COO Summit 2024: Setting The Stage - How To Drive Operational Excellence - video Dailymotion

Fortune

Ganesh Ayyar, EVP and President, Intuitive Operations and Automation and Industry Solutions, Cognizant, Interviewer: Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit

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00:00Ganesh Iyer is the Executive Vice President and President of Intuitive Operations.

00:07I love that.

00:08I've never heard intuitive operations for automation and industry solutions at Cognizant.

00:13You know, I want to actually start on a personal level because you were CEO of Emphasis, which

00:17was a publicly listed company.

00:19You sold the majority stake to Blackstone, I believe, right?

00:22Yes, I did.

00:23And so what made you decide to come to Cognizant in this role, if you don't mind?

00:28This is the unrehearsed part.

00:30I want to just get a sense of who you are.

00:32Yeah.

00:33So, you know, I have spent in this industry about 153 quarters now.

00:39153 quarters.

00:41That's right.

00:42Who's measuring?

00:44And outside the industry, I have spent 100 quarters.

00:47So that gives you my age.

00:50I was with Emphasis for eight years as the CEO.

00:53We sold the majority stake to Blackstone in 2016.

01:00And 2017, I decided to get out.

01:03It was the single largest transaction done by any PE firm in a listed company in India.

01:10So I didn't have the economic need to work after that.

01:17So I thought I'll take it easy.

01:19So I decided to take it easy for a year and a half.

01:24And two reasons I decided to get back.

01:27My wife was very clear that I shouldn't be sitting at home.

01:33And second thing, I was getting very bored and I couldn't, I was missing the roller coaster

01:41ride.

01:43So I looked up at the companies that I wanted to join.

01:48And I must say I chose the company that I decided to join.

01:52Because I had borrowed part of their strategy in crafting the strategy of the previous company.

01:58What part of their strategy?

02:00They always played at the intersection of industry and tech.

02:08And that is the intersection which excited me always.

02:13So fantastic brand, decided to join the company five years ago.

02:21Never regretted that decision.

02:24Every day I feel like a teenager with 18-year-old with a 45-year experience being 18.

02:34And the new world of AI is just amazing.

02:38Well, you know what's interesting is I often have these conversations with CTOs, CFOs.

02:45In fact, that's a role that's often combined with COO.

02:48What is it about the COO that makes it such a unique role to have at this juncture?

02:56You know, in many ways, it is the most ambiguous title.

03:02In my view, no two CEOs do exactly the same thing.

03:09Some people call it they take care of the plumbing of the company.

03:14In many ways, they are the architects and orchestrators of success pathways of the

03:22company.

03:24And now they need to be architects and an orchestrator of neural pathways of the company.

03:38And that is the exciting transformation ahead for all of us.

03:44And in my view, nobody has monopoly on good ideas.

03:49And that's why this session is important.

03:50I get my best ideas from other people.

03:52I'm not proud, as it should be.

03:55Exactly.

03:56So coming together and discussing, co-opting, collaborating, and at an industry level finding

04:05ways to succeed is the whole idea of this conference.

04:09Well, and also, it's been a very internal role, to your point.

04:13And there is this need for this more external role for COOs.

04:16I'm certainly seeing that.

04:18One thing I'm curious about is how are the business models changing?

04:22Because you get into the rooms, we don't get to go.

04:24I mean, if you look at with AI and other factors, do you see any shifts that you'd put on our

04:31radar?

04:33So Diane, I learn a lot from our customers.

04:36Many of them are here as well.

04:39And one of the things which I learned from born digital client, and these are the companies,

04:45you know, until 18 months ago, the famous two words were digital transformation.

04:53And now those two words are forgotten.

04:56And now it's AI, AI, and generative AI.

05:00So we do a lot of business with digital natives.

05:05They do two things very differently, which has influenced me personally and the team

05:10that I represent.

05:12One is they ride multiple S-curves simultaneously.

05:17So they are not betting on just one big ideas.

05:21Continuous innovation, multiple S-curves, and the S-curves are shorter, so it starts

05:28and ends, then the next curve starts.

05:31So when they partner with us, they are not looking for the traditional outsourcing.

05:38They are looking for acceleration and global scaling.

05:42Because they know the time window is short, they want to maximize return.

05:46So if you can bring the value of acceleration and global scaling, they want to partner.

05:52And I see that as an attribute which I could apply in my business together with my customers,

06:02multiple S-curves, continuous innovation, and partnering for acceleration and global

06:08scaling.

06:09So acceleration and global scale, but you mentioned digital natives.

06:12There are a lot of people here also watching who are not digital natives.

06:17They have legacy costs, they've got that innovator's dilemma, frankly, of wanting to

06:23invest knowing that they have to transform, but yet it's difficult.

06:28And I think we're at this juncture right now where people aren't sure even where you get

06:32the best return on your investment for AI.

06:35Any thoughts on what are the challenges that you're seeing?

06:39See, currently I think we are going through a phase where people are pausing and thinking

06:45how to apply AI.

06:47There was an initial euphoria.

06:50We saw...

06:51Try it all.

06:52Why?

06:53Everybody.

06:54I mean, tech industry, you can't accuse them of underselling.

06:58So there was huge euphoria.

07:02Now I think there is a pause.

07:05What I personally think, the whole world of AI agents, and everybody here representing

07:16their respective organization, and in many ways keen to innovate, along with like-minded

07:25companies will create a path which will have to be pragmatic.

07:31In fact, one of the things which I remember, somebody said this to me, to err is human.

07:38To completely mess it up, you need AI.

07:41I've not heard that phrase.

07:45A testament to AI?

07:47Yeah.

07:48No, so actually the governance of AI is equally critical.

07:53And AI has to be relevant to the industry which you are playing because there are regulators,

07:59there are customers, there are shareholders, there are internal employees, and then there

08:04is society at large.

08:06So multiple stakeholders need to be managed.

08:09So the intersection of industry and AI and innovating in that intersection is extremely

08:15important.

08:16The speed of innovation is going to be mind-boggling.

08:21So how do you keep ahead?

08:25At the same time, retain the pragmatism of a COO.

08:31And that's the challenge.

08:32For that, it is important that we make some cultural changes.

08:38So it's not just changing, acquiring a piece of technology.

08:43A continuous innovation model riding multiple S-curves, rigorous governance before it is

08:52implemented, and continuously refreshing it.

08:56Because ultimately, the differentiation in my personal view is not going to be AI.

09:05Because everybody would acquire AI and then it will become a level playing field.

09:11What would be the difference would be human intelligence and culture of the company.

09:18Because if you are able to mesh it together, success is going to be beautiful.

09:24And in this new world, together we will succeed.

09:29Alone we may not succeed.

09:31So it's important to collaborate, co-opt, and work together to make it happen.

09:36And that is the model with which I am approaching the future of my business, which is about

09:44what?

09:45I'm just 2,000 short of 100,000 people in my business.

09:49So 98,000 people in total.

09:52You expect to hit 100,000 or do you expect to go down?

09:57I expect that every individual become more valuable and it won't be measured in terms

10:03of whether I hit 100,000 or 120,000.

10:06It would be whether each individual becomes more valuable.

10:10And how do I inject the learning and development of these individuals to make them more valuable?

10:15And being in the path of relevance of people who are sitting here is going to define my

10:20success in the future.

10:22And my philosophy is we will co-innovate with our customers.

10:26I love that.

10:27I cannot think of a better sort of marching orders to this group, which I hope we will

10:32end up more valuable at the end of this.

10:34But I think that's a great way to kick off our summit.

10:37Thank you so much, Ganesh.

10:38Thank you, Diane, for having me.

10:39Please join me in thanking Ganesh Iyer.

10:40And again, thank you to Cognizant.

COO Summit 2024: Setting The Stage - How To Drive Operational Excellence

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