Dr. Sandip Pradhan
CIO - Exide Industries

The COVID pandemic has pushed enterprises to rethink and recalibrate how they operate. It is now required across market segments to structurally reimagine their growth, development, and sustainability strategies—the need to shift from traditional approaches and embrace new, more transformational methods across functions. Today, technologies have a vital role across segments due to their empirical characteristics.

The current crisis has also necessitated adding a new dimension to policy work, proactive approaches to doing business like the car, battery, tyre as a service, etc.

Redesigning business strategies with the integration of digitization and emerging technologies is required to alleviate the impact on revenues and for a more secured and sustainable economic and business plan.

Due to the exceptional lengths of the pandemic, and social distancing guidelines, there is a never-before-imagined dependency on technology. What happened in 2020 will significantly impact how technology shapes up in the current year and the coming years soon.

The frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR), Robotics Process Automation (RPA), and industrial IoT (IIoT) are set to be a part of every industry now, even more so in the so-called remote age, which almost all of us have accustomed to.

The impact of Covid-19 on individuals, communities and organizations is rapidly evolving. It is difficult to predict the long-term implications of covid-19 across industries across market segments. When normalcy returns, the industry will have learned a few lessons like-new operation models, alternate work arrangements, migration to digital channels and connectivity and many more.

Today, there is hardly any enterprise, public or private, that doesn’t run on IT. Digital is real now. It will continue to transform all industries and its key end-user segments. Today every business is a technology business. Technology will unlock the growth potential. Technology is a competitive weapon.  So, every company will be digital for better customer service and reduce costs. Business leaders should remember three broad pictures: 

(1) Technology Trend changes everything - Technologies like in-memory computing, cloud and enterprise mobility have already started impacting industries. The cutting-edge technologies, i.e., IoT, AI, ML, advanced analytics, and Blockchain, provide exciting competitive and strategic advantage opportunities. 

(2) Leaders are emerging quickly from Nowhere – Industries boundaries are getting blurred. Players such as Google, Samsung, and Tesla are engaged in sustainable, innovative energy generation and management. Key strategic imperatives are:
•  How to sustain and grow customer relationships with new digital services?
•  Which market spaces are the most attractive for new disruptive competition?
•  Who are potential partners in the digital network?

(3) Early Adopters are winning – Excellence in operations and innovation are essential for profitability for any industry.
In Q1 20-21, CIOs were facing the most significant challenges of their career. We saw infrastructure break-down, denial-of-service attacks, sites going down because of traffic load, and more crises. Every day it’s something new. Even companies grapple with the implications of the ongoing pandemic. It is already established that CIOs during the COVID outbreak play a central role in navigating the crisis. All eyes are on CIOs. Now, CIOs can do a lot more for the Organization. The pandemic shapes CIOs roles in three phases: 

In phase 1: Ensure stability and business continuity while containing the crisis. The CIO is the driver of Business Continuity.
 

In Phase 2: Establish a new way of working and protecting critical data & information.
 

In phase-3: Using learning from the crisis to prioritize technology transformation for resilience.
 

Today’s CIO has rightfully assumed a much more prominent place in the strategic thinking of the business, not simply enabling other members of the C-suite to achieve their vision but actively setting the plan for the future of the self-running enterprise.
 

In the post-pandemic, something new is happening where the role of the CIO is concerned. Many CIOs showed their capabilities outside IT, including strategic planning, operations and shared services. These CIOs have convinced their peers and superiors that they can lead.
 

Now, cyber security is a board room agenda. It is an increasing priority for boards, which must manage increased regulatory pressure. The CIO understands this conversation and the broader business implication of security. In this way, CIO’s office is becoming an attractive destination for executives throughout the enterprise.
 

CEOs are recognising that fact by demanding more from CIOs and placing promising executives in the role. CIOs are CEO’s top strategic partner. The CIO is the ideal CEO for the post-pandemic world. 
 

So, what do you think? Are you ready to consider the CIO role?