By Jude Jennison
The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.
Josh Winfield is Head of Talent Visa for Tech Nation. Josh works closely with the government and tech businesses to support the immigration of tech talent to drive growth in UK tech businesses.
I know Josh from a few years ago when he coached me on the Natwest Entrepreneur Accelerator programme. Josh is smart, forward-thinking and innovative and he understands startups having run his own business in his early twenties and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and startups too. Josh is a challenger so it’s good for me to be challenging him with the questions for a change!
The growth of tech businesses continues to astonish me and it’s exciting to consider where it might go next. Tech is at the heart of every business and if we want to grow businesses, we need to consider how we use tech to create innovative solutions to human problems. Tech can be used as a force for good or we can allow it to control our lives.
What problem are you currently experiencing and what innovative solution might tech provide?
www.judejennison.com in partnership with Birmingham Tech
Jane Fallon is Head of Digital for the Midlands for a consultancy firm called Methods that creates human-centred design for the public and private sectors. She talks about the need to start with understanding the needs of the user in order to create digital services that work for humans. Our use of digital is growing exponentially so it’s great to hear how leaders like Jane influence the future of our humanity and ensure it is not overlooked in digital design.
The role of technology is changing. As digital is a fundamental part of everything we do in life and work, I love Jane’s idea that bringing together technology, anthropology and sociology enables us to understand what it is to be a human being in a digital world and what the tech needs to do to enhance our humanity. Jane also recognises the critical need to treat employees with the same importance as the customers and use emotions to engage and inspire those employees to do their best work.
Who in your team needs re-engaging and re-inspiring?
www.judejennison.com in partnership with Birmingham Tech
Roland Emmans is the UK Tech Sector Head for HSBC. Roland talks about the uncertainty of disruptive change. He explains that humans are evolving and developing new skills to lead in a digital age, without being technologists themselves. Roland shares his three key skills for the future of leadership and explains the importance of being able to collaborate in a more distributed way of working where people are no longer in the office or at home but can work from anywhere.
I’m sometimes guilty of believing we need to slow down because the pace of change is not sustainable. I love Roland’s idea that we can adapt to a fast pace of change as the norm, and that it will require us to operate at the higher level of our capabilities. For me, that sounds exciting. I’d be happy to do away with the distractions that I don’t want to get caught up in.
What excites you about the future and how do you and your team need to evolve to lead the change?
www.judejennison.com in partnership with Birmingham Tech
Chris Blackwell is the Founder and CEO of Purpose Led Performance, a consultancy business that works with medium-sized businesses on leadership, growth, performance and sustainability. He is also the co-lead for a tech accelerator, helping technology startups scale and grow as part of Birmingham Tech. Chris is honest about not being a tech native but he recognises that technology underpins everything we do in business. We discuss technology for non-techies, the pace of change, leadership, culture and much more.
It's fascinating that every business used to be run by people. Now it’s run by both people and technology. If we want to survive and thrive in business, whether as a small, medium or large business or a rapidly growing one, we need to develop both people and technology and we need to enhance the link between the two. I’m totally on board with Chris’ view that we need to develop the skills to lead distributed networks of people with different skills in order to innovate and lead change.
Where do you need to adapt and flex? How can you develop people better to adapt to the rapidly changing tech world we live in with the humanity and leadership skills to remain human in a world of tech?
www.judejennison.com in partnership with Birmingham Tech
Mike Bristow is CEO of Crowdproperty, a company using technology to disrupt the property investment market. Mike and his two co-founders were frustrated with how long it took to get investment for property development projects so they created a technology solution to resolve the problem. He explains how they are using technology to drive disruptive change in a market that was causing them considerable pain and he explains how and why they did it.
At the heart of everything Mike said, he is finding innovative solutions to problems, whether that is using technology, or building the business in Birmingham because there is more available and diverse talent than in London. He’s yet another great example of a non-tech founder running a tech business that resolves business problems. It’s not the tech that solves the problem though, it’s Mike and his co-founders whose whole approach is to not be defeated by the challenges they faced. There’s always a solution if we look hard enough!
What problems are you experiencing and how might you solve them in an innovative way that you’ve not previously considered?
www.judejennison.com in partnership with birmingham.tech
The podcast currently has 24 episodes available.