimise and innovate our products digitally, on the screen. This does not only save a lot of time and money in product development –

“Sustainability has always been anchored in our corporate strategy.” just think of the physical prototypes that do not have to be built, tested, and measured – it also helps our engineers to quickly test their ideas or compare hundreds of options, to be innovative – a key to differentiate ourselves. Long story short: this is done by our engineers and CADFEM is our partner for software (we use Ansys), but also expert advice, seminars, customised development etc. CADFEM supports us to explore new application areas and accompanies us until they are fully implemented and dominated by our own engineers. For example, simulation technology at WAGO is evolving from being a rigid part in the R&D process chain, to a technology that accompanies the complete product lifecycle and can be used by everyone involved in the

DIGITAL ENGINEERING: A SINGLE PROTOTYPE IS ALL IT TAKES.

“Whether new or further development, our goal is to get by with a single prototype before a product goes into series production,” emphasizes Stefan Macho, Head of R&D Simulation, who has been driving the use of simulation in the development area of the HAWE Hydraulik SE for more than ten years. With great success: HAWE hydraulic power packs are ready for the market faster and in a more cost-effective way, without compromising on quality. This is achieved by virtual prototyping, that allows the product to modeled, analyzed, and optimized on a PC or cloud, providing engineers with the ability rapidly explore & identify innovative designs. MASTERING COMPLEXITY Hydraulic power packs depend on the reliable and intelligent interaction of mechanical, fluid dynamics, acoustics, and control effects. Not only must each individual physical domain function properly, but the interactions between them must also be identified, evaluated, and coordinated. This is made possible with simulation-based Digital Engineering. At HAWE, physical testing

is carried out for the final validation of the digitally developed product. The goal is, to get along with just one single prototype before a new hydraulic power pack design is finished and ready for series production. With simulation, complexity becomes an opportunity for innovation, improvement, and for the realization of new approaches. Small but important details are identified, correlations are made transparent, and ideas are quickly tested - even in areas that traditional development processes do not often consider. Innovation as a fundamental approach Continuous improvement of hydraulic power packs and other products reflects the commitment to innovation embedded in the corporate principles of HAWE. The use of engineering simulation technology is key, and the close and long-term partnership with experts from Digital Engineering specialist CADFEM underscores HAWE’s claim to always be on the cutting edge of technology and methodology. After all, innovative not only refers to the products, but to all processes and systems at HAWE. WWW.CADFEM.NET/HAWE

Empowering Digital Engineering. Globally. SIMULATION-BASED DIGITAL ENGINEERING LEVERAGES THE FULL POTENTIAL OF TECHNICAL CREATIVITY, PRECISE DATA MODELS AND INNOVATIVE WORKFLOWS. CADFEM has been synonymous with simulation since 1985 and has been supporting companies, researchers, and students in the successful use of simulation technology ever since. Simulation has evolved into an essential component of Digital Engineering: Our global team of over 450 employees provides technical support, mentoring, training, project work, contract projects and IT services to ensure a rapid, seamless implementation and deployment of digital engineering solutions. CADFEM are also experts in data management solutions, workﬂow customization, automation and utilizing game changing technologies like AI.

Our approach guarantees that good ideas get translated into excellent products – beneﬁtting manufacturers, customers, and the environment.

E LI T E C H A N N E L PA RT N E R

CADFEM.NET

CADFEMGROUP.COM

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How does the company approach social and environmental responsibility in its operations and product development?

Our business areas are oriented towards sustainable developments like production, buildings, energy, and mobility. We try to place our products there and focus development of new products, services, and offerings around that with our partners. And when we develop products, we have clear set requirements we pay particular attention to. We also have a WAGO circular economy action plan that also gives us good guidance to focus on. And nothing is too small to have an impact – as mentioned before, our

As a CTO, how do you envision the long-term technological landscape for the company? For the major challenges that climate change is posing, a more electrical world with sector coupling as well as the convergence of OT and IT, all means a more digital world will just happen, and we will be there to support and enable our customers. We are in the driver’s seat as we supply components, systems, and solutions. So, we can drive sustainability and digitalisation. But this vision will only partially guide us, so our focus must be customercentric overall, which will lead us to new innovations and concepts.

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Sustainability has always been anchored in our corporate strategy. It’s not only something we manage across in our daily business; it’s in the DNA of our company owners. Our sustainability program is a benchmark for business decisions. We’ve been part of the UN Global Compact sustainability initiatives since 2012, and we try to provide solutions for customers to move to more sustainable businesses.

221 Series Green Range splicing connector with levers for example, uses plastics from alternative sources – a mixture of recycled and bio-circular plastics.

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engineering process. Having a comprehensive simulation-based digital model of each product (a “Digital Twin”) is a huge advantage and that is where we are going to with the expert advice of our partner CADFEM.

By learning more of our customers, their processes, and linking them up digitally, we can gather data. This is a self-reinforcing system. We will be able to provide new offerings, and in the end, become even closer to the customer, obtain even more data, and then develop new offerings. That’s something that will move us along as a components and system supplier. We are probably best positioned if we follow and focus on that. WWW.WAGO.COM 85

I M A G E: L I S A T S E

F A U S T O A R T I C O

THE FUTURE OF PHARMA

FAUSTO ARTICO, GLOBAL HEAD OF INNOVATION AND DATA SCIENCE AT GSK, SHARES HIS INSIGHTS ON HUMAN-CENTRIC PROJECTS, DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SUCCESS STORIES, AND STRATEGIES FOR LEADING GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTRIBUTED TEAMS.

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I am Fausto. I have multiple PhDs (Information Science and Computer Science), multiple MsCs (Computer Engineering and Computer Science), one BsC (Computer Science) and many non-expiring certifications from prestigious universities and business schools (e.g., MIT Sloan, Columbia Business School at Columbia University, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Haas at the University of California, Berkeley, etc.). I have created and led many Innovative Deep Tech projects throughout my career. I worked in Silicon Valley for NVIDIA Corporation, in New York at the IBM T J Watson Research Center where I collaborated on projects for the US Government and the National Laboratories, and about six years ago I relocated to London where I entered

the Biopharma sector and became Global Head of Innovation and Data Science for GlaxoSmithKline. I transitioned from an earlier career as Mathematician, Physicist, Data Scientist and Engineer exclusively to more leadership and executive roles that require the continuous discovery and creation of opportunities, fundraising, business development with internal and external partners, team building across the many verticals and levels of complex organisations, as well as project and programme delivery from ideation to production. Data was a very important element in all these activities, but I discovered that the most critical element is always the human one. And so, my teams and I make sure to build human communities and partnership ecosystems that continue to thrive even after project delivery, and we also ensure they are very resilient,

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Can you tell us about yourself?

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even for the delivery of long-term projects that may require decades of development. I think that today, everyone benefits by being entre- or intrapreneurial, that is, by taking the lead and trying to develop partnership ecosystems that allow everybody to seamlessly exchange ideas and create new opportunities. This is one of my core tenets when I need to create any new project. We can all benefit more from working together. For these reasons, I also build huge networks of suppliers and vendors, and work with multiple networks of investors and startups from all over the world. How would you say technology and its role has evolved over time? Technology has an important role to play in every organisation. For example, in the Deep Tech sector, there is always so much to keep up with and so many interesting Emerging

Technologies that you can use to generate ground-breaking benefits (e.g., Generative AI, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, Smart Sensors, etc.). However, many people and teams want to use such technologies without having the necessary skills and capabilities. Therefore, it is important to educate teams and people as well as clarify what they can achieve without external help and when to connect them with the suitable outside companies. It must also be determined which are the right resources to allocate (e.g., money, domain knowledge experts, innovation environments, etc.) to maximise the probability of success of their initiatives, especially the ones that leverage Emerging Technologies. It is also important to remember that many significant enhancements can be brought about without Emerging Technologies. Hyper-automation and other “non-sexy” activities can generate benefits and cost

We had to modernise and increase efficiency (i.e., reduce waste and accelerate production) of the manufacturing processes for several products because demand in the market was higher than the existing capacity. However, we could not allocate huge investments for buying new equipment (too expensive), build new plants (too slow), and/or revalidate the existing processes and systems (too complicated). We therefore decided to go down the digital and agile routes and create an ecosystem of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions as we had plenty of historical and real-time data provided by the thousands of sensors already available at the manufacturing sites. Nobody could really believe we could succeed. It took two years of solid work with incremental deliverables to convince stakeholders that our vision was going to become a reality. The whole ecosystem was composed of more

From the change management point of view, different sites had different priorities and not everybody believed that what we were proposing was possible. It took a tremendous amount of effort to build the necessary trust with people at the sites and determine a roadmap that made the vice presidents comfortable allocating resources (and people) to the initiative so that we could start to generate value and make several people critical, and the workforce enthusiastic and willing to want more. From the cultural point of view, Pharma is characterised by very conservative environments where change is risky and there are strong asymmetries between taking a risk and benefiting from it, especially for full-time employees who need to approve the changes but, at best, can hope for only a thank you from their bosses. It was necessary to find what I call power users (e.g., users who are enthusiastic about trying new, different solutions and have a lot of influence with several teams at the sites so that solution adoption can happen faster. Successful results can unlock further initiatives championed by them). With such power users, we got their invaluable help in navigating some political dynamics at the sites that would have otherwise been impossible for us to foresee.

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Can you share a specific example of how you have driven digital and agile transformation through change management and culture within your organisation?

than 20 solutions and was put into production at all the most important manufacturing sites. It was very challenging to create and deploy because from the technical point of view, it soon became very clear that a lot of data was residing in many siloed systems and that existing, classical ML algorithms did not work for problems with complex dynamics, like the ones characterising Pharma manufacturing environments and the human body.

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savings as multiple systems get interfaced: data is ingested, linked, cleaned, contextualised, and harmonised to produce a single, holistic version of the truth. Such a version is made accessible to multiple departments – processes and systems continue to be simplified and streamlined, and activities automated. Furthermore, change management is crucial. I never shy away from the initial difficulty and effort of developing new technical solutions. This is because I have seen several initiatives fail since the right level of alignment among internal and external teams was not created and set correctly from the start. So, it is important to involve all necessary stakeholders as soon as possible, instead of waiting for the successful delivery of some milestones. I know this requires more time and more meetings, but the risk otherwise is that some important aspects will be overlooked and that it will later be unfeasible to easily correct or ameliorate the effects, therefore making it impossible to integrate the new solutions into the existing production systems.

The most important lesson we learned is that, especially when you have no direct control over people and you work in an industry where drug approval and validation can easily take more than a decade, you can only persuade all the people in an ecosystem if you involve them in co-developing the strategy and align it so as to realise their personal interests. Doing so is the only way to motivate people while also achieving results, through them, that satisfy the needs of the organisation. 89

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What challenges have you faced in implementing digital transformation initiatives, and how did you overcome them? I have often seen C-level people choose big name vendors, consultants, and suppliers to play it safe. However, my experience has been that big and important companies tend to create assessments and a lot of documentation with the aim of justifying and selling multi-year, long-term projects that require tens of millions of dollars to be delivered by said companies. Furthermore, such projects are very complex and often fail or produce only very limited benefits because they are based on inaccurate assumptions. The way I overcame this problem has been by building new, internal core teams and departments that can prove their value incrementally and with roadmaps that de-risk long-term projects in ways that allow the creation of modular capabilities that will continue to generate value even if the projects get killed. Building internal teams and departments and augmenting them with external contractors allowed companies where I worked to understand the reality and challenges more thoughtfully and carefully of what they would face if they decided to approve and fund digital transformational initiatives. This is important, especially in sectors that are not digital and in which

companies often do not have in-house expertise related to Data Science, Computer Science, etc. I have both an engineering and a business background, which, albeit difficult to achieve, nevertheless provides multiple advantages. I not only deeply understand the technologies we must use, can source, and hire technical people and lead them, but I also understand in a holistic way how business works. I can “sell” projects and initiatives to budget holders and C-level people, as well as create communities and foster change in a way that can be highly decentralised and leverages whatever resources are available in an organisation. Having such a multi-disciplinary approach, a genuine curiosity about things, and an orientation geared toward validating and fostering human potential, helps make it possible to create, implement and deploy any kind of initiative, including digital ones, because such skills are cross-transferable and highly sought after for many leadership roles. Can you share your approach to building and leading a geographically distributed Data Science team, especially considering the different cultural and working environment factors in the USA, UK, EU, and India? In the USA, I have noticed that people tend to base their value on how much money they

make. It is therefore important to pay high salaries to attract the right talent, considering that the market is very competitive and there is plenty of liquidity. Higher earnings even take precedence over the type of projects offered. Additionally, the work/life balance does not compare to Europe. Vacations in the USA are much shorter, and even on holiday, employees are often expected to jump on calls if something is happening at work.

Hiring in India is becoming very competitive. However, even though salaries in India are lower compared to other parts of the world, it can be difficult to find people with the right skills, especially for work in Innovation with Deep Tech. The country is growing, and it is definitely very strong in the IT sector. People expect much faster career progression (every six months or one year). Show them that you want to hire in India, that there is a clear career path for them, that they are going to be

When you work in Innovation and very complex environments, it is difficult to have all the answers. For this reason, it is important to create safe environments where everybody can speak openly and is happy to disclose his/ her views, feels listened to and understands that his/her input is going to become part of the delivery strategy. Genuine curiosity is one of the most critical skills. It is important because you and your teams need to connect with people, ask a multitude of questions and collaborate with domain knowledge experts from many different disciplines. It is also important because in innovation there is a continuous need to learn new things. This is especially true in the tech sector where new technologies are developed all the time and need to be explored quickly and periodically to determine their level of maturity, and if and how they can be integrated and leveraged in the existing systems of the different verticals of the organisation (these have different levels of maturity and readiness). The biggest obstacle you and your teams will have to overcome to do things differently is often the status quo. So, to understand why people hang on to “standard” ways of working, get under their skin, figure out the true history behind their words, what their fears really are, and why they are resistant to changing the ways they do things.

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The EU is a mixed bag. There are many nationalities and cultures. For Italians, lifestyle is important, Germans are more methodical and structured, etc. To attract the right talent, you really must understand each culture. Some interesting opportunities were present in Eastern Europe, but the market is now getting saturated and the salaries, especially for tech jobs, are getting comparable to the ones in Western Europe. As in the UK, creating and offering interesting projects is important. The bolder the project, the better. Compared to Western Europe where Environmental, Social and Corporate goals are becoming more important and should be emphasised and integrated in each project during hiring discussions, this is still not a well-defined and deep need when hiring from Eastern Europe.

How do you foster innovation within your teams, and what strategies do you employ to ensure diverse perspectives are considered?

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In the UK, the market is mature and mainly financial. The salaries are not as high as in the USA but higher than in the EU. Here you find people with great expertise, that have worked many years on complex systems and have usually enjoyed tax benefits for a long time. This makes it important for them to find interesting projects. Give them interesting projects and you can even hire them for cheaper salaries than what is offered by big banks in the City of London.

surrounded by multiple teams, and that your company is investing heavily in developing permanent capabilities there in India.

To include diverse perspectives and bring balance into projects, you must become aware of potential biases and capability gaps. To do this, uncover and list assumptions. This is one of the most important steps because it shows people’s thought patterns, allows you to better understand the interests and pain points of the stakeholders, provides you with a snapshot of what is going on, 91

the types of tests and experiments you need to design to de-risk activities, and plan or modify the delivery roadmaps. Finally, empower your team to reach out to people, ask questions and show genuine interest, not only in the tech aspects of the projects, but also in the human and political dynamics that characterise organisations.

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What do you think makes an effective modern Global Head of Innovation and Data Science and how do you approach creating and developing a strong team and culture? To be an effective Global Head of Innovation you need to talk with a great many people to discover pains and new business opportunities. You have an advantage if you are good at creating relationships. It is also great to have a multi-disciplinary background, and you must have at least a high-level understanding of Emerging Technologies and first principles that you can apply in several different situations and sectors. Do you like to find ways to make things work no matter what the situation? This is a very sought after skill by employers. And you do not need to know or be ready for everything. You can learn as you go. Be willing to volunteer for new opportunities and stick your neck out. Develop your style. Everybody is different. Create opportunities and deliver them in ways that make you comfortable and are aligned to who you are, your values and your desires. Team building is critical. There is no way you can deliver what you need on your own. You can organise your team, function, and department to oversee some activities in a centralised way and, yes, you and your teams can help other teams to cover capability gaps (e.g., you can temporarily cover their software needs if you have coders). But in the long term, you will have to upskill the organisation, and it is important that you design and put frameworks and tools in place that allow everybody to submit ideas. Such tools will allow you to create a scalable innovation 92

register where you can record ideas and discover overlapping needs more easily. They can also help you discover interesting proposals that have a limited window of opportunity and do not appear in the yearly strategic plans, but that must be progressed quickly from ideation to industrialisation using the frameworks you design and put in place for promoting, funding, and developing ideas. How do you balance your responsibilities within the organisation with your role as a thought leader outside the company? It is important to also be recognised outside the company. Write opinion editorials, volunteer in non-profit organisations, mentor young people through diversity and inclusion activities, take on some fractional roles to help startups, connect investors with founders, etc. My experience is that you can go to as many events as you want and be involved in as many activities as you wish if you satisfy your noncompete clauses and are always available to your teams and stakeholders. Your greatest contribution is where you can add more value and perform activities that nobody else can do but you. Therefore, delegate everything that can be done by somebody else to free up your time and focus on creating impact, working on the business instead of in the business. If you are creative, you can develop your career path in any way you wish, even if it does not fit the preconceived ways of working or organisational structure. Being involved in activities outside the company allows you to give back to the community and explore opportunities that will give ideas and possibilities you would never have discovered working only for your employer. Be bold, take the lead, go to as many external events as you can. But do not be a passive participant. Take an active role. Go to those events only if you can give a presentation. Learn how to pitch and sell your ideas to organisers and the audience. Propose to be involved in their activities in ways that make you enthusiastic so that everybody sees your passion and will want to know you better. That

FA U S T O A R T IC O

Could you elaborate on the key components of a sustainable innovation strategy? The roadmap must be developed to unlock incremental value. Nobody is going to wait three to five years before seeing any result. Even budget allocation and approval are easier to achieve if value is created through a series of connected activities that generate business results and build trust with stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to create ecosystems where the development process is de-risked in multiple ways (e.g., through external collaborations

to bridge capability gaps, with a good mix of high-risk, high-reward and low-risk, low-reward initiatives, etc.). For horizon 1 (short-term initiatives), you can create more infrastructure-related projects that should not be difficult to implement but would create value through automation for cost cutting and activity acceleration. For horizon 2 (mediumterm initiatives), you can propose and develop Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning projects to unlock value from data and even start to build your in-house, proprietary algorithms, and modify existing processes accordingly. For horizon 3 (long-term initiatives), you can do experimental work and start to build skills and awareness for technologies like Quantum Computing, do more foundational research

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will open doors for you and more people will start to ask you to be involved in some of the activities for which you are a good fit.

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and publish papers, and get ready to start to leverage such Emerging Technologies, and integrate them into production as soon as they become stable enough, given the level of maturity of your organisation. A long-term, competitive, and sustainable innovation strategy is therefore generated by the synergetic, integrated effect of multiple aligned initiatives that do not depend on a single technology but, instead, leverage multiple ones. However, technology is only one necessary element to consider during the development of a long-term, competitive, and sustainable innovation strategy. Culture, change management, upskilling, agility, etc., are other important elements. Many of these have nothing to do with technology and a lot to do with people. You need to think of and integrate all these elements to be able to fully realise the potential of your vision and strategy. So, it is important that during your journey to success, you also create the right communities, educate people, provide learning paths and numerous opportunities for teams to meet and work together. What do you think are important factors to consider for business development and the creation of partnership ecosystems with big partners and early-stage startups? Even big companies cannot do or develop everything in-house. Teams must be built in geographically distributed ways, taking differences in culture and ways of working into account. In this very complex, fast changing world, there are even situations where internal dynamics of a company can change so drastically and in such a short period of time that you always hope some partners can take on more and solve problems for you in ways that you cannot even imagine. This is the type of partner you hope you can count on. If something unexpected happens, you know they can work in a highly autonomous way, with minimal input from you, after receiving initial help from your internal teams. And do you want to know what the best part is? These partners can surprise you with their inventiveness. They can create solutions with whatever resources and systems are already 94

qualified and validated at the manufacturing sites. They may even be able to develop solutions that do not need reapprovals or lengthy negotiations with regulators. Often, they do such an amazing job, that you can just use the new capabilities they create practically out of the box and interface them with existing processes at the sites in seamless ways. In addition to scouting, assessing, and leveraging established companies, I also think that we will see the emergence of informal networks of independent entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs more and more. They, working together, will tackle difficult challenges quickly for governments or big organisations. The emergence of such informal, collaborative networks will allow entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to explore the creation of frontier technology solutions (i.e., the simultaneous use of multiple Emerging Technologies to solve very challenging problems) with multidisciplinary, diverse, and inclusive teams. The diversity of a team has always been a well-known asset and a strategic competitive advantage independent of the market, industry, and the challenge that needs to be solved. Such teams will be able to decipher challenges in novel ways that are practically impossible to solve, following procedures of highly standardised and regulated environments like the ones that characterise governments or big organisations. What do you think are important factors to consider for business development and the creation of partnership ecosystems with big partners and early-stage startups? Even big companies cannot do or develop everything in-house. Teams must be built in geographically distributed ways, taking differences in culture and ways of working into account. In this very complex, fast changing world, there are even situations where internal dynamics of a company can change so drastically and in such a short period of time that you always hope some partners can take on more and solve problems for you in ways that you cannot even imagine.

Turning research into value for business and society

Accelerating Personalized Cancer Treatment Through Hybrid Quantum Innovation Cancer treatment is continuously evolving, driven by the pursuit of innovative solutions to address its complex challenges. In response to the limitations of traditional methods and their associated side effects, Terra Quantum's research team has embarked on a novel exploration into the potential of quantum computing. This innovative approach, also published in the highly reputed Cancers journal, could enhance the predictability of drug responses, taking significant strides toward a more personalized and potentially tailored approach to cancer treatments.

Objective

Terra Quantum AG

Our goal was clear: to explore how enhancing drug response prediction while minimizing side effects could potentially be achieved. To this end, Terra Quantum's research team ventured into uncharted territory, leveraging a cutting-edge Hybrid Quantum Neural Network (HQNN). This quantum-infused approach aimed to potentially redefine how we might tailor cancer treatments to individual patients.

case study

Method

We employed a unique model combining classical and quantum layers, reducing complex genetic information to just 8 qubits. The HQNN was put to the test using the Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer dataset, providing insights into genetic mutations and drug formulas.

The quantum-enhanced approach delivered 15% accuracy improvement in predicting the cancer drug response.

Results The quantum-enhanced model showcased a 15% improvement over traditional methods in predicting drug response, representing a significant stride in an era where data limitations are a constant challenge. The HQNN's efficiency, especially with limited data, potentially opens new possibilities for personalized cancer medicine.

Future outlook This quantum-driven journey in predicting drug responses could represent a significant advancement in cancer treatment. By leveraging the power of hybrid quantum computing, Terra Quantum's research team is paving the way for reframing our approach to personalized medicine, striving for a more tailored future in cancer treatments. This groundbreaking research, also recognized and published in the prestigious Cancers journal, made possible by Terra Quantum's research expertise, opens doors to new possibilities. It signals a turning point where treatments could become as unique as the patients themselves, offering hope for more effective and potentially individualized solutions in the fight against cancer.

Explore more case studies by Terra Quantum, driving practical value through cutting-edge hybrid quantum solutions.

ENHANCING BUSINESS PERFORMANCE POWERED BY QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

AEROSPACE

AUTOMOTIVE

CHEMICALS

HEALTHCARE

FINANCE

TELECOM

ENERGY

RETAIL & LOGISTICS

WE UNLOCK QUANTUM UTILITY TODAY FOR BUSINESS & SOCIETY Terra Quantum uniquely combines the best of quantum and classical techniques into hybrid quantum computing solutions that unlock value today, boosting performance in areas from optimization to machine learning. Executives in key sectors are already leveraging Terra Quantum's models to achieve higher forecasting accuracy, novel molecule design, better drug response prediction, enhanced efficiencies and more.

QUANTUM ALGORITHMS

QUANTUM COMPUTING

QUANTUM SECURITY

MACHINE LEARNING

HYBRID CLOUD

PQC LIBRARIES

OPTIMIZATION

SIMULATED QPU

SECURE NETWORKS

SIMULATION

3RD PARTY QPU INTEGRATION

KEY GENERATION & MANAGEMENT

Navigate high dimensional tasks more easily

Reach better predictions with less data

Find optimal solutions to complex problems faster

Significantly reduce computation costs

Discover our publications and connect with our team to explore hybrid quantum solutions for your business challenges. 97

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Considering the wide range of areas where innovation is applied within your organisation, how do you prioritise which areas to focus on for the creation of new products and services? After gathering ideas, start to funnel them through innovation frameworks.

To simplify the prioritisation process, you can use weighted averages that consider multiple dimensions, with each dimension characterised by different levels of risk, to generate the final ranking. As technology develops, the company matures and so the level of risk for each dimension gets updated and the prioritisation list gets updated too. The scaling factors used to multiply the levels of risk can be varied for different verticals in the organisation (e.g., the value of the scaling factor for the risk dimension in the cybersecurity department will probably be higher than the value of the same factor used in the mail department). Try to create or use the simplest framework you can for your needs, so that you can help the organisation to capture, evaluate and execute ideas in a scalable way, with minimal administrative burden.

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The emergence of such informal, collaborative networks will allow entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to explore the creation of frontier technology solutions (i.e., the simultaneous use of multiple Emerging Technologies to solve very challenging problems) with multidisciplinary, diverse, and inclusive teams. The diversity of a team has always been a well-known asset and a strategic competitive advantage independent of the market, industry, and the challenge that needs to be solved. Such teams will be able to decipher challenges in novel ways that are practically impossible to solve, following procedures of highly standardised and regulated environments like the ones that characterise governments or big organisations.

The frameworks help standardise how you and your team evaluate and compare ideas as much as possible. Each company is different and uses varied frameworks. But the same principles can be applied to every activity, with some adaptation. As you start to promote ideas that are aligned to the business strategy and/or would provide great business benefits, you start to gather more information from the teams and people that submitted ideas, as well as for projects you and your teams, as a centralised function, proposed after you discovered the organisation’s needs. This information-gathering phase is important to understand capability gaps and any critical factor that would make it impossible to deliver the projects. This phase is also useful to prioritise business areas and use cases.

FA U S T O A R T IC O

This is the type of partner you hope you can count on. If something unexpected happens, you know they can work in a highly autonomous way, with minimal input from you, after receiving initial help from your internal teams. And do you want to know what the best part is? These partners can surprise you with their inventiveness. They can create solutions with whatever resources and systems are already qualified and validated at the manufacturing sites. They may even be able to develop solutions that do not need reapprovals or lengthy negotiations with regulators. Often, they do such an amazing job, that you can just use the new capabilities they create practically out of the box and interface them with existing processes at the sites in seamless ways. In addition to scouting, assessing, and leveraging established companies, I also think that we will see the emergence of informal networks of independent entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs more and more. They, working together, will tackle difficult challenges quickly for governments or big organisations.

How do you identify pains and possibilities in the Generative AI space? Identifying pains and possibilities in the Generative AI space is easy. This is because there is so much you can do with this technology. What is more complex is to determine how to use new technology in the existing context of your organisation because many departments like IT, Legal and Procurement are still not used to it. After you have discovered and gathered use cases for which Generative AI appears to be 99

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the right technology, my advice is to create a strategy with three horizons. In horizon 1, execute use cases that require out-of-the-box capabilities provided by external providers (e.g., OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, etc.). This is important to minimise technological risk and allow different departments to understand how they need to modify existing infrastructure, ways of working, and processes to use the technology. At the end of this phase, you will have put some use cases into production that are generating value. Most importantly, you will have created cross-functional teams that have agreed on the new frameworks, and processes that must be used when necessary to develop and integrate use cases that leverage Generative AI into production systems.

Startups should partner more among themselves to create ecosystems difficult to replicate for big companies. If they do so and reach critical mass, they will be able to sustain themselves and we will see the rise of new business models and ways of doing things that are very different from the current ones (e.g., startups trying to get partnerships with big Pharma companies). Current business models are often difficult to execute due to the difference between ways of working of a startup and a big Pharma company. Creating partnership ecosystems where risk is spread but everybody can benefit from the ecosystem’s success. And the ability to choose and execute activities quicker is a definite way for big Pharma companies to work with startups more easily and/or for startups to build more complete, even more innovative proprietary systems, and become cash positive quicker in a more independent manner.

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In horizon 3, you go bold and start to modify or create new models from scratch. This phase usually requires heavy investments. An example is the generation of new Large Language Models that use your in-house, proprietary datasets. You must have a very skilled technical workforce to pull this off. All other change management procedures for infrastructure, architectural choices, legal implications, governance, and ownership need to be already in place and well-oiled before you can successfully venture into trying to execute the bold and investment-intensive horizon 3 activities.

I believe they will become more open. Big Pharma has plenty of resources and processes in place to successfully commercialise products. However, startups in the Biotech sector are better positioned to provide technical know-how and Emerging Technology capabilities. This is because more entrepreneurial people, especially in the tech sector, prefer to have the freedom to explore and try new things in a way that is less constrained compared to what is typical in big pharmaceutical companies. In future, development of technologies like 3D printing will lower barriers to entry in the Pharma sector, even if Pharma companies continue to have an incredible advantage due to their proprietary datasets and processes they refined over many years (sometimes even centuries).

FA U S T O A R T IC O

In horizon 2, you start to explore the opportunity to use open-source models instead of proprietary models, fine-tune the models more heavily, develop new architectural choices (e.g., do we really need Large Language Models? Can we develop swarms of Small Language Models that work as well as Large Language Models but are more cost effective?) and you extend or substitute some capabilities you developed during horizon 1. At the end of this phase, you will have started to build in-house capabilities and upskilled your workforce from the technical point of view.

Looking ahead, how do you think the Pharma and Biotech sectors will evolve over the coming years and why?

WWW.GSK.COM

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Disruptor

ECOVATIVE UNLOCKING THE POWER OF MUSHROOMS

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Biotechnology company Ecovative is changing the way that products are made across multiple industries, by utilising mycelium, or as they are commonly known, mushrooms. The company has made it their mission to design and grow materials, straight from nature, in an attempt to create more sustainable alternatives to plastic, leather, food, and more.

WWW.ECOVATIVE.COM

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Ecovative is already working with many companies to produce

With the huge potential to be utilised further in the food & beverage, and fashion industries, as well as in automotives, homeware, furniture, and more, Ecovative is well on its way to changing the world one mushroom at a time.

DI S R U P T O R

The mycelium’s secret weapon is its self-replicating scaffold structure. The mycelial network is fine and versatile, but extremely strong and durable, with the ability to resist outside forces like water, decay, and pressure. Ecovative uses their pioneering AirMycelium™ chambers to grow pure mycelial fibres on a huge scale and utilise their adaptable properties to produce a sustainable, eco-friendly material.

eco-friendly, alternative products with their AirMycelium. New York based food manufacturing company MyForest Foods aims to help with the growing demand for more humane, sustainable alternatives to animal products and have spent many years perfecting their plant-based meat substitutes using Ecovative’s AirMycelium platform. Similarly, a surging demand for leather alternatives, that are not made of plastic, has led Ecovative to develop Forager, pure mycelium hides which are naturally durable, strong and 100% vegan.

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P H O T O: N O O M P E E R A P O

7 GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS IN FILMMAKING

The film industry has been a living, breathing machine for 150 years now. Despite having complex technological prowess built into its fabric from day one, the film industry has continued to utilise developments in technology to its advantage. Whilst still having artistic expression and storytelling at its core, filmmakers from the late 1800s would barely recognise the movies of today, with a huge reason for that being years of technological change. Here are seven of the most transformative technologies within film.

TECHNICOLOUR FILM In 1917, the first technicolour film The Gulf Between was released, demonstrating the Technicolor Company’s discovery of recording two colours, red and teal, using just one lens. However, this was both an eyesore and a far cry from what developed in the following years. Improved versions, using a three-colour process, which was celebrated for its vibrancy, became commonplace in some of the most memorable films of the 1930s and 1940s, such as The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

SOUND CINEMA P H O T O: K R I S T S LU H A E R S

The transition to sound cinema created such a wave in filmmaking that it is still depicted today in films such as Babylon and The Artist. Feature-length sound films, dubbed “talkies” burst onto the scene in 1927 with the release of The Jazz Singer. The movie’s sound was made using Vitaphone’s sound-on-disc technology, which printed the soundtrack on a separate record that was played in sync with the projection. This would become the industry standard for many years to come.

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CGI Computer-generated imagery is so commonplace in the movies today, that many barely even notice it. However, CGI is still an impressive feat of technology and artistry. The first computer animation in a movie can be seen in the opening sequence of 1958’s Vertigo, created by digital art legend John Whitney. Since then, CGI has evolved significantly, accomplishing everything from blending live-action and animation, to constructing computer-generated animals and accurately de-ageing actors.

IMAX P H O T O: PA R S O A K H O R S A N D

IMAX, which debuted in 1970, is a system of HD film formats and cameras. Whilst the standard and most popular film format in motion picture recording utilises a 35mm gauge, IMAX uses 70mm film, which is about 10 times bigger. While shooting IMAX increases a film’s budget and places technical constraints on a production, IMAX images also provide a larger image area, greater resolution, and less grain. Therefore, seasoned directors who work on large-scale movies, such as Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve, have found themselves drawn to the format.

ANIMATION Whilst certain forms of animation have existed in film since the 1800s, what we now consider traditional featurelength cel animation began in 1937, with the release of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Cel animation sees a film get storyboarded and soundtracked, and then each frame of the movie gets drawn by hand, scanned, and synced with the pre-recorded audio. Traditional animation remained the primary technique for animated movies until the end of the 20th century.

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Coming to prominence in the film industry in the late 1990s, in movies such as Batman: Forever and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, motion capture is a process that records movement. Also referred to as Performance Capture, when more intimate aspects of an actor’s performance are utilised, such as expressions and subtle movements, the process creates a framework of movement that is used to animate digital characters. Motion capture helps animators create a more complex range of movement and emotion in their animated characters, or provide more human-like qualities to characters that wouldn’t naturally have that range of emotion. The process is seen today, playing a huge role in film series such as Avatar, Lord of the Rings, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

P H O T O: U NL I M I T E D M O T IO N

MOTION/PERFORMANCE CAPTURE

P H O T O: S H U B H A M D H A G E

3D ANIMATION Whilst the 1970s and 80s helped cement 3D animation within the industry, with the likes of Star Wars pushing it to the forefront of mainstream filmmaking, the 1990s was a revolutionary decade for 3D animation. In 1995, Pixar released Toy Story, the first full-length 3D animated feature film, which helped establish them as the trailblazing studio we know today. 3D aims to bridge the gap between animation and live-action, making texture, depth, movement, and expression as true to life as possible.

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EVENTS

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MWC BARCELONA

WEB SUMMIT

26/02/24 - 29/02/24 Barcelona, Spain

26/02/24 - 29/02/24 Doha, Qatar

From the most inspiring speakers, to participating in debates about the hottest topics in technology.

thousands of international entrepreneurs, investors and leaders will gather at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center (DECC) to connect the tech world.

TECH SHOW

AI & BIG DATA EXPO

06/03/24 - 07/03/24 London, UK

05/06/24 - 06/06/24 SANTA CLARA, CA

Discover a world where cutting-edge technology reshapes industries, enhances businesses, and drives the future.

AI & Big Data Expo is the leading event for Enterprise AI, Machine Learning, Security, Ethical AI, Deep Learning, Data Ecosystems, and NLP.

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THE PLATFORM FOR PROCUREMENT AND SUPPLY CHAIN LEADERS

The Purchaser examines the trends and technologies impacting procurement and supply chain executives across all major industry sectors. It provides insight and analysis on those technologies driving change and explores how and why the role of procurement and supply chain leaders is evolving.

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