>> live from Boston, Massachusetts. It's the Cube covering IBM Chief Data Officer Strategy Summit brought to you by IBM. Now, here are your hosts. Day Volante and Stew Minimum. >> Welcome back to Boston, everybody. This is the Cube, the worldwide leader in live tech coverage. Stillman and I have pleased to have Jean Kolker on a Cuba lem. Uh, he's IBM vice president and chief data officer of the Global Technology Services division. And Seth Dobrin who's the Director of Digital Strategies. That Monsanto. You may have seen them in the news lately. Gentlemen. Welcome to the Cube, Jean. Welcome back. Good to see you guys again. Thanks. Thank you. So let's start with the customer. Seth, Let's, uh, tell us about what you're doing here, and then we'll get into your role. >> Yes. So, you know, the CDO summit has been going on for a couple of years now, and I've been lucky enoughto be participating for a couple of a year and 1/2 or so, Um, and you know, really, the nice thing about the summit is is the interaction with piers, um, and the interaction and networking with people who are facing similar challenges from a similar perspective. >> Yes, kind of a relatively new Roland topic, one that's evolved, Gene. We talked about this before, but now you've come from industry into, ah, non regulated environment. Now what's happened like >> so I think the deal is that way. We're developing some approaches, and we get in some successes in regulated environment. Right? And now I feel with And we were being client off IBM for years, right? Using their technology's approaches. Right? So and now I feel it's time for me personally to move on something different and tried to serve our power. I mean, IBM clients respected off in this striking from healthcare, but their approaches, you know, and what IBM can do for clients go across the different industries, right? And doing it. That skill that's very beneficial, I think, for >> clients. So Monsanto obviously guys do a lot of stuff in the physical world. Yeah, you're the head of digital strategy. So what does that entail? What is Monte Santo doing for digital? >> Yes, so, you know, for as head of digital strategies for Monsanto, really? My role is to number one. Help Monsanto internally reposition itself so that we behave and act like a digital companies, so leveraging data and analytics and also the cultural shifts associated with being more digital, which is that whole kind like you start out this conversation with the whole customer first approach. So what is the real impact toe? What we're doing to our customers on driving that and then based on on those things, how can we create new business opportunities for us as a company? Um, and how can we even create new adjacent markets or new revenues in adjacent areas based on technologies and things we already have existing within the company? >> It was the scope of analytics, customer engagement of digital experiences, all of the above, so that the scope is >> really looking at our portfolio across the gamut on DH, seeing how we can better serve our customers and society leveraging what we're doing today. So it's really leveraging the re use factor of the whole digital concept. Right? So we have analytics for geospatial, right? Big part of agriculture is geospatial. Are there other adjacent areas that we could apply some of that technology? Some of that learning? Can we monetize those data? We monetize the the outputs of those models based on that, Or is there just a whole new way of doing business as a company? Because we're in this digital era >> this way? Talked about a lot of the companies that have CEOs today are highly regulated. What are you learning from them? What's what's different? Kind of a new organization. You know, it might be an opportunity for you that they don't have. And, you know, do you have a CDO yet or is that something you're planning on having? >> Yes, So we don't have a CDO We do have someone acts as an essential. he's a defacto CEO, he has all of the data organizations on his team. Um, it's very recent for Monsanto, Um, and and so I think, you know, in terms of from the regular, what can we learn from, you know, there there are. It's about half financial people have non financial people, are half heavily regulated industries, and I think, you know, on the surface you would. You would think that, you know, there was not a lot of overlap, but I think the level of rigor that needs to go into governance in a financial institution that same thought process. Khun really be used as a way Teo really enable Maur R and D. Mohr you know, growth centered companies to be able to use data more broadly and so thinking of governance not as as a roadblock or inhibitor, but really thinking about governance is an enabler. How does it enable us to be more agile as it enable us to beam or innovative? Right? If if people in the company there's data that people could get access to by unknown process of known condition, right, good, bad, ugly. As long as people know they can do things more quickly because the data is there, it's available. It's curated. And if they shouldn't have access it under their current situation, what do they need to do to be able to access that data? Right. So if I would need If I'm a data scientist and I want to access data about my customers, what can I can't? What can and can't I do with that data? Number one doesn't have to be DEA Nana Mayes, right? Or if I want to access in, it's current form. What steps do I need to go through? What types of approval do I need to do to do to access that data? So it's really about removing roadblocks through governance instead of putting him in place. >> Gina, I'm curious. You know, we've been digging into you know, IBM has a very multifaceted role here. You know how much of this is platforms? How much of it is? You know, education and services. How much of it is, you know, being part of the data that your your customers you're using? >> Uh so I think actually, that different approaches to this issues. My take is basically we need Teo. I think that with even cognitive here, right and data is new natural resource worldwide, right? So data service, cognitive za za service. I think this is where you know IBM is coming from. And the BM is, you know, tradition. It was not like that, but it's under a lot of transformation as we speak. A lot of new people coming in a lot off innovation happening as we speak along. This line's off new times because cognitive with something, really you right, and it's just getting started. Data's a service is really new. It's just getting started. So there's a lot to do. And I think my role specifically global technology services is you know, ah, largest by having your union that IBM, you're 30 plus 1,000,000,000 answered You okay? And we support a lot of different industries basically going across all different types of industries how to transition from offerings to new business offerings, service, integrated services. I think that's the key for us. >> Just curious, you know? Where's Monsanto with kind of the adoption of cognitive, You know what? Where are you in that journey? >> Um, so we are actually a fairly advanced in the journey In terms of using analytics. I wouldn't say that we're using cognitive per se. Um, we do use a lot of machine learning. We have some applications that on the back end run on a I So some form of artificial or formal artificial intelligence, that machine learning. Um, we haven't really gotten into what, you know, what? IBM defined his cognitive in terms of systems that you can interact with in a natural, normal course of doing voice on DH that you spend a whole lot of time constantly teaching. But we do use like I said, artificial intelligence. >> Jean I'm interested in the organizational aspects. So we have Inderpal on before. He's the global CDO, your divisional CDO you've got a matrix into your leadership within the Global Services division as well as into the chief date officer for all of IBM. Okay, Sounds sounds reasonable. He laid out for us a really excellent sort of set of a framework, if you will. This is interval. Yeah, I understand your data strategy. Identify your data store says, make those data sources trusted. And then those air sequential activities. And in parallel, uh, you have to partner with line of business. And then you got to get into the human resource planning and development piece that has to start right away. So that's the framework. Sensible framework. A lot of thought, I'm sure, went into it and a lot of depth and meaning behind it. How does that framework translate into the division? Is it's sort of a plug and play and or is there their divisional goals that are create dissonance? Can you >> basically, you know, I'm only 100 plus days in my journey with an IBM right? But I can feel that the global technology services is transforming itself into integrated services business. Okay, so it's thiss framework you just described is very applicable to this, right? So basically what we're trying to do, we're trying to become I mean, it was the case before for many industries, for many of our clients. But we I want to transform ourselves into trusted broker. So what they need to do and this framework help is helping tremendously, because again, there's things we can do in concert, you know, one after another, right to control other and things we can do in parallel. So we trying those things to be put on the agenda for our global technology services, okay. And and this is new for them in some respects. But some respects it's kind of what they were doing before, but with new emphasis on data's A service cognitive as a service, you know, major thing for one of the major things for global technology services delivery. So cognitive delivery. That's kind of new type off business offerings which we need to work on how to make it truly, you know, once a sense, you know, automated another sense, you know, cognitive and deliver to our clients some you value and on value compared to what was done up until recently. What >> do you mean by cognitive delivery? Explained that. >> Yeah, so basically in in plain English. So what's right now happening? Usually when you have a large systems  computer IT system, which are basically supporting lot of in this is a lot of organizations corporations, right? You know, it's really done like this. So it's people run technology assistant, okay? And you know what Of decisions off course being made by people, But some of the decisions can be, you know, simple decisions. Right? Decisions, which can be automated, can standardize, normalize can be done now by technology, okay and people going to be used for more complex decisions, right? It's basically you're going toe. It turned from people around technology assisted toa technology to technology around people assisted. OK, that's very different. Very proposition, right? So, again, it's not about eliminating jobs, it's very different. It's taken off, you know, routine and automata ble part off the business right to technology and given options and, you know, basically options to choose for more complex decision making to people. That's kind of I would say approach. >> It's about scale and the scale to, of course, IBM. When when Gerstner made the decision, Tio so organized as a services company, IBM came became a global leader, if not the global leader but a services business. Hard to scale. You could scare with bodies, and the bigger it gets, the more complicated it gets, the more expensive it gets. So you saying, If I understand correctly, the IBM is using cognitive and software essentially to scale its services business where possible, assisted by humans. >> So that's exactly the deal. So and this is very different. Very proposition, toe say, compared what was happening recently or earlier? Always. You know other. You know, players. We're not building your shiny and much more powerful and cognitive, you know, empowered mouse trap. No, we're trying to become trusted broker, OK, and how to do that at scale. That's an open, interesting question, but we think that this transition from you know people around technology assisted Teo technology around people assisted. That's the way to go. >> So what does that mean to you? How does that resonate? >> Yeah, you know, I think it brings up a good point actually, you know, if you think of the whole litany of the scope of of analytics, you have everything from kind of describing what happened in the past All that to cognitive. Um, and I think you need to I understand the power of each of those and what they shouldn't should be used for. A lot of people talk. You talk. People talk a lot about predictive analytics, right? And when you hear predictive analytics, that's really where you start doing things that fully automate processes that really enable you to replace decisions that people make right, I think. But those air mohr transactional type decisions, right? More binary type decisions. As you get into things where you can apply binary or I'm sorry, you can apply cognitive. You're moving away from those mohr binary decisions. There's more transactional decisions, and you're moving mohr towards a situation where, yes, the system, the silicon brain right, is giving you some advice on the types of decisions that you should make, based on the amount of information that it could absorb that you can't even fathom absorbing. But they're still needs really some human judgment involved, right? Some some understanding of the contacts outside of what? The computer, Khun Gay. And I think that's really where something like cognitive comes in. And so you talk about, you know, in this in this move to have, you know, computer run, human assisted right. There's a whole lot of descriptive and predictive and even prescriptive analytics that are going on before you get to that cognitive decision but enables the people to make more value added decisions, right? So really enabling the people to truly add value toe. What the data and the analytics have said instead of thinking about it, is replacing people because you're never going to replace you. Never gonna replace people. You know, I think I've heard people at some of these conferences talking about, Well, no cognitive and a I is going to get rid of data scientist. I don't I don't buy that. I think it's really gonna enable data scientist to do more valuable, more incredible things >> than they could do today way. Talked about this a lot to do. I mean, machines, through the course of history, have always replaced human tasks, right, and it's all about you know, what's next for the human and I mean, you know, with physical labor, you know, driving stakes or whatever it is. You know, we've seen that. But now, for the first time ever, you're seeing cognitive, cognitive assisted, you know, functions come into play and it's it's new. It's a new innovation curve. It's not Moore's law anymore. That's driving innovation. It's how we interact with systems and cognitive systems one >> tonight. And I think, you know, I think you hit on a good point there when you said in driving innovation, you know, I've run, you know, large scale, automated process is where the goal was to reduce the number of people involved. And those were like you said, physical task that people are doing we're talking about here is replacing intellectual tasks, right or not replacing but freeing up the intellectual capacity that is going into solving intellectual tasks to enable that capacity to focus on more innovative things, right? We can teach a computer, Teo, explain ah, an area to us or give us some advice on something. I don't know that in the next 10 years, we're gonna be able to teach a computer to innovate, and we can free up the smart minds today that are focusing on How do we make a decision? Two. How do we be more innovative in leveraging this decision and applying this decision? That's a huge win, and it's not about replacing that person. It's about freeing their time up to do more valuable things. >> Yes, sure. So, for example, from my previous experience writing healthcare So physicians, right now you know, basically, it's basically impossible for human individuals, right to keep up with spaced of changes and innovations happening in health care and and by medical areas. Right? So in a few years it looks like there was some numbers that estimate that in three days you're going to, you know, have much more information for several years produced during three days. What was done by several years prior to that point. So it's basically becomes inhuman to keep up with all these innovations, right? Because of that decision is going to be not, you know, optimal decisions. So what we'd like to be doing right toe empower individuals make this decision more, you know, correctly, it was alternatives, right? That's about empowering people. It's not about just taken, which is can be done through this process is all this information and get in the routine stuff out of their plate, which is completely full. >> There was a stat. I think it was last year at IBM Insight. Exact numbers, but it's something like a physician would have to read 1,500 periodic ALS a week just to keep up with the new data innovations. I mean, that's virtually impossible. That something that you're obviously pointing, pointing Watson that, I mean, But there are mundane examples, right? So you go to the airport now, you don't need a person that the agent to give you. Ah, boarding pass. It's on your phone already. You get there. Okay, so that's that's That's a mundane example we're talking about set significantly more complicated things. And so what's The gate is the gate. Creativity is it is an education, you know, because these are step functions in value creation. >> You know, I think that's ah, what? The gate is a question I haven't really thought too much about. You know, when I approach it, you know the thinking Mohr from you know, not so much. What's the gate? But where? Where can this ad the most value um So maybe maybe I have thought about it. And the gate is value, um, and and its value both in terms of, you know, like the physician example where, you know, physicians, looking at images. And I mean, I don't even know what the error rate is when someone evaluates and memory or something. And I probably don't want Oh, right. So, getting some advice there, the value may not be monetary, but to me, it's a lot more than monetary, right. If I'm a patient on DH, there's a lot of examples like that. And other places, you know, that are in various industries. That I think that's that's the gate >> is why the value you just hit on you because you are a heat seeking value missile inside of your organisation. What? So what skill sets do you have? Where did you come from? That you have this capability? Was your experience, your education, your fortitude, >> While the answer's yes, tell all of them. Um, you know, I'm a scientist by training my backgrounds in statistical genetics. Um, and I've kind of worked through the business. I came up through the RND organization with him on Santo over the last. Almost exactly 10 years now, Andi, I've had lots of opportunities to leverage. Um, you know, Data and analytics have changed how the company operates on. I'm lucky because I'm in a company right now. That is extremely science driven, right? Monsanto is a science based company. And so being in a company like that, you don't face to your question about financial industry. I don't think you face the same barriers and Monsanto about using data and analytics in the same way you may in a financial types that you've got company >> within my experience. 50% of diagnosis being proven incorrect. Okay, so 50% 05 0/2 summation. You go to your physician twice. Once you on average, you get in wrong diagnosis. We don't know which one, by the way. Definitely need some someone. Garrett A cz Individuals as humans, we do need some help. Us cognitive, and it goes across different industries. Right, technologist? So if your server is down, you know you shouldn't worry about it because there is like system, you know, Abbas system enough, right? So think about how you can do that scale, and then, you know start imagined future, which going to be very empowering. >> So I used to get a second opinion, and now the opinion comprises thousands, millions, maybe tens of millions of opinions. Is that right? >> It's a try exactly and scale ofthe data accumulation, which you're going to help us to solve. This problem is enormous. So we need to keep up with that scale, you know, and do it properly exactly for business. Very proposition. >> Let's talk about the role of the CDO and where you see that evolving how it relates to the role of the CIA. We've had this conversation frequently, but is I'm wondering if the narratives changing right? Because it was. It's been fuzzy when we first met a couple years ago that that was still a hot topic. When I first started covering this. This this topic, it was really fuzzy. Has it come in two more clarity lately in terms of the role of the CDO versus the CIA over the CTO, its chief digital officer, we starting to see these roles? Are they more than just sort of buzzwords or grey? You know, areas. >> I think there's some clarity happening already. So, for example, there is much more acceptance for cheap date. Office of Chief Analytics Officer Teo, Chief Digital officer. Right, in addition to CEO. So basically station similar to what was with Serious 20 plus years ago and CEO Row in one sentence from my viewpoint would be How you going using leverage in it. Empower your business. Very proposition with CDO is the same was data how using data leverage and data, your date and your client's data. You, Khun, bring new value to your clients and businesses. That's kind ofthe I would say differential >> last word, you know, And you think you know I'm not a CDO. But if you think about the concept of establishing a role like that, I think I think the name is great because that what it demonstrates is support from leadership, that this is important. And I think even if you don't have the name in the organization like it, like in Monsanto, you know, we still have that executive management level support to the data and analytics, our first class citizens and their important, and we're going to run our business that way. I think that's really what's important is are you able to build the culture that enable you to leverage the maximum capability Data and analytics. That's really what matters. >> All right, We'll leave it there. Seth Gene, thank you very much for coming that you really appreciate your time. Thank you. Alright. Keep it right there, Buddy Stew and I'll be back. This is the IBM Chief Data Officer Summit. We're live from Boston right back.