C&L_August 2017 (2)

EDITORIAL
Shyamanuja Das
shyamanuja.das@9dot9.in
CIO@2020
T
CIOs are now
far more at ease
talking about
their business—
not just the micro
issues from
their companies’
perspectives but
even the macro
issues and trends
in their industries
The CIO&Leader Annual conference is
always a great place to catch up with the
thinking of India’s top IT leaders. This
time’s theme, CIO@2020, was selected
to gauge what they are planning for the
future, what are the exciting things that
they are doing, and what are the things
that are bothering them.
One interesting item on the agenda this
time was creation of Agenda 2020, a strategic
agenda document for Indian CIOs.
The participating CIOs were divided into
18 working groups; each group deliberated
on one topic to come up with a set of
recommendations—a strategic roadmap
for 2020—around that topic. Each group,
of course, made a presentation. But the
unique thing about that was we wanted to
capture that knowledge and share it with
broader community. We are compiling and
editing the final presentations to publish
them as a book, which will be sent to the
broader CIO and IT Heads in India. For
your copy, write to us.
However, the interactions happened not
just through such sessions, numerous
round tables and other formal discussions
that were part of the agenda but through
long, informal one-on-one discussions.
Even amidst the exotic Manganiyar program
and royal dinner at the City Palace
with the Maharana of Udaipur, I did manage
to probe what are some of them up to,
what are the things that excites them and
what are the ones that are bothering them.
As compared to, say, five years back,
there is one change which has happened
for real. The CIOs are far more at ease
talking about their business. By that, I
do not mean just the micro business issues
from their companies’ perspectives but
even the macro issues and trends in their
industries.
While buzzwords like Digital, AI,
Machine Learning and IoT did dominate
the discussion—both formal and informal—it
was pleasantly surprising to see
CIOs talking about user experience and
design thinking.
Maybe, that will be the next frontier!
Enjoy the coverage of the annual conference
in this issue
August 2017 | CIO&LEADER
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