Earlier this month CoDA had a pleasure of hosting members of the Digital Transformation (DTx) team for an Ask Me Anything (AMA) panel discussion on “Digital Transformation at HBS”. Our own HBS Professor Marco Iansiti, Matt Negri, Dave Goodrich, Julie Neu, and Arnold Paul sat in on the panel to answer questions from CoDA members, resulting in a fun and lively exchange about the future of digital transformation.
The event was a resounding success, attracting a large (100+) and engaged audience and we would like to thank everyone who attended. Your presence and participation were instrumental in making the event so informative and thought-provoking.
Steve Church and his team provided a succinct recap of the conversation which we are including below:
The conversation centered on how the DTx and CoDA partnership can unlock siloed data at the School, leading to new, innovative solutions for learners, researchers, and staff to democratize data. Here are some of the big questions covered during the AMA panel:
1. What is the purpose of digital transformation?
Marco Iansiti: “Why are we doing this? I love this question! We are solving the problem of siloed innovation, which does not scale. A common data foundation and common architecture (with the right governance and security) leads to de-siloed data and more innovation, powered by our bright, curious people. There are excellent innovations happening at HBS, but we can’t all access it and leverage it. We are removing that barrier to innovation.”
2. Why are we calling this a “digital transformation”?
Matt Negri: “Our approach will not be one big wave; it will be many small waves, and we’ll all learn to surf together. We are starting, for example, with real business problems and sponsors – people who opt in, with specific tangible use cases. From these, we will figure out what we can learn, what capabilities we need, and how to move forward.”
Dave Goodrich: “We will move from ‘counting problems’ (how many people…?) to deeper analysis that gets us closer to the endgame of personalized learning. For example, we don’t know anything about the ‘absorption rate’ of our learners. Learners come from all backgrounds; they don’t all engage the same or have the same knowledge. De-siloed data can help with this.”
3. How will we advocate for innovation?
Matt Negri: “To some degree, our governance board will help. They have very diverse voices and expertise. They will be able to push disruption, in a positive way.”
Arnold Paul: “Our goal is to democratize access to data and tools, so part of the burden is on all of us.”
Julie Neu: “Transformation takes courage. And I hope we have it. I hope we are able to try new things and not freak out and kill stuff too early.”
Questions like these raise the bar on how we achieve our mission! Unlocking data is the future for innovative approaches to personalized learning experiences. We are at the beginning of this journey and looking forward to transforming the way learners interact with HBS, so they can change the world. Many thanks to Victoria L. Prince, Marcus Dandurand, and CoDA for inviting us to participate!
We would like to once again thank CoDA members for making the event a huge success. We are also very grateful to the panel participants for the time and effort that they put in. If you’d like to (re)watch the full discussion, click here to view the Zoom video recording (email coda @ hbs for a password).