What do you see as the CIO’s top priority?
Cyber security, perfecting remote working technological and cultural ecosystem and accelerated digital transformation along with rapid cloud adoption.
How have you helped move the business forward?
Through incorporating digitalization in processes, thereby injecting agility and faster time to market.
What is your experience with digital transformation?
We have improved service and efficiency throughout the customer experience, from check-in to inflight experience to deplaning. Digital transformation has rapidly accelerated beyond a nice to have to must-have capability.
Where do you see the industry heading in the next three to five years?
Digital, Cloud, Bots, Data analytics, AI, Quantum computing, and Microservices: these are all growing exponentially. Digital speed, 4 and 5g bandwidths, volume management and predictive analysis are orders of the day.
What’s your strategic plan for your current IT organization for one year, three years and five years out?
I call it Frictionless IT, thereby offering same experience to our users irrespective of their operating zone, be it social media, personalized apps or enterprise systems. Complete migration to cloud computing and processing in palm data with near-zero keystrokes for users. What is a remarkable customer experience today will become a standard customer experience in the future.
How do you stay current on innovations and trends?
We teach, we listen, we learn. Our team plays an active role in industry channels, social media, and research.
How do you engage and get buy-in from your diverse groups of stakeholders?
Getting buy-in from disparate groups is not as difficult as it used to be previously because the world is changing rapidly, and everyone wants to be part of advanced IT. However, it still requires a great deal of working with teammates and speaking of benefits in their language, demonstrating how this new technology will directly impact their work.
How do you retain employees?
Continuous skills upgrading, providing new opportunities, and communicating a clear path to upward mobility… Smart people want to know what’s ahead. You must promptly and genuinely show your appreciation openly for others to see. Continuous education, new opportunities, and the chance for advancement make the job exciting.
How do you upskill your employees?
We have a very comprehensive 360-degree approach with peer-level knowledge exchange as well as external training. Personally, I spend a great deal of time on this aspect of the business because it’s critically important.
How do you support collaboration across departments?
Stated simply, we act as the glue or link between all our departments.