Zinnov Podcast - Business Resilience series

Redefining The Culture Code

In the last 20 months or so, these are the questions many leaders have had to grapple with as they paved through the realities of fostering a culture in a remote or hybrid scenario – understanding what their employees want, what are the things that their employees have had to come to terms with, both personally and professionally.

What makes a company's culture sticky? What makes it exceptional? How do organizations decide which parts of their culture to preserve and which parts to transform as things evolve?

In this episode, Nitika Goel, CMO at Zinnov, and Ruchi Bhalla, VP Human Resources (Asia Pacific), Country Head-Delivery Centers, India at Pitney Bowes, talk about how an organization's culture is its immune system and how to redefine the cultural code in this post-COVID era.

A Sign of the Times — The Work, Worker, and Workplace Revolution

The global pandemic has accelerated the work, worker, and workplace (W3) transformation exponentially, and has altered the way businesses function. The work, worker, and the workplace are now governed by the latest advancements in technology and Automation, forcing companies to adopt the latest tools to optimize processes and make remote working successful, while not losing focus on employee well-being and experience. A Zinnov survey of 100+ global CXOs has revealed that the hybrid working model is going to be the organizational strategy even in the post-pandemic era.

In this episode of the Business Resilience series, Sarv Saravanan, Vice President, Modern Work Solutions & Telco Service Line, Industry Solutions at Microsoft, talks to Praveen Bhadada, Managing Partner & Global Head, Zinnov, about how Microsoft has been helping their customers enable the future models of hybrid work. He shares valuable insights and statistics around the processes and challenges in the area, and what they could mean as organizations gear themselves and their workforces to thrive in the new and evolving normal.

Rocketing to Success – The Mechanics of Sound Organizational Growth

It takes more than just a vision to build a company that can stand the test of time, let alone a market gamechanger like Rocket Software. Andy Youniss, President and CEO of Rocket joins Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov to discuss his journey leading the mainframe infrastructure software giant over the last three decades.

Andy speaks about how Rocket managed to not just survive but thrive despite being faced with obstacles such as the dot-com bubble, the global financial crisis, and more recently, the pandemic. Rocket’s journey in the space shines light on the importance of listening to customers and delivering the best quality products while also being prepared to adapt to the changes that may occur in the external ecosystem. In this episode, Andy also touches upon Rocket’s talent acquisition practices, the importance of diversity at workplace, and the core values that Rocketeers swear and live by.

The ‘Crowd’ing Glory in an Enterprise’s Talent Arsenal

Crowdsourcing as a model for building resilient, anti-fragile organizations is not a new trend. However, the pandemic seems to have affected the way this model is being employed. Sumit Kaushik, SVP, and Head of Technology, Media and Telecom Business, West Coat for Virtusa discusses the past, present, and future of the crowdsourcing model with Amit Kulkarni, Principal at Zinnov.

Sumit also elaborates on how enterprises are now focused on building a culture around innovation and agility with the help of crowdsourcing platforms. Especially in a post-pandemic world, organizations are leveraging crowdsourcing as a model to engage, collaborate, and have multiple teams work on solving a common problem. He also touches upon the external and internal lens on crowdsourcing and how certain industry verticals are early adopters of the model to bring innovation and agility to the organization.

The Great Digital Convergence: Bridging the Chasm between Natives and Migrants

The pandemic has no doubt accelerated the digital transformation journeys of companies across verticals. Additionally, there is a marked increase in the Digital Engineering spend by enterprises to accelerate their go-to-market and to keep pace with the disruptions happening in the ecosystem – both because of COVID as well as otherwise. Vijay Anand Guntur, Corporate Vice President, Engineering and R&D Services at HCL chats with Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, where they touch upon the mega trends that have emerged in the technology ecosystem, post-COVID.

Vijay also explains how Technology Service Providers like HCL have been instrumental in driving the digital agendas of both digital natives and digital migrants, as well as the different ways that HCL has been partnering with their customers across verticals and translating their know-how into tangible business value. Vijay also delves into the nuances of catering to customers in different verticals, especially in the post-pandemic era, where digital transformation and digital technologies have taken center stage.

Connecting with Bill Gates: Networking in a Shrinking World

“Networking is not about just connecting people. It’s about connecting people with people, people with ideas, and people with opportunities.” - Michele Jennae

Is there a chance that Bill Gates is part of your extended network, but you had no idea about it? Quite possible, isn’t it? But in these times of social distancing and everything virtual, how does one go about networking? Though the pandemic has changed the rules of the game, the foundation of networking and network building remains the same. How does one go about building networks, forging relationships, and fostering trust in a digital construct? Is it radically different from an in-person approach? While the world en masse has adapted to a remote work scenario, what adjustments and tweaks are necessary to build a network online?

In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Nitika Goel, CMO of Zinnov, chats with MR Rangaswami, Founder of Sand Hill Group and Indiaspora, and a serial networker and network builder, about the core tenets of a network, the difference between a network and networking, and what it takes to build a network in the digital construct. From laying down the traits necessary to network successfully to explaining how networks and networking should be perceived and approached at various stages of one’s career, MR shares examples and practical advice to become a successful networker – both in-person and in the digital world.

Forged in Chaos - Lessons To Be A Good Crisis Leader

The waves and troughs of the pandemic have made navigating the current business environment turbulent to say the least. It has presented leaders with problems not documented in any playbooks and demands a completely unique approach – both from a business and a people angle. With remote work, regulatory requirements, large-scale technology transformations, and change management issues being thrown into the mix, leaders, and organizations have had to rely on core leadership fundamentals to not just survive but thrive.

In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Nitika Goel, CMO of Zinnov talks to V Laxmikanth (VLK), Managing Director of Broadridge India to understand his perspectives on the leadership qualities of a good crisis leader, especially in the face of so many unknowns. VLK shares his insights on the defining traits of a crisis leader and how they must create a fine balance of personal and professional priorities. VLK shares examples and practical recommendations on what it takes to achieve this balance and how despite being forged in chaos, a good crisis leader displays character to deal with his/her problems and people with compassion.

Hyper Intelligent Automation Strategy Redefining Businesses in A Post-Pandemic World

In the pre-COVID world, the Hyper Intelligent Automation landscape was already undergoing a rapid metamorphosis, but with the pandemic thrown into the mix, most of the companies have now accelerated their automation journeys. Companies are looking to adopt the hybrid model of automation with both attended and unattended RPA and are also leveraging AI to enable a better customer experience. There has been a significant increase in automation-related M&As and the competitive environment in the automation world is getting more and more intense as we move towards the post-pandemic world. So, what does this mean for the automation vendors? How can enterprises accelerate their automation journeys, so that they don’t stay behind? What are the technologies that will play a major role in the evolution of automation?

Discover all this and more, as Praveen Bhadada, Managing Partner at Zinnov talks to Harel Tayeb, CEO of Kryon Systems, an AI-powered full-cycle automation solution provider, in our latest episode of the Zinnov Podcast. Harel shares his insights and years of experience on the impending opportunities for enterprises to capitalize on this rapidly growing automation market, the current state of the market competition, and the evolving role of automation in the modern workplace, in a post-pandemic world.

Democratizing Leadership: Leadership Qualities that Build Organizational Resilience

COVID-19 threw sand into the gears of many industries, and one industry that came to an almost grinding halt was Travel & Hospitality. Despite the massive setback, the industry has demonstrated unparalleled crisis leadership, redefining, re-structuring, re-designing, and reimagining their organizations from within. Organizations have upended the way they operate, democratizing leadership to build distributed, yet federated organizational resilience.

In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast, we have Jaya Kumar, Vice President and Managing Director of Sabre India, sharing his perspectives on how the Travel industry is fortifying itself in this time of crisis. Jaya shares Sabre’s decision to tap into the leadership qualities across levels, across the world, to go beyond resilience and become truly anti-fragile. Jaya shares interesting anecdotes, frameworks, and processes used to institutionalize a truly democratized leadership style. His examples are a rich mix of his diverse experience and practitioners lens, on driving effective leadership outcomes.

Rethinking the Retail Business from a People, Process, and Technology Perspective

This is part 2 of our podcast with Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Global Business Services. In the first podcast, Sumit shared his valuable insights on the state of the Retail industry and how the pandemic has indelibly changed the DNA of the Retail sector. In this episode, Sumit takes an inside-out view on how a retail giant like Tesco is solving for customer pain points in the pandemic, by restructuring itself from a people, process, and technology perspective.

Sumit shares some very interesting analogies to explain Tesco’s holistic approach to process and operations. He also sheds light on how culture plays a significant role in ensuring an organization’s success and how it is crucial for employers to become active listeners and not rely on a one-size-fits-all approach. Tune in now to listen to a behemoth's journey, centered around customer needs, and driven through agility and resilience.