Welcome to the first episode of a new Cloud Wars Live monthly series: Araujo on Transformation. We all hear a lot (too much?) about Digital Transformation, but Charles Araujo is working to ground that platitude in reality. An engaging speaker and best-selling author, Charles is spreading the gospel of business change through an equally human and technological lens. Today, we talk about human-driven innovation, Walmart vs. Amazon, and more.
Episode 1
In this episode: Charlie introduces us to his philosophy of transformation. At his core, he’s an IT guy. He ran technical operations for a billion-dollar healthcare firm, then spent his career as a consultant for executives engaged in large-scale transformational programs: organizational design, operational optimization, and process improvement.
About a decade ago, working in IT transformation, Charlie came up with the idea of “the quantum age of IT.” That concept turned into a book, and a speaking tour, and the rest is history. In his more recent work, Charlie looks to the future with one eye on the past. Charlie and I talk about the fact that throughout the Industrial Age, it was all about producing a mass product for a mass market. The industrial barons of their time didn’t have robots—they had human beings. They trained us to show up on time, every day, and repeatedly do the same thing over, and over again. But with ever-increasing automation, that model is starting to fail.
Charlie uses Amazon and Walmart as an example. Walmart was the Industrial Age masterpiece. They built the world’s most amazing supply chain and they should have been unassailable. But then Amazon came along, with a total transformation of the customer experience. And we all know how that is going.
Recently, Charlie launched a new journal called “Your Digital Future.” It’s specifically aimed at answering the question of how digital leaders should step into this bold future. Check that out here.
You can also stream this episode in audio-only format:
Highlights
‘In the very near future, it’s in fact going to be our humanness–and not, maybe, our technology skills—that’s the driver of our personal differentiation. Things like creativity, imagination, empathy are going to be key.’ #CloudWars Click To Tweet ‘This isn’t just about some new technology, it’s about reordering the way you do business.’ #CloudWars Click To Tweet ‘Walmart was the Industrial Age masterpiece, right? They built the world’s most amazing supply chain… but what Amazon has brought to the table is this transformation of the customer experience.’ #CloudWars Click To Tweet
Cloud Wars Live Digital All-Stars
Charles Araujo is one of our regular Digital All-Stars. The All-Stars are experts who will appear in regular video podcasts focused on the critical themes shaping (and re-shaping!) the business world in the digital age of 2020. Our intention is to provide regular chunks of timely ideas, insights and conversations on high-priority subjects from industry veterans with diverse backgrounds.
