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What I enjoy most about making this mag isn’t the technology, the innovation in transformation or the gadgets – although I do still have my eye on a Lunaz Aston Martin DB6 from Issue 06’s Portfolio pages [if you’re reading this David Lunaz]. It’s the people I speak with. Conducting interviews and working with industry leaders never gets tiring because of one simple thing: the passion each has for their subject matter and the genuine way in which they convey it.
Take Jeremy Rees, CEO of events and exhibitions venue ExCeL London as an example. During our hour-long chat, we discussed some major topics including the importance of the events sector in driving economic recovery, the hugely impactful cost of COVID on the industry and its people, and the venue’s role in regenerating and growing its local community.
Content Director
Matt HighAnd Rees delivers such compelling messages on each of these because of his love for his industry, his passion for curating and innovating experiences and, most importantly, his genuine belief in the power of face-to-face events as a contributor to our social wellbeing. It’s compelling stuff.
It’s the same story throughout this edition. Like Kate Carruthers’ work on data at UNSW Sydney, which is not only helping transform the organisation but also making a real, tangible difference to students at risk of self-harm, all through innovative thinking; or Eldorado Gold’s Lisa Ower who is, I can confidently say, one of the most passionate advocates of culture and the importance of people that I’ve had the pleasure to speak with.
I could go on, but I’ll let you dive in and find your own favourite.
As always, enjoy the issue.
Matt.
Marketing Director Jack Pascall
Managing Directors
Charlotte Clarke
James Pepper
Stroud & Clarke is a multichannel creative agency that produces exceptional business and lifestyle content for brands, leaders and pioneers.
Creative Directors
Daniel Crawford Steve Shipley Project Director Manuel Navarro06 | INSIGHT EXEC
News, views and tech insight
14 | LEADERSHIP JEREMY
On a life in events, the power of face-to-face and experience curation
28 | PORTFOLIO TECH YOU NEED
Innovations for work, leisure and the environmentally conscious
38 | INTERVIEW UNSW
On data, innovation in education and driving the student experience
52 | ENTREPRENEUR KUN-YANG CHEN
Why can’t we have a flying car?
In Kun-Yang Chen’s world, we can
54 | INTERVIEW
On leadership and building a people-first data strategy
68 | INNOVATION
Welcome to Celestium: art, AI and a question for humanity
38
52
54 68
76 | INTERVIEW
NTT
On the importance of culture and an innovation journey
88 | INNOVATOR
MYDAY
You don’t build a business, your people do. It’s time to nurture them
90 | INTERVIEW
ELDORADO GOLD
On meaningful change, leadership and the power of engaged people
104 | TECHNOLOGY EXPERIENCE
AI, data and why you should focus on customer experience management
110 | INTERVIEW
On technology transformation, sustainability and leading with purpose
122 | DISRUPTOR PAYEYE
Technology meets science, the result is banking using just your eyes
124 | CITY GUIDE
48 HRS: BUDAPEST
Business and pleasure in the Hungarian capital
Take shelter in the cloud. This is the message from Microsoft Corp’s Executive Vice President, Security, Compliance, Identity and Management Charlie Bell. Bell, who joined Microsoft from Amazon Inc. in 2021 described corporate and public networks under attack as “the mother of all problems”. Microsoft recently launched security solutions for multi-cloud environments that work across platforms and extend to clouds and apps outside its own offerings. Bell said bringing Microsoft’s security solutions to the clouds of different companies is crucial for solving cybersecurity challenges.
www.wsj.com
CIO at Three UK Belinda Finch has said that adoption of low-code and no-code app development could see the CIO no longer needed in the future.
Speaking with Raconteur, Finch said that today’s tech-savvy workforce makes it old fashioned to keep everything under IT’s control. She explained that low-code/no-code could lead to multiskilled IT teams able to solve most of their own problems with the CIO role going one of two ways: commercially minded leaders who manage these new IT teams, those lacking commercial acumen who remain focused on technical aspects like managing digital infrastructure.
www.raconteur.net
Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of integrated payments and commerce technology solutions provider, Shift4 Payments, has announced the Polaris Program, a first-of-its kind project aimed at rapidly advancing human spaceflight capabilities. Isaacman, who commanded SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission – the first human spaceflight to orbit earth with only humans on board – said the three-mission programme will culminate in the first human flight of SpaceX’s Starship.
www.spacex.com
We’re no longer able to spot the difference between a real human face and an AI generated image of a face. Scientists studied human evaluations of real photos and AI-generated images formed using generative adversarial networks, noting that they identified fake images on only 48.2% of occasions and found AI faces more trustworthy. Creating realistic faces, they said, could have ‘serious implications for individuals, societies and democracies’.
www.theregister.com
Five key themes are reshaping the future of work. According to Bain & Company, they are:
1. Changing motivations for what work provides us.
2. Diverging beliefs about what makes a ‘good’ job.
3. A rehumanising of the workplace due to greater automation.
4. Technological evolution blurring the definition of the ‘company’.
5. Greater pressure on younger generations in both work and personal life.
Bain & Company: The Working Future: More Human, Not Less
Doing business in the cloud is essential. As true, it seems, for the office as it is for the racetrack. Take Red Bull Racing, or Oracle Red Bull Racing, as the championshipwinning Formula 1 team will be known this year. In 2021, the team used Oracle’s Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) to improve the accuracy of its race predictions and improve strategic decision making. This season, Oracle Red Bull Racing will use the cloud to drive analytics-based race strategy, optimise its engine development and for AIpowered driver training.
www.redbullracing.com
© Oracle Red Bull Racing
“Every element of our performance is driven by data analysis”
–
Christian Horner Oracle Red Bull Racing Team Principal and CEO
Times have changed and, for most, the office slog seems like a distant memory. The benefits of remote and hybrid working have graced many a report, whitepaper and executive boardroom. But, according to a survey from cybersecurity firm F-Secure, leaders should be considering their employees’ digital anxiety. Specifically, remote working has increased anxiety around online security and privacy, even when nothing is wrong. F-Secure found 79% of those who worked from home in the 12 months prior to taking the survey had an increased awareness of security risks. Concerns included managing security across connected devices, caution connecting to public wifi, worry about virus and malware, and password management.
www.f-secure.com
Robot ghost dogs patrolling the borders: welcome to your latest installment of apocalypse right now. Or not yet at least, because these particular robot dogs are still controlled by people, and being put to good use patrolling the US borders with the country’s Customs and Border Protection. The dogs, made by Ghost Robotics, are equipped with video cameras, sensors and night vision and capable of traversing all types of terrain, including sand, rocks and hills.
www.forbes.com
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation announces the creation of a volunteer cyber army during conflict with Russia.
Jack Sweeney , the teenager behind @ElonJet, which tracks Elon Musk’s private jet, jokes that he may stop the account if he is given a Tesla car.
Ricky Kapur, Head of Asia Pacific at Zoom says the company’s video conferencing technology will continue to be relevant after the pandemic.
Meta announces its plans to develop an AI-powered ‘universal speech translator’ app that will be able to communicate with everyone in the world.
Electric car brand Polestar calls out its competitors in a special Super Bowl ad boasting, among other things, no dieselgate, no conquering mars and no greenwashing.
Dubai launches its Museum of the Future , a new global centre for future thinking, technologies and innovation.
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JEREMY REES DISCUSSES A LIFE IN EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS, THE POWER OF FACE-TO-FACE AND THE INDUSTRY AS A DRIVER FOR THE ECONOMY
Agame of tennis. As good a starting point as any, particularly when that game of tennis was the genesis of a successful career in the exhibitions and events industry, more latterly at the helm of the UK’s leading international exhibitions and conference centre, ExCeL London. Because as Jeremy Rees, current CEO of the renowned venue explains, it was a conversation during that match that set him on a path that to this day continues to be driven by a love of people and social interaction, and a passionate belief in the power of face-to-face events as a driver for positive social and economic change.
Rees took the helm of ExCeL London in 2018, at which point the venue had been operating since 2000, already completed a £165m investment phase, successfully hosted Olympic and Paralympic events and established itself as an internationally leading exhibition and conference centre for events across myriad industries, consumer interests and sports.
He has since continued the growth and diversification of the venue and its capabilities, including a digital transformation aimed at further improving the customer experience and catering to some of the world’s largest technology events, and driven a people-first cultural evolution. But first, that tennis match…
“I’d finished a ski season, not entirely clear of what I wanted to do at that point,” he recalls. “I had a stint in publishing working in telesales, and remember enjoying the environment and the opportunities to connect people, put buyers and sellers together and work with great brands. Fast forward 18 months or so and I happened to be playing tennis with a friend of mine and Lord Sterling, the then chairman of P&O Group. Talk got onto work, about what I missed, what I wanted to do and how I liked to spend my time meeting people and selling to them.
“We got on to how, as part of a portfolio, he owned the Earls Court and Olympia Group and talked about the exhibitions they held, and the more we talked the more intrigued I was,” says Rees.
“It ultimately led to me working for the business on the Royal Smithfield show which was the oldest trade show in the world at that point having been running for 200 years. That was my first foray into the exhibitions world and running events, and I loved it. It was a baptism of
fire, but I found a wonderful environment that allowed you to engage with a vast variety of products and drill down into different sectors. It was fascinating. I’ve always been curious about markets, people, industries and this world is the most amazing platform in which you get exposure to all of that, in great depth. It still is.”
Rees joined ExCeL London in 2010, the same year in which the venue completed its first investment and growth phase, adding an additional 35,000sqm of events space and London’s first International
Convention Centre. And while little has changed in the sector in terms of its fundamental proposition of allowing people, businesses and industries to gather, socialise, trade and connect, evolution has occured at pace in other areas. Chiefly, says Rees, much of this has centred around one crucial aspect: experience.
“There’s no one size fits all in terms of development, every market has specific demands and requirements when it comes to things like technology for example,” he says, “but in the broadest sense, one of the biggest themes is around
consumer experience and expectations. We live in an experiential economy now and, in events, people demand high quality information that’s relevant to them, as hyper-personalised in a face-toface environment as it is digitally, and is provided as part of a highly curated and complete experience. That technical, engaging experience has become a right to play – for us it means very low friction in terms of travel, good food and an innovative and welcoming environment where
customers are entertained, engaged and informed, and ensuring they go away with lasting memories.
“The actual event is part of the experience, rather than the experience itself,” Rees adds. “Our job is curation, from the moment the person leaves their office or home, through their day with us until they return again. The events community is dedicated to making sure an individual, group or business is made to feel special,
“I WANTED A STEP CHANGE TO ENSURE WE WEREN’T JUST ANOTHER EXHIBITION AND CONFERENCE CENTRE, BUT WERE ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING VENUES”
emotionally engaged and given the information they need in the very best and most innovative way. We host around 400 events a year, that’s about four and half million visitors and more than 40,000 exhibitors, and none are the same. It’s fascinating spending time with each of our customers – whether that’s a medical congress or Grand Designs – to understand how we can iteratively improve peoples’ experiences; the market is dynamic, it’s changing and everyone is learning how to improve and enhance that journey.”
For the nearly four years that Rees has held the CEO role at ExCeL, growing and diversifying the venue in line with this market evolution has been the core focus.
Under the ownership and continued investment of Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), which acquired ExCeL in 2008, several key transformation phases, including purchasing the adjacent Aloft Hotel, have enhanced its standing in the industry, says Rees.
“The first was our Phase II development, which added 35,000sqm of space and placed us front and centre in the conference space in terms of driving very high interest, engaging and educational content,” he says. “Then, our hosting of 13 of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic events was significant. That’s particularly true in terms of our role in the local community and the regeneration of East London that was happening at the same time. Typically in most cities worldwide, the exhibition and events centre is one of the key contributors of regeneration and very important for driving that economic halo effect. It was no different for us.
“I was fortunate that when I took over in 2018 the business was operating at a very successful level, hosting world-class events and boasting a very strong and values-led culture; the people within the organisation have always been very strong in delivering that,” continues Rees. “I had several areas of focus: build on the core growth in exhibitions and events; drive new growth and consider what we could do to diversify the business and grow adjacent businesses within our proposition, such as property development and
acquiring hotels to create a more substantial destination proposition; and invest in our customer experience. I wanted a step change to ensure we weren’t just another exhibition and conference centre, but were one of the world’s leading venues. It was about understanding the requirements for investment to make sure we could both improve the infrastructure – obvious things like technology infrastructure, making sure our plug and play products were the best – and lead the customer experience journey.”
The final piece of the puzzle, perhaps unsurprisingly given Rees’ passion for the face-to-face, social aspect of the industry, was people. It is, he concedes, the most important element for the business, describing the importance of a strong culture in the agile, dynamic and often challenging environment of events and exhibitions. “Good teams are critical. Our business is driven by people who are engaging with others. You might have six or seven exhibitions happening at the same time, all in different stages, and working them is akin to completing a Formula 1 pitstop, every single person has their role, none of which are more important than others but all must be performed in the best way possible. For me as a leader, that’s about being clear what everyone’s role is, making sure team leaders know how to enhance and improve the lives of their teams and doing our work in a way that is valuesled, compelling and insightful.”
It is indeed a complex art. But get it right and ExCeL – and the industry more broadly – is capable of driving meaningful change, underpinning businesses and industries and making a significant economic impact. The latter is close to Rees’ heart and he remains a committed ambassador for London and business tourism on a wider scale. He advocates for this both in his position at the helm of ExCeL and through his work with others across the industry. He was, for example, a former Chairman of the Association of Event Venues and previous Chairman of the Event Industry Alliance, is an active participant on several charity boards, is a board member for London’s Royal Docks Management Authority and has also been a Non-Executive Director for the National Council Volunteer Organisation Trading Board. Little wonder he was recently voted one of the most influential people in the meetings industry.
All of this came sharply to light during the shockwave of disruption faced by the sector during the COVID pandemic.
“PEOPLE DEMAND HIGH QUALITY INFORMATION THAT’S RELEVANT TO THEM, AS HYPER-PERSONALISED IN A FACE-TO-FACE ENVIRONMENT AS IT IS DIGITALLY, AND IS PROVIDED AS PART OF A HIGHLY CURATED AND COMPLETE EXPERIENCE”
ExCeL London hosted Formula E in 2021, becoming the world’s first ever indoor circuit built
“YOU MIGHT HAVE SIX OR SEVEN EXHIBITIONS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME, ALL IN DIFFERENT STAGES, AND WORKING THEM IS AKIN TO COMPLETING A FORMULA 1 PITSTOP”
In a very short period of time, the industry was effectively switched off with much devastation – 50% of events and exhibitions employees worldwide lost their jobs, reports Rees, including 350,000 in the UK.
“It’s a very important topic,” he states. “Gathering in marketplaces is extraordinarily old, the first recorded formal trade shows took place during the Holy Roman Empire in 1240 in Germany, and the fundamentals haven’t really changed. They’ve survived wars, pestilence and they will outlast the effects of COVID moving forwards. And they’ll do that because fundamentally, they give people the opportunity to engage face-to-face, learn, trade and have fun. Exhibitions will always be one of the driving platforms for economic growth, starting with the cities they’re located in and driving a halo effect outwards.
“I’ll start with London to give you an example,” he continues. “Our 400 events, four million visitors and 40,000 exhibitors will trade, engage and exchange information that generates £4.5bn worth of economic impact. We also support 37,500 jobs across one exhibition centre and the bars, restaurants, taxis, hotels – the whole ecosystem – that caters to our visitors, one million of whom came from abroad in 2019. In the same year, London had four million business visitors, so one quarter of the capital’s business visitors were attracted by events hosted at ExCeL and each, regardless of where they’re coming from, was valued at around £900 per person, per day. London is one of the greatest cities in the world to visit, and so we drive a huge amount of economic value for the city and beyond.
“You saw how much events matter in the way that, the moment we were allowed to host again, people flocked back to trade shows,” Rees notes. “At ExCeL we hosted around 800,000 people between September and the middle of December in 2021. People want to come, to trade and engage and COVID showed us that the industry is agile, healthy and very safety driven. The resilience we saw was astonishing and there was an unerring optimism within the community borne out of a real love for what we do. The importance of our contribution to the economy shouldn’t be understated. Just look at our government’s tourism recovery plans and policy around driving the
visitor economy. One of the key pillars of that plan is around making the UK the ‘world’s meeting place’; getting together for exhibitions, trade events and shows will be key to that.”
Rees and ExCeL, together with several other leading UK businesses across several sectors of the economy have formed a coalition to partner with the
government to this effect. The group, in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, advocated for the importance of international travel to the country’s economy under two objectives: supporting London to regain its place as Europe’s leading city for international travel and a gateway to the whole UK, and placing the city on a path towards being a global leader in sustainable international travel.
“EXHIBITIONS WILL ALWAYS BE ONE OF THE DRIVING PLATFORMS FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH, STARTING WITH THE CITIES THEY’RE LOCATED IN AND DRIVING A HALO EFFECT OUTWARDS”
For ExCeL to play a key role in this growth, it must continue to grow. Work on the venue’s Phase III expansion programme commences in March 2022, with the view of increasing ExCeL’s total size to 125,000sqm and further enhancing its standing as a world-class location to attract new events to London. The work, which will create more than 100 new jobs including apprenticeships, will use sustainable construction methods and surpass the recognised BREEAM sustainability standards.
“To support this, our customers are looking for a modern, larger facility that they are able to take ownership of; it needs to be technologically advanced and a space in which they can curate and own their brand experience – that’s what we’re building,” he continues. “The question around what a modern, technologically advanced events and exhibitions space looks like is one we’ve considered in detail. Every customer wants something different so where we’ve settled, to use a tech analogy, is that we’re the hardware and our customers the software. Our job is to provide a space that
“One of the drivers of the expansion is actually the technology sector,” says Rees. “Back in 2012-14 we began to build a strong portfolio of large-scale proprietary technology events from market leaders like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Adobe, Cisco and more. We’re expecting a significant uptick in these events in the second half of 2022 and into 2023, and that’s an exciting proposition as technology companies are innovators and real pioneers in delivering very successful events. The industry is increasingly seeing a dovetailing of tech and live, and technology companies are very good at it and, I believe, really understand the power of live events.
“IT’S INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT THAT PEOPLE ARE RETURNING TO SOCIALISING AND ENGAGING, BOTH FOR THEIR STATE OF MIND AND FOR THE ECONOMY”
is safe, secure and digitally enhanced. Practically, that means ensuring we have a sophisticated network that has the best architecture for plug and play capabilities, very high bandwidth capacity, excellent wifi connectivity, is 5G-enabled and which gives the ultimate flexibility. We need to enable the creativity of our customers, rather than provide them with our version of creativity.”
Phase III is planned to open in 2024 and, if the appetite for a return to live events post-COVID is a gauge, should further cement ExCeL’s position as one the world’s leading events and exhibition centres. “Our world is entrepreneurial, agile and always keen to explore new opportunities,” Rees states. “I think it’s incredibly important that people are
returning to socialising and engaging, both for their state of mind and for the economy. Our business has evolved –you can’t go through as tumultuous a 24 months as we have and not learn important lessons – and I’ve seen evolution in people, processes, approaches to our work, and our adaptability and flexibility. Beyond the industry, you look at the opportunities we have to drive tourism and attract people back to London, and we will be a key pillar in doing so. You think about the opportunity to create a legacy for our city and the people near to us and we are one of a host of very significant stakeholders that have a real chance to enhance and improve our community. That’s powerful, and it’s something that I hope is taken very seriously as we grow.”
www.excel.london
I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING
With Easter creeping closer and inclement weather conditions currently battering Western Europe, the temptation to book a late season trip to the Alps is all but irresistable to the dedicated skier. And for the dedicated skier, custom skis and boots are something of an understated badge of honour. With a global shift towards responsible purchasing often putting our previous choices under scrutiny, smaller independent companies are popping up to fill gaps in the market and offer more suistanable options, PFD Skis is one such company.
Handmade by Rupert Gammond, a UK based product designer (and ex ski bum!), the bespoke skis use bamboo for the core and top sheet, so they not only tick the artisan box but the skis are high performance weapons currently used by some of the top freeskiers in the world.
www.pfdskis.com
I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING
If you haven’t realised the perilous state of the planet yet, you’re [literally] running out of time. We must do better, whether it’s our energy choices, transport or clothing. Patagonia’s Netplus Downdrift Jacket isn’t a bad place to start. For five years the clothing brand has worked with Bureo, a Californiabased company that works with fishing communities in South America to recycle old fishing nets and turn them into a 100% fully traceable postconsumer material, known as Netplus. The retroinspired Downdrift jacket is built for warmth and functionality in inclement weather and is made using Netplus materials.
www.patagonia.com
I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING
If you're a beginner wanting to learn how to ski then CARV is probably not for you. However, if you're an intermediate – or even expert – skier wanting to improve and finnesse your skiing then this could be a game changer. Connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth, Carv works by utilising two pad inserts, each with 36 pressure and motion sensors to analyse your technique and provide real-time audio feedback so you are able to easily identify weak points in your game. There are also skillspecific drills and challenges to help you focus on eliminating bad habits. Carv monitors outside ski pressure, turn symmetry, edge angle, posture and balance, tracks over 35 metrics on each turn and is compatible with both custom footbeds and boots.
www.getcarv.com
I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING
Few things are more satisfying than precision engineering and sleek, minimalistic looks. Combine them with the ability to go anywhere and do anything and you’re onto a winner. That’s certainly the case if you’re a fan of filming your latest adventure on the slopes, for which there is the DJI Action 2, a camera that its makers claim is ‘more than action’. While we’re figuring out what that means, here’s what we do know: Action 2 fits in the palm of your hand, is customisable with magnetic accessories, is portable and wearable, waterproof to 10m and films in 4K/120fps with a super-wide field of view. More than action indeed.
www.dji.com
I NNOVATIVE AND INSPIRED ITEMS FOR WOR k, LEISURE AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING
There are occasions when the humble bicycle just won’t do: hilly terrain, gravel, any of the UK’s pothole-filled roads, or snow. For the first three, we can’t help you. For the latter, we introduce ENVO’s SnowBike Conversion Kit, an easy to assemble, sustainably designed front ski and rubber snow track combo capable of tackling ice, hardpack, slush or powder. The kit comes with an electric battery [up to seven hours ride time] and motor, should you need assistance, features lightweight aluminium components and clever pedal assist sensors that can boost pedalling depending on requirements.
www.envodrive.com
Data transformation, digital innovation in education and driving the student experience, according to Kate Carruthers
hen Kate Carruthers completed her master’s degree in tertiary education in 2019, the subject of her thesis was one close to her heart: the state of digital transformation in Australian higher education. The conclusion was a relatively straightforward one, she recalls. “At that point, digital transformation wasn’t happening in a coherent way across the higher education sector in Australia. I went on vacation in February 2020 and when I came back, everything was online. COVID had forced everyone’s hands and the start of digital transformation in Australian higher education was happening. Very quickly.”
That the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where Carruthers holds the roles of Chief Data & Insights Officer and Head of Business Intelligence at the University’s AI Institute, has been able to perform so effectively while mitigating the worst COVID disruption is, in part, testament to the data governance, data strategy and innovation work that she and her team have undertaken over the last seven years to deliver insights to the organisation. She expands: “My role at UNSW has a broad remit for data across the institution that includes data and information governance, data policy, data analytics, data security and management and also how we use data as a business asset. And that’s key. There’s a need to shift the mindset to one of managing and protecting our large volumes of data and seeing it as the valuable asset that it is.”
Before joining UNSW, Carruthers had already enjoyed a successful technology career in the banking and finance sectors, where she honed a passion for making positive and purposeful change that aligns well with working in academia. She elaborates: “I’d worked at a lot of major banks and financial services companies and realised that I really enjoyed the largescale projects; when I worked on my first hundred-million-dollar project it was great, I loved having the opportunity to use technology to drive large-scale step changes in organisations. Working in
academia is quite different, but those opportunities are still there. But there is a real difference in mission between a bank and a university. There’s much more social benefit – we’re working to educate the next generation, to help our researchers invent the future, which is a fundamentally different mission to anything in the private sector.
“One of the things that interested me about this role at the university is the power of data to underpin digital transformation,” she continues. “I knew that the digital transformation that every organisation needs to undergo is underpinned by data. If you don’t have your data lined up properly, you just can’t digitally transform your organisation
“We're doing all we can to educate the next generation and to invent the future”
KATE CARRUTHERS , CHIEF DATA & INSIGHTS OFFICER, UNSW SYDNEY
very easily. The Chief Data & Insights Officer role seemed like such a great opportunity to help manage data at the University so it could be a real asset to the institution and so that we were well positioned to go through a broader digital transformation.”
Carruthers was already working at UNSW as an Engineering Faculty IT Manager when, in her own words, she began ‘asking questions’ about the institution’s management of data, particularly with regards to governance and security. “It’s how I got interested in taking on the role,” she expands. “I was doing a research collaboration using Indigenous data with some colleagues in medicine and I was trying to understand things like where we were allowed to keep that medical data, how we looked after it and kept it secure. Back then, you’d essentially do your ethics approval and the university would wave you goodbye – that was it. There was no support around how to store and manage data, none of it existed. I started talking to people, discussing how we could do it better, finding allies, and, well, the rest is history.
governance office in IT, but nothing had really gelled,” says Carruthers. “We had several data warehouses and knew that something needed to be done about data governance, improving business analytics and intelligence and so all this was the impetus for creating the role that I have now. To create our business unit, we pulled the data governance team out of IT, brought several data warehouse teams together and began our work, firstly focusing on data governance.”
To bring such sweeping changes, Carruthers knew she needed a mandate. Accordingly, she began by establishing a strong data governance policy that, once agreed and signed by UNSW’s Vice Chancellor, would give her the framework to work across the institution. “We established those details early on,” she says. “I also made it clear that data governance didn’t need to look the same for every part of the organisation. And, as part of the data governance policy, we established a new role, the data executive, that is people who are very senior in the university, and they could act as
“The university, at that point, already had a data warehousing project and a data
a mediator between everyone involved in the conversations around the data governance programme if needed.”
As with any significant transformation programme, people and mindset were crucial, says Carruthers, citing the importance of empowering those people who use data. “Anything you do like that in the data or technology space is a change programme, and we approached it like one. This wasn’t a project, it was
a transformation programme, and it was really important that my team was consultative, that we engaged everyone in the organisation and listened. One of the interesting things that we realised when working with the data owners – we call them data controllers – was that they were people in the organisation that understood the data, had the need to make decisions in respect of it, but who had never been empowered to do so. They were particularly supportive of the
“The digital transformation that everybody needs to undergo is underpinned by data”
programme as it gave them the power to say no and make decisions on the use of their data.”
UNSW is one of Australia’s leading research and teaching universities, driven by the pursuit of excellence in research and education, dedicated to being a global leader in change and innovation and committed to improving and transforming lives. Understandably, such a breadth of work makes for a complex data landscape, characterised by vast volumes of data and information.
“I conceptualise our data in three realms: administrative, learning and teaching, and research,” says Carruthers. “The first two are essentially your enterprise data, all the systems that run the place as a business, plus all the systems that support the teaching and education of our students. However, in an intensive research university like ours, research data can be anything from satellite feeds, through CT scan machines we use to take petroleum core samples or medical data and clinical records, to our work as part of the national radar array. It’s every kind of data you could possibly imagine, and vast amounts of it too. The volume of data
that we create with our compute cycles in the research realm is enormous, but it’s also unique and very separate from administrative and learning and teaching.
“That’s the reason we split it into these three realms,” she continues. “For administrative, learning and teaching data we take a very enterprise approach. We enumerate our information assets, we establish the business, system and data controllers, store in our systems and undertake data and system classification. For anything that’s sensitive, protection is key. And that’s why our data governance work has been so important; if data is an asset, then you have to protect your important assets. All of this relies on teamwork and collaboration with partners across the university. One single team cannot know and do everything to protect our data assets. It is critical that we all work together to protect these data assets, and this includes the Risk, Privacy, Cyber, Records Management, Research Data Management, and IT teams.
“We did a machine learning proof of concept last year that uses predictive analytics to recognise students who may be at risk of failing”
“That’s pretty easy with administrative and learning and teaching, but research is a little different,” states Carruthers. “We’ve been working very closely with the Research Division for close to a decade now to improve how we manage research data. For example, we have research data management plans, and we get the researchers to classify their own data, while we also automatically provision data storage for them. In the past, we never did anything like that. Now, when a research data management plan is created our system automatically provisions storage that’s encrypted, in our jurisdiction and has all the appropriate protections. And, whenever a researcher indicates that they are working with sensitive data, our colleagues from the Research Data Management team contact them to assist with data governance, data security, and data management. At the same time, we’re collaborating with our Cyber team to reduce our attack surface, in particular looking at things like multifactor authentication, endpoint encryption and more.”
All of the work carried out by Carruthers and her team is underpinned by a constant key theme: getting data and insights into the hands of the people that need them without them having to ask and, while doing so, continuously improving the data experience. The latter is key for the university, particularly as it navigates the transition to a post-COVID educational environment where data and insight has demonstrated its value numerous times, and the demand for data driven insights continues to grow.
“I’ll give you an example,” says Carruthers. “We’ve just completed a proof of concept to identify students at risk of academic failure. It’s important because often, those at risk of failure can progress to self-harm. I think education on the whole has been good at looking in the rearview mirror and recognising students that have failed
“I made it very clear that data governance didn’t need to look the same for every part of the organisation”
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As well as working with Kate Carruthers at UNSW, we ha and Analytics services for over 40 Higher Education cus United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
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in previous terms but, if you’re considering the potential consequences of that, we need to be identifying these issues now. We did a machine learning proof of concept last year that uses predictive analytics to recognise students who may be at risk of failing in the current term. Now we are working with our colleagues in the Student Experience team on how to operationalise this properly, creating a CRM case, assigning them to a member of staff and then reporting on progress. It’s the kind of work you really want to be doing in terms of using our technology and capabilities to really add value to our students.”
Close collaboration with technology partners has been essential in enabling Carruthers and her team to transform data
at UNSW, including with Databricks and Altis. Here, a close working relationship is crucial to success, says Carruthers: “One of the things we do with our partners is treat them as if they’re part of our team. There’s no ‘us and them’, there’s just us. I have an excellent team here, but we can’t know everything so it’s essential that external consultants and partners work as part of the team to share their knowledge and skills. Our Altis partner team members are fully integrated into our data platform team, using Azure DevOps, and they even come to our Christmas parties.
“With Databricks, for example, we’ve worked with them extensively,” she continues. “Even to the extent that we use Microsoft Teams and they’re a member
Connect with us now for a free consultation.of our data platform group. We also have an office hour once a month where they present roadmaps, techniques, discussion points and so on, all to help optimise the transformation work we’re going through.”
Transformation never rests. With that in mind, Carruthers and team have already commenced work on a new data strategy and will continue to enable UNSW to evolve in line with the changes to education brought about by the pandemic.
“Transformation in education generally has shifted a lot as a result of COVID,” she notes. “There’s been many interesting demonstrations of what we’re capable of over the last couple of years and the challenge now for most organisations is to operationalise them at scale. What one person does in one class is interesting, but what you can do with 60,000 students and 10,000 teachers is much more compelling. The focus is on how you bring technological change and innovation at a scale that can have real impact and improve the student experience. Much of that change will be underpinned by people making decisions and I want them to be making data-driven decisions.
“I conceptualise our data in three realms: administrative, learning and teaching, and research”
“When we started our first data strategy it was about transforming the members of my team from report writers to data engineers capable of managing automated data pipelines,” adds Carruthers. “This focus then shifted to building out our machine learning capabilities, and our next strategy will be centred around our new technology roadmap and evolving our data governance in line with what a modern, 21st century data governance function looks like. Key considerations will be what the next generation of technology beyond data warehouses looks like and how we can manage our data assets more effectively, and further optimising our cybersecurity strategy and protecting our data. My job is to develop that capability while acting as an advocate for the data user experience across the organisation. It’s really important to connect with our stakeholders and to help them to understand the affordances that the next generation of technology can provide, so that we can realise the value to the institution and our students.”
www.unsw.edu.au
Why can’t we have a real flying car, when the first was invented more than a century ago? A question posed by co-founder and CEO of Bellwether Industries Kun-Yang Chen, and one that he has dedicated his life to answering.
For Chen and Bellwether, flying cars are more than just vehicles, they are the key to creating the three-dimensional urban scenario he has always dreamed of, and the future of environmentally friendly intracity transportation. Chen began researching intracity flying vehicles when he was in college in 2013 before studying for a master’s
degree in Intelligent Mobility at London’s Royal College of Art (RCA).
He and his RCA friends formed Bellwether in 2019 to provide the most compatible urban air mobility (UAM) solution for tomorrow’s cities. The result is Volar, a compact, safe and eco-friendly eVTOL urban aircraft that recently took its first test flight. Once in production Volar will seat up to five people and be used for intracity journeys at an altitude of 3,000ft.
www.bellwether-industries.com
Bellwether’s Volar-Antelope – the most compact eVTOL for private transport
AUTHOR JONATHAN DYBLE
Data is one of the most desirable and value-adding commodities for any modern business. This is, of course, self-evident. A mere glance at the list of most valuable companies in the world presents Apple, Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet and Amazon – organisations whose success fundamentally rests on the harnessing and use of data.
Yet with the effective use of data considered to be almost entirely reliant upon advanced systems and processes, those technologies which are paired with data are equally deemed to be business critical. From data analytics to big data, through machine learning and data-driven artificial intelligence, the successful application of data requires a combination of several tools.
To a degree, this is true. But, speak with Alwyn Thomas, Head of Data Strategy at the Financial Times, and you’ll soon realise the successful use of data is equally dependent upon one other core component.
“The truly intelligent use of data stems from people,” he explains. “Obviously there’s tools, there’s tech, there’s processes and in the current era many companies are looking for innovative ways to consume, understand and transform data. But for me, people are pivotal. They allow an organisation to understand data better and use this understanding to make critical decisions that support key business objectives.”
Having joined the Financial Times back in 2021, striking the balance between people and process has been a key focus for Thomas in his new role – an ambition that translates into
“The truly intelligent use of data stems from people”
several different focus areas. First of these is communication, he says, pointing to this as being vital in bridging the gap between data teams and wider members of the business to expand understanding and convey key insights.
“Any good data leader must partner with senior stakeholders, helping them to understand the benefits of connecting data, enriching data, using data in new ways,” he affirms. “This starts with communication. Being able to communicate at different levels is critical, like speaking with the CTO or with the CFO in a way which suits them. Different individuals from different backgrounds in different roles all think in different ways. I might have one vision or outlook, but I need to communicate that in different ways, so all stakeholders understand it and can confidently offer their buy in.”
This is not to say that Thomas would prefer to have all stakeholders thinking in the same fashion – far from it. Instead, he advocates the importance of diverse thinking in ensuring data can go further. The business case for diversity is clear. Inclusive teams are said to make better decisions up to 87% of the time, while
companies with both low rates of gender and racial diversity are 29% more likely to produce lower revenues.
Such observations are arguably no more evident than in the context of data. “Diverse people think differently and challenge each other – and this is what is needed to make the most of data,” Thomas explains. “I was reading about this from a scientific point of view that scientists debate things, and it’s not that anybody’s wrong, but they essentially build on each other’s comments to come to better outcomes and explore avenues that might have otherwise been overlooked. At the Financial Times we’re lucky to have a range of individuals from media, data, finance – and they all see
something different in the data. Of course, they all have an individual mission and business purpose they’re trying to serve. But it’s when you bring all those people together that you can truly begin to unlock a greater understanding of data.”
This hasn’t always been the case. Thomas explains that 10 years ago data teams would often be left to their own devices and were, in turn, much less engaged in the bigger picture of how their work would deliver value to the wider business. Today, however, in order to be truly successful, he points to the need for all parties to understand their individual pain points to create an ecosystem that works for all and supports the business in the best possible manner.
“Data leaders today need to walk a mile in the shoes of other parties to recognise how data can be used to help take those pains away,” he affirms. “This might mean understanding a specific business process and looking at opportunities to automate or simplify it. It might mean looking at where a team is now versus where they want to be and looking at ways in which we can help build capabilities to support those aspirations.”
For Thomas, passion for the subject is a key driver of any effective data-driven culture. Data, he says, won’t work in an optimal way when it is treated simply as a tool or with a bare-minimum mindset. Instead, data teams must invest time into learning their
“Any good data leader must support senior stakeholders by helping them understand the benefits of connecting data, enriching data, using data in new ways”
craft in line with the expectations of the business and stakeholders.
“It’s all about testing and learning,” continues Thomas. “I have three young boys and I say the same to them: we all make mistakes, but it’s what you do from making that mistake. How do you learn from that? Data works best when it is constantly learning and growing. A data strategy is not something you define once and then walk away from. It’s a long-term vision with many short-term opportunities to test and align – you define and revisit it again and again, adapting it in line with changing priorities.”
He also advocates for close collaboration with key technology partners as much as he does with internal stakeholders and
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“It’s when you bring all those people together that you can truly begin to unlock a greater understanding of data”
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As niche data specialists we understand your challenges. We are placed at the centre of a growing community that provides us with the experience and knowledge to build data teams that align with your business function. We will listen to your needs and advise you on recruitment, retention and development challenges ensuring that you attract top personnel in a fast moving market.
In the past decade, we have seen data begin to transform every area of social, economic and corporate life. The proliferation of the Internet, the growth of smart technology and the scale of availability of data has all contributed to the growth of the industry and the demand on data talent.
We’re operating in a hugely competitive and fast paced industry. The labour market, key skills required and demand for data talent is a constantly changing landscape.
Before you run to the jobs market with a handful of job descriptions and a pocket full of promises, it is important to take a moment to step back and
20 data analysts, your requirement (and costs) can be cut by at least a third. Do you understand your internal capability? The solution is to start with your existing workforce: internal mobility, training and succession. Only when you’ve exhausted these internal avenues should you consider going to the external job market.
The old systems of transactional recruitment are broken and not fit for purpose in the modern world. It is important to partner with
“ We must stop defaulting to recruitment as the answer, very few companies understand the internal capability already in situ. We invest heavily in our teams, both in terms of time and money, we spend a huge amount of money in training, career development and the wellbeing of our workforces, without tracking their journey and additional skills acquired along the way. From my experiences to date, more than a third of required headcount can be eliminated with training, internal mobility and a robust succession plan.”
think. Going to the market with an ill-prepared recruitment strategy can be costly and seriously jeopardise your employer brand. Every organisation needs to take advice from a specialist recruitment consultancy team to ensure that they are positioned for success, with a sustainable workforce strategy that will relieve these challenges.
If you’re jumping straight into recruitment mode when demand hits your organisation, the pressure to attract suitable talent is immense. The solution requires a bit more leg work, but you will reap the rewards in terms of value and outcomes. With a strategic approach to your organisational design and workforce re-engineering you may find that instead of needing to hire
a specialist recruitment team who have a deep understanding of the industry and can advise you both in workforce planning and a successful recruitment strategy design.
A retained project approach to building data teams adds an awful lot of value to your search. Not only will it reduce the risk of bad hires, but it will establish clear expectations, a commitment to deliver and provide a greater quality of service.
Would you like more info on the Eden Smith approach to staffing? Get in touch with Jez Clark
www.edensmith.group
those members of his team. Such partners can play an important role in helping to drive a company’s transformation efforts. Thomas cites Eden Smith, a dataspecialised organisation in staffing, consulting and training that helps organisations build a talented workforce within a sustainable data strategy, as an example. They have, he says, played an important role in the past in providing the right capability to help drive forward data transformation strategy work. Similarly, organisations like Fivetran provide engaging and useful insight on adaptive data integrations to speed up making data available to platforms, and therefore help users to quickly realise value.
For Thomas, it is from these core building blocks of diverse thinking, communication and the establishment of close-knit partnerships between previously siloed stakeholders that data strategies can truly thrive. Once such foundations are established, a layer of technologies can be added on top to further enhance internal understanding and the user experience, which better aligns the actions of the business with the needs of its customers.
“What topics do I read? What time of day do I engage? How long do I stay on a page? Business intelligence platforms and key tools can be integrated to ensure we can
personalise our customers’ experiences, providing them with the right information, in the right place, at the right time,” he explains.
Here, connecting various data points across the spectrum is required, he believes. Customers do not have any single relationship with a business but many
to pay. It’s a simple cycle on the face of it, yet making sure the answer is always a complex and evolving process that requires innovative thinking.
“Expectations are only rising. People nowadays are used to just asking Google how many days until Christmas? When is the next bank holiday? What time does
different relationships, from finances to customer services to marketing.
To offer the most value to the customer, organisations need to have the greatest understanding of their needs and achieving this can only be done by leveraging data across the entire spectrum. “They’re paying for a product which creates a value cycle,” Thomas explains. “What do they get out of that payment? Do they perceive what they are receiving to be good? Is it value for their money? If the answer is yes, then they should continue
the sun come up tomorrow? You ask a question; you get an answer. 10 years ago, that definitely wasn’t something most businesses could offer, but it’s much more attainable now with the right data strategy in place. And it’s important to the experience – it ensures people aren’t frustrated or impatient. Given how far we’ve come, it will be interesting to see what the next decade holds.”
www.ft.com
You are about to experience Celestium. It is art. It is the first of its kind AI and blockchain creative work to operate from space. It is still orbiting the Earth on board NASA’s part of the International Space Station (ISS). And it is here to provoke reflections on our human engagement with technology, on the dynamics of space exploration and how access to space and its resources can be decentralised.
At its heart, Celestium is human. It and other technologydriven artworks, whose creators use machine learning, blockchain, hacking and other cutting-edge innovations, are interactive and encourage our participation.
Says Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, artist and founder of ARTificial Mind - an art studio that specialises in creating humanised tech art: “Traditionally, artists create artifacts in the form of paintings, sculptures or installations that are presented to the audience, who can observe ‘finished’ objects. Technology-driven artworks enable audiences to interact directly with the art. In digital art, audiences can play a vital role in the creation of the work per se, and it will continue to develop after it has left the hands of the artist.
“Machine learning and blockchain are the technological mediums we use in our artistic process,” says Falkenstrøm. “Algorithms are a vital player in our creative process, where artistic ideas are embedded in a practice of writing software code, which is then executed and something new is generated by the algorithm. From an artistic perspective, the algorithms can generate something discursively or visually interesting, or an unforeseen bug that can inspire the creative process to go in a new direction. The algorithms are the artistic media we use to bring forth the artwork. Technology isn’t limited to devices we plug in; the sculptor is unable to produce a masterpiece without technology - the chisel and hammer are technologies in their own right, and the same applies to using digital tools, the artist uses technologies to express their own creativity.”
“CELESTIUM IS AN EXPERIMENT INTO DEMOCRATISNG ACCESS TO SPACE AND QUESTIONING WHO HAS THE POWER TO EXPLORE IT AND ITS RESOURCES”
So it is with Celestium. The artwork is part of a global STEAM initiative and a groundbreaking, immutable data storage, edge processing demonstration. Led by stealth startup Lonestar and using open-source leader Canonical’s Ubuntu Core, it takes the form of a hybrid AI-blockchain algorithm that uses data from cosmic radiation it epxeriences on board the ISS. It uses this data to seed and create a series of digital tokens and AI-generated space images using its generative adversarial network (GAN). These tokens can be mined and collected by all humans on Earth until 15 March 2022 by interacting with the artwork at its website.
ARTificial Mind: Centaur
“TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN ARTWORKS ENABLE AUDIENCES TO INTERACT DIRECTLY WITH THE ART”
ARTificial Mind: Tech for Democracy
ARTificial Mind: Covid-19 AI Battle
ARTificial Mind: Urban Forest
“The idea behind Celestium was born from the need to challenge the existing dynamics we see in the modern space era. It’s an experiment into democratisng access to space and questioning who has the power to explore it and its resources, how and why it should be used and how human actions in space can transform the quality of life for all of humanity,” says Falkenstrøm. “A major part of the project is to challenge the status quo, the established narratives, ideas and power structures that currently exist around space exploration. Space is quickly becoming open for exploration by those who have the means and, by challenging the existing structures and dynamics, we can work towards a more democratised space access and avoid an exclusive, closed ship that’s dominated by a small number of prominent individuals and organisations.
“The Celestium artwork explores how the one-sided dynamic of space exploration can be turned upside down by using innovative technologies such as AI/ML, Canonical’s open-source operating system, Ubuntu Core, and blockchain to prompt speculation into what would happen if the wealth of space could be accessed by every one,” she adds. “We chose to use these technologies for this project as they provoke reflection and debate, and strive to promote greater involvement in space exploration. It’s about taking the democratic, open structure of technology and channelling it into areas that are in need of greater input.”
Read the full interview with Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, Canonical and ARTificial Mind here
“IT’S ABOUT TAKING THE DEMOCRATIC, OPEN STRUCTURE OF TECHNOLOGY AND CHANNELLING IT INTO AREAS THAT ARE IN NEED OF GREATER INPUT”
NTT GLOBAL SOURCING’S PULAK
BHAUMIK ON PROCUREMENT
TRANSFORMATION, THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURE AND PARTNERSHIPS AND HIS INNOVATION JOURNEY
Who says that when Charles Darwin uttered his famous line, “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one responsive to change”, he wasn’t gazing into the future with an eerily exact description of life as a modern procurement leader? Certainly not Pulak Bhaumik, who uses Darwin’s words as a succinct and accurate response to a question on the complexities of successful leadership in the evolving procurement environment over the course of his impressive and successful career in the profession.
“Being an effective leader is about constant change,” he elaborates, looking back on close to 20 years’ experience across a broad range of supply chain and procurement disciplines.
“You’ve got to have speed and agility, but also a laser-sharp focus to thrive, certainly in today’s technology-enabled procurement environment. My experience comprises domains like construction, finance, banking, pharmaceutical and now IT with NTT, and it’s contributed to me having a strong understanding of the dynamics of business, the different traits, priorities and client cultures that I believe are necessary for the modern procurement leader. I’m also fortunate to have worked with many of the finest CEOs and managing directors, who have helped me understand the importance of having a good oversight of everything.”
Bhaumik is a versatile and highly knowledgeable procurement professional with an eye for people, change management and leading initiatives that contribute to business excellence. Nowhere are these traits more apparent than in his work at NTT Global Sourcing, where he has held the role of Director Procurement and Head Global PMO for more than two and a half years.
NTT Global Sourcing is a hotbed of procurement innovation and plays a pivotal role in the success of global technology and business solutions provider NTT.
It was established in 2018 as an innovative, startup-like procurement-specialised business unit to help drive impactful financial results through cross-company collaboration, developing and nurturing key strategic relationships and partnerships and demonstrating best-in-class sourcing practices. On a practical level, this sees NTT Global Sourcing lead on centralised price negotiations and the execution of
complex agreements with global vendors for all those products and services necessary to the successful functioning of the NTT group of companies. All activity falls under the central vision of becoming a trusted sourcing innovator for everyone within NTT globally.
Says Bhaumik: “We have robust processes in place at NTT Global Sourcing, even though we are just three years old. It allows us to havea significant amount of control for all the NTT operative companies, all under the company-wide One NTT vision, which is built upon collaboration, commit ment, change and communication.
“WE HAVE DEVELOPED A CULTURE OF INNOVATION, TRANSFORMATION AND ADAPTATION TO NEW TECHNOLOGIES”
“My role is about providing strategic direction and leadership to NTT’s sustainable procurement ecosystem by taking key initiatives that bring transformation, innovation and smart building technology implementation for our company and all NTT’s group companies. As a transformational leader my procurement priorities are centred around assessing the business enablers and solutions that can bring about meaningful and competitive growth for NTT. Typically, this means a real focus on solutions and technologies that co-create equal opportunity, growth and excellence
for all participants in the entire procurement chain. That’s key to our business.”
NTT Global Sourcing has developed significantly since its establishment in 2018. Such rapid and ongoing transformation, says Bhaumik, is reflective of the continuously evolving procurement landscape more broadly: “Transformation is necessary so you don’t remain incumbent; the world is very volatile at the moment with many of the developments and changes we’re seeing being completely new to us
so, with that in mind, being able to manage change is key to success. For all businesses digitisation and new, emerging technologies are propelling rapid change.
“For us procurement leaders, it’s important to be bold, ferocious, motivated, aggressive when necessary, quick to adapt and able to collaboratively drive problem solving for the business,” he continues. “To do that you have to be aware of new trends emerging and understand how they will not only impact your future perspective, but also how you can make scalable solutions for them. I’ve been fortunate in experiencing transformation in
by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our business evolution has been fuelled by the pandemic,” he states. “We’ve recognised that a gain sharing model - where investment by both us and our partners provides the best innovative solutions through our ecosystem - is key to our success. Our goal is to move ahead in the race, which is why we’re focused on sourcing the best of the best with absolutely no compromise on quality. The aim is to source innovative products that are world-class. Key drivers for us are transparency and supplier relationships/ experiences and focusing on sustainable procurement. My role in this is to be the catalyst for effective transformation.”
large and complex organisations; it’s made me understand how important today’s procurement leaders are in strategic decision making processes for the business. It’s a more strategic role now, focused on business objectives and a dedication to creating, owning, leading and delivering on a culture of change.”
Bhaumik has embraced this strategic role with considerable success at NTT Global Sourcing, contributing to the organisation’s transformation which, he states, has been partly driven by the disruption caused
“IT’S A JOURNEY AND WE HAVE TO MAKE IT AS EXCITING AND INNOVATIVE AS WE CAN”
An example of the potential of this approach can be found in the recent launching of the NTT OneVision Center, a new hybrid work space in Sunnyvale, California that is the result of close collaboration between NTT Global Sourcing and NTT Research, which conducts research and innovation projects in technologies that promote positive change for humankind.
The NTT OneVIsion Center facility represents a post-pandemic vision of the modern workplace, complete with spaces dedicated to collaboration, new and innovative layouts and state-of-the-art health monitoring capabilities. The building uses an open space design with circulation routes that encourages people to move, connect and share and uses living walls to help purify the inside air. Sustainability is an essential part of the
“MY ROLE IS ABOUT PROVIDING STRATEGIC DIRECTION AND LEADERSHIP TO NTT’S SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT ECOSYSTEM”
project, too. OneVision Center will be carbon negative by returning energy to the local municipality of Sunnyvale, while NTT is currently working towards LEED certification - the globally recognised symbols of sustainability leadership and achievement.
NTT Global Sourcing played a key role in the development of the project in collaboration with NTT Research by working with local partners to bring the grand vision to life. “It’s a great example of our transformational journey and demonstrates that we really are the number one in terms of our dedication to the approach and methodology in what we do. For NTT Global
Sourcing, it’s a showcase of how we worked successfully to bring technology into our research centre including building solutions, air conditioning, solar, innovative glass, visitor management - everything you can think of. Together, it’s contributed to us driving a real sense of belonging among employees, better experiences and wellness.”
Bhaumik places a premium on close partnerships with suppliers. As an example, he cites work with Rebrand International, a provider of functional signage and branded workplaces. “Three things come to mind when I think of our partnership: consistency, conviction and commitment,”
says Bhaumik. “Rebrand is an exciting partner that we engage in our business globally. In a short timepsan they delivered some outstanding work, which shows their pasion for learning, working and delivering every time. As a result of this success, we’re executing a global framework agreement to support all our NTT group companies.”
Success can’t happen without people, and Bhaumik’s passion for supplier partnerships and relationship building extends to those within his own company. He is a firm believer in the importance of culture in driving any transformation and works hard to bring everyone together on a single, united journey. “Culture is the key to success,” he says. “Transformation happens through people, process and technology,
“FOR ALL BUSINESSES DIGITISATION AND NEW, EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ARE PROPELLING RAPID CHANGE”
and it’s important to have people who are born to learn, focus, experiment, innovate and motivate others. At NTT, all our companies are aligned in this belief and, because of that, we have developed a culture of innovation, transformation and adaptation to new technologies.
“My role as a leader is to bring people on this journey with me and make them feel good about doing business together with us,” Bhaumik adds. “We have several main goals and objectives for the future in terms of how the business progresses, particularly around a greater focus on
renewable energy usable, more sustainable initiatives and working on decarbonisation, as well as achieving net zero for our offices, data centres and companies. We have to work hard to go the extra mile to make sure we deliver for NTT; it’s a journey and we have to make it as exciting and innovative as we can.”
www.nttsourcing.com
To paraphrase American author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, you don’t build a business, your people do. And the business they create will only ever be as resilient as they are.
Nurturing the physical and mental health of every employee is one of the most pressing challenges leaders face. And yet, the majority of corporate wellbeing strategies involve responding to the symptoms of poor physical and mental health rather than buiding effective and preventative measures into every day.
Which is where MyDay comes in. Consider MyDay your daily health, development and culture partner. The innovative app lets employers connect their workforce wherever they work and support their mental, physical and nutritional health through behaviour change and habit formation. It also provides ongoing coaching to leaders to ensure positive change and that a growth mindset is embedded in teams – all while using employee physical and mental health milestones to offset carbon emissions through real-time carbon footprint analysis. www.my-dayapp.com
“ i have a Passi O n fO r hel P ing P eOP le find OPPO rt U nities tO be the best versi O n O f the M selves "
JAMES PAR k ES , FOUNDER , M Y DAY
lisa O wer DISCUSSES THE IMPORTANCE OF REAL, MEANINGFUL CHANGE, VALUA b LE LEADERSHIP AND THE POWER OF ENGAGED PEOPLE
o begin with a question: how do you support a 25-year-old gold and base metals producer to navigate a shift towards a vision for growth? The answer doesn’t just lie in fancy technology, buzzwords like digital transformation or – necessarily – heavy investment. Rather, you create a buzz and collective drive across the organisation by focusing on something far more important: people. In the case of Eldorado Gold Corporation and Executive Vice President, People and External Affairs Lisa Ower, you build a culture of collaboration, you inspire and empower everyone in the organisation from the top down by showing them the value that insightful, ‘human’ and inclusive leadership can bring, and you nurture a company-wide mindset that’s ready to embrace real and meaningful change for the benefit of the whole industry.
Ower, who began her career in the fast-paced world of software, knows the familiar feeling of growth, excitement and possibilities well. She also knows people. Over the course of an hourlong discussion, it becomes quickly clear that her passion and dedication to the subtle art of transforming company culture, people management and understanding what makes us tick are second to none.
Ower is an experienced and respected transformation leader with a love of helping companies and their people succeed. Over a career spanning some 25 years in the HR and M&A space, she has worked across several industries, from her early days in software, electronics and manufacturing through the oil and gas industry – to which she was recruited specifically for her capabilities in building HR and people practices that support business transformation – to her current role at Eldorado Gold. “I told myself I wouldn’t stay with another commodity business,” she laughs, discussing her joining the mining company close to four years ago, “but Eldorado absolutely drew me in with the sheer opportunities I saw. At the time there was a new CEO and a fairly new management team, but perhaps not as many people practices as we would have liked.”
“The CEO had a great vision for building a new culture of collaboration and making the business feel like one global company despite the disparate nature of our mining activities, but he needed the people to help evolve that vision and execute on it,” continues Ower. “It reminded me of my software days; there was a real startup feel to the excitement and ambition of the executive team and their desire to actually achieve something meaningful. It was fast-paced, there was a lot of energy and agility, plus plenty of hard work – all those things you do in a startup-type environment – and I couldn’t help but feel drawn to the team and the business. It’s a pretty attractive industry to work in too in terms of the people you work with, the locations and the depth of what gold can do for the world from aerospace or computers, to phones, medicine and healthcare. You can totally attach yourself to its purpose and value in society.”
Irrespective of industry, Ower’s career has been dominated by one thread: influencing positive change by understanding what drives and motivates humans. “I’ve always been attracted to roles that are transformational, or about helping organisations and people evolve through changing culture,” she says. “It’s what drives and motivates me. Of course, it’s never easy, but when you come to a company where everyone from board level and the CEO down really embraces the value of what you do as an HR professional, the sky’s
the limit in terms of what you can achieve. There’s nothing more satisfying than being successful in working with people and culture or seeing how you can move a whole business and its workforce to a place that can be absolutely magical when you get it right.”
To instigate any such transformation, says Ower, you start with a straightforward approach: talk to people. “We thought it was important to start with the miners at the face, everything we wanted to do had to be built on their values,” she explains.
“Our local HR teams in Turkey, Greece and Quebec surveyed thousands of employees, asking them what their job means, what they value the most, how they want to see the organisation develop and so on, for me that’s the only way to really know how to make real change. When we collated all that data we found that, despite their location, everyone had very similar values and ambitions around change and progress.
“But I also realised pretty quickly that we didn’t have a company-wide value set,”
“I’VE ALWAYS b EEN ATTRACTED TO ROLES THAT ARE TRANSFORMATIONAL, OR A b OUT HELPING ORGANISATIONS AND PEOPLE EVOLVE THROUGH CHANGING CULTURE”
she continues. “We all had our own values and were working well, but there was no shared thread across the whole organisation. We had to have that foundational element in order to drive any transformation, so one of the first things we did was co-create with the business a set of values based on the bottom-up approach of our talking to the teams. It took 18 months to make sure we had something that everyone could feel part of and excited by, but it was crucial to set us up for success in terms of where we are today. Those values are collaboration, courage, drive, agility and integrity. They drive everything we do. Our CEO uses them on a daily basis, they’re tied in to everything we work on whether it’s recruitment, performance management, leadership development or anything else. Having a collective approach to what we believe and feel is crucial.”
Change is a journey. Ower explains that, alongside setting values and objectives for the business, it was equally important to drive behavioural evolution, particularly within the company’s leadership team. A new model, Valuable Leadership, was adopted representing a style of leadership predicated on the new company values. She explains: “It’s great to have values, but it means nothing if you don’t know how to behave around them and what leadership looks like across the company. No matter where you’re working, it should look and feel the same, regardless of cultural nuances or
“OUR VALUES ARE COLLA b ORATION, COURAGE, DRIVE, AGILITY AND INTEGRITY. THEY DRIVE EVERYTHING WE DO”
differences. Valuable Leadership is about helping the organisation define what it means to behave in relation to each of those values. It’s a collective of our leaders who all believe in the same things and we’re working hard to model what good looks like so our values are always at the forefront of our minds.”
For that training, Eldorado Gold is working closely with the NeuroLeadership Institute (NLI), using neuroscience to leverage diversity and cultivate insightful leaders that create inclusion, enable employees to speak up productively and help their teams to mitigate bias. In partnership, Eldorado Gold and NLI have developed a leadership pathway around the neuroscience of smarter teams, of speaking up and breaking bias, each of which supports and reinforces the company’s new values and has been rolled out to its leaders worldwide.
The results of this programme have been significant. For example, 81% of direct reports within the business say their leaders are making a greater effort to be inclusive, and 98% of participants said they have spoken up more readily to share an idea, question a decision or challenge a behaviour. Further, at the company’s Kisladag operation in Turkey, Area Superintendent Serdar Sahin used his neuroscience training to encourage open and productive dialogue with his team that resulted in a 13% increase in the capacity of the gold stripping circuit.
Given Ower’s passion for people and culture, it’s little surprise this is a subject close to her heart. “It’s why I originally studied psychology,” she says. “From a young age I remember being fascinated by it, but also thinking that I didn’t want to be a clinical psychologist, I wanted to go into business and use methods like neuroscience to see if we can drive business performance. It’s always on my mind: how do you change peoples’ behaviour, get them to feel part of something bigger than themselves and that they matter? Ultimately, that’s the key thing. We want everyone to turn up to work to feel valued
and understand that they are contributing something that’s intrinsically linked to the success of the organisation.
“The work with the NLI is particularly interesting,” she continues. “You don’t change people by pushing them onto a leadership course and telling them what they need to do as a leader. You do it by getting them to think and learn about themselves, as well as others. If you understand your behaviour or what biases you have that get in the way of good decision making or teamwork, you realise we’re capable of overcoming our challenges and
“VALUA b LE LEADERSHIP IS A b OUT HELPING THE ORGANISATION DEFINE WHAT IT MEANS TO b EHAVE IN RELATION TO EACH OF OUR VALUES”
embracing opportunities together. For me, working on this and setting the standard with Valuable Leadership has been the jumping off point for all of our people practices, from the diversity and inclusion work we’re doing, through our hiring or training programmes to our policies in general across the business.”
Diversity and inclusion is an ongoing challenge in the mining industry, not only due to its male-dominated workforce but also as a result of cultural differences found across globally disparate operations. Since transforming its values and leadership model, Eldorado Gold has been at the forefront of driving significant change in this area by embracing ‘inclusive diversity’. Ower elaborates: “For me, you can have the most diverse business in the world, but if you’re not bringing everyone to the table and exploring differing views, then you’re not going to make a real impact. Inclusive diversity means embracing and enabling those different experiences, perspectives and mindsets and letting them all have their place. It’s about leading with inclusivity and is also tied into neuroscience – to feel valued or that you have a stake in the business, you’ve got to be included; you have to have that psychologically safe place to be different.”
The company has actively worked with local organisations and specific programmes and projects to encourage greater gender diversity across its operations.
It has, for example, recently added its fifth female board member, driving change from the top down. It also partners with Artemis Project, a collective of female entrepreneurs focused on disruptive change in global economic, environmental and social development in mining. Artemis Project works to encourage female entrepreneurs, engineers and innovators to channel their skills into the mining industry and drive real change across the sector. “It’s an amazing project,” says Ower. “It’s for women around the world who are incredible in their own right – highly qualified engineers and trained professionals – and we’re
looking at bringing some of these women to our Quebec operations through Artemis very soon.
“We’re very cognizant of the fact that there’s both a skills shortage and not enough women in mining, and we’re looking at many ways of addressing that,” Ower continues.
“I think the industry has to look outside
the box of what were once male-dominated positions to really start thinking about ways in which we can develop female talent. Technology and the introduction of new innovations will help that in some ways, and it’ll certainly help to create new jobs. With that in mind, training will be very important and we’re currently working on developing a state-of-the-art training
“WE WANT EVERYONE TO TURN UP TO WOR k TO FEEL VALUED AND UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE CONTRI b UTING SOMETHING THAT’S INTRINSICALLY LIN k ED TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ORGANISATION”
centre in Greece, with a vision that one day it will be available to potential talent all across Europe. We’ve had some real success stories in our operations when it comes to building new and diverse skills. For example, in Turkey, we have our first female rock truck driver which has historically been very male dominated, and our first underground female superintendent.
“We’re on a journey with diversity and all it entails in different places,” she adds. “If
you look across our operations in Canada, Turkey and Greece you’ve very different cultures and mindsets around the subject so we always have to be aware of that; it’s about thinking what’s going to help move the needle in each jurisdiction. For example, in Quebec there’s a real focus on getting more Indigenous peoples involved in the industry and having more programmes for attracting and retaining female talent. In Greece, we’re focused on getting more women into leadership roles, as well as
“YOU CAN HAVE THE MOST DIVERSE b USINESS IN THE WORLD, b UT IF YOU’RE NOT b RINGING EVERYONE TO THE TA b LE THEN YOU’RE NOT GOING TO MA k E A REAL IMPACT”
in the mine, and breaking the stigma around that in the country. You can’t change how fast or slow a nation’s progress is toward diversity but if you can change what you have control over, in this case how we behave and what we value in our mines, then you’re going to make a positive impact.”
The impact of the changes being made at Eldorado Gold is likely to continue into the foreseeable future, benefitting both the business and the broader industry. The work of Ower and her team will contribute to a new five-year strategy recently set out by the business and focused on several key areas. “We’re on our growth
journey and, for us, people and capabilities will be a big part of that,” she says.
“A key area of our strategy is safety and sustainability, including our commitment to delivering a safe and inclusive workplace – d iversity and inclusion plays a significant role in that. People and capabilities will be a big focus, particularly in terms of recruiting and training to enable our growth plans and new opportunities.
“We really want to drive this business forward. I’ve been doing this kind of work for a long time and I’m still amazed at what can be achieved if you really connect, make that positive change with people and move a business in the direction it needs to go. I’m fortunate that it’s realised here. You don’t always see HR functions have a seat at the table, but here at Eldorado Gold we’re recognised as a key business driver that’s just as critical to operations as any other. It’s very meaningful for me and everyone here,” she concludes.
www.eldoradogold.com
Michalis Michael discusses unstructured data, AI and social intelligence and the importance of customer experience management
t’s estimated that more than half the world uses social media. That’s the equivalent of more than four billion people interacting online for an average of two hours a day. Millions of those people worldwide will be talking about your business, your brand and products, and your customer service. If you’re lucky, they’ll be saying good things. If you’re not, and you haven’t done your homework, then the impact of their sentiment towards your brand could be significant.
Within this context it’s little wonder that customer experience (CX) measurement and management are critical success factors for any organisation. Put simply, happy customers matter. But, that happiness isn’t possible without understanding what the customer needs and expects from a brand, where their pain points are when interacting with the business and their sentiment towards products and services. Data is an essential tool in building this understanding and can come in several forms: asking questions, transactions or other recorded behaviour and ‘listening’ to unsolicited feedback online or via call centers.
The latter is the difference between a complete, unbiased and 360-degree view of the customer journey in all its honest and open glory and a good, but not total, measurement of CX through surveys. Smart companies are adopting social listening and general text analytics capability to build a true 360-degree measurement of CX by including and integrating social intelligence, call
center calls, chats, emails – the result of adding brand, sentiment, emotion, topic and customer journey stage annotations to data gathered from all the sources of unstructured data and unsolicited customer opinion.
It is this combination of social intelligence and data collected by the company, says Michalis Michael, that can enable true customer journey optimisation. Michael is CEO at DMR, which offers AI-driven business insights, customer journey optimisation, natural language processing, sentiment and semantic analysis, and customer experience management (CXM). He is a passionate believer in the power of unstructured data analytics and intelligence, and over the past 11 years has worked to advocate for both while developing DMR’s own proprietary AI technology that adds accurate, actionable and timely intelligence to unstructured data from any source and language to produce invaluable insights and solve business problems.
Unstructured data – information not arranged according to any pre-set data model and not stored in a traditional way – is essential to successful CX measurement and management, says Michael. Using unstructured data can provide a true snapshot of the views of customers and give a deeper understanding of behaviours in a passive and unbiased way. It also reveals needs and wants that aren’t explicitly asked for.
“Our AI annotates unstructured data, and that’s an important differentiator,” he explains. “When it comes to something like CX it’s key because around 95% of all recorded data in human history is unstructured. Only 5% is in tables or structured while the rest is text, audio, images and video. Put yourself in the position of a major brand like Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble, which both use our services. If you don’t have a way to collate, understand and explore that unstructured data then you only ever deal with 5% of what’s available from your customers.
“When during our development phase we realised that, it was a lightbulb moment, huge,” Michael continues. “The understanding that by taking unstructured data and adding it to business intelligence, market research data, behavioural data and any other that the company already had you’re providing a much more complete picture, was key. It’s why we see it as a necessary element of a true 360-degree CX measurement. A lot of organisations still only use surveys to get feedback from customers. Typically, that’s asking a specific question and a sample of customers answering it. We bring the flip side of the coin: what people are saying without being asked – and all of it, not just a sample.”
DMR analyses public posts in social media, blogs and forums for unsolicited conversations around a brand and its competitors. It also ingests the brand’s own customer
data, including survey responses, customer support messages or call centre recordings and transcribes them into text. It then uses proprietary and custom machine learning models to annotate this text as well as images with brand, sentiments, topic and customers journey stages in any language with a committed accuracy sentiment of over 75%.
The company’s own AI, developed in 2012 after Michael was left unsatisfied that any existing products on the market could meet the accuracy he sought, is essential in this process. He explains: “The technology involves first the ability to gather social media posts or ingest
internal customer data from wherever in the world and using the AI to annotate the customer interactions to add intelligence in multiple areas: topic annotation, or what is the poster talking about and what are the conversation drivers, sentiment towards the brand or a person in three classes: positive, negative or neutral, and customer journey stage, as previously explained.
“We sometimes train an AI model to give us the sentiment of a social post in general but if we’re doing specific research on a brand, for example, we’re interested in the sentiment towards that brand,” says Michael. “So, if somebody posted on
“Around 95% of all recorded data in human history is unstructured”
their social media that they’re out hiking, they hurt their leg or were tired and sat to enjoy a Coca-Cola and it was so refreshing, the sentiment there is positive towards Coca-Cola. Companies use these sentiments in different ways. Positive sentiment is leveraged in marketing activity, it’s like powerful testimonials that consumers have shared about the brand, negative identifies pain points and neutral is useful along with positive and negative to know what topics are driving the conversations online.”
To ensure the highest accuracy DMR trains custom machine learning models for specific customer projects, unlike the generic language models often used. It does so using the supervised machine learning approach and native speaking humans in the language required by the model. “We run annotator tests,” says Michael, “that judge things like common sense, alignment on how they understand the world around them and language. Once passed, these annotators manually annotate a few thousand posts for sentiment, topic and other things which trains the AI. It takes a week or two but there’s much greater accuracy than through a generic model. If the starting point for the rest of the market is, say, 60% then we would add the context and get it to 90%.”
Such a high level of accuracy and using unstructured data brings significant competitive advantages. It can, for example,
help businesses increase revenue by driving relevant and customer-influenced products; it can reduce or even eliminate risk in new marketing investment; and it can provide actionable business insights that drive decision making, give granular and detailed information on customer pain points and how to turn them into delight moments, and help define and optimise the customer journey.
The latter, says Michael, is the most important framework for companies wanting to improve their CX. “There can be multiple customer journeys defined in a business,” he explains. “What brands and companies
“We bring the flip side of the coin: what people are saying without being asked”
should look for on their journey maps are bottlenecks and stages where they create negative experiences, so that they can work to fix them.”
To assist with that fixing, companies typically receive in-depth actionable data based on DMR intelligence that pinpoints where pain points are and their popularity. “The business can rank these, decide which to tackle first and how, create workflows or scripts for customer liaison or call centres,” says Michael. “In terms of deliverables, there can be many. For example, it may be beneficial to set up a drill down dashboard that has brands, sentiments, topics, trends
and work through the information. Say you’re McDonalds, you click on negative sentiment, you see the biggest topic is health which you click on and see subtopics like obesity – it keeps drilling down and getting more granular so you’re working through something like a million posts down to 200, which you can read.”
Having a greater focus on actionable information is crucial for all businesses wanting to optimise their CX. “Any business that has a call centre or contact centre needs this kind of analysis to know what their customers are doing,” says Michael. “Without that 360-degree experience measurement, you’re only seeing samples of the information out there and, even worse, going back to having to manually read everything. We’re seeing the CX market really growing at the moment and you have whole new departments in some companies dedicated to customer experience measurement or management. In many organisations, the CX department is no longer reporting to sales and/or marketing, or even technology. It reports directly to the CEO and has a seat in the boardroom. For that reason, I think it’s here to stay.”
www.digital-mr.com
As a leader – whether that’s in procurement and supply chain, technology or any other industry – your responsibility lies in numerous areas. But there’s one that’s more valuable than all others: people. Without strong people, the ability to nurture capabilities and skill sets, a culture and mindset that embraces innovation and the power to drive value for the organisation, little else will follow. Karine Waksman describes this leadership trait as ‘ the ability to create an environment where everyone can be their very best’. It’s this, combined with her collaborative approach to transformation, innovation and business outcomes and an extensive knowledge of the telco industry that has brought such success at every stage of her successful career, including during her tenure as Head of Procurement and Logistics at Vodafone Ireland.
In the close to five years between 2017 and December 2021 Waksman was, together with a relatively small but highly effective procurement team, instrumental in driving the company’s five-year vision for procurement and supply chain, delivering approximately 12% savings annually, increasing team scope from €250mn to €440mn, transforming work processes as a result of digital technology adoption and achieving 90% CO2 reduction for the business. It’s an impressive record by anyone’s standards. Even more so when,
early in our conversation, Waksman modestly says she ‘wasn’t a procurement expert’.
That aside, as she explains, the telco industry has been a consistent thread throughout her career: “I’m a telco engineer originally, and I came to procurement from a controlling and strategy background. My very first job was for a consulting company focused on providing software to improve process and organisational modelling for businesses. Everything I learned there has really stayed with me for the rest of my career – it gave me a good eye for process optimisation and for understanding what works and what doesn’t, which is a great foundation and mindset for any role.
“I eventually moved on because I wanted to work for a telco,” she continues, “so I joined Orange, first in R&D before moving more towards business strategy, financial planning and then cost controlling and transformation. As a young professional I found it so interesting to be doing work that gave a true 360-degree view of the organisation, to be working with the exec committee on strategic projects and setting out roadmaps. When it came time to move on from that role, which was based in Romania at the time, it coincided with a great offer from Vodafone Ireland, which I joined as a technology controller. In that role I was working with the procurement team quite a lot and when the CPO at the time left, the CFO – who I was close to – recognised my eye
for optimisation, the people skills I’d built over the years and my knowledge of the technology and thought I was a good match. So I didn’t exactly apply for the role, but joined this great team with little experience in procurement but my usual willingness to work hard, question and learn.”
Needless to say, it worked. The role of Head of Procurement and Logistics saw Waksman head up a team with overall responsibility for the company’s procurement activities across three main categories of spend: network, IT and all indirect spend, which ranges from media, marketing, call centres and content, through to financial services, real estate and more. More recently, in response to
disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this remit extended to logistics with the objective of ensuring smooth operations, guaranteed best-quality networks for customers and a better grasp on the overall supply chain of the business.
“In terms of procurement process, Vodafone is very interesting in that it has local teams like ours in Ireland, but also the central Vodafone Procurement Company (VPC) based in Luxembourg,” she explains. “All the category management and strategy, and global policies are defined centrally by VPC. Then locally, we represent the procurement company in the market, ensuring that we understand the demands coming from the
“It requires a really strong understanding of the projects and products, as well as the suppliers and what they’re delivering to the business”
“The biggest change I’ve seen over the last five years is digital acceleration”
business in terms of procurement, liaising with the central team and project managing the progress of all accounts relevant to our location.
“With that in mind, it’s really about management and business partnering,” Waksman continues. “Once the contracts are signed by VPC in line with the local needs, the team is in charge of the commercial contract management and executing in line with overall expectations. From the perspective of the role, it requires a really strong understanding of the projects and products, as well as the suppliers and what they’re delivering to the business. Local teams get support from VPC and it makes for a very powerful procurement proposition – Vodafone has worked very hard on defining the global structure and blueprint for procurement and so it’s very clear where roles and responsibilities lie and works very well.”
Procurement is an ever-evolving beast, spurred by rapidly changing markets and increasingly complex requirements. This is particularly true in the telco industry which, thanks to the pace of innovation – in 15 years we’ve seen the birth of the iPhone and moved from Edge, through 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G at incredible pace –and market competition, has seen significant transformation. Specifically in procurement, says Waksman, the adoption of digital tools and technologies has dramatically changed the landscape.
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“It’s such a fast paced environment; things change all the time,” she states. “The biggest change I’ve seen over the last five years is digital acceleration. Of course, that’s true in every industry but in telco it completely changed our business from the frontline, where agents use AI to provide the best possible service and tariffs to customers, to the back office, which is being entirely digitalised and optimised for efficiency. I’ll give you an example: when I started, there was a person in my team whose whole job was producing reports. That’s been completely automated with advanced dashboards giving all the information we need which, in turn, frees people to work on more valuable projects – in this instance, that individual now rolls out digital products and drives adoption. That’s key for me. Whenever I look at adopting a new technology I always consider it from the people and team perspective, will it make us better, more efficient and drive that change?.”
Technology innovation included introduction of supplier performance scorecards, says Waksman. Subsequent digitalisation evolved to highly detailed spend analytics, as well as working on P2P processes and greater automation. The result is a comprehensive spend information dashboard that has greatly benefitted the team.
“Everything related to risk assessment has also been automated,” she adds. “An important part of that is that it’s about the introduction of sustainability and
purpose into how we go about procurement. Today, 20% of scoring is related to purpose, which is a significant weighting in the decision making process and, while it’s not a silver bullet to change the world, it’s really significant in reinforcing suppliers to truly think about how they’re impacting the planet.”
More broadly, Waksman oversaw a procurement transformation at Vodafone Ireland that was driven by a five-year vision centred on three pillars that were aligned with the overall purpose of the Vodafone Group of ‘bridging the digital society, diversity and inclusion and planet’. “I think at that time we had extremely good people, nevertheless the vision on
what we wanted to be and where we wanted to go wasn’t as clear as it should have been, while there wasn’t the right level of standardisation in terms of how we were interacting with the business. Our goal was to be the best business partner procurement team and bring innovation and efficiency through the business from the work we do with suppliers and partners.
“We looked at everything the team was doing and really questioned the value of each activity, because a key focus was to free up time to enable us to become more closely aligned with the business,” she continues. “That involved identifying all tasks that were non-value-added and
offshoring them to the Vodafone Shared Services Centre; all the value-added tasks stayed with us. We also ensured that every member of the team was focused on working more closely with the business, that’s really important. They’re now called supply chain business partners and each team member is assigned to a business unit and becomes really embedded in their work – this is a very technical and specific business and I think that interaction is key to delivering true value from the team.”
Adding value can come in many forms. As a result of the work to evolve Vodafone Ireland’s procurement function it played a crucial role in the company’s drive towards a more sustainable future and its overall target of being net-zero emissions by 2030. In 2021, Vodafone Ireland announced that its operations, from stores to networks, were entirely powered by renewable energy. “I think procurement is one of the most important functions in the business to drive sustainability,” states Waksman. “The challenge still lies in tackling scope 3 emissions, which represent around 80% of total emissions from all the goods and services you’re buying from your supplier network. It’s tough because, in some respects, it’s not in your hands. To address this Vodafone as a group works closely with suppliers to understand their own sustainability plans, whether they’re making similar commitments and how we can support them.”
“Whenever I look at adopting a new technology I always consider it from the people and team perspective, will it make us better, more efficient and drive that change?”
Together with moving to net zero, Vodafone also pledges to reuse, resell or recycle 100% of its network waste by 2025. In Ireland, all the company’s network equipment is recycled or reused by another market when no longer required and, in the 2019/20 financial year it sent more than 11,000kg of telecoms equipment for recycling.
Waksman left procurement in Vodafone Ireland in good hands. The success of the function is representative of both her collaborative and informal take on leadership and the appetite of those in her team to drive progress. She reflects: “The team there is extremely good and contains so many great professionals that, really, my role over those last few years was to steer
the environment and create a place where they were free to be their best for the business and themselves. It’s always been important to me to push those I work with and show them that change is good, as the leader that means loving the technology and embracing any change or evolution and the opportunity that comes with it. I see the role as removing roadblocks, helping people grow and find solutions and building trust. That only comes from being transparent and authentic – if you do that you make everyone believe you can overcome every challenge.”
“ Digital adoption has completely changed our business from the frontline, where agents use AI to provide the best possible service to customers, to the back office, which is being entirely digitalised and optimised for efficiency”
We use our driving force, hich is the vision and the benefits of science, technology and experience of our team”
— Krystian Kulczycki, co-founder
If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ll be familiar with the scene: our character – a military leader, a villain or their henchman, or perhaps the hero – stands, eyes in front of a scanner before a disembodied voice barks ‘iris scan complete, identity confirmed’.
If Hollywood is to be believed, biometric eye scanners will control everything in the future, from opening doors to accessing secret data. Thanks to PayEye you can add banking to the list. The innovative Polish fintech is the first in the world to launch iris payment in the commercial market. By combining technology and science, the business has created a secure technology ecosystem – including eye
payment terminals – that uses algorithms to convert the iris into a biometric pattern. PayEye says the iris recognition method is the most effective of human identification among all biometric methods and that it has the potential to replace all existing forms of user authentication. It’s also completely secure and negates carrying any other ID or sensitive data with you.
www.payeye.com
With its kaleidoscope of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, few cities can match the incredible charm of Budapest. However, the ‘Heart of Europe’ has more to offer than just beautiful buildings. The buzzing metropolis has recently become a hotspot for some of the continent’s most exciting tech startups. Nowhere is this more apparent than the city’s famous District VII. The once gritty neighbourhood has undergone a major transformation and is now an ideal spot for budding entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses.
Budapest is changing at breakneck speed, undeterred by the effects of the pandemic. Whether you’re just getting off the ground, or looking to establish a strong foothold in Europe, the Hungarian capital now offers endless opportunities, perfectly suited to the realities of modern business.
Like most major cities, Budapest has witnessed a boom in co-working spaces in recent times. HubHub is a great example of this trend at its very best. The company’s Budapest site caters to all businesses but is particularly tapped into the city’s emerging startup scene. In fact, they often host engaging startup events there, which offer a fantastic opportunity to network. The space is fully equipped with all the tools you need to run a successful company and is helping many exciting businesses take the next step on their journey to market.
There’s also Urban Lobby, a lounge and co-working space that offers round the clock access at an affordable rate. The pristine space accommodates local digital nomads, as well as international travelers working on the move. In many ways, it perfectly encapsulates the modern appeal of Budapest and embodies the city’s inclusive attitude towards business.
HUBHUB
THE HUBHUB TEAM
Before developing its reputation as a hub for emerging businesses, Budapest was perhaps best known for its wealth of world-class hotels. One of the best choices in the city’s District VII region is the wonderful Stories Boutique Hotel Situated next to HubHub, the amazing venue is at the heart of one of Budapest’s coolest neighborhoods. In fact, it’s just a stone’s throw away from some of the city’s hottest bars and restaurants and walking distance from some noteworthy cultural landmarks, including the Dohány Street Synagogue and St. Stephens Basilica.
Better still, when you stay at The Stories Boutique Hotel, you don’t only
get access to a nice room in a superb location. Staff work tirelessly to ensure they’re providing special experiences to their guests, from chef dinners to yoga, haircuts and tattoos. It’s the ideal venue for travellers, or business professionals who need to take in a new city, but still want access to some of those important home comforts.
Bence Jendruszak co-founded hyper-growth startup SEON , while studying at the elite Corvinus University of Budapest. He specialises in helping high risk merchants to accurately prevent fraud using integrated machine learning fraud prevention API solutions. A regular startup pitch winner with Lendit London and advocate of safer digital transactions for all merchants and financial institutions, Bence’s aim is to democratise fraud prevention solutions for businesses across the internet. His company, SEON has been featured in Forbes’ ‘Hot Startups to Watch in Europe’ and was recently named as the world’s fastest growing fraud prevention company. In the last year alone, the company has added over 150 new staff members and opened new offices in Austin and Jakarta. www.seon.io
As something of a ‘foodie’, I perhaps most appreciate Budapest for its world-renowned eating and drinking scene. The city has so much to offer in this area and you’re almost guaranteed to find a great spot down any street you wander. Still, it would be remiss of me not to provide some of my own personal favorites.
I’ll start with Dorado Café, which is quietly tucked away near Klauzal Square. Stylish, cozy and with superb coffee, the spot has become a popular haunt for remote workers and tends to attract a young, hip crowd. It’s the ideal venue for a casual breakfast meeting, or to host a catch-up at lunch with friends, or colleagues.
If you’ve taken my advice and stayed in The Stories Boutique Hotel, then you must check out Twentysix , one of the city’s most unique restaurants. Situated below the hotel, Twentysix serves nutritious, soulful Mediterranean food, alongside stunning cocktails. If that doesn’t relax you, then the venue also houses a full yoga studio for its diners to use.
Finally, there’s Mazel Tov, an open-plan cultural space in the center of District VII, which specialises in traditional Middle Eastern food. The restaurant’s name is a nod to its location in the city’s historic Jewish Quarter. Once you’ve finished eating, why not take a stroll around the area and see some of the other terrific sights nearby.
There are so many ways to explore Budapest, but perhaps none as fulfilling as by foot. Walking from District VII to the world-famous Danube River is particularly scenic. The route will take you past some of the city’s wondrous landmarks, as well as the beautiful District V. Of course, the
Danube River itself is an amazing sight to behold. Most importantly, it offers a great backdrop for Instagram pictures!
The Buda Castle should also be considered a must-see, while in the city. First completed in 1265, the castle sits atop of Castle Hill and offers sensational views of Budapest. Once home to Hungarian royalty, the castle is now open to tourists and houses the Hungarian National Gallery and The Budapest History Museum. Both the gallery and the museum are also fantastic and well-worth checking out if you’re in the area.
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