CEO Insights Magazine

Arunkumar Khannur, with 35+ years of blended work experience in the IT industry and academia, is a major force to reckon with in software engineering, quality, and testing. He is a bestselling author, an accomplished IT consultant, a well-known advisor, a seasoned educationist, an efficient trainer, a speaker, a social entrepreneur, and a senior faculty. Khannur is a winner of numerous state, national, and international level awards and recognitions, especially the Chalukya Award for promoting science and technology in Karnataka, Master Trainer from the Ministry of Human Resources, Malaysia, and many more. Khannur, in his current role, is working as the Chief Strategy Officer at Bangalore-based CMR University, helping the university transform itself as one of the leading innovation centers across the country.

In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights, Khannur sheds light on his overall professional journey, his leadership methodologies and corporate growth strategies, and much more:

Could you give a brief about your professional journey so far and what motivates your daily routines?
After completing my M. Tech. in CSE from the premier University of Hyderabad (HCU) in 1988, I have work experience that involved different roles and global work experience in 11 countries in corporate and academia. I worked as an employee in Wipro, Logica, Planetasia, QAI, and SDM College of Engineering and Technology, and even started my venture. Currently, I am working as the Chief Strategy Officer at CMR University, Bengaluru responsible for Innovation, Startups, and Centre of Excellence. My work experience involved different roles and global work experience in 11 countries that included providing knowledge services like consulting, training, and audits. I also contributed as an education consultant and also, in various World Bank-funded projects. I work as a social entrepreneur and serial entrepreneur. The professional journey has contributed to making me a whole new personality.

Define CMR University’s position in

the higher education sector. As the Chief Strategy Officer, what are the factors you look into when developing effective corporate growth strategies?
A Bengaluru-based private university, CMR University was established in 2013. We emphasize design thinking in our curriculum. also have a well equipped Innovation Center, Design Thinking Center, Pre-prototyping Lab, and Maker space in Electronics spread across a 9000 sq ft area. Our association with the thingQbator of the NASSCOM Foundation brought much-needed acceleration into our pursuit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Coming to effective institutional growth strategies, the focus has been majorly on two things current needs of the organization and future growth strategy. The current needs of the organization include schedules and time-bound activities to be implemented. Coming to growth strategies, the entire endeavor includes transformation which is propelled by a well-thought-out innovation-led lead strategy under visionary CMRU Senior Management that emphasizes creativity, inclusive innovation, and collaboration for co-creation.

Tell us about your leadership approach. What are the guidelines or methodologies you follow as a leader?
Rather than a leader-led vision, I prefer a shared vision, where a team together decides what needs to be done. I strongly believe in inclusive innovation to engage all to drive change. I engage myself in building a mindset across all levels with system practice, design thinking, and expansive thinking. Coming to transformation, mobilization, motivation, and internal catalysts are the keys to social value generation and sustainability. I believe that continuous capacity building of our people plays a crucial role in the long term. I also strongly believe that innovation is a patience capital and doesn’t come with tangible results.

What is the future destination you are headed towards?

The world is moving away from employee-based industries towards home bound solopreneurs to disrupt all domains and walks of life. This situation demands thriving upon challenges through quicker adaptivity. By considering these factors, I am busy building an institutional innovation eco-system that is inclusive with a clear focus on building mindset, creativity, capacity building, collaboration, and sustainability. The entire journey involves imbibing full-stack competencies and using an extraordinary innovation lifecycle that includes mobilizing, motivating, and engaging to accept – ideate – prototype – incubate – pitch - build – scale – and transfer life cycle. This helps in providing solutions of social value, supports them to establish startups, and gives them the confidence to put their ideas forward and get funding.

Arunkumar Khannur, Chief Strategy Officer, CMR University
A highly accomplished and Internationally acclaimed Software Quality and Testing Professional, Education Management Consultant, Serial Entrepreneur, Mentor, Master Trainer, Consultant, and Author with 35+ years of experience in 11 countries. Khannur is a winner of numerous state, national, and international level awards and recognitions owing to his valuable contribution to social entrepreneurship and leadership. He served UNIDO as an International Expert on Software Engineering and Quality. Arunkumar is currently working as the Chief Strategy Officer at Bangalore based CMR University.

•Hobbies: Traveling, gardening, writing, cooking, reading, and observing solitude
•Favorite Cuisine: North Karnataka vegetarian cuisine
•Favorite Book:Many. To mention a few - Good to Great by James C. Collins, The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, and many more
•Favorite Travel Destination: Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Argentina, Slovenia

Awards & Recognition:
•Member of IT/BT Vision Group of Karnataka Government
•“Ekalavya Project” of Karnataka Government
•Advisory Member of Karnataka State in implementing the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF).
•Mentor at The Technology Business Incubators @University of Hyderabad, TBI/
TIDE in association with The Entrepreneur Zone(TEZ).
•Chalukya Award for contributions to Science and Technology in Karnataka State.
•Recognized by the Ministry of HRD, Malaysia as a Master Trainer.