20/07/2026
Two months out from our biggest trade show of the year, this rally car’s engine exploded.
Full catastrophic failure. Not ideal when you’ve promised customer ride‑along experiences as part of your delivery journey.
So we did what we also do in ICT projects: we surrounded the problem with people and know-how and got to work.
The engine was removed and disassembled. Specalist parts were sourced and then rebuilt. Every spare pair of hands was on deck to get back on track.
Somewhat ironically, we are in the middle of doing this for a customer’s major ERP system project — we reset, replan, clear blockers, rebuild components, and refuse to let a setback dictate the outcome.
Last Friday the car was finally back together, so we went straight into test mode. Safe to say I was quite anxious! Every clunk sounded like the next failure. My heart was feeling very heavy with the pressure.
Our test day was part of a real competition and I started slow, +20 seconds off the leader. For Stage 2 we made tweaks to the car setup, and I consciously decided to tune into my codriver instead of the noises — +7s off the leader. In stage 3 we’d settled in, added softer tyres and fully trusted the rebuild — +2s off the leader, with one more stage to go…
A full confidence drive and we finished +0.01s behind the leader!
Not quite a win, but a seriously satisfying second place. No scratches and no failures. Two big months of relentless effort payed off!
ICT Projects can be like this. You will have serbacks. You replan, grind and rebuild, you test, you adjust, and eventually you get back on pace (or better).
Come see the car at the New Zealand CIO Innovation Summit & Awards — and throw your name in the draw to jump in the codriver’s seat with me in Auckland on 6 August. It’s one thing to read this story… it’s another to experience this commitment to delivering successful projects at full noise!
