Digital Transformation Evangelist
Biswajit Mohapatra’s transformational journey from a small remote village to the biggest city in India and his recognition as a global technology leader is a glowing example of the emerging India story.
Biswajit grew up in a remote village at the confluence of Mahanadi River and Bay of Bengal in East Coast of India. His father Dr. Bishnu Charan Mohapatra decided to serve the village poor and downtrodden by providing them with basic healthcare facilities. His father’s passion for serving the needy had a strong influence on Biswajit. It taught him to appreciate the beauty of simpler things in life and keeps him connected to his roots through the social initiatives he is driving in remote parts of the country.
An alumnus of IIT Mumbai, Biswajit is Partner and Executive Director, Hybrid Cloud Transformation Services, IBM. In his 25 year career, he has reinvented himself several times. He started as a Mainframe Developer, then moved to Solution Architecting Complex Financial Systems, then to Managing Complex System Integration Engagements, heading Technology Innovation Group, providing Strategy Consulting to global Fortune 500 clients, establishing Global Technology practices and leading Global Delivery Centers. He has held leadership positions at Tata Consultancy Services, Zensar Technologies, Kanbay Software and IBM India.
Biswajit’s professional journey began when he joined TCS to participate in the India growth story in the post-liberalisation era. Helping enterprises embrace business transformation has been his keen interest since those days. Today, the new business paradigm is about adopting exponential technologies such as AI/ML, Blockchain, IoT and Security built on an Open Secured Hybrid Multicloud platform. Biswajit is a globally recognised thought leader and strategic advisor to global CXOs, helping them to reinvent their business models by migrating and modernising workloads to Hybrid Multicloud environment leveraging power of such NextGen technologies. The 15+ prestigious CIO awards he has received in this space are the testimony.
“Digital Transformation is no longer optional for businesses or even governments. I drive an inside-out Digital Transformation agenda for my clients which is built on cloud as platform, security as foundation, data as fuel and AI as accelerator,” states Biswajit.
Biswajit has been recognised as one of the ‘Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Cloud Computing’. His patents, publications and industry eminence give his clients confidence to be in trusted hands for their Digital Reinvention journey. His strengths include an action-oriented, entrepreneurial attitude. In addition, “I cannot emphasise the importance of collaboration enough. I believe my collaborative nature had a lion’s share in my demonstrated and sustained business success,” says Biswajit.
What about challenges he’s faced? “How to build resiliency is one of the greatest questions of the last few years. The answer is only one word: Reinvention. Reinventing yourself at work as well as in life is the only way you can prepare to successfully respond to chaos around you,” answers Biswajit, adding he reads a lot of tech news and CXO blogs to keep himself updated. He also regularly speaks and participates in national and international conferences.
On the personal front, his love for academics and mentoring students de-stresses him and gives him fresh ideas and perspectives. He has been associated with Symbiosis University for 15 years now, and is also Member, Board of Studies, Faculty of Computer Science at Symbiosis University and Board Member, IIBA Pune chapter. He is also a working Group Committee Member to draft the guidelines on Zero Trust Architecture supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India.
Biswajit likes to spend his weekends at a nearby orphanage and old-age home. He also likes to work towards leveraging technology for social innovation and sustainable growth, especially in rural areas. “I am involved in several rural Social upliftment initiatives such as educating farmers on precision farming using technology, Digital literacy initiative, etc.,” he says.
A proven expert, Biswajit has built many high performing teams from scratch, whether it is Technology Innovation Group in Zensar, PRIME practice in Zensar or the Migration and Modernization Practice in IBM India. Gone are the days when businesses had vendors and customers. This is the age of partners and ecosystems, he says: “The AWS capability I built ground up at IBM is the testimony.”
In addition, he has diverse industry experience in serving clients across Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Retail, Manufacturing, Media and Healthcare industries. His passion for technology blended with strategic consulting skills and expertise in balancing the science and art of Digital Transformation makes Biswajit a true leader in the field.
