CxO Of The Week: S. Sundararajan, Executive Director, i-exceed

CxO Of The Week: S. Sundararajan, Executive Director, i-exceed, he has 32 years of work experience.

Your top priority while making decisions to improve tech infra in your organization?

Our aim as a company is to offer our customers comprehensive digital transformation experiences through products and services that make use of cutting-edge technology. In order to achieve this, we ensure that our employees have access to these technologies so that they build these amazing digital solutions.

We also focus on gaining a deep understanding of our customers’ needs and try to address them to the best of our ability. We do this by constantly being abreast with the latest trends and continuously enhancing our strengths so that we can make a positive impact in our engagement with our customers and partners.

Challenges you face in driving digital transformation?

When it comes to digital transformation with banks, there are two challenges that we usually face:
1. A lot of banks, especially the big ones have been around for a very long time. While most of them upgrade and adopt the latest technology offerings available in the market, several back-end systems tend to be legacy systems that are quite old. Hence getting new technology to seamlessly integrate with legacy systems is one of the most commonly faced technology-related challenges we encounter.

2. The second problem is related to mindset. A digital transformation exercise brings about a lot of change in existing business models, working styles, and the entire approach that was adopted earlier to run a business. A successful digital transformation only takes place where there is a change in the mindset and the organization as a whole embraces the change digital transformation brings about.

Do you feel that freshers in the industry come with only basic knowledge but don’t have the right skills to fulfill job requirements? If yes, your suggestion to students and colleges?

Often, we come across individuals that display excellent talent and professionalism that are extremely valuable to an organization. But these qualities boil down to the personal interest of the individual in excelling in their areas of passion.
But in general, it is true. A lot of freshers do not have the necessary skills to fulfill job requirements. That is why we offer job training to expose them to the work environment and equip them with the necessary skills to perform well.

My suggestion to colleges would be to realign curriculum to enable and prepare students to be competent when they start working. My suggestion to students is to always be eager to learn new things, keep a close eye on the trends that are shaping their industry of choice, and acquire the skills to be at the top of their game.

What’s your mantra to become successful in life?

Have a clear focus on what you want to achieve and then bring all required effort, dedication, commitment, and perseverance to achieve the same.

What would you like to give back to the society?

Personally, as an individual and as a company, we have gained a lot in the past decades. Through our business interactions, we have learned a lot, grown as successful individuals and as a company, and built amazing products that have completely revolutionized the banking and financial sector.

In return, we would like to help new ventures, partners, and associates to grow and succeed.

Your favorite book and what are you reading now?

My favorite books are ‘The Hard Thing about Hard Things’ by Ben Horowitz and ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel.

I’m currently reading ‘Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First’ by Ram Charan, Dennis C Carey, and Dominic Barton.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

In my free time, I enjoy reading about new trends that are shaping different business landscapes, particularly in the digital space. I also try and gain deep insights into how companies function and what steps they are taking to transition to the next level, particularly with digital transformation.

Experience

I have 32 years of work experience.

First Job: Software programmer in Ashok Leyland

Education: S. Sundararajan holds Post-graduate degree in Applied Mathematics from Anna University.

Take a look at the previous CxO of the Week