Tential's Transformation Nation

Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews Jill  Porubovic, Founder and Owner at Management Consulting firm Jill Porubovic Consulting. With Jill leading the organization as an architect of business transformation strategies, the firm works to prepare you and your team to take on any change that comes your way. Her firm puts your cross-functional teams at the epicenter of positive change. 

Before launching her own consultancy, Jill led the enterprise services and technical workforce divisions for media giant Discovery, Inc., where she managed over 300 people across 32 countries. Take another step back in time, and you’d find Jill at Verizon, leading IT services, software, and operational functions, which was only the start of her two decades in IT management. With countless implementations, integrations, migrations, upgrades, and mergers under her belt, Jill cites her ability to unite and manage diverse cross-functional teams as key to her success as a tech leader and business founder. 

When speaking to the hurdles that come with moving from on-premise technology services to SaaS products, Jill mentions that while many think SaaS will be cheaper, that’s only on paper. In reality, you need a new-age team that understands and controls usage of that SaaS product, as well as strong business and product owners, and finally, configuration engineers. 

As the conversation continues, Anna and Jill discuss why companies should never settle when it comes to employee growth and well-being, how being named an ‘unselfish leader’ comes from her community and connectedness, and why it’s crucial that you know your SaaS customers inside and out. We hope you enjoy this episode.

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Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews Bane Hunter, CEO and Founder at delivery management software firm GetSwift. Bane is a GEMS expert known for leading growth, execution, monetization and strategy in business building. 

Throughout his career, Bane has guided several tech businesses from the startup phase to successful IPOs, led the development and launch of numerous digital innovations in the marketplace, and has three provisional product patents with more in the pipeline. 

All of that experience, combined with his history of leading business through callous times, better prepared him for the last year and a half of constant change and challenges. When asked about resilience and what it takes to “get to the other side,” Bane notes that there is a fine line between resilience, stubbornness, strength, flexibility, and opportunity, and that we should practice combining them all into one. 

As they move from resilience to the topic of grit and  the importance of keeping a fresh mind in the technology space, Bane shares a secret: creativity can often be the tonic for stress. It can also act as an outlet that allows us to dream, keep our sanity and look to the future.

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Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews Leslie Vickrey, CEO and Founder at full-service marketing agency ClearEdge Marketing. Leslie is an entrepreneur and longtime advocate for workforce equity, known for her “take action” mindset. She’s a thought leader, a mentor, and a change catalyst in the talent and tech industry who is ahead of her time regarding workforce flexibility and remote work. In fact, the ClearEdge team has been fully remote since its inception. She also co-founded ARA, a 6,000 member-strong professional organization dedicated to attracting, retaining, and advancing women in tech. 

Through her work with ARA, Leslie has gained an insider view of how the pandemic has affected professional women and their careers. Noting that while the disruption impacted women overall (with 1 in 4 women considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers versus 1 in 5 men), there are three influential groups that were hit the hardest: working mothers, women in senior management positions, and black women. To prevent further losses, Leslie encourages leaders in the talent and tech space to ask themselves, “What do our employees need? And are we asking them individually and as a group to better understand how we can help them?”    

As they move through discussions of advancing women in the industry, Leslie explains how while nearly half of our workforce is female at the entry level, the ratio dramatically decreases when you get to the C-suite with a makeup of 21% and just 4% women of color. A few of the potential solutions? Thoughtfully build succession plans and create new seats at the table for women. 

As the conversation continues, Anna and Leslie discuss why we need to pull up an executive seat for DEI, Leslie’s advice for entrepreneurs, and how we should better utilize our positions of power to help raise others up. We hope you enjoy this episode. 

The post Leveling The Field appeared first on Tential.

Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews JoAnne Kennedy, VP of Technology at Nordstrom. JoAnne’s career began in telecom and led her to Microsoft. From there, she was snatched into the realm of digital media and product development by MSNBC, and in 2016, joined Nordstrom and worked her way up to her current role with the fashion retailer.

Before she could step into her success, JoAnne was just another boys’ club party crasher in a business world that then held a thankfully now-outdated expectation that women needed to act like men to be successful. Of course, this was when women in tech were scarce. JoAnne notes how far we’ve come since then, and how now we encourage bringing your whole authentic self to work because we understand that to innovate and create, we need diverse life experiences and voices. Talk about progress! 

JoAnne also reflects on her personal progress, growing up in America with Asian parents. Back then, she believed her family’s ideals were rooted in old school culture, but the value of their dedicated work ethic and strength became apparent with maturity. She shares that their story instilled a will to get knocked down, brush herself off and stand right back up to lean in. It gave her the confidence that she could be successful in whatever she chose to do.

JoAnne continues to be an active member of and advocate for the Asian community. Over the past 10 years, she has been involved as a board member with the Seattle-based organization called Asian Counseling and Referral Services (or ACRS), which provides everything from culturally appropriate healthcare to employment and training services. She’s also deeply involved and acts as the executive sponsor for Nordstorm’s AAPI employee resource group. 

With the recent alarming rise of hate crimes against the AAPI community, JoAnne has had a lot of people ask her how they can show up and demonstrate support. She suggests simply asking, “How are you doing?” and then listening carefully to the replies. This small act can go a long way. We hope you enjoy this episode. 

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Exploring the many ways technology and tech leaders are reshaping and re-imagining how we work and live in today’s ever-changing world.

On this episode, Chief Digital Technology Officer and your host, Anna Frazzetto, interviews Fumbi Chima, Executive VP and Chief Information Officer at the BECU, the largest not-for-profit credit union in Washington state and one of the top five financial cooperatives in the nation. Fumbi is wonderfully global and is known for her digital transformation leadership and ingenuity. She has been a technology change leader for big names like Walmart, Adidas, Fox Network Group, Burberry, and American Express (to name a few!). 

Having lived in places and worked for companies that people dream about, Anna talks with Fumbi about how such diverse experiences shaped her philosophy as a technologist and business leader. And as a woman who grew in Europe with an African family, Fumbi shares that prioritizing diversity became ingrained in her and her core beliefs from the start. She also reflects on how her consulting experience forced her to look at a problem from two or three angles, which also aided her as she built up her global perspective muscle.  

As a black woman in technology, Fumbi knew she had to be better than the rest. She did this by working 300% harder than her peers, who could get away with what she couldn’t because of existing bias. Fumbi shares that she’s choosing to look on a more positive side these days, acknowledging the fact that these very real biases were (as far as she’s aware) unconscious. And while that’s no excuse, Fumbi shares that when you focus on your strengths and deliver something spectacular, that your community will have no choice but to include you. 

As the conversation continues, Anna and Fumbi discuss the pandemic’s blessing in disguise, how other cultures and regions address essential issues like DEI and women’s empowerment, and why identifying what makes you different isn’t always productive. We hope you enjoy this episode.

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