Banco Santander Chief Platform Officer Aiaz Kazi talks moving from traditional on-premise to a cloud-native, mobile-first, and AI-enabled platform in today’s modern world.
The third episode of the Inspired Execution podcast just dropped with Banco Santander CPO Aiaz Kazi and he shares his thoughts on:
- How to use a Silicon Valley mindset to lead digital transformation initiatives at a traditional institution
- The difference between projects, products, and platforms
- How to talk to non-technical employees about cloud-native, mobile-first, AI-enabled platforms
- What inspiring leadership looks like and much more
Aiaz also explains the professional journey that brought him to this position — and how his thinking has evolved as he’s moved from one role to the next over his career.
Aiaz also talks about the digital transformation initiatives that are taking place at Banco Santander, which was founded in 1857, and how the bank is transitioning from an on-premises mindset to deliver cloud-native, mobile-first, AI-enabled platforms and solutions to the modern world.
To lead this transformation, Aiaz has had to change the way his team thinks about the technology that they build.
Initially, Banco Santander viewed everything as standalone IT projects. Since Aiaz has come on board, he’s helped shift that thinking to technology products and, ultimately, technology platforms.
“I’m not just building products for the bank anymore, I’m building products for the bank, the global businesses that the bank runs, which are external businesses like our trading services, merchant services, acquiring services, and a bunch of others. And I’m also building the platform for third party consumption.”
Aiaz also discusses how he’s been forced to change the way he views success with each new role.
“The definition of success is different in product management than it is in engineering, it’s different in product marketing, it’s different in building a platform.”
As the podcast winds down, Aiaz shares some thoughts of what he believes inspired leadership looks like.
“If you don’t know how to overcome your own hurdles, you can’t be a good role model to help your team, and they can’t get through their hurdles.There’s always going to be different routes to get there. There’s always going to be temporary setbacks and hurdles. When I was younger, I would worry and sweat the small stuff. And I think — over time — I’ve learned to not do that. It comes with experience.”
Listen to this episode of Inspired Execution for more ideas from Aiaz about how you can lead your organization’s digital transformation journey and spearhead its transformation into a data-driven enterprise.
The story behind “Inspired Execution”
Interested in learning more about the genesis of the Inspired Execution podcast?
Remember to listen to previous episodes of Inspired Execution with FedEx CIO Rob Carter on Delivering the Total Package: How FedEx CIO, Rob Carter Continues to Lead The Industry, and Home Depot’s Fahim Siddiqui on Our Front Door is Our Mobile App.
Also, check out Episode 0 to hear DataStax Chairman and CEO Chet Kapoor speak to what inspired the series and what listeners can expect from his interviews with CIOs and tech leaders from the world’s top enterprises.
The podcast series is available on InspiredExecution.com, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.