“Sadin on Digital” episodes explore the fast-changing and high-stakes world of digital business. Wayne Sadin and I focus in particular on what CEOs and boards must do to lead their companies successfully into the Digital Age. Today, we talk 2020. Wayne shares his predictions, ideas and recommendations for boards and the C-suite.
Episode 10
In this episode: Wayne and I discuss his 2020 Digital Transformation Memo, his Christmas present this year for clients and potential clients. As an overarching point, Wayne reminds us that not all technology is good technology—and it’s sometimes hard to tell the wheat from the chaff.
The two of us look at many of the critical recommendations, warnings and ideas that Wayne shares in his 2020 memo.
Here’s a preview:
- Wayne warns us against “Fake Cloud.” These are products that sound like cloud, they look like cloud, but they don’t deliver the benefits and instead just add complexity and cost.
- The subject of technical debt gets serious attention. Wayne says everybody who has done a big ERP knows that if you’re not ready for a seven, eight, nine-figure investment, take a look at something else. Technical debt can build up because clients don’t realize that every year they have to keep spending and spending. The solution is to move to SaaS, Hyperscale Cloud, and modern ERP. This way, companies can buy the product, pay their monthly fee, upgrade it, and maintain it without creating technical debt.
- On the topic of trends and ideas that are overhyped, Wayne says blockchain is a solution in search of a problem. Also, in Wayne’s view, 5G will one day be a terrific product, but it’s just not ready yet.
In a non-memo-related segment, Wayne and I also discuss the naming of Thomas Kurian as Cloud Wars CEO of the Year. Wayne says Thomas put Google into the business of supplying cloud to enterprises—and Wayne says this was a terrific hire for all who believe in cloud as the best place to put mature workloads.
You can also stream the audio-only version of this episode:
Highlights
'As a CEO, as a board member, don't be afraid. Build the technology in your shop to get out of technical debt and then bring that into the hyperscale cloud family.' #CloudWars Click To Tweet 'Having a committed executive who's got a track record and can motivate the troops and reassure the customers, I think, will be the best thing @Google ever did in the cloud business.' #CloudWars Click To Tweet 'There's nothing wrong with crawling, walking and running from broken processes, broken software to better processes, better software to the processes you want.' #CloudWars Click To Tweet
Thanks for watching! For more like this, we recommend:
Stream more recent episodes of Sadin on Digital
- Think of Yourself as the Chief Process Person
- Technical Debt and Its Consequences
- Data Breaches, Capital One, and AWS
Follow Wayne on Twitter and LinkedIn for more valuable insights into digital strategy.
Cloud Wars Live Digital All-Stars
Wayne Sadin is one of our regular Digital All-Stars. The All-Stars are experts whose video podcasts will focus on the critical themes shaping (and re-shaping!) the business world here in the digital age of 2019. Our intention is to provide regular chunks of timely ideas and insights about high-priority subjects from industry veterans with diverse backgrounds.
