How Hero MotoCorp’s CIO Busted the 80/20 Rule

Ask CIOs about the top challenges confronting them, and almost all would rank the 80/20 rule high up on their lists. According to this tenet, enterprise technology decision makers spend 80 percent of their time in maintaining their IT infrastructure with only 20 percent left for any real and meaningful innovation. However, Vijay Sethi, CIO and Head Corporate Social Responsibility at Hero MotoCorp is an exception. Sethi has been successful in overcoming the challenge. He spends very little time on the proverbial TKLO (To Keep the Lights On) of the infrastructure and has more than ample time left for innovation. “In terms of the IT budget, since the last four-five years, we have allocated 40-45 percent to maintenance while the remaining 60 percent is kept aside for spending on new projects and innovation. From a time standpoint, I don’t invest more than 10 percent of my time on maintenance,” he says. So how has Sethi been able to overcome this bane, which has afflicted so many CIOs? Is it because he has a robust infrastructure or is it attributed to a strong second line in in his IT department? Empowerment and Prioritization “I don’t think the reasons for spending less time on routine chores has to do with the infrastructure or the team only. It is a combination of various factors but most importantly it is about empowerment of the team and prioritization” he says.

“The first one-two years after joining, I spent lot of time just in putting processes, controls and governance mechanism in place. Once the processes are set and there is robust governance, one can delegate lot of things as things automatically take care of themselves. If you leave the decision making at the level that it should be left, a CIO would be automatically spending very little time on mundane things,” Sethi says.

To ensure this, for example Sethi doesn’t get involved in the time-consuming procurement process. While he monitors the process, he hardly interacts with the vendors.

“I don’t involve myself in almost 95-97 percent of the procurement. In an entire year, I would get into three-four deals only, and even these are concluded in one or two meetings.

In addition, all the approvals and monitoring mechanism are automated. This helps me in saving a lot of time, which would otherwise be spent unproductively.” he avers. The ownership of a procurement lies with a couple of team members who discuss and negotiate with vendors. Instead of getting into negotiations with the vendors, Sethi’s role is to give guidelines to the team and focus on business case and benefits with it. Leveraging Automation “There is huge focus on automation within IT too. For instance, he does not physically sign any IT purchase order or vendor invoice for payment. All approvals are mobile enabled and carry digital signatures thus eliminating all physical processes and time associated with the same,” Sethi says. Similarly, for IT support to end-users and for managing the data center, networks etc, the team has clear responsibilities, authority levels for approvals, documentation guidelines and Internal Service Levels. “Most of the activities are automated and I get alerts only in case of major deviation or a critical issue but otherwise I just get summary reports on periodic basis and review only deviations with team”, he avers.

Sethi’s aim is to spend most of the time discussing as to where IT can help achieve business objectives or improve efficiencies with various business stakeholders and members of his team. “To do this, one thing I need to do is to ensure that the ‘lights are on at all times’ in a self-sustainable mode without my personal intervention. However, I need to make, sure as part of governance, that process compliance is done at all times,” he says.

Another major benefit for Sethi in empowering his team is that it gives him free time to regularly upgrade his skills and do other activities in the organization. “For instance, I also head Corporate Social Responsibility and Innovation activities in Hero MotoCorp apart from some other organizational responsibilities” he adds.