Generali Group’s Dipak Sahoo: Why Every CIO Should Mentor Start-Ups

An increasingly tech-focused business environment demands CIOs to play a bigger role in driving investments and innovation in their organizations. One way for IT leaders to ignite that spark is to mentor start-ups and build mutually beneficial business relationships.   

In this exclusive interview, Dipak Sahoo shares expert insights on why mentoring start-ups is an excellent way for experienced CIOs to invest in their careers, share their knowledge, and gain new perspectives on emerging technologies and innovation culture.   

*This article is a recap of our interview with Dipak Sahoo at the session, Working With Start-Ups: CIOs Mentoring and Learning from the Dominating Force in the Digital Landscape.  

   

How do you currently collaborate with start-ups in your role?

We do it in multiple ways. For one, we are part of an innovation lab run by the likes of Accenture and others. We also directly interact with start-ups based on our needs. We also have a global innovation team. And we have innovation teams across multiple countries in the world. And we all come together as a group and engage with start-ups. In fact, I was in an innovation forum last week in Paris where we were looking at interacting with start-ups in the health tech space. We want to see how they can complement life insurance services and make meaningful customer engagement propositions for our customers.   

 

Can you share an example of a recent successful collaboration with a start-up?

One that comes to my mind is a company called EOS Microinsurance in Hong Kong. They run a microinsurance company, and what is quite innovative is that they run it on a blockchain platform. The insurance that they provide is embedded into the tasks that we typically do every day. In Hong Kong, when you take a ride on any public transport, you are entitled to certain types of insurance.  

They also have bite-sized insurance. For example, if you want to go on a hike, you could just select an insurance policy, so you are covered in case something happens to you. This model has been very successful. We also engage with start-ups in France. We have partnered with a company called Remedee Labs which works with chronic pain management. They are part of a joint venture that we have created called Future for Care.  

 

What about a collaboration that was not so successful?

I wouldn’t say there is any partnership that hasn’t gone well. There was one collaboration that we realized halfway through that it wasn’t exactly a partnership that will bring value to either party. So, we decided to end the partnership but still provided them support in terms of giving them access to our management team and subject-matter experts to refine their proposition to the market. But at a certain point, the initial focus that they had which was of interest to us wasn’t there anymore because they wanted to pivot to a different proposition that wasn’t aligned with what we were trying to do. Therefore, we amicably parted ways. 

When start-ups and companies like ours come together, we need to have a common purpose and aligned objectives.  

Start-ups expect a certain amount of expertise from our side and provide them the scale that they probably wouldn’t get in the testing phase. On the other hand, we look to start-ups to bring innovation and problem-solving skills or technology; or a proposition that enhances our market offerings.  

Sometimes, start-ups get frustrated with the pace of progress as larger companies typically have to go through multiple hooks. I hate to say this, but there are bureaucracies that we need to deal with, sometimes to do certain things. Sometimes the technology might be working on a smaller scale. So, there are a few reasons why a partnership does not work out. It could be culture, technology, or a change in the value proposition.  

 

Should every start-up have an experienced CIO as a mentor?

I don’t think so. Irrespective of whether the CIO comes from a large company or a start-up, it’s someone who brings value to the start-up in terms of the usage of technology and scaling that technology to take on the issues that the start-up could potentially face when they start ramping up their business. CIOs can bring value in terms of stakeholder management. For example, pitching to the investors to invest in technology in an area that probably not familiar with. I don’t think it’s just the CIO, it could be any C-level. So, I don’t want this to be seen that only the CIO can add value to start-ups.  

   

What are the challenges of a CIO of a large enterprise compared to a CIO of a start-up?

For large enterprise CIOs, resources vs. demand are a constant challenge. Most of the time, we are working to reduce costs but there are market challenges. Of course, managing the bureaucracy within large enterprises is another challenge that CIOs face. Changing the culture and mindset of more traditional companies to become more innovative is always difficult. But having said that, those things are changing rapidly as we speak because I don’t think you can find any large organization which isn’t trying to change or trying to bring in a certain amount of innovation and cultural mindset into the organization. Everyone is doing that, including us.  

As we partner with more start-ups, we are learning from them constantly. We’ve created innovation teams within every organization and as they demonstrate success, that success cascades to other parts of the business as well. So, those challenges are gradually transforming in terms of being hungry for resources. How can we compete with the start-ups that are stepping into large enterprise areas?  

For start-up CIOs, the biggest constraint would be the availability of funds needed to scale the business. But what I’ve seen many of the start-ups, the problems they try to solve are there in the first place because of the size of the organization. When start-ups solve those problems, they typically try to solve the problem when they’re small. But when they start growing, can they use the same technology to manage the inefficiencies if they grow into a large enterprise?  

For example, when insurtech companies start looking like traditional insurance companies. The questions that typically would be asked of them is “How have you managed your traditional performance KPIs?” If you’re not managing that, then you are running a loss-making business, right? Therefore, how start-ups manage the performance matrix would be key. 

 

How can CIOs benefit from mentoring a start-up?

The biggest thing that CIOs can learn from start-ups is the ability to innovate – how they work and solve problems using technology.  

The second thing would be how to do more with less. How do you create, test, and pitch a product to investors with limited resources? Larger organizations should start behaving like start-ups in terms of pitching to the management to get resources. They should demonstrate that they are effectively using those resources to create something that solves real-world problems faced by large organizations. CIOs can adopt the mindset of start-ups on what drives innovation and the culture. 

Before I choose to mentor a start-up, I’ll ask myself if I can add value to that start-up. There have been times when I’ve turned down start-ups because what I can offer may not be of use to them. The key thing for CIOs who are looking to mentor start-ups is to ask themselves whether they can bring value to the start-up through their skills, expertise, and experience.  

 

On the other hand, how do start-ups choose their mentors?

There are platforms such as industry forms and accelerators that bring start-ups and industry players together. CIOs who are genuinely interested in mentoring start-ups take a personal interest in attending those forums. Those are opportunities that start-ups could use to reach out and connect with CIOs. I also think the best way is for start-ups to reach out to companies or CIOs directly through social media platforms.  

 

Some CIOs of public institutions must adhere to certain procurement procedures which could hinder start-up mentoring opportunities. What are your thoughts?

As part of the procurement process, most organizations have one criterion which is the financial health or stability of the company. That’s where start-ups probably don’t do well because they don’t have a large balance sheet as they haven’t been in business for long. What we do in those cases is consider the technology or solution they bring to the table, whether it outweighs what is being offered by others. The three things we look at are functional fitment, technical fitment, and organizational fitment.  

Ideally, start-ups should make up for what they lose in the organizational one with the technology one. The next question is whether CIOs can build a business case saying that the technology can help the organization leapfrog the competition or make organizational processes better.  

Just because there are start-ups, I don’t want to leave them out of the equation. I’ve done that many times because it brings significant value to us. 

 

*The interview has been edited for length and clarity.