How CIOs overcome the challenges of leading IT in smaller cities

While he keeps certain parts on hand to ensure high availability, it is not possible to keep all spares. As a solution to this problem, he is now migrating to the cloud to cut dependency on servers on-prem. “The organization’s email and analytics have already been migrated while work is on with SAP RISE. We don’t want to move 100% to the cloud. By next year, our target is to have 50-60% of our applications on the cloud,” he says.

Limited self-growth

There are lots of insightful enterprise technology forums and events being organized in metros, which help in facilitating peer-to-peer knowledge exchange besides keeping an IT leader abreast with the latest in the industry.

“CIOs in remote locations must leave office for three to four days if they want to participate in such events, which is tough. Vendors gradually realize this and stop inviting such CIOs. IT leaders in metros are meanwhile persuaded a lot by organizers to attend,” says Manoranjan.

As there are no direct flights from Haridwar, Mishra has to first travel to the nearest airport, 50 kilometers away in Dehradun, which “takes up one extra day.” For making the most of his time, Mishra says, “I get all the invites but attend only those that offer value to me.”

Jagdip Kumar says, “The key lies in participating in those events that yield growth not only to the CIO but also to the organization. Our company’s management is open to such events. I encourage my team members in Noida to attend relevant events and as I spend a week each month in Noida, I also attend anything that is important.”

Embracing the challenge

Given the challenges of working smaller cities, most IT leaders prefer to work in larger metropolitan areas, such as New Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru in India. Some, however, find the challenge of leading IT in more remote areas exciting.

“Working in smaller cities makes an IT leader learn to deal with adverse situations. I don’t have a problem till there are budgets, respect, and management focus on digital,” says Mishra, who worked in Vadodara, another non-metro, as the group CIO of Alembic Pharmaceuticals before coming to Haridwar.

Jagdip says, “Smaller cities are behind metros in terms of technology adoption, as such, there are more things that a CIO can do. In metros, enterprises have already invested in technology and IT leaders must continue with old technology. I made the right decision of joining Lohia Corp.”

Manoranjan enjoys working in Beawar as “it offers low stress, less commute, and a pollution-free environment. I am on the verge of retirement, and this is the perfect place for my final assignment,” says Manoranjan, who has spent more than 35 years in various roles in enterprise technology.