How do you transform a ship into a hospital in one week? What is “Control Tower Program” and how did it transform the GNV business model? Watch the interview and find out!

In this #LeadershipDeepDive episode Barbara Poli, CIO & CTO of GNV Grandi Navi Veloci talks with Hendrik Deckers about the dramatic transformation of the organisation’s business model, challenges they faced when the Covid pandemic hit Italy and the world and the company’s successful effort to turn a ship into a Covid hospital in roughly one week. Building the ship-hospital presented some serious challenges:

✅ Ensuring the continuous transfer of data from the ship to the hospitals
✅ Technical issues with cabling the ship
✅ Setting up the video surveillance system, software system and the complete workstation for health care personnel

“I like to define myself as a person that likes to change the status quo”, Barbara says and shares with us her unique leadership style. Make sure you watch the whole interview with this extremely positive and inspiring digital leader!

Every year CIONET nominates top CxOs as finalists of the European Digital Leader of the Year. Barbara represents Italy in the B2C category. Join us on the special edition of #CIONEXT on November 10 at 14:30 CET where we will feature all the finalists of the B2B & B2C categories and announce winners. Register at https://www.cionext.com/

Table of contents:

01:05 | Introduction and Barbara Poli’s background
04:13 | About GNV
05:20 | The Covid impact on the business
07:56 | The unique role of GNV during the Corona crisis
12:23 | Turning a ship into a Covid Hospital
15:40 | Change and Transformation Processes
18:30 | Control Tower Program
26:02 | The IT organization at GNV
27:07 | The role of Barbara Poli as CIO
28:49 | Barbara’s management & leadership style
32:19 | MBTI : ENFJ – protagonist
33:54 | Personal weaknesses
36:36 | What makes Barbara happy at work
37:33 | Core values
39:22 | Personal mantra
40:11 | Negative experiences that shaped Barbara as a leader
41:50 | Barbara’s biggest fears
42:14 | What makes Barbara smile
43:05 | What Barbara is grateful for
43:39 | Advice for future CIOs