It's Time to Buzz the Tower
Joining the elite team at Pontem Analytics
With a long family history in aviation, my dream was always to become a fighter pilot. However, genetics got in the way in the form of color-blindness and so I had to settle for a masters in aerospace engineering, which I’ve managed to convert into a successful energy and digital consulting career. Regardless, "Top Gun" remains one of my all-time favorite movies with 3 destroyed VHS tapes and 2 burned out DVDs as testament. I even nicknamed my daughter "Goose" as she was my little wingman on strolls around the neighborhood in her pram.
So, as I prepare to embark on my new mission with Pontem Analytics, I can't help but draw inspiration from this classic movie to share why I decided to leave behind the familiar skies of a large engineering consulting company to join this nimble and ambitious team. Plus, I'm keen to introduce a bit of Maverick-like disruption… it's time to buzz the tower!
I feel the need… the need for speed!
I've always been part of relatively large organizations and while they provide a sense of comfort in their scale and access to larger parts of the industry the allure of a small company was always very compelling. In joining Pontem, I'm part of a small, nimble team able to react quickly to business needs and pivot across a range of industries with F35-like maneuverability as opposed to the dirigible-like performance of a large engineering company.
Our clients globally are seeing the need to respond with agility to changing conditions and use the available information intelligently to solve emergent issues in short timeframes. I'm energized by the prospect of being able to respond to these requirements and deploy our solutions at pace.
As part of the leadership team, I'm really looking forward to hopping into the cockpit and helping navigate the direction of the company alongside a team of like-minded trailblazers. The chance to influence company strategy, collaborate with visionary leaders, and chart our course made the decision to join the team a no-brainer.
We have the ability to be agile and push the limits in this target rich environment where data is ubiquitous but requires skill and experience to derive meaningful insights based on domain expertise to unlock realizable value.
The potential to unlock value through the connection of data and discipline is a key area which our clients have struggled to reconcile. While they may have developed a high-level strategy that paints an amazing “unicorns and rainbows” vision of how information may be utilized in a utopian future, and may have been sold the tools to relentlessly accumulate data so that it might be used for something (anything?), there remains a missing link to connect this data to actionable and implementable transformation programs which addresses real issues which are understood by domain experts and deliver real value.
The data on the MiG is inaccurate
Delivering value to a diverse set of vertical markets requires adaptability and versatility together with a problem-solving mindset. Extracting value from various scenarios requires the ability to not only evaluate the data but also to understand the context of the situation.
Data is everywhere, however the ability to separate good data from bad, to effectively use the available tools to analyze that data, and to leverage domain knowledge on how that data can be best utilized to deliver value are the building blocks to bridge the gap between data and discipline.
Thankfully, I love connecting the dots. I've always been a very generalist engineer with an analytical mindset but a very broad understanding of how everything comes together in a system. I also have a massive passion for technical communication and effective change management which I feel is sorely lacking in many digital transformation initiatives.
"A good pilot is compelled to evaluate what's happened, so he can apply what he's learned."
This technical change management is a fundamental aspect of the Pontem approach in delivering not just technical logic and information but expanding and connecting this with insights, solutions and value to embed the outcomes and ensure value is delivered and sustained.
We see common themes in connection to people, process and technology across all our verticals:
People: How can we leverage technical change management approaches across all levels of an organization to embed and sustain value capture?
Process: How can we interrogate the available technical and commercial information and connect the resultant insights with discipline specific knowledge to deliver outcomes aligned with client and industry value drivers across an entire transformational program with agility, consistency and repeatability?
Technology: How can we leverage the available tools and industry wide data pools (including data collaborative agreements) to extract individual and collective value whilst balancing of privacy and intellectual property?
The prospect of delivering impactful data-driven insights to such a wide array of industries was a massive factor in joining the team. I sought an environment where my skills and expertise would be fully unleashed, where I could push boundaries, and where excellence is the only destination. Pontem Analytics fits this perfectly.
The best of the best… the elite
I've known Tommy for most of my career and have known of Andrew by reputation for almost as long. The prospect of working with these blokes in a company set up to deliver success from the outset was the major driving factor in why I decided to join Pontem Analytics. The great thing is that we're all really complementary to each other in approach, skillsets and personality and I know that, just like a squadron, we'll be able to deliver so much more as a team working together and improving.
With this team I know that I've landed in an environment where my skills and expertise can be fully unleashed, where I can push boundaries, where excellence is the only destination and where I'll be able to help push knowledge beyond the limits of human performance. I'm super energized by the trailblazing mindset of the team, the willingness to innovate and to push the limits with wingmen (wing-people?) always at my side. Here, I see the chance to soar beyond the ordinary, to be part of a team that thrives on innovation, and to leave an impact on every aspect of data analytics and consulting.
So buckle up, because it's time to push the limits, seize opportunities, and hit targets.
"No, no… there's two O’s in Goose, boys"