Tech-Exec Issue 1

BITCOIN AND OUR PLANETARY AWAKENING WITH MICHAEL

“I'm not Important, the mIssIon Is...”

HUDSON

© Stroud and Clarke Ltd 2021. All rights reserved. Whilst every effort is made to ensure that information is correct upon publishing, Stroud and Clarke Ltd is not responsible for any errors or omissions, or for the results obtained from the use of this information. All information in this magazine is provided “as is”, with no guarantee of completeness, accuracy, timeliness or of the results obtained from the use of this information. This magazine may

whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

technology has never been more important. That’s true whether you’re a leader at the helm of an international organisation, pioneering a new innovation or startup or – equally importantly – you or me at home, with our friends and families.

Indeed, such is the pace at which technology is transforming the lives of businesses and consumers that there is little distinction between the two categories. Digital technology is here and, in such a turbulent time, its role in our professional and personal lives will only grow.

It is with that in mind that we introduce Tech-Exec. This magazine has a simple premise: to explore the fundamental technologies, trends and leaders affecting business and society. We do so by telling the stories of those at the forefront,

those innovators and pioneers transforming business and making our lives easier, better, happier even.

Like Michael Hudson, CEO of Bitstocks. It takes a certain confidence to describe a business you’ve founded as a bet on humanity, a development of technology to fundamentally change human consciousness. But it’s Hudson’s ambition and vision for Bitstocks – to build a world with individual sovereignty for us all – that makes him and the company so exciting.

All our launch issue contributors follow a similar vein, whether its European CIO of the Year Rui Pedro Silva discussing leadership philosophies, Inspired Human founder Perrine Farque breaking down diversity barriers, Aerion Corp pushing the boundaries of aviation innovation or our executive interviews. In the same pioneering spirit, we venture to Paris as we prepare for the freeing of travel and business restrictions.

I hope you’re as inspired reading it as I have been collating the publication.

Matt High.

Content Director

Matt High

Creative Directors

Marketing Director

Jack Pascall

Project Director

is a multichannel creative agency that produces exceptional business and lifestyle content for brands, leaders and pioneers.

Stroud &

Daniel Crawford

Steve Shipley

Manuel Navarro Managing Director

James Pepper

Clarke

74 | INTERVIEW

UNTUCK it

Digitisation in the fashion industry

86 | INNOVATION AERION AEROSPACE

The future of supersonic flight

94 | ENTREPRENEUR SUKHI JUTLA

Blockchain, innovation and business

96 | LEADERSHIP RUI PEDRO SILVA

On trust, accountability and football

106 | INTERVIEW

HTB

Driving digital change in banking

112 | CITY GUIDE

48 HRS: PARIS

Business and please in the French capital

118 | CALENDAR EVENTS

The best virtual events for 2021

eL eCtr IC oDYsse Y

Cars, saving the environment? Absolutely. Extreme E, the new all-electric SUV racing series is motorsport with a purpose: highlighting the climate change challenges facing global ecosystems. From March, the series will take innovative off-road vehicles to environmentally sensitive locations like the Arctic and the Brazilian rainforest to promote sustainability and EV adoption. XE teams, which must feature one male and one female driver, will race the 400kw ODYSSEY 21 E-SUV - capable of 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds at gradients of up to 130%. Three teams are headed up by F1 world champions Sir Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Jenson Button. extreme-e.com

SUSTAINABLE ORGANISATION/ SUSTAINABLE CITY

Who said annual reports have to be boring? Certainly not Minecraft, which has released a free Sustainability City map allowing players to explore how the key objectives and themes in Microsoft’s annual sustainability report can be realised by us all. The report, published 28 January, documents corporate progress to becoming carbon negative, water positive and zero waste and explores what we must do as a global society to avoid climate disaster. Where better to start than Minecraft?

news.xbox.com

microsoft.com

79%

79% of UK tech workers, the equivalent of more than one million people working in the sector, want to continue to work the majority of the week (3-5 days) from home after the pandemic.

— Jeff Bezos announces transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board

“Invention is the root of our success. We’ve done crazy things together, and then made them normal.”

Harvey Nash UK Tech Survey.

ACCENTURE: Technology Vision 2021

86% of executives agree their organisation should train its people to think like technologists – to use and customise technology at their own, individual level.

77% believe their technology architecture is becoming very critical or critical to overall success.

87% think the remote workforce will open the talent market and expand the competition for hiring between organisations.

Read More

T HE DIGITAL WOR k PLACE , AUDI - STYLE

Audi has revealed its ‘home office’ with a difference. Audi Spaces is a 3D virtual world for learning and work, coaching and consulting and digital collaboration and communication. Skype, MS Teams and Zoom are noble tools in the pandemic, says Audi, but they’re often impersonal. Audi Spaces focuses on social interaction where employees use 3D avatars of themselves to interact in real time and real working environments. “The tool enhances the collaboration of teams across the boundaries of departments and countries,” says Sabione Maassen, Audi Board Member for Human Resources. “In this way we are making a contribution to the digital transformation of Audi.”

audi-mediacenter.com

BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED

Did you know that a brisk walk could potentially generate as much as five volts? Us neither, but according to scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, future wearable tech could be entirely powered by our own bodies. They’ve developed groundbreaking low-cost wearable tech that uses thermoelectric generators to draw power from body heat at around one volt for every square centimeter of skin. advances.sciencemag.org

AT THE EDGE OF SPACE

Hewlett Packard has launched Spaceborne Computer-2 into orbit, enabling real-time data processing with advanced commercial edge computing in space for the first time. Spaceborne Computer-2 will be available for use on the International Space Station for up to three years, allowing astronauts and researchers to process data at the edge and shorten time-toinsight from months to minutes. hpe.com

CAR-TO-CLOUD

Electromobility, automated driving and next generation vehicle concepts place software at the heart of future car design. With that in mind, Bosch and Microsoft have joined forces to develop a new software platform – based on MS Azure – that will seamlessly connect cars to the cloud. Drivers can expect quicker access to new functions and digital services and improved updates over a vehicle’s life. reuters.com

IMAGE: NASA

ETHICAL AI RESTRUCTURE AT GOOGLE

“I’m fired,” read a 19 February tweet by Margeret Mitchel, founder and co-head of Google’s artificial intelligence ethics unit. Google claimed in a statement to TechCrunch that Mitchell’s firing was the result of her breaking the company’s code of conduct. bbc.co.uk

DRIVING GLOBAL INNOVATION

Dell is investing $50mn in a global innovation hub in Singapore, the first of its kind outside the US. The facility is planned to increase adoption of digital technology in Singapore and Asia-Pacific and will be used to support the development of augmented and mixed reality, cloud and edge innovation, cyber-security and data analytics.

AUTO TAXIS

Small talk with taxi drivers. It’s never easy. Fortunately, it may be a thing of the past for San Francisans courtesy of autonomous driving innovator Waymo. The company, which began life in 2009 as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, has begun limited rider testing in the city to further develop its fully autonomous taxi driver technology. Waymo One, Waymo’s first commercial driverless taxi service was first launched in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in 2018 – the company says its self-driving cars have completed 20 million autonomous miles on public roads in 25 cities to date. waymo.com

MUSHROOM WEARABLES? IT’S THE FUTURE

Electronic sensors in wearables that detect biological signals could be replaced by mushrooms in the future. Seriously. A proof of concept study has found that oyster mushroom mycelium can perceive electrical signals that are readable by computer. Or, as Andrew Adamatzky, Professor in Unconventional Computing in the Department of Computer Science at UWE Bristol says, “the results paved a way towards future design of intelligent sensing patches to be used in fungal wearables”. Read More

RUMOUR MILL…

Job listings spotted by Bloomberg indicate Apple is looking to get ahead in 6G development. The ads, seeking wireless system research engineers for the current and next generation networks, promised applicants will “research and design next generation (6G) wireless communication systems”.

Bloomberg.com

OUR RECOMMENDATION OF MUST-READ BOOKS FOR BUSINESS LEADERS

Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World, by Fareed Zakaria

Few of us can accurately predict the new normal, but we all know that permanent change is here. Here, Zakaria sets out the political, technological and economic implications of life post pandemic, ranging from the rise of ‘digital life’ to an emerging world order split between the United States and China.

BITCOIN, SOVEREIGNTY AND A BET ON HUMANITY

Tech-Exec meets Michael Hudson, the Bitcoin visionary with one eye on our interplanetary future

PHOTOS

ROGER BROWN

We all use tools differently and for equally valid reasons – whether they’re digital or they’re not. But, give an accountant paper and a pen and, in the politest way possible, there’s every chance you won’t get the Mona Lisa. Give that same paper and pen to an artist, however, and the outcome could border on the beautiful. The sublime even. This is the metaphor that Michael Hudson chooses when wrestling the explanation of blockchain and bitcoin’s potential from the ‘pizza-stained, vest-wearing coders in their mum’s basements’ and aligning it with something more akin to his far grander vision for all of humanity.

And that’s no understatement. People start businesses for different reasons; passion, money, fame perhaps, if we’re being cynical. But, a bet on humanity and the next global awakening? As far as visions go, it’s up there with the most aspirational and inspiring. Yet, over the course of an hour-long discussion with Hudson during which we cover everything from Bitcoin’s role in changing humanity, through technology, achieving economic sovereignty for all, sim racing and our interplanetary future (yes, really), I’m captivated by his and Bitstocks’ – the company he founded in 2014 – plans for us all.

“As far back as I can remember, I never considered us truly free...”

Like many innovators, Hudson has always had a closer relationship with tech than most, even down to the seemingly prerequisite story of dismantling an innocent household item at an impossibly young age. In this case, the victim was a 14-inch CRT colour TV Christmas present and the culprit an eight-year-old Hudson. “I’ve always had a fixation with wanting to know how things work,” he reasons, “so, by the end of that Christmas, it had been completely dismantled. Yes, I got in huge trouble for pulling apart my present, but I did put it back together and it worked flawlessly for years after… honest.”

That passion drove Hudson to launch his first business – Shigs Computers – at just 16. “It seemed like a natural progression,” he concedes. “There was never any divine inspiration or lightbulb moment. My upbringing made me realise ‘okay, you need to have money in this world’, but I just remember thinking that if I followed this huge passion for technology then all of that would come... I also wanted to see my name on a chequebook and business card.

“As far back as I can remember, I never considered us truly free,” Hudson continues. “I was always ambitious, which

meant I started my journey of understanding how the world works at a really young age and I saw technology as a way of breaking the shackles; I worked out pretty early that it will lead to human evolution and our freedom. I’m not academically educated, my entrepreneurial journey was mostly driven by the fact that I was shy and didn’t want to interact with people. I grew up believing I was inadequate – at least, that’s what my teachers and the education system told me. But I had this belief in technology and I just thought ‘I may be inadequate, but I still need to be successful’. It was only when I was 23 or

24 that I realised I had good things to say – technology absolutely neutralised the playing field for me.”

“I had a vision for all this years ago...”

Today, that passion and belief in the potential of technology hasn’t changed, with Hudson being a vocal advocate for Bitcoin and blockchain. He founded Bitstocks in 2014, predominantly as an educational and investment house looking to demystify the Bitcoin space. Over time, that mission has matured to one of enabling the financial ecosystem of the future, underpinned by individual sovereignty.

“ I just remember thinking that if I followed this huge passion for technology then all of that would come... I also wanted to see my name on a chequebook and business card”

“I genuinely believe that technology is the liberator of humanity,” states Hudson. “But we started with quite humble beginnings. We knew the importance of bitcoin beyond investment portfolios, but we’ve also been on our own educational journey.

To be completely honest, it’s a bet on humanity. I’ve always been fascinated by watching and understanding the world, whether that’s political or economic events, geopolitics or even the more supernatural and spiritual sides of things. Our business model has been directly correlated with the question of ‘are we

going to see a true awakening moment on this planet?’.

“As an entrepreneur, my role and aspiration is to build a solution to the problems and challenges I believe we’re going to face,” he continues. “I had a vision for all of this years ago and I predicted a lot of things that we’re experiencing now as a global collective. I know what the outcome of this global awakening will be and truth and transparency will become the USP that businesses will have to rebuild their model on in the new world we’ll

enter – that’s where Bitcoin and blockchain will come in.”

In his own words, Hudson ‘bootstrapped’ Bitstocks from the ground up – it did in fact only launch its first ever investment round in January. The pitch, which led with a bold ‘do you trust your bank’ question showed how exciting a prospect Bitstocks is, raising just over £1.1mn, a mammoth 221% of the original £500k target.

But money was never the point, he admits. “In order to, lets say, really work out some

of my crazier ideas, I was willing to do it all on my own dime. And that was really important in ensuring that my thinking or the company’s direction wouldn’t get polluted or diluted in any way,” he states.

“It’s been one of the best things we’ve done, particularly in this industry where there are so many voices out there that are completely misguided. To go against the grain and not be held accountable to anyone’s opinions or ideas will hold us in really good stead. Thankfully, we see the space moving in line with what we’ve been talking about for years now.”

“ THE IDEA OF ME TREATING PEOPLE AT THE COMPANY AS JUST ‘RESOURCES’ IS ONE THAT DISGUSTS ME. MY IDEA AS A LEADER IS THAT I’M NOT IMPORTANT, THE MISSION IS”

MICHAEL HUDSON CEO,BITSTOCKS

“Technology should be a set of tools that allows human consciousness to express itself...”

That movement, however, is still slower than Hudson would like. Less than 5-10% of people working in the crypto space truly understand the core technology behind Bitcoin and blockchain or its true potential, he estimates. For too long, the Bitcoin narrative has been centred around it being an equivalent to gold, with words like transactions, digital cash and investment dominating public consciousness.

“Where in that conversation are we building a technology that’s going to help humanity?,” he asks rhetorically. “Where are we building a technology that’s going to clarify and purify voting systems, or that will hold banks accountable? There’s nothing. Every single argument within the space leads back to a ponzi-type ‘hold the hot potato of today in the hope you can sell it to someone tomorrow’ discussion. Some boring investment angle isn’t going to change the world. Technology is more than that. It should be a set of tools that allows human consciousness to express itself.”

“It’s a much better way of the whole planet having a more harmonious relationship with time…”

This is where Gravity comes in. The solution, which Hudson describes as the apex of his and Bitstocks’ thought process over the years, is the easiest and most advanced place to buy and sell Bitcoin in

the UK and Europe. For now. In reality, Gravity is the foundation of something far greater: individual economic sovereignty. “To really get what it means to be sovereign, you have to dive into the human relationship with time,” Hudson reasons.

“Ask any aspiring wealthy individual why they have that aspiration and you’ll typically get two answers. One group will talk about the pursuit and consolidation of power; they’re not the kind of people I want to sit and have a beer with. The other will tell you ‘I want to travel the world, spend more time with my family, get back into playing guitar like I did when I was young, or just chill on a beach’.

“Individual economic sovereignty is when your state of intent is backed up by your bank balance, and that’s what this new age of finance can be,” he adds, “it’s a much better way of the whole planet having a more harmonious relationship with time. It’s the most important thing I want people to understand when it comes to Gravity, Bitcoin and blockchain because it forces you to think about the human side of it and how interacting with this ledger, this paper and pen, affects you.”

Technology can be a great leveler, as Hudson knows better than anyone. But, with Gravity his aim is for true global financial inclusion. “It’s a big personal accomplishment for me,” he states. I’ve been having some great conversations with some very well connected people in Africa, a couple of queen mothers even,

OUR BUSINESS MODEL HAS BEEN DIRECTLY CORRELATED WITH THE QUESTION OF ‘ARE WE GOING TO SEE A TRUE AWAKENING MOMENT ON THIS PLANET?’”

about what technologies they need and bringing everyone online. But it’s broader than just the financial sector or Gravity alone. I’m really excited about things like Elon Musk and Starlink, which will enable internet connectivity anywhere in the world, or things like virtual reality and how it can be used by everyone from every background.

“Celebrating personal achievements has never been an easy task for me, because I’m a really tough critic of myself,” he says. “What’s really close to my heart is making sure that people in third-world or developing countries have exactly the same access and opportunity as people in first world countries – places where I can hand them that same paper and pen and tell them to create on the same basis as everyone else. To witness those creations will be really fulfilling.”

“I’m not important, the mission is…” There’s a human element that runs through all of Hudson and Bitstock’s work, both externally and internally. It may come as little surprise, for example, that the people and their unified passion drive much of the culture within the organisation.

“It’s all about people working with you and not for you,” he reasons. “Think about HR as a concept; it’s about humans as resources, which is absolutely the wrong intent. The idea of me treating people at the company as just ‘resources’ is one that disgusts me. My idea as a leader

is that I’m not important, the mission is important – even I’m a servant to the mission – and there’s unification around one point: ‘what do you want the world to be and what’s your role in it?’.

“I’m not saying that everyone has to be 100% aligned with my vision of that world,” Hudson adds, “just that when they’re here they give 110% because they like what we stand for, even if they have their own personal financial goals. You wanna go travel the world, be a surfer, settle down and have a family? That’s fine, it’s not taboo and we have no secrets. Creating a place of acceptance and no judgement is very important.”

“Within 10 years we’ll be an interplanetary civilisation…”

The future? It’s a question that can be answered in a couple of ways. First, and more practically, Hudson explains that Gravity will continue to expand, driven by – and influencing – the ‘next’ version of the internet. The recent crowdfunding will go towards this development, including building out solvency and transparency features, stablecoin to enable tokenised global micropayments and more. “We’re building a genuine proof of concept of how you can utilise this seemingly simple paper and pen, build infrastructure on top of it and have a new and unique selling point as a business. We see Gravity as a Monzo-like service, with built-in sovereignty and transparency initially.

Really and truly what it is is a financial operating system for the world to build its vision on.”

When it comes to the future, Hudson is more prophetic, telling me that within the next decade mankind will be known as an interplanetary civilisation. “That’s publicly known,” he clarifies, “we actually already are. It’s the true inspiration behind the naming of Gravity. Once we’re publicly known as such, the requirement to trade

– as far as across the solar system – will exist, and we’ll need a system to do that. We’re already talking about the mining of asteroid belts and similar innovations and I see that only continuing. It’s a very small part of our overall awakening process that will end with us realising the capabilities of technology to permanently change the human conversation. At Bitstocks, we’re getting ready for that world.”

www.bitstocks.com

“ INDIVIDUAL ECONOMIC SOVEREIGNTY IS WHEN YOUR STATE OF INTENT IS BACKED UP BY YOUR BANK BALANCE, AND THAT’S WHAT THIS NEW AGE OF FINANCE CAN BE”

PORTfOLIO

I NNOVATIONS fOR WOR k, WELL b EING AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

MONTBLANC SUMMIT 2+

There is a smartwatch for every occasion, every ambition and every fitness goal – and rightly so considering the appetite for wearables and healthtech. In the Summit, Montblanc fuses innovative technology and practicality with aesthetics. Focusing on the former, the watch is based on Wear OS by Google and is the first luxury smartwatch with cellular connectivity; the technology measures wellbeing and health, and monitors stress. It also allows for calls and contactless payments to be made, and can stream music directly to wireless headphones.

www.montblanc.com

PORTfOLIO

I NNOVATIONS fOR WOR k, WELL b EING AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

COVE

In a game of healthtech one-upmanship, Cove promises to not just track stress but cancel it. And it works, too. Four years of clinical studies and research from Harvard Medical School have shown that the innovative wearable can lower stress levels by as much as 41% and improve sleep. Cove is the first wearable with specific stress cancelling technology, applying gentle vibrations to the skin behind the ears for 20 minutes per day. The accompanying app lets users track stress levels and build resilience for long-term improvement.

www.feelcove.com

PORTfOLIO

I NNOVATIONS fOR WOR k, WELL b EING AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

STUDYPOD

There’s home offices and then there’s the Studypod from Livit. In reality, Studypod isn’t just an office, it’s a yoga studio, guest room, breakout area or any other type of space you need to de-stress, focus or bring clarity. We’re all aware of the benefits that nature can bring to our wellbeing, mental health and productivity, which is why Livit designed Studypod to be placed in the garden, forest or any other inspirational space its user can imagine (and have access to). Made from black tinted and hardened glass, it’s a remote window to whichever world suits the working day.

www.studypod.no

PORTfOLIO

I NNOVATIONS fOR WOR k, WELL b EING AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

LARQ BOTTLE

In a world of digital transformation, the importance of using technology for good should never be underestimated, however grand the gesture. In this vein, the LARQ Bottle ticks several boxes. Not only is it reusable, thus eradicating plastic waste, it uses clever and state-ofthe-art UV technology to self-clean and purify drinking water. LARQ believes you are what you drink. Accordingly, its PurVis technology eradicates up to 99.9% of germs, bacteria, protozoa and other harmful bio-contaminants that can be found in the water we drink.

www.livelarq.com

PORTfOLIO

I NNOVATIONS fOR WOR k, WELL b EING AND SUSTAINA b LE LIVING

DENNY BIKE OF THE FUTURE

How can we inspire more people to commute via bike? An important question, considering the environmental damage caused by daily commutes worldwide, and one that inspired design company Teague to create the Denny Bike of the Future. The electric-assist bike, a proposal put forward for Oregon Manifest’s The Bike Design Project, is a vision of future micro-mobility focused on safety, security and convenience. Features include automatic running lights that turn on when in motion, an onboard computer that measures resistance and automatically shifts gears to suit, and electric pedal assist.

www.teague.com

VERTICAL AEROSPACE ELECTRIC FLIGHT FOR

Flying cars have long been a sci-fi staple. Well, they’re here. Meet the pionering VA-1X, the world’s first certified winged electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft – or ‘flying taxi’ to you and me.

The emission-free aircraft is the brainchild of Bristol, UK-based Vertical Aerospace, which was founded in 2016 by greentech entrepreneur Stephen Fitzpatrick with a single mission: to disrupt the way that aircraft are developed. It does this by combining innovative aerospace thinking with Formula 1 engineering and agility.

EVERYONE

Video 01:26

The latter comes courtesy of CTO Mike Gascoyne, a designer and engineer par excellence with more than two decades’ experience at the pinnacle of international motorsport.

But this is ‘driving’ of a different kind. VA-1X is built with innovation, performance and luxury at its core. The aircraft is capable of carrying up to five people at speeds of up to 150mph and a range of 100 miles. This makes it perfect

for intercity travel such as business trips and frequent travel. You could, for example, leave your office in London and make your meeting in Brighton in as little as 30 minutes rather than the two hours it would take by car driving. The company expects the aircraft to start commercial flights in 2024 at a price point “between a helicopter flight and a private car”.

www.vertical-aerospace.com

“VA-1X COMBINES INNOVATIVE AEROSPACE THINKING WITH FORMULA 1 ENGINEERING AND AGILITY”

Vertical Aerospace Seraph

Diversity and inclusion: A measure of effective leadership?

Do you know your organisation’s diversity and inclusion strategy? As a tech leader, answering no to this question isn’t good enough, as Perrine Farque explains

Today, more than ever, diversity and inclusion matters. We all know this. Indeed, a large majority of organisations in tech and beyond purport to have dedicated a significant effort to their diversity and inclusion programmes. And yet, for the technology industry in particular, there is still a startling disparity between the words and actions of leaders and executives that simply won’t go away. Of course, the last year has been anything but normal. For executives worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic proved to be one of the

most testing times for leadership as disruption and a transition to new ways of working, communicating – even living – have given both opportunity and challenge. In such an environment some have voiced concern that diversity and inclusion may slip down, or even off, companies’ agendas, and not without good reason. Take, for example, a McKinsey survey of global diversity and inclusion leaders in which 27% said their organisations had put nearly all or most of their diversity initiatives on hold as a result of COVID.

A MORAL IMPERATIVE

This couldn’t be more misguided. Indeed, diversity and inclusion couldn’t be more important as we navigate some of the most profound changes we have experienced. They can also contribute to business resilience and recovery, as

Perrine Farque, Founder of Inspired Human, professional keynote speaker and diversity expert explains. Farque works with leaders worldwide, empowering them to leverage the true potential of organisational diversity and inclusion – or, as she calls it ‘the secret weapon’. Her passion for the subject is evident, and has been honed through more than a decade’s experience working at a senior level for tech companies such as Facebook, PagerDuty and more.

“It’s an educational process that’s missing at the top,” she says. “As long as leaders misunderstand what diversity and inclusion actually mean to their business we’ll continue to see a big gap between intentions and actions. I’ve experienced firsthand the feeling of being excluded or not belonging and, looking back, I can say that there was never a real focus on diversity and inclusion. It’s symptomatic of a real sense of confusion at a leadership level of why this matters: far

too often it’s viewed as a charitable thing to do or something that’s ‘right’ to address. It’s far greater than that – it’s a moral imperative.”

A TICK-BOX EXERCISE?

In 2014 Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook released the first of their annual diversity reports signalling, many believed, a shift towards serious action in tackling tech’s legacy problem. Six years later, and progress hasn’t been as

“In tech in particular, it’s a vicious circle,” she notes. “Something close to just 5% of leadership positions in UK tech are held by women and only 4% of the UK tech workforce is black, Asian or of an ethnic minority compared to 20% of the population; the demographic of those at the top just hasn’t changed enough. And because those in leadership represent a small portion of the overall population, there is always a tendency to recruit, hire or tap into their existing networks.

broad as expected. It was reported in June 2020 for example that the share of black or Latinx technical workers at Google and Microsoft rose by less than a percentage point since 2014; at Apple the figure was unchanged at six per cent. Granted, female inclusion has fared better at those organisations over the same time period, but it’s hard to disagree with Farque’s view that for many companies, openly addressing diversity and inclusion is little more than a tick- box exercise.

Do that and you just have a continuation of the problem.”

EDUCATION AND GOALS

Greater education and understanding, says Farque, is the only way to solve the problem, citing a 2018 survey by First Round Capital that suggested little appetite for diversity in tech startups. Of those startup founders surveyed, roughly 78% said their organisation had no formal plans or policies in place to promote diversity and inclusion and, of those, 15% had

“WHEN I WOR k WITH ANY b USINESS I MA k E IT CLEAR IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS THAT DIVERSITY WILL IMPROVE THE ORGANISATION”

PRIORITY: DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

roductivity: McKinsey research in 2018 found that companies with better gender diversity are 21% more likely to show financial returns above their respective national industry medians; firms with better ethnic diversity were 33% more likely to financially outperform their respective industry medians.

educed risk of dicrimination: A diverse workforce demonstrates more appreciation for diverse individuals and diverse backgrounds. When employees feel appreciated, recognised and included, their engagement and productivity is higher.

nnovation: Diverse and inclusive organisations are more innovative, which significantly helps respond to changing consumers needs. A Boston Consulting Group survey of 1,700 companies found those with above-average diversity produce a greater proportion of revenue from innovation (45% of total) than from companies with below average diversity (26%).

rganisational success: CEB, now part of Gartner, found workers in highly diverse and inclusive organisations result in a 26% increase in team collaboration and an 18% increase in team commitment.

eputation: If your company isn’t viewed as being inclusive, some customers may shy away from giving you their business. This is especially true of socially conscious Millennial and Gen Z customers.

ncreased engagement: Employees who are part of organisations with high levels of diversity report a 7% higher intent to stay than their peers in organisations that have low levels of diversity. Higher employee engagement helps maintain productivity in remote-work and stand out from competition.

alent acquisition: A Glassdoor survey revealed that two-thirds (67%) of jobseekers say a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.

Any secret weapon needs an acronym. Diversity and inclusion, according to Farque, can somewhat appropriately be summarised as a PRIORITY. She explains: p r I o r I t Y

early retention: A 2019 ADP report found that 51% of workers say that they feel belonging in the workplace when they can freely share their opinions, and 50%, when they feel comfortable being fully themselves, to which end being part of a diverse and inclusive team, makes a big difference.

no plans to adopt one. “If you don’t have plans, targets and goals then things don’t get done,” she adds, “there’s a lot of work still to do to make leaders see that diversity is more than a public statement of intent or for the media value.”

That work requires a firm understanding of the advantages that a full and proper diversity and inclusion strategy brings. At its most simple, those businesses that excel in diversity measurably outperform those that are falling behind. Benefits are wide-ranging and are seen across the entire organisation, including greater

innovation and creativity, higher revenue and resilience, better decision making and employee performance and higher job retention and acceptance rates across the board.

“When I work with any business I make it clear in no uncertain terms that diversity will improve the business,” says Farque. “It’s a crucial competitive advantage and those in charge have to understand that before we move on to educational workshops, training and things like goal setting. And whether those goals are for inclusion, diversity or workforce or the

“THERE’S A LOT O f WOR k STILL TO DO TO MA k E LEADERS SEE THAT DIVERSITY IS MORE THAN A PU b LIC STATEMENT O f INTENT OR fOR THE MEDIA VALUE”

As a professional keynote speaker, Farque empowers leaders to leverage diversity as their competitive advantage

“THERE’S A LOT O f WOR k STILL TO DO TO MA k E LEADERS SEE THAT DIVERSITY IS MORE THAN A PU b LIC STATEMENT O f INTENT OR fOR THE MEDIA VALUE”

leadership team we put steps in place to make sure they are never dropped.

“Whoever is driving this has to make sure the business is accountable to these targets and the long-term plan that we work together to create,” she continues. “If you’re thinking about this as a leader, always go back to the why before you do anything else: is diversity and inclusion important to your organisational strength, to how you interact with customers or to

building better products? There is always a purpose.”

Organisational goals are, naturally, a prerequisite for any successful leader. But they shouldn’t be to the detriment of the most important element in any diversity and inclusion programme: the human being. We are, in many ways, simple in our needs. When it comes to work, Farque explains the importance of wellbeing

and culture in any change. “What does inclusion mean?,” she asks. “We’re hardwired to want to belong, and that’s as true for our work as it is for our personal lives. Study after study shows that if you feel included you feel like you belong. And with that comes lower stress levels, a better emotional balance, greater con colleagues, and better engagement and performance. Look at it like that, and it’s clear why this needs to be a focus.”

We can’t predict the future. COVID has undoubtedly changed our way of working and, with regards to diversity and inclusion brought positives and negatives. Our sudden reliance on online meetings and communication has vastly widened the talent pool and levelled the playing field for hiring worldwide. Conversely, furlough measures and redundancies have impacted those already suffering from a lack of coherent diversity strategy. Whatever our perception of the ‘new normal’, it can’t be a world in which diversity and inclusion isn’t tackled head on, says Farque. “There’s one very simple message for those in charge: invest in education, not for your workforce but for yourselves. It’s the critical first step.”

Perrine Farque is a professional keynote speaker, diversity expert, and the founder of Inspired Human

DIVERSITY O ff ICERS: ARE THEY INCLUDED?

“If you look at the turnover rate amongst diversity officers, it’s through the roof,” Farque states. “They don’t last more than six to 12 months; it’s sad to say but a lot of the time, it’s tokenism. You’re seeing a trend of companies employing a diversity and inclusion officer to play a role – it’s representative and they often have very little budget or authority. Demand for Chief Diversity Officers is high, but so is turnover.

One of the most challenging demands of the job is persuading senior executives to make diversity a priority. Departments, often among the smallest, are the least-resourced from a budget perspective and from a staffing perspective yet Chief Diversity Officers are responsible for influencing and creating wholesale systematic change, on limited budget and resources.

www.inspired-human.com

the praCtICe oF

f ROM PEN AND PAPER S k ETCH TO DIGITAL AND DATA DRIVEN PEOPLE-CENTRIC DESIGN, W oo D s B a G ot's TOM LEYDEN

DISCUSSES THE ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE O f THE f UTURE

the FUtU re

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

there is a fine line between art and technology, between the value of human creativity and the undeniable benefits that digital tools can bring. Blur those lines further and the results can be truly transformative, as is the case at Woods Bagot, the innovative architectural studio rethinking people-

Responsibility for delivering this technology rests with Global CIO Tom Leyden. A technology leader of some 20 years’ experience, Leyden has worked across multiple industries and is as passionate about technology as he is enabling the individuals that work with it. His role at Woods Bagot is a perfect example of this,

driven architecture for the 21st Century. The global firm fuses a growing range of disciplines and expertise with a digital and data-informed approach to architecture, interiors and masterplanning.

Such a method doesn’t adhere to a signature style. Rather, Woods Bagot delivers ‘People Architecture’, a vision based on seeing the world differently, understanding that the values of end users and design are one and the same, and celebrating diversity and prosperity across cultures, propelled by a shared sense of empathy that is inclusive of flexibility and built to adapt. Technology plays a crucial role in delivering this vision, with Woods Bagot using a suite of advanced digital tools for the analysis, interpretation and planning of interiors, buildings, communities and cities.

having joined the company some five years ago to spearhead a digital transformation and evolve the IT function from one of back-end support to critical business enabler.

He explains: “When I came on board IT was fighting fires; it was in the bunker with its back to the wall. And when you’re so busy doing the day-to-day, you don’t

“WHEN YOU’RE SO b USY DOING THE DAY-TO-DAY, YOU DON’T STEP b AC k AND SEE THE b IGGER, MORE STRATEGIC PICTURE. MY ROLE IS TO LOO k THROUGH THAT b ROADER LENS”

TOM LEYDEN, GLOBAL CIO, WOODS BAGOT

Photo: Peter Bennetts

step back and see the bigger, more strategic picture. My role is to look through that broader lens.”

During his career Leyden’s seen the role of technology change significantly and witnessed the digitisation of all aspects of professional life but maintains that the fundamentals of working with that technology remain the same. “You need a firm understanding of the problems or challenges the business is trying to solve and you need to build strong relationships with those individuals you’re working with. Technology is just the fuel for your vehicle, the real value is in that collaboration.”

As is the case with all transformation projects, Leyden’s early focus was on readdressing the balance: resolving the core issues within an under-pressure

IT team so as to enable the breathing space to focus on the broader needs of the business while building out a new, more secure and innovative infrastructure suitable for a global creative studio built on international collaboration and using significant volumes of data.

“We had a very global IT team but it wasn’t very connected,” he states. “They’re highly capable people who simply weren’t working together; building an environment of trust and support was absolutely essential. You very quickly realise you have a far greater capacity for focusing on a singular strategy, solving some of the more complex issues and engaging on a higher level. From a leadership perspective it’s a part of my job I love. Working with and getting the most from teams of tech experts is a real joy; as a manager my role is really about creating the space for people, letting them

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY BUSINESS SCHOOL, AUSTRALIA

WOODS BAGOT MELBOURNE STUDIO, AUSTRALIA

bring their expertise to the organisation and enjoying them seeing the rewards.”

‘Space’ duly created, Leyden and the team tackled fundamental infrastructure problems - resolving core issues, providing a more stable backline of servers, storage and improved networks before migrating fully into the Microsoft Cloud. “If you’re not delivering the basics so that everyone in the company can operate effectively, you’re not at the table for those strategic conversations,” he says. “I liken it to making technology a utility: you turn the tap

on and you get water, you turn the computer on and everything you need is there. That lets you take a step back, transition to an orchestration role and actually engage with the higher level needs of

“THE COM b INATION O f THE AUGMENTATION O f DATA AND REALLY SMART, CREATIVE PEOPLE CAN LEAD TO GREAT MOMENTS”

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IRENA GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS MASDAR, ABU DHABI, UAE

IRENA HQ is a low energy building in a desert climate. It uses around 42% less energy than a comparable building, and 50% of water demand

Photo: Peter Clarke

Below: West Village, Sydney

Right: Wynyard Station, Sydney

Bottom right: Sculptform, Melbourne [ Australia ]

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the company, understand what the challenges are and be invited into those conversations.”

Architecture is changing. Nothing communicates creativity as effectively as a sketch on a paper, but the design studio of the future is one typified by emerging trends such as data-powered design driven by a greater understanding of human behaviour; empathetic design that considers the broader environment and location of a building; the use of smart Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools; and using technology to connect global experience to local opportunity.

“Coming into the industry was genuinely fascinating from a pure technology perspective, I was amazed on several levels,” says Leyden. “The technology required to design the built environment is seriously high end, particularly in terms of graphics and computing power, but it’s the newer innovations that make it really exciting for us and our customers. Things like 3D design realisation, complex building information management systems, tools to coordinate large

Reinforcing South Australia as a major centre for medical research, the state-of-the-art facility accommodates approximately 700 researchers from around the world

building teams, it all requires huge amounts of data to be properly coordinated.

“We’re also right at the forefront of a bunch of different innovations like VR,” he continues. “It’s great for helping clients realise our design concepts by actually walking through buildings, immersing themselves in the environment and understanding complicated features, what the views are like out of the window or even how the space reacts to shade and light at different times of the day. It’s cool, but it’s only part of the story. The really exciting area is where we’re starting to overlay and use

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN HEALTH AND MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

Photo: Peter Clarke

data to generate new options, understand design and the environment in a way we never would have before.”

The discipline has been at the heart of Woods Bagot for more than a decade through the firm’s research and development team, which offers a host of data and analytical tools. “The combination of the augmentation of data and really

smart, creative people can lead to great moments,” Leyden comments. “We can use data to essentially simulate the building and design it based on real ‘evidence’ that shows it’s going to work more effectively for people or will minimise the environmental footprint.

“A great example is our participation in Pump to Plug, a project to consider how

“WE CAN USE DATA TO ESSENTIALLY SIMULATE THE b UILDING AND DESIGN IT b ASED ON REAL EVIDENCE”

MILES RESIDENCES, KIRRA BEACH, GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA

A neighbourhood development that reflects the heritage, surf culture and local architecture

architecture and the urban environment can respond to the transition to electric vehicles,” he expands. “There’s 500+ petrol stations in downtown LA but it was about reimagining what could be done with that space if they weren’t used any more. We used data to analyse a host of considerations such as neighbourhood, size, location and environment and interaction with people. We designed several ideas from dwellings through to outdoor cinemas and cafes, but the data was

incredible – it showed that we could generate dwellings for 20,000 people, 40,000 jobs and 300,000 square meters of green space.”

Other examples of data use include in large buildings like airports, where it’s possible to accurately map footfall from entry to airplane door thus designing an effective journey through the site, and a project considering what a post-COVID Sydney would look like. For the latter,

“COMING INTO THE INDUSTRY WAS GENUINELY fASCINATING f ROM A PURE TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE”

data was used in conjunction with town planning and a consultative approach to create a fresh, more open feel to the city – data calculated that the project could unlock in the region of $2.9bn.

Strategically, technology is now an enabler of Woods Bagot’s global ambitions, allowing the collation and sharing of data and information across the company’s 17 studios in six global regions. This ‘Practice of the Future’ concept, coined by the firm’s CEO Nik Karalis, centres on enabling a highly flexible workforce to use digital tools that allow collaboration in the design space. For Leyden and the IT team, work has largely been focused on the streamlining of IT

services and maximising spend in the crucial areas to facilitate this. Technology partners are crucial to this, says Leyden, noting the importance of cultural and strategic fit when choosing appropriate vendors.

“Adobe is a good example of firms that are transitioning with Woods Bagot,” he says, “moving from their roots in desktop design software to cloud enabled design tools with creative collaboration at the centre of their roadmap.”

To optimise that global collaboration Woods Bagot has also moved the last of its legacy on-premise systems to the cloud so that their teams can genuinely work effectively wherever they are.

“The days of lag between global systems or different locations are gone, people just expect technology to work. With that in mind, we’re already looking beyond the Practice of the Future. Collaboration is essential now, and COVID has really proved that we can do that effectively, but creating an innovation pipeline is the core focus for me and the team. That’s about considering how we extend digital services, how we help the organisation bring a greater digital offering to the customer and introduce new technologies like IoT into the mix. We’re transitioning, and that will continue to be exciting for the future.”

www.woodsbagot.com

<RE–DEFINING OPEN>

Red Hat Evangelist, Jan Wildeboer, on how the concept of open source has shifted from software to an organisational philosophy that can ignite passion and performance in leaders, teams and business

Open /’ p( )n/

1. Software development to organisational

“When we joked 20 years ago, ‘we’ being the open source community, that our goal was world domination, everyone laughed. I’m pretty relaxed about that now. I can sit back and say ‘we did it’,” says Jan Wildeboer with a smile. “Our principles are ruling big chunks of the world. Open source has gone far beyond just software; organisations are using those same principles to drive cultural change and break down siloed ways of operating.”

‘World domination’ [however serious] aside, the principles of meritocracy, collaboration, participation, community, transparency and freedom have seen the adoption of open source software at enterprise level flourish over the last decade or more. Red Hat, at which Wildeboer holds the title of Evangelist [because, he tells me modestly, there was no other job title available] is the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, helping organisations to standardise across environments, develop cloud-native applications, integrate, automate and be more secure.

same time, standardisation led to cloud or outsourcing – call it whatever, it’s just someone else running your machines – which shifted the focus to the software layer and the growth of DevOps culture in organisations. Most of your typical IT stack is software, but people realised very quickly that 80% of that stack, from a competitive perspective, is irrelevant – the 15-20% you put on top is your secret sauce. It’s what makes you special.

“So, this 80/20 way of looking at the IT stack, which leads to collaboration and sharing between organisations, is where you ultimately land at open source solutions. It’s about reaching out to direct competitors, knowing you all effectively work in an identical way and that you won’t get an exclusive solution but a shared one, but that you’ll open a whole new way of working, be more efficient and save money.” Therein lies the roots of the growing open organisational culture, driven by a set of values underpinned by trust both internally and externally and demonstrated to great effect within Red Hat itself.

Open /’ p( )n/ 2. Cultural evolution in organisations

“On a technology level, hardware has become irrelevant over the last decade,” says Wildeboer. “At the

“You cannot be open source if you don’t, at least partly, turn yourself into what we call the open organisation,”

Wildeboer states. “It goes beyond just using open source software and building competitive stacks; the cultural aspects of being open are the most important part of the whole philosophy. That 80/20 approach we discussed has shifted the mindset; it’s set a way of thinking and brought a greater balance to organisations where, once you’ve defined that 80% you can really trust everyone to work well in that space and still have the energy to do the 20%, the secret sauce. Leaders are recognising that it’s a really good culture to have in general. Why limit that to your software stack?”

Red Hat defines the open organisation as one in which every member – from leaders to individual contributors at all levels – adopt the core open values and principles: transparency, inclusivity, adaptability, collaboration and community. Too many organisations still rely on outdated or stale hierarchical structures to govern day-to-day operations. Such a top-down approach creates a working environment that misses out on that collaboration and communication, stifles inclusivity and diverse perspectives and allows ideas and contributions to be lost in layers of bureaucracy.

The company practices what it preaches, too. That much can be read in former CEO Jim Whitehurst’s book on the subject, The Open Organisation: Igniting Passion and Performance which both outlines Whitehurst’s experience of joining an organisation that mirrored the communitarianism of the open source movement and the challenges that places on traditional notions of leadership. Whitehurst argues that “the best practices in creating open source software also translate well into managing an entire company”, outlining several key insights such as the importance of leaders driving innovation, that management and leadership should be brought more closely together, and decision making should be driven by best-in-class approach. Red Hat calls this the ‘Open Decision Framework’.

Wildeboer expands, explaining how nearly all key decisions at Red Hat are made in a democratic and community driven way within the organisation, where the only demands on managers are the freedom to work in an open way. “It’s a completely different way to work,” he says, “but one that is actually growing rapidly as a result of the COVID pandemic. Well, at least for those organisations that trust their employees, that don’t fix spyware

to computers or have multiple meetings per day and just set goals and expectations…”

Open /’ p( )n/

3. Leadership philosophy

By driving open source values leaders can create a redesigned and reinvented organisation that is both decentralised and empowered, as well as primed for the digital age. “Leadership isn’t even really the right word for it anymore,” says Wildeboer, “it’s about having the ability to think beyond that and focus on creating an environment where people and ideas can flourish. If you trust your employees to

organise themselves the way we do in open source – where we work in communities that don’t own, control or dictate – then they will do the right thing. “This has been the basis of so many of our conversations over the last five years or so – it’s increasingly about the organisational aspects rather than open source software,” he adds. “I call it Culture-as-a-Service (CaaS). We know this better than many management organisations or consultants, it’s our culture and has been for a long time and – in the spirit of open source – we want to share that knowledge with people. But it can be a hard shift in mindset

for some leaders or managers. I’ll give you an example: I could be speaking with a company who tells me they want to build an open organisation and, to do so, they have appointed a project manager that reports to the CEO. Forget it. That’s already missed the point. My advice is send an email to every single person in the organisation asking what they hope to achieve. Use the position of power to start an open conversation; I’m guessing you employed smart, capable people? Well, use them.”

Good, open leadership brings the team forward, ideas and concepts together and actively looks for participation to avoid reinventing the wheel, says Wildeboer. In Red Hat, this extends to managers actively working to progress people from their team and into better and more suited positions so that it benefits the organisation. “It starts right from the application process, where we don’t interview for the role applied for, but to discover where the candidate is best suited to our community,” he explains.

“An organisation exists to make everyone feel good, valued and part of the vision. I do a lot of work with new hires but I never go too far into trying to tell them about the culture or values – why should I? What

“A lot of leaders really struggle to understand that as it feels like giving up control, but that’s the biggest lesson of open source: it only works when you’re willing to give up control and let the community decide”

existed 10 or 15 years ago isn’t relevant any more. More simply, I always end with the same line: ‘you define the culture, I need that from you and it’s why we bring in new people and ideas’. A lot of leaders really struggle to understand that as it feels like giving up control, but that’s the biggest lesson of open source: it only works when you’re willing to give up control and let the community decide.”

Open /’ p( )n/ 4. A catalyst for change

There’s never been a greater opportunity to change. The COVID pandemic has, in many ways, driven numerous organisations to a working environment more akin to open culture. A shift to working from home, permanent for many, and the decentralisation of technology and processes should be the catalyst for change that leaders need. “Everyone is suddenly now doing things the way I’ve always told them to,” Wildeboer laughs. “COVID is undoubtedly driving a new type of organisational culture and with teams distributed everywhere trust is essential to that.

do it, now’. But I’m also seeing that’s not needed, organisations are figuring this out because of necessity. The environment has changed, even down to people being fairly relaxed in the type of calls we’re having now; people sharing their pets, their homes and more with their colleagues means they’re no longer reduced to this corporate role or part of the corporate machinery. It’s a level of freedom that really makes everyone a community with shared experiences. There’ll be no turning back in my opinion. We’ll see decentralised setups of knowledge transfer, less focused on singular topics, people working together in this transparent and open way. If that’s the outcome of all of this, then it’s a good thing.”

www.redhat.com

Jan Wildeboer is responsible for high-level customer relations and strengthening the Red Hat brand and ecosystem. Or, as he explains, ‘Red Hat’s EMEA Evangelist during the day, societal hacker in the dark’.

“The situation we’re in now is that people have to do this,” he continues. “In a subversive way, it kind of opens the door for me to burst in with my open culture and say ‘let’s

TRANSFORMATION, CULTURE AND COLLABORATION

Gervais Carlton-Blake discusses ‘digital transformation from the ground up’ at LOD, a leading alternative legal services supplier

“Looking back to that starting point, it was a case of ‘everything needs to be replaced from the ground up’,” says Gervais Carlton-Blake, reflecting on the scale of the digital transformation he has led over the last two years at LOD. The needs were complex, spanning business evolution and modernisation, change management, cultural evolution and the adoption of new digital tools. It also, as Carlton-Blake tells me, required the integration of four, independent businesses into a single global organisation from a process and technology perspective.

LOD is the original supplier of alternative legal services, supporting legal teams around the world and giving legal professionals better ways of working. Previously, there hadn’t been a practical vehicle for lawyers and legal professionals to work part time or flexibly. It is a people-oriented business driven by its HQ team, clients and legal professionals working together, supported by the best technology and operations. From Carlton-Blake’s perspective, in similar businesses, technology would historically have been a secondary concern; it performed, it did the job asked

was the overarching business strategy, what were the short, medium and longterm goals of the business etc. You can’t build a technology strategy without taking a step back and considering the bigger picture. Very quickly the work went from being a UK-focused infrastructure project management conversation to one that needed a far more calculated approach to technology across the organisation.”

In the case of LOD, strategic discussions were multi-faceted and needed to consider the requirements and potential

of it, but it didn’t necessarily provide the platform on which to build a future growth and innovation strategy. For LOD, however, it was an integral part of the business.

This realisation was the genesis of the technology change programme that began in 2017, with Carlton-Blake’s first interaction with the business. “The initial part of the LOD mission was to plan the divestiture of the UK business out of the law firm that originally created it and prepare sale to PE house Bowmark Capital. As with any project of that nature, you have to understand all the other aspects – what

benefits to key stakeholders in several areas of the business around the world. This included the HQ function, which had previously been standalone with no integration across the organisation, and with minimal investment in technology and security; the client-facing or commercial aspect of the business, which was built on legacy systems; and the legal professionals whose needs required a greater focus.

“Every area had its own differing priorities,” Carlton-Blake reflects. “But as you engage with the various teams, you soon

“IT WAS ESSENTIALLY A CASE OF EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE REPLACED FROM THE GROUND UP”

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start to see common ground and a vision of the future emerges. Broadly, there was a definite need to be more integrated and to collaborate more effectively. I approached it with the view that we quickly needed to build a very solid infrastructure and security foundation, from which we could then look at our application stack and leverage it. With that view, the technology strategy took shape.”

The aim was to move LOD fully into the cloud and to eventually be cloud native at the end of the journey. This included fully integrated systems, standardised

backbone,” Carlton-Blake adds. “There was a legacy on-premise environment, but we wanted to ensure a unified and secure authentication mechanism to then apply to the rest of the estate. We could then move our data into there, simplify and rationalise the environment and take advantage of Microsoft’s security features, which were considerable and appealing. It took just under 12 months and we leaned heavily on one of our partners, EnableTech, which has been with LOD since the beginning. It is a great familyrun technology and infrastructure partner that really managed the workload of that

processes, greater efficiency and automation, and better use of data and technology to allow the business to expand. “The strategy had a two-phase approach,” says Carlton-Blake. “First and most important was getting the infrastructure and security right by building very solid foundations. While we were doing that, and as part of the second phase, we could then consider and implement the application approach.”

Infrastructure and foundation building was centred around migration to the cloud and a move to Microsoft Office 365 and MS Azure. “That was the enabler and the

adoption and proved invaluable in doing all of the heavy lifting that accompanies replacing the end user compute environment, moving to Windows 10/365 and migration of data.

“Running in parallel, we looked at the application stack, which covers our CRM, our marketing agenda, our back office talent system and finance system,” he continues. “That’s the aspect of any transformation that will always fundamentally change the way that the business works, so we engaged with Christian of Co-Kreator, a transformation specialist company that

“YOU CAN’T BUILD A TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY WITHOUT TAKING A STEP BACK AND CONSIDERING THE BIGGER PICTURE”

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““EnableTech has been with LOD since the beginning. It’s a great family-run technology and infrastructure partner that really managed a lot of workload for us and proved invaluable in doing all of the heavy lifting that accompanies replacing the end user compute environment, moving to Windows 10/365 and migration of data.””

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supported us in a variety of roles. Christian acted as a trusted business partner helping to drive the common vision, enable crossgeo/functional collaboration and give transparency during the delivery. He also joined our internal staff, Carly and Chris, to form the nucleus of the team for the programme of change. This team was heavily supported from all areas of the business and the wider technology team on a project by project basis, with involvement from many stakeholders. Getting the various global resources engaged in this programme of change was crucial so that

e-signature capabilities and the development of a new app.

“The method was to utilise Microsoft first for the technology stack and only go off the reservation if it didn’t have a product to meet our needs,” Carlton-Blake explains. “We kept it off the shelf as much as we could with the view to only build if we had to, which has worked for around 90% of the programme. The importance of this approach was to try to keep the environment as simple and integrated as it can be from day one, packed with

we had buy in and support at all levels in all territories.”

features, future proofed and providing the best TCO available.

The application stack and business change aspect of the transformation was broad in its scope. It included implementing an Agile methodology and continuous improvement programme across the organisation in six weeks, development of a new website, the shift to Microsoft Dynamics for digital marketing, integrating the data and intelligence from these external facing systems into a new Global CRM and finance platform, new

“Exceptions to this were using a sector leading recruitment and talent platform, building out an API to integrate this into our environment and the creation of the LOD time entry app. The latter was particularly important. Time entry is the bane of every lawyer’s life and one of our co-founders once said to me that, if we could ‘fix it’ and make it ‘as painless as possible’, it would be a game changer for legal professionals. Fortunately, around

“I APPROACHED IT WITH THE VIEW THAT WE QUICKLY NEEDED TO BUILD A VERY SOLID INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY FOUNDATION, FROM WHICH WE COULD THEN LOOK AT OUR APPLICATION STACK AND LEVERAGE IT”

the same time we’d acquired our biggest competitor in Australia, which brought some great software engineering skills into the team. They rose incredibly to the challenge. It has now rolled out to all of our legal professionals globally and the feedback has been tremendous.”

Two years into its transformation journey, LOD is seeing significant benefits already. As with any organisational change, there have also been challenges. Carlton-Blake, for example, discusses the importance of fully understanding the change capacity of everyone in the business throughout the journey and his role veering simultaneously between CIO/CISO and agent of change.

“You’ve got to have support from the top,” he says on this subject. “I’ve learned that there’s no point instigating change

from the ground up. You’ve also got to bring everyone on the journey with you. The programme team spent a lot of time visiting and speaking with everyone in the company, understanding what they were trying to achieve and getting everyone on board. We’re fortunate that a collaborative culture is very much

in the DNA of LOD, it’s an energy that helps us enormously.”

Taking stock of the transformation to date, Carlton-Blake points to three core areas of improvement. The HQ team, for example, now has greater integration across functions and a better oversight of organisational

“FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT WAS GETTING THE INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURITY RIGHT BY BUILDING VERY SOLID FOUNDATIONS”

data. This has allowed a step change in features, automation, reporting, performance and efficiency. It created a single source of truth for all information and enabled the embracing of digital as a go-to market channel. This has brought huge benefit to LOD’s marketing, account management and new business teams.

“Our clients benefit too,” he continues. “Our new matter management system allows us better client engagement and a smoother management of all client work from end to end. There’s also other things like our recruitment portal which is a first

for the industry and gives a smooth candidate experience from application to assignment; new e-signature technology, which drastically improves signature turnaround time and back office administration; and a new secure virtual desktop for our lawyers that we control. All of this, the LOD app and our move to Microsoft Teams in late 2018, benefits our legal professionals when working remotely – crucial in the new post-COVID environment.”

Change is a constant. And while LOD has experienced truly transformational evolution over the last two years, CarltonBlake remains focused on the future.

“You can’t always decide what something will look like definitively, but what you can do is give a vision of the future, a framework of how to get there and the incremental steps needed, shepherding the organisation through the journey and celebrating the wins along the way.

I always think about how we can drive continuous improvement and we have a dedicated programme for this. There is always room for enhancement and we will continue to invest in ways that help us, our legal professionals and our clients work smarter, more efficiently and in a more productive way. We’ve certainly burned the midnight oil on this journey, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.”

www.lodlaw.com

DANIEL SOBHANI CEO, FREELETICS

Before Freeletics launched in 2013, the idea of a personal trainer was something that most of us only dreamed of. Or had nightmares about. Fast-forward seven years and the innovative digital fitness company has turned the industry on its head. Today, more than 50 million people worldwide use its human-augmented AI training app, which has the ability to create close to one trillion customised workout combinations tailored to individual needs and fitness goals. CEO Daniel Sobhani has been with the company since its inception. “People want to exercise whenever, wherever and whatever they want, free of boundaries,” he says. “Our core vision has always been the same: to challenge and inspire everyone to become the greatest version of themselves.”

“IF YOU DON’T GIVE UP, YOU CAN NEVER BE DEFEATED”

WHERE INNOVATION MEETS CREATIVITY

UNTUCKit’s Bjorn Bengtsson discusses digital disruption in fashion, supply chain complexity and why creativity shouldn’t be overlooked in the pursuit of digitisation

An untucked shirt. In the world of fashion, you’d be forgiven for considering it an unremarkable concept, less a disruptor. But try telling that to UNTUCKit, the vastly successful and rapidly growing apparel company which launched in 2011 riding the shirtails (no pun intended) of the growing e-commerce market based on a simple premise: to create the perfect untucked shirt – the right length, the right fit and right for every occasion.

Bengtsson is as experienced as they come in the fashion world. With knowledge across product concept and design, merchandising, supply chain and distribution, he is well placed to discuss further the digital disruption of the industry, consumer and data-driven product development, the place of innovations such as AI and blockchain and why sustainability and transparency are adding further challenges to an already complex supply chain.

The rise of UNTUCKit has been well documented. It has, after all, grown from that original Untucked Shirt design –the brainchild of founder Chris Riccobono – to offering expansive clothing lines for men and women sold both online and in more than 70 stores worldwide. In many ways, this growth is synonymous with the rise of e-commerce and a new generation of online, digital fashion brands. But scratch the surface and there is far more to driving success in a modern, digitallynative fashion house, as Bjorn Bengtsson well knows.

“The only significant change in the last 100 years of fashion is digital,” he states. “We’ve moved from an era in which we worked in an industry of insiders that hailed designers as gods to one that’s driven by the consumer. Digital is behind that change. A lot of people focus solely on e-commerce, but for me the biggest disruption is in consumer behaviour –the fact that we sell things online is really a minor change; it’s a new distribution channel and a new way to shop that’s growing but won’t overtake physical retail.

“THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE LAST 100 YEARS OF FASHION IS DIGITAL”

“What matters more is that the consumers’ entire reference point for fashion has shifted from designers to social media influencers, celebrities and opinion leaders,” Bengtsson adds. “Instead of us pleasing our own egos and creating things based on past trends or what people are wearing on the street, we’re now inspired by the new generation of digital influencers. To be honest, it’s not so much inspiration as ‘do it or you’re dead’. Predigital, we dictated what the consumer could know. Now they show us what they want, what they see and how they

want to interact with their brands.”

As with all industries, such a seismic shift is possible due to the greater volumes of data and analytics tools available, as well as advances in AI and machine learning. In fashion, consumer data is now leveraged for greater analysis and insight into trends, to identify target markets with improved accuracy and to capitalise on cross-selling opportunities. It has, says Bengtsson, had a huge impact.

“It’s a level of detail we’ve not seen before,”

STYCHECO (Stitch-Co) empowers organizations, modernizes the process, optimizes margins and creates holistic sustainability – for industry professionals, retail, brands and manufacturers.

STYCHECO is a business transformation practice for direct to customer, retail and lifestyle brands, that aligns and scales the digital and physical product value chains. We partner with state-of-the-art technology providers, brand owners, C-Level, IT and operations leads along with cross-functional design and supply chain teams, to improve the speed, productivity, adoption and scalability of their teams, processes and IT platforms within the brand portfolio.

he confirms. “Instead of design and creativity driving fashion, over the past 5-7 years data has been in the driving seat. It’s now the cornerstone of every good e-commerce organisation, and UNTUCKit is no exception – we pretty much run the business on data. We no longer have to ask our stores what did or didn’t sell, or about customer feedback. When people buy from us it’s very direct: they’re online at our store, we can follow their journey and understand how they react to all the tools at our disposal. It gives tremendous amounts of information into purchasing patterns.”

The inevitable conclusion of this digitisation, Bengtsson believes, is fashion

brands – including UNTUCKit – resembling organisational models more akin to technology and marketing companies than the creative, hands-on design houses of the past. It’s a juxtaposition he says requires a balance between experience and innovation. Take AI, for example, which is invaluable for understanding the consumer data at UNTUCKit’s disposal, mapping out accurate future predictions and more. The only potential problem that this and other innovations face is the inherent unpredictability at the heart of fashion consumers. “AI and data are tools, not solutions,” says Bengtsson. “We absolutely should continue to drive the tech train, but we’d be foolish to ignore what fashion is at its very core: creativity.

“Clothes, like art, are a way of expressing ourselves. We feel different in 2021 to how we felt in 2019, and we can express that through what we wear; creativity allows the customer to do that,” Bengtsson continues. “We have a team dedicated to sorting our data, and a lot of the business is run on what they find, but that doesn’t deter from the fact that we want to constantly innovate and develop new designs. That’s where the experience to make decisions based on that data is equally important.”

UNTUCKit is fortunate to draw on Bengtsson’s vast experience. Currently

He is responsible for everything from initial inception of products through to UNTUCKit’s distribution centre in Kentucky, overseeing teams in design, tech design, product development and production. “It’s essentially a ‘start-to-go’ role,” he says. “Over my career I’ve worked in all those areas extensively, but at UNTUCKit it’s the first time I’ve brought them all together as one. Like a lot of newer fashion companies, we were not started by fashion specialists so there wasn’t necessarily the specific understanding of what it takes to get products made and sold. I was basically the first full time employee – it was

Chief Product and Supply Chain Officer, he has close to 40 years’ of knowledge across key business areas and has been with the company for nearly five years.

a case of ‘why don’t we get the old guy in who seems to know what he’s doing’.”

As a strategy, it’s worked. Bengtsson has assembled a young team, most of whom are under 30 and have limited fashion experience. As a result, he describes his leadership style as one of a mentor, a role he relishes. “Age is totally underrated in business,” he jokes. “Experience allows a manager to feel confident and comfortable, but also to focus solely on the people you’re responsible for, to drive them to succeed and push us on. Too many

“INSTEAD OF DESIGN AND CREATIVITY DRIVING FASHION, OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS DATA HAS BEEN IN THE DRIVING SEAT”

organisations keep a very rigid hierarchy; we’re not like that at UNTUCKit.

“My philosophy is to train people, assume them an area of responsibility and make them business managers in their own right. It’s a little bit of sink and swim, but you quickly see who can live up to it. I’ve really given these younger people a lot of responsibility and have been very fortunate that they’ve absolutely lived up to it. I’ve never been concerned with micromanaging, I give people the room they need to grow and I’ve stayed true to that vision from the start. Right back to when

I was essentially the first full time UNTUCKit employee in a small office, I’ve always had a vision, have hired the people I need to hire and have formed the organisation I want. We’ve had tremendous growth as a result of that, but I’m only ever as good as my team.”

There are, of course, areas where technology is essential in overcoming the complexity faced by modern organisations. In UNTUCKit’s case, this lies in the supply chain. Fashion is seasonal, meaning manufacturers have to evolve products and designs continuously. Add changes to fabrics, styles and trims on a frequent basis and organisations are faced with challenging, often inefficient supply chains. “You never allow a supplier to work with the same thing for any period of time because you have such regular changes of components,” says Bengtsson. “It means your factories and supply chains face a new learning curve each season or new product. We also work in a pretty low-tech industry.

It’s labour intensive so human error can creep in, and everything relies heavily on all the various

components – sewing thread, fabrics, buttons, plastic bags, packaging materials and more – being in the factory at exactly the right time to make a shirt.

“We have to make decisions on a daily basis to keep that chain moving,” he continues. “The challenge there is that by the time I see sales and can better understand demand it’s too late for me to reorder or change; the supply chain in fashion is, at minimum, 90 days for manufacturing. It’s very complicated.” To address this, in 2018 UNTUCKit adopted an innovative collaborative product lifecycle management (PLM) platform from BeProduct as

have one central location for all product information. It has, he notes, brought noticeable efficiency gains and streamlined communication with suppliers. In a similar vein, the business is considering blockchain technology that would allow for greater scrutiny over its supply chain and increased transparency so as to improve sustainability. “All of us in the industry must take action on sustainability, but it adds another layer of complexity to the system,” Bengtsson comments. “I can be transparent about who makes our goods; I know my manufacturers, my fabrics and so on. But very

part of a broader project led by digital innovation firm StycheCo. The decision, says Bengtsson, was based on the relative simplicity, agility and adaptability of BeProduct’s system, which allows for UNTUCKit to customise functions and

soon I’ll need a system that goes down to the raw materials of threads, the polymers used in button manufacturers and more. We’re already in a good position; I know my factories are environmentally safe and some of my suppliers already have

“THE SUPPLY CHAIN IN FASHION IS, AT MINIMUM, 90 DAYS FOR MANUFACTURING”

systems in place to log components, but a technology like blockchain would be the optimal solution.”

In the future, Bengtsson sees a digital-first strategy for most businesses but believes there is an equilibrium to find between the online, e-ccommerce model and physical retail stores. For the latter, including UNTUCKit’s stores, the focus will be on creating immersive, showroom experiences that let customers ‘live’ the brand at close quarters. “Besides rediscovering creativity in the next decade, we also need to rediscover retail.

“Of course, in the short term, COVID has had an enormous impact on the industry. We’ve seen a tremendous impact on

suppliers and workers worldwide in the sector that we’ve managed to weather because of our close collaborative relationships with our partners and factories. It’s awful to see this, but I think it’s presented a moment for us and the industry more broadly to take stock and ask some very important questions like ‘as a brand working in a broken system – and fashion is a broken system – how can we do our part not to break it further in the future?’, or ‘how can we invest more wisely in the wellbeing of the sector and all those we work with, rather than just for profit?’. Those are some big questions to ask, and now is the right time.”

www.untuckit.com

SUPERSONIC AVIATION

Boomless technology, supersonic propulsion, renewable and sustainable materials and luxury.

Welcome

Half a century. In terms of technology, that’s a lifetime or two. And yet, with the exception of Concorde, it’s staggering to think that commercial air travel – once the pinnacle of space age innovation and luxury – has seen little change since the dawn of the jet age in the 1950s. Indeed, for near to 70 years most of us have been unable to fly between destinations at more than 500 miles per hour.

Economic drawbacks, range limitations, high development costs and

expensive construction techniques, as well as excessive noise generation are among the reasons

Concorde was eventually retired from active service, and which have subsequently been a barrier to supersonic air travel becoming routine again. But there is another way, as is being shown by a new generation of pioneering aerospace companies developing the next generation of supersonic aircraft.

Aerion is one such company. Its team of entrepreneurs, innovators,

risk takers and pioneers is spearheading a new generation of efficient, economical and environmentally responsible supersonic aircraft that utilise the latest innovative technologies and propulsion systems to revolutionise global mobility.

It’s aircraft, the AS2 is a revolution. At its heart lies Aerion’s innovative Boomless Cruise technology, which enables supersonic flight with no sonic boom. Under current aviation law supersonic flight is

banned over populated areas to avoid excessive noise. However, boomless technology allows AS2 to cruise at around Mach 1.2 while avoiding the massive pressure wave of a sonic boom reaching the ground.

“The only acceptable sonic boom is no boom at all,” says Matthew Clarke, Aerion’s Senior Vice President Global Marketing & Communications.

“The strength of the sonic boom and the resulting sound that someone hears depends on factors including

The mindset of a startup with decades of research and experience

“ The only acceptable sonic boom is

no boom at all“

the characteristics of the surrounding atmosphere, the travelling speed and shape of the aircraft and how far away the listener is. We’ve used those factors to our advantage, utilising natural temperature variations in the atmosphere’s caustic layer to reflect the boom away from the ground. AS2 will create a boom, it just won’t reach ground level.”

Such speed is made possible by the first new civil supersonic engine in 50 years, General Electric’s Affinity Supersonic Turbofan. This, according to Clarke, “integrates a unique blend

of proven supersonic experience, commercial reliability and the most advanced business jet engine technologies.” Affinity lets AS2 run entirely on 100% sustainable aviation fuels, too: “speed and being kind to the planet don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” says Clarke, “we’re committed to reducing the time and friction of travel while leaving no carbon footprint.”

Accordingly, AS2 incorporates the most advanced aerodynamics and, wherever possible, will be constructed from renewable and sustainable materials.

The company also intends to plant one hundred million trees by 2036 to offset the emissions of all operational AS2 aircraft and launch its ‘clean speed’ programme, which will offset all customer flight emissions at no additional cost to customers so as to ensure carbon-neutrality.

Of course, speed isn’t everything, but we live in a world that shows no sign of slowing. Business, disruptive technology, planning for a post-COVID world, even our personal lives; over the last decades the pace at which we move through each day has increased

relentlessly. As a consequence, one of our greatest luxuries is time. “It’s the only commodity that the human race can’t make more of,” says Clarke. “Personal connections are now more important than ever, connections where understanding, compassion and empathy can thrive and which can create a better world. Our aim is to give time back to people to do the things they love, and our starting point is supersonic flight.”

www.aerionsupersonic.com

CO-FOUNDER OF MARKETORDERS

SUKHI JUTLA

Sukhi Jutla is an international speaker, influencer and thought leader, a staunch advocate for women in tech, the world’s first #1 bestselling blockchain author and a qualified IBM Blockchain Foundation Developer. She is also an award-winning tech entrepreneur and co-founder of MarketOrders, an innovative startup using blockchain technology to digitise and disrupt the gold and diamond jewellery industry.

Much like the financial services sector, which Jutla left four years ago after tiring of the corporate nine-to-five, the gold industry is

ripe for disruption. It is, she states, “old fashioned and lagging” and an industry that, despite being worth £1bn in the UK alone still sees more than 90% of small independent jewellers have limited or no online presence.

MarketOrders is the answer to this and other issues such as a global supply chain that is fragmented and opaque. “We’re developing a blockchain-based marketplace and provenance chain that means, for the first time, every step of the product’s journey is digitised and immutable from the mine to the end customer thus increasing transparency and trust,” Jutla explains.

Jutla took more than two years to raise her seed round to fund MarketOrders but, as is her entrepreneurial spirit, she wasn’t dissuaded by the challenge. “I’m not complaining,” she says, “I know I can outwork anyone in the room. I always focus on what I can change – it puts the power back into my hands. A successful entrepreneur must be able to push through obstacles and persevere during tough times; those challenges are stepping stones to move forward.”

“

I always focus on what I can change –it puts the power back in my hands”

THE ART OF LEADERSHIP

Trust, accountability, football and digitisation: the leadership philosophies that drive European CIO of the Year, Rui Pedro Silva

Rui Pedro Silva is an introvert – he tells me. He is also the winner of the prestigious European CIO/Digital Leader of the Year 2020 award, the man behind the vast, digitally disruptive transformation programme at logistics giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, a member of the invite-only Forbes Technology Council and an advisor at Harvard Business Review’s Advisory Council.

And yet, during a wide-ranging discussion about leadership, his philosophy on building and maintaining effective groups of individuals and why football teams are closer to IT departments than you may think, he also states that he is neither a ‘technology or product guy’. Rather, he says, he is a people person whose priority is building relationships and avoiding the ‘robotisation’ of leadership roles by never benchmarking himself against others’ success.

Instead, he instills in himself and his team members a focus on finding your own way, working on your strengths and weaknesses and fostering an environment of trust and accountability that drives innovation. It’s a wholly refreshing approach to modern leadership, which he elaborates on with TechExec in his own words.

ON LEADERS, PEOPLE AND FINDING YOUR OWN WAY

“It’s about being a people person – roles in digital, innovation or product are heavily dependent on building successful relationships. When I first joined Maersk I wasn’t spending time alone with spreadsheets, KPIs or processes; I spent the first few weeks just getting to know the people, talking to them about their lives, and mine, and understanding what they were passionate about, their families, their hobbies and so on.

I’m a leader but I’m not a ‘fixer’. I’m not going to tell you what to do and how to change – it’s not sustainable in the long term. I prefer to work together on strategies that work within the individual’s personality to tackle any perceived weaknesses, succeed together and make it sustainable. And that’s not a cliche. I’ve been through my own journeys of discovery too,

whether that’s finding ways to deal with being an introvert or working on the way that small things used to really get to me. That in turn has influenced how I approach those relationships; I don’t mould people the way I want them to be, I embrace where and what they are, and work on making the very best of them.”

ON ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRUST

“People think accountability is finger pointing. No. Finger pointing only happens when no one knows who’s accountable. I’m not the kind of person to blame others, but as a leader it’s essential to know I can give the people in my team the freedom to work because they can own it when it goes right and when it goes wrong. It all comes down to decisions, ownership and accountability.

“ I EXPECT YOU TO MAKE DECISIONS AND TO OWN THOSE DECISIONS”

If you’re an adult I expect you to be able to make decisions and own those decisions, and it’s a mindset we should all embrace. But, and it’s a big but, if you screw up, you’ve got to step up and tell me because I don’t work on ‘I screwed up but I’ll throw someone else under the bus’. My view is tell me the truth and I’ll back you so that, from the outside, it’s we screwed up and we’re going to focus on how we can fix it together.

Good leadership is all about trust. Sometimes s**it happens, it’s that simple. But the fundamental thing for me is that if I know you’re fine taking accountability, I know you’ll do everything to be successful so, when there’s a problem, I’ll never question whether you did everything you could. Instead, it’s all about focusing on the problem together. Whether you’re a leader or not, it’s really important to find empathy and create a relationship where both parties trust each other. Ultimately, everyone is capable of making decisions, but not everyone can own them.”

ON TEAMWORK, FOOTBALL AND SUCCESS

“I love football and the art of winning, and I think there’s a lot of transferable ideas between that and IT, particularly in terms of the

chemistry behind the team and how to manage success and failure. I’ve always believed that the strength of a team doesn’t lie in the individual talents in that unit, it’s about the sum of all those parts together and getting the most out of that.

And, in IT as in football, it’s all about how you do that week after week and how you keep the team motivated. If you win a football match 7-0 and you’re getting excited that’s great, but it’s still only three points. In IT, if you’ve built a great component this week but the product isn’t ready then my view is ‘dude, it means nothing – next week you’ve gotta go out and perform again and get your thing done’. You’re always remembered for the

“ I HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT MY TEAM IS SETTING OUT TO PERFORM AND TO WIN EVERY DAY”

last bad thing you’ve done, and that’s as true in IT as it is in football, where you can have a great season, lose the last game and that’s all the fans focus on.

I’m a decent guy but I’m a pushy guy, and that’s because I have to make sure that my team is setting out to perform and to win it every day. Sometimes that can be tough but it’s all about coaching, motivation and working together.”

ON MOTIVATION AND FINDING THE COMMON GROUND

“I don’t think leaders – and people in general – spend enough time in

someone else’s shoes. We spend way too much time assessing, evaluating and concluding but not enough understanding that everyone has a story and a reason for what they’re doing. It’s too easy to think someone’s performing badly because they’re useless when most of the time we actually set them up for failure. I try to focus on and understand that story and move the person to a place where they’re linked to the other team members by a common ground.

In IT you have such an enormous amount of people, all with their own motivations and reasons for

striving to be successful but there’s one common ground that I think 90% of those team members share, and that’s pride in creating something that works well. Over the years, we’ve stereotyped IT as something that fails way more often that it succeeds. That’s absolutely incorrect. Everyone loves to feel recognised, and that doesn’t mean giving awards, it can be as simple as occasionally saying ‘man, hell of a job, it’s really working, well done’. If you can take that feeling as a leader, learn what makes

your team tick and really maximise it then you’ll see the results and get everyone focused on the goals.”

ON MAERSK AND TRANSFORMATION

“I joined Maersk in 2016 and was aware of a general sense that the IT team wasn’t performing, wasn’t getting the results expected and was the reason it was losing customers. Initially I focused on all the things I’ve already mentioned – finding that common ground, building the trust and the relationships and it was hard. I had to be quite open and tell them ‘I’m not here to fire you or to tell you are needed, but the fact is we’re not performing well so let’s work together to figure out what’s wrong’.

We spent time building out processes and implementing new standards; we failed in some and reworked others but we did it absolutely together. I’m a very innovative person who likes to think out of the box but that failure was important in building that trust. I was clear, I even told the team that I didn’t know all the answers but I was going to try and so they gave me the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t have that trust when things go wrong, they just think you’re another ‘theoretical’ leader who can’t back your ideas up.

“ I DON’T THINK LEADERS SPEND ENOUGH TIME IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES. WE SPEND WAY TOO MUCH TIME ASSESSING”

We progressively increased the complexity of the changes from basic elements through to the very core ways of working and scaled from a European to a global presence. I used members of Maersk’s European team to carry out that scaling, too, so that it was colleagues speaking on the same level about shared problems rather than me pushing it from the top down. The biggest compliment I had as a result of that work wasn’t the stakeholders being happy, it was speaking to a colleague who had decided to leave the team in 2020,

referring to the period between when I left in 2019 and his departure. During our conversation and discussing his reasons for moving on, he told me he was still happy but that over the last few months the team had executed, but had stopped innovating. There’s no better compliment in my opinion, particularly for a tech leader.”

ON DIGITAL DISRUPTION

“You’ve got to approach change in the right way for people to be on board. Too often we instigate it just because we think we need to get

Rui Pedro Silva is a technology strategist with vast experience in leading global organisations worldwide. He is widely recognised for his work at A.P MollerMaersk, driving the organisation’s IT function and spearheading innovation in e-commerce. He has recently been announced as Group Chief Digital Officer of the ERIKS Group. Rui is, in his own words, an ‘outlier’ in technology but this is the competitive advantage that lets him successfully bridge the gap between business stakeholders and tech team people.

better and use the excuse that people and processes were no good before. It’s like somehow, somewhere we’ve lost sense of the fact that change is inherent in all of us. It’s biological, we change and develop every second of our lives and that’s why I believe in incremental change that mirrors that natural process.

I don’t like disruptive change that comes over night and sometimes I think there’s disruption for disruption’s sake. I think that senior leaders can sometimes feel they have to show change or disruption to prove they’re good at their jobs but it’s a dangerous approach. You end up with organisations correlating change with jobs, cutting costs and roles, as well as ways of doing things and you just lose people along the way. My philosophy revolves around incremental change to a point that it becomes a natural part of your evolution and your way of working.”

ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS

“There are only two important things in life: time and people. Everything else is a consequence – time is limited, you don’t get it back, and people are who get you to use your time rightly or wrongly. Money comes on top, it’s nice, but if you use your time wrong then money can’t save you.

If you put your focus into time and people then I believe you’re working on the things that really matter; money will likely come as a consequence because you’re making the right decisions. I love technology and digitisation, particularly e-commerce innovation, because it gives me that time. I don’t like the idea that we should all buy online because it’s better, that’s wrong. You should buy online if you think your time is much more valuable spent on something else. I like to have options and, in my opinion, that’s what innovation and digitisation is all about – we don’t tell people what to do, we give them greater choice.”

“ SOMETIMES I THINK THERE’S DISRUPTION FOR DISRUPTION’S SAKE”

DRIVING EXCELLENCE THROUGH SPECIALISM

RUSS FITZGERALD , CIO AT HAMPSHIRE TRUST BANK, ON ADOPTING A STARTUP MENTALITY, BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS OF A STRONG DIGITAL JOURNEY AND WHY

LOW-CODE TECHNOLOGY IS DRIVING SUCCESS

“I may have made my reputation working for a much larger bank, but now I’m in a smaller organisation, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else – there’s a level of dedication and passion you get in a smaller company that you just don’t see in other places, it runs through everyone’s veins,” says Russ Fitzgerald, discussing his role as Chief Information Officer at Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB).

Fitzgerald, who has been with HTB for some two and half years is a leader of considerable experience in the financial services sector, not only from a pure technology perspective but also in his knowledge of driving and delivering the complex change and transformation strategies that typify an industry in evolution.

HTB, however, is a different proposition to that of his previous incumbent organisations. The bank has a focused and technology-led approach to serving a small number of carefully chosen market sectors that relies as much on digital innovation as it does a relentless dedication to exceedingly high customer service.

HTB has been through a significant and successful period of change in recent years, a programme that started with its acquisition in 2014 by a private equity firm. Since, a number of new and highly specialised team members have joined – including Fitzgerald – and a digital strategy has been implemented that

includes the adoption of API infrastructure, investments in automation and RPA, a hybrid cloud approach and a shift to using low-code technology that has enabled HTB to build the systems and processes it needs entirely in house and in a far more efficient way. It’s little surprise that Fitzgerald and his colleagues refer to the business as a 30-year old brand operating like a six-year old fintech startup.

“I was brought in with the remit of creating a technology strategy, and found a bank that had already made some great steps in establishing strong foundations

for the bank,” he explains. “That blueprint was developed in about three months, mapping out a journey to drive investment, take control of our own technology, to implement more modern architecture and improve data sourcing, and really drive HTB forwards.”

The first step of that journey saw the adoption of API infrastructure from SnapLogic that Fitzgerald describes as ‘the absolute cornerstone’ of HTB’s subsequent digital innovation. “I liken a bank with no API infrastructure to a castle with a moat; there’s a core banking platform within but

it’s completely protected from the outside world,” he says. “Now, it’s a much more open marketplace with dozens of ‘secured’ drawbridges to that world. Our API lets us connect to a more open architecture and a much broader world in terms of data and information. So, things like open banking services through Account Score, credit risk, ID and authentication technologies and more.

recent purchase of the Alfa asset finance platform. We went from contract to implementation inside of Alfa’s hosted cloud environment – including configuration and very extensive testing – inside four months. Having API infrastructure has absolutely enabled the pace of integration and fuelled our journey.”

Fitzgerald has also overseen the adoption of low-code technologies at HTB, courtesy of partner Netcall’s Liberty Create software solution. Low-code uses a visual, drag and drop approach to software development that negates the use of code and a reliance on external resources, and instead enables the relatively simple building of new solutions in house. Initially, the business used low-code to improve its specialist mortgage division – replace manual processes, improve workflows and efficiencies and so forth.

“The ability to connect to multiple services quickly and very efficiently has been the lifeblood of our transformation,” Fitzgerald adds. “Take, for example, our

“I inherited an IT team that was largely infrastructure based,” says Fitzgerald. “And, if you look at the spread of skills you need to develop that and build your own platforms then the investment for a smaller institution is quite significant. With low-code, you don’t need to do that. In fact, it’s pretty close to no-code. It’s allowed us to stop our reliance on spreadsheets, build front-end platforms that allow structured data collection and improve our overall data quality. Our internal mortgage platform went live with UiPath, working with an RPA partner called Centelli, and already it’s driving great benefits.”

“I WOULDN’T WANT TO BE ANYWHERE ELSE – THERE’S A LEVEL OF DEDICATION AND PASSION YOU GET AT HTB THAT YOU JUST DON’T SEE IN OTHER PLACES”

HTB now has multiple platforms using or set to use low-code, including the imminent launch of its own broker portal that, through API integration will include biometric identity authentication in a subsequent release. “We have that resilience in the back office platform to enable these kinds of developments,” Fitzgerald notes, “and that’s due to the early work we put in place through the digital strategy and around having our architectural design and the right governance in place. Good governance and controls have enabled us to manage the growth and spread of new technologies in a very structured and defined way.”

That structure has been core to Fitzgerald’s and the company’s approach from the outset. While HTB is a bank, it possesses the agility of a startup that’s more akin to a fintech than an organisation with a 30year heritage. Its agility and flexibility is underpinned by a clear focus on adopting or using technology to deliver on its absolute focus on great customer service and exemplary broker relationships. “I never set out for us to be a technology leader,” he says. “Our strategy was built around core principles: we wanted to be open API, to be data-driven and best-in-breed. It was always the intention to invest properly in the right technologies that we can run at low cost. I’ve a very dedicated and passionate, but small, team and so we’re always very specific about value and choosing the right partner when we assess new technologies.”

As with all industries, financial services is increasingly being driven by the greater volume and analysis of complex data and, while Fitzgerald explains that HTB is in the relatively early stages of its data strategy, data, data centres and the correct approach to cloud services are now key priorities. “We’ve largely eradicated issues around data collection – which was a legacy of our core banking platform – and our data is now being harvested

“ THE ABILITY TO CONNECT TO MULTIPLE SERVICES

QUICKLY AND VERY EFFICIENTLY HAS BEEN THE LIFEBLOOD OF OUR TRANSFORMATION”

in a Snowflake data warehouse that’s connected through our API infrastructure. Data governance and data quality are essential, and we’re working hard on both. Given the pace of our transformation I don’t think it will be much longer before we move from being a data informed business to a data driven one that uses data to guide decision making in either a manual or automated way.”

In this vein, data centre investment is ongoing with Fitzgerald noting that the ‘next big step’ will be to consider how the company re-engineers its data centres. “We’re proudly a hybrid-cloud business,” he states. “We are, however, preparing for the gradual transition of a number of services to the cloud and the ability to run our existing on-premise service in the cloud and on premise.”

In his two and half years at HTB, Fitzgerald has been at the heart of a significant transformation programme that rivals any other organisation in the sector. Just last year, the initial strategy he set out in 2018 was refreshed and expanded upon, setting a blueprint for the long-term digital development of HTB. It does indeed appear that the transition from incumbent to smaller startup is one filled with opportunity. “I learned to understand how I can bring those benefits of the larger bank to an entity like HTB,” he says. “Technology aside, there’s been a real cultural change here too, which has refocused us in terms of our specialist agenda. We may have history, but in every way we’re acting like a fintech – investing, growing and driving hard to be even more successful. It really is a fascinating story, and it’s underpinned by the dedication and passion of our whole team.”

www.htb.co.uk

P A R I S

“Paris becomes more dynamic in innovation and business every year. I’ve seen it boom, from a couple of places dedicated to innovation in the early days with a few VCs to a city attracting more and more international people, startups and investors. There’s so many places, events and companies investing in Paris and developing projects; it’s really exciting to see. I get to meet and chat every day with entrepreneurs and people creating the future, from individual projects, through investors, events and large companies to the French government, there isn’t a day where something new isn’t unveiled, even during the pandemic. I’m really excited to know that we are building a very strong network of people full of ‘bonne volonté’, helping each other, developing our businesses and fighting for healthy values.”

WORDS CEDRIC VOIGHT

CÉDRIC VOIGT

Cédric Voigt is General Manager of Ballou France in Paris. Cédric started his career in 2004 in the tech industry and has worked in tech ever since, with companies including Adobe, Mozilla, General Electric, Loewe, Coursera, Panasonic and Electronic Arts. He joined Ballou seven years ago as Account Director and has headed up the French office for the last five years, building it up to be a 20-person agency working for around 40 global brands.

BUSINESS

We’ve a Soho House coming to Paris shortly, but right now we’re very privileged to have Station F, the world’s biggest startup campus. It’s the perfect place for like minded entrepreneurs to gather and share innovative ideas.

we are is a members-only networking forum for the creative industry that offers conferences, workshops and a creative, community feel.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve you need to be part of Raiselab, a newcomer to the Paris business scene launched by Raise and Schoolab that’s dedicated to open innovation.

For winding down, I also love La Felicità . It’s a perfect Italian food court to enjoy a nice lunch and drinks after work or when you want to enjoy some networking.

LA

RAISELAB

STAY

W hotel Opéra is classy, very centrally located with a nice lobby for coffee. The restaurant makes an ideal meeting location too.

Hotel des Grands Boulevard is very Parisian, making it great for out of town visitors. I love the discreet little rooftop and the cosy, quiet restaurant.

The Hoxton , located in the old Paris district of Sentier, has a great courtyard for when the weather’s kind and you want to hold your meetings al fresco.

HOTEL DES GRANDS BOULEVARD

THE HOXTON

THE HOXTON

W HOTEL OPÉRA

W HOTEL OPÉRA

LOMBEM

HOTEL DES GRANDS BOULEVARD

LOMBEM

MOJO FOR GOOD

EAT / DRINK

The Shell at Hotel des Grands Boulevards is a cosy and intimate rooftop restaurant with excellent quality food. The menu, designed by renowned chef Giovanni Passerini offers great French-Italian cuisine.

Lombem Grill & Bar is, quite simply, the perfect place in a typical Parisian passage to eat a delicious côte de boeuf.

Hôtel Providence hides a discreet, hidden terrace, a roaring fire and piano bar away from the Parisian bustle. It’s great for classics and homemade meals, all cooked over a wood fire.

Mojo for good , near Opéra is central, stylish and attracts a young tech crowd. It’s the ideal venue for a business lunch or even some drinks with friends on your downtime.

HÔTEL PROVIDENCE

D’ORSAY

LEISURE

For an immersive experience visit the latest art exhibition at L’Atelier des lumières , the first all-digital art museum in Paris that presents classic art in immersive, tech-driven ways.

I never tire of a walk through the Parisian streets, discovering bars, views and hidden treasures. You can happily lose hours walking in Le Marais, St Germain or Rue des Martyrs/Montmartre.

If you have the time, you can also cross Paris on a sunny day, walking along the Seine. Stroll the left bank and you’ll see Pont Neuf, the oldest bridge in Paris, Notre Dame and the Musée d’Orsay among others.

And, of course, there’s always Tour Effeil, Les Invalides and Place de l’Etoile. If you want to escape from the tourists you could take a day out and visit Normandie, Fontainebleau or Rambouillet.

MUSÉE

CHAMP DE MARS PARK

L’ATELIER DES LUMIÈRES

DU PAIN ET DES IDEE BOUOLANGERIE

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