Nitin Seth joined Incedo in 2017, and since then he has never looked back to conventional ways of doing business. He has transformed the data analytics firm with new-age digital technologies and has led the company to its next phase of growth.
In his dynamic leadership experience of over 25 years, he has learned the art of using digital in business management. Before joining Incedo, Seth was the COO of Flipkart and prior to his stint at the e-commerce player, he was the managing director and country head of investment firm Fidelity International in India.
“I am fortunate to have worked with global companies which have given me the opportunity to learn and expand my knowledge. I believe that one should always Think big and take risks – get out of the “comfort zone” and you will frequently find the downside of taking risks is often less harmful than what you fear, and the upside is more rewarding than you imagine. There are no shortcuts to excellence, you have to be resilient and persistent,” Seth expressed.
With his learning experience and industry exposure, he has launched his book named Winning in the Digital Age.
Thought behind writing the book
Seth’s innate curiosity led to a path of training as an engineer, graduate business school, and eventually a McKinsey consultant. And he was fortunate that his career coincided with the rise of the Digital Age.
“As I spent my career working on Digital Transformation across industries and enterprises, I collected, created, and was able to test frameworks and common-sense practices from all areas of business and life. It was here that I felt an urgent need was unmet- How do you approach a seemingly unstable world in a state of constant change, a VUCA world – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous and ‘win’?” Seth added.
As the idea of the book formed, he decided to provide more than theories, or projections, but rather a hands-on, field-tested, practitioners’ perspective to bring clarity to the complex topic of Digital Transformation and Winning in the Digital Age.
“I distilled the experiences from my digital journey into a framework of seven building blocks which I believe are necessary for successful Digital Transformation. I do believe Digital has become an all-pervasive mega-trend, dramatically changing the lives of individuals, business models of enterprises, and the economy of India,” Seth highlighted.
His first exposure to digital was with McKinsey in the late 1990s working on “e-business” and technology projects. This got him excited about the potential of “dotcom” business models and he left McKinsey to establish ActiveKarma which rose and fell quickly when the “dotcom bubble” burst and he learned the importance of business models anchored in cash flows. He rejoined McKinsey and led the development of the Knowledge Centre (McKC) over an 8-year period that taught him how to build a business and the amazing potential of Analytics and also of the global delivery model.
“From McKinsey, I moved to Fidelity where I led strategy and Digital Transformation and experienced the challenges of driving transformation in a large enterprise with a lot of legacy technology. From there I felt I needed to work at a “digital native” to experience the cutting edge of technology- which led me to Flipkart. At Flipkart I realized that methods and practices that work in traditional enterprises do not work in the high-velocity and volatile businesses typical of the digital age and that you need new rules of business,” Seth expressed.
All of those experiences culminated in his strategy for Incedo- driving digital transformation end-to-end, from strategy to execution, bringing the best from digital natives to more traditional industries, focusing on analytics and data as the “secret sauce” and leveraging the global advantage. It is at Incedo that he had a ringside view of the nuances of Digital Transformation across many industries- banking, wealth management, telecom and media, life sciences and healthcare, and enterprise products. All of this culminated in the book “Winning in the Digital Age” and the overarching core of Seven Building Blocks for Successful Digital Transformation.
Why should one read this book?
This book is a comprehensive yet practical handbook that will bring clarity to Digital, the defining mega-trend of our times. Seth believes this book is a rare combination. It brings together all his practical experiences driving Digital Transformation at leading enterprises over the past twenty years. Yet given his training as a McKinsey consultant, he has been able to translate the learnings into frameworks, which make it easy to understand and execute the insights.
“Insights in the book will help you realize the fascinating opportunities Digital offers to all of us. So much change has already happened in the digital age, but there is so much more yet to come. I have shared insights and best practices across the Seven Building Blocks that can help unlock the tremendous potential of digital. These insights are not theoretical but based on what I have observed and practiced working with some of the best companies in the world. I hope the insights in this book will bring clarity to a complex and vast topic like digital transformation and help you make better decisions and execute effectively. Moreover, prepare you to lead effectively in this digital age, and thus help both you and your organization step up and realize your infinite potential,” Seth concluded.
