Our research shows that 70% of Indian CIOs or top IT executives will report to CEOs or the senior-most executives in their organizations by the end of 2016. As the boundary between IT and business further blurs, successful CEOs must get more directly involved in business-led technology discussions as a means to differentiate their organization, drive business growth and measure technology success by the business outcomes it delivers. This is driving a fundamental shift in the CIO role as it moves from classic "plan, build, run" cycle management to a business outcome oriented, customer obsessed leadership position. With this backdrop, Forrester holds its second series of CIO summit across Asia Pacific in August and September; the India summit is scheduled for September 3 in Mumbai and the theme of the summit is “Mastering Tomorrow’s Business Outcomes”.

We have an action-packed agenda for the India summit with great mix of Forrester analysts (Dane Anderson, Nigel Fenwick, Bobby Cameron, and Duncan Jones) and industry keynote speakers (Arun Gupta,Chief Information Officer, Cipla; Ram Medury,Vice President, Head of IT, ICICI Lombard; Rajeev Seoni, Chief Information Officer, Ernst & Young). Throughout the day, we will have interactive discussions on how digitally-empowered customers are creating urgency for change by redefining how business is won and what role CIOs can master to digitally disrupt their markets by applying technology to deliver targeted customer value faster, better, and cheaper for potential business outcomes. 

One of the key highlights at the event is the innovation panel: “Make Innovation A Business Technology Competency”. I will do the panel moderation and will be joined by Shirish Chitte, Chief Technology Officer, Reliance Capital and Pratap Gharge, President & CIO, Bajaj Electricals. Innovation is essential for any firm that wants to master tomorrow’s business outcomes and win business in new ways. CIOs should lead with technology-based sustained innovation which is most effective when driven by strategic goals — using the business outcomes as the criteria targeting specific opportunities for business growth. During this session, attendees will learn:

– Why to create outcome-targeted innovation within the organizations

– How to establish measurements and ensure return on innovation

– How to choose the technologies that help develop innovation capabilities

We anticipate more than 100 senior CIO leaders attending the India summit and it will be great to meet everyone there. Let me know if you have any questions on India summit or recommendations on how we can make the event even better.  See you in Mumbai soon!