The Brief

The Calendar

February and March 2022.

Watch Gartner’s hour-long webinar Finance Technology Innovations for 2022 on February 9th delves into where finance leaders are focusing their technology efforts, from process automation to advanced data analytics, and offers best practices to help you deploy the right technologies.

Read In Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth with High Expectations, Urgency and Intensity, Frank Slootman, CEO of Snowflake (which saw the software industry’s biggest-ever IPO in 2020) shares his experience in taking three firms public in this guide to improving performance without making massive change.

Attend As forward-thinking business leaders look to address environmental and social concerns, like DE&I, hybrid event Sustainability LIVE (Feb 23-24) will deliver two days of compelling content from more than 60 of the world’s leading sustainability leaders. Expect keynote addresses, roundtables, Q&A sessions and 1-2-1 networking.

Listen to The Diary of a CEO with Steven Bartlett, ex-CEO of Social Chain and new Dragon on TV show Dragon’s Den, delivers weekly solo and guest sessions uncovering the untold truths of lives and careers with guests including founders of Starling Bank (Anne Boden) and Gymshark (Ben Francis).

Business Chief Book Club

Transformation in Times of Crisis

Co-authored by Nitin Rakesh, CEO of IT solutions firm Mphasis and internationally renowned academician Jerry Wind, Wharton Professor of Marketing, this practical tome addresses the opportunities to be had in a crisis. Easy to read and described by co-author Rakesh as a “handy roadmap to cultivating resilience through disruption”, this multi award-winning book delivers specific guidance, via eight principles, for entrepreneurs and businesses to create post-pandemic opportunities, from speeding up digital transformation and design for personalisation at scale to reinventing one’s talent strategy. The book is loaded with insightful quotes, citations of successful businesses, from Zoom to Toyota, and analysis with each principle written in a practical way to make implementation simple, and a list of questions to help readers assess how their organisation is aligned with the principle discussed.

“Success comes from choosing repeatedly, not choosing once. Many people subscribe to what I call the 'Myth of the Single Choice.' They think people are successful because they take one mighty risk. The opposite is true. A career is built over many, many choices"

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy

Author of business book Choose Possibility, in which Singh Cassidy recommends re-framing the way we look at our careers, so instead of striving for perfection, striving for progress.

500

The number of speakers expected at Women Tech Global Conference 2022 (June 7-9) Featuring a wide variety of live events hosted across various time zone (Americas, Europe, APAC), delivering keynotes, industry-specific summits, career growth expo, workshops, discussion groups, and 1:1 networking. Expect speakers from Google, Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, EY, IBM, SAP, Salesfoerce, Red Hat, Siemens and Deloitte..

SPOTLIGHT ON… Nonfungible tokens (NFTs)

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are set to infiltrate more areas of our lives, here’s how to stay up-to-date.

Read In The Comprehensive Guide: NFTs, Digital Artwork, Blockchain Technology, NYU Stern Professor Marc Beckman explores where NFTs will take business and branding in the 21st century.

Listen One of the first NFT podcasts, with 100+ episodes, The Nifty Show discusses recent NFT news and brings on creators to showcase new projects. Or, check out The Mint Condition, which delivers weekly in-depth interviews (40-plus) about specific NFT topics with key people.

Watch TEDTalk ‘How NFTs are building the internet of the future’ is a 10-minute breakdown from technologist Kayvon Tehranian on why NFTs are a technological breakthrough. While Consensys’ on-demand webinar ‘NFTs & The Metaverse: Ready for takeoff?’ provides an overview of the NFT market to help organisations reap the benefits.

Attend For in-person NFT business events, head to Las Vegas and TokenSmart’s 3-day NFT.land, set to deliver education on cutting-edge topics with industry thought leaders; or to Dubai and the World Blockchain Summit (Mar 23-24) to hear from leading global crypto, blockchain and NFT experts including bitcoin pioneer Nick Spanos.

TOP 3

C-Suite Podcasts

For CMOs, CFOs and CIOs, we highlight the top three podcasts to inform, instruct and inspire.

1 FOR THE CMO

CX Decoded A semi-monthly podcast designed to deliver insights from leaders driving the evolution of customer experience, with a focus on digital touch points, customer journeys, respectful data management and voice of the customer. Topics range from analysing the B2B marketing playbook to practical use cases of AI in marketing, guest CMOs, while guests have included Bank of America’s president of retail banking and CMO of the American Dental Association.

2 FOR THE CFO

CFO 4.0 Podcast In this weekly podcast, host Hannah Munro, MD of financial transformation consultancy itas, looks to the future of finance and the changing CFO role, covering topics like building a highperformance finance team and leading a successful financial digital transformation. Munro talks to finance insiders about how to transform processes, people and data, with guests including psychologists, consultants, economists and finance heads at The Economist, TTM Healthcare, Sage, among others. There are 60+ episodes.

3 FOR THE CIO

CIO Leadership Live Maryfran Johnson, executive director of CIO programs at IDG, hosts this twice-monthly podcast featuring an in-depth interview focused on leadership, innovation and business strategy, including with IT leaders from Ecrisson, Vanguard, UNICEF, Cargill, Harvard and TIAA. There are 70+ episodes.