Sandhya Mohan Pillai: Practical Solutions that Mobius Consulting Offers

The information risk and technology consulting industry has seen a huge surge in recent years, with Mobius Consulting’s own Sandhya Mohan-Pillai as a prominent figure in the industry, helping lead the way in creating awareness and understanding of organisational IT Governance and Information security measures and risk management efforts.

After several years of working for some of the large corporate organisations in South Africa, Sandhya decided to pursue a new venture which would bring a more hands-on approach to Information Security, IT Governance and Information Risk for clients. With Mobius, Sandhya has helped drive business growth in targeted markets across South Africa by leveraging her strong leadership skills and passion.

“I saw an opportunity to start something, and be a part of a journey to make a difference – orientated around finding solutions that make sense to clients,” explains Sandhya. “What attracted me most to the industry is the complexity of problems that we deal with. I wanted to do something that’s in the face of clients, and not behind the scenes.”

As a woman in the technology business sector, Sandhya Mohan-Pillai did not have previous exposure to the field of information risk, information security and risk management until she saw an opportunity to bring business and technology together. After 20 years in the industry, she has never looked back.

Her advice to women who are considering technology as a career is to see it as a possibility. “Women can do anything. If you are confident, you will be able to do whatever is possible,” says Sandhya Mohan-Pillai.

Sandhya, who is a Director at Mobius Consulting, adds that the drive to bring practical solutions to clients is something that drew her to join Mobius, and it’s this approach that is unique to the company.

“It’s something that I couldn’t do previously, so I wanted to operate in a space where I could provide practical solutions freely and make a meaningful contribution to clients.”

Regarding practical solutions, Sandhya emphasises that clients are looking for understandable and relatable security improvements, rather than abstract suggestions and textbook methodologies.

“Clients often come to us with risks – whether it is access management, third party risk management, privacy or other areas – and there’s often confusion with regard to how to solve the issue. Defining the problem, understanding it, and coming up with recommendations and practices on how to address these concerns is what we’re focused on.”

In terms of clients, Mobius Consulting sees value in addressing concerns with all types and sizes of businesses and organisations, which provides a greater breadth of solutions for problems across diverse industries.

“Big or small, most companies have similar problems. What differentiates Mobius is how we approach each risk or problem: it’s about finding little problems that might become big problems,” says Sandhya, “and finding solutions for that.”

Sandhya also adds that risk management doesn’t need to be a precautionary facet for a business but should rather be seen as an opportunity to enhance an organisation’s processes and systems.

“We’ve seen how technology has evolved over the past 20 years, problems are becoming even bigger and more complex, so now risk management has become not only a necessity, but a way for businesses to grow and become more profitable.”

Speak to Sandhya Mohan-Pillai

Sandhya Mohan-Pillai (CGEIT, CISA, CISM) has over 20 years of IT Consulting experience across a number of areas with specific focus on Information Security, IT Governance, Identity and Access Governance, Third Party Risk Management, Risk management as well as broader management consulting.

Sandhya’s experience in IT risk management and consulting extends to KPMG, as an Associate Director, as well as Investec Internal audit and Investec Private Bank IT and Operational Risk.

Having been part of larger professional organisations for over 10 years, Sandhya joined Mobius Consulting as one of the early founding members of Mobius Consulting and now leads the Johannesburg practice. She has successfully driven business growth in targeted markets in South Africa by leveraging on her strong leadership skills and her passion for adding value and making a difference in everything she does.