Fractional Expert NSW

Mike- Enterprise Product & Innovation Strategist | Professional Service Expert | GAICD

At Maestro, we know there’s more to life than work. In fact, it’s the experiences, relationships and pursuits we have outside of work that can often give us an edge in what we do each day. We host an interview series called “Meet the Maestro” where we interview our Maestros and get an insight to who they really are and what makes them tick - beyond the CV.

Mike has spent over twenty years working inside organisations where technology is essential but not the point. Energy companies, media businesses, retailers, miners - enterprises where software exists to enable something much larger and where the gap between strategy and delivery can quietly cost everything. His focus is that gap. Where business intent loses its shape as it moves through layers of teams and tools. Where transformation programs accumulate complexity instead of reducing it. Where smart people are busy, but the connection to real value has gone blurry. He's worked with organisations including BHP, Suncorp, Origin Energy, Bankwest and Trade Me, typically in the moments when something needs to be untangled, helping leaders move from project thinking to product thinking and building the clarity that lets good decisions actually get made.

1. Tell us about a career highlight to date…

At oOh!media, I helped shift the organisation from a project-led model to a product operating model, but the breakthrough didn’t come from a big transformation program.

It came from a simple artefact.

We created a visual “product constellation”; a single, shared map that showed how more than 20 internal products connected to value streams, customers and strategic intent. Suddenly, teams could see themselves in context. Leaders could see overlaps, gaps and trade-offs. Conversations changed almost overnight.

Instead of debating projects, we started discussing ecosystems. Instead of defending roadmaps, we accepted that we are but a cog in the enterprise system.

It was a reminder that sometimes transformation doesn’t begin with process, it begins with a an understanding of the whole organisation as a system.

2. Talk us through an unusual career choice you’ve made along the way…

I am a consultant at heart, for me this means helping people make sense of things, and take action. This has always worked for me because I am naturally an outsider, which is crucial in professional services. Clients rely on me to bring a certain level of creativity, to question their assumptions, and to provide advice with gravitas, and consulting affords me that opportunity.

Consulting is often a place people end up after their executive career, I have made my life about consulting.

3. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I used to try to help the family solve various practical problems and I had this notion that if we can draw a picture of the issues, we could come up with a good solution. It should be obvious that I have become very used to using the whiteboard to do exactly this whilst actually helping clients.

4. What are your passions outside of work and how do you make time for them?

Record collecting. Like most of us, I find it hard to make time. I have managed to incorporate my love of the classic album and my consulting work, by framing teams as ‘albums’ They have a genre, great cover art, and hopefully a hit track. Each album is for a different situation.

5. If you could instantly master any skill or hobby, what would it be and why?

I would love to play the piano, it’s so beautiful. Then I could tell jokes with light piano comedy.

6. What’s a personal value or belief that guides the way you live your life?

You never really know what is going to happen so don’t be too harsh on yourself regarding the decisions you made earlier. You should however, focus on what you can do now, with what is in front of you.

7. What’s a challenge you’ve overcome outside of work that shaped you?

Being a parent: it’s a general challenge with lots of really difficult little challenges in it, that leaves no part of your life untouched!

8. What do you think your job will look like in 10 years time?

Consulting will always be the same, someone helping someone along their journey. We may rely on AI as part of that, and may not do any of the logical tasks, but there is still that important job of holding someone’s hand.

9. If you could travel anywhere in the world tomorrow, where would you go and what would you do?

Japan. To a zen garden or temple in the countryside, and to a midnight Jazz bar in Tokyo.

10. What does success look like to you?

Success is when we are in harmony.

Professionally it means to be doing good work that uses your unique skills.

Personally it means to be in harmony with your loved ones

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