Things. Reasons: The independent show for Australian IT leaders (AI, Tech & IT Leadership)

Things. Reasons.

Things. Reasons. is the independent podcast for Australian IT leaders. Hosted by Naran McClung and Jono Staff, we unpack what is actually driving change in Australian IT — cloud strategy, AI, cybersecurity, managed services, and vendor dynamics. Not vendor theatre. The conversation after the meeting. New episodes every two weeks. A podcast for CIOs, CTOs, and technology leaders navigating AI, cloud, and enterprise transformation.

  1. 16 June

    Is AI Creating a Crisis of Purpose in IT? | Ep. 14

    The IT industry is shedding jobs to cost-cutting, AI restructuring and the usual business cycles, and the man who chairs the Australian Men's Shed Association thinks the real cost, what it does to people's identity and purpose, is the thing nobody is talking about honestly.  About the guest  Luke Clifton spent nearly 15 years in senior leadership at Macquarie Technology Group, more than a decade of it running Macquarie Telecom, where he drove the SD-WAN transition and built out the cyber security and cloud practice for the mid-market. He stepped back from the operational role in late 2025 and is now Director of Macquarie Technology Operations, focused on governance, risk, partnerships and strategy. He also chairs the Australian Men's Shed Association, which is where his thinking on purpose, identity and men's mental health comes from.  What this episode covers  Why Luke stepped out of a decade-long operational role, and why he frames it as retiring into something rather than retiring from work.  What it actually takes to move into board and NED work: more responsibility, less control, less pay, and a completely different skill set from running a P&L.  The crisis of purpose Luke sees coming as AI restructures the IT workforce, and why men in particular tie too much of their identity to a title.  Inside the Men's Shed movement: the origin story, the scale, and the Spanner in the Works health checks that have caught men mid heart attack.  Practical advice for navigating AI disruption: more than one iron in the fire, broadening beyond a single specialism, and starting while you are still employed.  Confessions of an IT Professional: a listener's story of a change in Washington DC that kept a US President's plane in the air for ten minutes, plus Luke's own confession.  Quick Fire Three: dedicating people to a tech change, why results are the wrong thing to manage by, and the one gut check Luke uses on every partner.  Why now  The IT industry is shedding jobs through a mix of cost pressure, AI restructuring and ordinary business cycles, and the human cost is not being discussed honestly. Releasing during Men's Health Week, with its See Your GP theme, gives the show a reason to put the men's health thread front and centre. The board and NED angle is just as current, with a generation of senior tech leaders weighing up what their next decade looks like.  Who this episode is for  CIOs, CTOs and senior IT leaders thinking about board and NED roles as their next move.  Technology executives navigating AI-driven restructures, in their own teams or their own careers.  Anyone in tech leadership who has tied their identity to a title and is starting to wonder what comes next.  Listeners who care about men's mental health and want a candid take from inside the industry.    Hosts: Naran McClung & Jono Staff. Follow Naran McClung: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naranmcclung/ Follow Jono Staff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstaff/ Follow Things. Reasons.: https://www.linkedin.com/company/things-reasons/ Instagram / TikTok: @things.reasons Enquiries: pru@thingsreasons.show

    46 min

  2. 21 May

    Broken Things. Human Reasons | Ep. 13

    Twenty years ago, the IT professional's primary qualification was confidence. Nobody had the context to evaluate you. You showed up, tried a reboot, and if it worked, you were a genius. This is the episode where Jono Staff and Naran McClung look back honestly at how the job actually was, what changed, and where it is going.    About This Episode  A special edition with no guest. Two 20-year IT veterans reflecting on three distinct eras of the profession: the pre-SaaS field tech years, the cloud and SaaS shift that solved most of the old problems and created new ones, and the AI era that is moving faster than anything before it.    What This Episode Covers  What IT work looked like before cloud, before SaaS, and before anyone had decent documentation  Why confidence was the most valuable skill a field tech could have in the early 2000s  The specific disasters that happen when test and production environments meet unexpectedly  How the MSP job changed when SaaS arrived and made most of the old technical problems someone else's problem  Why the modern IT professional has to be commercially fluent in a way that was never expected before  The rising cost of SaaS and AI tools, and what it means for IT budgets  Where AI agents and automation are taking the profession in the next five years  A call for listener confessions: the outages, the cover-ups, and the tickets that got closed before they were really fixed    Why Now  AI is reshaping the IT profession faster than cloud did, but the context for understanding that shift is rarely discussed honestly. This conversation provides it: what the job has been, what changed at each inflection point, and why it matters now.    Who This Episode Is For  IT professionals who built their careers before the cloud era and want to hear their experience reflected honestly  MSP and managed service leaders thinking about how the profession is evolving  CIOs and IT directors interested in a candid take on how the job has changed over two decades  Anyone who has ever merged a test environment with production by accident  Leave your anonymous confession here: https://thingsreasons.show/confessions/  Listen to The Hyperscalers Are Winning. Are You? | Rant Cast #2 | Ep. 9: https://youtu.be/uJkewa9GYV4 Subscribe for new episodes every two weeks. LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/things-reasons Follow Naran's Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/things-reasons-newsletter-7371660254704701440/ Follow Jono's Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/things-reasons-newsletter-7371662467678023680/ Instagram: @things.reasons H8P6U4MawpmxqKHSIwbS

    45 min

  3. 28 Apr

    $10M ARR With 15 People | Jason Serda on How AI Is Rewriting Australia's Startup

    Episode overview  Australia's startup market just hit an inflection point. $503 million raised across 25 rounds in the first two months of 2026.  Twenty five per cent up on the year before.  US venture funds are looking south. Singapore now has more family offices per capita than anywhere else in the world, and they are writing cheques into Australian tech.  Something has shifted, and the rules of who gets funded have shifted with it.    About the guest  Jason Serda founded Blue Fire and sold it to Dimension Data. He ran global CTO at NTT. He now leads Utiliti Group, a Sydney and US-based venture firm with $150 million invested, 50-plus companies backed, and 13 exits on the board. His focus is helping Australian founders crack the US market.    What this episode covers: Why a $10m ARR business now runs on 15 to 20 people instead of 50 to 70.   Why 'growth at any cost' is finished and 'profit in months, not years' is the new venture standard.   How Utiliti uses AI to assess 80 to 90 pitch decks every month before a human reads one.   The single ratio Jason uses to read a founder's execution capability in under a minute. The ZOUD, the named meeting Jason ran at NTT that he thinks every exec team should bring back.  What separates the founders who get funded from the ones who get politely declined.    Why now: AI is reshaping how Australian companies raise capital, build product, and run operations.   The investors with the lowest cost of selection win.   The founders with the highest revenue per employee compound.   The teams that can hold a difficult conversation in private avoid the public correction.  Who this episode is for:  Founders thinking about their first or next raise.   Tech and commercial leaders being asked by their boards what AI changes for headcount and capital allocation.   Investors who want to see how a working AI venture pipeline operates in practice. Anyone with an idea sitting on the back burner who needs a reason to pick it up.

    52 min

  4. 1 Apr

    The Cloud Left 70% of the World Behind. This Guy's Coming to Fix It. | Ep. 11

    The cloud was supposed to connect everyone. It didn't.  When the hyperscalers built their massive data centers, they reached about 30% of the world and called it a day. The other 70%? Left behind. And as AI explodes into every corner of our lives — from autonomous vehicles to oil rigs to disaster response — that gap is becoming a crisis.  Dan Wright, co-founder and CEO of Armada, is on a mission to close that gap. His answer is modular, rapidly deployable AI factories called Galleons that sail to wherever the data is, not the other way around. Remote mines. Ships in the middle of the ocean. The Alaskan wilderness. Anywhere.  In this episode, Dan joins Jono and Naran fresh off the plane from San Francisco to talk about why sovereign AI is the most important conversation, what the US National AI Action Plan actually means on the ground, and why physical AI — robots, autonomous rigs, self-driving everything — is coming faster than any of us are ready for.  He also makes the case that Australia, with its land, its energy, and its strategic position, has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to matter in the global AI race. The question is whether we'll move fast enough to take it.  Buckle up. Follow Naran McClung on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Naranmcclung/  Follow Jono Staff on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstaff/

    45 min

  5. 19 Mar

    Human Things. AI Reasons. | Ep. 10

    Artificial intelligence is everywhere, in headlines, boardrooms, and strategy decks.  In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Kate Gwynne, who works at the intersection of technology, leadership, and education, helping organizations navigate AI adoption while keeping people at the center of the equation.  We talked about the gap between AI ambition and execution inside businesses. Why leaders are struggling to translate AI strategy into real organizational impact. And why the future of AI might not be about replacing human intelligence — but amplifying it.  We also asked mandatory uncomfortable questions shaping the future of work:  What happens to entry-level jobs?  How should universities prepare the next generation?  And what responsibility do leaders have when automation starts reshaping entire roles?  Technology may be advancing quickly, but the real challenge is still deeply human.  This episode explores why human-centred AI might be the only path forward.  Follow Naran McClung on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Naranmcclung/  Follow Jono Staff on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstaff/  Listen on Spotify:   Listen on Apple Podcasts:  Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/He4CTa26Rj4  If your need beautiful merch with zero hassle, head to:Marque Store     And don't forget to subscribe and rate the show! We love hearing your thoughts and answering questions.  For all enquiries, contact pru@thingsreasons.show

    38 min

  6. 9 Feb

    The Hyperscalers Are Winning. Are You? | Rant Cast #2 | Ep. 9

    Most hyperscale sellers are formally trained. Most hyperscale buyers are not. And that imbalance isn't theoretical — it shows up in your contract terms, your cloud architecture, and your long-term bill. In this episode, we unpack how hyperscalers like AWS actually sell: the methodologies, champion strategies, architectural tactics, and trust-based playbooks that quietly influence major decisions inside your organization. We're not here to bash hyperscalers. They're doing exactly what they're designed to do. The question is whether you're equally prepared on the other side of the table. If you're accountable for a multi-million-dollar cloud relationship and you've never been trained to sell, this conversation may change how you approach every renewal, optimization review, and "strategic partnership" meeting. This is about levelling the playing field — and asking whether you're negotiating… or just approving. Hosts: Naran McClung & Jono Staff. Follow Naran McClung: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Naranmcclung/ Follow Jono Staff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstaff/ Follow Things. Reasons.: https://www.linkedin.com/company/things-reasons/ Instagram / TikTok: @things.reasons Enquiries: pru@thingsreasons.show

    47 min

  7. 16/12/2025

    The Analyst, the Disclaimer, and the Two-Speed AI Economy

    Things. Reasons. is an independent podcast. The views expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not represent any company or organisation. Content is for general information and entertainment only and should not be taken as professional, legal, or financial advice. While care is taken, no guarantee is made as to accuracy. Any references to people or organisations reflect personal opinions only and are not intended to harm reputation or imply wrongdoing. Follow Naran McClung on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naranmcclung/ Follow Jono Staff on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstaff/ Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/0YbxPo0LFFc  And don't forget to subscribe and rate the show! We love hearing your thoughts and answering questions. For all enquiries, contact pru@thingsreasons.show

    42 min
  8. Australia's AI Energy Emergency with Andrew Sjoquist

    16/12/2025

    Australia's AI Energy Emergency with Andrew Sjoquist

    What happens when the world's fastest-growing technology meets one of Australia's biggest natural advantages — renewable energy? In this episode, Andrew Sjoquist — Australian tech founder and CEO of WinDC — joins us to unpack the explosive energy demands of AI, why traditional data centers can't keep up, and the bold idea he believes could reshape the industry. Andrew breaks down: How portable, renewable-powered AI data centers actually work — and why they could transform access to compute. The limitations of today's hyperscale data centers and why proximity to energy matters more than ever. What this shift means for regional Australia — jobs, infrastructure, and new innovation hubs. Why understanding the power supply chain is becoming a core skill for tech leaders. The role of government, regulation, and long-term policy in enabling (or blocking) AI growth. A sharp, practical conversation about energy, innovation, and the global race to build the infrastructure AI will need next. Show Notes: Things. Reasons. is an independent podcast. The views expressed by hosts and guests are their own and do not represent any company or organisation. Content is for general information and entertainment only and should not be taken as professional, legal, or financial advice. While care is taken, no guarantee is made as to accuracy. Any references to people or organisations reflect personal opinions only and are not intended to harm reputation or imply wrongdoing. And don't forget to subscribe and rate the show! We love hearing your thoughts and answering questions. For all enquiries, contact pru@thingsreasons.show

    56 min
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About

Things. Reasons. is the independent podcast for Australian IT leaders. Hosted by Naran McClung and Jono Staff, we unpack what is actually driving change in Australian IT — cloud strategy, AI, cybersecurity, managed services, and vendor dynamics. Not vendor theatre. The conversation after the meeting. New episodes every two weeks. A podcast for CIOs, CTOs, and technology leaders navigating AI, cloud, and enterprise transformation.

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