Career / Interviews

Although I was hired by YRC Worldwide nearly two years ago to create a strategy to drive innovation, I quickly realized that there was more work to do within IT than just creating a strategy. In the wake of the merger of Yellow Freight, Roadway and USF, the IT groups from our three companies operating in multiple locations had been merged into one unit but had yet to jell into a cohesive team. Adding to the stress from its change of identity, the group had to develop an application road map for the merged organisation that would modernize and simplify the application portfolio. Only then would we be able to free up the resources needed to focus on innovation and driving growth. The IT transformation is the biggest change effort ever seen within IT, ultimately involving hundreds of people.
The size and scope of such a task requires change leadership from the CIO. I have to be actively involved, and it's a tough balancing act. I've been spending between 20 to 30 per cent of my time as the hands-on manager of our change initiatives during the past 18 months while at the same time fulfilling my strategic role.

Most CIOs think they have their hands full with developing the ICT facility to meet the needs of their organisation within a (usually) tight budget, leading their team and – if highly regarded enough – participating in strategy sessions with directors; not to mention firefighting mishaps and unexpected delays.
But there are a few who spot a gap in the market, a benefit for the company and/or a career opportunity for themselves and who find time alongside their daily tasks to pursue a more entrepreneurial second string to their bow. Then there are those whose talent is sought by the organisation to help it pursue or facilitate some new endeavour. They may find themselves thrust into an entrepreneurial role they might not have dreamed up of their own accord.

Massey University might rank as New Zealand’s 10th largest IT user organisation according the 2007 MIS 00 report, but CIO Gerrit Bahlman says he operates in a very different environment from his counterparts in private enterprise.
The objectives that guide the running of ICT in a business are comparatively clear, he says. It’s a matter of assisting the company to run a business at a profit and respond to customer needs, while the achievement of these goals can usually be measured in objective ways.

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.

Auckland’s Nuffield Street in Newmarket isn’t the place that springs to mind when you think of the city’s water operations. You imagine a building camouflaged by dense bush, perhaps, overlooking a dam or a reservoir in the Waitakeres. But the upmarket suburb is the location for Watercare Services’ new corporate headquarters and you can find Mike Foley, its CIO, in the former Mercury Energy building; an open-plan office accommodating 200 people from operations, asset development, IS and corporate finance.
Foley sees Nuffield Street as a fresh start for Watercare. Operations and management had previously been spread across two sites in Onehunga and the Auckland CBD.