Guest: Xena Ugrinsky

In this podcast, Deborah does a round-up of perspectives on the crucial topic of culture, incorporating relevant highlights from prior podcasts of four CEOs:  
Art Saxby, CEO and Founder of Chief Outsiders notes that the biggest lessons have been the importance and power of culture - the culture that draws the greatest leaders and contributors to work for the company and magnetizes like-minded clients to it because they hold the same values.(Full episode is here: EP25: Scaling Your Business - Curiosity and Leadership)
Chris Yeung, CTO and co-founder of Vimbly Group says “Some of the greatest accomplishments in humanity have been through partnership and cooperation” - and he values this type of culture so strongly, that he & his partner made the decision to shut down a company they had acquired when they found it a toxic culture. He merely called it a “hard lesson.” (Full episode is here: EP7: CTO Masterclass: How to Build a High-Performing Tech Team)
Xena Ugrinsky, CTO and Founding Partner at Pilot Wave Holdings Management, brings in the cultural impact on the speed and effectiveness of AI and digital transformation where sometimes we have to break the old cultural norms so that it’s okay to experiment, fail and leverage what you’ve learned. 
(Full episode is here: EP19: Building a Future-Ready Business - Tech, Culture, and Strategy)
Herby Duverné, CEO of Windwalker Group is creating A culture where people are working hard, yet having a good time - they are passionate about performing because they believe what the company is doing and what the company is is special.  
(Full episode is here: EP13: Building a Business on Solutions Rather Than Problems)
 
Links from this episode:
Herby Duverné on LinkedInWindwalker
Xena Ugrinsky on LinkedInXena Ugrinsky on TwitterPilotwave Holdings
Chris Yeung on LinkedInVimbly Group
Art Saxby on LinkedInChief Outsiders

In our previous episode, we had the privilege of hearing from Xena Urgrinsky, an expert in the field of transformation and data science. Xena shared invaluable insights on the crucial link between building a future-ready business and upskilling and transforming your team. Today, we'll focus on key takeaways from that conversation. Xena emphasized the need for human evolution within organizations, highlighting the challenge of transforming people and creating a culture of experimentation and learning. She stressed the importance of developing a strategic vision and tackling cultural hurdles to achieve transformative success. Additionally, Xena discussed the role of applied data science, cautioning against using every new technology for every problem and emphasizing the necessity of continuously monitoring and adapting machine learning models. As we navigate this ever-changing landscape, let's harness the power of these tools effectively and prioritize critical thinking skills to drive our workforce forward.
For CEOs who are in the process of building a future-ready business, let's take a few minutes here to emphasize a central point that transforming your company for the future must also involve upskilling and transforming your team. 
About Xena Ugrinsky
Xena Ugrinsky - CTO, Co-Founder and Senior Transformation Executive at Pilot Wave Holdings Management, LLC, and Principal, Founder and Data Science Evangelist at Genre-X, Inc. She is an AI expert, author, and previous Partner at KPMG as well as Booz Allen Hamilton.  She believes that data-driven competency will be the main source of competitive advantage over the next few years and that if leaders of mid-sized and large enterprise companies are not actively exploring how applied data science can be propagated through their organizations based on clear business objectives and measures of success, they risk being left behind.  
Links from this episode:
Pilotwave HoldingsXena Ugrinsky on LinkedInXena Ugrinsky on Twitter
Deborah Fell on LinkedInChief Outsiders

In this second episode with Xena Ugrinsky, she emphasizes the importance of integrating new technology with existing systems and aligning it with the overall business strategy. She shares insights on the human aspect of digital transformation, emphasizing the need for upskilling the workforce and creating a culture of experimentation and learning. Xena advises CEOs that the first priority is to develop a strategy that identifies the most pressing problems and determines whether traditional tools or applied data science should be used for solutions and then determine what the cultural hurdles are to achieving it.  She also highlights the evolving nature of machine learning models and the importance of critical thinking skill development in navigating both these technologies and internal hurdles. This conversation provides valuable insights for leaders looking to leverage technology and drive meaningful change within their organizations. Join Deborah and Xena for this episode, “Building a Future-Ready Business: Tech, Culture, and Strategy.” You can also listen to the first half in our previous episode, “EP17: Your Data Story is Your Business Story.”
 
About Xena Ugrinsky
Xena Ugrinsky - CTO, Co-Founder and Senior Transformation Executive at Pilot Wave Holdings Management, LLC, and Principal, Founder and Data Science Evangelist at Genre-X, Inc. She is an AI expert, author, and previous Partner at KPMG as well as Booz Allen Hamilton.  She believes that data-driven competency will be the main source of competitive advantage over the next few years and that if leaders of mid-sized and large enterprise companies are not actively exploring how applied data science can be propagated through their organizations based on clear business objectives and measures of success, they risk being left behind.  
Links from this episode:
Pilotwave HoldingsXena Ugrinsky on LinkedInXena Ugrinsky on Twitter
Deborah Fell on LinkedInChief Outsiders

Last week my guest was Xena Urgrinsky, CTO, and Founding Partner at Pilotwave Holdings Management and CEO and Founder at Genre X. She's an artificial intelligence expert and author, and data science evangelist, and she's been both partner and principal at KPMG, as well as a partner at Booz Allen Hamilton. Xena immigrated with her parents from Germany and became an American citizen at eight, which was transformational for her family and an example of living the American Dream. A truly amazing journey and I want to encourage you to listen to all of episode 17 today.  In this commentary, I want to dig into a key question. She shared that she asked her companies to help them unlock important change in growth, and the question is this, if you could get anything, what would you want that would make you wildly surpass your peers? Listen to EP18: The One Thing They Asked for Was Drone Inspection. 
 
About Xena Ugrinsky
Xena Ugrinsky - CTO, Co-Founder and Senior Transformation Executive at Pilot Wave Holdings Management, LLC, and Principal, Founder and Data Science Evangelist at Genre-X, Inc. She is an AI expert, author, and previous Partner at KPMG and Booz Allen Hamilton.  She believes that data-driven competency will be the main source of competitive advantage over the next few years and that if leaders of mid-sized and large enterprise companies are not actively exploring how applied data science can be propagated through their organizations based on clear business objectives and measures of success, they risk being left behind.  
Links from this episode:
Pilotwave HoldingsXena Ugrinsky on LinkedInXena Ugrinsky on Twitter
Deborah Fell on LinkedInChief Outsiders

What happens when Deborah’s guest, Xena Ugrinsky, asks her first acquisition company, “If you could get anything, what would you want that would make you wildly surpass your peers?”  
Xena shares her personal journey from immigrating from Germany to the US with her parents who completed their higher education in America and became a college professor (father) and geneticist (mother), and became a US citizen at the age of 8.  She also speaks to how she and two other partners boot-strapped and co-founded Pilot Wave. The technologies that had only been available to companies like Alcoa could now become available to smaller companies.  Join them for this half of their conversation, "Your Data Story is Your Business Story."
About Xena Ugrinsky
Xena Ugrinsky - CTO, Co-Founder and Senior Transformation Executive at Pilot Wave Holdings Management, LLC, and Principal, Founder and Data Science Evangelist at Genre-X, Inc. She is an AI expert, author, and previous Partner at KPMG as well as Booz Allen Hamilton.  She believes that data-driven competency will be the main source of competitive advantage over the next few years and that if leaders of mid-sized and large enterprise companies are not actively exploring how applied data science can be propagated through their organizations based on clear business objectives and measures of success, they risk being left behind.  
Links from this episode:
Pilotwave HoldingsXena Ugrinsky on LinkedInXena Ugrinsky on Twitter
Deborah Fell on LinkedInChief Outsiders