Anuj Anand: Pushing the Boundaries of the Mining Industry by Leveraging Tech-Based Innovation

Engineering and mining companies have faced a growing range of pressures in recent years, including price volatility, the need to drill down deeper to find new resources, and an industry-wide skills shortage. To address these challenges, many mining companies have embraced digital technology to enhance engineering design and develop'smart mines'. Ausenco is a tech savvy engineering company that delivers innovative, value-add consulting services, project delivery, asset operations and maintenance solutions to the mining and metals, oil and gas, and industrial sectors. The company's experts provide tailored solutions that help clients respond to changes in the market by combining global experience and a flexible approach that is both innovative and cost-efficient.

An Expert Insider in Information Management

Anuj Anand is the CIO of Ausenco. He joined the company in 2006 as a graduate engineer and  held various roles across engineering design, systems, and innovation. In 2018, he was appointed VP, Technology Services and Solutions and subsequently in 2021, to CIO. In his current role, he leads a global team of IT professionals who support Ausenco's 26 offices across 14 countries. Anuj has developed a high level of expertise in the integration of systems and processes with a key concentration on information management. He has spent time in various Ausenco offices deploying new systems and standardizing best practices – with a focus on transitioning legacy systems and infrastructure to modern platforms. He tailors change management practices to suit the different cultures across the company.

Failure is the First Rung in the Ladder of Success

Anuj explains that his industry experience from working on the floor, as well as at mining sites in the middle of nowhere, gave him  key insights and a sound understanding of the nuances and intricacies of a very complicated business. He states, "I often tell this story about my first foray into IT. I was challenged to come up with a vision and strategy of how I perceived the industry in 5 years and what we needed to do to get there." He confesses that not coming from the IT space and not having a background in the sector was bound to make this a challenge. Anuj was given three months to gain an understanding of the situation and then present it to the CIO and CTO at that time. After spending almost a month trying to understand the lay of the land and interviewing the IT team, he thought he had come up with a brilliant strategy and set a time to present to the C-suite. He was thrilled that he had completed the task in six weeks -rather than the allotted three months. However, it didn't go well and the presentation ended with the words "Anuj, how about you take the time to rethink this and present it to us again in three months' time?" This experience taught him a lot. Anuj believes that the only time one actually "fails" is when one chooses to believe so. During this experience, he received a lot of constructive feedback and excellent commentary. He presented again three months later after doing extensive research and in corporating the feedback he had received. And as they say,the rest is history in the making of a Top 10 CIO.

Partnering with IT for Improvement and Collaboration

From an achievement perspective, Anuj believes that Ausenco has realized multiple tangible successes in cost savings and in infrastructure upgrades. However, for Anuj, the biggest success the team has achieved to-date, is changing the corporate culture to appreciate that IT is not just a 'behind-the-keyboard' cost centre, but rather a partner that drives improvement, efficiency, and collaboration. Anuj feels that cultural change is often the hardest to enact, but that it can be the most rewarding.He talks about his passion for sport and how he learned about leadership following successful sports teams. One of his favourite quotes is by James Kerr, author of Legacy, and one of the most successful New Zealand All Blacks (rugby) coaches – "Create the highest possible operating standards, develop the character of your players, develop the culture of your team and, The Score Takes Care of Itself."He has seen this play out with in his team at Ausenco.

Envisaging Transition and Overcoming Technological Challenges

Talking about challenges, Anuj notes that the industry was going through a transition when he became CIO, and managing this transition was demanding.Looking to the future, Ausenco decided to make new investments in technology. Planning and experience were paramount to the success of this project, as the company needed to not only upgrade the older technology, but to also select the technology that would still be relevant in five years.Navigating the various technologies and choosing the right ones was challenging but during those five years, the company made the best choices possible and has developed excellent relationships and partnerships with key players in the technology space.

According to Anuj, learning on "the floor" and directly experiencing how things are done, is critical to understanding how a new system, or an innovative process, will effect change. This understanding has helped him communicate his messages clearly and engage his co-workers in embracing the solutions that help solve their problems Most importantly, these changes aren't made to just 'keep up with technology', but are made to have a material impact on the business.

Anuj discusses how  cyber security is also a critical challenge for  CIOs, and that ensuring they can keep the "crown jewels" safe, is no easy task. "As technology advances, it has become easier for bad actors to also use technology to try and breach perimeters. It's definitely something that the CIO is concerned with and where we have to continually invest to constantly strengthen security" says Anuj.

Integrating AI to Bolster Efficiencies and Innovation

Anuj agrees that AI has been a very interesting development in the modern world. Ausenco has partnered with market leaders in the space to bring AI into their workplace and to use AI to address critical business problems in order to be more efficient. They are also looking to be a leader in this space. He mentions that the company has already kicked off three projects in the AI space and has six more waiting in the wings. These projects, and the investment required, have developed through collaboration with key stakeholders and leaders in the business and will reach fruition next year. The company has also moved further with big data. Most organizations have copious amounts of data that may or may not be used or accessed effectively. Newer technologies have made it possible to bring this all together whether in a data lake or a warehouse and get the right data to the right people at the right time with the simple click of a few buttons. Anuj further adds that the company has also ensured that its new tools and systems have a robust data plan in place that will allow gathering the data together in a simple fashion, whether through API's or other means.

Anuj believes that both the mining and metals, and energy sectors are ripe for disruption. He highlights that they have not always been quick to change,but today with advances in technology such as IoT and AI, these industries are likely to accelerate the adoption of new technologies and change the status quo.

Four Must-Have Attributes of a CIO

According to Anuj, every CIO and leader, should foremost have a high level of emotional intelligence (EI).A high EI leads to trust, helps build relationships, reduces conflict and stress in a team, improves productivity and incorporates good communication. Empathy is one of the components of EI and is critical to managing and developing a strong team as well as for building relationships with both internal and external stakeholders.

For Anuj, creativity or innovation is the next must-have attribute of a CIO. He says"There needs to be the innate ability to challenge the status quo and 'Find a Better Way" (Ausenco's purpose).'This needs to be constant, he argues. Without this attribute and open-mindedness, CIO's will find themselves constantly challenged, claims Anuj. No one will know everything about everything so it is important to continue to learn and leverage one's skills and those around you. He refers to this as the "start-up" mindset but advises approaching this with a level of humility that is often missing in "start-up culture".

For Anuj, the third key attribute of a CIO is to be a change manager. The only thing that is constant in his line of work (IT) is change. As CIO, once a project is underway, it is about staying consistent with the change and being able to navigate what may be a complicated path. Change is never easy as it involves an element of disruption that not everyone is comfortable with.Possessing strong EI and change management skills helps the implementation go a lot smoother. He emphasises that being a change manager takes excellent project management and planning skills.

Anuj also believes that CIOs  need to be data stewards to excel at their work. This is where leaders need to understand the data,andbe able to translate the technical data and information into a language that is easily understood by the board and C-Suite. In addition, the CIO must be able to pull various sources of organizational and business data together to make it more useful across business groups.

Advice for Future Leaders

For future CIOs, Anuj advises, "Stay open to new experiences and keep learning. Always say 'yes' to challenges no matter how daunting they seem at the time. It's pressure that makes diamonds. There is only so much that books can teach you, everything else you will learn from experience and other people's experiences – stay open to them."