Podcast: Tech leadership through the lens of Yoga with Guy Duncan

Guy Duncan

Chief Technology Officer at Tide

Podcast – Episode 49:
Tech leadership through the lens of Yoga 

The tech leadership behind a Fintech disruptor

Here at IT Labs, we love disruptors. Particularly a disruption in a stuffy industry, drowning in its old ways. Guy Duncan from Tide joins us to tell the story of the company he is tech leading to create exactly that kind of disruption. Tide is a Fintech carving out a nice chunk of the market by focusing on customer needs (time, ease, and smooth service). We particularly touch and gravitate around Guy’s leadership approach that encompasses Yoga and mindfulness.

“Leading teams is about protecting every bit inside them, but also about creating time and space for them. They need it to think and contemplate, processes that ultimately lead to innovation.“

So, the key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • All through the lens of a Yogi
    • The powerful art of finishing (the motto: “Stop Starting, Start Finishing”)
    • The art of interpreting various industry trends and using them as a foundation for technology and product planning
    • The importance of setting the levels of abstraction in a business right, and how it improves performance and interoperability

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Leading and Innovating in the recruitment industry with Anna Dick

Anna Dick

CTO at HIRING HUB

Podcast – Episode 48:
Leading and Innovating in the recruitment industry 

A tech leaders story of a startup staying lean, innovating, and growing fast

In this episode, we speak to Anna Dick, CTO of an innovative startup called HIRING HUB. It provides a B2B service to help rate and track the quality of recruitment agencies. We speak to her about the exciting objectives and growth of the business. Also, the problems she and her team are working to solve in the recruitment space. The recruitment industry is a highly competitive market with varying levels of trust and the ability to deliver on the hiring needs of their end clients.

“Putting an effort to see things from a different perspective will of course benefit you, but done in the right way will earn you the respect of your fellow co-workers, or even employees.“

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • How you don’t need to come from a traditional software background to become a tech leader.  
  • How HIRING HUB is aiming to address the diversity biases that are endemic in the recruitment process. Helping agencies see how well they are doing and what actions will serve them in getting better. 
  • Overcoming the challenges of working remotely. 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Milking data for fresh ways to reduce plastic waste with John Hughes and James Renshaw

John Hughes and James Renshaw

CIO and CTO at The Modern Milkman 

Podcast – Episode 46:
Milking data for fresh ways to reduce plastic waste 

A mission-led business revolutionizing consumer habits

In this podcast, we speak to a business that’s milking their data for everything they can get. The Modern Milkman, a business delivering fresh ways to reduce plastic waste, shop ethically and feel good about convenience, is proud to call itself a data-driven business. James Renshaw (the CTO) and John Hughes (the CIO) at The Modern Milkman join us in this podcast to share their stories and tech-leading efforts. The Modern Milkman, a wonderful, fun business, brings the milkman service tradition into the 21st century with tech and modern-day data analysis and, a planet life-affirming mission to eliminate plastic. That’s right! Here’s a business designed to accomplish something wonderful for all of us and thrive at the same time.

“We can understand our customers and we can drive ourselves forward. The point of driving ourselves forward is that we can carry on with that mission and with more customers about removing the plastic.“

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • How the morning milkman service is modernizing 
  • How driving the business with data in the driving seat can create a sharp  and nimble edge of business dexterity 
  • Holding your workforce with care and considering their future and career growth create a high-performing business team for an all-around win/win. 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Piloting tech innovation in the airport industry  with Rick Goold

Rick Goold

Managing Director at AIS

Podcast – Episode 45:
Piloting tech innovation in the airport industry 

The story of an RAF pilot-turned-tech-leader who’s seen IT evolve, from mainframes to the modern super digital world of today

From time to time, we come across a very niche organization–one that has evolved with the industry over many years. Well, Airport Information Systems is one of those businesses, creating Flight Information Display Systems and Aeronautical Billing Systems for the industry. Rick Goold, the managing director of said company, joins us to share his journey as a tech leader and how he and his business have carved out a successful piece of the airport industry.

“I believe if you’re a good business leader, you can have a good technological background, but you understand the day-to-day problems and you’re able to attribute them to the solutions that you’re going to offer your customers.“

What with Rick’s 3-decade career spanning many evolutions of the IT industry, he has a noteworthy perspective on things that have passed and things to come. 

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • How AIS serves the airport industry and gets their products hitting the bull’s eye 
  • Ricks journey as a tech leader from early mainframes to the modern digital world we are immersed in 
  • How as a business leader, you can set up feedback loops and let them have a life of their own (user groups for people who use the product) 

TDLR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: The ponderings of a tech leader in the airport industry with Nicholas Woods

Nicholas Woods

CIO at MAG (Airports Group)

Podcast – Episode 44:
The ponderings of a tech leader in the airport industry 

Leadership insights from the CIO of MAG (Manchester Airports Group)

Today we get a peek behind the scenes of an industry so many of us rely on: the airport industry. In this episode, we get the inside scoop from Nicholas Woods, the CIO of the Manchester Airports Group (MAG).

“You can absolutely train people to develop their skills. To give them the experience that helps them to do their job. But you can’t necessarily train people in terms of having the right attitude, having them want to take ownership, wanting to drive themselves forward.“

Nicholas Woods, the CIO of the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) joins us to share his leadership journey. The challenges this industry is facing and aspirations for the future. To get an idea of Nicholas’s leadership scope, MAG owns and operates Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands Airports in the UK. Not one, but three airports. 

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • Examples of leadership that worked and didn’t work 
  • Designing, operating and maintaining tech in an airport  
  • Aspirations for the future of the industry 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Selling everything but the house with Brian Powell

Brian Powell

VP of Technology at EBTH 

Podcast – Episode 43:
 Selling everything but the house 

Leading the technology solution behind a very dynamic and complex supply base

The world of technology opens up endless avenues of possibilities. It’s an enabler and creator of healthy businesses (i.e., the bottom line). So, it’s wonderful to come across a business that uses technology to create success in acquiring and selling unique items. And when we say unique, we mean one-off items. So, the guest of this podcast works for a business just like that. The VP of technology, Brian Powell at EVERYTHING BUT THE HOUSE (EBTH), tells us all about his operation, his team’s challenges, and how they are solving them.

“You need a solid foundation of really great developers that themselves are teachers and want to curate talent, and creating an environment where people have the time to pair program, do pull requests, do code reviews, and share knowledge rather than just shipping things as fast as possible.“

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • Finding the sweet spot in Lean, Kanban, and Scrum to create high performing teams 
  • Adapting to huge differentials in demand on a platform 
  • The ins and outs of being part of a business that sells anything from old collectible watches to Picasso paintings 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Governance vs developer freedom: The balancing act Anders Wallgren

Anders Wallgren

VP of Technology Strategy at CloudBees

Podcast – Episode 42:
Governance vs developer freedom: The balancing act 

Smarter, smoother, well-governed development processes out of the box

Tech leaders immersed in software development and deployment processes–from embedded software to more user-facing applications–will love this.

Anders Wallgren, the Vice President of Technology Strategy at CloudBees joined us to share LOADS of tips and advice on having a smooth end-to-end development process. Being a software developer in the past (I’m a geek that managed to de-geek), I know the pains and benefits of getting this right. The investment in automation and auditing-as-you-go saves many headaches and Kerr-chings (money!) over and over again. The system that Anders and CloudBees have created is just awesome–especially for high compliance industries.

“It’s really all about how do you discover all the work so that you can then automate it, orchestrating it, and have the humans not do the repetitive rote work, which frankly we humans’ kind of suck at and computers are much better suited to doing, and we can have the humans do their creative problem-solving 
innovative work, which we tend to be a lot better at, than computers.“

Key takeaways from the podcast are: 

  • How automation can become your implicit auditing 
  • How tech leaders can enable companies to balance governance and developer freedom with a win/win scenario 
  • The benefits of taking two steps back to make huge leaps forward in the efficiency of your value delivery  

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Mindful leadership in athenahealth with Bela Labovitch

Bela Labovitch

VP of Engineering at athenahealth

Podcast – Episode 41:
Mindful leadership in athenahealth 

Tech to help doctors focus on what they are good at

We all hope for a day when we don’t need to mention, or even be surprised, when we see women leading in tech. But, until that wonderful moment arrives, we will celebrate a marvelous leader’s journey and her leadership practices. Bela Labovitch, the VP of engineering at athenahealth, joins us to share her story and why she has much gratitude for her job. Of special interest, how she makes the role effective and delightful for her people, the end customer, and the business itself.

“I think as a leader, what should be important to you is the continual improvement of your teams, what should be important to you as a signaling of something going wrong? So, make that time, it is important.“

We also look at the problem that athenahealth is solving in the market and how it allows doctors and similar professionals to focus on what they love doing by adding ease and automation to important aspects of their business operations. 

Key takeaways from the podcast with Bela are: 

  • The importance of metrics and measuring 
  • The power of a tool we all have as leaders—mindfulness and the surprising impact it can have on all aspects of the tech leader role
  • How companies can help create more diversity within their companies and encourage girls and women  to pursue tech careers

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: Solving address poverty with Emre Turan

Emre Turan

CTO at UNL Global

Podcast – Episode 40:
Solving address poverty 

Creating the internet of places

You wouldn’t believe it, but 4 billion people in the world do not have an address. We take it for granted in first and 2nd world nations. But imagine not having a framework to get things to you. Shocking! This is why Emre Turan, the tech leader of UNL Global, leads the tech to create the internet of places. An addressing system to bring people out of address poverty. Maybe we in more modernized countries will adopt the same system. Thus, creating a standardized global standard.

“First of all, you have to learn how to listen. You need to understand what kind of things people need and you need to serve in that way, if you don’t know what kind of things they need, it’s not gonna work.”

The key takeaways from the conversation with Emre are:

  • The importance of creating a system that anywhere in the world can have an address 
  • Making sure external outsourced teams are invited into the fold of a company. Please don’t treat them differently 
  • Using data to create self–healing maps 
  • The importance of reading the book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman. It raises awareness around a bug that all of humanity has and will serve your leadership immensely. 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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Podcast: FinTech's blockchain solution to take security trading to the next level with Amit Goyal

Amit Goyal on CTO Confessions Podcast

Amit Goyal

CTO at tZERO

Podcast – Episode 39:
FinTech’s blockchain solution to take security trading to the next level 

CTO in the trading space

We all see big stock markets trading shares in big companies, with their stock-tickers showing the ups and downs of an organization’s perceived value. Imagine if you could invest in, let’s say, a sports star’s career or the local shop down the road. Well, this is the platform that tZERO’s CTO, Amit Goyal, is working on. He joins us to share his trials and tribulations, not forgetting the successes in creating this novel trading system.

“I think the best advise is to plan small, go with one service, go with one team, let them be successful, don’t be too impatient.”

The key takeaways from the conversation with Amit are:

  • How a more democratic trading system will create investment and growth opportunities in some weird and wonderful places 
  • Slicing big projects into manageable small value deliverables enhances the Agile space 
  • The importance of reducing the delay of developed code getting into the production space. Ultimately to ensure developers don’t get disconnected from their work and technical debt doesn‘t sit around out of sight. 

TLDR: Straight to the point
(Quick Links)

We all live busy lives, and sometimes a long podcast is too much of a time-footprint for our busy schedules. So, to help you get to the bit you’re more interested in, use our table of contents below. Quick links to help you get straight to the point.

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