Being an Early Advocate for Innovation with Former AstraZeneca CIO David Smoley

On the 20th episode of Enterprise Software Innovators, hosts Evan Reiser (Abnormal Security) and Saam Motamedi (Greylock Partners) talk with David Smoley. David has had a storied career, leading technology teams at several large and defining companies, including General Electric, Flex, and AstraZeneca. Most recently, he led an engineering team as a VP at Apple. Today, David shares anecdotes about being an early advocate for innovation, best practices for collaborating with startups, and his experiences with hands-on digital transformation.Quick hits from David:On digital transformation: “Digital transformation depends on your starting point. What would be a radical digital transformation for one company might be meaningless to another company. I think of digital transformation as being very contextual around a particular situation or problem that you're trying to solve."On enterprise IT executives’ relationships with startups: “It’s this great quid pro quo where you're looking for cool technology and smart people who can help you in your role as a tech leader and [startups] are looking for smart tech leaders who are going to help them develop great products and great companies.”On the ethos of being a technologist: “One of the things you have to love if you're a technologist is living on that edge of what's possible and what are the risks, and getting people to see your side of what the possibilities are.”Recent Book Recommendation: World Class IT by Peter HighLike what you hear? Leave us a review and subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.Enterprise AI Innovators is a show where top technology executives share specific ways AI changes how work gets done in the enterprise.Find more great insights from technology leaders and enterprise software experts at https://www.enterprisesoftware.blog/Enterprise AI Innovators is produced by Abnormal Studios.