In today's rapidly changing world, businesses are facing a multitude of challenges that require effective leadership to navigate. Shrikant Vaze, Head of Asia Cluster, Global Development Centre, Fujitsu, emphasizes the importance of inspiring and positively influencing employees and organisations.

As we move towards 2023, Vaze sees a landscape with both opportunities and challenges, including the need for businesses to expand their talent pool beyond traditional sources and locations while adopting new approaches to acquire new skills and capabilities. To remain competitive, Vaze stresses the significance of resilience, agility, and a data-driven management approach to business growth.

Here are the edited excerpts.

As a leader, how do you envision your role evolving in the coming year and beyond?

As a leader, my focus will remain on leading by inspiring and influencing others. I believe that this approach benefits both the organisation and its employees, and I want to continue to see positive growth in both areas. Moving forward, I plan to continue prioritising active listening and empowering my teams across the globe. Ultimately, my goal is to positively impact as many lives as possible and help my teams achieve success in the face of evolving challenges.

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What are the biggest opportunities and challenges that businesses and organisations will face in 2023, considering the changing nature of work and the workforce, as well as the continued adoption and advancement of technology?

The idea of employees refusing to go “above and beyond” and doing the minimum required in their jobs was a recent trend we saw. When employees “quiet quit,” organisations keep people but lose skills and capabilities. In 2023, savvy HR leaders will turn this practice on its head with “quiet hiring” in order to acquire new skills and capabilities without adding new full-time employees.

This will manifest in a few key ways:

• A focus on internal talent mobility to ensure employees address the priorities that matter most without changes in headcount
• Growth and upskilling opportunities for existing employees while meeting evolving organisational needs
• Alternate approaches, such as leveraging alumni networks and gig workers, to flexibly bring in talent only as needed
• Organisations will need to tap talent beyond tier-1 cities and non-traditional candidates for roles

In the current digital landscape, how are you leveraging technology to drive business growth and stay ahead of the competition?

The pandemic has greatly accelerated the need for digital transformation. To drive business growth and stay competitive in today's market, we are leveraging data-driven management approaches that help our teams make informed decisions and improve the overall customer experience. In addition, we recognise the importance of agility and foresight in today's increasingly disruptive business environment. At Fujitsu Consulting, we enable our clients to rapidly adopt digital transformation strategies while also addressing potential security risks. By aligning our security strategies with our clients' business goals, we help ensure that their operations run efficiently and cost-effectively.

What specific initiatives or projects is Fujitsu undertaking to contribute towards its goal of building a more sustainable and trusted society?

At Fujitsu, we are committed to making the world more sustainable and building trust in society through innovation. To achieve this, we have set out with Fujitsu Purpose and renewed the Fujitsu way for every team member. We strive to solve social issues by instilling trust, empathy, aspirations, and motivation within our internal and external stakeholders. As an organisation that has provided value to customers through technology for many decades, we feel a heightened sense of responsibility and belongingness to proactively contribute to this transformation.

To strengthen our vision and mission towards making change and creating impact across the globe, we have launched Fujitsu Uvance as a global business brand designed to address sustainability as a business, not simply as an activity within the company. Through Fujitsu Uvance, we aim to bring about domain-agnostic change to society and create a positive environmental impact.

How has Fujitsu's "Work Life Shift" programme contributed to the company's ability to adapt to the shift towards remote work and flexible work arrangements?

Fujitsu's "Work Life Shift" programme has played a crucial role in enabling the company to adapt to the shift towards remote work and flexible work arrangements. The programme, based on three pillars of smart working, borderless offices, and culture change, has allowed a part of the workforce to work remotely. Fujitsu has provided various tech-enabled solutions such as a global virtual desktop environment, a digital workplace platform, and secure cloud-based tools to boost collaboration and productivity for essential workers and other employees. The programme's success is evidenced by Fujitsu's recognition as a Leader in ISG Provider Lens Future of Work 2022 and as a partner for organisations seeking work transformation.

This interview is part of an exclusive series that featured CEOs and MDs of top organisations sharing their perspectives on the ever-evolving business landscape and the future of work. Browse all the interviews here!