searchCIO. It's my pleasure today to be talking
with Sanjay Srivastava. Sanjay is the Chief
Digital Officer at Genpact, the professional
services company. He leads they're digital and
business technologies, overseeing work that the
firm does and artificial intelligence and
automation and analytics. He is also a speaker at
this year's MIT Sloan CIO symposium, the all
digital CIO symposium, appearing in what I
understand is Episode 13 advice from CIOs for
CIOs, which is a look at the evolving role of the
CIO. And the CIO role has evolved over it's this
in the 40 years since it's existed. But now more
than ever, CIOs have a tremendous amount on their
plates. technology is evolving. So quickly, we're
dealing with a new normal because of the pandemic,
we're dealing with the acceleration of digital
transformation. Where do CIOs get the training,
they need to take advantage of the new normal.
First off, thank you for having me here. And boy,
have you had the nub of the issue here. Look, CIOs
have a lot on their shoulders. And this is the
lifetime is an opportunity of a lifetime. I think
one of the most important things to keep in mind
is CIOs that are successful will need to be a
balance of two things, I think you need a very
strong outside-in perspective. Because you have to
be able to think outside the box, you have to
think outside the contours of the company that
you're at, you need to separate yourself from the
momentum and enter internal inertia to really be
able to think outside. And then at the same time,
you need to follow emerging technologies, you need
to look at what's happening in the startup
ecosystem, you need to be connected to the venture
capital community, so you're able to take
advantage of new capabilities. And all of that
really requires you to be an outsider. The
challenge, of course, is that as much as you need
to be an outsider, the reality is that
transformation is actually a groundswell that
requires fundamental change that wants people and
processes, and really the entire organization. So
you need the stakeholder relationships, you need
the credibility to lead that change internally,
you need to buy in of a much larger set. And you
need that change to be more fundamental. And all
of that then requires that you are an insider that
you understand the business that you have the
connections that you have the credibility that you
have the operating history that people get behind
you. And so one of the biggest paradoxes, one of
the biggest dilemmas and challenges is how can you
be an outsider really to be able to do all of this
stuff, and yet be a complete insider to be able to
bring the rest of the company along. And I think
that's one of the largest sort of paradoxes, one
of the largest dilemmas I think we face as a
community, you wake up in the morning, and you
know, you've got to balance both halves of the
hole to really be truly effective. But by what an
opportunity ahead of us, I really think it's the
opportunity of a lifetime. And we're here for a
reason. And there's so much to get done.
Have you had a big job at Genpact, you've also
been a technology entrepreneur, you've been an
outsider and the ultimate Insider, can you give
some pointers on how you cultivate that dual
personality and perspective?
Well, I think there's no secret to it. I mean, I
just happen to have benefited because I was a
startup entrepreneur and I built forth companies
and you know, when you're when you're out, you
know, it sounds really exciting, by the way, but
when you're in it, you know, it's just you and the
all the odds of the world against you. And you
see, learn to improvise, learn to innovate, you
learn to, you know, make fast, fatal decisions.
And a lot of those skill sets actually you acquire
are really important in the longer journey,
because, you know, your ability to pick up new
technologies and figure out what's going to work
and what's not is going to be critical to the job
ahead, your ability to tell what's mature, and
what's hype is a really important component of the
decisions you need to make. And then I think most
of all, you need to be build a team around you
that is innovative, that is entrepreneurial, that
is motivated by change, right. And it's a
different role. But equally, I think, you know,
for large enterprises, you have to be an insider.
And so you know, many people like me have spent so
much time inside corporations you actually
understand, you know, the business at a deeper
level of detail, you understand the nuances of of
the process, you understand the ecosystem and
industry and how it actually operates. And the
reality is all of that AI you apply automation you
put in place to last we contextualize in the real
world. And then as people it's process, it's the
individuals around you that need to sort of get up
and get into the program. And so how you drive
cultural change. And so I think experience in both
of those equate in those both of those spheres or
hemispheres is great because it allows you to pull
it together, and then many CIOs out there that
actually bring that to the table. So it's I think
we're all fortunate to be in the positions for