After three-and-a-
half decades in the
IT industry I can
say for certain that
there’s never been
a more exciting
time to be working
in this field.
that was focused on replacing paper
tachographs in commercial trucks.
Back then we were data logging with SA-
developed sensors and on-board computers
– effectively doing IoT long before the
Internet was born.
I then moved to another start-up
where I helped to design a Pick-based
distribution system back in the day when
Pick and Unix were still battling for operating
system supremacy.
That was a lot of fun, as start-ups can
be, as well as hard work. Those experiences
set me up to join the mainstream corporate
world and I joined Unidata at a time when
distributed/departmental computing on Unix
was all the rage. Anyone remember DEC,
Sperry BPICS et al? Those were the heydays
of hardware and I was a bit of an anomaly,
becoming one of Unidata’s first software
sales people.
What style of management
philosophy do you employ at your
current position?
Despite the screeds that have been
written about management and leadership
and the millions spent on MBAs since the
Second World War, I think we can see from
recent corporate failures that we are no
closer to a definitive answer on
management philosophy.
For me it’s about having an attitude of
service (not to be confused with servility),
staying true to your values and trying to
have some fun along the way. It helps that I
really subscribe to SAP’s purpose of striving
to ‘help the world run better and improve
people’s lives’ and that this something that
really resonates in Africa.
What is your style as a
team leader?
Don’t ask people to do anything you
wouldn’t do yourself. Focus on outcomes
not activities.
Listen, really listen. Never assume that
you are the smartest or most important
person in the room. Be humble, stay curious.
Trust your people. And always remember
that leadership is an act of service.
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What do you think will be the hot
technology talking point of 2018?
Security, privacy and ethics are perennial
concerns that must remain at the top of
the list. Then there are so many others and
developments are moving so fast on so many
fronts that disruption is the new normal.
Exponential progress in science and
technology is unstoppable, inescapable and,
in many ways, unplannable – we must be
prepared for multiple scenarios and to move
forward through rapid experimentation.
That said, I think that more and more
workloads will move to the cloud faster
than we anticipate as companies realise the
agility they can achieve and the technology
innovations they can access by so doing.
I think we can also say with a degree
of certainty that industry boundaries will
continue to blur and service industries
will be most impacted by this (banking,
insurance, retail, telcos, healthcare) over the
next five years or so.
How do you cope with stress and
demands of your career?
I’m lucky enough to have a job I really
enjoy that has plenty of variety and great
colleagues so, despite the inevitable demands
and deadlines of a large corporation, I don’t
feel particularly stressed. For me, creativity
is hugely important and we must ensure
that stress and the demands of our careers
do not override the joy and creativity in
what we do. All human progress has been
driven by someone creating innovative ideas,
technologies and ways of doing things.
Exponential progress in
science and technology
is unstoppable,
inescapable and,
in many ways,
unplannable.