COVER STORY

SHIVAGAMI
GUGAN
An Avid Learner Expanding
Business Horizons through Technology
Shivagami Gugan
Group Chief Technology Officer and Innovative Capabilities
at IDC Technologies, Inc.

Digital Transformation is often
seen as being smoky, misty, and
fearful. In reality, it is about a clear
vision of committed leadership
towards empowered employees
adopting next-gen technologies,
automation, agile approaches and
building progressively a strong
fail-safe environment.
Shivagami Gugan
Group Chief Technology Officer
at IDC Technologies, Inc.
www.idctechnologies.com
COVERSTORY
s digital disruption continues to affect Columbia, and Australia. The core team at IDC builds and
A every industry across the globe and the
pace of change becomes faster and faster,
operates IT solutions and infrastructures, helps
companies transform into modern technologies, and
organizations are faced with a perfect
storm that is driving their need for digitization. Since the
provides manpower skills and consultancy services. The
company's service portfolio also includes providing
competitive landscape is evolving rapidly, businesses
need technology more than ever to improve their
business process outsourcing (BPO) services and help
desk facilities across retail, BFSI, telecom, collections
capabilities.
To meet the business opportunities and address the
and receivables management, and IT.
With over 20 years of experience, IDC's global network
global challenges, technology and innovative thinking
must fundamentally change the way businesses operate.
of passionate technologists and pioneering architects
implement the right technology blueprints and
Continuing as we have done over the past years is not
sustainable and will impact the competitiveness of the
architecture to drive successful customer outcomes.
Founded in 2003, the company specializes in centers of
businesses as companies will be able to keep up pace and
scale of technology changes expected by market
excellence in data engineering and big data service, AI,
ML, DL, IoT, AR, VR, Metaverse, Digital Twins, Web and
conditions.
IDC Technologies' vision is to help organizations
M o b i l e , E R P, D e v S e c O p a n d S R E , a n d C l o u d
implementation services. It has helped several
transform their businesses to be fuelled by technology
and innovative capabilities. The company is the global
Fortune500 companies embrace innovation, adopt new
technologies, and implement technology
provider of innovative software solutions and services
operating out of the United States, India, the
transformations. IDC's services include offshoring and
nearshoring services to deliver business value and faster
Netherlands, Singapore, Canada, Malaysia, Germany, time to market.
Denmark, Dubai, the United Kingdom, Poland, Mexico,
A Transformative Leader Driving the Digital Revolution
Shivagami Gugan is the Group Chief Technology Officer up to 4X times improvement in software release cycles
at IDC Technologies. She is a technology transformation over 20 months.
leader with international experience in building digital Having led multi-million-dollar technology and
strategies with over 22 years of aviation and financial enterprise data transformations for the Emirates Group,
domain expertise. She specializes in building IT she joined IDC as their Global Group CTO to further
organizational strategies, delivering large portfolios, expand their businesses and extend the service portfolio
running software engineering and operations, vendor into digital domains. The team helps in exploring new
management and outsourcing strategies, service technology frontiers to strategize, leverage, and build
management, DevSecOps, Cloud, and SRE operations in solutions that can deliver sustainable value for the
large-scale, mission-critical IT environments. Shivagami industry.
has accomplished 30% improvements in efficiencies and

Climbing the Corporate Ladder with a Unique Mindset
Shivagami has gradually climbed the ladder from being a
software engineer to becoming a CDIO based on 3 key
principles namely empathizing the colleagues and
stretching beyond responsibilities to always deliver
more, remaining fearless and constantly learning to
Envisaging Challenges with the Inertia to Transform
Shivagami reveals that the primary challenge
organizations face is the inertia to transform, especially,
if there has been an early success. The hubris that
followed made her believe that the outdated and
inefficient ways of working will take them through the
future. She adds that organic growth often results in an
overly complex technology landscape that is not fit for
the future, and there is often a lack of a holistic
investment portfolio view, supporting the strategic goals
of the organization. Her primary challenges have been in
getting the right people to believe that in the digital
VUCA world, it's a matter of time before their business
The Building Blocks of an Efficient CDIO
Shivagami asserts that there are technical traits and soft
traits that are vital attributes of a CDIO. On the technical
competence, she suggests empowering the team, but
this doesn't mean that leaders lose the relevance of the
subject matter. An outstanding leader is still an expert in
the subject matter. They can set the context and
strategize and can provide expertise, guidance, and
mentorship as needed by the team. In this dynamic world,
implement new ways, and encouraging and empowering
the team by building a strong fail-safe culture.
She says that organizational successes are built based on
trust and discretionary efforts. Besides, leadership plays
a key role in building employee contributions.
will be ignored or bypassed.
Shivagami believes that businesses can achieve success
only by working with the brightest in this industry and
equipping people with digital skills, tools, and the
workplace. "A journey that will challenge us to rethink
what we know about technology delivery and
management, to redefine what it is to be a leader, and to
create a working environment that enables our people to
reach their potential and deliver bold and innovative new
initiatives which differentiate our company, and to
create an environment wherein our people are proud to
work and are enabled to do their best," she adds.
this is a super competency as this warrants the CDIO to
be a life-long student of the subject matter. The change
from “learn to know” to “know to learn” in a continuum
makes a great leader. Often this would mean leaders will
have to learn to unlearn and relearn continuously.
She encompasses some of the other characteristics like
Ÿ Integrity
The compass of a person is the core integrity, at work or
outside work. Aristotle said leadership cannot occur in
the absence of three things—logos, pathos, and ethos.
Logos is logic—making a rational appeal. Pathos is
emotion—making an argument that resonates with
people on an emotional level. Ethos is super critically
important, ethos is character. If the team doesn't trust
the leader because they have shown a lack of character,
they are less likely to follow them and embrace their
ideas. Even if they do, it will be due to fear, with a shallow
commitment.
Ÿ Consistency
As a CDIO, leaders have the right to adapt to scenarios
but always do so against a consistent framework. If as a
leader, you say one thing in public, but act very differently
with employees, the team will get demoralized. She says
consistency matters. Leaders who deliver inspiring
speeches are respected, but employees are far more
inspired when the leader walks the talk. Employees
Denting the Business Sector with Systemic Approach
At IDC Technologies, Shivagami and her team follow a
systematic approach to identify the current state. She
says that they take a holistic view of people, processes,
and technology and use design thinking principles to
perform the gap analysis with the goals of the business.
The core architecture principles that her team applies
during such transformations include:
Ÿ Domain-driven service design
Ÿ Intelligent systems
Ÿ Loosely coupled API first, real-time integrations
Ÿ Platforms based approach
COVERSTORY
continuously are watching for consistency in words and
actions.
Ÿ Communication skills
There is no over-investment in communication.
Professionals who stand out from their peers are often
the ones who practice presentations and who work on
improving their public-speaking skills. Being competent,
having the courage to speak, and presenting your ideas
are paramount.
Ÿ Courage and Confidence
A leader can be competent in his/her role, but he/she
needs to build up the courage to speak up the ideas. This
advice is along the lines of what Wharton professor
Adam Grant wrote in his bestselling book, Originals. A
leader original is a person who “champions a set of novel
ideas that go against the grain but ultimately make things
better”. Their ideas may be priceless, but it is still
meaningless unless they can advocate the ideas
effectively.
Ÿ Everything monitored
Ÿ Secure everything
Ÿ Always on (High Availability and Disaster Recovery)
Ÿ Autonomous and resilient
Ÿ Performance engineered
Ÿ Multivariance testing
Shivagami highlights that IDC aims to design and create a
technology platform and IT architecture that is flexible,
elastic, pluggable, loosely coupled, and highly available.

'Big Data' as a Trigger to Disruptive Solutions
The bedrock of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse is based on
ML, computer vision, data science, and big data
technologies, remarks Shivagami. She presumes that the
value of data has never been clearer. But often, data
remains siloed within applications, which means it's not
being used as effectively as possible. Data fabric
integrates data across platforms and users, making it
available everywhere it's needed. The real value of data
exists not in simply having it, but in how it's used for AI
models, analytics, and insight.
The key tenants that impact innovation is what can be
classified as the 3 are:
Intelligence
Ÿ Data mastery and AI, ML, DL, Image, and Voice
Processing
Ÿ Big Data (Volume, Velocity, Variety)
Ÿ Context-Aware Business Process, Customer
Experience, Employee Experience (Multi-Channel)
Getting Better and Ahead with 'Servant Leadership'
Shivagami asserts that servant leadership is a framework
for leadership that emphasizes what a leader can offer to
their organization and their community. She mentions
some of the few fundamental switches in the role of
leaders in the past few years:
1) She reveals that the collective wisdom of her team is
better than her own wisdom. Hence, she is not a know-it-
all superior, but rather a steward and an enabler.
2) Shivagami's team is motivated and will deliver
outcomes if the vision is clear. The team will chart their
Ÿ Virtual Assistants on the Edge
Integration
Ÿ Digital Platform, APIs, and Ecosystems
Ÿ Mesh App and Service Architecture (MASA)
Ÿ Building a hybrid integration platform
Inbuilt Immutability and Scalability
Ÿ Cloud-native platforms use the core elasticity and
scalability of cloud computing to deliver faster time to
value. They reduce dependencies on infrastructure,
freeing up time to focus on application functionality
instead.
Ÿ Digital Product Delivery Organisation (Agile Release
Trains)
Ÿ Continuous Modernisation (Cloud, Automation,
Edge)
Ÿ Granular stack (Microservices, Containers,
Distributed Services)
own course towards the goal. Her job is to enable them,
be amidst them, coach them, and help by removing
impediments.
These are a few questions that she tries to ask herself
that have helped her excel as a leader:
Ÿ How do I build strong, empowered, independent
teams?
Ÿ How do I “Show the Taj” and let the teams have a clear
understanding of the customer? How do I make the
purpose of the existence of the team clear?
Ÿ How do I define outcomes and help them as they chart
their own path towards the outcomes? In other
words, how do I set the context and not be directive?
Ÿ Am I building required integrations between the
empowered teams?
Ÿ Am I a good team facilitator?
Ÿ How inclusive am I?
Ÿ Am I looking for options and approving
recommendations from the team, rather than
directing them?
Ÿ Do I select the right people who can speak up?
Ÿ Do I create an environment of mutual trust?
Ÿ Do I let go?
Ÿ I am driving diversity by design?
Ÿ Do I give the team enough time and space?
Ÿ I am fast enough to react to un-loyal members?
Ÿ How lean-agile am I? How can I take an active role to
lead the implementation of the new way of working?
Ÿ How can I guide the activities necessary to
A Piece of Shivagami's Mind for Emerging CDIOs
Shivagami suggests that having clarity in the goals,
believing in a few core concepts and constantly learning
about them, and becoming an expert and applying them
diligently in the pursuit of satisfaction are some of the
traits that will help emerging leaders. She concludes by
saying that success is a by-product and will come along.
COVERSTORY
understand and continuously optimize the flow of
value through the organization?
Ÿ How can I identify excessive lead times, bottlenecks
and WIP?
Ÿ How can I organize to focus on eliminating waste and
delays? How can I eliminate demotivating policies and
procedures?
Ÿ More importantly, how can I inspire and motivate the
team to be autonomous with responsibility?
Ÿ How can I create a fail-safe environment that would
create a culture of relentless improvement that
provides the space required for teams to innovate?
She says that the best leaders she knows are good human
beings. They lead by example. They are servant leaders.
To this, she adds, "Digital Leadership is interesting - you
do not feel 'So lonely at the Top'. You may miss the corner
glass room, but being amidst the fanfare, opens your
mind and there is nothing more rewarding than 'Learning
to Learn' from your colleagues every day."