Designing for Growth and Goodness with Nitin Sethi
Maintaining market share is becoming increasingly difficult in a highly volatile field such as design, where customer expectations keep changing constantly. With the advent of digital transformation, businesses are evolving and adapting to the new norms and trying to provide a holistic digital experience that can positively impact the users. It can help ensure customer loyalty and brand recall and also offer a competitive edge in the market. So how can businesses maintain market share with innovative digital experiences? In the 69th episode, to learn more about this theme, we interact with Nitin Sethi, SVP, Chief Digital Officer, Consumer Businesses at Adani Group. With over two decades of experience in Digital Transformation, Product Design & User Experience, and a diversified portfolio including e-commerce, Real Estate, Education, Travel, Finance, & more, he holds expertise in User Experience Design, Design Strategy, Information Architecture, Interaction Design and much more. Let’s know more about his journey and experience in the latest episode of “MIT Designeering Series Podcast,” “Design for Growth and Goodness.”
Rohit Lalwani: The big job of a designer is to point fresh ideas to explore constantly. They spend days searching out new ideas that meet the needs of users. However, they do not realize that ideas are not going to pop up like magic, it needs some very specific conditions. Could you brief us on how can designers change their approach towards new ideas and recognize them when they show up on their own?
Nitin: This helps me in getting a guarantee about what I needed from time to time. Designers are craftsmen, storytellers, and platform creators. I always say that design thinking is an iterative process and people need to understand that they are not the customers. The customer is outside therefore the designer needs to go out and understand the market needs, competition actual user scenarios, and personas to come up with the right solution. At times we go on another path, saying that we have a great solution and we should implement it. That is the worst way you can go about it.
It is not about technology, it is about simplicity, the design, the experience. It is about what you can do as a value add for the end customer and hence the business value is created and your business has a competitive edge over the competition.
The design leader, which is going to make all the efforts that need to be done on a ground level and as a continuous process, it cannot be done in isolation.
Rohit Lalwani: Digital transformation is not just about investments in technology, but investing in the right technology. With technology evolving daily businesses are under pressure to adapt to the new changes and update their business operations accordingly. Our audience wishes to know how can businesses select the right technology that aligns with their value propositions and the digital transformation strategy?
Nitin: It is very important to understand that there are three important ‘T’s in here, ‘Talent’ which makes the right team, which propose the right technology. You need to have subject matter experts who can make the right call. You cannot do everything on your own, therefore you need to enable the ecosystem and get the right strategic partners who work with you for a long time. You cannot choose a startup that will get acquired tomorrow and your computer is getting all the data. You also need to make sure that you choose something where the customer privacy and data security is well sure because in most recent times that is a very vulnerable area. It is the brand’s job, it is our job as leaders to make sure that we select the right technologies not for your personal interest, but for the greater good.
Choose the partners who have the same DNA of customer affection and delight and not only about serving they provide you for the dollar value.
I have learned in my last eight to ten years that the ecosystem is changing very fast and it is a very competitive world. There are always five players for similar types of tools. There will be always five segments where you can go and either do this on your own or you would try and partner it with somebody. Not always, you will be in the right position or having the skills to take that informed decision, therefore you continue to invest in new people, processes, and even partners. There is no easy answer to this, or to be honest, it is a team play. Maybe you are hitting well, but your partner will get you run out, then you are out. That is how the right partner is very important. It is not dating, it is a marriage, it is not about one day it is about the full inning.
It is a marathon and successful companies are those who chose the right partners. Google, Flipkart, Microsoft are our strategic partners, we have worked with the best of the best band. We attract the best talent and we do not shy away from putting the money behind for the right customer experiences. According to me, this is the brand’s responsibility to craft and shape the customer experience the way it has been desired and should be there. There are no grey areas there. It is one India and it is all our responsibility to make India stand out on the map and say that Indian services and products are path-breaking.
Rohit Lalwani: Adani group is an Indian multinational company having groups of diverse businesses. You lead an enabled digital transformation, customer-centric design thinking, customer empathy, technology roadmap, I am unified thinking of the group’s consumer businesses. Could you brief us on how do you optimize your team dynamic and collaboration while working with team members from different disciplines, having diversity in backgrounds and perspectives?
Nitin: This is a question which every leader should have clarity on. I have understood after making a lot of mistakes in my career that is about us.
It is not about leading from the front, it is about leading from the back.
I create successes. I am an enabler. Social success plays a huge role. When I say social success is not about outside-in, it is about inside-out. The other stakeholder, the other team members need to feel that it is their project. It is not your project, it is not about one person succeeding, it is about customer succeeding. He is the only guy in the boardroom who is not there. My job is to represent that customer. My job is to simplify experiences for him and that is what I enable for my team, the guidance, the acceptance, the opportunity when they fail, not judging them, and also tell them that I have their back. If people work there will be mistakes. If you do not work, there is no mistake. Embracing the failures is one element. It is very important to make things better because nobody knows that the outcome of one particular track would be very positive. Nobody knows that something which has worked for one segment five years back will work exactly the same way today because the market has changed, COVID has changed certain things. Now people have adapted to it. Technology is disrupting most things, products, and streams getting obsolete. Therefore, if you do not collaborate, if you do not work as one common team, you will not succeed. It is about social success. Life is all about people. It is about creating more and more leaders, it is about succeeding them and not about becoming the face of the group. I have learned the hard way. I always felt that it is about me, but lately in the last eight-ten years, the second half of my professional journey, I got wiser after failing multiple times.
Rohit Lalwani: At MIT group of institutions we have coined the term ‘Designeering’ a unique combination of design and engineering. I wish to know if this concept blends in your field? Could this concept help young designers achieve something exceptional? Do you think it is a relevant philosophy to train designers on?
Nitin: I am delighted to hear such a unique term and I would have loved to be part of your Institute and the group. It is a mindset it is about being an all-rounder, it is about being aware. Consistency is not easy to crack. It can only happen if you know your subject. It is very relevant. If a person or a professional has both these skills you are creating a better man force. This thought is very interesting. I am visualizing and liking what I can see. I’m a design thinker and therefore I can visualize very well.
Our speaker, Mr. Nitin has given us deeper insights into the fields of Design and technology. To know more, head onto our full Podcast episode. For more details, do visit our profile.
