The Chief Clean-up Officer - #32 Rameshwar Balanagu

Happy to announce the 32nd episode of The Only Constant with Rameshwar Balanagu . Our chat focused on what drives valuable change, how organisations prepare for it and how they guard against unexpected and problematic outcomes of it. Rameshwar keeps a clear focus on adequate governance, even citing the Rigveda to underscore this point, and believes we must find a way to balance innovation with rigid controls. Our conversation explores all of these topics and is a broad and enlightening chat with a multifaceted technology leader.

Read more about Rameshwar at the bottom of this newsletter.

As always, I am very happy that we once again managed to make an episode that explores more than it explains ??

Listen to the episode here:

Apple: The Only Constant on Apple Podcasts

Spotify: The Only Constant | Podcast on Spotify

Spreaker: The Only Constant ( spreaker.com )

What made this episode special to me?:

Rameshwar is unhinged and I always appreciate this. Our discussions go everywhere, and while relistening to the episode after recording, I realised just how many small nuggets of wisdom lay hidden everywhere. To some extent, this surprised me. During recording, I felt the conversation went all over and sometimes weren't on topic the way I usually am able to keep it, but then relistening it made a lot more sense. And how Rameshwar managed to both shoot at random and at the same time keep the conversation centered and delivering insights is a real feat that I am still trying to really get my head around.

Rameshwar is both a deep enterprise architect and a previous year long member of the Forbes Technology Council, podcast host and much more. His ability to know what works and doesn't work in detail is constantly combined with humor and a holistic technology outlook. I am pleased to have had him on the podcast, and happy to share our discussion.

My key post-recording deliberations are:

• Are we taking too much risk in the name of innovation when it comes to rolling out generative AI? Technology needs to be secure, sustainable, reliable - can we tick off all these boxes for generative AI?
• Too much governance and compliance stifles innovation, but innovation without governance and compliance does not add to civilisation. Technology needs context and that context is exactly what governance delivers.
• We need to ensure our technology solutions provides a surplus and isn't delivering more problems than they solve. This also means we need to carefully evaluate use cases and ideas to see if they fit use by generative AI or not.

Rameshwar is a great and energized character and knowledgeable tech professional - I hope everyone enjoys listening to this episode!

About Rameshwar Balanagu :

Rameshwar brings a blend of Enterprise and Startup experience and believes in the concept of Elephants Can Dance. Although the phrase was popularized across business culture by IBM, he has taken on that role many times throughout his career, helping elephant-headed corporations turn on a dime with his abilities to carry them forward in time and respond to seismic changes in business, finance, culture, and strategies. He is a growth-focused, seasoned technology executive with impactful leadership in Fortune 1000 companies; a lifelong learner with a passion for using Data and AI to advise and mentor startups, specializing in driving innovation, building high-performing teams, and delivering transformative results for leveraging technology for strategic business goals and sustainable empowerment.

Rameshwar has been nominated as one of the top 100 Technologists for Oncon2024 and won the SAP Innovation Award for 2023. He was a keynote speaker at various international conferences and has recently published "Principles of AI Governance and Risk Management" in partnership with James Sayles, a veteran in GRC. His mantra: there is no AI without IA (Information Architecture = People + Business + Data + Applications + Technology + Security + Sustainability).