#60 Yasir Anwar CTO of Williams Sonoma Inc

Episode 60 ·

Today we are talking to Yasir Anwar, the CTO of Williams Sonoma. And we discuss their exciting developments with AR and VR, creating an outcome based culture , and making sure your investments align with your passion to achieve success

All of this, right here, right now on the Modern CTO Podcast!

Show Notes

  • Sunny day in San Fran
  • WSI AR/VR implementation
  • Customer facing room planner
  • Who’s idea was it to engage with AR/VR
  • Yasir oversees the company that was acquired for AR/VR
  • How did you get started in technology and work your way up to WSI
  • What qualities stand out for great leaders X axis - passion Y axis - expertise
  • Customer is moving in to mobile
  • What gets you excited to jump out of bed in the morning
  • Companies are either tech companies or doing business through tech
  • What are the brands associated with WSI
  • Unique challenge for technologists having multiple brands
  • Pie Chart of a day - 1 slice is strategizing on initiatives - 1 slice engaging with people in different layers, ask questions get feed back - 1 slice EC meetings - strategy - operations - people
  • What piece of advice would you give to yourself if you could talk to yourself 10 years ago
  • Follow your passion and make sure that your investments align with your passion
  • Passion is technology leadership and the customer
  • A business exists to bring value to a market
  • It's so important to have the right talent
  • Outcome based cultures - shifting from output to outcome
  • Core competencies of the executive level
  • Has been very heads down in the transformation of WSI
  • Do something great and then go and share it

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