Kathmandu Diaries

Kathmandu Diaries

The annual C-Change conference, organized jointly by CIOL and Dataquest,

moved beyond Indian shores for the second time in its history to the picturesque

Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. Over three days, a host of CIOs along with industry

veterans and analysts debated, deliberated and argued on issues ranging from

slowdown to green IT. The august gathering in Kathmandus sylvan surroundings

included luminaries like Jagdish Khattar, Som Mittal and Ganesh Natarajan among

others.

Think Big, Think Opportunity



A thought-provoking address

There is never a right time or right age for an opportunity. My age never

deterred me from following the right career or move. These were the opening

remarks of former managing director of Maruti Udyog and CEO of Carnation Auto,

Jagdish Khattar, at the annual CIOL-Dataquest C Change 2009.

I do not like the word retire, said Khattar while offering his mantras of

leadership to a packed gathering of Indias top notch CIOs.

Khattar was responsible for changing the fortunes of Maruti Udyog by helping

it achieve over 55% market share despite the competition and market slump the

company had to face in 2001.

The former IAS officer left his cushy job in 1993 to join Maruti Udyog and

again took the risk to plunge into the unknown by starting Caranation Auto, his

dream project at the age of 65 years.

Ninety out of hundred times it is the ability to manage your team that

brings you success. In my career, I have been referred to sometimes as a

successful leader. I owe this success to my team, partners, and stakeholders.

This is a period when successful leadership will be about challenging people

to think different, think beyond. Identify your team strengths and leverage it.

Leaders need to be developed within a team. It all lies in the attitude, he

added.

Outlining his mantras for successful leadership, Khattar said individuals who

wish to be seen as successful leaders need to think beyond the obvious.

Think big, think opportunity. Winning during a competitive market needs a

different mindset. We need to ask: What mindset are we in? Survival or growth? A

leader will bring a mindset of success through innovation. A successful leader

is one who will challenge the team to think of opportunities and beyond.

Khattar said the leader has to believe in himself and his teams ability to

formulate a solution to every problem. Most often we find an opportunity and

immediately jump in, only to find lots of obstacles. The mantra is to find

solutions.

Some people are able to see all problems. However, they sometimes stop

abruptly. This is where a leader steps in and gives direction.

Thinking solutions rather than thinking problems is more about belief, rather

than skill. Unless you know what you want, you cannot achieve it, he added.

Khattar added that leaders need to listen to their peers and employees to add

value to the thinking process of the company.

Speaking about the power of listening and a consultative approach, Khattar

said that customer should form the core of a companys growth strategy and

leaders need to remain in touch with them to address their grievances always.

Sometimes their views can be offending too, but the skill of the leader rests

in listening, the CEO added.

Commenting on the need to have agile enterprises, who are nimble footed to

take on challenges, Khattar also called on company CEOs to be lean themselves to

set up a smart example for their employees and peers. Youve studied of lean

manufacturing and lean supply chains. Look fit and energetic. Physical fitness

is an important thing, and leaders must show this.

Always look at the glass as half full. My effort has been to look at some

bright spot in an otherwise worse situation, he added while refereeing to the

current uncertain environment.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. I strongly

believe theres an opportunity knocking always. Theres a way of opening the

door of your mind, Khattar concluded.

Take Onus of Going Green



A recent green survey brought out some startling facts

In his presentation on green IT, Prasanto Kumar Roy, president, ICT Group,

CyberMedia India felt that CIOs in these uncertain times have to take an

additional onus to get involved in bringing energy efficiency in the

organization.

CyberMedia president Prasanto Kumar Roy issued a passionate plea for organizations to turn green; he reiterated the business value of green through the DQ Green Survey findings

 We in our survey have not come across CIOs who are in charge of the

energy bill. This role requires the person who has access to lot of information;

knowledge about green building standards; and measurements for green energy are

also required and CIO is the best one to do the job.

A CIO has to do correct, detailed assessment of the current process within

the company, Roy added,

 This is an area you can take up without treading on toes. This is

something a CIO can actually take up, and look at as a role beyond the relevant

domain of IT, he added.

The Worst is Yet to Come



We are living in abnormal times and the world economy will be growing at

only 0.9% in 2009

Eminent journalist and educator, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta warns that the global

recession is much worse than it is being thought and the worst is yet to come.

Thakurta forecasted that the current depression will be even worse than the

great depression that was witnessed in 1930.

That depression was followed by the Third World War which was fought over

guns and missiles, but I believe the next war, if any, will be fought over the

natural resources, he added. We are living in abnormal times and the world

economy will be growing at only 0.9% in 2009 and 40% of that growth is going to

come from India and China.

Eminent journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta acted the devils advocate; he felt the worst of the slowdown is yet to come and the situation could be worse than the Great Depression of the 30s

Drawing parallels with the great depression of 1930, he said that the current

depression was even more severe as markets across the world were extremely

volatile.

Volatility across commodity, prices is very severe. The oil prices have

dropped from $140 to less than $57 in less than a year. Again, we are seeing

food riots in more than forty countries as prices of food have been doubled in

2007-08, he said.

For the first time in history, we are seeing land which should have grown

maize producing bio diesel for our vehicles, he said.

These indications pointed to a severe economic climate in the foreseeable

future, and denying the inevitable was making the problem even more acute. The

US was in constant denial for more than a year before the recession hit the

economy. Humans as a race believe in good and shy away from even listening to

anything that is uncomfortable

IT Technologies for 2009



Sectors that will make profit are cloud computing, outsourcing, and

optimization

According to Girish Trivedi, deputy director, Information Communication &

Technology Practice, South Asia and Middle East, Frost & Sullivan, the current

global economic situation is bleak. Some of the key trends visible today include

slow resumption of lending, slowing down of IPO activity with investors more

cautious, cut back and discretionary spending, and slow capex spending.

In India, we are still on the safer side amidst global recession. Even the

government is borrowing from financial institutions. But then, it cannot be

negated that the economic slowdown left its dent on almost all the sectors. On

one hand, when some of the sectors such as BFSI, airlines, commodities, etc were

adversely affected, a few of them such as healthcare and education remained

un-impacted. Moreover, in the evolving business ICT demographics, a few sectors

such as cloud computing, outsourcing, optimization, etc, will make profit.

The role of crystal ball gazing was left to Frost & Sullivans Girish Trivedi who highlighted five key technologies that would make their mark, notwithstanding recession

Five key areas in IT opportunity assessment:

• Opex/service business models: The enterprise market is likely to see a
  
  higher propensity to shift from capex based to opex based business models.
• Outsourcing upside: The outsourcing business model is likely to pick up
  
  across the enterprises. Newer business models are expected to emerge.
• Cloud Computing: There will be a transformation of software into a
  
  portfolio of services, as well as an intelligent interactivity between clients
  
  and computing warehouse. Incidentally, virtualization is among the top three
  
  CIO discussion points.
• Unified communications: Trend toward unified communications delivery on a
  
  pay-per-use basis and communication enabled business processes (CEBP).
• Data centric model: The data center market offers opportunities for a
  
  variety of players to compete with own strengths.

Responding to new environment

• Businesses should continue to steer IT as a critical tool in controlling
  
  overall costs and increasing productivity
• The enterprises should start experimenting with hosted solutions
• Limit on IT spending can be redirected, but should not be stopped
• Use IT as a competitive advantage
• Turn every service offering into a product
• Become a world class retailer as it is a buyer market
• Transformation