director profile
where she began as a technician before being promoted to engineer. In 1986, she got a job as an engineer in Amdahl, which, as one of the top employers in the coun- try, she describes as being “the equivalent of winning the lottery at the time”. “That was a fantastic experience because they were
big into education and training. We were sent out to California for months on end to learn about mainframe computers.” She was promoted to tech-support engineer and subsequently became the first female technical manager in Amdahl. In the early Nineties, the mainframe market took
a nosedive and Amdahl closed its manufacturing facil- ity and laid off 700 staff. Moran and a group of col- leagues responded by setting up a software and services business. “Instead of taking the redundancy we got support
from Amdahl to start the business in a different area,” she explains. “We hired six software graduates from DCU and started with about 20 people from various parts of what was Amdahl. Then DMR Consulting, a French Canadian consulting company that had no pres- ence in Ireland, approached us and asked would we rebrand as DMR Consulting, which we did. “The DMR thing was very fortuitous because it had
great methodologies. In a way we were somewhat naive starting this business.We were doing fine but DMR was a great opportunity because they had the know-how to do this really, really well.” The business grew to around 150 people over a seven
or eight year period, before being rebranded as Fujitsu Consulting and subsequently merging with Fujitsu Services, where Moran was appointed chief executive in 2006. Making the appointment to her current position, Roger Gilbert, CEO of Fujitsu UK and Ireland, said Moran’s selection was due to her drive and track record in increasing profitability, efficiency and productivity.
Personal development Moran is a firm believer in the benefits of ongoing learn- ing. In 2000, she completed an MBA at DCU, picking up first class honours in the process. “I guess that’s kind of essential if you’re from engineering, to round out the business side,” she says. “And it has been extremely useful
in the CEO role to have had that experience. “Ever since I did the MBA I get the HarvardBusiness Review every month and I keep in touch with what’s emerging in terms of management and leadership and employee motivation because I think it’s an ongoing learning you need in this game. You can’t stop learning really.” Over the last year or so, much of the focus has been on integrating the three organisations. “We’re very much an integrated organisation now and there’s one Fujitsu in Ireland, one brand. I’ve been with the company 25 years or so, in one guise or another, and it’s the first time we’ve had one single brand.” The business has benefited from becoming a one-stop
shop for all types of IT services, she believes. “We’ve retained the strengths of all of the organisations and we have a very strong, committed workforce, which is very important these days. Particularly when you’re in the services business, when you’re providing support servic- es to customers, your main natural resource is your peo- ple, so that’s crucial to us.”
The long-term view In keeping with Fujitsu’s and the wider Japanese approach, Moran is a fan of taking a long-term view in the business. “Fujitsu has been around since 1934 and it takes a long-term view. The company’s view is the rela- tionship with customers is a long-term relationship. They want to build it over time, they want to add value over time and that’s our view as well. “They call it the 1,000 flowers, this idea of improve-
ment. It’s like if you plant a flower, you can’t keep pulling it up to see if the roots are okay. You have to let it grow and develop and that can take many years depending on the type of plant. “I think it’s the same in business. Sometimes we can
be very impatient about results and sometimes you have to let something take time. I think that is very much instilled in the Japanese culture. It’s not that we have a very strong Japanese influence here because in many ways we don’t. They give us a lot of autonomy to run the business in Ireland to suit the Irish market conditions and their slogan is ‘Think global but act local’. They want us to think about doing things I suppose in the
28 Irish Director Winter 2010
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