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

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Andrew Speakmaster, the CTO and Founder of SiO4 Ltd. On the show they discuss the what effects GDPR will have on business. Andy asks Andrew about the state of the security market. They also chat about the direction and growth of SiO4. Andrew is a 20 year multi organisation technical & business ICT Consultant, with business development, service delivery, project and departmental management, compliance, cyber security, ethical hacking, infrastructure solutions & architectural experience. Show Notes 1.03 The continuing need for security. 2.08 Security professionals as a finite and sought after resource. 4.47 Fostering rapid growth by throwing yourself head first into your projects. 8.44 What are the typical questions people ask you as a security professional. 14.09 The effects of having your business compromised by hackers. 16.44 Why you need to have the right mentality when looking at your computer security. 18.07 Why you need examples to justify the spend on security. 19.12 Having the ICO on the show. 22.00 Getting validation through compliance. 24.57 Panic buying security packages and waiting for the first large GDPR fine. 26.43 How SiO4 is building momentum and growing. 34.25 Having someone who can come into a business and learn everything. 37.01 The excitement surrounding the security sector. 38.44 Not fulfilling your goals because of fear. 40.52 SiO4’s contact details.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Dominic Aslan, VP of IT operations at ShipServ. On the show Andy asks Dominic about his best practices for keeping a company secure. Dominic tells Andy all about bug bounties. They also discuss the growing influence that Data is having on business. Dominic started on the telephone for CompuServe in 1997. He has worked his way through many different roles within IT departments ever since. He has had roles as user support, server support, technical engineer, team manager, architect, project manager and CIO. He is currently head of IT for a commodities broker and trader. Show Notes: 1.06 Dominic’s career progression and professional background. 5.14 Companies offering alternative paths to management. 7.27 Promoting the wrong people and a management position basically being a new role. 9.53 Keeping up with the technical world as a hands off manager. 13.50 Soft skills are now as important as technical skills. 16.25 Shifting your company culture onto a security footing. 20.09 Getting your staff bought into a set of best practices to avoid a security breach. 22.23 Detering hackers with a bug bounty. 25.07 The other angles to keeping secure online. 26.33 What are the big projects you’ve been asked to look into? 29.16 Clarity on what we expect to see from Data teams. 32.04 A data team isn’t a silver bullet to solve all your businesses problems. 34.24 The versatility of a data team and in tech more generally.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Pete Williams, a Data evangelist and the founder of The Decision Playbook. On the show they discuss the hype around the CDO position. Andy asks Pete how he gets the most out of his data teams. They also chat about the diversity present in a data team. Pete is an active member of the UK CDO community. He’s passionate and inspirational on an outcome focused data and analytics strategy to drive commercial performance. Over 20 years experience in premium UK retail have created deep experience in empowering decision makers with data driven solutions for faster, better decisions. He’s an innovative and strategic thinker, motivated to disrupt and ‘make a difference’. Show Notes: 1.07 The hype around Data and the CDO role. 5.34 Is the CDO the last piece of the puzzle in regards to the hype around data? 10.57 Is there a potentially a hierarchical issue with the CDO role? 13.13 Effectively executing on a CDO role. 19.32 Needing a vision in order to hire a CDO but you wouldn’t know what you’re looking for without hiring a CDO in the first place. 22.04 Pete's experiences in the Data space. 29.11 The diversity present in a data team. 31.05 Data as the engine that drives collaboration. 32.18 What’s the potential of data? 37.05 The bigger discussion around organisational structures and data.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Dr Peter Appleby, Head of Data Science at AutoTrader UK. On the show they discuss some of the misconceptions surrounding roles in Data Science. Andy asks Peter about what he looks for in a potential employee. Peter explains to Andy how a company can best leverage a data team to achieve a good ROI. Show Notes: 1.07 clarifying what data science actually is. 4.11 Is there a hype surrounding Data Science? 5.19 What questions should an organisation be asking candidates if its looking to build a data science team? 6.46 Misconceptions around the roles and titles of data professionals. 9.00 Defining the ROI of a project. 10.47 Pathways into data and Peters background. 13.05 Is the opportunity to interact with lots of different people a good selling point for a career in data? 14.10 What competencies do you emphasis for your team? 15.46 Data from a leadership perspective. 17.13 The direction Peter see’s the data space heading. 19.15 Being commercially aware as a data scientist. 20.23 The excitement of working in big data.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Fayeez Ahmed, the QA Team Lead at WeSwap.com. On the show they discuss routes into QA. Andy asks Fayeez about his transition into a leadership position. They also chat about the direction quality assurance is heading in. Fayeez is a firm believer in automation, where necessary. He thoroughly enjoys creating pipeline tools to optimise workflows and is constantly improving his skills in a range of areas, such as Scripting, Lighting and Texturing. Fayeez also has a strong interest in web design and development. Show Notes: 1.07 Quality Assurance is becoming an in demand skill. Do we have the supply? 3.09 How did you get into Quality Assurance? 4.41 How easy is it to drastically shift your career trajectory and do you think it’s possible to acquire a base set of skills that make this transition easier. 7.08 What skills are best suited for a career in Quality Assurance? 9.28 Transitioning into a leadership position. 11.07 If you were reliving your career would you have done anything different? 13.17 What are you expecting to see in the QA space this year? 14.51 Are more people investing in QA. 16.15 What makes a good QA team? 19.40 Getting a good mix of people and skills in your QA team. 22.20 Taking QA to the next level. 24.31 Recommending Slack communities. 25.44 How do you assess your career goals and do you tend towards big goals or smaller more frequent goals?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Jon Wright, Founder at Emmkit LLC. On the show they discuss Jon’s move to America and how he adapted to the cultural differences in his working life. They also chat about the education system in the US and how companies are still placing emphasis on traditional educational routes such as university. They go on to consider how online courses and self taught tech professionals are disrupting the traditional ivy league colleges. Andy also asks Jon about the qualities he looks for in new starters to his company and asks Jon about the methods he used to determine which candidates are the best fit for his business. Show Notes: 1.10 Jons experiences moving over to America. 3.37 Why isn’t America approaching different ways of on-boarding staff. 8.53 Instigating a cultural shift in companies to change their on-boarding practices. 12.20 Apprenticeships and internships and the education sector being prime for disruption. 14.48 Educational curriculums always playing catch up with the rate of change of technology. 16.48 Jon’s hiring practices. 19.01 The various different approaches candidates take to prove they’re committed to a career. 21.14 Putting the responsibility of education onto employers. 22.06 Beyond a candidate's technical abilities what soft skills do you look for in a potential employee. 25.37 In the short time you have to interview a candidate how do you come to a decision whether to hire them or not? 28.55 How was the transition to management for you and how did you find it? 32.45 Tech professionals needing a broader set of skills in the 21st century. 37.22 The lack of stigma around “quitting” a job in the US.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to John Kelly, Director of Analytics at QxBranch. On the show they discuss the excitement around Quantum Computing. Andy asks about the skills a person's needs for a career in Data Analytics. They also chat about the projects John is working on. John is an experienced practitioner and leader in data analytics, with a passion for applying these skills to automate complex processes and discover new insights that can impact people's quality of life. He is currently directing the development of data analytics solutions at QxBranch and he was previously the Technical Lead for Corporate Data Analytics Initiatives at Lockheed Martin. Show Notes: 1.08 Discussing the in’s and out’s of Data and how the sectors changed over the years. 3.38 Is it a challenge staying disciplined on the projects at hand? 5.47 From your perspective when you’re dealing with a new client/ customer do you have to educate them on the applications of Data? 9.41 Tackling the inherent bias people have when looking at Data sets. 13.32 What is the most compelling part of Data for you? Is it the processes you go through with Data or the outcomes? 17.44 What characteristics are necessary from a hiring perspective are important when finding employee’s for your team. 20.17 Do you find a lot of diverse backgrounds in the data sector. 23.23 When people discover what you do what are the most common questions people ask you? 25.50 Looking ahead how do you see Data and analytics progressing in the coming year? 30.17 Quantum computing.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Tom McLaughlin, Founder at ServerlessOps. On the show they discuss the difficulty of hiring for a DevOps role. Andy asks Tom about his career progression. They also chat about Tom founding ServerlessOps and some of the challenges he had to overcome. Tom likes to ask what does Ops mean in a serverless world? He founded ServerlessOps to help you to design, build, and run reliable serverless systems. Show Notes: 1.05 From a recruitment perspective how do you articulate what the DevOps role requires and how do you identify what you’re working towards? 3.49 How do you manage to bring on the appropriate people for your team? 5.08 Toms career progression and background. 9.26 Having a disciplined approach to staying on your career path. 11.42 The consumer dictates the pace that technology move at. 13.08 Tom’s current projects. 17.57 Do you think we still need to educate people about the serverless market. 21.07 Still learning about ServerlessOps.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Nav Dhutti, the Technical Lead / Data Scientist at Acrotrend. On the show they discuss how to excel in your career. Nav touches on the disruption caused by technology on the education sector. They also chat about how to find the employees with the best cultural fit for your company.Lastly Andy and Nav discuss what it takes to succeed in tech. Show Notes: 1.06 Looking to the year ahead in technology. 4.55 From your perspective have you had to accommodate changes into your career due to changes in the tech industry. 12.17 The effectiveness of education to technology people and the continual learning needed to be successful in tech. 16.31 Determining what you should value in an employee. 23.08 How, in interview, do you determine who has a fundamental understanding of coding? 25.54 Do you have to sacrifice personally and socially to succeed in engineering.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to James Packer. James is a Cyber Security Consultant at a Big 4 professional services firm. He is also President of the London Chapter of (ISC)2 whose mission is to bring together a community of Information Security Professionals to share knowledge in order to drive innovation and inclusion within the wider community. On the show they discuss how the security sector has grown and changed over the past 20 years. Andy asks James what the industry can do to get more people interested in a career in security. James also details how different companies and groups view cyber threats. Show Notes: 1.10 How did you reach the point in your career where you felt you wanted to write and blog about your sector. 7.10 The different ways people respond to security threats. 9.15 What efforts have you seen from a macro perspective of people trying to raise awareness of security issues. 12.10 Being conscious about your own cyber security. 15.52 Will we see a rise of people seeing security as a profession in the next generation. 20.06 The changing face of the security profession. 22.39 Applying DevOps to security making DevSecOps. 24.08 What can we do to get more people interested in the security sector?