On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

Every year brings a set of new challenges that push me to be innovative and lead me to experience and celebrate new outcomes / successes / learnings . This has resulted in many memorable moments in my 21 year career . One that seems to always remain top-ofmind though was the decision early in my career to move from finance ( investment banking ) to software without any formal education in software engineering .

This decision and major change put me on a new path that included completing a formal education in computer science at Boston University while I started my journey as a software developer . It was this initial transition to software that quickly opened the door to becoming a chief architect , which as I look back on my career is one of my most memorable achievements . That foundation of ‘ treading the path of unknown ’ and being comfortable in taking risks has been instrumental in my journey and evolution so far .

in the field and starting to explore other career paths . Being influenced by my brother and the growing hype around the Internet , my attention shifted to the technology field – and I started pursuing formal education in computer science . I began as a software developer , but very early on shifted to the area of enterprise architecture and eventually to strategic product management .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

Depending on the scope of my role and state of the team and business maturity , my management philosophy transitions between Laissez-faire ( equal power between me and my team ) to strategic ( dividing my focus between high level operations and team oversight ) to transformational ( constantly evolving and establishing new benchmarks and goals for business growth ). In a mature set up my preferred style

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

My early education was in finance and investment banking , which is where I started my career in India . However , a financial crisis took hold in India as I was getting my footing in the field and resulted in little opportunity to apply my skills in portfolio management . This was a factor in my losing interest

Over last year , I saw an increased amount of integration between business strategy , operations and technology , as well as the ability of CIOs to influence strategic decisions .

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