Peter Rose, Founder of TEKenable LTD
Peter started work in 1987 with a UK software house specialising in safety-critical and high-quality software development. Deloitte and Touche Management Consulting Group subsequently bought the software house where Peter remained and led the Sybase technology practice and supported the equivalent Oracle group.
Peter left Deloitte to come to Ireland in 1996, where he was employed by Vision Consulting as a Senior Consultant and Project Manager. Peter left Vision to become Chief Technical Officer for Bromley Group (Data Analytics) and subsequently joined the founders of Digital Channel Partners as Director of Technical Consulting, becoming Group Chief Technology Officer in February 2000.
“It is much easier said than done, but happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want. Work out what you really want, what is important to you, what you will regret not doing when you die and do that.”
Peter Rose
Peter Rose LinkedIn
Peter grew the technical consulting capability of DCP to in excess of 120 staff located in Dublin, London, New York and San Francisco and held overall responsibility for both technical strategy and operational delivery of technology projects.
Peter founded TEKenable Ltd with Nick Connors in 2002 to provide high-quality software solutions to Financial Services, Healthcare, Agri-Food and the Public Sector. After nearly 18 years in business, TEKenable has in 2019, been listed in the Deloitte Fast50, won the Deloitte Impact award for Technology, and was named "Technology Company of the Year by the Business All-Stars association."
Additionally, Peter acts as CTO and associate CTO to a number of start-ups and established services companies in Ireland and EMEA and is recognised as an expert in the delivery of secure, reliable software to enterprise business and as a trusted advisor to many Irish CEOs and CIOs.
Tell us about your current role and what you like about your career and areas of focus.
My role involves meeting with customers and potential customers, getting to know their business and challenges and designing a way forward for them. I always look at the business first; the change required, and then consider the technology tools that are needed to support that change.
I am a very nosey person, and I get to look behind the scenes in many different businesses and see and understand things that very few people get to see and understand. In the process, I get to meet some really interesting people with very varied views and ideas.
What inspires you, motivates you, helps you to make each day count?
I actually really enjoy most of what I do. Creating solutions, helping people to understand how they can solve their problems and grasp their opportunities is very satisfying. Getting paid to do it helps too!
Outside of your professional work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I am really interested in all things medical, I did a lot of training years ago and was on call for the UK 999 ambulance service, but these days it is limited to reading books aimed at the medical profession.
I just love finding out things that are usually reserved for people in a different profession to me. I want to know how stuff works, what makes it break, and how to fix it.
When it comes to your life chosen career, is there a phrase, quote, or saying that you really like?
Oh, many. Here are two I use a lot… "Do not let Perfection be the enemy of Good." "A problem shared is a problem two people have."
What are you most proud of in your life?
Work wise it would be the following:
• Work on projects that really have an impact on people such as delivering the COVID Contact Tracing software for the Irish health service;
• Founding of TEKenable which now employs over 60 staff in three countries;
• Pro bono consulting for start-ups and early-stage businesses.
Personally, it might be a bit trite, but my two sons, one of whom has followed me into IT with a degree in cloud computing and another who is a qualified EMT and working his socks off.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
Being really good at a technology is not the skill you need; technology changes rapidly and continuously. The skills you really need are curiosity, learning, problem-solving and relating to people. These skills enable you to do almost anything you want.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles?
Anybody who is not following Richard Branson or trying to emulate other high profile business leaders. Branson and et al, are successful because they did what felt right to them and what is right for them in the circumstances of the time is not necessarily going to be right for you now, do what you feel is the right thing to do. Get the business basics right and after that own your mistakes and celebrate your successes.
What companies, brands or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I am a big fan of McKinsey consultants. I had the pleasure of working alongside them some years ago. They are genuine, informed and care more about outcomes than fees as they know outcomes will deliver the fees.
On a smaller scale, my local Centra supermarket where the staff all know their customer's names and seem genuinely happy to see you and always happy to chat.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
That in TEKenable, we were delivering fantastic projects but not delivering a business. On the back of that, we hired a CFO, Marketing consultant, PR Consultant, Sales Director, a Low Code delivery team and increased our capacity across the board in Project Management, BA and Test and hired several advisors to set about building a business while delivering fantastic projects. We now generate nearly four times larger revenue, and our profitability has increased by a multiple of 6.
What drives or motivates you each day in a work environment?
A business goes through many transition points as it grows; we are at a point where we need to "fire ourselves". I mean the senior team would soon become a bottleneck, and so we have been implementing recurrent processes and replicable solutions while building out the structure, vesting responsibilities and building the company that we would want to be when we are twice or three times our current size. It is a real challenge as it means designing myself out of business but ensuring that any good bits are institutionalised.
What are your thoughts on the future of social media?
Social Media has many sides to it. It is connecting, nurturing, informative and at the same time can make people feel exposed, suicidal, and manipulate them with fake news. Its power to influence, misinform and actually cause injury (mental and actual death) is unprecedented.
Children join social media to stay connected to their friends but are bullied by anonymous users and accessible to predators. We have created this two-headed monster and encouraged it to grow, fed it with our personal details, nourished it with advertising revenue and entrusted commercial concerns with our protection. What could possibly go wrong?
I would like to see a not for profit version of Facebook, TikTok etc. offer the same services, but with safeguards that your data remains your data, it will not be mined for insights and users are validated and accountable. For what they say and do through a trust system that only offers anonymity when dealing with specific services that require it like the Samaritans.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
I only use LinkedIn and try not to post anything personal.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever been a mentor to anyone?
I have many people whose opinions I would trust on different things but no real mentor as such no. I do act as a mentor to some start-up businesses, but that sounds much grander than the reality.
In reality, I listen, provoke a bit, make introductions, help with templates etc. if I have them and try to get the person to decide for themselves what to do rather than imposing my vision of correctness on them.
How do you network? What is your prefered way to network?
My preferred way is Infrequently. I really dislike "networking events" in which everyone is trying to sell something to everyone else, often without any understanding or care for what that person may need/want.
I meet people by chance at conferences and the presentations by the Institute of Directors for example but mostly by introduction through someone I already know.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work?
Get checked by your psychologist. IT, in general, is a very demanding profession (aren't they all). If you don't at least like doing it, you simply won't last.
What do you feel is the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
Giving up – lack of support and encouragement. Failing – not listening to the market and reacting to its needs.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience?
It is much easier said than done, but happiness is wanting what you have, not having what you want. Success is different for everybody; some want to conquer the world, some to create a social enterprise, make a difference and others to make a living while they travel the world. Work out what you really want, what is important to you, what you will regret not doing when you die and do that.
What skills do you feel have helped you to become successful?
Who said I was successful? A little bit of "bloody-mindedness" helps and as I said earlier curiosity, learning, problem-solving and relating to people.
Is there anything new that you are working on or involved in that you would like to share?
A new way to deliver cross-cutting business processes, a strategic move that positions a business to move progressively away from older IT systems and dismantles the artificial team boundaries that they enforced.
It improves efficiency, lowers the cost of business and makes new integrated services available to customers. It is Digital Evolution using Low Code platforms, and TEKenable is leading the thinking and delivery of these today.
It really is the future, we have built COVID related systems including Contract Tracing, Temporary hospital admissions and discharge management and data capture and reporting using this approach in weeks. Bespoke software would have taken months.
Would you like to share any positive message relating to the global pandemic COVID-19 situation?
We have worked on delivering critical systems such as Contact Tracing and Temporary Hospital Management directly with the Health Service Emergency Response Team and the National Crisis Management Committee.
I can honestly say that I have never in 35 years in software delivery seen such a focus, dedication and team spirit and as a result such as rapid systems delivery. COVID will not always be an emergency but the positive lessons on project delivery to be taken from it will last a very long time indeed. I can feel a conference presentation coming on!