Zakariya Yahiya

Zakariya Yahiya 

Chief Information Officer at Fortrus Ltd

Can you please provide a little introduction about yourself

What has your journey to your position been like? What path have you taken?

The path to reach this point has been an enjoyable one, though my long-term destination was not always clear, and I’m not sure it will ever be! I started out almost 12 years ago on a PwC graduate programme where I became a qualified ACA chartered accountant and learned a great deal about business and people very quickly.

From there, my journey was shaped by my desire to follow my passion for innovation and entrepreneurialism. I moved into management consulting, working cross-industry across a range of specialisms on some very interesting and significant projects. My next step was a pivot into healthcare strategy consulting as I sought out the type of change programmes where my interest lied.

I realised at that point that I could potentially make a bigger impact and hold more varied roles by working for specialist start-ups and SMEs, all the while satisfying my hunger for innovation and entrepreneurial environments. I was introduced to healthcare technology in my next role building out operations for an innovative private hospital in the heart of London’s Harley Street district. The possibilities for healthcare software seemed limitless for me and the relationship it had with driving clinical innovation really captured my imagination.

It was then that I joined Fortrus, initially in a role leading on product innovation. I quickly took on more responsibility, supporting our commercial, operational and technical capability to deliver our innovative products to a wider audience. While perhaps not a ‘traditional’ route, I feel very fortunate to have learned such an enormous amount to help prepare me for such an exciting role.

 

 

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?

Have you had a role model or mentor that has helped you on your journey?

How do you see the role of the technology leader evolving over the next 5 years?

Technology continues to advance at an increasingly rapid pace, with many industries now seemingly on the cusp of the next big leap. The near future thus brings questions of how the latest technological innovations, such as AI, Web3 and blockchain, could be embraced.

With industries such as Healthcare, however, where innovation is equally rife, but adoption is lagging due typically to a number of practical constraints, leaders have a unique challenge. The role requires pragmatism and clarity, as well as ambition and foresight to target achievable yet significant and exciting transformation.

The needs of the user are key. For large cash-poor healthcare organisations, achieving modern infrastructure and highly usable software solutions for clinicians on a limited budget may be the objective. For individual patients, the challenges may be to proliferate solutions that enable new ways of interacting with your own health data, and delivering actionable insights that help improve outcomes.

The technology leader working with public sector organisations therefore has a multi-dimensional challenge. Tackling this requires increasingly collaborative working with not only all levels of the public sector organisation (e.g. clinicians and managers at every level of a hospital) but also in different care settings and types of organisation across regions.

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?

It is an unavoidable but accurate cliché to say that I am constantly learning at every moment of every day. My most common sources of educational content are social media, colleagues, books, conferences, talks and from talking to customers. These represent a great source of ideas, knowledge, lessons and news stories.

As a recent example, I have amassed a great deal of knowledge about regulations, processes and policy by working with some incredibly knowledgeable and experienced colleagues and partners and by diving into the detail of international standards. This has enabled me to quickly become well-versed in these areas and develop our capability across them extensively at Fortrus. I’m excited to continue learning and transferring the skills I acquire directly into both tangible and intangible benefits for the organisations I work with.

What do you see as the next leap in technology that will impact your business or industry in particular?

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?