ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Noel Toal has a test for transformation, and most AI rollouts fail it.
If you've still got the same people doing the same job, nothing has changed. Give everyone a chatbot and watch them write their documents faster. That's an improvement, and improvements are worth having. Just don't put it in the transformation column.
Noel is Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at Repurpose It, where one site is a three hundred acre outdoor factory. He's pointing AI at how the whole operation should run. Not at how fast anyone types.
So we got into where that line actually sits, and what it takes to end up on the right side of it.
We cover:
- The test itself: same people, same job, slightly faster tool.
- "Give me an IT department that's become an organisational bottleneck." That's off Noel's own profile, and he means it. Repurpose It is the third role in a row where nobody has held the job before.
- Every job ad asks for sector experience. Noel reckons that's risk aversion, and he's got a line for it: you never get fired for buying IBM.
- Ancient Rome as the model for transformation. Nobody built it to be beautiful, they just kept building. Don't start with the Coliseum.
- Keep the vision solid and stay loose on how you get there. The trap is having already told the board what you'd do.
- Descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive, and why prescriptive is where the value sits when your business is asset-heavy.
- Building a decision support system: the AI works out the best three or four ways to hit the outcome, an experienced operator picks one, and they can always override it.
- Where to start when the whole thing looks too big. One small bit, prove it, let your team see they can do it, then build on that.
About Noel Toal
Noel Toal is Chief Technology and Transformation Officer at Repurpose It, a Victorian resource recovery business that takes construction waste, contaminated soil and green waste and turns it back into usable material.
It's the third role in a row where he's the first person to hold the job. Before Repurpose It he did six years at DPV Health and six at Access Health and Community, twelve years in healthcare all up. Last year he was ranked number ten in Australia's top fifty technology leaders.
Healthcare to resource recovery is a fair leap. It's also the argument he makes about hiring, tested on himself.
Connect with Noel:
👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noeltoal
👉 Repurpose It: https://repurposeit.com.au
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