Interview with Damien Scalzo from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Australia/New Zealand

Damien is the CIO of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Australia/New Zealand.

For over 15 years, Damien has combined his business and technology experience as a CIO, Management Consultant, Systems Integrator and Chartered Accountant to help organisations use technology to add value to their core and new business processes across industries including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Utilities and Public sector. Damien is passionate about technology and also spends time mentoring startups to grow and scale.

 

 

 

Interviewer: What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with?

 

Damien: Transformation vs BAU: being able to balance Transformation and Business as Usual Activities. IT leaders need to manage this balance carefully to ensure they are not at the mercy of their technology debt.

Continuous Security: keeping their landscape more secure than ever on top of Continuous Delivery. IT Leaders need to balance security being a blocker to Continuous Delivery vs. the risk of cyberattacks.

Business Integration: being more than just ‘IT’ and being truly part of and integrated into the businesses you serve. IT leaders need to be embedded in their business, truly part of making business decisions and on the front foot with technology solutions before the business has come for help.

Reducing Cost: delivering more whilst lowering costs. IT Leaders will need to do more with less or do more with your budget by looking at different ways to structure your landscape, staff and suppliers.

 

Interviewer: Where do you see the industry headed within the next one to five years and what do you feel will be the biggest game changers?

 

Damien: My presentation “How the Role of IT Leaders and Emerging Technology are Converging in the Future” covers the answer to this. Hope to see you there.

 

Interviewer: What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

 

Damien: Deliver quality over volume. Whilst it is imperative to deliver to the internal or external customer on time, it’s more important that you get it right. A customer will always remember something that didn’t work, didn’t meet their expectations and was frustrating, rather than something that was delayed. I believe this sets apart technology leaders over project delivery professionals.

 

Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone trying to excel in the IT industry?

 

Damien: – Future proof your skillset: IT roles are in the process of transforming and this will continue and evolve for some time. Because of this, IT professionals should focus on getting exposure to as many roles as they can in the software development cycle. I believe IT professionals who do this will effectively “future proof” their resume and ability to transfer their skill set to a future role.

– Understand the business you serve. The more you can understand the businesses you are delivering to, the further you will go. I believe IT professionals who can independently understand, identify and resolve key business challenges will be at the top of the pecking order.

 

ABOUT MERCEDES-BENZ FINANCIAL SERVICES

Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is a leading, captive financial services provider and the global financial services company of Daimler AG. Doing business as Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Daimler Truck Financial, they provide financing for automotive and commercial vehicle dealers and their retail consumers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

Interview with Megan Hemingway from Seven West Media

Megan started her career as a developer, moved into data as her area of specialty and then found herself as a project manager and ultimately a leader. She’s worked mainly in Australia but also had a 3-year stint in Asia. These experiences have developed Megan so that she is most effective in an environment with a focus on continuous improvement and gets excited by leading teams through wholesale transformation.

 As Head of IT, Megan has full responsibility for corporate IT for Channel 7 and Pacific Magazines, Australia wide. This includes a team of 40 people that are distributed across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The team supports a user base of approximately 3500 across 13 sites. The role manages teams that have responsibility for ensuring operational stability, providing end user support and managing the delivery of projects for the business.

 

Interviewer: How do you keep up to date with technology innovations and keep your organisation up to date with new technologies without disruption?

 

Megan: If we’re going to be honest, it’s almost impossible to stay completely up to date without disruption – but then not every organisation is right to be on the ‘bleeding edge’. The most important thing is to understand how ‘up to date’ your organisation wants or needs to be. Part of determining this is to identify the appetite for disruption and comparing that to the appetite for everything shiny and new.

 

Interviewer: What is the biggest challenge you face as Head of IT?

 

Megan: Consumers are becoming more tech savvy every day and rightfully expect the same level of technology they have at home to be available in the workplace. However, the workplace has budgetary and other constraints that may not apply to the home. The challenge is finding ways to overcome as many constraints as possible so that people have technology they want to use that enables them to be the best they can be at work.

 

Interviewer: How much importance does cybersecurity play in your role?

 

Megan: A significant amount. There are cybersecurity experts within the organisation but security can’t just be left to them – all of us need to play our part. As the leader of the IT team, every decision I make must include consideration for security – something that has changed considerably, even over the last 3 years.

 

Interviewer: What do you think is the most important aspect of your role as the Head of IT?

 

Megan: Leadership. I’m not the most technologically advanced person, I’d never be great on a service desk, I don’t understand the complex backend workflows in a broadcast management system – but my team is all of this and more. The most important part of my job is to provide my team with the support and guidance they need so they can utilise their skills to provide the organisation with the services that they need.

 

ABOUT SEVEN WEST MEDIA

Seven West Media is one of Australia’s leading integrated media companies, with a market-leading presence in broadcast television, magazine and newspaper publishing and online. The company is the home to many of Australia’s leading media businesses – Seven, 7TWO and 7mate, 7flix, 7food network, Pacific Magazines, The West Australian and The Sunday Times, and the biggest content brands including My Kitchen Rules, House Rules, Home and Away, Sunrise, the Australian Football League, Cricket Australia, the Olympic Games, Better Homes and Gardens, marie claire, Who, PerthNow, racing.com and 7plus.

Interview with David Austin from Six Flags

David Austin was named Senior Vice President, Information Systems & Chief Information Officer for Six Flags in December 2017. Mr. Austin had previously served as Chief Technology Officer at Berkshire Hathaway Automotive from December 2014 to December 2017, where he had operational responsibility for all technology across 100 business units, technology development, and leadership of the IT team. Prior to that, from May 2007 to December 2014, he served as the Vice President of Information Technology at Larry H. Miller Group, a company with many businesses that included The Utah Jazz and associated arena businesses, large mega-plexes cinemas, a 500-acre racetrack complex, and a large automotive business, where he led the IT team. Mr. Austin majored in Speech Communication at Fresno State University and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

 

Interviewer: What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with?  

 

David: On the surface, this seems like an easy question, money, time, and resources… But that perspective has become dated. There are a lot of complex issues we are facing today – new regulatory issues,  unprecedented levels of innovation in technology,  ML and AI just to name a few.   How to acquire, deploy, maintain, and most importantly, keep everything secure is high on the list of challenges for IT and business leaders today.   I’m including business leaders, as we evolve technology can’t just be sweep over to IT.  The business needs to become part of the process.

 

Interviewer: What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

 

David: I worked for a company that was very successful in racing cars.   We heard often “don’t let a five dollar part take out a million-dollar race car.”   Make sure you have the correct focus on the little things and you probably won’t have to deal with the big things.

 

Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone trying to excel in the IT industry?

 

David: This is going to sound really old school!  Learn it from the ground up.  There aren’t enough technologists that really know the stack.  Learn the basics and build from there.  Building a solid skillset & understanding the fundamentals will always open doors.

 

Interviewer: What do you feel the most passionate about within your business?

 

David: We really thrive on delivering a world-class tech experience to our end-users and guests.  We like to think way outside of the box using technology to reduce friction and to make sure the guest tech experience is as much fun as the guests have in our parks and on our rides.

 

Interviewer: What is one key takeaway you hope our CIO audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on-site

 

David: Using next-generation technology to enhance the employee and guest experience can be done securely!

 

ABOUT SIXFLAGS

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is the world’s largest regional theme park company and the largest operator of waterparks in North America, with $1.4 billion in revenue and 26 parks across the United States, Mexico and Canada. For 57 years, Six Flags has entertained millions of families with world-class coasters, themed rides, thrilling water parks and unique attractions.

Interview with Andrew Weyer from DHL Supply Chain

For the last 17 years Andrew Weyer has lead customer centric professional services teams in DHL Supply Chain across Australia and New Zealand, Middle East and Africa.  They contribute to everyday life by ensuring the efficient operation of their customers supply chains.  They adopt and deliver innovative cost effective solutions leveraging the latest digital technologies and incorporating best practice standardisation for the benefits of their customers.

 

 

 

 

 

Interviewer: What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with?

 

Andrew: With the speed of change, anticipating what is coming and catering for that in your solutions approach is a key challenge.  Building solutions than can be mixed and matched with new market introductions and ability to change small components of your overall solution is a key requirement of delivery. 

 

Interviewer: As a leader in the IT industry, what do you feel businesses can work on when it comes to their IT strategy?

 

Andrew: Change management today is more critical than ever before.  Understanding change and ability to drive cultural changes to technology and business approach are critical. 

 

Interviewer: Things change so quickly in the IT industry, what does it take to stay on top?

 

Andrew: Continual re-education and collaboration. Engage and learn everyday!

 

Interviewer: Where do you see the industry headed within the next one to five years and what do you feel will be the biggest game changers?

 

Andrew: Wearables and Human natural interfaces (Voice, Sight, Hearing, emotion, movement) 

 

Interviewer: What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

 

Andrew: Carpe Diem and be open to constant change.

 

Interviewer: What advice would you give to someone trying to excel in the IT industry?

 

Andrew: Think and talk like a customer.  Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. This applies to any industry not only IT

 

Interviewer: What do you feel is the hottest topic right now in the industry and what is its effect on the industry?

 

Andrew: Digital Twins and how this enables AI and Machine Learning to add real value. This is a game changer in terms of proactive alerting and responses to business   

 

Interviewer: What is one key takeaway you hope our CIO audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?

 

Andrew: All technology is great and can be very exciting.  You need to leverage the Technology capabilities and enablements to drive real business outcomes and value, including Digital Revenue streams

 

ABOUT DHL SUPPLY CHAIN

DHL Supply Chain, part of the EUR 56.6bn DPDHL Group, is the world’s leading contract logistics provider. Combining value-added and management services with traditional fulfilment and distribution, our customized, integrated logistics solutions drive efficiency, improve quality and create competitive advantage.

DHL Supply Chain offers specialist, proven expertise within the Automotive, Consumer, Chemicals, Energy, Engineering & Manufacturing, Life Sciences & Healthcare, Retail and Technology sectors. As today’s global markets grow, our innovative logistics solutions are ready to help.

 

Interview with Ross Dawson, Futurist

Ross Dawson works globally as a futurist, keynote speaker and strategy advisor, inspiring audiences with a deeply positive and pragmatic focus on the potential of the future. He is Founding Chairman of the Advanced Human Technologies Group of companies, spanning professional services, web publishing and software development, and the bestselling author of books including Living Networks, which The New York Times credited with predicting the social media revolution.

He has delivered keynotes and strategy workshops in over 30 countries for leading organisations such as American Express, Coca-Cola, Commonwealth Bank, Dubai Ministry of Finance, Gartner, Google, IBM, KPMG, Macquarie Bank, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, PwC, Roche, Telstra and Visa. Media appearances include CNN, Bloomberg TV, SkyNews, ABC TV, Today and Sunrise shows, Washington Post and many others.

 

Interviewer: “What inspired you to become a futurist?”

 

Ross: “Since I was young I always thought it would be amazing to be a futurist, to be able to think about the future for a living, look at where the world is going, and where we are going as the human race. I feel very fortunate to have created that career and role for myself, through hard work over many years.”

 

Interviewer: “How did you make a career out of being a futurist?”

 

Ross: “People often ask me, “how do you become a futurist?” The trite but true answer is that you claim you are, and people either believe you or they don’t. Anybody can talk about the future. You need to have credibility so that people will listen to you and give credence to what you are saying. My definition of a futurist is someone who helps people and organisations think about the future so that they can act better in the present.

My personal journey began over 20 years ago by studying and applying scenario planning, a well-established future discipline. I have been studying and using futurist methodologies for over two decades now, but it was my first two books that gave me the credibility to pursue the profession of futurist on a bigger scale.

My first book was on knowledge-based relationships, with a subtitle of ‘The Future of Professional Services’. The book was highly successful and anticipated the dynamics of the high-value professional services industries today. My second book was Living Networks, which looked at the implications of the hyper-connected economy. The New York Times credited it with predicting the social networking revolution before any of today’s social networks existed.

I was looking to the future but even then my primary role wasn’t as a futurist. These two books’ success gave me the credibility to work as a futurist with many leading organisations around the world. My role is not to predict the future, my role is to help executives to think about the future more than they usually do or in different ways than they normally do, so that they can be more effective in their roles as directors and leaders.” 

 

Interviewer: “What do you see are some of the challenges that IT professionals are facing?”

 

Ross: “Technology is, of course, becoming more and more central to society, business, and organisations. That’s been clear since we started to use computers to process our payroll to the introduction of email as a transformative technology for organisations, through to today where absolutely extraordinary possibilities are being enabled through technology.

The role of the IT professional has moved from being a supporting function to become far more strategic. Nicholas Carr, a former Editor of the Harvard Business Review wrote a provocative article in the Harvard Business Review which stated that “IT doesn’t matter”. He argued that technology is a commodity, just like electricity or other basic functions, so you should treat it as a commodity, spend less on it and focus on what does matter. However, among others, Andrew McAfee & Erik Brynjolfsson of MIT have done studies that showed that those organisations that invest more in technology are in fact differentiated in their industries and perform better.

If you ask which of these ideas is true, the answer is in fact, both are true, in the sense that there are aspects of technology that are commoditised, they are basic functions of the organisations such as accounting and communication, but there are other aspects of organisational technology that are absolutely unique and strategic and shape the organisation’s success.

IT leaders must recognise that there are two possible paths forward for them. One is that boards and executives see IT as a commoditised function which should always be asked to do the same thing or better with less money and resources. Alternatively, the company leaders recognise the critical strategic role of technology and support it moving to the center of the organisation. This, of course, requires the technology leaders to clearly demonstrate the vital role of technology to the future of the business.

As such, one of the critical challenges today for IT leaders today is the fact that they do need to be in both of these worlds. They need to manage core technologies, which you could call commoditised but are absolutely underpinning the organisation and if they go down, the organisation goes down. But at the same time, they need to be exploring new domains including the applications of AI, distributed technologies including blockchain, sensors and IoT and other domains that can create immense value and new possibilities.  There are so many new emerging possibilities that it is challenging to continually explore the possibilities of these new technologies, how they’re applied to these organisations and at the same time having the responsibility of keeping the engine room running that supports the organisation.” 

 

Interviewer: “What would you recommend IT Leaders start taking action towards to prepare for the future?”

 

Ross: “There are a number of facets to how you manage the world of emerging technologies at the same time that you manage core technologies. The starting point is that of leadership, where IT leaders have to take this role upon themselves if it is not given to them, being the technology strategy leader in helping the board and executives to understand the possibilities and the implications of technologies and what that might mean for the organisation. Whether they are recognised in that role or not, they need to take that role.

In managing emerging technologies, one of the key starting points is in governance, because new technologies can have unintended consequences. This is very obvious in the role of data governance amidst the proliferation of data, with many legal implications, but also in terms of the possibilities and the implications of technologies such as AI, which is itself based on massive amounts of data. There needs to be deep thinking around the ethics of technologies, and what is required to create value in ways that protect the future of the organisation rather than put it into danger.

Leaders must set strategic paths or roadmaps to explore possibilities, using lean start-up practices within large organisations to marry these two modes. One of the most important challenges of all is in talent, of course: being able to attract, retain and develop the most talented people who are able to work effectively on leading-edge projects,  and manage the dynamics of some people working on more exciting projects than others.”

 

Interviewer: “What do you see some of the new trends and behaviours of IT being in the next 3-5 years?”

Ross: “One of the most important issues is the transformation of the IT function. You need to look at what is the nature of the IT function today and what will it need to be in 3 or 5 years from now, and from there what are the things that need to be done to enable a successful transformation.

We have been talking about cloud in various guises since the beginning of the millennium, however effectively managing the continuing shift of the mix of where data and processes reside, whether they be inside or beyond the organisation, is critical.

AI is of course on everyone’s agenda in terms of the business applications, for manufacturing, robotics, business process automation and so on, but the next phase which is still quite early is the application of AI to the management of IT itself. This is where AI is applied to processes such as database optimisation, staff allocation, or coding different layers of applications. One important application is in responding to cyber-attacks, which is an accelerating race because both attackers and defenders are using increasingly sophisticated systems. We clearly need to be able to respond faster than humans can to attacks.

We can now certainly start to use and deploy AI systems for optimising or enhancing the management of the IT function. The truly strategic issue today is how you use the most sophisticated IT professionals together with AI and machine learning to achieve your outcomes. That is a strategic challenge, one giving real differentiation to those organisations that are able to effectively combine AI tools applied to the IT function together with human professionals.” 

 

Interviewer: “Are there areas you are interested in learning more about?”

Ross: “Since the future of IT is centred on how human skills and technology work together, a key interest of mine is in productive interfaces between corporations and start-ups. We have a long history in this space, of course, we have many accelerators, hackathons and similar programs yet I still think that there is far more possible in getting true value from working with start-ups in a corporate context.

We still need to discover and develop the structures and the mechanisms which can make that most effective. We are still working out how to bring that entrepreneurial spirit, ideas and technologies to be truly valuable in a corporate environment. This is something we have been exploring for a long time, but there is still more to discover in how to do that extremely effectively.” 

 

Interview with Duncan Cavanough, Head of IT & Operations, AFL Telecommunications Australia

AFL Telecommunications Australia is part of AFL Global based in the US. AFL Global is subsequently owned by Fujikura Limited, Japan and employs over 4,500 people worldwide.

AFL provides industry-leading solutions, products and services to the energy, service provider, enterprise and industrial markets as well as a number of emerging markets.

Duncan’s role is to ensure the IT plan and systems supports the business to produce the most technical fibre optic cable and cable systems to meet future (not current) market demands. This not only encompasses IT, but operations, finance, logistics to ensure business continuity across all departments.

Originally Duncan started with one of the first Fibre Optic company’s’ in Australia back in 1994 called AFC Group. From this he has seen the internet and data expand to levels never thought of back then. AFL acquired AFC in 2015.

 

Q. What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?

A. Fibre optics, being the backbone of the core network in today’s modern world, has always kept me at the forefront of what speeds and feeds can be achieved. In light of this, I see the biggest challenge of IT leaders is providing core networks that have enough capacity to meet the data hungry needs of society, and having the skill base to implement.

Q. As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their marketing strategy?

A. We market to the ‘now’ which is hard because of the inherent nature of society, when we need to plan for the future. Like with road building and transport infrastructure, we look at how big we need it now, not how big it should be in 10-20 years time.

Q. What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?

A. I hope we get back to using technology to give ourselves personal time back. We seem to have so much tech, it takes most of the day to ‘check’ everything. Tablet, watch, smartphone, smart Tv, Ok Google, Hey Siri….we need tech to support lifestyle, not be a slave to it. If I had to identify something specific however, I see health monitoring (for the ageing population) and fitness trends utilising tech more.

Q. What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

A. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. (Originally quoted by Grace Hopper, a Rear Admiral in the US Navy and one of the first computer programmers) Born 1906

 

Rhys MacFarlane, Chief Security Officer – Luxury Escapes

Experienced Chief Security Officer – skilled in Physical Security, Loss Prevention, Risk Management, Internal Investigations, Leadership and Network Security. Strong military and protective services professional with a Bachelor of Arts – BA focused in Security, Terrorism and Counterterrorism from Murdoch University.

  • What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT security leaders are currently faced with within their business?  

I feel one of the biggest challenges IT security leaders will be facing in 2019 and beyond will be a shortage of suitably qualified and experienced IT security professionals. Ours is a rapidly growing field and I believe we will see far more small to mid-range companies employing full time IT security teams from now on, as a result of the escalating threat and new regulations. This could lead to a very competitive recruitment market and subsequently the level of cyber security experts in the field will be spread very thinly.

As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT security strategy?

I believe when it comes to IT security most businesses have more focus on the software and technical aspects of security than they should. It is my belief that a solid IT security strategy should be far more focused on end-user development and training. By no means am I saying the technical aspects are not important, as they definitely are. However, I believe that if you’re able to upskill your workforce they will be able to identify threats; recognise potential vulnerabilities in their current workflow; and ultimately aid in your ability to quickly respond to any potential issues or avoid them altogether.

What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?

I believe we will see a solid increase in the sophistication and number of credential theft attacks. I believe we will also see this being focused far more on those roles who have high level access to valuable data, i.e. human resources, accounts payable and those responsible for large data sets of PII information. I base this on the current levels of income being generated by the illegal sale of sensitive data, as the same dataset can be sold numerous times for a relatively large amount. Such high levels of income will be highly appealing to threat actors and will mean they are able to organize themselves to present a sophisticated threat.

What is one key takeaway you hope our IT audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?

My hope is that people leave the seminar with a realistic understanding of the current threat; and a sense of optimism in our ability to meet this threat. We are operating at a threat level that is unprecedented and this threat continues to grow, change and improve on an almost daily basis. New technologies are being deployed by threat actors that are incredibly sophisticated and I believe this will continue to advance at a rapid pace, with tech such as machine learning only in its infancy. However, I also think we are at a time of opportunity. I believe that most executives are now far more engaged with security than ever before and that there is large interest in the development of new and improved IT security technologies. If we are able to capitalise on this we will be able to develop our abilities, training and technology in-order to meet these new threats, and save ourselves from falling further behind.

Interview with John Kouroutzoglou, Information Security & Compliance Manager – Domain Group

John Kouroutzoglou has been involved in physical and cyber security for over 15 years. He has worked in government and in the private sector at large global firms such Alcatel-Lucent, HP and EY. He is currently the Information Security & Compliance Manager at Australia’s leading real estate technology firm – Domain Group. John’s areas of expertise include: Assurance, Security Awareness Training, 3rd Party Due-Diligence, Privacy and Personal Security.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?

From a cyber security perspective I would say managing privacy obligations with GDPR and Australia’s Mandatory Data Breach Notification legislation. There is an incomplete understanding of what compliance actual entails, and furthermore confusion with what needs to be done when a breach occurs.

As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT strategy?

I have had discussions with IT leaders where the common complaint with security being it’s under-funded or under-resourced – this is a recurring theme. We keep seeing in the media regular announcements of businesses being breached – I would say quite simply that security might not be the top priority at these firms.

What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are all the rage in security at the moment and this will continue for the next 2 to 3 years. There is an expectation that ML and AI will lead to cost reduction and operating efficiencies. Time will tell if these benefits are realised.

What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?

It’s not what you know, but who you know – learn to network.

What is one key takeaway you hope our IT audience leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?

Security threats have evolved and they are closer to organisations, and much more damaging. Threats such as insiders and 3rd parties have long been deemed to be low risk, simply because associated risks were not understood and incidents weren’t published. I hope our audience come out with a deeper understanding of how vulnerable they are, and a better understanding of how to address these evolving risks.

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