L3 Technologies: Data-Driven and Radically Transparent

The eighth largest defense contractor in the U.S., SAP customer L3 Technologies is embracing innovation and making it part of its corporate culture, according to Heidi Wood, senior vice president of Strategy and Operations.

In an interview with CXO Talk's Michael Krigsman, Wood explains what it takes to become data-driven and radically transparent.

'You have to embrace innovation. You have to make that part of your corporate culture. You have to encourage risk taking because that's a necessary - and frequently not enough spoken about - element of innovation, which is the willingness to take risks, the willingness to be bold, put yourself out there, and be courageous,' Wood tells Krigsman when asked about driving forces that are responsible for transformation. 'The way I like to describe it is, we took all of the different systems that we have, and we piped them together into a fused system. It helps us come back to better decisions. Together, we can move with speed because all of us are seeing it at the same time and it's based on fact, not anecdotes.'

'You want to show your better parts,' Wood adds. 'But, you kind of get to a stage where everybody gets comfortable with, look, this is the truth, this is where we're really, really at. It enables more collective contributions because people can see the areas that are ailing and say, 'Well, I've got some guys that can help with this thing that you're working on because now we can see that that area needs work.''

'I think one of the exciting things about IT is that… you actually have an angle where IT is helping change the culture of a company,' she concludes.

Watch the complete interview to hear more about L3 and how the company is working toward a data-driven and radically transparent organization.