Interview with Glen McLatchie from SkyCity Entertainment Group

Glen is an experienced senior executive with an extensive background in delivering business and digital change on a global scale. I have a strong strategic orientation; having held several senior business and IT executive roles allows me to contribute to overall business direction alongside core technology and digital strategies.

he flourishes in changing environments and my commercial acumen and pragmatic approach to business and IT problems have been honed in large European and Asian environments as well as across Australia and New Zealand. This wide breadth of experience has enabled me to become a highly successful leader of change.

He has a real passion for the development and investment in people, particularly long term strategies for personal growth and capability improvement.

Interviewer: “What do you feel are the biggest challenges IT leaders are currently faced with within their business?”

Glen: “Technology has always been important, but today there is not an organisation on the planet that is not undertaking some form of digital transformation. One of the many challenges I see for IT leaders is managing the complexity of a full stack transformation versus the easier, more recognisable, and arguably the more rewarding customer facing parts – coined by all and sundry as digital.  Addressing the whole of enterprise business architecture is hard and complex to do, and far less transparent to the board, but in the end is the only real way to deliver sustainable business benefits through tech enablement.”

Interviewer: “As an IT leader, what do you feel businesses continue to get wrong when it comes to their IT strategy?”

Glen: “Many organisations still believe that digital is something that is separate to IT.  Creating the role of a CDO and thinking that this somehow removes the technology debt or poor IT capability that legacy organisations often have.  In other words, their strategies focus in on symptoms rather than core problems.  Address the root cause of the problem by lifting the IT delivery capability, and if the CMO can’t do it create a role of Chief Customer Office – focusing on the customer experience, of which digital (or tech) is just one component.”

Interviewer: “What are the latest trends and behaviours you predict will be surfacing on the market over the coming 12 months?”

Glen: “5G will begin to allow us to control anything from anywhere.  My own view is that rather than having driverless cars, why not have a bank of uber drivers sitting in a building in India or China driving cars, or construction site cranes, in the US or Australia.  This removes all the legal and moral hurdles of driverless cars.
Robotics and AI will continue to become more mainstream, which in turn will see a rise in the need for tech skills and a decline in the need for low skilled workers. Which raises all sorts of societal issues.”

Interviewer: “What is the best piece of advice you have received within your job over the years?”

Glen: ““It’s about them stupid”.  In other words, it’s always about your people, their family, their lives, their promotions, their well-being.”

Interviewer: “What is one key takeaway you hope our audience at the CIO Leaders Summit Australia, Sydney leaves with after hearing your presentation on site?”

Glen: “That they are not alone in the challenges they face, and by sharing with each other we may just pick up a tip or two that will make our job a smidgen easier.”

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