Build upon a star - Ctrl Alt Lead podcast

Admiral’s chief engineer on how his team guides company culture

Building an organisation-wide, IT-first culture is a daunting task, but one most workers accept is necessary. An engineering-led culture is a very different prospect.

Pankaj Kane, the chief engineer at FTSE 100 insurance firm Admiral, says the work started with “a common vision: a North Star.”

“Our North Star is a statement that says once an engineer has checked in the code or committed the code, there is no human intervention till it goes live to production.”

That was an “aspirational and challenging” target to hit, but it’s prompted changes for the good across Admiral.

Those changes include an operating model that encourages a long-term view; a cloud-native tooling strategy; defined career paths; investment in upskilling; and a focus on measurements, data and analytics to demonstrate value.

But there have been challenges along the way, like making sure the culture isn’t tied to a specific person – that way, when that person moves on, the culture remains.

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