By Sue White
Andrew Groth found his passion early on, but it almost wasn't to be. At a careers meeting during his school days (when computer programming involved use of cassette tapes), he mentioned how interested he was in technology. His teacher, however, wasn't convinced there was a career in it for Groth.
Luckily, he ignored their advice to look elsewhere: "Thirty years later I've had an amazing career in the field, and worked all round the planet ... Back in those days, people didn't really know what an IT career was," says the regional head of global technology, outsourcing, consulting and business processes firm, Infosys.
Infosys' Andrew Groth believes international experience is a must for every aspiring business leader.Credit: Aran Anderson
He joined the $10 billion turnover firm in 2010, when an opportunity came up to combine Groth's IT services experience with his current area of interest, business process outsourcing. The timing was also right: Groth was at the tail end of his second stint working in Europe, and was ready to return home.
Today, he leads a team of 4000 people across Australia and New Zealand (as well as 10,000 offshore employees) in ensuring Infosys maintains its ability to help other businesses excel.
"Our focus is on how we can help companies identify what their core challenges are and help them address those challenges," he says.
For technology specialists, these are challenging times.
"Looking at the last two decades, IT has disrupted almost every industry you can think of. Right now we are disrupting ourselves," he says.
Infosys' clients, especially the large corporates and government environments, are finding their legacy systems are chewing up too much of management's attention, as automation and artificial intelligence enter the mix in almost every business.
"It's radically different to how it was five years ago, let alone 15 years," Groth says.
Given that Infosys' role is to advise others, it's important to walk the talk within the company: "Last year [at Infosys], globally, we had 11,000 roles that were displaced through the use of artificial intelligence. But the good thing is, [for] every one of those resources we were able to redeploy [the staff member] into other parts of our business," he says.
Whether times are changing or not, Groth says empathy is a key strength every aspiring leader should strive for.
"I also think you need to get great at communications; that's really important in how a leader is perceived."
CURRICULUM VITAE
Name: Andrew Groth
Current position: Senior vice-president and regional head (Australia & New Zealand) Infosys.
Responsibilities: Responsible for leading strategy and growth for the $10 billion company's third largest market globally. He also leads Infosys' financial services business across the Asia Pacific.
Education: MBA, Australian Graduate School of Management.
Additional training/courses: Global leadership program, Stanford University, 2016/2017; graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2015; senior associate, Australian & New Zealand Institute of Insurance & Finance.
Professional associations: Represents Infosys in the Business Council of Australia and actively participates in the council's innovation task force.
Honourable mentions: Chairs the Infosys corporate social responsibility program, which in 2013 won the Australian Human Resources Institute Ian Kiernan Award for Corporate Social Responsibility.
Strength: Being humanistic and encouraging. That's the way I like to operate, and to build teams.
Weakness: I can possibly let things go a little longer than they should.
Management style and tips: It's about having empathy for people, really knowing those people and genuinely creating the support and environment for them to be successful.
Work motto: If you're going to do something, do it properly.