A passion for leadership and innovation

Voice&Data’s Merri Mack talked to Hugh Humphrey* to find out the rationale of his move to the world of convergence at Optus after his previous employer, Vodafone, joined Hutchinson in a joint venture - VHA - in 2009.

Put simply, it was an opportunity to move from a consumer-centric business to Optus, which had the brand, assets at its disposal, credibility, relationships with big government and corporate clients, and the chance to work on innovative convergence business systems that didn’t rely on the old legacy models.

“A further reason, businesses challenge Optus for innovative systems that combine the best functionality of fixed and mobile and deliver these solutions wherever access is needed from any device. For example, we have a SIM card embedded into a notebook or notebook so customers don’t need to use a dongle. Our business app store has over 1000 apps now and some of these are the result of working with customers to meet their requests.

“Customers want to take out the big costs and the lack of flexibility that goes with a fixed infrastructure and be able to ramp up and down as circumstances require. So Optus is the only alternative to the other brand recognised by customers to be able to deliver the mobile business systems they need to be always on, on any device anywhere. Our primary product is business grade mobile broadband.”

Humphrey is passionate about leadership and takes his leadership role seriously as the Director of Mobile & Convergence for Optus Business. He enjoys working with a whole lot of wonderful people that he can laugh with and grow with.

Humphrey has benefited from working with some great mentors in his previous roles at Vodafone and IBM and wants to make sure that the talented people he works with get the same benefits from mentoring that he did.

“All the people in the team have a coach and we have a monthly meeting where we leave nothing on the table and make sure we are all going in the same direction. Feedback is encouraged and through my leadership role I create the environment to make this happen.

“Aspiring to being a leader wraps around the whole thing of technology change and the aspiration to provide our customers with the best customer experience. This tallies up with industry customer surveys that scores Optus Business higher than its competitors when it comes to the customer experience.”

Humphrey has a personal relationship with many of his customers and his Blackberry is always on 24/7 to take calls from customers who run 24/7 businesses. Customers who operate globally and have 200 employees plus expect to be able to contact Humphrey for immediate response so he makes sure he is always accessible.

He grew up in an artistic household surrounded by paintings by his architect father and screen printings by his mother. He also has a sister who is an interior designer in San Francisco and daughter Eleanor is already keen on drawing.

Humphrey and his Caribbean wife like nothing better than getting an art fix in Australia or when they are on their extended travels to Europe, the Caribbean or South-East Asia, as travel is another passion. He is glad that Optus mandates a longish break over Christmas to ensure the family gets away. When not travelling overseas, they have the option of escaping from their Paddington home to the Central Coast.

So all in all, Humphrey thinks he has the best of many worlds though he does miss the buzz of the city, working on the Optus campus at Macquarie, but acknowledges the benefits of the campus and having the whole team together in one place. It’s a fascinating industry to be in and you never know what excitement is around the corner, such as the joint venture of Vodafone and Hutchison and then NBN.

* Hugh Humphrey is Director Mobile & Convergence, Optus Business. In this role he is responsible for creating integrated enterprise communication offerings for Optus’s corporate and government customers, leveraging the power of mobility. In spearheading Optus’s fixed and mobile convergence solutions, much of his role also concentrates on managing an end-to-end sales and marketing function within Optus Business. His career has also involved management roles for PWC, IBM and Vodafone.