“We have to be future-ready and adapt to new technologies”

There are so many things coming in, and for which we’re maybe not yet prepared, but what’s important is to be open-minded, Rinayah Appadoo says in a Q&A with BIZWEEK, amid the first edition of Techverse 2024. She is of the view that we have to adapt our ways of working, but at the same time retain the core values that have kept us in the industry. 

What are the main highlights from the first panel discussion of Techverse 2024?

All industry leaders commonly realize that it’s important for people to be prepared for the future. The future of technology is really promising. There are so many things coming in, and for which we’re maybe not yet prepared, but what’s important is to be open-minded, to be open to change, and to be aware that even after so many years in the industry, at some point, we will have to unlearn and relearn whatever we’ve known so far. We have to adapt our ways of working, but at the same time retain the core values that have kept us in the industry and made us successful people and such a successful team. So, don’t forget our fundamentals and our principles that really lie at the core of what we do, that is software craftsmanship. At the same time, we have to be future-ready and adapt to new technologies.

You said that it’s not about replacing humans, it’s about helping us to be better. Can you elaborate on that?

With the new technologies, it’s going beyond frontiers and embarking on things that we were not able to do. I see those technologies more as augmenting our capabilities. In a way, there are certain routine tasks that we all have to do in any role we have, but as software programmers, we’re into coding the regular stuff, and we are always behind deadlines and trying to get things done quickly. With those new tools augmenting, it would give us more time to work on the problem solving. It will really bring value to our client and make software that will really resonate and come up with something valuable to them.

(…) It’s important to have the core value of having a community, irrespective of being a competitor or being in a different industry.

One of your panellists stated that it’s time to stop what we’re doing right now, as there’s a better way of doing things. How do you relate to this statement? 

I would say that sometimes, we work a lot, and we don’t work smart. I think that with certain tools, we can always work smarter. It takes some experience, as well as maturity, to get to the point where you say that you know you need to stop working hard and work smarter, and use the proper tools. It is also important to lead with confidence and humility, which is one of our core leadership essentials at Accenture. It means that yes, we know we’re capable of doing lots of stuff, but sometimes, we don’t have all the answers, and we have people who have them. We have to be open-minded, ask for help, and come up with the best value that you can bring to your clients. 

The buzzword that came out of this conference is “community”. There’s an effort from Accenture to bring together the community of software developers, even if they are competitors. Can you tell us more about this philosophy?

I’ll just take an example. There’s a famous quote that says that it takes a village to raise a child. We’re all responsible. Being in a software community, you have practitioners who have different roles, such as developers, testers, and business analysts, and we learn from each other. We come together to work on something for the clients, and to have a sense of ownership, it’s important to really have the core value of having a community, irrespective of being a competitor or being in a different industry. We all share the same values, and coming together gives more importance to those values. We are going to have new generations coming in the industry, and showing them that there is a community behind them, a community that will welcome them, whichever company they’re going to work for, will really bring them a brighter future, and encourage more people to work in the IT industry. Everybody has their own perspective. They bring so much diversity and richness to the whole thing. Like we said during the panel discussion, everybody comes with their own experiences from what they see in the industry. At the base of the whole thing, they all share the common values and fundamentals. At the end of the day, we’re all here to create value, and that’s the bottom line.

Is there a particular aspect of the panel discussion which caught your attention as a moderator?

We don’t get to meet those leaders frequently. We’re all busy with our work, but when you come on a platform like this, we all share common values, and it just makes me feel more keen to collaborate further around these kind of discussions, and bring people out there. Techverse 2024 was the first one, and I’m sure we will have more like this.