Technology led to significant changes in 2018 for most CEOs - Miami Herald

The major change for us in 2018 was in strengthening our electronic medical record and online presence, including a new website with additional portals to allow patient access to clinic scheduling and medical information. We anticipate a growing online presence in 2019, as well as further strengthening our use of electronic medical records to optimize patient care and patient satisfaction.

Dr. Edward Abraham, executive vice president for Health Affairs of the University of Miami and CEO of UHealth - the UM Health System

Constant vigilance on market trends and advising accordingly. Expand prudently and maintain within market constraints. Miami and the surrounding communities have different economies and scales. Then you have the relocation crowd that requires immediate attention, causing all hands on deck service. We have to operate in real time, which is a significant challenge.

Jim Angleton, CEO for Aegis FinServ Corp.

The opening of our Coral Springs Family Health Center in 2018, which includes an outpatient surgery center, allows Cleveland Clinic Florida to streamline services and enhance flexibility to ensure our patients are in the right place at the right time for the right care. Technology, smaller incisions and advances in anesthesia and pain management techniques allow us to shift many inpatient procedures to the outpatient setting where patients benefit from high quality care, faster recovery times and improved outcomes, while keeping costs low.

Wael Barsoum, M.D., CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic Florida

I can’t say there were major changes, but a continuation of the initiatives we established over the past several years — an emphasis on making banking more convenient and accessible to our customers through expanded digital platforms, remodeling and relocation of key branches and opening de novo branches.

Agostinho Alfonso Macedo, president and CEO of Ocean Bank

There has not been any significant change in the way we do business.

Bill Diggs, president, The Mourning Family Foundation

For each of the past 11 years, T-ROC has been fortunate and blessed to experience massive growth. I am a big believer that companies generate as much revenue as they are built to support. That mentality forces us to reevaluate our infrastructure as needed and, as our company name states, we “optimize” our organization in ways that will allow us to scale and maintain our growth-oriented DNA. In 2018, we initiated and completed a comprehensive reorganization that included the addition of new senior level management, the shifting of leadership in several of our divisions, and a new performance management program that will allow our employees to have transparency into how they are doing and have a real impact on how to maintain a job well done or improve throughout the year.

Brett Beveridge, CEO and founder of The Revenue Optimization Companies (T-ROC)

In late 2017, Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida launched an extensive business operations transformation initiative. While the initiative was launched in 2017, it made significant impacts on our business operations and the way we do business in 2018. By leveraging the Salesforce.com platform, we streamlined processes, centralized our volunteer service, and built in accountability for performance. The changes have already made a positive impact on our organization, as reflected in an improved organizational culture, membership growth, and other council health indicators

Chelsea Wilkerson, CEO of Girl Scouts Tropical Florida

We created more of a team environment. Although we are open 24/7/365, the weekend and evening crew voiced concerns about feeling left out of activities and not being a part of the agency. We re-worked our schedule so that there is a full complement of staff (including management) in the evenings as well as on weekends.

Dorcas L. Wilcox, CEO of Miami Bridge Youth & Family Services

Technology has had a significant impact on the way we do business. In the last two years, we continued to make upgrades to our student support services, including advisement and online access. As we seek to make ourselves attractive to students of all ages and backgrounds, we have had to keep abreast with cutting-edge technology. For example, we implemented a platform that allows for better student case management and proactive advising that begins to shift our college toward a more holistic approach to student success. In addition, the college’s entire wireless network infrastructure was upgraded to increase speed, capacity, and coverage. Many outdoor areas around our campuses now have wireless access, and our data center, which houses many of our student-facing applications, has been migrated to a private cloud to increase performance and reliability. We have also invested in improving our research capabilities through the institutionalization of Power BI dashboards that puts actionable data at the fingertips of our administrative team, who can now quickly identify barriers to student success and improve our efficiency in addressing them. Student success is the core of our business, and so our efforts in technology are also focused on classroom innovation. Our students are used to technology in every aspect of their lives, and we must meet that expectation in the classroom. Over the last year, we invested in supporting faculty innovation by using the funds received from our 2017 Aspen Prize as a top three college to support faculty innovation projects that enhance student learning in the classroom. We have also invested in teaching excellence through the American Colleges and Universities Educators Innovations in Teaching program of study. These rigorous modules, which require an entire year of learning, implementation in the classroom, and personal and group reflection, have shown early promise in improving the student experience and their success in courses.

Gregory Adam Haile, president of Broward College

We invested a significant amount of time and resources to acquire and integrate TotalBank. This allowed us to surpass the $14 billion asset mark and become the third-largest Florida-based bank. We also dedicated a substantial effort in the development of a strategic plan that will drive significant investment in people, technology and new products. This will allow us to continue providing a market-leading client experience in a fast-changing environment and become the big bank alternative in Florida.

Jorge Gonzalez, president and CEO, City National Bank

Despite the geopolitical environment that emphasizes nationalism, we believe there is a need for an increasingly global and flexible workforce with greater technical skills and more adaptability. The rate of change and need for adaptability will influence the nature of global workforces and will emphasize ethnic and gender diversity.

Louis Hernandez Jr., CEO, of Black Dragon Capital

In 2018, we redoubled our efforts to focus on listening more attentively to our team members and our clients and to the market about client needs and our industry. We expended considerable human and financial resources on technology in an effort to provide our team members and our clients enhanced efficiency and a competitive edge.

Paul Singerman, co-chair of Berger Singerman

This year, and the last 3-4 years in fact, we’ve been in a “sell mode.” We were focused on selling assets and building up cash reserves.

James “Jimmy” Tate, co-owner and president of TKA-Evolution Apparel and of Tate Capital, and co-founder of Tate Development Corp.

The Miami Super Bowl Host Committee launched the Business Connect program for Super Bowl LIV. The program is the National Football League’s special event production supplier diversity initiative.

Rashad D. Thomas, vice president of business connect and community outreach for the Miami Super Bowl Host Committee

The most significant change is automating our field operations via iPads, and Procore, which is a construction integration software system. I believe it is essential for companies to integrate the office and field operations.

Manny Angelo Varas president and CEO of MV Construction Group

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THE MIAMI HERALD CEO ROUNDTABLE IS A WEEKLY FEATURE THAT APPEARS IN BUSINESS MONDAY OF THE MIAMI HERALD. RECENT QUESTIONS HAVE INCLUDED

▪ What are CEOs doing to attract and retain workers?

▪ Most CEOs say salaries will increase in 2019

▪ Most CEOs are in ‘growth mode’ with plans to hire more

▪ CEOs’ 2019 economic forecast offers differing views

▪ How CEOs are trying to attract ‘Generation Z’

▪ Most CEOs say PortMiami should expand more, without hurting the fragile eco-system

▪ Should financial institutions reach more ‘unbanked’ people?

▪ Tech scene throughout South Florida is building momentum

▪ CEOs discuss their top workforce challenges for 2019