Multidimensional resiliency is critical to the success of individuals, teams, and organizations as a whole. Kazmi's awareness of the pace of change, fostering a Xi and growth mindset, and consistently emphasizing transparency within the team set the tone for Westrock to build resilience.
As a savvy business leader, Amir Kazmi has spent a third of his career accounting for income statements, and this background points the way forward. In his current role as Chief Information and Digital Officer (CIDO) at Westrock, he is responsible for developing and executing global information systems, technology and cybersecurity strategies, in addition to leading the company's digital transformation.
In the latest episode of the Tech Whisperers podcast, Kazmi talks about his unique leadership journey, his approach to digital innovation, and how he leads his team to its full potential. He was then joined by a discussion on how today's digital leaders can build multidimensional resilience to ensure individual, team, and business success.
Question:Over the years, you've certainly been through a lot of stressful situations, but you've always maintained a calm and confident demeanor. How did you develop leadership skills that meet the needs of the times, and how do you continue to build resilience or resilience?
amir kazmi：Personally, the foundation of resilience is to embrace a mindset of trying and Xi, rather than having to define everything perfectly. Sometimes I have to get used to uncomfortable feelings – the feeling of confusion about what to do, and learn to continue pursuing my vision in a way I am not Xi used to.
Even if it is chaos, we can at least distinguish between the slightly higher risk tolerance and the risk where the risk must be controlled immediately. From this foundation, you can flexibly implement the test, Xi and expand mindset and integrate these principles into the team.
This is especially important when trying to release new commercial products and solutions to the market – we must test, Xi and iterate with our customers. In other words, it will be inevitable to take some risks and explore new things. We can certainly maintain a clear OKR framework and revenue expectations, but at the same time, we need to be intentional about flexibility and try to understand how well the product market fits across metrics.
Question:I've found that great tech leaders have something in common, which I personally summarize as "leading with heart": humility, empathy, adaptability, resiliency, and transparency. You also asked how leaders make trade-offs, i.e., how do these attributes interact with each other?What about resilient leaders?
kazmi：I think these traits do represent the growth mindset that I see in resilient leaders, including the ability to Xi together, the ability to maintain empathy, and the ability to always be accountable for each other. After all, when technology meets human ingenuity, infinite possibilities can burst out.
As leaders, we must set bold visions, motivate teams, build a culture that emphasizes collaboration and transparency, and foster trust to achieve non-linear outcomes. Resilient leaders know when to adjust and when to change direction.
Question:I've found that leaders who understand the meaning of transparency often build resilience in their employees by setting an example of confidence and courage. In the face of a bad day, these leaders will step up, withstand the pressure, and get back to work. So what else can leaders do to improve employee resilience?
kazmi：On how to enhance team resilience, I would like to propose three leadership principles. The first is to define the pace of change and deal with the impact of change on the team. The pace of change is no longer slowing down, but is getting faster and faster. So the best help for the team is to "explain why" to them, provide comprehensive context for the tasks that need to be done, and make sure everyone is on the same page.
The second is the realization that we must introduce a learning Xi and growth mindset into our culture, our leadership, and what we want to achieve. Many businesses are shifting their business model from providing products to delivering services. As a leader, you must help your team master certain learning skills along Xi the way. John Chambers is one of the leaders I deeply admire and serve as a role model, saying that "everything is centered around the speed of innovation and changing the way business is done." If we don't re-examine ourselves, we will be abandoned by the market. ”
The third is to communicate key priorities in an open and transparent manner – priorities naturally have their own significance, and then shape the flexibility space based on those things and the outcomes you want to achieve.
Question:These principles do help leaders build Xi within their teams and organizations to meet customer needs and business goals (revenue, profit, productivity, etc.). But these outcomes must revolve around the customer and the business: What are you doing to impact your workforce to be more productive, productive, and have a better work experience?And how can we create a more sticky experience for our customers and make them feel value in return?
kazmi：When it comes to business, our company is also exploring all aspects of building resilience. For example, as the head of the cybersecurity department and the entire Westrock, how do you build resilience?
The first step is to bring together the best people and build great leadership. On our team, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) John Gift recently accepted the CSO50 Award on behalf of Westrock for his outstanding contributions to the field of cybersecurity. We had a cyber incident a few years ago, and this award is to reward the company for its aftermath and remediation work in a very short period of time. We have accurately captured the critical moment of the incident, and we have proven that we have always been committed to the principle of doing business for our customers, turning crises into opportunities. We energized the team and focused on how to Xi the lessons learned, including how to strengthen the organization's operations. While significant progress has been made, we recognize that threats are persistent and evolving, and we must be able to keep up with changes and manage risks effectively.
This risk manifests itself in two ways, and the other is the acceleration of the recovery and building of tactical resilience. Joseph Hinkle, vice president of technology platforms and global operations, is responsible for managing the global platform, infrastructure and cloud. Under his leadership, we developed and executed a global cloud strategy, with the majority of the world's computing workloads now running in the cloud, which also helped strengthen operational resilience.
The partnership between these two leaders and their teams provides a strong foundation for expanding our digital solutions capabilities. This foundation has allowed us to enhance the customer experience and double our e-commerce revenue to approximately $600 million. In addition, the digitally connected packaging solution has generated more than $300 million in revenue, and customers can now easily answer the question of how my product is in the market, what is the quality of the product, and how to enhance the appeal of the product to consumers.
Other broader resiliency principles, including network recovery, disaster recovery, and so on, are embodied in the ability to accelerate recovery to support operations. As a manufacturing business, we must strive to maintain good uptime. Every hour or even minute of downtime can have a significant impact and consequences for our more than 300 production facilities in more than 30 countries around the world. To do this, we develop a response plan and test it. Many plans that look flawless will only reveal their shortcomings until they have been implemented and tested. That's why we use a variety of simulations and tests to address and manage our business risks.
Nowadays, the mentality of learning while working and learning Xi has become more and more important, and I hope that everyone can grasp this precious mentality. Personally, I call it "never slack off until you reach your goal".
Perseverance is always a very important quality, and the meaning of hard work cannot be replaced by any method. For me, the experience of accounting for profit and loss data has benefited me a lot, and it has also guided me to participate in the product development team in the future, cooperate with customers in different end markets, pay attention to the fit between products and markets, and manage the speed of product iteration. It wasn't until I started my own company, raised capital, built a team, and opened up a customer pipeline that courage and humility were slowly cultivated. At Westrock, we've applied similar principles when developing our digital packaging solutions, combining IoT with SaaS to help address the three major customer needs I mentioned earlier. As these digital solutions mature in different end markets, we never stop striving for excellence and new knowledge.
Allow me to quote the philosopher Seneca, "Luck is worth when good preparation meets the right opportunity." "I think luck is a combination of preparation, hard work and resilience – you can't wait for luck to come your way without trial and error.
By the way, if we only act within the safe zone, then what's the fun in life?