The CIONET Cookbook n° 2 comprises recipes for success from 20 of today’s most influential and dynamic information technology leaders across all business sectors. This fascinating volume presents new recipes for digital success based on TV and research interviews with top digital leaders across Europe. Right now, it’s clear that we all face extraordinary technical and business challenges. This second edition of the Cookbook presents further insights into the best practices required to flourish in a new digital era.
Interested to know more? Order and be the first one to get your hardcopy or e-book!
Meanwhile dive in to the next recipe with our Masterchef Gunnar Hellekson, vice president
and general manager at Red Hat.
Ingredients
- Work out where to standardise and where to innovate
- Leaders should be clear, kind and make space for other folks
- Tell your people a story about the work they do and its impact, so they can be a hero
Preparing the dish
Gunnar Hellekson is vice president and general manager for Red Hat. He studied theatre and computer science at Drew University in New Jersey. After working for several start-ups, Gunnar joined Red Hat in 2006, working in sales for the government sector, eventually becoming CTO for the public sector group. After a stint running product management for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, he moved into his current role in November 2021.
Red Hat is an American enterprise software company with an open-source development model. The company’s mission statement is to be a catalyst in communities of customers, partners and developers who are creating better software the open-source way. Since its inception in 1993, Red Hat has placed open- source innovation at the core of its culture.
Balancing standardisation and innovation
Gunnar is responsible for the product management of Enterprise Linux. His work leads him to believe modern digital leaders face a range of business challenges. He refers to the OODA Loop, a term coined by US military strategist Colonel John Boyd, who suggested people who are trying to execute on a mission must Orient, Observe, Decide and then Act.
In his theorisation, Boyd suggests the quicker you go through the stages of the OODA Loop, the more effective you will be as a leader. Gunnar says it’s really important that digital leaders who work through these OODA Loops decide where to standardize and where to innovate. Every IT organisation must decide which elements can be standardised on commoditised platforms and which areas will provide differentiating value through innovation.
Connecting ERP to digital transformation
Although there’s tension between standardisation and innovation, Gunnar suggests the good news
for digital leaders is that they’re also complementary: it’s not possible to innovate unless you have a stable platform for change. In many companies, ERP remains the central nervous system of a company, or “the rich Earth” upon which businesses innovate.
Traditional ERP systems are increasingly moving to the public cloud. As this transition happens, it makes sense to use open tools to create richer connections and ecosystems. Gunnar says the skills, practices and operational disciplines required to move ERP to the cloud are crucial digital transformation capabilities for all companies. Organisations that perfect this shift can place ERP at the heart of a modern, digital business.
Building a robust product
Gunnar says Linux, as the core of the open-source project, remains a constant work in progress. Red Hat has honed the innovation and tools that have emerged from the open-source community to create the operating system, Fedora. Thousands of people in the community work alongside Red Hat to continually improve Fedora. The best innovations are sent through to CentOS Stream, which is the next stable version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
This iterative process produces a robust operating system. Gunnar’s team works to provide direction, making best use of internal engineering resources and ensuring customers and partners are happy with the final product. His work involves a balance between top-down internal planning and keeping a watchful eye on the development work in open-source communities: “It makes for a dynamic but very rewarding work experience.”
Leading people
Gunnar says the most important part of his role is providing strong direction and clarity of purpose. He says Red Hat is a meritocratic and flat organisation, so it is crucial people know the end goal and can work autonomously to deliver great results: “I spend a lot of time helping people understand how their work can serve the overall company’s strategy.”
Gunnar visualises his management requirements as a dashboard, with a series of dials and knobs that can be used to watch and then influence different departments, such as product management, marketing, operations and partners. Access to Red Hat’s strong internal engineering team means he can maintain a lean, core team that focuses on telling stories, setting clear goals and having a great impact on behalf of the business.
Hiring talent
Gunnar says Red Hat “goes out of its way” to hire world-class people who are leaders in open-source projects. He says the company is blessed by being a great place to work, but also having a mission that talented people are very passionate about: “It’s not hard to get people interested in working for Red Hat, especially if they are already working in Linux.”
The Red Hat recruitment process allows the company to create an effective balance between the innovation that is happening in broader open-source communities and being able to advocate on behalf of partners and customers. Once hired, new recruits find a fascinating corporate culture—one that rewards self-starters, and that might seem chaotic from the outside, but which produces an elaborate system for consensual decision-making processes.
Defining the qualities of a Master Chef
Above all, Gunnar says he hopes people think of him as a kind leader. People spend most of their waking hours at work and the activities they undertake need to be enjoyable. One of his mantras is: “Be clear, kind and make space for other folks.” Gunnar relies on frameworks and rubrics. People must understand their work and the impact it has. If you don’t give people a story about the work they do, they’ll create their own stories: “I tell them a story about the work they do—and it’s a story where they can be a hero.” He uses meditation and thinks of himself as a systems thinker with strong principles. He enjoys taking problems, turning them around and looking at them
from different angles. As part of that process, he’s reluctant to make hasty decisions. Given the significant heritage of Red Hat, he says it’s crucial his team are thoughtful and deliberate about everything they do.
Interested to know more? Order and be the first one to get your hardcopy or e-book!