Change Management / Interviews

CIO50 2020 #26-50: Sarah Thirlwall, MinterEllisonRuddWatts

“Law firms are recognised as traditional and risk averse due to the nature of the service they provide. However, innovation is in our firm’s DNA,” says SarahThirlwall, who took on the inaugural CDO role at MinterEllisonRuddWatts following a long-term executive career in the health sector.

Written by Divina Paredes14 Oct. 20 16:30

In pictures: Launching the 2019 CIO50 in Wellington

CIO New Zealand launches the inaugural CIO50, recognising the nation's top 50 technology and digital chiefs of 2019, at the Te Papa in Wellington (Photos by Mark Coote)

Written by CIO New Zealand29 March 19 15:41

CIO50 2019 #17: Mark Leadbetter, House of Travel

“Whenever you deliver IT projects or enhancements to a business, you are delivering a change. You should never lose focus on who is impacted by this change and how the change affects them,” says Mark Leadbetter of House of Travel.

Written by Divina Paredes28 March 19 08:30

CIO50 2019 #5: Roger Jones, Auckland Transport

“We wanted to improve operational efficiency and increase cross-functional collaboration, by disrupting and changing our traditional way of working,” says Roger Jones, executive general manager technology at Auckland Transport

Written by Divina Paredes28 March 19 08:30

CIO100 2018 #31-100: Grant Strang, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa

“We are confident, audacious and constantly challenging ourselves, the status quo and leading the pace of change,” is how Grant Strang describes the approach of the technology team at tertiary provider Te Wānanga o Aotearoa (TWoA). The results, he says, can be seen in the range of projects they have delivered over the past year.

Written by Divina Paredes28 March 18 08:30

CIO100 2018 #31-100: Ursula Phillips, PepsiCo

PepsiCo Australia and New Zealand has already completed its Agile transformation, led by chief information officer Ursula Phillips who has been with the company since 2012 and in the CIO role for four years.

Written by CIO28 March 18 08:30

CIO100 2018 #31-100: Simon Clarke, Trustpower

For Simon Clarke of Trustpower, the key question a CIO needs to ask is, “How are our technology team and technology investments creating competitive advantage for our business?"

Written by CIO New Zealand28 March 18 08:30

CIO100 2018 #31-100: Nathan John Steiner, Veeam

“Driving technology transformation required me to adapt the business case and ‘technical solution sell’ to many different stakeholders,” says Nathan John Steiner, head of systems engineering ANZ, at Veeam.

Written by CIO New Zealand28 March 18 08:30

CIO100 2017 #2: Craig Bunyan, ANZ Bank

“Our ethos is ‘learn fast and adapt’,” says Craig Bunyan, says of the technology team at ANZ Bank.

Written by Divina Paredes29 March 17 07:00

CIO100 2017 #28 Chris Buxton, Statistics NZ

“We have to think of our customers being every citizen in New Zealand. They expect government to be gaining the same insights from data they can gain themselves and use them to improve their lot.” For Chris Buxton, chief digital officer at Statistics New Zealand, this perspective has impacted the way he and his team have been working with the rest of the senior management to deliver on the agency’s goal of “unleashing the power of data to change lives.”

Written by Divina Paredes29 March 17 07:00

Master of disaster

It's the nightmare of every chief information officer – a systems meltdown that unplugs vital services, causing embarrassment in the burning glare of media attention.
But while working through a crisis is an integral part of every organisation's disaster plan, how does a CIO pick up the pieces after the initial problems are ­temporarily fixed?

Written by David Ramli06 Nov. 11 22:00

The price of change

With innovation firmly back on the agenda in the boardrooms of big Australian companies, and all departments expected to contribute, a growing number of organisations are looking for ways to measure the value that information technology delivers to their businesses – rather than simply allocating a fixed budget every year for maintaining operations.
As these traditional models are ¬challenged by new ways of doing things, it  makes sense to ask whether cloud ¬computing will offer greater visibility to the true costs and benefits of IT.

Written by Brian Corrigan and and Shaun Drummond02 May 11 22:00

Clicks & mortar

After a successful career in ICT, first in Wellington then contracting in the UK and Europe, Hamish Grant returned with his family to Palmerston North, his hometown, in 2006, thinking he might semi-retire.
“My wife is English, but we met in Wellington,” he says, so the move to Europe was for personal as well as career reasons.

Written by Stephen Bell18 Aug. 10 22:00

A rite of passage for CIOs

Wayne Shurts had no experience overseeing IT operations in emerging markets when Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer appointed him global CIO last summer. The geographic parameters of Shurts' responsibilities at the sweets maker - with a presence everywhere from Pakistan to Palau - multiplied overnight.
The former CIO for North America now spends most of his time globe-trotting from his home base in Parsippany, New Jersey, to London headquarters to operations on six continents.

Written by Stephanie Overby11 Nov. 09 22:00

High-definition leadership

To the viewing public, broadcast free-to-air television is essentially about breaking news, reality TV, sitcoms, movies, sports and other forms of entertainment.
Damian Swaffield has quite a different perspective.

Written by Divina Paredes18 Aug. 09 22:00

Enabling enterprise capability

In 2006 Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) CIO David Spaziani was handed the task of assembling the Department’s disparate ICT silos into a coherent whole. The department-wide change process not only achieved this, it did so without an increase in budget or the wholesale exodus of staff, Spaziani said at the recent CIO Leaders’ Luncheons in Auckland and Wellington.
New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs has been dubbed the “mother of all departments”. It reports to six ministers, administers more than 90 Acts and Regulations, and employs 1400 staff in 21 offices here and overseas.

Written by Ken Lewis23 June 09 22:00

Overcoming change fatigue

The University of Sydney is being rebuilt from the inside out. Winding roadways with pokey parking for each faculty are being bulldozed in favour of wide avenues, and dingy student cafes are gradually being replaced by modern kiosks.
However, these winds of change are unlikely to have any significant effect on the haphazard collection of buildings that radiate out from the 150-year-old quadrangle. Solid stone structures with high ceilings seem to be competing for space alongside permanent demountables, underground lecture theatres and intricate multipurpose structures with numerous entrances and countless balconies. It's history written in architecture.

Written by Jeanne-Vida Douglas18 May 08 22:00

The new 'T' skills

Outside IBM's large, grey, Stalinist complex on London's South Bank, the squally March weather is blowing umbrellas inside out, and sending discarded newspapers, food wrappers, and other detritus to the four winds. Tourists scurry into the nearby National Theatre, Hayward Gallery and other attractions, sprinting to escape the latest caprices of nature.
Inside, Graham Spittle is reflecting on a different type of sudden change. After two decades working in software development at IBM's famed Hursley campus near Winchester, Hampshire, Spittle is taking up a new challenge, as IBM's Software Group vice president for the UK, Ireland and South Africa.

Written by Martin Veitch20 April 08 22:00

A union I.T. transformer

Overcoming the disparity in the IT literacy rate among members of an organisation is a challenging issue. Would having various applications for differing IT proficiency levels be the best solution in the long run? Improving internal user satisfaction ranked as a key management priority in our State of the Asian CIO 2007 study, and the NTUC's Martin Tsang outlines some key strategies to achieve this.
Overcoming the disparity in the IT literacy rate among members of an organisation is a challenging issue. Would having various applications for differing IT proficiency levels be the best solution in the long run? Improving internal user satisfaction ranked as a key management priority in our State of the Asian CIO 2007 study, and the NTUC's Martin Tsang outlines some key strategies to achieve this.

Written by Melissa Chua09 Jan. 08 22:00