Talent Smart Podcast

Season 2 - Episode 20 - Gurdeep Grewal – Why Predictability is key to an entrepreneur’s success (An investors perspective)

Gurdeep currently serves as an advisor to several private equity firms and IT services companies around the world. In addition to his advisory roles, he’s also an investor and strategic partner in an AI startup behind two innovative products: ConnectingYouNow.ai (CYN) and Firebreak.ai.
His expertise lies in supporting executive teams to build robust go-to-market strategies and drive consistent business performance—from shaping value propositions and developing pipelines to ensuring revenue realisation. Within the private equity space, Gurdeep offers guidance on acquisitions, particularly in the Design and Engineering sectors.
In this episode, Gurdeep shares his entrepreneurial journey and what inspired his focus on creating business consistency and reliability for investors. He provides valuable insight into the concept of predictability in a commercial setting—why it's crucial from an investor's point of view and how it influences funding decisions.
We dive into the key indicators that signal predictability, explore the hurdles companies often face when trying to convey stability, and examine how predictability plays a vital role in scaling successfully. Gurdeep also outlines the pivotal stages in a business’s growth where consistent performance becomes even more important.
Finally, we look ahead at how advancements in technology and data analytics are transforming how companies enhance their predictability and appeal to investors.

Season 2 - Episode 19 - Brenden Mielke (VP of Product Language Learning, Pearson) - How to evolve a legacy analogue business into the digital world

In this episode, Brenden shares his experience in transitioning legacy businesses to digital.  Including the initial impetus for starting the digital transformation. We discussed some of the biggest challenges when transforming a traditionally analogue business into a digital-first organisation. Brenden shares with us how to assess the digital maturity of a legacy business before creating a transformation strategy and what are the key indicators or signals that a legacy business is ready for digital transformation.
We also tackled how to address resistance to change, especially when long-standing processes and mindsets are entrenched in a legacy business and how important the leadership team are in driving digital transformation.
We explored the role that customer feedback plays during a digital transformation, and how to incorporate the feedback into the product evolution process.

Season 2 - Episode 18 - Russell Hornsby-Clifton (Advisory Board Member, Inicio AI) : Keys to business acceleration and scaling a Fintech business

Russell is an experienced senior leader with a proven track record of successfully building business, managing change, developing individuals and leading global projects. Expert in transforming struggling operations by redesigning and achieving organisational goals. Holder of the Institute of Directors Certificate in Company Direction and full Member of the IoD.
Equipped to deliver effective solutions through unique insights from a diverse career as a CEO and Board Director, Entrepreneur, Regulator, Senior Compliance Executive, Army Officer and Barrister who has operated in over 50 jurisdictions, usually in, incredibly challenging conditions. An Executive Coach with a passion for combining emotional intelligence and behavioural science with military discipline to produce results under fire, leading from the front.
In this episode, Russell shares with us the keys to a successful scale up, especially within Fintech from an early-stage startup to a high-growth business. He discusses what are some of the most common challenges Fintech companies face in the initial stages of growth, and how to overcome these obstacles.
We also discuss the importance of market fit in the early stages of scaling, and what are some indicators that a fintech business is ready to accelerate its growth, together with how fintech companies should approach customer acquisition and retention.
Russell also shares his insights into how fintech companies can structure their funding rounds to maximise growth potential.

Season 2 - Episode 17 - Nicola Wadham – Dealing with technical debt & modernisation within tight budget constraints

Nicola’s career has been within organisations that build or make products; with IT as an enabler and a service. She has worked across multiple sectors including - Oil and Gas, FMCG, Engineering, Utilities and government regulatory bodies. Nicola has been a leader in many types of organisations from the very large enterprises to the very small and a range of sizes and ownership models in between. She focuses on organisation design, IT skills, acquisition and retention, sourcing strategy and governance dimension that are all part of the challenge of delivering IT enabled change. 
During this episode, we explore the definition of technical debt and its impact across the business.  Nicola explains more about how to manage when working with tight budgets and we explore how to decide whether to invest in modernising legacy systems or continue maintaining them, including the prioritisation and capacity question. 
Nicola explains when there are situations where she would recommend delaying a technical debt resolution and why so many modern solutions promise to address technical debt, but do they deliver on their promises, or do they sometimes add complexity?
Nicola was very kind and shared some examples from her own career, where modernisation efforts have gone wrong, either by increasing technical debt or complicating IT management.

Season 2 - Episode 16 - Neil Fenton (CEO of 10 Duke) - Managing Multi Country teams to achieve great outcomes

Neil Fenton is a software entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in creating new software products and systems with a particular focus on identity and access management technologies delivered on a SaaS basis.
 
In this episode, we cover the biggest challenges in managing multi-country teams, and to overcome them, together with discussing the technological tools and platforms that can be most effective for managing global teams.
 
We also cover the approach to ensure fair and consistent performance evaluations globally and how to support the professional development and career growth of international employees. This includes “engagement” strategies to keep international teams engaged and feel connected to the company’s mission and values.

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Jora Gill - Technology and the Boardroom (and how to bridge the gap)

Jora Gill is CEO and Co-founder of FireBreak, where they spearhead AI and Graph technologies to improve IT project outcomes and mitigate project risks early. He is also CEO and Co-Founder of ConnectingYouNow, where they lead initiatives to improve organisational productivity through a personalised conversational search and analytics platform, with a focus on accessibility.
Jora holds a number of non-exec director roles where he helps to align IT projects with strategic objectives, manage risks effectively, and cultivate a culture of accountability and transparency. Included are;
Travis Perkins Group - Supplier of building materials to the building and construction industry. Companies under the Group are Travis Perkins, Toolstation, BSS, CCF and Keyline
Phoenix Life - A financial services company for Pensions and Savings. Brands under the Group are Standard Life, SunLife, Phoenix Life and ReAssure
In this episode, Jora gives a real insight into an NED boardroom, what do NEDs actually do and how his past experience has prepared him for a board-level advisory.
We explore the most common reasons why IT initiatives fail in organisations and how a board can help address some of these issues. In addition, Jora shares the key factors to consider when evaluating the feasibility and risk profile of a Technology project and how to present a proposal to the board.
Jora shares his “Five Questions For Success” playbook and how looking through a Boardroom lens will help in your current and future career.  Jora also gives great advice in terms of what skills you need to succeed into the Boardroom or a NED career.
Finally, we learn why a Non-Exec Board can be one of the most successful cross functional teams within an organisation.

Season 2 - Episode 14 - Henry Cohen - Leadership during transformational change

Henry is an experienced and successful CxO and change professional, with excellent stakeholder management and inter-personal skills. He has significant years of experience in managing large-scale businesses and technology change programmes (£5m to £800m), especially in the digital space, for a wide variety of UK and European-based Insurance and Media companies and Central Government departments.
In this episode, Henry shares with us his approach to leading a large-scale transformation, focusing within established organisational structures and he gives us a great insight into what the key first steps are to take when setting a transformation strategy.
Henry also shares his methods that have been the most effective for gaining 'buy-in' from stakeholders across different levels during transformational change and how to balance whilst maintaining current operations with the push for transformational change.
He also advises on how to address resistance to change, and what strategies to employ which help bring sceptical team members on board and what are some essential qualities or characteristics to look for in building a high-performing teams.
We also take a quick Look into the future and Henry gives us his take on what trends or shifts will impact the way high-performance teams are created and sustained.

Season 2 - Episode 13 - Amol Punekar - Communicating the value of data at board level

Amol is a Commercial Growth Leader & Managing Director with 20+ years of experience driving digital transformation across global technology firms, including AND Digital, ThoughtWorks, Slalom, Wipro, and Oracle.
He has a passion for leveraging Data and AI to create transformative impact and has consistently built competitive market strategies, executed pioneering go-to-market initiatives, and forged resilient multi-year client relationships across EMEA, APAC, and the US.
In this episode, Amol gives a great overview of the most common misconceptions about the value of data among executive boards and how tech leaders frame data initiatives so that they align clearly with business outcomes like revenue, efficiency, or customer satisfaction.
We explore how data leaders can adjust their messaging for different board members who may have varying levels of technical understanding, including how to position data as a business asset, rather than just an operational tool. In addition, we discuss the role that data can play in driving a competitive advantage, and how  this can be effectively communicated to the board.
Amol also gives us a future view into how the role of data will be evolving in boardroom conversations over the next few years and what the trends are in data management, such as data governance or AI, and how they are becoming more relevant for executive decision-making.

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Gary Sage - The Freedom Formula: Mastering Leadership and Performance

As founder of 50x, Gary has many years experience of helping scale businesses, and exponentially transform the way organisations do things in seemingly impossible timespans. He is the Ex-CEO of Mator Systems and has driven exponential transformative change in organisations, like Maersk / AP Moller, SHL, Elsevier, Partnership Assurance and Camelot.
Gary is also the co-founder of Hedgedog Brewery. 
In this episode we explore one of the areas that Gary is very passionate about which is removing “constraints” that impede growth, together with the key strategies or systems make the most significant impact on productivity.
Gary explains what he means when he refers to an exponential mindset and what does it mean in terms of performance?
We uncover if growth always requires significant changes in the workforce and how best to balance increasing growth/performance with maintaining, or even improving employee satisfaction and work-life balance. This includes a great HACK  the “no-show hack” for meetings.
Gary also offers some words of advice for CEOs or leaders looking to drastically improve productivity/performance within their organisations.

Season 2 - Episode 11 - Professor Vin Walsh – The Power of Sleep

It was amazing to have the opportunity to interview Vin Walsh, a Professor of Human Brain Research and Royal Society Industry Research Fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. I could have quite easily chatted with him for hours.
He has published over 300 scientific articles, several books and specialises in the how the brain achieves all the things we take for granted: How do we see? How do we remember? How do we learn? How do we read? How do we count? How do we know how long something takes?
In this episode we hear from Vin on The Power of Sleep, the primary functions of sleep and why it is so crucial for brain health. Vin explains the different stages of sleep and the impact on cognitive processes such as memory consolidation, learning, and problem-solving.
We also covered the neurological mechanisms that regulate our sleep-wake cycle and how do they interact with external factors like light and temperature. I asked the question, why do humans and other animals need sleep and what happens to the brain if we don't get enough sleep?
We also looked at how napping fits into the overall picture of sleep, can short naps compensate for lost night time sleep, and how do they affect brain function?
Vin also gives his 4.5 golden rules of improving your sleep opportunity.