This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Dan Prestegaard, Chief Information Officer at United Urology Group (UUG). Private equities may seem hasty in their decision-making but Dan shares how it looks from the other side of the fence.

Dan gives an insider's look into their company, from managing security to spearheading innovation in AI and RPA, so that they can serve their whole spectrum of patients and physicians. He talks about the importance of a good team and their constant evolution in being intentional with innovation.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The balance between private equity and healthcare
• Creating standards: Increase transparency and measure metrics
• Find talent, VC backing, and partners for innovation
• Serving both patients and physicians

QUOTES

Dan: "I think some of the bad rap that private equity has is because they have such broad access to multiple businesses that they can see what bad looks like. They understand pretty quickly when you have whether it's management that isn't performing or they have costs that are out of whack."

Dan: "The nice thing about private equity, what it's trying to do is, it's trying to find places to grow the business so that you can scale and take economies of scale.

Dan: "I would highly recommend if others do the similar type thing which is get a VC in place that really knows it and can help to bring along the technical staff and the administrative staff in getting policies and procedures, technology, other things in place so you can really grow the program."

Find out more about Dan in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-prestegaard/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Elliott Cordo, Head Of Data at Capsule. In his current role, Elliott also shares how they leverage data to digitize the pharmacy service. 

The pharmacy model has barely changed since its invention and Elliott and his team have been trying to solve it with digital means to give stakeholders a smooth and integrated experience. 

The benefits are intriguing, from helping with access which in turn increases adherence to improving customer journeys with digital means. He also shares how they empower their users, from doctors to insurance to pharmacists to patients, the final end-user. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Elliott's journey in data: From consultant to data and insights 
• Digitizing the disjointed pharmacy service
• Retail is offered but going digital is the strategy 
• Giving pharmacists an opportunity for more job fulfillment 
• Leverage AWS for insights to build community 

QUOTES

Elliott: "It feels quite saturated like it doesn't seem like there's as much undiscovered country of digitization cases that haven't been solved. So pharmacy is one of those and I think what intrigued me, you know, if you think about how pharmacies operate, they haven't changed in model since they were invented. It's still very laborious, manual processes by pharmacists. Kind of a traditional customer service model."

Elliott: "It's not cohesive. It's like a doctor, I'm handing this off to some pharmacy. And then you're going to go there and you're going to deal with problems. And they might have to go back. You might have to go back and talk to your pharmacist. You might have to do something special with your insurance company in order to get the drugs paid for."

Elliott: "People will go to pharmacies far more often than they go to doctors, almost in order of magnitude, so it creates a touchpoint which allows us to provide data, provide insights that can't be found elsewhere."

Elliot: "I think it gives us an opportunity to have access to AWS in ways that we wouldn't as a customer typically, any ability to work and interact with product, have some influence, provide feedback, kind of get to touch things and kind of play with things before most folks. Though I think it's useful for AWS, it's definitely useful for me." 

Find out more about Elliott in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-cordo/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with James Sherer, Sales and Business Development Manager at Keller Schroeder. He shares how their analytics data serves customers across different industries with the goal of streamlining and increasing their own customers' satisfaction.

James also talks about using data in his sales process. He uses a CRM to track his professional relationships but still gives particular importance to the value of actually calling people. 

He goes deeper on the various use cases for data analytics, like cutting response times during power emergencies, to save on company resources while also providing a better experience to end-users. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Analytics data increases response times during emergencies
• Streamlining business processes across verticals
• Sales and relationships: Use a CRM to track your networking
• New use cases: Trash management and weather prediction
• SalesOlogy and being an employee-owner of Keller Schroeder

QUOTES

James: "It's a situation where it's a series of disconnected steps in the business process and, by using some data to highlight where there are discrepancies in that business process, you can make it more streamline. So almost making it more like a project management process."

James: "I look at the sales process as almost a project process of 5 or 6 steps really to audit what I do as a salesperson and a marketer and, you know, kind of use lead generation, use technology, always kind of looking at my sales pipeline, my sales performance, and managing myself before anybody else has to manage me."

James: "I like to use a couple of different vendor-partners in the CRM space to track not only my personal connectors and my personal network, but also our own internal Keller Schroeder prospects and clients."

Find out more about James in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameswshererjr/

Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/
• Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Shane Mulrooney, Co-Founder, and Head of Growth at New Era ADR. The legal space is steeped in tradition and, if there's one thing COVID made clear, it's that innovation in this space is not just useful but also necessary moving forward.

Shane shares how they remove some of the pain of dull lawyering tasks. He also shares the innovations they usher like the "neutral bench," a diverse panel of mediators who may have a deeper understanding of cases. Lastly, Shane shares how he stays fit and how speaking your mind is central to collaboration.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Remote dispute resolution and making legal tech mainstream
• Giving back lawyers' lives to them
• Moving the needle for a diverse "neutral bench"
• Mental toughness and the value of speaking up

QUOTES

Shane: "We're trying to give them a tool where they can actually spend time doing the fun lawyering which is arguing the substance of the case, drafting arguments, and really litigating instead of poring over boxes of documents and doing mind-numbing discovery."

Shane: "The pool is going to be what the pool is, however, we can always make sure that when we are pulling those 10 who have the right experience, we can always make sure that that 10 is much more diverse and much more reflective of the population writ large."

Shane: "I think it's the best way to run a business and to make decisions is to just make sure that everybody can be honest and free to speak their mind."

Find out more about Shane in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-william-mulrooney/

Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/
• Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project welcomes back Andy Laudato, Chief Operating Officer at The Vitamin Shoppe and author of Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team. As the pandemic eases up, people are starting to revert back to their pre-pandemic ways.

This is most apparent in their spending habits. By adapting to this fact and utilizing new technologies to meet their customers where they are at, The Vitamin Shoppe has emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever.

Andy also shares what empathetic leaders can do to adapt to ever-changing needs and be at the forefront of innovation. He talks about the power of daily habits in molding executives into the leaders they want to be.    

HIGHLIGHTS

• Post-COVID changes: Customer buying shifts and new technologies
• Fostering Innovation: Keep the lights on (KTLO) is the foundation
• Establish credibility to be trusted to risk for innovation
• Empathetic leaders adapt to the needs of their team

QUOTES

Andy: "Complacency is the enemy of reliability. Because if you get complacent, then you might not change but the world around you will."

Andy: "The most important thing for any IT department is just keeping the lights on, KTLO. And I don't mean figuratively lights but it could be that but it's your paychecks are printing and your products are shipping and your warehouses are running."

Andy: "The nice thing about technology is it always gets better, it always gets cheaper. What doesn't are people, right? And so, what you don't want to do is have people spending their time doing things a computer can do better."

Andy: "I would say to anyone who really wants to be executive, figure it out, how do you get up early? You got to go to bed early. So that's the key."

Andy: "If you're being a diode as a leader, all your team hears is when things go well. And they don't take the crap. So I say, as leaders we get paid to take the blame."

Find out more about Andy in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewlaudato/
• Website: https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/
• Amazon book link: https://www.amazon.com/Fostering-Innovation-Build-Amazing-Team/dp/1119853109

Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/
• Website: https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Brad Seaman, CEO of MonsterConnect. Phone prospecting can go right if a certain human element is present. Brad shares why people talk about personalization now and how it is driven by the desire for a human connection.

He shares a couple of anecdotes that highlight this, from why people who hate drive-thrus keep using them to feeling pressure from a car salesman. Brad also talks about his podcast Decision Point, its recent refocus into sales, and how it has been an irreplaceable relational builder.  

HIGHLIGHTS

• Cold calling and personalization: Always do your homework
• The drive-thru: Behavior is shaped by a craving for human interaction
• Buying a Bronco story: Don't pressure people into buying
• Decision Point: Refocusing from mental toughness to sales

QUOTES

Brad: "I don't think phone prospecting has to be intrusive if you do your homework."

Brad: "I think we got to be really careful when we ask people how they feel about certain things, like the sales cycle, like do you want to deal with a salesperson? Okay, I'm going to tell you no but Culver's, Chick-fil-A... I guarantee 90% of those people would say they hate the drive-thru but they're doing it anyway."

"So the question I think you have to ask is are they doing it because they've created a pattern that they can't break or are they doing it because they're craving human interaction? And it could be a combination of both."

Brad: "People don't like to feel pressured. And I think particularly as we're talking about phone prospecting, I've been thinking about this a lot, actually I think I'm going to get on the phone and try this as a tactic, which is hey Rebekah, here's why I'm calling you, and I'm just trying to have a conversation with you." 

Brad: "If you're thinking about doing a podcast, it probably is very helpful to find somebody, whether it's a Salescast or somebody else to produce your show... I think it's worth paying for, the creation and not getting stuck."

See Rebekah's episode on Decision Point here.

Find out more about Brad and MonsterConnect in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-seaman-3ab4a049/
• Website: https://monsterconnect.com/

Learn more and follow Rebekah by checking out the following links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekahpanepinto/

Website:  https://rebekahpanepinto.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Fred Argir, Chief Digital Officer, who has worked for an accomplished list of retail companies leading their technology projects. Being in retail for decades, Fred was in the thick of it when the industry started shifting to digital. He shares the mindset shift that comes with it and how retail is adapting today.

In the current market, the pace of innovation is being set by the consumer. Retailers are now tasked with responding by meeting the consumer where they are. This can mean a variety of things as audience behaviors vary considerably across industries, cultures, and countries, but at the end of the day, it is about remaining relevant to the consumer.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Leadership beliefs and pioneering digital marketing in 1992
• Feedback loops to learn about different retail audiences
• Transforming the old retail experience into something new
• Music and creativity in business lead to innovation

QUOTES

Fred: "We're on this faster pace of innovation and it's really driven by the consumer. Right now, it used to be we would create a good idea and hope the consumer would follow. Now the consumer's pulling us. It's no more a push, it's a pull."

Fred: "The price of education is sometimes painful. We have to learn. We're always learning, whether it's personal learning, whether it's team learning, whether it's company learning, or learning more about our consumer."

Fred: "If you're not begging for forgiveness 3 times a quarter, you're not meeting my expectations. Wouldn't that be wonderful to hear? Oh, you mean I get to fail and it's going to be okay? Please. Because it leads us to somewhere where we can be more relevant to our consumer."

Fred: "I live my life with integrity. I do my business with integrity. And, as long as you can anchor that, you're never wrong. As long as you're comfortable with yourself and what you do and successes that your team does, be proud of it."

Find out more about Fred in the links below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-argir-308912/
• Website: https://fredargir.com/

This episode of The Rebekah Panepinto Project features a conversation with Nir Chervoni, Head of Data Security at Booking.com. The demands for a seamless user experience have teetered on the edge of data security, and one of Nir's main responsibilities is keeping all the parties involved safe in the digital space.

Nir shares how data security is shifting as more people work from home permanently. He also discusses the massive amounts of data that must be secured to coordinate third parties in the travel industry, a huge part of delivering excellent user experience and increasing brand reputation.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Balancing data security and user experiences
• Third-party security, brand reputation, and adapting cybersecurity to WFH
• Security startups: Success is a mix of leadership and timing
• Music as a passion and wine as a hobby

QUOTES

Nir: "Reputation is something subjective because it's how people perceive that brand, that entity, or that incident that happened to that entity regardless of the facts sometimes."

Nir: "I think there is some sort of, not a decrease, but better understanding of specific entrepreneurs about hey, if we have a great idea and maybe we can combine it with an existing idea, or maybe we can just wait a bit of a time and only then go with a go-to-market strategy."

Find out more about Nir in the link below:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chervoni/