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 Arun Gupta
Group CTO and Customer Care Associate,
Shoppers Stop
These days CIOs are business leaders first and then IT leaders. That means they need to have intricate knowledge about products, services, business processes, business models, financials, customers and human resources. Arun Gupta, Group CTO and Customer Care Associate at Shoppers Stop, is a model CIO for this new definition of CIO.
Around a year ago, the Group was facing certain challenges with its F&B business. The management appointed Gupta to run this business and to try and generate profitability out of it. Given the level of process execution and discipline that it demanded, the management felt Gupta was best suited to drive the initiative. Gupta candidly admits that he had no prior knowledge about the F&B business; the project was more of a learning curve where most initiatives were already in place—and there was very little technology involved.
“It was more to do with people, processes, and the way you serve and attract customers. Except for the order entry and fulfillment, there was little technology. It required knowing, for example, how to make a burger, what goes into it, what’s the cost of it and how to maximize the profit by looking at it visually; questioning, challenging, and creating opportunities,” explains Gupta.
But Gupta was quick to learn and the F&B business saw an upturn within just three months. “We continued to focus on cash margin. Later we reached a point where we felt as an overall business, there was very little to run. So we outsourced it as a venture with Café Coffee Day and converted our F&B outlets into Café Coffee Day outlets,” he says.
One of the most respected CIOs on the Indian IT scenario, Arun Gupta has supported and driven major IT initiatives across companies such as Philips, Pfizer, DHL Worldwide Express, and Great Eastern Shipping since 1994. In his current role as Group CTO, Gupta manages IT for multiple organizations under the Raheja Group and provides help to Group companies.
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