Head of Delivery and Innovation Craig McLintock tells us about his career development from aspiring Accountant to Innovation & Digital all rounder. 

What did you want to do career-wise when you left school?  

I planned to become an accountant after leaving school. I went to Otago University to study and did a couple of papers in Information Science, which was in its infancy back in the 90's. I really enjoyed it.

Tell us about your career to date.

After my studies, I went to work for Mainland Products as a trainee programmer in Dunedin. They were going through an expansion phase and expanding into manufacturing and new products. There were a lot of mergers in the 90's of dairy co-ops and and from 1997 to 2021 it grew from 600 employees to 2,500.

I moved into a Developer role which incorporated many responsibilities that a Business Analyst and Tester would do today. I spent a lot of time going around the organisation and seeing how people did things, recording what they did and how they did it. I was then tasked with figuring out how we could use technology to streamline these processes. I was fortunate to work for an organisation that invested in technology and, with the mergers and acquisitions the company got involved in, I was exposed to a wide range of projects.

After working for Meridian for a few years I moved to ANZCO as a Senior Business Analyst. They had just put in Lawson’s M3’s system (similar to Microsoft D365). My focus there was helping the team to establish BAU rather than a firefighting mode.

I then had the opportunity to move into consulting with Assurity. I had proved to myself that my skills were portable and I had deliberately not tied myself to any particularly technology. I was there for 6 years and went from being a senior BA to a Principal Consultant and worked with a variety of organisations.

What led you to Farmlands? 

As part of my role at Assurity I did some work for Farmlands as part of their fuel team, specifically on their after hours payment system at Challenge sites. I hadn’t done anything with payment systems prior and needed to work out requirements, what to do when it wasn’t working, understand the Farmlands card, and how to make the system replicable across more sites.

This led onto other improvements in the fuel space as well, working on improvements for the scheduling team and delivery drivers. We got a lot done and saw significant improvements.

How have you grown in your time with us at Farmlands? 

I started working at Farmlands in 2018 during the Braveheart project and was responsible for the transition - going from the old systems to the new. This included the retail side which went really well. We learned from each department roll out and reduced the implementation time for each launch. A good lesson was around doing a dress rehearsal – prepare, do a dry run, and address issues as they come up.

What are you most proud of during your time at Farmlands? 

Transitioning our fuel business over to Fern was a good achievement as it went really smoothly because of my knowledge. 

Working to modernise the Farmlands card systems is also a big achievement. We put the platform in place and got our first Card Partners onto it and were able to accept online payments.

Now with Shopify, we are doing a test solution around digital payments and looking at QR codes which is really cool that we are finally here. We could support self-pay onsite with Card Partners if we can provide QR code payment. I am really proud of researching the payment ecosystem, selecting the right provider, getting it in and we now have something that will enable really a good customer experience. This will also become easier for our Card Partners.

What would your advice be for someone who's interested in a career in your area at Farmlands? 

Take advantage of opportunities and how you can leverage those. Do what you're interested in, and take what you know and pivot on it. At Mainland I was a Developer which incorporated Business Analyst tasks. I realised I could then pivot industries as a Business Analyst. I started working in simple projects then built up to more complex projects - i.e. ERP projects. I've now done three. Learn those foundations and grow from there.

Why work at Farmlands? We are using modern solutions and making it easier to deliver better stuff. Taking an interest in what an organisation does and understanding what we do across the organisation allows you to do enterprise architecture. We are always looking at how we can use the right solutions to achieve the outcome, and looking forward at what cool stuff is coming.

We are looking at several solutions in the AI space at Farmlands - i.e. our CRM and ERP systems have Microsoft Co-pilot. We are also looking at how we can use a Concierge to ask a question and, with access to information in Farmlands related to your role, it will provide a solution back.                                                   

Interested in what we offer in the Innovation and Digital space?

Check out our I & D page for more details.

Interested in working with Craig in our Innovation and Digital team?

Connect with us on our careers site or check out our current vacancies.