November 30, 2021 • 37 mins
Managing the technology infrastructure for a global organization is never a simple task. Managing it for a business with as wide a portfolio of critical products and services as Johnson & Johnson takes that role to a new level. The manufacturing and deployment of products from divisions ranging from skincare, to medical devices, to cancer treatments means a diverse set of employees each with a unique set of technology needs to perform their roles. Ubiquitous connectivity is making the mission even more complex. It’s providing with employees always-on advanced monitoring and usage throughout the life cycle of their products, enabling a sharing and analysis of data that is revolutionizing healthcare for the world.
In this episode of The Restless Ones, we sit with Rowena Yeo, CTO of Johnson & Johnson, whose approach towards advancing the company’s technology systems sees her managing everything from hybrid and cloud strategy, cybersecurity, lab systems and the connected backbone of their manufacturing facilities for over 135,000 employees and the millions of healthcare professionals and patients depending on their work across the globe. Whether they are using a connected smart device, waiting for a product delivery, or developing the next breakthrough drug – technology and Rowena’s team are at the heart of her team’s and the company’s solutions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The advancement in connectivity is probably one of the biggest
game changer in the last two decades to think about,
and along with the Internet, so I think connectivity it
definitely served as a very critical foundation in many many
areas within Johnson Johnson having the connectivity besides the compute
power is so crucial to support this process, to enable
us to bring data together from anywhere around the world
(00:23):
so that we can drive and support the work that
we do. Welcome to the restless ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
I've spent more than a decade really learning about technology,
what makes it tech, and then describing and explaining that
to my audience. But it's the conversations with the world's
(00:45):
most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the intersection of technology
and business, that fascinate me the most. In partnership with
T Mobile for Business, I explore the unique set of
challenges that c t o s and c i os
and other tech executives face from advancements in cloud and
edge computing, software as a service, Internet of things, and
(01:07):
of course five G. We are often left wondering how
the leading minds in business continue to thrive. Let's find
out our guest today is Rowena Yo, chief technology officer
of Johnson and Johnson. I doubt I need to fill
you in on Johnson and Johnson. The company and brand
(01:30):
are known far and wide. It's been around since the
late nineteenth century. There are many reasons Johnson and Johnson
has stood the test of time, and among those reasons
is the fact that the company embraces technological solutions to
tackle tough business problems. But as we'll hear in this interview,
they need to be the right solutions. Rowena and I
(01:52):
sat down to talk about her background and how she
came to Johnson and Johnson, as well as her overall
philosophy when it comes to designing, evaluating, and implementing tech solutions.
She also opened my eyes to how maturing technologies are
already transforming the medical industry. True to form, I started
off by getting to know her a little bit better. Rowena,
(02:15):
thank you so much for joining us on the Restless Ones.
It is a pleasure to have you on the program. Hey,
thanks Jonathan for having me. It's my pleasure to be
here today. I always love to start these episodes by
learning a bit more about the background of my guest
and the question I always start with is how did
you first get interested in technology? Jonathan, I've always been
(02:37):
curious about things around me, like solar system, how rainbows
a form, and I would say that I've always been
a big love of math and signs. Um. I love
to create things resemble things. So I would say my
illnest exposure to technology was probably playing the game Where
in the World Is Come? In San Diego on a
Macintosh with my brother and my cousins when we were young.
(03:01):
But I really really got interested in technology when I
started university, when I was pursuing my engineering degree. I
was just amazed how technology could be used. At that
time was just computing where you use programming to build
modeling in cat camp to look at engineering design. I
was also interested in terms of how technology was being
(03:22):
used to connect with one another. Um. I don't know
whether you remember those days where we have internet relate
chats and that's where how we kind of connect with
one another on using a green screen by the way,
But I think my real love for technology really really
deepen when I joined IBM after graduation systems engineer and
working with customers in terms of looking at technology and
(03:45):
solving problems, and that's where I think, Wow, this is
the space that I really want to be in. That's great.
I mean you already won my heart with Carmen San Diego.
I was a big fan of Carmen San Diego as well.
On top of that, I also remember the I R. S. E. Days.
So you get into engineering, Uh, what were some of
the things about engineering that really appealed to you? I
(04:07):
mean most engineers I know kind of view the world
as a series of challenges or sometimes even problems to
solve and finding elegant ways to go about that. Was
that sort of your experience that led you through your
university and into IBM. Yeah? Absolutely, you know. I love math,
I love science, but I also love how math and
(04:28):
science could be applied to solve problems. So I chose
to solve problem, create solutions and make something useful that
people can use. And if you look at kind of
where I'm typically the person at home to assemble um
and care finiture if it's there, I'm the first one
to want to make something out of something. So it's
(04:48):
it's really kind of what got me started. How do
I apply what I learned in terms of creating solutions?
Creating products for the people around me. And I think
my formal exposure to chnology really started in the university,
as I shared, and I became really really immerged um
in technology in my professional career, namely with IBM and
(05:10):
subsequently with with Cargill. And it was really those experiences
that I had and as you said, of using technology
as the platform and the perfect avenue for me to
develop solutions and bring innovative capabilities to life. Can you
tell me a bit about your career path and what
brought you to Johnson and Johnson. Yeah. After spending about
(05:32):
a few years and IBM as a systems engineer, I
joined the global food and Agricultural company Cargil and Cargo
at that time was growing in Asia Pacific and I
had the wonderful opportunity of working with a small team
at that time in Asia Pacific to establish all the
way from infrastructure, building applications as they grow their footprint
(05:53):
in the region. And I had just a wonderful time
doing different roles in Cargo over my twenty years, and
pbsequently became the Global Group c i O for the
agricultural trading and processing enterprise, and in those roles that
I have. I had the opportunity to just work with
business to develop business and i T strategies, very importantly
(06:14):
implementing technology capabilities for the business as they grow in
the region, but also subsequently globally in my global global role.
And after spending about twenty years with Cargill, I joined
Johnson Johnson in two sixteen as the repeat for I
T in the pharmaceutical sector in Asia Pacific. And what
really attracted me to Jane J is the credle, the
(06:35):
impact I can make in the healthcare space and the
wonderful people I've met through the process. And this subsequently
then lead me to my current role as the Chief
Technology Officer for Johnson Johnson, leading Jane J's Technology Services organization,
where my team and I are now responsible for defining
and implementing Jane J's holistic technology strategy across the different sectors,
(06:56):
and we have a mission, together with our business technology teams,
to make technology decisions that impact both are changing employees,
but as well as customers and other stakeholders that we serve.
And I imagine that there are some really interesting challenges
that come with that as well. I think about often
the c T O S I speak with. You know,
they are people who have incredible depth of knowledge about
(07:19):
technology and how technology can potentially support various business initiatives.
They are good communicators. They know how to get buy
in from different UH stakeholders in order to be able
to initiate a solution. But you're also in a field
that has its own incredibly deep knowledge base, that of
(07:43):
the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry. I suspect that
that requires a true finesse with communications so that you
can make certain that the solutions you provide are effectively
at a to the overall mission of the company and
not just you know, throwing technology at something just to
(08:06):
make just to throw tech at it. So, so what
has that been like in order to really refine your
approach and to align it with the mission of Johnson
and Johnson Jang, as you know, as the largest and
probably the most comprehensive healthcare company in the world, and
JANG has reimagined health and well being for more than
(08:26):
a hundred and thirty years. As we serve our patients,
doctors or nurses, mothers and fathers and all others we
use our products and services, and you think about where
JANG is today, we continue to innovate everything from skincare
to cancer treatments, to medical devices and the use of
technology of the times to really advance held around the world.
(08:47):
So it's some one of the key things around being
the CTO for gen G is to ensure that we
have a very very solid, resilient and scalable, end secure
digital foundation and this is the foundational core that provides
to meet the diverse meets of our business for today
and also to your point, we have to think about
(09:08):
the future as well, and also how does it help
us solve really really complex problems in healthcare today to
the use of applications and data science for example. So
I think this is something that we continue to live
in on a daily basis. It's kind of mind boggling
to me because I sort of have a grasp on
the technology side of things, But then I started thinking
(09:29):
about how do you maintain a level of service where
you are allowing the other UH divisions within J and
J to do what they need to do. And when
you start getting into those levels of incredible expertise, you
just see how complicated it gets. You have to really
specialized so to be able to provide that sort of
(09:51):
support to incredibly specialized fields. You know, we're talking about
things like like drug discovery is incredibly complex, uh and
and relies on some phenomenal technology. That's the sort of
stuff that just blows my socks off. If if I'm
just being honest, I was looking forward to hearing about
(10:14):
Rowena's role as well as which technologies are critical to
Johnson and Johnson's business. Let's say that you're at a
casual setting and they say, so, what do you do
for a living? How do you describe that in sort
of plain language, so people kind of get a grasp
of what it is you do in a simple way.
I help business solve business problems using technology as a foundation.
(10:35):
And I would see that Overwatten a part of a
wonderful team that really explore and delivers novative technology that
directly enables Johnson Johnson's growth, agility, and also success as
a company. See, this is what I love about the
Restless Ones is I get to speak with people who
are problem solvers. They're passionate about what they do, and
(10:59):
so for frequently the things that they do are you
can see the positive impact that they can have on
the world around us. I mean you you can't get
more apparent than the health care industry, I would say,
like the actual outcomes of that work. This is a
great opportunity for us to segue into leadership and the
(11:19):
technologies that you are working with and relying upon. So
what are some of what you would call mission critical
technologies the things that underlie what you do over at
Johnson and Johnson. That's a lot within gen G and
as I kind of shop with you in terms of
kind of the mission of gen G and how diverse
(11:40):
our set of business is. Building that foundational capabilities around
having the solid, resilient and scalable and very secure digital
core is really foundational to us in terms of providing
that mission critical technology base. And one of the things
around that space is a cloud and hosting environment and
our network. These are the two fundamental errors that I
(12:02):
would say we need to have a very strong commitment
and to continue to deliver and to modernize and to
invest in in these two areas. So in the cloud
and hosting space, we have a hybrid and multi cloud
strategy where we are looking at enabling mission critical applications
such as our r p s or manufacturing facilities or
(12:23):
lab systems and to help advanced technology and analytic capabilities
as well and increasing the agility and improve our overall
competitiveness through speed to market. And given the complexity of
our network environment today and the work that we do,
we are right now focusing on leveraging software, define why
area networks and automation to improve our ability to drive reliability,
(12:47):
resiliency and security. So we are putting very strong emphasis
also on using analytics to keep changes assets secure by
predicting threats, preventing data links and also quantifying all cyberries.
So these foundations we are really really critical to enable
our technology ecosystem, which include other critical areas as well,
(13:10):
such as a manufacturing systems, all logistics systems, safety regulatory
systems amongst others. And the integrated environment is really crucial
to ensure that we are able to continue to deliver
live saving medicines to OP patients all times at T Mobile.
(13:31):
For business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so
you can focus on what matters most. Where some see
another small town, we see businesses in need of connectivity.
So we built the largest five G network to cover cities, towns,
and the most interstate miles in between. Where some see
a caller in a queue, we see an opportunity for
our experts to provide solutions without transfers. Where some see
(13:54):
another virtual meeting, we see five G enabling wireless real
time translations almost anywhere you do business. Our unique approach
built America's largest, fastest five G network and also delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan,
so you get it all without trade offs. Unconventional thinking
is better for business. T Mobile for Business fastest five
(14:18):
G based on average overall combined five G speeds according
to Open Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October.
See five D device coverage and access details at to
mobile dot com. I'm curious when you came in at
two thousand and sixteen. I mean, to your point, you
(14:40):
mentioned that Johnson and Johnson is a very old company.
Were there or are their legacy systems that are are
things that you have to take into account while you're
also trying to incorporate more cutting edge solutions. I mean,
as with any large company like US, a company continues
to acquiet company ease and you kind of bring all
(15:01):
this together. There are legacy environments we have to modernize.
There are also things that we have to shift right
as we move into the cloud space. How do we
modernize someone the applications to be able to live into
the world of cloud that we can leverage the capabilities
and the innovation. So yes, we see UM quite a
bit of that. UM and as a company were also
(15:24):
having a very purposeful plan as we think about how
do we enable us to be agile, enable us to
be able to serve our customers and stakeholders and patients.
That's one of those things that I think people who
might maybe their experience is largely in startups, they might
not have a full appreciation for taking systems that have
been around for a long time, keeping them consistent, keeping
(15:47):
them accessible, making sure that there's no interruption of service,
while also trying to port them over into more modern systems.
That's a non trivial task, especially at scale. Well, how
did the pen make change things that Johnson and Johnson
clearly that has been an event that has been a
critical shift for a lot of companies. What technology has
(16:09):
really became crucial for you in order to be able
to again maintain that consistency in a world that seemed
to change overnight. The pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption
of digital technologies and a strong push towards a digital workforce.
A hybrid work model changes the way we get work
(16:32):
done and also shifted the way we engage with our
customers and key stakeholders to ensure that we continue to
effectively on our global operations and supply chain in R
and D, and to serve the billing lives that we
touch each day. To a point about you know, driving
operations at scale and with our workforce, we have to
(16:53):
enable glue employees to continue to deliver on our business
imperatives and at the same time we want to keep
everyone see so the shift to remote working during the
height of the pandemic accelerated the need to focus on
enabling and party employees to work anywhere, any time, and
that that requires us to develop self service platforms. In
(17:14):
addition to collaboration tools that we have, we also need
to create new services for employees in terms of onboarding
and training and speed up the deployment of a few
of the collaboration tools that we have within the company.
The other area would say kind of shifted the way
we work is the way we interact with our customers
(17:34):
and our patients and our healthcare professionals. We have to
leverage digital interaction capabilities to continue to serve our healthcare
professionals and patients around the world, and enabling digital training
on digital capabilities and increasing for example, the use of
a R and v R for our social training with physicians,
enhancing solutions that we have today to interact with patients
(17:56):
around the world, for example, to minimize disruption to clinical trials.
And in the consumer space, we have also seen new
approaches to consumer innovation, such as the increasing use of
digital channels to reach our customers in our consumer health
space and creating very very highly personalized digital experiences for
(18:17):
our customers, connecting for example, telehealth and tele medicine providers
to allergy sufferers. In one of the examples that we
have look at the back end in terms of supply
chain space. As I mentioned, changing develops and produces essential
products for our customers and patients. So it is of
utmost importance for us to continue the flow of life
(18:38):
saving medicines and products and also keeping our employees save
at the same time, so we had to leverage technologies
that we have existingly and also innovate the way we
work virtually, leveraging data and automation on using for example,
highly automated scenario resimilation technology to very quickly respond to
(18:59):
fluctuations in customer demand during the pandemic, and also to
minimize delivery disruptions using virtual connectivity such as smart glass
technology by our quality experts so that they can work remotely.
And then talking about data and the use of data science,
I've also seen an increase in the use of data
and data science capabilities during this time and they are
(19:22):
becoming more and more critical as we drive insights and
also outcomes. And with that, we also leverage very heavily
on our cloud capabilities to allow faster accessibility to this
vast amounts of data that we have around the world,
to accelebrate our data scientists ability to uncover unprecedented insights,
whether is it into dignostics, disease pathways, and ultimately driving
(19:47):
patient outcomes. And so it's just a lot of um
mission critical activities that we have within the company during
this time that we continue to drive. Automation is another one.
By looking at embracing and DO and automation and using
AI on top of automation, building and scaling capabilities in
this space and leveraging those instrums are automating our environment
(20:10):
because we can't physically be on site to support how
where how to use automation to manage the environment um
and to support and to minimize physical interaction on the site. Well, first, Roun,
and let me say that your description puts most science
fiction films to shame when you start thinking about the
complexity and the sophistication of some of the tools you're
(20:32):
talking about. I mean, when we start thinking about things
like smart glass and you're thinking about augmented reality and
virtual reality. These are technologies that a lot of people
I don't think have had direct experience with. One thing
I also wanted to mention is that a lot of
these pieces you're talking about obviously the convergence of uh
(20:52):
those disciplines evolving and the fact that we're reaching a
point in connectivity where persistent connectivity is possible. That's what
really makes all of this work together, right, You are
so spot on. Advancement in connectivity is probably one of
the biggest game changer in the last two decades. I
(21:12):
think it's really changed the way we engage what we
do and just as you said, providing integrated capabilities to
deliver solutions to problems that we don't even know we
have you know at times. So I think connectivity it
definitely served as a very critical foundation in many many
areas within Monson Johnson. To give you an example, in
the area of like drug discovery, the process takes years
(21:34):
because we just have vast amounts of data. That data
comes from different sources, whether they are molecular data to
genomic sequencing data, and we have to find ways to
speed up the process. So to your point, having the
connectivity besides the compute power is so crucial to support
this process, to enable us to bring data together from
(21:56):
anywhere around the world so that we can drive and
support the work that we do. Now we're getting to
a point where we have fiber level connectivity wirelessly, and
it opens up the opportunity for all new applications where
not only are we processing data very quickly, not only
(22:17):
are we gathering data from various sources like Internet of
things devices, we can also make use of that information
faster than ever. And that to me is the most
exciting part is that I start to see this ecosystem
where there are no obvious unsolvable bottlenecks, at least to
(22:38):
our current capabilities, and that to me means that we're
going to see an explosion in innovation and applications moving
forward in the next few years. Right now, with the
availability of compute power, you can see that coming. Whether
it's a sitting on the cloud on premise, you can
get the compute power you need to drive a lot
(22:58):
of the machine learning work that we do today. I
think the key to the use of technology it's it's
not just about the technology itself, but also right what
business problems are we trying to solve. A Similarly, in
the drug discovery, we need to make sure that we
have the scientists to ask the right questions and therefore
them we drive the right algorithms to be able to
(23:18):
test the hypothesis that we have. And so it's really
important that we combine signs with technology to drive exactly
what you just said, to create the ability for us
to whether use drugs discovery to create life saving medicines
or use simulation to drive and provide better visibility in
terms of our inventory and therefore minimize supply delays. I
(23:42):
get caught up in the technology side of things, so
I can very easily get over enthusiastic about the tech solution,
which is why I'm thankful that we have leaders like
you who take a little more time to think this
through critically before they try to implement something that's not
really a solution. Um So, so, what are some of
the typical hurdles that you face when you're trying to
(24:04):
roll out new technologies we think about technology. Technology cannot
be used in isolation. It must be used to solve
key business problems, and very often the question I ask
is what problems are we trying to solve and what
can we do to enable to use technology to enable
business outcomes, our patient outcomes, or as a competitive advantage
(24:25):
for the company. And to your question around the hurdles,
I see technology as a part of a larger ecosystem
where you need to integrate process and the people into
the equation, and one of the hurdles we often have
to pross before we roll out new technologies understanding the
problem we're trying to solve, Understanding how technology can enable
(24:45):
and support the business in their strategy, and very importantly,
to have that open and transparent conversations with the business
not just in terms of what technology can do, but
also to understand the capacity of the organization for the
change that it will bring. Because, as with most of
the digital transformation that I've seen, a percentage of that
is technology, but a large percentage of that of transformation
(25:09):
is in the leadership and the change management behind it.
So getting teams to adopt new ways of working, whether
is it through new operating models, changing the way they work,
adopting new processes as a big part of adopting new
technologies as critical. So I think it's really important also
for us when we think about rolling new technology to
(25:32):
cross that hurdle to just create small first launches. We've
early adopters and users that have a strong interest in
seeing how this new technology and the new processes can
improve the way we work and improve business outcomes. And
the other piece I feel is around the fuzziness about hey,
what technology can bring. So I think be very vigilant
(25:54):
in terms of having the right measurement so that you
can demonstrate successes and then I think the learnings before
you scale one of the other hurdles. I'm sure most
of the other companies would agree with me, it's around
the area of having the right talented skills and so
this is a space that we constantly have to think
about in terms of how do we have the right
(26:15):
skill sets, the right talent, and the right partners in
place so that we can ensure that the critical capabilities
and resources are there to support our mission. When it
comes to emerging and cutting edge tech, we often see
a lot of development in the medical industry. In particular,
I wanted to pick Rowena's brain about the technologies that
will power the future of Johnson and Johnson's business. We
(26:39):
talked a bit about connectivities and things like the Internet
of Things, you know, data collection. Can you go into
a little more detail about how the Internet of Things
and the expansion of five G connectivity are supporting Johnson
and Johnson's digital health initiatives. So the Internet of Things
is definitely having a significant impact on health initiatives across
a number of different areas. On we have seen, particularly
(27:01):
in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical and consumer health products. We're
seeing that product lines are increasingly becoming network connected and
numerous points and therefore allowing operators to monitor every expect
of the manufacturing process to ensure that we have the
quality and the throughput, and in the clinical trial space
with patient monitoring, wearables and other devices are being given
(27:24):
to patients which allow for in home testing to be
performed with data being collected by the device and uploaded
by a Wi FI or five G or four G
so that the clinical trial system or to a patient
podle which is then accessible by a nurse or physician.
Fi G definitely holds a lot of promise in terms
(27:45):
of what it can provide, and particularly within here in GG,
we have seen use cases where the need for a
low latency, higher bandwidth and a more deterministic network solution
with guaranteed latencies that we requirement and therefore allows for
speed of delivery and first access to use cases like
(28:05):
we just we talked about with internal things in robotic surgery,
in autonomous vehicles for example. So what we are doing
within five G as part of our next generation network,
we are looking at developing a five G architecture and
the design so that we can leverage in a few
business use case. We're looking at how do we use
(28:27):
that right to help increase the ability for us to
connect all these IoT devices. We spoke about our equipments
and data linking them back to our production systems with
our digital production platforms. We are also looking at how
do we improve operational reliability and accuracy with integrated autonomous
(28:47):
and movable components such as autonomous intelligent vehicles and for
track and trades within our operations facility. So the industry
is still evolving I think in the five G space,
and we're definitely looking at partnering without business with partners
externally also to build minimal viable products in those areas
that I spoke about, So something for us to watch
(29:09):
in terms of what it can bring. The realities of
the pandemic have in many ways sort of opened our
eyes to the possibilities we had to adapt because the
reality was we couldn't just do things the way we
had been doing them. That's where I start to see
really exciting developments in things like how can we leverage
(29:30):
the fact that we we can have five G connectivity
and have a fiber level connection even if there's no
physical fiber going to that location. It's where I think
of things like tell tell the medicine tell Us surgery
things where you need that low latency. I mean, it's
absolutely critical in those kinds of applications where in the
(29:50):
future five G I would expect would play a pretty
critical role and would open up opportunities for people who
are in underserved populations who might not or wise have
access to a first in class you know, surgeon, they
might suddenly be able to do that because we have
these underlying technologies that power it. I find that really
(30:14):
an optimistic view of the future and something that I
personally find really exciting. Think about like twenty years ago,
what we could do today on the cell phone, you
could never imagine that we could do all of that.
And similarly, I think with five G, I think the
promise of what it can bring with what we just
talk about, right with low latency, high throughput, and the
(30:37):
ability to deliver capabilities around the world, I think it's
just amazing. Um. I think the day will come well
to your point about the site, you know, sci fi fiction, Um,
that we see some of those things that we you know,
we can only imagine would come to life. And even
the space of digital surgery, I mean that can become
a possibility in the near future with the use of
(30:59):
five GEN. Well, uh, how do you see tech shaping
the way we monitor health. I mean, we've we've talked
about wearables. Are we heading toward the future where we're
going to have more of these sorts of technologies that
are able to monitor health on an individual basis and
provide uh, you know, more individualized and and more immediate care.
(31:23):
If you think about some of the areas that we
are looking at right now in terms of just with
clinical trials, as I shared earlier on with patient monitoring,
that's the space whereby wearable technologies can definitely help support
the monitoring of the patient in terms of where they
are polinical trials that they participate in. Wearables are definitely
(31:45):
being adopted as a device that's given to patients to
allow for in home testing to be performed, and so
it's definitely the space that is going to continue to grow.
And with predictive AI coming into play as well, that
also as a vast implications in terms of how we
adopt this in the healthcare system and healthcare providers. And
(32:07):
I think one of the things that we are seeing
also is the use of AI and machine learning helping
healthcare professionals identify risk factors so that they can diagnose
diseases earlier and in a very non invasive way. And
in the surgical space, this technology is also offering people
better outcomes. For sure. We have within g j our
(32:29):
advanced case Management solution, and that's one technology that's using,
for example, proprietary AI algorithm to help with pre operative
planning for joint replacement procedures, and with it, our medical
device business can connect directly to hospitals electronic health records
in real time and using predictive AI, it can ensure
(32:50):
that the right device sizes and instrument kits are being
made available for a given procedure. And so this also
has a huge impact in terms of waste reduction, ensuring
at we have the right fitting device available for each
patient as needed. It's incredibly exciting. I love that you
know in your in your quest to solve business problems,
(33:12):
that also obviously has a direct impact on quality of
life for people who end So while we can look
at this from different aspects, right, we can look at
it and ways that end up saving time and resources
and money and making things more efficient on the business side,
and you see the actual impact on people's lives on
(33:33):
the other side, and it's a positive story overall. I mean,
the goal is to make those the best us all areas.
I wasn't about to let Rowena go without asking her
one more thing. What is some advice you would give
to future c t O s. I think companies are
(33:53):
shifting to become exponentially more digital and adapting to more centric,
collaborative and agile ways of working. And we're also seeing
businesses moving and shifting from a technology operations mindset to
technology innovation and where technology and business strategies are so intertwined.
(34:14):
And as business and their use of technology is quickly evolving,
I see the role of CTO evolving as well, including
mind you're in Johnson Johnson, I would say that my
advice for future and currency too is to not only
understand technology, but you must have a strong passion around
using technology to solve critical business challenges and never lose
(34:36):
sight of the business impact and the outcomes that technology
can deliver. And technology is only a part of the equation,
it was the entire ecosystems. So ensuring that we continue
to work very closely without business to manage to change
digital transformation will bring and not forgetting the people our
team is so critical in enabling all of that. So
(34:57):
enabling building a strong team that understands this mission and
understand how to strategically deliver technology to be the world
a better place. Um, it's definitely very important. That's very
valuable advice to follow in order to take in the
big picture and take that into consideration when you move forward. Rowena,
(35:18):
thank you so much for joining us for this episode.
Thanks Jonathan for having me. I've really enjoyed done this
some time with you, so thank you for inviting me here.
Speaking with Rowena was a genuine pleasure. Her passion for
problem solving, particularly with the end goal of improving people's lives,
(35:39):
is the sort of thing I find really inspirational, and
I always find that in the middle of these conversations
I start to connect dots that I never really considered before.
It becomes a bit of an exercise in free association,
and for a moment I get a sense of what
it must be like to be a leader like Rowena,
(36:01):
except you know, I'm nowhere near as capable as she is.
But it is this convergence of technologies that I really
find fascinating. From my side, I think about the cool
things this tech of tomorrow will be able to do.
From a consumer standpoint. But when I step outside of
that and consider the opportunities for innovation, I really get excited.
(36:24):
I suspect companies will implement solutions that I might never
directly observe, and yet they will have a profound effect
on the success of those businesses. And it's all made
possible by this era of computational power, the capacity to
collect and analyze data, the ability to create action plans
based on that analysis, and the connectivity that holds all
(36:46):
these different pieces together. Make sure you join us for
future episodes of The Restless Ones, where we'll speak with
more of the leaders who are defining the future of
tech in business. I'm Jonathan Strickland at T Mobile. For business,
unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can
(37:07):
focus on what matters most. That's why we've built America's largest,
fastest five G network while remaining a partner who delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan
so you get it all. Unconventional thinking is better for business.
Fastest five G based on average overall combined five G
speeds according to Open Signal Awards USA five G User
Experience Report October one. See five g device coverage and
(37:30):
access details at t mobile dot com
The advancement in connectivity is probably one of the biggest
game changer in the last two decades to think about,
and along with the Internet, so I think connectivity it
definitely served as a very critical foundation in many many
areas within Johnson Johnson having the connectivity besides the compute
power is so crucial to support this process, to enable
us to bring data together from anywhere around the world
(00:23):
so that we can drive and support the work that
we do. Welcome to the restless ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland.
I've spent more than a decade really learning about technology,
what makes it tech, and then describing and explaining that
to my audience. But it's the conversations with the world's
(00:45):
most unconventional thinkers, the leaders at the intersection of technology
and business, that fascinate me the most. In partnership with
T Mobile for Business, I explore the unique set of
challenges that c t o s and c i os
and other tech executives face from advancements in cloud and
edge computing, software as a service, Internet of things, and
(01:07):
of course five G. We are often left wondering how
the leading minds in business continue to thrive. Let's find
out our guest today is Rowena Yo, chief technology officer
of Johnson and Johnson. I doubt I need to fill
you in on Johnson and Johnson. The company and brand
(01:30):
are known far and wide. It's been around since the
late nineteenth century. There are many reasons Johnson and Johnson
has stood the test of time, and among those reasons
is the fact that the company embraces technological solutions to
tackle tough business problems. But as we'll hear in this interview,
they need to be the right solutions. Rowena and I
(01:52):
sat down to talk about her background and how she
came to Johnson and Johnson, as well as her overall
philosophy when it comes to designing, evaluating, and implementing tech solutions.
She also opened my eyes to how maturing technologies are
already transforming the medical industry. True to form, I started
off by getting to know her a little bit better. Rowena,
(02:15):
thank you so much for joining us on the Restless Ones.
It is a pleasure to have you on the program. Hey,
thanks Jonathan for having me. It's my pleasure to be
here today. I always love to start these episodes by
learning a bit more about the background of my guest
and the question I always start with is how did
you first get interested in technology? Jonathan, I've always been
(02:37):
curious about things around me, like solar system, how rainbows
a form, and I would say that I've always been
a big love of math and signs. Um. I love
to create things resemble things. So I would say my
illnest exposure to technology was probably playing the game Where
in the World Is Come? In San Diego on a
Macintosh with my brother and my cousins when we were young.
(03:01):
But I really really got interested in technology when I
started university, when I was pursuing my engineering degree. I
was just amazed how technology could be used. At that
time was just computing where you use programming to build
modeling in cat camp to look at engineering design. I
was also interested in terms of how technology was being
(03:22):
used to connect with one another. Um. I don't know
whether you remember those days where we have internet relate
chats and that's where how we kind of connect with
one another on using a green screen by the way,
But I think my real love for technology really really
deepen when I joined IBM after graduation systems engineer and
working with customers in terms of looking at technology and
(03:45):
solving problems, and that's where I think, Wow, this is
the space that I really want to be in. That's great.
I mean you already won my heart with Carmen San Diego.
I was a big fan of Carmen San Diego as well.
On top of that, I also remember the I R. S. E. Days.
So you get into engineering, Uh, what were some of
the things about engineering that really appealed to you? I
(04:07):
mean most engineers I know kind of view the world
as a series of challenges or sometimes even problems to
solve and finding elegant ways to go about that. Was
that sort of your experience that led you through your
university and into IBM. Yeah? Absolutely, you know. I love math,
I love science, but I also love how math and
(04:28):
science could be applied to solve problems. So I chose
to solve problem, create solutions and make something useful that
people can use. And if you look at kind of
where I'm typically the person at home to assemble um
and care finiture if it's there, I'm the first one
to want to make something out of something. So it's
(04:48):
it's really kind of what got me started. How do
I apply what I learned in terms of creating solutions?
Creating products for the people around me. And I think
my formal exposure to chnology really started in the university,
as I shared, and I became really really immerged um
in technology in my professional career, namely with IBM and
(05:10):
subsequently with with Cargill. And it was really those experiences
that I had and as you said, of using technology
as the platform and the perfect avenue for me to
develop solutions and bring innovative capabilities to life. Can you
tell me a bit about your career path and what
brought you to Johnson and Johnson. Yeah. After spending about
(05:32):
a few years and IBM as a systems engineer, I
joined the global food and Agricultural company Cargil and Cargo
at that time was growing in Asia Pacific and I
had the wonderful opportunity of working with a small team
at that time in Asia Pacific to establish all the
way from infrastructure, building applications as they grow their footprint
(05:53):
in the region. And I had just a wonderful time
doing different roles in Cargo over my twenty years, and
pbsequently became the Global Group c i O for the
agricultural trading and processing enterprise, and in those roles that
I have. I had the opportunity to just work with
business to develop business and i T strategies, very importantly
(06:14):
implementing technology capabilities for the business as they grow in
the region, but also subsequently globally in my global global role.
And after spending about twenty years with Cargill, I joined
Johnson Johnson in two sixteen as the repeat for I
T in the pharmaceutical sector in Asia Pacific. And what
really attracted me to Jane J is the credle, the
(06:35):
impact I can make in the healthcare space and the
wonderful people I've met through the process. And this subsequently
then lead me to my current role as the Chief
Technology Officer for Johnson Johnson, leading Jane J's Technology Services organization,
where my team and I are now responsible for defining
and implementing Jane J's holistic technology strategy across the different sectors,
(06:56):
and we have a mission, together with our business technology teams,
to make technology decisions that impact both are changing employees,
but as well as customers and other stakeholders that we serve.
And I imagine that there are some really interesting challenges
that come with that as well. I think about often
the c T O S I speak with. You know,
they are people who have incredible depth of knowledge about
(07:19):
technology and how technology can potentially support various business initiatives.
They are good communicators. They know how to get buy
in from different UH stakeholders in order to be able
to initiate a solution. But you're also in a field
that has its own incredibly deep knowledge base, that of
(07:43):
the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry. I suspect that
that requires a true finesse with communications so that you
can make certain that the solutions you provide are effectively
at a to the overall mission of the company and
not just you know, throwing technology at something just to
(08:06):
make just to throw tech at it. So, so what
has that been like in order to really refine your
approach and to align it with the mission of Johnson
and Johnson Jang, as you know, as the largest and
probably the most comprehensive healthcare company in the world, and
JANG has reimagined health and well being for more than
(08:26):
a hundred and thirty years. As we serve our patients,
doctors or nurses, mothers and fathers and all others we
use our products and services, and you think about where
JANG is today, we continue to innovate everything from skincare
to cancer treatments, to medical devices and the use of
technology of the times to really advance held around the world.
(08:47):
So it's some one of the key things around being
the CTO for gen G is to ensure that we
have a very very solid, resilient and scalable, end secure
digital foundation and this is the foundational core that provides
to meet the diverse meets of our business for today
and also to your point, we have to think about
(09:08):
the future as well, and also how does it help
us solve really really complex problems in healthcare today to
the use of applications and data science for example. So
I think this is something that we continue to live
in on a daily basis. It's kind of mind boggling
to me because I sort of have a grasp on
the technology side of things, But then I started thinking
(09:29):
about how do you maintain a level of service where
you are allowing the other UH divisions within J and
J to do what they need to do. And when
you start getting into those levels of incredible expertise, you
just see how complicated it gets. You have to really
specialized so to be able to provide that sort of
(09:51):
support to incredibly specialized fields. You know, we're talking about
things like like drug discovery is incredibly complex, uh and
and relies on some phenomenal technology. That's the sort of
stuff that just blows my socks off. If if I'm
just being honest, I was looking forward to hearing about
(10:14):
Rowena's role as well as which technologies are critical to
Johnson and Johnson's business. Let's say that you're at a
casual setting and they say, so, what do you do
for a living? How do you describe that in sort
of plain language, so people kind of get a grasp
of what it is you do in a simple way.
I help business solve business problems using technology as a foundation.
(10:35):
And I would see that Overwatten a part of a
wonderful team that really explore and delivers novative technology that
directly enables Johnson Johnson's growth, agility, and also success as
a company. See, this is what I love about the
Restless Ones is I get to speak with people who
are problem solvers. They're passionate about what they do, and
(10:59):
so for frequently the things that they do are you
can see the positive impact that they can have on
the world around us. I mean you you can't get
more apparent than the health care industry, I would say,
like the actual outcomes of that work. This is a
great opportunity for us to segue into leadership and the
(11:19):
technologies that you are working with and relying upon. So
what are some of what you would call mission critical
technologies the things that underlie what you do over at
Johnson and Johnson. That's a lot within gen G and
as I kind of shop with you in terms of
kind of the mission of gen G and how diverse
(11:40):
our set of business is. Building that foundational capabilities around
having the solid, resilient and scalable and very secure digital
core is really foundational to us in terms of providing
that mission critical technology base. And one of the things
around that space is a cloud and hosting environment and
our network. These are the two fundamental errors that I
(12:02):
would say we need to have a very strong commitment
and to continue to deliver and to modernize and to
invest in in these two areas. So in the cloud
and hosting space, we have a hybrid and multi cloud
strategy where we are looking at enabling mission critical applications
such as our r p s or manufacturing facilities or
(12:23):
lab systems and to help advanced technology and analytic capabilities
as well and increasing the agility and improve our overall
competitiveness through speed to market. And given the complexity of
our network environment today and the work that we do,
we are right now focusing on leveraging software, define why
area networks and automation to improve our ability to drive reliability,
(12:47):
resiliency and security. So we are putting very strong emphasis
also on using analytics to keep changes assets secure by
predicting threats, preventing data links and also quantifying all cyberries.
So these foundations we are really really critical to enable
our technology ecosystem, which include other critical areas as well,
(13:10):
such as a manufacturing systems, all logistics systems, safety regulatory
systems amongst others. And the integrated environment is really crucial
to ensure that we are able to continue to deliver
live saving medicines to OP patients all times at T Mobile.
(13:31):
For business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so
you can focus on what matters most. Where some see
another small town, we see businesses in need of connectivity.
So we built the largest five G network to cover cities, towns,
and the most interstate miles in between. Where some see
a caller in a queue, we see an opportunity for
our experts to provide solutions without transfers. Where some see
(13:54):
another virtual meeting, we see five G enabling wireless real
time translations almost anywhere you do business. Our unique approach
built America's largest, fastest five G network and also delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan,
so you get it all without trade offs. Unconventional thinking
is better for business. T Mobile for Business fastest five
(14:18):
G based on average overall combined five G speeds according
to Open Signal Awards USA five G User Experience Report October.
See five D device coverage and access details at to
mobile dot com. I'm curious when you came in at
two thousand and sixteen. I mean, to your point, you
(14:40):
mentioned that Johnson and Johnson is a very old company.
Were there or are their legacy systems that are are
things that you have to take into account while you're
also trying to incorporate more cutting edge solutions. I mean,
as with any large company like US, a company continues
to acquiet company ease and you kind of bring all
(15:01):
this together. There are legacy environments we have to modernize.
There are also things that we have to shift right
as we move into the cloud space. How do we
modernize someone the applications to be able to live into
the world of cloud that we can leverage the capabilities
and the innovation. So yes, we see UM quite a
bit of that. UM and as a company were also
(15:24):
having a very purposeful plan as we think about how
do we enable us to be agile, enable us to
be able to serve our customers and stakeholders and patients.
That's one of those things that I think people who
might maybe their experience is largely in startups, they might
not have a full appreciation for taking systems that have
been around for a long time, keeping them consistent, keeping
(15:47):
them accessible, making sure that there's no interruption of service,
while also trying to port them over into more modern systems.
That's a non trivial task, especially at scale. Well, how
did the pen make change things that Johnson and Johnson
clearly that has been an event that has been a
critical shift for a lot of companies. What technology has
(16:09):
really became crucial for you in order to be able
to again maintain that consistency in a world that seemed
to change overnight. The pandemic has definitely accelerated the adoption
of digital technologies and a strong push towards a digital workforce.
A hybrid work model changes the way we get work
(16:32):
done and also shifted the way we engage with our
customers and key stakeholders to ensure that we continue to
effectively on our global operations and supply chain in R
and D, and to serve the billing lives that we
touch each day. To a point about you know, driving
operations at scale and with our workforce, we have to
(16:53):
enable glue employees to continue to deliver on our business
imperatives and at the same time we want to keep
everyone see so the shift to remote working during the
height of the pandemic accelerated the need to focus on
enabling and party employees to work anywhere, any time, and
that that requires us to develop self service platforms. In
(17:14):
addition to collaboration tools that we have, we also need
to create new services for employees in terms of onboarding
and training and speed up the deployment of a few
of the collaboration tools that we have within the company.
The other area would say kind of shifted the way
we work is the way we interact with our customers
(17:34):
and our patients and our healthcare professionals. We have to
leverage digital interaction capabilities to continue to serve our healthcare
professionals and patients around the world, and enabling digital training
on digital capabilities and increasing for example, the use of
a R and v R for our social training with physicians,
enhancing solutions that we have today to interact with patients
(17:56):
around the world, for example, to minimize disruption to clinical trials.
And in the consumer space, we have also seen new
approaches to consumer innovation, such as the increasing use of
digital channels to reach our customers in our consumer health
space and creating very very highly personalized digital experiences for
(18:17):
our customers, connecting for example, telehealth and tele medicine providers
to allergy sufferers. In one of the examples that we
have look at the back end in terms of supply
chain space. As I mentioned, changing develops and produces essential
products for our customers and patients. So it is of
utmost importance for us to continue the flow of life
(18:38):
saving medicines and products and also keeping our employees save
at the same time, so we had to leverage technologies
that we have existingly and also innovate the way we
work virtually, leveraging data and automation on using for example,
highly automated scenario resimilation technology to very quickly respond to
(18:59):
fluctuations in customer demand during the pandemic, and also to
minimize delivery disruptions using virtual connectivity such as smart glass
technology by our quality experts so that they can work remotely.
And then talking about data and the use of data science,
I've also seen an increase in the use of data
and data science capabilities during this time and they are
(19:22):
becoming more and more critical as we drive insights and
also outcomes. And with that, we also leverage very heavily
on our cloud capabilities to allow faster accessibility to this
vast amounts of data that we have around the world,
to accelebrate our data scientists ability to uncover unprecedented insights,
whether is it into dignostics, disease pathways, and ultimately driving
(19:47):
patient outcomes. And so it's just a lot of um
mission critical activities that we have within the company during
this time that we continue to drive. Automation is another one.
By looking at embracing and DO and automation and using
AI on top of automation, building and scaling capabilities in
this space and leveraging those instrums are automating our environment
(20:10):
because we can't physically be on site to support how
where how to use automation to manage the environment um
and to support and to minimize physical interaction on the site. Well, first, Roun,
and let me say that your description puts most science
fiction films to shame when you start thinking about the
complexity and the sophistication of some of the tools you're
(20:32):
talking about. I mean, when we start thinking about things
like smart glass and you're thinking about augmented reality and
virtual reality. These are technologies that a lot of people
I don't think have had direct experience with. One thing
I also wanted to mention is that a lot of
these pieces you're talking about obviously the convergence of uh
(20:52):
those disciplines evolving and the fact that we're reaching a
point in connectivity where persistent connectivity is possible. That's what
really makes all of this work together, right, You are
so spot on. Advancement in connectivity is probably one of
the biggest game changer in the last two decades. I
(21:12):
think it's really changed the way we engage what we
do and just as you said, providing integrated capabilities to
deliver solutions to problems that we don't even know we
have you know at times. So I think connectivity it
definitely served as a very critical foundation in many many
areas within Monson Johnson. To give you an example, in
the area of like drug discovery, the process takes years
(21:34):
because we just have vast amounts of data. That data
comes from different sources, whether they are molecular data to
genomic sequencing data, and we have to find ways to
speed up the process. So to your point, having the
connectivity besides the compute power is so crucial to support
this process, to enable us to bring data together from
(21:56):
anywhere around the world so that we can drive and
support the work that we do. Now we're getting to
a point where we have fiber level connectivity wirelessly, and
it opens up the opportunity for all new applications where
not only are we processing data very quickly, not only
(22:17):
are we gathering data from various sources like Internet of
things devices, we can also make use of that information
faster than ever. And that to me is the most
exciting part is that I start to see this ecosystem
where there are no obvious unsolvable bottlenecks, at least to
(22:38):
our current capabilities, and that to me means that we're
going to see an explosion in innovation and applications moving
forward in the next few years. Right now, with the
availability of compute power, you can see that coming. Whether
it's a sitting on the cloud on premise, you can
get the compute power you need to drive a lot
(22:58):
of the machine learning work that we do today. I
think the key to the use of technology it's it's
not just about the technology itself, but also right what
business problems are we trying to solve. A Similarly, in
the drug discovery, we need to make sure that we
have the scientists to ask the right questions and therefore
them we drive the right algorithms to be able to
(23:18):
test the hypothesis that we have. And so it's really
important that we combine signs with technology to drive exactly
what you just said, to create the ability for us
to whether use drugs discovery to create life saving medicines
or use simulation to drive and provide better visibility in
terms of our inventory and therefore minimize supply delays. I
(23:42):
get caught up in the technology side of things, so
I can very easily get over enthusiastic about the tech solution,
which is why I'm thankful that we have leaders like
you who take a little more time to think this
through critically before they try to implement something that's not
really a solution. Um So, so, what are some of
the typical hurdles that you face when you're trying to
(24:04):
roll out new technologies we think about technology. Technology cannot
be used in isolation. It must be used to solve
key business problems, and very often the question I ask
is what problems are we trying to solve and what
can we do to enable to use technology to enable
business outcomes, our patient outcomes, or as a competitive advantage
(24:25):
for the company. And to your question around the hurdles,
I see technology as a part of a larger ecosystem
where you need to integrate process and the people into
the equation, and one of the hurdles we often have
to pross before we roll out new technologies understanding the
problem we're trying to solve, Understanding how technology can enable
(24:45):
and support the business in their strategy, and very importantly,
to have that open and transparent conversations with the business
not just in terms of what technology can do, but
also to understand the capacity of the organization for the
change that it will bring. Because, as with most of
the digital transformation that I've seen, a percentage of that
is technology, but a large percentage of that of transformation
(25:09):
is in the leadership and the change management behind it.
So getting teams to adopt new ways of working, whether
is it through new operating models, changing the way they work,
adopting new processes as a big part of adopting new
technologies as critical. So I think it's really important also
for us when we think about rolling new technology to
(25:32):
cross that hurdle to just create small first launches. We've
early adopters and users that have a strong interest in
seeing how this new technology and the new processes can
improve the way we work and improve business outcomes. And
the other piece I feel is around the fuzziness about hey,
what technology can bring. So I think be very vigilant
(25:54):
in terms of having the right measurement so that you
can demonstrate successes and then I think the learnings before
you scale one of the other hurdles. I'm sure most
of the other companies would agree with me, it's around
the area of having the right talented skills and so
this is a space that we constantly have to think
about in terms of how do we have the right
(26:15):
skill sets, the right talent, and the right partners in
place so that we can ensure that the critical capabilities
and resources are there to support our mission. When it
comes to emerging and cutting edge tech, we often see
a lot of development in the medical industry. In particular,
I wanted to pick Rowena's brain about the technologies that
will power the future of Johnson and Johnson's business. We
(26:39):
talked a bit about connectivities and things like the Internet
of Things, you know, data collection. Can you go into
a little more detail about how the Internet of Things
and the expansion of five G connectivity are supporting Johnson
and Johnson's digital health initiatives. So the Internet of Things
is definitely having a significant impact on health initiatives across
a number of different areas. On we have seen, particularly
(27:01):
in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical and consumer health products. We're
seeing that product lines are increasingly becoming network connected and
numerous points and therefore allowing operators to monitor every expect
of the manufacturing process to ensure that we have the
quality and the throughput, and in the clinical trial space
with patient monitoring, wearables and other devices are being given
(27:24):
to patients which allow for in home testing to be
performed with data being collected by the device and uploaded
by a Wi FI or five G or four G
so that the clinical trial system or to a patient
podle which is then accessible by a nurse or physician.
Fi G definitely holds a lot of promise in terms
(27:45):
of what it can provide, and particularly within here in GG,
we have seen use cases where the need for a
low latency, higher bandwidth and a more deterministic network solution
with guaranteed latencies that we requirement and therefore allows for
speed of delivery and first access to use cases like
(28:05):
we just we talked about with internal things in robotic surgery,
in autonomous vehicles for example. So what we are doing
within five G as part of our next generation network,
we are looking at developing a five G architecture and
the design so that we can leverage in a few
business use case. We're looking at how do we use
(28:27):
that right to help increase the ability for us to
connect all these IoT devices. We spoke about our equipments
and data linking them back to our production systems with
our digital production platforms. We are also looking at how
do we improve operational reliability and accuracy with integrated autonomous
(28:47):
and movable components such as autonomous intelligent vehicles and for
track and trades within our operations facility. So the industry
is still evolving I think in the five G space,
and we're definitely looking at partnering without business with partners
externally also to build minimal viable products in those areas
that I spoke about, So something for us to watch
(29:09):
in terms of what it can bring. The realities of
the pandemic have in many ways sort of opened our
eyes to the possibilities we had to adapt because the
reality was we couldn't just do things the way we
had been doing them. That's where I start to see
really exciting developments in things like how can we leverage
(29:30):
the fact that we we can have five G connectivity
and have a fiber level connection even if there's no
physical fiber going to that location. It's where I think
of things like tell tell the medicine tell Us surgery
things where you need that low latency. I mean, it's
absolutely critical in those kinds of applications where in the
(29:50):
future five G I would expect would play a pretty
critical role and would open up opportunities for people who
are in underserved populations who might not or wise have
access to a first in class you know, surgeon, they
might suddenly be able to do that because we have
these underlying technologies that power it. I find that really
(30:14):
an optimistic view of the future and something that I
personally find really exciting. Think about like twenty years ago,
what we could do today on the cell phone, you
could never imagine that we could do all of that.
And similarly, I think with five G, I think the
promise of what it can bring with what we just
talk about, right with low latency, high throughput, and the
(30:37):
ability to deliver capabilities around the world, I think it's
just amazing. Um. I think the day will come well
to your point about the site, you know, sci fi fiction, Um,
that we see some of those things that we you know,
we can only imagine would come to life. And even
the space of digital surgery, I mean that can become
a possibility in the near future with the use of
(30:59):
five GEN. Well, uh, how do you see tech shaping
the way we monitor health. I mean, we've we've talked
about wearables. Are we heading toward the future where we're
going to have more of these sorts of technologies that
are able to monitor health on an individual basis and
provide uh, you know, more individualized and and more immediate care.
(31:23):
If you think about some of the areas that we
are looking at right now in terms of just with
clinical trials, as I shared earlier on with patient monitoring,
that's the space whereby wearable technologies can definitely help support
the monitoring of the patient in terms of where they
are polinical trials that they participate in. Wearables are definitely
(31:45):
being adopted as a device that's given to patients to
allow for in home testing to be performed, and so
it's definitely the space that is going to continue to grow.
And with predictive AI coming into play as well, that
also as a vast implications in terms of how we
adopt this in the healthcare system and healthcare providers. And
(32:07):
I think one of the things that we are seeing
also is the use of AI and machine learning helping
healthcare professionals identify risk factors so that they can diagnose
diseases earlier and in a very non invasive way. And
in the surgical space, this technology is also offering people
better outcomes. For sure. We have within g j our
(32:29):
advanced case Management solution, and that's one technology that's using,
for example, proprietary AI algorithm to help with pre operative
planning for joint replacement procedures, and with it, our medical
device business can connect directly to hospitals electronic health records
in real time and using predictive AI, it can ensure
(32:50):
that the right device sizes and instrument kits are being
made available for a given procedure. And so this also
has a huge impact in terms of waste reduction, ensuring
at we have the right fitting device available for each
patient as needed. It's incredibly exciting. I love that you
know in your in your quest to solve business problems,
(33:12):
that also obviously has a direct impact on quality of
life for people who end So while we can look
at this from different aspects, right, we can look at
it and ways that end up saving time and resources
and money and making things more efficient on the business side,
and you see the actual impact on people's lives on
(33:33):
the other side, and it's a positive story overall. I mean,
the goal is to make those the best us all areas.
I wasn't about to let Rowena go without asking her
one more thing. What is some advice you would give
to future c t O s. I think companies are
(33:53):
shifting to become exponentially more digital and adapting to more centric,
collaborative and agile ways of working. And we're also seeing
businesses moving and shifting from a technology operations mindset to
technology innovation and where technology and business strategies are so intertwined.
(34:14):
And as business and their use of technology is quickly evolving,
I see the role of CTO evolving as well, including
mind you're in Johnson Johnson, I would say that my
advice for future and currency too is to not only
understand technology, but you must have a strong passion around
using technology to solve critical business challenges and never lose
(34:36):
sight of the business impact and the outcomes that technology
can deliver. And technology is only a part of the equation,
it was the entire ecosystems. So ensuring that we continue
to work very closely without business to manage to change
digital transformation will bring and not forgetting the people our
team is so critical in enabling all of that. So
(34:57):
enabling building a strong team that understands this mission and
understand how to strategically deliver technology to be the world
a better place. Um, it's definitely very important. That's very
valuable advice to follow in order to take in the
big picture and take that into consideration when you move forward. Rowena,
(35:18):
thank you so much for joining us for this episode.
Thanks Jonathan for having me. I've really enjoyed done this
some time with you, so thank you for inviting me here.
Speaking with Rowena was a genuine pleasure. Her passion for
problem solving, particularly with the end goal of improving people's lives,
(35:39):
is the sort of thing I find really inspirational, and
I always find that in the middle of these conversations
I start to connect dots that I never really considered before.
It becomes a bit of an exercise in free association,
and for a moment I get a sense of what
it must be like to be a leader like Rowena,
(36:01):
except you know, I'm nowhere near as capable as she is.
But it is this convergence of technologies that I really
find fascinating. From my side, I think about the cool
things this tech of tomorrow will be able to do.
From a consumer standpoint. But when I step outside of
that and consider the opportunities for innovation, I really get excited.
(36:24):
I suspect companies will implement solutions that I might never
directly observe, and yet they will have a profound effect
on the success of those businesses. And it's all made
possible by this era of computational power, the capacity to
collect and analyze data, the ability to create action plans
based on that analysis, and the connectivity that holds all
(36:46):
these different pieces together. Make sure you join us for
future episodes of The Restless Ones, where we'll speak with
more of the leaders who are defining the future of
tech in business. I'm Jonathan Strickland at T Mobile. For business,
unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can
(37:07):
focus on what matters most. That's why we've built America's largest,
fastest five G network while remaining a partner who delivers
exceptional customer support and five G included in every plan
so you get it all. Unconventional thinking is better for business.
Fastest five G based on average overall combined five G
speeds according to Open Signal Awards USA five G User
Experience Report October one. See five g device coverage and
(37:30):
access details at t mobile dot com
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