Ganesh Jayadevan, CTO, Mahindra Comviva, has been in the telecom and IT industry for over 23 years. After obtaining a master’s degree in computer science from Texas A&M University, USA, Jayadevan worked in the US for 16 years in companies like IBM, AT&T and Cisco. He returned to India and worked with Wipro for two years before joining Mahindra Comviva (then called Bharti Telesoft) in 2009. His experience varies from software development to product management and running business units with P&L accountability. Currently,  he is more focused on product management and creation of intellectual property through innovation.

As CTO, he categorises his role into two parts: inward looking and external facing. “While one part of my job involves technology transformation and adopting best practices, the other part requires me to look at innovations from a market and technology perspective. Creating products that meet unfulfilled needs in a market is what excites me,” says Jayadevan. He is of the view that the telecom industry is trending towards commoditisation, micro services and operators adopting more efficient operational hardware. Further, operators’ service mix is evolving. While voice is still a big factor, they are increasingly getting into digital services, partly because they are compelled to and partly to create brand value and leverage it to push growth.

While he has had several highs in his career, he is especially proud of the dynamic pricing product for voice that he and his team recently created. He prides himself in his ability to grasp things quickly. “I have a natural curiosity to learn about things. A lot of things interest me and I struggle to do justice to all of these,” he says. His management style depends on the team he is working with. While he believes in delegating responsibility, he does provide inputs when required. “I can be fairly hands-on, and sometimes find myself solving architecture issues out of sheer interest. At other times, I delegate an entire project to someone I know will deliver. At Comviva, we have invested time in helping people achieve a sense of purpose. I follow this approach as it empowers employees and helps them deliver more.”