As Group head of HR and IT of Rane Group, Venkatanarayanan leads strategic initiatives in HR and IT to support long term organizational capability building, leadership development, innovation and effective use of IT for business growth. He has extensive experience in HR, IR, Learning & Development, OD and Change Management in manufacturing and IT industries.
He graduated from the University of Madras, and did his PG from Calcutta University. An alumnus of the Royal Institute of Public Administration, London, Venkatanarayanan has also undergone the Business Leaders Program at IIM, Calcutta. He has many recognized certifications to his credit.
Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations
Competitive advantage and productivity improvement will drive all technology decisions and spend.
1. Integrated Reporting - Seamless integration across the whole value chain and involving all stake holders resulting in real time anytime information. Today, there are several applications either standing alone or talking to each other or hand shaking or looking at or over each other or even brought along to mate from time to time.
2. Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) technologies are enabling organizations to work in more connected, collaborative and real-time ways. Paradigm shifts happen in ways unimagined before when these forces come together and combine contextually.
The areas in business environment where solutions do not yet exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier
1. A shift from altering or tweaking applications to custom stitching for simpler solutions.
2. Solutions to security challenges brought about by technological sophistication and inadequate user awareness and precautions.
3. While pursuing newer technologies, IT security, compliance, risk management and disaster recovery need a lot of attention.
Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment
1. Big Data and analytics has the potential to break the performance barrier to move up the value chain and impact all walks of life based on deep data dives.
2. Embedded technology will leap frog. We will experience it in places where we least expect it. Wherever they can jam a sensor to capture data, or let you quickly gain information about ocation, situational awareness, there will be embedded technology. Everything will be tagged and tracked.
My roles and responsibilities as a CIO
From automating and integrating business operations for cost reductions and efficiency gains to adopting new tools for digita linnovation which will lead to improved business performance from products and operations. Without such change, CIOs run the risk of consigning themselves to tending a garden of legacy assets and responsibilities. Business as usual keeps IT as usual.
Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs
Developing solutions for the business to serve their customers better taking into account the following:
- What are the pain points of the business?
- What are some of the bench mark practices in the industry?
- What are some of the relevant emerging trends?
- How can IT be a significant differentiator in creating competitive advantage?
