IT Leadership Dinner – Driving Digital Transformation with Jaguar Land Rover – Agile Product Development & Connected Car

Last week, Berwick Partners hosted an IT Leaders Roundtable Dinner at Orelle Restaurant in Birmingham.  The event brought together CIOs in a private dining room on the 24th floor. Against a welcome backdrop of a clear blue sky and panoramic views of the city skyline, guests enjoyed both excellent food and service.

The theme of the evening centred around Digital Transformation. Attendees engaged in discussions about their own organisation’s maturity levels in Agile methodology and product development. Mark Brodgen, Engineering Director at Jaguar Land Rover, led a Chatham House discussion on JLR’s Agile transformation, followed by a Q&A session. 

Key insights from the event included: 

• Shift to Agile – Sharing insights on how to transition from traditional waterfall methods to Agile practice. Emphasising iterative development, cross-functional teams and continuous improvement. Benefits and impact of moving away from rigid project timelines, towards an adaptive customer focused approach.  

• People & Team Structure – Discussions covered the distinction between Technical Product Managers and Product Managers, and the adoption of Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and DevSecOps specialists. Broader benefits of creating a new team, separate from the existing core business. How hiring “Agile Natives” and then integrating this model into the main group worked in practice. 

• Technology Transition – Specifically focused on a move to Cloud & Edge and its benefits. Challenges of manging large volumes of data, and its importance and impact on driving future development and innovation. 

• Cyber Security Focus – The importance of Automation Pipelines and Security Operation Centres were highlighted. Cyber threats and proactive security measures were forefront of mind for all participants. 

As the evening concluded, guests drew parallels with JLR’s journey, debating and discussing how to modernise their own businesses, emphasising agility, innovation and customer-centricity.  

If you are interested in attending future events hosted by our IT & Digital Practice, please contact Rob Fain.