Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)
Metis Strategy
Twice-weekly conversations with top executives and thought leaders at the intersection of business, technology, and innovation. Each episode of Technovation explores the technology trends that are transforming business, and the leaders driving digital change inside their organizations. Produced by Metis Strategy and hosted by firm President Peter High, Technovation is the premier podcast for IT and technology professionals with the largest collection of interviews with elite CIOs, CTOs, and CDOs.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Apr 6, 2026 • 57min
David Pogue on How Apple Turned Failure into Breakthrough Innovation
David Pogue, Emmy-winning tech journalist and author of Apple: The First 50 Years, walks through Apple’s missteps turned breakthroughs. He recounts failed products like the Lisa and Apple III, Jobs and Wozniak’s early collaborations, Jobs’ leadership arc, the iMac/iPod turnaround, Tim Cook’s steadier growth, AI stumbles, China trade tensions, and future bets like AR glasses.
Apr 2, 2026 • 38min
Lisa Davis on Why the Workplace Is Broken, and How Leaders Can Redesign It
Lisa Davis, board director and former CIO who wrote The Only Woman in the Room, looks at why today’s workplace structures fail modern leaders. She discusses systemic barriers to advancement, how power shapes careers, why women leave STEM, the need for inclusive AI leadership, and practical ways leaders can redesign work for the future.
Mar 30, 2026 • 42min
The 90% Model: Dr. Ram Charan on China’s Manufacturing War
Dr. Ram Charan, veteran CEO adviser and author of China’s 90% Model, explains a deliberate strategy to achieve manufacturing dominance through scale and pricing power. He discusses why China targets 90% capacity, how Western asset-light moves hollowed out production, the national-security angle of supply chains, and why AI should be treated as a tool rather than a strategy.
Mar 27, 2026 • 48min
From $2B to $20B: Jon McNeill on Tesla’s Hypergrowth Algorithm
Jon McNeill, former Tesla president and COO of Lyft turned VC founder, shares a concise playbook for scaling companies 10X. He describes a five-step system that questions assumptions, deletes friction, speeds cycle time, treats feedback as fuel, and resists premature automation. Short, practical stories illuminate how teams can simplify processes, build urgency, and repeatable execution to drive hypergrowth.
Mar 26, 2026 • 28min
Why Citi Re-Engineers Workflows Before Applying AI
Shobhit Varshney, Global Head of Artificial Intelligence at Citi and former IBM data and AI leader, discusses re-engineering workflows before adding AI. He covers prioritizing high-value use cases, building a central AI platform with shared components, scaling from pilots with ROI accountability, fostering an AI-first culture, and embedding responsible AI and governance across the firm.
10 snips
Mar 23, 2026 • 19min
From Projects to Value Streams: Gilbane’s CTO on Outcome-Driven IT
Alex Gutman, CTO at Gilbane who leads digital agility and AI in a 150-year construction firm. He explains shifting from siloed projects to client-aligned value streams. He discusses cross-functional learning loops, treating data as a trusted asset, pragmatic AI use cases like RFP acceleration, and designing flexible architecture for long-term differentiation.
Mar 19, 2026 • 25min
Scaling Technology at Omnicom: Craig Cuyar on Post-Acquisition Transformation
Craig Cuyar, Global CIO of Omnicom who leads large-scale IT transformations, discusses scaling tech across a $25B marketing organization. He covers post-acquisition integration, centralizing capabilities while keeping business-aligned IT, and outsourcing non-core work. He also talks about using first-party data, AI and agentic workflows to transform marketing, plus role-based AI training for staff.
Mar 16, 2026 • 56min
Why Good Companies Go Bad: Eric Ries on Corporate Corruption
Eric Ries, entrepreneur, author of The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, discusses why successful companies lose their way. He explores corruption as a design problem rooted in governance, incentives, and metrics. He describes organizations as superorganisms with emergent ethos and highlights how short-term pressures and misused metrics warp behavior.
10 snips
Mar 13, 2026 • 39min
Software to Digital Workers: Sandhya Venkatachalam on the AI Economy
Sandhya Venkatachalam, Co-founder and General Partner at Axiom Partners and longtime AI product builder and investor. She explores AI shifting from tools to digital workers. She discusses building an AI-native venture firm, automating operations with agents, and where digital labor first takes hold in industries like construction, legal, and infrastructure.
9 snips
Mar 12, 2026 • 28min
Kellie Romack on How ServiceNow Generated $355M in AI Value
Kellie Romack, Chief Digital Information Officer at ServiceNow who runs the company on its own platform, discusses scaling AI to drive measurable value. She describes Customer Zero practices, AI resolving up to 90% of some IT requests, governance and oversight at scale, workforce transformation through automation, and lessons for CIOs seeking ROI from AI investments.
