Get Amplified: Recent Episodes
Amplified Group
Podcast series GET AMPLIFIED where we’re going to be talking about everything to do with working in the tech industry from staying ahead of the pace of change to fulfilment and well-being.Hosting the series will be Sam Routledge former CTO at Softcat who will be joined by Vicky Reddington from the Amplified Group. The team will be joined by leaders in the tech industry who will share their stories. We are going to share things we wish we knew 20 years ago. This is not rocket science but, we are going to highlight many of the things we do subconsciously and with a more conscious approach, done with intent and purpose can be hugely impactful. We will break it down and make it practical! Like everything we do at the Amplified Group, we will keep it real, it will be relevant and it will be lively!
Ever wonder how internal operations can actually support and supercharge your sales efforts rather than hinder them?
Join us on Get Amplified with special guest Dr. Mark Baker, visiting fellow at Cranfield University. With a rich background in engineering, finance, and risk management, Mark shares compelling stories from his time at Unilever and his pivotal role in the London 2012 Speedo project! Discover the untapped potential of effective teaming and learn how bridging the gap between front office and back office can create a formidable competitive edge.
Reflecting on the 2003 Rugby World Cup and England’s T-C-U-P (Think Clearly Under Pressure) strategy, we explore how preparation and resilience can turn high-pressure situations into opportunities for success.
By integrating systematic approaches and digitalization, we uncover strategies that enhance decision-making processes and client outcomes, emphasising the importance of continuous improvement.
In our discussions on strategic leadership and vision planning, we tackle the necessity of stepping back from daily operations to focus on long-term goals. Learn valuable insights into effective delegation, the dangers of "organisational constipation," and the benefits of pre-mortem analyses.
A big thank you to Dr. Mark Baker for his insights on effective teaming and strategic leadership.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
What better way to launch Season 6 of Get Amplified than with the experienced and innovative GTM leader, Ross Brown.
This episode is jam packed with stories and nuggets of partnering strategy. You’ll need your fast listening ears as it is a wild ride with some brilliant metaphors and stories that had us leaning in for more!
With an impressive career that spans over three decades, including senior leadership roles at Citrix, Microsoft, VMware, and Oracle, we delve into the topic of teaming at scale. Ross shares his vast experience and insights into how strategic partnerships can drive efficiency and success.
We discuss how businesses can thrive by focusing on their core competencies and outsourcing the rest. Through relatable examples like the UK's wine industry and the metaphor of house building, we hear how specialization leads to greater value creation.
Getting into the nitty gritty, we discuss driving behavioural change through well-designed incentives, using Microsoft's transition to a rateable revenue model as a case study.
Ross shares riveting stories of deep tech partnerships, such as those between Oracle, Accenture, and Quantify, that showcase the transformative power of clear role alignment and expertise sharing.
This episode offers a compelling take on how effective teaming and trust-building are crucial in today’s competitive landscape.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
Brace yourself for leadership lessons that are as impactful as they are practical. We're joined by Jason Tooley, EMEA Sales Leader and Board Member of techUK, who shares what he has learnt from his 35 years of experience in the tech industry.
Strap in for a journey through the challenges and strategies of leading transformations, especially within the backdrop of EMEA. We'll dissect the importance of adaptability and the courage it takes to make tough calls on prioritization, ensuring your vision doesn't get lost in the noise of competing tasks.
Discover why supporting your team is the cornerstone of success and how clear communication channels are the glue that holds your strategic plans together.
You'll learn how to cut through the clutter of everyday tasks and prioritize with precision, fostering an environment that thrives on trust and simplicity.
Our conversation with Jason dives into the importance of emotional intelligence, empathy, and engaging leadership styles that resonate across different cultural contexts. We discuss the art of breaking down silos, integrating business models, and motivating teams beyond just financial incentives, ensuring a seamless approach and a team that's in sync with the corporate vision.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
Discover the ripple effects of interest rates on the tech industry as we sit down with Paul Wiefels from the Chasm Group. Our enlightening conversation traverses the current challenges faced by tech firms, especially in the bustling hub of the San Francisco Bay Area. From the precarious dance of hiring to the tough decisions on layoffs, Paul unpacks the ways companies are striving to adapt to a "normal economy." His insights on the criticality of speed of execution provide valuable lessons for maintaining momentum in the industry, even as headcounts shrink and efficiency becomes the watchword.
Platforms are the buzzword of the day, but what truly makes a platform successful? We crack open the evolving definition, distinguishing between transaction platforms like Airbnb and innovation powerhouses such as AWS. Through candid anecdotes—including one from Splunk's former CEO—we underscore the importance of a customer-centric approach in tech leadership. It's not about the label 'platform' but the utility and customer adoption that truly cements a platform's place in the tech pantheon.
Wrapping up this deep-dive, the discussion shifts to the nuanced dance between vendors and customers. Paul emphasizes the need for tech companies to hone in on the outcomes and benefits that customers genuinely seek, rather than merely pushing the platform label. We dissect how Splunk's journey from a single-application offering to a comprehensive platform exemplifies the organic growth and alignment with customer aspirations that's crucial for success.
So tune in for a fresh angle on platforms and the critical importance of having a customer centric approach in the tech world.
You can view the Business Value Stairway framework that Paul shared with us here:
Business Value Stairway Extract 2023 (amplifiedgroup.co.uk)
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
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If steering a sales team to greatness has ever felt like herding cats, you're in for a treat.
In this episode, we chat with Andy Wills, EMEA Sales Enablement Director at Dynatrace. Andy tells us when a business has all the ingredients to be successful it is the people that will make the difference, yet businesses very often neglect to invest in leadership skills.
We share laughs and learn about the grit it takes to face rejection head-on and convert it into a stepping stone for success. We uncover the secret sauce that turns a high-performing salesperson into an impactful manager.
We dissect the art of leadership with Andy, where management is not merely about oversight but about vision. Listen to tales of inspiring teams to rally behind a common goal, the transition from sales leadership to enablement, and the joy of crafting a culture where leaders breed more leaders. The Dynatrace story will leave you itching to redefine your own approach to leadership and team motivation.
To cap things off, we get a peek into the framework that moulds sales leaders at Dynatrace. It's a thrilling insight into the company's nine-month leadership curriculum, now going global, that does more than just impart skills—it instils a way of being that's synonymous with the company's forward march.
We hear about the program's inception and the collaborative spirit that drives organizational growth. It's a masterclass in nurturing your most valuable assets—your people—and preparing them to conquer the tech world's ever-evolving landscape.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
Ever wondered what propels a high-performance team? Vic is on this special Amplified only podcast, with co-host Pippa Hutchinson to give you an insider's view.
We dig deep into the dynamics of highly productive teams, who are not just aligned and collaborative, but also exhibit a strong sense of belonging.
If you’re struggling with team productivity, being asked to do more with less or even flat headcount. Then we have some answers.
We explore how the tech industry measures speed of execution, the new metric for differentiation and introduce you to a tool that's revolutionizing team dynamics: the Speed Check.
This tool measures your team's execution prowess across four key pillars: purpose, trust, clarity, and simplicity. We also dissect common red flags like high clarity and low trust, and the deceptive phenomenon of artificial harmony. Prepare to shift your perspective as we underscore the importance of simplicity as a mindset and the power of every voice being heard. Buckle up for an enlightening ride into the heart of team performance.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
What a thought provoking session Sam and I had with the highly engaging and incredibly energising Ben Pearce.
Ben has two decades of tech go to market under his belt with Microsoft. The later 10 years, as a leader he realised he didn’t need to coach his team on the tech stuff, but the critical human skills needed to influence both internal stakeholders and customers.
Packed with practical tips on key point retention, next step strategies, and the art of storytelling. Ben walks us through his super simple AOREN framework (which btw we are now putting into practice already at Amplified Group 😃)
You can down load it here
This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to master communication and leadership in the tech industry. If you're ready to take your tech skills to the next level, this is the episode for you.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
How do we make space in our work life for everyone to have a voice? What better person to speak to than Mark Murphy, Director of Global Partner Marketing at Cisco.
Mark shares his experience of fostering and supporting a culture of inclusivity at Cisco. One of Mark’s many great roles involved co-leading the Cisco Pride and LGBTQ+ global community. His story is not just about leadership, but also about fostering respect, truth-telling, and positive intent in the workplace.
We love the analogy of using our elbows to make space – about using our voices and clearing space so that everyone can be heard and feel valued.
The conversation moves on to discuss how we all have to move fast in the tech industry, every single day. It’s a team sport – all the way to the customer. Mark shares how his experiences have shaped his approach to teamwork and collaboration. Inclusivity is the key to driving effectiveness in this fast-paced industry.
It’s a positivity fuelled episode. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we clearly did recording it!
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
How do you cope with stress in the workplace? Do you ever feel like your stress is managing you rather than the other way around?
We came across a wonderful sketchnote by Dr Hayley Lewis and knew we had to get her back for a chat on Get Amplified to delve into this some more.
Stress can affect all of us at different times. Hayley is quick to point out that not all stress is bad and that we should recognise sometimes it is good - it gives us adrenaline when we need it.
There isn't one size fits all when it comes to stress. Hayley highlights how we need to understand the root causes and to put interventions in place when needed.
One of the differentiators in high performance teams is that team members really know each other and have found ways to complement and compromise with each other.
If you do nothing else, be curious about your colleagues and your team. Ask questions – people don't have to share if they don't want to, but if someone knows you care, that means something. As human beings we are geared towards human connection and belonging.
Hayley leaves us with these key takeaways:
- Stress is nothing to feel ashamed of. It shows you are human.
- Reach out for help that feels safe to you. Might be a manager, coach, mentor, friend, colleague. ‘a problem shared is a problem halved. Get it out of your head.
- Look for the root causes. Don’t deal with the symptoms. Put in interventions that deal with that.
Hayley references some great tools and information which we will share in an upcoming blog.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
How strategic is HR within your organisation?
In this episode, Chris Woodward, a workforce transformation consultant, joins the conversation with Sam and Vic around moving from a resource-based view of managers to a talent-based view where everybody has potential.
We need to ensure the value of strategic HR is known. We need to think about how to maximise the potential of people. And that takes leadership.
Chris discusses that leadership is the game changing area to focus on. It's not just about those at the top - leadership is for everybody.
There is so much in this podcast. Here's a peek at the key takeaways:
- Discretionary effort from your people and teams genuinely has potential for game changing results.
- Talent. There’s an opportunity to support HR to support you. Help HR be more strategic. Be more innovative in how you attract and retain talent.
- Really value the importance of trust and collaboration in your organisation. This underpins a high performing team and results for your organisation.
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
After a Get Amplified break we're back with a flurry of exciting new guests. We kick off September by looking outside of the tech industry to see what we can learn from the Pharma industry.
Not only are both industries affected by high attrition, particularly through Covid, but both share the same challenges of time to market – of people being pulled in different directions, with too much workload and less people to do it.
Ian shares with us his fascinating experience particularly around decision making and the importance of bringing together a cross functional team of people to successfully manage projects.
With only 1 in 100 drugs making it through to a successful registration process and 1 in 4 making back the investment, it's a 7-12 year investment timeframe. A fascinating contrast to the speed of technology development and expected return.
Ian tells us how projects involve 3 key constraints which have to be managed effectively if you want a successful outcome. These are: time, quality, cost. If you reduce time, you increase cost.
It's a fascinating insight into managing a triangle of competing needs.
podcast #pharma #leadership #projectmanagement #crossfunctional #team #clinicaltrials
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
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We had such fun recording this podcast, it is relevant for everyone. Andy Hunt gives us a sneak peek into the conversations and insights he focuses on as a CEO coach. The lessons Andy shares are not just for CEOs, but for any leader or aspiring leader.
We touch on a wealth of topics such as:
1) How the best leaders are coaches.
2) Why culture is a vehicle for scale (it's a magnet).
3) The difference between a manager and a leader.
4) Be humble, be curious. You don't need to have all the answers.
5) Know your blind spots and what to do about them.
Andy talks passionately about the importance of having a coach. "Wherever you are in your career, get a coach. It was life changing for me."
Enjoy listening. An episode not to be missed!
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
We’re writing a book! We have the structure and contents – we just need some real-life stories to support each of the chapters to bring the book to life.
And that’s where you come in . . . we’d love you to be part of what we’re doing.
About the book
Title: Finding your TeamX™ - Why leave teamwork to chance when there is a proven process?
If only there was a way to take all the best bits of how we work together as a team and make it sustainable all the time – wouldn’t that be great? Read on…
You’ve just stepped up to lead a team. You’re going to be unstoppable together. You dream of great collaboration, of team members not hesitating to help each other. Your team members can’t imagine working anywhere else. Together you’re a leading light in your organisation.
So where do you start?
When we learn about business we are taught about organisational structure, finance, go-to-market strategy, and sales, but we are not taught the process of building a strong team.
Should it just be down to luck?
We don’t think so. We think this should be taught, which is why we’ve created this book about building great team experience (we call it TeamX™). We want you to know what we wish we’d known 20 years ago.
Discover a pragmatic operating system that can help any team work more effectively together.
When we enjoy what we do and feel supported, both the people and the business benefit. After all, you are the best asset your business has!
Chapter Contents
If you think you have a story that fits with any of the titles below, good, bad, or ugly, we would love to hear from you!
Part 1 – Purpose
Chapter 1: Find your purpose beyond the numbers
Chapter 2: Take off your functional hat - The importance of having a joint purpose
Chapter 3: Point to your North Star
Part 2 – Trust
Chapter 4: Understand your team dynamics
Chapter 5: Gain psychological safety
Chapter 6: Hire based on values
Part 3 – Clarity
Chapter 7: Build guard rails
Chapter 8: Gain alignment
Chapter 9: Enable accountability
Part 4 – Simplicity
Chapter 10: Order your priorities
Chapter 11: Agree what you are stopping
Chapter 12: Build simplicity as a habit
Book Recommendation
Here’s a link to the Steve Jobs eBook that Vic referenced:
Make Something Wonderful | a book from the Steve Jobs Archive
How to get in touch
Drop us a message: team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk
Message us via LinkedIn
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
Diversity - hot topic or over used word? Whatever your view on this, so many of us are guilty of hiring who we know. It’s hard to disagree with Lee when he says we all need to build more diverse networks.
Lee Higgins, Founder of Diverse Talent Networks, shares with us why we should think ‘culture add’ instead of ‘culture fit’ and why thinking value aligned will allow for more diversity of thought - a topic we are very passionate about at the Amplified Group.
Here’s the key takeaways and book recommendation:
Key takeaways
· Widen your circle and diversify your network
· Be proactive so when it is hiring time you are starting with a more diverse pool of talent
· Think about culture add – even if hiring through traditional means. Who’s adding to that culture?
· Recognise that you have more influence than you think
We like Lee’s comment, “Make change happen for good” with actions instead of window dressing.
Find out more about Diverse Talent Networks
https://www.diversetalentnetworks.com/
Follow them on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/diverse-talent-networks/
Book Recommendation:
Alex Budak - Becoming a Changemaker
Becoming a Changemaker: An Actionable, Inclusive Guide to Leading Positive Change at Any Level (Audio Download): Alex Budak, Alex Budak, Balance: Amazon.co.uk: Books
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
We are constantly being asked if it is possible to build trust in teams that are not in the office together. The short answer is YES!
But don’t hear it from us, in this episode of Get Amplified, Sam and Vic are joined by Tony Roberts a Customer Success Leader at Okta who shares how investing in time to not only introduce his team to the Five Behaviours but how turning into team muscle has really paid off.
The conversation starts by asking why teams are struggling to build trust and why trust is so important. Tony tells us about finding the magic when realising he’d created a team of mentors. As people take the time to get to know each other, they are building bonds - people are much more willing to step in and help each other without being asked.
This is a great podcast to hear how by putting the foundations in place to build a healthy team, the results come more easily.
Book Recommendation
Tony recommends the book, The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
As many organisations try to figure out how and when to use their office space, we thought it would be great to hear from the experts!
Sam and Vic are delighted to be joined by Allison English, Deputy CEO at Leesman, to talk about the Leesman Index and super relevant work Leesman are doing to measure and analyse employees workplace experience.
This podcast is very timely as on the 21st March 2023 Leesman are about to announce fresh new insights from more than a million respondents, and we are lucky that Allison is able to give us a sneak peek.
Here is the link to the upcoming webinar we mention, and all of their research is available here on their website.
Book Recommendation
Allison's book recommendation is the brilliant book, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplified-group/
Welcome to Series 4 - What a treat we have for you here - Thank you Darren!!!
We have been asked many times by clients to help them with change management.
Whilst it is a well known fact 70% of change initiatives are not successful and success rates can improve from 30% to 80% if you put an equal focus on the people as well as what you are trying to change, we knew we had part of the jigsaw …
What we had been missing is a change management framework. Welcome to another bit of magic!
When Darren was last on the podcast he recommended a book called Switch - this book shares many, many stories of successful change and the 9 elements needed, all summed up by an elephant, a rider and a road.
It is super simple, very memorable and pragmatic to implement - just what we love at the Amplified Group. We will be sharing more on this framework on LinkedIn - so please do follow us!
Book Recommendation
‘Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard' by Chip and Dan Heath
We would love you to follow us on LinkedIn!
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If this title doesn’t appeal to you because you have meetings nailed - we want to talk to you! There isn’t a person or company we speak to that isn’t feeling the pain of meeting gridlock in this post pandemic hybrid working world.
It is for this reason we were thrilled to have Dr Carrie Goucher join us and share what she has learnt during her PhD at Cambridge University on this juicy subject. Sam and I literally spent the time picking Carrie’s brain on all the things meetings. And it is all here for you to listen to!
We focussed on how to make a meeting successful - which, given we spend so much of our precious time in meetings, is pretty darn important to move a business forward at pace.
Carrie has also agreed to come back and talk about changing meeting culture in a company. We hope you learn as much as we did!
Additional Information:
You can find the link to the e-course mentioned by Carrie below. It is released on 31st January 2023 and is available now for pre-order:
https://www.fewerfasterbolder.com/fewerfasterbolderecourse
Pre-orders already receive 50% discount, but Get Amplified podcast listeners can get a further 20% off with the code:
GETAMPLIFIED-MEETINGS
If you are interested in some of the other resources mentioned by Carrie such as the invitation template and the capture canvas (no sign in or email address needed), you can find them here: www.fewerfasterbolder.com/resources
Matt Piercy, joins Amplifiers Lewis Gee and Lindsey Moore to bring to life our New Hire Productivity Report: ‘Move over great attrition, bring on great engagement.’
We hope you enjoy this discussion as we look at the impact of the ‘great attrition’ on the tech industry. Organisations and sales leaders are under huge pressure to hit their quarterly revenue targets but in today’s economic climate, combined with a 30% employee turnover rate, we discuss how new hires faring. We explore how to quickly get new salespeople up to full productivity and the role ‘team’ plays in that.
Matt saw his career take off leading NEMEA sales organisations for VMware, then EMEA for ZScaler, and ThousandEyes. Matt shares his thoughts and what he put into practice around setting new hires up for success. Matt suggests starting by measuring objectives vs revenue (that is unrealistic in the first few months) is much more likely to get your new hires off to a strong start.
Lewis, (who promoted Matt into the NEMEA role at VMWare) brings so much experience on this topic, having held leadership positions in high-growth organisations ServiceNow, VMware and Citrix – all of which hit through a billion dollars during his time. Lewis shares the rigorous onboarding he experienced and we explore if this is now missing? We feel incredibly fortunate to have Lewis as one of our Amplifiers as we and our clients constantly benefit from his wisdom!
We hope you enjoy the conversation. We’d also love to hear if any of our listeners have stories or tips to share. You can reach us at team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk.
Grab a copy of the report here.
We are finding cross team collaboration is the new big headache organisations face since COVID impacted where we work. The challenge has now become so big for organisations, it is hard to know where to start.
Thanks to Paul Wiefels from the Chasm group we were introduced to Jamie Thomas from Cophi, which is a super simple diagnostics tool to help you measure and identify where to start. Cophi provides the data to support the feelings.
On this Podcast we chat to Jamie, one of the Co-Founders of Cophi to find out more about how they can help. We are excited to share this breakthrough solution 🚀
The image is an example of the collaboration network we spoke about.
Wow what a conversation. It’s fascinating hearing former combat helicopter pilot & squadron leader, Sarah Furness, share her experience and learnings around how we can all fly higher. There are some great tips and reminders of how we can improve the way we work, starting with understanding our own minds.
Sarah tells us that we are never too old to learn, we can always train our brain. The conversation delves into some interesting topics including stress, focus, stretch and flow. Sarah tells us about Eustress which refers to positive stress, the opposite of distress. If we can stretch ourselves, we’re likely to find our flow to operate at our optimum state.
In a hectic work life of constant competing priorities, Sarah talks about the importance of unitask. We are not built to manage multiple tasks. Focus on one thing at a time and do it well.
“Focus on one thing – Fly the helicopter”
We may have mentioned a few times that Sarah is a best-selling author. You can find her book on Amazon here: Fly Higher: Train your mind to feel as strong as you look eBook : Furness, Sarah: Amazon.co.uk: Books
We welcome back Andy Bryars Director of Customer Success EMEA at Okta to share the secrets of his team’s success and shine a spotlight on one of his brightest stars.
Moving from an individual contributor to manager role is one of the biggest changes we experience in our career. Jamie McDonnell from Okta’s EMEA Customer Success team shares his experience of the step up. We also get to hear about the comprehensive onboarding program that the Customer Success team have implemented to set all their new hires up for success.
This podcast is packed full of practical practices that all of the CS team embrace with extraordinary results.
Topics covered include:
- Journey from individual contributor to manager
- Hiring the right people
- Setting new team members up for success
- Importance of accountability
- Introducing our first TeamX™ Ambassador
What a treat it was for Sam and Vic to record this with Tim. It will be clear listening to this why Tim is such a great addition to the Amplified Group family. Tim is clearly a people and team first sales leader.
The real magic of this podcast is all the practical and pragmatic best practices that Tim shares about how he has learnt to set his teams up for success, recognising that Sales in the Tech Industry is a Team sport not an individual one!
We covered everything from planning your meeting capacity based on one large pizza and how to support your team at end of quarter to maximise their time with their customers, to being able to build a successful sales plan that has anticipated roadblocks and is prepared and set up for success.
We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording it!
Herve Renault Head of Cloud Sales for VMware EMEA joins Vic and Sam for as Sam delightfully wraps it up 'a canter through the role of the sales specialist, value selling and the transition to the cloud. Herve talks from the heart on subjects he is clearly passionate about, and his passion is infectious!
He also moves us on from recommending a book to recommending a film - Glengarry Glen Ross -A film which he assures us is about how not to sell!
We hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we did recording it!
Denise Sangster is recognised in the top 10 most influential women in tech, working as CEO of Global Touch Denise consults with many leading tech companies on their partner strategy.
Denise joins Vic and Sam to talk about the future of partners in the era of consumption.
Denise is a wonderful advocate of this critical route to market which often is the ‘under dog’ to enterprise sales which is where most of the recognition goes.
This podcast is great timing as Global Touch have just published their new Global Partner Outlook Survey, a must read but for a quick intro we touch on all the main challenges.
The Outlook covers the three markets of US and Canada, EMEA and APAC - the good news partners are bullish about the 2022 outlook
On the podcast we also discovered Global Touch and Amplified Group have measurement or telemetry as Denise calls it at the heart of what we do. Whether its the impact of partner go to market or speed of sales execution being able to measure it, is the key to unlocking it’s potential!
The Partner Outlook Survey results are available by subscription. For further details about this edition’s results or a subscription, please email us at PartnerOutlook@globaltouch.com.
What a treat you are in for!
Darren joins Sam and Vic to share his vast experience and learnings through the transformations he advises on. The breadth of content on this podcast is everything from learning how to be the best version of yourself, through to implementing Geoffrey Moore’s Zones model. The underlying message throughout is no matter how much change technology drives, the human element is your critical success factor.
There was so much to take away from this Thank You 🙏 Darren!
We miss Sam in this episode of Get Amplified, but instead Vic is joined by Lindsey Moore and Pippa Hutchinson to discuss the findings of our Tech Leaders Survey. As you will hear there are some real positives to how the Tech Industry has fared through the Pandemic, but we also believe we get to the heart of why everyone in tech is feeling the ‘heat’.
We hope you find it as insightful as we did, as the findings came to light for us!
You can find the full report here
Those looking for inspiration for how to drive successful digital transformation and how to pivot a global software business to a subscription model will know of the incredible success story of @AutoDesk
In this episode of #GetAmplified Vic and Sam are joined by Reddy Mallidi who shares his journey from India to Wallstreet, to Pentium 3 Product Manager at Intel to Head of Global Ops at AutoDesk, automating 200,000 man hours. Reddy shares his incredibly humbling people first approach and his experience of the close correlation between employee engagement and customer satisfaction. We hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording. Thanks so much Reddy you are an inspiration!
We are often asked what is the difference between a coach and a mentor. Yvonne Matzk, Leadership and Channel coach, joins Sam and Vic to share why she has become a coach and why everyone should have a mentor.
Yvonne shares how the new mentoring network she has brought to the channel in the UK is really gathering momentum and how you can get involved.
- Maybe with the help of this podcast we can extend the scope outside of the UK??
If you are interested, we also found ourselves in a discussion about a potential podcast mini series - we left it in, but put it after the music at the end in case you are interested to listen - we would love to know what you think?
The event we referred to is on the 21st April from 4pm in Central London, Agenda and more details to come and will be posted on our LinkedIn Page:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-channel-community-uk
The LinkedIn group is:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9021877
The website is:
https://www.thechannelcommunity.com/
We had such an incredible response to an article we wrote about Imposter Syndrome that we thought it made sense for Sam and Vic to cover it on a podcast. We would love to hear your Imposter Syndrome Stories. Please do get in touch team@amplifiedgroup.co.uk
You can find the full article here
Customer Advocacy is the ultimate teaming between Customer and Vendor. Polly Lambert, an Expert in Advocacy in the Tech Industry joins Sam and Vic to share some thought provoking ideas on how to get the best from your Advocacy Program, whatever size company you are.
Vic apologises in advance for her whooping - but it is a great example of sub consciously doing the right thing, and learning for next time to make it conscious and deliberate! (This will make sense when you listen!)
Polly’s definition of Customer Advocacy
“Using the voice of those who have, to earn the trust of those who could.”
Dr Hayley Lewis, named one of the most influential thinkers globally in her field of Organisational Psychology joins Sam and Vic to provide our listeners with hints and tips to set our selves up for success this year.
One of the main themes you will hear is ‘being kind to yourself January’ and what that really means.
All of the resources Hayley talks about are available here
Season 3 kicks off with Geoffrey Moore, Tech Industry Legend (we can say that!)
As you will hear Vic is even more excited than usual. Not only because let’s face it - this is Geoffrey Moore we have as a guest, but also because through our Tech Industry Leaders Survey, we appear to have identified the Tech Industry’s Biggest challenge:
Competing Priorities - where 75% of Leaders agreed or strongly agreed they had competing priorities and this is also a topic Geoff is very passionate about.
The title comes from a previous talk Geoff made where he says it is only natural that Tech organisations do not want to put all their eggs in one basket, but they need to remember a Chicken only lays one egg at a time. Hence we dig into this some more and also learn about Geoffrey’s new book, The Infinite Staircase. We had great fun recording this as our Christmas Special and hope you enjoy listening
Here is a link to the video Vic refers to
Like many others, we first came across Hayley Lewis, on LinkedIn with her super simple sketch notes providing solutions for many of the human aspects we find challenging in our working lives. Hayley joins the GetAmplified Team to share her experience and we pick her brains on how to have difficult conversations, which we quickly learn we should think of important conversations! This is the first of many conversations we plan to have with Hayley - we hope you find it as insightful as we did!
Download The sketch note for getting in the right headspace for important conversations here
Hayley’s website https://halopsychology.com/
We need to be really clear, this is our title - not Scott’s! Listening to the podcast you will understand why we needed to write that. Scott is the true humble leader, it is never about him, it is all about the team and the power of what the team can achieve together. With his vast experience, his authenticity and his transparent approach, it is no surprise Scott was approached by Cisco to be their CFO. Scott shares how his career journey has unfolded, how he is settling into Cisco and why taking care of Cisco’s 75,000 employees is his number one priority.
We also get a great insight into AutoDesk’s transformation to the SAAS based company and it’s incredible market cap growth.
Our favourite quote from Scott ‘To be a leader, people have to want to follow you’
From flat sheets and fitted sheets to getting told off by Bill Gates, and everything in between. Alistair Wildman SVP&GM of Customer Experience EMEAR at Cisco shares why he is so passionate about Cisco’s emerging talent and we meet Rhiannon … A Cisco apprentice who oozes talent, who shares how her career has got off to a flying start.
Sam and Vic are joined again by Chris Collett former Army Major and Mental Health First Aid Trainer to talk about returning to the office. We certainly don’t have all the answers, but we hope this is food for thought!
Getting the right working balance between Corporate and Field is one of the critical success factors for tech organisations to scale at speed, but why is it so hard to achieve ? Lamia joins Sam and Vic to share her vast experience, sharing the importance of always being customer centric and how everyone is part of the value chain. If one part breaks, it all breaks.
We also talk through
- How differences in GEO’s come into play driven by specific market characteristics i.e. market shape and size,
- Why Corp and field should engage early in discussions
- Why the Voice of the field is so important and success starts with trust
Steve Wilson and Tracy Reis from Syniti join Sam and I to record this episode of #GetAmplified. It is no wonder Syniti is enjoying such success and has attrition rates of <5%. This is a masterclass in building great culture. As you will hear - being Kind - does not mean being ‘soft’ tough conversations and accountability are front and centre.
But it is about EVERYONE being #kind and EVERYONE being the keeper of the culture. Thank you Steve and Tracy for giving Sam and I such a thought provoking insight into Syniti. How you are scaling your culture is inspirational!
Jed Ayres joins Sam and Vic to cover 3 hot topics - all on transformation - hardware to software - CMO to CEO and successfully taking an EMEA built company into the US market. Three big topics covered beautifully through Jed's art of story telling. We also find out Jed, Sam and Vicky have more in common than they realise - as Sam put's it so articulately - from tech to spuds ! It's a wild ride not to be missed - we hope you enjoy listening as much as we did recording !
Graham Crich has been a pioneer of the SaaS model - offering it in the mid 90s working in a visionary reseller. He drove the Service Partner Program for VMware in EMEA and is now taking it to another level at Veeam. This podcasts covers lessons learnt and best practices and as with every GetAmplified podcast drawing on the importance of the human element and TeamX including leading without having direct reports.
This is a slightly different Get Amplified episode - Gabe Barrett former CIO of Abellio Group and shortly embarking in a Masters in Organisational Psychology joins Sam and Vic for a thought provoking conversation. We dip into what the future of work looks like and things we should be considering as we start to introduce hybrid working for the many vs the few.
You can find an overview of the speed check we mention here
In this episode of #GetAmplified Sam grills Vic on how to build a team of teams and why it is so important to break down the silos that form as organisations grow. We talk through the six critical leadership questions needed for leadership teams to align on. Vic shares how to create a common language for culture throughout the organisation and introduces the TeamX Champion train the trainer program. We also touch on the importance of hiring team players as the organisation scales. There are so many practical elements in this podcast we hope it helps!!
You can find the 6 critical questions here
Solution Brief for Building a Team of Teams
Video for the Ideal Team Player
Richard Jackson former Sales VP at Citrix and NVIDIA joins the #GetAmplified Team to share his experience of running regional sales teams in the US and EMEA. Richard shares his vast experience from running small startups to global teams and we gain a great insight into what it is like to move to the US for work.
There are so many pearls of wisdom and anecdotes in this podcast it is hard to do it justice. Alan joins Sam and I to share his experience leading European and Global teams -we get to hear both the good experience and the bad experience and the impact this has on the business. We’ve already started putting some of the things we learnt from Alan into practice - we hope you can too!
You can find the model that Alan spoke about here
If you want to know more about Beaconforce - you can find it here
Hi this is Vicky and I haven't been this excited about technology since I used to demonstrate Application Publishing 21 years ago! So I apologise for my enthusiasm on this episode of GetAmplified where Sam and I are joined by David O ‘Hara from Beaconforce to chat about why Intrinsic Motivation and Trust are the critical leading indicators of sustainable business and how Beaconforce helps measure them in realtime. Think of it as your 'Fitbit' for employee engagement and you start to realise how this deep listening tool enables the agility in your business you have been missing! Especially in the new remote working world we find ourselves in.
You can find out why Gartner recommended Beaconforce to Toyota and just how critical it has become to their business here
If you would like to book a quick demo, we would love to show you ! https://calendly.com/amplifiedgroup-vicky/30min
Duncan joins Sam and Vic to share how he stays true to himself and why he is a purpose driven leader but we don't just cover this. Duncan takes leadership to another level, he talks passionately about the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion and shares why intrinsic motivation is so critical to his team. We also hear first hand the big hairy audacious goals he has set himself, having recently joined the board of techUK. Prepare to be inspired, we certainly were!!
Here is the link for the video Duncan refers to from Dan Pink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
Lewis Gee held senior sales leadership positions at Citrix, VMware and ServiceNow when they were all in their Hyper-growth phase. Lewis shares his vast experience of the different founding leadership styles and how true these organisations stayed to their original purpose.
We also discuss the pitfalls that organisations face as they scale through rapid growth and the lessons learnt along the way.
This episode of GetAmplified is not to be missed for EMEA regional sales leaders and also Global sales leaders needing an insight into EMEA sales best practice.
This podcast maybe just a 'chat' between friends, but there is no getting away from what is at the heart of Phoenix's success - it is it's people and culture with Sam as the driving force.
Sam shares with us, just how important it is to get the culture right, to create the caring and trusting environment with clear purpose and vision that enables talent to grow and take on new responsibilities. How this not only helps with talent retention but is the secret behind their business success.
We nearly called the episode the importance of having fun at work so that should give you an idea of the tone of the podcast! We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did recording it! The #GetAmplified Crew
We have been working with two coaches from the Oxford school of drama to create a course ‘An inspirational course for women’ we are asking you for a thumbs up on whether this would be of interest. For future info download our one page PDF here.
Dave Wright joins Sam and Vic to share his thoughts on how to drive innovation through teamwork. Hear Dave's fascinating career story that has landed him in such an exciting role.
Dave gives us a valuable insight into why no idea is a bad idea because you never know the future and why asking 'why' is the most important question.
It wouldn't be an Get Amplified podcast if we didn't touch on the importance of trust - We learn why Dave believes the most beautiful culture is where you don't need to be 'brave' because everyone is safe to say what they think' and where cross functional teams can work without hierarchy.
There is also an admission from Vic that perhaps she should have edited out ?
Paul Wiefels, is a Master of GoToMarket strategy for the Tech Industry, we caught up with him to find out what should tech companies be focusing on in 2021. Paul shares how there is such little difference between technology offerings from tech companies in the same category and how aligning and motivating the troops is the key to success. In a nutshell it is all about Speed to Market. This is a not to be missed episode.
Sam and Vic share what they have learnt from the inspirational guests they have had on Get Amplified and how they are now putting it into practice. They also give a sneak peak into the great episodes coming up in the second half of series two which will start next week.
Rebecca Fox joins the Get Amplified crew to talk about a topic we may have been guilty of shying away from at the Amplified Group. Not only does Rebecca share with us the importance of being authentic to build trust as a leader but how building a networkaround you by winning hearts and minds can propel you forward.
We address how many of us turn down promotions due to imposter syndrome and tackle the difficult conversations of being a working mum.
This has encouraged us to explore this point further, how can we help others avoid having imposter syndrome, how can we instil confidence in other women out there that may struggle with this. We have been working with two coaches from the Oxford school of drama to create a course ‘An inspirational course for women’ we are asking you for a thumbs up on whether this would be of interest. For future info download our one page PDF here.
This is a MUST listen podcast for any leader or aspiring leader in the Tech Industry
Mark Templeton started at Citrix in marketing when it was 50 people, became President in 1998 and CEO in 1999, he experienced many stages of growth with many lessons learned along the way.
Mark shares advice for organisations going through hyper growth, highlighting how to break down the glass ceilings of growth and stop inertia creeping in. Mark also shares a very personal story of when he first became CEO and thought he needed to have all the answers and the hard lessons he had to learn.
There are 3 mins of extra fun after the music at the end- we would love to know what you think ?
We’ve got a festive treat for you all!
Citrix customers, partners, employees and alumni will know Mark Templeton as the inspiration and the driving force, behind the realization of the Virtual Workplace vision.
Mark has joined us for a heartwarming two-part Christmas special of Get Amplified; put your feet up, get the fire on and pour yourself a warming drink while you enjoy his pearls of wisdom!
Martyn Story, Senior Director Customer Success at Puppet joins the Get Amplified crew to talk about best practices in this new world of constant remote working. Martyn shares how he and the Puppet team are using OKRs in place of KPIs to ensure the team have clarity of what is expected of them and feel empowered to be innovative.
This episode is a little different as it also features some best practices from David Parry Jones and Stuart Fenton with regards to this years remote working. (Please note their comments were recorded in September when things were a little different, but are still very relevant)
The OKR software Vicky refers to:
https://weekdone.com/
Hear how Andy Bryars, Director of Customer Success at Okta is partnering with the Amplified Group to invest in his teams future, his team was already in a good place but Andy recognised as a leader that you cant take fitness of any kind for granted, especially when you are going through hyper-growth as an organisation.
Download a sample of a Five Behaviors model Team Assessment HERE
Following on from the great session with Colin Brown former MD of Softcat, we are keeping on the theme of Simplicity. Pippa Hutchinson joins us to share her experience of the growth of Tesco’s in the 90’s. There are startling similarities to the growth of Softcat, we also had some great fun recording it, with Sam revealing a secret and Sia unknowingly transporting us back to the Blind Date back in the 90s! So if you want some cheer as well as great business practice insights, this is not an episode to be missed!
Want to know the magic behind Softcat’s phenomenal success?
Softcat’s story is proof that you can scale at speed, go through a successful IPO and still keep the magic. Colin gives us a valuable insight into the ‘Softcat way’ where keeping the strategy simple to ensure the leadership team can invest their time in maintaining their incredible culture really is their recipe for success. Sam, our host describes Colin as the Custodian of Culture - (Sam should know as he was Softcat’s CTO!)
Enjoy - we certainly did recording it 😊
https://amplifiedgroup.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Empowered-Workforce-Report-Pages.pdf
The Amplified Group and the Five Behaviors of a Team model
We often use sports analogies in business especially when we are talking about high-performance teams, so its great to have Simon Clarkson on our latest podcast, talking about his experience working with elite sports professionals.
Simon also shares how the principles cross over from sports to business with his three key takeaways;
Unity of purpose – where buy-in is key
Growth mindset – a mindset for measuring progress
A culture allowing vulnerability
With his vast experience at iconic companies like IBM, Microsoft and VMware we are delighted to have David Parry-Jones (DPJ) now VP of EMEA & APAC at Twilio Inc, join the Get Amplified team to share his experience of building a high-performance team that can scale at a rate to match its growth and why it is important that Twilio’s new hires feel like they belong and oh ...so much more....!
The report DPJ refers to related to on how COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation
https://www.twilio.com/covid-19-digital-engagement-report
Jane Rimmer, renowned IT vet, who played an instrumental part in the early success of behemoths of the industry such as Citrix and was employee #2 at VMware EMEA and now founder of hiviz-marketing, shares with us the importance of leading from the front and how to make the extraordinary happen.
Former President of Insight and CDW, and now CEO of Quantiq, Stuart Fenton shares his story of how he has learnt to become the leader he is today, building Quantiq a company that he would want to work at.
Stuart shares how putting your people first, ensures you retain incredible talent who pull together to undoubtedly deliver extraordinary (and sustainable) results.
You can find the Deficit feedback model that Stuart talks about here
https://amplifiedgroup.eu/get-amplified-podcast/
In the last episode of series one, the GET Amplified team are joined by Paul Burke, SVP of Product Marketing at Glass Wall and client of the Amplified Group. We explore why clarity is needed at every level of the organisations and how lack of it can paralyse individuals and teams and cause silos in organisations.
Here is the Alignment Assessment we talk about that will help you assess where you are as a team and enable you to start the conversation....
Jonathan Alexander, Former Director of Cloud Management Sales at VMWare EMEA joins the Get Amplified Team in our penultimate session of the series to share his wealth of experience of working with remote teams. This topic was recorded pre COVID-19 but with remote working becoming a much more accepted way of working for the future is even more relevant than ever!
The team are joined by Andy Bacon, Strategic Marketing Consultant, Mentor and Speaker to discuss the challenges when sales and marketing are not aligned. Andy shares how account based marketing (ABM) can be a catalyst to unite them as one team.
Amplified Sales and Marketing Alignment assessment
Link to Andy’s enlightening article
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andybacon_abm-accountbasedmarketing-b2bmarketing-activity-6631482396912955392-DxBp
In our last bite-sized episode in mental health awareness week the team wrap up our discussions with Chris where he stresses the importance of making mental health a part of your discussions at work.
The check that Sia refers to
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/campaigns/mental-health-awareness-week
Interesting HR Analyst article that Vic refers to
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6661883214933692416/
As we continue our discussions around good mental health awareness at work, this is the fourth bite-sized episode where the team have a great discussion about how giving feedback with care is the kindest thing. It’s better to have feedback, good or bad, than not to know.
Here is the link to the radical candor video we refer to.
https://youtu.be/yj9GLeNCgm4
Our third bite-sized episode of Get Amplified supporting mental health awareness week, the Get Amplified team along with Chris Collett discuss the importance of everybody on the team having a voice and how gaining clarity can help with good mental health.
In our second bite-sized episode the Get Amplified team are joined again by Chris Collett mental health first aid trainer to discuss how organisations can provide a safe space, where opinions are sought, offered and heard, where disagreements can be aired and overcome through positive conflict. Most importantly - why this is good for your mental health!
In this first special bite sized daily episode of Get Amplified supporting Mental Health Awareness Week, the Get Amplified team are joined again by Chris Collett, former Army Major and Mental Health First Aid Trainer. The team explore why having trust in the workplace helps our mental health and how a leader can build trust by showing vulnerability.
The Get Amplified team are joined Francisco, founder and former CEO of ITQ. This is a fascinating personal story of how Francisco recognised his blind spots and appointed a new CEO to run his company. ITQ goes from strength to strength, recently winning VMware’s EMEA partner of the year for knowledge.
If change is a constant, listen to Paul Russell a leader in the IBM Watson Group who shares the fascinating use of design thinking to help you with your next chapter.
On this episode of Get Amplified, Sam finds out more from Vicky and Sia on the best kept business secret, the five behaviours of a team, discovering the simple and pragmatic formula for team work. You will hear about Microsoft as a case study, how the formula works and tips on how to get started with it.
It’s just us three chickens this time - enjoy!
Still struggling with remote working? If not, but you know someone who is, please share.
Join this special edition of Get Amplified with guest Adam Harding, Chief Technologist for Workspace at Softcat. Sharing our joint experiences of remote working that span over 50 years we hope we can help as we discuss;
- Best practices of remote working
- How best to deal with the tech
- And how to act as a leader
Welcome back to the chat with Martin Kelly, where Martin gets to the heart of how Citrix’s internal IT organisation transformed to be able to keep up with the pace of change.
To learn more about the importance of a high trust culture to help organisations keep up with the pace of change - Read our Empowered Workforce Report published here
The Get Amplified team are joined by Martin Kelly, Global Technology Leader and Former WW VP of IT Infrastructure at Citrix. Find out why being customer centric enabled Citrix’s IT team to keep up with the pace of change. Martin will share the importance of being a humble leader and how it was critical to build trust and empower the team.
Based on the feedback we received on LinkedIn (Thanks to all that contributed) this will be two episodes as there is so much to share! We hope you enjoy it :-)
Vice President of HR Verena Sunday talks about how to build and maintain a high-trust culture by using a pragmatic approach. With no HR or corporate speak this podcast gets to the heart of how by picking a lane and sticking to it, your organisation can be set up for long term success.
Former army major Chris Collett joins the Get Amplified team to share the power of understanding yourself and how adapting to peoples different workstyle can accelerate your desired outcomes. Coming from a former army major with thirty three years of military experience, this is definitely not soft stuff!
James McNab, Director, Cybersecurity Marketing, (EMEA, Asia Pacific) at Cisco talks about his experience of being acquired by Cisco and how the art of simplicity made Sourcefire an attractive acquisition for them.
Read our Empowered Workforce Report here
In this first episode, we introduce the Get Amplified Team, Sam Routledge our host and former CTO of Softcat, Siaron van Wetten and Vicky Reddington Co Founders of the Amplified Group and why we do what we do.
New from the Amplified Group, Vicky Reddington introduces this podcast series for leaders and aspiring leaders working in the fast paced tech industry. From staying ahead of the pace of change to your wellbeing and feeling fulfilled.