April 23, 2024 • 30 mins
Embark on a captivating journey with Andrew Beitz, a tech guru who has boldly navigated the ever-evolving landscape of the technology industry for three decades, and now sits with us to peel back the layers of leadership, innovation, and strategy. Andrew imparts his wisdom on how to strike that elusive balance between advancing a career and nurturing a life, all while sharing his rise from a curious software engineer to a visionary executive. This episode isn't just a trek through Andrew's career—it's a roadmap for embracing the discomfort that comes with growth and the thrill of leading teams to uncharted success.
As we peel back the veneer of corporate transformation, Andrew offers an insider's look at the trials and triumphs faced when reengineering a company's soul. Through the lens of his experience with Vasco Data Security and other global ventures, he reveals the foundational pillars of fostering an effective team culture: shared vision, celebrating quick victories, and the magic of mentoring. Andrew's anecdote about applying his tech leadership finesse to Major League Baseball strategy is a testament to the versatile nature of true leadership. For anyone at the helm of a tech team or simply aspiring to lead, this discussion is a treasure trove of strategies, anecdotes, and insights that transcends industries.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Series 6 of the Spotlight Series Don't
you Survive Thrive.
This podcast was born out ofthe 2020 pandemic and has been
through various iterations.
In Series 6, I talk to seniortech leaders about their
impressive career journeys.
(00:24):
Talk to senior tech leadersabout their impressive career
journeys.
My name is Nicholas Steele,founding director of JJP Talent
Solutions, an Australian ITrecruitment business.
I've had the privilege oftalking to numerous tech leaders
and founders over the last 25years and love sharing their
stories and insights.
(00:45):
I hope you enjoy listening.
I'm delighted to introduceAndrew Beats.
Andrew has extensive leadershipexperience growing global tech
companies such as Next DC, aswell as building a variety of
new business ventures.
Building a variety of newbusiness ventures.
Andrew, thank you for joiningme on season six, episode six of
(01:14):
the Spotlight series.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Don't you Survive Thrive?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Thank you for having me Nicola, my pleasure Andrew,
and it's fantastic to see youagain.
So first of all, give me anoverview of your career to date,
yep.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So I've been an executive manager and a leader
in technology entrepreneur inscaling global businesses today,
both on the ASX and the NASDAQ.
I have over 30 years'experience in managing and
(01:48):
growing companies.
I've lived overseas, workedoverseas globally, you know,
worked in both start-ups to meetthe large organisations and
also worked in difficult,different vertical markets as
well, such as thetelecommunications to the data
(02:11):
centers, to exploration ofmining, to health technology and
, even more recently, fintechspace as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
um also got some board advisory um where I've
done for global technologycompanies as well fantastic and
you've got such an amazing uhbreadth and depth of experience
there, and over 30 years been alittle superficial.
How have you managed to stay soyouthful with all these amazing
(02:47):
and challenging times on aglobal scale?
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Thank you for the compliment.
I'm not sure if I might get theexercise in.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, it is important .
It's one of the pillars of life, isn't it?
Getting movement in nutrition,sleep, all the things that your
mum told you to do, they makesense.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it's good to have a life balance in
everything you do.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Absolutely Excellent.
Well, it's certainly paying offand having that successful
career at the same time, careerat the same time.
So let's think back 30 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
What attracted you to the technology industry back
then?
Yeah, I started my career as asoftware engineer, where I had
the passion and love for justbuilding things, and today I
apply technology lens over abusiness to ad bay, which is
sort of what you would know as abig kid in the store playing
(03:53):
with his favorite toys um, yeah,the best way to describe it, I
think absolutely excellent.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Um and what back 30 years ago.
So what were you programming inthen?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
C and C++.
I was educating developers on Chow to use C++ back then in a
startup company, so going from,as people might know, in
software development from aprocedural to an object oriented
language.
So it was always a convincingthing of how to get them across
(04:30):
to C++.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Absolutely, and that was what I first recruited in
was purely C and C++ softwareengineers back in London in the
early 2000s and there was enoughwork for two consultants in
that company.
I mean, if you had just focusedon C and C++ in Brisbane at the
moment, there just wouldn't beenough work to do that.
(04:53):
But it was huge at thatparticular time and it's
interesting going from that morein-depth and then seeing that
broader lens that you do today.
So you started as a softwareengineer and then you moved into
a leadership role.
So how did you secure that roleand what would your advice be
(05:18):
to people that are trying tomake that leap to that next
level?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It was quite early in my career actually.
I was headhunted for this role,uh, where my first initial
career was at citr, and then Imoved over to uh, this lead role
in fraunhofer I easier ingermany.
So I was leading a team quite abright team over there in
(05:46):
Germany to commercialiseproducts and services and I was
also with the role partneringwith lots of technology
businesses and representing thewhole of software engineering
community at the internationalstandards meetings as well
globally at the internationalstandards meetings as well
(06:06):
globally.
So it was my first leadershiprole and really growing from
there and opening my eyes up tothe rest of the world.
It was a sense of maturity whenyou really do start to live and
work overseas and starting todo business at a different level
.
That matures you as anindividual.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Absolutely so.
Were you living in Germany atthat particular point?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I was living in a small town called Kaiserslautern
.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Okay, whereabouts is that?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's near Frankfurt, near Heidelberg, if you know the
map in Germany, if you were toput the centre of Europe, that's
where Kaiserslautern is.
It's the centre of all ofEurope there.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I will take a look, because I did a geography degree
, so if there's an opportunityto look at a map, I'm in there.
I get really excited about maps, so I shall be doing that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And if people follow football football, it's the
number one full sport team.
Uh in, well, it was, but italways shifts between bavaria,
munich and perfect, yes,excellent.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
My the extent of my football knowledge is watching
ted lasso, so we'll, we'll moveon from.
It's a great program, by theway, um, and in terms of that,
advice to Peter starring leadersyes, so you've got that global
experience.
But whether it be on a globalscale or on a more um locally,
(07:44):
what would your advice be?
How did you get that?
Role and what have you?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I would say and I've always said this be comfortable
being uncomfortable um dosomething that scares you
sometimes, and it's like it'sreally about putting yourself
out there, um finding whatyou're passionate about and
really um being that leader andthat voice that inspires other
(08:11):
people, um to to go on to dobetter things absolutely so
being comfortable, beinguncomfortable and um and seeing
that potential in leading thosepeople as well.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
So that's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And also in my career .
I've done an MBA at theUniversity of Queensland and
with that I was always wonderingwhat is it that I don't know?
But it's also about knowing you, know, being.
You don't have to knoweverything.
You know.
Having a team that can get youthere across it is the most
(08:53):
important thing.
Obviously, you need to know,and I think what the NBA does is
ground you in terms of allareas but I think it's about
knowing those, letting your team, inspiring your team, leading
your team in a way that they cando bring out the best in them
(09:14):
individually, absolutely, andthat's so important as well not
just one size fits all.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So you have worked on a variety of innovations and
spearheaded a variety ofinnovative products.
What would you say has been themost exciting one that you've
developed?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I've been fortunate enough to be on lots of exciting
innovation and I always likebeing on that bleeding edge
technology where you can shiftthe company to the next level
and deliver on new revenue andEBITDA growth.
So some examples of those oneshave been, for example, vasco's
(10:00):
Proving your Identity it's inmost banking and financial
institutions around the worldstill today and they shifted
itself from that hardware tokensof proving yourself, you know,
with something you have, tosoftware-based tokens, which now
what we find is OTPs on mobiles.
(10:22):
That allowed us to reach thoseeconomies of scale With Next.
Dc, which is, as everyone knows, on the ASX, is a successful
data centre company that'sgrowing globally now.
It was more than just hostingyour infrastructure within the
(10:44):
data centre.
It was about connectivity andhaving everything as a service.
So it was a proven businessmodel there.
And then the touch to pay morerecently, where we're changing
the way that customersexperience for merchants itself,
(11:05):
where, instead of doingpayments behind a counter in the
store, now they can actuallywalk around the merchants around
their store and make paymentson a mobile device.
So we're turning mobile devicesinto payment terminals and it's
a real game changer today ingetting out innovative solutions
(11:26):
quicker in the market.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, gosh, that's incredible, isn't it?
I mean, we didn't really havethese smartphones until 2007.
Was the iPhone, wasn't it?
And now can you imagine a lifewithout that device?
I know, sometimes it can.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
My kids can't even think of a life without internet
and it's like and I know thatit's so embedded in us today
that technology the internet andnow mobile devices that it's a
great technology that's reallyscaled around the world.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is incredible, although you want to be leading
it rather than you being a slaveto it as well, which is that's
a whole nother topic ofconversation.
So those are really excitinginnovations and it's.
I remember I arrived inAustralia 12 years ago this week
and I actually the office thatI was in when I first moved to
(12:34):
Australia was at the back of thenext DC building on Wharf
Street.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
On Wharf Street.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, and it's amazing.
That's the data.
Yeah, little town of Brisbanebecause I'd come from the big
smoke in London has the startupecosystem and the success
stories that have come out overthe last 10 plus years and
(13:03):
you've been working and growingsome of those.
It's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So it's an exciting time to be in Brisbane and
Queensland and Australia, yeahit is I can't say enough how
much it's and all businessesshould be thinking globally.
They have a presence, and whatpresence they can make globally
(13:29):
is an important thing.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Absolutely, and actually talking about that
startup ecosystem.
So it's not without itschallenges what attracts you to
working in startups, whetherthey be early stage or more
established scale-up typeorganisations.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
There's always a buzz in starting up a new business,
building something from theground up, finding a product
market fit to scale that companyitself, and I've always loved
that part of the challenge inthe market itself.
I started my career at astart-up company in Brisbane
(14:21):
called CITR.
It was a handful of people withUQ seed funding that we grew
from you know those handful ofpeople to over 200 people
globally.
So it was in thetelecommunications business
focusing on network management.
(14:42):
Very bright people in thecompany itself and it's such a
great success story of what theydid there at CITR.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Fantastic.
So when was that like the turnof the century?
Sorry, that's what my childrensay.
Oh, is that the turn of thecentury, Mum?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Are you giving one away?
Was that like the late?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
90s, early 2000s.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's right.
Yeah, yeah, in that period.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So it was an exciting time, pardon.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It was an exciting time there and I loved that
whole start-up.
I think that's what drove myinitial passion and being in
that company, in that start-upspace to really see the scale.
And we did have growing painsand things like that as as
building up the company, butoverall we had really good
(15:38):
people that really drove thesuccess of that business today,
uh.
So I think it was a greatintroduction for me coming out
uh of um you know my course andthings like that, and going
straight into it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Absolutely, and I mean I don't think there was
even the phrase start-up at thatparticular period in time.
That's developed since then anddid you kind of fall into it
rather than join it by designand realise it was the right
place for you?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's an interesting question because I actually was
looking for a softwareengineering firm and I had
previously.
If people know Brisbane, well,there was a SciTech here and I
had always worked every vacationfrom my first year of uni I
(16:39):
worked at SciTech and I justevery year I worked there and
things like that was a greatintroduction SciTech and I
wanted to make a make sure thatI focused here in Brisbane
initially and a lot were takingroles in Sydney and Melbourne
(17:00):
and Sydney and Melbourne weretech hubs and spruces back then,
but now I think Brisbane's comeof age and it's really starting
to prove like Next.
DC is a great example andthere's a lot of other examples
there of technology start-upcompanies that have grown to be
very successful both on the ASXand outside.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Absolutely.
And before we started thepodcast, we were talking about
an event I've been to last night, about Antler and the venture
capitalists, and what they weresaying is Queensland is a really
exciting time, one of thepeople being well educated and
having really stronguniversities, like UQ, as you
(17:46):
mentioned.
So the wealth of talent and, ofcourse, the weather and the
lifestyle is a very attractiveopportunity to bring people in
here.
I love them.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Just on that note.
I love travelling overseas andI love meeting different people
and working with differentpeople overseas.
But I come back here and thinkhow lucky you know after living
overseas and things.
It's great to be back here inAustralia, let alone Brisbane,
but it's a great environmenthere in Australia and I do want
(18:24):
to say that you can make itsuccessful here as a leader in
this country.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Absolutely.
It is a fabulous place.
Also, life isn't life withoutchallenges.
It can't all be sunshine and anamazing lifestyle.
So what would you say has beenthe biggest challenge that
you've faced in your career?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I would say I was appointed as the GM of Vasco
Data Security and this was over10 years ago itself, where I
(19:14):
had to come in and make somemajor changes to the company to
get releases out, to make surethat we get productivity back
online and to deliver results ina market.
So it was a real cultural shiftand a transformation for the
business.
So you know, really what I wasdoing is bringing people on a
(19:35):
journey that had a shared visionwe had and really it was about
making those initial changes andgetting early runs on the board
to be successful and it didknow it was very profitable.
It's still going today.
It's very much a great successstory in terms of changing the
(20:01):
company culture around by havingthat vision and shared
institution.
And those people that came onthe journey with me continued
eight years on with the companyand continued to be very
successful.
So I was really happy with thetalent pool that was there and
everyone that participated inthere, obviously much brighter
(20:23):
than I was.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So was that very much about changing hearts and minds
and bringing everybody on thejourney that that was the kind
of challenge at that particulartime.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It was driving a roadmap, having a roadmap
understanding what the visionwas for the company in terms of
where we wanted to go as anauthentication type company,
getting releases, putting insystems and processes that had a
framework where we weredelivering quality products into
(21:03):
banking and financialinstitutions today.
So that very much was instilled.
You know that was a realcultural shift in terms of move
the company.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So the cultural challenge and I guess obviously
the technical challenge as well,and you have had an extensive
career in leadership.
What would you say is really anoverlooked skill to be a
successful leader, particularlyin a startup scale up
(21:38):
environment?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I always think leadership is about inspiring
people to bring out the best inthem.
So I always think of it havinga vision and values that in the
business, that everyone's on thesame journey and everyone
understands where they'replaying.
If you've got good talent, thenthat is the.
They come on, they understandwhere they're going and people
(22:07):
come into an organisationwanting to do the right thing,
wanting to know where theirplace is and how they can, how
they're contributing to theoverall success of the company.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Absolutely so.
Making a difference.
So making a difference, makinga difference on a scale within
the company and then the worldat large as well, whether it be
locally, nationally,internationally, etc.
Coming back to you, andrew, youare clearly a very busy man and
(22:40):
have had a lot of success overthe last 30-plus years.
What are your top threeproductivity hacks, would you
say?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I would say, you know , for productivity it's all
about, first of all, getting theright team.
You know they have to sharethat passion, um, and then you
should be, uh, letting them dowhat they do best, um.
So getting the right team isthe number one, um, and be a
(23:14):
leader that inspires them eachday.
You know, uh, that theyunderstand what they're supposed
to be doing, what are the goals, what are their OKRs?
You know that they have toreach.
What are the things that theyhave to achieve and that's
achievable in a way that theycan aspire to get to that
(23:37):
deliverable itself.
And then I always think thelast thing is about
productivities is always havingone-on-ones and mentoring.
One-on-ones is just a check-inregularly to see where they're
at, see what's blocking them,see what they can do to help
(23:57):
them, and mentoring is somethingwhere they feel like they're
growing in the organisation andthey're achieving.
So there's been examples of thatwhere I've instigated mentoring
in a number of organisationsand it's had such a profound
impact on the individuals that alot of them still reach out to
(24:21):
me today and say you know,mentoring has done a lot for me
to grow and, as a result, I'malso a UQ MBA mentor.
I'm an ambassador to the BellSociety at UQ and I love that
experience of giving back andalso hearing the stories that
(24:44):
they do out there today.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
That's brilliant, and there's very much a central
theme with regards to all ofthose, and it's all about people
.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So it's not technology.
I know your passion istechnology, but at the end of
the day it's people that are atthe centre of everything, and
being people-centric, it's acommon theme.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I have a love and a passion for technology, but it
is the people, and it is thepeople that bring, is the people
bringing up the best in aorganisation, and you cannot
achieve without really goodpeople in the organisation.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Absolutely.
And my last question tell mesomething, andrew, that is
unusual or surprising about you.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Okay, unusual or surprising about you?
Okay, um, I had the fortunatecase to work on a business
strategy for the major leaguebaseball in the us uh-huh was
walton consulting inphiladelphia.
um, I was able to see many ofthe places and baseball rings
(26:02):
out there itself, but I applieda different business and a
different lens and framework toprovide a strategy to grow their
business with a team.
And it was a great experiencefor me of taking something so
left field excuse the pun andapplying it to my knowledge in
(26:26):
that industry itself.
So I've always loved that sortof experience of having
something left field and beingable to apply it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Absolutely, and I tell you what's quite
interesting about that.
So you didn't have anyexperience of baseball at all.
Was it baseball or basketball?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, it was baseball , and I'm not a good pitcher.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I just gotta put that out there but it's been
football, but not well, it'sfunny because it reminds me.
Have you watched Ted Lasso?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, so it's a similar thing that he had no
experience of football, as insoccer, but it was his
leadership that made thedifference there.
So it's a similar kind of themeand comes back to the people as
well.
Um, I could talk about tedlasso all day.
(27:18):
I've watched it twice and Istill feel sad when it finishes.
Well, andrew, thank you verymuch for sharing your stories
and insights and everything.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to share?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Look, I'd just like to say for everyone out there,
it's an exciting time that we'rein right now and out there it's
an exciting time that we're inright now as a society, we've
never been more connected in theworld than today.
Technology is an enabler and itadds value to all businesses
(27:55):
and in our decade, we're goingto see a fundamental shift in
technology at a macro level.
You know we're already seeingthat generative AI, chat, gbt,
you know going out there andeverybody's even including it
now in their everyday work, youknow to.
We're also looking at anothershift in digital assets, the
(28:19):
decentralised payments out there.
So you know, from a macro level, that's going to be an
important thing.
And also there's the war oncyber security that's happening
right now.
So that's in everyone's mind ishow we play on that.
And lastly, there's the quantumcomputing that's having.
(28:43):
It will have a major shift whenit comes out to the way we do
things today.
So there are a number of majortechnology shifts on the AI,
digital payments, to thosesecurity and in the area of
(29:03):
quantum computing that will havea profound impact on our decade
.
So my last thought is no matterwhat business you're in,
there's never been a better timeto innovate, so I'd just like
to end with those words itselfFantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Fantastic, absolutely , and the rate of change is
phenomenal.
It's absolutely incredible andall that impacts.
If you go along for the riderather than being left behind,
(29:41):
you can be driven by thatsuccess as well.
Well, andrew, thank you verymuch.
It's been fabulous to talk toyou.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yes, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Thank you.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode.
Please remember to subscriberate and review.
The Don't Just Survive Thrivepodcast is part of the Spotlight
series, which includes theYouTube channel Spotlight on
Software Development.
If you want more insights intothe software industry,
(30:12):
particularly purpose-led techstartups and scale-ups, then
subscribe to this channel.
Thank you for listening.
Until next time.
Welcome to Series 6 of the Spotlight Series Don't
you Survive Thrive.
This podcast was born out ofthe 2020 pandemic and has been
through various iterations.
In Series 6, I talk to seniortech leaders about their
impressive career journeys.
(00:24):
Talk to senior tech leadersabout their impressive career
journeys.
My name is Nicholas Steele,founding director of JJP Talent
Solutions, an Australian ITrecruitment business.
I've had the privilege oftalking to numerous tech leaders
and founders over the last 25years and love sharing their
stories and insights.
(00:45):
I hope you enjoy listening.
I'm delighted to introduceAndrew Beats.
Andrew has extensive leadershipexperience growing global tech
companies such as Next DC, aswell as building a variety of
new business ventures.
Building a variety of newbusiness ventures.
Andrew, thank you for joiningme on season six, episode six of
(01:14):
the Spotlight series.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Don't you Survive Thrive?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
Thank you for having me Nicola, my pleasure Andrew,
and it's fantastic to see youagain.
So first of all, give me anoverview of your career to date,
yep.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
So I've been an executive manager and a leader
in technology entrepreneur inscaling global businesses today,
both on the ASX and the NASDAQ.
I have over 30 years'experience in managing and
(01:48):
growing companies.
I've lived overseas, workedoverseas globally, you know,
worked in both start-ups to meetthe large organisations and
also worked in difficult,different vertical markets as
well, such as thetelecommunications to the data
(02:11):
centers, to exploration ofmining, to health technology and
, even more recently, fintechspace as well.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
um also got some board advisory um where I've
done for global technologycompanies as well fantastic and
you've got such an amazing uhbreadth and depth of experience
there, and over 30 years been alittle superficial.
How have you managed to stay soyouthful with all these amazing
(02:47):
and challenging times on aglobal scale?
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Thank you for the compliment.
I'm not sure if I might get theexercise in.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, it is important .
It's one of the pillars of life, isn't it?
Getting movement in nutrition,sleep, all the things that your
mum told you to do, they makesense.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Yeah, it's good to have a life balance in
everything you do.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Absolutely Excellent.
Well, it's certainly paying offand having that successful
career at the same time, careerat the same time.
So let's think back 30 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
What attracted you to the technology industry back
then?
Yeah, I started my career as asoftware engineer, where I had
the passion and love for justbuilding things, and today I
apply technology lens over abusiness to ad bay, which is
sort of what you would know as abig kid in the store playing
(03:53):
with his favorite toys um, yeah,the best way to describe it, I
think absolutely excellent.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Um and what back 30 years ago.
So what were you programming inthen?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
C and C++.
I was educating developers on Chow to use C++ back then in a
startup company, so going from,as people might know, in
software development from aprocedural to an object oriented
language.
So it was always a convincingthing of how to get them across
(04:30):
to C++.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Absolutely, and that was what I first recruited in
was purely C and C++ softwareengineers back in London in the
early 2000s and there was enoughwork for two consultants in
that company.
I mean, if you had just focusedon C and C++ in Brisbane at the
moment, there just wouldn't beenough work to do that.
(04:53):
But it was huge at thatparticular time and it's
interesting going from that morein-depth and then seeing that
broader lens that you do today.
So you started as a softwareengineer and then you moved into
a leadership role.
So how did you secure that roleand what would your advice be
(05:18):
to people that are trying tomake that leap to that next
level?
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It was quite early in my career actually.
I was headhunted for this role,uh, where my first initial
career was at citr, and then Imoved over to uh, this lead role
in fraunhofer I easier ingermany.
So I was leading a team quite abright team over there in
(05:46):
Germany to commercialiseproducts and services and I was
also with the role partneringwith lots of technology
businesses and representing thewhole of software engineering
community at the internationalstandards meetings as well
globally at the internationalstandards meetings as well
(06:06):
globally.
So it was my first leadershiprole and really growing from
there and opening my eyes up tothe rest of the world.
It was a sense of maturity whenyou really do start to live and
work overseas and starting todo business at a different level
.
That matures you as anindividual.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Absolutely so.
Were you living in Germany atthat particular point?
Speaker 2 (06:30):
I was living in a small town called Kaiserslautern
.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Okay, whereabouts is that?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
It's near Frankfurt, near Heidelberg, if you know the
map in Germany, if you were toput the centre of Europe, that's
where Kaiserslautern is.
It's the centre of all ofEurope there.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
I will take a look, because I did a geography degree
, so if there's an opportunityto look at a map, I'm in there.
I get really excited about maps, so I shall be doing that.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And if people follow football football, it's the
number one full sport team.
Uh in, well, it was, but italways shifts between bavaria,
munich and perfect, yes,excellent.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
My the extent of my football knowledge is watching
ted lasso, so we'll, we'll moveon from.
It's a great program, by theway, um, and in terms of that,
advice to Peter starring leadersyes, so you've got that global
experience.
But whether it be on a globalscale or on a more um locally,
(07:44):
what would your advice be?
How did you get that?
Role and what have you?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I would say and I've always said this be comfortable
being uncomfortable um dosomething that scares you
sometimes, and it's like it'sreally about putting yourself
out there, um finding whatyou're passionate about and
really um being that leader andthat voice that inspires other
(08:11):
people, um to to go on to dobetter things absolutely so
being comfortable, beinguncomfortable and um and seeing
that potential in leading thosepeople as well.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
So that's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And also in my career .
I've done an MBA at theUniversity of Queensland and
with that I was always wonderingwhat is it that I don't know?
But it's also about knowing you, know, being.
You don't have to knoweverything.
You know.
Having a team that can get youthere across it is the most
(08:53):
important thing.
Obviously, you need to know,and I think what the NBA does is
ground you in terms of allareas but I think it's about
knowing those, letting your team, inspiring your team, leading
your team in a way that they cando bring out the best in them
(09:14):
individually, absolutely, andthat's so important as well not
just one size fits all.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So you have worked on a variety of innovations and
spearheaded a variety ofinnovative products.
What would you say has been themost exciting one that you've
developed?
Speaker 2 (09:38):
I've been fortunate enough to be on lots of exciting
innovation and I always likebeing on that bleeding edge
technology where you can shiftthe company to the next level
and deliver on new revenue andEBITDA growth.
So some examples of those oneshave been, for example, vasco's
(10:00):
Proving your Identity it's inmost banking and financial
institutions around the worldstill today and they shifted
itself from that hardware tokensof proving yourself, you know,
with something you have, tosoftware-based tokens, which now
what we find is OTPs on mobiles.
(10:22):
That allowed us to reach thoseeconomies of scale With Next.
Dc, which is, as everyone knows, on the ASX, is a successful
data centre company that'sgrowing globally now.
It was more than just hostingyour infrastructure within the
(10:44):
data centre.
It was about connectivity andhaving everything as a service.
So it was a proven businessmodel there.
And then the touch to pay morerecently, where we're changing
the way that customersexperience for merchants itself,
(11:05):
where, instead of doingpayments behind a counter in the
store, now they can actuallywalk around the merchants around
their store and make paymentson a mobile device.
So we're turning mobile devicesinto payment terminals and it's
a real game changer today ingetting out innovative solutions
(11:26):
quicker in the market.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, gosh, that's incredible, isn't it?
I mean, we didn't really havethese smartphones until 2007.
Was the iPhone, wasn't it?
And now can you imagine a lifewithout that device?
I know, sometimes it can.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
My kids can't even think of a life without internet
and it's like and I know thatit's so embedded in us today
that technology the internet andnow mobile devices that it's a
great technology that's reallyscaled around the world.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
It is incredible, although you want to be leading
it rather than you being a slaveto it as well, which is that's
a whole nother topic ofconversation.
So those are really excitinginnovations and it's.
I remember I arrived inAustralia 12 years ago this week
and I actually the office thatI was in when I first moved to
(12:34):
Australia was at the back of thenext DC building on Wharf
Street.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
On Wharf Street.
Okay.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, and it's amazing.
That's the data.
Yeah, little town of Brisbanebecause I'd come from the big
smoke in London has the startupecosystem and the success
stories that have come out overthe last 10 plus years and
(13:03):
you've been working and growingsome of those.
It's been incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So it's an exciting time to be in Brisbane and
Queensland and Australia, yeahit is I can't say enough how
much it's and all businessesshould be thinking globally.
They have a presence, and whatpresence they can make globally
(13:29):
is an important thing.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Absolutely, and actually talking about that
startup ecosystem.
So it's not without itschallenges what attracts you to
working in startups, whetherthey be early stage or more
established scale-up typeorganisations.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
There's always a buzz in starting up a new business,
building something from theground up, finding a product
market fit to scale that companyitself, and I've always loved
that part of the challenge inthe market itself.
I started my career at astart-up company in Brisbane
(14:21):
called CITR.
It was a handful of people withUQ seed funding that we grew
from you know those handful ofpeople to over 200 people
globally.
So it was in thetelecommunications business
focusing on network management.
(14:42):
Very bright people in thecompany itself and it's such a
great success story of what theydid there at CITR.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Fantastic.
So when was that like the turnof the century?
Sorry, that's what my childrensay.
Oh, is that the turn of thecentury, Mum?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
Are you giving one away?
Was that like the late?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
90s, early 2000s.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
That's right.
Yeah, yeah, in that period.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
So it was an exciting time, pardon.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
It was an exciting time there and I loved that
whole start-up.
I think that's what drove myinitial passion and being in
that company, in that start-upspace to really see the scale.
And we did have growing painsand things like that as as
building up the company, butoverall we had really good
(15:38):
people that really drove thesuccess of that business today,
uh.
So I think it was a greatintroduction for me coming out
uh of um you know my course andthings like that, and going
straight into it.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
Absolutely, and I mean I don't think there was
even the phrase start-up at thatparticular period in time.
That's developed since then anddid you kind of fall into it
rather than join it by designand realise it was the right
place for you?
Speaker 2 (16:17):
That's an interesting question because I actually was
looking for a softwareengineering firm and I had
previously.
If people know Brisbane, well,there was a SciTech here and I
had always worked every vacationfrom my first year of uni I
(16:39):
worked at SciTech and I justevery year I worked there and
things like that was a greatintroduction SciTech and I
wanted to make a make sure thatI focused here in Brisbane
initially and a lot were takingroles in Sydney and Melbourne
(17:00):
and Sydney and Melbourne weretech hubs and spruces back then,
but now I think Brisbane's comeof age and it's really starting
to prove like Next.
DC is a great example andthere's a lot of other examples
there of technology start-upcompanies that have grown to be
very successful both on the ASXand outside.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Absolutely.
And before we started thepodcast, we were talking about
an event I've been to last night, about Antler and the venture
capitalists, and what they weresaying is Queensland is a really
exciting time, one of thepeople being well educated and
having really stronguniversities, like UQ, as you
(17:46):
mentioned.
So the wealth of talent and, ofcourse, the weather and the
lifestyle is a very attractiveopportunity to bring people in
here.
I love them.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Just on that note.
I love travelling overseas andI love meeting different people
and working with differentpeople overseas.
But I come back here and thinkhow lucky you know after living
overseas and things.
It's great to be back here inAustralia, let alone Brisbane,
but it's a great environmenthere in Australia and I do want
(18:24):
to say that you can make itsuccessful here as a leader in
this country.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Absolutely.
It is a fabulous place.
Also, life isn't life withoutchallenges.
It can't all be sunshine and anamazing lifestyle.
So what would you say has beenthe biggest challenge that
you've faced in your career?
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Yeah, I would say I was appointed as the GM of Vasco
Data Security and this was over10 years ago itself, where I
(19:14):
had to come in and make somemajor changes to the company to
get releases out, to make surethat we get productivity back
online and to deliver results ina market.
So it was a real cultural shiftand a transformation for the
business.
So you know, really what I wasdoing is bringing people on a
(19:35):
journey that had a shared visionwe had and really it was about
making those initial changes andgetting early runs on the board
to be successful and it didknow it was very profitable.
It's still going today.
It's very much a great successstory in terms of changing the
(20:01):
company culture around by havingthat vision and shared
institution.
And those people that came onthe journey with me continued
eight years on with the companyand continued to be very
successful.
So I was really happy with thetalent pool that was there and
everyone that participated inthere, obviously much brighter
(20:23):
than I was.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
So was that very much about changing hearts and minds
and bringing everybody on thejourney that that was the kind
of challenge at that particulartime.
Speaker 2 (20:39):
It was driving a roadmap, having a roadmap
understanding what the visionwas for the company in terms of
where we wanted to go as anauthentication type company,
getting releases, putting insystems and processes that had a
framework where we weredelivering quality products into
(21:03):
banking and financialinstitutions today.
So that very much was instilled.
You know that was a realcultural shift in terms of move
the company.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
So the cultural challenge and I guess obviously
the technical challenge as well,and you have had an extensive
career in leadership.
What would you say is really anoverlooked skill to be a
successful leader, particularlyin a startup scale up
(21:38):
environment?
Speaker 2 (21:44):
I always think leadership is about inspiring
people to bring out the best inthem.
So I always think of it havinga vision and values that in the
business, that everyone's on thesame journey and everyone
understands where they'replaying.
If you've got good talent, thenthat is the.
They come on, they understandwhere they're going and people
(22:07):
come into an organisationwanting to do the right thing,
wanting to know where theirplace is and how they can, how
they're contributing to theoverall success of the company.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Absolutely so.
Making a difference.
So making a difference, makinga difference on a scale within
the company and then the worldat large as well, whether it be
locally, nationally,internationally, etc.
Coming back to you, andrew, youare clearly a very busy man and
(22:40):
have had a lot of success overthe last 30-plus years.
What are your top threeproductivity hacks, would you
say?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
I would say, you know , for productivity it's all
about, first of all, getting theright team.
You know they have to sharethat passion, um, and then you
should be, uh, letting them dowhat they do best, um.
So getting the right team isthe number one, um, and be a
(23:14):
leader that inspires them eachday.
You know, uh, that theyunderstand what they're supposed
to be doing, what are the goals, what are their OKRs?
You know that they have toreach.
What are the things that theyhave to achieve and that's
achievable in a way that theycan aspire to get to that
(23:37):
deliverable itself.
And then I always think thelast thing is about
productivities is always havingone-on-ones and mentoring.
One-on-ones is just a check-inregularly to see where they're
at, see what's blocking them,see what they can do to help
(23:57):
them, and mentoring is somethingwhere they feel like they're
growing in the organisation andthey're achieving.
So there's been examples of thatwhere I've instigated mentoring
in a number of organisationsand it's had such a profound
impact on the individuals that alot of them still reach out to
(24:21):
me today and say you know,mentoring has done a lot for me
to grow and, as a result, I'malso a UQ MBA mentor.
I'm an ambassador to the BellSociety at UQ and I love that
experience of giving back andalso hearing the stories that
(24:44):
they do out there today.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
That's brilliant, and there's very much a central
theme with regards to all ofthose, and it's all about people
.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Definitely.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
So it's not technology.
I know your passion istechnology, but at the end of
the day it's people that are atthe centre of everything, and
being people-centric, it's acommon theme.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I have a love and a passion for technology, but it
is the people, and it is thepeople that bring, is the people
bringing up the best in aorganisation, and you cannot
achieve without really goodpeople in the organisation.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Absolutely.
And my last question tell mesomething, andrew, that is
unusual or surprising about you.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Okay, unusual or surprising about you?
Okay, um, I had the fortunatecase to work on a business
strategy for the major leaguebaseball in the us uh-huh was
walton consulting inphiladelphia.
um, I was able to see many ofthe places and baseball rings
(26:02):
out there itself, but I applieda different business and a
different lens and framework toprovide a strategy to grow their
business with a team.
And it was a great experiencefor me of taking something so
left field excuse the pun andapplying it to my knowledge in
(26:26):
that industry itself.
So I've always loved that sortof experience of having
something left field and beingable to apply it.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Absolutely, and I tell you what's quite
interesting about that.
So you didn't have anyexperience of baseball at all.
Was it baseball or basketball?
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, it was baseball , and I'm not a good pitcher.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I just gotta put that out there but it's been
football, but not well, it'sfunny because it reminds me.
Have you watched Ted Lasso?
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, so it's a similar thing that he had no
experience of football, as insoccer, but it was his
leadership that made thedifference there.
So it's a similar kind of themeand comes back to the people as
well.
Um, I could talk about tedlasso all day.
(27:18):
I've watched it twice and Istill feel sad when it finishes.
Well, andrew, thank you verymuch for sharing your stories
and insights and everything.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to share?
Speaker 2 (27:34):
Look, I'd just like to say for everyone out there,
it's an exciting time that we'rein right now and out there it's
an exciting time that we're inright now as a society, we've
never been more connected in theworld than today.
Technology is an enabler and itadds value to all businesses
(27:55):
and in our decade, we're goingto see a fundamental shift in
technology at a macro level.
You know we're already seeingthat generative AI, chat, gbt,
you know going out there andeverybody's even including it
now in their everyday work, youknow to.
We're also looking at anothershift in digital assets, the
(28:19):
decentralised payments out there.
So you know, from a macro level, that's going to be an
important thing.
And also there's the war oncyber security that's happening
right now.
So that's in everyone's mind ishow we play on that.
And lastly, there's the quantumcomputing that's having.
(28:43):
It will have a major shift whenit comes out to the way we do
things today.
So there are a number of majortechnology shifts on the AI,
digital payments, to thosesecurity and in the area of
(29:03):
quantum computing that will havea profound impact on our decade
.
So my last thought is no matterwhat business you're in,
there's never been a better timeto innovate, so I'd just like
to end with those words itselfFantastic.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Fantastic, absolutely , and the rate of change is
phenomenal.
It's absolutely incredible andall that impacts.
If you go along for the riderather than being left behind,
(29:41):
you can be driven by thatsuccess as well.
Well, andrew, thank you verymuch.
It's been fabulous to talk toyou.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yes, thank you very much for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Thank you.
I hope that you enjoyed thisepisode.
Please remember to subscriberate and review.
The Don't Just Survive Thrivepodcast is part of the Spotlight
series, which includes theYouTube channel Spotlight on
Software Development.
If you want more insights intothe software industry,
(30:12):
particularly purpose-led techstartups and scale-ups, then
subscribe to this channel.
Thank you for listening.
Until next time.
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