ORLANDO MILFORD
Chief Information Officer at Oxera Consulting LLP
Can you please provide a little introduction about yourself
What has your journey to your position been like? What path have you taken?
Has it always been your vision to reach the position you’re at? Was your current role part of your vision to become a tech leader?
No, my choices are driven by wanting to do interesting things with people I like working with. I found my niche as a project and programme manager which usually required some direction setting and leadership, and being the interface between technology and the business so I got plenty of practice at that and people seemed to think I was good at it. Ultimately I’m more interested in how a business works and how to make it work better, than technology per se.
I also think you need to be really careful about your motivations for taking on a leadership position, if you’re doing it for the glory you should probably think again.
Have you had a role model or mentor that has helped you on your journey?
Yes, several. Some for years and years, and others for short periods of time. Some have been formal coaching arrangements, others much more informal – just a social drink every now and then. It’s often about having a safe space to talk an idea out, or get something off my chest, rather than anything specific.
In my current role one of them is the ex-COO who is invaluable at helping navigate the maze of stakeholders that comes with an ambitious partnership, not by directing my actions, but by challenging my thinking.
How do you see the role of the technology leader evolving over the next 5 years?
I don’t think “the role” will evolve as such. It is balance between what a business needs from its technology leadership at that time; and where the people providing that are on their own journey? What Oxer needs, and how my role at Oxera evolves will be very different from how it goes for someone else at another company.
Having said that, if you want to be credible around the business and in the board room, the core skills you need remain the same, you’ve got to look after the basics, and security and data management will play a bigger and bigger part in that.
What skills do you think leaders of the future will need in order to thrive?
How do you keep current with new skills, technologies and personal development?
What do you see as the next leap in technology that will impact your business or industry in particular?
The next leap will be enterprise-ready quantum computing.
In the meantime driving value out of machine learning/AI, big data, IoT, cloud computing and the like will keep us all busy enough, and has more than enough upside to make a major difference to any business.
The interesting thing about everything I’m seeing now is that pretty much anything someone touts to me as being ‘new’ I’ve seen in some way shape or form before. They all still come with the same challenges too – there is no silver bullet I’m afraid.
"The top two, in as few words as possible would be: Relationships outlive transactions, and choose your battles."
If you were mentoring a leader of the future, what advice or guidance would you give to help them on their way?
Is there anything in particular that you would still like to achieve in your career or what is the next step on your journey?
If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be?
A big thank you to Orlando Milford from Oxera Consulting LLP for sharing his journey to date.
If you would like to gain more perspective from Tech Leaders and CIOs you can read some of our other interviews here.
