On the seventh episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with Diana McKenzie, former CIO at Workday. Diana has been SVP and CIO of Workday in addition to CIO at Amgen. Today, she sits on the board of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, MetLife, Change Healthcare, and Paradox, among others. Evan and Saam speak with Diana about the importance of being a customer facing CIO, the technology-driven innovations she’s most excited about in the life sciences, and her experience being a board member after spending years on the other side of the table.

Quick hits from Diana:

On CIOs directionally oriented towards deploying new technology: “When we found a group of CIOs who were willing to embrace some of these newer concepts, you tend to cluster together and develop relationships. And then somebody in the group comes to the dinner and says, ‘oh my gosh, we're trying this, We're trying Snowflake, or we're trying that.’ And then everybody wants to jump on board because it's a cool thing to be engaged with, but never just for the technology, always because you're trying to derive an outcome that's better for the business.”

On being customer focused as a CIO: “The entire time I was a CIO, I never ever called the people that I worked with inside the company my customers. My belief has always been that the person that we are selling our product or service to is the customer and that's the one we have to all be looking at in the same way. Inside the company, we all have to be working together to make sure we're achieving that end. And by keeping myself and my team focused on the end customer, I think we're better at sort of deciphering what we needed to do internally.”

On technological breakthroughs in the life sciences space: “We are working in partnership with the CRISPR company to develop a product called CTX001 and right now it's showing enormous promise in clinical trials for patients suffering from sickle cell anemia. It is all about editing their DNA so that it will produce this fetal hemoglobin that ultimately becomes a mature adult hemoglobin in the amounts that are needed so that these patients no longer have sickle cell anemia. So we're talking about a cure [and] you simply don't get to that without the application of technology.”

Recent book recommendation: Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda by Sean Naylor

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Enterprise Software Innovators is a show where top tech executives share how they innovate at scale. Each episode covers unique insights and stories that will help you succeed as a technology leader. Find more great lessons from tech leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/ 

Enterprise Software Innovators is produced by Luke Reiser, Josh Meer and Emily Shaw.