In National Australia Bank’s latest marketing campaign, people are asked to consider the question: “What do you know now, that you wish you’d known 15 years ago?” Hindsight is a wonderful thing of course. But when CIO Australia met the bank’s chief technology and operations officer Patrick Wright at the AWS Sydney summitearlier this month, the question was turned back on him. This is what he had to say. SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe “Personally – my advice would have been to leave JP Morgan sooner,” Wright, who arrived in Australia to work for NAB in April last year, said. “Not because, actually I love the company, I’m a huge Jamie Dimon fan and I love what they’re doing. But I’d been with company too long.” Wright, originally from the US, started working for JP Morgan in 1991 and spent 17 years there before leaving in 2008 to become chief executive officer of software giant Wincor Nixdorf. “In the moment I thought I was going to be with that company until I died; I was going to end my life a JP Morgan employee. And actually on leaving the company it’s been the best run of my career. So just going out and exploring and seeing different things I think that would be my advice. Go see the world, my son,” Wright, who joined NAB from Barclaycard where he was global chief operating officer, said. Although he wasn’t at the bank 15 years ago, Wright said that from a professional perspective all companies could have transformed themselves more quickly, and NAB is no different. NAB CTOO Patrick Wright. Credit: Peter Ristic “What I love about this company is it’s not just about being digital, it’s about people. We actually believe that customers will increasingly want connected experiences, be it through phone, digital, through Amazon Alexa, through whatever. That will be something that’s dictated by the customers. We also know that they want human beings that know and understand their personal needs in the moments that matter,” Wright said. Wright has praise for CEO Andrew Thorburn in being committed to both the technology transformation and having the people “positioned to have that intimate conversation with the customer”. “So maybe the advice is could you have gone faster on digital and deeper on the customer? Because like all companies it’s never enough,” he said. “And I don’t think we’ve transformed ourselves fast enough. As always, we could always do better and we can always have a better relationship with our customers. And I think getting that recipe right is a constant struggle for us. But I do think in today’s world you have to get the balance right. You can’t just do one,” Wright added. Related content feature The dark arts of digital transformation — and how to master them Sometimes IT leaders need a little magic to push digital initiatives forward. Here are five ways to make transformation obstacles disappear. By Dan Tynan Oct 02, 2023 11 mins Business IT Alignment Business IT Alignment Business IT Alignment feature What is a project management office (PMO)? The key to standardizing project success The ever-increasing pace of change has upped the pressure on companies to deliver new products, services, and capabilities. And they’re relying on PMOs to ensure that work gets done consistently, efficiently, and in line with business objective By Mary K. Pratt Oct 02, 2023 8 mins Digital Transformation Project Management Tools IT Leadership opinion The changing face of cybersecurity threats in 2023 Cybersecurity has always been a cat-and-mouse game, but the mice keep getting bigger and are becoming increasingly harder to hunt. By Dipti Parmar Sep 29, 2023 8 mins Cybercrime Security brandpost Should finance organizations bank on Generative AI? Finance and banking organizations are looking at generative AI to support employees and customers across a range of text and numerically-based use cases. By Jay Limbasiya, Global AI, Analytics, & Data Management Business Development, Unstructured Data Solutions, Dell Technologies Sep 29, 2023 5 mins Artificial Intelligence Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe