In light of recent attention in the media by way of the Jacinda-effect and the possibility of a serving Prime Minister having a baby, its concerns are timely. Putting aside my own unconscious biases (and I can assure you there was much talk of this) it was a frank and candid discussion on just how tricky navigating diversity and inclusion (‘D&I’ for those of you short of time) in practice really is.

(Disclosure: I’m female and pushing 50, so developing diversity in the workplace does have some personal resonance.)

Speakers cited research output from the likes of McKinsey and MIT about reaching a D&I Shangri-La that leads to more successful organisational outcomes. McKinsey’s research defined the ‘diversity dividend’, finding that companies in the top quartile for gender or racial and ethnic diversity were more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.

We know intuitively that collaboration between people with different backgrounds and different points of view are fertile grounds for innovation and creativity. However the point made at this discussion was that diversity in itself is not enough, it requires inclusion to leverage the real benefits of diversity in an organisation. The translation? Hiring women to get your gender balance to quota is completely counter-productive if you are not going to value their point-of-view and accept a different perspective. This equally applies to hiring millennials, 50 year old women (!), immigrants or anyone else who thinks differently to you.

This is where unconscious bias is at its most influential – people like to hire people who look and think like they do, which talks to the age-old adage “if you always do what you’ve always done you always get what you’ve already got”…not exactly a proven formula for innovation.

The expert panel was facilitated by Michael Carden, an entrepreneur, investor and director across several HR and human-process centric software businesses and self-proclaimed “pale, male and stale”. This demographic extended to two further members, Gerard Graham, COO at the Technology Bank of New Zealand and Andrew Weston, director of software development house Propellerhead. This being an IT industry event perhaps the irony was not so much humour as fact. Fortunately, the gender diversity quota (at least) was met by Rhonda Koroheke, head of diversity and inclusion at Spark New Zealand and Lesley Elvidge, HR director at Russell McVeagh.

Collectively they provided some interesting personal experiences particularly Weston with his company wide paradigm shift to self-organising systems and transparent, self-setting salaries. And there was much talk of empty pipelines with regard to senior female candidates (excuse me?).  More encouragingly, led by the not-pregnant Elvidge, they did agree there were signs that the discussion had moved on from ‘she’s pregnant, can we still make her a Partner?’ to ‘how can we support her if she’s going to be pregnant and a Partner?’

The panel also offered up some starting points for those organisations serious about tackling the issue, with an emphasis on dialogue to help us become more aware of our own unconscious bias.  Driving D&I programmes from the top and surveying your employees views on diversity, culture and inclusiveness were seen as key initial steps, as was the use of suitable tools for recruitment to help remove that meddlesome unconsciousness.

What became abundantly clear was that the tech industry in New Zealand is just at the beginning of the D&I journey.

What was also clear was that the politically-correct potholes of gender and ethnicity quotas have no place in the conversation. My suspicion however is that conscious bias might be driving exactly in that direction, to put a quick and measurable tick in the D&I box if you will. But perhaps it’s not so bad to at least get it wrong by trying.

The post Male, pale and stale appeared first on iStart leading the way to smarter technology investment..

Just like fighter pilots need acute situational awareness, Ujhazy said operators in today’s business environment need to be similarly vigilant; he suggested that the IoT can deliver the necessary sensing network to keep a close eye on rapidly changing environments where opportunity, risk and challenges constantly shift. With better warning systems, business can prepare and respond in timeframes which minimise disruption, with a view to reducing costs, improving customer experience and being more competitive. This he summarised by the operational tenet “availability is key” as IoT seeks to bridge the divide between IT and operational technology.

One of the major developments in delivering working IoT solutions is the introduction of low power wide area networks (LPWAN). iStart has previously reported on the introduction of two such networks in New Zealand, including LoRaWAN and SigFox; these networks are, in effect,  the missing link for true IoT deployments, providing a dedicated network for low-power, SIM card-free devices which can be powered by a single battery for up to a decade. It is this technology which could revolutionise sectors including facilities management, agriculture, healthcare and logistics.

‘Fog’ was another development that got airtime. Essentially, fog computing is the premise of aggregating and/or removing noise close to the source and producing exception monitoring whereby more useful data is fed in to a decision-making system – the opposite of garbage-in garbage-out if you like.

There was a long list of the good and the bad in IoT, with the good including developments in smart buildings, traffic monitoring with intelligent routing and sensory clothing. The bad, on the other hand, included the internet-enabled crock pot, Fitbark for dogs and sensor nappies. These applications for IoT might be considered a byte too far.

While the IoT is no doubt upon us, the real job seems to be turning all that data into useful, accessible decision making tools for businesses at an operational, tactical and strategic level. For early adopters, advice from the experts is start small with proofs of concept; don’t boil the ocean, and understand that some benefits won’t be obvious until experiments are underway.

The post IoT’s building blocks fall into place appeared first on iStart leading the way to smarter technology investment..

…

FURTHER READING

Cyber resilience begins with modern identity security

November 27, 2025 | Newsdesk

Where access and governance meet…

Asset management leaders share AI insights

August 14, 2025 | Heather Wright

Getting practical on building AI maturity…

Identity security as a business transformer

June 16, 2025 | Newsdesk

More than just cybersecurity…

Don’t run before you can walk with AI

June 12, 2025 | Newsdesk

Asset-centric industries are ripe for an AI revolution, but without the hype…

The evolving role of AI in business technology

March 18, 2025 | Hayden McCall

Are buyers looking for AI features? Or is the reverse more true?

The post How to hatch your business idea appeared first on iStart leading the way to smarter technology investment..