Steve Vamos
Ceremony: 10 October 2017, 5.30pm
Speech
Thank you for allowing me the honour of making this address to you tonight. This is the second time I’ve had this honour. The last time was in 2009, so I assume I must have done an okay job back then, or no one remembers that I didn’t.
Today is a celebration of your achievement and commitment to learning and investing in your development. Congratulations – congratulations to all of you, and in particular to those of you who’ve had to balance work, family and study to arrive here today.
I want to leave you today with a message that goes to the heart of our biggest challenge, and the Pro Chancellor referenced it: that challenge is change. The constancy, the unpredictability, the speed, and our need as individuals, organisations, and societies to embrace it, respond to it, and lead it. Change is the main game, and every progressive agenda, and I’m sure many of you are very passionate about agendas like innovation, sustainability, diversity and inclusion. There are many agendas we’re passionate about, but all agendas are a change agenda about a change we want to see to match the passion we may have for a better future. To meet this challenge of change, my very strong belief is that we must deeply care – deeply care – and obsessively think about the human element of everything we do. It’s the human element that matters most in times of change, and that’s my message today.
My career in the IT industry showed me and helped me really appreciate that the more technology is around us, the more the human element or human dimension really matters. Very importantly, it’s to reflect that technology doesn’t innovate yet. People do. Technology isn’t disrupting anything. People are. And most importantly, organisations and societies don’t change unless people change.
The thing about technology that’s really important to appreciate is that it has had a huge impact for one reason: it’s amplified the potential of people. Technology’s given us all access to far more knowledge that information and enabled us to connect with far more people, far more others, in a way that was not possible just a few years ago. That’s the profound effect of technology. It’s about increasing the potential, amplifying the potential, and the value that people can contribute and create. You need both knowledge and information and connection to create value, to have potential. I think it’s really important to reflect on this. If you don’t know anything, but you’re connected to everybody, you’re not going to add a lot of value. And if you know a lot, but aren’t connected to anybody, again, not much value.
Our potential plays out when we combine what we know with who we’re connected with, and all of us, regardless of our age, have greater potential than ever before. And in the face of this amplification of human potential, and the increasing speed of change that comes with that, we also confront a big, big reality, and that is that change is hard, and we don’t talk enough about that. We all appreciate that change is happening at a speed we’ve never seen before, but we don’t pause enough to think about that change is hard. The reason that change is hard is that change is about humans. It’s hard because we are human.
We are programmed – we are programmed – to fear change until we understand the consequences of it. It’s a human survival instinct deep in all of us. If I tell you there’s an ambulance out the front of your house, you will be fearful until you know your loved ones are safe. Some of my biggest mistakes in work and life happened as a result of not appreciating the consequences of my actions and the danger I was in. Fear is not a bad thing if it keeps us safe; however, fear of hurting someone’s feelings or not knowing the answer or fear of making mistakes are fears that make us resistant to change and these are fears we need to work together and help each other overcome.
Remember, when it comes to the fear of making mistakes, it helps to remember that there’s nothing you’re good at today, nothing, not one thing you’re good at today that you didn’t get good at by making mistake after mistake after mistake as part of the learning process. To overcome fear, we must face into it – we must acknowledge it, and we must help each other deal with it. We really need to care about the impact of change and fear on people around us; in particular, when we’re in roles where we’re leading change or an initiative that results in change. Someone once said something quite profound to me, and it goes like this: If you want people to think you care, if you want people to think you care, you have to care. You have to care. A very simple but profound statement – you can’t fake it. If you try, people will see right through you, and they will resist changes you want to make even more strongly.
Another reason why change is so hard is that we put too much emphasis on the importance of our past success and the knowledge we carry from the past. Our ego and our feeling of worth as humans is fed by our accomplishments and our knowledge, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s very good. But unfortunately, that’s why we’re generally better talkers than listeners, and it gives rise to the saying, you have two ears and one mouth for a reason.
In changing times, letting past success and knowledge rule you is very, very dangerous. The information technology industry has a graveyard full of once great companies that are no longer. A reason for their failure is that past success and knowledge dominated the thinking of their leaders. Ken Olsen, the brilliant founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, one of the great companies in the history of the industry that ruled, in a sense, the mini computer wave of technology, he said, this is what Ken Olsen said. He said no one could ever possibly need a computer in their home. Is it any wonder they withered as the industry and customers moved to Windows and industry-standard servers and personal computers.
The media industry – in the media industry, all the experts initially dismissed digital media and online advertising as a viable business. The experts said banner advertising won’t work. In just over 15 years, online advertising moved from nothing to over 40 per cent of advertising spend, and the online banners that wouldn’t work are everywhere, including plastered across the bottom of our television screens. In changing in uncertain times, it’s far better – far better – to be a learn it all than a know it all.
As you leave this great university, the most important thing you leave with is not the knowledge you’ve gained, but the capacity you have demonstrated to learn. I also hope that my remarks today in some way encourage you to think deeply and obsessively about the human element of everything you do going forward. Care about the people around you, care about them. Never let the success and knowledge you acquire on your journey stop you thinking differently. Pro Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.
About the speaker
Steve has more than 30 years’ experience in the Information Technology and online Media industry and has lived and worked in Australia, the United States of America, and Asia. His celebrated career includes CEO of Microsoft Australia & New Zealand, and Vice President and Managing Director of Apple Computer Asia Pacific.
Since 2009 Steve has served as a non-executive Director of Telstra as well as for Fletcher Building Limited since 2015. From 2013 till the present day, Steve is an active member of the Advisory Board for the UTS Business School.
The Australian Financial Review has twice included Steve in the top five most influential members of the Australian technology industry.
Steve is an advocate for Conscious Capitalism and was the founder and President of the Society for Knowledge Economics, a not-for-profit think-tank that operated from 2005 to 2014, aimed at encouraging and promoting new and better leadership and management practices, to enable innovation, productivity and sustainability.
Steve holds an Engineering degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales.
