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The CIONET Cookbook comprises recipes for success from 25 of today’s most influential and dynamic information technology leaders, across all sectors of business.This is the result of our research and interviews with top Digital Leaders. The CIONET Cookbook uses the analogy of a five-star restaurant to explain the importance of optimally integrated technology.
Meanwhile dive in to the next recipe with our Masterchef Cindy Hoots, Chief Digital Officer & CIO at AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca is a British/Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas including oncology, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal,
infection, neuroscience, respiratory, and inflammation. It is most recently known for its partnership in developing the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. At the close of 2020, the company reported an annual turnover of $26 billion, with 76,000 employees globally.
AstraZeneca has a predominantly insourced IT organization comprising of 4,800 internal staff. There are five separate verticals: R&D, Operations, Commercial, Alexion (AstraZeneca’s Rare Disease) and Corporate Services. Additionally, a number of horizontal technology services oversee innovation, architecture, data/AI, infrastructure, cybersecurity and enterprise capabilities.
In a post-pandemic world, the measure of digital success will be in how technology is used to identify new business opportunities and new therapeutic modalities. Cindy Hoots, Chief Digital Officer & CIO of AstraZeneca, identifies four key pillars as part of the company’s IT-2025 strategy:
One of the IT organisations top priorities is embedding AI to fundamentally change the way they approach science, make a meaningful impact for patients, and run their business.
AI has played an integral role from advancing areas of drug discovery to enhancing their operations and ‘smart factories’ and providing data-led insights that help AstraZeneca gain a better understanding of the dynamics of their workforce. Additionally, AI plays an increasingly important role in the organisation’s cybersecurity efforts, enabling the IT team to proactively identify threats and risks at a much greater speed and sharpen their risk- and management processes.
Delivery in pharmaceuticals is measured in days and weeks not months and years. The organisation’s employees must acquire new skills and capabilities to rapidly meet the growing demand for innovation and speed of delivery. Successful teams are increasingly agile, proficient in navigating ambiguity, and have a strong focus on outcomes.
The best teams are able to quickly identify products and services that can be enhanced over time instead of stalling decisions until the perfect solution is found. Leveraging AI, they are able to iterate different hypotheses rapidly with limited hesitancy to pivot at speed. Successful CIOs are those who create the right culture within their teams to embrace this mindset and help accelerate the innovation process.
Optimisation involves looking at all the processes within a company with a fresh pair of eyes. IT teams should partner closely with business units to analyse processes with the intent of identifying areas of complexity, driving out waste and finding new ways of applying technology, such as robotic process automation and AI.
One example at AstraZeneca has been the recent development of an AI assistant to extract medical terms from any adverse events during clinical trials, which are required for regulatory authorities – something which is traditionally incredibly manual and time consuming. Early estimates indicate this approach may lead to a 50% reduction in time (with potential cost savings).This tactical use of AI frees up staff to focus on strategic rather than operational matters.
The key to attracting and retaining great talent is finding people whose passion and purpose mirrors those of your organisation. CIOs must connect these people to the company’s values at a deeper level and bring to life a purpose-driven mission that is aligned with personal goals.
One of AstraZeneca’s key values is “doing the right thing” and with employee engagement measured at 92%, it’s a clear indicator that the combination of a clear company purpose and the empowerment of teams to believe they can change the lives of patients through their work, is critical to sustaining a great work environment.
This engagement manifests itself in staff becoming good stewards of company money. Every dollar spent must be impactful and deliver clear value. IT employees must work with partners to find cost-effective ways of delivering technology that ultimately reduces overall patient access to cheaper and better healthcare. Essentially, every dollar spent to support the process, has the potential to make the treatment more expensive for the patient.
Cindy has built and championed diversity within her team, where differences in cultural and personal characteristics are embraced and celebrated. Employees at every level are encouraged to build learning moments into their daily schedules and to seek on the job learning experiences to build breadth and depth of expertise. Cindy ensures teams across her organisation have access to the right job opportunities and encourages employees to move around different roles in the IT organisation and other business functions: “When you focus on the people, you will get the results.”
Cindy believes that CIOs should focus on driving innovation and leveraging technology as a competitive advantage across the broadest spectrum of business functions. At AstraZeneca, Cindy’s focus is to leverage technology to drive better patient outcomes, modernize the business to be equipped for the future, simplify the lives of our employees and how we ultimately work in a broader ecosystem to tackle some of the world’s most difficult problems.
CIO’s continue to be uniquely positioned to help businesses navigate the world of digital and the impact this will have. While in many instances they still play a key role of running company infrastructure, applications etc, the pandemic means CIOs and the transformative work they do have been pushed to the forefront. CIO’s have fresh opportunities to bring essential thought leadership to the board room, helping the business understand how to leverage tech as a competitive advantage and identifying new business models and potential adjacencies.
Successful CIOs combine vision with execution. Cindy is an inspirational leader who shares her vision of where she sees the company in the future. However, she is also grounded and results-oriented, with an eye on the sharp execution of strategy. Rather than focusing on theory for too long, she believes value is created at the point of execution.
Cindy is passionate about her strong work ethics, integrity and above all her love for lifelong learning. She believes it’s important to be a mentor as well as a mentee, and works with digital natives under the age of 25 to help ensure she, and her skills remain relevant in a rapidly evolving landscape. Cindy’s aim for life is to leave things better than when she found them.
