Remote working presents huge opportunities for Indian talent: IBM CEO Arvind Krishna

BENGALURU: Tech giant IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna said on Wednesday that the sustained remote delivery model now employed by firms globally can provide huge opportunities for sourcing talent across India. Krishna, speaking during a fireside chat at Nasscom’s flagship Leadership Forum 2021, said that the hybrid model has enabled firms to hire from various parts of the world and this presents a wonderful opportunity for India’s talent base.

“A remote delivery model is more acceptable now and within the same, there are more opportunities for India than before,” the tech veteran said.  

Krishna added that for India to turn into an innovation hub, there was a massive need to reskill people in emerging technologies, formulate a favourable regulatory environment, and be ready for risk taking. 

“The question is what role does India wants to play. The aspiration is massive. If the aspiration for India is to be the innovation hub, one needs not only to look at the positive side but also the risk. Innovation means only one in three ideas are likely to succeed. So two out of three, I don’t call them failures, but they don’t give economic returns in the near term. We need regulations and policies that allow for that failure to happen and that is risk taking in business terms,” the IBM chief executive said.  

He added that the evolution of technological innovation has presented multiple opportunities and hence it is imperative for key players to partner with each other for developing an ecosystem. “For instance, on the cloud services front, I can say we have a great relationship with Microsoft, Amazon... and we aren’t just rivals. Many of our clients require unique innovations and can partner with multiple tech firms,” Krishna pointed out.

Earlier, during a virtual press conference, Krishna had also said that the tech firm was bullish on its India expansion plans and that the recent announcement of the firm spinning off a new company would not impact its workforce in india—the second largest source  of talent for the company after the United States, although IBM is planning for a separate leadership team.

Krishna said that IBM is currently helping support the digital infrastructure of India’s banks, telecom firms, and has also partnered with the country’s indigenous IT firms.