Practical experience is key to prompt decision-making, and I got the opportunity to work in different roles within technology teams and business functions to understand business processes and gain domain-specific knowledge.
This is an exclusive interview series conducted by the Editor Team of CIO News with Sanjay Gharde, Group CIO at Isgec Heavy Engineering.
How did you plan your career path to be a successful Technology Leader?
I would like to give the highest credit to the Almighty for achieving all the heights in my career, along with my wife, Kunjam, who was always by my side, supporting the family, and also playing my role wherever required. To become a successful leader in any career path, it takes a combination of strategic thinking, continuous learning, and proactive skill development.
I used to dream a lot as a child, and when I started my career, I dreamt of achieving professional goals similar to those of my first top boss, who is today my mentor and guardian too. I have broken my bigger goal into smaller ones and started chasing one after the other to reach my dream with a clear roadmap in mind.
The one thing I have observed in my mentor while working with him is that he has technical expertise and commands respect because of this quality. Therefore, I have ensured that I should have a strong foundation in technical skills relevant to IT infrastructure, networking, IT security, software development and maintenance, ERP applications, IT innovations, etc., along with business processes, project management, team building, regulatory and compliance, and general management, to become a successful CIO. I have also ensured that I am always updated with technical knowledge and current industry trends.
Sustaining at the CXO level is a tougher task than reaching that level. One needs to have leadership skills such as communication, team management, strategic thinking, and decision-making. After acquiring these skills and becoming proficient, I got trained at IIM Kozhikode and IIM Bangalore under executive program schemes.
Practical experience is key to prompt decision-making, and I got the opportunity to work in different roles within technology teams and business functions to understand business processes and gain domain-specific knowledge. This cross-functional experience has broadened my business prospects.
Since the beginning of my career, I have always accepted challenging assignments and stretched my capabilities to meet business requirements. Handling challenging assignments successfully has taught me to take calculated risks, and by the grace of God, most of the decisions were fruitful. This has led to significant career growth and opportunities for innovation.
Technology is changing at a very rapid pace, and I keep myself abreast of new trends and technologies. I have built a strong professional network both within and outside my organization and have attended industry events, conferences, seminars, etc. These associations also provided me with mentorship opportunities, career advice, and potential job leads. These events have shed light on emerging technologies, industry best practices, leadership trends, and opportunities for the deployment of appropriate solutions.
Demonstrating thought leadership capabilities, I have written articles and successful stories and also presented my thoughts at many events on various topics and current issues. These engagements have given me more visibility within the CIO community, and different organizations have awarded me for my contribution.
Ultimately, as a successful technology leader, my aim is to contribute to the overall success of my organization, with a focus on delivering tangible results and fostering a culture of innovation and excellence.
What challenges you faced in your career path and how did you overcome them?
During my career, I faced many challenges on the official and personal fronts. Personal challenges were taken care of by discussing them with my better half and mentor. Professional challenges, i.e., managing IT budget and cost pressure, aligning IT with business goals, legacy systems integration and modernization, talent acquisition and retention, adapting to digital transformation and change management and leadership, etc., were swiftly handled because of dedication towards work, a positive attitude, continuous learning and acquiring knowledge, and strong decision-making ability. Winning the management’s confidence was possible because we informed them continuously about success as well as failure and owned them.
What are the challenges faced by Technology Leaders today while implementing digital technologies?
Digital transformations are an expensive proposition for manufacturing organizations to adopt. Digital initiatives will enhance the customer experience, streamline operations, give competitive advantages, improve efficiencies, increase the availability of machines, etc. The initial challenge for the CIO to demonstrate the ROI of the project, obtain management approval, and during the implementation phase, manage resistance to change and cultural shifts within the organization.
How can Technology Leaders overcome the challenges faced?
Overcoming the challenges faced by technology leaders, requires a multi-layered approach that incorporates strategic thinking, managing peer and management proactively, open for innovation and continuous adaptation of new technologies, investing on training of team members, encouraging work life balance culture to retain talent, align initiatives with business priorities and involvement of business team in execution, clear communication to business team about advantages of initiative, change management campaign taking business team side-by-side, agility in delivery of solutions by consuming low hanging fruits to gain stakeholders confidence and last but not least to make strategic partnership with IT vendors and service providers to drive innovations.
Any best practices/industry trends/advice you would like to suggest to fellow Technology Leaders for their successful professional journeys?
The best practices one should adopt and practice for reaching to the top and sustaining in IT are already spoken in previous questions and summarized here for ready reference:
- Alignment with business objectives is key. Being considered IT as a support function, all the initiatives need to align with business goals and provide clear communication to management and stakeholders about the cost and ROI.
- Bring the culture of innovation and agility to the team and own the failures of the team along with success.
- Manage the risk of cyber security and ensure regulatory compliance.
- Initiatives should be customer-centric for better organizational growth and to improve the efficiency of production to become more competitive.
- Become a flag bearer for continued learning, which will help to tap new trends and technology at an early stage and give advantages to the organization.
- Always set a baseline before the start of a project and demonstrate the advantages after the implementation of a solution to gain management confidence and influence for new initiatives.
- Maintain high ethical standards in decision-making and operations, ensuring transparency and integrity in all interactions with vendors and team members.
- Collaborate and develop strategic partnerships with IT vendors and service providers to leverage their expertise and enhance service delivery.
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