Forbes provides strategic insights from Thomas Siebel‚ C3.ai CEO‚ in a three-part article series based on Dan Woods’ in-depth interview with Siebel about the convergence of disruptive new technologies – elastic cloud computing‚ big data‚ AI‚ and IoT – and the digital transformation of business.
The third article in the series‚ “Managing Through Culture: Tom Siebel on the Impact of Technology for Leaders‚” covers Siebel’s perspective on how managing and running a technology company is different in the 21st century.
Siebel describes the management challenges and opportunities presented by rapidly changing technologies. Excerpts from the article include:
- My idea of a good time is to get involved in the creation of markets‚ to create a leadership position in the market. I enjoy dealing with customers on mission critical problems … they see this as something that is essential to their survival. And virtually every problem that we’re solving today has never been solved before.
- This is what I do. I put together talented people and we solve interesting problems. This is an enormously challenging engineering problem‚ with very‚ very significant social and economic benefit‚ and it’s game changing.
- Increasingly leadership is about managing through culture – establishing a rich‚ substantive‚ well understood culture that encourages people to do the right thing‚ that’s consistent with everybody’s benefit‚ especially the customer’s benefit. Professionalism‚ excellence‚ commitment to the customer. These are cultural values.
- There’s no question in my mind that if the leadership is not coming from the CEO directly‚ the company is not going to succeed.
- Digital transformation will require vision … and the realization of what happens with IoT‚ big data‚ and predictive analytics. It’s how the technology actually gets applied and the extent to which companies are able to realize the benefit. Management matters.
Today’s article‚ “Managing Through Culture: Tom Siebel on the Impact of Technology for Leaders‚” follows “Everything Will Be Sensored: Tom Siebel on the Future of the IoT‚” in which Siebel describes his perspective on the Internet of Things – including IoT’s impact on business and society as well as C3.ai’s role in building the next generation of AI and IoT applications. The first article‚ “How Tom Siebel Applies A Lifetime Of Learning At C3.ai‚” summarizes Siebel’s perspective on the history and present state of enterprise software as a veteran in this space.
