With advancements in mobility and connectivity enabling new technologies at a faster rate than ever, staying ahead of the curve can be a challenge for even the most skilled of operators. From education to retail; mining to medical; all sectors face the common challenge of digitizing their workflows and offerings for an increasingly connected world. While these organizations may have a deep understanding of their own fields, even the most forward-thinking leaders rely on outside partners to bring them up to speed on the technology front, and Infosys is one of those leaders.
In this episode, we sit with Maddie Rajurs, Associate Vice President of Infosys, who is helping her clients—and entire industries—transform via digitization. Maddie has seen her career span from helping light up the first wave of wireless cities to now harnessing the power of 5G to put her clients on the forefront of the digital age. Maddie and her team diligently work to stay ahead of the curve, partnering with start-ups, institutes, and other technology leaders to seek out and develop the latest technology solutions for their clients. A self-proclaimed techno-optimist, Maddie believes that her work will lead to improving efficiencies, productivity, and even lives in both the long and short run.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
What excites me the most right now, what makes me
wake up in the morning with excitement is truly five G.
And obviously the whole aspect of communication coming as a
bedrock really is what amazes me that this is all
going to come together and the opportunity is huge. It's
not just from an entertainment perspective, but it's about value.
(00:25):
How am I serving the community? How am I reaching out?
How am I giving more back? I look at it
from that lens of how can we empower more? How
can we enrich more? That's kind of what I see
as what the technology can do. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you may know, I've spent the
(00:46):
last fifteen years covering technology and learning how it works,
demystifying everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics and
everything in between. Yet it's the conversation with some of
the most forward thinking leaders, those at the intersection of
technology and business that fascinate me the most. I'm excited
(01:10):
to bring you this episode of The Restless Ones. I
had the chance to talk with Maddie Rogers, who told
me that this was her first podcast, only you would
never know it because Maddie is a born storyteller and
the stories she shared were inspiring. Maddie's path to the
tech business world wasn't your typical one. If she had
(01:30):
pursued her original career, you might find her filling in
cavities or performing a root canal. But Maddie discovered that
through technology she could realize her dream of helping people
connect with their work and with each other through forming
digitization strategies and infrastructure. I sat down with Maddie to
talk about that journey, as well as how so many
(01:51):
companies have embraced digitization on a massive scale due to
the pandemic and the sort of challenges that organizations often
faced when evaluating their own strategy. But first I wanted
to learn more about Maddie herself. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
It's a real pleasure to have you on the show.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
(02:14):
So I am curious. I looked into your background and
some interesting questions have popped up. So at what point
did technology start to become an interest to you? Great question.
I have a late entrance to tech, so as a
middle schooler, I always dreamt to become a dentist. I
had a dentist who I admired as she was fantastic,
(02:35):
So that's what I wanted to be, and I became
a dentist. And then my journey to US I came
in during the Internet boom, and that was my first
time looking at a computer, or rather touching one, and
it was amazing. And that's when I said goodbye to
dentistry and allot of technology. I left my old me
(02:56):
behind and started the world of tech. I have never
heard a journey like that. That is one of those
things that really surprised me. And talk about the tumultuous
time like the boom of the dot com industry really
showed us the best and worst of technology and business
in a very compressed amount of time. So what was
(03:17):
your first step in a career in technology? Where did
you go from there? So? Um, once I got my
basics if understanding binary, you know, I went into Maccas
Salila in Seattle as a system so aund list like
I would call that as like the bedrock of wireless
mobility where everything started. So my first job was being
(03:40):
part of the team that was lighting up cities across
the US with wireless service. So that was a fabulous time,
you know for me coming from a medical background to
coming into tech meeting all these inspiring team members who
are all ready to support you. You know, you're like
the list one in the totem pole, trying to learn
(04:02):
everything and worried that everything will go wrong, you know,
but then you see the support of the team trying
to help you, guide you mentor you. I imagine that
you have seen some pretty massive changes within the telecommunications
industry during your time there. You know, personally, for me,
the first time holding the brick phone in a big bag,
(04:25):
and you know, I was a support analyst and end
of the day you would have to go home and
instead of pages, you had these bricks, And then it
kind of migrated into the smaller handheld devices and then
you're putting data or voice and then you're doing all
these capabilities and enabling users and customers to understand the
(04:48):
art of the possible in terms of the delight that
you see in their faces when oh, this is going
to connect me to my family that I haven't been
able to connect. And for me, that was the greatest
ex radians, because do you remember the time when we
had to pay a dollar for a minute to call
international and now I can do video and I can
(05:09):
talk to my grandparents. And I mean that just that
evolution of connectivity and then recognizing just because you have
it doesn't mean the world has it. And you know,
you bring us spark to everybody's life in terms of
that connectivity. So I think being in that generation of
mobility and seeing what it does to people and doing
it for the right cause. You know, I'm a techno
(05:31):
optimist in that sense that it's going to drive to
betterment of people and us. Humanity as a whole is
a good thing, and that's what's exciting, Maddie. What I
would love to know is what your journey was to
Inphosis and what that company does and what your role
is there if you could kind of illustrate for us
(05:53):
that story. Oh sure. Jonathan Emphasis is a global systems integrator.
The per purpose our goal is to enable clients to
help in the rapid digital acceleration and you know, simplify
that transition. And broadly Emphasis is responsible from a building
(06:14):
the community at large and enabling both the environment, sustainability
and diversity as a popular So that kind of alligns
with what I believe and at emphasis. What I do
is I primarily work with clients in their digital transformation journeys,
some what you call a champion partner and advisor and
(06:37):
a trusted guide if you will, to help them on
their path of their north star. So my goal is
to help them make a difference in digitization, use the
technology to delight, get them to see the whole picture.
I know that the trend toward digitization obviously has been
growing stronger and faster over the last decade, but did
(07:00):
you observe a particular spike due to the pandemic. I
would imagine that a lot of companies had to embrace
digitization on a time span that was probably a lot
shorter than they had originally anticipated. Oh, definitely. I think
prior to the pandemic it was all about retail tangible
experiences in those sense, where digitization was about how do
(07:23):
you enrich that? But with the pandemic, it was all
about how do you get your customers, your team and
your families to connect, you know, in a real normal
way without the normalcy being in place. And that really
kind of peaked in that sense that the need for
(07:44):
the connectivity and the need for some of the areas
that are not connected today, the drive to bridge that
gap became much more evident. One of the technologies that
obviously we're very excited about here on the Restless Ones
is five G. How is five G actoring into digital strategies?
You know what sort of advantages does it represent when
(08:04):
you're having these discussions with your customers. When I look
at five G, or we talk about technology of PHIGI,
everybody talks about, oh, we can download movies faster. But
that's more than that phi G. I look at it
as communication as an underlying fabric for the digital society
at large, like for the future. So communication is taking
(08:26):
shape more like a horizontal where you're going to connect
all the various industries that today are siloed, and that
it is going to accelerate the future of innovation from
a business sense, and that's the digitization agenda, if you will.
So if I look at that from what phi GI
brings for the future, like, for example, the area that
(08:49):
I love the most, you know, which is my past life,
which is health care, and then now the tech life,
and then now I see that they're all coming together.
You have real time transmit shtion of images. You're talking
about connected ambulances that every millisecond that matters for saving
a life. You're talking about remote patient monitoring. We saw
(09:10):
that during the pandemic, where you have a Telly appointment.
Now you can get some of those things done. But
take that to the next level where you're talking about
real time computational processing, whether it's the m r I
S or CD scans. You have rural areas that don't
have access to some of these greatest technologies that are
out there, and then now you're expanding it to those masses,
(09:31):
and then you're looking at remote collaborative surgeries that you
can save those precious lives that need that immediate care.
You're talking about a r v R for training. You're
talking about self care for elderly, you're talking about psychiatric help.
You're talking about in every area that you can think
of in just health care alone. You're talking about pharmaceuticals.
(09:54):
You can look at molecular models, you can send stuff
that today you're not able to do that time because
of latency, and now you're with low latency, high bandwidth,
its mobility, it's security, reliability, it's all coming together, and
so just in healthcare alone, you've got a bundle of
goodies to share and to give and promote, and then
(10:16):
you take it to the next level of like let's
talk about mining. Mining, first thing that comes to mind
is safety. You're in parts where it's not easy, and
so here you're leveraging fi G to do the operations
and the exploration work, the safety of the team that
works there, and then it's all enabled because you also
(10:37):
have the cloud to help optimize that experience and connectivity.
So if you take any industry, for example, you can
really apply five G and all these other greater technologies
that are coming together and allow for efficiency, better life,
better productivity, and also the new things that it's going
to offer. So that's that's where I'm very passionate abou out.
(11:00):
We can go on and on, but it's education, automobiles, retail, manufacturing, transportation,
you name it. That's where I see that connectivity becomes
the bedrock. And then you have all these other industries
coming together and merging and the learning that we can
take from one to another is immense. Conventional thinking says
(11:25):
you have to pay more to get more. I want
the work, but T mobile for business uses unconventional thinking
to deliver premium benefits for better r O I from
customized five G solutions to three sixties support. We help
you reach your business goals right now. I want it now,
innovating to improve business today and tomorrow. That's unconventional thinking.
(11:46):
From T Mobile for business capable device required covers on
available in some areas, some require certain clater features c
T mobile dot com. I absolutely find what you say
in a spiring and I agree wholeheartedly. I think of
that connectivity as being the enabler for the next generation
(12:06):
of technologies that wouldn't have been possible had we continued
to rely on, say, hard wired connections. Relay that over
to a wireless technology where you have the benefits of
a fiber throughput, but you have very low latency to
the point where it's almost negligible. That to me is
so exciting because I can't even begin to anticipate the
(12:29):
sort of uses we're going to see rollout. Related to that,
I was reading up on emphasis about the spectrum strategy.
Can you tell me a little bit about what spectrum
strategy is and why companies should work on developing strategies
that operate across different ranges of wireless frequencies. So when
you look at you know, an EMPHASIS looks at technology.
(12:54):
So we have a saying where we believe Emphasis is
a team of people focusing on technology. It's not a
technology company with a bunch of people. So it's kind
of an application of technology to resonate with one our
communities and also to the industries we touch. So because
(13:16):
of the widespread footprint that we have in terms of
realizing what is the current short term pain points that
a client is having, whether it's retail or it is
utilities or energy, or communications or media, and then you're
looking at it as an application of thoughts where our
innovation arm comes into play, where we're looking at what
(13:37):
are the short term capabilities that we need to apply
ourselves to and then what's the long term And then
that's where we believe in our ecosystem of partners, whether
it is universities or startups or you know, our VC,
where we apply ourselves broadly, you're spreading yourself widely enough
(13:58):
that you are expanding and part of that expansion, then
the learning what we are able to do is to
transverse that knowledge across the industries. You're not solving for one,
but solving for the many is where our approach to
learning goes. And we have something called living labs which
really focuses on that. Could you elaborate what are the
(14:19):
living labs and what sort of research takes place in them?
So living labs is what I call as incubation collaborative hubs,
if you will. We both have it in the what
I call us the metawors or the virtual world as
well as in the real world. So we have campuses
across the globe where we have the building foundation of
(14:43):
where you can see new technology come to life. So
we are able to bring a client and show them
not in their industry, but some other industry where we
have applied a new technology into from start to finish
on how that work, then showcasing them like a proof
of concept out of possible. And this is where we
(15:06):
help groom the ideas of what's possible. You know, sometimes
you have to really visualize what you can do with
technology and give that those ideas and then once that
incubation the collaboration comes to being, then you go through
the innovative process of the trial and error. What's needed,
what's valuable, what's immediate, what is long term, and then
(15:29):
of course the planning session begins. But sometimes to see
and understand technology, you have to visualize it, and that's
where living labs helps bring that to life. Fascinating. What
sort of clients do you typically bring into these living labs.
We bring in clients, whether you're talking the big financial
firms or the communication firms of the telco firm. You know,
(15:50):
everybody is welcome. All of our clients that we have
are welcome to come and see these innovation centers, and
what this gives them is a glimse across various industries
of what is happening. So once you see that, it
sparks that thought process, that creativity because as an individual,
we are all using digital tools in our daily lives.
(16:12):
And then of course then you apply to your businesses
and then you look at, oh, if this was done here,
what's in it for us? You open that conversation, you
open that dialogue for what's possible, and that's when you're
breaking boundaries of you know, thinking about okay, linearly of
this is what it is. So this is more about
expanding that horizon, having that conversation and then depending on
(16:35):
the industry and depending on where your focus is, then
we have the ability to bring in the right sames.
It doesn't have to be all from emphasis. It can
be any partner that we believe is leading in that
space that we will collaborate and build that solution for you.
And that's kind of how we use that as an
incubator zone for us to build and co work. So
(16:57):
teamwork is a big part of it. It has to
be done a lot of partners. We can't do it alone.
I'm curious, have you noticed any commonalities, like is there
anything in particular that people are surprised and delighted by
that you see over and over again. Most of the time,
what is surprising enough is the reason that they come
(17:17):
in and what they end up being interested in is
much different. And then they see the bigger scale of things,
and so now they want to do bigger things. So
the digitization, the adoption and the thought process of how
you look at things is about you know, sometimes we
have boundaries in our own minds of what we see
(17:39):
is based on what we have experienced or what we
have learned. And now after COVID, I think the sense
of digitization is much more and so everybody wants to
get ahead, and so there's no time better there now
to get started. So I see that as a common
experience for most of the clients who visit many times
(18:00):
as they look at it from a project or a program,
and now it's more about communities, larger scale, humanity, value,
and big picture. I'm curious what are some of the
common challenges that businesses face as they develop and initiate
a digital strategy. I think one of the biggest challenges
(18:20):
that companies face that I've seen is one is recognizing
where they are in that journey. Like you know, as
an organization itself, you have a varied sense of digitization.
You have a history of your systems, your processes, your evolution,
and your industry, and so you have a combination of
(18:43):
legacy and new it stitched together in numerous ways. And
first is that realization of where you are, because sometimes
you only see what is tangible to you, whether it's
your portal or your app. But digitization is much more.
It's the end to end. It's all your systems comming along,
talking and expanding. It's the scale. It's the performance and
(19:04):
the accessibility and experience that you're going to drive. Second,
it's about the team that is going to drive your
digital transformation, and how are you enabling that team and
reaching that team, empowering that team. As leaders, everybody has
their part, and you know in the organization hierarchy, you
have every manager who is responsible to being a key
(19:28):
player in that journey. So sometimes what happens is leaders
believe that yes, we have this mandate, we have this vision,
but then there is slowness in terms of executing it.
It has to be bigger than just a project or
a program. The transformation journey has to be big and
everybody in your organization has to be involved in it
in every sense of the way. That essence of this
(19:50):
transformation is going to bring value. So that is the
motivation aspect of it that everybody is resounding to the
same mantra that this is going to make a difference.
So once that belief is there in the organization, then
it's about defining that journey, the orchestration of the plan,
de risking, then prioritization, and then of course in the
(20:13):
end you have to have business value, so you have
to make that committed choice of what's priority and getting
the consensus between the various stakeholders and I think communication
and collaboration are the key words. The enthusiasm to make
a difference in collaborating with all of your teams because
no team is smaller big, so it's a big process.
(20:37):
But you have to be forward looking. Yeah, I fully agree.
I've talked a lot about getting organizational buy in from
the various divisions and that transparency and communication being absolutely
critical because if anyone has left out, then that just
breeds morale issues. So your vision, this idea of fostering
(20:58):
this communicative culture within a company, I think it's absolutely
critical for any organization as it grows, or else you're
going to be troubleshooting more than you're going to be innovating.
That's right, Jonathan. The other piece of it is it's
not only limited to the organization. It's not just to
its employees. You have to extend that to all its partners.
(21:20):
Partners like emphasis that helps, and then product providers and
your hyper scalers, irrespective of who are in the mix.
Everybody has to play their part to make it successful.
And so there is no us versus them. You are
at the table and you also have a specific outcome.
So the outcome is not delivering technology, the outcome is
(21:43):
to deliver the not staff vision, and you have core
kpi s which are business KPIs. It's the adoption and
engagement and ensuring that you're truly delighting the customer and
in this case your stakeholder. That is success. M hm, Well, Maddie,
I can't let you go without asking something that is
(22:05):
all the buzz in the technology space. Can you share
with us sort of some use cases that demonstrate how
companies might engage in the metaverse. So, Jonathan, that's a
great question, and I would say that I have been
looking at metaverse mostly as an end user, you know,
really right now in terms of you know, looking at
(22:26):
metaverse as a virtual space of what can be done.
But it's too early because there are different views on
what metaverse is. I'm more curious to see what is
going to evolve from a metaverse perspective. But you know,
from an infosis standpoint, we have a metaverse kind of
more of a metaverse foundry, if you will, where they're
working on different solutions and use cases in terms of metaverse.
(22:49):
For my current clients, that's not kind of like the
most important thing right now. The hybrid model of are
and we are application of a r we are is
much more being looked at, so more to come in
the metabor space. But it's exciting for sure. Well, and
I think Maddie that what you say is incredibly valuable.
(23:09):
It requires a balance between pushing for innovation and making
sure that your current and also acknowledging the fact that
we're still laying the track down as the train is
coming behind us, and that we need to balance these
sorts of things if we are to actually make real
use of what will be a transformational technology in the future.
(23:33):
Before I could let Maddie go, I had to ask
her one more thing, what technology are you personally most
interested in seeing evolve? What excites me the most right now?
What makes me wake up in the morning with excitement
is truly five G And obviously the whole aspect of
communication coming as a bedrock really is what amazes me.
(23:57):
That this is all going to come together and the
opportunity is huge. So that's one area that I am
leaning forward, and especially more in terms of what are
the services and capabilities. But if you look at it, Jonathan,
Telco companies have paid billions of dollars to build up
these networks and me as an end user or any
end user is not just going to pay the bill
(24:20):
of that billion dollar right. You have to enhance. You
have to make me want something. You know, it has
to excite me, and that's when I'm going to buy
those additional services. And it's not just from an entertainment perspective,
but it's about value. How am I serving the community?
How am I reaching out? How am I giving more back?
(24:41):
I look at it from that lens of how can
we empower more? How can we enrich more? That's kind
of what I see as what the technology can do
and survive g for me, whether it's health care, or
whether it is education or smart cities or name anything
that we can touch and both in the short and
(25:02):
long term. It's kind of exciting space to be And
I think this is kind of the pivot, you know,
the next pivot where it's what I call as a blockbuster,
where we're going to see some cool stuff come and
that's what I'm excited about. Maddie, thank you so much
for being on the Restless Ones. This has been a delight.
Thank you for having me. This is so much fun.
(25:29):
Thanks again to Maddie Rogers for joining us on the
restless ones. There's no doubt that embracing digitization is a
daunting task for many companies. So many organizations rely heavily
on legacy systems and processes that it can seem like
too much inertia has built up for you to be
able to make substantive changes. But we saw during the
(25:49):
COVID pandemic that when push comes to shove, companies can
make dramatic changes in a short time frame. People like
Maddie are there to make sure that those changes are
productive rather than disruptive, and that add value to a
business rather than saddle the company with croft. I personally
find the living lab concept really intriguing. I'm one of
(26:11):
those people who finds it enormously valuable to see a
concept play out in a scenario to get a full
appreciation of it. And then the free association starts popping
up where I start combining different ideas into something new.
To know that there are facilities out there dedicated to
inspiring business leaders is really exciting. It makes me think
that we're gonna see some truly innovative uses of technologies,
(26:34):
including five G that will totally change the game. Mobile
tech did that for the web. Now we're going to
see five G do it for pretty much everything. Thanks
again for listening to this episode of The Restless Ones.
Be sure to check out past episodes as we've talked
with leaders across all industries about the challenges they faced
(26:55):
and the lessons they've learned. And stay tuned for more
episodes this season. Publishing two weeks, I'll see you then.
T Mobile for Business knows companies want more than a
one size fits all approach to support. I want the world,
so we provide three sixty support customized to your business.
(27:16):
From discovery through post deployment. You'll get a dedicated account
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right now, I want it now, three six support that's
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for Business
What excites me the most right now, what makes me
wake up in the morning with excitement is truly five G.
And obviously the whole aspect of communication coming as a
bedrock really is what amazes me that this is all
going to come together and the opportunity is huge. It's
not just from an entertainment perspective, but it's about value.
(00:25):
How am I serving the community? How am I reaching out?
How am I giving more back? I look at it
from that lens of how can we empower more? How
can we enrich more? That's kind of what I see
as what the technology can do. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
I'm Jonathan Strickland. As you may know, I've spent the
(00:46):
last fifteen years covering technology and learning how it works,
demystifying everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics and
everything in between. Yet it's the conversation with some of
the most forward thinking leaders, those at the intersection of
technology and business that fascinate me the most. I'm excited
(01:10):
to bring you this episode of The Restless Ones. I
had the chance to talk with Maddie Rogers, who told
me that this was her first podcast, only you would
never know it because Maddie is a born storyteller and
the stories she shared were inspiring. Maddie's path to the
tech business world wasn't your typical one. If she had
(01:30):
pursued her original career, you might find her filling in
cavities or performing a root canal. But Maddie discovered that
through technology she could realize her dream of helping people
connect with their work and with each other through forming
digitization strategies and infrastructure. I sat down with Maddie to
talk about that journey, as well as how so many
(01:51):
companies have embraced digitization on a massive scale due to
the pandemic and the sort of challenges that organizations often
faced when evaluating their own strategy. But first I wanted
to learn more about Maddie herself. Welcome to the Restless Ones.
It's a real pleasure to have you on the show.
Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
(02:14):
So I am curious. I looked into your background and
some interesting questions have popped up. So at what point
did technology start to become an interest to you? Great question.
I have a late entrance to tech, so as a
middle schooler, I always dreamt to become a dentist. I
had a dentist who I admired as she was fantastic,
(02:35):
So that's what I wanted to be, and I became
a dentist. And then my journey to US I came
in during the Internet boom, and that was my first
time looking at a computer, or rather touching one, and
it was amazing. And that's when I said goodbye to
dentistry and allot of technology. I left my old me
(02:56):
behind and started the world of tech. I have never
heard a journey like that. That is one of those
things that really surprised me. And talk about the tumultuous
time like the boom of the dot com industry really
showed us the best and worst of technology and business
in a very compressed amount of time. So what was
(03:17):
your first step in a career in technology? Where did
you go from there? So? Um, once I got my
basics if understanding binary, you know, I went into Maccas
Salila in Seattle as a system so aund list like
I would call that as like the bedrock of wireless
mobility where everything started. So my first job was being
(03:40):
part of the team that was lighting up cities across
the US with wireless service. So that was a fabulous time,
you know for me coming from a medical background to
coming into tech meeting all these inspiring team members who
are all ready to support you. You know, you're like
the list one in the totem pole, trying to learn
(04:02):
everything and worried that everything will go wrong, you know,
but then you see the support of the team trying
to help you, guide you mentor you. I imagine that
you have seen some pretty massive changes within the telecommunications
industry during your time there. You know, personally, for me,
the first time holding the brick phone in a big bag,
(04:25):
and you know, I was a support analyst and end
of the day you would have to go home and
instead of pages, you had these bricks, And then it
kind of migrated into the smaller handheld devices and then
you're putting data or voice and then you're doing all
these capabilities and enabling users and customers to understand the
(04:48):
art of the possible in terms of the delight that
you see in their faces when oh, this is going
to connect me to my family that I haven't been
able to connect. And for me, that was the greatest
ex radians, because do you remember the time when we
had to pay a dollar for a minute to call
international and now I can do video and I can
(05:09):
talk to my grandparents. And I mean that just that
evolution of connectivity and then recognizing just because you have
it doesn't mean the world has it. And you know,
you bring us spark to everybody's life in terms of
that connectivity. So I think being in that generation of
mobility and seeing what it does to people and doing
it for the right cause. You know, I'm a techno
(05:31):
optimist in that sense that it's going to drive to
betterment of people and us. Humanity as a whole is
a good thing, and that's what's exciting, Maddie. What I
would love to know is what your journey was to
Inphosis and what that company does and what your role
is there if you could kind of illustrate for us
(05:53):
that story. Oh sure. Jonathan Emphasis is a global systems integrator.
The per purpose our goal is to enable clients to
help in the rapid digital acceleration and you know, simplify
that transition. And broadly Emphasis is responsible from a building
(06:14):
the community at large and enabling both the environment, sustainability
and diversity as a popular So that kind of alligns
with what I believe and at emphasis. What I do
is I primarily work with clients in their digital transformation journeys,
some what you call a champion partner and advisor and
(06:37):
a trusted guide if you will, to help them on
their path of their north star. So my goal is
to help them make a difference in digitization, use the
technology to delight, get them to see the whole picture.
I know that the trend toward digitization obviously has been
growing stronger and faster over the last decade, but did
(07:00):
you observe a particular spike due to the pandemic. I
would imagine that a lot of companies had to embrace
digitization on a time span that was probably a lot
shorter than they had originally anticipated. Oh, definitely. I think
prior to the pandemic it was all about retail tangible
experiences in those sense, where digitization was about how do
(07:23):
you enrich that? But with the pandemic, it was all
about how do you get your customers, your team and
your families to connect, you know, in a real normal
way without the normalcy being in place. And that really
kind of peaked in that sense that the need for
(07:44):
the connectivity and the need for some of the areas
that are not connected today, the drive to bridge that
gap became much more evident. One of the technologies that
obviously we're very excited about here on the Restless Ones
is five G. How is five G actoring into digital strategies?
You know what sort of advantages does it represent when
(08:04):
you're having these discussions with your customers. When I look
at five G, or we talk about technology of PHIGI,
everybody talks about, oh, we can download movies faster. But
that's more than that phi G. I look at it
as communication as an underlying fabric for the digital society
at large, like for the future. So communication is taking
(08:26):
shape more like a horizontal where you're going to connect
all the various industries that today are siloed, and that
it is going to accelerate the future of innovation from
a business sense, and that's the digitization agenda, if you will.
So if I look at that from what phi GI
brings for the future, like, for example, the area that
(08:49):
I love the most, you know, which is my past life,
which is health care, and then now the tech life,
and then now I see that they're all coming together.
You have real time transmit shtion of images. You're talking
about connected ambulances that every millisecond that matters for saving
a life. You're talking about remote patient monitoring. We saw
(09:10):
that during the pandemic, where you have a Telly appointment.
Now you can get some of those things done. But
take that to the next level where you're talking about
real time computational processing, whether it's the m r I
S or CD scans. You have rural areas that don't
have access to some of these greatest technologies that are
out there, and then now you're expanding it to those masses,
(09:31):
and then you're looking at remote collaborative surgeries that you
can save those precious lives that need that immediate care.
You're talking about a r v R for training. You're
talking about self care for elderly, you're talking about psychiatric help.
You're talking about in every area that you can think
of in just health care alone. You're talking about pharmaceuticals.
(09:54):
You can look at molecular models, you can send stuff
that today you're not able to do that time because
of latency, and now you're with low latency, high bandwidth,
its mobility, it's security, reliability, it's all coming together, and
so just in healthcare alone, you've got a bundle of
goodies to share and to give and promote, and then
(10:16):
you take it to the next level of like let's
talk about mining. Mining, first thing that comes to mind
is safety. You're in parts where it's not easy, and
so here you're leveraging fi G to do the operations
and the exploration work, the safety of the team that
works there, and then it's all enabled because you also
(10:37):
have the cloud to help optimize that experience and connectivity.
So if you take any industry, for example, you can
really apply five G and all these other greater technologies
that are coming together and allow for efficiency, better life,
better productivity, and also the new things that it's going
to offer. So that's that's where I'm very passionate abou out.
(11:00):
We can go on and on, but it's education, automobiles, retail, manufacturing, transportation,
you name it. That's where I see that connectivity becomes
the bedrock. And then you have all these other industries
coming together and merging and the learning that we can
take from one to another is immense. Conventional thinking says
(11:25):
you have to pay more to get more. I want
the work, but T mobile for business uses unconventional thinking
to deliver premium benefits for better r O I from
customized five G solutions to three sixties support. We help
you reach your business goals right now. I want it now,
innovating to improve business today and tomorrow. That's unconventional thinking.
(11:46):
From T Mobile for business capable device required covers on
available in some areas, some require certain clater features c
T mobile dot com. I absolutely find what you say
in a spiring and I agree wholeheartedly. I think of
that connectivity as being the enabler for the next generation
(12:06):
of technologies that wouldn't have been possible had we continued
to rely on, say, hard wired connections. Relay that over
to a wireless technology where you have the benefits of
a fiber throughput, but you have very low latency to
the point where it's almost negligible. That to me is
so exciting because I can't even begin to anticipate the
(12:29):
sort of uses we're going to see rollout. Related to that,
I was reading up on emphasis about the spectrum strategy.
Can you tell me a little bit about what spectrum
strategy is and why companies should work on developing strategies
that operate across different ranges of wireless frequencies. So when
you look at you know, an EMPHASIS looks at technology.
(12:54):
So we have a saying where we believe Emphasis is
a team of people focusing on technology. It's not a
technology company with a bunch of people. So it's kind
of an application of technology to resonate with one our
communities and also to the industries we touch. So because
(13:16):
of the widespread footprint that we have in terms of
realizing what is the current short term pain points that
a client is having, whether it's retail or it is
utilities or energy, or communications or media, and then you're
looking at it as an application of thoughts where our
innovation arm comes into play, where we're looking at what
(13:37):
are the short term capabilities that we need to apply
ourselves to and then what's the long term And then
that's where we believe in our ecosystem of partners, whether
it is universities or startups or you know, our VC,
where we apply ourselves broadly, you're spreading yourself widely enough
(13:58):
that you are expanding and part of that expansion, then
the learning what we are able to do is to
transverse that knowledge across the industries. You're not solving for one,
but solving for the many is where our approach to
learning goes. And we have something called living labs which
really focuses on that. Could you elaborate what are the
(14:19):
living labs and what sort of research takes place in them?
So living labs is what I call as incubation collaborative hubs,
if you will. We both have it in the what
I call us the metawors or the virtual world as
well as in the real world. So we have campuses
across the globe where we have the building foundation of
(14:43):
where you can see new technology come to life. So
we are able to bring a client and show them
not in their industry, but some other industry where we
have applied a new technology into from start to finish
on how that work, then showcasing them like a proof
of concept out of possible. And this is where we
(15:06):
help groom the ideas of what's possible. You know, sometimes
you have to really visualize what you can do with
technology and give that those ideas and then once that
incubation the collaboration comes to being, then you go through
the innovative process of the trial and error. What's needed,
what's valuable, what's immediate, what is long term, and then
(15:29):
of course the planning session begins. But sometimes to see
and understand technology, you have to visualize it, and that's
where living labs helps bring that to life. Fascinating. What
sort of clients do you typically bring into these living labs.
We bring in clients, whether you're talking the big financial
firms or the communication firms of the telco firm. You know,
(15:50):
everybody is welcome. All of our clients that we have
are welcome to come and see these innovation centers, and
what this gives them is a glimse across various industries
of what is happening. So once you see that, it
sparks that thought process, that creativity because as an individual,
we are all using digital tools in our daily lives.
(16:12):
And then of course then you apply to your businesses
and then you look at, oh, if this was done here,
what's in it for us? You open that conversation, you
open that dialogue for what's possible, and that's when you're
breaking boundaries of you know, thinking about okay, linearly of
this is what it is. So this is more about
expanding that horizon, having that conversation and then depending on
(16:35):
the industry and depending on where your focus is, then
we have the ability to bring in the right sames.
It doesn't have to be all from emphasis. It can
be any partner that we believe is leading in that
space that we will collaborate and build that solution for you.
And that's kind of how we use that as an
incubator zone for us to build and co work. So
(16:57):
teamwork is a big part of it. It has to
be done a lot of partners. We can't do it alone.
I'm curious, have you noticed any commonalities, like is there
anything in particular that people are surprised and delighted by
that you see over and over again. Most of the time,
what is surprising enough is the reason that they come
(17:17):
in and what they end up being interested in is
much different. And then they see the bigger scale of things,
and so now they want to do bigger things. So
the digitization, the adoption and the thought process of how
you look at things is about you know, sometimes we
have boundaries in our own minds of what we see
(17:39):
is based on what we have experienced or what we
have learned. And now after COVID, I think the sense
of digitization is much more and so everybody wants to
get ahead, and so there's no time better there now
to get started. So I see that as a common
experience for most of the clients who visit many times
(18:00):
as they look at it from a project or a program,
and now it's more about communities, larger scale, humanity, value,
and big picture. I'm curious what are some of the
common challenges that businesses face as they develop and initiate
a digital strategy. I think one of the biggest challenges
(18:20):
that companies face that I've seen is one is recognizing
where they are in that journey. Like you know, as
an organization itself, you have a varied sense of digitization.
You have a history of your systems, your processes, your evolution,
and your industry, and so you have a combination of
(18:43):
legacy and new it stitched together in numerous ways. And
first is that realization of where you are, because sometimes
you only see what is tangible to you, whether it's
your portal or your app. But digitization is much more.
It's the end to end. It's all your systems comming along,
talking and expanding. It's the scale. It's the performance and
(19:04):
the accessibility and experience that you're going to drive. Second,
it's about the team that is going to drive your
digital transformation, and how are you enabling that team and
reaching that team, empowering that team. As leaders, everybody has
their part, and you know in the organization hierarchy, you
have every manager who is responsible to being a key
(19:28):
player in that journey. So sometimes what happens is leaders
believe that yes, we have this mandate, we have this vision,
but then there is slowness in terms of executing it.
It has to be bigger than just a project or
a program. The transformation journey has to be big and
everybody in your organization has to be involved in it
in every sense of the way. That essence of this
(19:50):
transformation is going to bring value. So that is the
motivation aspect of it that everybody is resounding to the
same mantra that this is going to make a difference.
So once that belief is there in the organization, then
it's about defining that journey, the orchestration of the plan,
de risking, then prioritization, and then of course in the
(20:13):
end you have to have business value, so you have
to make that committed choice of what's priority and getting
the consensus between the various stakeholders and I think communication
and collaboration are the key words. The enthusiasm to make
a difference in collaborating with all of your teams because
no team is smaller big, so it's a big process.
(20:37):
But you have to be forward looking. Yeah, I fully agree.
I've talked a lot about getting organizational buy in from
the various divisions and that transparency and communication being absolutely
critical because if anyone has left out, then that just
breeds morale issues. So your vision, this idea of fostering
(20:58):
this communicative culture within a company, I think it's absolutely
critical for any organization as it grows, or else you're
going to be troubleshooting more than you're going to be innovating.
That's right, Jonathan. The other piece of it is it's
not only limited to the organization. It's not just to
its employees. You have to extend that to all its partners.
(21:20):
Partners like emphasis that helps, and then product providers and
your hyper scalers, irrespective of who are in the mix.
Everybody has to play their part to make it successful.
And so there is no us versus them. You are
at the table and you also have a specific outcome.
So the outcome is not delivering technology, the outcome is
(21:43):
to deliver the not staff vision, and you have core
kpi s which are business KPIs. It's the adoption and
engagement and ensuring that you're truly delighting the customer and
in this case your stakeholder. That is success. M hm, Well, Maddie,
I can't let you go without asking something that is
(22:05):
all the buzz in the technology space. Can you share
with us sort of some use cases that demonstrate how
companies might engage in the metaverse. So, Jonathan, that's a
great question, and I would say that I have been
looking at metaverse mostly as an end user, you know,
really right now in terms of you know, looking at
(22:26):
metaverse as a virtual space of what can be done.
But it's too early because there are different views on
what metaverse is. I'm more curious to see what is
going to evolve from a metaverse perspective. But you know,
from an infosis standpoint, we have a metaverse kind of
more of a metaverse foundry, if you will, where they're
working on different solutions and use cases in terms of metaverse.
(22:49):
For my current clients, that's not kind of like the
most important thing right now. The hybrid model of are
and we are application of a r we are is
much more being looked at, so more to come in
the metabor space. But it's exciting for sure. Well, and
I think Maddie that what you say is incredibly valuable.
(23:09):
It requires a balance between pushing for innovation and making
sure that your current and also acknowledging the fact that
we're still laying the track down as the train is
coming behind us, and that we need to balance these
sorts of things if we are to actually make real
use of what will be a transformational technology in the future.
(23:33):
Before I could let Maddie go, I had to ask
her one more thing, what technology are you personally most
interested in seeing evolve? What excites me the most right now?
What makes me wake up in the morning with excitement
is truly five G And obviously the whole aspect of
communication coming as a bedrock really is what amazes me.
(23:57):
That this is all going to come together and the
opportunity is huge. So that's one area that I am
leaning forward, and especially more in terms of what are
the services and capabilities. But if you look at it, Jonathan,
Telco companies have paid billions of dollars to build up
these networks and me as an end user or any
end user is not just going to pay the bill
(24:20):
of that billion dollar right. You have to enhance. You
have to make me want something. You know, it has
to excite me, and that's when I'm going to buy
those additional services. And it's not just from an entertainment perspective,
but it's about value. How am I serving the community?
How am I reaching out? How am I giving more back?
(24:41):
I look at it from that lens of how can
we empower more? How can we enrich more? That's kind
of what I see as what the technology can do
and survive g for me, whether it's health care, or
whether it is education or smart cities or name anything
that we can touch and both in the short and
(25:02):
long term. It's kind of exciting space to be And
I think this is kind of the pivot, you know,
the next pivot where it's what I call as a blockbuster,
where we're going to see some cool stuff come and
that's what I'm excited about. Maddie, thank you so much
for being on the Restless Ones. This has been a delight.
Thank you for having me. This is so much fun.
(25:29):
Thanks again to Maddie Rogers for joining us on the
restless ones. There's no doubt that embracing digitization is a
daunting task for many companies. So many organizations rely heavily
on legacy systems and processes that it can seem like
too much inertia has built up for you to be
able to make substantive changes. But we saw during the
(25:49):
COVID pandemic that when push comes to shove, companies can
make dramatic changes in a short time frame. People like
Maddie are there to make sure that those changes are
productive rather than disruptive, and that add value to a
business rather than saddle the company with croft. I personally
find the living lab concept really intriguing. I'm one of
(26:11):
those people who finds it enormously valuable to see a
concept play out in a scenario to get a full
appreciation of it. And then the free association starts popping
up where I start combining different ideas into something new.
To know that there are facilities out there dedicated to
inspiring business leaders is really exciting. It makes me think
that we're gonna see some truly innovative uses of technologies,
(26:34):
including five G that will totally change the game. Mobile
tech did that for the web. Now we're going to
see five G do it for pretty much everything. Thanks
again for listening to this episode of The Restless Ones.
Be sure to check out past episodes as we've talked
with leaders across all industries about the challenges they faced
(26:55):
and the lessons they've learned. And stay tuned for more
episodes this season. Publishing two weeks, I'll see you then.
T Mobile for Business knows companies want more than a
one size fits all approach to support. I want the world,
so we provide three sixty support customized to your business.
(27:16):
From discovery through post deployment. You'll get a dedicated account
team and expertise from solutions engineers and industry advisors already
right now, I want it now, three six support that's
customized for your success. That's unconventional thinking from T Mobile
for Business
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