 Nilesh Sangoi,
Chief Technology Officer,
V-Link Group
Over the past 15 years, the IT landscape has changed dramatically. Earlier IT used to push technology to the business functions and end users. Today, it is the other way round. Ironically, in many large companies, it is the technology function heads who oppose technology the most.
In these companies, the new generation staff is more technology savvy than the IT departments. They have their iPods, Pen drives, and Laptops; they connect through WiFi and Bluetooth, and network through social networking sites. But for CIO/CTOs, these are security threats that need to be blocked. It is difficult to fault them because they are only doing their job; but also, there is no denying the fact that their roles are changing; instead of promoting technology, they have to come up with ways to block technology or restrict usage.
But IT is an evolving field and this may only be a passing phase.
In fact, IT is one field where you never stop learning; whatever level you may reach, you have to keep learning because technology is evolving all the time.
You must also never let go of opportunities to learn on the job. I have worked at the shop floor equivalent of IT - Hardware, Networking, System Administration, Building Applications, etc. As I rose up the ranks, I learned how to manage teams, manage the technology function, prepare budgets, etc.
In fact, preparing budgets requires a lot of forward planning and thinking in terms of working out the costs over a year. I think the experience of reporting to the CFO is invaluable because you understand the value of money. Often, there is a lot of hype surrounding IT which brings with it the risk of overspend and doing things for the sake of doing. Budgeting and reporting to the CFO equips you with a sense of business and to draw the line where expenditure is concerned. However, one must be careful to not let concern for controlling costs go over the top, get into an overkill mode doing Return on Investments (RoIs).
Presenting you case before the management is something you learn over a period of time. You make mistakes, you realize that things need to be done differently and you improve over a period of time.
Key Management Tips:
- Empower people and give them authority, wherever they are responsible. Often people fail, but they also deserve a chance to improve.
- IT personnel need the challenge of learning. Else they will get bored and your churn will increase.
- Remember business doesn’t perceive value in day to day IT routines like desk top management, system administration, etc. They take these things for granted. Technology function can bring value if it understands business and gives business solutions.
- Never stop learning
----------------------- As told to Anoop K Menon
|