 Good afternoon. It's my honor and privilege to welcome you to an exchange for media conversation and exchange for media dialogue on marketing technology on technology on what's happening in the business environment This is live on exchange for media comm impact on net comm pitch on net comm. It is also like on BWC IO comm There we have a very special guest and we couldn't have a special Person more special person than him the more relevant person than him to talk to us about how technology is In some way transforming our businesses and will help us triumph in the future. So with this, let me welcome. Mr Karan Bajwa, who's the MD and CEO of Google Cloud in India. Welcome Mr. Bajwa to this conversation and we're delighted You could join us. I'm assuming that you're joining us from your home in Gurgaon How is remote working change? The way we do business and bring technology to the fore. I'm sure that's the silver lining that All cloud companies and especially Google Cloud which is such a large player in this segment I've seen so how I've been the last 90 days for you Mr. Bajwa Thank you. Thank you very much and Ragh. It's always a pleasure to interact with you And I've seen you and your platform grows. It's always a pride when I when I look at you Thank you for inviting me today Look, I think, you know, it's it's not an easy time for anyone So while I while I will talk about the silver lining in this whole environment, I want to be respectful that everyone's situation is different and People are going through very very tough times just before this you and I were talking about the fact that as this gets closer to us Reality bites and it's getting personal as as some of our friends family get impacted So it's a very tough time which is Unprecedented and Ragh you and I have lived many crises in our lifetime which have been Not as deep and as prolonged and as impactful as this one It's been three plus months and we still have unseen any way the close to the end of it The financial impact is very very deep. We have not yet calculated the lasting financial impact of this You know people's work styles work lives have changed all of that is is it and you're not everyone is engineered to be working remotely people's Environments are different. So I'm respectful of all of those limitations in people's minds people's environments And yet I see that there is a lot of things that are going positive First of all, we're able to spend time and families that we never did think about it You know, how much time would be spent with our families? And suddenly now we have time at hand with families. It does bring in very awkward moments, but it's it's an amazing experience just surely in terms of our ability to work from home first Organizations went through the learning curve and Ragh and I could tell you that not many Organizations were engineered for a hundred percent work from home for a prolonged time You'd be surprised at the kind of organizations that were challenged deeply technical organizations Organizations that were actually the the providers of technology also got challenged So people went to that learning curve of making sure they could as much as possible And I'm sure not every organization can manufacturing is a tough challenge as many organizations as possible working from home working from home also, you know There are some interesting new answers are it suddenly we find time on our hands, you know I'm personally seeing around that productivity is an all-time high. You know, we have a wonderful tool at Google where we actually can track our We can track, you know, just the productivity that we have on a weekly basis. It's mind-boggling It's it's not a number. I'd like to quote because it's not a benchmark I'd like to say that's not the right way of working But simply you have time at hand your ability to engage with customers is very very easy Think about a forum like this in a rug if we had to do this forum in person Imagine the number of people you would have to invite the logistics that you would have to do People would have to travel from their home to the location and back You would take about four to five hours to do a one-hour intervention And here we are walking in from a prior meeting and we walk into a next meeting Simply taking one hour and we can we can impact I was just counting and I understand there is there is huge webinar fatigue That is setting in but he had people's ability to learn people's appetite to learn has significantly gone up Technologies played a massive role in this whole whole, you know, change that we are seeing and God bless the telecom companies and rug, you know they were going through a very very tough time pre-covid and Suddenly we see that they are the kind of foundation on which we are all able to work today So so bless them and I hope that that sector emerges much stronger But technology has played a massive role in helping us You know get through the be productive be productive today. Absolutely. So and there are many learnings We'll talk about as we go on rock. There are many learnings about Please you almost had a three decade career in this thing and you work with large technology companies You are now leading Google Cloud in India before that you were with IBM before that you were in Microsoft So you've seen technology for at least us 25 years Very closely, you know and how it Impacts human interactions how it impacts work how it impacts business So tell us what is saying in the last 25 years give us two three megatrends and also tell us where in the next three to five years Where we are headed Sure Look, you know, let me give you the lens of You know how I've seen technology the mindset around technology change over the years and rather I remember 20 years ago when we would send an email to a CEO As a technology company reaching out to the CEO we would immediately be sent off to the IT department The CEO would never engage rarely engage That was the first kind of I I saw that wave and I'll bring it alive from a technology standpoint But I want to talk about the relevance of technology to businesses Sure, then came a point where CEOs got interested in technology They wanted to know more and we used to have conversations with CEOs But they always used to be there it used to be along with the ID ID departments the CEO could never have the conversation alone So we would always have the CEO and the ID department together then came the phase when You know when CEOs got interested they got deeper They started seeing the business impact and they wanted to learn more and they wanted sort of to to reach out and Engage directly with the companies. We started seeing a very different engagement at CEOs and board levels and finally came the phase of really You know deploying Capabilities like the CDO the CTO across organization So we've seen a multitude of phases of technology adoption the relevance what will happen after covid I'll talk about it in a minute, but but I've seen the relevance of Technology change at the CEO's desk in a significant way Technology 20 years ago was absorbed or adopted in a very fragmented manner The traditional buying of hardware and then software and integration and then support it was bought in a very fragmented way Integration started happening. You saw outsourcing happen, which was basically, you know letting go of You know what you could not do very well. We saw that phase happen We saw a phase where people were consolidating technology assets Then we saw a phase where people were very comfortable buying fragmented technology Integrating that they became comfortable with technology So we've seen many phases of technology adoption in that sense and now we were just about getting into a phase where The consumption model of technology was coming in and rock and that kind of was being fostered by cloud Hyperscalers as well as by SAS company. So the consumption model came into being I believe that this particular phase that we are going through hospital and unfortunate does provide a massive tailwind to to the whole ecosystem around cloud and SAS company Technology will fundamentally change as we emerge from this crisis. God bless. We should do soon It'll fundamentally change The one thing that we wanted to start with and then there are a lot of points I think there are some cross-connection I'll just check. I guess you have two studios live right now Anurag. Yeah, it must be You know, just to build on, you know, I am very aware. I told you what happened to two of my colleagues yesterday One of my senior most colleagues in the Bombay office went to heaven and one of my so we I'm aware of the personal challenges both in the life side and the livelihood side and one what one can do is to do your best pray for others and Do whatever you can do with in power to your power and means to help that and Contribute your you know, I'm you know people like you and me cannot sit idle because we also have responsibility for other people I have responsibility for 300 people beyond my own team At home, right? So I think you want but one of the things that has happened is I'll give you both exchange for media and business world example business world are kept saying that we have to be video first Digital first today. We are doing four to six hours of programming in business world between two to four hours of programming video programming in Exchange for media. You become fully digital. We've added 30,000 subscribers to the business world newsletter organically organically We've hit 30 million traffic in business world for the last four months on an average used to do between 12 to 18 million and so, you know, there are positives that have come through without kind of making too much effort and what we have to look at is the impact of the environment with traveling less So, you know, it helps our body mind. You're eating at home. When did you eat for 60 days at home? I Didn't so I think they're a positive. Of course. What is negative is people are losing their lives Businesses are under the pressure and there is a Definite if I may use and I'll send you an article I read the people are grieving There is a grief said unsaid about, you know, a lot of things changing around them Not being able to go and see somebody you want to see right not being able to go for a walk So coming back to technology technology will ensure some of those experiences are in some way mapped online You're talking to me and then the interruption games that we come you will give me as a perspective on You know how CEOs promoters now talk to the technology company and the technology evangelist And they want to talk first to the technology person and I keep saying every business, you know Earlier, we would say this is a food tech business. There's a media tech business. This is a med tech business No, every business has to be a tech business. It has to be a print. It has to be a proper I mean if it's not taking won't possibly thrive Sure, I think and that brings to the point that We'd almost reconciled to the fact that all businesses are enabled by technology But I think what's gonna happen in this environment post-covid is that technology will become the driving force It will bring technology to the fore of the business and not just the enabler for the business But I was gonna talk about About just the trends that we see on technology post-covid. What are going to be the big trends? that That are going to be dominant in the marketplace as as we emerge stronger out of this crisis So first of all, I think there is an opportunity even before I talk about technology is an opportunity for us to reinvent the way we work Our workplace should look different from the time that You know, we came out came into this crisis the workplace should look very very different Ability to work from home has opened up people's eyes into the art of the possible in terms of what can be done There are some very bold Moves that have been announced by the organizations one of the IT companies actually has publicly announced that By the year 2025 they would only have about 25% of their workforce sitting in a physical office Now, no, that is bold, right? That's changes fundamentally how both the workplace will look like and bless everyone if if you embrace that mindset as much to the extent You can Depending on the business that you run that would completely change many dynamics in the marketplace the cost dynamics for technology companies The dynamics for the real estate business, etc. Etc. It will change a lot of things So the first trend that I would see is people Organizations will build a capability of working from home and it's not just about video Anurag video was the first point of port of call as as we got into this crisis Video was just the first port of call. There is there is collaboration There is security that comes in there is seamless exchange of data sharing How do you actually have a meeting as if you and I are sitting in the same room? So organizations will implement ways and means to implement work from home for a hundred percent of their I pray we never have to face anything like this, but that's the first thing I see Increase in digitization and Iraq will would automatically increase the demand for as the footprint of digitization increases The surface area increases demand for security and privacy will go up Security will serve as the foundation element for innovation and things like AI on big data on cloud, etc So that's the second piece that I see increase of security The third fundamental change I see is the consumption model of technology should change will change From a very capex driven model to a apex driven model And I know I have a colored lens on the cloud, but you know, I'm more talking about consumption models Rather than I'm not trying to talk only about the cloud But the consumption model people will conserve capital and and use it for their core business Whereas they will adopt technology more boldly through OPEX and OPEX allows you to lower the entry barrier for for use of technology The third thing the fourth thing I see is there will absolutely be a mainstreaming of AI and ML AI and ML have been have been things we have spoken about things we have piloted for a very long time Scale use of AI ML is something that organizations will need to go The smarter ones will innovate faster. They will go on scale. They will invest on scale I think gone are the days You know people will be interested in doing pilots. I wish and hope India has been Famously called as the graveyard of pilots people have to learn from each other rather than recreate And there will be massive You know scale use of AI ML building in as we watch and finally the it's very important for traditional organizations They do have incumbent it and we have to be respectful of that situation I believe there has to be a bold modernization of legacy Platforms in traditional companies and I'm not saying you take it and throw it away But modernization of your existing environment so you can support You know outward looking digitization Yeah, you will be absolutely proud absolutely leave from so those are the five big things that I see happening as we emerge Out of covet and run so current just to build on what you said and thanks for giving us those five inputs Is suppose a large organization? Let's say a bw 500 let's say you know, let's say An FMCG company likely words or Godrej and you know similar large companies if they were spending X on their technology What will that x become it become 2x 5x? Or will it the x will get redistributed to new technologies? So my question is does the technology spend go up and you said it will become an apex So it will provide an opportunity to increase it Second is how does it get redistributed you talked of throwing away legacy system bringing in new modern Yeah, I just want to be careful. I did not talk about throwing away legacy I spoke about modernizing legacy. There is a path to modernizing legacy without throwing it away And then you can slowly do it. So I want to be very careful. Don't give a wrong I wouldn't want to give a wrong message on that Now, you know, I will not try to play crystal gaze on will it spend increase? I think what is more important is The fact that technology adoption will increase is a given that's very obvious What's making us work today? What's allowing us to be productive today? So the adoption of technology will increase Now the question is if you go back to the old way of buying technology where you had to invest Right up front before you could get the first benefit of technology That's tough because then you are taking precious capital away from your core business If I'm manufacturing, I got to pay my people. I got to get my raw material I got to enhance my supply chain. Yeah, technology is super important for me But I can't do anything without those three ingredients So I have to use technology and that is so clear to me But I have to use it now in a way that I don't have an entry gate that's so high And that's why consumption models So if I look at the total cost, total cost is the wrong way to say it But if I look at the total spend over a five-year period, sure I think it will increase as technology footprint increases sure it will increase But will that mean that you will suddenly have to spend the minute you come out of All IT companies going to stand up in front of you with a huge bill I don't think that's going to be the way of consumption The maturity of the SaaS based model, the cloud based model has reached a point Anurag where people have tasted early success It is famously sort of known now that across all enterprises, mature enterprises About 20% of workloads as we call it in the IT parlance have moved to the cloud So people know how to migrate, people know what to get out of it They know the new answers, they know the security connotations as they come with the cloud So people have tasted success is a question of scaling People know the benefits of AIML in small use cases, they got to scale it So innovation on scale is going to be key for us Adoption model going from capital, CAPEX to OPEX is going to allow us to do that Without having to spend precious capital in terms of a high entry barrier That's how I see traditional organizations like as you said a few names have the ability and equally so Anurag It's very important that organizations have the power to break You cannot make the new without breaking the past If you try hold a lot of the legacy of the past and try to go back It'll be a lost opportunity in my view If you go back to the old ways of delivering things You know one of the things I have been constantly saying in this period To every CEO is as you get back to your offices Get to your conference rooms, put everything on the table And if you find yourself doing something the same way that you were doing pre-COVID Question yourself three times before you go back and you may still go back But question yourself three times before you do that Because there is a new way of working, there's possibly a way of working This opportunity should not be lost, this crisis should not be wasted And we should reinvent what we do, how we do And how we execute in the marketplace And I'm not being insensitive to the fact that yes There would still be some things that would not change But the opportunity for CEOs is massive to reinvent themselves And just to, you know, I asked you You will not use the one TCO total cost ownership And it is about total implementation of technology You know over a period of time as you said It becomes with a SaaS based model it becomes an OPEX Now where will suppose this 100 rupees was being spent in X by Z Where do you think will it get redistributed Some of the things that you were a technology investor Or a technology investor in the sense a user investing in it Was spending what are the new things that the user will spend on Look, you know, I think it's fairly well recognized now You know, there's been many words given to data Somebody's called data as waters, data as oil, etc So the power of data is clearly established in people's minds Most business models that have been disrupted Whether it is in B2C environments Whether it is in hospitality environments, etc Have been on the power of data That's clearly established So there's no question around that It's equally well known that a lot of incumbent organizations Traditional organizations are sitting on precious data Right, so I think the shift, you know What has happened in the past in Ragh And I, you know, again, I want to be sensitive As respectful as I can But there's a change happening So I have to be blunt You know, by the time when a person decided to go out buy IT A lot of the money was taken up by, you know Lots of hardware being thrown in And lots of software being thrown in By the time you wanted to do some business impacting You were like choked on money And you had spent all your money on ID money was choked in Look, I think people that spend will shift to things like data That spend will shift to things like AI That spend will shift to things like analytics Which are high business impact What changes the business for me And how can I minimally bring technology I want to bring more technology And burn less money today Yes, I may burn more over five years But I want to burn less And as you see the impact And as you see the result As I see the impact Technology spent over a three-year, five-year period Will go up, Anurag There is no question about that It'll go up It'll go up significantly I won't sort of frisky gaze and say How much do we expect? Sorry, go at least You know, when we talk about large corporations We understand One of the huge things that happened is Democratization of access to technology I think that has happened My maid is also equally prevalent And using technology as much My parents are using Zoom Or another video technology from Google Or whatever Other players Now do you see for the SMEs Because it becomes an OPEX for smaller players Companies that have less than 30 crores of turnover 50 crores of turnover As compared to companies that are 500 crores 1000 crores, 2000 Do you think technology will become more affordable And smaller players Will be able to use technology better Because they have no legacy Plus their businesses have become So much driven by technology Sure Anurag, I love this question Because you used a term which I very Which I use almost every day today Which is at the core of What technology companies should be doing Which is democratized technology I think the core You know in the past Technology has had a very elitist way of adoption You know, you know Think about it Anurag The access to technology you had in your office And I'm picking on you Maybe it's not the same access That possibly the last person in your organization had There were tiers of usage But when we sit in this time Everyone needs the same access Everyone needs the same capabilities You need to talk to people Collaborate with people Share information And be productive So you almost need So the democratization of technology And I actually had promised myself I will not do a sell job on this I'll not sort of wear my Google hat on this On this table But I do have to Because that's what Google's always stood for Democratizing technology Putting technology out there Making it easy to use And putting it in the hands of people I think that's so important I think one of the simplest things we did As we saw that people were Simply unable to work from home We took our You know, our Google Meet platform And actually we said With a clear mindset To serve customers And not to sell to them We said use it for free For the next six months We will not charge We'll see what happens after that But go use it Put capability and tools In the hands of the people And try to make sure There are not multiple tiers Of course people will need A couple of new answers Around technology Depending on the tier of usage But don't wear too many tiers So democratize the technology That is I think a very, very well set point by you The second point is SMEs Which have, you know If you look at India And let's say to our country If you look at India What really is the India customer pyramid? The India customer pyramid Has some 5, 600 customers at the top Which are like any other customer in the world They are almost They look like a customer in New York And you know I remember one of the people saying it in the past There is a New York on top of India And that New York behaves like New York But then the real India starts As you get down And that real India Which is the MSMEs In the country The number ranges up to 550 million As from many estimates Different new answers There are different tiers of them You know And I'm not going to sort of put them into one bucket But that's the 50 million MSMEs in this country That really can use the power of technology To do many things Simply first go out in front of customers They need digitization to get out in front Get their business online They need productivity They need sales force automation They need an accounting system They need technology How do they take The integration of all of this Oh that's the complex part Anurag That's where the fun begins Because they had to Now if I'm a MSME with 100 people I can't afford an IT manager I can't afford a CIO's function I had to go buy hardware I had to look at a mom and pop shop To buy hardware I had to go figure out Software Half the time I'd be scurrying around To see what can I have We're going to find software Then I had to go back Borrow steel and get an integrator To put it together for me Then I had to pay ongoing support charges I had to worry about security I had to worry about upgrades It was an unending problem So I said let me not use it for now Let me use minimal Suddenly With these models of consumption As I said The SaaS models The cloud models They allow you to use technology Why is there an explosion Anurag For SaaS companies in India You suddenly see We've always said India is Is a house of services arbitrage Look no There is massive capability building In the Indian ecosystem Around SaaS companies Because these consumption models Have now matured out Look at organizations like Zoho Look at organizations like Dali They have provided The right ecosystem For customers We are making We are working with With a lot of players in the market We recently announced a collaboration With Airtel Where we said We will use the Airtel route To market to go out to MSMEs And provide them technology In a consumption model So I think a lot has changed And a lot will change post COVID Just because of the maturity Of all these technology models Anurag Thank you Karan I want to ask you two more real questions You know earlier you would deal with the CIO Traditionally 20 years back Then it became a CTO Then in the last five years It was a CBO The chief Not every company had a chief digital officer And I would say the CEO needs to be the CBO Right And you said that at right Right up front That for the first time The CEOs are interested in Understanding technology Absorption in their company Now is the CMO also got When you talk of customers As the CMO also got into the mix So are you dealing with four or five people Or the function Of a CTO, CIO, CBO, CMO Getting funneled into one And you know Technology companies have understood That so much money is being spent On marketing On customer acquisition So technology is to be provided for that So you know marketing technology Mark tech has become very important So give us your insights into this Look you know This is a trick question And I'm trying I'll try not to fall for your question Because you know I do have my views on this But I think I would say these roles have very distinct personas And you took the CEO out of the mix Because there are many CEOs Who want to be digital officers as well There is the CEO There is a digital officer There is a technology officer The IT officer There is the chief marketing officer These personas have different roles in my view If I just simply take The CDO and the CIO I think there are distinct roles for them That is why they have you know And there are pros and cons of models where How these are constructed But I think they have different personas The CDO sits very deep in the business And looks at technology that changes business The IT officer The IT information officer Runs the mechanics of the whole IT shop I think those roles have very distinct personas Some organizations have tried to kind of Bring them together Again those models exist and Ragh It's it's Depending on the industry you are in The maturity level that you are in You will do these these different models So I necessarily am not You know in favor of one or the other It's it's What works for that organization? What works for that organization really But the core point is What's your viewpoint Karan Bajwas? Ideally how should we do it? You know again it's I don't want to put my viewpoint out there Because there are pros and cons and it's not proven as yet It depends on the industry you are in If you are in a very mature business You absolutely will need roles that are very distinct If you are in a not so mature business Possibly not So I think it's it's not a one size fits all in Ragh But the more important point is in Ragh When you have these roles How does the CEO empower the role? The CDO has to be massively empowered In terms of the decisions that he or she Can influence on business The IT officer or the technology offer Has to be massively empowered I think empowerment is key in my view There is more work that needs to be done In empowering these roles Than possibly the nuances around merging Or not merging these roles in my view I think that's very very critical A lot of CEOs and boards When this whole technology disruption hit them I think the kind of the ones that kind of Wanted to do something Put a CDO in place But what they did not do very well Is they did not empower that CDO in the organization They did not empower that individual So I think that's the that's the relook that you should do Especially as you reinvent business Because when you reinvent your business post this crisis You are not going to reinvent your business From a technology or an infrastructure standpoint You are looking at your customer You're looking at your partners You're looking at your supply chain ecosystem That's those are the stakeholders that will determine What disruption has to be done So the digital officer Has to look at each of those stakeholders And value equations And then kind of think about what digitization techniques So it's technology later it's business first Right that kind of So that empowerment has to be very very important And then you spoke about the CMO And look you know the CMO From our vantage point view Google works very deeply with the CMO community And enabling them Extend their outreach in the market and drive impact And again I think The marketing technology as the word you used Is really providing a base for solving Different marketing challenges With the emerging technologies that we have available today It's a simply you know a few examples It enables you to create very powerful marketing tools And solutions with less time being spent On maintenance and management You know the cloud option for example Offers you a very flexible framework To build whatever is required At a pace that matches the industry requirement Versus you know think about if you had to roll out a new New offering a new solution a new product The amount it would take you in five years ago To the time it takes you now It's unimaginable and that's being powered through the use of technology There are capabilities that you can bring in I don't want to go deep in technology But things that you can do from a cloud standpoint Would help you reduce the amount of time that takes you to innovate And launch these capabilities faster And sort of it goes on So I think marketeers have used technology And there is much more that they can do in terms of You know leveraging technology And that is where Anurag you are seeing The the convergence of media and technology You've seen some of them happen in the industry There'll be more happening Media companies will be very much pushed by the customers To have a very strong technology edge On why should I make this investment Give me more information on what will it do for me Give me more data points on why should I consume more More media assets So I think media and technology in that sense will merge And that will be pushed by the customers Thank you Karan and you know I'm enjoying this conversation Because it's making me think as a Someone who is an entrepreneur and who Who did start a technology business 20 years back But somewhere became a media business Coming back to government has been a huge User of technology Do you think going forward will government Whether central governments, ministries And how they interface with citizens Whether it's for a passport Whether it's for a you know a license Whether it's for a you know registering a land record Do you think Both at the state level and central level Investments in technology grow up And if they go up Well, governments will literally be on a cloud Do you think the government should be on a cloud And give us some examples How usage of technology in the last few years Has helped the citizen interface And governance being better Sure, look I can't again predict Whether it will happen or not But I think it should happen The government now has a responsibility To rekindle the ecosystem in India We've seen the 200 billion dollar services industry ID services industry get created in India We've seen that, right That industry is facing a challenge In terms of reinvention The value equations are changing, right A lot sort of has already changed But that disruption continues This crisis is a massive opportunity For the government to create a very different ecosystem The government should invest very deeply In capabilities like AI Like ML, like cloud, like security Because these are the capabilities That the ecosystem needs Look you know Anurag When you and I as organizations invest We are our ability is small But governments have very huge appetite If government invests very deeply In these technologies You almost create a massive ecosystem Of skills and capabilities and people That can then be used to transform the industry So honestly how much does the government need to invest It's not much from a governmental spend Stand for it, a few billion dollars Can totally transform both governance As well as government's ability To create an ecosystem So I think government and I'm sure This is a very very smart you know Set of people who will absolutely look at this So I'm sure government has the ability To put massive investments in these cutting edge areas And it's not about buying more hardware or cloud That's not the idea The idea is to build capabilities On massive massive scale My only call to government would be that Now on as you emerge these cutting edge technologies Which have to mature out You have to leverage the model Of partnership versus procurement The model of consumption has to be You partner with And you choose your partner You can choose multiple partners But go out partner versus having to pick and choose And procure in the old way So use the model of partnership Versus procurement is my only call to the government But the government has a massive opportunity To rekindle not just the technology Landscape in the country But also help reinvent the technology Landscape in the country And that's what I believe is the opportunity For the government Thank you Karan At this point I want to bring in Some people who are asking questions And I possibly will bring one or two on the video But let me ask a question about Prachi Chandiramani is asking three questions But I'll take one of them How is Google Cloud partnering Effectively with various startups Post COVID-19 So is Google Cloud partnering with startups? What are you doing in the startup ecosystem? Sure, I think Google's always worked With the startup ecosystem The broader Google platform It sort of goes way beyond the cloud platform The broader Google platform Is a very strong outreach Into the whole developer ecosystem As well as the startup ecosystem We've been supporting, posturing many ways Outreach is very expansive if you will I think there are many ways that we engage Right from providing technology To providing capability To providing the early support to a startup Scale support to a startup There are many ways that we engage And that obviously right now These startups are going through Their own learning curve As they get challenged on this crisis And that there is more push around They were on a growth path Now they're going to be held accountable For different metrics As they emerge out of this crisis So we are deeply engaged With the startup ecosystem The developer ecosystem And the whole investor ecosystem And we'll continue building On those investments Okay, there's one more question From Prateek Chatterjee He's the head of cop-com and NIT He's the head of marketing also He's also a CEO Mr. Bajwa, you've talked about democratization of technology How do you ensure security while doing so? You didn't mention security twice But can you give us some examples? And Prateek, I'd love to have An offline conversation I've respected your organization And the people who founded it Look, I think security is not An afterthought, Prateek It's embedded in the core of your products It's embedded in the algorithm Of when you are building When you are developing your product capability And that's how a lot of tech companies Including ourselves have been looking at it If you think about And again, I sort of Sorry, gravitated back to wearing my Google hat If you look at the scale services That Google provides We almost provide about nine services That have a billion users each And incidentally all of them run On the cloud platform The scale of these services Security is embedded on these platforms So I think it's a fundamentally different way Of addressing security In that sense, Prateek Okay You know Karan Paran, Prana Mitha Mukherjee Is asking Bengali names can be tongue-pushed You know, they are Beautifully, they have beautiful names And really, really You know, they have very good meanings So Prana Mitha Mukherjee is asking Post COVID-19 What changes will come in the marketing strategy Of Google Cloud? Look, we are learning through this transition I would not hazard And I'm not the right person Honestly, to be commenting on this one My mandate kind of does not extend To the marketing capability So and then we are learning through the process So I would not be able to give A very good answer to this question So I would kind of respectfully pass If there is a follow-through that needs to be done I'd love to, Anurag, I can offline Get it follow-through with my colleague To the other side I'll take one more question before I bring My final set of questions You know Now, it's a real question And we'll take it Mr. Bajwa, it's very kind of you To agree to a Google To a video interaction And we are doing it on Zoom Why we... Mr. Bogia Nikesh Bogia Though he spells it as Nikesh N-I-K-E-S-J Why is this meeting not on Google Meet Rather Zoom? We should have thought about it And you've been kind enough And you know I think you're being broadminded I mean We'll use Google Meet From some of our webinars And Anurag It would have been so easy for me To reach out to you And say that I only will do this meeting If you were to do it on my platform And I think that kind of defeats the purpose We position our platforms On the value of the platform There are users that use All platforms We have to be respectful of the fact That there are all kinds of users Using all technologies So I don't think it's a question Of forcing anyone to use something Just because I am there I use Meet I use Meet for all my own meetings So I don't... Thank you Nikesh For asking that question Nikesh On behalf of Business World and Exchange Program We've used it I recently did a conversation In the CEO of a large You know Staffing company And he uses Google Meet So we did a Google We did a Google Conversation So I think it didn't strike to our mind And for some reason Zoom's adoption has grown It's easy and we are familiar There are many technologies Google is fantastic And next time we'll be sensitive When we're talking to a technology user We use his or her technology And again Don't mistake me Anurag It's fine I think the point is The fact that I We speak about democratization of technology People have to be able to use access technology Each one of us wearing a hat Will be able to position our capabilities Based on value So it's not about forcing anyone to use Any particular technology by view So Bitaan Joshi is asking Is there any plans from Google To launch an updated version of whatever They are offering I mean that's the way I understand the question I did not get the question if So he's asking Even I didn't get it fully Bitaan Joshi is asking Is there any Google planning to update Whatever your offerings are I think Google is ahead It's an ongoing It's an ever ongoing There's always enhancements to the product There is updates to the capabilities It's an ongoing exercise And I don't think it's going to get impacted by this It's an ongoing exercise I'm sorry if there was a deeper meaning to that question I couldn't catch it But I guess there will always be updates And upgrades to products and capabilities Bitaan I want to ask you my last two questions Before I wrap up and I'll ask one personal question So three First is you became a CEO at a very young age You became a CEO almost 20 years back Right You know Now what are the skills required To lead in this COVID So what are the new skills people can add In the post COVID What are the skills That will matter over the next 12 to 36 months That one needs to add up Both as a professional management And as a leader in senior management You know I have spoken to so many people On this subject that I have to be consistent And I won't give you an answer that I have That is different from what I've given people I've been a huge believer of soft skills And I've always believed that hard skills are easy to get Soft skills are tougher to get And I've been a huge believer And I feel that as you cross a certain stage In your career when you take on senior leadership role There's actually soft skills that differentiate you under Ragh And there are three capabilities I've always held Very close to my heart in terms of learning As well as coaching people One is conflict resolution A lot of people do not take conflicts They put them under the rug It only grows Conflict resolution is number one Number two it's resilience Leaders have to demonstrate resilience And this is a capability that's holding us I go to smile every single day under Ragh I cannot walk into my office With my head down Because I'm impacting hundreds of people So I'm going to be always smiling And yet I may have my moods and my issues But resilience and demonstrated resilience Of a leader is extremely important And the third thing is handling ambiguity The world is not zeros and ones The world is not blacks and whites So there's shades of gray That people have to be able to handle I'm not talking about in a negative way But people have to be able to handle ambiguity So handling ambiguity, resilience And conflict resolution in my view Are three very strong capabilities That differentiate leaders Karan, I want to say to many of the people Who are doing an interact with promoters CEOs all day Some of them are my friends Some are acquaintances Some are just business relationship What I'll tell you Mr. Bajwa Always replies to me He works for a large organization So he has to involve other people But he always acknowledges a male And it is very specific You know that's a simple quality Not everyone has that You know and I admire him for that Because he lives what he's saying So you talk about how you resolve conflict How you deal with ambiguity and resilience I think if you just had these three Everything else can be added on You know those are more tools I wouldn't call them skills You can use these tools Your technology is a tool It's not a skill I think what Karan talked about Is soft skills Are the real skills And he's very business like Because he works for a large organization He needs to take a decision Mr. Bajwa will bring in the specialist Or whoever is the head of department And you know in large organization There is also a metric reporting You know so I admire him For always being responsive And specific My second question is You know we are talking about technology Now security is a big issue Particularly asked you that question As the usage of technology goes up There will be challenges Like we are spending more screen time Today education has become edu tech You know there's a hybrid model It's e-education So there are negative impacts on technology One is the increased screen time Second is especially in children And young millennials who are working You know we've learned things through physical Face to face interactions So they are not having the art of conversation Which is the soft skills that you talked about And third is what we talked about Digital democratization But there is a digital divide that is being created So how do you as a technology leader Respond to these negative impacts Increase on screen time No personal interactions Like they used to be And third is access And you know access devices And bandwidth not being available to everyone As a digital divide being created So what are companies like Google Cloud Doing to make sure that such impact is mitigated Anurag Look we are in a very Extraordinary time So our behaviors Are kind of extreme So and I would not extrapolate these behaviors Beyond the time that we are in this zone Screen time has gone up Because that's the only mode we and even I can talk to each other That's the only way we can talk to each other Will it remain the same? I don't think so I think it will change How much time you spend on the screen Whether do you have personal time Which was the second part of your question All points back to how do you maintain a work-life balance That's a very very personal Again that's been a core belief for me That work-life balance is a very core belief People have asked me many times How do you maintain a work-life balance And I My answer has been First of all I'm the wrong benchmark I enjoy my work You know I have a problem with work and life balance being Work and life being Talked in different ways It almost feels like You know work is something which is very Gruggered and then you know life is a fun part Where you know I enjoy my work I enjoy my work every single day And I never think of it as a burden So I have never had this problem of work and life balance And yet I find time to do things that I have to do You know what have I done in this In this COVID time I started walking You know I started with With the aim that I want to achieve 10,000 steps a day Gosh I did that And I up the ante 15,000 steps And then I up the ante to 20,000 steps I'm not really able to do it every day But I have touched 20,000 steps And one of these Is I was actually walking 20,000 steps in my balcony So I think it's a question of pushing yourself and finding the time By the way I had a long time aspiration to learn golf I'm learning golf now There are many other things that I'm doing with my family I started to learn cooking And yet I'm working 15 to 16 hours a day And I'm loving each bit of that That moment So I think it's a very personal thing Screen time You know if I was not on the screen I'd be in office So it's a very personal thing in Iraq That each one of us had to find our zones Of comfort and work through that And on your point on the digital divide I think the digital divide in Iraq is only reducing Look at just the connectivity in our country Look at the bandwidth in our country Look at the data used in our country Look at the smartphone usage in the country Every aspect points to the fact That the digital divide is decreasing And it's just been pushed more by the fact That people now can't engage physically Hence they're using digital capabilities Whether it is a form of voice or video or data So I think the digital divide is narrowing in Iraq And yes, we as a country are very diverse We have to always be mindful of taking the mass along And yet we will always be pushing the edges on this one But I guess in our country we are in the right direction In terms of bridging the divide And I hope we continue on that journey I'll ask you a personal question And you answered it a little bit in my last question I agree with you You love your work, you know If you love what you do, then you know it's not work And if it's not work, you continue to do it So it's about making an impact Making a contribution if you're doing that I'm sure work feels like a blessing Confucius said if you make your hobby or profession You don't have to work I think Karan Bagwa is talking about the same thing And because I've known him for 20 to 23 years A common friend introduced And so I know he walks the talk If he's not saying it, he's always on, always working But finds time for other, you know, relationships in life Whether it's family or the relationship with himself My last question to you Karan is If we talk to Karan Bagwa 12 to 16 months from now Where would you be? What would you have achieved for yourself? For your family, for your customers, for your country In the next 12 to 18 months What is the impact Karan Bagwa would like to have On the ecosystem that he interacts with? You know, it's not important what I achieve, honestly It's not, it's not, it's not kind of, you know For me, the mandate that I have now Is a mandate to create a platform I get hugely inspired every day By the opportunity to create an organization Practically from Ground Zero I get inspiration from working for a fabulous culture And building on that culture I believe the technology innovation that is available In our hands today is unprecedented The scale of that technology innovation is unprecedented You know, my own aspiration is to create a platform That is able to solve complex customer problems On scale in this country And drive technology adoption way deeper It's a long standing dream of mine To solve the technology adoption for the mid-market of this country And that's an aspiration I'm yearning for In the next 18 months and rock And on a personal level, you also talk For learning golf, about being able to walk I can clearly learn the walking bit from you I'm doing 3000 steps, it's not good enough I think I'll try to do 5000 today And you know, up a little bit But I, we since we have another 7 minutes To I'll ask you some supplementary questions Where do you see the Indian economy 6 months to 12 months from now on In the near immediate future I know it may not pick up like it was But where do you see it 6 to 12 months Do you see demand coming back Because you know, that is very important to lift the sentiment Sean, look at Ragh, it's extremely difficult You know, you ask this question to anyone And I will go back to foundational beliefs I'll go to foundational beliefs of what was happening In this country prior to COVID And then we will have to kind of erase the impact Of COVID from our lives as we go past COVID And then see has the curve changed I don't think the curve will change Will the curve take a dip? Absolutely, yes, we already seen that dip But the fundamentals of the economy The consumption of the economy The growth of the economy Those fundamentals will not change Yes, it will take us some time I cannot say it to 6 or 12 months I cannot predict that But if we were to take a larger sample size of time And be looking back 5 years henceforth And say has the curve fundamentally changed I think the strength of the economy And the strength of the consumption economy In our country will still get us past it And yet we will have to go through a tough time Before the better time comes in Thank you Mr. Bajwa for talking to us It's been wonderful talking to you And I will look forward to more interactions with you I want to tell our viewers our next issue Of business world is You know the current issue that is at the stand Is on the geo effect You know how Mr. Mukesh Ambani is unlocking geo But our next issue of BW business world And the whole thing next week on business world is Is technology transform triumphs It's the T3 How technology will help us Get a better hold of our lives Of our business operations And hopefully contribute to the nation's elite So to all the exchange from your viewers Mr. Bajwa talked about how marketing Is started to use technology more But there is a need to adopt more technology And he talked about how CMOs are a core You know partners for him For his offerings and for technology companies And how they can do better I was tempted to ask him that Will the chief data officer Be the chief technology officer Not many organizations have the chief Chief data officer now They don't have a data head And again the data head doesn't sit in the board meetings The data determines how consumers are responding To a product offering or a service offering To what price points What is the consumer here You know what is working in terms of adoption So I think my takeaways from Mr. Bajwa's Talk are on two levels One on technology It will move from a CAPEX model To an OPEX model SAS will become mainstream He talked about how he has a dream Of the middle India The SME is adopting technology even more And making the SME is more competitive Using technology, using Google Cloud And other technology Third, he also talked about the fact That you know technology adoption Will create technology democratization And we'll deal with the issues of digital divide As we go along Some of those can get solved automatically He also talked about the fact That the CIO has his or her own role The CDO has his or her own role And they're working together To make sure that the business objectives are met Last but not the least He talked about the fact That the three key skills needed are Personal skills, soft skills And they are resilience The ability to deal with conflict And to resolve conflict And last but not the least To be able to deal with ambiguity Because we live in times Where we don't have visibility beyond a week Beyond a month And we live day by day On this happy note And unknowledgeable note Thank you Mr. Bajwa For engaging with us and talking to us I'm sure our viewers would be more wise And they will use technology in a way That can answer their life Thank you And we wish you luck in your mission To empower everyone In terms of technology Thank you Thank you God bless you Thank you