Securonix, Inc. announced that Kash Shaikh has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer and member of its Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Kash succeeds Nayaki Nayyar who has been serving as the CEO of the security vendor since December 2022. Nayaki has decided to step down and focus the next phase of her career on public Board service, the company said in a press release. 

Kash is a seasoned enterprise technology Executive with Fortune 50 experience and has a record of driving profitable growth across Software, SaaS, and AI Infrastructure markets. 

He has over 30 years of experience of fostering business transformation and delivering innovative technology solutions for global enterprise organizations. He most recently served as President and CEO of Virtana, a leading hybrid-cloud infrastructure observability solutions provider.

Prior to Virtana, Shaikh served as Global Vice President and General Manager for Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Unit. Shaikh has also held leadership and executive positions at Ruckus Wireless, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, and Nortel Networks.

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Indian CEOs place great importance on AI governance, with a significant 71% believing that trusted AI is impossible without effective AI governance in organizations. A global study of 3,000 CEOs conducted by IBM Institute for Business Value, in cooperation with Oxford Economics, reveals a number of interesting aspects about workforce, culture and governance challenges faced by Indian CEOs while navigating AI journeys. 

According to the study, 75% Indian CEO respondents say governance for generative AI must be established as solutions are designed, rather than after they are deployed. At the same time, the study also noted a contrast in actual adoption of AI governance policies with only 42% Indian CEO respondents saying they have good generative AI governance in place today.

The survey also highlights other key challenges around workforce. 75% of Indian CEO respondents say that inspiring their team with a common vision produces better outcomes than providing precise standards and targets. Yet 31% acknowledge that their employees don’t fully understand how strategic decisions impact them.

Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India & South Asia said, “As Indian CEOs navigate AI-led transformations within their organizations, they recognize the need for AI guardrails so that they derive real business value responsibly for growth and competitive success. However, our study reveals a gap between their intention and actual implementation. This scenario highlights the complexity of implementing AI governance, hence making a strong case for partnering with trusted experts to develop and execute effective practices and policies.”

Other key study findings include:

People and skills are at the heart of successful generative AI adoption

• 71% of Indian CEOs surveyed say that succeeding with AI will depend more on people’s adoption than the technology itself
• 49% of Indian CEO respondents says they are hiring for Gen AI roles that didn’t exist last year
• CEOs surveyed from India say 34% of their workforce will require retraining and reskilling over the next three years – up from just 6% globally in 2021

Indian CEOs recognize it takes a cultural shift to successfully scale AI, but face organizational collaboration and adoption challenges.

• 70% of Indian CEOs surveyed say their organization’s success is directly tied to the quality of collaboration between finance and technology, yet nearly half (48%) say competition among their C-Suite executives sometimes impedes collaboration.
• Nearly half (48%) of those surveyed from India acknowledge that cultural change is more important to becoming a data-driven organization than overcoming technical challenges.
• 58% of Indian CEO respondents say they are pushing their organization to adopt generative AI more quickly than some people are comfortable with

Customer experience and product & service innovation are top priorities, regulatory constraints might be hindering long-term progress

• Indian CEOs surveyed ranked customer experience and product & service innovation as their highest priorities for the next three years
• 59% of respondents say they are willing to sacrifice operational efficiency for greater innovation.
• However, nearly half (48%) of Indian CEOs surveyed point to regulatory constraints as their top barrier to innovation.
• Today, only 32% of the Indian CEO respondents are primarily funding their generative AI investments with net new IT spend, with the remaining 68% reducing other technology spend.

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A recent report suggests that the salaries of startup CEOs declined on average while early-stage CEOs saw modest pay increases and Series B CEOs endured a 10% pay cut. The pay gap between female and male CEOs remains persistent at $14,000, but expanded on a percentage basis due to the decline in average salaries.

The study is conducted by Kruze Consulting, the startup accounting and CFO consulting firm servicing more than 800 venture funded startup clients. The report, based on anonymized payroll data, is the longest running and largest startup CEO salary report in the world. 

“The CEO salary data collected this year reflects some resilience in the early-stage startup ecosystem and turmoil in the later stage market. Seed and Series A startups saw solid pay moves whereas Series B CEOs’ salaries came down on average. While the volume of funding rounds was lower, the quality of companies that raised Seed and Series A rounds were strong, and their CEOs were able to command better pay compared to the prior year,” said Healy Jones, Vice President at Kruze Consulting.

He emphasized that the gender pay gap is concerning, because it hasn’t recovered to 2019 levels since the massive discrepancy that opened up during the pandemic.

In 2019, the gender pay gap was $5,000 then expanded to $45,000 during the pandemic. Since 2020, it’s recovered somewhat but has remained at $14,000, around 10%, for the past two years. 

Since professional startup investors are typically involved in executive pay decisions, this is a place where VCs have an opportunity to affect change. We’ve conducted this study annually since 2018 in order to equip Founders and investors with the data they need to make informed decisions when approaching executive compensation.

Key findings include:

• The average startup CEO salary was $142,000 in 2023 and slightly declined to $141,000 in 2024. 

• For CEOs of Series B startups, the average salary declined almost 10% from $251,000 last year to $227,000 in 2024. 

• Series A CEOs saw a 6.5% increase in salaries, up from $168,000 in 2023 to $179,000 in 2024. 

• Seed stage CEO pay averages increased 2.3%, from $129,000 in 2023 to $132,000 in 2024. 

Only the best startups were able to raise Seed and Series A rounds recently, driving the increase in CEO pay. The past 2 years have been very difficult for Series B and beyond companies to fundraise, so those executives are responding by keeping executive compensation lower to preserve capital.

The post Average startup CEO salary declines, pay gap widens in 2024 appeared first on CIO Dimension.

After a few days of high drama, the OpenAI meltdown continues to fascinate all of us. Started on an otherwise quiet Friday with the sacking of Sam Altman from OpenAI, the series of events that unfolded since then was nothing short of a Hollywood suspense thriller. 

As the slogan “OpenAI is nothing without its people” took over X (formerly Twitter), Satya Nadella and Microsoft were quick to strike when the iron was hot. Nadella welcomed Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman to Microsoft along with all of OpenAI’s 730+ employees who are arguably  some of the world’s best engineers.

OpenAI’s loss, Microsoft’s Gain

OpenAI consists of a bunch of passionate researchers – people who believed they joined a cause rather than a company. Altman’s sacking probably broke their unity of purpose, which triggered an unprecedented revolt against the Board. That worked really in favor of Microsoft – at least at that moment. 

“If you told me 10 years ago that a group of the smartest engineers in the land would evoke the threat, “Do what I say or I will go to work at Microsoft,” I would not have believed you. Amazing shift in corporate reputation (and much credit to Satya),” Benchmark General Partner Bill Gurley tweeted. 

The Board, many of whom later openly expressed regret in their decision, didn’t have much choice but to start talks with Altman. The news of Altman and Brockman leading Microsoft’s AI research arm was already out by then. It seemed like a big crisis and for a while, Microsoft and Nadella appeared to be in a sweet spot despite its $10 Bn commitment to OpenAI.

Nadella’s move was referred as ‘a genius business move’ that can make Microsoft the most powerful player in the AI game. Its stock climbed up $7.59 –  a 2% spike, raising its market cap to $2.81 trillion. Forbes reported the move as the most remarkable ‘aquihires without an actual acquisition’. 

The 360 – degree turn

However, last we heard, Altman and Brockman are back to OpenAI. “I love OpenAI, and everything I’ve done over the past few days has been in service of keeping this team and its mission together. When I decided to join Microsoft on Sunday evening, it was clear that was the best path for me and the team. With the new board and with Satya’s support, I’m looking forward to returning to OpenAI, and building on our strong partnership with Microsoft,” Sam wrote on X, at 11.38 AM IST on Nov 22^nd. 

Brockman kept it simple – “Returning to OpenAI & getting back to coding tonight”. Mind you, this was roughly after 100 hours since he took to X to post a copy of the message that he sent to OpenAI team stating “…I quit.” 

Altman’s return is as dramatic as his exit perhaps. But what does this mean for Nadella who seemed to have larger ambitions? Is it really a setback or he thinks it’s most appropriate to keep Altman where he always belonged? In the process, Microsoft’s stocks reportedly dipped 6 percentage.

Nadella, as always, has been quick to respond to Altman’s decision to return to OpenAI- 

“We are encouraged by the changes to the OpenAI board. We believe this is a first essential step on a path to more stable, well-informed, and effective governance. Sam, Greg, and I have talked and agreed they have a key role to play along with the OAI leadership team in ensuring OAI continues to thrive and build on its mission. We look forward to building on our strong partnership and delivering the value of this next generation of AI to our customers and partners.” he wrote a few minutes after Altman announced his decision on X, on Wednesday.

Reports suggest that both sides have agreed to an investigation presumably by an outside, independent law firm. TechCrunch reported that the OpenAI board is open to appointing an extended board of upto 9 people that will relook at the governance of the firm, which has been incurring criticism owing to its unusual structure. And chances are, Microsoft will have a bigger say in these governance changes. 

For now, the grand theatrics seem to have finally cooled off and the five days of uproar seems unnecessary. One is left to wonder, however, the motives of the key stakeholders involved in this saga. As one of the users on X candidly wrote under Altman’s come back tweet – “The lengths this man will go to not use Microsoft teams!”. 

The post The great saga of Sam and Satya: High drama with a vague ending  appeared first on CIO Dimension.

Much before business became technology and vice versa, the CIO was just the custodian of technology. IT departments were the slow-moving bureaucratic lot. But CIOs and their teams have travelled quite far from that point. Today, CIOs are acting as key business strategists, helping businesses transform and grow. 

Meet a CIO, who also successfully led several business roles, including that of a CEO of a multinational firm’s India business –  Muralidharan Ramachandran.

This former CEO of Atos India offers a handful of lessons on what it takes to be the “CEO of your own career” (to borrow his own words).

In this exclusive interaction with CIO Dimension, Murali explores some key aspects that today’s CIOs must consider, including the changing talent scenario, new opportunities around digital transformation and also on working with startups. 

Watch the full video here: 

Before becoming the CEO of Atos India, Murali worked as the CIO of Syntel (later acquired by Atos) for over 8 years. He also moved onto other responsibilities as vice president later during his stint at Syntel, in the areas of quality assurance and cybersecurity. Before moving out of Atos in 2022, Murali became the vice president of Growing markets for the company’s key services. 

In his two-decade long leadership journey of great diversity, Murali has acquired the rare skill of striking the balance between technology and business.

He believes that the biggest challenge for a CIO going forward will be to ‘filter out the noise’ amidst the overwhelming technology options. “Today you have the option to choose any technology that you want. But the tricky part for CIOs will be how they can take the whole organization along in the journey and manage change. CIO will need to be a big ‘change-manager’ rather than being a hard-core technologist” he says. 

In this conversation, Murali also takes us through the evolving talent landscape where the industry transitioned from the traditional SDLC models to agile methodologies and how it drove a big change for tech leaders. He explains why the current mass layoffs in the tech sector are a result of imprudence and why companies need more sustainable models for talent acquisition and management. 

He believes that a CIO’s digital investments will be strictly evaluated based on the four fundamental business criteria – revenue growth, cost optimization, customer experience and regulatory challenges. “The CIO has to choose her battles wisely,” he sums up. 

The post ‘CIOs must not get too enamored by technology’: Muralidharan Ramachandran  appeared first on CIO Dimension.

A massive global study comprising 3,000 CEOs from over 30 countries, found that a large majority of CEOs believe in the power of Generative AI in driving competitive advantage. 

 The annual CEO study, CEO decision-making in the age of AI, Act with intention, conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value, in cooperation with Oxford Economics, found three-quarters of CEO respondents believing that competitive advantage will depend on who has the most advanced generative AI. 43% of CEOs say their enterprises are already using generative AI to inform strategic decisions, 36% for operational decisions, and 50% are integrating it into their products and services. 

However, executives are also weighing potential risks or barriers of the technology such as bias, ethics and security. More than half (57%) of CEOs surveyed are concerned about data security and 48% worry about bias or data accuracy. 

There is also a disconnect between CEOs and their teams when it comes to AI readiness. Just 29% of their executive teams agree they have the in-house expertise to adopt generative AI; only 30% of non-CEO senior executives surveyed say that their organization is ready to adopt generative AI responsibly.

“Generative AI can reduce the barriers to AI adoption and half of CEOs interviewed are actively exploring it to drive a new wave of productivity, efficiency and quality of service across industries,” said Jesus Mantas, Global Managing Partner, IBM Consulting. “CEOs need to assess their company requirements around data privacy, intellectual property protection, security, algorithmic accountability and governance in order to plan their deployment of emerging use cases of generative AI at scale.”

Key study findings include:

CEOs say productivity – and the technology that will help deliver it  – is a pressing priority

• Almost half (48%) of CEOs surveyed pinpoint productivity as a top priority for their organization – up from sixth place in 2022; technology modernization follows as their second highest priority (45%) but CEOs also indicate this is among their top challenges.
• For the fourth consecutive year, CEOs surveyed say technology factors remain the top external force impacting their organization over the next three years.

CEOs are increasingly looking toward operational, technology and data leaders as strategic decision makers

Additional data gathered during the survey indicates the following:

• When asked which C-Suite members will make the most crucial decisions over the next three years, CEO respondents identify COOs (62%) and CFOs (52%).
• The influence of technology leaders on decision making is growing – 38% of  surveyed CEOs point to CIOs (up from 19% a year ago), followed by Chief Technology or Chief Digital Officer (30%) as making the most crucial decisions in their organization.

Generative AI is fueling workforce changes, but broader assessments of its impact on the workforce are lagging

• About 43% of surveyed CEOs say they have reduced or redeployed their workforce due to generative AI, with an additional 28% indicating they plan to do so in the next 12 months.
• At the same time, 46% of CEOs surveyed have hired additional workers because of generative AI, with 26% saying they have plans for more hiring ahead.
• Yet, fewer than one in three CEOs (28%) surveyed have assessed the potential impact of generative AI on their workforces, and 36% say they plan to do so in the next 12 months.

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