Ganesh Ayyar, EVP and President, Intuitive Operations and Automation and Industry Solutions, Cognizant,
Interviewer: Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit
Interviewer: Diane Brady, Executive Editorial Director, Fortune, Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit
Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Ganesh Iyer is the Executive Vice President and President of Intuitive Operations.
00:07I love that.
00:08I've never heard intuitive operations for automation and industry solutions at Cognizant.
00:13You know, I want to actually start on a personal level because you were CEO of Emphasis, which
00:17was a publicly listed company.
00:19You sold the majority stake to Blackstone, I believe, right?
00:22Yes, I did.
00:23And so what made you decide to come to Cognizant in this role, if you don't mind?
00:28This is the unrehearsed part.
00:30I want to just get a sense of who you are.
00:32Yeah.
00:33So, you know, I have spent in this industry about 153 quarters now.
00:39153 quarters.
00:41That's right.
00:42Who's measuring?
00:44And outside the industry, I have spent 100 quarters.
00:47So that gives you my age.
00:50I was with Emphasis for eight years as the CEO.
00:53We sold the majority stake to Blackstone in 2016.
01:00And 2017, I decided to get out.
01:03It was the single largest transaction done by any PE firm in a listed company in India.
01:10So I didn't have the economic need to work after that.
01:17So I thought I'll take it easy.
01:19So I decided to take it easy for a year and a half.
01:24And two reasons I decided to get back.
01:27My wife was very clear that I shouldn't be sitting at home.
01:33And second thing, I was getting very bored and I couldn't, I was missing the roller coaster
01:41ride.
01:43So I looked up at the companies that I wanted to join.
01:48And I must say I chose the company that I decided to join.
01:52Because I had borrowed part of their strategy in crafting the strategy of the previous company.
01:58What part of their strategy?
02:00They always played at the intersection of industry and tech.
02:08And that is the intersection which excited me always.
02:13So fantastic brand, decided to join the company five years ago.
02:21Never regretted that decision.
02:24Every day I feel like a teenager with 18-year-old with a 45-year experience being 18.
02:34And the new world of AI is just amazing.
02:38Well, you know what's interesting is I often have these conversations with CTOs, CFOs.
02:45In fact, that's a role that's often combined with COO.
02:48What is it about the COO that makes it such a unique role to have at this juncture?
02:56You know, in many ways, it is the most ambiguous title.
03:02In my view, no two CEOs do exactly the same thing.
03:09Some people call it they take care of the plumbing of the company.
03:14In many ways, they are the architects and orchestrators of success pathways of the
03:22company.
03:24And now they need to be architects and an orchestrator of neural pathways of the company.
03:38And that is the exciting transformation ahead for all of us.
03:44And in my view, nobody has monopoly on good ideas.
03:49And that's why this session is important.
03:50I get my best ideas from other people.
03:52I'm not proud, as it should be.
03:55Exactly.
03:56So coming together and discussing, co-opting, collaborating, and at an industry level finding
04:05ways to succeed is the whole idea of this conference.
04:09Well, and also, it's been a very internal role, to your point.
04:13And there is this need for this more external role for COOs.
04:16I'm certainly seeing that.
04:18One thing I'm curious about is how are the business models changing?
04:22Because you get into the rooms, we don't get to go.
04:24I mean, if you look at with AI and other factors, do you see any shifts that you'd put on our
04:31radar?
04:33So Diane, I learn a lot from our customers.
04:36Many of them are here as well.
04:39And one of the things which I learned from born digital client, and these are the companies,
04:45you know, until 18 months ago, the famous two words were digital transformation.
04:53And now those two words are forgotten.
04:56And now it's AI, AI, and generative AI.
05:00So we do a lot of business with digital natives.
05:05They do two things very differently, which has influenced me personally and the team
05:10that I represent.
05:12One is they ride multiple S-curves simultaneously.
05:17So they are not betting on just one big ideas.
05:21Continuous innovation, multiple S-curves, and the S-curves are shorter, so it starts
05:28and ends, then the next curve starts.
05:31So when they partner with us, they are not looking for the traditional outsourcing.
05:38They are looking for acceleration and global scaling.
05:42Because they know the time window is short, they want to maximize return.
05:46So if you can bring the value of acceleration and global scaling, they want to partner.
05:52And I see that as an attribute which I could apply in my business together with my customers,
06:02multiple S-curves, continuous innovation, and partnering for acceleration and global
06:08scaling.
06:09So acceleration and global scale, but you mentioned digital natives.
06:12There are a lot of people here also watching who are not digital natives.
06:17They have legacy costs, they've got that innovator's dilemma, frankly, of wanting to
06:23invest knowing that they have to transform, but yet it's difficult.
06:28And I think we're at this juncture right now where people aren't sure even where you get
06:32the best return on your investment for AI.
06:35Any thoughts on what are the challenges that you're seeing?
06:39See, currently I think we are going through a phase where people are pausing and thinking
06:45how to apply AI.
06:47There was an initial euphoria.
06:50We saw...
06:51Try it all.
06:52Why?
06:53Everybody.
06:54I mean, tech industry, you can't accuse them of underselling.
06:58So there was huge euphoria.
07:02Now I think there is a pause.
07:05What I personally think, the whole world of AI agents, and everybody here representing
07:16their respective organization, and in many ways keen to innovate, along with like-minded
07:25companies will create a path which will have to be pragmatic.
07:31In fact, one of the things which I remember, somebody said this to me, to err is human.
07:38To completely mess it up, you need AI.
07:41I've not heard that phrase.
07:45A testament to AI?
07:47Yeah.
07:48No, so actually the governance of AI is equally critical.
07:53And AI has to be relevant to the industry which you are playing because there are regulators,
07:59there are customers, there are shareholders, there are internal employees, and then there
08:04is society at large.
08:06So multiple stakeholders need to be managed.
08:09So the intersection of industry and AI and innovating in that intersection is extremely
08:15important.
08:16The speed of innovation is going to be mind-boggling.
08:21So how do you keep ahead?
08:25At the same time, retain the pragmatism of a COO.
08:31And that's the challenge.
08:32For that, it is important that we make some cultural changes.
08:38So it's not just changing, acquiring a piece of technology.
08:43A continuous innovation model riding multiple S-curves, rigorous governance before it is
08:52implemented, and continuously refreshing it.
08:56Because ultimately, the differentiation in my personal view is not going to be AI.
09:05Because everybody would acquire AI and then it will become a level playing field.
09:11What would be the difference would be human intelligence and culture of the company.
09:18Because if you are able to mesh it together, success is going to be beautiful.
09:24And in this new world, together we will succeed.
09:29Alone we may not succeed.
09:31So it's important to collaborate, co-opt, and work together to make it happen.
09:36And that is the model with which I am approaching the future of my business, which is about
09:44what?
09:45I'm just 2,000 short of 100,000 people in my business.
09:49So 98,000 people in total.
09:52You expect to hit 100,000 or do you expect to go down?
09:57I expect that every individual become more valuable and it won't be measured in terms
10:03of whether I hit 100,000 or 120,000.
10:06It would be whether each individual becomes more valuable.
10:10And how do I inject the learning and development of these individuals to make them more valuable?
10:15And being in the path of relevance of people who are sitting here is going to define my
10:20success in the future.
10:22And my philosophy is we will co-innovate with our customers.
10:26I love that.
10:27I cannot think of a better sort of marching orders to this group, which I hope we will
10:32end up more valuable at the end of this.
10:34But I think that's a great way to kick off our summit.
10:37Thank you so much, Ganesh.
10:38Thank you, Diane, for having me.
10:39Please join me in thanking Ganesh Iyer.
10:40And again, thank you to Cognizant.