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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - NEIL RICHARD OM'87
What is your profession and current position?
My profession is in the technology space, primarily in software development. My position is as an Agile Consultant, where I coach, facilitate, mentor and train individuals, teams, organizations, and systems in exploring the journey of utilizing agile frameworks to deliver to the market value early and often.
How did Monkton get you ready for the world of work?
Monkton was a catalyst in my journey to the world of work. It helped with the ability to be independent, to make decisions, know failure was a way to learn, how to interact with people of different backgrounds, to believe in myself. Out of all of that I think the key for me was the confidence I had in myself was part of that Monkton experience, especially if you read my school reports!
What is your biggest professional achievement?
I have been lucky in my career in technology, with teams I have worked with and the companies that have been at the forefront of technology changes throughout the 1990’s and the 2000’s. There are several highlights that I could pick on, but the biggest achievement also became the biggest challenge in my career. We built a software product suite and company for the education content creation market based on industry standards and integrated it into Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Azure. Microsoft licensed our product and distributed it in 18 different languages to over 33 million users via their Education Product Team globally.
What has been your most challenging professional moment?
The most challenging moment of my career was dealing with closing of that business after the 2008 crash, looking down the barrel of the debt, and figuring out how to cover all that and do the right thing. The perfect storm is the only way I could describe the situation, our government clients lost budget money and canceled renewals, the global financial crash had budgets slashed in our corporate clients, and Microsoft changed their Education Group strategy. This combination was the beginning of the end of the company we built. Subsequent decisions we made kept us fighting to survive the resulting impacts, which was a mistake and compounded that ultimate situation. It was a very challenging time personally and professionally, but a great learning experience.
What inspires and motivates you at work?
For me, the key is that work must be fun, life is too short to not enjoy what you are doing. Building teams, as well as guiding individuals and their organizations in their journey of an agile transformation and developing their success in what they do is what inspires and motivates me.
What is one piece of advice you would like to share with pupils or OMs about getting into your profession?
Be prepared to fail and learn from that failure daily.