In reading Tom Siebel’s latest book on Digital Transformation where he discusses where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going with AI, IoT, Elastic Cloud Computing and Big Data, he also discusses creating a transformative culture of innovation.

Some key points:

* Companies that are able to innovate effectively sharing these characteristics, win: high tolerance for risk, agile project management, empowered and trained employees, collaborative cultures, lack of silos and an effective decision making structure.

* At his company, C3.ai, they have a Self-Learning Hall of Fame for skill development, which includes a letter of recognition signed by the CEO and a bonus check for each certification of completion.

* The above program is not managed by HR but rather at the C-suite level to take ownership, participate, lead by example, recognize participation and to make it an integral part of company culture.

C3.ai is extremely competitive with hiring, last year alone they had over 100 open data scientist/software engineer positions and received 26,000 applicants, interviewed 1,700 (6%) and hired 120 (.4%).