Key Highlights
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Arpit Agarwal
CEO Bajaj Financial SolutionsIn an interview with CIO.in, Arpit Agarwal, CEO, Bajaj Financial Solutions firmly stated that CIOs should be exposed to the frontline. CIOs should interact regularly with the end users to get an idea of the kind of applications their customers want. IT leaders are equipped with formulating strategies for boosting agility within an organization and they also have a unique vantage point view of business processes within the enterprise. CIOs should leverage this understanding of core business functions to climb up the next rung of the corporate ladder. They should spend considerable amount of time in strategic decision making for the front office functions this will give them exposure to the various aspects of business. Spending more time with the management will help them get more bandwidth to understand business.
To see the full interview, please click on the adjacent video player on the right hand side.
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Ashank Desai
Founder, Ex-Chairman & Director,MastekThe CIO has the responsibility to decide how IT can help the organization. The CEO too has to be sensitive to the importance of IT. In an interview to CIO.in, Ashank Desai, founder, ex-chairman and director, Mastek, said that CIOs need to be more outward looking than they are, even though they are doing a great job right now. They need to look at other functions in their own companies, he said. Also, they need to become a part of a responsible group to make a difference to their organization, the industry, and even their country. The CEO has a bird’s eye view of all the functions and if IT does not seem important to him, the CIO needs to bring it to his notice. According to Desai, a successful CIO is a person who is considered by his CEO as a part of the strategic team in the core circle.
To see the full interview, please click on the adjacent video player on the right hand side.
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Karthi Marshan
Head-Marketing, Kotak GroupAn average person may outreach himself or herself by focusing on the unique qualities. One has to find one’s own slot. In an interview with CIO.in Karthi Marshan, head marketing, Kotak Group, said that CIOs possess skills that can help them become change agents. They only need to think about what the business needs and then plan the IT bit accordingly. “I think putting a succession plan in place is very pompous, and very feudal. One must allow leaders to emerge from within the team, and it should happen by itself,” he said.
As they move up the ladder, he said, IT leaders have to be ‘general’ managers. “If the CIO must get a seat at the executive table, his focus needs to be on general management issues, he should be thinking about how IT can contribute to HR and how HR can contribute to IT as well. In addition, nature decides our basic skills, and while grooming can enhance the skills we are born with, it cannot change or add new ones,” said Marshan.
To see the full interview, please click on the adjacent video player on the right hand side.
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Raja Ramana Macha
COO, GeometricLean IT is not only a need to cut costs for an organization; it is more foundational in nature, meant to transform an organization to focus on customers, said Raj Ramana Macha, COO, Geometric, in an interview to CIO.in. He said that once CIOs are able to do that, they would be able to ensure a perennial lock-in with the customer, which is actually the source of revenue. It helps create consistent employee, shareholder and customer value. Macha said that the principle of lean IT is based on industrial engineering techniques. “As you keep eliminating wastes, you take away the load on resources, and so lean and green really go hand in hand,” he said.
These techniques are universally applicable, but IT can influence change towards creating a better value for the customer, he added. A CIO who understands these techniques can play a very large role in influencing organizational transformation. Over the last few years, Indian companies are taking lean IT very seriously and are becoming more competitive.
To see the full interview, please click on the adjacent video player on the right hand side.
