Gary Tierney, Managing Director, HP Ireland, takes on the Business & Finance 60-second interview challenge.
Q. What was your first job? I started working for an IT distributor in their warehouse side of the business, picking and preparing desktop PC’s for the technical team to setup and image. It was in the late ’80s, in what was the very early days of the PC and print industries. However, that period certainly inspired me enough to build a career in the sector! Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement in business to date? Being appointed Managing Director for HP in Ireland when the company separated in to two distinct businesses (HP Inc. and HPE). As you can imagine, the decision to form two distinct companies was a challenge from a management perspective. I feel the transition has been executed very well, allowing us to be more focused on our markets; accelerate HP’s pace of innovation and get closer to our customers. Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? “Trust is hard earned and easily lost,” given to me by a teacher during my secondary school days. As my career took many different turns that advice continued to resonate and its relevance took on a whole new meaning. Both within the teams I worked in and the teams I’ve managed, trust continues to be implicit in everything we do or how we operate. Respecting and nurturing that trust delivers exponential benefits whether it is with friends or colleagues, customers, or our customers’ customers. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for the day, who would it be and why? He’s not a traditional business person – but Jürgen Klopp the Liverpool Manager. I see a lot of similarities between his role and the role of a business person. Results driven, motivating a team, grappling with an array of challenges and in a dynamic market where your trying to define your own game plan while assessing competitive threats. Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? I’m lucky to lead teams of people that are very focused and driven, who understand their business while bringing that passion, focus and execution every day. It’s important to ensure everybody, including oneself, is connected to the strategy of the company and how through our day to day activities we underpin that strategy. Q. In three words or less, how do you define success? Passion. Focus. Execution. Q. How do you relax? I play golf, badly these days unfortunately as I can’t commit the time needed to maintain the handicap I’d like to play off! Q. What’s your motto? Nothing worth having comes easy. Q. What are your aspirations for the future of your business? To keep innovating and create technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Innovation doesn’t have to be about creating something brand new, it can be about improving or adapting an existing product or business model to meet customer needs. Take HP’s new Instant Ink service, for example – a subscription approach to home printing, where ink cartridges are delivered on-demand to your door. Equally important though is driving new market segments for the future. For instance, our mission to disrupt the $55bn A3 Copier Industry, and our new 3D Printing business which aims to lead a fourth industrial revolution to reinvent design and manufacturing. If we continue to get this multi-faceted approach to innovation right, we will ensure HP’s ongoing relevance in a technology industry that is always evolving.
Innovation doesn’t have to be about creating something brand new, it can be about improving or adapting an existing product
