CIO & LEADER-Issue-10-January 2018 (1)

Cover Story
Jaspreet Bindra
Senior Vice President –
Digital Transformation,
Mahindra Group
Skills I Plan To Hire in 2018
In 2018, my main focus will be to develop hard skills in digital
technologies and not just legacy tech. I will work with my
team to develop use cases that will help them implement
digital initiatives with ease. I will also look for people with
entrepreneurial experience and those who have exposure to
new technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), Machine
Learning, Big Data, and Blockchain. Not only that, I will also
look for people with soft skills such as design thinking, agile
way of working, tolerance for failure, risk taking, storytelling
and change management.
Skills I Plan To Develop in 2018
The current times call for leaders to constantly learn something
new. Whether it is for creating new business models or
great customer experiences, leaders today must know how to
make effective use of digital technologies available to them
and foster innovation. We have used blockchain— one of the
newest technologies—in our financial services sector. In 2018,
my focus will be to develop design thinking capabilities, hone
coaching, and coding skills.
Jaspreet's
main focus will
be to develop
design thinking
capabilities in
2018
Kamal's focus will
be on completing
his research on
Flexibility in IT
systems from IIT,
Delhi
Skill I Plan To Hire in 2018
When it comes to hiring in 2018, our focus at RJ Corp will be to hire people
who have worked in AI, machine learning and IoT skills. Our aim is to hire
emerging talent for a number of ongoing digital projects in the organization.
However, skill gap being one of the biggest obstacles of digital India,
good skills are difficult to find. To tackle this issue, we are incubating startups
or working with them to recruit fresh talent for our various digital projects.
We are also hiring entry level professional from top engineering and
management schools.
Skill I Plan To Develop in 2018
CIOs must upgrade their skills every year. They must keep an eye on the
latest digital technologies in the market. CIOs must focus on personal skill
development. They must also know how to enable strategic innovation and
disruption in their organization. For instance, I'm pursuing my research in
Flexibility in Information Technology from Indian Institute of Delhi where I
focus on how flexible Information technology systems can become such
that the business can use it to drive flexibility strategically. In retail, flexibility
of IT systems can increase the value of your overall business. As part of
my research, I collected a lot of data and spoke to a lot of organizations. In
a few months, I will be submitting my thesis.
Kamal Karnatak
Group CIO
RJ Corporation
January 2018 | CIO&LEADER
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