Designing for change: Digital transformation in the time of uncertainty

Jeanne Ross conducts academic research targeting the challenges of senior business and technology leaders at large global companies, particularly the 100 companies that sponsor MIT CISR (Center for Information Systems Research). She has facilitated discussions of business design (i.e. enterprise architecture) with executive committee members of major companies like Aetna, CEMEX, China Mobile, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and PepsiCo. Her current work examines how established companies are transforming for the digital economy. Jeanne has published in major practitioner and academic journals, including The Wall Street Journal, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Harvard Business Review. She is co-author of three award-winning books published by Harvard Business School Publishing: IT Savvy (2009), Enterprise Architecture as Strategy (2006); and IT Governance (2004). Her latest book, Designed for Digital, was released by MIT Press in 2019.

Before embarking on her academic career, Cynthia worked in private industry in several information systems development and consulting positions. She received her PhD from UCLA and taught for 20+ years. Now retired from UT Austin, she continues to do applied research, mostly in partnership with colleagues the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) at MIT's Sloan School. Currently she is studying how established companies are redesigning themselves to better exploit new digital technologies for continued success.

With over 20 years of experience innovating go-to-market and sales approaches and building and executing successful business models for B2B organizations, Jeff has deep experience in business planning and management, strategy development, and operational excellence, as well as a proven track record of achieving results in gaining market share and sustaining sales growth. At Pega, he is responsible for driving go-to-market strategy to meet growth goals and drive leadership in software for digital transformation. Prior his work at Pega, Jeff held senior strategy and operational roles at Bain & Company, VMware and EMC.

Over his 20 years at Royal Philips Global Program, Otto has overseen dozens of digital transformation initiatives. As leader of Philips Integrated Landscape Transformation Program, Otto has championed state-of-the art solutions to drive total process standardization, increased productivity, and cost savings, companywide. Philips Transformation Program Management upgrades have improved business performance by over 100 basis points annually, in collaboration with over 2500 design, build, deployment, and change management resources globally.