That Digital Show

This week, we hear from Soleh Ayubi, Chief Transformation Digital Officer at Bio Farma, one of Indonesia’s largest biotechnology companies that has been responsible for the acquisition and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in Indonesia during the pandemic. Bio Farma has played a critical role over the past few years, supporting the healthcare system with 459 million vaccines, of which 300 million doses were delivered in 2021 alone. Soleh talks about the challenges of managing a safe and effective vaccine distribution system, saying that collaboration, alongside digital technology, has been key to the brand’s success. He shares how the company has enabled the delivery of quality, lifesaving vaccines to every corner of the country while ensuring that every piece is accounted for and traceable.  Bio Farma is also in the process of implementing AI and machine learning (ML) technology to determine the optimal harvesting period for viruses and bacteria, working with scientists to accelerate research and improve the yield of its Polio, Tetanus, and Covid-19 vaccines. AI and ML will also be used for demand forecasting, so that they can improve production and distribution of products. Looking into the future, Soleh talks about plans for Bio Farma to become the first company with an end-to-end healthcare system, consolidating its R&D centers, manufacturing and distribution companies with retail stores, clinics, even incorporating medical insurance into a single ecosystem. Tune in to listen to Soleh as he shares some first-hand insights.   Special Guest Soleh Ayubi, Chief Transformation Digital Officer 

No matter what the world has thrown at the retail industry, National Retail Federation (NRF) has been there to guide and provide breakthrough insights to anyone and everyone in the retail sector. As the leading voice for retail, The Big Show unites the whole community. A place where new technologies are showcased and retail leaders can get inspired and network with their peers.    As Google Cloud prepares for our presence at The Big Show, Chris Hood sits down with Jordan Speer, Research Director for IDC Retail Insights, to discuss what to expect at the show and areas of interest they believe will be especially important to the retail industry in 2023 and beyond.

Target has been one of the leading innovators in the retail industry and not surprisingly is also one of the early adopters of cloud FinOps discipline through its Efficiency Engineering team. As such, Target has been in the forefront on tackling the cloud financials management topics and here with us today is Kim Wier, Director of Engineering, will be sharing her journey in driving cloud FinOps discipline within her Efficiency Engineering team and the key lessons learned through the past few years.

In this episode, Theo speaks to Hendra Gunawan, Chief Technology Officer at My Republic, who talks us through MyRepublic’s expansion across Indonesia, in its goal to become the second biggest fibre network provider in Indonesia.  Hendra speaks about how working with Google Cloud helps MyRepublic provide low latency, high speeds and high availability at a low price for their customers. He shares how through using the latest technology, MyRepublic is able to automate their systems and keep the business scalable, while ensuring a seamless and direct relationship between customers and technicians to help solve any issues. Listen in as Hendra Gunawan also discusses the challenges of obtaining special permits and handling outages, as well as MyRepublic’s future goals of leveraging data to make more informed business decisions, and using AI to provide insights for personalization.

To deliver for its customers, Botify continues to reinvent how companies perform SEO. From those early days of the manual indexing of websites to the eras of keyword stuffing and anchor links, Botify is changing the landscape of optimization. In this extended conversation of The Transformation Debrief, Chris Hood, Digital Strategist at Google Cloud, hosts Pierre Couzy, Chief Technology Officer at Botify, and Robert Rothschild, Chief Marketing Officer at Botify, to discuss how they are helping drive more traffic and revenue with machine learning and artificial intelligence to reinvent how companies perform SEO.

CNA has a 120-year history of providing property and casualty insurance for U.S. customers. It turned to Google Cloud to modernize its analytics, consolidate data management, and deliver better decision-making tools for agents and executives. In this episode of The Transformation Debrief, Chris Hood, host of Google Cloud's That Digital Show, talks with two CNA executives — Rich Wein, a vice president and actuary, and Santosh Bardwaj, senior vice president for data and analytics — about the company's journey to the cloud and the effects it is having on business operations and the CNA corporate culture.

Baseball is a game that can be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Some fans, like season ticket holders, primarily engage by attending live games at the stadium. For others, the game is ubiquitous on their television, smartphone screens, or tablets throughout summer afternoons and evenings. Some people like getting deep into the massive world of advanced statistics, watching analysts on the web and TV, or reading sports reporters' daily stories. In this episode, Chris Hood is joined by Anil Jain, Managing Director for Media and Entertainment at Google Cloud, and Truman Boyes, Senior Vice President, Technology Infrastructure at Major League Baseball, to take a behind-the-plate look at how data is leveraged to create deeper insights to improve the game and help make baseball consumable by fans in exciting new ways.

Organizations are driving the complete transformation of their business by inventing new ways to accomplish their objectives using the cloud, from making core processes more efficient to improving how they reach and better serve their customers to achieving insights through data that fuel innovation. In today's continuously evolving digital world, it is increasingly critical to adapt to changing consumer demands and market trends as quickly as possible. Whatever your industry's challenge or use case, Google Cloud solutions can help improve efficiency and agility, reduce cost, participate in new business models, and capture new market opportunities. In this episode, Chris Hood sits with Umesh Vemuri, VP of Global Strategic Customers & Industries at Google, to discuss how customers can quickly implement cloud solutions to generate business value.

In this episode, we hear from Amit Zunjarwad, Chief Product Officer at ShareChat and Moj about India’s home-grown, video-led social platform that has more than 1 million daily active users. The availability of affordable high-speed internet has encouraged the growth of video consumption in India. With that, ShareChat has positioned itself as a leading social media platform in the country that focuses on supporting video content creators and consumers. Along with short video app Moj, Amit talks about the creative economy and how content creators can drive social conversations and connect people across different parts of India, in 15 different languages. He also shares his strategy for growth, and plans that include turning Sharechat into a modern advertising platform through bite-sized content on the go. With concepts like virtual gifting where people can buy and send virtual gifts to content creators already in place, learn how the brand is boosting the Indian ecommerce industry while shaping the next generation of consumers.

The Covid-19 pandemic impacted many businesses, but the airline industry was perhaps one of the most affected. With travel bans that took place almost overnight, travel and transportation companies had to rethink and restrategize their business plans. In this episode, Theo chats with Kenneth Chang, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Korean Air, on how a business of 53 years had to pivot from its traditional ways to navigate the pandemic. Chang takes us through the challenges the airline faced, and how they leveraged technology to support quick decision-making that enabled the business to pivot quickly in turbulent times, taking advantage of the new opportunities presented to them during the pandemic. As a leader with foresight, Chang also shares how he instilled change management from an organizational viewpoint, building trust among employees. Keeping to the company’s environmental values, we hear about the airline’s green initiative, and how they are bringing in more fuel-efficient planes, steering away from the ‘bigger is better’ mindset. But one of the most exciting things to look out for in the company’s digital transformation journey is in the way they are looking to leverage the large pool of customer data, analyzing them to improve customer service. From building an app that gets employees their meals on time, to one that can help passengers track their luggage in transit, listen in to find out how the airline is innovating as it prepares for the future of travel in this post-pandemic season.

Ulta Beauty is now the largest beauty retailer in the United States, carrying more than 25,000 products from 500 established and emerging beauty brands, including Ulta Beauty's own private label. Despite many traditional retailers being faced with fierce competition, razor-thin margins, and declining sales, Ulta Beauty is still setting trends and producing fresh takes on what it means to be a beauty purveyor. Today, the company is trying on new digital offerings and cloud-enabled tools to deliver a vast array of personalized experiences and transform how shoppers buy and discover beauty yet again. On this episode, we continue our transformation series with Prama Bhatt, Ulta Beauty’s chief digital officer, to discuss the work her team is doing, and how they think through different perspectives and lenses to drive innovation.

In this episode, Theo speaks with ex-Googler, Dr Jiang Hong, Head of TapTap Developer Services, and Founder of LeanCloud, which was acquired by gaming company Xin Dong. Dr Jiang shares his thoughts on the unique gaming market in China, and how Xin Dong, as the holding company of Asia’s largest game marketplace TapTap, is looking to help build a better web developer community in the industry.  When it comes to the gaming community, understanding what players want in each market is key to growth, and Dr Jiang discusses what factors support the success of Asian games in overseas markets. He talks about Xin Dong TapTap’s vision for global expansion, as well as the misconceptions and the opportunities that lie within the gaming world. Listen in to learn about his personal journey in the entrepreneurial world, the challenges that Xin Dong TapTap has overcome in its journey to success, and what he hopes for the future of web development and gaming.

In this episode, Theo and Paris speak with Professor Denpong Soodphakdee, VP of Khon Kaen University (KKU), on KKU’s digital transformation journey.    Founded in 1964, KKU is an established university in northeastern Thailand with more than 40,000 students studying in 19 faculties. On a mission to prepare future global citizens to work in a fast evolving world, KKU also aims to be recognized both internationally and regionally as a leading university in research and technology.     Prof. Denpong shares the challenges KKU overcame in digitalization, such as implementing training for less technical staff and driving a mindset shift for better adoption. He also talks about the benefits of no-code platforms, and how to get people engaged and excited about developing their own apps.    Hear his first hand account about KKU’s first hackathon, the results, and what it takes to help lead the organization towards being a “Smart University” that others in the sector can model.

If you’re interested in the world of blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), then this episode is definitely not one you want to miss. DeFi has experienced exponential growth over the past few years, capturing the attention of investors globally. But with new opportunities, come new complexities and risks. One of the biggest challenges is distinguishing quality crypto assets from pure hype, particularly for non-institutional Investors. In the hot seat for this episode is Alex Svanevik, the Co-founder and CEO of Nansen, a blockchain analytics platform that enriches on-chain data with millions of wallet labels. Nansen’s mission is to be a driving force in offering crypto investors trusted, high quality data intelligence to enable them to make informed decisions, quickly. Crypto investors use Nansen to discover opportunities, perform due diligence and grow their portfolios with real-time dashboards and alerts. But he’s not the only guest we have on the show. In the co-host seat with Theo is Paris Tran, Territory Account Manager, Digital Native of Google Cloud. Listen in as Alex shares the genesis of Nansen with Theo and Paris, as well as the inner workings of deploying AI algorithms to analyze petabytes of crypto trading data per day, and their vision for the future of DeFi.

This week, Theo speaks to Ashish Kumar Singh, CHRO of Meesho and our pioneer HR C-suite on the show. As India’s fastest growing internet commerce platform, Meesho is democratizing e-commerce and bringing innovation online. With the Meesho marketplace supporting small businesses, individual entrepreneurs and everything in between, Ashish touches on their “users-first mantra,” which not only refers to customers, but also Meesho’s own employees. When the pandemic hit, it not only affected demand on Meesho’s platform, but also impacted ways of working. One main area of focus was brought to light - the challenge of achieving work-life balance. As CHRO, Ashish shares unique, first hand insights on how the company leverages technology such as MeeBOT for pulse collection, and to measure the employee experience, looking for areas of improvement. He also covers the importance of ensuring transparent communication and collaboration. From tips on enabling a remote workforce to leveraging tools like Google Meet, listen in as Ashish discusses future-of-work models, the implications of technology on our everyday lives and how Meesho has stayed at the forefront of reimagining new ways of work.

David Lynch, Group CTO from bolttech, joins the show with Jay to talk about how insurtechs of today are emerging from the convergence of technology and insurance. As the world’s largest technology-enabled ecosystem for protection insurance and the most international insurtech, bolttech operates in over 30 markets.  The business works collaboratively with 180+ insurance carriers on its platform that need access to technology, advocating the need for insurance companies that implement AI and machine learning, to augment their services to deliver better products and protection outcomes. David also discusses trends such as the shift towards usage-based insurance and the consequent need for the industry to invent new products, with insurtechs fuelling the acceleration of product innovation. At the same time, the fully digital insurance purchase journey is becoming a reality in the embedded insurance or microinsurance areas. He shares insights on finding a balance between supply and demand, as well as achieving growth in the marketplace.  From key factors that affect customer acquisition, to new revenue generation opportunities, tune in to find out more about bolttech’s research on what is needed to build a successful, future-ready marketplace.

Zebra Technologies is one of the largest suppliers of barcode printing and scanning devices globally. In 1991, Zebra introduced 2D barcode scanners followed by Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tracking tags, rugged mobile computers, tablets, and wearable devices for increased inventory and asset visibility. Lately, it's been acquiring companies in software, robotics, AI, data capture, and real-time location systems, all to help it transform from a traditional hardware-centric company to a software solutions organization to realize a vision it calls enterprise asset intelligence (EAI) at the edge. Today, Zebra has customers in manufacturing, retail, healthcare, transportation, logistics, and the public sector, with over 10,000 partners across 100 countries. In today's episode, Chris Hood sits down with Janet Kennedy, Vice President, North America Regions at Google Cloud, and Tom Bianculli, SVP and CTO at Zebra Technologies, to go behind the scenes of this Transformation Debrief conversation to learn how Zebra Technologies has navigated these changes.

In this episode, Theo speaks to Ronak Shah, Head of Data at apna.co. As one of the largest gig economies in the world, India is seeing rising numbers among younger people joining the ecosystem. Driven by digital adoption and new ways of working, Apna saw an opportunity to help bridge the gap between employers and potential candidates. Leveraging data and AI technology, Ronak shares how the company is able to level the playing field for those in the gig economy, and help millions of people achieve their goals. By focussing on what data reveals, Apna is able to apply the learnings to the marketplace, assist in upskilling people and build a community. With over 500 million users on the platform, Ronak also shares how Apna maintains safety and security not just in terms of data privacy, but also in creating a collaborative and inclusive space for all to learn from one another. Through quizzes and language aptitude tests, Apna helps recruiters identify skill sets easily, for a good match. Listen in as Ronak reveals Apna’s global expansion plans to serve one billion users, and provide even more upskilling on the platform.

Theo is in the interviewer’s chair for this episode as Frank Liu from Zilliz joins the show to talk about how AI and machine learning are making it possible for developers to understand and extract more value from unstructured data such as text, audio, images, video, and more. Traditional databases are great for handling structured data, such as information that can easily be captured and categorized in a table. For example, a book database would have columns for the title and author. This allows the data to be searched, sorted, and filtered according to those values. However, unstructured data isn't so easily managed. Frank explains how vector databases and AI can use algorithms and increased compute power to search unstructured data without relying on just tags and keywords. This has led to Zilliz being a major contributor to two open source projects - Milvus, which stores embedding vectors and feature maps from trained machine learning models, and Towhee, a machine learning platform built on top of Google’s Tensorflow and the Pytorch open source machine learning framework. Tools like these could be used to do a reverse image search to find similar photos, or even music recommendations based on the rhythm or sound of the music instead of being restricted to artist and genre keywords. Frank shares some of the highly specific and interesting use cases Zilliz has seen in fields like network security and pharmaceutical molecular analysis, in their journey to being the one-stop-shop for anyone needing to understand human-generated unstructured data.