Adaptive Leadership, Lasting Impact

Pari: Welcome to another episode of the Zinnov Podcast, Business Resilience Series. I’m your host, Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov. Today, we’re honored to have Krithika Bhatt, Chief Information Officer at Pure Storage. Krithika is an IT leader with over 20 years of experience in driving global enterprise solutions at Pure Storage. She leads technology-enabled business transformations, shaping strategy and defining the roadmap for technology, infrastructure, and business applications. Welcome to the show, Krithika.

Krithika: Thank you, Pari. I appreciate the kind introduction and am delighted to be here this morning.

Pari: Great. Let’s dive in. As a new CEO entering a fast-paced, high-growth tech company, what was your approach during the first hundred days? What strategies did you use to understand and tackle the unique challenges of this new environment?

Krithika: Great question, Pari. When I joined Pure Storage as CIO, I knew a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work. While I brought relevant experience to the role, I recognized the need to adapt to PURE’s unique culture and environment. I focused on getting to know the team, understanding PURE’s business models, and fostering a collaborative atmosphere. This approach allowed me to balance leveraging my experience with being open to the ideas and experiences of the existing team. After these discussions and assessments, my goal was to build a strong foundation to support Pure’s ambitious growth.

I had three key priorities: First, becoming a strategic partner for the business—collaborating to streamline processes, identify automation opportunities, and set technical direction. Second, scaling and maturing the organization—bringing in the right leaders, architects, and experts, eliminating single points of failure, and balancing internal and external resources. Third, shifting from a project to a product and service-oriented model—focusing on business outcomes and using technology as an enabler. To do this, I assessed the maturity of our services and identified areas for investment. That sums up my first three months at Pure.

Pari: With AI and machine learning evolving rapidly, as a CIO, how are you managing this transformation?

Krithika: Great question. Like most CIOs, I’m focused on understanding how AI will transform business operations and drive IT innovation. The key challenge is identifying the right use cases that deliver the outcomes we need, ensuring we invest in technologies that provide tangible and measurable business value.

At Pure, we have a three-pronged approach. First, we’re transforming Pure with AI, aiming to integrate Gen AI into our processes and become a Gen AI-powered enterprise, focusing on productivity, efficiency, customer satisfaction, and compliance. Second, we’re enhancing customer efficiency by integrating AI capabilities into our products, like AIOps Pure, our storage management system, which simplifies the storage administrator’s tasks. Third, we’re supporting our customers’ AI projects by providing robust Pure technology for their AI journey.

Pari: Data storage is critical for driving AI adoption. How is Pure Storage positioning itself to meet the changing storage needs of customers, especially for AI projects?

Krithika: Organizations like ours adopt these technologies to create better customer experiences, improve efficiency, and drive growth. However, keeping up with rapidly evolving technology is challenging, and AI projects at scale are complex. Storage and infrastructure needs vary across the AI journey, from data curation to training and inference. A platform that mixes on-premise and cloud solutions is key for long-term success, optimizing costs, and reducing energy and space consumption.

Pure offers a consistent, flexible, and optimized platform for all AI storage needs, ensuring predictable performance, ease of management, and reliability. Plus, we support our customers’ ESG goals by minimizing upgrades and eliminating e-waste. With technology evolving rapidly, organizations need flexible infrastructure that can adapt as needs change. Pure focuses on providing that flexibility.

Pari: Interesting, so it makes the organization more adaptable and sustainable.

Krithika: Exactly.

Pari: Great. Switching gears, the tech industry is rapidly evolving, changing the talent needs dramatically. What’s your leadership philosophy, and how do you inspire and motivate your team at Pure Storage?

Krithika: Good question. My leadership philosophy centers on a few key principles. First, teamwork. I focus on building teams with complementary skills, experiences, and personalities to foster a sense of belonging, creativity, and productivity.
Second, collaboration. Collaboration is crucial for me. It involves strong partnerships, active listening, and taking ownership of both successes and failures. Checking the ego at the door helps build trust and understanding.

Third, communication. Open and transparent communication is essential. Sharing knowledge and insights builds mutual understanding and helps achieve common goals.

Lastly, fairness and empathy. I believe in a servant leadership style where leaders support their teams, decentralize dynamics, and ensure everyone’s voice is heard. This approach empowers employees to do their best work.

Pari: Got it. A growth mindset helps you stay relevant as a leader in a rapidly changing world. My final question, Krithika: What are some exciting developments you see in the data storage industry?

Krithika: Sure, here are a few key developments. Gartner predicts that by 2028, over 50% of storage will be based on consumption services, up from 15% in 2023. Second, Pure forecasts that hard disks will become obsolete by 2028 due to our DirectFlash solution, which enables all-flash arrays to communicate directly with raw storage. We’re advancing from 75 terabyte flash devices to potentially 300 terabytes by 2026, far exceeding the industry’s current HDD capacities.
Lastly, AI and machine learning are transforming storage management. Integrating AI helps optimize storage, predict failures, and enhance security. Pure has launched the industry’s first Gen AI co-pilot for storage, simplifying management at scale.

Pari: It’s fascinating how we covered a wide range of topics in a short time. Seeing how Pure uses AI internally and to enhance product usability, as well as how your products support complex AI use cases, is impressive. Thanks, Krithika, for sharing your leadership insights. The skills you discussed are crucial for leading in today’s fast-paced tech environment, relevant to enterprises worldwide.

Krithika: One more point I should add: as a leader, continuous learning is essential. You can never stop learning, no matter how long you’ve been in the industry. Lifelong learning is key to staying relevant and excited about the journey. Thanks, Pari, I really enjoyed this conversation.

Pari: And sometimes, you need to unlearn as you evolve.

Krithika: Very well said.

Pari: Thanks a lot. Thanks a lot for the super insightful conversation.