Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Thank you for having me. I belong to a traditional middle-class Indian business family where the expectation was to follow the family trade and get involved in managing and growing the family business. Youths in my family generally pursued their education in business, economics, or chartered accountancy, which was the norm. However, I took a different path, choosing to pursue STEM, which my father wholeheartedly supported. I graduated in electrical engineering. My passion was high-end signal processing and chip-making in the semiconductor industry, as I did a number of projects in that space.
Despite having promising job opportunities in my preferred fields, personal reasons didn’t permit me to leave my hometown. The only viable job that allowed me to stay there was with a leading IT company. This unplanned entry into the software engineering world marked the beginning of my career in the tech industry. What started as a coincidence became a passion, ultimately shaping my professional journey and leading me to where I am today.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Absolutely! When I first started as a software developer, I worked on web development, and those were the early days of the Internet. As a fresh-faced trainee, I was given the responsibility of building and maintaining an internal application for the company. Eager to make the portal more engaging, I decided to add a feature that would generate inspirational quotes on the homepage.
Now, picture this: I was deep in the code, completely absorbed, and feeling pretty pleased with myself. But then, a rookie mistake turned my grand idea into a comedy of errors. Instead of generating one quote per click, I accidentally set it to generate quotes in an infinite loop. The result? The application started crashing, and my coworkers couldn’t stop laughing. They even gave me the humorous nickname “Infinite Quote Generator.”
While this memory still brings a smile to my face, it also taught me two invaluable lessons:
- Stay Calm Under Pressure: Mistakes are a part of the journey. It’s crucial to stay calm, focus on methodical troubleshooting, and avoid panicking.
- Thoroughly Review Your Work: It’s easy to get carried away with a new idea, but always take a step back to review your work thoroughly be it anything before it goes out of your desk.
My first year was filled with many such humorous moments, especially since I came from an electrical engineering background and was more of an electrical circuit guy rather than a computer science graduate. These experiences, though, were fundamental in shaping my approach to problem-solving and attention to detail.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
When we reflect on our career journeys, we often find many individuals who influenced and guided us at various stages. However, for me, there are two people without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today: my father and my elementary school teacher.
My father played a pivotal role in my life. Despite our family’s tradition of managing the family business, he supported my decision to pursue a different path. He encouraged me to take risks and navigate the uncharted territory of the tech industry. While technology may not be uncharted for the world at that time, it certainly was for our family, who were deeply rooted in the family business. To date, I am inspired by my father’s achievements and his ability to take on the responsibility of running the family business at a young age. His unwavering support and belief in my potential have been instrumental in my journey.
The second person is my elementary school teacher, who inspired me to pursue STEM. Though he was my teacher only in school, he continued to guide and support me through my decisions in the STEM stream until my engineering days. He even accompanied me for my selection interview before I got into university for my engineering course. Until he passed away a few years ago, I turned to him whenever I needed a moral compass.
While I have had some fantastic managers who have mentored me throughout my career, it was these two gentlemen in the initial stages of my life who laid the foundation for my success. Their support and guidance were crucial in shaping my path and helping me become the person I am today.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
As an avid reader, I have encountered many books that have shaped my journey, but two, in particular, stand out. The first is Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book was a game-changer for me. The idea that tiny, consistent changes can lead to monumental shifts in our lives is incredibly powerful. James Clear emphasizes that you don’t need to make huge, sweeping changes to see results. Instead, focus on small, daily improvements — what he calls “atomic habits.” For example, learning to code for just 10 minutes each day, picking up a new word in a foreign language every day, or waking up five minutes earlier daily. These small actions compound over time, leading to profound, life-altering transformations. This concept resonated with me because it’s so practical and achievable.
Another book that left a lasting impression on me is The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. This book presents four simple yet profound principles for living a meaningful life:
- Be Impeccable with Your Word: Speak with integrity and say only what you mean.
- Don’t Take Anything Personally: What others say and do is a reflection of their own reality, not yours.
- Don’t Make Assumptions: Have the courage to ask questions and communicate clearly.
- Always Do Your Best: Your best will vary from day to day, but always give your best effort.
These principles had a profound impact on my thinking at a young age. I remember reading this book at a time when I was seeking direction, and it provided a moral compass that I continue to rely on
While there are countless books that have impacted me, these two — Atomic Habits and The Four Agreements — stand out for their practical wisdom and profound impact on my growth. They have not only inspired me but have also equipped me with tools to navigate the complexities of life and work effectively.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
At Sutherland, we are constantly running exciting transformative projects leveraging AI, Gen AI, automation, and cloud technologies to enhance our clients’ end-customer experiences. However, what excites me the most is our initiative to build a Digital-first culture within our organization. We are training our employees to seamlessly integrate technology into their daily work, fostering an AI-first mindset across the company.
One particularly exciting initiative we are launching soon is called SeekOut Grow. This cutting-edge Talent Intelligence Platform consists of two applications: Internal Talent and Career Compass. Powered by AI-driven deep learning and a database of over 1 billion career profiles globally, SeekOut Grow aims to revolutionize our approach to talent management. Here’s how:
- Understanding Our Talent: The platform provides a deep understanding of the skills and capabilities across our organization, automatically building and enriching talent profiles for all employees. This helps us better identify and leverage the unique strengths of our team members.
- Personalized Development: SeekOut Grow offers personalized learning and development plans tailored to individual strengths, gaps, and career aspirations. This empowers our employees to take ownership of their growth and career journeys.
- Talent Mobility: By connecting skills, people, and job opportunities through AI matching algorithms, the platform facilitates internal talent mobility. This ensures that our employees can fulfill their career aspirations within Sutherland while optimizing our talent resource allocation.
- Data-Driven Decision-Making: With complete access to a continuously growing skills inventory, SeekOut Grow enables us to make informed decisions about talent development and retention. This helps us identify and address skill gaps, providing our leaders with critical insights to drive business growth.
Ultimately, the objective is to build a strong, talent-led, Digital-first ecosystem within Sutherland. I passionately believe that SeekOut Grow will not only enhance our internal culture but also ensure we continue to lead the way in the digital transformation landscape.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. Digital transformation can mean many things to many people. From your perspective, how do you define digital transformation in your industry?
Defining digital transformation in a few lines is challenging, especially since we at Sutherland partner with multiple iconic brands across various industries. Digital transformation can mean entirely different things for each of our clients, depending on their industry, the maturity of their digital journey, and their overall business objectives.
Let me give you a perspective here; for example, in the P&C insurance segment, consider claims processing. For one client with a manual-intensive paper-based process, simply digitizing those processes is a digital transformation. On the other hand, another client who has already digitized their paperwork might seek a solution where claims can be processed within seconds of an accident. In the best-case scenario, imagine a customer taking a picture at the accident scene, uploading it to an app, and having the claim automatically adjudicated on the backend within 20 minutes, with the payment deposited into their bank account within a few hours. That’s digital transformation in action.
However, despite the dynamics across industries, I will summarize digital transformation keeping in mind the below key components:
Speed and Agility: Clients today demand faster and more accurate service for their end customers. Digital-led transformation means bringing speed and agility to customer service. For example, at Sutherland, we recently partnered with Vaultedge to enhance mortgage automation. This partnership allows us to integrate AI-driven technology to streamline mortgage processing, significantly reducing the time and effort required to process mortgage documents and improving overall efficiency.
Data-Driven Organizations: While organizations were traditionally process-driven, today’s digital transformation focuses on becoming data-driven. Data is at the center of all decision-making processes. For instance, we partnered with a MENA bank to achieve sustainable growth through the implementation of advanced data analytics and AI-driven insights. This partnership enabled the bank to streamline operations, enhance decision-making, and improve customer experience by leveraging real-time data.
Work from Anywhere Capability: The concept of a digital workplace is now essential. Digital transformation means enabling employees to work from anywhere with the necessary tools and technologies. For example, we deployed Sutherland Anywhere, a secure, cloud-based remote working solution, for a global organization. This initiative ensured uninterrupted operations and enhanced productivity, enabling the client’s workforce to thrive in a remote environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hyperautomation: Digital transformation involves hyperautomation, where repetitive tasks are performed by machines rather than people. For example, we collaborated with a leading lending platform to implement Sutherland Robility™. This solution significantly increased efficiencies by automating various aspects of the lending process, reducing manual effort, and enhancing accuracy. The implementation of Sutherland Robility™ allowed the client to streamline operations, lower costs, and provide faster, more reliable services to their customers.
Engineering at the Core: Applying engineering principles, systematic analysis, and innovative problem-solving to every aspect of business solutions can significantly improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer experience. For example, for a leading bank, we applied these engineering principles to guide decision-making, shape strategy, and drive operations across all departments, ensuring the bank remained at the forefront of banking innovation. By placing engineering at our core, we transformed the bank’s operations, resulting in:
- $76 million in projected topline growth through digital initiatives over five years.
- Deployment of a GenAI chatbot to automatically answer HR policy and IT service inquiries in natural language.
- End-to-end digitization of paper processes, resulting in improved accuracy and throughput.
- A 20% committed reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) over the deal term for back-office processes.
Outcome-Based SLAs: Traditional service level agreements (SLAs) are being replaced by outcome-based models. Digital transformation means focusing on measurable business outcomes. For example, a commercial specialty US P&C insurer faced challenges with manual processes and high operational expenses due to 35 unintegrated legacy systems. Sutherland adopted a transformative approach, resetting their operating model. We deployed intelligent automation across standardized processes and set up the Automation Center of Excellence with Sutherland Robility™ at its core. Leveraging Sutherland Extract™, we reduced data entry handle times from 7 minutes to less than 2 minutes and enabled 75% faster claims processing, with 40% of processes being zero-touch. This transformation led to improved operational efficiencies and a significantly enhanced stakeholder experience.
Ultimately, all these components lead to outcomes at scale, which broadly defines digital transformation. At Sutherland, our goal is to help our clients achieve these transformative outcomes, driving efficiency, innovation, and growth in their respective industries.
Which companies can most benefit from Digital Transformation?
Every company stands to benefit from digital transformation. At Sutherland, we view businesses through two lenses: “Run the Business” and “Change the Business.” These perspectives guide our approach to leveraging digital-led solutions for efficiency and innovation.
Run the Business: This approach focuses on using digital tools to enhance operational efficiency. Companies with legacy systems and manual processes can benefit immensely from digital-first solutions that drive efficiency, reduce manual labor, and increase effectiveness. For instance, in the claims operations of an insurance company, implementing automation and AI can transform a labor-intensive process into a streamlined, efficient system. Our solutions, such as Sutherland Robility™ for robotic process automation, help automate repetitive tasks, drastically reducing errors and operational costs and enabling companies to run faster, cheaper, and better.
Change the Business: When a business is already running efficiently, the focus shifts to innovation and transformation. This involves leveraging digital technologies to redesign business models, create new revenue streams, and stay ahead of the competition. For example, in logistics, Sutherland’s digital transformation solutions help organizations optimize costs, enhance customer experience, and drive revenue growth through innovative applications of AI and advanced analytics.
Ultimately, digital transformation is about unlocking new possibilities and achieving transformative outcomes. At Sutherland, we combine human expertise with artificial intelligence to develop digital chemistry, delivering measurable results and fostering enduring relationships. Whether it’s improving efficiency or driving innovation, our goal is to help businesses unlock their digital potential and achieve success in the modern landscape.
One of our clients shared their experience, highlighting how we helped them transform their business: “Sutherland has been instrumental in our digital transformation journey, enabling us to achieve unparalleled efficiency and innovation.” You can watch their full testimonial here.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
Integrating digital transformation can indeed be challenging for many companies. The main hurdles often include resistance to change, legacy systems, lack of expertise, and data silos. Companies accustomed to traditional processes may find it difficult to adopt new technologies and change their organizational culture. Additionally, legacy systems can be a significant barrier as they are not always compatible with modern digital solutions.
One common challenge is resistance to change. Employees and management may be hesitant to adopt new technologies and processes due to fear of the unknown or potential job displacement. At Sutherland, we address this by fostering a culture of continuous learning and development. We offer comprehensive training programs that empower employees to embrace new technologies and enhance their skill sets.
Another challenge is the complexity of integrating new technologies with existing legacy systems. Many organizations have deeply entrenched systems that are not easily compatible with modern digital solutions. Sutherland tackles this with our robust digital engineering services. We seamlessly integrate new technologies with legacy systems, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
Data silos are also a significant obstacle. Disparate data sources can hinder effective decision-making and slow down digital transformation initiatives. Sutherland’s advanced data analytics and AI solutions help break down these silos, enabling organizations to harness the full potential of their data for informed decision-making and enhanced performance.
Additionally, a lack of expertise can impede progress. Companies may not have the necessary in-house expertise to drive digital transformation. We enable this for our clients with expert advisory services, providing access to our experienced professionals who guide organizations through their transformation journeys, ensuring they leverage the right technologies and strategies for success.
Ultimately, by combining human expertise with advanced technologies, Sutherland helps organizations overcome these challenges and achieve successful digital transformation.
Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”?
Based on my experience, here are five ways a company can leverage digital transformation to achieve significant competitive advantages:
Enhancing Customer Experience: Personalizing customer interactions through AI-driven chatbots, omnichannel engagement, and unified customer profiles can significantly improve customer experience and loyalty. For example, Sutherland’s Conversational AI automates live chat sessions for support and sales using natural language processing, providing personalized and efficient customer service. This approach helps brands humanize their customer interactions at scale, enhancing overall customer experience.
Streamlining Operations: Automation of routine tasks using RPA, AI, and machine learning, along with data-driven decision-making through business intelligence and predictive analytics, can streamline operations. Sutherland’s Robility™ exemplifies this by automating complex processes and managing large volumes of data, freeing up human resources to focus on strategic tasks. This has been particularly effective in the financial services sector, where we have enabled clients to process transactions more efficiently and accurately.
Fostering Innovation and Agility: Implementing agile development methodologies and using digital twins and simulation can foster a culture of innovation. For example, Sutherland’s Digital Engineering Services leverages digital twin technology to create virtual models of organizational processes. These digital twins allow companies to simulate and test new ideas before implementation, reducing risk and speeding up innovation cycles. By using digital twins, organizations can optimize their operations and develop innovative solutions more effectively, ensuring they stay ahead in the competitive market.
Improving Employee Productivity and Engagement: Enabling remote work and collaboration through secure digital platforms, combined with continuous digital learning and development programs, can boost employee productivity and engagement. As mentioned earlier, during the pandemic, we deployed Sutherland Anywhere, a cloud-based remote working solution, which ensured uninterrupted operations and enhanced productivity for global organizations. This solution has been instrumental in helping companies maintain high performance in a remote work environment.
Enhancing Cybersecurity and Compliance: Advanced threat detection and response, along with compliance automation, are critical in today’s digital landscape. For example, if an employee who deals with highly sensitive information is working from home or, say, a coffee shop or other shared group environment, the business not only needs to be concerned about a phishing attack against their employee but also someone looking over that employee’s shoulder or taking a photo of private company or consumer information. At Sutherland, Sentinel AI™ provides comprehensive security for remote workers, ensuring data protection and regulatory compliance. This platform helps organizations securely manage their operations while maintaining compliance with industry standards, thereby mitigating risks and protecting sensitive information.
By integrating these digital transformation strategies, companies can unlock new possibilities, drive innovation, and achieve measurable business outcomes. These approaches help businesses not only improve their current operations but also pave the way for future growth and success.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
In my experience, there are multiple ways and initiatives through which an organization can foster a culture of innovation. It’s important to recognize that innovation doesn’t always mean big disruptions or game-changing ideas. Even small step-changes that contribute to the overall transformation at a process, operation, or functional level need to be recognized as innovation. However, I believe there are three key strategies that are fundamental to creating a culture of innovation in all types of organizations, irrespective of the industry or domain. They are:
1. Encourage Risk-Taking and Experimentation: Innovation thrives in environments where employees feel safe to take risks and experiment without fear of failure. As leaders, we should drive the culture of celebrating every small win and view failures as learning opportunities rather than setbacks. A culture that encourages experimentation can lead to groundbreaking ideas and solutions. For example, at Amazon, employees are encouraged to experiment and take calculated risks, which has led to innovations like Amazon Web Services (AWS). By creating a safe space for innovation, employees are more likely to propose bold ideas and explore creative solutions.
2. Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration: I have often witnessed functions that work in silos complain that there is nothing disruptive coming their way. Breaking down silos and encouraging collaboration across departments can spark creativity and innovation. When teams from different functions come together, they bring diverse perspectives that can lead to novel solutions. At Sutherland, we ensure our teams work closely across functions to drive innovation and efficiency. For instance, our SeekOut Grow initiative integrates AI to optimize talent management by facilitating cross-functional collaboration, which enhances problem-solving and innovation.
3. Invest in Continuous Learning and Development: Companies need to invest in their employees’ growth and development to cultivate a digital-first mindset that can spark innovation. This is exactly the fundamental approach to Sutherland’s SeekOut Grow initiative. The idea is to empower employees to take ownership of their career development through personalized learning plans and AI-driven insights. This not only enhances individual capabilities but also drives the organization towards innovative thinking. I am particularly fond of Google’s “20% time” policy, which allows employees to spend 20% of their work time on projects they are passionate about, leading to cutting-edge innovations.
Ultimately, building a culture of innovation requires a systematic and intentional approach. By encouraging risk-taking, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and investing in continuous learning, companies can create a sustainable culture of innovation that drives competitive advantage and business growth.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite life lesson quotes is by Winston S. Churchill: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that count.” This quote resonates deeply with me because it captures the essence of resilience and perseverance. Throughout my career, I have encountered numerous challenges and setbacks. There were moments when projects didn’t go as planned, or strategies fell short of expectations. However, I have learned that these experiences are not endpoints but rather opportunities for growth and learning. Embracing this mindset has allowed me to persist through difficulties and celebrate successes without becoming complacent. It’s the courage to keep moving forward, despite the obstacles, that truly defines one’s journey. This philosophy has been a guiding principle in both my personal and professional life, encouraging me to stay determined and focused on continuous improvement.
How can our readers further follow your work?
Follow me on LinkedIn here.
To Follow Sutherland’s work, visit our website here.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!