Published on the 20/10/2022 | Written by Heather Wright

Remaking Rio Tinto, ESG and the value of mentors…

When Maersk, under the guidance of then CIO and CDO Adam Banks, put real-time flow metering on its vessels and began managing its 880 ships as a single fleet, rather than independently, it achieved a 30 percent reduction in emissions and a $6 billion annual saving in fuel. 

That’s inspiration for Daniel Evans, Rio Tinto chief information officer – who is mentored by Banks, now an advisor to Rio Tinto.  

“Mining has not experienced a lot of digital disruption, this is one of the great opportunities before us.” 

Evans, who took on the role of CIO at the metals and mining company earlier this year after 10 years working there, says the company is undergoing big changes. 

“We see that we could completely change the business model of Rio Tinto in the future when we really embrace technology in everything that we do,” Evans says.  

“For many years it’s been about delivering value for our shareholders, and that will always be the case, but what we have seen in last couple of years in Rio is that we need to be more than just the best operator and excelling in development.  

“As we move forward, we are as focused on establishing strong ESG credentials but within that also a strong social license. 

“Layer on top of that that the mining industry as a whole has not experienced a lot of digital disruption, this is one of the great challenges – or I’d say great opportunities – before us.” 

Since embarking on the decarbonisation journey, Rio Tinto’s climate and energy centres of excellence and data science teams have become ‘fast friends’. 

“Bringing data and tech into play in addition to some of the more traditional ESG tactics such as solar farms, is important. It’s really a partnership. Neither side of the business can do it alone,” he says. 

Rio Tinto’s early work in decarbonisation has been around helping the organisation understand its current carbon footprint.  

“As we progress forward and as we really look at ways to run our business differently, there’s huge opportunities in terms of the efficiency with which we run some of our operations and assets.” 

While he says the likes of solar farms and the use of electric vehicles will get Rio 80 percent of the way to its goals, at least 20 percent will be from digital technology and the way data is leveraged and operations are run to build efficiency in, including the use of predictive maintenance. 

As with any older company – Rio Tinto is 149 years old – Evans has to contend with a level of technical debt. 

“The enablement piece is really leveraging sensor tech and getting data from a lot our systems. We’ve done this very well in some parts of our business – autonomous trucks, trains etc are covered in sensors – but we also have operations that are a little longer in the tooth where we haven’t fully leveraged the capability there.” 

It’s not just automation of vehicles on rails and wheels. Behind that sits an ‘immense’ amount of software and technology. 

“Taking that to the next level and not doing it in silo but doing in an integrated way across our value chain is where we see the real value.” 

A team sport 

As to the gnarly question of the interplay between IT and OT (Operational Technology) teams and overlapping jurisdictions, Evans is sanguine.  

“This is a team sport,” he says. 

“There are certainly parts of the organisation where we are deeply embedded in the OT estate and largely responsible for it and there are other operations where it is not quite as integrated. 

“But fundamentally it brings us back to the strategy. We can’t do it on our own just as IT.

The reality is we need to do it in complete partnership with the rest of the organisation. There are teams that have some digital capabilities well outside of IT and building and really fostering that strong partnership is what is enabling us to be successful in these areas.” 

Unsurprisingly, Evans says having a CEO who has seen the role digital technology can play within an industrial company makes digitisation ‘much easier and nicer to do’, but says the hunger from the organisation is now coming both top–down and bottom–up as younger, tech-savvy employees join and identify the role technology can play in simplifying existing processes.  

“We’ve made the tools available through levels of citizen development and things like that, that there are people coming in and looking at the way their particular part of the business runs today and going ‘actually there is a better way to do this’. 

“For us there are endless opportunities. The biggest challenge is really harnessing all the energy and enthusiasm into the areas that will deliver the greatest productivity, safety and certainly on the environmental side.” 

Harnessing all the good ideas and ensuring the company doesn’t end up with 20 versions of the same digital solution in 20 different parts of the business is an area where Evans focuses his energy. 

“We have a unique role to play in harnessing the energy to be as productive and successful as we can be.” 

When it comes to the skills shortage, Evans says Rio has been ‘quite successful’ in recruiting in a tough market, something he attributes in part to creating a strong learning environment. New members are paired up with more skilled employees to accelerate learning from day one.  

The company has also developed a ‘skills marketplace’, getting its ICT team to provide details of their skills and, as new jobs come along, effectively ‘bid’ for the work. 

“Often the roles people are in today don’t speak to the last 20 years of their career,” Evans says. Someone currently in a networking role, may have years of software development experience the company isn’t aware of. The skills marketplace enables Rio Tinto to more effectively harness those skills, while providing its team with the opportunity to work on new and exciting projects they might not have previously been considered for.  

A different path 

Evans moved into the CIO role from CISO. While it might not be a traditional route, Evans notes it’s been a long time since the CISO was the blocker or gatekeeper, and his time as CISO was about enabling and transforming IT even through security.  

“So stepping into the CIO role has felt quite natural,” he says. 

“In reality the CISO is the other member of the IT organisation who has gravitas with the board, who has the opportunity to stand in front of them and talk to them about how IT is going.” 

Banks provides mentoring for Evans, ‘co-thinking’ problems. 

Evans notes companies often spend a lot of money getting advice from consultants. 

“What we sometimes come to realise is that the consultants actually haven’t done it before either, they’re just telling you what they’ve seen others do.

“The benefit to a relationship like the way I work with Adam is I’m actually working with someone who has been a CIO, who has gone through the trenches, made mistakes. We talk about the great successes but obviously the trials and tribulations and things we’ve had to work through as well. Being able to bounce ideas off someone who has lived what you are experiencing now is incredibly valuable.” 

Banks has several pieces of advice for CIOs who present to boards – or who might want to be non-executive directors in future. 

He says technologists ‘are the worst group, by a country mile, to present to boards’, saying they tend to get too bogged down in detail.

“They come in and explain what has been delivered and then a five-page story on how hard it was and all the stuff that went into making it happen. The board aren’t equipped to understand what that means and process the content being shared. 

“I’d much rather technologists come in and say we have enabled this capability, which means in three years as a business we could be doing this, that or the other.” 

He also urges CIOs to view the board not as opposition to be managed and contained, but as allies. 

“They can be a sounding board, they can coach. You can work collaboratively to help the organisation move forward and CFOs understand that really well and do that a lot with the board. I’ve seen very few CIOs do that.”  

And for those wanting to move into non-ED roles in future? 

“Get crisp on what value you add and then use your executive career to absolutely hone that. 

“I have always been terrible at detail and terrible at management. But when it comes to setting out direction, strategy, getting people on board with that, that’s something I’ve always found fairly easy, so by getting known for that, and known both in an organisation and publicly for that, starts to open doors for you to move to do that in companies.”