Sudip Mazumder, CDIO of PGP Glass, strongly recommends aspiring CIOs to focus on constant learning and working on creating value for their industry.
A veteran of 30 years, Sudip Mazumder was among the 90s gen civil engineers who quickly made the switch to latch onto the IT and bandwagon. He quips, “As did many other talented Indian boys and girls in the 90s and later, and I have no regrets about my decision whatsoever.”Currently the Global Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) for , ’s portfolio includes IT infrastructure, Applications, Digital technologies, and AI / Advanced Analytics. For the uninitiated, PGP Glass is in a niche domain that produces and sells high-quality glass packaging or containers, exporting a large share to Europe and North America. 17 of the top 20 global luxury brands in the Cosmetics & Perfumery segment are PGP’s customers. Many of the global brands and organizations in liquor, food and beverages segments are also PGP’s customers. Mazumder, when asked about what has kept him excited over the decades, “Some of my qualities are being a learner, hard worker and smart enough to learn new technologies, products, processes. I always looked for more work in different disciplines or helped higher-level executives. While I was at Axa PPP Healthcare in the UK, I helped one of the transversal heads, with his strategy work for the CIO. This created value and mutual respect.”Being open minded about new roles is also a way to keep the fires of excitement. Mazumder recalls, “I also took up any new role that came my way, such as process consulting, project management, consultative business development, alliance management. I was bold and experimental and did them well.”Moreover, the technology space was changing fast, from client-server to internet, to mobility, to cloud computing and now generative AI. Mazumder undertook implementation of On-Demand CRM as early as 2005 while at Cognizant. “I feel amazed and proud to have also done OS agnostic mobile platforms in 2010-11 or fintech, all of which we discussed with our Scandinavian partner at the Cognizant London office one evening.” More often than not, in the course of life, buy-in or stakeholder acceptance is the larger career challenge than any other. Mazumder states that his career path had its moment of truth, when he was trying to champion IoT. He observes, Mazumder explains that the skeptic peer’s comment or advice came in during the early days of IoT.
