Today we welcome Azita Arvani, former CEO of Rakuten Symphony NA, to The CXO Journey to the AI Future podcast.
Azita Arvani is a dynamic global technology executive known for driving innovation in telecommunications. Currently focused on AI-driven transformations, she seeks to unlock new opportunities across various industries. As the former CEO of Rakuten Symphony North America, she led the development of Open RAN solutions, revolutionizing communications. Azita also serves as an independent director on public company boards.
Her distinguished career spans startups and Fortune 500 companies, where she excels in pioneering digital transformations and leveraging technologies like AI, 5G, IoT, cloud, and AR/VR. Recognized for her leadership, she received the 2023 Woman in Tech Leader award and was a nominee for Woman in Telecom at the World Communications Awards. Before Rakuten, Azita held strategic roles at Nokia, founding global innovation scouting teams and forging strategic partnerships that drove significant growth.
I was a computer science major. When I graduated, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center was the mecca for computer scientists, so I started at Xerox and worked on Ethernet. My first job involved working closely with PARC, and then I got lucky and was fast-tracked to being the chief of staff for all of our R&D.
The big mission for us was creating business value from the technologies coming out of PARC. I don’t know if you remember, but graphical user interfaces, ubiquitous computing, distributed computing, and object-oriented languages were all invented there. I was like a kid in a candy store with all these shiny objects to work with.
The big insight for me was realizing that having great technology is not enough. To make a big impact, you need a lot of people who want to use your technology to solve a real problem and are willing to pay for it.
I got started at Xerox during an amazing time in history. Xerox PARC was really at the center of innovation on many fronts, as you described. Then I was chosen to be chief of staff, a significant role there.
So, at Xerox, I worked on commercializing technologies from PARC. At the same time, I decided to gain some academic background and earned my master’s in management from Stanford. In 2000, a startup CEO showed me a video of a rocket launch on my Palm V, which made me realize the future of mobile and video. I left Xerox to join this startup as head of business development, strategy, and sales, creating a mobile ecosystem that didn’t exist back then.
Embracing technology early opened many doors for me. Companies, big and small, sought my help to enter the mobile space, so I founded my own consulting company to assist multiple firms. I learned everything about business development and the operations needed to launch a startup. After a decade, Nokia invited me to set up an innovation lab in Silicon Valley, bringing in external innovation. This experience taught me the importance of making it easy for startups to collaborate with big companies.
That’s where we met and held amazing all-day meetings between business unit folks and startups. One of our technology themes was programmable mobile networks. In 2018, Rakuten decided to become a mobile operator using this new architecture. As a customer of Nokia, I facilitated this collaboration. A few years later, I joined Rakuten to evangelize and deploy the technology globally, eventually becoming CEO of Rakuten Symphony North America.
We were working on software for different machines, each with its own version of the same software. During my lunch breaks, I decided to create a unified software solution for all our machines. When the head of our puppet R&D visited our department and saw the demo, he liked it and suggested I join his team. This led to me shadowing him, which was a special fast-track opportunity available at the time.
I knew we had been talking about software-defined networking and the virtualization of network functions for a decade. Despite many POCs and trials, no one was willing to deploy it fully. For me, it was great to see that finally, someone was courageous enough to take that chance. I figured if they were willing to take the chance, and I had all the knowledge and expertise, I could help them out. I had been waiting on this for a decade.
People are smart and can figure out a lot of things. My role model is Da Vinci because I love to explore things. I think technology is changing faster. It’s not just about changing companies, but adapting to new technology. It’s super important to recognize inflection points, like when Home Mobile appeared, or now with AI, and jump on them. They don’t happen often.
You need to pay attention and take advantage of these opportunities. The Innovator’s Dilemma, though written a long time ago, is still relevant and affects all kinds of companies. If you’re an innovative company that scaled successfully, you need to maintain your edge because there are always others coming up behind you. It’s not enough to create an R&D lab like Xerox; you need to make it easier for startups to work with you and empower people to make changes. Otherwise, your company will go out of business in a decade or two. Longevity requires a lot of effort.
I’ve been a big fan of digital transformation for quite some time now. Initially, progress was slow, but COVID accelerated it. The key enablers of digital transformation are IoT, the cloud, and next-generation communications like 5G. Every CEO and CXO needs to consider how these factors impact their digital transformation journey.
AI has been around for a while, with notable advancements like natural language processing from labs such as Grenoble and Xerox. However, my pivotal moment came in late 2022 with ChatGPT marking AI’s path toward AGI. This is a significant development that demands attention from CEOs and board members alike.
Following this shift, I chose to step down after nine months. November 2022 was a critical inflection point for me, emphasizing the importance of understanding this new wave of GenAI. It’s crucial for CEOs to lead AI strategy directly and for board members to ensure its integration across operations. While there’s understandable apprehension, there are immediate, impactful applications of GenAI in customer service, sales, marketing, and security. Enterprises should start with these low-hanging fruit opportunities before progressing to more tailored industry use cases.
In telecommunications, for instance, there are clear applications in network management and radio access networks, alongside advanced possibilities like managing 5G network slices. Each industry can identify initial use cases based on data availability, potential cost savings, and the ability to streamline business processes. Effective deployment requires starting with proof of concept teams outside current business processes.
I’ve observed the leader’s dilemma firsthand. When automating business processes, sticking alongside teams familiar with the current process can hinder innovation. It’s crucial to involve teams who don’t use that process currently, who can bring a fresh perspective. Even amidst uncertainty, my advice is to embrace discomfort. You need to be actively engaged, starting small with areas that promise the most value, and expanding from there.
AI’s evolution, highlighted by ChatGPT’s advancements, is rapid and transformative. It’s becoming a digital species sooner than we think, potentially reshaping industries fundamentally. Board leadership, especially in non-tech sectors, must grasp this and strategize accordingly, even if it’s in the early stages.
Changing minds on this isn’t easy, but it’s essential. Computing power and AI capabilities are advancing exponentially, augmenting human potential rather than displacing it. This augmentation promises greater productivity and creativity, redirecting focus from mundane tasks to more meaningful engagements with customers and tasks at hand.
Digital assistants like Siri exemplify this shift, enhancing productivity by managing routine tasks and allowing us to stay focused. This approach isn’t just about reducing workload but expanding possibilities and efficiencies.
Here are three principles I live by:
Number one: Seek knowledge from cradle to grave. Both of my parents were educators who instilled this value of education in me.
Number two: Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Challenge yourself daily, whether it’s through simple tasks like taking a shower or pushing yourself with a hard workout.
Number three: Despite the constant input from sources like social media or highly intelligent and ambitious individuals, don’t abdicate your own independent thinking.
Azita Arvani is a high-energy and accomplished global technology executive with a proven track record of driving innovation and transformation within the telecommunications and high-tech sectors. Currently, she is focused on AI-driven transformations to unlock new opportunities and efficiencies across various sectors. Her leadership extends to roles as an independent director on public company boards.
Azita’s distinguished career includes groundbreaking work in both startups and Fortune 500 companies, where she excels in navigating uncharted business territories and opening new markets. She has driven growth through pioneering digital transformations and leveraged cutting-edge technologies such as AI, 5G, IoT, cloud, and AR/VR to create impactful, customer-centric solutions. Recognized for her leadership excellence, she was honored with the Woman in Tech Leader award in 2023 and was a nominee for the Woman in Telecoms at the World Communications Awards.
Prior to Rakuten, Azita held strategic roles at Nokia, where she founded and led global innovation scouting teams and forged strategic partnerships that significantly contributed to Nokia’s growth.
Azita holds a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University (Sloan Fellow), a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Southern California, and a Bachelor of Science in Math/Computer Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (Magna Cum Laude). As an esteemed thought leader and speaker at prestigious international trade shows, Azita continues to champion true digital transformation across telcos and other industries, sharing her insights on automation and AI to drive the future of telecommunications.
