In this episode of Champions of Digital, Mark hosts Nathan McEwan, the CMO and Digital Officer at Stratton Finance. Mark and Nathan discuss digital's influence on the CMO role, gaining trust with the executive team and the death of CX! Get the inside scoop on a unique approach to launching an e-commerce platform for one of Australia’s largest asset finance brokers, and much more.
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Mathew Ashley - Director of Experience Design & Delivery at Westpac
Mathew Ashley, Director of Experience Design & Delivery at Westpac joins us on the Champions of Digital Podcast this week to chat all things digital, design and leadership. This week you can expect to hear a bit more about design thinking in a large corporate sector environment, dealing with a Royal Commission and what it takes to thrive as a designer in an organisation like Westpac.
“For any one individual piece of work, you’ve got to find that balance between our business outcome and customer outcome and you’ve go to find the middle ground. You’ve got to deliver a great customer experience. But ultimately, we’ve got to deliver a business outcome as well”
About Mathew
With a background and Degree in Design, Mathew is a passionate and highly motivated, results driven, creative and strategic problem solver with over 15 years experience encompassing Engineering, Advertising and Digital Product Design and Development. He has worked in a number of different markets including the UK, Australia and Japan
Mathew possesses extensive experience in building, managing and supporting successful Digital Product Design teams with a specific focus on Experience Design, Digital Strategy and Innovation. Well versed in the design and agile development of both consumer and enterprise solutions, he is also passionate about collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to design and build new products from the ground up, fix existing products that are broken or improve products and processes that are not working as well as they could be.
Jack Hylands - GM Strategy & New Product at RMIT Online
This week Mark jumps into the education industry with GM of Strategy and New Product, Jack Hylands. A passionate teacher, Jack left the consulting industry early on to pursue his passion for education, specifically tailoring University offerings to the modern learner. Mark and Jack speak on the drastic changes that have happened within education over the last few decades, providing world-class student experiences and scaling a team at pace.
“What are the job roles that the industry can’t fill, and how can we work with them to make sure that our students are learning the most up to date, relevant and cutting edge things to take advantage of those opportunities?”
About Jack
Jack is highly passionate about excellence and equity in education, and what this means for the future world of work. Jack is currently leading the strategy of RMIT Online and advising a number of education and technology start-ups. Jack was previously CEO of Ducere, where he established and grew innovative degrees with universities in Australia and overseas.
Jack's prior background is as a management consultant in the digital space and an alumnus of the Teach First Leadership Development program. Jack is an arts graduate from the University of Cambridge and a qualified mathematics teacher.
Jack is a director of Cann10 Australia, a business advisory council member of ACS and a strategy advisor for Maddie Riewoldt's Vision.
Jeremy Gupta - Chief Technology Officer at Carsguide
Welcome our second guest for the season, CTO at Carsguide, Jeremy Gupta. Mark and Jeremy discuss what it means to implement change effectively, developing a culture of knowledge sharing into an organisation and why Jeremy doesn’t want to be involved in every single meeting. With an abundance of tidbits, anecdotal experience and some banter, check out this episode to learn about the ups, downs and sideways experiences of what it means to be CTO of an evolving technology company.
“The biggest challenge in my role isn’t technology, it’s people.”
About Jeremy
An experienced technology and product leader, Jeremy has been working in digital since 2003 after graduating from UNSW with a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and a Masters in Biomedical Engineering.
With experience across the full product life cycle - from pre-sales to ideation, scoping, product management, solution architecture, engineering, data and then hosting and support he has been influencing companies and partners to adopt a mobile first approach and ensure that technology is a differentiator and not just an enabler.
His core interests are in building and leading effective teams, strategy, product development, automation and the creation of Products that serve unmet needs.
Scott McClure - Head of IT (Grains) at GrainCorp
We’re kicking off Champions of Digital Season 2 with a bang. First cab off the rank is Scott McClure. Scott is a strategy man who’s now heading up IT for a multi billion dollar grains company, GrainsCorp. This week’s episode is all about change management, agri-tech and building digital teams in a notoriously analog industry. Join the conversation between Mark and Scott where surprisingly, there was no need to pop any dollars into the swear jar. Swear jar you ask? Listen on!
“A large part of the initial work was just building trust within the business... We were able to deliver some tactical solutions within a six to eight week period which blew the minds of the business.”
About Scott
Scott is a hands-on strategist with a proven track record of performance in business and consulting with over 20 years experience. Having started in big-four consulting, he moved in-house as Strategy and Development Manager for a large unlisted company which grew enterprise value (EV) from $75m to $1000m and ASX-Listing through M&A.
Scott also led an online business from concept stage through to a trade sale, at which time the business was processing millions of transactions for over 30,000 customers. He has a passion for building and improving businesses through creative and practical strategies, leadership, technology and staff engagement.
Mark Oliver welcomes you to Season Two
We’re excited to bring you a second season of Champions of Digital. Thanks for joining us to hear from some more digital legends this season!
Meet Mark Oliver, CEO of Inlight, a digital services business that is obsessive about our client experiences, and the voice behind this podcast.
In Season One we learned about the challenges of digital transformation and how legacy industries were responding, discussed digital teaming, agility, managing stakeholders and securing digital budgets from the powers that be.
Now, season two we’re taking it to a deeper level! Enjoy the conversations as we talk to some heavy hitters from Westpac, RMIT Online, Graincorp, Carsguide and more!
As always, we’d love your feedback and any thoughts about who else you’d love to hear interviewed on the podcast, so don’t be afraid to get in touch via championsofdigital@inlight.com.au!
Cathryn Arnold - Head of Digital at Jetstar Airways
In this week’s podcast we fly into the world of aviation retail with Group Head of Digital at Jetstar, Cathryn Arnold. Cathryn explores the ideas of Jetstar existing as a Digital retailer rather than solely an airline, how they (Jetstar) deliver their digital solutions from a team composition perspective and the agile methods being adopted to adapt to rapidly changing industry conditions. This episode is packed full of information, set aside 20 minutes and enjoy!
“That is our aspiration, yes people fly on aeroplanes every day on Jetstar and that’s synonymous with our brand but we sell a lot more than just flights, we sell experiences”
Mark Fuller - Deputy Editor, The Age and Head of Print Publications (Previously Editor, Digital Edition AM)
In his 27 years at The Age, Mark Fuller has witnessed its transformation from print to a ‘digital first’ organisation. He has held multiple leadership roles, the most recent of which has been heading up the newspaper’s digital edition. Mark shares with us his insights into the world of digital publishing.
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Andrew Wilkinson - General Manager - Digital Strategy & Product at Vicinity Centres
This week on Champions of Digital we dive into the world of retail with Andrew Wilkinson, General Manager - Digital Strategy & Product at Vicinity Centres. Andrew talks us through, his views on communication between digital and operational teams, key technologies that are on the horizon for Australian shoppers and how he believes larger corporates should integrate specific start-up mentalities. We also find out why Andrew left his (once) dream career as a rocket scientist and landed in the retail space.
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Luke White - Head of Digital at Momentum
Momentum Energy is one of Australia’s leading energy retailers, owned by Australia’s largest producer of renewable energy - Hydro Tasmania. In this episode of Champions of Digital, we chat with Luke White, the head of digital for Momentum Energy. Luke has been with Momentum for over three years, and since then has developed a high-performing digital team, led the organisation’s digital channel through various major projects, and acted to oversee and rebuild the brand’s digital presence.
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Jithma Berenegama - Director of Digital Engagement for Victorian Government
This week’s Champion of Digital comes from the public service industry. Jithma Berenegama is the Director of Digital Engagement for the Department of Premier and Cabinet (Vic). Jithma talks about his work on centralising key information for easier digestion, his challenges with ambiguity and how government can enhance their digital presence by learning from start-ups. We learn that Estonia is the ‘Poster Child’ of governmental digital innovation, how block-chain will affect the way governments operate and why he took up fly-fishing as well as bacon making.
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James Borg - Head of Digital at Australian Unity
Over the past decade, James Borg has assisted in improving digital capability and delivering large-scale digital transformation programs, significant UX improvements, economies of scale and eCommerce conversion optimisation programs within AGL Energy, across all of Suncorp's Personal Insurance portfolio of brands and most recently Australian Unity's Heath Insurance Retail Division optimise their digital experience and technology.
In his current role he is designed to drive digital transformation across all Australian Unity businesses, unifying and improving internal and external digital and cross-channel experiences and efficiency.
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Christophe Eymery - Head of Digital and Media L'Oréal ANZ
L’Oreal is the global leader in the beauty industry with more than 26 brands covering all segments in the beauty market. We talk to Chistophe Eymery, L’Oreal’s Head of Digital and Media for Australia and New Zealand, about the role of digital is supporting their ambition of “beauty for all”.
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Andrew Palmer - Head of Digital at Medibank
Andrew gives thorough insight into the structure of the digital team at Medibank and stresses the importance of cross-functional teams and synergy across all sectors of an organisation. He also describes the ‘digital front-door’ framework that MediBank uses to define the problem statements and benefits of opportunities - which ultimately allows them to prioritise what actions the business takes.
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Brad Paton - Head of Digital at Richmond Football Club
In this episode we talk to Brad Paton, Head of Digital at AFL club Richmond. We catch Brad in the middle of one of Richmond’s most successful seasons for many years. He talks to us about the impact the team’s on-field success has on his ability to connect with and grow the club’s fan base.
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Ashley Workman - Head of Digital at JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi is Australia’s largest consumer electronics retailer, generating annual revenue of around $4 billion. Online sales represent a small percentage of their overall revenue, however, their digital channel plays a critical role in the customer's purchase journey.
Ashley Workman, Head of Digital for JB Hi-Fi talks to us about how he strives to deliver a “delightful” experience to every one of JB Hi-Fi’s 1.5 million website visitors per week. He gives us insights into how they translate a unique in-store brand experience into an online experience. He talks about how his team is structured and how they operate with a lean delivery model, with everyone wearing multiple hats. Ashley also touches on how to successfully collaborate with other business functions (sit next to them!) in order to deliver great customer outcomes.
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