Leading the Way: Insights from a Visionary IT Leader Puneesh Lamba, Shahi Exports

IT leaders play an essential role in driving the success of modern companies. With their expertise in technology, they are responsible for overseeing and implementing systems that streamline operations, increase efficiency, and enhance productivity. Their strategic vision and technical knowledge allow them to identify and address the unique technology needs of their organizations, ensuring that they stay competitive in today's fast-paced business world. Furthermore, IT leaders serve as invaluable resources, providing guidance and support to team members and colleagues as they navigate complex technical issues. By leveraging their expertise and experience, IT leaders help their companies to stay on the cutting edge of technology and achieve their goals, ultimately contributing to the overall success and growth of the organization.

Puneesh Lamba, Group Chief Technology Officer at Shahi Exports is one such IT veteran with nearly three decades of experience. As someone who believes in regular self-learning, Puneesh has been responsible for implementing several new IT initiatives at Shahi. In a conversation with Dataquest, Puneesh discusses his approach to overcome challenges, how he keeps up with the ever-evolving IT world, and more.

DQ: A brief introduction on your journey, and transition in Shahi Exports.

Puneesh Lamba: Shahi is a leader in the apparel business and sets the gold standard for others to follow. With over 50 factories and more than 100,000 employees, we have been in operation for almost 50 years, building a rich culture, impactful leadership, and an extremely progressive board. To maintain our leadership position, we continuously evolve, transform, and disrupt ourselves by challenging the status quo, re-evaluating our business model and processes, and improving them with the help of technology. This is the DNA of Shahi.

In my first year at Shahi, there was a surge in digital projects, and since COVID, every business leader has been supportive of moving from physical to virtual processes for agility, transparency, and higher productivity. We completed a record number of projects and interventions, deploying multiple technologies such as augmented reality, IoT, artificial intelligence, RPA, cloud, and mobility. Traditional technology projects like ERP upgrades, dashboard expansions, and transport management solutions were also implemented.

We never wanted to lose momentum and continued our ambitious plan to solve business problems and fulfill our wish list through digital interventions. We explored generative AI, automated guided vehicles, blockchain-based farm-to-retail traceability, and even metaverse. Our efforts were recognized with awards for almost all prestigious IT awards. We are still on a winning streak, and we don't want to lose momentum. Shahi is a hidden gem that the world doesn't know much about, and our company, leadership, and teams are quietly making their way into the best-managed and most technologically advanced companies in the world of apparel manufacturing.

DQ: As a technology leader in a large organisation, we are sure you face challenges on a daily basis. What is your approach to overcome these challenges? 

Puneesh Lamba: As a technology leader, managing change has become my most significant challenge. After implementing a solution, the adoption of the new system can be more challenging than implementing the technology itself. I reduce the initial resistance by communicating regularly, setting expectations, and answering the question, "what's in it for me?" for business users. Once users start using the system, the probability of higher usage is much higher, provided it continues to work as intended.

The other major challenge we face these days is the availability of skills and talent. Since we undertake many Next-gen technology digital projects, the talent available for those is limited and expensive. Attracting the best people to join our team at the right price is a challenge we face regularly. However, we have seen that the supply has exceeded demand lately, and we expect to face less of this challenge in the future. Upgrading the existing workforce is another way we manage to bridge the talent gap.

DQ: The IT world is changing every single day. How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in technology, and how do you ensure that your team is also keeping up with these developments? 

Puneesh Lamba: I believe in continuous learning, and I cannot live without it. To upgrade my knowledge of technological advancements, I regularly take courses from various institutions. Additionally, I attend conferences, expert webinars, and collaborate with peers in multiple learning communities to stay updated. Experimenting with new technologies to solve business problems is also an important part of my learning process. The combination of theory, practical application, and discussions gives me a good understanding of what is happening outside.

DQ: How do you foster innovation within your organization, and what processes or strategies do you use to encourage your team to come up with new ideas? 

Puneesh Lamba: First, I want to talk about my team. Understanding the business is essential, and we have created a framework where every member of the technology team understands at least one aspect of the business periodically and relates it to the problems they face or the wishes they have. The next step is to brainstorm solutions with other team members wherever possible. Then, we pitch potential solutions to the business teams, and the process continues.

This framework has helped us create a culture of innovation in our IT and digital teams, which has spread outside of IT as well. Additionally, we encourage employees to record their ideas whenever they have them. This has motivated people across the organization to keep generating ideas. We have also implemented a workflow-based solution to help employees take their ideas further, and we offer rewards for good ideas. As a result, the ecosystem has become self-governed, and innovation is gradually becoming a way of working at Shahi.

DQ: you like to talk about a project or initiative at your organization that you are particularly proud of? 

Puneesh Lamba: One of our recent successful projects at Shahi was the SHAHI Bots project, which helped us achieve significant savings and productivity improvements. We combined RPA with Artificial Intelligence to completely eliminate manual actions from a few processes, resulting in zero mistakes, faster turnaround, customer satisfaction, and a huge reduction in costs. The principle we used was RRP (Repetitive, Rule-Based, Predictable), and after identifying RRP processes, we created AI-enabled BOTS that could not only perform data entry but also make decisions based on complex algorithms and machine learning.

DQ: What do you see as the biggest opportunities and threats facing the technology industry in the next few years, and how is your organization preparing for them? 

Puneesh Lamba: In my opinion, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as the biggest opportunity lately, and the biggest threats are cybersecurity and the digital divide. AI has come to the limelight more now due to the emergence of ChatGPT, and the Board has started asking how we can take advantage of it. This is helping our already AI-heavy program where the focus is to reduce manual work and convert it into virtual work as a first step and then completely automate it using AI algorithms. Most of our projects these days revolve around automation using AI, and we are upgrading our workforce to ensure a collective effort from every corner, rather than just one or two functions.

Regarding the threats, cybersecurity is changing colors almost every month, and by the time we make ourselves ready to counter today's threat, there is another version in the market. It is like fighting COVID variants, and although the best and obvious way is to update and patch every technology asset up to the latest, keeping our research up to date on what solutions are available to which problems helps us maintain our detection, prevention, and response levels at a decent grade.

As far as the digital divide goes, as technology advances, there is a risk of leaving behind those who do not have access to the necessary resources. This is a larger issue, and all companies need to work to bridge the digital divide and ensure that everyone has access to the benefits of technology. If we do not consciously work towards that, it is possible that we will have two worlds in a few years - one where digital is an intrinsic part of life and the other where digital is limited to basic necessities only.

DQ: How do you balance the need for innovation and experimentation with the need for stability and reliability in your technology solutions? 

Puneesh Lamba: Balancing innovation and experimentation with stability and reliability in technology solutions presents a critical challenge for businesses. While innovation and experimentation are crucial for staying competitive in a rapidly evolving marketplace, stability and reliability are equally essential for ensuring that technology solutions meet the needs of customers and stakeholders while avoiding disruptions in operations. To balance these needs, a phased approach to technology development can be taken.

This approach involves dividing the development process into stages, with each stage building on the previous one. In the early stages, innovation and experimentation are prioritized to generate new ideas and test new concepts. As the technology matures, the focus shifts to stability and reliability, with an emphasis on ensuring that the technology is robust, secure, and scalable.

Another approach is to prioritize agility and flexibility in technology solutions. By designing systems that can adapt quickly to changing conditions and requirements, businesses can maintain a high level of innovation and experimentation while also ensuring stability and reliability. Ultimately, the key to balancing innovation and experimentation with stability and reliability is to remain focused on the needs of customers and stakeholders. By continuously engaging with these groups and incorporating their feedback into the development process, businesses can ensure that their technology solutions are both innovative and reliable.