Both Technical and Management skills combined with hard work helped me to be a successful technology leader
When asked how he planned his career path to be a successful technology leader, Hemanth Shetty, IT Manager (Head of Information Technology) at Ben Suhail Group, in an exclusive interview with CIO News, said, I always believed in taking one step at a time rather than planning too many things. Initially, when I started my career, I worked very hard without thinking much about the remuneration as my primary focus was to learn and get the right experience. I didn’t limit myself to the job profile, I learned new things and tried to explore other technologies, which helped me land in a good company in Dubai.
I never stopped learning and continued doing various IT certifications that helped me grow in my career to a certain level until one day I realized that I must move further, a level upwards, and improve my management and communication skills. That’s when I did MSc in IT Business. Both Technical and Management skills combined with hard work helped me to be a successful technology leader.
Speaking about challenges he faced in his career path and how he overcame them, he said, “Some of the challenges faced are: Lack of recognition, Lack of Management Skills, Lack of job security & a difficult boss”.
“I overcame all of the above challenges by improving my communication, improving management skills, self-marketing, taking risks and focusing on positives”
When asked about a cyber-attack or security incident faced by his current organisation and how he handled it, he said, there was an incident of a server being encrypted by ransom-ware; luckily, we were able to restore the data from the cloud storage back-up. After that incident, we did a security gap analysis and implemented the right security based on ISO 27001 standards.
When asked how his organisation geared up in terms of technology in the COVID times, he said, prior to COVID we had a hybrid IT infrastructure and COVID forced us to move our entire IT infrastructure to the cloud which allowed employees to work-from-home.
When asked about technology solutions and innovations he plans to implement in the post-COVID era, he said, “Some of the technologies we plan to implement are Omni-channel contact Centre, SAP B1 ERP, Robotic Process Automation, Integrated POS system, Digital Transformation, etc.”
Commenting on challenges faced by technology leaders today in a similar industry while implementing digital technologies, he said:
Some of the challenges faced by leaders are:
- Convincing stakeholders of a non-IT organization about the importance of technology
- Selection of Right technology
- Educating the end-users
- Skilled Manpower
- Budget
When asked how leaders can overcome the challenges faced, he said, “Technology leaders can overcome the challenges by right communication, team management, training, market research, and self-development”.
When asked about best practices/industry trends/advice he would like to suggest to fellow technology leaders for their successful professional journeys, he said, some of the advice I would like to suggest to fellow technology leaders for their successful professional journey are as follows:
- Have a clear vision and work towards it
- Personality Development
- Conduct Technology Market Research
- Business Networking
- Self-Marketing
- Always try to be a step ahead of others
Also read: CIO News interviews Shri Wangki Lowang, Minister (IT) of Arunachal Pradesh
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