Doug Wilson had missed the iconic rite of passage for young Kiwi adults — the great overseas experience.
Eventually he did do an ‘OE’ of sorts, but he didn’t leave New Zealand and it took place in the middle of his career, just after he left Wang (now Gen-i) as chief executive.
For the fourth year, the University of Auckland is the biggest ICT user organisation in New Zealand.
As in previous MIS100s, government and defence and education services comprise more than half the organisations.
More than a year ago, Peter Burggraaff met the representatives of HCL as CIO of Farmers when the outsourcing company bid for a contract with the retail group.
HCL did not get the contract, but Burggraaff stayed in touch with them. “I felt they had a huge potential in a country like this.”
A company ‘disestablishes’ the CIO position and splits the role into two – both a rung lower than the CIO and reporting to the CFO, who once had the CIO as a direct report.
A CIO is made redundant, resigns or takes another position in the company and is not replaced. An IT director may be appointed but does not have the same access or strategic responsibilities of the former CIO. The company may or may not hire a CIO in the near future.
Greg James was on sabbatical following a year-long assignment in Europe with the New Zealand Dairy Board, when he was offered to head what he describes as a "small business initiative"called Jedi. The call came from an executive of the then newly-formed Fonterra, and the job was director of the dairy group's biggest business transformation program to date.
Ten years, 10 IT directors, 10 divergent paths.
On the panel:
Tim Sheedy, Senior analyst, IT and information management, Forrester
Last year a string of kidnap incidents rocked the Auckland division of an ICT company. The incidents were never reported in the mainstream media. The victims: Potted sunflower plants.
Steven Graham, Auckland general manager of Fronde Synergy, says the staff were given sunflower seeds and were told the person who grew the tallest plant would get a prize.
The panel:
Lt Col Karyn Te Moana, staff officer command and control, communications, computers and electronic warfare capability management team, NZ Army
View from the top
Lieutenant Colonel Karyn Te Moana reckons her most dangerous assignment was in East Timor. In 1999, Lt Col Te Moana, who now heads the communications, computers and electronic warfare capability management team of the NZ Army, was in the first landing of Kiwi troops in Dili.
They were surrounded by burning buildings, the militia were still firing, and the residents were hiding in the hills. “We really did rely on each other to watch each other’s back,” she says. “We worked very long hours trying to set up places to live, secure the environment for the local people to come back down and start their lives again, [and] set up the communications system.”
Two years ago when Carol Abernethy joined the Ministry of Justice as general manager technology and services, she discovered a significant advantage in working for the public sector.
Public sector executives, she says, have this fantastic opportunity to confer with their peers in other agencies about the projects they are working on and learn from each other’s experiences.
Brent Powell says there is a lot of discussion of what makes a great leader in books (“theoretical perfection” he terms it), but you can only choose your leadership style “after having the practical experience and seeing those skills in action and applying them”.
That has certainly been the case for Powell, general manager business systems at Fletcher Distribution, who says he had the good fortune to enjoy the “luxury” of working with business leaders who served as vital role models on handling people and change management issues.
For Ron van de Riet, there is a world of difference between being a manager, and a manager-slash-leader.
“Management to me is just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. Leadership is totally different but you have to be both,” says the general manager, IT and business delivery, at Kiwibank.
Several weeks ago, while working on MIS Magazine, I was sidetracked by an incident?–?a major business event, actually. Our publisher Fairfax Business Media acquired the licence to publish our competitor in the IT management magazine space –?and merged the two publications.
It would have been tempting?–?and an easy route?–?for the magazine to just slap the CIO masthead on the cover, and inside, simply retain what MIS is known for?–?real life experiences of local IS leaders, buttressed with honest insights from peers, other business executives and analysts from New Zealand and overseas.