March/April 2015 // Public Gaming International //
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of the broader gaming environment.
But many things haven’t changed. The
customer still comes first. We still need to
work hard on collaboration and coopera-
tion, both internally and externally. Creating
games that people love to play, and success-
fully delivering those games so they can play
them—essentially operational
excellence in all of its forms—
all this matters just as much
today as it did over 30 years
ago. The nature of our chal-
lenges, the scale and complex-
ity of the opportunities, has
changed enormously. But our
mission to help our customers
succeed has not changed. So
as a priority, I want to ensure that we contin-
ue to focus and work together on the things
that are important to our customers, helping
them to grow, which in turn is good for us
as well. After all, we are all in this together,
aligned around a common goal.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities
ahead both at GTECH and for the indus-
try overall?
M. Chambrello:
We are so fortunate to
be in the industry at this point in time. There
are almost limitless opportunities in terms of
technology that we can leverage to enhance
the consumer experience, to ensure that lot-
tery remains relevant, accessible, and fun in
this digital age. I am convinced GTECH is
uniquely positioned to collaborate with third
parties, and potentially even our competitors,
to provide the best possible solutions to our
customers. I believe that there is still tremen-
dous opportunity for retail expansion to new
trade styles and great opportunity for opti-
mizing our current retail footprint to grow
same store sales. I will take time at the start
of each day – and will encourage our employ-
ees to do this as well—to focus on: “What
can I do, today, to improve the quality of
our products and services, to assure relentless
field execution, and most importantly to fur-
ther strengthen our customer relationships,
thus continuing to earn their trust and their
business?” As Winston Churchill was fond of
saying, “Continuous effort … is the key to
unlocking our potential.”
What do you see as the biggest challenges?
M. Chambrello:
There’s never any one
single challenge but really a series of many
challenges. I see them as opportunities. At
the end of the day, the retailers are the ones
selling our product. Our reliance on them
will always be there, so that is a critical area
of focus for all of us. We must leverage tech-
nology to help retailers to deliver an en-
hanced consumer experience and ultimately
optimize their sales and lottery profits to
good causes. I plan to focus on the challenge
of making their lives easier, which will re-
quire delving deeply into field operations, so
we fully understand what works and what
doesn’t, and developing technology road-
maps to exceed their expectations and de-
light both players and prospective players.
As GTECH prepares to merge with another ma-
jor company, how will you make sure that the
focus and investment in lottery do not diminish?
M. Chambrello:
One of the things that
really excited me about coming back now is
the chance to assist with this transformation.
Change can and should be a good thing.
How do you take two separate entities,
integrate them, and make certain to deliver
a great result for all stakeholders? It’s really
all about people. So much creativity and
new opportunity can flow from people sit-
ting down together, coming from a posi-
tion of mutual respect and understanding
to form a powerful new entity that main-
tains the best qualities of both organiza-
tions. There are a lot of really smart people
in both GTECH and IGT. Our combined
cultures, heritages, and strengths give us
even broader range of solutions (both in
content and technology) and capabilities
than we had individually.
I have great confidence and faith in the di-
rection we’re headed. I believe that the natu-
ral apprehension that comes with change
will quickly be turned into tremendous
positive energy, just by making and deliver-
ing on a commitment to enhance commu-
nications at all levels (internally and exter-
nally), and working together in an open,
honest, and inclusive environment. This is
not a competition—Lottery vs. Gaming. It’s
determining: How together can we do bet-
ter, what can we each bring
to the table to enhance our
customers’ experience? My
job will be to ensure that
our focus on lottery does not
waver, that the investment
is in place that will allow us
to combine the best of both
GTECH’s and IGT’s ideas
and technology for the bene-
fit of our lottery customers, whether it is the
outstanding, innovative IGT game library
leveraged to expand lottery, or the rich heri-
tage of secure systems, reliable services, and
robust platforms embedded in the GTECH
family, and our shared conviction about cus-
tomer service and operational excellence.
We are privileged to be the industry lead-
er today; we intend not only to maintain
that leadership, but to launch an aggressive
R&D roadmap to enhance our offerings to
help enable our customers’ growth.
Who is Mike Chambrello, the person?What is
your passion outside the lottery?
M. Chambrello:
When I left GTECH
in 1998, I had four relatively young kids
and a wonderful wife. Now I have four not-
so-young kids, and my wonderful wife, De-
nise, has stuck with me for almost 30 years.
That’s probably the essence of what I ever
wanted to do and ever wanted to be. Re-
ally, family and friends and being together
is what’s important. Now what do I do
in my down time? I’m pretty simple and
straightforward—I love to read, particu-
larly history and biographies. My favorite
historical figure is Winston Churchill. At
home, my favorite thing in the world to
do on a nice summer day is to get on my
tractor and move something that doesn’t
need to be moved and then put it back to
where it didn’t need to be moved from in
the beginning. I golf, horribly, but I enjoy
it at times. Really it’s the simple, mundane
things in life that are relaxing to me. And if
I’m doing it with my family, all the better.
■
“My job will be to ensure that our focus on
lottery does not waver, that the investment is in place
that will allow us to combine the best of
both GTECH’s and IGT’s ideas and technology
for the benefit of our lottery customers.”
