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

EDITORIAL
Shyamanuja Das
shyamanuja.das@9dot9.in
Beyond the
Hyperboles
A
For ensuring that
the organization
remains both
competitive and
responsible, one
of the immediate
priorities is
drawing of an
action plan
for systematic
reskilling
At the time of writing this, the annual meeting
of the World Economic Forum is on at Davos.
India, of course, is getting a lot of mindshare,
not just because of the plenary speech of prime
minister Narendra Modi in which he reiterated
India’s commitment to globalization but also
because India’s role in global economy is now
unquestionable!
Technology has become one of the recurring
themes in all global agenda setting. In a multidisciplinary,
cross-cultural platform like WEF
it is even more prominent—as technology now
touches and impacts all aspects of life.
What is somewhat new this year, however, all
that tech talk is not one-sided optimism. Global
leaders—including tech leaders—have started
discussing the adverse impact of technological
progress, incidentally one of the global risks
that WEF has been trying to measure in its
annual Global Risk Report (GRR).
Talking of GRR, this year, two of
the cyber risks—cyber-attacks and
data theft/fraud—have been identified
by thought leaders as two of the
five most likely risks for the world
in 2018.
But the WEF discussion goes
much beyond the immediate risks.
Apart from cyber security, other
impact of technology that has been
discussed is the impact that technology
has on children, on jobs, and on
society in general. Who could have
imagined a decade back that Cisco
CEO would stand on one of the most important global
platforms and urge the parents to control device
use among children?
This is but one example of the fact that the global
tech community is becoming far more responsible.
As an important constituent of that community, the
CIOs should keep this aspect in mind.
One of the more actionable items on that responsibility
agenda is doing something about new automation
making certain current functions redundant/
less important. For ensuring that the organization
remains both competitive and responsible, one of the
immediate priorities is drawing of an action plan for
systematic reskilling.
The recently released WEF report, Towards a
Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All introduces
a new data-driven approach to identifying reskilling
and job transition opportunities.
But as a recent survey by us finds out—and our
cover story is based on that—our CIOs are more
than sensitized to the need of reskilling. The 2018
agenda is primarily to act. We present ten top CIOs’
take on what skills they are looking at hiring and
what skills that they are looking to acquire for themselves.
And they explain why.
Tell us about yours
January 2018 | CIO&LEADER
1