I joined BT in 2014 from the TMT practice of Bain & Company, the global management consulting firm. My role is to lead our global strategic change agenda, to shape the evolution of BT to be the partner of choice for managed infrastructure, digital workplace and security services for global organisations worldwide. I took over the leadership of our global portfolio back in 2017, driving forward its evolution towards cloud-based and software-defined services. I’ve since led the set-up and scale-up of the global DigiCo team, now part of the new global portfolio and digital team under Hriday Ravindranath, Managing Director of Global Portfolio & Digital.
We spoke with Maria Grazia Pecorari, Managing Director of Strategy, to discover more about her role, why we’re going through a digital transformation and how we’re driving innovation
What do you do?
How is BT driving innovation at a global scale?
We are a global team, with a global structure, global ways of working and global scale; this is one of our strengths. We start with the view of the customer and regularly pressure test our strategy with Bas Burger’s Global Advisory Board, our CEO of Global, which consists of the Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers from our top customers. In order to strengthen our connection with market, we are investing in critical capabilities and practices so we can do more in areas such as customer co-creation and design thinking. Through critical programs such as DigiCo and ThreatCo, we are pivoting the product development on the new strategic stack and in new vendors and services. The introduction of the Digital team is a fantastic opportunity to accelerate this journey to ensure we are truly disruptive in our thinking and, more importantly, in our delivery of innovative solutions.
You sit on our Global unit which is going through a Digital transformation. Why is that happening?
The market shift to cloud infrastructure, software-defined networks, and to cloud-based IT software and platforms, is the catalyst of a profound change in our customers’ businesses and as well as in ours. We are driving a deep transformation of our business so our role as trusted partner to our customers is future proof.
You have overseen a vast range of projects. Do you have a favourite one?
DigiCo by far – a great opportunity for me to lead and be part of an-action oriented team, diverse and multi-disciplinary, driven by a common vision, not afraid to try and to fail, and resilient the many challenges and obstacles we found in our way. A team that I am very proud of and that I learned a lot from.
