Mr. Sunil Chitale is
Executive Vice-President and the Head of Strategy, Marketing & Planning at
iGATE. In this role, he is responsible for continuously scanning the market
needs and help in building and strengthening the distinctive positioning of the
company's portfolio of services. He is also responsible for defining overall
corporate strategy and working with other organizational units within the
company to define and execute strategic initiatives.
Mr. Chitale
began his career with Patni in 1985 and has served the company in different and
varied leadership roles such as - Global Head – Enterprise Software and Systems
Integration (ES & SI). He played a key role in defining 'competency based
HR practices' in the company. Mr. Chitale also led the Patni Academy for
Competency Enhancement (PACE) and the Global Resources in Technology (GRiT) functions.Mr.
Chitale has a Bachelor's degree from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu
University, India.
As part of
the XLRI Leadership Series 2012-13, XLRI GMP had invited Mr. Sunil Chitale to
the campus. Mr. Chitale delivered an insightful talk on “Strategic Alignment
through culture”. After the session, the GliMPse Team caught up with Mr. Sunil
Chitale to have a one-on-one discussion.
GliMPse: Sir, you spoke about
strategic alignment through culture. In today’s world where the average employee
switches at least 6-7 jobs over the course of his/her career, how do you ensure
that the culture built with people is retained and nurtured within the company?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I think there are two parts. One is how do you make the company
an attractive place for people to stay. The company needs to be reengineering,
re-innovating itself so that people see excitement. Retention is obviously a
big piece of the culture. You are right, without that, we will have to
continuously keep getting new people. In our industry, the way it is currently
at least, churn is natural and because of growth, new people will always keep
coming. So building culture is a continuous process. It’s not like we have
conducted training once and are done with it. We, for example, conduct a large
number of sessions where people can come and do a recap. That helps to keep
things current. Getting new people in in fact allows us to keep building the
culture. There is never a time when we are not talking about the values,
vision, and mission of the company. Some people undergo refresher sessions and
the key is really to let people stay, so retention is really the key aspect. Particularly,
if you take people at senior levels from outside, it is sometimes difficult to
assimilate them and therefore, people from within the company are always
required.
GliMPse: You have spent almost three decades with Patni Computers. What
is the single most important aspect of the Patni culture that you feel is the
strategic differentiator?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: Well, it’s not yet full three decades and now it is iGate but
yeah, I did spend a significant number of years at Patni. I have seen the
company grow and mature in its processes but I feel right from day one when I
joined in 1985, there was this “fairness” element, which was very strong in the
company. I remember that when he hired laterals from outside, they were quite
surprised and aghast at the amount of time we used to spend during appraisal
process. Fairness has been very high on the company’s list and I would say that
was one strong value (in addition to several others of course), that I have
experienced from day one. There may have been some lapses but in principle,
fairness was a big item.
GliMPse: How do you see this culture being transformed as part of the
iGate family now?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: Well, if you take the value system of the two companies, four
out of five values were common. Even the competency frameworks that we had for
our people bore a lot of similarities. So the two companies had a largely
similar culture. There were some differences of course. Patni had become large
and maybe a little bit of speed was something that was required. That came with
iGate, which is in fact very entrepreneurial in its culture. And while we did
have entrepreneurial competency, iGate as a corporation brought it to the
culture once again. And it really introduced the whole notion that we need to
change the game. Phaneesh (Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGate) himself is a big
advocate of that and is very passionate about it, which kind of rubs off and I think
that was a big change.
Also, in Patni context, we had
lot of leadership changes after 2006 – our chairman stepped down, we had an
interim CEO, no CEO for a while until Jayakumar came in for a brief period and
then of course the iGate transaction took place. So, I think we had seen a lot of churn and
now some stability has come back in terms of leadership and a CEO.
GliMPse: Talking about outcome-based pricing, there can be some
instances where the first two or three engagements are very crucial. And if the
company falters on these crucial engagements or is not able to deliver as per
expectations, what is the kind of contingency planning you propose to ensure
that the company’s business is not severely impacted?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: We have now established two or three cases where it has worked
quite well and therefore less worried about it now. But we have discovered that
it is only possible to build it with customers who also are very keen to get to
this point. We are not taking that as an
offering and saying – take it or leave it. We are actually going and saying to
customers ‘this is what our idea is, this is the concept and we would like to
build a platform with you’. And then we can get other customers on-board. There
are always customers who are willing to work with us and co-create a platform
with us. Our ability to take risk is better because of some of the work that we
have done but more importantly, we are taking risk with an open mind and the
customer is not in the dark about what we are trying to do. So the co-creation
element helps a lot.
GliMPse: Ok, but let’s say for a new company which wants to move into
this kind of a business model, what is the kind of scenario planning that has
to be done?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I think one important element of business outcomes is that you
need to have a platform to play – a platform on which you can run business
operations. Building such platforms is obviously a capital-intensive activity but
if companies have the money and the desire to build a platform, it may be
possible for some companies to do that. But I still feel it is something that
you need to build with the customer. You need to have that one customer with
whom you will build the platform so that you will at least have some process
running. If new companies have to do it, they will have to find one such
customer, build trust and then develop the platform. If they build a platform
first and then go and hawk it in the market, that may be tough. So unless you
have the customer relationship, it will be difficult to copy that competitive
advantage.
GliMPse: Even established players like Infosys are moving towards this
kind of a model?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: Yes and we are very happy to see that other companies are
talking about it. It took iGate to shake up the industry and say ‘Guys, this is what we should be doing’ and now
other companies are talking about it.
GliMPse: What according to you
makes a company great? What are the key attributes that really define a great
company?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I think people matter the most. Are we creating a set of
values, systems that will survive beyond the current leadership? So the focus
on building a legacy, the focus on building an institution that you can leave
behind versus a focus on building a heroic culture is very important. I think a
company will become great if they are focused on building something that will
last even after they are gone. People who believe in the philosophy that we are
trying to build a legacy that the next set of leaders will take forward, is something
that is very critical. Without that, you may have a great run because the
leader was charismatic and he created something fantastic, but once the leader
goes, it will also die. So if you want to make a company great, you will have
to build an institution that will survive and will run with a new set of
leaders that will keep coming. A great company really requires this attitude
towards leaving behind a legacy.
GliMPse: Leadership, we are
seeing is being redefined continuously. For example, Mr. Vineet Nayar is
talking about ‘Employees first, Customer second’, Mr. Subroto Bagchi talks
about ‘servant leadership’ and we are also seeing an emerging concept of a ‘leaderless’
organization. What is your take on these
new trends in the concept of leadership?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I have always believed that leadership is about taking action
to make things happen; it is not a role or a model or a formula that you can
apply. In my mind, people who take action to challenge the status quo and come
up with new ways of doing things are leaders by definition. ‘Employees first’ or ‘servant leadership’ are
just labels. It helps to have labels since they make it easier for people to
relate but in my mind, leadership is not a hierarchical position. It is not
that you can become a leader only if you have a position. You become a leader
by taking action, for a cause that will take the organization forward. The
notion that each one of us is a leader and leadership by definition means that
you have to take a position for a cause and fight for that cause and make that
change happen - I don’t know what to call it. Maybe I will think about it and
write a book someday….
GliMPse: Leaders are viewed as somebody who sets the direction and
nowadays, management gurus are talking about self-managing teams and leaderless
organizations….
Mr. Sunil Chitale: One of the factors is the availability of information – the
internet, social media, etc. People are much more connected and therefore
coming up with a new way of doing things. Knowledge is no longer something that
belongs to a certain class of people; it is now much more democratized. People
have as much information about what is happening in the world and the upcoming
trends as their managers or seniors. So
from that perspective, I believe the notion that leadership can come from
anywhere is getting strengthened. It is
not so much leaderless but there are many people running with great ideas and
taking them to completion. Obviously not all ideas will succeed and not
necessarily because they are bad ideas. Leadership now has a significant
element of influencing and change management. Influencing others to follow you
and fight for your cause or plan is a big element of leadership. Therefore, it
is not so much a leaderless organization. There can be many people with the same
ideas but influencing skills are going to become more and more critical to take
one’s idea forward, assuming of course that the idea has merit.
Leadership is not an initiative;
it is more of a dream or a vision. It is not just a product idea but more about
what kind of a company we are trying to build. It is a much more long-term
process.
GliMPse: Coming to some personal questions. How would you describe your
typical day?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: In my Strategy role, I get a lot of time to go over the
research that the team has put together, read and analyze stuff and then debate
with my team and others as to what is it we want to do. It is much more about
digesting information from all sources and from that clutter, coming up with the
essence. Sometimes there are weeks where I am just reading stuff and trying to
connect the dots. Then there is the more tactical part like planning, preparing
for events, conducting the operating review cycle, understanding the data
needs, and analyzing the data. Because I also participate in the leadership
development programme of the company, I spend a lot of time on the road,
talking to people. We conduct leadership courses across the country and I
usually spend a day or day-and-a-half there.
So those are the three big
pockets where I spend my time – one is about digesting external and internal
information and coming up with thoughts, which is very difficult since
sometimes there are times when you don’t have any ideas coming forth. Then
there is the operational issues work – basic planning, excel-spreadsheet work
is what I call it. And the third is
building the culture.
GliMPse: And one of the lines in your profile says “continuously
scanning the markets”. Is it like attending industry events etc.?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I tend not to attend conferences, honestly. Maybe I should, I
don’t know. However, I do look at stuff that is coming up at conferences, just
to get an idea.
GliMPse: How do you unwind after a hectic day?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I do listen to music a lot. I am a
movie buff and fortunately, my family also loves movies. The contemporary music
scene in India outside the Hindi movie songs, whether it is Coke MTV studio, is
very interesting and I am fascinated by the stuff that is coming out of that. I
also attend musical concerts when I can. And movies - I see all kinds of movies, trash
as well as great movies and whether at home or in the movie theatres.
GliMPse: So you are not into the meditation or Art of Living kind of
stuff?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: No, no, not at all! I am
actually surprised I am not there because I know some people who are into it. I
have always thought about it but never actually got into that. Maybe when I
turn 50 in July, I will think of doing that.
GliMPse: Who has been the biggest influence in your life?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: There have been several; it is
difficult to point out one. My father was a very hard worker and he instilled
the whole notion of hard work in me. I am sure if he was alive, he would say
that you are not working hard enough. At the workplace, my colleagues and the
CEOs that I worked with, each one of them was very talented. I cannot really
single out one person honestly. All the CEOs, Phaneesh himself and Mr. Naren
Patni influenced me quite a bit – each one of them have such a wealth of ideas and
you learn so much from them. I learn a lot from kids also. My daughter, for
example, influences me in her own ways. What she tells you gives you some ideas
and you learn a lot of things. So it is difficult to say that I have one role
model who was the biggest influence.
GliMPse: But usually, there is one guru or mentor who you really look up
to….
Mr. Sunil Chitale: Actually, no, for me, it has not
been so. I do think that there are many people. There are some colleagues who
have influenced me more than others but that is just because I spent more time
with them. You learn from everybody, all the time. And that is a huge need; that
ability to stay open and learn from everybody.
GliMPse: What would be your advice to budding managers like us who will
probably join the middle management layer of the corporate setup?
Mr. Sunil Chitale: I think it is going to
be very interesting going forward. In fact, it’s a tough environment for new
leaders mainly because the availability of information has become so easy and
the notion that I know more and therefore I can control or influence, is no
longer valid. And that was the age-old hierarchical organizational thought
process. So you will have lots of data but most of the key and important decisions
will have to be made in situations when you don’t have enough data. And those
will be the really difficult and critical decisions. If you wait to collect all
the data and then sit and analyze, you will have lost the competitive
advantage. So how do you make decisions sooner when the data is not sufficient?
How do you bring clarity when it appears that there is ambiguity? And that is
exactly what the leader’s role should be – bringing clarity when there is
ambiguity. When there is commotion. When there is confusion. At that point, how
do you get people to rally behind an idea and bring clarity that this is our
path, this is what we need to do. Or these are the three bets we should take.
Maybe two bets will fail and one will succeed. Those are difficult calls
because all data is available after the fact, right? If you just want to manage
operations then it’s a different discussion. But if you want to lead, if you
want to chart a new path, then I think the ability to take decisions without
data or with insufficient data, is going to be a critical competency. That is
one piece. And second piece I think, for want of a better word, politics in the
sense of influencing others to fight for your cause is a very big skill. And I
think it is going to become more important as we go forward. There are so many
mediums that are influencing people’s thoughts and their attitudes and the
leader’s ability to influence that crowd is extremely critical. And that’s why
building culture is so important, in my mind. They appear to be ‘softer’ skills
but they are becoming increasingly important. We are fed with so much factual
stuff and the decision making is all about the softer stuff.
GliMPse: And how do we build this ability to make decisions in ambiguous
situations? That is something which cannot be easily learnt…
Mr. Sunil Chitale: The willingness to take
risks is important. I think we have attached a lot of importance to failure. Yes,
one should not fail all the time. But one should be willing to take some knocks,
hear some ‘No’s. Your ability to influence will depend to an extent on
something like I am going to take this idea to 100 people. Maybe 60-70 will
agree and 40 will not agree. That acceptance needs to be there. But it is
requires to champion the cause. Influencing has a lot of emotional element. So
if you are convinced, your passion will show through. And you don’t necessarily
have to be a good orator; you have to be a good influencer which is different
than an orator. You should find out what are the ways I can influence these
people? There are formal ways to do that, there are informal ways but at the
end of the day I think if you are genuine and if you are convinced about your
idea, your ability to influence will be that much better. So be genuine and be
willing to accept failures when you come across them.
GliMPse: Thank you very much Sir, it was a pleasure talking to you and
we could really learn a lot from your thoughts and experiences.
Mr. Sunil Chitale: Thanks a lot. Wish you
all the best! Take care.
