A Multifaceted Professional with Expertise in People, Business, Products, and Sales & Operations!

Leaders should create a framework to nurture ideas, as they can come from anywhere. The most important and critical component of aligning business and technology strategies or even remotely bringing them closer to each other is people.

With over 20 years of experience successfully transforming businesses, Rani Bisal builds & operates enterprise strategies across People, Processes & Products. For Rani, the whole transformation across tech, product, people, and team is achieved by keeping everyone together. This further helps her team’s overall well-being and happiness at work, creating more engaged and productive employees. The rule of thumb is, to always stay as close as possible to your people and listen instead of hearing them out.

In Rani’s words, “Never assume, everyone is on the same page, overcommunication is absolutely a must; however, the secret recipe for effective overcommunication is to land the message in the right ears consistently and continuously.”

The Journey of Rani Bisal

Rani is the CTO at DStv Media Sales. She has over 20 years of experience driving business transformation through innovative strategies. She combines her expertise in organizational psychology, digital transformation, technology, operations, and customer success management to guide businesses towards successful growth.

Rani has played a pivotal role in shaping business transformation initiatives across various organizations globally, including those in the US, UK, SSA, and India. Her diverse skillset encompasses a wide range of areas, including business process and product lifecycle management, digital transformation, enterprise architecture, technology and engineering, data management, sales and pre-sales management, financial modeling, acquisitions and integrations, strategy execution, global business operations and delivery, new product and service launches, people mentoring and coaching, and organizational psychology.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Rani maintains a rich personal life. A mechanical engineer with a Master’s in Business Administration, she finds balance by pursuing creative endeavors such as reading, cooking, traveling, yoga, meditation, fashion, fitness, writing, music, dance, crocheting, drawing, and painting.

The passage also offers a glimpse into her early aspirations and the unexpected turn her life has taken. While her initial passion lay in becoming a pilot, unforeseen circumstances led her down a different path. Despite societal expectations within her doctor-filled family and academic achievements in other fields like architecture and dentistry, she ultimately chose to pursue civil engineering.

However, her determination to overcome challenges saw her excel in this field as well, eventually enabling her to switch to her preferred mechanical engineering specialization. This experience of resilience and adaptability is further reflected in her successful career trajectory, where she transitioned from her initial IT interest in school to a thriving career in the corporate world.

From Developer to CTO

Rani boasts a diverse career spanning over 20 years, with experience across three prominent companies: Satyam Computers Ltd. (2004–2006), TCS (2007–2018), and currently at Multichoice Group (2019–present) as the CTO of DStv Media Sales. Throughout her journey, she has tackled a multitude of roles, demonstrating exceptional adaptability and a willingness to embrace new challenges.

Her impressive track record includes positions such as developer, techno-functional product manager, technical project manager, AI engineer, business architect, enterprise architect, Head of Department (General Manager) for Business Relationship, Product Lifecycle, and IT Strategy, Business Transformation Officer, and Chief Technology Officer. Notably, she also led the Office of the CIO for four years and the Office of the CEO for six years, showcasing her strong leadership abilities.

Building a Culture of Innovation

Rani brings a wealth of experience in fostering innovation, having built and managed innovation departments from the ground up in two different organizations. This seven-year journey involved assembling teams, selecting appropriate tools and techniques, establishing processes and SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), and overseeing R&D and prototyping efforts – both internally and through external collaborations. Managing budgets and securing funding were crucial aspects of her role.

Rani acknowledges the inherent challenges associated with innovation projects. Tight budgets, funding constraints, and demanding timelines often clash with the need for experimentation and prototyping. However, she has been fortunate to work with leaders who recognize the significance of innovation beyond immediate transactional gains.

A strong emphasis is placed on building a business case for each idea. This case outlines the rationale, potential benefits and drawbacks, and the overall business value associated with the concept. Additionally, Rani’s teams have adopted a structured approach, dedicating three hours per week to brainstorming and holding daily huddles to foster collaborative thinking.

This collaborative environment has proven valuable in tackling complex technical problems and implementing advanced solutions without disrupting existing processes. Simple yet effective reward and recognition programs, along with genuine acknowledgment of contributions, are central to maintaining team morale and motivation.

From Holistic Analysis to Trusted Transformation Leader

Rani’s approach to transformation initiatives is informed by her keen observation during her initial 100 days at a new organization. She recognizes that the concept of transformation is perceived differently at various levels: valued strategically, met with confusion tactically, and feared operationally. To achieve successful transformation, she emphasizes the need for complete alignment across all three levels.

An illustrative example highlights Rani’s holistic approach to problem-solving. In 2014, she was tasked with a technical health check of a legacy process managed by a 15-person team for 18 years. However, her analysis extended beyond just the technology. Guided by her core value of holism, she delved deeper, inquiring about the processes and the roles of the people involved. This comprehensive approach, while seemingly simple, yielded a valuable analysis report.

Unforeseen sensitivity arose when Rani submitted her report. It was misconstrued as a threat to job security. However, upon closer examination, the CIO recognized that her focus was on optimizing system utilization, not system replacement (as initially anticipated). Her recommendations revolved around process re-engineering, upskilling team members, and implementing advanced process frameworks.

While she initially left after submitting the report, the CIO’s recognition of her valuable insights led him to call her back three months later, entrusting her with a new project. This experience exemplifies the effectiveness of her holistic approach and her ability to build trust through insightful analysis.

Leading by Example

Rani recognized a critical hurdle in fostering innovation: employees’ reluctance to share ideas. Fear of criticism and negative perception discouraged participation. Ten years ago, she implemented a unique challenge called “Dare to Think?” with a key twist: everyone who participated was considered a winner. The aim was to encourage broad participation, not competition. To further ease the process, drop-boxes were used to anonymously submit ideas, eliminating the need for formal proposals or logins. This approach resulted in a surge in participation.

However, Rani understood that sustained engagement required more than initial excitement. A business case was developed to secure a budget for rewards. The rationale presented the importance of upskilling employees and fostering a culture of innovation to ensure the organization’s future readiness.

Ultimately, a “fail-fast” culture was established, where employees felt comfortable presenting unrefined ideas in a dedicated innovation forum. This forum comprised internal members as well as external guests from innovation companies. This dual approach ensured the team stayed relevant and avoided the pitfall of “drinking their own Kool-Aid,” a phrase signifying reliance on unchallenged internal perspectives.

The Power of People

Rani’s two-decade-long experience underscores a core belief: people are the critical link that bridges technology, infrastructure, data, processes, and operations on one side, and strategic company objectives on the other.  Effective communication across the organization and ensuring employee satisfaction with their roles, aligned with the company’s goals, are paramount for successful execution.

Rani emphasizes that communication must be targeted at the appropriate audience. She uses an analogy: “To fix a car, you go to a mechanic, not a plumber. But if your plumber wants to learn car repair and broaden their skillset, you’d sponsor their training. They’d become a mechanic you trust.”

A recurring challenge Rani has encountered is the prevalence of long-tenured employees (average experience of 15–18 years) in many organizations. Identifying champions who proactively support transformation initiatives is crucial. Developing a robust people strategy with support from CEOs, senior leaders, and HR is essential for upskilling employees and aligning operational and tactical aspects of the business with the strategic vision. This ensures everyone is working towards the same goals.

Rani sincerely believes fun, and innovation go hand-in-hand if implemented sensitively, sensibly, and strategically. It has been tested and proven in her experience that if people are allowed physical and mental space to think and communicate by incorporating frameworks, methodologies, and approaches either through a fun-filled day-out or any team-building activities, it has resulted in tremendous results like innovative thoughts ideated, captured, and followed through, courageous suggestions to shift the needle in a situation, unheard voices coming out gracefully, and many more such examples.

In 2019, Rani conducted a Design Thinking program implemented across 180 employees with the objective of encouraging all employees of the company to participate and contribute to growing and shaping the future of the business by coming up with ideas, thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, etc. The success rate of the outcome was 100% participation and 100% sharing of ideas, out of which 15% were incorporated into the company’s day-to-day operations and realized through formal business objectives.

People as the Key to Strategic Transformation

Rani’s extensive experience encompasses various strategic implementation scenarios. She has participated in building strategies, executing them, and leading both aspects concurrently. She acknowledges the potential drawbacks of a single person overseeing both strategy and execution but emphasizes that mitigation strategies can be employed.

Scenario Navigation:

• Implementation Only: Rani highlights the importance of clear communication from leadership. While she values understanding the “why” behind directives, she has also thrived in environments where managers effectively cascaded the vision.
• Strategy Development Only: Leveraging her expertise as an enterprise architect and IT strategy head, Rani has played a pivotal role in crafting company strategies and presenting them to the entire organization. This experience, while demanding, proved to be highly rewarding.
• Leading both strategy and implementation:  As Exec HoD of IT Strategy or the Chief Technology Officer leading the Business Transformation Office, Rani had the ideal opportunity to spearhead both strategy formulation and execution. These experiences solidified her belief in people as the critical link between business and technology strategies.

People: The Cornerstone of Alignment

Rani emphasizes that a proactive 15-20% of employees across all levels (strategic, tactical, and operational) are the driving force behind successful strategy alignment.

While consistent motivation is necessary for the remaining 60–70%, she acknowledges the role of the resistant 10%, who act as a silent check on progress. Once the core 60–70% are prepared, a multi-level communication strategy is crucial.

Communication Strategy

Rani advocates for a tiered communication approach, with an initial phase focusing on clear directives (Level 1: 80% speaking, 20% listening). This progresses to a more balanced conversation stage (Level 2: 50% speaking, 50% listening) and culminates in active listening (Level 3: 10% speaking, 90% listening).  The duration of this communication program can vary from 6 to 18 months, depending on the organization’s size and complexity.

Outcomes

By the midpoint of the communication program, Rani anticipates identifying at least 15% of the company as Transformation Champions. The ideal outcome by the program’s end is to have approximately 90% of the company actively aligned with the strategies through tangible deliverables, participation in upskilling programs, and engagement in self-growth initiatives.

Through the Lens of Experience

Rani emphasizes that a one-size-fits-all approach to technology decisions doesn’t exist.  Understanding the specific business, industry, and domain is paramount.  Her experience encompasses navigating both legacy environments and entirely new (“greenfield”) situations.

Leading from the Center:

Rani fosters a culture of continuous learning and development within her teams. Research, analysis, innovation, and development are integrated into daily activities.  Before implementing solutions, the team explores various “if-then-else” scenarios to hone critical and systemic thinking—essential life skills for staying ahead of advancements and competition.

They engage in ad-hoc assessments of market products to gauge their alignment with external trends.  Additionally, they invite external guests to provide firsthand insights into technological advancements.  “Tech Days” are hosted, where technology partners present innovative solutions and products, broadening the team’s knowledge and perspectives.

Furthermore, Rani has implemented a departmental rule: one hour per day is blocked in each team member’s calendar for self-directed learning and upskilling.  Weekly departmental meetings incorporate team member presentations on chosen topics, further encouraging knowledge sharing.  Finally, she emphasizes the importance of continuous learning by including it as a key performance indicator (KPI) within team goals.

Vision, People, and Results

Rani’s leadership capabilities are exemplified by her successful business transformation initiative undertaken six years ago. Brought in to lead the organization towards a future-proof state, she encountered initial resistance to change, with only the CEO’s visionary perspective aligned with hers.

Following a thorough 100-day observation period, Rani identified numerous areas ripe for optimization and transformation. These areas spanned processes, people skills, products and offerings, technology and systems, and work styles. One key transformation initiative focused on digitalization across people, products, and technology.

The organization’s core product, commercial airtime, was entirely non-digital (e.g., satellite-based). She spearheaded the introduction of dynamic digital airtime, enabling commercialization through digital channels. This resulted in a staggering revenue increase of over 150%, and the product remains a promising asset for the organization.  Significantly, this initiative made the organization the first in its continent to implement such technology.

Rani emphasizes that successful transformation goes beyond technology and product development. A critical aspect was building the right team to operate the product.  The easiest approach would have been to hire external talent with the necessary digital skills.  However, she opted to invest in upskilling existing employees who lacked digital or product expertise. Their one crucial qualification for participation: was a positive “can-do” attitude, which proved to be the perfect foundation for this transformative journey.

The entire transformation process, encompassing technology, product, people, team formation, and departmental structure, took 2.2 years, with an 8-month delay due to unforeseen COVID-19 challenges. Despite these hurdles, Rani’s leadership and strategic vision ultimately led to a thriving digital product and a future-ready organization.

Growing with Transformation and Trust

Rani leverages her decade-long experience as a mentor and coach, recognizing the importance of these practices from her own early career. Her background in organizational psychology empowers her to support team members in boosting engagement and satisfaction. By understanding and gauging team behaviors and attitudes, Rani, in collaboration with HR, can identify opportunities for upskilling or coaching interventions. This focus on employee well-being and happiness fosters a more engaged and productive work environment.

Her attentiveness extends to identifying team members who may be stressed or unhappy.  In such cases, she advocates for work-life balance programs like flexible work schedules, employee engagement activities (buddy systems, family days), and group activities (Yoga Day, dance days, potlucks, family picnics). Rani emphasizes the importance of fostering a fun and engaging team environment in every organization she has worked in.

Recognizing the value, she brings through mentoring and coaching, she is currently pursuing ICF-accredited ACC & PCC level business coaching at GIBS, a leading institution in South Africa. She currently mentors and coaches 26 individuals across various fields and domains.

Building high-performing teams is a cornerstone of Rani’s leadership philosophy.  She emphasizes trust as the critical factor that binds successful teams. She intentionally cultivates a foundation of trust, fostering a collaborative and open environment through an “open-door policy” with a flat organizational structure. This approach encourages collaborative and innovative thinking, positioning the organization for future-readiness and a competitive edge.

Building High-Performing Teams

Rani brings valuable insights from her participation in three buy-side mergers and acquisitions (M&A) over the past 20 years. Two of these acquisitions were successful, while the third did not reach completion and ultimately took longer than the successful ones. One targeted acquisition involved an Australian ISP (internet service provider), while the other focused on a media technology product development company.

Following the initial M&A phases (strategy, proposal, R&D, cost-benefit analysis, and negotiations), Rani led the due diligence, execution, integration, and business-as-usual (BAU) phases. During due diligence, often considered the most critical stage, she initially believed people’s integration would be the simplest aspect, followed by processes and technology. However, the reality proved quite different. While the process and technology aspects were manageable, integrating the acquired company’s personnel presented a significant challenge.

The acquired company’s employees exhibited a clear reluctance to adopt new work practices and responsibilities. Despite assurances that the acquisition strategy did not involve layoffs, many were resistant to even minor changes like physical workspace relocation.  This experience served as a real-world introduction to the complexities of transformation for Rani.

The original plan to achieve BAU took nearly two years. While approximately 15% of employees left due to their inability to adapt to the changes, others persevered. She considers the merger a success when the distinction between the original and acquired employees becomes imperceptible, signifying a truly integrated workforce.

The Coaching and Leadership Style

Rani emphasizes a user-centric approach to product development, ensuring the end user is always at the forefront. This user can encompass various roles, such as client, operations manager, contracting manager, strategist, or salesperson. To achieve this user focus, she believes fostering an empathetic mindset is crucial.

The team prioritizes developing both techno-functional and technical skills. Techno-functional skills ensure the product’s functionality aligns with user needs from a process, feature, and user action perspective. This includes considering multi-scenarios, ad-hoc scenarios, and the overall user experience. On the technical side, the team considers application, technology, solution, data, information, and infrastructure.

Portfolio managers add another layer of market and business considerations, enriching the product lifecycle management process within the labs and technology centers. This ensures the products not only meet user needs but also align with broader business objectives.

A Leadership Philosophy and Development Framework

Rani is a passionate advocate for lifelong learning and development, both professionally and personally. She emphasizes that leadership is a behavioral trait, not simply a senior position within a company.  She identifies individuals whose habits, behaviors, and values align with the organization’s needs as potential leaders.  She believes that leadership development plays a crucial role in nurturing these qualities and fostering new behaviors through a coaching and mentoring approach.

By being fully available to her team members, Rani empowers them to drive the organization’s success.  She sees investment in learning and development (L&D) as an essential investment, yielding a return on investment (ROI) in the form of state-of-the-art customer experiences and increased revenue.