KEY POINTS:
A key tool in Microsoft's sales and marketing arsenal has always been its ability to push the message that its software boosts users' productivity levels.
But talk productivity with the company's new New Zealand country manager, Kevin Ackhurst, and you certainly get more than a sales pitch.
Ackhurst's interest in the topic goes back two decades to when, as a graduate student completing a masters degree in industrial engineering, he researched the relationship between workplace productivity and quality of production.
"At the time people were questioning whether or not higher output reduced the level of quality, and whether there was an opportunity to improve the level of quality and productivity at the same time," he says.
"My thesis was about figuring out how to do some of those things."
It's a line of inquiry he has, in a way, dusted off since arriving in the country to take up his new Auckland-based role in October last year.
Studies show Kiwis put in relatively long hours at the office compared with workers in other countries. This, combined with the country's shortage of skilled workers in many industries, including IT, means the topic of how we can work smarter, not harder, often comes up in the conversations Ackhurst has been having since arriving here.
He believes improving the IT skills of both school students and those who have already left school is one of the keys to overcoming this issue.
Born in Zimbabwe and educated in South Africa, Ackhurst's interest in education stems from his university days when he was a lecturer to undergraduate classes and also "worked on the side" as a teacher of South African children in underprivileged areas.
His subsequent business career eventually landed him the job of heading Microsoft's services organisation in Australia. He enjoyed this part of the world so much he took out Australian citizenship and now travels solely on an Australian passport. Ackhurst had moved on up to the role of Microsoft's worldwide general manager, operations and business strategy for public sector, based at the company's global HQ in the US, when he was tapped last year to fill the New Zealand country manager position vacated by Helen Robinson.
"This is the type of role that I had wanted for a long period of time, and I'd always wanted to spend a lot more time here so I jumped at the opportunity to come here," he says.
That's a comment you'd expect any newly-arrived corporate ladder-climber to politely trot out once they found themselves in New Zealand.
But in Ackhurst's case it's clear from talking to him that he is genuinely enthused about being here - perhaps more so than some of our native IT industry leaders who have their sights set on the glitz of a plum international role.
What does Ackhurst like about little old New Zealand? "It's just a really relaxing place to be in, in some ways," he says.
"The size is an interesting thing because it leads to a greater level of creativity and innovation. And the distance forces people to do things in a different way, and learn from that, and how they apply themselves around the world."
With a 10-year background at the world's largest software company, Ackhurst comes with an invaluable set of global contacts he's itching to introduce to export-hungry members of the local IT community.
At least one key player in the local game, technology entrepreneur and Xero co-founder Rod Drury, is impressed by Ackhurst's attitude.
"Kevin quickly reached out to the local community to get a feel for the local IT scene," Drury says.
"It is a good sign that New Zealand could attract someone of Kevin's calibre. His connections to the Microsoft global network are invaluable. He seems genuinely interested in promoting New Zealand partners globally."
One area Ackhurst says he's keen to push is better collaboration across the local IT industry.
"I was surprised by the extent of that lack of collaboration among the industry players in the time that I've been here. I've seen a stronger level of collaboration between competitors and organisations in this industry in a number of the other countries that I've travelled to and worked in, and I expect there's an opportunity for us here [to improve that collaboration]," he says.
"That said, everyone I've spoken to [has] a strong desire to do something [about it]."
Let's hope this example of the brain-drain in reverse begins to happen more often.
