The Head of Innovation and Transformation for Iberia at Amazon Web Services (AWS) shares in this interview his vision on innovation, digital culture, and the impact of the company’s data centers in Aragón.
Alejandro Briceño, Head of Innovation and Transformation for Iberia at Amazon Web Services (AWS), began his professional career at IBM Venezuela, where he participated in ERP implementations that sparked his interest in change management and solving real problems through active listening to customers. After arriving in Spain, he joined Opinno, where he specialized in innovation and user-centered design, knowledge he now considers essential for building more agile organizations focused on the real needs of the market.
Currently, he works at AWS, an environment where innovation is a structured and constant process. There, he applies mechanisms such as Working Backwards, Two-Pizza Teams, and Amazon’s leadership principles to assist companies in designing new services, adopting artificial intelligence, and defining digital strategies with measurable impact. His teaching role at The Valley complements this vision by allowing him to connect with executives from various industries, understand their challenges, and detect emerging trends in talent and digital culture.
His perspective is particularly relevant for Aragón, a region where AWS has deployed data centers that, according to Briceño, represent a strategic opportunity for companies and startups looking to scale, innovate, and compete globally. In the interview, he addresses key topics from his experience, such as the importance of data quality, governance, innovation culture, and the digital maturity of the regional business fabric, as well as explaining initiatives like the RasmIA Innovation Camp and offering recommendations for organizations to progress with ambition and collaboration.
From your experience at Amazon Web Services, how do you define effective digital transformation in an organization?
For me, effective digital transformation has four very clear components. The first is culture: a mindset where people want and desire to change. A mindset that fosters innovation, even knowing that in some cases there will be failures. Without that drive, no technology works. For that, you need a lot of inspiration, motivation, and leadership that helps change how the organization sees itself.
The second and third components relate to processes and methodologies. It involves understanding business challenges well and turning them into solutions that always have the customer at the center. At Amazon, we do this with very specific innovation mechanisms like our 16 leadership principles, which underpin our daily work; the Two-Pizza Teams, a way of referring to a team that can be fed with no more than two pizzas, around ten people, as this size is ideal for dedicating more time to focus on customers and experimenting and innovating constantly for them; and the Working Backwards mechanism, by which we start any project by defining what the customer needs and work backwards. In fact, 90% of AWS’s roadmap responds to direct needs and requests from our customers.
The fourth pillar is technology, which for us is the final enabler. We always start with a customer need and end up with a technological solution that addresses that specific challenge and generates real impact.
What skills do you consider essential for leading digital transformation projects today?
In addition to change management and having a clear plan, I believe the most important skills are communication, adaptability, and knowing how to navigate changing environments. Digital transformation requires a Darwinian mindset: it’s not the one who knows the most who will do better, but rather the one who adapts best. It’s also essential to integrate creativity and business, to be able to form diverse teams and handle methodologies that allow progress with clarity and pace.
You have built your professional career at IBM (Venezuela), Opinno (Spain), and now you combine it with your teaching work at The Valley. How have these experiences influenced your approach to innovation and digital transformation?
IBM was my first great school. There, I worked on ERP implementations (enterprise resource planning solutions), complex projects that require extensive training, internal support, and change management. It was where I discovered my passion for listening to the customer and solving real problems. At Opinno, I learned all the fundamentals of innovation and user-centered design. I understood why a customer-focused approach is critical for companies to be truly agile.
At Amazon, I have been able to take all of that to another level. We strive to be the most customer-centric company in the world and measure any action in tangible results. My work at The Valley allows me to share these experiences with executives, learn from their challenges, and have a cross-sectional view of what is happening across different industries. All of that feeds into my practical approach to innovation.
How do your work at AWS and your teaching role at The Valley complement each other?
My work at AWS and my teaching role at The Valley feed into each other. At Amazon, I experience innovation from within, applying mechanisms like the aforementioned Working Backwards and working with teams and customers that create products at scale. At The Valley, I understand how executives think, what concerns them, and what barriers they encounter in their industries. That combination is very powerful. Together, they allow me to support companies with a more complete and grounded vision of what it means to innovate today. Moreover, teaching allows me to learn from the students themselves, who are executives from different industries. This gives me a very real pulse on what is happening and enriches my daily work of supporting companies in their innovation strategy.
As a professor at The Valley, what changes have you observed in professionals’ attitudes toward innovation and technology?
I have seen a huge change. Years ago, innovation methodologies were seen as something distant, not well integrated into the daily operations of organizations. Today, they are completely normalized. Professionals understand the importance of researching the customer, prototyping quickly, and working with agile methodologies. Additionally, companies have begun to invest much more in innovation. According to recent studies from IESE, numerous innovation units have been created in companies in recent years, and that has generated a growing demand for skilled talent. Today, innovation is no longer just a discourse; it is a requirement directly linked to business impact.
What is the importance of quality data and data governance in digitalization processes?
The quality of the data and solid governance are fundamental because they determine the reliability of any subsequent decision. At Amazon, we always say that you cannot build scalable processes on data that you do not understand or control. If the data is incomplete, inconsistent, or lacks a clear owner, it becomes difficult for a digital or artificial intelligence initiative to succeed and become a competitive advantage.
How would you describe the current level of digitalization in Aragón and its main challenges?
Aragón is at a very promising moment in terms of innovation. There is technological infrastructure, institutional will, talent, and pioneering companies. But there is still a long way to go in the transformation process. Highly innovative companies coexist with more traditional ones. The big challenge is for digitalization to reach all companies and territories, accompanied by training, digital culture, and true innovation, not just technological adoption.
