Shift Happens!
C.N.Ram
Group CIO, Essar Group.
C.N.Ram is Group CIO of Essar Group.
As CIOs reach the pinnacle of their careers, domain expertise becomes irrelevant and moving across verticals comes naturally. After spending over 30 years in one domain, CIOs usually only look forward to retiring and not really changing course—more so to other verticals. But, interestingly, after spending over three decades in the BFSI sector, I got an opportunity to hold the position of group CIO in a different domain. My job now is to mentor people, put together holistic strategies and, conduct more cerebral activities without the operational, day-to-day heavy lifting. However, about 10-15 years back, I probably wouldn’t have dared venture into unknown territory. This might seem like old-school, especially today when people are far more impatient and are likely to job-hop frequently. But, there is a fundamental reason for this difference. At a group CIO level, your prime objective is to enable business. Hence, I believe there isn’t much to unlearn and relearn. There are teams and people at key positions to practically ‘operationalize’ processes. Group CIOs just need to make sure that they understand the kinds of risks they run, how processes can be improved, and how things have to gel together in accordance with the vision of the group. Hence, irrespective of the vertical, the ability to forge relationships with functional CIOs is based not on competition but on a fairly evolved mentor-mentee relationship. This is true for group CIOs. But, if other CIOs were to jump verticals frequently, they would flounder. For example, after spending years in BFSI, I think core banking is actually a cakewalk compared to ERP. It is indeed a highly complicated beast. Frankly, I would not have attempted it. In my opinion, a CIO’s ability to shine depends directly on how he engages with business and operations. And CIOs can’t engage effectively with business unless they know enough about the domain. I believe that when IT leaders are change agents in the organization, people respect them for the knowledge they have and that becomes difficult if CIOs jump domains. You have to be an expert in what you do to garner respect otherwise your effectiveness will be questioned. C.N.Ram is Group CIO of Essar Group.
"A CIO’s ability to shine depends directly on how he engages with business and operations"
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