On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .

Starting Data Army . Owning my own business wasn ’ t necessarily my long-term goal when I started doing some consultancy work as a side hustle back in 2016 but as I gained experience , demand for my services grew apace . I made the decision to go ‘ all in ’ in 2021 . I came from a technical background and didn ’ t have a huge number of connections , so to have grown organically from one to 12 people as quickly as we have feels like a big deal . Becoming profitable in year one makes the achievement even more memorable .

What first made you think of a career in technology ?

I wasn ’ t a geek when I was younger and I never really thought about going into ICT back then . My intention was to become a professional athlete , which was never going to happen ! Towards the end of high school is when you start realising you have to pick a career and , for me , that moment came at the end of the nineties , when the dot . com boom was occurring . Career advisers were saying tourism or technology was the way to go and I went down the tech path . I wasn ’ t a stand-out student at university but I came into my own whenever we did assignments with external customers .

Finding business applications for technology is still what drives me , two decades on .

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?

Provide people with as much information and training as possible and then trust them to do their jobs . Data Army ’ s team is extremely talented , I don ’ t need to micromanage them . When working with cutting edge technologies , you need to be adapting constantly and that means it ’ s difficult , often counterproductive , to try to tell people to do things in a particular way . Projects tend to progress faster when you harness the collective experience of the group to work out the best way forward . It ’ s also more interesting for employees and makes for a nicer culture when everyone has a say in how things happen .

Career advisers were saying tourism or technology was the way to go and I went down the tech path .

www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO APAC 79