Talent Smart Podcast

Jora Gill is CEO and Co-founder of FireBreak, where they spearhead AI and Graph technologies to improve IT project outcomes and mitigate project risks early. He is also CEO and Co-Founder of ConnectingYouNow, where they lead initiatives to improve organisational productivity through a personalised conversational search and analytics platform, with a focus on accessibility. Jora holds a number of non-exec director roles where he helps to align IT projects with strategic objectives, manage risks effectively, and cultivate a culture of accountability and transparency. Included are; Travis Perkins Group - Supplier of building materials to the building and construction industry. Companies under the Group are Travis Perkins, Toolstation, BSS, CCF and Keyline Phoenix Life - A financial services company for Pensions and Savings. Brands under the Group are Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure In this episode, Jora gives a real insight into an NED boardroom, what do NEDs actually do and how his past experience has prepared him for a board-level advisory. We explore the most common reasons why IT initiatives fail in organisations and how a board can help address some of these issues. In addition, Jora shares the key factors to consider when evaluating the feasibility and risk profile of a Technology project and how to present a proposal to the board. Jora shares his “Five Questions For Success” playbook and how looking through a Boardroom lens will help in your current and future career.  Jora also gives great advice in terms of what skills you need to succeed into the Boardroom or a NED career. Finally, we learn why a Non-Exec Board can be one of the most successful cross functional teams within an organisation.

Henry is an experienced and successful CxO and change professional, with excellent stakeholder management and inter-personal skills. He has significant years of experience in managing large-scale businesses and technology change programmes (£5m to £800m), especially in the digital space, for a wide variety of UK and European-based Insurance and Media companies and Central Government departments. In this episode, Henry shares with us his approach to leading a large-scale transformation, focusing within established organisational structures and he gives us a great insight into what the key first steps are to take when setting a transformation strategy. Henry also shares his methods that have been the most effective for gaining 'buy-in' from stakeholders across different levels during transformational change and how to balance whilst maintaining current operations with the push for transformational change. He also advises on how to address resistance to change, and what strategies to employ which help bring sceptical team members on board and what are some essential qualities or characteristics to look for in building a high-performing teams. We also take a quick Look into the future and Henry gives us his take on what trends or shifts will impact the way high-performance teams are created and sustained.

Amol is a Commercial Growth Leader & Managing Director with 20+ years of experience driving digital transformation across global technology firms, including AND Digital, ThoughtWorks, Slalom, Wipro, and Oracle. He has a passion for leveraging Data and AI to create transformative impact and has consistently built competitive market strategies, executed pioneering go-to-market initiatives, and forged resilient multi-year client relationships across EMEA, APAC, and the US. In this episode, Amol gives a great overview of the most common misconceptions about the value of data among executive boards and how tech leaders frame data initiatives so that they align clearly with business outcomes like revenue, efficiency, or customer satisfaction. We explore how data leaders can adjust their messaging for different board members who may have varying levels of technical understanding, including how to position data as a business asset, rather than just an operational tool. In addition, we discuss the role that data can play in driving a competitive advantage, and how  this can be effectively communicated to the board. Amol also gives us a future view into how the role of data will be evolving in boardroom conversations over the next few years and what the trends are in data management, such as data governance or AI, and how they are becoming more relevant for executive decision-making.

As founder of 50x, Gary has many years experience of helping scale businesses, and exponentially transform the way organisations do things in seemingly impossible timespans.  He is the Ex-CEO of Mator Systems and has driven exponential transformative change in organisations, like Maersk / AP Moller, SHL, Elsevier, Partnership Assurance and Camelot. Gary is also the co-founder of Hedgedog Brewery.  In this episode we explore one of the areas that Gary is very passionate about which is removing “constraints” that impede growth, together with the key strategies or systems make the most significant impact on productivity. Gary explains what he means when he refers to an exponential mindset and what does it mean in terms of performance? We uncover if growth always requires significant changes in the workforce and how best to balance increasing growth/performance with maintaining, or even improving employee satisfaction and work-life balance. This includes a great HACK  the “no-show hack” for meetings. Gary also offers some words of advice for CEOs or leaders looking to drastically improve productivity/performance within their organisations.

It was amazing to have the opportunity to interview Vin Walsh, a Professor of Human Brain Research and Royal Society Industry Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. I could have quite easily chatted with him for hours. He has published over 300 scientific articles, several books and specialises in the how the brain achieves all the things we take for granted: How do we see? How do we remember? How do we learn? How do we read? How do we count? How do we know how long something takes? In this episode we hear from Vin on The Power of Sleep, the primary functions of sleep and why it is so crucial for brain health. Vin explains the different stages of sleep and the impact on cognitive processes such as memory consolidation, learning, and problem-solving. We also covered the neurological mechanisms that regulate our sleep-wake cycle and how do they interact with external factors like light and temperature. I asked the question, why do humans and other animals need sleep and what happens to the brain if we don't get enough sleep? We also looked at how napping fits into the overall picture of sleep, can short naps compensate for lost night time sleep, and how do they affect brain function? Vin also gives his 4.5 golden rules of improving your sleep opportunity.

Asitha Rodrigo (CTO, SAPI) is a renowned innovative CTO, Prior to SAPI, he was the CTO at Seedrs. Previously Asitha was Chief Technology Officer at a number of high growth Private Equity backed businesses in the financial services and media industries. He has a passion for building and maintaining high performing technology teams. In this episode, Asitha shares with us the key ingredients that contribute to a motivated engineering team and how do you connect the company's vision/goals to the engineering team. He also gives us an insight into what steps a CTO can take to create a positive environment for high performing engineers and how foster a culture of innovation, together with uncovering the best way to strike a balance between providing guidance/direction whilst allowing the engineering team autonomy. Along with his key takeaways, Asitha also leaves us with top tips on how a leader can ensure that collaboration and knowledge sharing is really happening.

In this episode, I talk with Claire about what inspired her to start a company focused on championing women in technology and Claire shares a bit about her journey and background in the tech industry. We uncover what are some of the biggest challenges women face in the tech industry today and how best to address them. We also explore trends in the tech industry regarding diversity and inclusion. Claire also offers some great advice to young women aspiring to enter the tech industry. Together with addressing companies and community leaders on how do you engage with the broader community to promote women in technology. Click here for the Tech She Can Manifesto for Generational change - https://api.techshecan.org/storage/files/Tech-She-Can-Manifesto.pdf   Accolades … - UN UK Delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women 2024 - 2024 Computing’s top 100 'Most Influential Figures in UK IT' - 2023 Computer Weekly’s top 10 ‘Most Influential Women in Tech’ - 2023 Computer Weekly’s ‘Most Influential People in UK Technology’ UKtech50 - Member of the Institute of Coding’s Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board Claire’s background is in innovation and commercialisation in research-intensive environments, spanning universities, government and business. She has led multi-£million acquisitions, such as iKinema by Apple; developed the vision and strategy for Imperial College London’s White City £3bn 23-acre innovation district; and operated the #1 global university business incubator. Claire has worked across digital, smart infrastructure, space, security and defence.

It was amazing to spend some time with Doug Johnson to discuss how innovation and sustainability can transform an entire industry. Doug is Founder of Mesh Energy (a Certified B Corporation), an independent and trusted provider of innovative sustainable energy services to property owners and architects looking for impartial and expert advice. During our discussion, Doug explained why experience can sometime be counter intuitive to embracing new ways of working and that if we truly want to make changes to how we approach sustainability to we have to be prepared to re-learn. In the fascinating conversation, Doug explains more about how and why he is helping the construction industry to approach projects in a very different way.

Dileep is a commercially focused, results driven executive level technology leader with nearly 20 years experience: leading strategy development and execution, successful digital transformation and delivering organisational, IT change alongside cost effectiveness (to budget), secure and high availability operational IT In this podcast we uncover what the main behaviours are that contribute to a high performing team and how to define a high-performance culture, together with the key elements that are essential to fostering it within a technology team. We discuss how to establish and maintain trust within a team and how to deal with situations when trust has been broken. We also hear Dileep’s approach to encouraging diversity and what strategies to deploy in order to create an environment where team members feel comfortable providing constructive feedback. How to contact Dileep - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dileepmarway/

Ade is a former technologist who now, forty years on, is focused on leadership. Is a former Financial Times columnist.  Has lectured at MIT Sloan on leadership matters.  Works with Cambridge University (Moller Institute) on leadership development.  Trained in astrophysics and has worked for the European Space Agency.  Has worked in over forty countries across the world across multiple sectors with many of the world’s most prominent brands.  Has written six books on leadership and transformation. Ade has recently set up an embryonic thinktank, The Intelligent leadership Hub. The ILH aims to empower society to flourish in an increasingly unpredictable world by reshaping perceptions of leadership. The goal is to promote an intelligent approach that highlights our humanity and embraces the natural complexity of our environment. In this revealing insights episode, Ade explains the concept of “everyone is a captain”, ubiquitous leadership and distributed leadership, together with covering the idea of environmental biology We discuss the pros & cons of remote working, which includes the potential mental health cost the risk of losing the ‘mentor’ training/leadership due to more remote working. Ade also explains some of his brilliant expression including; “The death of deference”, “Cognitive Gymnasium” and “Passing on the survival code” We uncover Ade’s advice for the processes to ensure that a company’s short-term actions are aligned with its long-term goals? For more information on Ade or to make contact - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ademccormack/