Can a marriage of information sciences and strategic leadership transform our industries?
How can information, mathematics and analytics transform, not just what we deliver to our
customers, but how we do it and how our staff are engaged, motivated and empowered? Using a
few stories – sometimes good sometime ‘horror’ – to get the discussion going this seminar will
explore the high level business challenges and opportunities of information and analytics, what it
means for the people at the ‘coal face’ of our businesses and what it could mean for how we select,
develop and organise our teams. There will be stories of outstanding great practice as well as
memorable cautionary tales. We will discuss the Cultural dimension and the challenge that we face
as leaders to define and effect the changes we need.
Bio
Paul Karas – recently retired Engineering Director of BAE Systems Maritime Services. Paul is a
Physicist who’s long and diverse career has taken him into many corners of Engineering and
technology but also into the worlds of Business Development, Strategy and Complex Programme
Leadership. Throughout his career he has sought to use the latest practical technology to deliver
maximum value to customers and businesses and has learnt (sometimes the hard way) about the
people, cultural and technological challenges involved. He has done this in many settings – ranging
from aerospace, infrastructure and maritime, to some of the first Intelligent Systems on submarines
during the ‘Hunt for Red October’ phase of the Cold War. His work on new forms of
Government/Industry partnership has been recognised as outstanding by the National Audit Office
and has been the basis of many benchmarking events as well as training courses and high level
international visits – on the face of it this work was about leadership and service programme
management but underneath it was steeped in game theory and mathematics. In essence it is all
about using information and analytics to help people at all levels to make better informed decisions.
Paul is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Physics and Member of the International
Institute for Complex Programme Management.