How is SEAT:CODE different to Seat & Cupra? Can a car industry organization become a profitable digital business? Why is it so important to keep the control of a digital product in-house? What is Fast Lane and how does it respond to changing customer needs?

In this #LeadershipDeepDive episode Sebastian Grams, CEO of Audi Sport (former CIO of Seat & Cupra) talks with Hendrik Deckers about the transformation journey he took first in Audi, changing from “classical” IT to agile, and then in Seat where he set up SEAT:CODE, “a new organization from an IT perspective, which is caring about projects end to end.” All this was possible thanks to Sebastian’s management style:

✅ Trusting the team
✅ Close collaboration with HR department
✅ Being brave and failing
✅ Continuous learning

Every year CIONET nominates top CxOs as finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year. Sebastian represents Germany in the B2C category.

Table of contents:

01:03 | Introduction and Sebastian Grams’ background

03:23 | About Seat & Cupra

07:39 | Transformation journey

13:14 | Setting up SEAT:CODE

20:13 | Moving SEAT:CODE to Barcelona

22:47 | Mobility as a service

26:28 | Exciting and dynamic car industry

27:41 | Fast Lane

31:20 | Data-driven company

33:07 | Implementation of AI

34:46 | One team, multiple locations

37:44 | Sebastian’s management style

40:22 | Changing role of CIO

43:17 | Sebastian’s leadership style

44:14 | MBTI: the Protagonist

49:08 | What makes Sebastian happy

50:47 | Sebastian’s mentors

52:15 | Sebastian’s core values

55:03 | Failures & mistakes

57:56 | Advice for people starting out