Hi, I’m Phil Ginakis, founder and principal adviser of Ginakis Advisory.
I started this practice to bring the benefits and possibilities of AI to more organisations and the people within them.
I’m a civil engineer by profession. I spent sixteen years in engineering and infrastructure across Australia and the Middle East, progressing from design into global digital delivery leadership. Long before ChatGPT arrived, I was an enthusiastic technologist, always exploring and adopting new design and engineering technologies, so you can imagine my excitement at what AI has become.
Despite my love of technology itself and its promise, I’ve always been fascinated, and often challenged, by its adoption. A technology existing, even one that solves real problems and makes new things possible, is no guarantee that an organisation can or will adopt it. Over the last few years, that challenge has grown into a real passion for change management.
What gets me out of bed in the morning is how emerging technologies, combined with good leadership and strategy, can bring out the best in people. I believe that, done right, technology can be a catalyst for tremendous human creativity and satisfaction at work. Most people have an innovator in them. They understand the problems and friction in their own work and, given the opportunity, want to make things better. That desire is especially strong when they’re passionate about what they do. Technology can give them the means to exercise that creativity, do their best work and, in doing so, create enormous value for their organisation and its customers.
As a person, I’m incredibly energetic and curious. I love big ideas and tackling big questions, and I love collaborating with people who are passionate about their work. Seeing someone’s eyes light up when they realise how a technology could solve a problem they know well is one of my favourite things. I love helping them think through the strategies and practical steps that could make that future possible.
In the last few years, I’ve become consumed by the challenge of AI adoption: how to bring this tremendous opportunity to more people while working through its challenges.
I think conventional change management and vendor-led consulting leave something to be desired. Too often, the ambition stops at getting people to use a tool or squeeze it into an existing workflow, overlooking the opportunity to rethink how work is done and achieve greater, more important things.
AI represents a fundamental shift in what’s possible. It’s causing us to re-evaluate the foundations of knowledge work and offers us an opportunity to rethink labour, effort, creativity and value. This is a uniquely exciting time to question how work is done and explore what’s possible that wasn’t before.
At the same time, workers, customers and society are asking big questions. New risks are emerging, and existing governance approaches don’t always provide the confidence or answers people need. I believe one of the biggest challenges leaders face today is holding those two things at the same time: taking those concerns seriously while helping their organisations see and pursue the opportunity.
That means asking bigger questions and having better, tougher conversations with ourselves about what we want to achieve, why we want that, and how we’ll support our people and customers through it. It means involving the people who know the work in defining how it will be done, giving them permission and support to challenge assumptions and try ideas. They should be involved in decisions that affect them and supported to do their best work.
Fundamentally, I believe an organisation will succeed in the age of AI by rethinking old assumptions and backing the ingenuity of its people. With clear direction and the right support, they can help imagine and build a better version of the organisation they’re part of.
That’s why I started Ginakis Advisory. If you’re thinking about these things or feel similarly, I’d love to talk. Whether you want to bring these conversations to your team, think bigger and bolder about how work could be done, or explore how AI could help your organisation become the best version of itself, I’d love to be involved.
Phil
