{"id":7927,"date":"2021-08-11T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T10:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/?p=7927"},"modified":"2021-08-11T11:27:03","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T10:27:03","slug":"get-to-know-tim-jackson-managing-director-access4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2021\/08\/11\/get-to-know-tim-jackson-managing-director-access4\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Tim Jackson, Managing Director, Access4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the lighter side of things, we ask Tim Jackson, Managing Director at Access4, what makes him tick.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you describe as your most memorable achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting Access4 back in 2015!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going from a secure job to putting everything on the line is always daunting but if you never have a go, you\u2019ll never know. At that time, there was a massive wave of managed services providers getting into the telecom and hosted voice space, so we saw a good opportunity to carve out a market for our product. Taking the plunge then has culminated in a number of satisfying milestones along the way, from accomplishing capital raises to growing the team headcount in line with annual recurring revenue growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tim Jackson, Managing Director, Access4<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What first made you think of a career in technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was interested in technology from a young age and, growing up, had a computer but I wasn\u2019t tinkering around in the garage or anything like that. Computer science seemed like a natural choice at university but I soon discovered I didn\u2019t really enjoy it \u2013 I never liked programming or being a developer \u2013 so I switched to information systems which had more of a business focus. My subsequent career hasn\u2019t been solely in the ICT sphere but it\u2019s had an inexorable pull. Each time I\u2019ve taken on a role that hasn\u2019t had a technology focus I\u2019ve missed it and gone back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t think there is one style: it changes according to circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many people, I\u2019d love to be a Level Five leader, a la Jim Collins\u2019 Good to Great<\/em> but I\u2019ve got a long way to go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I try to bring empathy to the role, understand the other party\u2019s point of view and coach new employees to help them get up to speed with our processes and systems. Having had some good leaders myself in my time means I have something to emulate while the bad ones are useful in terms of illustrating what not to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think is the current hot technology talking point?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the current world, it\u2019s flexible working. We\u2019ve all had that decade of transformation in less than a year and the traditional five days in the office is out. That\u2019s pushed the conversation towards communication and security: they\u2019re the two big things driving a lot of the industry talk. People who are working anytime, anywhere, need the right tools to connect with their networks and they need to remain safe. It\u2019s something all businesses are trying to get their heads around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a family who keep me busy and grounded. We used to do a bit of travel, domestically and up into South East Asia, but not so much anymore. I think once COVID slows down we can get back to it but, for now, just spending time together \u2013 within a 5km radius most of the time in Victoria! The silver lining of Covid is that it forces you to start enjoying some of the more basic things in life. When we\u2019re not in lockdown, the girls and I are heavily involved with their basketball club and that takes up a lot of our leisure time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could go back and change one career decision, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, I don\u2019t think I would change anything. Everything happens for a reason and I probably wouldn\u2019t be in the position I am now if I\u2019d done things differently. That\u2019s not to say that I haven\u2019t made some horrible decisions. I have and I think I\u2019ve taken valuable lessons from them. I\u2019ve also made some great ones, like starting a business when most people said not to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pandemic has really highlighted the skills shortage we have in Australia. The battle for talent is intense and not having access to the right people can be a real roadblock. Getting qualified employees on the bus, in the right seats and committed to the journey requires a significant investment. At the moment, we only have a headcount of 40 but we\u2019ve hired a people and culture adviser because we think that\u2019s where we\u2019ll get the best return \u2013 from training and developing our team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the region specific challenges when implementing new technologies in APAC?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We do a lot of connectivity into the public phone network and, here in Australia, porting will forever be our biggest challenge. Trying to educate the market about why it takes weeks, if not months, to switch providers and move fixed line numbers across is a perpetual issue. The general punter doesn\u2019t understand the hold-up. It\u2019s phenomenally frustrating and presents one of our biggest growth challenges because it takes so much longer to book the revenue and get customers over. Our other main market is New Zealand and, for whatever reason, things are more evolved there, thankfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s rapid change to remote working had the possibility of bringing with it a huge amount of stress for me. Fortunately, our team made the shift really well. Yes, we had the technology but it\u2019s a mental thing, as well as a logistical exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past year, I\u2019ve been focused on fostering a culture which keeps us all connected and working together so we can continue to grow the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re investing heavily in staff and hope to double our headcount in the next 15 months; bringing on subject matter experts and empowering them to take over a lot of my role. Acquisition and expansion into South East Asia are also on the agenda if our growth plans in Australia and New Zealand go to plan, so there\u2019ll be plenty for the executive team to work on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you offer to someone aspiring to obtain a C level position in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You need to be passionate about what you do. Whether it\u2019s your own business or you\u2019re running things for someone else, you have to love the vision and buy into it. If you\u2019ve got that faith and that drive, then go for it! If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll struggle to invest the time required to rise up the ranks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the lighter side of things, we ask Tim Jackson, Managing Director at Access4, what makes him tick. What would you describe as your most memorable achievement? Starting Access4 back in 2015! Going from a secure job to putting everything on the line is always daunting but if you never have a go, you\u2019ll never […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":7936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1463,21,55,1281],"tags":[2420,157,76,155,151],"class_list":["post-7927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apac","category-get-to-know","category-oceania","category-tech","tag-access4","tag-apac","tag-australia","tag-get-to-know","tag-telecommunications"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7927"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7980,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7927\/revisions\/7980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}