Announcer: Welcome to Tech Talk, a podcast featuring employees and leaders discussing all things tech at Mutual of Omaha. Join us to learn what tech professionals can gain from a career with us. Let’s talk tech.
Shonna Dorsey: Hi, I’m Shonna Dorsey.
Brian Poppe: And I am Brian Poppe, welcome to the first episode of Tech Talk. So, we’ve got a special guest here today, but before we introduce him, Shonna what do you have planned for the weekend?
Shonna Dorsey: So this weekend I am in Denver, I’m planning to do a 5K tonight. I was going to say run, but it’s more like walk/jog run a little bit sort of thing (Shonna laughs)
Brian Poppe: Yeah, I’m planning on doing the same thing, only like a little bit less. So, I’m planning on watching a movie in 4K, so yeah, same exact deal going on over here.
Shonna Dorsey: Same thing. (Shonna laughs)
Brian Poppe: So our special guest today is Mike Lechtenberger the Chief Information Officer here at Mutual of Omaha. Mike — thanks for joining us today.
Mike Lechtenberger: Great to be here Brian. Thank you both for having me.
Brian Poppe: So, we’ve got a couple of questions and we’ll see if we can get through them and see where the conversation takes us. First off, tell us about your career path here at Mutual.
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, sure thing. Well first of all I’ve had a very wonderful career path, and I’m kind of unusual I suppose. I’ve only worked for one company after I got my college degree and that’s Mutual of Omaha obviously. So, I started out as a software developer at Mutual, mostly working on mainframe systems at the time, and to be honest, I thought that was kind of boring and I thought I wouldn’t last more than a couple of years at Mutual. I thought I would probably learn a few things and then maybe move on.
But some interesting things happened, I started to get some opportunities to press into some new technologies, and work with some new projects that the company needed, work with some new folks along the way. Businesspeople and IT people which I always enjoyed working with both and still do enormously. That’s just so much fun to see how the business works and operates, and so I think through that you know over the course of time, the challenge was there, the learning was there, and it was just a blast and still is.
And, and so my career path next led to becoming a systems analyst, then a project manager. So, I got to manage projects which I I loved doing that, just helping teams be successful and align to what needed to be done and you know just get things accomplished, good things done. That was just a real exciting thing for me. And then then I moved into management, and first level management position, and begin to work with teams in that capacity which was again another learning opportunity, another new thing which I I really enjoyed doing a lot and loved it so much I think that you know kind of led to me pursuing a path that led to where I’m at now.
I didn’t really set out as a senior or as an application developer to be CIO, honestly, I didn’t and that really wasn’t on my career mindset or journey. But I I think as you advance through the organization you see pathways to these things, and you enjoy what you do and that’s true today. I love what I do, I love getting up in the morning and and coming to work, and virtually now these days. I love coming to work and and doing what I do, and you know very fortunate in the experiences I’ve had here Mutual.
Brian Poppe: Yeah, that’s quite a career, coming from a mainframe developer that was only going to stay for a year or two, learn some stuff all the way to the C-Suite and the Chief Information Officer chair.
Shonna Dorsey: Yes, it’s pretty incredible. So, in your CIO job can you tell us what you do?
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, that’s an interesting question too. No two days are the same that’s for sure. I mean there’s always a lot of things going on, but I think at the at the most basic level, you know leaders are leaders and leaders you know have to do really key things for their teams and their companies. And a lot of those are things like you know, creating vision aligning vision, getting resourcing to accomplish great things, building teams, and building people, providing you know, coaching feedback, and helping develop a team to operate together, you know those are the things that I love doing. Manage risk, you know we’re an insurance company so we, you know we, we deal with risk just as the nature of our business. But also, in how we go about, you know the operations of our company and in in every company these days, has to deal with cyber risk, that’s a big part of our investment in our program.
And we have a great team of cyber professionals that are helping us do that each and every day. Let’s see what else, interactions with the the executive team for sure, spent a lot of time, spent about the whole day yesterday with our CEO and and the executives looking ahead to 2023 and beyond and and trying to understand what does success look like for Mutual of Omaha, for our businesses, what changes do we need to make, what opportunities do we need to seize upon and prepare for the board you know, we will have our board discussions coming up now to to share this plan with them and gain their support, and so it’s all very exciting stuff. It’s but, like I say, no two days are the same. Yesterday the whole day was with the exec team, today now is a meeting where I’m doing things like a podcast, we had an all IS meeting this morning as you two know. So, this afternoon I’ll have some meetings, where we’re talking about funding and and really trying to get better alignment on the funding for next year. And I love variety and and I suppose this job really delivers that, but I also really thrive on purpose, in purpose and what I do, and I hope that the the purpose is is noble and pure and good and that I’m doing everything I can to contribute towards achieving that. Which as I said, just takes a lot of different forms depending on the on the day.
Shonna Dorsey: That’s great, I know we often talk about the shadow of the leader here at Mutual of Omaha, and I think he casts a great shadow so thanks for all you do for us.
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, thank you Shonna.
Brian Poppe: Yes, so do you you mentioned getting to spend all day yesterday doing things like planning for 2023 and beyond, so I’m sure in your role you get to see a wide spectrum of stuff that’s going on here at Mutual of Omaha. Can you pick two things and just tell us what two things are you most excited about here at Mutual?
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, that’s tough to narrow it down Brian, is you know we we just we have a lot of great things going on, but probably the two things I would probably call out here is our tech modernization program, which you’re leading for us Brian. So, appreciate your leadership there and also talent, and Shonna is very involved in our talent initiatives, our talent, what we call our IS talent system which is designed to really do a lot of great things to help with development, training acquisition, and new talent, and those types of things.
But on tech mod, Brian could probably tell the story better than me, but our businesses really need contemporary technology, they they need the capabilities that allow us to be more digital, allow us to be more meaningful and relevant in the marketplace, allow us to employ, to deliver I guess, better automation to our IS or our associates that are helping support our customers better data. Brian was recently named our Chief Data Officer, so he’s he’s very vested in, strategic about thinking about the ways of providing better data platforms, better tooling, better abilities to leverage the data. As most insurance companies do we have an awful lot of data, and we want to be able to to leverage that to better serve our customers, and and look for opportunities.
So yeah, modernization is just, we started this project, I guess it would be three years ago this fall, and we’re just now well, and it’ll probably continue for another four years we think. And it’s a lot of fun, it’s frustrating at times, because we’re dealing with some of the old legacy technology that yours truly coded you know back in the old days, so we’re we’re trying to really you know, extricate ourselves with some things that just are not helping us and and deliver the types of capabilities that all three of us would expect. And the companies that we deal with, right, we expect apps, you know phone apps, we expect the type of experience that really allows us to have a a very pleasing experience with the companies that we’re working with. So, talent, talent is all this happens all the modernization happens, because of great talent. And we have a great team, we really do and I’m very fortunate to be a part of this team and have a hand in helping shape that team. And we’re just very, very blessed by having a combination of folks, here in Omaha, but also increasingly folks from outside of Omaha. Team members that are from outside of the Omaha area so with our flexible work program where we think we’re really finding the best ways to work together and be productive and get the job done so that’s very exciting. We work with college campuses, Shonna is very very much part of that we have career changer programs, we’re upscaling and providing developmental opportunities for our team here at Mutual, so we’re really, and and they do this, we do this in a very creative way that’s probably the thing that’s very exciting to me. I’m always hearing new ideas about how we can do better, how can we help people feel a stronger sense of belonging and be a part of the growth and development of our IT program here at Mutual, so those are probably two biggies. I could list a lot more but those are the two big ones I think right now on my mind.
Brian Poppe: Yeah, that’s great and you heard it here first. For any of the legacy tech problems we can blame past Mike (Mike and Shonna laughs), current would not have made the same choice but past Mike that guy (Shonna and Mike Laugh).
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, I thought they took my name out of the comment sections in the old programs (Brian laughs) but apparently some are still there.
Brian Poppe: Yeah, so that’s great (Shonna laughs).
Shonna Dorsey: So, Mike, what advice would you give to someone who’s starting a career in tech, Mutual whether they’re new to tech altogether or just new to our company?
Mike Lechtenberger: Well yeah, I, you know first of all I’d say seek rotational type assignments periodically. I think you just learn a lot; I learned a lot. I had the opportunity to bounce around to different teams, and until being in this job I think I probably was no more than two years in a particular assignment, and then I had the opportunity to move into something else. You just learned so much and and Mutual’s an amazing company, the businesses that we have, the technologies that we use, the people that are part of the team. I just think that’s great to be able to rotate, you learn so much. Be curious, always be curious about, what’s going on.
I’ve used the phrase in the past, “Follow the money”, I just think when you understand the business at that level ,and you understand, you know why, why should a customer give Mutual of Omaha money, and then what happens to that money, how does the company really process that and establish reserves for our products, and payout claims, and these types of things, I think you just learned so much about what it means to the customer really. And when you get curious about that, and start to understand that, then that innovation really kicks in and you can find out ways or challenge us to hey how can we do that better, how can we create a better experience, how can we maybe optimize what’s going on here.
So, I think that’s always a great thing and, and you know, don’t be shy about asking questions. I know you two are great about that, by the way just asking questions and you know, there’s no such thing as a dumb question, that’s how we all learn and that’s sometimes how we prod the process and the team to get better. So that’s a probably another piece of advice I would give. And maybe one of the last things would just be patient in a career you know, sometimes like me, I only thought I’d be here for a year or two and take off. I I was patient enough to hang around and wait for things to happen and be a part of initiating things and asking questions and, and really maybe kind of championing myself a little bit and moving around, and things happen, and things opened up. So, I just encourage patience because things will change, opportunities open up and you just want to be in position to really you know be a part of those changes. And be there to raise your hand when when the the call goes out, and you know, I think you two have done that in your careers, and I think that that really is a way to advance yourself advance with company needs and really move ahead.
Shonna Dorsey: I agree. I think that culture if you will, have experimentation is definitely alive and well here and appreciated.
Mike Lechtenberger: Yep.
Shonna Dorsey: Yep.
Mike Lechtenberger: Yeah, it is that’s a valuable thing, we talked about that a lot, don’t we? That we’re going to fail, nobody’s perfect and I’ve certainly failed throughout my career. We don’t have enough time to get into that right now but, when you experience things that don’t go well because of a well intended approach or hypothesis testing. Hypothesis to to make an improvement, guys, we learned so much, and we’re a company that really celebrates that opportunity to learn and sometimes learn through things not going the way you thought they would originally.
Shonna Dorsey: Yeah.
Brian Poppe: It’s convenient that we did not get a chance to get into your failures today but, thank you for joining us today (Shonna laughs), Mike — we’ve had a great time, you had some great advice, and you know, got to highlight some of the things that are going on here at Mutual of Omaha. Thank you, viewers, for joining us, we look forward to seeing you at future Tech Talks. So, keep a lookout for episode 2 and beyond. Shonna — thanks for joining me as well.
Brian Poppe: We’ll see you again soon, enjoy that 5K.
Shonna Dorsey: Yes. Thank you. See you.
Mike Lechtenberger: Thank you all.