Shah Irani, Chief Technology Officer at Fleet Management Limited, talks to The Ortus Club about the evolving role of the modern CTO as a growth architect and why stepping away from day-to-day operations to engage in peer-level executive dialogue is critical for cross-industry innovation.
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Executive Summary: Key Takeaways
- The Adaptability Mandate: In an industry as traditional as shipping, IT’s role has shifted from a back-office function to a primary driver of business growth and decarbonisation.
- Controlled Experimentation: Innovation should not be an open-ended chequebook exercise. It requires a scientific approach to testing specific, high-value use cases to ensure ROI.
- Democratised Technology: The rise of low-code and no-code solutions means IT is no longer siloed within technical teams, turning every department into a potential driver of digital efficiency.
- Cross-Industry Learning: Breaking out of a single-sector bubble, such as moving from retail to shipping, allows leaders to “leapfrog” legacy challenges by applying proven best practices, often surfaced through peer-level discussions across industries.
Shah Irani, CTO of Fleet Management Limited, oversees the digital ecosystem for over 650 vessels, proving that even old-school sectors are fertile ground for technological disruption. Irani’s career spans three decades in retail, including managing the high-stakes uptime of 40,000 tills during the Christmas rush.
He understands that the most valuable skill for any leader is the ability to pivot. For Irani, the standard career path doesn’t exist. Instead, he champions continuous learning, where executive roundtables play a vital role in identifying the “shiny things” that truly generate business value.
How does a background in economics lead to a career as a global maritime CTO?
Shah discusses his non-linear path, emphasising that a technical grounding in data and operations is the foundation for strategic leadership.
“After I completed university in economics, I always had an interest in technology. I first went to a retailer on a graduate technology scheme, which put me in working on data warehousing. I worked my way up from developer support to a DBA, getting a good technical grounding. I moved into international roles, service management, and keeping the tills running. If the tills stop, the business stops. That journey from getting my hands dirty to managing global loyalty functions is how I’ve ended up here, finding the right technology solutions for the shipping industry.”
Why should IT leaders be the most comfortable with the discomfort of change?
Irani argues that digital transformation fails if the IT team itself is resistant to the same agility they expect from the rest of the business.
“Fundamentally, technology is always about change. We expect our colleagues across our business to change. To change their ways of working. But we have to be the first people willing to adapt. If you don’t reinvent and challenge yourself, you naturally fall behind. Even if I learned something a year ago in retail, I never think it’s a case of ‘copy and paste.’ The energy of thinking about how to do things differently is what keeps me interested.”
How do you balance “hygiene” IT with the need for innovative risk-taking?
Shah differentiates between foundational infrastructure, which must be stable, and the controlled experimentation required for genuine innovation.
“Implementing good foundational IT, infrastructure and security, is hygiene. You shouldn’t be innovating on that because it’s well-proven. Where you’re trying to do something genuinely different, there has to be more tolerance for things going wrong. I think about controlled experimentation. It’s like being a scientist; you’re trying to test a specific thing. You can’t just have an open-ended chequebook. You need to be intelligent about which experiments will have the best results and test them in a controlled fashion.”
Why is the shipping industry currently at a unique “leapfrog” moment for technology?
The shift toward decarbonisation and EU regulations is forcing a traditional industry to integrate and modernise at an unprecedented pace.
“In shipping, a lot of the regulatory impact is on decarbonisation, like the EU FuelEU maritime regulations. It’s forcing more integration between platforms, which has tended to be unstandardised in this industry. Coming from retail, where standards like GS1 are consistent, shipping is now moving toward that data-sharing level. Being a more traditional industry is actually an advantage. We can bypass legacy challenges and move straight into smarter, integrated platforms.”
Why is adaptability the single most critical skill for a CTO today?
Irani explains that leadership isn’t just about managing systems, but about taking both the technology team and business counterparts on a journey.
“Adaptability. You’ve just got to be comfortable with not sitting still. It’s about taking technology teams, as well as business counterparts, on that journey. People tend to fear change, so you have to make it comfortable. First for yourself, and then for the people around you. Even within my team of developers, I share examples of how to use generative AI constantly. It’s continually moving; what didn’t work three weeks ago might work now. You have to be aware of those shifts.”
Join the Conversation: The Ortus Club’s Executive Network
Shah Irani’s leadership highlights a crucial reality: the most useful technology isn’t always the shiniest one. It’s the one that drives the business forward. His advocacy for controlled experimentation and cross-industry learning is at the heart of the executive roundtable. By engaging with peers who have already solved retail-level data challenges, maritime leaders can skip the learning curve and move directly to implementation.
At The Ortus Club, we create the space for this type of knowledge-sharing. Our discussions move past simplistic use cases to explore how AI and automation can be genuinely useful for your specific teams and customers. If you want to ensure your technology strategy is a frontier for growth rather than a technology-for-technology’s-sake exercise, you can connect with others facing similar challenges.
FAQs
Q: How do executive roundtables help with controlled experimentation?
A: By discussing the range of cost and time with peers who have run similar tests, CTOs can provide more accurate guidance to their boards and avoid “open-ended chequebook” mistakes.
Q: What is the “leapfrog” advantage in traditional industries?
A: Traditional industries can often bypass middle-stage legacy technologies and move directly to modern, cloud-native solutions by learning from sectors like Retail or Finance.
Q: How does The Ortus Club support maritime decarbonisation efforts?
A: Our roundtables provide a venue for leaders to discuss the systems needed to cope with new EU regulations, fostering the data integration and third-party verification required for compliance.
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