Moving Towards Conscious Change

In exclusive interactions with People Matters during the TechHR Conference 2018, SUNIL SOOD, MD and CEO of Vodafone India shared his perspectives on the trends shaping the telecom industry, force-fitting a mindset of change, and HR as the true business partner.

What are the fundamental paradigms that are shaping the telecom industry and what do they mean when you look at the broader business ecosystem?

Some of the changes that are happening are not only happening for telecom but all industries. We are at the cusp of the new industrial revolution 4.0, which is basically technology based where new technologies like AI, digitalization, AR, VR, IoT all are imminent and will impact industries across the board. We have to be ready for this and it will require making major changes within our organizations. The key message is that some of the traditional ways of doing business will need to change dramatically and if organizations don’t change, they will be decimated. Coupled with all this is the fact that customers are getting savvy, want everything ‘here and now’, and increasingly, conversations are taking place primarily on social platforms to which organizations need to respond in real-time. As a telecom company, we are enabling a lot that is happening by providing the critical data connectivity layer which brings to life each of these technologies, as these are primarily databased technologies. In the last few years, data proliferation has happened at a much faster pace than we had envisaged a couple of years back. I personally believe that India will adopt these technologies and changes at a faster rate than its global counterparts. To make the most of these opportunities, organizations need to embrace change, digitalize, and become agile and future-fit. All this can only happen when they change from within.

The world of technology is moving at a fast pace. Through all that noise and everything that is happening, how do you retain that “people touch” and engagement, especially in HR?