>> Narrator: theCUBE presents KubeCon, and CloudNativeCon Europe, 2022, brought to you by Red Hat, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, and its ecosystem partners. >> Welcome to Valencia, Spain and KubeCon, CloudNativeCon Europe, 2022. I'm Keith Townsend, and we're continuing the conversation with builders, startups, large enterprise, customers, small customers, the whole community. Just got a interesting stat earlier in the day, 7.1 million community members in the CNCF foundation, and we're been interacting with 7,500 of them. But we're bringing the signal, separating the signal from the noise. We have a Kube alum who's been on both sides of the table, Omri Gazitt co-founder and CEO of Aserto. Welcome to the show. >> Thank you so much, Keith. >> So identity management, you know it's, it's critical need to the enterprise cloud native but there's plenty of solutions on the market, what unique problem are you solving you know how are you solving the problem in a unique way that we don't go to some of the big named vendors in this space? >> Yeah, we, my co-founder and I, were veterans of large clouds. We helped start Azure at Microsoft. We in fact helped build what became Azure Active Directory and those solutions entirely focus on one part, the "I" part, the identity part of the problem. They completely ignore the access management part and you could argue that is a larger problem and it is far from solved. So we completely agree. Identity management, a problem that's been solved over the last 15 years and solved well by great companies like Microsoft and Okta and Auth0. And we're best friends with them. We basically pick up where they leave off. We do the access management part. >> So the access management part, what specifically, what what am I getting when I engage with your team and your product? >> Yep. So basically I, authentication is all about proving that you are, who you say you are through a password or something else, you know, biometric. And that part is done. We basically pick up where that leaves off. So once you know who you are, once you've proven to a system that you are Keith. Now, what can Keith do? What roles, what permissions, , what operations can Keith perform on what resources? That's a harder problem. And that's the problem that we focus on. So for example, if you have a SaaS app - let's say you're building, you know an applicant tracking system and you Keith are an owner of some job descriptions and you have some candidates, but  somebody else has a different set of candidates and an admin, maybe has visibility at everything. How do you build that system? That actually is a pretty hard problem. And how do you build it to enterprise grade? That's where we come in. We basically have an end-to-end solution that gives you cloud native, end-to-end authorization that's built to enterprise grade. >> So when I think of this capability, I can't help but to think of AWS IAM and I'm in AWS IAM, I get my security role, and now I can assign to an EC2 instance, the ability to access some other AWS service or identity. So role based identity - are you giving me that type of capability? >> For everything else. So AWS IAM for AWS resources right? Google IAM for Google Resources. Azure has a similar system but they're all infrastructure focused. And what we're trying to do is bring that to your domain specific resources, right? So you, as an application builder, you have the things that correspond  you're not doing VMs, you're not doing storage arrays, you're not doing networks. You have higher level constructs, right. You know, like I said, if you're building Lever or Greenhouse, you have candidates and jobs and reports and things like that. So we basically allow you to create this fine grained access control, but for your own objects. >> So where's the boundaries? Let's say that I have a container or microservice that is a service and it has a role, it has an identity on my network. And there is a cloud based service, let's say a, a cloud SQL. And I want to do authentication across the two or can I only have the boundaries within my private infrastructure or does that boundary extend to the public cloud as well? >> It extends everywhere, right. So basically, you know, if you think about all the different hops here, you know, Zero Trust is the, the rage, right? And that encourages defense in depth. So you have an access proxy that does some type of authorization. Then you have an API Gateway that has a little bit more context, a little bit more authorization. For us we live inside of the application. So the application calls us, we give you a sidecar, you deploy it right next to your application. It gives you, you know, sub-millisecond response time, a hundred percent availability, all the authorization decisions are done with full context about who the user is and what resource they're trying to access. And so our sidecar will give you a response back, allow or deny, and then downstream from us, you could basically talk to another microservice. And at that point you're doing machine identities, right? So you may have a different authorization policy for those, only you know these particular services, are allowed to talk to these other services. And so we solve both the, you know authorization for machine identities as well as authorization for human identities. >> All right Omri are you ready for Q Clock? >> I sure am! >> Oh, I like the energy. >> Bring it on. >> You know, there have been many before you, they have failed the test. >> All right. I mean, they brought, they've brought the energy. You have the energy but do you have the ability to survive the clock? >> I'm going to do my best. >> So I'm going to say start the clock. I haven't said, said start cube clock yet, but when I say it, you have 60 seconds. There's no start overs. There's no repeats. The pressure's on, you ready? >> All right. I'm ready. >> Ready? Start Cube Clock. >> All right. If you are a VP of Engineering or a CTO or run a security or engineering organization what are you doing for roles and permissions? You're building it on your own, right? >> Tough times never last, tough people always do, and you're, you're delaying, you're letting me break you up. >> All right, I'm not going to let you break me up. Great. So you don't want to build it yourself. You don't want to build it yourself. Why would you spend engineering time? Why would you spend, you know, the- >> You deserve a seat at the table. >> No but look, why would you ever spend your time building something that is not differentiating your application? Instead use something like Aserto, just dear God use something, use a developer API. Don't build it yourself because what are you doing? You're reinventing the wheel, you know. You want to get out of the business of reinventing the wheel. >> Crawl before you walk. (Omri laughs) >> You think so? I think, I think you have to go you know, make sure that you spend your engineering resources on the things that matter and the things that matter are. >> Time up. >> Yep. >> You know what? You threw three great curve balls and struck me out. Great job. (Omri laughs) You, you, you just knocked it out the park. Great job Omri, I appreciate you coming in, stopping by, sharing your company's journey about authorization and authorization services and getting kind of this cloud capability, the cloud native. >> I appreciate your time as well Keith, always a pleasure. >> From Valencia Spain, I'm Keith Townsend, and you're watching theCUBE, the leader in high tech coverage. (soft instrumental music)

>>from around the >>globe. >>It's the cube with digital coverage of IBM. Think 2021 brought to you by IBM. >>Hello buddy. Welcome back to I didn't think 28 21 this is the cubes ongoing coverage. We go out to the events of course, in this case we do so virtually to extract the signal from the noise. My name is Dave Volonte and now we're gonna talk about the intersection of business success and sustainability. It's hot topic. We have a great panel for you with me, our ali Carr molly, sustainability and climate practice lead at IBM Canada lucy Bonet is a senior consultant and customer experience and sustainability strategy. Also from IBM Canada and Carrick Morris. Executive Partner, Enterprise Strategy. Global Energy and sustainability lead. IBM UK folks welcome to the panel. Welcome to the cube. Thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe lucy, you could kick it off to talk about what is sustainability and how has it all of a sudden becomes such a hot topic amongst leadership? >>Yeah. Sure. Um So first off it's actually my pleasure that sustainability has finally become a trendy topic and is now a key imperative in the business world. Um The pandemic really played a role in it as it made people realize uh that there's an intricate link between global scale events like the climate crisis leading to the acceleration of viruses spread and their own personal health or of their business. So sustainability really means that you're addressing the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations to do so. Companies use different frameworks uh and and standards including E. S. G. Standing for environmental social and governance criteria to really assess their progress on their journey to sustainability. It comes with many metrics that they track or should track and choose to disclose for the greater benefit of all. Um One prerequisite I'd say to really building a successful sustainable company is really the need for a new form of leadership style, one that is the purpose driven that really focuses on doing well while doing the right thing. And I mean, you you might need uh examples here to illustrate what I'm saying. Um you can take uh union lever and the really radical transformation of the palm oil industry they're leading. Um if Unilever did nothing serious risk would really be posed in a few years on the whole business. So the company has started working with all actors across its value chain, from training farmers to building alliances with competitors and stakeholders. And you know what union lever is doing for the polymetal industry is actually cementing its reputation as an innovator and they're already reaping the benefits of having been first movers >>Carrick, uh lucy talked about an imperative, so take away there is not a checkbox, it's something that's sort of designed in. I wonder if you could, you could talk to that. >>Yeah, I mean sustainability at the end of the day now is built into every decision, every process, every system. Um and you know and leadership role in that space is about some kind of developing new corporate strategies, new cultures, new approaches which are around, you know, actually, how do I do this? It's a real paradigm shift, it's not it's not something you add to your business, it's something that needs to be called to your business and then you know, that's requiring us to kind of re imagining, you know, how we sort of go work, how we could help you do business? The process is developing new products, leveraging new technologies, it's putting all of those pieces in and sort of making them work and, you know, and the key part of it is how do you do this in a way where we're not forcing people to make a choice between sustainability and profitability, sustainability and you know, and in a way of quality of life. So that's how you kind of build that into kind of the core products and services and again use that ingenuity to kind of develop those and sort of developed, you know, the components that you need to as part of that process. And the other part of this is then getting into, well, actually from a leadership perspective, how do I then change and the way that I work with partners with suppliers, with competitors. So it's it's really fundamentally changing the way the business itself works as well. >>Thank you. Uh you know, ali when I talk about DSG I sometimes tongue in cheek say, Milton Friedman's probably rolling over in his grave because he's the the economist who said that the only job of a company is to make profits and drive shareholder value. And so that's, I mean that's a that's a that's a historical challenge. Uh But there's there's actually a business case for this. Uh It's actually good business and we'll talk about that. But maybe you could address some of the challenges that organizations are facing to really lean in and address. E. S. G. >>Yeah, that's right. You know, there are a lot of components to go into this and as lucy mentioned and Carrick mentioned the complexities that come with that are a lot of their significant. And so I'd say that the first challenge that I see is in regards to the alignment and integration of sustainability strategy within the organization's business model. So if we take a look at the typical life cycle which includes sourcing, production operations, distribution, and then end of life and recycling. Each of these components must consider the conduits for driving positive social impact and environmental stewardship, but that also as you said, drives opportunity and economic benefits for the organization. Um so these are components that could fall into three categories. The first one is what is the journey to net zero look like for you? How will I transform my operations, my strategy, my business models to achieve a net zero emission? What is circularity in the context of my business? How do I orchestrate for zero waste, include reuse regenerative processes, restorative processes, and then how do I build in principles of sustainability into the design, so that I integrate those components into the ways of working within this new world of sustainability that we're seeing. It's also the what and how coming together to enable long term value creation for the company. The second challenge that I see is around the performance monitoring and management and as they say, you can't manage what you can't measure and so many organizations might not have the complexity roadmap laid out for the systems and data that's required in order to enable transparent and quality reporting. We think about data knowing what you have versus what you don't um data management capturing and transform that data, integrating that data in a way that has a simple but effective use of methodologies as well as benchmarking and then having a reporting system that allows you to see everything almost a control tower of your E your S and your G. And then finally we see sustainability has become a board level priority. It is a hot topic but it's not always properly understood below the board level, so senior executives sometimes approach uh uh the the informants to change in the way that we normally approach things like regulation, but I think in this case it's quite it's quite different because it is a bit of a shift to the person with purpose as the center leaders must lead, they must hire, they must think design and share, they must meet the count paradigms for diversity inclusion. Um And I think at the same time encourage diversity, but also divergence where it needs to be, they have to have the headspace to accept the truth in the collaboration with all stakeholders. Um So I think there are ways for companies to do this and and and for them to be successful and I think I am is one of them >>uh for sure, and I think Carrick, that sort of leads me from what allie was saying about, you know, IBM big company has a big ecosystem. There are other large leaders within industry that can leverage ecosystems and it may be set the tone and show the point the way for the long tail of smaller companies. But maybe you could talk about that ecosystem flywheel. What >>we are saying is is actually sort of quite a lot of differences between the way organizations are addressing this and you are seeing some leaders in this space and you are seeing people who are taking a stand around around >>these components and actually trying to shape >>just not only what they do, but also what organizations do around them. Um I mean, you know if you kind of look at this, there's there's almost kind of three categories so that there are organizations that are sort of seeing this as an existential change. You know, if I'm looking at some mining and looking at oil and gas, I'm making your travel and transport, you know what you're still seeing, there is a fundamental shift in their business, requiring them to rethink how they do things in a very structured, um and actually quite an extended way. You know, if I'm looking at other organizations like retailers, it's actually a little less of uh an existential changes, that's more of an incremental one. But even so, they still have to change all that. They do that. They can do it in a probably a more staged approach and then you've got influences around that as well. So governments and financial services players, etcetera, who are sort of shaping the agenda and who need help and support around thinking through how they kind of measure the change, how they sort of make sure the financing the right things, and they make how they make sure they're actually getting returns they expect. And actually, the sustainability components are actually being driven by that. And I think that's that's kind of sort of where an organization like IBM comes in there, there's a lot of technical change in here, there's a lot of data change in here. And actually these are the sorts of things that, you know, from students sustainability perspective are going to help to to drive this in a more seamless and achievable way if you will. Um and so there's an awful lot that we're looking to try to do, to enable that quickly, to kind of take things off the shelf to rapidly test and to actually show people both what can be done and the value then can create by going down the sustainability journey. >>Okay. Got it. Thank you. And lucy you touched on some examples at a high level in your opening remarks. Uh and I'm interested in in kind of the starting point that you see cos you know taking uh and what's the right regime, I mean you've got to put somebody somebody's gonna be accountable for the measurements and the and the cultural changes. But but where do we start? >>Right. So one starting point is definitely uh to be looking at your data right? And uh you know it's it's really tempting to forget when you're building products or you're creating experiences. It's attempting to forget thinking about their repetitions on the environment, on communities and on society. Um Their impact is made invisible for the sake of immediate user satisfaction and short term business value. And you know although 60% of executives consider sustainability to be an essential competitive advantage, 80 actually of the products ecological impacts are locked in at the design phase. So, um that's why, you know, with with a team of four IBM superstars, um we've created the sustainable design thinking toolkit uh that was just launched and is in the process of being integrated into the official IBM design thinking uh site. And and that's really a great start because it's meant to help design thinking practitioners take responsibility on making that impact visible from the very start of the process. And we've used it with multiple clients and for internal projects. And, you know, it's really helped infuse a sustainable mindset throughout the workflows and and actually from the very, very start of it. Um one recent example was in the CPG industry where we've applied renew a sustainable design thinking activities to the problem at hand uh to get consumers to recycle more by enhancing their recycling experience. And what it allowed us to do is really to make sure that, you know, the prioritization process of the first ideas that emerged included sustainable value into the mix, so that the impact on the planet and communities wasn't a blind spot anymore. >>So, thank you for that. Uh Carrick, I wonder, you know, lucy was talking about you start with the data and that that's that's cool. I sometimes I get worried though there's going to be analysis by paralysis and overthinking the strategy. Are there ways to are there ways to get in and and and take smaller bites and iterate what what are your thoughts on that? >>Yeah, I mean, I think they're absolutely, and you know, with with lots of organizations, they really have to kind of feel their way into this, this, this new approach. You know, you actually kind of have to learn both what sustainability means, but also sort of what it can deliver. So, you know, usually what we're sort of seeing is these organizations will start to start off with things which are under their control, so how can I change my manufacturing processes? How can I change some of the internal components of what it is that we do to make them more sustainable to reduce waste, to reduce sort of kind of the energy usage components which are associated with. And that's that's quite a nice controlled starting point using leveraging things like manufacturing, 4.0, intelligent processes, massive, maximum maximum asset management type approaches. Um The second step we're sort of seeing with lots of organizations is that they then moving into kind of their own ecosystem if you will. So actually, how do I manage my supply chain more effectively? How do I drive transparency? How do I sort of also drive efficiency and and kind of carbon management from that sort of perspective. But also how do I sort of highlight the sustainable gains I'm making on my products and and get those messages to customers and highlights of what we're doing with both new products and services, but also with the existing products and services and then sort of your, your kind of your final piece. And actually this depends what kind of goes back to what I was saying before about what industry you're in. But, you know, a lot of industries are also having to kind of face the challenge of any to change fundamentally. You know, the business I'm in is not not going to work the way it works in a sustainable world. So, so actually, how do I kind of build an ecosystem based approach? How do I kind of work with other partners? How do I kind of work with suppliers? How do women competitors actually, how do I build something at scale around the platform in order to be able to deliver these types of things? And IBM, we've been kind of creating some of those, those platforms and then scaling them quite rapidly across a variety of different sectors >>and that's where you're gonna see the measurable impact. Ali do you have a framework for what was a successful outcome looks like? Are there are there companies that are sort of models of success? I mean, I think IBM is one of them, but maybe you could talk to that. >>Yeah, there are definitely companies to emulate, and companies have really started to think about the connection point between the value that's driven by their business model, as well as the effort and the impact that's being driven by there S g uh there? S you focus and so while there might be components of success, I think getting, getting it all together and all right is going to take time and it's going to be a bit of a sequence. Um but a bit of a thought experiment, if you could sit into a boardroom or at a senior level executive discussion when you think about success, would you hear things or discussions around how the company is building the environmental and social inputs to its products and services and what does that sound like? Are they tangible? Are they realistic? And what are the methods and the tools that they're using? Um Would you hear conversations about how the company is evaluating or infusing sustainability across the value chain from procurement all the way to end of life, or how about the participation of the company into other ecosystems that's driving value into other industries. And we see the force multiplier effect that comes with that when companies partner together because we are either vendors or providers or consumers of every other product or service. And then I think lastly, would organizations start to think about how to generate value closer to home and how that value can be driven into communities into where their employees are based and those elements really really improve the social elements. So let's say last is there are elements of what good and success looks like when it comes sustainability. Um but I think organizations can set their targets uh meat industry benchmarks and frameworks which already exist and are really well established um but continuously increase their own targets to set better and more ambitious goals for themselves to move beyond, to leverage technology and be innovative and and apply uh these these tools and best practices in order to get there. Uh And I think um and I think I think we'll get there over time, so I'm really encouraged by the progress that we're seeing. Uh and we hope that IBM to help accelerate that journey. >>Thank you and then lucy one of these, I'm excited about the tech because this is where I think, you know, business does meet sustainability mean green tech E. V. I mean, if if I'm a nation, I want to be on top of that. If I'm a company, I think there's opportunities for invention and innovation. Can you talk about some of those innovative texts that we're likely to see >>right? Um Well, yeah, but to pick you back on on what Allah is just saying and, you know, I think success can can come in very different ways and forms. Um you know, be it creating entirely new business models like, you know, some clients we help in the colon gas industry Taking really bold commitments to shift to energy, electric energy. Um or you know, significantly cutting costs such as, you know, those brands and the CPG industry that are doing amazing things to optimize their supply chains and make them more efficient, more transparent, more secure. Um or you know, also protecting brand reputation and mitigating risks or gaining market share by creating differentiating value. You might have heard about Loreal taking really bold moves and switching all their products to 95 renewable plant sources and circular processes. Um you know, it it can also be about capturing value by charging a premium for sustainable products. Think about Tesla or whole foods for example. I mean there's so many great examples out there already. >>Excellent. So we gotta wrap it. So, my last question and I'll start with ali and then we'll go to Carrick and lucy you can bring us home talk about why you were talking about STD reporting and transparency and how it's great for the future and in the economy and so forth. Why is this not gonna be a fad? Why is it going to be sustainable sustainability? The sustainability of sustainable uh please kick it off and then we'll go to karaoke and then lucy >>you're right. You know, this is a big change for organizations and I think naturally their uh their corporate social responsibility. Um and sustainability reports have really been externally focused and I think that has been a great step in the right direction. Um but I think what's happening now is is this convergence of sustainable material and transparent reporting that is equivalent to material financial reporting that we're seeing. And eventually I think the end goal would be to be able to read a sustainable report and understand and quantify as well as qualify how much impact is an organization making year to year. And what are some of the initiatives that's driving? What we have begun to see is a sustainable business strategy. That is also a competitive advantage for organizations. So I think the benefit in the long term is going to create a lot of value for not just the shareholder, but for the stakeholders like employees, like the communities in which these companies operate, like regulatory agencies as well as municipal, federal governments and state government. So I think this is a step in the right direction for providing a very clear direction on their sustainable initiatives. >>Thank you. Thank you. Ali Carrick, can you weigh in here, please? >>Yeah, I mean, I I agree with all that he said there and I think with the stakeholders and the end of the day this this is a collective responsibility. You know, we have one planet one rock we all live on and we all need to be part of the process of actually making it, making it change. And you can't you can't sort of change what you can't measure. So kind of holding people to account, being able to share some of the data that we've got, making sure everybody understands what the position is, how we're contributing um and and the role that we're actually still playing is going to be an incredibly important part of collectively coming together and making this change happen, and making this change happen quickly, which is what it needs to do >>and lucy your passion shines through here so it's appropriate that you close it out. >>Mhm. Yeah, well it all comes down to you know, do you want your business to still exist in 100 years from now and you know it does require courage and determination but we all have it in ourselves. Um you know, trying to find the ways that we can change things for the greater good, find the energy in yourself to inspire others to act. That's why you know, leaders with purpose and ingenuity are so so important today. Thank you >>folks. Thanks so much for the perspectives guys doing a great work, really appreciate your time on the cube today. >>Thank you. Thanks for having us >>All right, it's been our pleasure and thank you for watching. This is the cubes coverage of IBM think 2021, the virtual edition will be right back.

>>Yeah, >>yeah. Hello, everyone. And welcome to the cultivating a data slowing culture. Jack, my name is Paula Johnson. I'm thought Spots head of community, and I am so excited to be your host heared at beyond. One of my favorite things about beyond is connecting with everyone and just feeling that buzz and energy from you all. So please don't be shy and engage in the chat. I'll be there shortly. We all know that when it comes to being fluent in a language, it's all about how do you take data in the sense and turn it into action? We've seen that in the hands of employees. Once they have access to this information, they are more engaged in their role. They're more productive, and most importantly, they're making better decisions. I think all of us want a little bit more of that, don't we? In today's track, you'll hear from expert partners and our customers and best practices that you could start applying to build that data. Fluent culture in your organization that we're seeing is powering the digital transformation across all industries will also discuss the role that the analysts of the future plays when it comes to this cultural shift and how important it is for diversity in data that helps us prevent bias at scale. To start us off our first session of the day is cultivating a data fluent culture, the essence and essentials. Our first speaker, CEO and founder of the Data Lodge, Valerie Logan. Valerie, Thank you for joining us today of passings over to you Now. >>Excellent. Thank you so much while it's so great to be here with the thought spot family. And there is nothing I would love to talk more about than data literacy and data fluency. And I >>just want to take a >>second and acknowledge I love how thought spot refers to this as data fluency and because I really see data literacy and fluency at, you know, either end of the same spectrum. And to mark that to commemorate that I have decorated the Scrabble board for today's occasion with fluency and literacy intersecting right at the center of the board. So with that, let's go ahead and get started and talking about how do you cultivate a data fluent culture? So in today's session, I am thrilled to be able to talk through Ah, few dynamics around what's >>going >>on in the market around this area. Who are the pioneers and what are they doing to drive data fluent culture? And what can you do about it? What are the best practices that you can apply to start this? This momentum and it's really a movement. So how do you want to play a part in this movement? So the market in the myths, um you know, it's 2020. We have had what I would call an unexpected awakening for the topic of data literacy and fluency. So let's just take a little trip down memory lane. So the last few years, data literacy and data fluency have been emerging as part of the chief data officer Agenda Analytics leaders have been looking at data culture, um, and the up skilling of the workforce as a key cornerstone to how do you create Ah, modern data and analytic strategy. But often this has been viewed as kind of just training or visualization or, um, a lot of focus on the upscaling side of data literacy. So there's >>been >>some great developments over the past few years with I was leading research at Gartner on this topic. There's other work around assessments and training Resource is. But if I'm if I'm really honest, they a lot of this has been somewhat viewed as academic and maybe a bit abstract. Enter the year 2020 where data literacy just got riel and it really can no longer be ignored. And the co vid pandemic has made this personal for all of us, not only in our work roles but in our personal lives, with our friends and families trying to make critical life decisions. So what I'd ask you to do is just to appreciate that this topic is no longer just a work thing. It is personal, and I think that's one of the ways you start to really crack. The culture code is how do you make this relevant to everyone in their personal lives? And unfortunately, cove it did that, and it has brought it to the forefront. But the challenge is how do you balance how do analytics leaders balance the need to up skill the workforce in the culture, with all of these competing needs around modernizing the platform and, um, driving trusted data and data governance? So that's what we'll be exploring is how to do this in parallel. So the very first thing that we need to do is start with the definition and I'd like to share with you how I framed data literacy for any industry across the globe. Which is first of all to appreciate that data literacy as a foundation capability has really been elevated now as >>an >>equivalent to people process and technology. And, you know, if you've been around a while, you know that classic trinity of people process and technology, It's the way that we have thought about how do you change an organization but with the digitization of our work, our lives, our society, you know anything from how do we consume information? How do we serve customers? Um, you know, we're walking sensors with our smartphones are worlds are digital now, and so data has been elevated as an equivalent Vector two people process and technology. And this is really why the role of the chief data officer in the analytics leader has been elevated to a C suite role. And it's also why data literacy and fluency is a workforce competency, not just for the specialist eso You know, I'm an old math major quant. So I've always kind of appreciated the role of data, but now it's prevalent to all right in work in life. So this >>is a >>mindset shift. And in addition to the mindset shift, let's look at what really makes up the elements of what does it mean to be data literate. So I like to call it the ability to read, write and communicate with data in context in both work in life and that it has two pieces. It has a vocabulary, so the vocabulary includes three basic sets of terms. So it includes data terms, obviously, so data sources, data attributes, data quality. There are analysis methods and concepts and terms. You know, it could be anything from, ah, bar Chart Thio, an advanced machine learning algorithm to the value drivers, right? The business acumen. What problems are resolving. So if you really break it down, it's those three sets of terms that make up the vocabulary. But it's not just the terms. It's also what we do with those terms and the skills and the skills. I like to refer to those as the acronym T T E a How do you think? How do you engage with others and how do you act or apply with data constructively? So hopefully that gives you a good basis for how we think about data literacy. And of course, the stronger you get in data literacy drives you towards higher degrees of data fluency. So I like to say we need to make this personal. And when we think about the different roles that we have in life and the different backgrounds that we bring, we think about the diversity and the inclusion of all people and all backgrounds. Diversity, to me is in addition to diversity of our gender identification, diversity of our racial backgrounds and histories. Diversity is also what is what is our work experience in our life experience. So one of the things I really like to do is to use this quote when talking about data literacy, which is we don't see things as they are. We see them as we are. So what we do is we create permission to say, you know what? It's okay that maybe you have some fear about this topic, or you may have some vulnerability around using, um you know, interactive dashboards. Um, you know, it's all about how we each come to this topic and how we support each other. So what I'd like to dio is just describe how we do that and the way that I like to teach that is this idea that we we foster data literacy by acknowledging that really, you learn this language, you learn this through embracing it, like learning a second language. So just take a second and think about you know what languages you speak right? And maybe maybe it's one. Maybe it's too often there's, you know, multiple. But you can embrace data literacy and fluency like it's a language, and somehow that creates permission for people to just say, you know, it's OK that I don't necessarily speak this language, but but I can try. So the way that we like to break this down and I call this SL information as a second language built off of the SL construct of English as a second language and it starts with that basic vocabulary, right? Every language has a vocabulary, and what I mentioned earlier in the definition is this idea that there are three basic sets of terms, value information and analysis. And everybody, when they're learning things like Stow have like a little pneumonic, right? So this is called the V A model, and you can take this and you can apply it to any use case. And you can welcome others into the conversation and say, You know, I really understand the V and the I, but I'm not a Kwan. I don't understand the A. So even just having this basic little triangle called the Via Model starts to create a frame for a shared conversation. But it's not just the vocabulary. It's also about the die elects. So if you are in a hospital, you talk about patient outcomes. If you are in insurance, you talk about underwriting and claims related outcomes. So the beauty of this language is there is a core construct for a vocabulary. But then it gets contextualized, and the beauty of that is, even if you're a classic business person that don't you don't think you're a data and analytics person. You bring something to the party. You bring something to this language, which is you understand the value drivers, so hopefully that's a good basis for you. But it's not just the language. It's also the constructs. How do you think? How do you interact and how do you add value? So here's a little double click of the T E. A acronym to show you it's Are you aware of context? So when you're watching the news, which could be interesting these days, are you actually stepping back and taking pause and saying E wonder what the source of that ISS? I wonder what the assumptions are or when you're in interacting with others. What is your degree of the ability? Thio? Tele Data story, Right? Do you have comfort and confidence interacting with others and then on the applying? This is at the end of the day, this is all about helping people make decisions. So when you're making a decision, are you being conscientious of the ethics right, the ethics or the potential bias in what you're looking at and what you're potentially doing? So I hope this provides you a nice frame. Just if you take nothing else away, take away the V A model as a way to think about a use case and application of data that there's different dialects. So when you're interacting with somebody, think of what dialect are they speaking? And then these three basic skill sets that were helping the workforce to up skill on. But the last thing is, um, you know, there's there's different levels of proficiency, and this is the point of literacy versus fluency. Depending on your role. Not everyone needs to speak data at the same level. So what we're trying to do is get everyone, at least to a shared level of conversational data, right? A basic level of foundation literacy. But based on your role, you will develop different degrees of fluency. The last point of treating this as a language is the idea that we don't just learn language through training. We learn language through interaction and experience. So I would encourage you. Just think about all what are all the different ways you can learn language and apply those to your relationship with data. Hopefully, that makes sense. Um, >>there's a >>few myths out there around this topic of data literacy, and I just want to do a little myth busting real quickly just so you can be on the lookout for these. So first of all data literacy is not about just about training. Training and assessments are certainly a cornerstone, however, when you think about developing a language, yeah, you can use a Rosetta Stone or one of those techniques, but that only gets you. So far. It's conversations you have. It's immersion. Eso keep in mind. It's not just about training. There are many ways to develop language. Secondly, data literacy is not just about internal structure, data and statistics. There are so many different types of data sets, audio, video, text, um, and so many different methods for synthesizing that content. So keep in mind, this isn't just about kind of classic data and methods. The third is visualization and storytelling are such a beautiful way to bring data literacy toe life. But it's not on Lee about visualization and storytelling, right? So there are different techniques. There are different methods on. We'll talk in a minute about health. Top Spot is embedding a lot of the data literacy capabilities into the environment. So it's not just about visualization and storytelling, and it's certainly not about making everybody a junior data scientist. The key is to identify, you know, if you are a call center representative. If you are a Knop orations manager, if you are the CEO, what is the appropriate profile of literacy and fluency for you? The last point and hopefully you get this by now is thistle is not just a work skill. And I think this is one of the best, um, services that we can provide to our employees is when you train an employee and help them up. Skill their data fluency. You're actually up Skilling, the household and their friends and their family because you're teaching them and then they can continue to teach. So at the >>end of >>the day, when we talk about what are the needs and drivers like, where's the return and what are the main objectives of, you know, having a C suite embrace state illiteracy as, ah program? There are primarily four key themes that come up that I hear all the time that I work with clients on Number one is This is how you help accelerate the shift to a data informed, insight driven culture. Or I actually like how thought spot refers to signals, right? So it's not even just insights. It's How do you distill all this noise right and and respond to the signals. But to do that collectively and culturally. Secondly, this is about unlocking what I call radical collaboration so well, while these terms often, sometimes they're viewed as, oh, we need to up skill the full population. This is as much about unlocking how data scientists, data engineers and business analysts collaborate. Right there is there is work to be done there, an opportunity there. The third is yes, we need to do this in the context of up Skilling for digital dexterity. So what I mean by that is data literacy and fluency is in the context of whole Siris of other up Skilling objectives. So becoming more agile understanding, process, automation, understanding, um, the broader ability, you know, ai and in Internet of things sensors, right? So this is part of a portfolio of up skilling. But at the end of the day, it comes down to comfort and confidence. If people are not comfortable with decision making in their role at their level in their those moments that matter, you won't get the kind of engagement. So this is also about fostering comfort and confidence. The last thing is, you know, you have so much data and analytics talent in your organization, and what we want to do is we want to maximize that talent. We really want to reduce dependency on reports and hey, can you can you put that together for me and really enable not just self service but democratizing that access and creating that freedom of access, but also freed up capacity. So if you're looking to build the case for a program, these air the primary four drivers that you can identify clear r A y and I call r o, I, I refer to are oh, I two ways return on investment and also risk of ignoring eso. You gotta be careful. You ignore these. They're going to come back to haunt you later. Eso Hopefully this helps you build the case. So let's take a look at what is a data literacy program. So it's one thing to say, Yeah, that sounds good, but how do you collectively and systemically start to enable this culture change? So, in pioneering data literacy programs, I like to call a data literacy program a commitment. Okay, this is an intentional commitment to up skill, the workforce in the culture, and there's really three pieces to that. The first is it has to be scoped to say we are about enabling the full potential of all associates. And sometimes some of my clients are extending that beyond the virtual walls of their organization to say S I'm working with a U. S. Federal agency. They're talking about data literacy for citizens, right, extending it outside the wall. So it's really about all your constituents on day and associates. Secondly, it is about fostering shared language and the modern data literacy abilities. The third is putting a real focus on what are the moments that matter. So with any kind of heavy change program, there's always a risk that it can. It can get very vague. So here's some examples of the moments that you're really trying to identify in the moments that matter. We do that through three things. I'll just paint those real quick. One is engagement. How do you engage with the leaders? How do you develop community and how do you drive communications? Secondly, we do that through development. We do that through language development, explicitly self paced learning and then of course, broader professional development and training. The third area enablement. This one is often overlooked in any kind of data literacy program. And this is where Thought spot is driving innovation left and right. This is about augmentation of the experience. So if we expect data literacy and data fluency to be developed Onley through training and not augmenting the experience in the environment, we will miss a huge opportunity. So thought spot one. The announcement yesterday with search assist. This is a beautiful example of how we are augmenting guided data literacy, right to support unending user in asking data rich questions and to not expect them to have to know all the forms and features is no different than how a GPS does not tell you. Latitude, longitude, a GPS tells you, Turn left, turn right. So the ability to augment that the way that thought spot does is so powerful. And one of my clients calls it data literacy by design. So how are we in designing that into the environment? And at the end of the day, the last and fourth lever of how you drive a program is you've gotta have someone orchestrating this change. So there is a is an art and a science to data literacy program development. So a couple of examples of pioneers So one pioneer nationwide building society, um, incredible work on how they are leveraging thought spot In particular, Thio have conversations with data. They are creating frictionless voyages with data, and they're using the spot I Q tool to recommend personalized insight. Right? This is an example of that enablement that I was just explaining. Second example, Red hat red hat. They like to describe this as going farther faster than with a small group of experts. They also refer to it as supporting data conversations again with that idea of language. So what's the difference between pioneers and procrastinators? Because what I'm seeing in the market right now is we've got these frontline pioneers who are driving these programs. But then there's kind of a d i Y do it yourself mentality going on. So I just wanted to share what I'm observing as this contrast. So procrastinators are kind of thinking I have no idea where they even start with us, whereas pioneers air saying, you know what, this is absolutely central. Let's figure it out procrastinators are saying. You know what? This probably isn't the right time for this program. Other things are more important and pioneers air like you know what? We don't have an option fast forward a year from now. Do we really think this is gonna organically change? This is pervasive to everything we dio procrastinators. They're saying I don't even know who to put in charge for this. And pioneers there saying this needs a lead. This needs someone focusing on it and a network of influencers. And then finally, procrastinators, They're generally going, you know, we're just gonna wing this and we'll just we'll stand up in academy. We'll put some courses together and pioneers air saying, You know what? We need to work smart. We need a launch, We need a leverage and we need to scale. So I hope that this has inspired you that, you know, there really are many ways to go forward, as FDR said, and only one way of standing still. So not taking an action is a choice. And there were, you know, it does have impact. So a couple of just quick things to wrap up one is how do you get started with the data literacy program, so I recommend seven steps. Who's your sponsor and who is the lead craft? Your case for change. Make it explicit. Developed that narrative craft a blueprint that's scalable but that has an initial plan where data literacy is part of not separate. Run some pilot workshops. These can be so fun and you can tackle the fear and vulnerability concern with really going after, Like how? How do we speak data across different diverse parts of the team. Thes are so fun. And what I find is when I teach people how to run a workshop like this, they absolutely want to repeat it and they get demand for more and more workshops launch pragmatically, right? We don't have any time or energy for big, expansive programs. Identify some quick winds, ignite the grassroots movement, low cost. There are many ways to do that. Engage the influencers right, ignite this bottom up movement and find ways to welcome all to the party. And then finally, you gotta think about scale right over time. This is a partnership with learning and development partnership with HR. This becomes the fabric of how do you onboard people. How do you sustain people? How do you develop? So the last thing I wanted to just caution you on is there's a few kind of big mistakes in this area. One is you have to be clear on what you're solving for, right? What does this really mean? What does it look like? What are the needs and drivers? Where is this being done? Well, today, to be very clear on what you're solving for secondly, language matters, right? If if that has not been clear, language is the common thread and it is the basis for literacy and fluency. Third, going it alone. If you try to tackle this and try to wing it. Google searching data literacy You will spend your time and energy, which is as precious of a currency as your money on efforts that, um, take more time. And there is a lot to be leveraged through through various partnerships and leverage of your vendor providers like thought spot. Last thing. A quick story. Um, over 100 years ago, Ford Motor Company think about think about who the worker population was in the plants. They were immigrants coming from all different countries having different native languages. What was happening in the environment in the plants is they were experiencing significant safety issues and efficiency issues. The root issue was lack of a shared language. I truly believe that we're at the same moment where we're lacking a shared language around data. So what Ford did was they created the Ford English school and they started to nurture that shared language. And I believe that that's exactly what we're doing now, right? So I couldn't I couldn't leave this picture, though, and not acknowledge. Not a lot of diversity in that room. So I know we would have more diversity now if we brought everyone together. But I just hope that this story resonates with you as the power of language as a foundation for growing literacy and fluency >>for joining us. We're actually gonna be jumping into the next section, so grab a quick water break, but don't wander too far. You definitely do not want to miss the second session of today. We're going to be exploring how to scale the impact and how to become a change agent in your organization and become that analysts of the future. So season

>> Announcer: Live from Orlando, Florida, it's theCube, covering Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Brought to you by SiliconANGLE media. >> Welcome back to theCube's coverage of Grace Hopper Conference here in Orlando, Florida. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. We're joined by Vicki Mealer-Burke, she is the Vice-President and Chief Diversity Officer at Qualcomm. Thanks so much for joining us, Vicki. >> Thank you, Rebecca, it's great to be here. >> So, before we the camera's were rolling, you were describing how you've been at Qualcomm for 20 years, but you've been in this job for one year. And you're the first person to ever hold the position. >> That's right. >> So, tell our viewers how it came about. >> Yeah, I have been at Qualcomm almost 21 years now, and mostly in product development, product management, and then, my last role was as a general manager of one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries and I really thought that my run at Qualcomm was done, because we're consolidating a lot of our businesses. I started working on some women's programs while I was shutting down our last business, and it just so happened, it was the same time the company decided to create a chief diversity officer. My initial reaction was, "That's so great, we're going to "get one of those people, and we really need them." I wanted to be a champion for that person, and then I started getting myself interested and thinking that I could really be a change agent and a leader for the company. And kind of leave a legacy back to the company, a company that's actually been really, really good to me. >> So, when you were thinking about this job, you described it as a business problem that needed to be solved. And as someone who'd been at Qualcomm for two decades, how did you define the business problem? >> The way that my brain works is, I'm a problem solver and that's why I got into product management. And so, I really thought that if the company saw this as compliance or some sort of regulatory issue, I would really have no real interest, but I really knew that we could solve the probably by likely re-engineering some of the processes that had been in place. And, Qualcomm has had a tremendous growth over the years, and we've ramped from, I was employee 5,000 to now well over 30,000, so many of our processes really just had to be re-engineered. And I knew that I could speak that language to our leaders, we understand re-engineering problems. So, I really tried to get down to root cause and focus on a couple of the areas that would really make a big difference, and discuss the business value of why we were doing this. >> So, what are the areas that you are focusing on? Just give our viewers of a sense of the the top two or three areas where you think you can have the most impact? >> There's really two levers that I'm focused on. One is talent acquisition, so continuing to bring the best and brightest minds, the most innovative people in the world now to help us move our wireless technology into the 5G world. The possibilities are endless so we need all kinds of bright minds looking at this from all different kinds of directions. That's the diversity piece of it. The second big lever is, once we get them in, we have to keep 'em. I mean, this show shows how talented women engineers are really at premium, and so the more we're hiring, the more we're losing people on the other side. People call that the leaky pipeline or the leaky bucket. So, I'm working on retention programs to make sure that once we get our diverse talent in the door that we can keep them by really supporting, promoting, progressing them, making sure that they have wide variety of opportunities and that they see a bright future for themselves at Qualcomm. >> So, are you starting new programs? Is this about mentorship, is this about making sure there is flexible work? I mean, what are some of the nitty-gritty things that Qualcomm is doing? >> Yeah, we have started a series of sessions with our senior-most leaders, what we call, like, our directors and above. We have terrific support at the C-level at Qualcomm, terrific support. But at a 30,000 person company, you really need to get into that next couple-down layers. And so, we're doing training about, basically, how to run an inclusive team, how to empower. One of the big things that we're training on is the process of, how do you pick people for that next big project? And, like many managers, they go back to the people that have been successful year after year. What we're trying to do is disrupt that and either create, like, a apprenticeship, product leader positions where someone can tag along and lead and understand how those projects were run so well. But that's what we need to do is really try to expand the project opportunities, that's when people get a lot of visibility, a lot of experience, and that's where their own talents will just then accelerate them through our levels. >> You were talking about the need to make sure that a couple rungs down from the senior brass, really understand that there is a real business case for diverse teams that are collaborative. How receptive are these managers in your experience, and what do you say that really tips them over? >> So, Qualcomm is full of extremely bright people. There's an awareness and the benefit of the doubt that we're giving all of our employees is, "Let's give you the "facts, let's make you aware, let's let you drive the "solution, so that we're all working together." We don't have any kind of quotas, we just want to make managers, give them all the data and have them make good decisions, and empower them to be part of the solution. That empowerment need is where we're building trust with those managers. We're not saying, "Oh, you've been doing it wrong for "a million years." We're saying, "Here's what you can do to get better. "Here's what you can do to have a more engaged team. "Here's what you can do to have a more empowered team." That leads to productivity, productivity goes straight to the bottom line, and it makes sense. So, we're trying to do it more in a partnership, giving them the respect that they've earned with the positions that they're in, and empowering them to be the change. >> So, earlier in your career, you worked on some really exciting projects in terms of wearables, in terms of smart-cities, in terms of home-base technology. Do you miss the tech, I mean, do you see yourself going back and working in that? >> Yeah, it's a great question. When you're in the business, there are daily, weekly, incremental successes. We fixed that bug, we got that contract, this is really more, I call it kind of like forming jello, it's hard to get those feelings everyday like you're making progress on something. I do miss the technology, this is the biggest problem I think I've ever been tasked to solve, so that is extremely inspiring, and luckily, I get to work side-by-side with a lot of our best technology leaders. But, I do miss the technology, for sure. >> And working in the business? >> Sure. >> So, you talked about the, sort of, difficulty with measuring incremental progress, and then really we're at a point in time where the Google manifesto and Travis Kalanick's antics are front-page news. Is this discouraging, or is does it make you more excited by the cause and what you're doing? >> There are aspects to it that are discouraging, but I am really a glass half-full type of person, I think shining the light, really shining this big, bright light on the issue makes 99% of the people in our business really say, "Wow, I can't believe that's really going on." So, I actually think it's good, it's allowing us to have these conversations which are uncomfortable and a lot of leaders want to have the conversations but they don't know what to say. So, all of these things coming out in the press just give us that entry to be able to say, "Let's talk about it." And we've been doing that at Qualcomm, we do it with our employees, I want people to feel free to ask questions and not think that they should know it all. This is actually a fairly new area, so we've got to allow all of our leaders to have a level of comfort, but also know they don't have to be perfect in every single thing they say, just be inquisitive and really start the discussions. >> When you are pitching Qualcomm as a potential employer to young women, what is your value proposition? We heard Fei-Fei Li during the keynote talk about there is a real crisis if women are not actively involved in creating the next generation of artificial intelligence, and we're half of the end users, that there is going to be this real disconnect between the technology and how it's used. >> And as a product leader, I have always been fascinated by these public stories of product failures that no one was trying to make them fail but it was very clear that they didn't have a diverse team, because they just had some really big misses. So, one of the things we talk about at Qualcomm, you know, we're a wireless technology company, we started with 3G and now 4GLTE, that whole wireless technology, that backbone of it, is all Qualcomm tech, and it allows us to go into 5G. 5G is where the thing gets exponentially more interesting, more exciting, a much lighter set of problems to solve can be solved through 5G. So, if we don't have a diverse set of people thinking about all the different use-cases, variables, that we can use 5G technology, we'll miss something big. And I know that our CEO believes that, we've talked about it, we are inventors, we are innovators, and we have to have a wider variety of people that are being inventors of the future. >> So, I just want to wrap up here but finally ask you about this conference, this is not your first Grace Hopper, and it's a very young conference and you're really looked at as a veteran, I mean, me, too. We're the old bags about this place. (laughing) Can you just describe a little bit, I know you said that you were introducing one of the keynote speakers and you got to meet a personal hero of yours, just what it's like to be here? >> It's really amazing, last year was my first year. I was not the Chief Diversity Officer a year ago, yet, and I came here and people like, Telle Whitney, who you read about, I've gotten to meet here, I can hug her. >> Rebecca: You'll never was your hand again. >> I know, it's amazing. The women that have been leading this for years and years and years, and now what this has turned out to be, I was talking to one of my colleagues, and I go to a lot of technical conferences and business conferences like CES, CES is almost where we should be here meeting in the middle, a lot more men here, in years to come, and a lot more women at CES. And I think that's when we'll know that we're actually making progress. >> Well, Vicki, thank you so much for joining us. >> Yes, thank you, thanks for having me. >> I'm Rebecca Knight, we'll have more from theCube's coverage of the Grace Hopper just after this. (upbeat music)