125: The Human Side of Digital Transformation with William Ruh, Former CEO of Lendlease Digital and GE Digital

Andrea interviews William Ruh, former CEO of Lendlease Digital and GE Digital, about leadership during digital transformation. William shares how cultural alignment and change management are critical for success, often more so than the technology itself. Rue also discusses the need for CEOs to be curious, keep learning, and pivot quickly in the face of increasing complexity. He talks about establishing strong partnerships with boards and maintaining personal resilience to handle the demands of leadership today.

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Digital transformation success depends heavily on cultural alignment and change management skills like communication, empathy and enrolment.
• Leaders should identify and partner with "the coalition of the willing" in the organisation to drive change rather than trying to change everyone at once.
• Monetisation strategy for digital innovation must be clear - either embedded in existing offerings or as a new line of business.
• Running an internal start-up has unique challenges - the speed of a start-up with the processes of an established business.
• With the increasing pace of change, CEO resilience, learning agility and the ability to quickly pivot strategy are critical leadership capabilities.
• Strong board relationships and a personal support system are essential to handle the pressures faced by modern CEOs.

BEST MOMENTS

"The soft skills are the most important thing. How you help the organisation through [digital transformation] is more important in some ways than what your technology is."

"You've got to be able to make that cultural shift. Existing cultures and businesses often find it very difficult to embrace the change."

"I realised that I'm responsible for seeing the world change. I'm responsible for learning gen AI...I'm responsible for figuring out where things are going."

"If you're not good at managing your board, the board is going to manage you. So that is the challenge many CEOs definitely wrestle with."

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Mr. William Ruh most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer for Lendlease Digital. In this role, he built two new businesses to help transform the real estate industry. LendLease Digital is developing the world’s first set of Autonomous Building products to automate design, supply chain, and operations. He serves on the Board of Directors for both start-ups.

Prior to joining Lendlease, Mr. Ruh was the CEO of GE Digital and the Chief Digital Officer for GE. During his tenure, Mr. Ruh led the charge to develop the first cloud-based platform for the industrial world and established the GE Digital business unit. A recognized expert in the emerging Industrial Internet of Things he helped establish the Industrial Internet Consortium and was a member of the US Dept of Commerce Digital Economy Board of Advisors.

ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Andrea Petrone. I'm a Human Performance and Leadership Advisor, Executive Coach and International Speaker. I help leaders and their teams to change their mindsets and master their leadership capabilities so they can achieve extraordinary performance. I've been in the corporate world for more than 20 years working globally - in 6 countries and 3 continents - for medium-large companies.