Tait Staff Spotlight: Daniel McLaughlin

Tait Staff Spotlight

At Tait, we take great pride in serving the organizations that are so integral to our way of life: they keep communities safe, our lights on, transport flowing, and provide the raw materials for modern life. To provide them with the great support Tait is renowned for, we have a dedicated team of individuals all over the world that work hard to deliver results. In this blog we meet Daniel McLaughlin, Convergence Market Development Manager at Tait.

Daniel (Dan) works for Tait as a Convergence Market Development Manager, and is based in our head office in Christchurch, New Zealand. He joined Tait while still based in Australia in April 2020, which was right at the start of the Melbourne lockdown. 

He has since made it over to New Zealand to join us at the Tait Head Office in Christchurch – we’re very happy to have him on our team!

Want to get to know our team? You can find other Tait Staff Spotlight posts here.

Meet Daniel McLaughlin, Convergence Market Development Manager at Tait

In his own words, Dan describes his role at Tait as “a Strategist working in the Global Solutions team”. Before joining Tait, Dan worked in the Professional Services department for Deloitte Digital in Australia. 

Within that department, he was part of the Strategy & Innovation team which is tasked with helping Australian corporates and Government agencies with growth, technology and transformation challenges.

Our technology solves some pretty daunting problems for our customers, who are often using our equipment in tough situations. Tait has a long legacy in the critical communications industry and I am inspired and dedicated to keep that going.

To get to know Dan a little better, we decided to ask him a few questions:

What does a typical day at work look like?

I’ve got a pretty long backlog, but generally I find that I flip between planning and helping to facilitate and coordinate the execution of those plans. I try to balance meetings and thinking/doing time, and muck-in where I can to help get answers. 

How do you spend your time outside of work?

I have a 6 month old baby who keeps us busy around the clock. Another thing I try to keep up is to read a book a month. At the moment, I’m reading two: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil, which is on ethics in Artificial Intelligence; and Growth Hacking by Chad Riddersen, this one discusses rapid scaling and engineering virality into products. 

Besides books, I’m also an avid follower of PodCasts; some of my favorites are Masters of Scale, A16Z and Stratechery.

Do you have any skills or talents that most people don’t know about?

Once upon a time I could draw photographically, but it has been a while since I got the pencils out…

What is the biggest professional challenge you’ve faced this year? How did you overcome it?

I guess my biggest professional challenge this year was one that most can relate to, which is the difficulty of prolonged work from home. Separating work life and home life was tough, but I found that a walk around our neighbourhood at 5.30PM was a good way to break things up and clear my head.

It also really hammered home the importance of working with people in my role, because in many ways the complexity of problems we solve requires many experts around a white board.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

Many things! I keep meeting people who are bright and hungry, which really inspires me. And our technology solves some pretty daunting problems for our customers, who are often using our equipment in tough situations. 

I also like that we are this New Zealand company with a long legacy and I am inspired and dedicated to keep that going.

What would the title of your autobiography be?

That’s a tough question! I don’t know, but I always thought that the title of Geoff Ross’ (42 Below Vodka founder) autobiography Every Bastard Says No was a pretty amusing title. Maybe mine can be that provocative too!

Favourite quote/saying or any parting words?

One that I find I use a lot is “Just front into it”

An old boss would say it to me. It’s a good reminder that things may be frustrating, a burden, or difficult, but if you turn up, get it done and own it, it takes less time than you thought and was not as challenging as anticipated.

 

This can-do attitude coupled with his industry experience makes Dan an awesome addition to our Solutions team! Dan reports to Daniel Pranic, Managing Director Tait Asia Pacific.


Tait Head OfficeGet in Touch with Tait

If there’s anything Dan or the team at any of our regional offices can do to help you, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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