The ‘human’ behind tech

“I thrive on my skills of appreciating and learning to deliver opportunities through technology,” stated Bappaditya Banerjee, Director of Technology, Brands For Less Group during his SOLOx session at the IMAGES RetailME Awards 2024. But he does so always with a human touch.

Here’s how Banerjee summed up his three key learnings:

1. Treat technology in any shape or form as a product.

“When I say product, it must be well understood by people, who will benefit from it and who will use it and adopt it. Importantly, there must be a strong business case. Whether you’re doing a hardware refresh or implementing an application. Whether its Edge Computing or GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence) or any other piece of technology, it needs to be looked at as a product. It needs to have a design; the right people and it needs to sit on an efficient business process.”

2. Care for everything.

“Caring is not just about people. Care for the environment – the facilities, infrastructure and technology itself – as much as the wellbeing of people. If you are genuinely caring, the rest will fall in place.”

3. Team play is the key.

“Besides being a tech person, I’m a musician. I’ve been playing guitar for the last 30 years. Music has taught me confidence, agility and importantly, one of the biggest lessons of when not to play. What that means is the output, especially when we play in a band, must be harmonious, which is driven by teamwork, as it is in the retail world too.”