Technology for the sake of technology will not survive: SGK Kishore, Executive Director (South) CIO GMR Airports

Hyderabad, June 23, 2023: Technology for the sake of technology will not survive. Digital Transformation must improve user experience, customer experience, bottom line and behaviour said Chief Guest, SGK Kishore, Executive Director (South) and Chief Innovation Officer - GMR Airports at GMR Group, (Ex. IAS) at the Impetus, a full-day innovative conclave held at HICC on Friday, aimed at driving digital transformation and empowering industries held on Friday at HICC. 

 
He was delivering a keynote address on Digital Transformation and gave his perspective. He described the event as unique and timely.  It is an opportune time, he said and that the day-long conference was planned for discussions on new technologies, embracing technologies and digital transformation. And a good part of the conclave, he said, that most of the participants are MSMEs, for whom technology is an essential part of their business.  It is important for them to remodel their business.

 
There are three aspects to Digital Transformation as I understand, the top official of GMR Airports said. We keep hearing three different buzzwords—Digitization, Digitalization and Digital Transformation.  Digitization is the initial step in using digital tools. Digitalization is about bringing in products and solutions.  Mother of all these two is Digital Transformation. It is about how an organization transforms using digital technologies.  It is more about their behaviour, their culture.  The end objective is to improve their bottom line, culture, user engagement etc.

 
At GMR we have been focusing on new-age technologies.  Our chairman is an ardent fan of embracing new-age technologies.  With digital transformation, every business leader must behave like a technology leader.  Digital Transformation is a continuous process. It is like fitness.  It is a continuous effort.  It is about non-technology companies also behaving like technology majors. 
 

It should make everyone in an organization feel that he is an entrepreneur and ensure entrepreneurial behavior.
 

Drawing a parallel to Hindu Mythology, the bureaucrat turned business leader, SGK Kishore said Lord Brahma is the creator, Vishnu the sustainer, and Shiva destroyer and restorer.  The modern businessman has to view digital transformation as creative destruction.  Whatever you have created must destroy for good and better.  They must think differently.  Look at collaborative efforts, he added. 
 

People own GMR Airport.  They think it is theirs.  It is a people’s airport.  The leadership has been successful in transforming the airport into what it is today in the last ten years and digital transformation is one of the key factors for what it is today. The digitally transformed airport resulted in increasing process speed, storage capacity and better services.  Aviation is a highly regulated sector.  Minute details must be dealt carefully.  Digital Transformation is very important to all sectors.  He congratulated the joint organisers, FTCCI and HYSEA for identifying a very topical subject for the conclave.
 

Welcoming the gathering  Manisha Saboo, President, HYSEA, and Vice President, Infosys said collaboration is the way forward.  Today is a special day.  Two great organisations HYSEA and FTCCI have come together first time to host jointly this conference.  She talked about the power of collaboration.  Chat GPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI which is the talk of the world is a collaborative effort. 

 
Anil Agarwal, President of FTCCI said the kind of digital transformation happening in the last decade is an eye-opener.  But, somehow MSMEs are left behind in this race.  If you need to be globally relevant in a time when our economy is fast developing and hoping to be the world’s number one by the year 2047, we must encourage more and more MSMEs to embrace technology and transform their businesses digitally.   Though covid accelerated this process, more impetus must be given to that sector, he observed. 
 

JA Chowdary, Founder,  ISF, and former President of HYSEA said he heard when he was an IT advisor to Chief Minister Shri Chandra Babu Naidu, an SBI chairman saying ‘we are a technology company and we also do banking”. This is how one should look at their company and transform digitally. I also know of an incident where a PSU has taken one and half years to build a mammoth Data Logger, which later failed to work.  Later the PSU imported a tiny machine, which did its job.  Taking failures like this into account many refrained from getting digitally transformed, he said. Unless you are digitally transformed, you cant survive.  Today many banks have fewer branches and more transactions.  And they work 24x7, 365 days.  That is the power of digital transformation he added. The theme is very apt and it is an ideal time to the organisation a one-day conference on the same.
 

K Mohan Raidu, CEO, of Informatics India, and Chair of the IT Committee, FTCCI in his introductory remarks stressed the importance of digital transformation, which he said will put technology at the core of the business strategy.  This would reduce operating costs and increases efficiency.
 

Pankaj Diwan, Founder and CEO, of Ideas labs Future Tech Ventures, who later in the day moderated a celebrity fireside chat with Raja, Chief Executive Officer, of Biliti Electrics, said, the Impetus was an effort to bring the business leaders from Traditional, Core Industries who are primarily members of FTCCI and IT Solution Providers who are primarily members of HYSEA come together on one forum.  The purpose is to create and promote awareness of Digital transformation and implementation of digitalization in the core business processes. 

 
The inaugural of Impetus was followed by four different tracks focused on industries such as Agri-tech, Food Processing, Manufacturing and Pharma and Healthcare industries.  They focused on 'Unlocking the Potential by Adapting and Accelerating Digital Transformation & Digital Innovation".
 

UTOMATR a product developed by a startup was launched during the inaugural function. 
  

In conjunction with the program, an expo was also scheduled to explore digital
solutions by participating delegates.
  

It was a distinguished gathering of over 250 industry leaders, government officials, and technology enthusiasts. It will be a platform for meaningful networking and knowledge sharing.