President, Society for Knowledge Economics
BCE(Hons) (UNSW)

Steve Vamos addressed graduates from the Faculty of Business at the Great Hall, City campus, University of Technology, Sydney on Friday 8 May 2009, 5.30pm.

About the speaker

Steve Vamos is the founding President of the Society for Knowledge Economics, a not for profit think tank established in 2005 that is supported by Westpac, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Microsoft, CPA Australia and the Australian Government Consultative Committee on Knowledge Capital.

In the period 2003 to January 2007, Steve was the Vice President of Microsoft in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for the relationships with customers, governments, and business partners.

Steve has worked extensively in the computer industry, holding positions such as Vice President and Managing Director of Apple Computer Asia Pacific (1996 to 1998); Managing Director of Apple Computer Australia (1994 to 1995); and 14 years with IBM Australia in a number of sales, marketing and general management positions.

During the period 1998 to 2002, Steve was Chief Executive Officer of ninemsn, the on-line joint venture between Microsoft and Australian media industry leader Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.

In 2004 and 2005, the Australian Financial Review included Steve in the top five listing of the most influential members of the Australian technology industry.

From January 2007 to September 2008 Steve lead Worldwide Sales and International Operations for Microsoft Corporation's Online Services Group. He was responsible for the organization's international business in more than 30 countries around the world.

Speech

Making others great! A new business leadership mindset

Pro-Chancellor, Deputy Senior Vice-Chancellor and Vice President, distinguished guests, graduates, your families and friends!

Thank you for allowing me the honour of making this address to you today.

Today is a celebration which reflects a significant personal commitment on your part, in particular by the many of you who have balanced work, family and learning to accomplish this important qualification.

I want to congratulate you on this accomplishment and what it reflects in you — a willingness to learn and invest in your development.

By virtue of the commitment you have shown, I know that you are people that have a keen interest in Business and the successful management and development of private and public sector enterprise.

This is an important interest — one that our economy and society needs — at a time when it is clear that all is not well in the world of business.

New leadership mindsets and models are needed — and in my brief remarks today I want to urge you, encourage you all to be a force for much needed change in leadership mindsets — to lead with the principle at heart that leadership is not about you — rather leadership is about others around you — and that your responsibility as a leader is to 'help make others great'

Why is it that whenever we hear the words 'people are our greatest asset' — we don't question the truth of the statement but we doubt the commitment of leaders to this truth in practice?

A recent Gallup survey of 1000 people found that about 80% of people surveyed are not fully engaged at work.

Research by Watson (2008) 'Skills in Use', commissioned by the NSW Dept of Education and Training found that many Australian workers are under utilising their skills at work. It found that skills are under-utilised in some sectors up to 40%, with the average being around 10-15%.

When I reflect on my career, the great leaders I have worked for were people who cared about me, about my development, about my success.

I think of Joe Pritchard, the Manager of St. Ives cellars drive through liquor store — where I worked during my years in the 1970's studying Civil Engineering — not long after asking me to mop the floor, Joe tapped me on the shoulder and said 'Steveo you are a good bloke, but you don't know how to mop a floor, let me show you' — i learnt there was a caring way to deliver criticism — and a better way to do even the most apparently simple of tasks.

I think of Brian Finn, the Managing Director of IBM Australia in the 1980's who showed the same interest in and respect for the office cleaner as a visiting Federal Government Minister.

In more recent times I think of Steve Ballmer the CEO of Microsoft who always paid me the respect of listening and responding to my views on our business and how it could be better — even though he may not have followed my advice.

Someone once said to me 'if you want people to think you care... you must care'... a very simple but profound statement — you can't fake it — if you try, people will see right through you — and ultimately respond in kind.

The principle — of caring for others — putting the success of your organisation and others ahead of yourself as good practice are not new — they have been well documented in books like Jim Collins 'Good to Great' and the notion of Level 5 leadership.

Unfortunately, good practice is too often not common practice.

Challenges such as the global financial crisis, changing environment, slowing productivity growth, increasing international competition, and pressures to improve our capacity to innovate, all call for new leadership mindsets that bridge traditional divides.

The hierarchies, silos and fragmentation of the Industrial Age Enterprise and approach that many of us have experienced and been conditioned to accept is not good enough today.

The work place and organisations today — by virtue of advances in ICT — are now far more connected, networked and fast changing.

As a result, leadership today must be far less about knowing the answer and directing or controlling people — and much more about enabling others to make the best contribution they can by encouraging work environments that have clear common purpose and positive standards of behaviour or values.

A leadership mindset of 'making others great'

As you leave this great University with new knowledge, many of you will now turn your focus to how you apply what you have learnt to work places that operate in an old world mode.

I hear from an Academic friend of mine that they call the frustrations that many of you might experience as 'Post MBA Dissonance'.

At all times remember, that you have all the evidence in front of you to show that fragmented and divided approaches to organisational leadership are inadequate today, so my words of advice to you are the following;

  • Have courage to follow your instincts and make sure you challenge — in a constructive way — poor management practices as you come across them — don't accept them as 'the way it is'.
  • Commit yourself to the service of those who depend on you at work, who seek your advice and support by striving to establish common purpose and alignment.
  • And as the old rule says, the Golden rule, treat others how you wish to be treated — and encourage others to do the same.

Your efforts to progress your personal aims will be served most effectively by these principles of making others great!

Pro-Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, thank you.