Latest / Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews) / Cybersecurity and Risk Management: Western Digital CIO Sesh Tirumala’s Strategy on People, Process, and Technology for Cyber Threat Readiness

Transcript

Cybersecurity and Risk Management: Western Digital CIO Sesh Tirumala’s Strategy on People, Process, and Technology for Cyber Threat Readiness · Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)

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  When I first joined a year ago, we
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  were in the news and you know, we
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  we had a cyber incident that impacted us.
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  Obviously,
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  of the biggest learnings from that incident is,
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  you, everyone typically focuses on technology. Right? And
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  I always break it into people process and
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  technology and unless you get all 3 legs
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  of a stool in order, you know, you're
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  never safe.
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  Welcome to techno activation I'm your host Pure
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  High. My guest today is Ses K. Ses
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  as is the Chief Information Officer of Western
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  digital, a leader in digital storage solutions it
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  earns in excess of 12000000000 dollars in annual
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  revenue. He's been enroll for roughly a year,
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  and in that time, has led a transformation
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  of It and the company. He's focused on
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  cyber security and risk management as well as
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  culture, employee experience and engineering excellence, some other
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  other topics of focus. I look forward to
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  speaking with him about each and more. He's
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  a past chief information officer, of Pager duty
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  and of ana plan, and a past Cio
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  of a 10000000000 dollar. Everything is a service
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  offering at Cisco as well. Ses welcome to.
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  It's great to speak with you today.
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  Thank you, Peter. So Excited to be you.
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  It's a great pleasure. Well, maybe we begin
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  Ses with an overview of Western Digital business.
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  A bit about the business you're in, please.
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  Western digital is in the business of data
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  storage solutions. It's all about high capacity, data
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  storage and high performance, data storage. So essentially,
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  we have a hard disk drive business
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  and a solid state drive business, and we're
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  pretty much in laptops, desktops,
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  data centers, lot of our large customers are
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  cloud providers whether it's Amazon, Google,
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  Microsoft, meta, etcetera, etcetera.
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  Again, I think the company has been an
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  existence for decades, and now with the,
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  buzz of generative Ai, obviously, we saw the
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  first wave of lot of the Gpu growth,
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  and I think from a data storage perspective,
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  we see that as a second follow. So
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  again, super excited in terms of the industry
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  and where currently.
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  Excellence. And I I wonder if you could
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  talk a bit about your role as chief
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  information officer. What's within your purview as Cio,
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  please, S?
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  From my day to day responsibility
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  perspective, I have what is classic It, I'm
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  also responsible for the security organization, so the
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  Cis reports to me. And then, I'm also
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  responsible for a lot of the data and
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  analytics. And, lastly, given that we are a
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  global
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  manufacturing company,
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  lot of the factory
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  It systems
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  that manage our 12 14000000000 dollar business.
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  You know, I'm also responsible for those So
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  so essentially, it's classic It, data and analytics,
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  security and the factory systems.
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  Very interesting. Well, I know from early on
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  in your role and makes the first days
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  of your time with the organization, it experienced
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  as so many companies have experience a cyber
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  incident. And I wonder if you could talk
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  a bit about that trial by fire in
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  those early days and how it created a
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  kind of focus you probably weren't expecting in
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  those early days. Can you talk about that,
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  Sorry, please? Yeah. Absolutely. Right? So so, again,
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  when I first joined a year ago a
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  little more than a year ago, so we
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  win in the new and, you know, we
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  we had a cyber incident that impacted us.
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  And the team really did a phenomenal job
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  in rallying behind
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  and then really ensuring that, you know, we'd
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  remediate the incident, and we got all our
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  systems back up and running.
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  Obviously, 1 of the biggest learnings from that
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  incident is, you know, everyone typically focuses on
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  technology. Right? And I always break it into
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  people process and technology and and unless you
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  get all 3 legs of the stool in
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  order, you know, you're never safe. Right? Or
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  you're never built enough guard rails in in
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  in your ecosystem. And then, obviously, we're a
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  very complex
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  manufacturing, supply chain organization, so we work with
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  external, you know, partners, logistic partners, customers.
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  So so the perimeter is... There is no
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  perimeter technically. Right? Again, for us, I think,
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  we are the incident,
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  what we learned is, how do we tighten
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  up our change process systems
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  how do we also look at our help
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  desk systems because when somebody calls in for
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  a password reset? How do you really validate
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  who the actors are. Right? And and do
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  you train in many time, you know, you
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  outsource,
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  your, helped desk function. Right? And and how
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  do you ensure that even within your 4
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  walls and partners that you engage with are
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  trained with best in class mechanisms of validation.
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  Just like in your personal life, you know,
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  I mean, even though you have an Fe,
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  and you got all validation.
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  There's always a, you know, a loophole. So,
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  again, I think, you know, the team did
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  a phenomenal job in terms of again, thinking
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  those lessons learned in terms of our help
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  desk processes,
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  our technology,
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  do we also communicate, you know, with external
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  customers and really remediate. Right? So so again,
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  I think from that fortunate, we were fortunate
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  that, you know, there was no
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  impact from a revenue perspective
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  or from our ability to ship product and
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  continue our R and D, but but it
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  really shed light in terms of our people
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  process technology. And since then, you know, as
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  a part of my own It strategy,
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  my number 1 priority is
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  risk compliance and cyber cybersecurity.
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  That makes sense. I'd love to get further
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  into, your strategy as well. But before we
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  do, so you you rightly call out people
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  as a critical component here in order to
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  get to all of that you've described right
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  and more for that matter. And I know
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  that you,
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  have put a lot of thought into culture,
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  the sort of culture you hope losses within
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  the organization. I mean, probably, of course, on
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  the culture that preceded your time with with
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  the company. But can you talk a bit
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  about the the role culture, and and maybe
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  some of the ways which you would define
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  it in an environment like Western digital?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And and, again, you know, there's
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  a cliche. Right? Culture strategy for breakfast. Right?
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  So, again, I think what I find and
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  and there's, you know, different companies have got
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  different cultures. And from what I observe and
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  this is also in general what I've seen
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  talking to a lot of my peers. So
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  1 of the biggest things is, you know,
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  how do you avoid stove wipes? Right? Because
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  in It,
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  culturally,
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  you know, you're supporting a function. So let's
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  say, you know, you're responsible for supporting sales.
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  So you have a sales It organization. Right?
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  Or order processing or a financials It. So
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  so, obviously, you got the functions in how
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  you support the different stakeholders,
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  but more importantly,
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  you need to think of the connective tissue.
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  Right? 1 of the reasons I allow being
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  an It is because you get to see
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  the 03:60 view of the business.
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  And again, 1 of the things is, you
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  know, is the Cio more a business leader
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  or technology leader. Right? And I would say
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  a combination of both, but it's gotta be
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  business first.
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  Gotta be understanding,
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  you know, the the role of the business,
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  where do we see growth opportunities, Where do
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  we see cost savings opportunities,
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  How do you streamline and simplify your processes,
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  How do you really delight your customers, your
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  partners, your employees? So, again, I think that...
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  That's the exciting part of being an It.
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  So for me, culturally,
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  what I felt within the organization is everyone
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  was working very hard within their individual functions
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  and towers and measuring themselves. But then when
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  you flip it and come from an outside
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  in perspective. Right? Don't talk to me about
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  Microsoft Teams and Slack and Abc b,
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  But what's the employee's experience in a meeting
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  in in the in the way they collaborate
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  and how do you measure that? Right? So
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  to me, the biggest thing on culture was
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  around flipping on its head don't be tech
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  centric, look at it from a process and
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  outside in perspective and then pass the silos.
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  And then the second thing is in a
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  team sport. Right? So you know, I'm... This
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  is my analogy. There's... What's on the front
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  of the Jersey and what's on the back
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  of the Jersey. Right? And never forget that,
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  respect the position that you play. So when
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  you represent a stakeholder,
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  you represent all of It. You you can't
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  say, hey, that's the network team's issue or
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  the infrastructure team's issue. You gotta take accountability
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  and represent It as a whole, and then,
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  you know, be hard internally to hold the
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  Pos accountable
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  for improving service levels or operational levels, agreements
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  in order to deliver the world class experience.
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  Right? So again, I think the biggest 1
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  is silo
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  busting,
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  Right? And and the second thing is always
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  respect the position you play, but you're playing
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  for what's on the front of the Jersey.
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  Right?
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  I love that analogy. I appreciate you sharing
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  that so the Sports team and Jersey analogy.
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  I think it's particularly apt in in developing
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  that mentality. You alluded briefly there to
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  importance of employee experience, and the role that
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  your team plays there as well. Can you
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  talk a bit about you know, some of
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  your your thoughts process on methods of improving
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  it, and especially from a digital perspective,
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  the the the means by which you you
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  can impact that a best.
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  Absolutely. And again, this is still a, a
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  work in progress. Right? So we closely work
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  with both corporate communications and
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  with our people solutions teams. Right, in terms
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  of, you know, because, again, you know, is
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  that a single team within a company that
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  is responsible for employee experience. Right? And and
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  the answer is typically no. So Therefore, I
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  think It has an opportunity to play 51
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  percent of the decision making. Right? So
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  so like I said, again, you know, the
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  the classic... And the traditional thinking is, I
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  have a team that's responsible for email,
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  communication,
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  collaboration.
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  You work with facilities for your conference rooms
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  in terms of video conferencing, audio conferencing,
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  whiteboard boarding, things will lot nature. Then you
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  have... You... What's your,
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  obviously, post covid, we still try to get
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  people as many times in the in the
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  week to come into the office, but still
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  give or take it's about you know, 2
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  to 3 days a week. Right? So, again,
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  what's that in the office
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  collaboration experience.
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  So that's 1 set of capabilities. Then the
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  second is,
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  know, when I was getting interviewed for the
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  job, what's my,
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  interviewing process? Right? How seamless is the calendar
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  setup the meeting white setup? Is it a
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  1 click to join the meeting
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  because you're already, you know, having butterflies in
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  your stomach just before an interview, and you
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  just wanna make sure that the tech just
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  works. Right?
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  So once once you finish your interview, if,
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  let's say you get an offer of what's
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  your own onboarding experience like. And then, you
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  know, once you onboard, how do you drive
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  engagements? So right from, you know, I find
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  you
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  to I recruit you
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  to I onboard you to... I make you
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  productive, and I drive more and more of
• 10:11
  your engagement. And then hopefully, I don't have
• 10:13
  to ever leave in the event, 1 does,
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  this day and age, people do? For different
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  reasons, then what's your off boarding experience. Right?
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  So to me, the employee experience is really
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  about that end to end from, you know,
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  finding talent to
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  growing them and nurturing them, I think it's
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  super important.
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  And then the second thing is how do
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  you also create personas? For example, and we
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  did this you know, in my past company
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  and here. Day 1 if a software engineer
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  joins a company.
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  Can you make he or she fully
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  productive on day 1, which basically means that
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  you've provisioned the systems
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  tools right from writing code,
• 10:51
  you should be able to write a code
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  and and, you know, deploy it on day
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  1. Right? So how do you have that
• 10:55
  mine that it's not just about getting your
• 10:57
  Pc or Mac with everything set up, but
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  knowing that this is a software engineer and
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  I'm gonna provision a Github or
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  jenkins or things of that nature, ahead of
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  time. So you're productive on Day 1. And
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  likewise, for a sales,
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  Ae, you know, access to Salesforce and access
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  to a lot of the critical sales tools.
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  That's all set up. Right? So then that
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  way, now all you're trying to do is
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  get on with your onboarding experience and learning
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  and being productive on the job. Right? That's
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  how I look at it in terms of
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  employee experience. Less about the tech
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  more about a day in the life off
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  and can you really make it
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  efficient and frictionless.
• 11:31
  Session, light, what you described, I wonder what
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  skill sets are rising in importance within your
• 11:36
  organization that you would offer some some perspectives
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  on.
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  Peter, 1 of the critical factors is also
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  about taking stock about the skill set within
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  your organization. Right? And I think it's super
• 11:47
  important to map out
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  what are the current skills that you have
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  an inventory of all the key skills and
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  competencies within the It organization? And then look
• 11:55
  at where the puck going in the industry?
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  Right? What are the futuristic skills that you
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  need and you need to do a fit
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  gap analysis in terms of what you have
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  and what skills are in demand and what
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  you need. And then you need to really
• 12:06
  think about how do you bring in talent
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  from early carrier because you also wanna create
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  a growth from your career perspective carrier from
• 12:15
  hires, uni what's the interns, etcetera. And then
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  the second thing is where do you need
• 12:19
  seasoned hires people that bring in that skill
• 12:21
  set and know how because you need to
• 12:23
  infuse technology or that business knowledge and capability
• 12:26
  within the organization. So I would strongly encourage
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  all Cios do a regular
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  skill set inventory analysis between basic,
• 12:35
  proficient and advanced
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  throughout the entire organization, including leadership.
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  And and really be prepared in terms of,
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  you know, the feed... Future requirements and needs.
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  And and that's a super important
• 12:48
  you know, success criteria within the organization.
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  Well, said, like the, like, the notion of
• 12:53
  this end to end thought process as you
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  notes.
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  Earlier you talked about the
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  imperative strategically of of security risk and compliance.
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  Understandably, again, given the incidents in the early
• 13:04
  days of your tenure as well. Wonder if
• 13:05
  you could talk a little bit about changes
• 13:07
  in philosophy or process associated with that. And,
• 13:11
  you know, obviously, innovation is about risk taking
• 13:13
  the idea of risk doesn't mean being risk
• 13:15
  less. But obviously, also understanding that you are
• 13:17
  taking into consideration risk tolerances and the security
• 13:21
  and compliance implications to all that you and
• 13:23
  your team do. Can you talk a bit
• 13:25
  about, you know, your your philosophy around security
• 13:27
  risk and compliance, please?
• 13:29
  Yeah. And it's always a balance between perform
• 13:31
  and transform. Right? You gotta make sure that,
• 13:34
  you know, you never compromised
• 13:36
  the existing,
• 13:37
  infrastructure. But at the same time, you can't
• 13:39
  swing on the other end where, you know,
• 13:41
  every change becomes a bigger change that you
• 13:43
  just can't in a way because now these
• 13:45
  days, if you don't a innovate, you'll left
• 13:46
  behind. Right? So I think it goes back
• 13:48
  to how do you create an It engagement
• 13:51
  model and the culture of leaning in Right?
• 13:54
  And and really, it's a team sport. And
• 13:57
  rather than treat the Cs in terms of,
• 13:59
  you know, I mean,
• 14:01
  people think of... Well, as soon as you
• 14:02
  say a security organization, well, it takes for
• 14:04
  too long or, you know, there's not enough
• 14:06
  resources etcetera. So to me, I think it's
• 14:08
  really having a clarity on... As we engage
• 14:11
  with the business so the best we can.
• 14:13
  Get a sense for the key priorities,
• 14:15
  the road map. The investments.
• 14:18
  I think it's super important. So that you
• 14:19
  you can apply your scarce resources against the
• 14:23
  highest order a bit. Right? The second thing
• 14:24
  is also being very close to your procurement
• 14:27
  organization. Right? Because a lot of the software
• 14:29
  purchases
• 14:30
  happen through and many of a time even
• 14:32
  It is not aware. Right?
• 14:34
  And it goes straight to the procurement team.
• 14:36
  So again, having a close into lock with
• 14:37
  their procurement team and and teaching them and
• 14:40
  training them. So that, you know, they push
• 14:42
  back and are able to rope in and
• 14:44
  bring the Cio and the Cs into the
• 14:47
  conversation when,
• 14:48
  you know, when certain flags and conditions come
• 14:50
  up. Right, during the review process. So so
• 14:53
  to me, I think I think those are
• 14:54
  2 critical things.
• 14:55
  And then continuing to to teach the organization
• 14:58
  because, again, let's take rb brains off lee
• 15:00
  as an example. Right? Because, again, risk and
• 15:02
  compliance socks is a big compliance aspect. It's
• 15:04
  not a 1 time done dusted effort. It
• 15:07
  gotta be a part of your day to
• 15:09
  day performance and Sla and management with all
• 15:12
  changes,
• 15:13
  you know, sitting with the finance
• 15:15
  organization, sitting with a tax organization, making sure
• 15:17
  that all the controls are well tested. More
• 15:20
  importantly, is it well documented?
• 15:23
  The second thing is you have the right
• 15:24
  practices to ensure
• 15:27
  and compliance. And then when you do with
• 15:29
  an external auditor in our case K G,
• 15:31
  are you able to demonstrate both as a
• 15:33
  business and It organization the adherence to all
• 15:37
  the sox controls. Right? So again,
• 15:39
  it's funny because
• 15:41
  then you have a I have a large
• 15:42
  team in India and you know, Asia, etcetera.
• 15:46
  And and many your time, you know, early
• 15:47
  in carrier people also learn through production support
• 15:50
  and sox compliance and testing,
• 15:52
  And and I was in in all hands
• 15:53
  once, and I was talking to, you know,
• 15:55
  people who are early in their career?
• 15:57
  And and, you know, I asked this individual
• 15:59
  What do you do? And, oh, well, I'm
• 16:00
  just doing test thing of these controls and
• 16:03
  validation. And then I mentioned it in my
• 16:05
  own hand saying that if we fail the
• 16:07
  sox
• 16:09
  deficiencies and demonstrate that we have material weaknesses.
• 16:12
  Guess what? It means that a lot of
• 16:14
  the C suite goes to the jail link
• 16:15
  including the Cio.
• 16:17
  Right? So failing a socks out means jail.
• 16:20
  Right? And and that light bulb is, you
• 16:21
  know, oh my god. This is why it's
• 16:24
  important to have fiduciary controls.
• 16:26
  This is what it means to be a
• 16:27
  publicly traded company.
• 16:29
  This is why it's important because I think
• 16:31
  it's important for people at the lower levels
• 16:33
  to understand. Otherwise, what happens is when you're
• 16:35
  just testing a control It may sound a
• 16:37
  little Monday mundane, but how do you translate
• 16:39
  it to the work that you're doing on
• 16:40
  a day to day basis is so critical.
• 16:43
  That it can, you know, put your company
• 16:45
  at risk from a Sec reporting,
• 16:47
  financial fiduciary requirements perspective, etcetera. And for a
• 16:51
  publicly traded companies, these are something that you
• 16:54
  never compromise. Right? So so making that as
• 16:57
  a part of your culture and your Dna,
• 16:58
  Are they you're so important.
• 17:00
  Then likewise, with with Cyber 2, you know,
• 17:02
  our past learnings has been that, you know,
• 17:04
  we tend to go to the board meetings
• 17:06
  and you have these missed frameworks and you
• 17:08
  have these, you know, maturity colors that you
• 17:11
  basically say where you have green, and and
• 17:14
  I always call it the watermelon and right?
• 17:16
  It's green on the outside and as soon
• 17:17
  as you slice it, It's red in the
• 17:18
  inside. So again, how do you ensure that?
• 17:21
  You know, you really
• 17:22
  are being practical about the this framework,
• 17:26
  and you're able to call out the risks.
• 17:28
  And again, you don't know what you don't
• 17:29
  know. But to the best you can and,
• 17:31
  you need to quantify the risk. And, again,
• 17:33
  I'd... It's about people process technology. Right?
• 17:36
  And it's also about you know, even simple
• 17:38
  things like these days, all the phishing emails
• 17:41
  you, you know, you get? And how do
• 17:42
  you train the organization, when to click and
• 17:45
  not click. Right? So So I think all
• 17:47
  those are super important just doing a 1
• 17:50
  time tabletop top exercise is not enough.
• 17:52
  It's gotta be a regular you know, sport
• 17:55
  that you that you do, frequently. So again,
• 17:57
  I think those are some of the key
• 17:58
  learnings. And then the last thing is when
• 18:00
  you have an incident and when the going
• 18:01
  gets wrong.
• 18:03
  You'll truly get to know who's a partner,
• 18:05
  and who's a vendor. Right? And we clearly
• 18:08
  learned, you know, who was truly
• 18:11
  willing to go above and beyond and demonstrate
• 18:13
  partnership versus
• 18:15
  some languages vendors.
• 18:16
  And and then you need to know what
• 18:18
  you have to do.
• 18:19
  To really, you know,
• 18:21
  figure out what's your next step from the
• 18:23
  experience.
• 18:24
  Very well set. I appreciate those flexi reflections,
• 18:27
  and and also, the reit reiterating of the
• 18:28
  point of the people the process and the
• 18:30
  the technology working in concert in order to
• 18:33
  get these frameworks correct. I know another, other
• 18:36
  areas of strategic importance to you that you
• 18:38
  are driving
• 18:40
  transformation through is,
• 18:42
  operational and engineering excellence. Can you talk a
• 18:44
  bit about
• 18:45
  do... How that applies, some of the methods
• 18:48
  that you're using, again, early days I recognize.
• 18:50
  But
• 18:51
  how how that's being enacted within Western Digital
• 18:54
  as well.
• 18:55
  Yeah. I mean, look,
• 18:57
  everybody wants to nowadays work on cool capabilities
• 19:01
  and I I call it perform and transform.
• 19:03
  Right? But perform is basically... It's like, you
• 19:05
  know, water gas electricity. Right? You expect it
• 19:08
  to be always on. And when things are
• 19:10
  not always on, it creates big issues. Right?
• 19:13
  You go, well, what the hell. I don't
• 19:14
  get water. I don't get gas electricity. So
• 19:16
  same thing from an It perspective. To me,
• 19:19
  operation excellence basically means that all our services
• 19:22
  are up and running. Right? Email is up.
• 19:25
  Collaboration is up. All the mission critical wants.
• 19:27
  The ability to message
• 19:29
  meet,
• 19:30
  collaborate,
• 19:31
  place orders,
• 19:33
  your, website is up. You can you can
• 19:35
  book revenue. You can ship product again, I
• 19:37
  call these as always on services. And,
• 19:40
  you know, they better have, you know, 3
• 19:42
  nines of 4 nines in terms of, you
• 19:43
  know, availability.
• 19:45
  Again, it's it's a cost versus, you know,
• 19:47
  investment balance. But to me, operational excellence is,
• 19:51
  you know, always on services, no compromises, etcetera.
• 19:54
  No, obviously, in the software world stuff happens
• 19:56
  happens, and and and I think, you know,
• 19:58
  it's it's important that when things happen,
• 20:01
  it's the attitude with which we respond and
• 20:04
  and not a fingerprint pointing game on a
• 20:05
  bridge. Right? So so, again, what is the
• 20:08
  mean meantime to restoration when an incident happens?
• 20:11
  And then this was classic with my previous
• 20:13
  company pager duty. Right? And the whole premise
• 20:15
  was
• 20:16
  around, you know, how do we minimize downtime.
• 20:18
  So likewise, we implemented page duty when I
• 20:20
  first came on board.
• 20:22
  So, again, I think the thinking of operational
• 20:24
  excellence is measure your always on services.
• 20:27
  And anytime there's a there's an issue or
• 20:29
  an outage, let's learn from it. And again,
• 20:32
  people process technology.
• 20:33
  And most of the times, you had to
• 20:35
  measure yourself and how good you all a
• 20:37
  changes? And and many incidents actually happen due
• 20:39
  to changes. So how do you minimize change
• 20:41
  related incidents?
• 20:43
  Right, which is you're making new features or
• 20:45
  code change or etcetera. So how do you
• 20:47
  really minimize that. And when things happen or
• 20:49
  go solve, have a robust,
• 20:51
  rollback plan or a fall back plan,
• 20:54
  communicate early. Right?
• 20:55
  And escalate early. Asking for help is not
• 20:57
  a sign a weakness.
• 20:59
  Think it's super important.
• 21:00
  We recently had an issue with 1 of
• 21:02
  our big software providers, and and the team
• 21:04
  did not even know who to call on
• 21:05
  the on the partner side. Right? So again,
• 21:08
  you know, knowing
• 21:09
  who to call, how do to escalate
• 21:11
  even with your big software providers and partners
• 21:14
  are getting a super important all that I
• 21:15
  call as operational excellence and you measure
• 21:18
  in terms of uptime, outages, change really related
• 21:21
  incidents, time resolution, etcetera. Then on the engineering
• 21:24
  excellence, it's about, you know, having the right
• 21:27
  process
• 21:28
  tooling
• 21:29
  to deploy software. And we still have some
• 21:31
  work to do to fully embrace agile. Right?
• 21:34
  And Agile is not about, you know, producing
• 21:36
  clap faster, but you have to have the
• 21:38
  right due diligence
• 21:40
  across the board.
• 21:41
  But it's once your requirements and what your
• 21:44
  outcomes are well understood, then how do you
• 21:46
  accelerate with with the business. Right? And bring
• 21:49
  the business along?
• 21:50
  On this journey. So engineering excellence is all
• 21:52
  about, you know, do I have
• 21:55
  source called automation,
• 21:57
  Can I do unit testing and dev testing
• 21:59
  and integration testing on scale, and I automate
• 22:02
  a lot of things,
• 22:04
  both from our cyber and priority perspective and
• 22:06
  from a code based perspective,
• 22:08
  can all my ml and data engineering and
• 22:11
  pipeline engineering, Are they all digital digitized and
• 22:13
  automated
• 22:15
  are we really leveraging the cloud first mindset?
• 22:18
  Right, rather than build everything in your data
• 22:20
  center or a c?
• 22:21
  So I think a lot of these principles
• 22:23
  go into and and think about security first
• 22:25
  rather than an afterthought, even during your review
• 22:28
  process,
• 22:29
  etcetera. So those are the 2 pillars in
• 22:32
  terms of operationally excellent and engineering excellence.
• 22:35
  And and bring in the software defined paradigm,
• 22:38
  even from an infrastructure perspective, Right, especially with,
• 22:41
  you know, there's a lot of logging and
• 22:43
  monitoring, but what is truly a ob ability.
• 22:45
  And and and, again, in the industry too
• 22:47
  the word ob ability is super important where
• 22:50
  it's, you know, classic It It's a network
• 22:52
  issue a data center azure data issue. But
• 22:54
  really, how do you... Because the users don't
• 22:56
  care whether the issue is. Right? I can't
• 22:58
  book an order, or I can't, you know,
• 23:00
  I can't engage with you in on your
• 23:03
  website. So the end users should never care
• 23:06
  on what's broken, but it's our job in
• 23:08
  It to ensure.
• 23:10
  That we are accountable for that end to
• 23:12
  experience. Right? So so I know I said
• 23:13
  a lot, but that's all I would categorize.
• 23:17
  Very interesting. Again, Appreciate the overview there. Mentioned
• 23:19
  in the introduction that you've been its chief
• 23:21
  information officer multiple times and an It executive
• 23:24
  across a diverse array of technology centric
• 23:27
  organizations. You've been at major scaled companies, your
• 23:29
  current post of course of with Western digital.
• 23:32
  Also Cisco, I mentioned before, you've also been
• 23:34
  at scaling technology
• 23:36
  organizations like pager in plan in both cases
• 23:39
  as chief information officer also.
• 23:41
  I wonder what do you draw from your
• 23:43
  experiences back and forth? What advantages
• 23:46
  you have in having experienced scaled
• 23:49
  organizations and helping them sort of foster, continued
• 23:51
  growth and and transformation, also being in the
• 23:54
  kind of even faster pace growth the organizations
• 23:57
  like a like a pager Or anna plan.
• 23:59
  What are you drawing from each of those
• 24:00
  experiences into 1 like you have today that
• 24:03
  that you, might be lightning.
• 24:05
  Yeah. Absolutely. I I spent a long carrier
• 24:07
  at Cisco and led a lot of transformation,
• 24:10
  you know, great journeys across us, you know,
• 24:12
  the business. And and, obviously, you know, having
• 24:15
  seen the company grow form. Them when I
• 24:16
  joined them, they were, like, 4000000000 and when
• 24:18
  I left, we were about 51000000000 in Cisco.
• 24:20
  So again, just going through the sales go
• 24:23
  to market growth, the commerce growth, the shift
• 24:26
  towards new business models like, you know, software
• 24:29
  as a subscription also for on premise networking
• 24:33
  gear, data center gear as a subscription. So
• 24:35
  again, thinking through that whole business model shift,
• 24:39
  building systems for scale,
• 24:42
  and with high
• 24:43
  operational excellence metrics that I mentioned was a
• 24:46
  huge learning from a cisco perspective. And then,
• 24:48
  obviously, as a part of your career growth
• 24:50
  and movement, I join Ana plan and Pager
• 24:52
  duty, and 1 of the biggest things is
• 24:54
  when you join companies that are much
• 24:56
  smaller.
• 24:57
  And and you have a smaller footprint even
• 24:59
  within It organization. 1 of the biggest things
• 25:01
  is, you know, large company, you you take
• 25:03
  things for granted. Right? Because your your budgets
• 25:06
  are fairly large,
• 25:07
  you have larger teams at your disposal and
• 25:10
  things of that nature. And when you soon
• 25:12
  realize that when you're in a smaller company,
• 25:14
  everyone's got a own up like, you know,
• 25:16
  top line and bottom line. Right? And in
• 25:18
  the Saas companies, the rule of 40 was
• 25:19
  super important between, your profitability and top line
• 25:22
  versus your spends and Op and how do
• 25:24
  you really thrive to be towards the rule
• 25:26
  of 40 and many companies were still not
• 25:29
  profitable,
• 25:30
  you know, despite good growth. Right? Which then
• 25:32
  means
• 25:33
  that is all about the bottom line. Right?
• 25:34
  And driving more efficiency and more automation so
• 25:37
  doing more with less. Right? So I think
• 25:39
  the biggest learning there was, you know, with
• 25:41
  every hiring, value digitize, right, value automate and
• 25:45
  and and really look for our, partnership with
• 25:48
  the Cfo
• 25:49
  on what are the levers towards accomplishing the
• 25:52
  rule of 40 and and really trying to
• 25:54
  do within It, what can we do. Right?
• 25:56
  That was that was a big, you know,
• 25:57
  learning and takeaway and and really being a
• 25:59
  lead in me an organization.
• 26:01
  Then the second thing was just around many
• 26:03
  a time, you're selling to,
• 26:05
  you know, fellow practitioner, Cio, Cto,
• 26:08
  Cis, etcetera.
• 26:09
  So how do you also help influence the
• 26:12
  product. Right, in terms of the story board,
• 26:15
  the pitch deck.
• 26:16
  What features and functionalities are important? How do
• 26:19
  you unlock relationships and and really provide the
• 26:21
  practitioner view back into the product? Right? And
• 26:24
  and, again, what drew me back to a
• 26:26
  larger was partially a personal,
• 26:28
  reason. But at the same time, I I
• 26:30
  wanted to... Get back into a a doable
• 26:33
  manufacturing, like, you know, footprint from a more
• 26:35
  personal carrier perspective. So so again, which made
• 26:37
  me come back to a larger organization.
• 26:40
  And, again, the complexities of a large organization
• 26:42
  having been in small teams where you have
• 26:45
  to really be conscious about your investments,
• 26:47
  you know, helps me bring that same value
• 26:50
  for money. Because I think at the end
• 26:51
  of the day, we gotta treat all of
• 26:53
  this as your own personal money and really
• 26:55
  think about the value for money conversation.
• 26:58
  How do you measure Roi?
• 27:00
  Right? How do you ensure that, you know,
• 27:02
  the costs and and expenses are in line.
• 27:05
  And and 1 of the biggest things and
• 27:07
  we always get ding in It is takes
• 27:09
  to long cost cost too much. Right? That's
• 27:11
  that's just the tagline line. No matter where
• 27:13
  you are. And and how do you continue
• 27:15
  to have us story board
• 27:17
  with the right metrics to show
• 27:19
  exactly what your costs are. Right? So what's
• 27:21
  your annual budget
• 27:23
  Let me break it down
• 27:25
  between what's fixed.
• 27:26
  Right? What's non fixed
• 27:28
  and and having that narrative with your Cf
• 27:31
  4 and the c suite. I think is
• 27:32
  super important. And like I said, 1 of
• 27:34
  the beautiful beautiful things of being an It
• 27:35
  is, again, you have no dog in the
• 27:37
  fight. Right?
• 27:39
  And and I find many many a time
• 27:41
  being in the middle of breaking log jams
• 27:43
  between a, Cfo or a Cro or a
• 27:46
  Coo because you you just lay out the
• 27:48
  fact and we go well, here's here's what's
• 27:50
  being asked to me.
• 27:52
  And
• 27:52
  here's the scarce resources, and and the business
• 27:56
  case, we've we've implemented it, but we don't
• 27:58
  see us accomplishing a business case. So do
• 28:01
  we continue to feed the beast or do
• 28:03
  we cut bait. Right? So again, I think
• 28:05
  I think 1 of the things is I
• 28:07
  call it courageous decision making and the ability
• 28:09
  to influence and bring
• 28:11
  we are a steering company committee, the right
• 28:13
  leaders of the table to have the uncomfortable
• 28:16
  conversations, I think is an expectation of a
• 28:18
  Cio. Right? You know, and I think that's
• 28:20
  been a good growing opportunity early on.
• 28:23
  I've had my own scars where you say
• 28:25
  some things and you don't realize the... The
• 28:27
  political landscape.
• 28:28
  But you gotta be politically savvy and you
• 28:30
  gotta
• 28:31
  know, you gotta tee it up and grease
• 28:32
  the skins a little bit before you're able
• 28:34
  to
• 28:35
  talk about what what the outcomes are. So
• 28:37
  that's how I would categorize that Peter.
• 28:39
  It's a really nice reflections. I appreciate you.
• 28:41
  You offering those Ses.
• 28:43
  You, as you look to the future, or
• 28:44
  especially if somebody who's so immersed in technology,
• 28:46
  and it has been across these different settings
• 28:48
  we just refer to? I wonder what trends
• 28:51
  excite you as you look to the future.
• 28:53
  What are some of the topics that you're
• 28:55
  investigating further or perhaps or beginning to make
• 28:58
  their way onto the road map. Yeah. So
• 29:00
  I think for me, I'm trying to things
• 29:02
  to be honest with you between perform and
• 29:04
  transform. Right? I still have a few things
• 29:06
  or many things to accomplish on the perform
• 29:08
  bucket, which is all about you know, cloud
• 29:11
  first,
• 29:12
  asset light,
• 29:14
  beef up our,
• 29:15
  risk compliance,
• 29:16
  posture,
• 29:18
  employee experience a pet peeve. Right? So again,
• 29:20
  how do we continue to digitize,
• 29:22
  and look for value for money. Are we
• 29:24
  getting the value for money from all of
• 29:25
  our major plus forms that we're invested in.
• 29:27
  Right? Because all these are multi year subscription
• 29:30
  deals.
• 29:30
  Are we really getting the value for money?
• 29:33
  Are we engaging with, you know, the the
• 29:35
  web... The partners on a regular basis pushing
• 29:38
  for features and functionality. So I think a
• 29:40
  big chunk of it is in the perform
• 29:42
  category
• 29:43
  of employee experience,
• 29:45
  customer experience,
• 29:47
  improvements in your risk compliance and cyber posture,
• 29:50
  and and really being asset light. And then
• 29:52
  on the transformed side, potentially, a business model
• 29:55
  shift in terms of, as a service, you
• 29:58
  know, that is 1.
• 30:00
  The second thing is, again, data data analytics.
• 30:02
  Right? I I still think that a lot
• 30:05
  of our metrics and capabilities are rare view
• 30:07
  looking. And again, it's not unique to us
• 30:10
  western digital, but again, it's about an industry
• 30:13
  too...
• 30:13
  It's it's still Admire what happened in the
• 30:15
  last quarter and still, if you look at
• 30:17
  many companies, culturally, you're running Qb,
• 30:19
  you're sitting in Q 4 and you're running
• 30:21
  AQ3 Qb. Right? Which it's it's a rare
• 30:23
  view looking to begin with, that's a rare
• 30:25
  view lens. Right? And we tend to rain
• 30:28
  slides and talk about 45 minutes and our
• 30:30
  1 hour meeting about what happened last quarter.
• 30:32
  Rather than, hey. Here's what I'm gonna predict
• 30:34
  is gonna happen this quarter next quarter.
• 30:37
  And here are the adjustments I need to
• 30:38
  make. And here's, you know, forward looking. Right?
• 30:40
  So I still think on the analytics front.
• 30:43
  We need to be
• 30:44
  forward looking. And for that, I mean, honestly,
• 30:47
  we talked about a lot about Gen ai
• 30:48
  and the buzz. Right? I think it all
• 30:50
  goes back to having a robust data model.
• 30:52
  And how do you take opportunity data from
• 30:55
  Salesforce, bookings data from an Erp
• 30:58
  to an install based data in your install
• 31:00
  basis you're entitlement data and really connecting it
• 31:04
  from the lens of a customer. Right? You
• 31:06
  know, who have you sold it too, you
• 31:08
  know, sold to sold through because in an
• 31:11
  ecosystem. You're not many of times selling directly
• 31:13
  to end customers, you're selling through a channel.
• 31:15
  So I I think it's super important to
• 31:17
  understand your routes to market, your go to
• 31:19
  market motions and really know who your customer
• 31:22
  truly is,
• 31:24
  and and really focus on the right data
• 31:26
  quality and data completeness problems. Right? So so
• 31:29
  in a way it's back to basics is
• 31:30
  how I say it, Peter. And once your
• 31:32
  data model is robust and strong, and you
• 31:34
  have the right technology, whether it's, lake house
• 31:37
  or data warehouse warehouses in the cloud. I
• 31:39
  I think all those are a given table
• 31:41
  stakes, and you got enough ample technology choices
• 31:43
  to pick and choose from. Then comes, hey
• 31:46
  in the future, gone to the days where
• 31:48
  somebody's gonna log in into a Tableau or
• 31:50
  a Power Bi and run a report. Right?
• 31:52
  You you you you're gonna have a prompt.
• 31:55
  And you're gonna say, who are my top
• 31:57
  3 customers
• 31:59
  or which product of mine is generating
• 32:02
  more than 10000000 dollars in revenue.
• 32:05
  Or who's my top sales rep as an
• 32:07
  example. And I all of these are gonna
• 32:09
  be prompt based questions. Right?
• 32:12
  And and those are things to find information.
• 32:14
  The second thing could be is actions. Right?
• 32:16
  It's like, hey, I wanna take a Monday
• 32:18
  off in July, and let me know what's
• 32:20
  the best time to take it. And and
• 32:22
  and you get a prompt back and and
• 32:24
  the system creates a record in 1 day
• 32:26
  as an example Right? And and you get
• 32:28
  your time off request to proof. So then
• 32:30
  that becomes an action based. So long story
• 32:32
  short to me, I think it's about prepping
• 32:34
  the data calls, and then embracing the right
• 32:37
  L and the right technology
• 32:39
  architectures to enable
• 32:41
  in truly do we do generative Ai
• 32:44
  based on the different department use cases, What's
• 32:46
  relevant for sales? What's relevant for engineering?
• 32:49
  What's relevant for employees. What's relevant for manufacturing?
• 32:52
  I think that's super important. And then the
• 32:53
  other area that's super important for us is
• 32:55
  It and Ot. Right?
• 32:57
  It being information technology, Ot operational technology. So
• 33:01
  again, we have a lot of factories and
• 33:03
  these are world class factories in Far East.
• 33:06
  So again, in these factories,
• 33:08
  how do you have the concept of a
• 33:09
  digital twin? Right? How do we use imaging
• 33:12
  text to videos to predict quality problems or
• 33:16
  reliability problems? Right? And and really figure out
• 33:19
  from your production line in your manufacturing line?
• 33:21
  How do you demonstrate the best operational technology
• 33:24
  where yields are super high, failure rate is
• 33:27
  super low and that our production lines are
• 33:29
  full capacity
• 33:30
  with with very minimal
• 33:32
  defects on the production line.
• 33:33
  So again, we call it the factories of
• 33:35
  the future,
• 33:36
  fully digitized, fully automated Me systems.
• 33:39
  Those are super important. And and then in
• 33:41
  Ot,
• 33:42
  again, you know,
• 33:43
  we're also looking at technologies from a security
• 33:46
  and facilities perspective
• 33:48
  if there's a fire. Do we have enough
• 33:49
  sensors to detect?
• 33:51
  There's an issue because you can't physically have
• 33:54
  people deployed every everybody? So how do you
• 33:56
  respond in terms of a crisis,
• 33:58
  right, in terms of Ot technology and large
• 34:00
  campuses and large factories and things of that
• 34:02
  nature. So so, again, that's the just a
• 34:04
  a few things that, you know, we are
• 34:06
  we are considering across the realm. Some of
• 34:08
  it is back to basics and some of
• 34:09
  it is more futuristic and forward looking.
• 34:12
  Again, great. Frame reflections all ses. Thank you
• 34:14
  for that.
• 34:15
  Wanted ask you before I let you go.
• 34:17
  Is there anything you recently you've been reading,
• 34:20
  listening to or and or watching that you
• 34:22
  would particularly recommend to our audience?
• 34:24
  I mean, the 1 thing is, you know,
• 34:26
  there's this book called working backwards. Right? I
• 34:28
  think it's written by, you know, some key
• 34:31
  people from Amazon and and 1 of the
• 34:33
  things in It is it's always about... How
• 34:35
  do you tell the story with the end
• 34:37
  in mind, and then you work your plan
• 34:39
  backwards once?
• 34:40
  Right? And many your time in It, when
• 34:43
  we communicate, we are talking about widgets and
• 34:45
  technology and tools and and less about this
• 34:48
  story and the narrative and imagine. And if
• 34:50
  you wanna think about a product mindset, you
• 34:52
  need to think around the finished product and
• 34:54
  then work your milestones and plans backwards. Then
• 34:56
  the second thing is even in your Powerpoint
• 34:58
  points and the ability to create the story
• 35:00
  more narrative, What's the punchline? And and how
• 35:03
  do you use as few slides possible to
• 35:05
  really talk about,
• 35:07
  but the bias towards action. So to me,
• 35:08
  I think that's a good read in general
• 35:11
  to talk about a finished product in mind
• 35:13
  and launch,
• 35:14
  work your way backwards and Iron not all
• 35:16
  the kinks. In a way you're writing your
• 35:18
  press release, like, if something's gonna out, let's
• 35:20
  say you have a big Erp release in
• 35:22
  a year from now. How do you write
• 35:23
  the press release as though you're in 12
• 35:25
  months from now and answer all the key
• 35:27
  questions
• 35:28
  and then work your plan backwards.
• 35:30
  A great recommendation. Thank you for that. And
• 35:32
  and a great rationale as to why it's
• 35:34
  a has been an important read for you.
• 35:36
  Thank you for sharing that such. I still
• 35:38
  read your book that's in the back there.
• 35:39
  The world oneplus It strategy, Peter.
• 35:42
  Yeah.
• 35:43
  Thank you so much. I appreciate that as
• 35:45
  well as.
• 35:46
  And I wanna thank you more generally speaking
• 35:48
  for a great conversation. It's fascinating to hear
• 35:50
  more about your tenure now, you're in change
• 35:53
  in. A Western digital, the various
• 35:56
  transformations that you you are leading across the
• 35:59
  organization. Also, great to hear more about your
• 36:02
  10 year as chief information officer across multiple
• 36:05
  organizations and how you've drawn from that experience,
• 36:07
  culminating in your current post. It's been a
• 36:09
  really terrific conversation. Thank Thank you again.
• 36:12
  To think for the opportunity.