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Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation

December 15, 2015 / 13:55

This episode discusses digital transformation, consumer behavior, and the importance of data in modern business. Key topics include managing chaos in digital environments, the role of technology, and the need for company-wide efforts in understanding consumer needs.

The conversation features insights on how companies must adapt to a digital-first world, with emphasis on the importance of quick reactions to disruptions. The speaker highlights that businesses need to align their objectives across departments, particularly between IT and marketing.

Another focus is on the evolving expectations of consumers, who now demand more personalized and functional products. The speaker mentions how technology can enhance consumer experiences and the importance of data in product development.

The episode also touches on the challenges of data privacy and the necessity for transparency from manufacturers regarding consumer data usage. The speaker argues that consumers are more willing to share data if they see clear benefits.

Finally, the discussion wraps up with the importance of continuous engagement with consumers and the need for companies to listen to feedback to improve their offerings.

TL;DR

This episode covers digital transformation, consumer behavior, and the importance of data in modern business strategies.

Episode

13:55
00:00:04
I think we're now we're coming to
00:00:06
realize and we all know this right our
00:00:08
consumers went to the became much more
00:00:10
digital about 15 years ago companies are
00:00:12
still acting like this is just another
00:00:14
channel I think we have to realize that
00:00:16
today we are living in a digital world
00:00:18
and companies who don't understand this
00:00:20
who don't Leslie move in to join their
00:00:23
customers there are at risk today what
00:00:27
it means you know we companies are meant
00:00:29
are working through a very complex set
00:00:34
of process to manufacture to launch a
00:00:36
campaign from injuring redesigning
00:00:39
products what companies are not really
00:00:41
well prepared is managing chaos they can
00:00:44
plan for it but they can't really manage
00:00:46
when it happens and digital world is
00:00:49
really a series of chaos theories and
00:00:50
disruptive technology in the question is
00:00:52
how quickly can you recuperate from that
00:00:54
the disruptions and actually ride that
00:00:57
wave instead of being submerged for that
00:00:59
wave
00:01:03
the major goal is really to bring what
00:01:06
is digital to work to as my consumers
00:01:10
all the people inside the company and
00:01:11
the benefit is the ability for every
00:01:14
member of the of our company from the
00:01:16
CTO CMO see you all the way to the
00:01:20
person in factory understanding the
00:01:23
voice of the consumer and as facts I
00:01:24
will translate being able to understand
00:01:27
the consumers act differently than they
00:01:29
used to 20 years ago it means different
00:01:31
things from sales channel no retailers
00:01:35
are seeing it firsthand so our says
00:01:37
people need to be aware whether
00:01:38
challenge or returns are with the
00:01:41
digital in the store sinful marketers
00:01:43
sent for our engineering group right
00:01:46
rating reviews they're coming up today
00:01:49
where they never used to read reviews
00:01:52
our engineers now reading reviews as the
00:01:54
marketers are at the same time so in
00:01:58
terms of goals you know its ability to
00:01:59
actually move quickly we can't plan for
00:02:02
everything and that's fine the bill the
00:02:04
question is going to be once we get new
00:02:06
piece of information how quickly can we
00:02:08
react to it
00:02:13
I think it start with making sure that
00:02:15
it's it's reported this digital
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transmission spotted with the highest
00:02:19
level it is a company-wide effort it is
00:02:22
now just one department if you're doing
00:02:24
one apartment you're probably you will
00:02:25
may be successful but mentally it won't
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move the needle it has to be supported
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by your board of directors your CMO su
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sitio of course that's number one the
00:02:36
second second is actually hell do you
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have the right data if you don't let
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send your consumers you are going to be
00:02:42
very limited in ability to actually do
00:02:44
digital transformation technology by
00:02:46
itself is not the answer it's about does
00:02:49
the technology that you're actually
00:02:50
cooperating into your process allow you
00:02:53
to get a better understanding for
00:02:54
consumers know not only what are they
00:02:57
doing but why are they doing those
00:02:59
things are those actions taking those
00:03:00
actions so that's really the second one
00:03:03
is do you have the right resources in
00:03:05
place to be able to read that data and
00:03:07
translate it and then more parently
00:03:09
actually distribute that to the right
00:03:11
teams along the line and where it used
00:03:13
to be very narrowed to a few groups you
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will see the through digital
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transmission you need to actually mobile
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nice to embrace sharing those other
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documents and actually utilizing that
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day to day at work
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for every member of every employee of
00:03:32
course executive Leggett ash a much
00:03:34
higher level of education training but
00:03:38
we would actually south plans for every
00:03:41
layer within the company interesting
00:03:43
enough actually I think we've seen a
00:03:45
change where I'm getting a lot of
00:03:47
requests from board asking for
00:03:48
programmatic by so definitely they are
00:03:50
open to already those new technology may
00:03:54
not know enough about it but they're
00:03:56
already following it so it's a big
00:03:57
difference for me and say five years ago
00:04:03
it's not easy and for two reasons one
00:04:06
the business gets rewarded for taking
00:04:08
risk and there's clear objectives to hit
00:04:11
usually thrown sales revenue profit IT
00:04:14
organization usually gets rewarded
00:04:16
around stability minimizing risks so in
00:04:21
a way if I was to give you an example
00:04:23
the CEO of success creating a video that
00:04:26
will you know be going viral that will
00:04:28
hit your website massively with very
00:04:30
little notice that's what success looks
00:04:32
like for a CMO that is a horror story
00:04:34
that you see you would have so success
00:04:37
here this seam of success is really the
00:04:40
nightmare of your city oh that's why you
00:04:43
see do chief didju office comes in it's
00:04:45
actually somewhere in between where you
00:04:46
need to find someone who can actually
00:04:49
accommodate those risks also gets
00:04:52
rewarded ultimately the best way to
00:04:54
achieve you know those two bipolar part
00:04:59
is really realigned your objective the
00:05:03
business has to understand know what
00:05:04
risk means it also for them ultimately
00:05:06
because the IT group is there to protect
00:05:08
the business of themselves in some cases
00:05:10
sometimes the IT structure has to be
00:05:12
changed where they no longer certain
00:05:14
supporting the enterprise by supporting
00:05:16
their internal clients which means
00:05:18
supporting and I should get rewarded by
00:05:20
the success of their tour clients so
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sales you know you can cycle down it's
00:05:26
not the fact that the site is up the
00:05:27
server is up it's a fact that does my
00:05:29
consumers can access information on
00:05:32
those pages so no longer talking about
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uptime you're talking about access of
00:05:37
documents instance so very small
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variations
00:05:43
we started a few years back I think it's
00:05:46
very interesting to us for a couple of
00:05:47
reason one it is expected from our
00:05:50
consumers our customers today are
00:05:52
expecting Internet of Things the actual
00:05:54
actually expecting to be able to access
00:05:56
more today than have in the past and be
00:05:58
able to customize you know customized
00:06:01
recipes or add new functionality within
00:06:04
their device if you think of it right
00:06:06
your phone doesn't really change but the
00:06:10
new software upgrade give you new
00:06:11
functionality new benefit people
00:06:13
actually starting to migrate in thinking
00:06:15
the same way about their appliances my
00:06:18
washer has 12 cycles why couldn't have
00:06:22
15 do i need those 12 know maybe i have
00:06:24
it with just three but give me the three
00:06:26
i want so those are things that we know
00:06:28
our consumers wants not will Nestle
00:06:31
willing to pay for those today I think
00:06:34
we'll be table stake in the future as a
00:06:35
company of course we won't make sure
00:06:37
that we create appliances that fit our
00:06:39
customers need any person life in
00:06:42
general I think on the other side also
00:06:45
for us I mean one of the key benefits
00:06:46
that we don't talk often about this
00:06:48
because of obvious reason but it's a
00:06:53
liability for for companies so she get a
00:06:55
lot more data about the consumers and
00:06:57
it's not about prodding into someone's
00:06:59
personal life such understanding how
00:07:00
people are using our device we spent a
00:07:03
lot of time researching going in
00:07:04
people's home following then doing
00:07:06
interviews but we all know between a
00:07:09
survey when you ask you 50 people and
00:07:12
towels and machine telling us data of
00:07:15
actually what is happening there's a big
00:07:16
difference so we can actually a better
00:07:19
product for that data we can also be
00:07:21
preventing doing preventive maintenance
00:07:25
knowing ahead of time by the way sir see
00:07:28
you your washer has been running
00:07:29
non-stop for for 12 days this part may
00:07:33
be at risk of breaking you want us to
00:07:35
order one or we can send you to your
00:07:37
some what you hope to do a cleaning so
00:07:39
there's a lot of opportunity
00:07:40
opportunities to provide better service
00:07:42
to our consumers better product in the
00:07:44
future and also actually additional
00:07:46
revenues from the manufacturer or
00:07:49
third-party manufacturers we have
00:07:51
contracts today with companies who do
00:07:56
detergents not really with companies
00:07:59
with does manufacturing of clothes but
00:08:02
with right sensor you could put actually
00:08:04
let's say so media is very fragile in
00:08:06
washer the sensor will a load machine
00:08:08
that there's a conflict between the
00:08:10
cycle the person has chosen and the
00:08:13
material that is a machine and stop the
00:08:16
machine right there so there's a lot of
00:08:17
opportunities cross-pollination between
00:08:19
you know a laundry an appliance and
00:08:24
manufacturing of clothes now think of
00:08:27
this then same for your kitchen a lot of
00:08:30
our additional opportunities
00:08:37
connect we can actually have access to
00:08:40
online is at risk now nothing is
00:08:43
foolproof now most of the i would say in
00:08:45
the industry we take this seriously we
00:08:47
know there are risks and we're working
00:08:49
hard too many mitigate it and that's
00:08:51
done by two parts one I don't see any
00:08:53
manufacturer no manufacturer role can
00:08:58
solve this by themselves it has go
00:09:00
through the industry consortium and
00:09:02
start with no also working with Google
00:09:04
with a BM the cloud providers to make
00:09:08
sure that their equipment is secure
00:09:10
because if you think of it right there's
00:09:12
multiple ways to hack there is from your
00:09:14
home the own personal network there's
00:09:16
from the machine maybe things we may
00:09:19
have left open there is from the cloud
00:09:21
services where we say all that data
00:09:22
before it goes to actually a private
00:09:24
company so third participants today I
00:09:27
don't think there's a clear answer
00:09:28
there's not been actually clear attacks
00:09:31
on the other system but we rather
00:09:33
prepare then actually try to fix it
00:09:35
later you know personally I wouldn't
00:09:37
want a camera in my home I'd be very
00:09:39
worried about old type of data not being
00:09:41
sent I think even my cable provider
00:09:44
knows a lot more than I want them to
00:09:46
know it is a concern when you don't know
00:09:49
what they're doing with their data and I
00:09:50
think it comes down to us manufacturer
00:09:52
we won't be very transparent of what do
00:09:54
we do with your data we want to protect
00:09:57
that your data is not sold and more
00:09:59
importantly it's being used to help you
00:10:01
get more benefits and I think people are
00:10:03
fine especially Millennials more than
00:10:04
anybody else as long as you can provide
00:10:07
what you know clear benefits to them of
00:10:09
what they're gaining by giving up some
00:10:12
of that data to the company better hbu
00:10:14
tising better service preventing
00:10:17
maintenance i mentioned earlier people
00:10:19
won't mind it's when you don't see a
00:10:21
clear benefit and you see all that data
00:10:23
we simply leaking outside of your home
00:10:25
that's what we will start having
00:10:27
questions
00:10:31
I'd say overall making
00:10:33
things look much easier in your home
00:10:35
where you don't have to micromanage
00:10:37
every step of your cooking or your
00:10:39
laundry so imagine where you get up in
00:10:41
the morning and your coffee is ready and
00:10:43
your coffee is six o'clock from Monday
00:10:47
to Friday but on weekends system is
00:10:49
smart enough to know you're more likely
00:10:51
to actually get up later and you don't
00:10:53
like coffee you like tea at this point
00:10:54
so a system that also made this based on
00:10:57
who you are in bez your pattern all the
00:11:00
way north to your cooking you're often
00:11:02
the ability you're free to not having to
00:11:05
you know put your waffles in and put
00:11:08
three seconds but it detect what type of
00:11:10
food you have and automatically create
00:11:12
the right temperature the right timing
00:11:15
to to cook it simply fridge you know
00:11:19
familiar for you usually buy you know a
00:11:23
certain amount of milk if every every
00:11:25
week it would be nice for the system
00:11:27
actually and it will be possible for you
00:11:29
seem to stop ordering directly based on
00:11:31
what you know a learning pattern that
00:11:32
usually have you have that much amount
00:11:35
of milk in your fridge and the type of
00:11:38
other the type of food know depending if
00:11:40
your family for of two single also
00:11:44
preventing waste waste is a big issue
00:11:47
especially in the u.s. 25 percent of the
00:11:49
food we buy get go to waste so the
00:11:53
fridge align you learn learning you know
00:11:55
that advance that by the way this type
00:11:57
of food is about to go bad here's to
00:11:59
suggestions how you could cook it
00:12:00
tonight and take advantage of it before
00:12:02
you lose it for good
00:12:07
so a couple of efforts started a few
00:12:09
years back one actually we redid our
00:12:11
segmentations I hadn't done in a while
00:12:13
so better on sending from the get-go
00:12:15
what are who are segments and how do
00:12:18
they act especially when it comes to
00:12:20
online in terms of day to day we started
00:12:23
with heavier social media monitoring so
00:12:25
listening to our conversations not only
00:12:28
our social media feeds but also on in
00:12:30
general in terms of topics of people nor
00:12:33
segments care about understanding how
00:12:35
they think ha what they care about and
00:12:37
how can we help them we expand of course
00:12:42
we know reviews reviews are extremely
00:12:44
important for us not only because their
00:12:46
help sells more pliant so it smartly
00:12:48
it's a great way to collect feedback on
00:12:50
how people using those devices and
00:12:52
improve upon it I said earlier know we
00:12:55
we take them seriously in the past it
00:12:57
was marketing reading it in some level
00:13:00
engineering today it's a systematic
00:13:01
every engineer responsible for product
00:13:03
is actually accessing the data directly
00:13:06
in getting rated at the other day so if
00:13:08
it's bad reviews means he hasn't done
00:13:10
his job and so a job now is not only
00:13:12
manufacturing great product but also
00:13:13
making sure that it uh she goes uh
00:13:16
follows what the customer is expecting
00:13:19
so that's those are the type of programs
00:13:22
we're doing is where we're getting
00:13:24
closer to the customer and it's really a
00:13:25
two-way Direction two-way dialogue we
00:13:28
want them engage and we're in with a
00:13:29
engage us will respond to them
00:13:47
you

Episode Highlights

  • Digital Transformation
    Companies must adapt to a digital world or risk falling behind. "Today we are living in a digital world."
    “Today we are living in a digital world.”
    @ 00m 16s
    December 15, 2015
  • Understanding Consumer Behavior
    It's crucial for companies to understand not just what consumers do, but why they do it. "It's about understanding consumers' actions and why they do them."
    “It's about understanding consumers' actions and why they do them.”
    @ 02m 59s
    December 15, 2015
  • Data Sharing and Consumer Trust
    Consumers are willing to share data if they see clear benefits, especially Millennials. "People won't mind sharing data if they see clear benefits."
    “People won't mind sharing data if they see clear benefits.”
    @ 10m 09s
    December 15, 2015

Episode Quotes

  • Today we are living in a digital world.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation
  • Companies who don't understand this are at risk.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation
  • Technology by itself is not the answer.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation
  • It's about understanding consumers' actions and why they do them.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation
  • People won't mind sharing data if they see clear benefits.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation
  • Waste is a big issue, especially in the U.S.
    Whirlpool CDO on Digital Transformation

Key Moments

  • Digital World00:16
  • Consumer Understanding02:59
  • Data Transparency10:09
  • Waste Management11:47

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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