C-Change 2010: The Rear View Mirror

The biggest trouble with life is that reality does not come with any
background music.

But as always, exceptions prove the rule, just like this years C-Change in
the beach-hemmed palatial air of Goa Marriott in Indias favorite get-away spot.

CIOs and technology think-tank of India were indeed whizzed off for a
get-away from the daily grind for three action packed days from February 18-20,
2010. To accentuate the whole enchilada, there was a lot of background music
too. Energy, clinking of glasses, claps, applause, handshakes, ideas, arguments
and guffaw galore.

In short, this year too, when CIOL and Dataquest presented the Seventh
Business Technology Forum, C-Change 2010, it was another bookmark in the pages
of Indian IT and technology event history annals.

With Beyond Technology as the theme, few anticipated what lay in store for them at C-Change 2010 during the inaugural lamp lighting

Yes, we know, most of them say these clich lines when they issue a
post-script on a big event and blow their own trumpets.

So, we will just leave you with some slices of the event from our journals
and shutter-boxes, and let you decide for yourself. A better tip would be to ask
the audience themselves, but till you can grab the phone or type that email,
heres something to give you a glimpse.

Beyond Technology!nobody really knew or could anticipate what exactly would
this years theme spell out. But the happy, suspense-filled faces of CIOs from
all across India made it all the more thrilling as they stayed game for the
excitement and walked in at Marriott with full gusto after alighting at Goa.

And the theme did come out of the closet as the evening set the ball rolling
on the three-day technology and leadership fiesta.

It was soon established that this years fiesta would be a breakthrough yet
again.

From what would be talked to who would talk, it was a big leap.

This time, the spotlight was shifting from drab technology babble to real
beyond technology business issues and hot burner topics. And, with a speaker
roster that promised advertising mavens like Balki or ace astrophysicists from
IUCAA or brilliant research minds from IIT, it was sure going to be something
much beyond technology.

And it did.

It was proved effortlessly at a session that bragged the slot among the
highlights of C-Change with a lot of audience applause and energy.

A man came and showed why theres still cheeni kum in the innovation
process of the industry.

Be interestingthat was the punchline from R Balki, the chief creative
officer, Lowe Lintas at his session at C-Change.

"The rule applies everywhere in any aspect of work, life and in any
industry," he underlined.

He said, "Heads turn and people notice you when you are interesting. You get
noticed only if you are interesting."

Another secret that he shared was to break the direction as he illustrated
with some interesting ads done under his aegis so as to break the direction.

"Dont follow patterns or do the obvious," he made a strong and engaging
selling point, "Break the clutter."

Understandably, he drew a lot of laughs, nods and questions from CIOs while
he also sprinkled around some secret recipes for creativity. But before he left,
he left everyone with a big kernel and takeawaycreativity matters, and more so
for CIOs.

The flavor, however was set the first day itself.

CyberMedias top man stirred some ripples by saying that the world is not
round like we thought for centuries. The world is not flat either as Friedman
told us. In fact, the world is virtual.

"This is the flavor that the future and technology interface would show. New
service delivery models, new sourcing formulas and new technology platforms will
turn the world virtual all the more," prognosticated Pradeep Gupta, CMD,
CyberMedia India at the opening of C-Change 2010 after Anil Kumar, senior vice
president, CIOL set the ball rolling.

Gupta accelerated it in the right direction by talking on how will the next
decade unfold.

He showed how tomorrows game changers would be power and money center
shifts, changes in the quality of life, and connectivity in an on-demand world.

Gupta also pointed out as to how shifts in storage, business continuity and
business analytics would be defining the future.

The next two days took over from all the ammunition of energy and thoughts
set afire the first day.

The gallery of speakers had an array of the best minds from all fields. Dr
Sandhya Shekhar from IIT Research; ace CEO, Sanjeev Bikhchandani; and noted
author, Paul Robinson.

Dr Sandhya Shekhar, CEO, IIT Madras Research Park raised the question boldly
about Indias dragging innovation position on the global map.

"Why are we not leveraging what we have? Theres a mismatch between what we
are capable of doing and what we actually do. IT is subsumed in many business
processes and is integral to business, thus reducing cycle times for delivering.
Likewise, innovation is becoming integral," she said.

"The way IT has grown as a business facilitator for innovation and as a
catalyst for innovation is remarkable. Cross-pollination and open networks can
be one of the answers to solve this issue. How to deliver more results and how
to redefine R&D, looking as much inwards as outwards, cross-university
collaboration and re-looking at idea-to-commercialization distances could help
too. Companies have to look outside for apt resources," she explained. She
emphasized on collaborative innovation and cited how various minds and
heterogeneous environments are being connected and tapped at IITs.

Shekhar then touched upon how inhibition to innovation harms the cause. Here
she illustrated how students top in risk-appetite and uninhibited innovation
energy till they join KRA-boxed jobs. According to her, leverage the power of an
ecosystem and tap the power of togetherness.

Next exploring the galaxy of innovation in IT was Professor Ajit Kembhavi,
director, IUCAA (Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics), Pune
where he connected how science, industry and innovation can go hand-in-hand.
Illustrating how some pioneers and mavericks changed time-endured theories and
myths, and thus opened new doors of innovation and progress. Citing Galileo,
Einsteins Cross and a lot more, he showed how astronomys mysteries disrupted
the well established convictions of the western world that proposed earth at the
center of the universe. Professor Kembhavi stressed here that if any idea that
you have is truly innovative, unlike technologys shelf life of a banana as
perceived; it has to be beyond time.

Kembhavi said that there are ideas that completely change the dimensions of
place and time. A great idea can have the impact of extending beyond time.

"Milky Way was found by Galileo to be a band of stars. He could see eighty
stars when others could see a few. He also concluded that the universe is very
large and strange than what we can imagine, something that we know today as
dark matter of the universe," he said.

There was a session on Recovery to Fighting Fit by Manoj Chugh, president,
EMC, India and SAARC who talked about new trends in storage and cloud, and
issues surrounding it.

Move information within your infrastructure and sweat your assets is what
Chugh advised as he brought attention to the tiering of storage.

Talking about Innovation: Desktop to Data Center, Venkatesh Krishnan,
director, banking, insurance and financial services, Sun Microsystems India
said, "Business faces challenges today with energy costs and operations cost
going up. Servers and storage are heating up your data center and its a
critical part of your IT budget."

He illustrated some latest innovations at Sun Microsystems like Chip
Multi-threaded architecture, server-on-chip concept, SPARC innovations, role of
Moores Law in the processor industry, etc.

Paul Robinson, author and leader in transformational education gave CIOs some
dollops on leadership.

He cited Gandhiji, George Soros and Jack Welch as leaders who became what
they are by the sheer reason that they brought change. He then described Mother
Teresa as the best example of people oriented and categorized Infosys mentor, NR
Narayana Murthy as a narcissist leader, a protective kind, who drives perfection
and change by that singular quality.

He warned against the capability syndrome and not to get caught in the
activity trap that many people suffer with.

"We think that just because we have a certain capability, we assume we
exercise it. We think that if we have it, we do it. But we need to ask ourselves
if we really do it. As to the activity trap, there are people who get so much
caught in activity that they forget the main vision. We need leaders with an
outcome-orientation," reflected Robinson.

"To be a good leader one should have energy, movement and humility," he said.

Other sessions included Customers Transforming Business with Virtualization
from Disk to Applications by Seema Ambastha, director, systems engineering and
technology, VMware India, talking about the various dynamics of virtualization;
Delight your CEO by Rabah Krouchy, VP, sales, international markets, QlikTech
International AB and Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers; and a session by Vinesh
Paperwala, general manager, global account business segment, Lenovo India.

But who takes the cake of any technology event?

The answer is simple and steady. The audience and CIOs who added cherries
upon cherries to the cake with their unbridled enthusiasm, adrenaline-packed
participation and yes, not to forget, argument loaded panel discussions.

This years panel tables covered many atypical topics that were handled
deftly by a great assortment of minds and voices in the form of many CIOs.

For instance, the panel on Leadership Dilemmas in Post Recession Era, where
IT captains like DLFs Upal Chakroborty, Marutis Rajesh Uppal, TVS Motors K
Swaminathan, Jindal Drilling & Industries B Sreekumar Valiathan were joined by
other set of leaders like Dr Shekhar CEO, IIT Madras Research Park; and Pallab
Talukdar, CEO, Fujitsu India.

In the panel, it turned out that every recession hides an opportunity in its
womb, as it really pushes leaders to think out of the box when one is nudged out
of a comfort zone. "The theme is specially worth noting because India has been
relatively unaffected," opined Dr Shekhar. "If we play our cards right, we can
really capitalize on a phenomenal opportunity," she added.

The panel talked about how long term contracts, AMCs, licensing, in-house IT
work, exit processes, resilience, applications for rigid architectures and
applications would get redefined in the post-recession era. IT would have to be
all the more interlinked and tuned into business, agreed some panelists.

Leaders have to come out of the comfort zone and thats a good aspect to
carry forward, the panelists felt.

Challenging thoughts in an unprecedented way has always helped as Uppal said.

Another panel discussion on innovation churned out at C-Change which saw
Pertisth Mankotia from Sheela Group illustrating how he is steering a new wave
of innovation by re-orienting his team to topline and bottomline impacts.

In the same panel, TG Dhandapani from Sundaram Clayton showed how apart from
R&D department, product development process improvement, cross-culture teams and
shop-floor involvement are also important. Venkat Iyer of STAR TV cited how
innovation helped invent new formulas of project management when the typical
formulas dont work with the creative set of people in planning serials at his
channel.

Rajesh Uppal from Maruti Suzuki India, who moderated the discussion, observed
correctly that innovation need not be big. He said, "It can be a simple idea
also and can come from any individual."

Then there was a polemic discussion on Cloud Computing: Boastful or
Impactful that analyzed many facets and inhibitions of cloud.

The idea was to sift out the hype from the real value. Panelists had CIOs
like SS Sharma from JK Tyres, Ajay Srivastava from Spice Group, Chandan Sinha
from GHCL as well as Sandeep Gildiyal from Wipro Infotech and Venkatesh Krishnan
from Sun Microsystems. They shared, debated and opined on issues like control,
application amenability, possibility of mission-critical applications getting on
clouds, etc. The issue of mission-critical applications and readiness for clouds
came under distinct spotlight.

Moderator of the panel, Atul Kumar from Ispat Industries said, "There cant
be fire without a spark. Everything starts with hype. There are enough control
mechanisms. Readiness for tier-1 to tier-2 has started emerging while
mission-critical applications are still under the cloud. There are a few success
stories too. CIOs have to move with a little caution and have to take in only as
much they can digest."

The candid and shared torrent of views and experiences continued in the panel
discussion on Second Generation Outsourcing again.

The panel was moderated by Mani Mulki from Godrej Industries who started by
admitting that any decision on outsourcing is not easy and relates to execution
gaps, cost inefficiency, and more.

"An outsourcing opportunity has to narrow down this execution gap," Mulki
said.

The most interesting point that came out as the leitmotif of the discussion
was the importance of trust and relationships in an outsourcing setup.

Mulki demonstrated it poignantly by showing a picture of a crocodile having
its jaws open while a bird cleans its teeth.

"Its all about the trust that is entrenched between the two. The same
applies to an outsourcing relationship also. This is why trust, relationships,
realistic expectations and perfect delivery on both sides matter a lot," he
said.

Pandurang Salunkhe from IPCA Labs said that lessons and unmet expectations in
1.0 phase would be the triggers and criteria in 2.0, and this would mean last
mile issues, attrition, etc.

"It wont be lower-end work like facility management, desktop management; but
business automation, domain and knowledge related work. In fact, 2.0 can be
about some complex areas, a continuous phenomenon that outsourcing companies
will start taking up more mature work," according to Salunkhe.

Sweat your assets was Manoj Chughs maxim during a session on Recovery to Fighting Fit

Rajesh Panchal from United Phosphorus, on the other hand, maintained that
long term contract and focus on users as well as smooth relationships would be
good for generation 2.0.

"When you move to 2.0, do revisit what your internal customers want and what
was their experience earlier because its they who get impacted," he said.

As it gradually turned out, SLAs, capex converted to opex, flexibility, etc,
would be the key benefits expected from 2.0. It would be more about vision, and
here the IT team would be business focused, and will identify what needs to be
done and then identify an IT service provider that will give that value. It will
also underline the CIOs role in negotiating.

If 1.0 was about the focus on costs, SLAs, uptime and maintenance of IT
architecture; 2.0 would be more transformational and user oriented where SLA on
business value and drivers would take center stage.

Another interesting facet that came out was how much power a vendor has.

A debate that stirred was on how much a vendor be allowed to know with
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)? A CIO strongly asked, "Does an existing vendor
get undue advantage of the inside-knowledge of what sells, what politics work,
and business nuances of the existing organization, etc? If so, how to
incentivize the new vendors?"

If all this debate was keeping CIOs occupied during the daytime, the sunset
let them unwind and network in a different breeze on the sands of Goa.

The CIO carnival used to take another form in the moonlight as entertainment
evenings kept enveloping and spooking everyone with a big spread of Latin
dances, fire stunts, Russian grooves, and a lot of sand and wine around.

The final day had the best wrap-up.

Rohtash Mal, executive director and chief executive officer, agri machinery
group, Escorts gave a different track of thought in his talk in the last day
where he unfurled interesting equations and dimensions between business and IT
in the new age.

And in a penultimate session on CIOs future career path, Shyam Malhotra,
editor-in-chief and executive director, CyberMedia set the perfect mood for a
hot discussion by showing some inspirational videos that highlight the distinct
gene of catalysts.

The question was tough. Whats happening to a CIOs career next? And the
intent was clear. Make them rethink on the very word career by igniting their
minds with the power of a catalyst.

"Lets first define what career means to us. And it varies from person to
person. For someone its money, for someone position, status, etc. For some,
working on newer technologies and applying them in meaningful ways. Technology
is a great tool if it gets the scale along with it," he said.

And then he posed some questions to the CIO fraternity. Am I using
technology at the best scale? Am I stuck? Am I adding any value? Can I influence
the strategic sections of the company? Do I have the ability to convert data to
information and influence the course of the organization? Do I have the right
people skills?

"If yes, then career is progressing," he asserted.

"Do all marketing managers become CEOs?," asked Malhotra. "Its not just
about becoming a CEO, but about learning new technologies and making an impact,"
he said as he swiveled the topic in an interesting direction.

These and a lot many other questions and thoughts with ideas is what C-Change
left everyone with.

As promised, it indeed turned out that these mavens are just a glimpse of a
power-packed and engaging three-day cerebral journey that happened at C-Change
2010.

It was a forum that whipped technology from all sides. From hands-on
workshops to ebullient panel discussions, and of course, making all the action
worthwhile, active and throbbing with excitement and participation were CIOs
from all across India from a multitude of verticalsmanufacturing, pharma, auto,
telecom, BFSI, consumer goods, and a lot more.

As they say, reality is not always without background music.

See you next year for another grand sequel.

Pratima Harigunani/CIOL

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in