Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

“Let's give the financial services market a bigger mission than money. I’m hoping to build something that people will care about and will love. Not because it has great user experience, even though it is, but because it genuinely cares about people becoming their best selves. We’re not in this business for the money but we’re in it to create a movement that helps people actualise their full potential” Josh on changing the world with fintech software Josh is Co-founder & CTO at Yulife. An experienced executive and entrepreneur Josh creates value in a digital world. He helps big businesses adapt to leverage the power of web, mobile, and data. Josh is an Inspiring and enthusing team leader who wants to push the boundaries of what has been done before, creating award-winning digital and mobile strategies. He enjoys managing projects from inception to execution both within the UK and Internationally. Yulife Yulife is the world’s first lifestyle insurance company. We bring together life insurance, wellbeing & rewards in one simple app using fintech software. Podcast Josh sat down with Andy to talk about Yulife from inception to now. They also chat the innovative way Josh informed the design of his fintech software by consulting a dungeons & dragons game master.

Alvin is CTO at TheHouseShop.com He’s worked in technology for over a decade as a software engineer and a technical manager. Working across a wide range of industries including finance, publishing, property & mapping technologies Alvin is as comfortable writing code as he is managing teams. TheHouseShop.com TheHouseShop.com is the UK's No.1 Property Marketplace where agents, landlords, homeowners, and developers all advertise properties for sale and to rent in the UK. TheHouseShop.com provides a gateway for homeowners to access all the ways to sell a home: from For-Sale-By-Owner and online agents to high street agents and even property auctions. Users have the opportunity to search the entire market in one place, with listings from private sellers, online agents, high street agents, property auctions and online estate agents. TheHouseShop's unique selection of properties will not be found on other major UK portals which cater exclusively to agents. Podcast On the show Alvin tells Andy about the positive social impact TheHouseShop.com is having on the property market. They also discuss the pros and cons of contracting.

Robert is Chief Squads and Service Officer at AND Digital. Rob is a technology leader with mixed consulting & industry background focusing on true stakeholder engagement in delivering change and technology. AND Digital AND Digital accelerates the development of world-class digital capabilities, and they power the product development of ambitious companies - from British Airways and Conde Nast, to The Telegraph, Gousto and more. They work with clients’ people to build impactful products AND high performing teams. AND Digital blends technical craft and product expertise with an award-winning approach to talent growth and development. Podcast On the show, Robert and Andy talk about the increasing role AI and audio software is playing in our lives. They also chat about determining an ROI when using new technologies. Robert tells Andy about his role as a ‘Chief Squads and Service Officer’.

Felicity is HR Manager at Totally Money. Felicity is excited to be helping build a brilliant employee culture, recruiting and retaining amazing people and focusing in particular on staff well-being, L&D and employee engagement. Totally Money TotallyMoney puts customers right at the centre of their credit data, helping them make smarter decisions to take control of their finances. Their free credit report and live credit score, along with their unique Borrowing Power and Match Factor technologies, give customers the information they need to find the right financial products, make better financial decisions and build stronger credit histories. Podcast On the show, Felicity discusses the best practices for a HR manager using a few archaeology analogies. She also describes the novel way Totally Money displays its cultural values through classic albums. Show Notes: 00.32 The role of the HR manager in building a positive company culture. 07.26 Diversity in the senior management team. 11.55 Managing egos in the office. 14.29 Basing your company’s cultural values around classic albums. 16.21 Autonomy in business. 20.11 Gaining fulfillment in work through autonomy. 21.55 Don’t glorify being busy. 24.30 Making your company the best place to work. 26.48 Professional qualifications for career progression.

“There’s a balance to strike, we don’t want to be at the expensive part of tech, the early adopters who are going to pay the price for nocking all the edges of new platforms before they’re really fit for purpose. But equally, once they do become fit for purpose we really need to make sure we don’t miss out on that. I think tech at the moment and certainly digital tech you know web communications technology has really matured to the degree that things that were really expensive to do a year or two years ago are relatively cheap now.” Martin on implementing digital change in the charity sector Martin is Chief Information Officer at World vision. An innovative and creative leader specialising in bringing charities into the digital age. Martin is always looking for big opportunities to use technology to do good. He ’s created the leading digital agency in the UK nonprofit sector, transformed the European arm of a US multinational and then created an award-winning and successful Fintech startup. World Vision. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian, development and advocacy organisation devoted to improving the lives of children, families and their communities around the world. It has nearly 40,000 staff members working in nearly 100 countries that are united through their ethos, mission and shared desire for all individuals, especially children, to overcome poverty, inequality, and injustice. Podcast. On the show, Martin explains the challenges when working with tech in the charity sector. He tells Andy about the 10 year tech lag and how charities are trying to close that gap to improve efficiency.

Kelly is HR director for MAG (Airport Group) Kelly is the HR Director for MAG-O (digital agency) and global corporate development including MAG USA. MAG (Airport Group) MAG is the UK’s leading airport group and owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands Airports, together with a significant property business. MAG employs over 6,000 people and annually serves over 55 million passengers. Podcast On the show, Kelly talks to Andy about the difficulty of quantifying culture. They also discuss staff retention in the 21st century and how best to instigate cultural change as a leader. Show Notes: 00.36 The pressure on HR departments. 04.27 Is there a one size fits all approach to HR? 07.11 Retaining staff in the 21st century. 09.46 Reluctance to change. 11.35 People management is more important than ever. 15.46 Instigating change as a leader. 17.59 Quantifying culture. 21.56 Creating internal digital disruption. 25.28 Understanding what ‘good’ looks like. 27.09 Sharing your success. 32.54 What have you done? What are your achievements?

“If you starting a career in software late it would be a little daunting. I see it with junior developers at AnyVan. I’ve got some really talented people on my team and even if you’re a seasoned developer you’re working with a big system that’s been built over 9 years. There are people at AnyVan that really know what’s going on. So even though on paper you look like you’ve got a lot of experience it can be difficult when someone reviews your code and says ‘you’ve done this wrong and this wrong’. Hopefully they don’t put it that way they put it in a nice way, we have to make an effort to be friendly and informative when correcting errors. We need to make sure people are given all the support they need” Tim Ronayne is the CTO at AnyVan.com Tim has been with AnyVan since its inception. After building their website back in 2009 he has helped build out their team of engineers to constantly improve the site. By expanding the site to new areas Tim has seen their user base grow beyond 3 million. Since working for Apple’s support line in Australia back in the 80’s Tim moved from aeronautical engineering degree to a computer science one and learned computing by working for Apple. He moved to web development in the early 2000’s and freelanced until 2009. AnyVan.com Launched in 2009, AnyVan.com now have over 2.9 million users, 60,000 transport companies, and partnerships with Gumtree, Zoopla, and Preloved. Their low prices and customer service quality have earned them over 20,000 Trustpilot reviews with a score of 9.5/10. Podcast On the show Tim chats to Andy about the ‘data rockstars’ and whether the term is good for big data. They also talk about onboarding new staff and overcoming Australia based challenges.

“Banking is no longer boring, it’s all about cool payments” - Rich Wagner on future banking Rich is CEO of Cashplus A dynamic CEO Rich is determined to use his 30 years’ experience in US and UK financial services to help people take control of their finances. He’s passionate about leveling the playing field and giving as many people as possible access to straightforward, fast and efficient alternatives to ‘traditional’ banking services. Rich was one of the UK’s first ever fintech entrepreneurs and disruptors. He continues to make an impact today and fights to support government promises to make the banking sector more competitive. Rich lobbies for non-banks to gain access to traditional payments infrastructure. Cashplus Cashplus believes banking services shouldn’t get in the way of life - they should enrich it. So, although they’re not a bank, they’ve spent the past 12 years creating banking services that are fast, smart and simple. They hope these services will give High Street banks a run for their money. Cashplus’ overall mission is to ensure their business and personal customers aren’t slowed down but propelled forward by their technology. Podcast Richard came on the show to speak to Andy about the future banking and how fintech startups are giving ‘traditional’ banks a run for their money.

Diane Mansfield is the Global Director of IM, BI and Data at ConvaTec Diane is a business and strategy consultant with 20+ years experience in Business Intelligence and Data. She has experience in shaping, defining and leading large strategic change management programs and associated transformation activities. Diane has skills in influencing, communication, facilitation and cross functional negotiation. ConvaTec ConvaTec holds a market leading positions in advanced wound care, ostomy care, continence and critical care and infusion devices. Their customers depend on their advanced technologies to help reduce potential complications of skin breakdown and infection, and they rely on ConvaTec’s products and services to help manage their conditions every day. Podcast Diane sat down with Andy to discuss stakeholder management, instigating cultural change in a business and hiring young technologists.

“For remote working to be successful it does depend on your role. Our talent team and sales team often choose to work remotely. For programmers and software engineers there is a lot of value in being in the office. The best ideas come from random encounters with people or lunch break discussions. So if we’re all working from home it is really difficult to have them idea sessions.” Alberto Giorgi is Director of Engineering at Tray.io Alberto is an experienced technical manager with an 11+ year career in software development. 7 of those years have been spent building and leading global high-performance software engineering teams. He has a keen entrepreneurial spirit and is a regular contributor to strategic ideas and solutions to organisation. Tray.io Tray.io believe that any organisation can and should automate. With Tray.io, citizen automators throughout organisations can easily automate complex processes through a powerful, flexible platform, and can connect their entire cloud stack thanks to APIs. Podcast Alberto sat down with Andy to chat about creating a positive company culture through remote working initiatives. They also discussed management styles and debated the best ways to stay engaged with your career.