Linda Tucci: We're taking on a big topic today
basically what IT looks like and the role of the
IT leader in a post-pandemic world. For more
information on this topic, please click on the
link above, or the one below.
Sanjay, let's just dive right into it. We've we're
coming out of a period where business, the IT
organization, organizational roles, customer
relations, you name it, you know, we're
essentially reordered by a global pandemic. So how
do you see it and the role of IT leaders as being
different post COVID, than what they were pre
COVID?
Sanjay Srivastava: I think, Linda, it's a great
question. And one of the biggest changes that I'm
seeing coming out of it is the move from what I
would call digitization to digital transformation.
And it's super interesting, because at first
glance, this kind of seemed like a similar ideas,
similar topic words actually very close together,
but they couldn't be further apart in what's
involved. In many ways, digitization is about
taking any process and the end to end process
breaking into its parts. We take every single
part, you automate it, you digitize it, you make
it faster, you make it better, you get cheaper,
make it higher quality, and then you digitize that
process. But at the end of that the process
actually is just the same. It's just that it's
faster, better, quicker, cheaper, if you will.
Digital Transformation is actually an entirely
different thing. It isn't just that it's actually
about taking the end to end process and
redesigning it, reimagining what the value
proposition needs to be rethinking through the
customer experience and the logos, and therefore
redesigning what that looks like end to end. And
once you've done that, you now have the ability to
take these new capabilities, these emerging
technologies, things we didn't have 10 years ago,
when the original value chain was put into place,
but we now do. And so with the help of these
capabilities, you're now able to redesign and
reimagine, and re deliver the same value
proposition in a very different way in a manner
that once you're done with digital transformation,
the work itself changes that isn't the same work.
Yeah. So what we're finding is that this big
transition is happening. And this is on the top of
every CIO, every CEO, every boards minds that I
interact with.
Linda Tucci: So just, so let's focus in on
"everything changes," and in particular, roles
have to change in order to bring about digital
transformation. Let's start with the CIO role.
Sanjay Srivastava: Well, you know, if you think
about it, the CIO is has always been a super
important role. And I'd like to kind of liken it
to the role of a of a flight engineer, you can
take the plane off the engine as an onboard, he or
she serves a super important purpose mission
critical, its lights on operation, it's just you
know, it's a, it's about delivering a really
important capability to keep the engine in this
case, the plane running, but the enterprise
running with a single big change happening, right,
because with the digital transformation and using
technology as a way to deliver a new business
value proposition. The world is now starting to
center around digital and the role of the CIO is
changing, because he or she is now more and more
becoming the pilot or the copilot, helping their
colleagues and their stakeholders and the rest of
the executive committee really reimagine the
business value proposition on the back of new
technology. And so that's one big change that's
going through because the seat at the table, the
role of the individual is completely changing. I
think the only thing that's happening by the way,
but tech is no longer the long pole in the tech.
And what I mean by that is when you do a digital
transformation, it isn't just the tech, it's the
data because you have to harvest light up and
extract and use the data meaningfully. And that's
a whole other sort of ball of wax, if you will.
Then there is the piece about people operating
model, resourcing skilling cross training. And
then there's a bit about the process because as I
said earlier, the process changes in the way you
do digital transformation. And so you have to
rethink, you know, what that looks like what the
operating model looks like, etc. And so the world
of the CIO now is becoming, if you will, less Tech
Tech Tech, and more about integrating technology,
data people and processed and bringing,
orchestrating and orchestrating change across all
four of those dimensions. And so that if you will,
Ban puts the CIO in a very different position and
and as a result, you require a very different set
of skill sets, you have to have a different
approach and, and the way you balance you know,
what you're learning from the outside world. And
so you have to be an outsider really, to be able
to bring in new emerging technologies and ideas
and be able to tap into the venture community and
new research and development etc. And yet, you
have to be an insider because these are
fundamentally grounds up transformation, large
complex changes that we're trying to drive and so
you need the stakeholder buy and you need the
participation of all of your I'm counterparts and
so the role is changing. The profile is changing.
The skill sets that are required are changing the
way you approach the job is changing and who you
work with changing and so, tremendous change
happening on every single dimension of that CIO
role.