When a love for the performing arts...
And a passion for travel...
Merge to make an interesting Director of Information Technology
David Parkes
Director of Information Technology • Cushing Co.
Here at ReproMAX, we are noticing a trend…technology seems to attract a fairly diverse group of people, and David Parkes is no exception to that rule. As the Director of Information Technology at Cushing Co. in Chicago, David has combined his skills in the performing arts and his need to travel the world to make a successful career in the IT industry.
As David explains it “It’s the wonderful thing about being in technology, there’s always something new to learn—how to solve a problem or deliver a product. There’s a lot of creativity in that.”
David’s role at Cushing is multi-faceted. He performs “all things IT”. That includes network administration, application administration and everything from fixing computers to decking out the new conference room in the latest audio/visual equipment. He’s managed the development of the “home grown” ERP system with a couple of developers. They designed it and built it out with an off-shore resource to support it. Their system will do everything from quoting to fulfillment, invoicing and beyond. “We wrote it, developed it and continue to support it. It’s a little bit of everything.”
We sat down with David to ask him a few questions about what he does and what’s going on at Cushing Co. these days.
So how’s it going in the new place? (Cushing moved from 420 West Huron to 213 West Institute Place in June.)
It was a complete, clean build-out for us so we managed to build it from floor to ceiling, and it’s all on one floor instead of an entire building. This gave us the opportunity to really clean things up. A move like this helps us to sweep all the old stuff behind us and get it simplified—both figuratively and literally. We’re leaner and meaner and all on one floor so everyone is working together more.
We hear you’re an accomplished actor? Can you tell us about that?
Although I've worked primarily onstage, I've also done a bit of television of late. I was on the Chicago Fire series, I did the pilot for that. Then, later on Chicago Med, where I did a couple of episodes. I think they’re starting to pare those down, so that whole experiment is waning.
I was trained as an actor as a child. I was on a TV series when I was a 15 or so called “Kids World”. It was a “60-Minutes” type of a show with kids as hosts and reporters, and I was one of the anchors of the show. I was living in Florida at the time, but it got picked up by NBC for a couple of seasons. Then it went into syndication. I’d performed in local theaters in Florida, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Then I went to New York and studied at NY University where I did the starving actor routine for 10 or 11 years. I went to graduate school back in Florida and then came to Chicago and haven’t looked back.
In New York, I found a way to supplement my passion for acting because I like knowing where my next meal is coming from! I started out doing market research work, and the picked up a little word processing experience. When I moved to Chicago, I got a job working for a grant project at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and as they were one of the first institutions to have access to the internet, I had access to early iterations of the web. I picked up a lot and when the project ran down, I thought I could make a living at this.
I signed up with a placement company and took a few odd jobs. Eventually, I came to Cushing where Cathy Duff hired me and paid for my network certification on the condition that I commit to staying at Cushing for at least 2 years. That was 20 years ago! They’ve been amazingly supportive of my passion for acting.
Right now, I’m a company member of Timeline Theater in Chicago. We do four shows a year, and I usually do at least one of them. There’s one more show after the first of the year, and I'll be working on that. I also did a play in Baltimore not long ago and worked with a very good friend of mine.
What about your travel? We hear you’ve been to some interesting places.
Well, the more involved I was with IT, the more I wanted to be outside and get some sun! One day I started wandering around a Barnes & Noble and found a book about the Appalachian Trail. I like walking in the woods and ultimately started finding places around the Midwest.
I eventually came upon a coffee table book that was a compilation of some of the world’s great hikes. This has become my bucket list, and I try to make a hike every year. I figure out when to go and block it out, and the book is enough of a guide to help me prepare for each of these trips. I’ve been to Austria, France, Peru, Mt. Kilimanjaro to name a few. This year I'll be doing my 15th hike from the book in the Himalayas.
The travel becomes so fulfilling for so many reasons—it forces me to stay in shape once a year and it gets me off the grid and off a computer, which in turn gives me a completely different perspective on the world and on business. For two weeks, everything is on your back, and the world suddenly gets very simple and very clear. It’s been the journey of my life!
Obviously, you’re a pretty creative guy. How does creativity help you develop information technology at Cushing?
It’s the wonderful thing about being in technology, there’s always something new to learn--how to solve a problem or deliver a product. There’s a lot of creativity in that. There’s never one way to solve anything. It helps me recognize that I can approach problems in different ways that perhaps gets you to a different solution. A perspective of empathy really helps. Sometimes IT can get caught up in just throwing a solution at a problem, but you need to put yourself on the other side of the desk--what are they seeing, what is their frustration and get them to a more productive place. I try to put aside what I know and put myself in their place.
Acting helps you understand the world from different perspectives, as it’s all about give and take and being empathetic, so I've found that much of that training has helped me on the IT side as well.
So how much do you think technology has changed since you’ve been in the digital printing industry?
Well, at the end of the day, technology is still about addressing basic human concerns. Tech can get too caught up with itself and lose sight of what initiated the problems— often it was a basic human need. You have to go back to that and start addressing the problems from that perspective. It helps to understand that you’re in tune with the human element versus the technology solution that changes literally on a daily basis.
From an information technology perspective, what sort of advice would you offer to others in the digital printing industry?
I would say that it’s crucial that we understand that we aren’t a commodity-based industry any longer. Which is to say we’re increasingly more a solution provider, rather than a manufacturer, we need to understand the customer’s unique needs and try to offer unique solutions - differentiate yourself from others.
From a tech perspective, you need to understand what the customer wants, and then find a way to maintain that knowledge, so when customers come back to you there's already an established relationship there, and regardless of turnover, you're able to provide them the customized service they expect.
Technology can help you keep track of all that information and make the connection. At the core it's getting the right information in front of the right people at the right time. The more we can organize that information in a way that is easy to find and understand, the more we can respond appropriately.