Mr. Arun Gupta
Customer Care Associate and Group Chief Technology Officer,
Shoppers Stop

See him smile and you won't be surprised at his popular ‘Business-friendly CIO’ tag! A leader in aligning IT and Business, Arun Gupta's twenty five years in the industry has lent IT leadership to several companies and is today making waves at the very famous, Shoppers Stop as CTO and CCA.

In this special series titled ‘The One Thing’, CIOL attempts to discover and unravel the many facets of Arun Gupta's challenging and inspiring portfolio as a CIO, a Decision Maker and an IT Leader.

Q: What is the one thing that you draw your strength to achieve your goals?
A: Self-integrity. To achieve something, anything for that matter, you have to first believe in its possibility.

Q: What is the one facet of leadership that has truly inspired you?
A: Inspiring others to achieve. Great leaders create an infectious desire to achieve. I have been fortunate to work with many such individuals in my career who always encouraged me to go beyond normal and explore new avenues.

Q: What is the one thing that you would advise to upcoming and aspiring CIOs?
A: In IT, business comes first, so learn about your company, your industry and your customers. Your success and growth will depend on how you impact all these.

Q: Who is the one leader that you have admired?
A: I have learned from different traits of many leaders. To me no one person stands out to be idolized.

Q: What is the one major challenge you face as a CIO?
A: Managing expectations! This cuts across internal customers, external constituents (vendors, service providers, etc.) and customers. With every success the expectations go higher and with every project that did not deliver to promise, it becomes difficult to meet expectations.

Q: What is the one successful practice you deploy to motivate your teams?
A: Empower them to take their own decisions. I rarely micromanage my teams even if the project is a large one or has significant impact. By helping them arrive at the right conclusions, the ownership of the project/task/activity rests with them and they own it better than being told what to do.

Q: What is the one thing you do to manage stress?
A: Work pressure is real, stress is optional, but if it does manifest itself, then I listen to music to calm myself down.

Q: What is the one thing that decision makers and leaders must avoid as a rule?
A: Some decision makers and leaders find it impossible to confront a difficult issue and end up creating a bigger mess for themselves as well as the organization by not taking tough calls when required. This adversely impacts the team and results.

Q: Name one HR best practice that can aid in people retention?
A: I wish I knew the answer to this.

Q: What is the one great opportunity you see in these tough times of global recession?
A: Creating efficiencies within the team, infrastructure and applications. This is the best time to allocate resources to improving what you have, as new projects will be fewer than in the past.