C Change'06 to kick off in Cairo today

BANGALORE: The third edition of the mega-event for CIOs, C Change organized by Cyber India Online Limited (CIOL) in association with Dataquest, will begin this evening at the Intercontinental Pyramids Park Resort in Cairo, Egypt. The theme of the event is “Leading Through Technology Driven Innovation.”

The inaugural keynote will feature Subodh Bhargava, Chairman of VSNL. Other keynote sessions will see speakers such as Satish Kaura, Chairman and Managing Director of Samtel, and Dr. Bob Hoekstra, CEO, Philips Innovation Centre Ltd. Pradeep Gupta, Publisher and Managing Director of CyberMedia and Shyam Malhotra, Editor-in-Chief, CyberMedia.

"Businesses are now focusing a greater share of their IT investment on leveraging emerging technologies to create competitive advantage. And fittingly, CIOs will have to bet on new technologies to drive innovation, both in the creation and delivery of products and services, to reach a global market place. Hence the theme, "Leading Through Technology Driven Innovation" was carefully chosen to enable CIOs drive innovation in their companies," said E Abraham Mathew, President, CIOL.

C Change was conceptualized in 2003 by CIOL and Dataquest as an annual event to bring together CIOs under one roof to learn, share, network with peers and industry, and become catalysts of change in their organizations. The endeavor of C Change is to enable CIOs grasp the nuances of business and look at the big picture to help businesses achieve the twin goals of growth and profit.

In the third year, C Change is converging the previous two years' change initiatives into an immediate and direct effect. While 2004 was on CIOs as Change Agents, in 2005 it was on what it takes to become business strategists. And now, the time is ready for change to sweep through and result in technology driven innovation in 2006.

In keeping with the theme of Innovation, CIOL has innovated on its previous two years and this year, has three focused business tracks where only issues pertaining to Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI), Manufacturing and Pharma will be addressed.

“The very format of the event is designed to encourage dialogue between business drivers and technology enablers. Thus at C Change 2006, you will see people who matter --CIOs, COOs and CEOs of enterprises-- on a single platform, discussing and deliberating on various business-technology issues, "said Anil Kumar R, Vice President, CIOL.

For the first time, C Change 2006 will bring sessions such as Crossing the Functional Divide--Expectations from IT, and Crossing the Digital Divide--Challenges confronting a CEO, aimed at engaging business drivers and technology enablers in a useful dialogue to arrive at a common point of understanding.

“We believe that for IT to become truly strategic within an organization, it would involve the participation of functional heads of companies such as heads of production, marketing, finance, etc., as well as, the CEO of that organization. Hence, C Change is all about bringing all these stakeholders together and synergising them,” said Latha Kuttappan, Executive Editor, CIOL.

Insights into the challenges of a functional head will be revealed by K G Ananthakrishnan, Sr. Director, Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Ltd- India, Rajan Wadhera, VP (Operations), Automotive Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, H Srikrishnan, Executive Director of Yes Bank. Similarly, quizzing the CEOs will be Anand Sudarshan, President of Adea International on how CEO views the digital challenge.

Additionally, there will be presentations by CIOs such as Sanjay Sharma, Probir Mitra and Ananth Pundlik of IDBI Bank, Tata Motors and Wyeth India respectively on how IT has enabled the creation of innovative products and services in their industries in the session "Innovations in the Indian Context." So, besides talking of how their individual companies have fared, they will throw light on how IT has helped shape the industry over the last five years.