Why most IT teams don't drive growth | Insights from a Chief Information Officer

What this episode covers

In this episode, Mala sits down with Sumit Johar, CIO of BlackLine, for an insightful conversation on AI transformation, enterprise IT, finance technology, cybersecurity, and what it takes to drive change inside highly regulated organizations.Sumit leads technology at BlackLine, a SaaS company serving finance organizations across the world. In this conversation, he shares why AI adoption in finance is especially challenging, because hallucinations, vague outputs, and “almost accurate” results simply do not work in environments where trust, predictability, auditability, and governance matter.The conversation traces Sumit’s journey from growing up in Kurukshetra, India, to working with consulting companies like TCS, Infosys, and Wipro, then moving into technology leadership roles at TIBCO, MobileIron, Automation Anywhere, and BlackLine. He explains how he moved from engineering into IT leadership, how he became a CIO without a perfectly planned path, and why solving business problems became the turning point in his career.Mala and Sumit also discuss what it means for IT to become a change agent instead of a cost center, how CIOs can influence product roadmap, how to create small transformation teams, how to fund innovation under budget constraints, and why AI adoption must be balanced with security, governance, and discipline.This episode is especially useful for CIOs, founders, enterprise SaaS leaders, AI builders, cybersecurity teams, product leaders, and anyone selling into conservative or highly regulated enterprise environments.__________________________________________________Timestamps00:00 – Introducing Sumit Johar, CIO of BlackLine00:20 – What BlackLine does and why finance customers are different00:52 – The challenge of AI where hallucinations are unacceptable01:25 – Sumit’s journey from Kurukshetra, India, to global technology leadership02:08 – Early career at TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and the move to the U.S.02:42 – Choosing IT over engineering at TIBCO03:15 – Falling in love with solving real business problems04:05 – Moving from director and VP roles into the C-suite05:36 – Learning cybersecurity by becoming customer zero06:25 – How internal IT started influencing product roadmap07:30 – Becoming a CIO by expanding impact beyond IT08:35 – What organizations really expect from a CIO09:35 – Automation Anywhere, CIO branding, and selling to other CIOs11:15 – How IT can stop being seen as only a cost center13:35 – Balancing AI innovation with AI governance and security14:50 – Creating a small internal transformation team16:10 – Working across departments to fund innovation17:30 – Why AI transformation increases work in the short term18:45 – Why AI is essential for survival, not just productivity20:05 – Managing AI adoption, cybersecurity, and employee access21:00 – Building disciplined AI usage in a regulated company__________________________________________________🔗 Connect with Sumit Johar → https://www.linkedin.com/in/sumit-johar/🔗 Connect with Mala Ramakrishnan → https://www.linkedin.com/in/malaramakrishnan🎧 Subscribe to the podcastYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnL3D6aI60R-cCvypFIkh4ASpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1NIDE4cT5fuVjC3HaGbCDK?si=eoSTNmhqQNKHQl9d1Jx0UQApple Podcast: https://podcastsconnect.apple.com/my-podcasts/show/talking-to-the-leaders-of-ai-the-ceo-series-with-mala/22ad2bae-502b-4eb1-aa74-53bc79754db7Visit our Website: https://malaramakrishnan.com | https://founderscreative.org#MalasPodcast #SumitJohar #BlackLine #CIO #AITransformation #EnterpriseAI #FinanceTechnology #FinTech #SaaS #Cybersecurity #AIGovernance #EnterpriseIT #TechLeadership #DigitalTransformation #ResponsibleAI #AIAdoption #ProductLeadership #BusinessTransformation #StartupFounders #EnterpriseSoftware

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