Tech Leaders Intel

This week on Tech Leaders’ Intel we’re speaking to Torbjörn Andersson, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Medius, a private equity backed company that provides cloud-based spend-management solutions. Torbjörn has over 20 years of experience in IT, 12 of which are in information and cloud security.

Drawing on Torbjörn’s wealth of experience, we begin by discussing the challenges of moving over from consultancy into the SaaS field, a field that requires a far broader, strategic view of how problems affect the wider company. For Torbjörn, an essential part of his role as CISO is being an information security (InfoSec) salesman to the rest of the company, explaining its benefits to people who may not always understand its importance. The key? Prioritising your work and communicating that effectively to the rest of the business to secure buy-in. Open communication is essential to making sure security is integrated from the get-go, rather than something tagged on later.

We then move on to discussion around the increased threat of cyber-attacks today – some from very advanced threat actors – and how to address it. Something non-experts may not understand, Torbjörn explains, is that we can never be 100% secure: someone will eventually manage to get through our defences. That’s why it’s so important to have the discussion early on about what success is and recognise why you sometimes must focus on damage limitation. How to go about this? By increased monitoring at an early stage, thorough incidence response training, crisis management and continuity planning for the whole company, as well as rolling risk analysis.

Say no more, Torbjörn – you’ve convinced us! If you want to discuss these issues, and more, with Torbjörn, you can find him on LinkedIn and keep the conversation going.

This week on Tech Leaders’ Intel, we’re joined by Andrei Nita, former Director of Data and Analytics at ai-driven software company Builder.ai and now Director of Engineering at HyperionDev. Andrei has previously worked for the likes of IBM and Gameloft, and was at Builder.ai. for three years before his recent move.

In today’s episode, Andrei begins by talking us through his journey from his roots in development to his move into data, and the ever-growing importance of data as a field in itself. Andrei highlights for us the opportunities it presents, the problems it solves and the role it plays when it comes to opening up and diversifying the tech talent pool.

On top of this, Andrei touches on data maturity, open access and the democratisation of data. Ultimately, he says, you want people to put trust in both the data and themselves – and you do this by making data so easy to access that anyone can do it. After all, the word ‘democratisation’ is political, and what makes a successful politician? Educating people and being transparent throughout the process.

Finally, Andrei talks us about the process of securing funding and data’s role in this, and shares his tips about implementing a strategy-first approach when it comes to building your business. The biggest opportunity he sees for himself this year? Being able to use his voice to spread this very message. Looks like he came to the right platform! Thank you for joining us Andrei – and if you have more you want to discuss with him, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

For this episode of Tech Leaders’ Intel, we’re joined by Imran Arshed, CTO and co-founder of Plum Guide, a marketplace peer to peer vacation booking site based out of London. From the first days of coding the system to scaling up swiftly, Imran’s insight is invaluable when it comes to understanding development and hiring processes in a fast-growing business.

Whether trying to hire while still writing the bare bones of the code yourself or expanding a team to meet the developing needs of your company, prioritisation is crucial, says Imran. This means looking specifically at what will have the biggest impact at each specific moment in time. As a result, Imran doesn’t focus on headcount and explains to us why he started out by building a very small team of senior engineers. He also talks us through how he goes about sifting CVs, his interview process, and how he slots his own role into the mix to meet business needs.

Finally, Imran takes us through his way of nurturing communication skills within the engineering function using ‘stack meetings’ which gives his team members a regular opportunity to share something they have been working on. Why? Because communication is an often overlooked but hugely important part of being an engineer. After all, not everyone understands the jargon and being able to explain the how and the why of complex processes to stakeholders is crucial. We definitely agree!

If you want to get in touch with Imran to learn more, you can connect with him on LinkedIn. Or, if Plum Guide has piqued your interest, head to www.plumguide.com to see it for yourself!

This week on Tech Leaders’ Intel, we’re joined by Juan Gutierrez Plaza, the VP of Engineering for Scoro, a work management SaaS platform based in Estonia. Juan has been working in software development for 20 years now, in industries including telecom and banking before turning his focus to SaaS.

From implementing a four-day working week, to the advantages of launching and running a tech start-up in Estonia, Juan talks us through best practice and the importance of having the right tools, setting and context to help your business grow.

Of course, when it comes to running a successful start-up, employee retention is hugely important. As the manager of a large team in a fast-growing organisation, it is crucial that his engineers have plenty of freedom, Juan says. How to nurture this? Create an environment which allows both choice and opportunity.

To do this, Juan takes quite a unique approach to software delivery methodologies: the missions framework. Such a framework not only allows engineers to feel a greater sense of belonging and ownership, but also gives them the opportunities to be leaders – mission captains – in a safe environment where they can see if leadership is for them. Other benefits? Mission structures can be easily tweaked if priorities shift, making this the perfect approach for a fast-growing start-up. It’s a fascinating approach – and we won’t be surprised if many future leaders emerge from Scoro under Juan’s mentorship!

If you have more questions for Juan, you can connect with him on LinkedIn, or you can learn more about Scoro by visiting the company website.

In the fifth episode of Tech Leaders’ Intel, James Loveridge is joined by Ravneet Shah, CTO of Allica Bank, the dedicated bank supporting SMEs. An engineer at heart, Ravneet has been at Allica for three years, and became CTO in January 2022 after initially joining the firm as an integration lead.

Today, Ravneet talks us through her journey to becoming a CTO and the challenges she overcame when making the transition. It was exposure to a multitude of different systems early on that helped her grow so quickly, she says, and she tries to give her junior engineers the same experience today.

On top of this, Ravneet explains the importance of continual learning from others at all levels – it is often graduates, she says, who can bring the freshest ideas to the table. But how do you go about making sure your juniors feel empowered to do this? It’s all about encouraging an environment where everyone is able to learn and share at all times, while owning their solutions from development to deployment.

Finally, Ravneet talks us through the hiring process, what differs when you’re working in a regulated industry, how to delegate, and the importance of tailoring the working environment to the individual. Ultimately, you’re still being productive as a leader even though you’re no longer the one providing solutions. The skill is in enabling your team to provide them – and often these might be better than the ones you had in mind yourself!

Thanks to Ravneet for sharing her insights – if you would like to hear more, then you can connect with her on LinkedIn.

Welcome to Episode 4 of Tech Leaders’ Intel! This week we’re chatting to David Maidment, an experienced start-up CTO and Head of Engineering, with a great track record of spearheading digital transformation. Today, he talks to us about his unconventional route into his role, which began in a humble shoe shop. After touching on routes into technology, we turn to the journey from programming to management, the importance of making your team self-sufficient while giving them the right amount of support and being an effective salesperson for your trade.

What stands out is the need to be able to explain tech in layman’s terms at all stages of the journey and be willing to learn and adapt. Management, says David, is an entirely different ballgame to being an engineer. There should, however, be paths of progression in both fields: not all engineers want to be managers, but everyone needs the opportunity to grow regardless. Most importantly, the key is to focus on your journey so you’re always learning: don’t aim for a title just for the sake of it.

How do you know if you’ve done a good job as a leader? For David it means creating or overseeing processes that can run on their own. A manager should be able to go away for a few weeks and not have to deal with anything greater than answering emails. Ultimately, the route into tech, and subsequently management, is all about curiosity and communication: solving problems with technology to maximise efficiency and learning to convey why you’ve done so to stakeholders.

If you like what you hear, connect with David on LinkedIn or visit his website.

In the third episode of Tech Leaders’ Intel we’re joined by Eoin Fleming, CIO of Carne Group. Eoin has around 25 years of experience in both general IT and security, predominantly in regulated industries. He’s here today to share his knowledge on an extremely important topic: ensuring your IT team is in tune with your company culture.

Working in the financial sector, Eoin acknowledges that there is one thing non-IT firms are often missing – an innate knowledge of the purpose of IT. This means a particular challenge that IT teams have is getting senior management to understand what IT can do in terms of digital transformation. Eoin likes to use a plumbing analogy: when things are working well, no one notices the plumbing and thinks any installation costs must have been unnecessary. But when the plumbing breaks, IT gets the blame, and senior management wonders what the money was spent on. This is why, Eoin says, the IT team must act as salesmen for their services at all times.

Eoin adds, however, that good communication works both ways – company culture must be communicated from above to the IT team: if development is misaligned with company culture it will fail. This is the running theme through all aspects of working in IT and Eoin talks us through negotiating mergers and acquisitions and making big changes to IT systems while avoiding costly failures. This brings us to his final point: making mistakes is part and parcel of a career in IT. The important part? Tell the truth when things go wrong, particularly to your manager. And as a manager, impart lessons learnt with your employees. As Eoin says: "Don’t turn your employees into you; turn them into a better version of you".

If you like the insights you heard from Eoin, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

While the pandemic introduced businesses to the ‘hybrid’ model of working - with some time in the office and the rest in the home office, it’s clear that the post-pandemic development of this is the four-day working week. And no, that doesn’t mean working longer hours for four days to get a Friday off, but rather working four days as usual and taking a well-earned break on the fifth day.

But does such a set-up really work? And how will you ensure business continuity following such a model? These are the questions we’re asking Graham Haythornthwaite in our latest episode of Tech Leaders’ Intel. Graham is the VP of Engineering at Wonde an ed tech company, developing and delivering software in a fast scaling team. Wonde has been piloting a 4-day week for the past six months, so Graham is well-placed to draw some firm conclusions about how the model works. in the tech industry.

From the importance of getting real value from meetings, to implementing the right tech in-house so employees can be as efficient as possible, Graham talks through everything from ensuring colleagues’ days off are respected to getting rid of interruptions and smoothing out teething problems.

Yes, there is a certain amount of planning, organisation and communication that is involved in running a business that operates five days a week while employees work four days, but it can be done, and according to Graham it definitely leads to happier teams!

So, what’s stopping your business?

Want to continue the conversation? Connect with Graham on LinkedIn to chat further.

It’s clear – we’ve seen some pretty major changes across almost every single profession in the last two years, and the global shift from office-based to remote working has put two key words at the forefront of every manager’s mind: autonomy and trust. In the very first episode of Tech Leaders Intel James Loveridge, speaks to David Ives, about managing relationships and nurturing talent in a growing company. The key to building trust? For David, it all boils down to communication.

With over 20 years in the field of software engineering, in companies of all sizes across both the public and private sector, David has extensive knowledge of what it takes to manage both small teams of engineers and the entire tech function of a large organisation, from securing funding to taking on contractors, outsourcing, scaling and more.

In this episode, he talks about how growth can impact a teams culture, the value of augmentation, how to work out that you are joining the right company, and career progression both for yourself and your team members. As workforces go global, this has democratised what companies are trying to do, and it is more important than ever to invest in the people you work with through a policy of honesty and transparency, says David. We couldn’t agree more.
If you like what you hear, connect with David by following him on Twitter, or on LinkedIn.