Born and raised in Delhi, Chander Khanduja, CIO at Luminous Power Technologies completed his schooling at Bal Bharti Public school in Delhi and went on to do Graduation from Delhi University. He did his MBA from YMCA and later did SMP from IIM Ahmedabad along with multiple certifications and other degrees. He says that his parents were government employees, and he comes from a family with no business background.
“From the beginning, there was a lot of stress on education. We were told you have to study hard and create a name for yourself. You don’t have a business to handle. That motivated me and made me a learner. Today, I have almost 25-30 certifications and 3 masters degrees. This all comes from the values I got from my parents,” he says.
Coming from a government employee’s family, a railway or banking job is something Khanduja had in mind. But IT happened by luck. He says “I completed college in the year 1991. So that time, IT was not an option. I wanted to give banking exams. When I was exposed to computers, I thought this is going to add to my knowledge, and I never thought it would become my job. When I was doing a basic computers course, I developed my interest in programming. Then I got an opportunity to work at a small software firm to develop software for different companies. I started enjoying it. That was the point when all my career plans changed.”
“IT was a new field and not many people had heard about it. But my parents saw me putting a lot of interest and effort into it. When I was working at the software company, I never considered it a 9 to 5 job. I was hooked on it for probably 18-19 hours a day. I was passionate about it and requested my parents to buy me a computer. At that time, I don’t think many parents would have considered it. But my parents got me a computer in 1992. Parents provided support and my wife Deepali provided inspiration to keep taking challenges, without them, I wouldn’t have been as successful,” he adds.
Khanduja started working immediately after graduation and most of his master’ degrees, he did along with his job. “I joined my first job with doubt in mind but once I started working, I started enjoying it. And those 2 years I worked there, confirmed my journey in IT. The master’s degrees and courses I did while I was working were just to add to my confidence. On the job learning was great. That helped me reach my goal.” Khanduja says that he was an above-average student in school who enjoyed practicals more. Sharing an incident from school, he says, “One of my teachers once told me that I am not focusing enough on my studies. I told him I am interested in Practical more and that probably did not reflect in my marks. He was not confident if I would be able to achieve my goals but I am happy that I could prove him wrong. Many years later when we met again I told him I made it and proved that my practical knowledge helped me reach my goals and he was proud of me.”
Khanduja recalls the time when he had joined one of the larger corporations in 1994, the computers were being installed. There was huge resistance from the employees. “That was pretty early in my career so I learnt this lesson very early that everyone is going to resist any small or big changes, but never try to push anything on them because it might make the situation even worse. You have to first create confidence. Persuasive power and a collaborative approach are extremely important to do change management. It is important to help them understand that technology is there to support them and not replace them.”
Khanduja believes that technology is only a byproduct for a CIO. he says that any great technology without a sound business process is going to fail. So don’t focus on technology, focus on the business process first. If you want to digitize and automate your business then technology is only a byproduct. If you want to become excellent technical personnel and want to create excellent solutions for the supply chain then first you should understand the supply chain process before digitizing that. He believes that CIOs can do wonders if they follow this method.
In 27+ years of his career, Khanduja has never accepted a job where there was no excitement and challenges. “If there is no excitement in creation, I have denied many offers like that. But, I got offers from 1-2 organizations a few years ago, the role was also very challenging. Due to some personal constraints, I couldn’t accept those. The roles were exciting and I would have loved to be a part of their inspired transformation journeys. This is something I regret,” he says.
Before hanging boots in corporate life, Khanduja wants to focus more on taking lectures for young professionals and students along with doing digital transformation consultancy. “My passion is to share my knowledge and experience with young students. I like to interact with young students. Prof. Sanjay Verma – IIM Ahmedabad who is a knowledge icon and excellent human being explained to me the nuances of the art of teaching and it has helped me to follow my passion for taking lectures in various business schools and interact with students, guide them and learn something from them as well. Along with digital transformation consultancy, this is something I would like to focus more on after I retire.”
