Oshkosh CIO Anu Khare on IT’s pursuit of value

There are really four parts to our data strategy: alignment on framework, focus on value-based priorities, having infrastructure, and talent and inclusiveness.

I didn’t want to create a framework, so I used the industry’s Delta Framework to assess current state and setting maturity target. I think it’s well-regarded and it makes the vocabulary very standard in the organization. So that’s the alignment on the framework. The second piece was alignment on where the value is and where we focus. You can apply analytics everywhere and we are applying in many places, but it has to be applied to strategic problems of the company.

For example, we are spending our analytics efforts around supply chain, manufacturing, and sales and aftermarket. These three things together are major building blocks of our revenue and margin stream. So, with these three areas of focus, we aligned on which specific opportunity we should capture and where we spend our time.

The third thing is alignment on a most modern technology stack, because you have to make sure that technology doesn’t become a roadblock for you. So that’s where we have standardized on the Microsoft Azure Stack, cloud, and analytics capability.

The final piece is having a talent strategy which is deep, but which is also inclusive. And what I mean by deep is, we needed to build data science capability because we didn’t have it, so we hired from outside, but we also opened it up for any non-data science person who has a passion. One example was an analyst in our legal team. This person was very passionate about data science, and when I was doing a road show, the person said, ‘Can I join you team?’ The passion was there, they were willing to learn, and they became part of my team.

The second part of the talent strategy is inclusiveness, and this is where we focus on the self-service analytics using Power BI. We wanted to spread that this is not IT — we should be empowering our businesspeople. So our team created a custom training with live Oshkosh examples, making it easy for people to understand. Now, we continue to see significant growth in adoption of self-service analytics. The measurement we use for analytics adoption is the growth in Power BI licenses and operating impact created by analytics.

You talk about taking people on the journey of conversation. What does that look like?

What we also do in data strategy, and in every area of digital transformation, is storytelling. We started our journey with a use case approach. When we finish a use case, we write one pager of what the business problem was, how it has been solved, and its business impact, and include any visual representation. It is just one PowerPoint slide that depicts the whole story. We widely share and communicate that, and that generates interest. If you have a story and it can be applied in one business unit, why not others. That acts as a multiplier effect.

Another process we use is called cross-business initiative meetings where, every quarter, we share key use cases. Our top 100 leaders and our CEO and business presidents are all are part of it. We invite people who are using those analytics models to tell the story. When they are telling the real story, it is not coming from us; it is coming from them.

Our CEO also makes sure that in his global all-hands meeting, he weaves in a story about analytics and automation. He’s so good at translating technology into simple words, and his words are very powerful. When I introduced the training for our top 350 leaders in analytics, it was an online course with three or four modules, and he was the biggest advocate in every forum. He took the course, and, through his example, he said why it is important for the company.

It’s clear that you come at all of these things as one of a dozen executive officers of the company first and as a CIO second. Is that how you see it?

Yes, it is. As an executive officer of the company, my focus is on business opportunities and value that can be captured through technology. I see myself as being here to help our employees and business achieve the goals for their stakeholders. Our employee base should have a delightful experience with the technology, and our businesses should be getting a return on the dollar. That’s the subconscious mind that drives me.

For more from Khare on how to innovate successfully and drive business value, tune in to the Tech Whisperers podcast.