How do you re-create DNA? - Dr David Skellern CEO of NICTA provides ideas...

The other day, I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr David Skellern - CEO of NICTA (National Information & Communications Technology Australia).

Since 2005 David has been working on the redevelopment of NICTA's DNA.

With over 600 staff, David is in the business of developing spin-offs. Their 5th spinout 'Cohesive Data' already has been gathering a lot of interest with technology that compresses xml - seriously.

To give an idea - Wikipedia could be reduced in download size by up to 90%.

All of this owned by 3 entrepreneurs who have been under the management of Raymond Wong from the University of NSW.

The road ahead looks valuable given the first spinout from NICTA is already in 750 million mobile phones and was last year formerly proved 'system correct' - which is a scientific achievement.

So what does it mean when you have all this success, with companies like IBM knocking on your door for introductions to your staff?

"Well, firstly you may lose a few staff. That has not been unusual with staff growing, moving, developing and invited to Stanford and the like."

But that is what NICTA is all about - encouraging the best and brightest to tackle problems and be challenged. This is a core theme of responsible leadership.

This has been where David has taken the focus - all staff are encouraged to tackle problems - social and world problems

People are pointed at problems, encouraged to be objective and consider:

"Is it going to work?" and "Is it copyable?"

If it's going to work and isn't easily copyable, then let's start considering the commercialisation prospects, which obviously involves the legal IP aspects.

Currently NICTA have about 270 PHD students. The level keeps changing, though all are introduced to the culture that encourages research via commercialisation. Research is encouraged for breakthroughs that will create commercial results.

So how does NICTA manage staff performance? Well, they have been continuosly improving their performance management system. This is combined with a bi-annual staff engagement survey. From there a roadmap is developed that provides annual set of activities with bottom up goals. A top down system also reviews as milestones are met.

It is much more about the qualitative than the quantitative analysis.

NICTA also trained 10 staff in TMS (Team Management Systems) so then they can oversee the future management of staff internally. This has been much more cost effective than training everyone in TMS which would have been unaffordable.

So what is the future?

Well, all staff are continuously recommended to search for opportunities to improve life on the planet. This is a highly engaging and motivating focus and will form the backdrop of all future management and team building and works exceptionally well with a predominantly younger workforce.

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