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In today's rapidly changing economy, ever-evolving media and technology landscape, and shifting consumer values, successful companies stand for something more than profit alone. Being purpose-driven is no longer exclusive to non-profit organizations; in fact, many tech-led companies are leading the way in balancing profit with purpose to achieve financial and reputational success. This resonates with Inspire Clean Energy, a mission-driven, clean energy company that subscribes people to clean energy solutions for their homes and the environment, and its leaders.
The certified B-Corporation was founded in 2014 in response to growing demands for climate action, Inspire was built on the idea that one of the biggest steps society can take toward climate action is the decarbonization of the energy grid.
With 20% of U.S. emissions coming from residential energy use, Inspire offers whole-home energy solutions designed to help neutralize this impact in an easy and accessible way. It is the first and only company to deliver a flat-price, monthly subscription plan for unlimited access to 100% clean energy. Members receive an easy access to clean energy –from sources like wind, solar and low-impact hydro– and peace of mind from a predictable price for their home's electricity supply while effortlessly reducing carbon emissions associated with their home's energy use.
Leading with purpose has been a prominent philosophy throughout Mukund Kaushik's career. As the Chief Technology Officer at Inspire, Mukund leads the company's technology and data infrastructure, which includes strategy, innovation, software engineering, technology operations, and developing technical talent. In addition, Mukund is responsible for scaling Inspire's application engineering, data engineering, and IT organizations to support growth.
Mukund is an Intraprenuer –an entrepreneur on the inside of one's company– who is grounded by a personal value that has guided his professional path – which is: 'leave the place better than you found it.'
For nearly 30 years, Mukund has been leading technology adoption across a variety of sectors including Automotive, Consumer Packaged Goods, Public Utility, and now Renewable Energy at Inspire.
The India-born, Santa Monica-based technologist describes his journey in technology as starting "since the time of the inception of PCs." From Mainframes to PCs to Internet Business to Mobile and Social Business to the new era of Generational AI, Quantum Computing, and Blockchain – he has consistently harnessed technology to drive business growth and innovation.
Before Inspire, Mukund held leadership roles at Southern California Edison and Kimberly-Clark, where he partnered and led the digital transformation within the company and held several IT leadership positions at Honda North America, specifically leading the development of the company's connected car program.
Mukund has been twice recognized as a prominent talent in the industry, first as a recipient of the Top 100 "CIO Innovation Organization Award" for outstanding IT contributions, and when he was named one of Consumer Goods Technology's top "Visionaries" for superior IT innovation and sales transformation.
During his CTO experience at Honda, Mukund led the team that developed the connected car program called "HondaLink" and "AcuraLink". This technology was developed to save consumers who were in car crashes by calling roadside emergency services to the location of the vehicle crash while providing convenient services such as real-time traffic and over-the-air entertainment (this was before the advent of smartphone connectivity in cars).
While serving as the Chief Digital Officer at Southern California Edison, he led the team to develop solutions that helped utilities do better inspections of their grid to prevent people from losing homes to wildfires. One of the efforts Mukund sponsored won a Gold Lion at the international Cannes Lions Awards, the world's most prestigious and respected benchmark for creative excellence.
Through all these experiences, Mukund has always believed in the joy of creation by bringing a learning and growth mindset to all situations. The fulfillment of collaborating, contributing, and creating something with people that propels the world forward is underpinned by Mukund's principles of continuous improvement and approaching all situations with curiosity and possibility.
According to Mukund, every difficult experience or challenge taught him a new lesson. Technology was never the biggest challenge in his career. He has always been able to overcome technological challenges on projects along with his team; however, the challenges faced are more humanistic in nature. Talent development, recognition, managing change, and being authentic are some of his key learnings over the years.
Talking about his experience working in the US, Mukund said, when he first began, he was hired as an entry-level employee – despite his depth of experience and technical knowledge far exceeding that level by nearly 10 years.
His boss at the time pulled Mukund aside to acknowledge the disparity between Mukund's experience and salary and vowed to help correct this imbalance. His manager's support and action on the issue forever shaped Mukund's leadership style and belief that those in power have the responsibility to pay it forward.
Mukund believes it is important to recognize and incentivize talent – to close pay gaps and retain key talent. This investment also helps foster a network of employees with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and thinking, which, in Mukund's opinion, leads to better innovations and solutions.
Later in his career, Mukund discovered another lesson after experiencing hardship in his personal life. He realized there is no separating his 'personal self' from his 'professional self' – this actualization gave way to a new perspective on authenticity and leadership.
He believes it's important to bring a level of honesty and authenticity when it comes to leading people. This includes being vulnerable, accepting mistakes and responsibility for his decisions, and accepting that mistakes will also be made as a collective team.
This realization, he says, of his holistic identity as a technologist, mentor, father, golfer, hiker, and many other things has helped humanize him as a leader. By leveraging vulnerability as a key strength – he has forged deeper relationships with colleagues which has been a catalyst for enhanced collaboration and performance.
In Mukund's opinion, Chief Technology Officers must be more than just technically savvy. They need to wear many hats: business leaders, technology specialists, innovators, and people managers, among others.
A technology visionary who is also a strategic leader is essential for profitability and growing a company. Mukund says the following are distinguishable qualities of a great Chief Technology Officer:
Inspire is committed to putting the power in people's hands by enabling consumers to drive change that will accelerate the world's transition to clean energy – all from home. Mukund says Inspire has a unique product offering: easily accessible clean energy at a flat monthly rate.
Inspire is the first company to offer consumers a personalized flat monthly subscription service to access clean energy – similar in concept to other modern subscription services such as Netflix or Spotify. This solution is enabled by Inspire's proprietary data stack and technology platform that understands the unique energy needs of every home. With Inspire, customers can predict their monthly electricity supply bill all while helping to avoid carbon emissions and supporting the world's transition to clean energy.
Inspire is securing customer usage data in the markets it serves. The company analyzes that data to forecast the supply Inspire needs to buy and the rate at which it needs to buy to offer consumers a competitive price while protecting profit margins to keep the business healthy.
Additionally, Inspire leverages its pricing tool that enables the company to offer competitive prices to the customer based on their current bill and understanding of the energy markets. All of this is done using the data and advanced analytics that use AI and Machine Learning algorithms.
Inspire's technology further enables the company to target the right customers, provide them with the right price for clean energy and enable a frictionless onboarding process across all channels: face-to-face, retail, and digital. Collectively, this technology powers Inspire's subscription model, which serves as the company's competitive advantage and what drives the business forward.
As a technology and business leader, Mukund continues to see how he and his team can provide better products and services for customers by reviewing the renewable energy market, speaking with consumers, and staying abreast of key technology advancements for potential use across the customer lifecycle.
The role of the technology leader is to be able to think as a business leader, lead organizations to leverage technology to drive the business forward, and then inspire their technology teams to deliver on the vision. Mukund has pushed 'traditional companies' to leverage disruptive technologies throughout his entire career. He believes the teams and companies that fully harness and test the latest developments can better ideate, innovate, and scale key products and services.
At Inspire, Mukund and his team are exploring ways that Generative AI could potentially guide the organization in the future. These tools eventually could be leveraged to help advise the sales team on where to target customers or how to improve Inspire's pricing engine by evaluating the right price that helps protect the business's margin goals while keeping the fixed rate affordable for customers.
Change is the new constant –there is no stasis– and technology is at the heart of this change. Technology and information and digital leaders can leverage technology to drive disruptive change in business models that achieve breakthrough results.
Mukund believes computers will never replace what uniquely makes humans, well, human – the ability to imagine, daydream and think of new, different ideas. However, technology can help execute ideas more immaculately. Skillfully utilizing AI and ML technology can help leaders have improved awareness to lead to better decisions, and also help cut through the mess and deliver a precise, relevant experience to the audience. Mukund's guidance is to jump in and engage with the many generative AI technologies that are out there. Actively using them will offer opportunities to engage in conversations that can help organizations create a more efficient and productive user experience while also ensuring that interactions remain human-centric.
Fifteen years ago, technology seemed mysterious and complex to many business teams and consumers. The way businesses connect with consumers and as organization units were much more limited. Now, technology has become a native part of human life.
The digital world that humans live in allows consumers to access detailed data that helps them make decisions and act quickly. Businesses are more tech-savvy and have big expectations and opinions about what kinds of technologies they want to use, and for which bespoke purposes. The role of a technology leader has already evolved. It's moved away from being a support function to now a strategic role that partners with the business. Looking ahead and as technology becomes even more central in daily life, the purpose of a tech team will also transform.
Mukund believes there will always be a need for a dedicated function that coordinates the technology and data within the enterprise. He anticipates the function may not be as large as it currently is, but it may instead be a deeper function within the organization. For instance, each business department may have its dedicated tech arm embedded within its group. For Inspire, Mukund wants to continue and expand upon the good work the company has already started.
The north star is how technology can drive scale for the business and concurrently advance and accelerate more clean energy access in the marketplace. Both within Inspire's existing model, the more customers powered through Inspire's tech stack the closer to reaching the goal of a net zero carbon future, and also through new tech solutions.
Exploration, possibility, and innovation are what fuel Mukund's ongoing passion for his job. He wants to push technology to help level the playing field of environmental injustice. Clean energy is often only associated with affluence, and he wants to continue the discourse on how to bring clean energy to everyone, particularly marginalized communities.
Monthly expenses like rent and mobile charges are often fixed, but energy, depending on the season, is a fluctuating expense. He imagines a day of being able to tell someone that Inspire can lock in a fixed monthly energy price regardless of the time of year and help maintain a comfortable standard of living through a technology product that helps regulate home temperature. It's blue sky thinking but something that excites Mukund and helps him live out his value of leaving a place better than how he found it.
If Mukund had a chance to go back in time, there are 3 things he would tell himself: Focus on building teams and supporting processes that last beyond the "projects." The projects will change over time, but CTO's teams and processes will continue to do the ongoing work. Be empathetic; everyone is trying to do their best. It is crucial to make sure you don't do anything that makes "you, as their leader" a conversation at the family dinner table. Begin focusing on a second career that a person can retire into or find passions that also challenge him/her mentally.
Quote: "I'm looking to make a meaningful impact as a technologist. We need to approach solving complex challenges, such as climate change, with a mindset for the future. The foundation we lay today may be our only way to leave the world a better place for future generations."
Management: Mukund Kaushik, Chief Technology Officer
Website: https://www.inspirecleanenergy.com/
