Information Systems | EPGP Section D | Group 6 15th April 2021
Enabling Digital Industrial Transformation
The Case provides us learning of how Impactful Leadership with Clear Vision and Rigor can help an entity
take Rebirths in Business settings i.e., business model changes, product line revamp, complete overhaul
of established processes yet keeping it Relevant to its Customers.
Situation:
The case is about Tom Siebel who is a Silicon Valley oldie. Tom is seen to climb the heights of Silicon Valley with
his charismatic leadership skills, technical know-how and network.
His employee stints with Oracle in 1983 and growth stories of Siebel Systems till 2006 spoke volumes of his
strengths. Oracle purchased Siebel Systems for USD 5.85 billion.
After Siebel Systems, Tom focused on philanthropy and clean energy and started C3 (Carbon and 3 for 3 M –
measure, mitigate and monetize) in 2009.
In 2010 C3 launched its first product C3 Energy Management. This software helped large enterprises to measure
and reduce their energy usage.
Tom restructured C3 and downsized the employee strength. He went underground with his core team for two
years and developed the firm’s core software to relaunched C3 as C3 Energy in 2012.
C3 Energy helped grid operators develope smart grid through predictive maintenance, detecting theft and
monitoring network health using machine learning. Multiple customers of C3 energy were Pacific Gas & Electric,
Baltimore Gas & Electric, Eversource and Hydro Quebec.
With C3 Energy, Tom realized that power grid is the extreme case of big data, AI and IOT as it deals with million of
sensors, massive dataset and velocity. If C3 could solve that they could use the same algorithm for industries like
travel, transportation, health care, aerospace and manufacturing.
With Tom’s vision and understanding of the economic and technical background, he was quick to understand that
the exponential jump in the number of sensors across value chains and the simultaneous development in cloud
computing to store the data from sensors presented a fantastic opportunity in IOT sector. With this as an essence,
Tom renamed C3 energy as C3 IoT and offered cloud computing, data analytics, AI and machine learning
applications to all industries and government agencies.
Value proposition of C3 IoT – Tom created a platform for designing, developing and operating enterprise scale big
data, predictive analytics, AI and IoT. Customers had the flexibility of using prebuilt AI modules or use a
customised setup on C3’s AI platform, based on their requirements. Partnered with AWS and Azure and networked
with delivery partners like McKinsey and BCG. Tom developed a C3 Type System based on Model Driven
Architecture (MDA). This was the seed for the clients of C3 IoT to be digitally transformed – USP.
Every component of C3 model was “C3 type”, that future-proofed the customer from possible changes in database
engine in future. That also solved future compatibility issues between variety of software from multiple vendors.
Tom valued partnerships both on service and technology front and had alliances with AWS, Azure, Intel, Google to
promote and sell C3 IoT products. Between 2009 and 2018, C3 IoT’s total fundraising to about $223 million.
Complication:
Tom met an accident in Tanzania in August 2009 when an elephant gored his left leg, crushed his right leg and
broke several of his ribs. He spent next two years in an electric wheelchair and struggling to regain ability to walk.
As oil prices stumbled, orders for C3 slowed and it faced severe financial crisis where it had to lay off 100 out of
150 employees then - Hardest decision for Tom in his career.
With C3 IoT, though the market spoke to IoT, hardly companies had the will or the comfort to let companies like
C3 understand their data. Moreover, IoT was a fad for companies then.
Scaling C3 IoT was a critical activity during 2018 where right talent – data scientists and AI experts were in high
demand and getting developers and Product Managers were difficult. Adding, the next challenge was how to
convert handful of successful customers to hundreds.
Complications regarding overall working with clients, strategic challenges and threats from competitors
Organizational Insights:
Core Value of the company Organisation Culture
o Drive and innovation propelling o Unwavering dedication to excellence.
growth o Employee from top tier schools in US
o Natural curiosity to solve the o Decisive and positive leader who is dynamic, adaptable, high
impossible energy, radiates positivity but humble individual who is coachable
o Profession integrity governing all with strong moral compass.
endeavours o Customer satisfaction at the core of the culture; Building
o Collective Intelligence relationship with customers with business ethics and professionalism
Tom’s Skills
o Networking Skills o Understand the economic and technology environment
o Technical and Business acumen o Taking the tough calls of laying off employees of the C3 entity
o Rigor o Tom interviewed all the finalists and was incredibly demanding
o Attitude of not to give up
Information Systems | EPGP Section D | Group 6 15th April 2021
