Garima Singh is a tech passionate leader, with a strong focus on driving clear business outcomes via power of digitalization. In her 21 years of professional journey, she has worked across diverse industries (Retail, Automotive, Finance, Telecommunications etc), and different geographical locations (India, US, UK, Sweden), leading enterprise wide digital transformations, AI/Automation adoption, infra & legacy modernization, data management, building foundational platforms and creating digital products which eventually led to new revenue streams. Her favourite technologies are IoT, AI and data management. She started her career as software developer and later took leadership roles, leading large global teams, in renowned companies like Pandora, IKEA, Volvo group, Volvo Cars, Sandvik Group etc, to shape tech organizations. She is a well-known international tech speaker, co-author of several ISO standards and recipient of five global awards in areas of data, AI , IoT and leadership.
Recently, in an exclusive interview with CIO Magazine, Garima shared insights into her journey in tech leadership. With 21 years of experience across industries like Retail, Automotive, and Telecommunications, she drives business outcomes via digitalization. Garima emphasizes tech ethics, transparency, and literacy. She also shared her personal hobbies and interests, future plans, words of wisdom, and much more. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.
Hi Garima. What sparked your interest in technology and leadership, and how did you get started in your career?
As a 12-year-old kid, I was already quite passionate about mathematics and physics. When I was introduced to computer programming first time in school, I was amazed by how barely few lines of code could solve very complex mathematical equations in seconds, and that’s where it sparked my interest in learning more about programming languages, compilers and interpreters. Since then, I was clear to turn my passion and curiosity into full-fledged career
I am a firm believer of power of digitalization, and its significant impact on business, people and planet. My motivation of moving from engineer to technology leader today, is to enable business value via digital transformation, in addition to build highly effective and value driven engineering organizations and operating model.
What do you love the most about your current role?
My most favourite part of my current role, is that it’s a T shaped role, it has the enterprise width to lead overall technology north star direction as well as depth to execute the strategy on ground. As a CTO, you need to be visionary as well as operative at same time, and balance both aspects
What’s your take on the current state of AI adoption in enterprises, and where do you see it headed?
AI is very impactful technology, and it has challenged majority of industries to reimagine their business models, operating models, process etc.
My honest take across industries on AI adoption is two folded. On positive side, i get energy when I see there is lot of attention on AI from board and c-suite, and there is genuine efforts in speeding the adoption. What disappoints me is that there is very little focus and investments on fixing the foundations (like data foundation, AI literacy, org upskilling and operating model.) which are essential pre-requisites for scaling AI and delivering the impactful results.
There is well known research from many reputed firms that 80% of AI initiatives across industries are failing and board and CFOs are unable to see real ROI from their investments in AI, and this is reaffirming my own experience as well, that its often not the technology, its change management and foundations which hinders the impact.
How do you see the intersection of technology and social responsibility evolving?
With growing adoption of digitalization and now with AI acceleration across many industries, its getting more important and unavoidable to use technology responsibly. In my humble opinion , its high time for tech executives like us to enforce tech ethics and transparency as part of engineering day to day way of working. Strong technology also comes with high risks, so we also need to put strong focus on growing literacy about tech related risks and how to use it in best way, both for tech audience as well as for non-tech audiences within enterprise.
You’ve achieved remarkable success, winning five tech awards in IoT, Data, AI, and Technology leadership globally. What’s the secret to your success?
My secret sauce is “learn it all” instead of “Know it all” mindset. I have proactively focussed a lot on learning new skills and 360 developments with hard core competences like different technologies, but also soft skills like effective communication, stakeholder management, leading organizations etc. In addition to that, I have also been very proactive in not just contributing on organizations I worked for but also have been active contributor in shaping cross industry future tech direction in data, AI and IoT domains with ISO standards and mentorship.
Can you share a book or resource that inspires you and why?
My favourite book so far is “Leadership Agility”, by Stephen A josephs & William B. Joiner. This book has played a pivotal role in shaping me as a leader and understand different aspects of leadership. The best part of the book is, that stories in the book are based on original research and decades of work with authors’ clients, and hence it was quite relatable for me.
How do you stay up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies?
I have various sources, some of them are tech newsletters, global conferences, Gartner research papers, etc
What are some of your passions outside of work? What do you like to do in your time off?
I love travelling and playing badminton. I am also quite passionate about interior decoration and love designing homes and spaces for my family and friends.
What is your biggest goal? Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?
The reason I entered in tech industry was to deliver positive impact on business, people and planet via power of digitalization. This is what I have been doing since last two decades, started on smaller horizon and then grown into bigger horizon, and worked across industries (telecommunication, finance, automotive and now Retail). So, in next 5 years, I want to see myself creating/expanding PNL revenue streams for enterprises as chief digital officer. Or chief transformation officer.
What’s your advice for aspiring tech leaders looking to make a positive impact?
Focus on 360 developments of your skills, its always your skills and attitude which will take you forward. As engineer, our focus often is lot on technology, but not the humans aspects, but if you want to be successful as tech leader, you need to upskill yourself with manging both human and technology.