Ongoing business disruption experienced since 2020 has sent digital transformations into high gear.

Almost overnight, organisations accelerated digital transformation at a blistering pace and sought to secure assets, information, and people across complex multi-cloud and work from home environments.

ADAPT research shows that organisations imperilled by pandemic-induced disruptions rushed to facilitate six or more years’ worth of technology adoption within as little as six months.

So, how did Australia’s local business leaders pull it off?

 

NSW Department of Customer Service’s Executive Director, Simon Geraghty, shares how he has switched to an outcome-based management philosophy to enable greater work-life balance.

We’ve focused on outcomes. We want to make sure that everyone understands what the outcome is that they’re required to deliver.

If they want to work flexibly, work during the evening instead of the day because they’re picking up kids from school. We’re quite happy with them doing that because we’re focused on delivering the outcomes for our customers.

Watch Simon speak more about the importance of protecting the mental health of employees, avoiding burnout and fostering remote productivity and collaboration in his full interview.

 

As the University of Technology Sydney’s Head of Data and Analytics, Susan Gibson shares how they have introduced activity-based working to foster autonomous delivery of outcomes and increased online collaboration.

We want to look at our space very carefully, and obviously, space is a huge cost. On the other side, we’re also looking at new ways of working.

We’ve got a great opportunity to save money on our space and adapt new ways of working by moving more towards activity-based working and making sure that we’re making the most of the spaces we have.”

Sure, we see a lot more transdisciplinary teams. People were coming together for a certain purpose. When COVID first hit, we saw that more than ever, different groups in HR facilities and IT, for instance, really had to come together quickly to enable people to work from home, to enable our students to log on remotely.”

Watch her full interview to discover how Susan is driving a digital and insights-based staff and student online experience.

 

As Catholic Education Office’s CIO, Raju Varanasi discusses how he navigated the Catholic Education Office towards greater resilience by driving communication via platforms which ultimately improved productivity and team bonding of technology teams.

Wellbeing is a journey; you create the conditions. People working from home, they just want to be part of a team.

One of my staff members, she does this work of invoicing and supporting the managers. She’s not in any particular team, per se, she’s working more for me, but I asked her to join the other teams, and do the Zooms. That way, she was happier, because she belongs.

Rather than just talking to one person on Zoom or once in a while. Everyone likes to belong. That belonging leads to reinforcement of the social side of things, and that improves productivity.

Watch Raju explore the unique challenges students, parents, and teachers faced in the education sector’s shift to e-learning.

 

PwC Australia’s Chief Digital Officer, Vishy Narayanan, believes the office will never and should never be the same. He says the intersection of humans and technology will drive the hybrid future of work.

Because if you look at certain parts of a country that have been in lockdown for longer, the mental health impact of people that are working in their living room, the shared accommodation aspects of that.

The future of work has to be inclusive, not just for those that are the extroverts that love to be there or the introverts. It’s actually for those that truly need different ways of doing it.

Uncover Vishy’s thoughts on taking advantage of the digital opportunities catalysed by the pandemic.

 

Charter Hall’s Chief Information and Technology Officer, Sheridan Ware, says that the post-lockdown era creates the perfect conditions for not only flexible working, but a focus on meaningful, value-adding work.

How do you provide flexibility and give people that choice of where they’re going to work and for what activities?

We’re always focused on ease and making that experience as easy as possible for our people. Our connection to our culture and each other and our customers.

Then the final bit, the bit that I’m excited about as we move forward, is meaning. How do we get out the mundane work out of people’s lives so they can do the meaningful, impactful work that aligns with their passions and their purposes?”

It’s going to be amazing watching how data and automation, and artificial intelligence play into that reality of empowering our people to question, as they did during COVID.

What is the best use of my time and can the technology department help in getting rid of some of that stuff, which frankly is just not the best use of people’s time?

Hear more Sheridan’s purposeful vision of the future of work.

 

McKinsey & Co’s Partner, Brant Carson, observes how decision-making, customer interaction, and business continuity have been digitised for organisational agility since the pandemic.

Because people aren’t working in the office, you need to have your internal processes much more digitised.

Companies that have had been more digitised fared better. We’ve also seen decisions being made at the political level, at the company level, all through companies, at rapid rates that we haven’t seen.

That’s much more agile decision making, much more decentralised, working through and working with a set of principles. It’s been very interesting because it’s actually been reinforcing agility in agile principles.

Watch Brant share his thoughts on the critical roles cloud infrastructure, automation, and high performing talent have to play in securing a prosperous future for Australia.

 

For more executive interviews, presentations, Australian tech trends, and fact-based research, join our community.

Contributors
Simon Geraghty Executive Director Government Technology Platforms at NSW Department of Customer Service
Simon Geraghty was appointed Executive Director Government Technology Platforms in the NSW Department of Customer Service (formerly Department of Finance, Services &... More

Simon Geraghty was appointed Executive Director Government Technology Platforms in the NSW Department of Customer Service (formerly Department of Finance, Services & Innovation) in January 2017. In this role he leads the delivery of whole of government platforms and services, including the NSW Government Data Centres, digital licensing services, payment platforms, contact centre platforms and citizen facing apps such as FuelCheck and Park’nPay.

Less
Susan Gibson Head of Data Analytics and AI at the University of Technology Sydney
Digital and data transformational leader who has a rare combination of strategic leadership and technical knowledge. Susan has successfully led many Data... More

Digital and data transformational leader who has a rare combination of strategic leadership and technical knowledge. Susan has successfully led many Data analytics and digital strategies and programs of work. Susan is well regarded by business executives, peers, vendors and her teams as she has the influence, ability and tenacity to drive success, change and innovation. She is a leader who collaborates widely and builds strong and productive relationships across the organisation.

Susan is a passionate advocate for utilising AI in supporting business strategy. In her current role she leads efforts to ensure the ethical implementation of AI at the university. Susan focuses on fostering AI fluency, governance, and technical and organisational change capabilities while balancing opportunities and risks. She has developed clear governance mechanisms, including an AI policy to drive responsible AI utilisation and empower the university’s strategic decision-making and new ways of working.

Less
Raju Varanasi CIO at Catholic Education Office, Diocese of Parramatta
Widely respected and high achieving senior executive with over 25 years of experience in education, industry, public sector and not- for-profit agencies... More

Widely respected and high achieving senior executive with over 25 years of experience in education, industry, public sector and not- for-profit agencies in Australia; extensive expertise and networks in all sectors of education; significant achievements in managing business units, digital platforms, strategy development and service delivery. Professional strengths include managing operations and service delivery, developing strategic alliances and partnerships, creating innovative digital platforms and strategies and implementing analytics for insights and business improvements.

Less
Vishy Narayanan Chief Digital Officer at PwC Australia
Vishy is an accomplished digital transformation executive with compelling expertise across marketing and technology, strategy and implementation. He has held leadership roles... More

Vishy is an accomplished digital transformation executive with compelling expertise across marketing and technology, strategy and implementation.

He has held leadership roles in high profile ASX listed companies and blue chip professional services practices as well as in innovative start-up businesses.As Partner and Chief Digital Officer at PwC Australia his role is to drive change and help strengthen PwC’s innovative culture and the digital mindset across the whole of the business and deliver even better value for our clients by making the right investments into the future.

Prior to joining PwC Vishy was Global Head of Digital Technology Services at Cochlear where he initiated and led the transformation of online customer engagement on an international scale.

Less
Sheridan Ware Chief Information and Technology Officer at Charter Hall
Sheridan is passionate about helping people be their very best selves. She believes in putting people at the heart of the design... More

Sheridan is passionate about helping people be their very best selves.

She believes in putting people at the heart of the design process and inspiring better ways of working by harnessing technology, space and partnerships.

With 20 years’ experience in technology and commercial real estate, Sheridan leads the technology function for Charter Hall – one of Australia’s leading property and fund managers – where she focuses on driving greater productivity, improved insights and engaging experiences for the group’s employees and customers.

Less
Brant Carson Partner at McKinsey & Company
Brant R. Carson is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and leads McKinsey’s Technology practice across Asia. Brant serves public and private... More

Brant R. Carson is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and leads McKinsey’s Technology practice across Asia. Brant serves public and private sector institutions across Asia and specialises in performance improvement through large scale technology transformations from strategy through to delivery.

Less
Culture Leadership