Guiding a Legacy Company’s Digital Transformation with Stacey Goodman, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Prudential Financial

A company’s position about digital transformation could be out with the old and in with the new. But, generally, if a product or service has existed for a long time, that’s because it has held its value. In a legacy business with good values and a deep tradition, digitization of services is more about improving respected systems as well as innovating with a forward-looking mindset. Stacey Goodman, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Prudential Financial, describes her strategy for transforming the digital experience at Prudential.

Main Takeaways

• Transforming a Legacy Company: It’s a big lift to digitally transform a legacy company such as Prudential, which has existed for 145 years. But a company with good values and an established track record of delivering for customers has a great foundation on which to build upon. In other words, challenges are opportunities. One challenge that Prudential constantly faces is scale combined with the complexity of its life insurance and annuities products. Furthermore, a company with so much history also has a high volume of products that must be managed.
• Marriage Between Customer and CIO Priorities: Most customers want more access at the touch of their fingertips. Prudential customers want to be able to see their assets whenever they want; particularly, during times of economic uncertainty. Customers desire the freedom to explore and make their own choices yet advisement help when needed. As CIO, Goodman’s goals are in support of what customers desire. For instance, she cares about making sure customers can easily get their password, or that robotic advice is readily available when customers want help.
• Culture and Dynamic Work Attracts Talent: Goodman has a unique mindset regarding attracting and retaining talent at Prudential. Fundamentally, she sees the company having a good culture and providing interesting work. She makes the point that sometimes startup culture and work does not always meet the hype and that working at Prudential can provide employees a comfortable environment. An established company with well-defined structures in place can support its workers. She sees Prudential as the sort of place where employees want to be.

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