Time for government to grow up on CTO idea

Friday, 7 September 2018

There's no arguing that a more digitally capable New Zealand is a good idea, and that government in particular would benefit from making better use of the tech that businesses use every day.

OPINION: Jeet, my Uber driver this morning, hasn't applied to be New Zealand's next chief technology officer.

He must be about the only person in Aoteaora who hasn't.

The role has been advertised twice now, with the first round receiving (depending on who you listen to) 60 or a couple of hundred applications. The position description has been tweaked since then, with one insider reporting that the original one was asking too much for any one person to be able to meet it.

Strange-shirt-wearing tech founder Derek Handley (disclosure: I've had coffee with Derek and didn't put it in my diary) was in the frame for a bit, although a non-disclosed meeting with former IT Minister Clare Curran might have scuppered that (disclosure: I've had coffee with Clare but it was wine and I don't even remember where I left my diary).

* Derek Handley still tipped for CTO job despite Curran debacle

Vaughn Davis: 'Instead of arguing about who the CTO should be, we should be asking whether or not it's a role worth having.'

* ASB head Barbara Chapman mum on rumour she could become tech supremo**

I wonder, though, if we're heading down the wrong track, and if instead of arguing about who the CTO should be, we should be asking whether or not it's a role worth having.

My day job is in advertising and media – both sectors that have been given a pretty good shake by the shift to digital technologies in the last couple of decades.

Strange-shirt-wearing tech founder Derek Handley was in the frame for a bit.

When I think back 15 years or so – when print advertising was still delivering its rivers of gold to publishers and your video viewing choices were basically watch the TV or don't – I can see a parallel to the approach government is taking now.

Back then, every advertising agency in town decided that the way to tackle the onslaught of digital was to quickly import a Digital Guy from the UK or US, and get him to set up a Digital Department (gender bias regrettable but accurate). So they did. Agencies all over town were invaded by hoodie-wearing HTML-jockeys, SEO gurus and fast-talking digital strategists.

They sat in one corner, while the 'traditional' advertising folk stayed where they were, occasionally popping down to the digital department when they wanted a billboard turned magically into a banner.

That was then. Step into an ad agency today (Step into mine! There's wine in the fridge and chips in the cupboard.) and you're unlikely to find a Digital Guy or a Digital Department. We've grown up.

These days, digital and other technologies are the air we breathe and the way we work.

They sit alongside all the other tools in our toolbox, ready to be used when it makes sense for the customer and the message. Sometimes digital will be the best answer; sometimes it won't. The customer will always come first.

Back to New Zealand's hunt for a CTO. There's no arguing that a more digitally capable New Zealand is a good idea, and that government in particular would benefit from making better use of the tech that businesses (small ones especially) use every day. I reckon though that putting that on one person is a bad idea. Smart and innovative use of technology isn't a department, or a position. It's an attitude that needs to become business as usual across government. Compartmentalising it is what we did in advertising last century.

We've grown up since then. I'd like to think government has too.

Vaughn Davis is owner and creative director at creative advertising agency The Goat Farm