Trang Cockrill 0:05
Everybody. Heather, thank you so much for the introduction of this really heavy-hitting panel. You know, I will say it’s been such a great three days being in person again. And before we get into the meet of the content, I really want to ask you guys, what do you think of radiance? What do you all think of Nashville?
Richard Dobbs 0:29
I think I’ve had a great time. It got a lot funner last night when I was sampling, you know, some of the drinks and stuff so. And I assume some of the rest of you are as well, too, given the look, I’ve seen in people’s eyes, the bloodshot eyes and stuff. But it’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of great experience, interacting with some of my peers. And in some of the people I’ve worked with, and I’ve, I’ve come across some from a lot of old friends, and I’ve made new ones since I’ve been here. So it’s been great.
Riju Vashisht 1:03
I think getting people back together under one quintessential roof, says fantastic. And brings back the point of the human touch. So thank you for organizing it, and thank you for organizing such a brilliant event. In such a beautiful city.
Sayid Shabeer 1:22
For me, it just feels like HighRadius, spirit, and culture are back. This is what we’ve always experienced. And now we truly feel it, we are back and probably I need the oxygen tent after this.
Trang Cockrill 1:38
One thing I really love last night was the fireworks. That was such a nice little surprise. So it’s been really fun. So well, I know the audience is ready to hear all the insights from you guys. And I just want to set the context for this conversation of, you know, we’re seeing a lot now that businesses are just growing at such a rapid pace, right? And one thing we need to keep in mind, how do you adapt to this growth, and also keep in mind, as a sustainable growth for your business. So Rich, I really wanted to talk to you first around, you know, you as a global business leader and practitioner, what does sustainable growth mean for your business? And what are you seeing as two key data levers that help drive that sustainable growth? That Kimberly Clark?
Richard Dobbs 2:26
Yeah, you know, I think it gets comes back to the theme of why we’re up here, what we’re seeing is, you know, the whole business world and the whole go-to-market strategy, and my company operates in a consumer packaged goods, arena. And that whole model is changing and is being driven by multiple factors. One is the great proliferation of data. And two is the need to make sense of that and transform your business in a way to where you’re digitally enabled to be able to cycle through and understand that data and help manage your business. So those are, those are the big things that we’re seeing, and, you know, the world is moving faster than what it did in the past. And businesses have got to keep up, you know, they can’t work and navigate the economy at the speed that they did, you know, 2030 years ago, even 10 years ago.
Trang Cockrill 3:26
Love it i What I’m really getting out of what you said is data, and digital solutions are really key to sustainable growth through business. And do you mind sharing just kind of a personal example with us?
Richard Dobbs 3:38
Sure. So in in Kimberly Clark, or in any consumer packaged goods company, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to understand the needs and desires of your consumers and get the right products in the market at the right time to meet the needs of those consumers. So it’s really important to stay in touch with them. Historically, consumers’ desires or tastes change on about a two to three-year cycle. And companies kind of have wired themselves or conditioned themselves overtime to work on that two to three-year cycle. But what we’re finding is, given the new technology, the world of social media, that those tastes and desires now are changed. They’re accelerated. They are moving on a six to nine-month pace versus two to three years. So think about that. If we’re collecting data and trying to understand that and process that and design our products, put them through our production model through our supply chain, get them out in the market, and it’s taken us two to three years to cycle through that. But their tastes are changing on a six-month, nine-month cycle. That means we’re perpetually going to be 18 to 24 months behind and are our consumers. And if you operate that, that’s, that’s a real quick model to being made irrelevant, you know, in the marketplace. So you’ve got to, you’ve got to change the game, you got to change the game internally with the way you operate and the way you cycle through those consumer needs and do it in a very, very profound way. And one example we were, we’ve tried to address that in a nontraditional manner. In one of our Asia markets, which is very dynamic, very, very technology savvy, and very social media savvy, which is Korea, we introduced an app in the marketplace, and we don’t charge for it. And it’s targeted toward mothers, one of our key product lines is baby products. And it’s the target audiences are mothers new are expecting mothers and existing mothers with young children that would use our products. And this is the social media app for them to kind of create a network among themselves and share and the value in that and we don’t charge them for that we’ll never make any money on it. And this is interesting because traditionally, we would, we would not build anything like that unless there was a cost-benefit. In this particular instance, what we’re really wanting is the data and the insights from that consumer group, that target audience in terms of what would make them meet their needs, and make their lives better in terms of how they care for their children. So the data that comes out of that is immensely invaluable to us. So that we can shorten that cycle that I talked to you about, understand, you know, their needs, so that we can design the products that meet those needs, and do it in a compressed cycle. So that’s one of the ways we’re addressing it.
Trang Cockrill 7:00
Love it. So say read you how much do you agree with rates, that data is just a key success factor for any digital transformation?
Riju Vashisht 7:11
So let me take a shot at it. You know, there is a saying data is the new oil. And what a sort of lived on that for a long time thinking that there was going to be ROI out of data and kept looking for okay, how do I get a better outcome from my data? How do I monetize it? Today? The question is, when you look at any digital transformation, you want to look at the user and say, what are the decisions that this user needs to make to make those decisions? What kind of data does this user need? When do you need that data? To get access to the data, what kind of underlying automation must be provided for data access to get created? And for that automation to be successful? What should be the underlying process? So the equation which went earlier from good process automation, let me get the data. And now let me monetize the data is turned on its head, you’re saying, Hey, what are the right decisions? What are the decisions to be made? What’s the right data for that? How do I get access to good-quality data through automation? And what is the right process sitting underneath it? And that’s a very significant shift. And requires good quality data sitting underneath requires the signals to be more current versus old, for you to continuously change those models.
Trang Cockrill 8:41
Hey, what do you think about data being key?
Sayid Shabeer 8:44
Yeah, so rich just mentioned the proliferation of data. I’ll mention two data points within the HighRadius context 2020, reprocess 2.2 trillion with a T of AR. And last year 2021, that literally doubled to 4.5 trillion. Now, I haven’t checked the latest, but that’s probably the GDP of some small countries somewhere, right. So the absolutely there with the growth in data. Now, we do have right a lot of use cases, you know, 13 AI use cases that are helping in automation that are helping in decision making, as you mentioned, resume. So those are, those are very valuable for our clients. But what I am really excited about and intrigued by is actually a slightly different use case, which is how can we actually use data and machines to even set up our complex software systems? to bring about the very best business outcomes for our clients, because traditionally, we know how we go about it. We talk about the assets, we talk about the to be and humans are trying to figure out how should the system be the rules, and the algos that should be set up to bring about the business outcomes. Now we are turning that on its head and saying, Can we actually use the data and the machines to actually configure the system for the best business outcomes? A good example is in reductions, you know, a sequence of seven complex steps, lots of data. And what we’re doing now is trying to get the machines to set up those rules. Now the outcome that comes out of it is you get higher business outcomes. And then as the world changes as businesses change, Now, typically that automation starts to drop. Now, because it is now driven, not by humans, how we set up those rules, but the machines are actually tweaking and tuning and configuring the system, that automation stays high flat up there. So, that’s something in terms of value that we can deliver to our clients that I’m really excited about.
Trang Cockrill 11:16
Awesome, I think, really the quality of data. Absolutely key. Right. And, you know, I want to also understand from the three of you guys, really what, what outside of data, right? Should business leaders be looking at before they take on any of these large-scale transformations? And Rich, maybe we can go straight to you first?
Richard Dobbs 11:39
Yeah, well, first of all, I think it’s inevitable, every company is going to have to transform at some point in time, the way you operated in the past is not, it’s just not going to work in this new world order of the economy that we’re operating in, and the world has shrunk. Your traditional competitors used to be, you know, geographically located with you now, you know, it’s not the case, some of our biggest competitors are on the other side of the world. So you need to understand that, but you knew, these transformations have to be done in a way in which they connect to the needs of your customers. Transformation, just for the sake of getting the shiny new toy is not the whole point. You know, it’s got to connect to your purpose as a company and the needs of your customers. But you also need to understand it’s a tremendous amount of change for your organization. And one of the mistakes I see made over and over and overtime is companies get into these without being equipped to handle the change and manage the change, you know, of undertaking these big enterprise transformations. We’re going to undergo a big one right now. And we’ve tried to build that capability in from day one, instead of getting, you know, a year or two into when we’re going to start inflicting change on our business and then retroactively trying to go back and put in the right change management muscle to be able to handle it. So you know, you need to go into it connecting to your higher purpose and the needs of your consumers. And having had the skills to be able to take it on and change management, is certainly one that I would call out from the very beginning.
Trang Cockrill 13:25
I want you to add you know, the equation we talked about earlier, I feel like people are going to be running notes when you talk about
Richard Dobbs 13:32
Yeah, you know, processes are it’s probably right at the top of the list of mistakes that companies made too, they go into these big digital transformations and they treat on the just as IT projects. And they don’t understand that, you know, many times your processes are going to change other things are going to need to change about your business. A long time ago, no continuous improvement leader that I used to work with taught me this formula. And this formula is in E plus OP equals EOP. And that stands for new technology plus old process equals expensive old process. And it’s so true. And I’ve seen it play out so many times in my career if you don’t undertake the changes to your process, and you just kind of come in and say your technology is going to fix everything. Invariably, you’re just all you’re trying to do is just put lipstick on the pig. That’s an old adage from where I grew up and Kentucky and it is just you will end up creating issues for yourself down the line. The old rule of thumb many years ago and many of you probably know is a don’t change your people’s processes and technologies at the same time it’s going to be you know because if something goes wrong, you won’t know what caused it. The new rule of thumb I think has been flipped and the new rule of thumb is if you’re going to put in you’re going to digital insurance form you’re going to put in new systems to address your processes going forward,
Trang Cockrill 15:05
We do just to repeat the question for you. So outside of the quality of data, right, what should businesses be looking at when they’re undertaking these transformations?
Riju Vashisht 15:14
Digital Transformation sits at the intersection of the process that Rich talked about people who are the users of that process and consumers of that outcome. And technology, new and old. Often, what happens is that one of these factors doesn’t get enough attention. And that results in not getting the right return on investment for the technology that you’ve put in, both in terms of the dollars you spent, but more importantly, the outcome that you were looking at. So change management, making people travel that change with you, getting users to the center of the design, and making sure that the user’s business problem is addressed as a part of that transformation is critical. And we are all learning. And I’m sure we have new lessons every day from this. But this is a massive muscle that all of us collectively need to continue to build. My favorite example is whenever Amazon changes their app, they don’t have to send us a training program, we intuitively figure out what needs to be done. And but in the world of business, we are tuned in a manner that we expect to get new instructions, new training, changes to policy, etc. And unless we are able to score off all of those, your change and transformation will result in less optimum ROI.
Sayid Shabeer 16:50
So you know, the transformations that are being led, typically, you know, GBS leaders like yourselves, CFOs ROI is very important numbers are important. But the one thing that I have seen in projects where successful projects are where the leaders are appealing, not just to the mind, which are the numbers and the ROI, but also to the heart of why is this transformation really needed and authentically speaking about it? How industry after industry is getting disrupted and why the status quo is truly not the right thing? Or the best thing for the company? And then I mean, because and how can we retool ourselves, how can we learn and get into more value-added work? Right, having that authentic conversation, I think is a key component of the success for these digital transformations that I’ve seen leaders execute. Because hey, you know, automation is there, people could be worried about, you know, the job, what they are doing, there is a lot of manual work. But there’s also given the growth and the disruptions that are happening, so much value-added work that can be done, where it is truly about the machines and the humans in their decision making. And that authentic conversation would be key to digital transformation success in my perspective.
Trang Cockrill 18:18
I mean, you know, people really still are at the heart of all of this, right? And, you know, really want to hear from you guys. And when you’re thinking about your customers, your end-users, you know, how do you know, make sure they’re comfortable, when, you know, they’re going through this digital transformation and making sure it’s successful. Richard I would love to hear from you know, what you’re thinking about for your customers.
Richard Dobbs 18:43
That should be at the heart of everything that we do. It should be what makes their lives better. And if you put that first and you are purpose-driven, in terms of the way you run your company, and you’re addressing their needs, you know, your internal metrics will come, you know, the top and bottom-line metrics will come. I find companies sometimes, they get so internally focused on their internal goals and objectives. They really lose their way in terms of why they’re there. Do you know, why? Why are we here? Why is Kimberly if we’re making consumer art, the industry that we sit in is consumer packaged goods, we provide goods to consumers, if we lose our way of that being our purpose is to provide goods to them to make their lives better. In fact, we rolled out a new purpose statement last year, it’s to create better care for a better world. And it was to try to reconnect ourselves to refocus ourselves on why we’re here. And, you know, it’s at the heart of everything you do and if you make that at the heart of everything you’re doing, you’re gonna win In, you know?
Trang Cockrill 20:02
Yeah, and you know, read you say you guys have seen so many digital transformation projects. So I would love to hear your perspective on, you know, how should business leaders think about their customers in users, we’d love to hear from you first.
Riju Vashisht 20:17
You know, every transformative activity has a business problem to be solved at the center of it. When we talk about the user, that user is walking into that transformation, with a business answer they’re looking for. And there are intended and unintended consequences of that change. And what’s most important is that we identify both, you know, deliver to the intended consequences. But think through what could be the unintended consequences of that massive change. One of my favorite examples is a shoe company, at the beginning of the pandemic began to sell their shoes online. And, but this process was set up on top of the legacy process, which was about distributing shoes to retailers, each click resulted in 500, back-end clicks for the shoe to get delivered to that customer. And then add to it refunds, returns, size, not matching the wrong color, and all of that stuff coming back. And then your inventory system has a particular data point. And your financial systems don’t talk to that data point. Now, all of what I described are unintended consequences of one action, selling shoes online.
Sayid Shabeer 21:44
So from a HighRadius perspective, especially when thinking about an order to cash, this is probably we know that brands, global brands are trusting us in terms of connecting with their customers and customers through various processes, be it from giving off credit to their buyers, to accepting payments to going after collecting from those customers on past use. So this is one of those processes where, you know, we take that aspect that we’re not just working for are impacting our own clients in terms of their business outcomes. But we are also touching their end customers. So that’s something that we think about and take very seriously in an audit of cash versus several other processes in the Office, Office of the CFO. So just as an example, think about payments, we are used to differing now expectations as a consumer. Now, in the B2B world, how payments are getting made, the expectations are starting to change, you know, people expect to pay any time anywhere in modes that may not have existed before. There is you might be a seller from the US. But there’s a buyer in Germany, who wants to pay in Euro using guiro, pay the local method. So it’s basically the global brands who are global, but want to feel and act and be authentically local to their bias, right? And how do we as technology providers also enable that anytime anywhere, and local kinds of payments are just an example of how we have to innovate and keep up in the B2B world, even as our consumer experiences change.
Trang Cockrill 23:41
I know we could be here all day and ask you guys a tonne of questions. But you know, just really want to kind of summarize and really want to hear like what is one key takeaway you would like to give the audience when they’re thinking about these digital transformations? And so, you know, why don’t you go first, actually,
Sayid Shabeer 24:00
Sure, so one of the things that are occupying my mind a lot is speed to value for our clients. Because there’s been a lot of studies and stats that say and both of you alluded a little bit to this IT projects and software, there are studies that say 70% of IT projects and software actually don’t end up delivering value or was fail or take way too long compared to what the initial expectations were. So this is an area that we are, we’re focusing a lot on in order to actually deliver high value fast to our clients. Right. That’s very important. Like, I think in the keynote yesterday from Sashi you saw that six months cycle, right? And for projects, complex projects, that might sound unbelievably fast, right? But that’s the bar that we are setting ourselves to we are the dot one company in order to deliver that high value. That’s what we are driving towards, in terms of value for our clients and the speed to our clients.
Trang Cockrill 25:13
Right, you want to go next?
Richard Dobbs 25:14
Yeah, you know, I would come back to make sure that everything you’re doing is connecting to your purpose as a company and to making the lives of your consumers better. But I’d also hit on the speed of value component. I was at a conference a few years ago, and the speaker, who’s whose was an expert in big data said, there’s been more data created in the last seven years than there was in the entire history of humankind before that point. And then the next seven years, he anticipated, he’s going to be able to say the same thing again. Now think about that. That’s an unbelievable explosion of data in the world. And I think there’s a new arms race, now going on with companies, and that arms race is going to be who can get through this, this cycle, the quickest, and that’s from the collection of that, that data, to the analysis of it to the, to the insights that come out of that analysis, to then taking actions and creating value. The companies that can cycle through that the quickest in a quality manner, are going to thrive. In this new world order, the companies that don’t are the slowest are really going to struggle to survive. So you know, it’s you, the world, the business is going to have to have to come to grips with that and come to grips with it in a way in which they bring the right tools, and leverage the right technologies to be able to address it, which is the good news. There are a lot of emerging technologies out there, everything from artificial intelligence to quantum computing, that will allow us to get through that cycle, the quickest. You just have to embrace them and, and embrace the digital transformation of your company to be able to cycle through that the quickest. Go ahead.
Riju Vashisht 27:06
So you know, every transformation is in the service of growth. And what is evidenced now is that because of the agility that digital transformation helps you to drive, the speed with which you are able to connect to your customers, and the value you deliver to them come together to deliver significant differentiated growth to business and I do think that’s what we should keep at the center of all our decision making.
Trang Cockrill 27:40
Well, thank you so much. I’ll see you guys. I saw people recording taking notes, so I love it and I’m actually going to now pass it to Heather.
