Name: COO Summit 2024: Thriving in complexity - A Framework for Success and Transformation in an Age of Disruption
Uploaded: 2024-10-07
Duration: 11 min 9 s

Remaining nimble in a constantly changing world doesn't have to be daunting. Instead, COOs and CTOs can seize this opportunity to pivot and lean into operational solutions that leverage new technologies like AI and automation and unify disparate organizational structures and regulatory systems. Moreover, by utilizing customer experience and insights to drive decision-making, companies can proactively manage disruption. In this session, we'll meet two leaders who are successfully navigating this transformation.

COO Summit 2024: Thriving in complexity - A Framework for Success and Transformation in an Age of Disruption

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Remaining nimble in a constantly changing world doesn't have to be daunting.

Thriving in complexity - A Framework for Success and Transformation in an Age of Disruption

All right. So I think by now we are all really familiar with what a coo does if you're not one, you know about one. But I wanna ask how many of you either are a Chief Transformation Officer or have one at your company show of hands. All right, we're about 5050. OK. Well, lucky for us. We have one here on stage and she used to formerly be a coo. So Raquel, can you tell us what are the differences between a Chief transformation officer and a coo? Yes. Um Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Uh It is a transition or a transformation I should say um with the coo position, the work that you're doing with products with the CTO, we look to bring that same level of commercial innovation, collaboration, consumer insights, but with our programs. So bringing value, creating value creation, ensuring that you're getting top ro I doing the PARA O analysis, doing the work that's important for our employees, keeping us as a destination organization, but also making investments in the next generation of innovations. So the transformation, we have the entire corporate portfolio of innovations from digital to tech um to the infrastructure, to er P systems, you name it and it's driving in this space. And it certainly helps because we drove an important transformation in the supply chain during COVID. That kind of set the state to then move into creating the transformation strategy and roadmap for the company. Excellent. I want to come back to the supply chain but Sarah, I first want to come to you as someone who is truly just black backstage. I'm very personally invested in what, in what you're doing over there. So what is true transformation look like for you at Slack? And can you give me one specific example of how you've disrupted company operations in your very short time so far as coo Yeah, it's is a short time. I started in December but it has been rapid fire. And I think as coo s who get work done, I have to start with work itself. Work today is broken and we are leveraging gen A I to fix it. And you know, if you think about it, 41% of our teams are spending time doing really low value tasks. Even today, I was searching for a slide for the exact version that I wanted. And this kind of mix of data being in different apps silos between teams, you're actually losing really valuable enterprise information. So what we are tackling is how do you point gen A I at that really powerful enterprise data that you have across your organization. And we're doing it um with in our own team and also with several of our clients, we've launched over 100 A I powered agents. Think of it like a chief of staff for the activities that are critical to your business, sales, marketing, service, commerce, and we're pointing at A I at the structured and unstructured data, the apps and then it's actually taking action to build the capacity across your team. So sales agents, marketing agents, and we're using it ourselves. We've launched 100 A I powered tools and apps including agents. Over the last um year, it's already delivered 50,000 hours in savings for our sales and it services teams, which is where we started. And then several of our most innovative customers are already on a journey with us to Rivian um producing electric vehicles. They've actually put their assembly line robots into Slack's A I powered operating system. So the robots talk to the engineers and tell them when the supply chain um is down 72% improvement in their productivity in just this first phase is so really powerful work has broken. We're working with Jenny I to try and fix it. That's a great example. And what about it, L'oreal Raquel. What are you, what type of tech are you using? That's new and innovative. Yeah, so we're a beauty tech company. Um And so we're the number one beauty company in the world and part of that is really embracing ongoing transformation. It's a way of life. Um And so it's fueling our digital innovation, right, the work that we do to be connected to consumers and create a love mark with consumers, uh a known fact or a little known fact, our average product life cycle is less than two years, right? So you need to operate with a lot of speed. So you think about the different innovations, you know, you don't necessarily need that lipstick but you want it, right? Um And so or from a skin skin care perspective, so the pace and speed of change is super important. And then I'm happy to, to share hopefully many of you may have seen we were the keynote um this year at CE S really again, the combination of beauty and tech coming together uh where we launched three new innovations, one being with the l'oreal Professional, it's uh Air Light Pro and so it's the next generation hair drying system, but it uses one third less energy and it also leaves your hair much more enriched, it's not stripping. So, and that also brings to life, both technology but also our commitment to sustainability. So in everything that we're doing, we're measuring scope two and three really appreciating the impact of how consumers use our products and the impact that that's having on the environment. We also launched a digital makeup applicator for consumers who have movement disorders. And so, you know, the ability to still take pride in how you look. But if you don't have steady motion, that can be very difficult. So you should check it out. Uh It's amazing. It's with Land Land Comb, it's called hap A uh again, so it's a stabilizer and anyone can apply makeup. Um So those are, those are two examples. We also have a color sonic which is in home hair color, it's personalized, it does all the mixing in an applicator and it applies it directly to the roots. Some people in the audience understand the importance of I think you on stage for sure, right? But we can experiment. Uh so the opportunity for personalization tech, consumer digital, right? And I think that's the power when you're solving for multiple elements and you're having that connection to the consumer leveraging tech um but also for our employees, right? And, and the work that we're doing on programs and bringing to life employee centric innovations to make time for what matters most. So that's our tag line making time for that matters most and in in that is eliminating low value added tasks for sure. Now, before I turn it over to the audience for questions, I wanna come back to what you said about supply chain. Can you talk to me about how you innovated supply chains, either using this new tech or, or post pandemic? Yes. So um COVID was a very special time for supply chain. Uh Many people around the world got in touch with the term supply chain. So we disrupted the supply chain. It was because of the supply chain innovations focusing on ecom. We achieved our 10 year ambition in ecommerce in three months. Uh And we were able to grow to x the market during this incredibly disruptive period. Um Certainly the one that I've experienced in my 32 year career, I've never seen anything like it. So I always say from a supply chain perspective, we have to be 18 to 24 months ahead of the hopes and dreams of our commercial friends, right? Because we're moving systems, people solutions, uh steel. And so we were able to, to do that particularly with building some infrastructure, very important infrastructure um to support e-commerce, but also speed at scale, right? So being able to, to not only focus on our big brands that have big velocity and large velocities, but also the brands that weren't delighting consumers as they began to experiment and have personalized products. So there's a speed and a difference in your manufacturing strategy for that type of production and that velocity versus large scale like shampoos that we're all using day in day out. Absolutely. And I think we have time for one audience question. If anyone has one, raise your hand, we'll run it over to you. But if not, I have one for Sarah going once. All right, Sarah quickly, can you tell us where do you see the biggest growth opportunity at Flex? So I have to acknowledge that, you know, Slack's been delighting users the last 10 years, my team's remit is about building the next 10 year chapter and actually nodding to um Raquel's comment around disruption and getting ready for that change. There's a really common misconception that coo s are just focusing on optimizing what is and we really pride ourselves in setting the tone for the organization for what's coming next. So analyzing from data science to launching new products from incubating new ideas and then also getting a team set up so that whatever happens next, we're ready to pivot really quickly. Um So my team's been involved in all of the levers of the, the growth strategy at Slack. And I think the most exciting things coming next are the product innovations and how fast they're coming. We've talked about agents already that personal assistant for work. We've also launched um Slack A I which is embedded summaries. Um summarizing your enterprise information through search. If I just give an example in Q one, I deliver the Slack Growth strategy in Q two, I delivered a baby. Um So I tapped into this exact summary functionality to, to recap what has happened in my company while I was out and this is pretty critical could be just BT O. But we are using the innovation to empower our teams to create that capacity for our organization, but also to be ready to pivot really quickly when something that Newcom that we haven't seen yet on the horizon, I think this moment is super exciting for coo S and CTO S as we position supply chains and operations to become vectors of growth, right? We've always been about creating value creation, driving savings and productivity, but we're now front facing with the consumer, right? And providing a lot of those delight, delight factors and so making that transition or adding that to our toolbox, right? So it's productivity because that is a given always right, year over year. But how do you leverage the capabilities of the supply chain or the operation to drive growth for the company as the game changer? 100%? Well, thank you so much, Raquel. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you for leaving maternity leave to join us. We appreciate you both for being here. Thank you.