A few weeks ago amid torrential rains in Mumbai, I met a few very senior CIOs and IT strategists. The CIOs were from across the industry spectrum, providing me a peep into the growth plans of major businesses in different verticals.

Economic recession has indeed impacted the industry. These business strategists have however bounced back and are busy preparing for a big leap – responding to the next growth opportunity. The industry is determined to put the bad times behind it.

Manish Choksi, Chief of Corporate Strategy and CIO of Asian Paints, India’s largest paint manufacturer is a case in point: the negative sentiment didn’t deter the company from taking bold steps towards re-examining its strategy as well as its IT architecture.

Choksi is laying out a roadmap for the future which includes a business continuity plan that will safeguard the company from not only IT related disasters but also other disruptions caused by natural calamities, labour strikes, logistical failures, etc.

Subhakanta Satpathy who is the Vice President, IT at Axis Bank had a different story to tell. Despite the banking industry bearing the brunt of the economic recession, Axis Bank decided to take a very bold step to prepare itself for the next level of growth. The bank decided to move on to the next-generation core-banking platform from Finacle (Infosys). In the course of migration, the bank had to navigate through unchartered waters. Elaborate planning paid off and in May this year the bank went live on the new platform, defying skeptics who thought the move was doomed to fail.

Alpana Doshi, the CIO of Reliance Communications, one of India’s largest telecom service providers, is determined to live up to the growth plans of her company in letter and spirit. Doshi is ramping up the whole customer service infrastructure while the company prepares for the 3G launch, and at the same time has made a robust plan to launch new value added services.

These stories are featured in this issue, reasserting the fact that corporate India is ‘resetting for growth’.

rahul.mani@9dot9.in