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

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Adam Fineman, Head of I.T Operations at Euro Office. They discuss finding candidates that are the right cultural fit for your company, differing methods to keep your team motivated and innovating and coaching and training your staff. Show Notes: 1.06 How and when did you make the transition into managing people. 2.30 When did you become aware how important communication skills are in business. 3.16 Do you think introverted people are harder to manage? 4.19 For your teams do you have any strategies that keep them motivated and innovative. 5.32 What are the important thing for you in terms of the culture within your team. 6.52 Teamwork and why you need to get on with your peers. 7.38 Avoiding burying people’s personalities at work. 8.46 Ensuring a candidate’s personality is a fit for the company when onboarding. 9.49 Teaching technology skills and finding the right cultural fit for a candidate. 10.31 Technology as a candidate’s market and having higher retention in your company. 11.28 How did you first get involved in Tech? 13.13 What was the learning curve like for you when you were getting into tech? 14.14 How do you identify and tackle employee’s bad habits? 15.43 Coaching staff and having patience when teaching your staff. 16.25 What type of technologies are you working with? 17.23 Do you find technical people are more unwilling to move into management positions. 18.32 What are you most excited about at the moment in technology at the moment?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Adam Gill, the CRM at Totaljobs group and the founder of Sirius.Red. They discuss Adams blogging career and how blogs can help with one’s creative processes and problem solving. They also discuss transitioning into management and the importance of team dynamics. Show Notes: 1.09 Had you always planned to write a blog? 2.32 Does writing a blog help with your creative process and solving problems? 4.21 Blogging as a tool for articulating difficult concepts. 5.51 Getting management ideas from your blog creation. 7.30 Do you take inspiration from your team when writing your blog? 8.49 What was your initial transition to management like? 13.58 What’s your current management situation now? 16.46 The importance of team dynamics when managing a business and a team. 19.18 Continual learning and the rapid pace of change in technology. 21.42 Have you always subscribed to an agile methodology? 23.53 Do you consider yourself a technologist and what technologies are you most excited about.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Cyrus Bulsara, Head of Data services at the Children’s Society. They discuss applying creativity to Data, making a move to a management position and how technology is changing the workplace. Cyrus is a highly motivated and dynamic database and analysis manager. He has 9 years experience in delivering team leadership and data services, including; segmentation, analysis, imports, policies/procedures, gift processing, data cleaning and user support. He also has over 10 years fundraising experience in the not-for-profit sector. Cyrus’ fundraising skills and experience include; direct mail appeals, membership programmes, copy-writing, segmentation and analysis. He has been described as a 'calm, problem-solver' and have a proven track record of project management including target-beating direct marketing campaigns and implementation of new systems and technology. Show Notes: 1.06 Is Data a creative artform. 1.57 Do you encourage your team to be creative when looking at Data. 3.13 How do go about building a constructive work environment? 4.30 How did your background and experiences shape you as a leader? 6.27 Speaking about the modern problem of retention of staff. 9.02 Are you motivated by outcomes? 10.30 How have technological advancements made the gathering of data more efficient? 12.22 Saving time and being more efficient by self-reporting. 13.36 Having an awareness of outcomes and have they changed due to technology. 15.38 How much creativity do you allow your team? 17.42 Have you found a lot of satisfaction from your management position? 19.29 How was your transition to management? 20.37 Did your journey up the career ladder feel like a natural process to you? 23.02 Being able to admit you can be wrong as a manager. 24.17 What is exciting you at the moment in the space you occupy?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Barry Green, the Chief Data Officer at the Bank of Ireland. He chats to Andy about how best to manage a data team. They also discuss how to instigate a cultural shift in your company to make it more data focused. Barry Green is a Chief Data Officer with a consistent record of delivering business and change programmes. He has achieved this through strong financial, process, consulting and relationship management skills. He also possesses excellent programme management experience in a variety of operating environments. Barry is adept at networking and communicating across an organisation to effect change. Show Notes: 1.06 The role and evolution of the CDO? 2.26 Managing the broad set of individuals who work in Data. 6.25 From your experiences do you find you have to manage the expectations that people have around data. 10.04 Using data as a means to instigate cultural change in a company. 14.07 Being persistent when trying to convert your staff to a data way of thinking. 15.43 Is there ever a concern on an individual level about what people are going to get out of a data driven company. 18.11 Do you rely on your external network when trying to solve your business problems. 19.55 The strength of the CDO network and using the community to instigate change in businesses. 22.25 When did you realise you were motivated by data? 24.29 Being at the forefront of the data revolution? 25.46 Do you think data team’s are helping promote diversity in the tech industry.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to John Louis Petitbon, Sr Director, Platform Engineering at Lifion by ADP. Johnlouis discusses the role of SRE’s with Andy. They chats about the similarities SRE’s share with the DevOps methodology. Andy also asks Johnlouis about his move into management and later leadership. Johnlouis is a Senior technology professional specializing in TechOps, SRE and DevOps. He is experienced in building teams and managing rapid growth in small to medium enterprises. Show Notes: 1.09 What are the responsibilities of SRE? 4.17 Is there a linear path into a SRE team? 14.22 Do you see SRE as a methodology similar to agile? 19.45 Johnlouis Background and career development. 23.13 Johnlouis’ first steps into management and then leadership. 28.48 The importance of continued learning. 31.23 Do you think SRE’s are going to evolve in the ways that they operate?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Brian Lord OBE, the Managing Director, Cyber, at PGI Protection Group International. On the show Brian talks to Andy about how much cyber security has changed over the past 20 years. They also discuss how to educate businesses about the dangers of cyber crime. Andy asks Brian about how much progress we’ve made as a society in regards to our cyber security. Brian served in the Royal Corps of Signals from 1984 to 1992 before joining the civil service. He then worked for GCHQ for 21 years before leaving as deputy director for intelligence and cyber operations. In 2013 he joined the PGI Protection Group International. He has been described by the telegraph as a leading thinker in the sector of cyber warfare. Show Notes 1.10 How much different are the fundamentals of cybersecurity. 5.27 Have the principles of online safety changed? 9.03 Educating people about cyber security. 12.31 How much progress has society made when it comes to online security? 17.51 Are people acting slightly irrationally when concerning cyber security. 25.22 Why are people so intimidated about starting a career in cyber.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Usman Hamid, Head of infrastructure services at the BBC. On the show they discuss how companies can use innovative ways to retain staff. Andy asks Usman about how he got into a career in infrastructure. Usman also chats about his management style and recruitment process. Usman is a highly experienced, ITIL certified, multilingual Senior IT Leader, with expertise in delivering effective business critical IT solutions across both the private and public sectors. He also has a proven track record of leading business improvements on a global basis. He has been working in the ICT industry for over 14 years, and has played an integral role in identifying solutions and driving forward change on both a national and international basis. This has resulted in improved business efficiency and significant cost savings. Show Notes: 1.07 What’s the typical path into infrastructure and how did you get in to infrastructure? 4.18 Technology and music. 6.10 Discussing non traditional and unique routes into technology. 13.03 Employers incentivising candidate beyond salaries. 16.01 Driving cultural change in legacy companies. 20.03 How infrastructure is becoming like wifi. 22.48 We need to know how best to utilise technology as opposed to knowing how to use it. 27.40 Taking the step up to management and the recruitment process. 31.53 What direction do you see infrastructure heading in the coming years.

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Josh Willcock, DevOps manager at the charity learning consortium. On the show they discuss the advantages of working with a startup mentality. Josh also chats about how his role helps him build good work practices. Andy asks him whether his work is inspiring others to take up DevOps as a career. Josh is a DevOps manager for third sector and corporate organisations. He develops the infrastructure to support hundreds of members for the open-source Moodle LMS. He has been part of large scale projects inside of Moodle, outside of Moodle and the environment it resides upon. Show Notes: 1.07 What Josh is working on. 4.06 Do you feel your process builds good habits. 5.06 Have other people been inspired by the work you are doing? 8.24 Working with a startup mentality and talking about scale. 11.57 Working in a startup environment gives you more skills when moving to a bigger company. 13.19 Josh’s background and career development. 18.10 Did your company's approach to business provide a good learning experience for you? 20.38 What are you career goals?

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Jason Foo, the CEO at BBD Perfect Storm. On the show they discuss the role branding plays in marketing technology. Andy asks Jason about the best practices for fostering a positive work culture. They also chat about the lessons Jason has learned in his management position. BBD Perfect Storm mission statement BBD Perfect Storm is a new kind of agency for the new age of marketing. We help organisations become the Go2Brand in their category. We do this by helping brands to deliver on their purpose. We help brands challenge and shape culture by creating useful and entertaining communications, things and experiences. We combine brand storytelling with the possibilities of technology and insights from data to help brands make sense of and navigate through the always on, always connected world of consumers. Show Notes 1.12 The role of branding in technology. 3.49 The collaboration between marketing and technology. 5.28 How do you collaborate with your clients? 6.24 Jason’s background and skills. 8.30 Internal team dynamics and building culture. 10.32 Quantifying ROI in marketing? 12.28 Being people led in your management. 13.43 Innovation in the marketing space. 15.56 What aspects of your role do you enjoy the most? 16.53 Lessons from management

In this episode Andy Davis talks to Simon Lascelles, he was recently made the Director of IT operations at LGSS. They discuss combining skills in sports and business, implementing changes in your business process and keeping an eye on office culture. Simon is an enthusiastic, innovative and dynamic commercially minded International CIO with a proven track record of delivering business change and transformation across a range of SME, FORTUNE 500 and FTSE 250 organisations. He is comfortable owning technology life cycle from commercial assessment to strategy definition, and leadership of efficient operations. Show notes: 1.10 Background and initial interests when starting your career. 3.46 Sheffield Hallam, rugby and enjoying university. 6.06 Sports skills, coaching and applying them to business. 7.40 Discussing the lack of training when moving into a leadership/ management position. 9.30 What was the harder for you to adapt to, the technical aspects of your role or the management aspects? 11.25 Are we keeping up with technology? Do we need to speed up the ways we adapt to change? 13.55 How do you go about making changes to your business processes to adapt to change? 15.45 As a CIO do you take it upon yourself to keep a close eye on your office culture? 18.05 Talking on the concept of servant leadership. 19.41 What are you looking at and getting excited about within technology at the moment. 23.00 Do you get engaged with Big Data? 24.00 What are your opinions on VR? 26.11 Changes in technology that are going to have a big impact on the world in the near future.