When Graham Johnson was studying applied physics and electronics
at
Durham University, he used to sneak into
psychology lectures
for a little light relief. He was as fascinated about what makes
people tick as the mysteries of quantum mechanics, "where the maths
was horrendous or exiting, whichever way you wanted to look at
it".
And when it was time for Johnson to move into the world of work,
he eschewed the choice of many of his fellow electronics students
to take up a highly paid job in chip design in favour of a more
free-wheeling career which has seen him work as an electronics
engineer, self-employed consultant, CIO and now transformation
director.
Johnson has just moved into this last post with Ecclesiastical
Insurance, the company which insures St Paul's Cathedral as well as
a host of other heritage sites and many more functional buildings.
His remit is to shake up the company so fewer staff are toiling in
back-offices and more are out helping customers.
These are early days in the new job, but his career provides
some interesting clues as to how he'll set about the challenge. It
also contains plenty of insights for young IT professionals who are
wondering how they can sketch out a career path which gives them
personal satisfaction while leading them to the top.
One of the keys in Johnson's case is his dual fascination with
technology and people.
He has become a true "hybrid manager". "I think there's a real
shortage of classic hybrid managers - who can manage the technical
gurus but also have a coherent business conversation with the chief
executive," Johnson says.
He is less sure why there's such a dearth. "Maybe it's do with
the left brain, right brain split," he says. "Lots of people
are logical and lots of people have human empathy, but there don't
seem to be too many who have a bit of both." Which could mean there
are wider career opportunities for those who do develop both left
and right brain sides.
In any event, Johnson's hybrid skills saw him managing a team of
telecoms engineers at BT at the age of 23. It proved to be a
testing entry to the world of team building and people
management.
"When you're young and you have people who are a lot older and
more experienced than you, you can't just rely on your intellect to
give you authority," he says. "You sometimes have to handle quite
difficult situations which you're not equipped for."
That is when it can all go horribly wrong unless you are
prepared to take advice. Johnson valued the opportunity to talk to
a mentor, an older manager at BT. "I didn't really understand some
of the stuff I was getting into, and he was able to give me some
good advice," Johnson recalls.
There is no one way to develop a successful career, but one
essential is the willingness to move on and take on new challenges.
After six years, Johnson moved into consultancy, initially with one
of the big players and then in a self-employed capacity.
He worked on major projects with famous names such as Marks
& Spencer, Abbey National and Baring Securities, where he was
seconded as IT manager reporting to the finance director (before
Nick Leeson wreaked havoc on the hapless bank). When he became
self-employed he worked on large projects for a string of other
famous companies, such as Legal & General Assurance, Nationwide
Building Society and the London Stock Exchange.
So if you're a self-employed consultant, what's the secret of
winning blue-chip clients such as these? "You must have a really
good reputation," says Johnson. "One way I set out to distinguish
myself from others was by including all my previous client names on
my CV. Some others only used to put things like 'large financial
institution'.
"I used to tell potential clients that they could approach
anybody for whom I'd ever worked for a reference - because I had
nothing to hide."
Johnson's open approach was a confidence booster for potential
clients and his interest in people made him a good networker. He is
a frequent attendant at IT industry events and spends considerable
time building contacts.
Most importantly, his approach to clients was designed to build
confidence early on. "Typically, I would go to a client and do a
piece of work," he explains. "Then, if there was a big project, I
would write a strategy paper setting out how I would tackle it.
That initial month helped me to understand the problem, but it also
enabled me to explain to them how I would set about fixing it
before they made a commitment to hire me in the longer term."
On several occasions during his consultancy years, Johnson found
himself parachuted into organisations as an interim manager. One
such example was at National Westminster Bank, where he led a
project to develop and implement management processes for 2,000
staff.
"In interim assignments, it was important to go in and make a
difference quickly," he says. "At the same time, you have to take
the people with you. I never used to think that I could simply
railroad the permanent staff just because I would only be there for
a few months.
"By getting commitment from the permanent staff, it was possible
to make sure that the changes I was making would be successful and,
effectively, glued into the organisation for the future."
Any IT professional faced with the same kind of situation should
make certain their actions match their words, advises Johnson.
"It's about being as open and honest with people as you can be,
given the nature of the situation you're dealing with. You need to
take other people's views into account but, at the end of the day,
you're the boss and it's your decision.
"And if you make a mistake, instead of blaming others you must
take it on the chin yourself. In some cases, if your team makes a
mistake which isn't your fault, you may also want to take it on the
chin. It reinforces the fact that you're on their side."
Johnson was finally tempted out of consultancy by an offer from
John Hirst, then chief executive of FTSE 250 company Premier
Farnell, to work some transformation magic on the firm's sprawling
IT function. The challenge was to take five disparate IT
departments and mould them into one global function.
The task eventually saw Johnson running a global IT department
with staff in Europe, United States, Asia and Australia. "When
you're managing such a disparate team, you have to spend a lot of
time with them, which means plenty of travelling," says
Johnson.
Over the years, he has developed a simple principle for
communicating with people: "If I have to disseminate information, I
use e-mail. If I need to have a conversation with someone, I
telephone them.
"But if there's a problem, I do it face to face.
"A lot of people try to deal with problems by e-mail but then
you get e-mail wars going on, which is terribly unhelpful."
One other characteristic of Johnson's career which younger IT
pros should note is the fact that he's never been afraid to step
into the unknown. For example, during his consultancy period, he
was involved in launching a company on the stock exchange - a task
for which he'd had no previous experience.
Taking on a task which seems very difficult and achieving it
gives you an inner self-confidence, he says. "You might not know
how to do something, but there are plenty of people who do and can
advise you," he adds. "You might think you could never do anything
like that. Actually, you can."
CV: GRAHAM JOHNSON
1981: Leaves Durham University with degree in applied physics
and electronics and joins British Telecom International as an
executive engineer.
1987: Moves into consultanccy with accountancy firm Deloitte
Haskins & Sells (now part of IBM). Works on projects for
blue-chip companies Abbey National, Baring Securities and Marks
& Spencer.
1989: Becomes managing director and principal consultant at JFS
Consultancy Services. Under the auspices of JFS works as an interim
manager for National Westminster bank among other projects.
2000: Seconded from JFS to an internet service provider to
create a subsidiary company offering financial services over the
internet - Intermutual Financial Services.
2001: Back at JFS and leading a team of 50 as interim head of
financial systems at Axa Insurance.
2002: Joins Premier Farnell as CIO to lead a team of 230 IT
professionals in UK, United States, China and Australia.
2008: Joins Ecclesiastical Insurance as transformation
director.
JOHNSON'S ROLE
Graham Johnson's role at Ecclesiastical Insurance is to drive an
ambitious programme of change across the company. Because he is
very new to the role, he is still formulating the detail of his
approach. But it is already clear he will have direct reports from
the IT, business consultancy, programme management office, human
resources and strategic planning functions. He also has
responsibility for facilities - buildings and so on - and is
deciding how to organise this part of his remit.