Guest Lecture - Digital Transformation
In this week’s seminar in business management course hosted by IBMBA, a special guest Dr. Hedy Ho delivered an inspiring sharing. It is an honour to have Hedy again, this time she is sharing digital transformation with over 50 students in the classroom. With the practical example of Microsoft and Hedy’s current project.
To start the sharing, Hedy introduces transformation and lets students know about her background. Although Hedy is working in Singapore, she still provides lots of examples in the Taiwan market based on her past experience. First, Hedy shares about organisational transformation. About the hierarchy and structure of transforming a company and growing. Then, Hedy gets into the key idea of sharing digital transformation. Hedy indicates that technical intensity is important for digital transformation. Here are the three main items for the adoption and capability. a) Workforce trained to use technology in a productive manner. b) Foster an environment that encourages tech intensity. c) Broad access to connectivity to empower tools. Hedy provides a wide example with videos and an explanation of these. Besides, Hedy shares her life's 3Ps. She encourages us to live with passion, possibility, and positivity.
In the second part of the seminar, Hedy has a group discussion with a case study for students. The case study is about transforming business processes in healthcare with AI. Like many business sectors, the U.S. healthcare industry is competitive and fast-paced—but with the added complication that customer lives are always at stake. Furthermore, medical providers must comply with strict ethical and privacy regulations. However, AI is now making it possible for machines to analyze patient data and predict medical outcomes in a way that protects patient privacy while potentially saving money—and lives.
Students are encouraged to discuss the following strategy questions:
1. What data could Ochsner take advantage of to create a solution that provides actionable insights?
2. Modern healthcare solutions need to scale. How might Ochsner approach developing a solution for patient monitoring so that it is less labor intensive and more scalable?
3. Changing the workflow of highly-trained professionals may be met with resistance. What kind of concerns might medical professionals raise, and how might management work with employees to ensure uptake of new technological systems?
4. Medical professionals often report that they do not have time to learn new methods or technologies due to high patient workloads. How might this affect the design goals for a new AI-based technology?
5. Trained AI systems need to be tested before they are relied upon, especially in a safety-critical environment such as healthcare. How could Ochsner gather enough data to measure the effectiveness of a solution, but also keep patients safe?
After the discussion, students have a chance to speak up. Hedy encourages every group member to present their view with the PowerPoint slides. Students provide different insights into the strategy questions, Hedy appreciates everyone’s contributions and learns from these fresh ideas. Also, she gives some feedback on a practical level and asks some further questions to let students think more.
Hedy delivered supportive information after students’ presentations. One of the teams indicate that they should include outside data, Hedy agree with that and there is 90% of the data needed are from outside. For training in a practical way, Hedy provides opinions and suggestions using real examples. The incentive is important, and how to provide the incentive in the right way is more important. The incentive should provide for achievement and being good, an instant of only participation. For the technology part, Hedy introduces the IoT device. To accomplish up-to-date needs with fewer data cleaning works. Last but not least, quantifying the return is important to show the idea’s value. Hedy suggests everyone try to work harder on it and it will make your plan or idea more likely to be accepted by the manager.
Finally, there is a vote section for everyone to select their favorite team and the most innovative idea. Students benefit so much from the seminar, not only from Hedy and also from their classmates.
