INTERVIEW OF THE MONTH
INTERVIEW WITH MR. SATYENDRA PATI TRIPATHI,
Vice President IT & CIO,
Emami Agrotech Limited
Enterprises already on the path of digital transformation were well prepared for the volatile situations, while others scrambled to cope with the sudden demand for technology assets during the pandemic. What are some of the good practices in embracing the change brought about by the pandemic and making an enterprise future-proof?
In India, most of the large enterprises were already on the path of digital transformation and they have coped up quite efficiently during the pandemic. However, many organizations which had delayed their digital transformation drive were left behind and have lately decided to go for it, when they experienced that there is no other way and going for it is the only futuristic solution. This is the reason that most of the technology companies are now showing strong revenue growth and the skilled resources attrition rate is also an all-time high.
The pandemic has forced enterprises to look for more automation drives especially in the GTM space. Now all efforts are being made to enable direct access to customers and connect them with enterprises in some or the another way. Customer experiences and feedbacks are being taken very seriously in order to retain them. Connected enterprise has become the need of the hour to bring agility and efficiency within the enterprise. Another area where lots of effort are being made in information security at the enterprise level.
CIOs are transforming from traditional IT service delivery to a more strategic role. They are no longer just responsible for IT services management, rather they are leading strategic initiatives. What is your opinion of the evolving role of a CIO?
CIO has become an essential member of the company board. The company’s vision and goals are being translated by CIOs in the form of digital strategy. CIOs role has completely changed from handling IT operations to building digital strategy in line with the company’s goals. He has now become a revenue generator and is involved in most of the short-term and long-term decisions of the enterprise. In the future, we are going to experience much more penetration of technology and the CIOs role will be much larger and more strategic than ever.
CIOs are responsible for making quintessential shifts in the organizations to accelerate the digital transformation towards maintaining business continuity and ensuring growth in the post COVID ecosystem. What in your opinion are some of the important skills a CIO should have to succeed in the post COVID world?
BCP and HA are traditional buzz words and they have always been in IT strategy, but the industry has seen a big shift to cloud infra and services adoption during the pandemic. In fact, pandemic accelerated and forced cloud adoption like never before since enterprises were left with no other option but to adopt it. CIOs need to understand business goals and strategy, then only he/she can play a big role in digital transformation and will get the support from the leadership team to be successful. He needs to remain updated on the technology front from an application and infrastructure perspective. He is supposed to have sound knowledge of information security to safeguard the enterprise from any kind of vulnerability and compromises.
CIOs are being tasked with steering cultural change in their respective organizations in order to drive the digital transformation efforts that are necessary to support innovation and implement customer-centric strategies. How do you think CIOs are becoming the new agents of change today?
Earlier, CIOs were getting leads from business heads regarding the kind of automation they are looking for but now the scenario has changed. The board wants the CIO to have sound knowledge of business and strategy and then devise a digital strategy for the whole enterprise considering the enterprise’s growth plan and involving business heads. The CIO needs to know what all competitions are doing and how one can lead their enterprise way ahead with help of technology/tools and innovation. Many CIOs are now renamed as Chief Digital and Innovation Officer and their responsibilities have changed from routine IT service management to devising digital strategy and getting that innovated, evolved and implemented across the enterprise in a time-bound manner. CIO’s role will be much more challenging in near future and they will be needed to continuously upgrade their business and technology skills/knowledge to remain a key contributor within their enterprise and be successful.
