Steve will be speaking about his journey through the
waves of change in the IT industry and the lessons he
has learnt about leading in a fast changing business
environment. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome
Steve to the stage.
The more prevalent technology becomes the more
the human dimension matters. Technology doesn't innovate,
yet. There's obviously speculation about when that
might change. But it doesn't, it's people who innovate.
Technology also isn't what's disrupting industries across
world, it's people who are leveraging that technology
to disrupt. And so I think it's really important and I want
to outline a journey which I hope will in a sense put to you
why I believe so strongly that we really need to put the
human dimension first.
I guess what I'm saying to you as leaders of your
organisations is that it's not about technology it's about
people. And your mindset as a leader and your willingness
to embrace change has a profound effect on your
organisation. The world has changed. When you buy
shares in companies you're buying the value that people
create. Brands, processes, relationships, the IP.
And you're also buying your belief that those people
will continue to create that value in the future.
So the first thing is that people are now actually
the greatest asset, the value they create is the greatest
asset of organisations. That's a big shift in the last few
decades. The second is your organisation is a
social network. Always has been. It's a bunch of people
it's the connections between those people. But that network
is both an internal network and a network that extends
out to your customers, your suppliers, the community
and all the other stakeholders who care or have a vested
interest in your business. So this notion of your
organisation being a set of functions and silos and
hierarchy is a misrepresentation. And that
you as leaders of organisations need to see
the networked nature of your organisation. And it's your
effort, your belief as to the power of that network and
building those relationships that will ultimately determine
your success. My view is in a networked fast changing
world where you can't control, where control is delusion
you've got to care, you've got to connect and you've got to
enable. It's a very different way of thinking.
It's about moving from star player to head coach.
Rather then not make mistakes you've got to be
willing to try new things and fail. There's nothing you are
good at today, not a thing, nothing, that you are good
at today that you didn't get good at by stuffing up
consistently. And so we've got to realise that when we're
saying to people we want you to be innovative, we want you
to be creative. You're saying we want you to make
mistakes. We want you to make mistakes.
Because it can't happen without them.
Big bold goals. Those things can inspire people when it's
coupled with a second thing. And that is clear and
meaningful purpose. Not being clear about your
purpose and revisiting it regularly is a recipe for death.
Because most of the IT companies in the graveyard,
the IT industry graveyard which is a very busy
graveyard, are there because their purpose was not
meaningful or it lost relevance.
The the third is alignment. Alignment is really simple.
Does everyone in your organisation understand
what's important and how we do it is important so that you
know that when they're confronted with the unknown
they're going to think and act like you want them to act.
We spend a lot of time on strategy,
we spend not enough time on alignment.
We need to shift from the industrial age where our
minds were shaped to the connected and fast changing
age that we now live in. And that's all about people and
that's all about a mindset that enables change.
Thank you very much.