The Virginia Slims ad slogan ‘You’ve come a long way baby’ might also be applicable to veteran CIOs, albeit in a different context. CIOs who have logged more than two decades seem to have done it all. Sunil Mehta, senior Vice President & Area Systems Director (Central Asia), JWT, has tried everything from writing code and preparing MIS reports to educating officials at the Central Board of Excise and Customs on the technical aspects of production equipment. Once, he even went all the way to the US to assure officials at the Department of Commerce that he wouldn’t use a particular server he was importing, for nuclear arms development.
These days, of course, Mehta is doing something completely different at JWT (J Walter Thompsun). Industry peers look up to Mehta and JWT as pioneers. Under Mehta’s leadership the companies he worked for were the first to deploy a model called Agency of Record (AOR), an ERP solution, and the first in the ad industry to computerize the entire production process and setup. Since no company in this industry had tried all this before, there was no learning or best practices to bank on, and no companies to emulate.
Mehta gave us a good overview about the evolution of the CIOs role. He was part of it all during his almost 27 years in the technology sector. He spent 22 of those years in the media and advertising industry, with 12 years at JWT, his current company.
“Earlier, an IT manager was just concerned with tasks such as data entry/data processing and the development of software for financial accounting and payroll. Later, he became responsible for generating typical MIS reports. In those days we were not involved in procurement of hardware and software, a task usually done by the CEO,” says Mehta.
The IT manager or IT Head (as the CIO was then called) was an operations manager who scheduled work for the operators, listing daily tasks in a log book. He was also responsible for systems analysis and design, software development, and database administration.
Of course, there were odd jobs and mundane chores to be performed too. The IT manager had to procure scarce spare parts, a challenge in those days since equipment was imported and manufacturers had not yet set up shop in India. There were those frequent trips to the customs house and the government departments too, to get clearances for importing equipment and spares. “Those days were a learning process for us. We had to learn about new technologies and even educate others (like customs officials),” says Mehta in retrospection.
There was/is also an HR role. Since IT is a specialized field, IT managers also had/have the task of interviewing and recruiting people. “Eventually, we were doing procurement, sourcing, implementation, cost management, ROI, and HR roles,” says Mehta.
All this constitutes aligning IT to business though the phrase was coined and used much later. So, as a matter of routine, IT managers were already aligning IT to business more than a decade ago.
Thinking differently in the downturn
Of course, the scenario has changed today and CIOs now have to cope with unpleasant things like the economic downturn and cost cutting.
Downturns have a positive side too. They bring out the best in people, help them choose the right solutions or make better use of existing solutions.
“The downturn forces you to introspect and take a call on what you are doing and if you are doing it right. One tends to ask oneself if a certain solution or action is justified. Then you ask if you can do it better,” says Mehta.
When CXOs think along these lines, they take a closer look at cost, resource, and time management. In the process, one actually ends up finding good solutions, avers Mehta. He feels this prepares one for another downturn and that’s one reason why it should become part of one’s best practices.
“In the downturn you learn the art of securing your staff strength, and since you prove that the business is healthy, people are justified to stay on. You learn to manage them well at the right costs, and also learn to manage as well as save costs in many other areas,” opines Mehta.
The downturn also makes you more mature, says Mehta. He advises people not to panic. Instead they should think fresh to find better and new solutions.
The most challenging projects
Mehta is credited with taking the right risks of doing things that have never been done before. In his previous job he led a project to computerize the entire pre-production process and setup, and there are other such initiatives at JWT.
"One of the biggest projects was in my previous company where we brought the entire production process and setup (complete infrastructure and solutions) in-house. This was the first of its kind in the publishing industry,” says Mehta.
Mehta’s second major accomplishment, again in his previous job, was being instrumental in the acquisition of a small company and building a new company internally as a profit centre.
There were also challenges at JWT, his present employer. For instance, he and his team implemented Oracle Financials, an ERP solution that no one in the global ad industry had deployed previously and there was no learning. So Mehta and his team, with support from users, had to do everything on their own. The technology was absolutely new and they had to get well oriented. They also had to train people on the job as the required skills and knowledge were scarce. This brought the company on the global radar of a world-class operation. This major accomplishment also opened the doors for vendors to look at the advertising sector seriously.
A new role
The days of coding and MIS reports are long gone for Mehta; his role has changed. He now plays a more strategic role at JWT, often doing due diligence for companies they are exploring.
“We are looking at some of the core departments and planning to take them to the next level. In doing so we think about ways to handle change management—change in terms of people, processes, systems, and capital investment,” says Mehta.
The important thing, notes Mehta, is that the CEO of his company keeps a close eye on all the pioneering work he and his team do in India; then he shares/updates the best practices and ideas with the other companies in the Group around the world—and vice-versa for India too. That endorses the work that Mehta and his team in India are doing, as a ‘world-class’ act.