Get to know Elanco IT’s new CTO, Matt Bull as we ask him these 7 questions:
Will you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Matt. I live in the UK with my wife (Sarah), three-year-old son (Mason) and six-month-old daughter (Freya). I studied at Bournemouth University (UK) and recently completed my Executive Education at Stanford University (US).
Outside of work, I am passionate about sports, but am also a self-confessed geek. I live and breathe technology, both hardware, and software.
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What is a CTO?
The roles and responsibilities of a CTO are not consistently defined, covering everything from technology operations management to technology innovation (and sometimes both).
In my opinion, the role of CTO sits at the intersection of business and technology, requiring a detailed understanding of the customer, technical breadth, and depth, as well as a proven record of enterprise delivery.
I believe the focus of the role must be the vision, strategy, technology investments, and innovation, covering the entire business value cycle (not limited to global services or infrastructure).
Regardless of the industry, technology is now a core part of every business. This is evident from the “software is eating the world” revolution, where technology has been used as a catalyst to disrupt industries (e.g. Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, etc.)
As a result, I believe my job is to partner with the business functions to help Elanco maximise our technology investments, looking to promote innovation, deliver new customer experiences, and enable new business models.
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What do you find refreshing about being at Elanco?
It is clear that Elanco has an incredible culture! I have been impressed by the open, collaborative spirit, as well as the focus on business outcomes.
I am excited and proud to be part of the “new” Elanco and eager to partner with everyone as we transform the organisation.
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What do you hope to accomplish in your first 100 days?
The scale of the work ahead is breath-taking, but also incredibly exciting!
Partnering with the business functions, I plan to establish an Enterprise Architecture Community (EAC). This group will help to define and embed processes, principles, and positioning that will facilitate our early strategic decisions. The EAC must drive a clear value proposition and act as an enabler (not a barrier or an inconvenience).
I am also partnering with Enterprise Technology Services (ETS), helping to design our enterprise IT foundations. This includes the future-state Network, Hosting (Cloud, Colocation DC) and Identity architecture. These areas have been prioritised, as they have tight dependencies with Lilly and/or act as a prerequisite for other key capabilities.
Over time, I expect my engagement to broaden beyond the enterprise IT foundations, working closely with all business functions (Manufacturing, Research, Commercial, and Global Services).
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Is the future really cloud?
We have an incredible opportunity to deliver a “quantum leap” for IT.
A key part of this story will be cloud, covering Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) for highly industrialised capabilities (e.g. CRM), as well as the emerging cloud technologies such as Functions-as-a-Service (FaaS/Serverless).
We will not have any Elanco owned/managed Data Centres, but will likely leverage Colocation Data Centres for specialist workloads (e.g. Manufacturing, Research) and some cross-cloud capabilities.
When considering the Elanco future-state architecture, I think about key terms such as - Cloud First, API-Centric, Serverless, Software Defined, and Automated. These technologies/approaches will form enterprise principles that will enable a modern, flexible and cost-effective IT ecosystem.
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What does your org chart look like and how will it evolve?
I will lead the virtual Enterprise Architecture Community (EAC), which will include representation from all business functions (including Information Security and Quality). This embedded approach will ensure strong business context and situational awareness.
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What are some ways to connect with you?
I’m eager to connect and collaborate with colleagues across Elanco. Please don’t hesitate to contact me directly or set up a meeting. If you are interested in my thoughts and background, please refer to my personal blog (https://www.lifeintech.com) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mswbull/).
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We wish Matt all the success in his new role here at Elanco!
Jaycee Mey