What's Up with Tech?
Tech Transformation with Evan Kirstel: A podcast exploring the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry, and how businesses can leverage them for growth, diving into the world of B2B, discussing strategies, trends, and sharing insights from industry leaders!
With over three decades in telecom and IT, I've mastered the art of transforming social media into a dynamic platform for audience engagement, community building, and establishing thought leadership. My approach isn't about personal brand promotion but about delivering educational and informative content to cultivate a sustainable, long-term business presence. I am the leading content creator in areas like Enterprise AI, UCaaS, CPaaS, CCaaS, Telecom/5G and more!
What's Up with Tech?
Leading AI Innovation: Globant on Agile Methodologies and Tech Transformation
Interested in being a guest? Email us at admin@evankirstel.com
Ready to uncover how a leading tech company stays ahead in an ever-evolving industry? Join us as we sit down with Nico from Globant, a trailblazer in technology and innovation. With over two decades under their belt, Globant has grown from an Argentine startup to a global powerhouse. Nico sheds light on his experiences overseeing North American operations and explains how Globant’s unique team structure keeps them closely aligned with client needs. We'll explore the keys to their remarkable growth, including a forward-thinking approach, agile methodologies, and a strong focus on AI-driven innovations.
Discover how AI is reshaping industries and processes such as deployment, testing, design, and development. Nico answers burning questions about AI's longevity and its comparison to past tech trends like the metaverse and blockchain. We delve into the critical aspects of maximizing ROI and managing AI investment risks, along with the ongoing debates about the efficiency of large versus small language models. Plus, get an inside look at Globant's internal social rating system, Start Me Up, which fosters a culture of recognition and continuous development. Don’t miss this illuminating conversation packed with insights and strategies from one of the leaders in tech innovation!
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Hey everybody, super exciting chat today, diving into the world of tech with a global innovation and tech leader, globent Nico. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm fine, I'm fine, super happy. I'm excited to be here with you and with everybody, with your audience.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm really excited to have you Really admired Globent from afar for many years. I'm really excited to have you Really admired Globant from afar for many years. Maybe start with introductions to your role, but also for those who may not be familiar, who is Globant? Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's start with Globant. Globant is young. It used to be a teenager company, like maybe a year ago. Now it's more than 20. So not a teenager anymore. It's digitally native, it's cognitive native.
Speaker 2:We also like that word. I think it really defines us because we have embraced our cognitive theme from scratch right, from from scratch right. We have always been focused in Europe and North America as our main clientele, as our main demand generation. Geography in the originally, in the beginning. Now we have clients all over the world.
Speaker 2:That's like on the demand side, on the supply side, we started over from Argentina, then the rest of Latin America and now again out of necessity, out of need for coverage, out of need to respond to a world for talent that maybe has taken a few quarters of pause or certain declination, but it's still for sure there as a secular trend. So nowadays, main presence in Latin America, especially in Colombia, mexico and Argentina, but also in many, many other countries, following a little bit the academic hubs especially, but as well also in the Far East, yeah, far East, middle East, eastern Europe and APAC and India, which is, after Latin America in terms of continents, our second continent in terms of supply generation of talent development, as we like to call our centers, talent development centers. So that's Lohan. Your story has been a.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I'd love to hear your story and your contribution, obviously, to this incredible success.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and I am in charge, as suggested by my title. I'm in charge of North America's operation. I oversee all of that making our clients happy, generating new relationships, deeper relationships with our very esteemed, more tenured clients. Before that, I used to work in other companies and especially like in I've been in Glow for the last five years, but before that maybe in other competitors and also in clients A little bit more in competitors, like other professional services rather than clients, but with a lot of focus towards financial services. We can talk about that later on, but it's a very interesting vertical right, because a lot of resources, super rich clients, but at the same time sometimes following other industries' trends right, like trying to be as compelling or engaging as gaming or being as easy to onboard or to use, as you know, the mobility services such as Uber or Lyft or any of those. So in the end, a super interesting case. Anyhow, now I have, of course, across industry responsibility, so, but you know I have a biased eye towards banks and insurance companies and capital markets operations.
Speaker 1:But anyhow Fantastic, and you've seen amazing growth over the last decade.
Speaker 2:What are?
Speaker 1:some of the key factors that contribute to Globin's sort of growth trajectory. What's been your secret sauce? It's been impressive to watch.
Speaker 2:Great question, of course, and we get it a lot, especially from investors sometimes. I would say that the single most important factor is that many people in the more decisive levels of Globant, but not only in the more senior levels of Globant, and we'll get to that in a minute have a great instinct to understand where society is going in terms of technological trends, is going right In terms of technological trends, needs, functional needs and the technological use cases that those functional needs imply. Even methodologies, right. Like back in the day, maybe 15 years ago, long was the first company to introduce agile methodologies in Latin America in their hubs, right, is that a technology? Well, no, it's a methodology, but it implied a frequency in which technology was deployed and therefore it implied, once again, more impact, right, an ability to iterate, an ability to adjust, an ability, well, to be more active, right. So in that sense, I think that Glenn has, like, a better instinct than most, a better gut feeling than most. So that, I think, would be the first thing to mention Also our culture and our organization.
Speaker 2:We like to describe ourselves as an inverted pyramid, where the more important people are the ones that are connected day to day with our clients the pods right, the cells that are working in the clients with a disruptive level of autonomy. And then, of course, you know they are the ones that really have the information, they are the ones that listen to the clients. They are the ones that listen to the end users, the consumers of our solutions. You know we like to call ourselves that company that many people don't know but that provide the solutions of the brands that everyone knows. So that set of teams are connected to those clients, are connected to the final customers, to the users of our solutions are the more important people and we are set up to give that hierarchy to that people and to provide support, to give that hierarchy to that people and to provide support.
Speaker 2:And I think that the AI, cognitive advanced technology bias that we have always had embracing in particular, but not limited to AI, I don't know, for the last 15 years, publishing books and having patents about it is something that has given us an edge. We are adapting to the future. We are already there from before. Of course, some things are the best, Some experiments don't go as well as we want to, but that's life right and in that sense, what we are is early adopters. We are always trying to find the efficiency between state of the art and best in class, but never be a laggard. That is kind of our worst nightmare.
Speaker 1:You've clearly gone all in on AI-driven innovation. Just looking at your website, you talk about things like the importance of AI-driven software development. Diving deep, you have something called AI Reinvention Studios. Would love to get your perspective on those industries and how you're helping disrupt those status quo.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, you know. Interesting that you bring it up, the AI Reinvention Studios are, because it's not all about AI In the end. What do we sell? Do we sell AI? We don't, right. We sell competency right, we sell performance. And we don't even sell digital, right, as it was called, I don't know, 10 years ago.
Speaker 2:Digital is relevant because it provided efficiencies, or it increased revenue, or it decreased costs, or it gave the clients tools to, you know, become more engaging regarding their customers. Right, and AI is the same thing, right. So in that sense, we in the beginning we were like super on the other pole of industry approach, right, we were all about our studios and nothing but our studios, which were technical pockets of expertise. Right, like mobile or blockchain, or gaming, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And now we have like a dual approach.
Speaker 2:We have a primary organization, which is the studios, and we have a secondary key, which are these AI reinventions, which are the intersection between industries and technologies, but mainly AI, right? So there's an AI reinvention studio for banking, there's an ai reinvention studio for gaming, there's an ai reinvention studio for travel, dash airlines, etc. Etc. Etc. So we try to get like the best of both approaches and and try to take advantage of that expertise and that acceleration of having like communities of people that know about AI but also know about how to use that AI for a certain set of use cases, for a certain industry.
Speaker 1:A fantastic approach. You also talk a lot about the intersection of AI and customer experience, and I've had hundreds of vendors on my show solving unique problems in customer service and contact centers and e-commerce and beyond, but vendors tend to be pretty narrowly focused. What's the big picture that you see on solving and improving customer experience across all these industries?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, regarding customer experience, I think that, of course, it's a power of understanding better and therefore of segmenting smaller, right? Clients maybe have attempts of having those micro-segmentation tools and approaches and models and even network of branches, but they don't perform. So that's, I think, the angle of really verifying equity value, right between that digital investment that the clients have done and what they should get for it. But, besides customer experience and going to your previous question about what we are doing with AI, what we are doing with AI, what we are doing with AI for our clients and for their industries, is one thing, and then there's a technology for technology, the AI for us to evolve, and to not only an evolution I think that is more like a revolution and to use AI for how we deploy, for how we test, for how we design, for how we define and, of course, last but definitely not least, for how we develop code. And that's because the other day, a client of ours was asking us why are you people talking about AI as a synonym of technology, right? Why are you talking about I don't know blockchain anymore? You were like all about metaverse, like two years ago, right, metaverse. Now it's all about AI.
Speaker 2:So is this just another point in the innovation curve or not? And I think it was like a brilliant question, right? And I think that AI is, like you know, cutting all across all industries and cutting all across all technologies. Right, you can relate AI to all other or most of the other technologies. Are we going to still be talking about AI predominantly in four or five years? Well, I don't know, but I was sure that, if you asked me, are we going to still be talking about metaverse in 2025? I was sure that we were not going to be talking about metaverse and that we would be talking about I don't know blockchain or, back again, about e-commerce 4.0, right? So we're still super excited about metaverse and we're getting e-commerce operations shifting towards metaverse? Right, but they are all enhanced and empowered by AI. Right, and the same goes with all of the other projects, right? Like fintechs are, all you know, tainted by AI, even upstream exploitations, right, of oil and gas. It's all about AI.
Speaker 1:So, even if you try to get like a little bit ironic and try to be original, you still fall back into talking about AI all day long yeah, and I guess the tough question that you're facing with clients on the front lines on the business side is you know how do you maximize ROI in AI and other technology investments? I mean just for my little business here I spend, you know, hundreds of dollars on different tools and apps and other technology investments. I mean just for my little business here I spend hundreds of dollars on different tools and apps and platforms. As a content creator and podcaster and live streamer and blogger, I can only imagine the investments that have to be made, might be made in enterprises like your clients. What advice do you have to maximizing ROI, to measuring the impactfulness and effectiveness of these AI projects?
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting point. I think that, if I may add to your question, I would say not only ROI, but also risk management, because when you talk to certain enterprises which are, there's an identity between enterprises and our clients. Those are the people with whom we deal, right? Fortune 500, maybe Fortune 1000, but not further than that. Well, they're not only worried about ROI, they're worried about risks, right? Like, if I use generative AI to draft a contract, am I in a breach of contract? Am I liable for that? What if I don't allow my lawyers in my company, my bankers, my customer service representatives to use generative AI? I don't allow them to use it. What if they still use it? I have to? What Forbid the usage in their official devices or what? So that's one thing that has to be taken into account, and actually, we have solutions. We have products of our own that use the large language models, but in a safe way, right, in a way that is data protected, in a way that the cybersecurity is implied, in a way in which you can even set up what can be done and what cannot be done. But that's one thing.
Speaker 2:Regarding the ROI, I think that a key component of that is the design and the architecture, right. And there you get very quickly in the debate of large language models versus not so large language models or small language models, and the compromise between power, the learning curve of the models and the efficiency or the cost regarding the usage that you really need. So that's also something that is happening nowadays and there are, of course, many points of view. Some people think that it's large language models or nothing. Some people are like super, super pushy on small language models, saying that only like 10 or 20 companies in the world really need larger models to provide services.
Speaker 2:So it's a very interesting moment to see. I think that there's a lot of saying regarding something that many people really know, if there are people that know what's going to happen. Right, because this is all new to everybody, even if AI has been here for decades. Right, AI has been here for decades, right. Actually, financial Times is publishing a series of investigations regarding the history of AI, right, like the old part of the new. I think it's kind of illustrative of where we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exciting times. Lots of challenges and roadblocks to overcome. Speaking of those, I mean how do you and the team at Globin stay ahead of the curve when it comes to you know, 29,000 plus, I think employees? You know, how do you figure what innovations to focus on, what technologies to invest in and how to upskill your team to stay on the cutting edge?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I was mentioning I think I was mentioning a few minutes ago that we have our own social rating system, right, which is like social network, but of our own right, which is called Start Me Up, and it's great to give recognition and to be transparent and to give visibility to anywhere, everywhere, and our founders are able to congratulate or to recognize someone in another continent for having done something that that person posted in a certain social network of ours. So, in that sense, that speaks about our culture and how visible everybody can be if they choose to. And why is this relevant to your question? Because you were asking about how we keep ahead of the curve and how we know. Well, if you get locked with the 25, 30 more senior people of the company and you lock down yourselves, you start to get dizzy with your own thoughts, right, but if you are really open and you have this culture of sharing and you're like 29,000 technologists that are observing of different angles, right, like super, like hardware biased or hardware focused engineers versus visual or artistic designers versus I don't know, a gamer or someone that belongs to our gaming team, then you get intellectually much, much richer. And the other thing is that we have always had by design, but also because of those blessings that happen and then you have to focus on keeping them. We have always been blessed with a great brand recognition to attract the best talent.
Speaker 2:I think that the studios set up has something to do, or a lot to do with that, because, you know, the best engineers like to be with people with whom they can share points of view that feel challenged right, and I think that that has been a super advantage for us to keep ahead of the curve and also to be able to get the best talent and to develop that talent and to retain that talent. Our top talent retention has always been something that made us super, super proud. It's a great competitive advantage in a company that is more about people than it is about technology. Many clients define themselves as technology companies, even if they are, I don't know, like TPGs, consumer packaged foods, right, or banks or insurance companies, or, I don't know, kvut industrial operations, and they say, no, we're not that anymore, we're a technology company. Well, I think that we're no longer a technology company, we're a people company, right? So everybody's redefining themselves.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And speaking of people and companies, you work with many of the world's leading businesses. You mentioned those Fortune 500s, but I'm just looking on your websites companies like Samsung and Google and LinkedIn and Royal Caribbean and the list Coca-Cola. It goes on and on. And you have some interesting partnerships, too. Formula One interesting entities Care to call out any specific clients or projects. I don't even want to pick favorite children, but maybe there's some examples you could share into the work you're doing with clients.
Speaker 2:I think that those that you mentioned are great, and many more. I think that the great thing is that most of our larger clients, maybe 80% of them, have more than 10 years of story with us. That that speaks of the level of passion that we have to relate with them and to keep them friends and almost family. That's the first thing, and the second thing is that we are more successful with clients that are super engaged and super focused in creating relevant, significant impact in their industries, in their segments, like changing the way in which people go to a park to have fun, to watch a movie, to you know how to get money for an investment or how to design an investment, and I think that that is something that we have been super, super good at and that is why we differentiate ourselves. You were mentioning also and I think that that is probably the most relevant trend in terms of functionality that we have been exposed to and maybe pushing for the last 18, 24 months which is sports and entertainment. Right, you were mentioning FIFA, formula One, I don't know franchises, many, many sports-related businesses, the joint venture with La Liga of Spain they have a technological company together and we are like revolutionizing many, many sports venues and companies and operations and you know ways in, yeah, and I think that, regarding society, this is super relevant because you know people is super relevant because people have information, they have access to texts, they have access to communication.
Speaker 2:We are all very well nurtured in terms of technology. So once, like Maslow said, once you are satisfied regarding shelter and food, then entertainment comes right. So now it's a battle of the mind. Everybody is fighting for these two things that we have here our eyes right. So in the end, it's all about what is compelling, and we all know that sports and competition and entertainment is very compelling to the consumer. And in that sense, we have been seeing that not only the sports-related industry is investing in technology, but also the other industries are feeding themselves from sports and gaming right. So gaming is also one of our main differentials. We have a huge, huge community of gaming developers. I mean, you know all the big labels are our clients, right, many, to be a little bit more humble and nowadays, you know, the automotive industry is demanding as much gaming technology as the gaming industry. Why? Because of the infotainment, the intra-cabin experience. So it's very, very interesting to see all of the crossovers between technologies, use cases and industries. All of the crossovers between technologies, use cases and industries.
Speaker 1:Wow, wonderful insights. And you're in one of the gaming and sports meccas in the world in Miami. Any plans personally, professionally, this summer, just trying to stay cool, or?
Speaker 2:what else is on your radar before the busy fall season? No, I have to go to Europe in a few days. I was there in Boston, where you are now also in Providence in Rhode Island A lot of business in the West Coast as well. You know. That was probably our main business hub back in the day, like you know, when we became, yeah, the first one to develop software outside the Googleplex and then we became the best kept secret in that coast.
Speaker 2:But no, we travel a lot, we try to keep up. We try to also share experiences between our colleagues in the company. So, also going to Europe for that, to get insight, and probably to the Middle East to get insight on some of the things that we're doing there and receiving folks from there. There's a lot of collaboration. As we were saying before, it's also fun, right to learn about those new projects that also change the world and that your kids are so proud that maybe then when they watch the YouTube channels that they like to watch, they oh, that is related to that. So, yeah, super exciting.
Speaker 1:It can be very rewarding. It's great to see you giving those legacy IT software services companies a run for the money. Congratulations on all the success, onwards and upwards. Thanks, nico, for spending some time here. Thanks for having me All right. Thanks everyone. Reach out having me All right. Thanks everyone. Reach out to Globe and really follow. They put out great content and online events and other things worth giving them a follow. Thanks everyone. Thanks, nico.