There is so much in common in business and ecology, she says.

"Much of our business is about change," says the Kiwi-born McBride, now president, North American region of software company SAP. "You adapt or you die. You evolve or you get left behind."

She adopts the same perspective to what is happening in the tech industry, with ongoing mergers which sometimes lead to extinction of early powerhouse technology brands. "I look at them as habitats, occupied by organisations called companies, one consumed by another."

"When you are acquiring companies you are injecting new DNA to improve your core competencies. You can morph into something else. You are constantly mutating and changing. I use these parallels in transforming the business."

It is not surprising that McBride uses these metaphors: if she had not segued into a career in technology, she would have been working in the natural sciences.