On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

Sharing a stage with the IBM Global CEO in front of an audience of thousands of technology professionals , to showcase how our product RetailOS was being used by retailers to bring Artificial Intelligence to sales associates directly on the shopfloor .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

As a child I was always fascinated with technology , I loved taking electronics apart and rebuilding them . My father was an international marathon runner and won our first computer in a race in the late 1980s . I used it to write my first computer programs and in high school I set-up a business with a friend to make websites for people I knew … the rest evolved from there .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

I ’ m not a micro-manager , but I am highly outcome driven . I believe people should be allowed to fail , and that a good team puts systems and processes in place that assumes failure will happen , which ensures the

impact of failure is small . If fear of failure is too high , people are afraid to innovate , and problem solve . I encourage escalation as a positive step not a negative one and if something does go wrong , we ’ ll look at how to mitigate it in the future rather than blaming individuals .

What do you think is the current hot technology talking point ?

Machine Learning – how can business use it effectively , how does it feed into their data strategy , when should they use it and for what ?

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office ?

I love activities that can get my mind working on other tasks than the ones at work . I love activity holidays like skiing , where the level of focus required means you don ’ t end up just thinking about work all the time . I also love playing board games with friends for the same reason .

If you could go back and change one career decision , what would it be ?

I would have focused on product-based development sooner . When building my first technology products ,

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