 Thank you, you know, haven't been in technology my entire career Technology and data has really evolved from being the province of a few in an organization to frankly being critical to everyone's business outcomes Now every business leader really needs to embrace data analytics and technology We've been talking about digital transformation probably the last five seven years We've all talked about disrupt or be disrupted at the core of that digital transformation is the use of data data and analytics that we derive insights from and actually improve our decision-making by driving a differentiated experience and capability into market So data has involved as being I would say almost tactical in some sense over my Technology career to really being a strategic asset of what we leverage personally in our own careers But also what we must leverage as companies to drive a differentiated capability Experience and remain relative in the market today. Yeah, I agree with Lisa It has definitely become a the lifeblood of every business, right? It used to be that there were a few companies in the business of technology Every business is now a technology business every business is a data business It is the way that they go to market shape the market and serve their clients Whether you're in construction whether you're in retail whether you're in healthcare It doesn't matter right data is necessary for every business to survive and thrive And I remember at the beginning of my career. It was you know data was always important But it was about storing data. It was about giving people individual reports It was about Supplying that data to one person or one business unit in silence And it then evolved right over the course of time into integrating data and to saying alright How does one piece of data correlate to the other and how can I get insights out of that data? Now it's gone to the point of how do I use that data to predict the future? How do I use that data to automate the future? How do I use that data not just for humans to make decisions but for other machines to make decisions, right? Which is a big leap and a big change in how we use data How we analyze data and how we use it for insights and evolving our businesses Yeah, well since I'm on the snowflake board I'll talk a little bit about the snowflake data cloud You know, we're getting your company's data out of the silos that exist all over your organization We're bringing third-party data in to combine with your own data And we're wrapping a governance structure around it and feeding it out to your employees so they can get their jobs done And it's as simple as that. I think we've all seen the pandemic Accelerate the digitization of our work and if you ever doubted that the future of work is here It is here and companies are scrambling to catch up by providing the right amount of data Collaboration tools workflow tools for their workers to get their jobs done You know it used to be as prior people have mentioned that in order to work with data you had to be a data scientist, but You know, I was an auditor back in the day and we used to work on 16 column spreadsheets And now if you're in a county major coming out of college joining an auditing firm You have to be tech and data savvy because you're going to be extracting manipulating Analyzing and auditing data that massive amounts of data that sit in your client's IT systems I'm on the board of warby parker and you might think that their most valuable asset is their amazing frame collection But it's actually their data. There are 360 degree view of the customer And so if you're a merchant or you're in strategy or marketing or talent or the co-CEO You're using data every day in your work And so I think it's going to become a ubiquitous skill that any anyone who's a knowledge worker Has to be able to work with data Yeah, absolutely. You know most enterprises today are I would say hybrid multicloud enterprises What does that mean? That means that we have data sitting on prem We have data sitting in public clouds through software as a service applications We have a data everywhere most enterprises have data everywhere Certainly those that have owned infrastructure or weren't born on the web One of the areas that I love that data cloud is addressing is the area around data portability and mobility Because I have data sitting in various locations through my enterprise How do I aggregate that data to really drive meaningful insights out of that data to drive better business outcomes? And uh at blue shield of california one of our key initiatives is what we call An experience cube. What does that mean? It means how do I drive transparency of data between providers members and payers? So that not only do I reduce overhead on providers and provide them a better experience our hospital systems our doctors But ultimately, how do we have the member? Have at their power of their fingertips the value of their data Holistically so that we're making better decisions about their health care You know one of the things trisa was talking about Was the use of this data and I would drive to data democratization We got to put the power of data into the hands of everyone not just data scientists Yes, we need those data scientists to help us build ai models to really drive and tackle these tougher Challenges and business problems that we may have in our environments But everybody in the company both on the it side both on the business side Really need to understand of how do we become a data insights driven enterprise? Put the power of the data into everyone's hand so that we can accelerate capabilities Right and leverage that data to ultimately drive better business results So as a leader as a technology leader part of our responsibility our leadership is to help our companies do that And that's really one of the exciting things that i'm doing in my role now at blue shield of california Great question, and I am so passionate about this for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is I have two daughters of my own And I know how important it is for Women and young girls to actually start early in their love for technology and data and and all things digital Right, so I think it's one very important to start early start an early education building confidence Of young girls that they can do this Showing them role models, you know We at deloitte just partnered with l of the engineer to actually make comic books centered around young girls and boys In the early elementary age to talk about how heroes and tech solve everyday problems And so really helping to get people's minds around Tech is not just in the back office coding on a computer tech is about solving problems together that help us as citizens As customers right and as humanity So I think that's important. I also think we have to expand that definition of tech as we just said It's not just about right database design. It's not just about You know java and python coding. It's about design. It's about the human machine interfaces It's about how do you use it to solve real problems and getting people to think in that kind of mindset Makes it more attractive and exciting And lastly, I'd say look, we have a absolute imperative to get a diverse population of people not just women but minorities You know those with other types of backgrounds disabilities, etc involved because this data is being used to drive decision making And if we're all involved right and how that data makes decisions It can lead to unnatural biases that no one intended but can happen just because we haven't involved a diverse enough group of people around it Absolutely, lisa curious about your thoughts on this. Oh, I agree with everything. Nishita said I've been passionate about this area. I think it it starts with first. We need more role models We we need more role models as women In these leadership roles throughout various sectors And it really is it starts with us and helping to pull other women forward. So I I think certainly It's part of my responsibility I think all of us as female executives that if you have a seat at the table to leverage that seat at the table to drive change To bring more women forward more diversity forward into the boardroom and into our executive suites I also want to touch on a point Nishita made about Women we're the largest consumer group in the company Yet we're consumers, but we're not builders This is why it's so important that we start changing that perception of what tech is And I agree that it starts with our young girls We know the data shows that we lose our young girls by middle school very heavy peer pressure It's not so cool to be smart or do robotics or be good in math and science We start losing our girls in middle school So they're not prepared when they go to high school and they're not taking those classes In order to major in these STEM fields in college. So we have to start the pipeline early With our girls and then I also think it's a measure of what your boards are doing What is the executive leadership and your goals around diversity and inclusion? How do we invite more diverse population to the decision-making table? So it's really a combination of efforts One of the things that certainly is concerning to me is during this pandemic I think we're losing one in four women in the workforce now because of all the demands That our families are having to navigate through Through this pandemic the last statistic I saw in the last four months is we've lost 850,000 women in the workforce This pipeline is critical to making that change in these leadership positions I'd encourage each of you to become an active sponsor Research shows that women and minorities are less likely to be sponsored than white men Sponsorship is a much more active form than mentorship Sponsorship involves helping someone identify career opportunities and actively advocating for them in those roles Opening your network giving very candid feedback And we need men to participate too. There are not enough women in tech To pull forward and sponsor the high potential women that are in our pipelines And so we need you to be part of the solution Let's say look around your teams See who's on them and make deliberate decisions about diversifying those teams as positions open up Make sure that you have a diverse set of candidates. Make sure that there are women that are part of that team And make sure that you are actually hiring and putting people into positions based on potential not just experience Wow, it's hard to Witnessita and with Trisha shared. I think we're very powerful actions. I think it starts with us Take an action at our own table making sure you're driving diverse panels and hiring Setting goals for the company having your board engaged and holding us accountable and driving to those goals Will help us all see a better outcome with more women at the executive table and diverse populations