“Learning new technology, business skills and leadership abilities are not only important but critical now. With the changing business and IT scenario, I must say that the CIO? role has been changing very fast and it will be more complex in coming years,says Mukund Prasad.
A CIO with more than 33 years of experience, Mukund Prasad has seen the evolution of computerisation from the very beginning. “The rise in awareness about the benefits of Information Technology,says Prasad, “is the major catalyst in the growth of the sector. In the earlier era, any computerisation activity used to be preceded by lengthy discussion on ROI, but as the IT ecosystem matured, the businesses became aware of the benefits.”
“In fact, we have been able to provide a competitive edge to our organisations, as compared to others in the industry, by being one of the early adapters,he adds.
Overcoming challenges
The area of Information Technology is evolving constantly; new hardware and software solutions arrive at regular intervals and shake up the market. Prasad says, ?t is important for companies to continuously upgrade their technological systems by help of their solution providers, vendors, etc. The people in the field of technology must always keep abreast of what is being talked about in academia, mass media and various CIO forums.”
“The challenges we, the CIOs, face are mostly related to handling multi-cultural, multi-geographical environments and communicating personal differences, values and vision, managing expectations, ambitions and even the incompetence related to weaknesses and global alignment,Mukund Prasad says.
In his current job at Welspun, he is responsible for creation of shared services, program and portfolio management capabilities. He is also responsible for development of systems for process improvement and automation and corporate governance in the group companies.
Prasad says that he draws inspiration from the life of Russi Mody and J. J. Irani (both were former MD? of Tata Steel). He is also inspired by Ajai Chowdhry, Founder and Ex-Chairman, HCL Infosystems, under whom Prasad has also had the chance to work. ?n these people I have seen exceptional leadership qualities. There is a lot that I have learnt from them.”
Innovations implemented
The Welspun Group has used Information Technology Strategic Outsourcing for managing business growth, productivity and regular operations. This is an outside-in approach for understanding and integrating business and automation. Generally IT outsourcing deals are meant to take care of IT operations (Infrastructure and Application) and their regular day-to-day maintenance.
To assess the benefits of the optimisation of costs along with the challenges of technology obsolescence, it was decided to conduct an ISP study within the group across the seven different industry segments. It was observed that there are too many things required to be done for bringing about synchronisation between the opportunities for standardising the business processes and automating the same as far as possible.
“Our in-house resources were not adequate to implement the various technology and business transformation projects that were needed to meet the business objectives of the group,Mukund Prasad explains. Welspun took this step as an exercise for initiating the qualitative leap that the group aims to take in the next few years.
“It is not only about centralising IT operations, rather it is about using the amazing power of Information Technology as a tool to usher transformation in different segments of the business,says Prasad.
The requirements of outsourcing were classified into the areas of Run, Grow and Transform the businesses. All these were basically designed to take care of the day-to-day operations, maintenance of infrastructure and application and the basic hygiene factors which are required to be taken care of by Information Technology. It would have taken 7-8 years to do all these at a group level with internal resources and with the help of implementation partners. We did not have this kind of time.
Benefits of innovation
The implementation began in August 2012 and it has already started giving the expected benefits. We no longer have to incur huge CAPEX on IT operations, be it hardware or software. Nor do we face the challenge of retaining IT related talent, or reorganising teams, to ensure that all ongoing projects get adequate attention. Sufficient numbers of skilled personnel have now been shifted or are shared with our new IT partner.
This enables us to deliver better business value, especially since we have integrated Service Level Agreement (SLA) driven delivery with a single window for managing all SLAs. This process based approach to IT enhances the quality of service received from the vendor in comparison to what can be delivered under a project based approach.
This also has an inherent element of change management involved that must be driven judiciously to reap the benefits. Implementation of the ITSO has already begun with the realignment of Welspun? existing IT resources, and the first few business projects are now under way.
The impact of the change will be seen immediately by those employees directly involved in these new projects, but it will not be long before the entire group begins to reap the benefits.
Big Data & Cloud
Prasad is of the opinion that the adoption of cloud technology is at an initial stage in India. In the current scenario, the most companies are skeptical about having cloud-based solutions. Most end-user organisations in India are typically conservative when it comes to the adoption of new technology or services, because they like to understand the financial benefits and returns from such investments.
Cloud is still known more for Software as a Service (SaaS) in India, but now there is also evolution and adoption of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The adoption of virtualisation for production workloads in Indian organisations has been very low, as compared to what we have in similar organisations in countries like USA and UK.
So what are the factors that are slowing down the pace of cloud adoption in India? ?egal and security aspects are the main factors,says Prasad. ?ut these are not the only factors. The cloud adoption in the country is also stymied by several cultural issues and the typical resistance to change.”
There is lot of talk about Big Data analytics, but hardly any enterprise in India has actually deployed Big Data. Why are CIOs shying away from actually implementing Big Data? Prasad feels that the failure of Big Data to takeoff in India is basically due to the lack of talent for managing cultural challenges and doubts over quantifiable benefits. It is an exhaustive, time-consuming journey, and most of the organisations are not yet ready to undertake this journey, as the nature of the benefits that they will derive in the end is not clear.
They are still struggling with the management of structured data and the need of moving towards unstructured data does not get that attention.
Coaching the new leaders and the CIOs
A Senior Certified Power Coach by CLI International Canada, Mukund Prasad has over 500 client coaching hours. He has coached 15 CEO level executives during the last two years on the subject of what steps can be taken to tackle various challenges that business and life may throw. He says that a CIO has to think not only in terms of having the right technology and right execution, he must also project a quality of leadership by believing in his gut, karma and life and mastering his body, mind and spirit.
Many CIOs in the country and abroad have benefitted from the coaching that Mukund has been providing since last few years. ?ukund knows that every leader? job is to create more leaders. He is a cheerleader for leadership excellence as he focuses his entire thought processes on how to encourage leaders to reach higher in their competencies to never be complacent. He is a serious student of PCMK (Power coaching with mind kinetics) Coaching methodologies from Coaching and Leadership International Inc. Within six months he achieved his Certified Power Coach designation which is a feat difficult to obtain in such a short time frame,says Betska K-Burr, an International Executive Business and Life Coach.
What would Mukund like to tell the young man who today dreams of becoming a CIO? He says, ?he need to have a good grasp of technical knowledge, while also having the skill of a business analyst, will be a sine qua non for the CIOs. This is because all the major companies will expect such talents from their technology officials. The application development and IT infrastructure management will happen more or less in the outsourced model. Hence, the CIO? role will also evolve in business strategy and owning more than technology. Developing commercial skills, Contracting and Legal knowledge are also very much required.”
“The skills that a successful CIO must have is understanding of the business, understanding of the technology and the ability to convince people,says Prasad. ? CIO has to spend 60% of his time with the business and 30-40% with the IT matters.Developing collaborative skills will be very essential.
“Focus must shift from merely automating operations and processes to using the power of new IT systems for driving strategic business growth,says Prasad. ?earning new technology, business skills and leadership abilities are not only important but critical now. With the changing business and IT scenario, I must say that CIO? role has been changing very fast and it will be more complex in coming years.”