Tata Communications is adding a dedicated transformation leader to its executive ranks, appointing Narottam Sharma as Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, with the move set to take effect on September 21, 2026. Sharma will join the company’s Global Management Committee and take responsibility for an enterprise-wide transformation agenda spanning technology investments, operating models, core operations, supply chain processes, and corporate functions.
The appointment is more than a routine senior leadership change. It signals that Tata Communications sees transformation as a board-level operating discipline rather than a collection of separate IT modernization projects. In a communications technology market increasingly shaped by cloud adoption, cybersecurity demands, AI workloads, software-defined networks, and heightened customer expectations, the company is positioning business transformation as a central mechanism for growth and operational resilience.
Sharma arrives from Jubilant FoodWorks, where he served as Chief Information Officer, following prior leadership roles at Mastek and Sterlite Technologies. His background combines enterprise IT leadership with process re-engineering, digital operating model redesign, and technology-driven organizational change—experience that maps closely to the complex requirements of a global connectivity, cloud, and digital services provider.
The Chief Transformation Officer role has emerged as one of the most consequential leadership positions in large technology-driven enterprises. Unlike a conventional CIO role, which is often centered on technology strategy, systems availability, security, data architecture, and internal platforms, a transformation chief is expected to connect those capabilities directly to business performance.
For Tata Communications, that remit appears broad by design. Sharma’s mandate includes aligning technology investments with business priorities, redesigning operating models, and accelerating innovation across key corporate and operational functions. That is an ambitious brief, particularly for a company operating across global network infrastructure, cloud services, cybersecurity, collaboration, Internet of Things platforms, and enterprise connectivity.
The role will likely require Sharma to balance several priorities at once:
Tata Communications appears to be giving the position that strategic weight. Sharma’s inclusion in the Global Management Committee places transformation closer to the company’s highest decision-making processes, where investment priorities, operating structures, talent decisions, growth initiatives, and customer strategy intersect.
That makes internal transformation especially important. Customers expect service providers to offer agile digital experiences, rapid service activation, real-time visibility, flexible commercial models, and consistent support across geographies. Meeting those expectations depends not only on the products a company sells, but also on the systems and processes that support order management, provisioning, billing, customer service, network operations, procurement, and field delivery.
A transformation leader can help address the gap that often emerges between a company’s outward-facing digital strategy and its internal operational reality. It is possible for an organization to promote AI-enabled products and cloud-centric services while still relying on fragmented workflows, manual approvals, duplicate data, disconnected platforms, and lengthy decision chains behind the scenes.
For a business such as Tata Communications, the potential upside of a successful transformation program is considerable:
That range may prove valuable. Transformation leaders are often most effective when they can transfer proven ideas between sectors while remaining sensitive to the unique constraints of each industry. A supply chain challenge in quick-service restaurants is not identical to one in global communications infrastructure, but the disciplines of data visibility, process standardization, demand planning, systems integration, customer experience, and operational accountability can translate across environments.
That experience is relevant because it places technology leadership directly in the path of day-to-day business outcomes. The CIO function in a high-volume consumer operation cannot remain isolated in the back office. It must support speed, reliability, customer experience, data-driven decision-making, and continuous adaptation.
At Tata Communications, the stakes are different but the need for integrated execution remains similar. Enterprise customers may not order services in the same way consumers order food, yet they still demand frictionless journeys, transparent delivery milestones, proactive support, predictable performance, and digital self-service capabilities.
Experience in technology services can be particularly helpful for a transformation chief because it develops familiarity with enterprise platforms, delivery models, process maturity, client expectations, talent management, and the operational challenges of scaling technology-driven businesses.
The combination of CIO experience, transformation leadership, and exposure to communications technology creates a profile suited to a role that demands both strategic vision and practical execution. Tata Communications will need someone who understands that the transformation agenda cannot be confined to slides, steering committees, and isolated proofs of concept.
It must change how work actually gets done.
A strong transformation agenda should impose more discipline on that process. Instead of asking only whether a platform is modern or technically capable, leaders need to ask what business outcome it enables and how that outcome will be measured.
For Tata Communications, the core questions may include:
A modern operating model for a global digital infrastructure business may require tighter collaboration between network operations, product teams, engineering, sales, service delivery, cybersecurity, finance, and customer support. It may also require clearer definitions of where global standards apply and where regional teams need flexibility.
The objective should not be centralization for its own sake. Excessive centralization can slow decisions and weaken responsiveness to local customers. Conversely, excessive decentralization can lead to duplicated tools, inconsistent processes, higher costs, and uneven service quality.
The most effective model is likely to combine standardized enterprise platforms and controls with operational autonomy where it supports speed and customer value. Finding that balance will be a major test of Sharma’s leadership.
Automation and AI can play an important role, but only if the underlying processes are first understood and simplified. Automating a poorly designed workflow may simply allow an organization to make mistakes faster.
A disciplined approach usually begins with identifying the processes that have the greatest impact on customers, employees, cost, revenue leakage, operational risk, or service quality. Teams can then redesign those workflows around clear ownership, fewer handoffs, better data, and measurable outcomes.
The best transformation programs typically avoid trying to modernize everything at once. They sequence change according to impact, readiness, technical dependencies, and organizational capacity.
However, AI-led transformation needs careful interpretation. It should not mean applying generative AI indiscriminately across the company. The strongest use cases are likely to be those where AI can improve speed, accuracy, prediction, or decision support while maintaining security, explainability, and human accountability.
Potential areas include:
The company will also need to avoid a common failure mode: launching dozens of AI pilots that never become scaled business capabilities. Transformation succeeds when promising experiments are selected, governed, industrialized, and integrated into real workflows.
Disruptions in those ecosystems can affect installation schedules, equipment availability, customer commitments, project costs, and service quality. Better supply chain visibility is therefore not simply an internal efficiency objective; it can be a customer promise issue.
A modernized supply chain approach could focus on:
First, it creates an explicit mandate to challenge legacy ways of working. Large organizations often know where their friction points are, but individual teams may lack the authority or incentives to resolve issues that cross departmental lines. A transformation chief can help bring together the parties needed to address systemic problems.
Second, the role can create stronger portfolio discipline. Technology initiatives can multiply rapidly in complex enterprises, especially when different business units pursue their own digital priorities. A centralized transformation lens can identify duplication, clarify priorities, and shift resources toward programs with the greatest enterprise value.
Third, it can improve the relationship between technology and business leadership. Digital transformation is most effective when leaders view technology as an enabler of strategy rather than a support function to be consulted after decisions are made. Sharma’s role provides an opportunity to embed that perspective more deeply across the company.
Finally, the appointment may help Tata Communications communicate a clearer strategic story to customers, employees, and partners. The company is signaling that it is investing in the operational foundations needed to compete in a market defined by speed, reliability, intelligence, and digital experience.
There is also the risk of transformation fatigue. Employees in large technology organizations are often already adapting to new systems, restructuring, product launches, commercial pressures, security requirements, and changing customer expectations. If the program is perceived as another top-down initiative with unclear benefits, adoption may suffer.
A successful agenda will require careful change management:
Success could emerge through a combination of operational, commercial, and organizational indicators:
Sharma brings a career profile that combines CIO-level accountability, enterprise technology experience, AI-led transformation exposure, and operational redesign expertise. His mandate is expansive, covering the vital terrain where technology choices, organizational processes, supply chain performance, corporate functions, and customer outcomes converge.
The appointment is a strong strategic signal, but its real significance will depend on execution. If Tata Communications can translate the new role into clearer priorities, simpler processes, better data, scalable AI adoption, and stronger cross-functional accountability, the company could strengthen both its internal operating model and its competitive position in the global communications technology market.
The challenge now is to turn transformation from an executive mandate into a repeatable business capability—one that improves how the company works every day, not merely how it describes its future.
The appointment is more than a routine senior leadership change. It signals that Tata Communications sees transformation as a board-level operating discipline rather than a collection of separate IT modernization projects. In a communications technology market increasingly shaped by cloud adoption, cybersecurity demands, AI workloads, software-defined networks, and heightened customer expectations, the company is positioning business transformation as a central mechanism for growth and operational resilience.
Sharma arrives from Jubilant FoodWorks, where he served as Chief Information Officer, following prior leadership roles at Mastek and Sterlite Technologies. His background combines enterprise IT leadership with process re-engineering, digital operating model redesign, and technology-driven organizational change—experience that maps closely to the complex requirements of a global connectivity, cloud, and digital services provider.
A New Executive Mandate for Enterprise Transformation
The Chief Transformation Officer role has emerged as one of the most consequential leadership positions in large technology-driven enterprises. Unlike a conventional CIO role, which is often centered on technology strategy, systems availability, security, data architecture, and internal platforms, a transformation chief is expected to connect those capabilities directly to business performance.For Tata Communications, that remit appears broad by design. Sharma’s mandate includes aligning technology investments with business priorities, redesigning operating models, and accelerating innovation across key corporate and operational functions. That is an ambitious brief, particularly for a company operating across global network infrastructure, cloud services, cybersecurity, collaboration, Internet of Things platforms, and enterprise connectivity.
The role will likely require Sharma to balance several priorities at once:
- Simplifying internal processes without undermining control, compliance, or service reliability.
- Modernizing legacy operating models that may have evolved over years of acquisitions, product launches, regional growth, and customer-specific service requirements.
- Improving the link between technology spending and measurable business outcomes.
- Embedding AI and automation into operations where they can create practical gains rather than merely generate pilot projects.
- Supporting customer-facing innovation while strengthening the company’s internal execution engine.
- Improving supply chain visibility and resilience, particularly in areas involving infrastructure deployment, equipment sourcing, field operations, and service delivery.
Tata Communications appears to be giving the position that strategic weight. Sharma’s inclusion in the Global Management Committee places transformation closer to the company’s highest decision-making processes, where investment priorities, operating structures, talent decisions, growth initiatives, and customer strategy intersect.
Why the Appointment Matters for Tata Communications
Tata Communications is not simply a telecom operator in the traditional sense. Its business increasingly sits at the intersection of global connectivity and digital infrastructure, serving enterprises that need resilient networks, cloud access, secure data movement, managed services, and distributed operational support.That makes internal transformation especially important. Customers expect service providers to offer agile digital experiences, rapid service activation, real-time visibility, flexible commercial models, and consistent support across geographies. Meeting those expectations depends not only on the products a company sells, but also on the systems and processes that support order management, provisioning, billing, customer service, network operations, procurement, and field delivery.
A transformation leader can help address the gap that often emerges between a company’s outward-facing digital strategy and its internal operational reality. It is possible for an organization to promote AI-enabled products and cloud-centric services while still relying on fragmented workflows, manual approvals, duplicate data, disconnected platforms, and lengthy decision chains behind the scenes.
For a business such as Tata Communications, the potential upside of a successful transformation program is considerable:
- Faster time to market for new products and service enhancements.
- Better customer experience through streamlined service delivery and support.
- More consistent operating performance across international regions.
- Reduced manual effort through intelligent automation.
- Higher-quality data for commercial and operational decision-making.
- Greater agility in responding to technology shifts and competitive pressure.
- Improved cost discipline in operational and corporate functions.
Narottam Sharma’s Experience and Strategic Fit
Sharma brings more than two decades of experience across digital technology, IT leadership, transformation, business process redesign, and enterprise operations. His career spans multiple industries and operating contexts, from technology services to telecommunications infrastructure and consumer-facing food service.That range may prove valuable. Transformation leaders are often most effective when they can transfer proven ideas between sectors while remaining sensitive to the unique constraints of each industry. A supply chain challenge in quick-service restaurants is not identical to one in global communications infrastructure, but the disciplines of data visibility, process standardization, demand planning, systems integration, customer experience, and operational accountability can translate across environments.
From CIO to Transformation Chief
Most recently, Sharma served as CIO at Jubilant FoodWorks, a large consumer business with substantial operational complexity. In that setting, technology is closely tied to digital ordering, customer engagement, store operations, supply chain execution, analytics, payments, delivery ecosystems, and franchise or brand management.That experience is relevant because it places technology leadership directly in the path of day-to-day business outcomes. The CIO function in a high-volume consumer operation cannot remain isolated in the back office. It must support speed, reliability, customer experience, data-driven decision-making, and continuous adaptation.
At Tata Communications, the stakes are different but the need for integrated execution remains similar. Enterprise customers may not order services in the same way consumers order food, yet they still demand frictionless journeys, transparent delivery milestones, proactive support, predictable performance, and digital self-service capabilities.
Transformation Experience at Mastek and Sterlite
Sharma’s previous roles at Mastek and Sterlite Technologies further strengthen the logic behind the appointment. Mastek operates in technology and digital engineering services, where internal transformation must support scale, delivery quality, workforce productivity, and market responsiveness. Sterlite Technologies brings an infrastructure and communications technology context closer to Tata Communications’ own operating environment.Experience in technology services can be particularly helpful for a transformation chief because it develops familiarity with enterprise platforms, delivery models, process maturity, client expectations, talent management, and the operational challenges of scaling technology-driven businesses.
The combination of CIO experience, transformation leadership, and exposure to communications technology creates a profile suited to a role that demands both strategic vision and practical execution. Tata Communications will need someone who understands that the transformation agenda cannot be confined to slides, steering committees, and isolated proofs of concept.
It must change how work actually gets done.
What Enterprise-Wide Transformation Could Look Like
The public description of Sharma’s role highlights technology investment alignment, operating model redesign, innovation, supply chain, core operations, and corporate functions. Each phrase is broad, but together they outline the contours of a serious enterprise transformation program.Aligning Technology Investment With Business Priorities
One of the most persistent enterprise challenges is the mismatch between technology spending and visible business value. Organizations may invest heavily in cloud platforms, data programs, automation tools, AI services, cybersecurity infrastructure, and customer platforms, yet struggle to establish exactly how those investments improve revenue growth, margins, service quality, retention, or employee productivity.A strong transformation agenda should impose more discipline on that process. Instead of asking only whether a platform is modern or technically capable, leaders need to ask what business outcome it enables and how that outcome will be measured.
For Tata Communications, the core questions may include:
- Does a proposed technology investment reduce service activation time?
- Can it improve first-time resolution rates in customer support?
- Will it lower the cost of running network and service operations?
- Does it create a differentiated customer capability?
- Can it improve forecasting, capacity planning, or procurement decisions?
- Will it reduce security or operational risk?
- Does it simplify the employee experience and accelerate execution?
Redesigning Operating Models
Operating model redesign is one of the more difficult parts of a transformation mandate because it involves people, decision rights, organizational structures, incentives, metrics, and governance. Technology alone cannot fix an operating model that is too fragmented, too hierarchical, too slow, or too unclear about accountability.A modern operating model for a global digital infrastructure business may require tighter collaboration between network operations, product teams, engineering, sales, service delivery, cybersecurity, finance, and customer support. It may also require clearer definitions of where global standards apply and where regional teams need flexibility.
The objective should not be centralization for its own sake. Excessive centralization can slow decisions and weaken responsiveness to local customers. Conversely, excessive decentralization can lead to duplicated tools, inconsistent processes, higher costs, and uneven service quality.
The most effective model is likely to combine standardized enterprise platforms and controls with operational autonomy where it supports speed and customer value. Finding that balance will be a major test of Sharma’s leadership.
Re-engineering Core Operations
Process re-engineering can create some of the most tangible gains in transformation, especially when it focuses on high-volume, high-friction workflows. In an enterprise services environment, these might include quote-to-cash processes, order orchestration, service provisioning, incident management, contract administration, billing, customer onboarding, supplier management, and workforce scheduling.Automation and AI can play an important role, but only if the underlying processes are first understood and simplified. Automating a poorly designed workflow may simply allow an organization to make mistakes faster.
A disciplined approach usually begins with identifying the processes that have the greatest impact on customers, employees, cost, revenue leakage, operational risk, or service quality. Teams can then redesign those workflows around clear ownership, fewer handoffs, better data, and measurable outcomes.
The best transformation programs typically avoid trying to modernize everything at once. They sequence change according to impact, readiness, technical dependencies, and organizational capacity.
AI Will Be Important, but Execution Will Matter More
Sharma’s background includes AI-led transformation, a phrase that will attract attention given the intense interest in generative AI, machine learning, intelligent automation, and predictive analytics. Tata Communications has clear incentives to explore how AI can improve operations, customer engagement, security, service delivery, and internal productivity.However, AI-led transformation needs careful interpretation. It should not mean applying generative AI indiscriminately across the company. The strongest use cases are likely to be those where AI can improve speed, accuracy, prediction, or decision support while maintaining security, explainability, and human accountability.
Potential areas include:
- Network and service anomaly detection.
- Predictive maintenance and capacity management.
- Intelligent incident triage and resolution support.
- Customer support assistance and knowledge retrieval.
- Contract and document processing.
- Sales enablement and proposal development.
- Internal software engineering productivity.
- Finance and procurement analytics.
- Employee self-service and workflow automation.
The company will also need to avoid a common failure mode: launching dozens of AI pilots that never become scaled business capabilities. Transformation succeeds when promising experiments are selected, governed, industrialized, and integrated into real workflows.
The Supply Chain Dimension Deserves Attention
Supply chain transformation may be one of the less visible but more consequential elements of Sharma’s mandate. Communications infrastructure and technology services depend on complex ecosystems of hardware suppliers, logistics partners, deployment contractors, software vendors, cloud providers, and specialist service partners.Disruptions in those ecosystems can affect installation schedules, equipment availability, customer commitments, project costs, and service quality. Better supply chain visibility is therefore not simply an internal efficiency objective; it can be a customer promise issue.
A modernized supply chain approach could focus on:
- Demand forecasting for infrastructure and service components.
- Supplier risk management and diversification.
- Better inventory and asset visibility.
- Standardized procurement workflows.
- Faster approvals for critical equipment or deployment needs.
- Stronger coordination between sales forecasts and delivery planning.
- Data-driven decisions on sourcing, capacity, and lifecycle management.
The Strengths of a Dedicated Transformation Office
Creating a high-profile transformation role offers several advantages when executed well.First, it creates an explicit mandate to challenge legacy ways of working. Large organizations often know where their friction points are, but individual teams may lack the authority or incentives to resolve issues that cross departmental lines. A transformation chief can help bring together the parties needed to address systemic problems.
Second, the role can create stronger portfolio discipline. Technology initiatives can multiply rapidly in complex enterprises, especially when different business units pursue their own digital priorities. A centralized transformation lens can identify duplication, clarify priorities, and shift resources toward programs with the greatest enterprise value.
Third, it can improve the relationship between technology and business leadership. Digital transformation is most effective when leaders view technology as an enabler of strategy rather than a support function to be consulted after decisions are made. Sharma’s role provides an opportunity to embed that perspective more deeply across the company.
Finally, the appointment may help Tata Communications communicate a clearer strategic story to customers, employees, and partners. The company is signaling that it is investing in the operational foundations needed to compete in a market defined by speed, reliability, intelligence, and digital experience.
The Risks and Obstacles Ahead
The chief risk is not technological; it is organizational. Transformation can fail when leaders agree on broad ambitions but disagree on the changes required to achieve them. Process simplification can threaten established power structures. Platform consolidation can create tension with business units that prefer local control. Automation can raise employee concerns about changing roles and responsibilities.There is also the risk of transformation fatigue. Employees in large technology organizations are often already adapting to new systems, restructuring, product launches, commercial pressures, security requirements, and changing customer expectations. If the program is perceived as another top-down initiative with unclear benefits, adoption may suffer.
A successful agenda will require careful change management:
- Clear communication about why specific changes matter.
- Visible executive sponsorship beyond the transformation office.
- Measurable milestones rather than vague declarations of progress.
- Practical training and support for affected employees.
- Incentives aligned with desired operating behaviors.
- Honest feedback channels for identifying friction early.
- Willingness to stop or revise initiatives that are not delivering value.
What Success Should Look Like
Sharma’s appointment will ultimately be judged by results, not by the number of initiatives launched. A credible transformation program should produce visible improvements in how Tata Communications operates, serves customers, develops products, and deploys capital.Success could emerge through a combination of operational, commercial, and organizational indicators:
- Shorter service delivery and activation cycles.
- Better customer satisfaction and reduced support friction.
- Improved productivity in core operational processes.
- Reduced manual work and fewer error-prone handoffs.
- Greater transparency into program performance and technology spending.
- Faster development and commercialization of new services.
- More resilient supply chain and vendor management processes.
- Stronger use of data in executive and frontline decision-making.
- More consistent execution across regions and business units.
- A workforce equipped to use automation and AI responsibly.
A Strategic Appointment With High Expectations
Tata Communications’ decision to appoint Narottam Sharma as Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer reflects the reality that digital infrastructure companies must transform themselves even as they help customers transform. Connectivity, cloud, cybersecurity, data, and AI are no longer separate technology categories; they are interdependent components of modern enterprise operations.Sharma brings a career profile that combines CIO-level accountability, enterprise technology experience, AI-led transformation exposure, and operational redesign expertise. His mandate is expansive, covering the vital terrain where technology choices, organizational processes, supply chain performance, corporate functions, and customer outcomes converge.
The appointment is a strong strategic signal, but its real significance will depend on execution. If Tata Communications can translate the new role into clearer priorities, simpler processes, better data, scalable AI adoption, and stronger cross-functional accountability, the company could strengthen both its internal operating model and its competitive position in the global communications technology market.
The challenge now is to turn transformation from an executive mandate into a repeatable business capability—one that improves how the company works every day, not merely how it describes its future.
References
- Primary source: Elets CIO
Published: 2026-07-24T10:49:17+00:00
Tata Communications appoints Narottam Sharma as Chief Transformation Officer - Elets CIO
Tata Communications has appointed Narottam Sharma as Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, effective September 21, 2026.
cio.eletsonline.com
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Narrottam Sharma's email & phone number - Chief Information Officer at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. | SignalHire
View Narrottam Sharma's email address: n********[email protected] & phone: +91-***-***-0739's profile as Chief Information Officer at Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd., located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Find contacts: direct phone number, email address, work experience.www.signalhire.com - Related coverage: lightreading.com
Tata appoints Narottam Sharma Chief Transformation Officer
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टाटा कम्युनिकेशंस ने नरोत्तम शर्मा को बनाया 'Chief Transformation Officer' | Narottam Sharma Appointed Chief Transformation Officer Tata Communications - Samachar4media
टाटा कम्युनिकेशंस ने नरोत्तम शर्मा (Narottam Sharma) को Chief Transformation Officer नियुक्त किया है, जो कंपनी की डिजिटल ट्रांसफॉर्मेशन रणनीति का नेतृत्व करेंगे।www.samachar4media.com - Related coverage: medianews4u.com
Tata Communications appoints Narottam Sharma as Chief Transformation Officer
Mumbai: Tata Communications has appointed Narottam Sharma as its Chief Transformation Officer, effective September 2026, as the communications technology companywww.medianews4u.com
