Umesh Mehta
President - CIO Klub

Hope that as you read this page, you are in good health and spirits. And so are your loved ones, colleagues, team peers and business associates!

What a year it has been! It is really staggering to look back in the rear-view mirror and reminisce the crisis we have braved together. So many lessons! So many trials! So many turning points!

It is not surprising then to hear so many intellectuals and industry-watchers label the Covid phase as a Black Swan event. It had its fair degree of unpredictability and massive impact for sure. But when we think of how the IT function adapted to it, should we not call it a Flamingo instead?

Just think of how much agility, prominence and flamboyance transpired during these challenging quarters! IT really stood out for its resilience and support in helping the business respond fast to new challenges and questions. IT was pivotal in aligning enterprises with strategic models fit for the new set of realities. We really manifested a lot of speed, and strength, in empowering business with all the customer experience management, robust infrastructure and work-from-anywhere confidence that it needed.

In fact, digital transformation has hit that much-needed fast-forward button during this phase. A lot of technology initiatives were embraced with acceleration and open arms – thanks to the pandemic-induced needs. We could experiment fast, fail fast and learn fast. We could inject a lot of future-forward tools and impactful platforms in this phase. We could prove ourselves as the spine of business strategy. From empowering employees to supply chain partners to customers – IT emerged as the core source of agility and innovation in these trying times.

But as the dust settles and as we step ahead to a new world; we have to make sure that we deepen this impact. We have a lot of work cut out ahead for us. We have to cultivate even stronger strengths and even more creative answers for the business to embrace the unpredictable world with some degree of certainty in its own core capabilities.

The road laid out for us is dotted with many opportunities and challenges:

●    Fighting IT fatigue
●    Recovering from IT-debt – specially of heterogeneity, fragmentation and of decisions made in hurry
●    Expanding and scaling some pandemic-phase ideas
●    Supporting the post-pandemic customer with relevant solutions
●   Creating a compelling competitive advantage for business and helping it to stand out soon and brightly in 
      the new world
●    Fixing mistakes that were inadvertently made in the crisis
●    Making sense of new security and infrastructure paradigms as people return/not return to workplaces
●    Imparting confidence, safety and business continuity in the six-feet reality

It is not going to be easy. But it is what it is. IT has its golden moment to stand tall and next to business strategy like never before.

Let’s roll up our sleeves and tie up our shoe-laces. With passion, hope and creativity.
We have helped our businesses to stand on one foot during an unpredictable crisis. We have done our best to be a Flamingo when we met a Black Swan.

Time to be on our toes. Time to steer the business into the right direction. Time to be on the front seat, for a change!
Let’s drive towards excellence. Let’s fly towards predictability in a landscape where everything looks uncertain now.
Let’s be the power. Let’s be the shoulder. Let’s be that one foot they can count upon.