Julie Devoll, HBR
Welcome to the HBR Quick Take. I’m Julie Devoll, editor for special projects and webinars at HBR. And today, I’m joined by Udo Sglavo, Vice President of Advanced Analytics at SAS. Sglavo leads a team responsible for building and testing the SAS analytical ecosystem, as well as shaping the vision and implementation of innovative analytical techniques in SAS software.
Udo, thank you so much for joining us today.
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Hey, Julie. Thank you so much for having me.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Udo, let’s start off with, “what fuels your own curiosity?”
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Well, there are so many things I could point out. But I think the most important one is people. And by people, I mean literally people inside and outside of SAS. Talking to our customers and prospects, we learn so much about what’s on their minds. But also, hearing about their successes, their insights, and their failures is helping us to shape our products.
When talking to our clients about the business challenges they are facing in their respective industries, that allows us to make sure that our software stays relevant. But also at SAS, we have some of the leading experts, the brightest minds in the area of analytics talking to them about their specific domain expertise and their insights is one of the highlights of my role, Julie.
Julie Devoll, HBR
So as a leader, how are you encouraging curiosity inside SAS?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
I guess it’s by always asking why or by asking what if? I believe it is my role at SAS to create an environment that fosters discussions and decision making which take us forward. As you understand, as a commercial software vendor, it is our main responsibility to create products which our customers are willing to pay for, which means we have to provide unique value to them.
As an R&D team, I believe we are wearing two hats. One is the area of research and investigation of topics that may become production software or may not. We may go down the wrong path and learn from these mistakes. But also, of course, we need to engineer software for our customers to use today. We want to push ourselves to create an ecosystem for our customers, which allows them to focus on their own business rather than dealing with software engineering challenges.
Julie Devoll, HBR
When you were a new leader, what were you most curious about? And what do you think you should have been more curious about?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
That’s an awesome question. So Julie, I worked for SAS quite some time before I considered management as a career option. And back then, the questions which kept me busy were probably more technology questions, “How can we consolidate our very broad portfolio in analytics in a way that it makes the user experience extremely easy? How can we create expert software for nonexpert users? And how do we need to re-architect our software to work on any device and with any data?”
Lacking data management experience, I probably should have wondered, well, “How do we implement processes and how do we upskill people to accomplish these engineering goals?” My world was probably way too centered around technical questions, not considering the importance of so-called soft skills like communication, leadership, and empathy. I’m hoping I have addressed this in the meantime, but that was probably one of the things I should have been curious about at the beginning of my management career.
Julie Devoll, HBR
How would you describe the relationship between curiosity and innovation?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Well, in his book, Julie, Why? What Makes Us Curious, Mario Livio states that humans are the only living creation who ask “Why?” Curiosity is a desire for knowledge and understanding, which ultimately leads to survival in a complex and dynamic environment. A lot of smart things were postulated about how curiosity fosters innovation. One wonders about an issue and then tries to determine ways of how to make things better.
But frankly, it also works the other way around too. While innovating, you may run into new challenges or new ideas which make you wonder, well, what if we do things differently? Is there a new opportunity for a new product? Is there a new business idea? Of course, Julie, the challenge is not to get too distracted and to stay on course with our strategic plans.
Julie Devoll, HBR
So, what areas of technological innovation do you think have the most potential to change the world?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
I believe it was Kevin Kelly, the founder of the Wired magazine, who introduced the word “cognification.” Where like electrification shaped the world we live in, cognification will impact the world in ways we cannot predict at this stage. First, we put the power of muscle into objects in the form of energy, steam, gasoline, electricity, literally giving things like cars a certain amount of horsepower.
Next, I believe we will cognify anything electric. For example, self-driving cars are no longer a product of fantasy. Cognification, for me, means that gadgets will become more competent and more convenient to use. Some people like to call this artificial intelligence. Julie, when I read AI, I typically think about augmented intelligence, as we need to keep the human in the center of all our endeavors.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Udo, I want to switch gears a bit and talk about the pandemic. How has SAS helped organizations through this time to emerge more resilient?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
During the pandemic, we all probably had more questions than answers. Citizens, first responders, politicians, and business leaders alike were hungry for information to guide decisions that could have enormous consequences on society. One thing became apparent, Julie. I think decisions based on data and analysis can make a difference in how society reacts to the crisis. And it is helping us find ways to deliver better outcomes.
We talked to many organizations about understanding the spread of the disease, forecasting and optimizing resources, and investigating treatments. Some prominent examples, Julie, are optimizing hospital resources such as hospital beds to save lives, understanding the coronavirus and how it spreads, talking to the pharma industry. But we also worked with customers in the consumer-packaged goods industries to figure out how to forecast supply and demand for critical goods.
Julie Devoll, HBR
What industry or technology could benefit from more curious minds?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Well, the industry which comes to my mind immediately is health care. I believe everyone is impacted, one way or another, by the innovations in the health care system around the globe. And of course, the question is, “how do we keep it affordable?”
In my mind, analytical insights can drive what I would call value-based health care. Imagine analytics that can. Imagine the use of data for improved clinical decisions. And then finally, of course, there’s this whole world of what we call “the internet of things,” streaming data so we can use much more real-time data for our decision making in the health care environment.
Julie Devoll, HBR
How has Covid-19 changed the pace of innovation?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Well, isn’t it exciting how little time it took to develop the Covid-19 vaccination? But let’s face it, some industries are only now waking up to the need for digitalization. This is also fueled by a more general appreciation of technology progress we observed during the pandemic. Overall, I believe we will increase our reliance on real-world evidence, which means we will combine operational or real-world data, such as data from health care records, fitness trackers, insurance claims, and so on, with analytics for better decision making.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Udo, I want to conclude by asking what problems you want to see the use of data and analytics solving next?
Udo Sglavo, SAS
That’s, of course, the question which keeps us awake at night. I believe hiding computational complexities behind easy-to-use applications is the answer. Julie, your smartphone and your car are great examples focusing on convenience and usability rather than having you to understand physics or communication theory.
With analytical ecosystems, we have come a long way already. But we still assume a certain understanding by the end users to master these environments. Once we can completely hide these complexities behind easy-to-use applications, the vision of true democratization of analytics will become real.
Julie Devoll, HBR
Udo, this has been a great discussion. I want to thank you so much for joining us today.
Udo Sglavo, SAS
Thank you for having me.
Julie Devoll, HBR
If you’d like to learn more about how innovators are turning curiosity into capability, visit SAS.com/curiosity.
Learn how SAS helps organizations turn curiosity into capability with advanced analytics.