“I remember once passing one of my students on the stairs at Stellenbosch University”, recalls Martin Butler. “He told me he had a job, working in digital technology. I’ve taken your courses in digital transformation, he said, and you made it sound so easy. I was delighted and said thank you. No, no, he interrupted, it wasn’t a compliment, it was a criticism. The world of digital technology is actually very complex! So it is, I replied, and therein lies the problem. Anything can be made complicated very easily. Making complex things simple is not easy at all.” But that is exactly Martin’s aim: to strip away the complexity, the jargon and the acronyms of the digital world and to reduce it to its essence. And having recently joined us as Professor of Management Practice in Digital Transformation, he will have plenty of opportunity to do just that.
An electronics engineer by training with over 15 years’ industry experience, Martin sees himself as a generalist with a penchant for all things digital. But he has two main research interests, one of which is the strategic alignment of technology investments.
His research answers the question of why different organisations investing in the same technology, do not get the same value from their investment. "The value you get from technology depends on two factors", he explains. "First, the portfolio fit - whether your organisation really needs that particular technology at that particular time, and secondly, how well it’s implemented.”
When he teaches, Martin likes to use analogies: "If you're hungry and you've got to catch a train, you're happy to grab a burger on the way. But if you're celebrating your wedding anniversary and you've set aside three hours for dinner, you'd rather have a seven-course tasting menu in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Now, that menu served in a cardboard box and eaten while you're running to catch the train wouldn't taste half as good as it would in a restaurant, served with matching wines, flowers on the table and romantic candlelight. So technology portfolio management is about investing in the appropriate technologies at the right time, and an implementation to ensure organisations gain full value from the investment, which is a big challenge for most organisations."
He also studies digital resilience, which takes a systemic view on cybersecurity, moving beyond the traditional focus on the purely technical aspects of protection and recovery. As an engineer he has a good grasp of the technical side of things, but he is adamant that the real challenges lie elsewhere. “Resilience is not just about technology, it’s about talent development to ensure awareness to protect but also to respond appropriately in the event of a cyberattack. It’s about clear communication with your employees, customers and other stakeholders. Digital resilience is as much about recovering processes and relationships that may have been damaged by a security breach as it is about restoring data and systems.”
One hot topic in Martin’s field of expertise, is the growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI), with the recent hype around ChatGPT being a case in point. “Mind you, ChatGPT is nothing more than the proverbial canary in the mine”, he says. “AI is already permeating the business world. In the coming years organisations will have to decide how they are going to use it to their advantage and this requires some bold leadership and experimentation.”
One of the most fascinating research articles Martin has written recently, is answering the question: Is technology leading to mass scale unemployment, as sensationalist headlines often claim? “It’s aptly titled The robot ate my job”, he says with a smile. “Our research into technology-induced unemployment over the last 200 years gives a simple answer: technology doesn’t destroy jobs so much as it changes them. Quite often it creates higher-order work. For example, if you are a tractor driver and tractors become self-driving then you’ll become a computer programmer writing algorithms for self-driving tractors. And higher-order work is often better paid.”
Another interesting study Martin is working on is in the area of digital resilience. Together with researchers from Ireland he is analysing the impact of personality traits on online information disclosure. “People behave differently, but when it comes to cybersecurity awareness, organisations often provide run-of-the-mill, one-size-fits-all training. If we understand the factors that drive someone’s online behaviour, then we could provide tailored training that targets the determinants of that behaviour, leading to improved resilience.”
Before joining Vlerick, Martin was Head of Teaching and Learning at Stellenbosch University Business School, where he was responsible for the entire postgraduate programme portfolio. “I had become a big fish in a small pond”, he replies when asked why he made the move. “I really enjoyed being a programme director, but the challenge was starting to fade and it was time for a change.”
Vlerick and Martin were no strangers to each other, as he had represented Stellenbosch University Business School in several collaborations. In addition, Martin had already been a part-time lecturer at Vlerick for the past 10 years. “I love Belgium with its pragmatic attitude and I’ve always felt that Vlerick strikes the perfect balance between professionalism and pragmatism. It has fantastic support staff and an excellent full-time digital team of competent people who know what they’re doing. But there's also an element of pragmatism that appeals to me. The other day we had a meeting that was supposed to end around four o'clock. Björn said that he had to leave at four sharp because he had to go and pick up his children from school. Well, I've worked in environments where you couldn't say that. I’m very happy to have found Vlerick.”
Given the School’s strong focus on digital, there is little doubt that Martin will be like a fish in the water. “The whole School seems to be very comfortable in the digital space. So, it looks like I’ll be a small cog in a powerful digital team”, he chuckles.
Martin is looking forward to using his teaching experience and his practitioner’s perspective to help grow the programme portfolio. He is particularly excited about the new Centre for Excellence in Web3 and the Metaverse that Stijn Viaene, Bjorn Cumps and Arne Buchwald have just set up. “The vision is all there”, he says. “I’m more of a hands-on person, I like to bring structure and I’m eager to start working with the team to bring the Centre to life, including our Metaverse programme.” He pauses and adds: “And with my teaching I hope to provide many aha moments to business leaders as we strip the digital world of unnecessary complexity, down to its basic elements.”
There are few things Martin enjoys more than teaching and demystifying. “It’s incredibly rewarding and energising when you manage to explain something complex in simple terms, in such a way that your students can put it into practice.” That is one of the reasons why he made the switch after a career in industry: because he enjoys facilitating learning and interacting with students. And also because academia offers the right work-life balance. “Thanks to academia I’ve never had to miss my children’s netball, hockey or soccer matches. It’s given me the flexibility to choose when to travel and when not to travel. I’ve often been the only dad watching from the sidelines, and for that I’ll be forever grateful.”
Life is too short to drink bad wine is probably the closest thing Martin has to a personal motto. “I can really appreciate a glass of good red wine”, he says. “I love the outdoors and I like spending time with my family and friends – it really makes me tick.”
Martin may well be a digital technology professional but he doesn’t have a Facebook account and he’s not always digitally connected. “When I’m on a diving trip or hiking in the Kruger National Park, I’m perfectly comfortable switching off my mobile phone, putting it in a drawer and forgetting about it for an entire week. It’s great to be able to disconnect completely.”
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