Zinnov Podcast - Business Resilience series

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.

A Retail Revolution – How the Pandemic has Changed the DNA of the Retail Business

In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Nitika Goel, CMO, Zinnov is in conversation with Sumit Mitra, CEO of Tesco Global Business Services to understand how a retail behemoth like Tesco has modified its Retail DNA to become pandemic-proof. Sumit shares his perspective on the Retail industry and how it is evolving across technology and processes to cater to the rapidly changing customer needs, behaviours, and expectations.

“With Resilience, comes Responsibility” – says Sumit Mitra as he gives us a view of how a large organization finds a larger purpose that transcends business to serve society as well. Sumit also sheds light on how having a globally distributed model, more specifically a hub and a spoke model, played a crucial role in helping Tesco manage its operations and customers to help fuel a retail revolution in the face of this pandemic. Listen to this episode for first-hand insights.

Insuring the Future – How the Insurance Sector is Transforming through Technology

During this pandemic, the insurance industry has had to kick into high gear. They had to adopt newer models to drive innovation and to do their part amidst this global and humanitarian crisis. With the entire healthcare ecosystem being at the frontlines during these trying times, the insurance industry is a critical sector, enabling businesses, industries, families, and individuals to remain resilient.

In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast business resilience series, KV Dipu, President - Operations, Communities & CX at Bajaj Allianz, shares several interesting anecdotes and examples of how Bajaj Allianz and the insurance sector as a whole has been leveraging technologies such as IoT, AI, Blockchain, etc. to drive value for their customers in these trying times. In addition to digital transformation, he shares insights on customers' stated and unstated needs, and how organizations need to adapt quickly to capitalize on the opportunity and also serve humanity.

The AI Pill – Technology the Remedy for Healthcare

Technology has emerged as a game-changer in the world’s fight against COVID-19. It has helped every industry build a significant amount of resilience, and the Healthcare industry is no exception. A key technology fortifying business against the Coronavirus war is Artificial Intelligence. But have we harnessed the full potential of AI? Do we have the right regulations in place to ensure data privacy and leverage it across the healthcare value chain? In this episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Amit Phadnis, GE Officer and Chief Digital Officer at GE Healthcare, shares his insights on how the Healthcare industry is leveraging AI and how AI and data will become remedy in the current scenario and how it can be further leveraged to enhance patient outcomes and experience.