Enterprises must drive innovation with agility while maintaining disciplined cost structures, ensuring that transformation does not come at the expense of financial resilience.
Enterprises operate in an environment of relentless change and business leaders are under constant pressure to innovate, adopt new technologies, and deliver superior customer experiences. Yet they must do so while managing costs, complying with regulations, and safeguarding operations against growing cyber risks. Striking the right balance between these competing priorities has become one of the defining challenges of digital transformation.
These challenges were the focus of a recent industry discussion moderated by Saumil Shah, Partner – Operations Transformation at Grant Thornton Bharat, where an eminent panel of IT and business leaders came together to share their perspectives. The discussion featured Anil Kumar Sharma, Group Head – Systems at Sabardairy (Amul Group); Dipen Chauhan, Senior Vice President (IT & ERP) at Gujarat Gas Limited; Juned Kasmani, Associate Director – Sales at Shivaami; Gaurav Vyas, Head IT at Stovec Industries Limited (SPG Prints); and Dr. Mukund KS, AVP & Group Head IT at Eris Lifesciences Ltd.
“While open systems allow you to build AI for specific purposes, the broader and more sustainable approach is to adopt AI-as-a-Service. With technology evolving rapidly and innovations like blockchain transforming industries such as supply chain, businesses must focus on solutions that ensure scalability, transparency, and customer trust.”
Juned Kasmani, Associate Director – Sales at Shivaami
The discussion explored how organizations are navigating this balancing act in practical terms. From redefining how return on innovation is measured, reskilling workforces for future readiness, to balancing risk with speed of execution, the conversation reflected real trade-offs enterprises face every day. Cloud adoption and AI are reshaping IT strategy, while low-code/no-code platforms and blockchain promise cost-optimized pathways to modernization. At the same time, geopolitical tensions are driving enterprises to rethink cloud sovereignty and data ownership.
The panel explored how enterprises can strike the right balance to manage the complexities of legacy versus modern systems, strengthen business and IT alignment, and address growing concerns around cloud security and cybersecurity. Their insights, drawn from real-world experience, highlight what it takes to build resilient, future-ready organizations in an increasingly digital-first economy.
Clearly innovation cannot be pursued in isolation—it must be grounded in business strategy, supported by measurable outcomes, and implemented in ways that secure both resilience and scalability. Below are the key themes that shaped the dialogue.
The definition of ROI is evolving—from return on investment to return on imagination and, ultimately, return on innovation. Measuring success today means tracking how diverse ideas are, how fast they move from concept to reality, and whether employees truly adopt them. By budgeting for experimentation and learning to fail fast, organizations can turn imagination into innovation and innovation into real business value.
Dr. Mukund KS, AVP & Group Head IT at Eris Lifesciences Ltd
Finding the Sweet Spot Between Innovation and Cost
While innovation is often hailed as the lifeblood of competitive advantage, turning ideas into measurable busines value is far from straightforward. Many promising initiatives fail to deliver impact because they overlook feasibility, scalability, or cost considerations. The example of Netflix’s million-dollar recommendation engine—an advanced solution that was ultimately abandoned because it was over-engineered and impractical to implement—highlights the danger of chasing innovation without considering feasibility and ROI.
For CIOs, the challenge is not simply to foster innovation but to balance it with cost control and operational realities. This requires a mindset that blends vision with pragmatism. Leaders must avoid the trap of endlessly refining pilot projects that never scale. Instead, adopt lean methodologies and design thinking to streamline the innovation cycle. By focusing on empathy, ideation, rapid prototyping, and iterative testing, organizations can reduce waste, fail fast, and quickly identify ideas that are truly worth scaling.
The ‘sweet spot’ lies at the intersection of four dimensions: practicality, cost, technology, and value. Practicality ensures solutions can be adopted and sustained within the organization; cost discipline keeps experimentation aligned with financial realities; technology provides the tools to enable transformation; and value guarantees that innovation drives tangible business outcomes. CIOs who successfully balance these dimensions evolve beyond technologists into business leaders—acting as visionaries shaping the future while being pragmatic to ensure that present remains stable.
“The biggest barrier to modernization isn’t technology—it’s resistance to change. When moving from legacy to new systems, the key is to start small: pilot modular solutions, integrate gradually, and show ROI early. This approach not only eases user adoption but also helps secure management buy-in for broader transformation.”
Anil Kumar Sharma, Group Head – Systems at Sabardairy (Amul Group)
Modernizing Legacy Systems: Bridging Technology and Business
One of the most difficult challenges in digital transformation is in modernizing legacy systems. In many industries, the resistance to change is often greater than the technical constraints themselves. Employees accustomed to traditional platforms may hesitate to adopt new systems, fearing disruption or loss of control. Overcoming this inertia requires a pragmatic, phased approach—starting small with pilot projects, layering modular systems on top of legacy environments, and using APIs to integrate old and new. By gradually demonstrating ROI, organizations can build user confidence and secure management buy-in for larger transformation initiatives.
At the same time, modernization is no longer just a technical exercise, but it is increasingly a business imperative. The traditional divide between IT and business is merging as technology now sits at the core of enterprise strategy. Boards and CEOs expect IT to keep systems running while also driving innovation, reducing costs, and enhancing productivity. Business leaders are learning the language of technology, while IT leaders are aligning more closely with business outcomes. This convergence is transforming modernization efforts into a shared venture where technology directly enables new business models, smarter operations, and sustained growth. In this context, updating legacy systems is not just about replacing outdated infrastructure but about reimagining the way business and IT work together to unlock long-term value.
“The days when IT was just about uptime and security are over—today, IT is the business. Boards now expect technology to drive innovation, boost productivity, and reduce costs. It’s no longer about tech versus business; it’s a shared venture where IT leaders speak the language of business, and business leaders embrace the language of technology.”
Gaurav Vyas, Head IT at Stovec Industries Limited (SPG Prints)
Securing the Cloud: From Resistance to Readiness
Cloud adoption, once resisted over concerns of data security and control, is now seen as a key enabler of digital transformation. Modern cloud platforms are designed with compliance and security at their core, offering robust device management, access controls, and data loss prevention (DLP). Hybrid models that combine on-premise and cloud flexibility, giving organizations control over sensitive data while enabling secure, scalable collaboration across geographies.
For regulated sectors like oil and gas, cybersecurity has become an operational necessity rather than a discretionary cost. The panel underscored that compliance with regulatory mandates and preparedness for geopolitical risks are central to cybersecurity strategy.
Just as airbags are now mandatory in cars, cybersecurity is becoming a basic requirement for doing business. As cyber threats evolves daily, proactive investments in security are vital for business continuity.
“In a regulated industry like ours, cybersecurity is no longer optional—it’s a basic requirement of doing business. With oversight from regulators and the constant shadow of geopolitical risks, we must continuously raise our defenses. Just as cars now come with mandatory airbags, enterprises must treat cybersecurity as a built-in safeguard, not a cost center.”
Dipen Chauhan, Senior Vice President (IT & ERP) at Gujarat Gas Limited
Measuring ROI from Innovation
Even as innovation is celebrated as the lifeblood of competitive advantage, converting ideas into measurable business value is a far more complex task. In many organizations, the definition of ROI is evolving beyond a narrow financial lens into a layered framework that captures the return on imagination, return on innovation, and ultimately, return on investment. This shift recognizes that ideas alone are not enough; they must be executed effectively, adopted widely, and aligned with strategic goals to create impact.
One of the biggest lessons for enterprises is the danger of over-engineering. The example of Netflix’s abandoned million-dollar recommendation engine illustrates this point clearly. While technologically advanced, the solution proved impractical to implement and failed to deliver real business value. For CIOs, this underscores the importance of balancing vision with pragmatism. Innovation cannot be pursued for its own sake—it must be evaluated against feasibility, cost, and ROI.
To achieve this balance, organizations are increasingly turning to structured metrics. These include tracking the diversification of ideas across different business functions, measuring the speed of execution from concept to deployment, and monitoring stage-gate success rates to understand where pilots fail. Equally important is calculating the cost per idea, which allows businesses to identify weak concepts early and exit them before they drain resources. Employee adoption is also a critical measure, since engagement without real usage fails to translate into value.
A disciplined financial approach underpins these efforts. Many organizations now allocate a fixed percentage of their IT budgets—often between 3% and 10%—specifically for experimentation. This innovation buffer provides room to test and fail fast, while ensuring that investments remain aligned with business priorities. It prevents pilots from dragging on indefinitely and gives leaders clear data on when to scale and when to cut losses.
Ultimately, measuring ROI from innovation requires CIOs to act as both visionaries and pragmatists. They must encourage bold ideas while demanding accountability through metrics. In doing so, enterprises can build a culture of innovation that is not only imaginative but also disciplined, ensuring that every experiment contributes to long-term business value.
Reskilling the Workforce to Enable Innovation
Cost pressures and talent shortages are pushing companies to focus on reskilling their existing workforce. Reskilled employees not only reduce reliance on external consultants but also become more motivated and productive, creating a virtuous cycle of innovation and efficiency. By equipping teams with new skills in emerging technologies, businesses can spread critical knowledge across departments and reduce single points of dependency. This not only drives cost savings but also builds resilience and agility in adapting to future demands.
Balancing Risk, Compliance, and Speed
Innovation cannot come at the cost of business continuity. Companies are drawing clear lines between core processes—such as ERP systems, billing, and cybersecurity—that must remain stable and uncompromised, and support functions where innovation can be piloted with lower risk. Many organizations are adopting a phased approach, testing new technologies in smaller units or specific geographies before scaling it enterprise-wide. This risk-managed innovation strategy ensures that while speed remains a priority, compliance and operational stability are never compromised.
Cloud Adoption and the Role of AI
Cloud adoption, once met with skepticism, has now become mainstream. Enterprises are realizing that the real cost advantage of cloud goes beyond infrastructure savings—it lies in simplified management, device-independent access, and higher productivity for employees. Browser-based, centrally managed solutions reduce downtime, cut license costs, and make IT operations more agile. With AI layered on top, cloud platforms are enabling smarter workflows, intelligent data access, and faster decision-making. Concerns about data security are being addressed with enterprise-grade safeguards, ensuring compliance even as businesses scale.
Emerging Technology Trends
Looking ahead, cost optimization will drive the adoption of low-code and no-code platforms, which allow businesses to innovate without heavy coding dependencies. AI-as-a-service is also emerging as a practical choice, enabling organizations to leverage advanced capabilities without the risk of being locked into one fast-changing technology. Meanwhile, blockchain is gaining traction in industries where transparency and traceability are critical, such as supply chain and agriculture, strengthening customer trust and operational reliability.
Cloud Sovereignty and Geopolitical Risks
While global cloud providers currently dominate the market, recent geopolitical events have raised questions about over-dependence on foreign players. Enterprises are becoming more aware of the risks of service disruptions and are increasingly considering sovereign cloud solutions. The push for India-owned cloud platforms reflects a broader shift toward ensuring data sovereignty and long-term resilience in the face of global uncertainties.
Striking the Right Balance
Today, enterprises recognize that while innovation is the path to progress, disciplined cost management is the key to sustaining it. From rethinking ROI frameworks and reskilling workforces to modernizing legacy systems and harnessing cloud and AI, corporate conversations increasingly center around the understanding that sustainable transformation rests on achieving the right balance—between cost and innovation, agility and stability. Innovation without feasibility leads to wasted investment, while excessive cost-cutting stifles growth and agility.
CIOs and business leaders must act as both visionaries and pragmatists. Lean approaches, phased pilots, and employee adoption are critical levers to ensure innovation translates into measurable business value. At the same time, technology and business must operate as a shared venture, with IT driving not just efficiency but also competitive advantage.
Ultimately, balancing cost and innovation is less about trade-offs and more about alignment—of technology with strategy, people with purpose, and risk with resilience. Organizations that achieve this equilibrium will not only weather disruption but also thrive in it, turning innovation into a disciplined, value-creating engine for long-term growth. As enterprises continue their digital journeys, leaders who can harmonize innovation, cost, and security will be best positioned to build resilient, future-ready organizations.
