1. Tell us about your background and journey?
In my early years, I loved tinkering with business problems, and finding solutions with data has always fascinated me. I was extremely interested in studying technology and went on to complete a Dual Degree in IT in Coimbatore and then passed out as a management graduate from IIM Lucknow with a Post Graduate Diploma in AI/Machine Learning from IIIT Bangalore.
Over the past 16+ years, I have worked as a management consultant with experience in providing AI and analytics consulting to various Fortune500 companies. The consulting experience has helped me groom my skills in understanding the technology space and its role of it in addressing business challenges.
I also thoroughly enjoy engaging extensively in teaching modern-day tools and techniques to students and serving as visiting faculty at IIM Kolkata, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Amritsar. I am also an avid speaker at different industry forums and a regular guide to several MSMEs through CII and NASSCOM as well as TEDx.
2. How did your interest spark in the world of solving business problems using data, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies?
Getting into analytics, after my MBA was an accident. Having joined the management consulting team at PwC it was purely coincidental that my very first project was in the analytics space wherein we were trying to solve a business problem with the help of data for one of the largest telecom companies.
During this engagement, it was exciting to decode, deep-dive, and understand what was happening in the organization and process with the help of data captured in the systems. It was mind-boggling to connect the dots with data and solve the problem in a quantitative way and this is what piqued my interest in the analytics space — because data never lies.
Beyond human perceptions, observations, and biases it is data that tells the real story of what is happening in an organization, and, with data we can solve multiple problems.
So, this realization from my very first engagement coupled with the fact that I got to work with some of the best brains in analytics at the very start of my career piqued my interest in the world of data and analytics.
3. Tell us about your role as Senior Vice President & Industry Head – BFSI &TMT at Polestar Solutions.
Having successfully delivered on my role as Global Delivery Head at Polestar Solutions and building the delivery aspect for the organization over 1.5 years, I recently took charge as Industry Head for the BFSI & TMT (Telecom, Media & Technology) space.
My role is that of a business leader in the delivery of successful engagements in the BFSI & TMT industries and ensuring that we enable our clients to identify
4. Last year, you spoke at TEDxIIFTDelhi wherein you deep-dived into the topic of Connecting People Networks to Information. Knowledge of information is an asset, yet many organizations still face the challenge of implementing technology solutions such as data and analytics functions and AI-ML. How do you suggest they can go about making this an important aspect a part of their organizations’ cultural DNA?
Absolutely, knowledge is power. And, having a bird’s eye view of your organizational health via advanced analytics and data capabilities gives you knowledge of information and actionable insights, which is a huge asset for any organization. However, while companies might have access to their data, they aren’t able to figure out how to apply it and what to do with it. With the current landscape evolving at break-neck speed with technologies such as AI-ML, advanced analytics, generative AI, etc. what we need to address is how organizations can leverage data and analytics to transform their business.
There are two important aspects to consider in terms of how organizations can mature in this direction.
The first level of maturity is creating a solid data infrastructure, and the second stage is using data as a strategic asset once the infrastructure is created.
Oftentimes, a lot of organizations get stuck in the first stage, that is they struggle to create a data infrastructure — this includes creating data warehouses, master data management, and ensuring clean and good quality data. Once this foundation is ready, it is easier to report the right quality data to the larger organization, helping in day-to-day as well as strategic decision-making. This clean quality data as a foundation also enables predictive modeling and prescriptive analytics for complex use cases within the organization which can help leaders think about the future and act more decisively.
If organizations can think across these two stages of maturity, then it becomes a part of their cultural DNA. Because data-driven decision-making is more about a cultural mindset rather than about a project implementation.
5. Polestar Solutions recently completed ten years of existence, as well as announced an overhaul of its brand identity and expansion into new geographies. Tell us a bit about the company’s journey.
To speak about the company’s journey, we must go back to 2012, when Polestar Solutions was founded. While businesses were beginning to understand the transformational potential of data analytics, many had yet to realize the payoff, while others either lacked the knowledge of how to implement analytics strategies or were wrestling with how to take initial steps.
Also, while there were a few analytics-as-a-service providers there were far fewer who were solely focused on it. We wanted to deliver greater value for our clients to enable them to make better decisions backed by data, and ten years on — our client-centric approach has remained our core focus. At the time, the technology landscape was also in its early stages, and over time, by around 2015 Big Data was looked at as a huge disruption. By sometime around 2018, data analytics became more of a hygiene for businesses, for example, AI-ML started getting into mainstream decision-making. We responded extremely fast to the changes taking place around us and have always kept the clients at the center and helped them make the most of their data, in a simplistic manner. This will always be our vision.
Since launching, data analytics has had a remarkable journey, and so have we. I think our focus on client-centricity and innovation has helped us carve a niche.
Over our decade-long journey, we have gone beyond technology implementations to bring in a consulting approach to our offerings, and that’s what distinguishes us from the rest.
6. In a highly competitive market, how do you think Polestar Solutions has created a mark for itself? What have been some of the driving factors?
There are two main factors that have enabled us to create a mark for ourselves; one is Polestar’s leadership team which is primarily from a consulting background. So, what we are building is a boutique consulting firm in the space of analytics and enterprise performance management (EPM).
We do not want to be another systems integrator or an IT services company providing systems and building applications. We are here to solve the business problems of our clients and that is what has made Polestar Solutions distinctively
7. Can you share some future trends in data analytics and AI in the coming 4-5 years?
In the coming years, organizations are going to head towards an API-driven culture with most of the models built on the cloud, and we will also see analytical modeling become a commodity. Additionally, industry-specific solutions will be built across which will be accessed with the help of APIs where problems can be solved by sharing the data.
Of course, these solutions will also address the growing awareness and challenges of data privacy and data security. So, on one side solutions are going to become more commoditized with industry-specific, market-specific, and data-specific solutions growing in that space and more cloud-enabled solutions as well as business-friendly tools as opposed to developer-friendly tools to play around with the data. Lastly, as I mentioned earlier, we will also see the rise of an API-driven culture; for example, today with ChatGPT’s API, we can use it directly by plugging ChatGPT on top of our solutions.
8. How do you think one should go about building a career as a consultant in the data analytics space?
Any person who is working in the data analytics space should be a techno-functional expert — with the right mix of technology and business knowledge. From the technology point of view, simple skills such as picking up tools are something that is important, and these tools will keep on changing, but the concept of how to make use of those tools will remain the same. A strong foundation related to how to build applications with the help of tools is something that will need to be developed.
On the functional side, it is more about how to handle data and having a strong business analysis skills, that is understanding the business problem and trying to cannibalize the intangible problem and then convert the business problem into a data problem. It is important to look at a problem from a data point of view, it is a necessary skill from the functional perspective.
9. What words of wisdom do you have for our readers?
Technology is rapidly changing and there’s no doubt about it. But one needn’t worry about the fast-changing technological world, the solutions will keep on evolving but keep a tab of what’s happening in the market. It's important not to be overwhelmed by technological changes happening around — and always look at it with a business lens. Identify the problem that you are trying to solve in your organization. The moment you identify the problem finding a solution is not easy and that’s where technology comes in. So, it goes back to the fundamental question; is technology driving the business or the business which drives the technology.
I believe it is always the latter; so, have clarity on the business problem and use technology as an enabler to solve the problem. If you think from that perspective, you won’t be overwhelmed by the technological changes that are taking place.
10. Which is your favorite book & why?
Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence by authors Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb talks about how the economics of AI is changing.
The world of problem-solving was more algorithmic in nature, today it is more predictive in nature; that is even if you don’t get an accurate answer at least you can start predicting what would happen with the help of the data — thanks to artificial intelligence. This book will change your way of thinking about how AI is solving problems in the market.
Brief Bio:
Laxminarayanan is the Sr. Vice President and Industry Head – of BFSI and TMT at Polestar Solutions. He is an experienced management consultant with extensive experience in providing AI and analytics consulting to many Fortune500 companies over the last 15 years. He has played leadership roles earlier in various firms including Deloitte. He is a management graduate from IIM Lucknow with a Post Graduate Diploma in AI/Machine Learning from IIIT Bangalore. He is also a visiting faculty in IIM Kolkata, IIM Lucknow, and IIM Amritsar engaged in teaching modern-day tools and techniques to students. He is an avid speaker at different industry forums and a regular guide to several MSMEs through CII and NASSCOM.
Interviewed By - Aarya Gode
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