Interviews

Mr. Iyer joined ICICI Infotech in 2000, in the BPO division to lead Assets portfolio. At that time the company was handling back office operations for the entire ICICI group companies. He left the company briefly in 2002, only to return in 2004, and has been there ever since - a glittering career at that. In 2009, he was handed over the reins of the China Unit, and subsequently in 2012 he went on further to head the BPO Product Delivery Centre.    

Corporate America is replete with examples of titans battling it out in the global arena, a merciless winner-take-it-all bid to maximise on market share. If the 90s decade was about the Cola Wars, then the most recent one has been about Samsung vs Apple. And no less intense! Arguably, for the first time we have an Asian giant locking horns with an American one – a harbinger of things to come? Maybe.

If we were to leave the romanticism aside and just focus on what the South Korean giant is doing here in India, it would be an astounding read, no less. An hour-long conversation with Samsung R&D’s CTO proved how right we were.  

This is an attempt to capture broadly, Dr Aloknath De’s insights:

Austria-born, Matt’s first language is German, he says it with emphasis and characteristic pride. His exposure to cultural diversity started very early. The seeds of which were sown, even unconsciously in his youth, when he spent 2 years in Taipei where his father was posted.

If you look up the company’s website you will find a line on the word “manthan”. It is a metaphor for deep contemplation; churning facts to arrive at a conclusion. Artificial Intelligence is arguably the most disruptive force today and is also the technology with which Manthan Systems is powering its future. We managed to eke out some time from the CTO’s busy schedule and were privy to much deep contemplation indeed.

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

• Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)

This column has featured CEOs, CIOs, CTOs but never a Chief Transformation Officer, so naturally we were very excited. Much intrigued, our first question to him was about his unique designation and whether it involved a combination of many roles such as those of Chief Executives, CIOs and Strategists. He agreed.

Founder and CEO of Mayflower Language Services Pvt. Ltd. (An ISO certified company, established in 2003), Madhuri Hegde, helps businesses in their global expansion through language solutions. With her knowledge and strategic approach, she has driven the reach of Mayflower to Fortune 500 companies in over 20 countries across the globe. She is on the board of directors of the prestigious ELIA, where she fosters the development of language service providers worldwide. As a Charter Member of TiE, she is also involved in mentoring early stage start-ups, in their planning and growth phases. She is also an eminent speaker at various events providing insights on business growth.

Deepak is the CEO at TO THE NEW. He is responsible for creation and execution of business strategy and spearheading growth. He is a known speaker, a book author, mentor, a people-first leader and has a knack of simplifying the most complex problem.

Manish is the CEO of CSS Corp, a new-age Services company. He has more than two decades of industry experience in the IT sector. At CSS Corp, he is responsible for leading the company and providing strategic direction towards achieving exceptional performance.

Central to our conversation was the theme of digital disruption, particularly the opportunities it provides for mid-sized services companies which are agile enough to change and robust enough to bring in the right kind of investment. The emphasis on continuous learning was unmistakable and came out clearly throughout the discussion.