Bremmer has authored several books, including the recently published “Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism.” His company, Eurasia Group, helps business and government leaders anticipate risk and shape strategies. You may also be familiar with Bremmer from his frequent appearances on news and talk shows or his foreign affairs column at Time Magazine.

Following the Wall Street Journal CFO Network annual meeting, Bremmer was our guest speaker at an intimate dinner Workday hosted for a group of CFOs. Here’s an edited version of a conversation I had with him just before dinner.

Your organization, Eurasia Group, specializes in helping leaders understand risk. What major risks do you think should be on CFOs’ radars?

By far the biggest risk for any CFO is the rise of China, which will be the largest economy within 10 years. It is already the most important and powerful economic system from a governmental perspective, because unlike the U.S., its economics are driven by the government. And the Chinese government is writing big checks, developing long-term strategies, building an international architecture, and promoting its own standards.

All the CFOs we’re talking to right now are used to living in a world that is basically a global free market, promoted by the U.S. and our allies. Now that system is under strain for many reasons, but the most important is the fact that the Chinese do not support a free market. They’re state capitalists and authoritarians, and they’re increasingly saying we want a global system that is aligned with us.

This means we now live in a hybrid global economy, where sectors are more strategic and where you have to work with governments if you want to have access to some of those marketplaces.

Another area of significant risk right now is the breakdown of the JCPOA, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, and the likelihood of a significant spike on oil prices as a consequence.

And cyber is a big risk—specifically cyber emanating from Russia and its willingness to undermine economies around the world. We saw that with Ukraine—the Russians took almost one percent off Ukraine’s GDP with the NotPetya attacks. They are clearly inside critical infrastructure across the United States and Europe, and the U.S. continues to expand sanctions against the Russians to no effect.

“C-level executives are the people that have the ability to make a difference. We can’t just wait around for our political leaders to do it.”

Beyond that, I would say the biggest risk out there is just the general weakness of Western liberal democracies, the rise of populism and protectionism as a consequence, and the anti-establishment sensibilities that manifest themselves not just in the U.S., but also in Brexit in the UK and in the government that you now see in Italy—which is the most anti-establishment since World War II. It goes on and on, and makes it a hell of a lot harder to govern in ways that promote the interests of multinational corporations.

Let’s turn that question around. What do you think CFOs should be most optimistic about?

One is growth of wealth driven by technology and innovation. Forty years ago people thought we couldn’t do anything about climate change, and today solar power is cheaper than coal during the daytime. It doesn’t mean climate change is not a big problem, but the ability to suddenly create a new energy source on the back of human ingenuity is pretty extraordinary. And think about biogenetics and nanotechnology—innovations that allow us to be so much more efficient in the way we drive growth and wealth. Those are things to be very optimistic about indeed.

I’m also very optimistic that women are on their way to getting real equitable outcomes in senior positions in multinational corporations. That means capitalism will be less dehumanized. Men running corporations are much more willing to devote their entire lives to the pursuit of profit at the expense of all else. Women generally won’t do that, and organizations with mixed leadership, I think, are going to be much more sustainable. As a consequence, that makes the market more stable.

The recent G7 Summit brought together leaders from seven allied countries. How do you think it went?

It was the worst geopolitical summit ever. The American allies are not happy with President Trump. He left the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Iran deal, and the Paris climate accord. He decided to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He left UNESCO. Every single one of those decisions was opposed by every single U.S. ally at the G7. That’s quite something.

I talk to the American allies; in some cases, the heads of state themselves. It’s the worst relationship they have had with an American president in modern memory, and Trump knows that, and he doesn’t care.

But what’s interesting is that’s why he got elected. His base thinks that the U.S. is doing too much for American allies, and in the case of NATO and defense spending, they’re probably right. In the case of trade, they’re probably wrong.

Just days after G7, President Trump met with Korean Leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore. How do you think that went?

I think Trump deserves a lot of credit for what happened with the North Koreans. I think that we’ve had a lot of presidents over the last 20, 30 years that have done nothing because they were risk averse.

Well, the North Korea situation has gotten worse. They’ve gotten more nukes, better missiles, and more cyber capabilities, and they use them. Trump decided, “You know what? I’m going to make history,” and it was risky, but he did it. And not only did he threaten the North Koreans directly with military force, but he also told the Chinese, “I’m going to hurt you economically unless you help me on North Korea.” I think the combination of those two things got Kim Jong-un to the table.

Now, that does not mean the Americans are going to declare peace with the North Koreans. It doesn’t mean North Korea is going to denuclearize. It doesn’t even mean that the United States is going to end up the winner here; it might be that the Chinese are able to outmaneuver Trump in North Korea. But six months ago a lot of people thought we were going to have military conflict on the Korean peninsula. Today, nobody does. That’s an overwhelmingly positive development, and I think Trump deserves credit for that.

In your latest book, you write that in “2018 it’s still too soon to know whether the tech revolution will kill more jobs than it creates.” How can companies move forward with artificial intelligence and automation in a socially responsible way?

They have to be honest with themselves about the potential downsides of their business models. They need to recognize that the shareholder is not the exclusive constituent they need to satisfy. They have to care about their workers long term, and care about the people, communities, and environments where they are making all their money. If they don’t do that, people are going to get angry, and at some point, the policy environment is just going to turn against them.

CEOs need to think of themselves much more as stewards—especially because governments are falling down on the job. That means there’s going to be more responsibility and accountability on the people that are doing so well in these marketplaces.

Right now, we’re in the best U.S. economy we’ve had since before the financial crisis, and maybe since the Clinton days. And yet the country feels bad. It’s really divided. If that’s the case now, then C-level executives need to ask themselves: What’s it going to feel like when we have a recession, when interest rates go up, when there aren’t tax giveaways, when suddenly belts get tightened and you start firing people? Executives need to plan for that now.

Let’s end on this: What’s the single most important piece of advice you would give to a C-level executive in the coming year?

I’d advise them to find good answers to the following questions: What are you going to do to make a long-term perspective work in your organization? How are you going to get your people, customers, and the communities you’re doing business in aligned with something that works long-term—more than three months or one year out? Given all the uncertainty and volatility, all the danger and divisions, what are you going to do?

Because at the end of the day, C-level executives are the people that have the ability to make a difference. We can’t just wait around for our political leaders to do it. Technology is moving too fast, and our institutions are too big and slow. It’s the C-suite executives that are going to have to take up this challenge, and I hope they will.

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Can we start by talking about the moment Designit leaders realised they needed to rethink the way they managed finance and HR processes?

Firstly, I think it’s important to stress that as a company we’re known for our strong design culture. It’s what we do. This means that, by nature, if our employees see a problem either inside the company or with a client, they try to solve it. Their flair for problem-solving meant they adopted different systems to get the job done, some of which did not have the best functionality. At one point, there were five parallel systems that solved the same task in different places. Although it solved problems locally, it posed challenges at our headquarters. As you can imagine, such an approach makes it difficult and time-consuming to get an accurate view of the two key areas of any business—people and money.

How complex was it to get an accurate view of the business with a multiple-system approach?

It’s difficult because when you are combining data from different sources, such as spreadsheets, there is always a margin for error. Did somebody manually key in the wrong information? Is there an error in the formula? It doesn’t inspire complete confidence that the data you have is 100 percent accurate. Then there is the time involved pulling that data into a format that senior managers can use to make fast decisions. For Designit, we want to be fast, agile, and make decisions quickly, which just wasn’t possible in the old world.

How important were design and user experience when you were looking at transforming your business systems?

It was hugely important. If you are spending the time and resources to put your finance and HR data into one place, you want your employees to not only use it but also want to use it. That means the experience has to be intuitive, and it has to make those painful HR tasks like expense entry very easy. It also has to work on mobile, because we’re entering an era where the smartphone will be the place every employee engages with this kind of data. That attention to user-friendliness was one of the main things that drew us to Workday.

“We now have a tool that can deliver real-time business insight and in-depth analysis almost immediately, directly to a leader’s tablet.”

How will access to financial and HR data help create more engaged employees?

A business like ours depends on our ability to motivate, develop, and treat our employees as individuals. What we love about Workday is that it gives us that single overview of “hard” financial numbers and the “soft” figures from HR data, which allows us to analyse things like which teams are more productive working together—so we can maybe understand and try to recreate those conditions across the company—and how long new employees take to become profitable, which helps us better understand employee onboarding and development.

After 26 years in the design industry, we have learned that professional development is absolutely crucial in retaining the right people. With Workday, we can measure and understand the effects of our actions, and we can see the impact of our training and development. This means we can understand which employees are engaging with development content and those who are not engaged in the process so that we can adjust to be more effective.

What are some of the other benefits you have seen from moving finance and HR to Workday?

I think it’s important to mention how Workday is helping us meet the data requirements from our owner, Wipro Ltd. We’re now able to provide accurate, real-time insights from our 16 offices, and producing these reports is unbelievably easy with Workday.

At an analytical or tactical level, we now have a tool that can deliver real-time business insight and a myriad of in-depth analysis almost immediately, directly to a leader’s tablet. If we look at what Workday helps us achieve more strategically, then it is the ability to maintain our strong design culture by hiring and retaining the right people and ensuring we develop our employees effectively.

The post Moving Finance and HR Into the Cloud at Designit appeared first on Workday Blog.

Several years ago, the firm embarked on a growth initiative called Vision 2020 to further invest in its people and their capabilities. In this interview, Sarah St. Clair, vice president of people services at Booz Allen Hamilton, discusses the firm’s people-focused culture and how Workday Human Capital Management and Workday Recruiting help support it.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as an HR leader?

Every company struggles with the same thing—attracting, developing, and retaining their employees. This challenge is even more profound in the professional services industry, where we’re looking for talent with unique skills and hard-to-find security clearances. Firms need to have the right talent to support their clients, making the qualifications and subject matter expertise that each employee brings to the table vital.

When we hire new employees at Booz Allen, we look for diverse skill sets that can deliver on mission-specific client work. We have a global workforce of professionals with education levels varying from four-year degrees to master’s and doctoral degrees, and specializations ranging from biology, epidemiology, and nursing to international development, engineering, and cybersecurity. However, finding the right candidates is just the beginning. To retain great talent, we have to understand our employees’ goals and allow them to chart their own journeys.

“We sell services and solutions, not products, so we’ve always understood that our people are what sets us apart.”

At the end of the day, people want to feel appreciated and supported, so companies need to double down on that. Firms need to create an environment where employees can come into the firm, develop their skills, and grow their careers.

At Booz Allen Hamilton, your people are your business. How does that impact your approach to talent management?

We sell services and solutions, not products, so we’ve always understood that our people are what sets us apart and we’re making substantial people investments that will drive sustainable growth into the future. This people-focused investment gives us an opportunity to reinforce our leadership philosophy, build our talent base, and grow our employee’s skills. It’s important for our workforce—from new hires to seasoned employees—to deliver on client expectations. When you have good employees, you need to mold them, grow them, and keep them.

In terms of attracting talent, we’re fortunate to have a great reputation in the market, and we use a variety of methods to source candidates including employee referrals and our alumni network. I think that says a lot about our culture and the importance of preserving it. We also have significant employee onboarding programs that train our new hires throughout their first year to help them better understand our environment and what we expect from them.

After that, our employees’ career paths vary based on their interests and aspirations. If they want to continue their path forward in a technical discipline, we help them develop their expertise, providing internal or external training opportunities. Or if they want to forge a different path, then we support them in their mobility. Employees build their own future with the help of our “experience maps” and support systems, which enable them to plan and get where they want to go.

What limitations did Booz Allen experience with its previous systems?

When we embarked on our growth initiative, we quickly realized we didn’t have the right technology to enable our business. We hire thousands of people every year and need to understand their skillsets to be able to deploy them quickly to deliver to our clients. However, we didn’t have the visibility we needed to do this. We needed a system that could help us understand our talent landscape to ensure we’re continuing to meet ever-changing client needs.

Additionally, we have a global workforce and the majority of them work at client sites. They rarely set foot in a Booz Allen office, so we need to reach them wherever they are working. Some of our employees work in secure environments on our clients’ networks, so a system with mobile capabilities was critical to make sure they can still access the Booz Allen information they need.

How has Workday helped shape the employee experience at Booz Allen?

When we were evaluating our systems and technology, delivering on the employee experience was our focus. We asked ourselves, “How can we simplify what we are trying to achieve for our talent and employees at all levels—all the way up to the CEO?”

One of the reasons we ultimately selected Workday was because of our shared customer-centric, employee-focused philosophy. We wanted an industry partner that was innovating on a regular basis, and Workday has been a strategic enabler for us. We have more visibility into our talent landscape—where we have gaps now and what we’ll need in the future—and our workforce can easily access their information from anywhere and on any device.

“As leaders, we need to understand how we can not only make the most of new technology but enable our talent to adopt it as well.”

After we went live on Workday and our talent information was available in one system, we launched the “Find Worker” capability and asked our employees to update their profiles with their skills. Our managers are now able to perform internal talent searches using specific criteria and can easily facilitate moves or temporary assignments. This has also opened new opportunities for our employees to further develop their careers. We didn’t have this capability before, and we’re really excited about it.

Workday has also helped us improve employee engagement. Because most of our employees work at a client site, they may affiliate more with the client than they do Booz Allen. We also learned that employees who reported to managers with a lot of direct reports were less connected and less engaged than we’d like. In response, we launched a new job leader program to drive greater interaction between employees and their managers by limiting the number of direct reports and setting expectations around regular feedback. This approach allows our managers to be more hands-on in helping their team develop their talent, build their skills, and map out their development journey. It also helps us ensure that our leaders are connecting with their staff frequently and having regular, meaningful conversations.

What advice would you share with other HR leaders who are rethinking their talent management strategy

Change doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a constant, evolutionary endeavor. Technology is always changing and, as leaders, we need to understand how we can not only make the most of new technology but enable our talent to adopt it as well. This can be difficult when your workforce is made up of people spanning different generations and backgrounds, with different interests and skill sets. However, by changing their perspective of technology from an obstacle to an enabler, you can better engage them and help increase adoption.

The post How Booz Allen Hamilton is Turning its 2020 Vision into Reality appeared first on Workday Blog.

These and other topics were covered during the fascinating, two-day event, featuring panelists from both the public and private sectors. Here are eight takeaways from the meeting, which was sponsored by Workday.

Not everyone agrees on the benefits of economic stimulus efforts such as corporate tax cuts. Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council on Economic Advisers, is bullish on a continuing strong economy: “We don’t see any downturn on the horizon,” he said, and expects “three percent growth sustained out past the next couple of years.” This was in response to a question by a Wall Street Journal editor about a recent prediction by former Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke that economic stimulus efforts would soon negatively impact the economy.

Revenue recognition isn’t easy. In an electronic poll, the audience of CFOs were asked which of four accounting standards is the most difficult to implement. Revenue recognition took the lead with 46 percent of the vote, barely beating out lease accounting at 43 percent. The other two, credit losses and hedging, apparently don’t cause as much pain.

CFOs need to be involved in preventing and acting upon sexual harassment in the workplace. That includes providing HR professionals with a direct line to report allegations to executive leadership while ensuring they have legal protection if they do so. “You want your HR professionals to tell you the truth—don’t sugarcoat,” said Debra Katz, a partner at Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP. She added that workforce training should “move away from risk reduction to instilling the values of a good culture.”

Blockchain technology offers great promise, but more needs to be done. Blockchain technology will address one of the biggest problems of finance—too much duplication. “If you can have a shared ledger, everyone sees it in real time,” said Michael Casey, co-author of “The Truth Machine: The Blockchain and the Future of Everything.” He said that to develop a broader infrastructure for blockchain, “the CFO will have to become more collaborative with external CFOs; this is a ‘we,’ not an ‘I’ question.” According to an audience poll, 35 percent of respondents said their companies are already using blockchain technology. Caitlin Long, former chairman and president of Symbiont, said the percentage is likely higher in the finance, logistics, and healthcare industries.

Not all CFOs agree with the current administration’s tough stance on trade. In an audience poll, 58 percent said U.S. trade policy is headed in the wrong direction, while 42 percent said it is not. Peter Navarro, director of the National Trade Council at the White House, made one thing clear: The Trump Administration will stay tough on trade. He referred to “unfair” trade practices by China, Europe, Mexico, and Canada, and said tariffs and investment restrictions against China scheduled for later this month are intended to slow down a growing trend of the Chinese acquiring American companies that are developing “emerging industries of the future” such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics. Carla Hills, chair and CEO at Hills & Company International Consultants and lead architect of the original NAFTA agreement, countered that some CFOs will be “adversely affected” by the tough stance. Since NAFTA, “we’re richer and more productive because we opened our markets,” she said.

CFOs are divided on whether private capital is better than public capital. While private capital markets have leapfrogged public markets to become the most popular way for companies to raise cash in the U.S., just 36 percent of poll respondents said that was a good thing, while 33 percent said it was bad and 30 percent were neutral. Yet if companies do choose to grow through private rather than public capital, they should follow many of the same precautions of public companies. “You must have more rigorous communications and investor relations policies,” said Anna Pinedo, partner and co-head, global capital markets group, Mayer Brown LLP. “Even if an IPO is a long way off, you need to think about how information is managed.”

The chief security officer role is increasingly critical. Among audience members polled, 65 percent said security chiefs are involved in the key decision-making processes at their companies. Phyllis Schneck, managing director and global leader, cyber solutions, Promontory Financial Group, said more needs to be done. “We really need to make this role much more central,” she said. “We’re seeing that person be an interface to the board, advise with IT or the CIO, and take much more of an active role in what a company is about and what it does,” she said, adding “that’s a hard skillset to find.”

Only time will tell if the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Singapore will be fruitful. “For me, the real issue was not about the handshake,” said Jake Sullivan, senior fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Kim Jong-un “very consciously and explicitly said this is just a repeat of what he said to [South Korea] President Moon a few weeks ago, which is we will work toward denuclearization.” The level of “mistrust and cynicism” between the U.S. and North Korea remains high, he said. “It doesn’t mean we won’t eventually get there, but that didn’t come out in the summit.”

For more on the event, see The Wall Street Journal’s coverage.

The post 8 Takeaways from the Wall Street Journal CFO Network Annual Meeting appeared first on Workday Blog.

Nearly 40 years ago, TaylorMade saw an opportunity to revolutionize the game. It created the first metalwood—a 12-degree stainless steel driver—and has brought to market many game-changing products since then. However, its innovations aren’t limited to the golf course.

After its divestiture from Adidas in 2017, TaylorMade saw an opportunity to reevaluate its internal systems and selected Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) to support its employees and leaders. In this interview, Laura Garrett, senior vice president of global HR at TaylorMade, reveals how the company takes an innovative approach to everything it creates—from great products to employee experiences.

What sorts of challenges and opportunities does TaylorMade face in the sporting goods industry?

As a recognizable consumer brand known for its innovative products and professional athletes like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods, TaylorMade is fortunate that we tend to attract a good pool of talent, even beyond the avid golfer population. That said, we still face the same challenges that many other employers face. We’re headquartered in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego, where regional unemployment is extremely low. Of course, we pull talent from outside the region as well, but that can often require a deeper conversation with candidates about how the benefits that come with living in our neck of the woods can accompany a cost-of-living tradeoff.

To tackle this reality, we work with other local employers and community leaders in our city’s Regional Economic Development Corporation to collectively address talent attraction and retention in the region. That work covers everything from sharing the story of what our region has to offer beyond the “72 and sunny” message, to discussing tougher economic and policy issues like housing affordability.

TaylorMade is built on innovation, creating the first metalwood that has now become a standard for many. How does innovation impact the company’s culture?

We like to say that the metalwood is our birthright—the development of that stainless steel driver laid the foundation for our company. More than anything, however, it created an expectation that we would continue to bring breakthrough technology to golfers year after year, enabling better performance for our Tour athletes and amateur golfers around the world.

It probably comes as no surprise that innovation is one of our core values, along with passion, authenticity, and competitiveness—all qualities that were key to Gary Adams’ success 39 years ago when he founded the company. Innovation is certainly critical for our research and product teams, but it also shows up across the entire business in the way we build our products, service our customers, and support our people.

We look for talented candidates that exhibit creativity and curiosity, then build on that potential using a leadership development curriculum we’ve designed to support employee growth and engagement. We also pride ourselves on creating fun employee experiences that showcase how innovative, passionate, authentic, and competitive our employees are. One year, for example, we held a departmental competition during Masters Week to build a “Masters Mini Course,” where each department built a mini-golf hole based on Augusta National (the course where The Masters is played). The results were outstanding, and it became immediately obvious that everyone was an artist, an engineer, a builder and, perhaps most apparent, a competitor.

What prompted TaylorMade to “tee off” a new HR system?

After the divestiture from Adidas in 2017, we embraced the opportunity to move to a single, cloud-based HCM platform. We had been on a collection of disparate HR systems that were lightly integrated at best and heavily dependent on slow and costly third-party support. We couldn’t comfortably rely on our global reporting or quickly react to required legislative changes, let alone internal process enhancements.

“During the evaluation, we were insistent that our systems and processes needed to support our company culture.”

With a global workforce of 1,200 employees across the U.S., Europe, Korea, Japan, and Canada, we wanted more than just a back-end HR tool. We were looking for a single source of truth and a system that could be employee-facing, and we found that in Workday.

What benefits has Workday provided, and what can you do that wasn’t possible with your previous systems?

We now have the benefit of a cohesive platform with smooth workflow processes and global visibility. During the evaluation of different vendors, we were insistent that our systems and processes needed to support our company culture, so a standard out-of-the-box solution wouldn’t cut it. Flexibility around talent development was especially important to us because we didn’t want to be bound by someone else’s terminology or processes when it came to facilitating performance conversations. Workday gave us everything we had hoped for—the ability to configure workflows and customize help text so that the employee experience could be uniquely TaylorMade.

With our previous systems, there was no way to effectively expose data directly to employees and managers. The HR team always had to be the messenger, which took away valuable time. Even if we could have provided better direct access to data, the clunky user interface would have been a significant distraction or frustration for employees, given that they’ve come to expect sophisticated and intuitive software in their daily lives.

With Workday, employees and managers now have a self-service tool and they’re able to focus more on strategy than tasks. Even the organization chart feature is a huge improvement over what we used to have. The feedback from employees on the Workday look-and-feel and usability has been extremely positive.

How does Workday help support the company’s goals?

Even though the divestiture happened in 2017, we’re still heavily intertwined with Adidas in Greater China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific region, so a major operational goal for this year is to set up new standalone TaylorMade entities in those markets.

Having the Workday platform in place will help us fold in those markets more smoothly and ensure that we have visibility into employee processes and data. Better yet, it should help the employees in those regions feel more tied in to our other global offices, building connectedness and reinforcing company culture.

What advice do you have for other HR leaders evaluating or adopting a new system?

Talk to HR colleagues at other companies about their experience with other HCM systems—both the implementation process and the ongoing experience. We did this prior to selecting Workday because we wanted to ensure that we weren’t influenced solely by what we saw through the selling process.

And here’s a pro tip: Use security badge photos as the default profile pics. It serves as a great motivator for employees to login, explore the system, and figure out how to upload a more flattering photo!

What are you most looking forward to at the U.S. Open?

Seeing our TaylorMade athletes at the top of the leaderboard, of course!

The post Innovation at TaylorMade: From the Golf Course to the Cloud appeared first on Workday Blog.

At Workday, I have the pleasure of working with and learning from customers in the professional services industry who are on the front lines of these challenges. While growth strategies vary from firm to firm, successful firms have been able to scale by creating sustainable business practices and processes that revolve around consistent, reliable data.

Standardize Performance KPIs

To effectively scale, services leaders must track the same performance metrics across the organization to determine how to best optimize their operations. Without a standard set of metrics, a firm can’t get a good handle on its health, which requires understanding the impact of each service line and how resources are being utilized to improve employee productivity.

For example, in order to accurately measure project profitability, a firm must charge all costs in a consistent and repeatable manner, and overhead must be allocated in the same way so that each project is charged the correct rates. Once these metrics are standardized, leadership will be able to see the true margin of their resources and projects.

Measuring the same KPIs also allows services leaders to distinguish the performance of different markets, regions, and business lines, even if they operate independently of each other. With consistent metrics, a firm can roll-up the data into an aggregate view to understand its overall performance as well as drill down to understand challenges and opportunities in specific locations or markets.

Integrate Financial, Workforce, and Client Data

In the professional services business, it’s all about assigning the right talent to each client project and capturing the profitability they’re driving. Optimizing this process requires a data-driven model that allows separate business functions such as finance, HR, and client services to work towards the same goals of driving profitability.

When you integrate financial, workforce, and client data, you can quickly shift your strategy to meet changing business needs.

As Steve Bandrowczak, chief operating officer and chief information officer at Alight Solutions, recently shared with us, “HR and finance systems working together helps us make sure that we get the right people, track their time and capabilities, integrate that into the projects and services that we’re providing for our customers, and ultimately capture the right time and profitability.” Put another way, you’ve got to be able to see the whole picture, but zoom in on the parts that matter on any given day.

When you integrate financial, workforce, and client data, you can quickly shift your strategy to meet changing business needs. For instance, if management determines that the firm isn’t on track to meet its revenue goals for the quarter, they can dive into the utilization data to see whether there were any unfilled positions or projects that haven’t been billed and adjust as needed.

A firm can also understand how it’s utilizing its workforce and how to improve recruiting, onboarding, and retention, which is critical when you consider that a firm’s talent has a direct impact on client satisfaction, project margins, and revenue. Rather than assigning employees to clients based on availability, firms should be able to match the skills of its workforce to immediate and future demands—some of which they may not have the right talent for yet.

Operate on a Unified System

Professional services firms often focus more on improving client satisfaction than optimizing their internal processes. While delivering on client expectations is important, a neglected back office with disparate systems limits the type of data a firm can analyze to increase efficiency and improve performance—both of which are fundamental to scaling the business.

As a firm grows and globalizes, the amount of siloed information can increase exponentially. Without a unified system, employees and managers alike are left piecing together data scattered across multiple systems. Aside from having to manually pull, fact check, replicate, and report on different data sets, they’re often challenged with the inability to glean insights into how the business is doing as a whole.

Firms aren’t just facing pressure from their competitors. Their own practices and technologies may be wreaking havoc on the organization.

To succeed, the entire picture needs to be in one place. Joseph Fanutti, chief financial officer at Bill Gosling Outsourcing, explained that before Workday, “Numbers were always challenged, no one could agree on metrics, and people couldn’t agree on what actions to take going forward.” Using a professional services automation (PSA) system, firms can access information across their service delivery, resources, and client needs so they can assign the right talent to the right projects.

In the “Now Tech: Professional Services Automation Tools” report, Forrester advises that a PSA tool “ must become the communication and management hub that provides firms with transparency into resource availability and performance while supporting regulatory reporting requirements.” As Bobby Riggs, chief financial officer at Collaborative Solutions, shared, “Workday PSA helps us eliminate manual processes, staff projects as soon as they’re proposed, and increase visibility into project financials and resource demand.”

Furthermore, a cloud-based system can make it easier for employees to leverage data across the organization—accessible on any device. In the same report, Forrester notes that “firms require their people to be available to respond to project issues regardless of their current location. The right tool will also allow for autonomy across different lines of businesses and locations. With a cloud-based platform, data can be quickly pulled and analyzed to make business decisions and shift in real-time.”

In today’s competitive landscape, firms aren’t just facing pressure from their competitors. Their own practices and technologies may be wreaking havoc on the organization, and a reevaluation may be in order. By standardizing firm-wide performance metrics and integrating finance, HR, and client data into a single system, firms can empower their employees and managers to increase profitability and scale the business.

The post Scale or Derail: Three Ways to Improve Your Firm’s Efficiency appeared first on Workday Blog.

We had the opportunity to speak with Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University (ASU), who is guiding the institution’s transformation into one of the nation’s most innovative research universities. Crow shared his views on the future of higher education, why it’s important to create a culture of lifelong learners, and why technology is the key to advancing a new kind of university.

You’ve talked about this idea of universal learning. How did it come about?

As stated in our charter, ASU is measured by whom it includes and how they succeed. With this in mind, ASU and partner institutions knew we needed to ensure that those whose jobs will be impacted by new technology developments still have opportunities in the new economy.

That’s where universal learning comes in. It’s an evolving model we’ve developed that makes higher education accessible, and it’s designed to provide academic, training, and skill-building opportunities to learners from all socioeconomic backgrounds through different learning experiences, such as online or immersive. An immersive learning environment uses different techniques and software tools (such as game-based, simulation-based, and virtual 3D worlds) to simulate realistic scenarios that give students the opportunity to practice skills and interact with peers.

We needed to find a way for institutions like ours—driven by principles of democratic success and justice—to move away from becoming breeding grounds for the new aristocracy. To do this, we decided to work together to advance the concept of universal learners who can access any education format at any point in their lives.

Can you explain some of the programs ASU has developed to cater to digital learning?

ASU has gone through a transformation over the past several years, replacing the old approach to education with a whole new model to become what we call the New American University. In addition to enhancing our research programs, we have also enhanced our culture so faculty is able to leverage technology, where and when needed, and teach all of our students—whether they’re in the classroom or online.

We offer more than 150 online degree programs, including the first fully accredited online electrical engineering degree in the world. We also built a program called the Global Freshman Academy, which is the entire first year of college, digitally available with interactive, adaptive learning platforms for subjects like calculus and algebra. Another digital learning platform that we’ve created is Education Through eXploration, where we’re using game-based learning that omits lectures, tests, books, and instructors from courses such as chemistry, biology, and physics.

“Every person is biologically, psychologically, culturally, and sociologically different. So, why would we all learn in the same way?”

By incorporating technology in everything we do, we’re able to accelerate and intensify the learning experience while making it more affordable. We can help anyone who didn’t have the opportunity to go to college, went to college but wasn’t able to finish, or thrives in an immersive learning environment.

What do you see making the biggest impact in the future of higher education?

The future of education is in the personalization of learning. People need to learn how to learn. In the future learning framework, the university will be a “knowledge core” that offers its resources in different ways—digitally or immersive—to typical and nontraditional students across their lifespan.

Technology and the future will be about helping each and every individual move up the learning continuum in a way that’s most conducive to his or her learning style. Every person is biologically, psychologically, culturally, and sociologically different. So, why would we all learn in the same way?

A great example of personalized learning is adaptive learning. There are numerous college courses—including economics, chemistry, and psychology—which can be referred to as “killer courses” that some students won’t pass because of the traditional way they’re taught. By embracing new technologies, we can individualize the learning process to create an environment that’s advantageous to all types of students so they can learn complex subjects at their own pace.

What are some examples of how your school works with businesses to help reskill or upskill their workforces?

There are two types of corporations—those interested in shareholder value and making money, and those interested in these two benefits along with reskilling their employees to help ensure their lifetime success in the workforce. We partner with the latter, using our technology and programs to build and partner on reskilling efforts that help companies improve employee retention, performance, and their leadership cadre.

For example, we’re partnering with the Mayo Clinic on nursing and doctor preparation as well as problem-solving—assisting with skills development for students wherever it’s necessary. Through this collaboration, we’ve developed signature joint programs to help prepare medical students to address the evolving needs of patients.

Additionally, we’ve expanded our partnership with Starbucks from a college achievement program into the Starbucks Global Academy, which we’re now pushing out into their markets across the world. The academy reinforces our commitment to lifelong learning, providing pathways to opportunity through personalized educational experiences that are entirely free of charge.

For these socially conscious corporations interested in human capital development, sustainability, and community engagement, we partner with them to advance on all of those fronts.

What are the five takeaways you hope students will gain from their university experience to help ensure their success in the professional world?

• Be a versatile learner. We want students to be empowered as learners with the ability to enhance and adapt their learning.
• Have empathy. To succeed as a member of society, you need to have understanding for other people. An immersive learning environment is diverse and complex, which we hope will help students gain empathetic learning capabilities.
• Think in critical ways. Know how to attack arguments and construct counter-arguments from a foundation of knowledge.
• Understand systems. We’ve had too many specialists in the past. Learn system-level thinking versus narrow, technical skills so you’re able to have context to the problems you’re solving and can understand how what you’re working on impacts a larger whole.
• Be comfortable with multiple means of communication. Whether it’s verbal, written, technological, or social media communication, students need to know all of these languages and understand them well.

Are you a senior leader in HR, IT, finance, or higher education? Request an invite to join Bloomberg Next’s Tomorrow’s Talent: A Forum for Business and Education Leaders, a full-day symposium on June 28 in New York.

The post Rethinking the Future of Higher Education: Interview with ASU President Michael Crow appeared first on Workday Blog.

Simply put, our customers wanted more.

That’s why we’re so excited to announce that Workday has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Adaptive Insights, a leading cloud-based platform for modernizing business planning.

With this incredible team and their industry-leading technology unified with Workday, we will accelerate customers’ finance and business transformations across the organization through a powerful combination of integrated planning and a complete finance suite of products. More specifically, this acquisition will fast-track our financial planning roadmap by 2+ years, delivering customers new, advanced modeling capabilities and more, powered by the Adaptive Insights Business Planning Cloud.

Not only is this a fantastic match for our customers in terms of products and technology, but it’s also a perfect fit in terms of people and culture. Like Workday, Adaptive Insights puts employees and core values at the center of everything they do.

We are excited about our future together, and look forward to sharing more details in the coming months. In the meantime, please see below for a short FAQ with more details.

What is Adaptive Insights?

Adaptive Insights was founded in 2003 and has grown to become a leading provider of cloud-based planning software with more than 3,800 customers around the world. With Adaptive Insights Business Planning Cloud, organizations of all sizes are able to transform business planning—for both finance and functional teams—into a continuous, collaborative, and comprehensive process that drives competitive advantage and organizational growth.

Adaptive Insights is headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., with additional offices across the U.S., Europe, and APAC, and has been consistently recognized as a leader in the planning and corporate performance management markets by industry analysts.

Why is Workday acquiring Adaptive Insights?

True to form, Workday is acquiring Adaptive Insights to benefit our customers. As the business environment becomes increasingly dynamic and complex, customers were asking for new ways to accelerate their finance transformations—especially in the area of financial planning related to the general ledger. The addition of Adaptive Insights will help fast-track our financial planning roadmap by 2+ years, and will equip customers with an even more dynamic, interactive, and collaborative solution that, when paired with our own industry-leading financial management, HR, and analytics products, will be a winning, cloud-first combination nobody else can offer.

What are the plans for Workday Planning?

We intend to unify Adaptive Insights’ leading Business Planning Cloud with Workday’s leading suite of applications for finance and HR. Together, Workday and Adaptive Insights will equip customers to better plan, execute, and analyze all in one system that we believe will lead the industry and support continued financial and business transformations.

Upon close of the acquisition, Adaptive Insights CEO Tom Bogan will report to Workday Co-Founder and CEO Aneel Bhusri. Under their leadership, we will further power Workday’s financial planning products with Adaptive Insights’ Business Planning Cloud, while continuing our current roadmap and strategy for Workday’s workforce planning products.

We will share additional details about our plans throughout the coming year.

How will the acquisition benefit customers?

The combination of Workday and Adaptive Insights will equip customers of both companies and all sizes with the leading cloud system to drive their finance organizations and businesses into the future. Together, no other companies can offer the breadth and depth of products, experience, customer service, and go-to-market initiatives required to truly put next-generation planning at the center of driving business performance today and in the future.

How will Workday maintain the Power of One?

We are committed to unifying Adaptive Insights with Workday—not bolting it on. This means the Power of One will stay intact, equipping our customers with access to one data model, one security model, one user experience, and of course, one Workday community that enables them to plan, execute, and analyze in one system.

Will the Adaptive Insights team join Workday?

Yes, the Adaptive Insights team will join Workday upon close of the transaction, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2019, ending October 31, 2018.

How much is Workday paying for Adaptive Insights?

Workday will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Adaptive Insights for approximately $1.55 billion including the assumption of approximately $150 million in unvested equity issued to Adaptive Insights employees. For more information, please refer to the press release or a replay of the financial analyst call which can be found on the Workday Investor Relations site.

When will the transaction close?

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of Workday’s fiscal year 2019, ending October 31, 2018.

Forward-Looking Statements
This blog contains forward-looking statements related to Workday, Adaptive Insights, and the acquisition of Adaptive Insights by Workday that are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this communication include, among other things, statements about the potential benefits and effects of the proposed transaction, Workday’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions, and the anticipated timing of closing of the proposed transaction. Risks include, but are not limited to: (i) the risk that the transaction may not be completed in a timely manner or at all; (ii) failure to achieve the expected benefits of the transaction; (iii) Workday’s ability to implement its plans, objectives and other expectations with respect to Adaptive Insights’ business; (iv) negative effects of the announcement or the consummation of the transaction on Workday’s business operations, operating results or share price; (v) significant transaction costs; (vi) unknown liabilities; and (vii). additional risks included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including our Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2018 and our future reports that we may file with the SEC from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. Workday assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Any unreleased services, features, or functions referenced in this document, our website, or other press releases or public statements that are not currently available are subject to change at Workday’s discretion and may not be delivered as planned or at all. Customers who purchase Workday services should make their purchase decisions based upon services, features, and functions that are currently available.

© 2018. Workday, Inc. All rights reserved. Workday and the Workday logo are registered trademarks of Workday, Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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People are critical to our success as we expand our efforts, which is why I am excited to introduce Brittany Skoda, who just joined our team as vice president of investments. Skoda spent nearly a decade as a technology investment banker at Goldman Sachs in San Francisco, advising companies across a range of transactions, including Amazon, Dropbox, Google, and Tesla. She also spent a year helping Goldman Sachs build out a new middle markets leveraged finance business in New York. At Workday, Skoda will be leading investments and helping to accelerate the growth of our portfolio companies.

I recently sat down with Skoda to discuss her thoughts on Workday Ventures, the need for diversity in the venture capital community, and why you’d better bring your game if you get the opportunity to golf with her.

What motivated you to move from investment banking to a corporate venture capital role?

Investment banking provided an incredible platform to learn about companies, meet people, and work on a range of transactions, from IPOs to mergers and acquisitions to investments. Through this work, I have developed a love for the companies and people in enterprise technology. I also love a challenge, and when presented with an opportunity—like helping build out a corporate ventures arm—I’ll run with it. So when I was approached to join one of the most respected companies in this space, I couldn’t refuse.

“We have a unique team, extensive enterprise experience, a vast network, and critical learnings around scaling an enterprise technology company.”

For me, it’s incredibly exciting to be a part of the Workday Ventures leadership team in the early innings, helping to shape the direction of the business and driving a key strategic initiative for the company. With our team experience encompassing products, finance, and investment experience, we have the elements to create a venture arm that drives a lot of value for both Workday and our portfolio companies.

What excites you most about enterprise technology?

There’s so much innovation happening across the entire enterprise technology stack. Every company has to constantly keep a finger on the pulse of it. With so much disruption, doing nothing is not an option. Executives have to ask, “Where are we now? Where should we be? What are others doing around us? How do we advance our strategy so that we are an enduring company?”

With Workday Ventures, we’ll not only advance areas within Workday’s core offerings—finance, human resources, and analytics—but we plan to go beyond that into other innovative areas and frontiers such as blockchain, intelligent automation, integration services, collaboration, and productivity tools.

We’ve talked about the importance of diverse backgrounds in the venture community. Can you expand on that?

I believe a diversity of skills, backgrounds, and even styles are incredibly important for any business to be successful. Everyone has different skills and worldviews. Decision-making will improve in nearly all contexts if conversations include diverse viewpoints.

Right now, there is significant focus on bringing more diversity into the venture capital community, which is terrific. All Raise is one excellent example of an organization that’s working to bring more women into the field.

One of the elements that attracted me to Workday was that from the beginning, the company has focused on culture, diversity, and embracing different points of view. With Workday Ventures, we are well on our way to continuing this trend with two women in senior roles already on the team.

What will Workday Ventures uniquely bring to the venture community?

We have a unique team, extensive enterprise experience, a vast network, and critical learnings around scaling an enterprise technology company. Our mandate enables us the flexibility to invest across all stages of development—Series A, B, C, D— with the ability to take a long-term view. We intend to partner with our portfolio companies closely and help them drive success. Taken altogether, we believe we bring significant differentiation to the market.

On the personal side, a little-known fact is that you were a Division 1 NCAA golfer at Georgetown University. Has golf been helpful to your career?

It has opened a number of doors for me. As a woman who could play well, I would often find myself in circumstances and with groups of people I would not have otherwise had access to early in my career. Golf is an amazing opportunity to learn about people, their businesses, what makes them tick, and so much more.

Golf also taught me early on how to carry conversations and be fearless in talking with people. Since neither of my parents played golf, I would be paired with country club members—who were strangers to me at the time—when I was 10 years old.

The post Getting to Know Workday Ventures’ Newest Team Member: Q&A with Brittany Skoda appeared first on Workday Blog.

With Rallyteam, we gain incredible team members who created a talent mobility platform that uses machine learning to help companies better understand and optimize their workforces by matching a worker’s interests, skills, and connections with relevant jobs, projects, tasks, and people.

As the world of work continues moving toward a marketplace for talent and skills, this team will apply its deep expertise to power Workday’s products with even more intelligence that will help customers uncover the best talent—inside and outside of their organizations—to meet business needs.

It’s an exciting time for Workday and our customers, so please join us in welcoming our new colleagues, and stay tuned for more details in the coming year!

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