Sam Mackenzie
in conversation
with Brendan Cullen
What is your current job title and industry and what do you enjoy the most about both?
Group Applications Manager – Australian Venue Co. AVC is a large hospitality sector company.
Well I just changed roles actually and I was stood down in this new role just as I was about to start! A calamity of coincidences, but what I usually enjoy about my roles is by making a difference through building relationships and transforming service operations. Sing out if anyone knows of any senior ITSM roles!
I’m also currently serving as itSMF Victorian Deputy Chair
How long have you been an itSMF Member?
3 years in Australia and another 3 or so from a stint in the UK
What itSMF Membership Benefits do you get most value from?
- Seminars
- ITIL Online – I like that it’s there but truthfully still yet to use it
- itSMF Bulletins / Publications
- Conference
What do you enjoy most about being an itSMF Member?
The community, coaching and support. Talking with and working with likeminded people that are committed to improving service quality and maturing our industry.
Has being an itSMF Member benefited you professionally?
Absolutely – some of the concepts and ideas that are discussed and resolved/improved as part of our collective body of knowledge helps me tackle things in my professional roles. Also, this community is a great place for professional contacts and personal friendships.
What ITSM related certifications do you hold, if any?
- ITIL Foundation v2 and v3 bridge
- ITIL Service Strategy – still one of my favourite parts of ITIL
- ISO20000 – yes there’s an BSI/ISO standard for service management!
- Non-ITSM: PRINCE2, Managing Successful Programmes (MSP), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and Managing Successful Change
What has been your biggest workplace or career challenge and how did you face it?
One of the biggest challenges I had was a stint as a program manager with the HR team at British Gas in the UK. Running three large people programs on leadership, culture and behaviours for the 2000 managers and 30,000 staff. It was worlds away from my ITSM comfort zone and I only lasted about 12 months.
Looking back now, trying to shoehorn fluid HR interventions and initiatives into a structured gate driven waterfall portfolio needed more finesse than I had back then. I learnt a lot and would approach it quite differently now – I think I would have focused more with the portfolio team to help them recognise these weren’t waterfall initiatives (they were in fact agile ones!).
Have you ever applied your ITSM skills outside of work?
Sure! I use a combination of ITSM, Agile and a smattering of productivity methods loosely based on David Allen’s “Get Things Done” (GTD): I combine these approaches with an (effectively) paperless home office to deliver results in my personal life. In many cases, much to my wife’s annoyance! (It’s all the lists and spreadsheets I think…)
What do you see as the biggest challenge or ‘next big thing’ for ITSM professionals over
the next couple of years and what do we as
ITSM professinals need to do to address these challenges/opportunities?
Obviously, there’s lots to do, as always in technology,