Digitization Has Signaled A New Era In How Is Done Business

Spearheading digital transformation at on India’s leading liquor manufacturers to bring in more productivity, transparency and value, veteran IT leader Farhan Khan opens up on his experience, the journey and how technology is changing the face of business.

What are your takeaways from recent digital transformation initiatives at Radico Khaitan?

Digitization has signaled a new era in how business is done. It is touching not just the customers, but also the vendors, the internal partners, and external partners. It is also changing the life of manufacturer. At Radico we manufacture our own brand. As far as digital goes for the manufacturing side, technical skill sets are inadequate. We have to train the workforce on different levels. For example, a simple scanning of bottles is a technical task for manufacturing workforce. They don’t entirely understand what scanning means and what the machine is actually doing. So we have to tell them where to scan, where the button is and where is the case number. I believe digitization is not just improving productivity, but also infusing complete transparency starting right from the vendor where we are acquiring the raw material to the finished goods going out of the factory.

How are you leveraging technologies like AI and Blockchain in your organization?

Our industry is largely driven by foreign companies like Diageo and Pernord. Blockchain is a type of customer ledger or vendor ledger. Because of the aspect that blockchain promises transparency, most of the companies will embrace it. The liquor industry is one of the most unorganized industries. Technologies like AI and Blockchain are going to push it towards being organized and bring a revolution in the industry.