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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business Interview. I'm Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 1: Productivity is one of the biggest challenges facing the Australian

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Speaker 1: economy and in turn one of the biggest challenges for

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Speaker 1: Australian businesses is tech. The answer, more specifically, is it

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Speaker 1: all about artificial intelligence? If so, the challenge then shifts

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Speaker 1: to a leadership one. How do you bring about massive

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Speaker 1: changes in the workforce, improving efficiency in productivity without disaffecting

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Speaker 1: the workforce. Brad Pulford is the managing director of HP Australia.

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Speaker 1: HP started out as Hugh at Packard. We probably all

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Speaker 1: know them as that continues to be one of the

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Speaker 1: most influential technology companies in the world. Brad, Welcome to

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Sean. Great to be on the podcast with you.

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Speaker 1: So, between HP and Dell, you've had a long career

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Speaker 1: in technology. Considering what you've seen with AI in the

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Speaker 1: past couple of years versus your career, what's the rate

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Speaker 1: of change like now?

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Speaker 2: Ah, Look, it's just incredible in terms of what is happening.

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Speaker 2: We certainly had an intersection point at the moment where

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Speaker 2: just everything is being amplified so much acceleration in terms

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Speaker 2: of driving great opportunities from a business growth point of view,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of that's really been driven through the

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Speaker 2: amplification of what AI means from a productivity point of view,

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Speaker 2: and so just massive opportunity in the industry at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So just tell me what you mean in terms

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Speaker 1: of what AI can do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Look, it's about driving process efficiencies through things like automation,

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Speaker 2: making sure that you can eliminate a lot of those

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Speaker 2: mundane tasks that a lot of humans used to have

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Speaker 2: to consider on a daily basis, being able to automate

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Speaker 2: efficiencies within the organizations to drive better productivity outcomes in

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Speaker 2: a much faster, more organized, more efficient kind of pace

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Speaker 2: as well. These are areas that I think historically we

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Speaker 2: just didn't have any consideration around, you know, and so

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Speaker 2: really just capitalizing on some of that human potential I guess,

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Speaker 2: and creating opportunities for more meaningful work, you know, for

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Speaker 2: people to really focus and anchor around is creating enormous

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Speaker 2: opportunity within the workplace.

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Speaker 1: How does that change over work? So I get in

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Speaker 1: the medium to long term, we get reskilled, higher skilled people,

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Speaker 1: hopefully happier in their work some of the other jobs

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Speaker 1: are done by II. But that transition is very challenging.

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Speaker 2: It is incredibly challenging. But you know, what we are

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Speaker 2: seeing as well, through what we call the Work Relationship Index,

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Speaker 2: which is a survey that was done pretty recently, is

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Speaker 2: that we're seeing that only twenty eight percent of knowledge

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Speaker 2: workers in the workplace are really you know, happy in

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Speaker 2: terms of the workplaces that they're happy with the organizations

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Speaker 2: that they represent. And there are a couple of reasons

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Speaker 2: for that. When you start unlocking a lot of that

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Speaker 2: potential because the conversation always shifts to AI, but there

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Speaker 2: are different factors that influence the outcomes. Three things that

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Speaker 2: rarely stand out very specifically. The first one is around

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Speaker 2: fulfillment within the workplace. The second thing is how do

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Speaker 2: I grow as an individual in the workplace? And the

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Speaker 2: third thing is what is leadership doing to motivate me

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Speaker 2: in that workplace and create opportunities? And so we are seeing,

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Speaker 2: you know, a lot of that happiness, and I guess

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Speaker 2: the motivation of knowledge workers in their workplace being stimulated

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Speaker 2: not only by technology, but a number of other factors

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Speaker 2: as well, such as well. I called out the three

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Speaker 2: things if we start thinking about what that really means,

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Speaker 2: professional fulfillment is one of those areas that becomes incredibly meaningful,

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Speaker 2: I think for many people. And if you unlock that,

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Speaker 2: there are a couple of things that become very important

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Speaker 2: that influence the outcomes in the workplace. One is around

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Speaker 2: having a purpose, The second one is around working within

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Speaker 2: a community. The third one is how do I grow

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Speaker 2: as an individual in my workplace? What competencies can I

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Speaker 2: continue to build in the workplace becomes critical as well.

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Speaker 2: And the last one is around autonomy. And autonomy is

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Speaker 2: rarely about not just hybrid working and just remote working.

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Speaker 2: It's how am I able to leverage the right tools

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Speaker 2: and really be productive in the workplace. You know, these

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Speaker 2: are things that become incredibly important. So professional fulfillment is

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Speaker 2: largely what we're seeing as driving you know that twenty

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Speaker 2: eight percent, that very low score in terms of how

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Speaker 2: people are feeling in the workplace at the moment.

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Speaker 1: It sounds that leadership is going to have a much

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Speaker 1: bigger role going forward.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, and I think really modern leadership needs

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Speaker 2: to evolve, it needs to change. Coming you know, out

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Speaker 2: of COVID as an example, and then certainly working with

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Speaker 2: the nuances of what it means from a technology, you know,

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Speaker 2: kind of what technology can now bring and promote within

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Speaker 2: the workplace as well, but then also being very mindful

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Speaker 2: that talent is looking for something very different in the

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Speaker 2: workplace and so there are you know, multiple elements that

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Speaker 2: one needs to consider for the future. And I think

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Speaker 2: that pace of change probably isn't where it needs to

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Speaker 2: be just yet. I think that requires a new muscle

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Speaker 2: within the you know, within various organizations that we need

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Speaker 2: to continue to build.

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Speaker 1: Stay with me, Brad, we'll be back in a minute.

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Speaker 1: My guess this morning is Brad Pulford from HP Australia.

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Speaker 1: Before we went to the break, you talked about the

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Speaker 1: need within organizations to perhaps give it a bit more

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Speaker 1: grunt in terms of pushing AI. I'm interested. I'm interested

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Speaker 1: in that, but I'm also interested in how Australia rates.

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Speaker 1: These are the other countries too.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, Australia being a very mature market I think

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Speaker 2: has always been an early adopter and has always been

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Speaker 2: seen as a pilot kind of test bed for many opportunities,

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Speaker 2: and that continues. So we certainly seen good adoption from

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Speaker 2: an Australian point of view, with roughly fifty percent of

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Speaker 2: commercial customers really adopting AI into the workplace. There are

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Speaker 2: other communities. If we just look at Asia for example,

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Speaker 2: Japan is probably leading the way from a commercial adoption

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Speaker 2: point of view. That being said, you know, we certainly

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Speaker 2: seen a lot of the AI kind of progress happening

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Speaker 2: in the Australian economy very kind of specifically now, so

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Speaker 2: we've seen a lot of that change and that adoption

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Speaker 2: happen at the moment. There are a couple of things

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Speaker 2: that I think are critical when we think about it

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Speaker 2: from an organizational standpoint. The starting point is what is

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Speaker 2: the strategy you know, from the company we talk about

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Speaker 2: the future of work. The future of work is really

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Speaker 2: about driving business growth where there's no trade off you know,

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Speaker 2: from a personal fulfillment point of view in the workplace.

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Speaker 2: That's the first thing. The second thing hinges around innovation.

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Speaker 2: What are you doing around innovation to really move the

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Speaker 2: organization forward to drive productivity kind of outcomes for the

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Speaker 2: company I think is critical. The last point is around

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Speaker 2: training and enablement. How do you take people on a

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Speaker 2: journey to make sure that they are comfortable and familiar

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Speaker 2: with what it is that AI, for example, can drive

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Speaker 2: an influence within the organization. So anchoring yourself around you know,

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Speaker 2: some very pivotal areas I think is critical for our

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Speaker 2: future success.

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Speaker 1: Do business leaders understand what you've just said, particularly around

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Speaker 1: the training and the innovation side of things.

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Speaker 2: I think they understand it. Whether we pay enough for

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Speaker 2: whether they pay enough attention to making sure that's implemented.

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Speaker 2: I think every organization is very different. At HP, we've

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Speaker 2: had a look at, you know, a lens that basically

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Speaker 2: comes it is both internal and external and this is

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Speaker 2: really what we call the AI Masterclass. So when we

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Speaker 2: talk AI specifically, we want to make sure that our

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Speaker 2: teams are very comfortable with the narrative, very comfortable with

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Speaker 2: the purpose and impact that it brings to the organization.

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Speaker 2: And we do that through making sure that we have

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Speaker 2: a master class of training available to everybody internally and

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Speaker 2: then certainly externally for our partners as well. And simple initiatives,

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Speaker 2: and this is just an example. As we start to

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Speaker 2: bake in the innovation into our edge device set, so

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Speaker 2: everything from our print to our PC to our collaboration space,

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Speaker 2: what we try and do is encourage our teams to

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Speaker 2: go through the training before you know, they get access

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Speaker 2: to these new devices so that they can be very

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Speaker 2: productive once receiving those devices. So, you know, there are

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Speaker 2: things that I think as leaders we can be doing

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Speaker 2: to stimulate and really encourage people to embrace what is

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Speaker 2: happening at the moment.

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Speaker 1: So if you were going to give one piece of

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Speaker 1: advice to an Australian CEO, he's just not quite sure

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Speaker 1: how to do it. Yeah, and it's not necess the

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Speaker 1: really big companies. It's probably not the big companies. How

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Speaker 1: do they start?

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Speaker 2: They start with understanding the benefits of what AI can

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Speaker 2: bring or technology can bring to their particular landscape, and

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Speaker 2: then make sure that you put the right tools and

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Speaker 2: processes in place for your team to go on the

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Speaker 2: journey with you. I think those are probably the two

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Speaker 2: best areas of focus that I would encourage leaders to

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Speaker 2: think about.

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Speaker 1: I've tell the story before, but I did a job

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Speaker 1: application on Sikh recently and what amazed me They said,

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Speaker 1: would you like us to write the job description? Which

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Speaker 1: it did and fantastic job and that's AI. And that

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Speaker 1: was an organization help helping me on AI. What we've

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Speaker 1: been talking about a lot is the organization helping their

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Speaker 1: own people and is it the focus on their own

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Speaker 1: people first before they then go out to their clients

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Speaker 1: or not.

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Speaker 2: I absolutely, you know, I think get comfortable with what

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Speaker 2: AI brings from a benefit point of view to organization internally,

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Speaker 2: build the culture code around that, and then you can

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Speaker 2: create meaningful value your customers that you're driving as well.

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Speaker 2: And so you know, when we think about how we

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Speaker 2: take that externally, there are a couple of things. Again,

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Speaker 2: how do you make that training available you know to

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Speaker 2: your external community. That's incredibly important. It shouldn't just be external,

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Speaker 2: should be or internal, It should be external as well.

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Speaker 2: And then the second point is use cases. You know,

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Speaker 2: it's always good to demonstrate meaningful impact through reality where

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Speaker 2: you've driven that change internally as well, and so use

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Speaker 2: cases from an AI point of view are becoming incredibly

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Speaker 2: important as you showcase the value that AI can bring

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Speaker 2: in terms of automation, productivity, gains, customer centric outcomes, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: Exciting or scary, are incredibly exciting and the time is now.

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Speaker 2: The time is embraced as quickly as you can and

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Speaker 2: make the best of the opportunity that you know that's

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Speaker 2: ahead of us. AI will amplify the impact of your

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Speaker 2: business and the growth that exists ahead of you.

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Speaker 1: Rad thank you for talking to Fearing Great great, thanks

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Speaker 1: so much, Sean. That was Brad Pulford, Managing direct of

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Speaker 1: HP Australia. This is the Fear and Greed Business Interview.

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Speaker 1: Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed Business news you can use. I'm Shoan elma

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your day.