 Sushil K Chugh,
VP Technology,
GlobalLogic
A CIO should be a visionary and must be able to clearly articulate that vision to achieve functional goals and business objectives of the organization.
CIOs today do not only have to perform their traditional role, but are also required to juggle initiatives on different fronts. They are dealing with not just information and technology aspects but also with various processes and automation procedures associated with the management of their core functions of managing information and technology assets.
For me, building a team is not enough. Empowering a team by listening to what they have to say and acting on their opinions goes a long way. CIOs, or for that matter leaders, always encourage their teams to pour ideas to scale morale and enable potential leaders make a mark for themselves.
A good CIO will also need to delegate authority, “but does so responsibly,” and is ready to understand occasional mistakes. Instead of criticizing mistakes, a good CIO works with team members to evaluate and learn from them. We encourage ingenuity and out-of-box thinking. After all, people who never make mistakes are likely to be the ones who never try to succeed in the first place.
I believe that the best CIOs of today have adopted a coach-like approach towards daily interactions with teams. On-going training builds highly effective and productive teams, retains top talent, reduces conflicts, enhances communication and co-operation, and improves morale.
Retaining manpower is one of the biggest challenges that software organizations are facing today. By implementing a combination of career planning strategies and rewards and incentive policies, we have managed to retain key people as also attract outside talent. We have a comprehensive performance appraisal and feedback mechanism, career planning system and skills upgradation program that helps each individual and the organization conduct a fair and objective evaluation of employee’s contribution and determine skill enhancement requirements.
Focus on quality and timeliness is very important. Irrespective of whether you are dealing with internal or external customers, timely response to an issue or a query from someone exhibits that you care about and value the relationship with the person on the other side. At the same time, the quality of your response or the quality of delivery has significant impact on the business relationship with the customer.
Alignment between the tech and business management teams across the globe through regular planning and strategy sessions has helped maintain focus during rapid growth. We have acquired two companies in the last 12 months and consolidation of these into a single financial back-office system and integration of mutliple networks and middle-office systems into a global business application network provided the critical controls and visibility into the health of our organization.
The basic need that the industry was created for is still the same – improve efficiency and accuracy of business operations. Technology and business environment are changing faster every year. While technology innovations are in pace with individual demands, major bottlenecks are inability of organizations and people to absorb, adapt and manage newer technologies at equally fast pace.
Top 5 management tips to your peers:
1. Build a strong team
2. Listen to your customer
3. Communicate the vision and progress to all stakeholders
4. Empower your team to take risks
5. Reward performance on merit
------------------------ as told to Sandhya Malhotra
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