Expect something extraordinary.

Wednesday, March 22, 2023

,

Thursday, March 23, 2023

7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

Check-in and Breakfast

8:45 AM - 9:30 AM

Welcome and Keynote with HFS CEO and Chief Analyst, Phil Fersht

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

Leadership Panel: The Third Trigger of Change—Can Today’s Enterprises Survive with Their Current Operating Models?

Moderator: 
Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Radhakrishnan Anantha, CEO & MD, Infosys BPM
John Keppel, Chief Sustainability Officer, Zurich UK Insurance Company Ltd
Carole Murphy, Chief Operating Officer, Ocorian
Rohan Narayana Murty, Founder and CTO, Soroco
Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services
Tiger Tyagarajan, Chief Executive Officer, Genpact
Leslie Willcocks, Professor, London School of Economics & Political Science

Session Description: 
Nothing dictates real secular change to enterprise operations more than financial pressures. We are rapidly arriving at a third major trigger that will lead to the evolution of many autonomous enterprises where leaders have no choice but to drag their operations out of the dark ages.

Trigger 1: 1995—The internet drives globalization. The advent of the internet at the turn of the millennium drove the first major wave of globalization of business and operations.

Trigger 2: 2008—The Great Recession brings about mass low-cost offshoring of IT. In 2008, the Great Recession drove a 15-year wave of tremendous offshoring growth based on using lower-cost labor to slash costs.

Trigger 3: 2023—Inflation drives organizations to supplement or replace human labor with autonomous technologies. In 2023, wage inflation, recession, and people refusing to return to the office will drive a considerable wave of autonomous enterprises based on using technology to perform the tasks of humans to stay afloat.

These critical topics are up for debate:

• Which enterprise leaders will succeed and which will fail as we tackle this global assault on everything we once knew as stable?
• Are enterprises adapting to this new recessionary world post-pandemic? Or are most clinging to the rules of the past? What will our world be like when we emerge from these dark times?
• As we stare recession in the face and contemplate our very survival, how does this impact investments in emerging tech and innovation? What gets back-burnered, and what moves to the forefront?
• And what happens to sustainability in all this mayhem? Can enterprises deliver where governments and consumers have failed? What do we need to do?
• Can today’s service providers convince enterprises to work with them differently? Can we get past the old-world “effort” partnerships to ones of performance and purpose?
• How do we truly become autonomous and remove humans from loops they no longer need to be in? Can we really adapt to a truly autonomous environment and embrace change? Or is it time to blow up our operations and take a different approach?

10:30 AM – 10:55 AM

Networking Break

10:55 AM – 11:35 AM

Enterprise Leadership Session: The Horizons of Finance Innovation

Moderator: 
Saurabh Gupta, President, Research and Advisory Services, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Joe Anichebe, Managing Director, Emizar Holdings
Tim Hammonds, GBS Finance Director, Stellantis
Carolina Romero, CFO, Global Private Banking & Wealth, HSBC
Valentina Smirnova, Head of Finance Operations, AXA Partners
Michael van der Steen, VP Plan to Invoice & Strategy, Adidas

Session Description: 
Nearly 90% of finance executives agree that driving growth for the enterprise is the raison d’être for the modern finance function beyond cost reduction and compliance. Yet, our research reveals that only 12% of finance organizations have realized their ambitions around cost, control, business outcomes, and influence.

This session unpacks what finance superheroes are doing differently and what it takes to get there:

• Defeat silos by taking a holistic view of finance transformation.
• Slay legacy dragons by embracing new technologies.
• Invest in people and talent management.
• Use data as a superpower.

11:35 AM – 12:00 PM

C-Suite Fireside Chat: 
2023 is the year of the Digital Dichotomy: Balancing the macroeconomic “Slowdown” with the “Big Hurry” to innovate

Kalyan Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, HCL Technologies & Chief Product Officer, HCL Software
Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research

12:00 PM – 12:35 PM

HFS Analysts Breakout Sessions
 

Session 1 | BFSI: Evolving Ecosystems and the Quest for New Value

Led By: 
Elena Christopher, Chief Research Officer, HFS Research

Session Description: 
As BFSI firms strive to balance revenue growth with profitability in a recessionary and inflationary economy, all eyes are on ecosystem partners to drive new forms of value. This interactive session will examine ecosystem evolution in BFSI with a drill-down emphasis on composability, fintechs, and the exhausting war for talent.

We’ll examine the following issues:

• How can partner ecosystems enable composability?
• What is the evolving role of fintechs, from disruptor to enabler?
• What strategies work for talent?
   

Session 2 | Cloud Native Transformations: Could Half of Them Really Fail?

Led By: 
Tom Reuner, Executive Research Leader, HFS Research

Session Description: 
There is a fundamental disconnect in how the industry discusses organizations moving toward the cloud. In this session, our panel will look at how becoming cloud native is not about capabilities but about aligning business and technology objectives. What can we learn from organizations on their journey to becoming cloud native?

We’ll consider the following issues:

• What can we learn from organizations that have successfully transformed their operating model—or even their business model—through the cloud?
• How do we measure progress on the journey to becoming cloud native?
• How do you successfully drive cultural change?
   

Session 3 | Is Generative AI a Revolution in the Works?

Led By: 
Ralph Aboujaoude Diaz, Practice Leader, HFS Research

Session Description: 
Generative AI powered by large language models (LLMs) is poised to disrupt almost every industry. As we move beyond the traditional “analytical AI,” which focuses on analyzing data and finding patterns in it, generative AI enables the generation of something new rather than analysis of something that already exists, potentially driving a new wave of applications supporting a wide range of use cases.

Are generative AI solutions like ChatGPT ready for prime time? Or is it all just hype?

We’ll examine the following topics:

• Generative AI is not new. Why is it so hot now?
• Is ChatGPT a fun widget or a game-changing “iPhone moment for AI”?
• How can we gain real value from ChatGPT?
• Can generative AI profoundly impact how enterprises do things?
• Is generative AI trustworthy enough for enterprise use cases?

12:35 PM – 1:20 PM

Lunch and Networking Break

1:20 PM – 1:55 PM

Disruptive Innovation: The Rocky Road to Web 3

Guest Speaker: 
Mary Lacity, David D. Glass Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Systems, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas

Session Description: 
Web 3 is not a single technology or event. It’s a convergence of a lot of people who are pretty fed up with the Internet’s surveillance capitalism, big tech’s dominance, and government interference. Cypherpunks and Libertarians created the Web 3 building blocks, so I ask, “Do you enterprise folks really share the aims of Web 3?”

Web 3 will disrupt business models for many of you in this room, and it has huge implications for the metaverse.

Let’s dive in.

1:55 PM – 2:35 PM

Horizon 1 Showcase: The Autonomous Enterprise—Everyone’s Trying to Get There; Can We?

Moderator: 
Ralph Aboujaoude Diaz, Practice Leader, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Divy Anand, Chief Digital & Technology Architect, Haleon
Shelley Davies, Global Process Excellence and Automation Lead, Anglo American
Mohammad Ali Malik, GBS and Operations Excellence Leader, ex-Asahi, ex-Mondelez
Mark Stubbs, Head of Technology and Solutions Office, EMEA, Hitachi Vantara

Session Description: 
There are no excuses left for enterprise leaders to figure out how to run their organizations as autonomously as possible. The Autonomous Enterprise is ultimately about machines making decisions where we previously had humans and removing humans from loops that don’t need humans anymore.

Expect a hype-free and cutting-edge discussion that will answer these questions:

• Are we rapidly arriving at a third major trigger that will lead to the evolution of many autonomous enterprises, where leaders have no choice but to drag their operations out of the dark ages?
• Will current inflation-driven pressures likely culminate in a huge wave of job reductions, sparking the demand for autonomous technologies to fill the void?
• What is actually needed to get there?
• What role will business and IT service providers play?
   

2:35 PM – 3:15 PM

Employee Experience Imperative: Leveraging Talent in a Hybrid World

Moderator: 
Saurabh Gupta, President, Research and Advisory Services, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research
Srikanth Iyengar, CEO - Workforce Development, upGrad
Roger Lvin, President and Board Member, Hitachi Vantara
Irene Sandler, VP Global Marketing Strategy & Portfolio Marketing, Cognizant
Andrew Warner, Chief Marketing Officer, Brand Pharmacists
Leslie Willcocks, Professor, London School of Economics & Political Science

Session Description: 
The Great Resignation may be in the rear-view mirror, but in an economic downturn, EX has never been more critical to an enterprise’s success. Leveraging talent through empowerment, purpose, and greater alignment in a hybrid world can make the difference between growth, stagnation, and failure in a world on fire.

We’ll hear from leaders on the front line of driving improved EX speak on these topics:

• How does purpose in the workplace affect employee motivation?
• How important is developing culture in remote and hybrid spaces, and how do you do it?
• How can leadership recognize and develop skills across the enterprise?
• What is the significance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a hybrid world?

3:15 PM – 3:35 PM

Networking Break

3:35 PM – 4:15 PM

Horizon 2 Showcase: The Context and Plans We Need for Sustainability

Moderator: 
Josh Matthews, Chief Sustainability Officer and Practice Leader, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Linden Edgell, Global Sustainability Director, ERM
Manoj Mathew, Global Head – Sustainability Advisory & Services, Cognizant
Robert Olrog, Consultant, Carbon Limiting Technologies
Ganesh Ram, Partner - Technology, Data and Analytics, PwC
Wolfgang Steiner, Sustainability Business Lead, Europe, Wipro Technologies
Marta Trofimova, Sustainability Manager, Kernel

Session Description: 
We’ll break down the global sustainability context across organizations and ecosystems—outlining the aligned and collaborative approach organizations must take. We will help bring clarity to individuals, teams, and whole businesses, about their roles and opportunities. Our goal is to be part of the critical mass that moves first and changes the systems that have created and continue to worsen an already terrifying sustainability emergency.

Our panel will consider these questions:

• Where does your role, team, and organization fit under the global context of 17 UN Goals and all ESG (environmental, social, and governance) factors?
• How can you clarify your internal, customer-facing, and systems-changing sustainability opportunities?
• How can you address the myriad data challenges before that data reaches the ESG platform and reporting stages?

4:15 PM – 4:40 PM

CEO Fireside Chat:
Remotivating Our People to Succeed in Challenging Times

Ravi Kumar S, CEO, Cognizant
Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research
 

4:40 PM – 5:20 PM

Horizon 3 Showcase: Metaverse BS Buster

Moderators: 
Phil Fersht, CEO and Chief Analyst, HFS Research
Saurabh Gupta, President, Research and Advisory Services, HFS Research

Panelists: 
Francesco Federico, Executive Director of Global Marketing Technology, JLL
Vivienne Hsu, Co-Founder, CEO and Partner, Anabasis Partners
Mary Lacity, David D. Glass Chair and Distinguished Professor of Information Systems, Sam M. Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas
Manish Upadhyay, Global Business Head - Sports Tech Business, Tech Mahindra​

Session Description: 
This bubble-bursting discussion about the metaverse will be a short, sharp slap with the (virtual) reality stick. Our BS busters will tear into these key questions and more about the metaverse:

• Can the metaverse pay its way?
• What could the return to the office mean for all those employee-experience use cases?
• Will we really see one billion customers zipping around metaverse stores by the end of the year?
• Is data visualization the real killer app?

5:20 PM – 5:30 PM

Wrap-up and Vote of Thanks

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Networking Reception with pass hors d's, sips, Phil's jammin' playlist, and YOU.