An advocate of ‘lifelong learning’ who worked for IBM for 32
years, 28 of these as a Manager, and always jumped at the opportunity to further
his education even when grown, attending the IBM Summer Program at Cambridge,
the Colgate Darden School at the University of Virginia, is Graham
Spong.
This gentleman’s life, besides doing 'a
million things' has a constant thread of electronics through it, from
interest in Crystal sets as a boy through to ham radios when older. He has seen
some of the major advancements and shifts in computers and business, eventually
leading up the Australian Quality Awards from 1988 when they were introduced.
These were Australia's most prestigious business event and recognised
outstanding achievements in organisations which are using Quality to achieve
international competitiveness. A gent who has invested his essence into Australia, not just as a
Rotarian and pursuing and promoting quality in all, but still supporting those
who share knowledge.
The other constant threads in Graham are a love of enjoying the
environment, particularly on yachts and doting on his children, remarking during
his interview that hearing children playing on Clareville Beach was and has
remained a clear favourite memory and experience. This and much loved wife Nola
still light up Mr Spong’s eyes.
I was born in Melbourne, in December
1936.
Can you remember much about World War II?
I can remember the war in terms of planes flying
overhead and we had a dugout in the backyard; an air raid shelter.
Which suburb of Melbourne were you in?
Ivanhoe, north out of Melbourne. We lived on the main street, upper
Heidelberg road. The trams didn’t come out that far. We had trains that ran from
the Princes Bridge station.
Can you remember peace being declared?
I remember a few things; I remember a celebration
in Heidelberg park at the declaration of peace. Everyone singing and
dancing…
Where did you go to school?
I went to Ivanhoe Public School and High School,
then to the Royal Institute of Technology, it’s called the University today,
studying electronics. I was with OTC (Overseas Telecommunications) at that time;
these were pre-televison days. Overseas communications was by radio and using
Morse Code. I
remember paper tapes were used to send the messages to London and sometimes
having to wait for better atmospheric conditions to send these by
radio.
What was your role?
I was a technical officer. That involved servicing
equipment, building new equipment for communications with overseas.
In 1959 I joined IBM (International Business
Machines) as a
customer engineer. When I first joined IBM we still communicated by Morse Code
with London each evening so I had to learn how to type and send and receive
this; which stood me in great stead for computer keyboards later on. I then
went to Singapore to look after the computers there in 1963.
Singapore was interesting in 1963; there
was a move to have the formation of Malaysia, which never occurred, they were
almost at war with Indonesia, with the Konfrontasi: (the Indonesia-Malaysia dispute, 1963-1966); they would let bombs off when they came ashore from Indonesia. There
were many Australians over there at that time, and the British Army and Airforce
Base was fully staffed then.
What were your most memorable moments from there and
then?
The most pleasant thing I associate with Singapore
was getting married to Nola on the Saturday and I started work on the Tuesday. I
couldn’t be where I am today without her; everytime we had to go overseas it
wasn’t a problem.
The first time I saw her she was having lunch next
door; her mother was friends with our neighbour. I went over to borrow some tool
that I didn’t actually need and invited her to the CMF Ball, which she agreed
to.
I was doing my National Service then, where I was
in Signals with the Army, and they put me into Radio. We were in 12 Platoon with
Sergeant Heritage, who had been in Japan and ended up marrying a Japanese lady,
and they needed someone to fix all the radios which had deteriorated since
WWII.
Nola and I went to the Ball, I was dressed in my
National Service uniform as it was one their do’s, and Nola’s sister’s husband
asked me; ‘What band are you in?’ (due to the uniform). We laughed.
Nola and I came back to Melbourne and I was asked
if I’d like to be a Manager and I liked Singapore so much I agreed to go on
another assignment. So in 1969 we went to Japan. This was a very interesting
place then; there weren’t a lot of English signs, it was a boom time for
Japan in cars and electronics. I had a favourite place to go called
‘Akihabara’ also known as ‘Akihabara Electric Town’ (a district of Tokyo, Japan.
Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku
goods, including new and used items.). I’d go there on the subway. I bought my
amateur radio equipment there.
Did you have a favourite garden in Japan?
I liked the gardens in Kyoto. We saw the Spring
Festival, the Blossoms changing. We had one child then, our son who we took with
us; he was about 12 months old then. I remember the food; I went to Hiroshima
for a meeting and there we ate the Fugu fish. I was the special guest and
tradition held that they took the special guest to a Fugu fish restaurant; I
asked to see the chef’s licence; there was lots of hilarity over that request. I
was very friendly with one of these Japanese men and he said that when they were
teenagers they used to put the poison on their tongues as a dare.
We were then asked to go to Hong Kong where
my role was Region Manager in the IBM Customer Service Division. Hong Kong was
still a British colony then, you couldn’t go very far. For example you couldn’t
go into China. The food was terrific.
I think the ability to be able to travel so easily
out of Hong Kong to other regions stands out from my years there; I was
responsible for other countries then; Korea in the north, Japan, Taiwan, the
Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Singapore, and Indonesia, Vietnam.
We flew into Saigon in Vietnam, this was during the conflicts there, and would
have to get into a 'stack' with the other planes and spiral down to land so as
not to be shot at. I was travelling quite often as this was a growing
area.
We lived in a lovely unit in Repulse Bay. Everyone
had servants then. The interesting thing was we lived in a block of flats, which
was quite large, and had Australian and New Zealand people there. I was friendly
with guys from Dow Chemicals, a New Zealander and an Australian. We had an
arrangement with the local taxi company to take us to work; we would leave at a
certain time, come back at a certain time; the taxi’s name was ‘six finger
taxi’; he had a telephone on a tree down on Repulse Bay; he had six digits,
which was common then. These days they have surgery, but then there were a few
born this way.
It was so easy to travel that I’d go away for the
week and be home on the weekend, this was on Convair 880’s; we’d travel with
Cathay Pacific most of the time and I had friends who were pilots. The paintings
in this room, which we bought during our travels, from the Philippines and
Vietnam (made from eggshells) are a personal record of then. The Australian
paintings, that one, an Outback scene, is a sailing prize.
Where did you go sailing?
I used to go sailing in Hong Kong, starting in
dinghies. There was a Combined Services Club, that had their own
boats. Back in Avalon
I’d sail here, from the Royal Prince Alfred club. I had several boats; Pyxis I
and II; I was always impressed with names for stars, and this is a
constellation. (Pyxis is a small and faint
constellation in the southern sky. Its name is Latin for a mariner's
compass) But the latest boat, which I’ve
unfortunately had to sell, was called ‘Elysium’. These were 37feet
boats.
One of my favourite races
was the Pittwater to Coff’s Harbour race, these began in 1981. This was
memorable because we’d sail up there, as you go north it gets warmer, the family
can come with you, then you’d stay a few days, have time together before coming
back.
My first trip there was with Norm Kiddle, who’s up
the coast now, and it was a beautiful place, unspoilt.
What’s the best thing, for you, about being out on the saltwater
in sea breezes?
What’s the feeling of sailing…it’s been so much a
part of our life, the kids were all brought up sailing. We’d spend holidays in
The Basin. The kids would sail the Magna juniors… it’s a part of living for
us.
What does any Manager have to bring to the
job to be a good manager?
The best thing any manager can do is find good
people; Identifying those with the right attitude. It’s also vital to have great
people skills to succeed as a Manager.
What was the most exciting element about being part of IBM
then?
They were world leaders in this field. For me, the
opportunity to bring about change and do it in a foreign environment was both
challenging and rewarding. What I noticed is we could all work together, I could
work with the Chinese, with Russians; the technology becomes a universal
language itself, diminishing the restraints of spoken language
barriers.
After Hong Kong we came back to Sydney this
time and lived at Wahroonga. My role then was Australian Manager for the Service
side of IBM, 1974. The headquarters for IBM was in Sydney by then, it had all
been moved from Melbourne.
What were some of the advances being made by IBM in the
1970’s?
With the computers you’d have to say size. They
went from filling a room to something that will fit on a desk. I can remember
down in Melbourne, one of the company’s National Mutual Life, they had a viewing
platform where you could come in and stand and watch the computer.
The first commercial computer was the 1401 (The
1401 was the first commercial, all “solid state” computer. Solid state
engineering greatly reduced the footprint of computers in computing rooms.
The IBM 1401 is called the Model T of the computer business). It was
probably two metres long. These were used for commercial work mainly; anywhere
that required calculations, data storage, although storage wasn’t big in those
days.
The role changed a few times as there were mergers
and so forth; I was Director, Customer Engineering but then they asked me to
move into Marketing, so I gave that a go. It was important in the late 1970’s,
as they were doing one on one marketing but also just introducing one on many
marketing; like a seminar; the product’s price came down and this had to be
matched by the way we were marketing it; one to one changing to one to many. We
had a range of small to large computers then. What we were trying to do was stop
two different marketing reps going to the one company saying ‘I’ve got the
solution for you.’
Then they asked me to move into a new operation,
in Pymble, called Volume Products, and that’s where we started handling the PC
and originally handling this like a large computer. So we set in a path to cut
down the process between the factory and the consumer. We had an office in
Pymble, just near present day 3M, which was supposed to be a no frills
operation.
Then we moved into the marketing of Services. It
was a big change for IBM. What they realised was that you couldn’t make money
out of hardware anymore, or it was more difficult to. Services meant putting the
whole solution together rather then just running something that was one piece.
This involved providing the whole solution; product, software, services; that
became the biggest growth area for IBM. I was part of that.
IBM then paid for a year in my next job; I went to
Enterprise Australia as an executive; my role there was General Manager of the
Australian Quality Awards. That involved companies coming in and being
evaluated by our organisation; if they did well they’d receive an award. The
chairman of Enterprise Australia was also the chairman of IBM. The aim was to
lift the standard of quality of products and services in Australia, or to
recognise these to further enterprise in Australia.
I did this for six years; the culmination of the
year was always at the Awards night. Initially the Awards nights had been in
either Sydney or Melbourne; they were small affairs. I changed all that; we had
an awards night in each of the states with the State premier and the Prime
Minister attending. Telecom provided the connection for us so they were all
interlinked by television; that became the expensive part of doing the
Australian Quality Awards.
The first one I experienced, we had the State
Premiers connected, and we had the Prime Minister coming. Here I am, down in
Melbourne, preparing for the night, and I answer the phone… “Bob Hawke here; not
coming tonight.” And I thought, ‘oh dear.’; anyway, he sent one of the other
ministers down.
What was it like meeting dignitaries in the course of your
duties?
Oh, I was always keeping an eye on proceedings at
the awards, making sure they’d arrive on time, stick to schedule during
speeches, a; ‘hurry up please, you’re making us run late’ experience.
So who were some of the outstanding winners of this
award?
They were all very good, of a very high standard.
In the Quality Award they had to demonstrate a number of categories in
leadership; how they managed the business, how they related to the employees,
their growth of employees and the business; they were all examples of how to
excel in their particular business.
There was no limitation on what kind of businesses
could enter. There was a manufacturing company down in Melbourne, run by a lady,
and she’d be the outstanding one in my mind. She stepped in when another family
member was ill; it was a family business.
Unfortunately during this time, I was in the
backyard in Clareville and I got bitten by something, perhaps a spider. This
caused an infection and associated health issues and I decided I’d have enough
of working and retired. We were at Clareville for 17 years.
What is your favourite thing to do on computers now?
Doing the banking, not having to stand in line.
Using Skype… that’s good.
What to you is the best thing about the development of
computers, what have they given to the human race?
Personally I think the ability of everyone to
communicate around the world is great. Conversely, one of the things I dislike
about computers today is the maintenance required. Behind every computer is all
this maintenance; that hasn’t changed. The cause behind many computers crashing
is they need constant upgrades of programs; if you do experience a crash you
generally find they’ve been updating the programs. The most positive thing
that I can see is that they have narrowed the borders or that there are no
borders anymore; no walls anymore.
Children?
I have two children and one grandchild. My son
Evan is a yacht designer; he has a PhD in Naval Architecture, or more
specifically Computational Fluid Dynamics; this is to do with the flow of water
over the surface. Melanie, my daughter is a Senior Manager with the Federal
Government; I think she’s so good at what she does due to training in various
management roles before taking on her current position.
What is your favourite place in Pittwater and why?
Undoubtedly Clareville beach. The why is it’s
lovely to hear the waves and the children playing. We faced the
beach.
What is your ‘motto for life’ or a favourite phrase you try to
live by?
Don’t let things
overwhelm you, try to get on with what you want to do. Do all you can to
help yourself; keep active.
I’ve had onset of Parkinson’s the last few years
and I have good days and bad days; it effects my walking, but through this I
remind myself to not let things overwhelm me.
