Episode 215: Bill Murphy on Innovation & Technical Debt

On February 3, 2020, it was publically announced that Bill Murphy—Blackstone’s CTO for almost a decade—would be leaving the firm at the end of March. Bill rejoins the Wavelength podcast—for a record fifth time—to discuss some of the lessons he learned while working at the private equity giant, and the next phase of his career. (2:00-47:00) At the backend of the podcast, Wei-Shen and Tony discuss Refinitiv’s plans going forward after the launch of Workspace (47:30-end). https://www.waterstechnology.com/data-management/7692821/of-refinitiv-and-old-rivalries 3:30 Bill discusses his decision to join Cresting Wave. 7:15 For those who have fared well during the pandemic, what went right? 10:30 What are the dangers of making knee-jerk tech decisions to answer Covid-related needs? 13:30 When it comes to the buy v. build debate, are banks more wary of taking the lead on moonshot projects? 19:00 Do banks and asset managers risk falling behind if they hand too much off in the innovation space? 21:00 What interests Bill the most in genre of “innovation” and why is technical debt hindering the capital markets? 28:30 What does technical debt look like when it comes to machine learning and data analysis? 35:30 Working remotely v. working in the office—how will that dynamic change in a post-Covid world? 40:00 Blockchain? 41:30 ESG? 43:30 Quantum computing? 45:00 Deep learning? Bill Murphy’s previous episodes: https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/2461751/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-22-blackstone-cto-bill-murphy https://www.waterstechnology.com/trading-tools/3056376/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-60-bill-murphy-blackstone-cto https://www.waterstechnology.com/industry-issues-initiatives/3473326/waters-wavelength-podcast-episode-105-blackstones-bill-murphy-part-3 https://www.waterstechnology.com/technology/4078696/wavelength-podcast-episode-150-bill-murphy-of-blackstone-group