One on one with Hitachi Vantara’s Steven Lee

Working in a team environment often means encountering a variety of personalities. Hitachi Vantara A/NZ partner director Steven Lee learned that team members were at various stages in their learning journey. To foster trust and empowerment, it was necessary to allow time and space for mistakes and growth, as expecting others to think and act as you do can be a misstep. Lee recounts his career path, which began at his parents’ restaurant when he was 14, through mastering sales in the tech industry, to offering a piece of advice: “We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak.”

What was your first job?

My family has been running a restaurant on Sydney’s northern beaches – the Hong Kong Restaurant at Newport – since the 1970s. That was my first job in high school and right through university. I started working front of house when I was about 14 – they get you in as young as possible in a family business – but unfortunately, I never learnt any cooking skills! Then when I finished university, I took on a sales role at an events management company, helping businesses host their clients at major sporting events across the globe. After a year in Sydney, I moved to Malaysia with them and put in a couple of busy and enjoyable years there.

How did you get started in the IT industry and progress to where you are today?

While I didn’t study ICT at university, I’ve always been interested in technology. My first proper job taught me how to sell and I saw an enormous opportunity to slide across into technology sales and further develop my skills and capabilities. At the turn of the century, it was a hugely exciting field. By great good fortune, I stumbled across an opening at Dell Computers in Australia and subsequently spent close to 20 years working at their local headquarters in Frenchs Forest.

In the early days, I had my sights set on a general manager type role and so I was keen to gain experience across multiple functions within a multi-national company. Dell was great for that. I was given the opportunity to do so many different roles – sales, pre-sales, marketing, managing teams, partner sales, partner resales – and there were always challenges and new things to learn. When I finally left the building, it was to take up an enterprise sales role at Lenovo, which I stayed in for a couple of years before moving across to Hitachi Vantara to manage its partnership and alliances program in Australia and New Zealand.

What has been your biggest business mistake and the lessons you’ve learnt from that experience?

I am a very detail-oriented person and the transition from individual contributor to people manager during my time at Dell wasn’t necessarily a natural one for me. In those early days, I was too focused on just achieving outcomes and didn’t fully appreciate what was entailed in fostering a healthy culture and driving team success. It took me a little time to realise that my team members were all at different stages of their learning journeys and that if I wanted to build trust and empower them, I needed to give them time and space to make mistakes and grow. Expecting everyone else will think and behave as you do is a real mistake and one that I’ve tried not to continue making.

These days, I’m very cognisant of the importance of being open and transparent: of sharing experiences and solutions to problems, and of elevating the entire group. Patience and tolerance were values my late father used to extoll and I’ve certainly come to see the wisdom in his words, as my ICT career has unfolded.

What are some of your plans for the company in the coming months?

Hitachi Vantara’s fiscal year commenced in April and, here in A/NZ, we embarked on it with two major goals on the agenda.

The first was to promulgate a unified data management strategy that allows our customers and partners to enjoy complete ‘data freedom’, irrespective of whether they’re operating hybrid multi-cloud, on-premises or co-location. In a nutshell, it’s about enabling the right data, in the right place, at the right cost.

The second was homing in on data analytics. We’ve launched Hitachi IQ, a new portfolio of solutions that are designed to revolutionise the way enterprise customers manage their data and harness the power of AI. As part of our drive in that direction, we’ll be addressing the increased customer need for support to train machine learning algorithms and develop automations. This is technology that, smartly harnessed, can enable businesses to develop a significant competitive advantage and we’re excited about working with our partners to help them achieve it.

What are some of your biggest ambitions, personally and professionally?

Hitachi Vantara’s last year was an extremely successful one on the partner front – high double digit revenue growth across our commercial and enterprise indirect businesses in A/NZ.

My aim is to continue to build our market share in the channel and to develop and deepen the strategic partnerships and alliances that will help us succeed in the local market. The Hitachi IQ portfolio is relevant to a set of value-adding partners we’re not necessarily working with today. Opening those doors and building those new relationships is a professional challenge I’m excited to tackle.

On the personal front, I have two daughters, one at university and one in high school, and supporting them to finish their studies and find professions they enjoy and feel passionate about is a big thing for me. As a parent, I want to make sure I do the best job possible of helping them on their journeys, as they mature and start to spread their wings.

What has been the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

It’s an oldie but a goodie: We have two ears and only one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak.

This resonates with me because listening is such a critical skill, irrespective of age, job title and setting. It’s impossible for anyone to know everything, or to have all the answers, and the best way to expand your knowledge and understanding is to be open to what others have to tell you and teach you.

We live in a world where information is king and, with advancements like AI, society is moving away from traditional methods of learning and communication, but these ‘old’ skills are just as vital as they ever were – they’re critical for building and developing culture in business.