A tough job, but a need for leaders on digital journey
GUERNSEY’S digital vision will need leadership to ensure that it succeeds, delegates at an Institute of Directors seminar were told.
Agilisys Guernsey CEO Richard Hanrahan was keynote speaker at the well-attended event, the theme of which was making the island’s digital vision a reality.
Following his talk, he joined a panel discussion with JT’s Guernsey managing director Paul Taylor, Revolution IT’s CEO Olly Duquemin and the IoD’s lead on digital connectivity Meriel Lenfestey.
Mr Taylor and Mr Duquemin agreed on the importance of leadership to push forward the digital vision.
Mrs Lenfestey said that it was also important to share local success stories of innovation.
During Mr Hanrahan’s presentation, he said that leaders had a tough job.
‘One of the most difficult things to do as a leader is to take people on a journey they’re not ready to go on,’ he said.
But it was possible, and he cited the example of Denmark, which in 2018 was the most digital country in the European Union.
Significantly, a lot of the work that had already been done in Guernsey as it moved towards a more digital environment had used software and platforms that had been put in place by the Danes.
Guernsey was also making a unique move by putting business and universities together as well as having government involvement, such as that being done with Economic Development’s new office at Imperial College.
This was really going to help innovation and was unique in Mr Hanrahan’s experience.
It was incumbent on everyone in the room to deliver on the digital vision, said Mr Hanrahan, and everyone, not just government, needed to get to grips with promoting digital skills growth.
The skills issue came up during the panel discussion later, with the panellists agreeing that digital skills were in very short supply in the island.
‘We could do a day [seminar] on what we need to do from a skills perspective,’ said Mr Hanrahan.
He stressed the importance of global skills and devoted part of his presentation to looking at examples of digital solutions for problems from around the world.
And just because Guernsey was a leading world finance centre today did not mean that it could not be dislodged. ‘We should all be talking about how we protect and grow the economy here,’ he said.
‘We have to think, not just about how the technology works, but about how people work with the technology.’
One of the biggest stumbling blocks to a digital future was likely to be opposition to change from corporations since they were comfortable in the way they had always done things and, again, the solution came down to leaders understanding the importance of change and not just leaving it to the ‘tech guys’ to handle things.
As for what digital Guernsey would look like for businesses in a few years’ time, Mr Taylor said from JT’s perspective he hoped that there would be faster and more reliable communication. He also expected to see improved customer service and satisfaction.
Mr Duquemin hoped that the skills shortage would be addressed to enable business to take better advantage of the changes.
