Spicer earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree (mechanical) from the Queensland Institute of Technology in 1984. “I don’t have actual IT qualifications, however my mechanical engineering degree did have IT components,” he says.
“My degree was more mechanical engineering with IT components. I did use FORTRAN—one big early programming languages of late 70s and 80s. All my IT knowledge has been learnt on the job.”
Straight after University, Spicer went on to work at a start-up company called Qutec Pty Ltd. The QLD-based company developed components of a computer controlled machine for the export market. While he was there, the company was awarded with the US patent for the product.
“My first job with Qutec gave me a lot of exposure to technology. I was able to work on computer controlled machine tools and this was back in 1985,” he says.
He left the company in 1983 to pursue a career in the Aerospace field. Spicer accepted a position with the Defence Science & Technology Organisation Aeronautical Research Laboratories in 1988 where he helped to develop technology for the NULKA Active Decoy system, technology that protects naval ships from the threat of anti-ship missiles.
“Working for Aerospace was quiet interesting, it was where they use to do the first Australian rocket launches back in the 60s,” says Spicer.
“I helped to work on NULKA. Defence personnel could launch it [the decoy] into the air, which seeks out ships and hovers above them like sign stating “here’s the ship’.”
The whole experience, which lasted a year, was “pretty interesting” for Spicer. He enjoyed working in the aeronautical field so much he applied and received an offer from British Aerospace in London.
“British Aerospace offered me a position but I turned it don’t because they wanted me to five years in London, I just couldn’t do that,” he says.
Spicer rethought his career path and returned to school. He earned qualifications the Australian Graduate School of Management with an MBA Corporate Strategy Medal.
He moved onto McKinsey & Company, in 1992 as an engagement manager. He served clients in banking, insurance, resources, steel, building products. His responsibilities included strategy, performance improvement, and organisation design and change management.
In 1995, he returned to Brisbane to work continuously in the financial services industry, starting at Ernst & young as an executive consultant.
Spicer helped the organisation relaunch its Queensland practice with a focus on strategy and re-engineering. He also served clients in local government, financial services and telecommunications.
After a year at Ernst & Young, he moved onto Suncorp Metway in 1996. He was hired as Suncorp’s general manager strategy and marketing and his responsibilities included group strategy, marketing and investor relations.
Spicer helped to architect the merger between Suncorp and Metway. He also developed the banking system as part of the integration strategy and championed a $180 million re-engineering program.
“After joining Suncorp Metway, I did a lot of work working with the IT team, (which was headed up by a lady, who know looks after the IT department at the National Bank),” says Spicer.
“I put the through a marketing and customer information system to track customers across the different divisions. I also implemented the first online banking system and a trading system back in 1996/1997.
“Most of my technology training came about because of there was a lot of technology being used by financial services, it was and still is driven by it.”
According to Spicer, Suncorp was using a lot of enterprise systems. His first taste of the Internet was also through his position at Suncorp.
“I first got on Web in 1994/1995 and I thought it was amazing back then even with the old dial-up modems continually dropping out. The photos would download an inch at a time,” he says.
“This was the first phase of the web as we know it today. Even back in the early 90’s the potential for the technology came through. Looking back at it now it was really an exciting time.”
The seed for his deep seated interest in the Web were sown and after four years with Suncorp Metway, he accepted the role of COO with WebCentral in 2000. “Four years on I took over the position of CEO. I’m more than happy to riding the WebCentral wave,” he says.
Spicer believes there’s been a resurgence of interest in the Internet again. After the internet bubble burst in the dot com era, companies were reluctant to touch the web.
However, big corporations and SMBs have figured out how to utilise the Internet. “They are really using the Web, because corporations to SMBs have worked out how to use it. They’ve realised unless the business sells books, CDs and DVDs, they can’t treat the web like an online store,” says Spicer. “Take the building industry for example; what these guys have worked out is their websites act as a lead generator. These guys realise no customer will buy a shower from an online store. However a website will help clarify questions have about installing a shower.”
Spicer says the internet has come along way with the distribution of ticketing, through online stores like Ticketek.
“It not just a sales process, it’s also become a delivery processes in ticketing. I am four train stops away from Suncorp stadium. If I want to go see a Rugby game all I have to do is go to Ticketek, make a purchase, print it out and fold the paper up so the barcode will work at the entrance. All that hassle with going to pick up the ticket after it’s purchased online is gone.”
He feels strongly about the growing trend coming from government departments to centralise their IT services and deliver it through the Internet. Education QLD has centralised its IT processes through WebCentral, instead of “teachers running dodgy systems”, says Spicer.
“I think there’s also a big wave coming through the small business sector. Virtually 12 months ago there were zero enquiries about our services. “Every business has an email server, but these are becoming expensive to maintain. Now they want fully managed email service which we host.”
According to Spicer, the technology industry is constantly changing and being logically minded has helped to ensure he’s caught the right technology wave. “Technology is such a rapidly moving innovative market and I’m a strategic person. I have to continually question which wave to catch, I don’t want to get to far ahead otherwise I might get dumped on. However I don’t want to get too far behind or I’ll miss it.”
Spicer continually keeps up with current product sets to see what technology is making money. However he believes knowing what’s going to make money tomorrow identifies who is the better company in IT.
“I think Apple is one of those great companies, especially at reinventing itself. It has created a whole new market for itself with the iPod and that’s the challenge in IT. It’s hard, but it makes life very interesting,” he says.
“I’ve been relatively lucky I made no bad bets in technology so far, not all of them have been correct, but it hasn’t been that bad.”
Spicer says WebCentral has been a really good decision in his life, even having to deal with difficult customers is not a big issue. “I think non-agreeable customers are interesting because they are usually the innovative ones that push the envelope, so it’s really important to listen to them. You will get the disagreeable customer who is obnoxious for obnoxious sake, but most of the time the difficult customers are leading edge.”
Good therapy
Spicer says there were seven members, including him, in the executive team and 200 staff members. He believes training staff to deal with these customers is crucial. Spicer also offers the ones that have to deal with difficult customers a lot support. “Especially the guys in debt collection, what those guys do can be difficult at times. We council them to talk to their colleagues, it’s good to get a bit of therapy,” he says.
Spicer knows the stress that can come with working in the IT industry. He has ensured the company has a ‘free Coke policy’, a fridge full of chocolates and free pizzas. “I think it is very important to attract and keep the right people. We also ensure there are drinks across the road every few months so everyone can have a casual catch up and we organise great Christmas parties,” he says.
Although he is dedicated to IT he tries hard not to let it take over his life, especially in the past couple of years. “I worked as a management consultant once and I had to commute between Perth-and-Sydney for seven months. I was only home one night a week, since then I tried really tried hard not to go through that,” he says.
“I have three boys and their endless sport regime keeps me busy. I also use to be in a band in my youth, so recently I bought a Gibson Guitar. I get a bunch of friends together and we have jam sessions.”
Spicer recently got back into surfing and has bought himself a McCoy surfboard and also relaxes with Hobie Cat, 14 ft Catamaran.
“After 10 years, my wife and finally finished renovating our QLD house, which we refer to as a house on a stump. It has great decks on every level, you could pick a deck for the season.” Balance is everything to Spicer, his job is far from dull, but it certainly not the only thing in his life.
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