Preserve the meaning through every system change

A calendar date became my most useful lesson in systems leadership. In 2019 I approved a corporate-contract migration whose date fields had been converted through timestamp handling. In an eighty-record review, twenty-four displayed a day earlier in the receiving view, while fifty-six retained the intended date. The import had completed, but the business calendar had not survived intact. I stopped use of the affected automated reminders and asked the team to restore the correct interpretation with the contract owners. The system display did not amend a contract; it could still send colleagues towards the wrong action.

I now lead corporate technology at Zarqevli Gas Services in Patna. Thirty-two employees work through four leads, with five external specialists counted separately. My annual operating envelope is ₹5.7 crore, alongside a separately approved ₹1.9 crore change programme. The company has 318 employees and 120 business clients, with FY2025–26 service revenue of ₹86 crore. I report to CEO Amit Qezlvani, hold no personal interest and have no statutory directorship. Corporate information systems support the business; they do not give me authority over gas engineering, operating controls, contractual interpretation or the professional decisions behind the records.

Later work examined tables whose values survived conversion while their row and column relationships did not, and withdrawn corporate guidance that remained accessible through a search copy. These cases changed what I ask at acceptance. The business owner needs to recognise the meaning and status of the material after the technology has moved it, not merely see that the job ran. I would consider a CIO mandate where that shared acceptance is part of delivery. For an outside-board role, preparation and a company-specific assessment remain necessary. Twenty-four annual days is an initial proposal to examine against the actual calendar. I would contribute questions about what a system change lets someone infer, including when the original technical success was one I had approved.

Current focus

Corporate-system changes that preserve the meaning, relationships and current status of business information.

Conversations I welcome

Energy-services CIO mandates and a separately assessed first board contribution.