Veteran CIO Daya Prakash is using his experience to fill in the gap of technology experts in the industry
DAYA PRAKASH
TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST
I strongly believe that for any team to pull off together, there need to be three factors in place. First, a clear purpose ie a clearly defined goal everyone can understand, appreciate and buy. Second, clearly defined roles and responsibilities for everyone involved including the consultant. If even these two things are in place, it is not difficult to engage with all stakeholders with minimum friction. I must mention another key enabling aspect which is demonstrated commitment from top management as it goes a long way in getting everybody on the same page.
After spending over two decades working on various technologies and technology platforms, Daya Prakash, who spent a large part of his career as CIO, LG Electronics India, is now involved in a variety of projects ever since he started off as a consultant about three years ago.
Prakash says there are two typical types of enterprises — traditional organisations and modern organisations. While each of these have distinct levels of maturity in their IT infrastructure and thinking, the interesting thing is that both want to leverage on IT more than ever before as both seek to transform the way they do business.
“They are turning to technologies like Cloud, Mobility, Big Data and Data Analytics, IoT, ML, AI and even VR in this quest. The so-called traditional organisations seem to rely more on the power of Cloud, Mobility and are dipping into Analytics. The so-called modern transformational organisations are leveraging the power of Big Data and Data Analytics, ML, AI, VR and IoT in much greater measure,” shares Prakash.
He points out that the role of a CIO has changed dramatically over the years. In the current environment, businesses as well as the nation are looking up to people with vision, execution capability and a proven track record to implement digital transformation initiatives. This is where the “CIO as a service” offering seems to be gaining ground too – the space is new, experience is thin on the ground so people who have “been there and done that” are well-placed to help multiple organisations get business impact from their digital initiatives.
He says the traditional role of a CIO is evolving to be of a digital transformation strategist. “I think this is the golden period for people associated with what used to be called the 'IT department'. IT today is backbone of any business,” he puts in.
But to achieve success in these digital initiatives, collaboration between teams is of utmost importance, Prakash opines.
For a lasting digital transformation journey, Prakash says that digital initiatives must be driven by a strong business purpose than “the mad race to join the bandwagon of digital transformation”. “There could be one or more (or even a combination) of purposes for digital transformation such as creating a new business stream or achieving sharp growth in existing business line(s), improving the profitability of the business and the efficiencies, enhancing productivity or for enterprise risk mitigation,” Prakash concludes.
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