Skip to main content

Season 2, Episode 6: Leading Change at Scale: Lessons from Complex Digital Transformation in Councils

Dr. Tom Gao | October 2025

Featuring Dr. Tom Gao, Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer at City of Sydney

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Tom Gao, Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer at the City of Sydney, as he shares hard-won insights from leading digital transformation at one of Australia’s local government organizations. In this episode, Tom exposes the critical gap between promised business cases and actual benefit realization, offering proven strategies for ensuring transformation investments deliver measurable value.

Dr Tom Gao

Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer, City of Sydney

Dr. Tom Gao serves as Chief Technology and Digital Services Officer for the City of Sydney, one of Australia’s most complex and economically significant local government areas. In this role, he oversees digital technology, innovation, and cybersecurity initiatives for an organization that manages 33 suburbs, serves 220,000 residents and one million daily visitors, and contributes 20% of New South Wales’ GDP and 7% of Australia’s national GDP.

Key Highlights:

  • Why measuring organizational agility and adaptability matters more than individual project success metrics in transformation initiatives.
  • Practical frameworks for evaluating legacy system modernization priorities based on risk, cybersecurity exposure, and business efficiency opportunities.
  • The overlooked importance of organizational resilience planning.
  • Investing in essential infrastructure improvements for sustainable long-term outcomes.

Listen as Podcast

app download

Recap: Dive Back into Previous Episodes

BPM RealTalk - Season 2, Episode 1

In this episode, Carlos unpacks how leaders can effectively integrate purpose, people, processes, and practices to build a high-performance culture and deliver lasting impact. Carlos explains why culture is the “secret sauce” that connects these four pillars and how leaders must design and actively drive that culture to avoid misalignment and regress into old habits.

BPM RealTalk - Season 2, Episode 2

In this conversation with Sundeep Thusoo, a global transformation leader with deep expertise in global business operations and strategy, shares how organisations can thrive in today’s AI-driven era by reimagining transformation through the lens of complex adaptive systems

BPM RealTalk- Season 2, Episode 3

In this powerful episode of BPM RealTalk, host Bianca Kruger is joined by Marta Prewett, a seasoned transformation leader driving global business process excellence at NORMA Group. Marta shares her journey of building a high-performing BPM function from the ground up, and how her team successfully supported a multi-year global ERP rollout across a highly complex, M&A-driven organisation.

BPM RealTalk- Season 2, Episode 4

Join us for an insightful conversation with Maurizio Tessarotto, a digital transformation leader with over 15 years of experience in bridging technology and business. In this episode, Maurizio shares valuable perspectives on how organizations can unite business and IT teams to drive growth, optimize operations, and elevate the customer journey through strategic innovation.

BPM RealTalk- Season 2, Episode 5

Join us for an insightful conversation with Dena Kempt, as she shares her expertise on the value of process mapping before official policies are established. In this episode, Dena reveals why waiting for perfect policies often leads to missed opportunities and how proactive process documentation can drive organizational efficiency and improvement.

Upcoming Episodes

Get ready for a thrilling lineup! Check out the exciting themes of our upcoming interactions.