S S Soni, Executive Director (Inf. Sys.) and CIO, Indian Oil Corporation Mr. S S Soni
Exec Director & CIO,
Indian Oil Corporation

Multi-tasking comes easy for this versatile CIO as his thirty-three successful years has seen him lend valuable contributions to various portfolios from IT to Marketing. A Chartered Account who now crunches numbers and strategy together in his challenging portfolio as CIO in the prestigious Indian Oil Corporation Limited.


In this special series titled ‘The One Thing’, CIOL attempts to discover and unravel the many facets of S S Soni's challenging and inspiring portfolio as a CIO, a Decision Maker and an IT Leader.

Q: What is the one thing that you draw your strength to achieve your goals?
A: Motivated team and Teamwork.

Q: What is the one facet of leadership that has truly inspired you?
A: Quick decision making

Q: What is the one thing that you would advise to upcoming and aspiring CIOs?
A: IT has to follow the business and must be effectively aligned to business of the organization

Q: Who is the one leader that you have admired?
A: Mahatma Gandhi

Q: What is the one major challenge you face as a CIO?
A: Long time required to implement IT projects

Q: What is the one successful practice you deploy to motivate your teams?
A: Give my team challenges and sincere appreciation for success

Q: What is the one thing you do to manage stress?
A: Make office atmosphere warm and informal

Q: What is the one thing that decision makers and leaders must avoid as a rule?
A: Do not be afraid of taking decisions and unduly wait for perfect time to come, start your initiatives and quick successes themselves boost your confidence and moral.

Q: Name one HR best practice that can aid in people retention?
A: By posing more and more challenges and informal environments, our attrition was near zero in 2 years.

Q: What is the one great opportunity you see in these tough times of global recession?
A: IT alignment with business is needed much more through IT tools to achieve optimization in operations, which will provide much more savings in operating cost, which is the need of the day.