McLaren Flashcards
Tell me about yourself 2 - GfK
I’m currently with GfK, I joined in early 2016 as Head of IT for the UK.
At that time IT was very immature, the few processes they did have weren’t well established or understood and there was no collaboration between the IT teams or with global IT
There was no BRM in place, so perception of IT wasn’t very good
There had been significant under investment in IT so there was legacy technology that didn’t meet business needs.
Priorities:
Align the teams
Re-implement ITIL processes
Align with the business
Business alignment is much easier once IT is fully aligned.
Baseline. KPIs, feedback via surveys, interviews, and forums, and building out an IT maturity program to meet the demands of the business.
Within 18 months IT were on the leadership team and I was promoted to run the North Europe region, reporting into the CIO.
Nuremberg is no longer the global hub, all of the main strategic IT projects are run from the UK.
Digital transformation:
Office 365
Implementing a global service desk (project I’ve run)
Consolidating our global infrastructure estate into our core datacentres, and either retiring legacy applications or migrating into global enterprise solutions.
Where I am now… looking to progress my career
Tell me about yourself 1 - AJW
Before GfK I was with AJW Group, who are a privately owned aviation company who specialize in the supply and repair of commercial aircraft parts.
I was there for 9 years, and during this time AJW went through a period significant growth, so when I joined in 2008 there were under 100 staff, and when I left in 2016 they were over 800.
because when I joined, IT were seen as a cost center - they delivered core business services and kept the lights on.
As the company grew, I continuously pushed my own development by studying and applying best practice and processes to meet the demands of the business, so project management principles and ITIL best practice, and later brought devops in-house and grew our information security and data analytics capabilities.
I progressed from IT service delivery and infrastructure, through project management and team management, and ultimately into the role of global head of IT, with IT on the senior leadership team reporting into the company president and CEO.
The continuous growth of the company was driven by the capabilities of IT, especially by our ability to develop
ERP
Project Example - DC Consolidation
Situation Outdated infrastructure Costly maintenance (increasing YOY) Legacy applications Duplication globally 180+ datacentres globally Cyber attacks exposed Security vulnerabilities
Task Reduce number of data centres globally Lower cost Increase security Utilise the Frankfurt datacentre Ensure business continuity and performance
Action
Align IT strategy with business goals to gain buy-in
* Cost savings
* Security and data integrity
* Examples that relate;
Migrate all local data
Maintain relationships with stakeholders - Baseline + UAT
Ensure contractual and GDPR compliance
Increase and encourage use of containerisation and Kubernetes
Result
20% cost saving infrastructure costs (£200k)
* Maintenance
* Licenses
* Backups
Reduction of UK-based data centres to zero
Locally based infrastructure staff were able to work on global initiatives (reduced silo’d working)
Use the UK a template for the datacenter consolidation project
Customer experience - transparent costs, reliability
Project Example - AJW - ERP
- Oracle based ERP platform
- Development made available to competitors
- Unable to develop ourselves (had to use supplierdevs)
- Costly, slow, limited development
- Slow, manual processes, legacy systems that didn’t communicate
Solution
- Partnered with a 3rdparty supplier to develop a SQL web portal
- APIs into suppliers and logistics couriers
- APIs into customers and our internal ERP solutions
- Eventually brought the company in-house, built adevopsteam
Outcome
- Contract with EasyJet
- Contract with Bombardier
- Automation between our ops, logistics, and repair facility SAP system
- Fully automated supply chain
- Stock management
- Order tracking
- Parts search, price negotiation, purchasing
- Business analytics
- Real-time operational, tactical and strategic dashboards
Why McLaren?
Want to become a global CIO
It’s an opportunity to cut my teeth in a technology driven organization
I thrive in challenging situations
Work with someone of Karen’s stature
Everyone knows McLaren for the racing team and the high performance cars, but they are socially responsible, applied technologies, health . technology
Born in Bradford
Management Style
I focus on building TRUST
Through communication and candour
Making sure there is no disconnect between staff and senior management.
When people feel safe, this creates a COLLABORATIVE environment, encouraging staff to CHALLENGE processes and ways of working, and EMPOWER staff to act on their own initiative and manage by exception wherever possible.
Gratitude - recognise contributions and praise personally and publicly
EMPOWER staff to act on their own initiative and manage by exception, encourage ACCOUNTABILITY
EXAMPLE GfK - putting the right people in the right roles, and encouraging a culture of continuous learning, and clear career progression.
Candor
Honest and open
Accepting criticism
This creates a culture of honesty through SAFETY
Integrity Doing what you say you will Following up - taking action SACRIFICE and courage Assuming blame + Apportioning credit Letting staff know you have their backs
EMPATHETIC - I put myself in other people’s places to understand their point of view and see things from their perspective, and understand how they perceive value to ensure the outcome is aligned with both of our objectives to create win-win situations.
ERP Upgrade
ERP Upgrade Summary: ○Create an inventory or modules licensed vs modules used ○ Analyse current functionality and business processes ○ Update procedures, policies, documentation ○ Analyse workflows ○ Assess reports and forms ○ Establish a strong project team ○ Resource and budget planning ○ Executive buy-in and execution strategy ○ Objectives ○ Scope ○ Timeline ○ Change management strategy ○ Infrastructure plan ○ Project roles and responsibilities ○ High level project plan ○ Budget
○ Change management § Identify changes to systems, processes, and org structures § Clear user communication § Create a change network § Build and enforce accountability Provide monitoring and feedback mechanisms
Technology
AJW VMware V-sphere (and V-motion) Vmware View on V-centre 5.5 (thin clients) DRS - distributed resource management IBM V7000s auto-SSD-tiering for faster response times VEEAM DR + monitoring Cisco UCS blade chassis SCCM Splunk VEEAM Office 365 ServiceNow, Zendesk SAP ERP GoodData
Development - Release and deployment
Moved from outsourced development to insourced devops (Avtrade)
Faster, lower risk release cycles
Less downtime
Faster ROI
Simplified change management
No blame game between ops and devs
Influence / Stakeholder management / Stand ground
Empathy - speak in terms of their wants and needs
Understand the individual
Empower
Build trust through sacrifice
Example 1 - CAW 24/7 on-call service
Rather than ‘just get it done’
Win win - Clear expecations/process and QOS
Example 2 - DC consolidation project
QOS, Better support, lower ongoing costs
Give positive examples from other offices
Vendor management
Vodafone (significant customer)
High costs, poor customer service
Met face to face, ensured expectations were clear
Understand the challenges of the business
Involved the right people in the business (KAM and global procurement)
Involved legal (as a backup in case)
Data
AJW
Web portal analytics
GfK
SAP ERP and SAP BI
