This is Digital, Special Episode: Celebrating International Women’s Day 2024

Why is customer centricity important?

Tiffani Bova, Global Growth and Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce: “Customer centricity is about paying attention to those customers that obviously have the opportunity for higher profitability and more sales and more revenue, but not at the expense of everything else. If you think about the 80/20 rule, if 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers, how do you take care of the 80% of customers, right? They are driving a smaller portion of your revenue in some kind of automated digital, not compromising experience, but maybe less human touch and more automation.”

How do you think about the intersection of digital and innovation? Do you need digital to be innovative? Or do you need to be innovative to become more digital?

Betsy Ziegler, CEO, 1871: “I don't think you need digital to drive innovation. I think you can be innovative without being digital in the literal sense of digital. I don't think you can be digital without having innovation. But for me, they're sort of inseparable. The words that I think are often inseparable are ‘failure’ and ‘innovation.’ And I think we could dig into ‘digital’ and ‘innovation’ as inseparable words. But I'm not sure I feel as strongly about that as I do about ‘failure’ and ‘innovation’ being inseparable.”

What strategies are executives implementing to address external and existential issues facing their companies?

Dana Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board: “When we interview executives from around the world, we ask them, ‘What is the number one thing you're doing to lean against all the external issues and existential issues to your company?’ And almost at the top of the list, if not at the top of the list, was innovation and digital transformation, and also looking at automation. So, all of that's digital, right? Companies are trying to figure out how to become more efficient using technology and are looking at that as a way to not only supplement work but also for workers to advance themselves and make themselves more productive.

As we celebrate the accomplishments of women all around us, how have women in your life impacted your lives?

Helen Yu, Founder & CEO, Tigon Advisory Corp: “I was raised by my grandmother. Grandma always taught me to put other people's interests on top of my own, and so I became a servant leader because of that. Before she passed away, the last five minutes, I was the only one by her bed. She said three things to me: stay special, make the world proud, and spread my ashes to a tall mountain. She is the reason why I took the journey to Mount Everest Space Camp to spread her ashes.” 

Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer, e.l.f Beauty: “My mom is my best friend. And you know, people say that, [but] I really mean it. And everything I am, I am because of my mom. Her values are the ones that have instilled the sense of how important empathy is. When you put yourself in other people's shoes, you can see their life, their impact, you can see what's holding them back to do certain things or how you can play a role in their in their life as well.”