The businesses are looking for digitally native young professionals who have a digital-first mindset and can come up with solutions to complex problems in innovative ways.
MEDIA7: Could you please give our readers a peek into your strong professional journey of over 25 years?
ATUL TOTRE: I started my professional journey in technology in 1995 in Mumbai, with Rolta India Limited as a Software Engineer. I worked on Intergraph’s CAD/CAM software that Rolta sold and supported. In early 1999, I got an opportunity to come to the USA to work as a Web Developer Consultant with IIS software Inc. In the late 2000s, I joined a startup called Telezoo.com in Washington D.C. to create a web-based B2B e-commerce platform for the telecom industry. In 2003, I sought a new challenge creating real-time systems and led a talented team to build a product called Digital Video Auditing System for a Toll Management company. After that, I jumped into consulting to develop my customer-facing skills and worked for Fujitsu Consulting and then for Infosys. I have always been entrepreneurial, and when an opportunity was presented to create a net new business unit at OpenText, I built a consulting services business and grew it to an impactful business. Then in 2012 came the opportunity of a lifetime to join Microsoft in the strategy business unit and so I joined Microsoft. In 10 years at Microsoft, it's been an amazing ride taking on various challenges and solving customer problems with a digital-first approach, and empowering them to succeed in a modern digitally connected world.
M7: You have been a part of shaping the Digital Transformation journey at Microsoft. Could you please give us an insight into the experience?
AT: I never thought when I joined Microsoft in January 2012, that I am about to not only get a front seat view of a technology titan spectacularly transform itself but also play a role in its transformation. In 2012, ‘cloud’ was a nascent term and nobody talked about digital transformation. Microsoft had just launched Office 365 and Azure was a small team somewhere in Redmond. I was hired into a small team of enterprise strategists who were tasked with driving customer transformation to the Microsoft cloud that is Office 365. Nobody took us seriously as we were coming from that ‘Windows’ company. Unknown to the most outside, Microsoft’s transformation had already started. Office 365 was only the first step in a series of visionary and industry-transforming strategies for conquering the digital era. With Satya Nadella becoming CEO, the transformation became front and center with a focus on culture and mindset shift.
Microsoft’s digital transformation was based on three tenets: Products, Operations, and Business Models. The product strategy was centered on a set of cloud services that included delivering everything from Office to Dynamics suite to other core infrastructure and application services on Azure. Microsoft IT was transforming internal operations to modern cloud solutions thus retiring the on-premise solutions. The business model which was based on a three-year enterprise agreement-led packaged software licensing was now moving to a software-as-a-service subscription-based model which depended on cloud consumption. My team and I, became the tip of this spear, taking the message of new Microsoft into some of our most strategic customers and communicating the new direction Microsoft had committed to. Since then we have played a major role in transforming our customers in a variety of industries to adopt modern digital technologies to drive business outcomes.
It will become common-place to use cloud-based innovation platforms and an ecosystem of best-in-class partner solutions, to streamline product development.
M7: In the past couple of years, various technologies are helping the manufacturing industry usher into the digital era. What changes do you see in the industry?
AT: Around the world, the manufacturing industry is in the throes of a digital transformation that is accelerated by exponentially growing technologies (e.g. Internet of Things, intelligent robots, autonomous drones, sensors, 3D printing, etc). Some of the top industry players had been automating their industrial processes to adapt to the digital transformation needs. Increasing globalization of manufacturing, cost reduction expectation without conceding quality, stringent environmental regulation, supply chain pressures , and changing consumer behaviors are some of the challenges for which the industry had been preparing its response. Some of the industry players have already started leveraging IoT connectivity and data management, using newer technologies like 3D printing to fabricate components, integrating across the value chain to create a connected ecosystem , and building capabilities for predictive maintenance and digital twins. Data indicates that there is a high impact of digitalization across every element of the value chain in the industry.
Digital technologies like the Internet of Things, Robotics, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality, Cloud Computing, and Data Analytics are driving innovations like never before. This will enable the industry to create new products/services, drive customer-centricity, and create new business models. The accelerated enablement of connectedness in the manufacturing business, supply chains, and solutions will drive the creation of ecosystems of coupled services. We will see a lot more industry players using connected products to generate new insights into product health and usage. Some will create new product-as-a-service opportunities and accelerate the evolution of connected products using remote monitoring and digital twins. It will become common-place to use cloud-based innovation platforms and an ecosystem of best-in-class partner solutions, to streamline product development. The industry will engineer new business value with sustainable products and digital services.
M7: What is your approach towards driving business growth for the customer and what are the strategies you follow?
AT: Microsoft's mission is to empower every company and every person to do more. We want to help every company, be it our customer or a partner, to become successful in the highly connected and digitalized era. We want to do that by driving technical intensity, business intensity, and business value growth for them. We want to help them achieve digital technology adoption along with helping them build their technical capabilities. We also want to help them achieve customer-centricity and help their customers derive value from products and services. So, we want to help our customers and partners transform their business models to digital servitization business models and keep delivering incremental value continually. Lastly, our customers and partners need help in growing their business which is increasingly led by technology. We want to help them drive business growth by helping in going to market with differentiated value propositions, better-together approaches, and industry-specific solution sets. This way we can help them acquire new customers and make new markets. My strategies to assist our customers' partners are based on a simple framework: accelerate, de-risk, and grow. I have programs and plays to accelerate the transformation in creating and launching modern digital solutions. I assist in de-risking their journey to becoming a digital-first business with digital business models based on recurring revenue-generating businesses. And, assist customers with GTM and channel strategies to grow their business through customer acquisition, customer growth, and margin growth.
Unlocking innovation and delivering products & services with digitally connected business models will be the biggest challenges for the manufacturing industry.
M7: What do you consider the biggest challenges faced by the industry post-COVID-19?
AT: Manufacturers are working hard to keep employees safe and support an increase in remote workers; minimize any operational disruption to keep manufacturing running smoothly for businesses and consumers; manage risk, manage cost to meet demand, and help those who need assistance the most. With the virus spreading rapidly and several regions and economies in lockdown, 94% of Fortune 1000 companies have reported supply chain disruptions from COVID-19. The virtual way of work has created additional gaps in the processes on the manufacturing frontline and the manufacturers are looking to create new digital processes and capabilities. Demand uncertainty and supply chain disruptions have accelerated demand for agile manufacturing facilities and resilient supply chains. The challenge for these customers is to find ways to respond, recover and reimagine their business in the post-COVID-19 world. Manufacturers need to figure out how to deliver a blend of virtual and physical operations leading to workforce productivity and customer reach. They need to accelerate the adoption of technologies such as AI, ML, IoT, and Mixed Reality to create capabilities such as digital twins, connected factories, industrial automation, and distributed supply chains. Unlocking innovation and delivering products & services with digitally connected business models will be the biggest challenges for the manufacturing industry.
M7: What advice would you like to give the young professionals starting their careers in this industry?
AT: The post-COVID-19 world has done two things that have created immense opportunities for the industry and the workforce. One, the pace of digital transformation has multiplied by a factor of at least 5x. Customers realize the value of digital technologies such as cloud, IoT, AI, etc. to empower their employees and serve their customers. They are willing to invest in their transformation and are accelerating their journey to modern digital ecosystems. Two, the skillset gap in the market which was already deep, is becoming acute on daily basis. These two combined, offer immense opportunities for anyone who is considering a career in technology. Businesses are looking for digitally native young professionals who have a digital-first mindset and can come up with solutions to complex problems in innovative ways. Young professionals should focus on creating a solid foundation of key technology skills and then specialize in their area of interest. There is no quick and easy way to gain key expertise and they must focus on skills and experience as a way to make their careers. The technology industry demands a growth mindset and continuous curiosity to learn new things all the time. Young professionals must be willing and passionate about life-long learning so that they can improve themselves and be valuable to employers. By doing so, they will be able to disrupt industries, create innovative solutions and improve lives, beyond what we even think is possible.