In this insightful episode, Amir Bormand interviews Anil Choudary, CTO at Alliant Credit Union, about bridging the gap between technology and business priorities. The conversation covers managing tech debt effectively, engaging with business leaders, and fostering a culture of collaboration. Anil shares strategies for empowering engineers, using hackathons to foster innovation, and building a shared understanding between business and technology teams. Key Takeaways: Bridging the Gap: Understand and translate business priorities into technology initiatives to align goals effectively. Tech Debt Management: Position tech debt as a shared enterprise issue, not just a technical challenge. Empowering Engineers: Leverage initiatives like hackathons to surface bottom-up innovations and bridge the gap between business and technology. Culture of Collaboration: Establishing a culture of mutual understanding and collaboration is key to successful technology implementation. Emerging Technologies: Carefully evaluate the value and feasibility of emerging technologies like GenAI to ensure alignment with organizational needs. Highlighted Timestamps: [00:00] Introduction to Anil Choudary and the topic of technology-business alignment. [02:00] Understanding and translating business priorities into technology initiatives. [05:00] Tech debt: A shared challenge and how to communicate it to business stakeholders. [09:00] Evaluating the feasibility of emerging technologies like GenAI for practical use cases. [13:00] Using hackathons to empower engineers and foster innovation within the organization. [18:00] Lessons from leading tech companies: Applying product-centric thinking to mainstream organizations. [24:00] Creating production-ready AI solutions and addressing the hype versus reality of emerging technologies. Memorable Quote: "Tech debt isn't just a technology problem—it's an enterprise problem. It's about understanding how our decisions over time shape the organization's ability to innovate." – Anil Choudary This episode offers a practical guide for technology and business leaders to align their strategies, foster collaboration, and embrace innovation while managing the complexities of tech debt and cultural transformation. --- Anu Choudary is a seasoned technology leader with extensive experience in driving digital transformation and strategic business initiatives. With a background in both technical and managerial roles, she excels at bridging the gap between business objectives and technological innovation. Anu has led high-impact projects in cloud computing, enterprise architecture, and software development, demonstrating a keen ability to align IT solutions with organizational goals. Known for her collaborative approach, she fosters cross-functional solid relationships and emphasizes the importance of mentorship and team development. Her expertise positions her as a valuable asset in leading technology-driven growth and change within organizations. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/achoudary/