The 10 Most Innovative CTOs to Watch in 2021

ISSN 2582-127X

November 2021

Most Innovative

CTOs to Watch in

2021

Role of Chief Technology O

cer in the Success

of Corporates

Top Tips to Become the Perfect CTO in an Organization in 2021

SPANDAN Chief Technology Officer High Tech and Professional Services Business Unit

MAHAPATRA

The 10 Most Innovative CTOs Playing an Influencing Role in Digital Transformation

T

oday, most Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) agree that their role has become twofold, embracing both technical and managerial skills. Looking at the technical standpoint, a company's CTO is the tech visionary leader within a realm other C-level executives do not have easy access to.

That is why CTOs are also required to be able to foresee future technological changes to anticipate the needs a company might have and to embrace transformation rather than succumb to it.

An experienced Chief Technical Officer is constantly monitoring technological trends and takes quantifiable actions, including testing before adoption. Being an ICT expert is mandatory, of course, and includes a broad range of expertise in an ever-growing sector, which today includes cloud computing, DevOps, and artificial intelligence, with who knows what to come tomorrow.

Traditionally, CTOs have served different roles in companies with the former focused on traditional IT strategy and management and the latter on developing innovative new technology, external customer-facing IT, or custom software development. However, the research demonstrates that CTO roles have shifted and converged as a result of this increased focus on digital transformation, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Digital transformation remains at the top of the business agenda and organizations in every sector are grappling with the best way to embrace new technologies to stay ahead of their game. It is a critical issue for businesses with disruption being faced from all sides, and something that is only going to intensify as the relentless progress of technology marches on. The role of the CTO is at times all-encompassing.

A CTO takes on the role of the 'bridge builder' between the strictly technical components of a transformation strategy and how they can apply to people and processes in the specific context of an organization. Considering the managerial tasks required to become a CTO, today's Chief Technology Officer is a key guide for all main stakeholders.

With technology becoming a major enabler for businesses, the role of the CTO is evolving from technology expert to business strategist. With increasing expectations, CTOs today are facing unprecedented challenges to improve business outcomes, transform business models, modernize technology and enhance customer experience.

The CTO has specific technological insight and therefore they are directly involved in helping the entire organization identify where technical systems are simply obsolete and not fit for purpose so as well as being a bridge-builder, CTOs naturally lead the charge when dealing with a technology-led approach.

They explain where the value is in the application of a technological change in context. Too often we see visions that are de-contextualized from the reality on the ground. De-contextualized technological planning does not allow for realistic strategic planning.

With visions of the ambitious but feasible insight, it is then the whole leadership team's task to decide what course they are going to map out and to work together on the digital transformation journey. A CTO's normal job is to reroute processes to improve outcomes or adapt to changes and challenges. Their actions impact directly on the company's business goals and organization.

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08

Spandan Mahapatra TCS

CONTENTS

Executive of the month 18

Anubhav Arora Fidelis Cybersecurity Executive of the month 24

Unmesh Shrivastav P3 Health Partners

34

David Huang

42

BizPay

LogicPlum

Anoop Muraleedharan

48

Michel Hubert

52

Eren Niazi

Econocom

Open Source Evolution (OSE)

30

ARTICLES

38

Role of Chief Technology

Top Tips to Become the

O

Perfect CTO in an

cer in the Success

of Corporates

Organization in 2021

COVER STORY

Spearheading Digital Transformation by Unleashing High-Tech Business Solutions on a Global Scale

D

igital transformation is not just a matter of capital investment

but it's also about developing strategies, executing, and

addressing the challenges and opportunities associated with it. TCS' high-tech business unit is the organization that is leading the industry in this domain. It drives business transformation and digital innovation for customers in computer platforms, consumer devices, industrial electronics, cloud and software and the professional services industry through collaborative innovation with partners and its state-of-art platform solutions.

08

SPANDAN MAHAPATRA Chief Technology Officer, High Tech and Professional Services Business Unit

TCS 09

“ ESG, experience and business outcomes led product engineering will help create exponential value and drive relevance.

Spandan Mahapatra Chief Technology Officer, High Tech and Professional Services Business Unit TCS

www.tcs.com

“ 10

An Ardent Leader Making a Breakthrough with Digitization Spandan Mahapatra is the Chief Technology Officer,

working for the high adoption of commercial open-

High Tech & Professional Services Industry and Global

source software and cloud innovations, embedded

Head- Digital & Enterprise Transformation Unit at TCS.

intelligence in software and its, enabling service-as-a-

In his current role, he is responsible for all digital

product along with workplace reimagination by

portfolios for the high-tech industry vertical, which is led

fostering teleworking and return to work.

by a senior management team that is focused on

TCS also serves certain unique areas of the computer

products, platform development, engineering,

platforms, consumer devices in the industrial electronics

customer-centric innovation, enabling sales, delivery

sector. Some of the key areas of focus within the high tech

and competency, and leadership development with a

companies are the accelerated movement towards

digital revenue target. Spandan drives The OKRs with his

resilient value chains, data-driven Cx and XaaS offerings

special FTE global team of more than 150 professionals,

for larger customer lifetime value (CTV), device or cyber-

comprising enterprise architects, domain consultants,

as-a-service, pervasive servitization, visibility with

pre-sales solutions team, technology experts and

actionable intelligence that is driving the need for

business solutions labs in Cincinnati where Spandan and

control towers with the supply chain control tower and

his team are leveraging a comprehensive suite of digital

TCS talent control tower, a renewed focus on e-

technology platforms.

commerce, industry clouds by peripheral companies (IoT

Spandan's team provides advisory solutions, platforms,

managed services), and creating cloud ecosystem

design and implementation solutions for cloud and

convergence with hybrid and poly cloud management

various software with a key focus on areas like

solutions and services.

democratization of product development. They are also

Emphasizing the Industry Verticals with Technology Spandan has more than 22 years of experience across

TCS Cincinnati Advanced Technology Centre. Spandan

multiple industry verticals, which enabled him to

started the in-memory computing practice on one of the

appreciate the value of applying technology to realize

leading enterprise software platforms at TCS, which

cross-domain and multi-industry use cases.

drove innovation and industry adoption through a use

Spandan has always focused on applying technology for

case and outcome-focused approach. He also

moving the needle on a customer's growth and

subsequently incubated multiple other use case-centric

transformation initiative by either shaping or

practices focused on several leading industries as well as

accelerating their transformation agenda. Over the past

the new platforms. Spandan believes that innovations in

decade, he has initiated multiple solution portfolios built

the high-tech and professional services industry stems

on different data platform reference architectures with a

from deep aspiration and develops the intent to solve

huge focus on interoperability as a part of his role of

industry problems in all business sectors.

incubating the business solutions unit and the labs in the

11

The Challenge of Merging Business and Tech for Tailored Automation Spandan shares that one of the key challenges he faced

and developing a tailored automation strategy linked to

during the beginning of his career was the composite of

outcomes is crucial,” says Spandan.

the resistance to change in teams, as well as the dynamics

Spandan highlights that in some scenarios, there is also a

at customer organizations with multiple stakeholders

tendency to adopt a new technology based on market

who were emphasizing different priorities, which were

buzz and pressures that derails the whole focus of an

not always aligned. “Creating contextual knowledge and

enterprise from its own business priorities. He feels that

continuously developing and curating a knowledge

adopting a particular technology for the sake of

corpus on multi-domain business and technology focus

perfecting product engineering or for the sake of being

areas by keeping customer-evolving dynamics is a tough

compliant with the latest technology gear is sometimes

task. In some situations, there is a relentless focus on

not aligned with the go-to-market impact needs for a

driving extreme automation as automating might

business and the business model that changes the

become a bad process and bad behaviour is the worst

paradigm.

thing to do. Therefore, focusing on the business roadmap

Striking a Balance Between Innovation and Disruptive Market Trends Spandan opines that the role of a CTO has evolved with

the role of a leader is greatly focused now on aligning

the need to strike a balance between enabling and

these multi-skilled teams on common goals for agility

shaping up customer business platforms powered by

and time to value.

proactive internal platform investments and technology

Spandan presumes that until now, TCS has dealt with

capabilities build-out. A major portion of the CTO's

artificial intelligence and data services, which were

responsibilities in the past was centred on the

singular transactions at a point in time. He asserts that

technology adoption curve, technology reference

eventually, the industry is going to witness multi-turn

architectures, and technology horizon planning and

technology interactions starting with multi-turn AI, truly

implementation. Real-time intelligence and the

preserving the context of a conversation, a business

contributions of the new data-powered businesses-

transaction through the exchanges as the humans do.

as–a-service are the bedrock of the current platform

Spandan underlines that the emergence of GPT-3 type of

shift initiatives at every enterprise a combination of

AI and ML technologies will accelerate the speed at

digital technologies with pervasive artificial intelligence

which these technologies will become mainstream and

with data governance and explainable AI. He adds that

be available for more widespread adoption in all types of

today's innovation is focused on driving the next-

use cases that were not imagined before.

generation experience for all stakeholders. It requires a tapestry of many technologies. According to Spandan,

12

Product engineering coupled with data capital “focused on business outcomes will create the next

“

wave of transformation across all industries.

Trailblazing Initiatives at the Core of Business Development Spandan says that he fundamentally communicates

organizations to achieve growth and transformation

every discussion with each of his customers about where

objectives by continuously evolving their capability

they should be going on their business journeys and how

matrix across people, processes, data, privacy, and

technology can lead the way. He mentions that he has

security management by leveraging technology.”

focused on questioning the status quo of where and how

Spandan shares a few representative examples from

human intelligence needs to be a part of the new business

each of the High-tech segments. Firstly, in the cloud and

model development or problem-solving areas and where

software segment, he claims that he led the complete

the appropriate platform and automation-driven

strategy for the solution positioning and initial strategic

approaches should be deployed. Spandan declares that

delivery planning with a huge focus on cloud automation

he is a big believer in human-in-the-loop systems.

for one of the largest ongoing SaaS cloud

Designing systems for human engagement with rapid

transformations. Secondly, for an experienced

feedback for creating more relevant systems has helped

management and global marketing SaaS enterprise, his

him to stay honest with the target audience.

team is driving an advanced analytics engagement to

Spandan utters that he formulated the concept of 'TCS

deliver customer segmentation for end-users to provide

Evolutionary Engineering'. While talking about this

real-time understanding of the user behaviour based on

concept, he states, “Organizations are continuously

usage, subscription, market data for customer delight,

evolving because of the rapidly changing business cycles

retention and minimizing churn.

and the imperatives of staying relevant for rapid

Thirdly, in the professional services segment, Spandan

consumer behaviour and aspirations, which in turn is

reveals that the team led the ideation, positioning, and

fuelling the need for technologies and for releasing

advisory for setting up the next generation AI platform

metaverses in each industry. Businesses are evolving

for consumer-grade experiences, for a global

very fast, so organizations need to evolve at a much more

professional services firm, through an ecosystem

rapid pace in their engineering behaviour and cycles. TCS

approach and leveraging the business solutions labs. This

Evolutionary Engineering focuses on enabling

initiative enabled the creation of a cognitive automation

13

product, which is now a new revenue channel enabling

SecDevOps capabilities, adds Spandan.

transformations for end customers. In the industrial

Based on massive person-years of collective experience,

electronics segment, in continuous mode for multiple

Spandan conveys that has invested in conceptualizing

customers in the measurement and supply chain

and designing the next generation business advisory

solutions drove the positioning of the TCS SaaSification

platform called TCS TreXaaS, which will enable

capabilities, including product engineering, AI and ML-

customers to navigate business and technology and data

powered embedded business analytics, data platform

decisions and create contextual pathways and reference

engineering using modern cloud data services, and

architectures on an iterative and continuous basis. TCS

offering data-as-a-service – leading to new revenue

TreXaaS platform will enable customers to adopt and

channels. Lastly, in the computer platforms and

implement revolutionary engineering practices and

consumer devices segment, with the key TCS customer

continuously rejuvenate to innovate their business

team, the company drove the initiation of a cloud

models and technology reference architectures in a

platform engineering set up to enable all business and

synchronous mode.

technology groups to use the advanced cloud,

Characteristics of an Ideal CTO Spandan says that in the current technology led business

strategy and blueprint with stakeholders.

innovation cycle, talent is the primary fuel for innovation.

Spandan suggests that every CTO needs to have the

The right talent will deploy accurate technology to drive

patience to engage and listen to his or her architects and

innovation. The CTO is responsible for developing and

the core development team. “It is crucial to play the role

incubating core capabilities in the organization.

of the enabler because most of the time, the team is more

He states that the key attributes that every CTO should

deeply skilled than the CTO in their respective areas. A

possess are to continuously learn and be hands-on

CTO needs to foster a culture and environment of

especially on key technologies relevant for the firm to

collective problem solving and willingness to engage

appreciate and appropriately plan the product roadmaps

with business stakeholders in joint ideation sessions with

with the ability to understand and predict business

an open mind to drive business initiatives” he claims.

disruptions and plan technology-led innovation by

Spandan advises that every aspiring CTO and technology

designing, iterating and co-creating the technology

executive should consider their role as a primary

realization with consumer delight will “ Metaverse redefine industry leaders and benchmarks for

14

“

stakeholder experience.

business transformation partner. In a talent-driven

capability talent leader. A CTO's role in every enterprise

engineering world, talent incubation is the key to

will keep shifting; a successful CTO needs to

success. He also says that product engineering will

continuously gauge upcoming trends for the businesses

continue to witness tremendous growth because of an

and plan at least three quarters prior for staying ahead of

accelerated platform shift, hence a cultural shift towards

the game. Hence CTOs need to enable shaping, aligning

skills acquisition will help drive better outcomes from all

the business model of the enterprise ahead of industry

employees. Every enterprise has different business

disruptions. CTOs should keep a clear focus on

priorities and imperatives. A CTO needs to adapt and

sustainable business outcomes for consumers and

prioritize roles as a business leader and enabler, as an

enterprises that they serve directly or indirectly.

innovation leader, and a next-generation, advanced

“ privacy and security will be a mandatory expectation User controls, visibility and explainability over data

“

from all software platforms and products.

The Road Ahead: Forecasting a High-Tech Future Spandan remarks that the high-tech and professional

dynamically and being relevant to the consumer

services industry is at the core of the digitalization wave

segments that a particular enterprise is catering to.

and is empowering all industries. The Hi-tech industry

Experiences will continue to stay a dominant theme. The

will see significant areas of disruption across all

expectations of enterprises from the technology

segments. New portfolios and software companies will

i n d u s t r y o n p r o a c t i ve s o l u t i o n s o n p e r v a s i ve

emerge based on 5G and AI-powered data-driven

cybersecurity and privacy controls will continue to

platforms. Extreme SaaS and contextual PaaS usage will

increase. Data capital will be a major aspect of

be a norm, based on particular use cases and

competitive advantage in enterprises, and consumers

differentiation needs, and the time to market for

will expect a much bigger thrust and commitment from

customers. He believes that there will be massive

businesses based on the environmental, social, and

innovation on both hardware and software related to AR,

governance (ESG) standards, adds Spandan.

VR, and MR, that will enable realizing the metaverse

15

Spandan Mahapatra

Anubhav Arora

CTO- High Tech & Professional Services Industry and Global Head- Digital & Enterprise Transforma on Unit

CTO

Tata America Interna onal Corpora on

Anubhav Arora is the CTO of Fidelis Cybersecurity. Anubhav, along with the team, made many strides including the patented engineering innova ons, which made him a significant player in the NDR space.

He is responsible for the technology, product vision, and architecture of the company’s cybersecurity solu ons and works with his CISO to ensure the security of the company, products, and cloud services.

Spandan Mahapatra is the CTO of the High Tech & Professional Services Industry and Global Head- Digital & Enterprise Transforma on Unit at TCS. Spandan drives The OKRs with his special FTE global team of more than 150 professionals, comprising enterprise architects, domain consultants, pre-sales solu ons team, technology experts, and business solu ons labs in Cincinna where he and his team are leveraging a comprehensive suite of digital technology pla orms.

Fidelis Cybersecurity

Most Innovative

CTOs to Watch in

2021

www.fidelissecurity.com

www.tcs.com

David Huang

Anoop Muraleedharan

CTO

CTO

BizPay

LogicPlum

David Huang is the CTO of BizPay. His vision is to help businesses maximize their value from technology. He has extensive experience in overarching technology strategy and informa on management strategy in large corpora ons and start-ups across various sectors. David's role at BizPay is to build strong technological capabili es to enable the company to compete globally.

He believes that the key to success is all about people.

Annop Muraleedharan is the CTO of LogicPlum. He coded and released his first website when he was just fi een. Anoop developed a unique so ware inventory and billing solu ons, which was later bought by a company. His early experiences taught him much about innova on and how to apply it for maximum business results which made him turn into a transforma onal leader.

www.logicplum.com

Bobby Murphy

Parag Agarwal

Co-Founder & CTO Snapchat

www.snapchat.com

CTO Open Source Evolu on LLC Eren Niazi is the CTO of Open Source Evolu on LLC. He pioneered the open-source storage movement. At the age of 18, Eren had a vision of a free world where all programmers worked together to unlock and develop disrup ve technologies by furthering technological progress as a community. He was one amongst the few who received the very first patent to ever be filed in AI technology. www.opensourceevo.com

www.bizpay.com

Bobby Murphy is the Co-Founder and CTO of Snapchat, Inc. He oversees the company’s an engineering and product development. A er gradua ng from Stanford, he spent a year working as a so ware engineer at Revel Systems to cover Snapchat’s server bills. Bobby also headed Snapchat’s Snap Lab team which produced Spectacles camera glasses in 2018.

Eren Niazi

Aristotle Balogh Aristotle Balogh Airbnb Aristotle Balogh is the CTO of Airbnb. He oversees Airbnb’s Engineering and Data Science organiza ons. This includes leading our Infrastructure, IT, and Informa on Security teams, as well as core pla orms like Trust, Payments, Community Support, and Growth & Traffic. Aristotle combines a passion for developing novel technology with a deep commitment to Airbnb’s mission of connec on and belonging. www.airbnb.co.in

Andrew Lang

Geroge Maddaloni

CTO

CTO

CTO

Twi er

JPMorgan Chase & Co

Parag Agarwal is the CTO of Twi er.

His contribu ons at Twi er include leading efforts to increase the relevance of tweets in Twi er user’s melines using the latest technology such as Ar ficial Intelligence which prevents the abuse of the social networking pla orm. Parag is responsible for Twi er’s Technical Strategy, Machine Learning, Ar ficial Intelligence, Consumer, Revenue, and Science teams. www.twi er.com

Andrew Lang is the Global CTO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. He is responsible for evalua ng new and emerging technologies as well as se ng and leading the global technology strategy and shared services such as enterprise architecture, cloud compu ng, AI/ML, blockchain, API, and more.

Andrew serves on the Board of Directors of HiLabs, which offers machine learning solu ons for the healthcare industry.

Mastercard George Maddaloni is the CTO of Mastercard. He leads the Opera ons, Network, and Employee Digital Experience organiza ons.

Before Mastercard, George was the Global CTO of AIG. George has 28 years of experience in the financial services and technology industry. He also partnered closely with business CIOs on both the technology moderniza on strategy and agenda for AIG. www.mastercard.co.in

www.jpmorganchase.com

ANUBHAV ARORA CTO, Fidelis Cybersecurity

18

Executive of the Month

Augmenting A Strong Cybersecurity Ecosystem

by Merging Technology and Customer Needs

F

idelis Cybersecurity provides proactive defense-in-depth and

cyber defense solutions for enterprises and governmental

agencies to secure their assets and sensitive data against various

security threats including ransomware. The company's enterprise cybersecurity encompasses protection against threats on the networks, endpoints, user identities, and cloud assets. Fidelis Elevate® is an Active XDR solution that uniquely combines deception with detection and response across networks, endpoints, and cloud to form a holistic solution for finding and stopping threats before they can make an impact. Fidelis CloudPassage Halo® provides unified and automated cloud security and compliance. Together, these security platforms help customers to know about the current happenings in the environment and what could also happen, possibly exploring how to fix the issue and prevent it in the future.

19

“ Threat actors are always one step ahead and constantly pivoting tactics. That's why proactive technology is important, and why we focus on content and context in cyber defense. This helps customers predict potential actions of adversaries and prevent damage.

Anubhav Arora CTO Fidelis Cybersecurity

20

“

www.fidelissecurity.com

A Tech Savvy Leader with an Expertise in Cybersecurity Anubhav Arora is the Chief Technology Officer at Fidelis Cybersecurity. He began his journey with a Ph.D. in networking technology, specializing in switching and routing. In his early jobs at Lucent and Tellabs, Anubhav worked on telecom products. This work paved a path towards Fidelis Cybersecurity, where he played a pivotal role in developing Fidelis Network, which helps detect various stages of threats on networks, and, eventually, the Active XDR platform. When he joined, Fidelis was a start-up with cutting-edge technology that combines the content and context of network transmissions to stop data leakage on the network. Anubhav, along with the team, made many strides including several patented engineering innovations, which made him a significant player in the NDR space. “To secure our customers holistically across multi-cloud and hybrid environments, we both innovated and acquired and integrated companies for Endpoint security, Deception and Cloud security. We call it Active XDR”, he adds.

In his role at Fidelis, Anubhav understands how elements of XDR come together including architecture, integrations, and user experience. He leads and challenges his team to continue to innovate ahead of the curve and better protect enterprises against an everchanging threat landscape. Anubhav is responsible for the technology, product vision and architecture of the company's cybersecurity solutions and works with his CISO to ensure the security of the company, its products, and cloud services.

'Connecting the Dots' to Solve Digital Challenges Anubhav believes that cybersecurity is a broad and complex set of problems rife with incomplete and hardto-use solutions. His goal is to help enable stack consolidation and deliver robust, holistic platform to make the security teams more efficient and effective. He says that his experiences taught him how vital it is to embrace the full breadth and complexity of the problem, break it down into tractable components, and to weave them together to create effective solutions while maintaining operational simplicity. It has always been a priority for Anubhav to connect with his customers to listen to their first-hand challenges in securing their enterprises and to connect with various teams in Fidelis Cybersecurity, hearing their challenges and creating better solutions. Anubhav engages with colleagues,

customers, experts in the field to help them in understanding and learning the broader scope of the technologies used. He trusts the ability to deep dive when needed and emphasises the concept of 'connecting the dots' in leading innovation and designing cuttingedge products. Instituting a disciplined approach to product development and believing in the cause for creating a secure world, are the two key elements that shaped his journey.

Long Term Tech Vision: A Must for CTOs In the ever-changing proliferation of technology, Anubhav notes that the CTOs should be able to formulate long-term technology vision for the organization as well as create shorter-term roadmap, actionable goals, and priorities. He stresses on being flexible and able to think around roadblocks. Anubhav believes, “some technologists dive deep into singular aspects and become subject matter experts. Some are good at understanding how systems all work together to create larger solutions. A CTO needs to be able to delve at both levels appropriately: to go into depth when needed to resolve complex and critical roadblocks and to step back to look at the breadth of the solution when thinking strategically. It is also important to understand how research in one field may apply to another.”

He affirms that every organization is as good as its people. Anubhav believes that keys to success include: Ÿ Creating an environment that fosters openness and collaboration within teams to bring out new ideas and innovate Ÿ Building a culture of cross-functional collaboration Ÿ Utilizing the skill set of individuals to bring out their best work, and Ÿ Inspiring them to believe in the cause, the solutions, and the company as a whole Fostering Trailblazing Problem-Solving Methods to Appeal Customer Deployments Anubhav argues that effective solutions require studying the problem in detail, as well as understanding the operational use of the solution when deployed. In the case of cybersecurity, several users and stakeholders depend on the solution. He firstly strives to build a great understanding of the problem in his team, and allows his team to attack the problem in unique ways by providing a 21

space for new ideas and innovative solutions to flow in.

He adds that Fidelis not only focuses on solving particular technical problems, but also strives to make usability and operational simplicity for its customers in the forefront. Working with customers and internal teams to identify the various user personas for each solution and understanding their roles and challenges is a vital part in the product development process. He highlights that this engagement and mindset in his teams helps in innovating and creating solutions that appeal to various stakeholders in the customer's deployments.

Embracing Disruptive Technologies to Deliver Innovation Technologies such as AI, IoT, Automation, Cloud, and Robotics are disruptive in every sphere, including in everybody's personal lives, and cybersecurity is no exception says Anubhav. These are the tools that can enable solutions for exceptionally hard algorithmic problems. On the other hand, AI/ML has also helped create new attack vectors and added another level of the cybersecurity challenges. Due to the wide impact of these, he believes every leader in this space today needs to understand, at least at a basic level, how these technologies work, how they can be applied effectively, and how they are maturing with time. Anubhav believes this understanding to be extremely important in building a team to ensure the right talents and skill sets, which help in choosing the right infrastructure and environment for the continuous development of the team.

Battling the Security Concerns with Foresight and Effort Threat actors are usually one step ahead defenders. They pivot their tactics constantly. Fidelis Cybersecurity internalizes the mantra of 'Assume Breach' under Anubhav's guidance. To conquer the challenge, he and his team approaches security innovation with a goal of staying proactive in detecting the adversary and responding to the threat before they can inflict damage.

One of the personal challenges that Anubhav faced in his career, is realizing the need to proactively connect and network with industry peers and experts in related fields.

He says that this wasn't something that came naturally to him as he was an introvert by nature. So, he actively worked on building this skill through conscious effort 22

and guidance from his mentors.

Privacy at the Heart of Evolving Ransomware Attacks As technology has proliferated in every aspect of human lives, so have concerns for security and privacy. Anubhav understands that cyber attackers can hide easily, remain anonymous and prey on others for information and money. Digitization and other technology changes are only accelerating, and each introduces new security problems by providing attackers new ways to exploit the technology. For instance, he says to consider the impact of ransomware attacks in the last year or so on everybody's lives. “The industry needs to lead with initiatives to instil a security-first mindset for new tech, and regulatory bodies need to catch up to times so digital rights of individuals and organizations are primary objectives,” says Anubhav.

While talking specifically about the threat detection and response realm of cybersecurity, Anubhav sees this problem to expand with new attack surfaces coming in and novel attack techniques being used. He takes pride in mentioning that Fidelis is at the forefront of these changes to innovate, apply new algorithms, solutions, adopting new frameworks and inter-operating in the ecosystem by enabling cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions now and in the future.

A Piece of Advice for Emerging Leaders Anubhav advises that emerging CTOs remain humble, curious, open. They need to cultivate their ability to deep dive when needed while building their knowledge of the innovations and technologies. “Always actively listen and learn. Start with respecting, understanding, and taking care of people – your people are the ones who innovate to create and build great technology. Couple this with disciplined internal processes, clear responsibility and accountability, interactions across different teams, engagement with customers, and it will result in superior products and solutions for everyone,” concludes Anubhav.

Unmesh Srivastava CTO, P3 Health Partners

24

Executive of the Month

Sowing Digitization in the Healthcare Sector with Purpose and Passion

P

3 Health Partners is a population health management company that provides valuebased care services to seniors who have enrolled with Medicare advantage plans. P3 brings together the healthcare providers' working through its proprietary care model and technology to manage populations at a larger scale.

The providers of the company work together in a highly coordinated and integrated manner with a shared goal of improving the patient's outcome and lowering costs to provide a better experience. The P3's team of healthcare practitioners and service professionals, directed by physicians, aims to deliver better patient care with passion and purpose.

The firm understands the issues that come up with providing value-based care and thus, adopts a care model, which provides patients with the tools and resources that they need to manage their long-term wellbeing while also allowing doctors to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative work and between -visits.

believes that technology can solve all major problems that exist in the modern world. While growing up, he was always fascinated by emerging trends which led him to pursue engineering. However, what pushed him towards healthcare was his experience. Unmesh was put through situations that made him realize that health is not to be played with. He understood that health is the only asset that keeps everyone going and when access to care is denied, it can cost people their lives.

He noticed that the lack of basic patient care can leave the population denied by their basic rights. This led him to take the decision of doing his part to contribute to the change in the healthcare industry. At that time, Unmesh grabbed the opportunity and joined P3 Health Partners as a CTO. “I am doing what I am best at. Making a difference and bringing a positive change in people's lives using technology,” says Unmesh.

The Three Must-Have Attributes of a CTO According to Unmesh, there are three vital attributes that every CTO should possess: Ÿ A knack for following the latest technological trends

A Revolutionary Leader on the Healthcare Voyage

Ÿ Design thinking and empathetic approach to solutions

Unmesh Srivastava is the CTO of P3 Health Partners. He

Ÿ Understanding of the problems and their impact.

25

“ I am doing what I am best at. Making a difference and bringing a positive change in people's lives using technology.

Unmesh Srivastava CTO P3 Health Partners

www.p3hp.org/partners

“ 26

Clubbing Patient Experience with Personalization: A Cut Above Innovation The industry has an enormous potential to use data to improve patient care radically, Unmesh mentions. P3 is already collaborating with customers and technology firms to lead the next wave of innovation to improve clinical results and expedite healthcare delivery.

Unmesh claims that P3 uses a very innovative approach to club patient experience with personalization to deliver high-quality care. Unmesh along with his team will always make sure to study the gaps closely and to develop solutions that can enhance the quality-of-care delivery.

The primal challenge Unmesh faced in his early career was to unlearn things and the effort of trying to understand what the users were going through like their challenges, opportunities, etc. He states that it helped him understand the problem and eventually led to building superior technology solutions.

Digital Technologies at the Heart of Future Medical Developments Unmesh believes that medicine is capable of progressing faster in the next ten years than it did in the previous years. With breakthroughs in digital healthcare technologies, he says the future of healthcare is taking shape right before everybody's eyes.

“As the US healthcare system needs improvement, only technology can make this happen,” asserts Unmesh. This is where he comes in to deploy innovative solutions and products that are needed by the patients and providers.

“P3 Health Partners is using these digital technologies to bring the future to the present and aid thousands of people,” Unmesh adds. He trusts that the convergence of these numerous technologies exponentially multiplies the impact in the primary healthcare disruption.

Evolving in Time with Artificial Intelligence

He quotes the example of Teleradiology, which is excellent for remote diagnosis. Unmesh says that the marginal cost of interpreting a CT scan or MRI by a physician can be reduced to near zero. “All thanks to AIdriven teleradiology, this is now possible,” Unmesh concludes.

Unmesh considers the healthcare industry's success to be one of the greatest success stories of this generation as medical research has advanced by rapidly increasing the life expectancy around the world. However, he says that as people live longer, healthcare systems face increased demand, rising expenses, and training staff to meet the requirements of their patients. Unmesh p e r c e i ve s p o p u l a t i o n a g i n g , c h a n g i n g p a t i e n t expectations, a shift in lifestyle choices and the neverending innovation cycle to be just a few of the inescapable forces driving demand.

Unmesh believes that as we enter an era in which artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a significant consideration at the executive level, laying the groundwork for a future in which people and robots may collaborate and live in harmony. He adds that it is too early to tell what kind of impact AI leadership will have on businesses but Unmesh also mentions that AI can supplement human decision-making by bringing more complex problem-solving and unbiased data analysis to the boardroom that would otherwise be possible while still valuing human ingenuity and innovation.

Conquering Provocations with Superior Technology Solutions

Word of Wisdom for Budding Leaders Unmesh states that interacting with industry executives about various products and solutions made him realize that all they need is a part of his present position at P3 Health Partners. “This engagement is beneficial not just in terms of business but also in terms of learning,” he says.

While Chief Technology Officers possess a variety of personality qualities, there are several attributes according to him that are essential for emerging CTOs, those are: Ÿ Thinking beyond the code Ÿ Making quick and quality decisions Ÿ Mastering core technology and transitions Ÿ Keeping up pace with the latest technological trends Ÿ Mastering communication and collaboration Ÿ Improving people and crisis management skills.

27

ROLE OF

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY

OFFICER IN THE SUCCESS OF CORPORATES

T

he Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is the senior

executive who concentrates on the

technological regulations, opportunities, and

challenges within a company. The CTO role has arisen as a key player in the enterprise C-suite, particularly with digital transformation being such a high strategic priority for numerous companies. A CTO is responsible for the management of an organization's research and development (R&D) as well as it is technological needs.

While it is easy to associate the increasing significance of the CTO to the advent of the Digital Age wherein people cannot live without technology, it must also be noted that technology has become a source of competitive

30

advantage for corporates and businesses.

progress. The administration of the overall vision of the

Certainly, from being a position that governs the rollout

product item is the CTOs center driver and assignments

of hardware and phases of software deployments, the

like coding or QA are currently taken care of by different

Chief Technology Officer is presently a key strategic

individuals from the group.

thinker and an advisor to the Chief Executive Officer

The CTO is continually remaining alarmed by recent

(CEO) on matters concerning the across-the-board

trends in innovation and stays the lead product engineer

strategic direction that the corporate and the industries

and framework executive.

must take.

At every stage of the company's life-cycle, the roles and

Development Stage

responsibilities of the CTO change. Here is how the CTO

At this crossroads, the CTO is a senior chief which is a few

defines the success of corporates at every stage:

levels from the involved undertaking execution. They are the substance of the tech office in the open arena and

Pre-Seed Stage

address the organization at gatherings and other expert

When an idea for a business has flowered, the Chief

occasions.

Technology Officer acts as a practical engineer,

They ought to be knowledgeable about taking care of

validating the technical feasibility of the business plan.

huge or various offices and exploring and carrying out

At this stage, the CTO also acts as a co-founder who has

state-of-the-art innovation.

to be fully prepared to build the digital product

As you know, after the pandemic technology has become

architecture often without third-party help. Apart from

the lifeline of businesses and in order to ensure the

this, Data security, QA management, and deployment

success of the corporation, CTO has become significant.

issues also fall into the responsibility of the CTO.

Surely, it would not be an understatement to say that technology came to the rescue of businesses and

Startup

corporates during the lockdowns the arising Work from

At a corporation's beginning, the CTO is heavily active

Home arrangements. No doubt that many corporations

with talent acquisition and its onboarding, training, and

in recent years have started to hire technologists for the

management. Their expertise in the area is significant to

crucial roles encompassing the CEO roles.

specify talent at this moment without a skilled HR

In conclusion, there is additionally a risk in overhyping

department.

the job of the CTO as innovation can be a two-sided deal

Responsibilities of the CTO, here include coming up with

and overreliance on innovation without support the

a tech stack, submitting budget suggestions, and

human component can be hazardous.

altogether trying to enhance their digital product. The

This is the motivation behind why a few firms are

role here evolves into more of a tech-visionary, HR

searching for technologists with delicate abilities and

specialist, and team leader as opposed to a fully-fledged

esteem and regulating ascribes so that in the chase after

developer. This is how CTO defines the success of a start-

the holy grail of tech, the attention on relationship

up.

building abilities isn't lost.

All things considered, the future would have a place with

Growth Stage

those technologists who can wed their tech information

At the point when the life pattern of a business is

with vision and empathetic mission and can bring

merging, CTO's obligations can include administering a

commendable relationship building abilities and

few improvement groups while assessing interaction and

qualities.

31

DAVID HUANG CTO, BizPay

32

Transforming the FinTech Industry with Disruptive Technological Innovations

B

izPay is a technology platform that solves cash

t h a t w o r k i n g i n A u s t ra l i a p r ov i d e d h i m m a ny

flow challenges associated with paying business

opportunities to collaborate with top talents from other

invoices. It splits invoices into four parts to

parts of the world. He also worked with massive projects

spread repayments over time. Businesses use BizPay to

and small start-ups as well. David takes pride in saying

pay supplier invoices or to offer it as an incentive to their

that he has successfully built many top-notch

customers, whilst getting paid immediately. BizPay lets

engineering teams throughout his career by solving the

you keep more cash in order to drive your business

challenging business problems by innovating highly

better. BizPay is also super easy to use: one can join in

competitive products.

minutes, get approved in 24 hours, and have no

David believes that the key to success is all about people.

complicated background checks.

So, he stresses about the need to spend good efforts in hiring and attracting top talents to join, making sure that

An Experienced Leader

they thrive with suitable work. He also adds that keeping

David Huang is the CTO of BizPay. He visions to help

invested in learning and development by celebrating and

businesses maximize their value from technology by

recognizing success with the team is vital. Talking about

establishing a clear roadmap for people and processes to

an ideal team, David says, “A good team can be very

foster a technological evolution. David has an extensive

resilient under pressure, utilize suitable technologies to

experience in overarching technology strategy and

deliver business value faster, care about quality and lead

information management strategy in large corporations

the company in every wave of new technologies.”

and start-ups across investment, banking, FinTech, media, insurance, software, and health industries. His

Fu n d a m e n t a l s t h a t O r c h e s t r a t e d D i f f e r e n t

role at BizPay is to build strong technological capabilities

Technologies Together

to enable the company to compete globally. David says

Talking about the challenges, David recollects, “During

33

“ A good team can be very resilient under pressure, utilize suitable technologies to deliver business value faster, care about quality and lead the company in every wave of new technologies.

David Huang CTO BizPay

www.bizpay.com

“ 34

my early career, I felt there was so much to learn in all

technologies and try them out all by themselves.

areas.” He refers to his experience in trying to master

“We usually do hackathons and they are an excellent

DB2, Tera Data, Oracle, and SQL Server databases in

place to experiment with crazy ideas and see fast results.

parallel with tackling web technologies such as jQuery,

Last but not least, a successful CTO must keep clear

backbone.js, later. Then he realized that the better way

communication to the other non-tech departments and

was to study the fundamentals inside these tech

the board. The more support the tech team can have, the

products. He explains it by giving an example of how

better outcome we will be able to achieve collectively”,

database engines tune queries, how tables work in SQL

he states.

queries, and how web elements are handled by the browser. After being clear with the fundamentals, he

C r e a t i n g Fr i c t i o n l e s s C u s t o m e r E x p e r i e n c e s

started to see more similarities in different tech products

Conventionally

and he then used to dive deeper into the differences. He

At BizPay, David and his team use certain conventional

says this method helped him to overcome the mental

ways of doing BNPL and lending. For example, “When we

overload and enabled him to start orchestrating

see a customer who needs to fill in the same information

different technologies together.

repeatedly, we start to think about the minimum information we need from the customer to get them

Attributes that Every CTO Must Possess

onboarded” he says.

David believes that a successful CTO must be people-

Later combining big data, web meta-data, and artificial

focused first. He asserts that one needs to care about the

intelligence (deep learning) algorithms, David aims to

engineers both inside and outside work. He notes that

create a frictionless customer experience during the

giving recognition and motivating the team when things

processes of onboarding and transaction in BizPay

get complicated are vital. According to David, a

products.

successful CTO must be well balanced in several technological aspects to lead the company into the

AI and Blockchain that Drive the FinTech Ecosystem

future. He encourages the CTOs to keep learning new

David certainly asserts that; AI is the future in the

35

FinTech industry. He mentions that AI can provide a

products to create a frictionless customer experience

perfect medium to combine big data, process automation

and protecting the risk exposure.” In the future, we will

and customer experience. He believes that AI can build a

utilize these tools to expand globally. Our vision is to put

superhero credit analyst to watch out for fraud and a

BizPay as a universal payment option on every business

know-it-all customer onboarding agent to provide the

invoice” claims David.

best customer experience. As a result, David says that the financial industry will be thriving with more

While talking about the future of the FinTech industry, he

customer-focused AI technologies soon.

trusts that Crypto and AI will help the industry to keep

The other critical disruptive technology he mentions

growing in manageable ways. And the upcoming

about is--blockchain. With the crypto ecosystem

innovation wave, according to David would use both the

becoming more mature, there are considerable

technologies to make many transparent and highly

opportunities to use suitable 'Decentralised Finance'

efficient financial products.

(DeFi) to modernize the financial industry. Hence, David says that KYC/KYB won't be a problem anymore where

An Advice to the Budding Leaders

fast and low-cost money transfer would lead to more

Advising the aspiring CTO's David says, “My suggestion

yield generations for the customers.

is to love what you do, enjoy picking up the new tech, learn how to work with and motivate people. CTO plays a

Envisioning the Future of Global Expansion

critical role in every company”. You will need to realize

David envisions the future of BizPay to a bright one. He

the responsibility and the impact you are bringing to your

says that the company has already built scalable, resilient

company. Most importantly, maintain positive curiosity

software applications with a smart data platform for

in your job. Remember that technology is the future.”

insights and analytics by leveraging cutting-edge AI

36

Top Tips

to Become the

Perfect CTO in an Organization in

2021 38

A

good CTO is someone who is both a developer and who holds a leadership role. They have excellent technical and soft skills. Their qualities are intricate and include: A good CTO is wellversed in technology. They would have accumulated vast technical experience by having worked on different levels of development and have dealt with many challenges.

Good Communication Skills Being a CTO doesn't mean being the most talented developer on the team. It's the person with the best communication skills. For example, a CTO has to know how to speak in a technical language to developers.

Similarly, they have to know how to talk in a business language to clients. Whether it's emails, chatting on Slack, video conferencing on Zoom, or talking face-toface, the communication skills of a CTO have to be extensive and exceptional. Simply put, a good CTO wants to listen to customers, and even better, a good CTO will do at least an hour of live chat support every day. That's what our CTO does, and he's the best I've ever worked with. He never loses empathy for the end-user and the customer, which helps him understand why the technology he is building is so important.

Knowing Who to Hire The talent shortage is a serious problem. More companies are looking for talent than qualified candidates are looking for new job opportunities. As qualified candidates are so rare, it's only natural for the CTO to participate in the hiring process for the development team. They should possess the skills of knowing who would be an excellent cultural fit and who has the right skills for the company. A good CTO can put together an amazing engineering team. They should possess the skills to attract, retain, and inspire the best talent. What's more, they should be able to recognize talent.

Strategic Mindset Instead of seeing the tree, the CTO must see the forest. In other words, a CTO is a strategic visionary. They must see the bigger picture of what the company is moving towards and how it can get there. As a result, they would

spend a lot of time reading about new business models and technologies. They will analyze the competitors and draft a technology strategy on how the company can reach its business goals and stay ahead of the competition. To disrupt markets, a startup must have disruptive ideas. The source of those ideas is usually the development team, with the CTO in charge. A good CTO would hire exceptional developers, create a culture of motivation, and encourage the sharing of ideas.

Technological Insight Ensuring quality across all software being written is a critical responsibility of a CTO. For that to happen, a good CTO should be able to work alongside his or her development team – because they know how to. Beyond knowing how to code though, a CTO should also have enough technological insight to recognize when a new solution, coding language, tool, or hardware device is worth exploring – and when they are not.

Decision Making Whether you're deciding to migrate your tech stack, reorganize your development team, or prepare a presentation for potential investors, as a CTO, you're going to be marking a lot of decisions, both on a long and short-term basis. When it comes to technological and business decisions, a great CTO should make moves based on evidence and experience. As for decisions pertaining to in-house affairs and office politics – well, those usually prove to be the most technical of all.

Team Management and Deadlines A CTO might make the big decisions, but they don't (usually) work alone. Instead, they'll have a passionate team behind them that cares just as much about the product as they do. That's the idea, anyway. With that in mind, part of being a great CTO is excellent team management. A strong CTO isn't afraid to hire team members that bring new and sometimes unpopular ideas to the table. Beyond being able to cultivate and manage high performers, a stellar CTO will consistently be able to lead a team towards new and innovative software releases, and on schedule, too. This requires stellar team management and communication skills that few possess.

39

ANOOP MURALEEDHARAN Chief Technology Officer, LogicPlum

42

Displaying Excellence by Leveraging Unique Customer-Centric AI-Powered Solutions

L

ogicPlum specializes in visibility and trust when

business. However, that is not the case at LogicPlum.

building AI-powered applications. The company

Everything the core team does at LogicPlum is AI-based,

helps its client companies go from concept to

and that benefits the company's clients.

product launch in just 90 days. Starting on day 91, it helps

LogicPlum does a masterful job at listening to the

accelerate business value in the most efficient manner

customer, combining many modes of AI (visual AI,

possible. LogicPlum's AI Innovation platform and the

location AI, text AI, etc.) into a seamless experience for

team of experts deliver the business outcomes that the

the customer to experience a UI/UX with behaviour

company's leadership has dreamt about from beginning

science and math as a guidepost maximizes the business

to end.

outcome for its customers.

Many companies come to LogicPlum with a single statement, "I want to build an AI application that does

A Headstrong Tech-Savvy Leader

X Y Z … " Lo g i c P l u m d o e s n' t r e q u i r e a b u s i n e s s

Anoop Muraleedharan is the Chief Technology Officer of

professional to understand the ins and outs of

LogicPlum. He coded and released his first website when

technology, math, statistics, or the latest trend in AI to

he was just fifteen. At eighteen, Anoop developed a

work with us. The company takes on the burden of being

unique software inventory and billing solution whose

proficient in the language of business, and the team

rights that later was bought by a company. That

translates that into the language of AI.

experience gave him the first experience at how

LogicPlum is the only company that commits to a 90-day

profitable the tech space could be, as long as he was

timeline to go from concept to product launch. A

solving a customer's pain point. Officially, he started his

company can't live up to this constraint without having a

professional career as a software engineer at 19 and met

deep understanding of AI and technology. Furthermore,

Damain in 2012 and became fast friends.

many companies who build AI don't use it on their own

The duo began working on several complex software

43

“ Initially, a CEO had to have an idea of what they wanted from a business perspective rather than talk with the company's CTO. Then, the CTO had to convert that into a technical requirements list and then source the three experts. It placed much strain on the CTO and made them experts in math and statistics. The roles are changing; sometimes, the CEO will go directly to a group that can speak business and AI and later includes the CTO.

Anoop Muraleedharan Chief Technology Officer LogicPlum

44

“

www.logicplum.com

solutions before starting LogicPlum, Inc. in 2017. One

not a promise, but knew the team is building something

year later, both had developed the first version of the

magnificent.

LogicPlum AI platform. Since then, they have released version 3.0 with four offices in three countries and the th

company is nearing the 40 employee.

‘Learning to Code' at the Heart of Being a Top CTO Anoop avows that for starters, CTOs should know how to code. They should be thought leaders when it comes to

Accepting Failure as the Best Teacher for Learnings

the technical workflow of the company. It can be a tough

Failure is the best teacher, and those failures have

job, but they should have the pulse of what is going on

shaped Anoop into who he is now. During his thirteenth

with Frontend, Backend, Database, Data Science, Data

year in the career, he has worked with six companies in

Engineering, DevOps, SecOps, and Quality Analysis. He

various roles. Each opportunity gave him the space to run

highlights that a good CTO doesn't stop there but keeps

free with the ideas that Anoop wanted to explore in the

his company in front of the business competition by

field of technology. He has pulled forward that same

staying aware of the trends in technology that can ease

spirit of curiosity and pushed the boundaries with

up operations. Lastly, CTOs should have a keen eye for

technology into his role at LogicPlum. He often asks the

automation. In my opinion, automating a workflow that

LogicPlum team to do the same each day. Anoop's earlier

could save hours or days of work is the best thing for a

years in the career have taught much about innovation

company, says Anoop.

and how to apply it for maximum business results which made him turn into the transformational leader that he is

Outperforming Customers' Needs with a Plethora of AI

today.

Offerings Anoop presumes that the team at LogicPlum has an array

Conquering the Initial Challenges with Determination

of offerings for customers which make their lives easier.

and Grit

It has an enterprise-grade automated AI platform that

Anoop says that at the start of the journey with

builds AI models in minutes (whether it's time-series,

LogicPlum, the team encountered several organizations

computer vision, bias and fairness, location AI, anomaly

that said they use AI already. But under the hood, the

detection, or clustering). He adds that LogicPlum also

team discovered those were just a sequence of business

continues to innovate with AI on its own business that

rules (if "x," then "y"). That is not what the company is

creates a pass-through effect of benefit to the

doing, but somehow the organizations could not

customers. The staff uses LogicPlum AI to help identify

understand the difference of what LogicPlum had, and

the areas of improvement for multiple company divisions

because of that, those organizations were leaving

like product management, visual design, technical

significant value on the table.

writing and various other business automations.

The team knew that to disrupt the market, it only had to

Anoop utters that the company Quiver offers the

do things differently but that it had to be evident to

customers with several AI solutions that are helpful for

LogicPlum prospects recalls Anoop. Though Damian is a

the sorts of transformation a typical LogicPlum customer

renowned data scientist, Anoop was a bit new to AI.

is looking to achieve. The three solutions that are popular

Therefore, each day he was learning and implementing

with customers at LogicPlum are:

new things. Both of them spent more than sixteen hours

Ÿ LogicPlum Roadmap Live: AI that suggests a priority

most of the day working on LogicPlum.

plan for companies who can benefit from a product

Anoop mentions that they understood that success was

roadmap

45

Ÿ LogicPlum Dash: AI that creates a business-centric

Advice for Leaders: Hold a Relentless Curiosity on

write-up providing a status report on all the closed,

Technology

active, and new development activities

Anoop suggests emerging leaders to not to rest until one

Ÿ LogicPlum Caliber: Ensure that a customer's AI

reaches where one wants to be. He also advised, “People

products are doing what they are intended to do and

will always tell you what they think you are or what they

the highest quality for their customers.

think you will be, but you are the only one who can make good on your story. Learn to take risks and push yourself

Developing a Reassuring Relationship with the CEO for

to go beyond what is comfortable – that is the only way

Better Business Outcomes

you will grow as a professional.” Anoop asserts that one

Anoop remarks that AI continues to have a tremendous

should be curious about technology besides being a

impact on people's lives. The most innovative companies

facilitator of technology. It is essential to learn to be

start their design by thinking with AI at the centre of

playful with the technology one gets your hands on.

whatever solution they build in business and hence work

“Most importantly, emerging CTOs should remember to

with a handful of companies like LogicPlum to

have a healthy relationship with a team because no man

understand how to bring various AIs into a more

lives on an island” he adds. As a CTO, Anoop's happiest

comprehensive solution. He adds that for example, if one

times are when someone has told the team and him that

wanted to leverage natural language processing,

something was impossible to create and he watches the

computer vision, and time-series models, they had to go

team come together to create what LogicPlum

to three different experts. Although it's rare to find a

customers call "magic.”

company that can pull this off successfully, LogicPlum is one such company which can engage in all the three with

Envisioning a Future with Constant Changes and

total ease.

Developments the in AI Sector

Anoop states that initially, a CEO had to have an idea of

The one thing that Anoop is 100% sure of in the future is

what they wanted from a business perspective than talk

change. Anoop observes the trajectory where

with the company's CTO. Then, the CTO had to convert

businesses want to enhance humans with AI and

that into a technical requirements list and then source

companies want to humanize the AI they have in place.

the three experts mentioned above. It placed much strain

LogicPlum is ready, willing and able to help with that

on the CTO and made them experts in math and

transformation for companies.

statistics. He continues that the roles are changing.

“Companies are beginning to shed their thinking that

Sometimes, the CEO will go directly to a group that can

humans are superior to machines and fear letting them

speak business and AI and later includes the CTO. Anoop

into the office. Instead, a more nuanced conversation is

finds that CTOs are not minding a later stage

taking place, what are humans good at? What are

involvement in the LogicPlum process. Primarily, this is

machines good at? How could a company get the best

due to the visibility and trust we create with the

results by blending what humans and machines can do

company's AI Innovation Platform. It's a win-win-win for

together? Having this conversation with commercial

the CEO, CTO, and a company like LogicPlum.

industries is the bridge to a new world for the industry,” concludes Anoop.

46

Michel Hubert CTO, Econocom

48

A Successful CTO and an Expert in Software

M

ichel Hubert is the Chief Technology Officer

According to Michel, A CTO must be passionate about

of Econocom. This company is a digital

technology with a very business focus. He should

general contractor which conceives,

understand the business challenges of customers to

finances, and facilitates the digital transformation of

provide the right technical response. Michel sees the

large firms and public organizations. With 48 years of

mistakes and bad choices as opportunities to progress.

experience, it is the only market player offering versatile

“The journey of a CTO is not a long straight, there are

expertise through a combination of project financing,

obstacles but also very beautiful encounters with

equipment distribution, and digital services.

inspiring people.” Michel states.

The group is present in 18 countries, with over 9,000

Empowering Over the Primal Challenges

employees and generates over €2,559 m in revenue.

Econocom is listed on Euronext in Brussels, on the BEL

Michel confessed that there were times in France where

mid and family business indices.

the career of a developer was always a dismal failure. But now times have changed and developers are ever

An Insight into the Making of the Successful CTO

growing. So, the struggle to thrive as a developer was his biggest challenge. Another big challenge that came

A little more than20 years ago, Michel started his career

Michel's way was to survive in the industry where one

as a Developer (at the time when the Internet did not

has to constantly train, discover new technologies, new

exist) in a service company. After co-founding a web

languages, and new methods. Passing by all these kinds of

agency in the early 2000s, he spent a long time in a

hurdles, today Michel stands a strong pillar in the

consulting company as a software architect and then as a

software industry empowering technology.

solution architect. He specialized in Microsoft technologies. Michel has been the MVP since 2009 and

Attributes that Make a Good CTO

played the role of Microsoft's Regional Director for 6 years. Currently, Michel is the CTO at Econocom in

Michel asserts that a CTO must remain a man (or woman)

charge of strategy, offers, and is also the facilitator of

in the field. He must be the right arm of CIOs, as they are

technical communities to allow employees to develop

constantly under pressure: by end-users, by business, by

their skills on technologies such as cloud, devOps,

market.

automation, modern workplace etc.

A good CTO must be profile-focused and must be capable enough to understand the customer issues and translate

49

“ The journey of a CTO is not a long straight, there are obstacles but also very beautiful encounters with inspiring people.

Michel Hubert CTO Econocom

www.econocom.com/en

“ 50

them into technical solutions. CTO is also a

below from Satya Nadella, president of

visionary, he deciphers technology to find the

Microsoft Corp, sums it up well: "Every

right uses and conversely of a use, he must find

company is a software company.”

the technologies that respond to them.

In addition, the topics around decarbonization and the digital footprint on the environment Using Disruptive Technology to Levitate the

are concerns of our customers. For Econocom,

Operations

this is already a priority and an integral part of

Michel believes that cloud computing has

their offers.

completely revolutionized IT. Cloud has

Passion Must Steer the Operations of

become the default and now the challenge lies

Emerging Leaders

in how the company can transform its organization. Michel stresses that Econocom

Michel confesses, “The main advice for the

needs to move away from traditional operating

emerging leaders will be the passion! Passion

models to a modern approach. Cloud for

for the profession, technology and quality.” He

infrastructure, automation with devOps, and

believes that the leaders must remain

low code make it possible to innovate faster, to

craftsmen, even in a world where everything

be more agile in a very competitive market. The

moves very quickly. To succeed in the

role of the CTO is to support changes both with

profession, training is key. The way of training

customers and with internal teams.

has also evolved with the emergence of MOOCs, e-learning platforms. Now people can

A Transformation from IT to Cloud is in Store

learn when they need and when they want. It is

for Future

also important to work on the professional

As customers change profoundly, their historical and future providers must inevitably adapt or risk disappearing quickly, overtaken by their competitors. So there has been an absolute emergency for several years.

network, to exchange and share their experiences with their peers. “Finally, the transmission of knowledge to new generations is rewarding. It must make commitments on diversity and inclusion such as highlighting female role models” he adds.

The software industry must undergo a profound transformation, their own digital transformation. They must apply to themselves what they offer to their customers. The quote

51

EREN NIAZI CTO, Open Source Evolution (OSE)

52

A Revolutionary Leader Sculpting a 'Free World' with Open Source and Software Disruption

O

pen Source Evolution (OSE) specializes in

A Visionary Exhibiting Tech Excellence

providing enterprise open source disruptive

ErenNiazi is the original visionary who pioneered the

technologies. The company allows start-ups

Open Source Storage movement by successfully,

and large enterprises to move to open source technology

branding the entire industry as we know it today.

at just a fraction of the cost. Open Source is 80% cheaper

Currently, he is the CTO of OSE. Eren holds several U.S.

and 3 X fasterthan the other proprietary technologies.

patents and patents pending, which specialize in

Open Source encourages new innovative technologies to

disruptive technologies. He was one of the very few who

be created and allows the current technology to be

received first patents in AI technology. He also designed

advanced. It is dedicated to designing customized open

Facebook's core systems during its hyper-growth phase

source solutions for those who want to surpass their

and played an instrumental role in supporting Friendster,

competitors with innovation and game-changing

US Army, NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Shutterfly. Eren is

technology. From complex migration to cross-platform

committed to creating a world for open source software,

integration, the company seems to fulfil clients' every

where free-thinking open minds are encouraged and

technological need. In an age where innovation and

believes that the reward for that would bea better

technology are rattling the business models in every

technological environment for everyone. At the age of

industry, many organizations do not have the right

18, ErenNiazi had a vision of a free world where all

resource to develop the needed comprehensive in-house

programmers would work together to unlock and

solution. Fortunately, OSE offers more than just an

develop disruptive technologies by furthering the

experience in technology by providing business-minded

technological progress as a community. He knew he

experts who analyze clients' challenges and help them

could now provide a low-cost, scalable enterprise

address and overcome them.

solution and thus, the “free world” he created became an environment for programmers to build technology and

53

“ I'm committed to creating a world for open source software, where free-thinking open minds are encouraged, and the reward is a better technological environment for everyone.

Eren Niazi, CTO Open Source Evolution (OSE)

www.opensourceevo.com

“ 54

acts as a platform of communication where these

Overcoming Adversities by Designing Futuristic

programmers could share their views with each other.

Customer-Centric Solutions

Eventually, this led to a natural evolution,which not only

Eren says that OSE offers more than just experience in

made the source codes better as they exchanged hands,

technology; rather it provides a well-rounded team of

but also allowed the young entrepreneurs to further

open source experts who can analyze the challenges and

their own visions by freeing them from large, proprietary

build a solution to help the clients win. “If the client wants

companies.

to surpass the competitors with game-changing technology, stay nimble and drive down enterprise costs,

Bequeathing the Talent to Open Source Software

they would need EVO,” adds Eren. He explains that there

Development

is both good code and bad code. In a world where

Eren always proved to be an excellentCTO by

technology is evolving at a rapid pace, quality matters

showcasing his exceptional skills in the development of

and at OSE, the quality code and architecture EVO will

OSS (Open Source Software) commitment, drive,

meet the current needs as well as the future needs with

productivity, credible leadership, unique incentive

respect to the client requirements. This is significant

drivers, motivation training and in open-source culture.

when someone wants to add new features, cross-

He calculated the recruitment of strategic top open-

platform integrations, or make updates as technology

source executives, sales team, support staff and

evolves. EVO's software solutions deliver functions and

advisors.With strong communication skills, Eren has

rich feature sets that are built to specification, as well as

been successful in motivating and inspiring allegiance to

being scalable, reliable, and robust, and OSE has been

the company's open-source vision and central goals.

engaged in the open-source community since its infancy.

Recognition of potential in the company, product development, people,and opportunities are a few factors

EVO: The Brainchild of a Promising Team

that helped him to integrate multiple businesses into one

Eren claims that OSE has been successful in building

company. Eren had a great efficiency in the development

powerful, process-based applications to solve everyday

of self-administered accountability systems, which were

business problems. He highlights that the company

motivated by incentives, recognitions and reward

understands every enterprise as it has been building

systems.

open source solutions for over 20 years now. OSE has

55

lived the realities faced limited options from the

and agility of the existing infrastructures. This brings a

proprietary vendors and hence, it knows how to conquer

high degree of customization without sacrificing the

in open source. EVO provides industry-leading, proven

benefits of the emerging blockchain technology. Eren

open-source development for the client's enterprise.

reveals that OSE helps the clients by validating

EVO services are used today in the entertainment,

frameworks and assessing whether a proposed solution

government, technology and consumer industries. Eren

truly meets the respective business needs. EVO's

has admitted that from the Department of Defense to

talented technology team can define whether blockchain

Google. He believes that open source is here to stay and it

is the right fit for the client's organization, by analysing

is solving some of the most complex technology

whether or not the ROI is justified to integrate an open-

challenges out there. Proprietary single-source

source blockchain project. OSE's EVO also provides an

solutions can be limiting in terms of keeping pace with a

open-source architectural design and development for

rapidly changing world, customization, and exorbitant

creating and public, private, or hybrid clouds. It can

cost. Eren feels that what sets OSE's EVO apart from the

connect the client's cloud model with either SaaS, IaaS,

competition is its dedicated team. A team that knows

PaaS or XaaS built. EVO further helps the client to find

how to harness the power of open source for the

the best way to design, develop and deploy mobile apps.

enterprise, build robust architectures for the future, and

The company has proven open-source architects and

flawlessly execute the solutions. He adds that the

developers who can guide the mobile app development

company has industry open-source legends on EVO's

process from start to finish. It will use open source to

team. The clients will have access to this seasoned talent

evolve the mobile world.

pool and the company will be committed to his business outcome. Eren states, “If we've done it for Facebook, we

A Future Synonymous to Software Progress

can do it for you.”

Eren says that he is committed to creating a world for

Eren asserts that EVO helps companies in integrating

open source software, where free-thinking open minds

blockchain into their existing infrastructure with open

are encouraged, and the reward is a better technological

source easy. “It can help simplify record and identity

environment for everyone. He concludes by highlighting

management, transaction processing, goods

that OSE will become one of the main catalysts for the

provenance, and management and tracking of their

open source movement. Its enterprise solutions will

ledger,” he adds. The company develops blockchain using

pioneer in the development of disruptive Open Source

proven principles of open source by extending flexibility

technologies.

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