Podcasts about emea

This week we chat with Kipp Bodnar!Kipp is the Chief Marketing Officer of HubSpot, the #1 CRM platform for scaling companies, where he leads the company's global marketing strategy—driving awareness, demand, and growth across one of the most influential software brands in the world.Before stepping into the CMO role, Kipp served as Vice President of Marketing at HubSpot, overseeing worldwide demand generation, building out the EMEA and APAC marketing teams, and managing field marketing, localization, strategic partnerships, and social media. He's helped shape how modern SaaS companies think about growth at scale.Beyond HubSpot, Kipp is a trusted advisor to leading SaaS companies like SimplyMeasured, InsightSquared, and Guidebook. He's also the co-author of The B2B Social Media Book, a playbook for marketers looking to generate real results through digital channels.An industry-leading speaker, blogger, and marketing strategist, Kipp combines storytelling with data-driven execution—and has been at the forefront of how B2B marketing has evolved over the past decade.This is going to be a masterclass in modern marketing.✨ This episode is presented by Brex.Brex: brex.com/trailblazerspodThis episode is supported by RocketReach, Gusto, OpenPhone & Athena.RocketReach: rocketreach.co/trailblazersGusto: gusto.com/trailblazersQuo: Quo.com/trailblazersAthena: athenago.me/Erica-WengerFollow Us!Kipp Bodnar: @kippbodnar@thetrailblazerspod: Instagram, YouTube, TikTokErica Wenger: @erica_wenger

Interview with Jeremy Snyder from FireTail about AI Governance Death by a thousand cuts: the AI shadow IT problem I think the best description of the AI governance problem during this interview was the title of the award-winning movie, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Generative AI has been disrupting businesses, products, and vendor risk management for a few years now. FireTail is one of the companies trying to address this problem for enterprises, so we check in with Jeremy Snyder to see how things are going. Segment 1 Resources: https://www.firetail.ai/ai-breach-tracker Interview with Allie Mellen about her new book, Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield We're VERY excited to check out Allie's new book, which will be released on St. Patrick's Day 2026! The timing could not be better, as her book is perfectly positioned to provide some much needed perspective on the cyber aspects of the ongoing war in Iran. Is it normal to see the use of wipers on healthcare companies in the midst of the conflict? Is there any precedent for hyperscaler datacenters getting targeted (some of AWS's EMEA regions are still recovering)? Check out the conversation to find out! Pick up the book! from Wiley from Barnes & Noble from Amazon Allie's personal website The Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, Vibes and funding! Starting to see some disruption in the vuln mgmt space (finally!) Tons of new free tools lots of essays lots of reports logs of breaches the talks our hosts are giving at RSAC conference and someone is selling an actual cone of silence??? All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-450

Interview with Jeremy Snyder from FireTail about AI Governance Death by a thousand cuts: the AI shadow IT problem I think the best description of the AI governance problem during this interview was the title of the award-winning movie, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Generative AI has been disrupting businesses, products, and vendor risk management for a few years now. FireTail is one of the companies trying to address this problem for enterprises, so we check in with Jeremy Snyder to see how things are going. Segment 1 Resources: https://www.firetail.ai/ai-breach-tracker Interview with Allie Mellen about her new book, Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield We're VERY excited to check out Allie's new book, which will be released on St. Patrick's Day 2026! The timing could not be better, as her book is perfectly positioned to provide some much needed perspective on the cyber aspects of the ongoing war in Iran. Is it normal to see the use of wipers on healthcare companies in the midst of the conflict? Is there any precedent for hyperscaler datacenters getting targeted (some of AWS's EMEA regions are still recovering)? Check out the conversation to find out! Pick up the book! from Wiley from Barnes & Noble from Amazon Allie's personal website The Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, Vibes and funding! Starting to see some disruption in the vuln mgmt space (finally!) Tons of new free tools lots of essays lots of reports logs of breaches the talks our hosts are giving at RSAC conference and someone is selling an actual cone of silence??? All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Visit https://www.securityweekly.com/esw for all the latest episodes! Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-450

Interview with Jeremy Snyder from FireTail about AI Governance Death by a thousand cuts: the AI shadow IT problem I think the best description of the AI governance problem during this interview was the title of the award-winning movie, Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Generative AI has been disrupting businesses, products, and vendor risk management for a few years now. FireTail is one of the companies trying to address this problem for enterprises, so we check in with Jeremy Snyder to see how things are going. Segment 1 Resources: https://www.firetail.ai/ai-breach-tracker Interview with Allie Mellen about her new book, Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield We're VERY excited to check out Allie's new book, which will be released on St. Patrick's Day 2026! The timing could not be better, as her book is perfectly positioned to provide some much needed perspective on the cyber aspects of the ongoing war in Iran. Is it normal to see the use of wipers on healthcare companies in the midst of the conflict? Is there any precedent for hyperscaler datacenters getting targeted (some of AWS's EMEA regions are still recovering)? Check out the conversation to find out! Pick up the book! from Wiley from Barnes & Noble from Amazon Allie's personal website The Weekly Enterprise News Finally, in the enterprise security news, Vibes and funding! Starting to see some disruption in the vuln mgmt space (finally!) Tons of new free tools lots of essays lots of reports logs of breaches the talks our hosts are giving at RSAC conference and someone is selling an actual cone of silence??? All that and more, on this episode of Enterprise Security Weekly. Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/esw-450

Emerging markets are back in focus in 2026 — not just as a cyclical trade, but as investors reassess performance leadership, diversification, and where growth is showing up in a shifting global paradigm. After a long stretch of disappointing returns, emerging markets have started the year strongly, alongside record interest from global investors. But the case for EM today is less about a single story — and more about dispersion across countries, sectors, and themes.In this episode of The Bid, host Oscar Pulido is joined by Alex Brazier, Global Head of Investment and Portfolio Solutions, and Sam Vecht, Portfolio Manager on BlackRock's Global Emerging Markets Equities team. Alex shares what he's hearing from investors across the U.S. and Europe, including the role of flows, sentiment, and portfolio positioning. Sam brings a bottom-up perspective on how emerging markets have evolved over the past two decades — and why market pricing hasn't always reflected economic progress.Together, they explore why emerging markets may play a different role in portfolios today: providing exposure to distinct parts of the AI buildout, offering potentially different valuation and earnings dynamics than developed markets, and responding differently to U.S. dollar moves. The conversation also highlights where opportunities may be emerging beneath the surface — from under-owned regions like Latin America and parts of the Middle East, to shifting sentiment around India — while underscoring the reality that EM remains volatile, cyclical, and highly heterogeneous.Key moments in this episode:00:00 Introduction01:56 Why emerging markets are drawing renewed investor attention in 202604:58 Two Decades of Underperformance06:16 Explaining The Diversification Mirage10:31 Where emerging markets can broaden portfolios — and where correlations still matter13:00 How Investors Can Get Exposure To Emerging Markets16:55 How dispersion across regions is driving more selective, active approaches19:09 Conclusions and Next EpisodeSources: BlackRock, data based on 1,245 EMEA survey submissions in February 3rd rapid response client call; BlackRock calculated using Aladdin data; “World Economic Outlook, Global Economy in Flux, Prospects Remain Dim”, IMF, October 2025; Bloomberg as at Dec 2025; BlackRock, Global Business Intelligence, as at 20 Feb 2026; BlackRock, Morningstar, Aladdin. Portfolio average allocation based on 166 Europe-domiciled Morningstar moderate-risk multi-asset FoF portfolios, positioning as of 31 December 2025. Global index refers to MSCI All Country World Index.Emerging markets, Emerging markets investing, Capital markets, Global diversification, AI investing, U.S. dollar, Latin America equities, India markets, Middle East markets, Global portfolio strategyThis content is for informational purposes only and is not an offer or a solicitation. Reliance upon information in this material is at the sole discretion of the listener. Reference to any company or investment strategy mentioned is for illustrative purposes only and not investment advice. In the UK and non-European Economic Area countries, this is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. In the European Economic Area, this is authorized and regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. For full disclosures, visit blackrock.com/corporate/compliance/bid-disclosures.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How does understanding the anatomy of leadership help us navigate personal and organizational change more effectively? In this conversation, Kevin and Louisa Loran discuss that while transformation often feels large, complex, and organizational, it is ultimately experienced and enacted by one person at a time. Louisa describes leadership as a living system with four interconnected elements: envisioning what is possible, expanding curiosity to explore new options, steering decisively through priorities and choices, and embodying presence so others can trust and follow. They address how leaders can navigate change, especially when they don't fully agree with directions set from above. Louisa emphasizes that change is rarely black and white. Instead of resisting or disengaging, effective leaders find their own point of alignment, clarify how they can contribute meaningfully, and channel their energy toward what they can influence. Listen For 00:00 Introduction – Leading Through Technology and People 00:38 Welcome to the Remarkable Leadership Podcast 01:26 Meet Louisa Loran (Author of Leadership Anatomy in Motion) 02:31 Why "Leadership Anatomy"? The Core Idea Behind the Book 03:43 Why Change Is Personal, Not Organizational 05:31 What If You Don't Believe in the Change as a Leader? 09:16 The 4 Elements of Leadership Anatomy 11:23 The Power of Collective Intelligence in Teams 18:04 Strategy, Framing, and Thinking Beyond Current Constraints 19:42 Why Busyness Is So Dangerous for Leaders 22:29 Rethinking Work with Zero-Based Thinking 24:15 Why Change Takes Time to Take Hold 25:30 Louisa's Personal Reset: Dancing and Life Outside Work 26:26 What Louisa Is Reading Right Now 29:47 Where to Connect with Louisa + Her New Book 30:34 Kevin's Final Leadership Question: "Now What?" Louisa's Story: Louisa Loran is the author of Leadership Anatomy in Motion: Empowering You to Lead Through Technology and People. She has led transformative growth across some of the world's most respected companies—DIAGEO, MAERSK, and Google. At Google, Louisa launched a billion-dollar supply chain solutions business, doubled growth in a global industry vertical, and led strategic business transformation for the company's largest customers in EMEA—working at the forefront of AI, data, and platform innovation. At MAERSK, she co-authored the strategy that redefined the brand globally and doubled its share price, helping pivot the company from traditional shipping to integrated logistics. Her career began in the luxury and FMCG space with Moët Hennessy and DIAGEO, where she built iconic brands and led innovation at the intersection of heritage and digital transformation. Louisa also serves on the boards of Copenhagen Business School and CataCap Private Equity https://www.louisaloran.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisa-loran/ Looking to Develop Stronger Leaders? Want help developing the leaders in your organization? Reach out to explore how the Kevin Eikenberry Group can support your team at info@kevineikenberry.com. Book Recommendations Leadership Anatomy in Motion: Empowering You to Lead Through Technology and People by Louisa Loran  The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind by John Coates The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance by W. Timothy Gallwey Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future by Vijay Govindarajan and Venkat Venkatraman Like this? The Psychology of Leadership with Sébastien Page Creating Strength in Chaos with Kevin Black Join Our Community If you want to view our live podcast episodes, hear about new releases, or chat with others who enjoy this podcast join one of our communities below. Join the Facebook Group Join the LinkedIn Group   Leave a Review If you liked this conversation, we'd be thrilled if you'd let others know by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Here's a quick guide for posting a review. Review on Apple: https://remarkablepodcast.com/itunes   

A home winemaker & inventor, Thursday night parties, Liquid Jazz, a rocking decanter and interview with Michael Fors. ON THE ROAD with MR CA WINE is about California's cool, aspirational lifestyle and awesome wines hosted by Chuck Cramer, a California native, living in London and is the Director of EMEA & Asia sales & marketing, Terlato Wines. This is a wine journey covering the hottest topics in CA wine, chatting along the way with the experts who make it all happen. This week's episode includes an interview with Michael Fors, home winemaker & inventor of Liquid Jazz.

What happens when AI moves from a standalone tool to a teammate that works inside the flow of your organization? In this episode, I'm joined by Mick Hodgins, General Manager for EMEA at Notion, to explore how the idea of a connected AI workspace is reshaping the way teams collaborate, make decisions, and measure productivity. With a career that includes more than a decade at Google scaling growth across multiple countries, Mick brings a unique perspective on what it takes to build technology businesses across diverse markets and why this moment in AI feels fundamentally different from previous waves of innovation. We talk about Notion's journey from a flexible, block-based collaboration platform to an AI-native workspace where context is the real differentiator. Mick explains why AI performs better when it understands how work actually happens, and how embedding agents directly into shared workflows allows teams to move from prompting tools to orchestrating outcomes. From automated reporting and knowledge management to self-improving agent loops that learn from their own performance, the conversation brings to life how organizations are already using AI to remove the "work around the work" and focus on higher-value thinking. A major theme throughout the discussion is return on investment. In a world where many companies are still stuck in pilot mode, Mick shares how leaders can reframe ROI around productivity, speed, and the elimination of repetitive tasks rather than treating AI as a single project with a fixed payback period. We also explore how roles, org structures, and hiring priorities are beginning to shift as agents become extensions of team capability rather than experimental add-ons. Because Mick leads the EMEA region, we also dive into the differences in adoption between the US and Europe, from regulatory considerations and cultural attitudes to the growing strength of the European startup ecosystem. It's a balanced view that recognizes both the caution and the creativity emerging across the region. This is ultimately a conversation about friction. What happens to an organization when coordination overhead disappears, when reporting builds itself, and when knowledge stays current without human intervention? So as AI agents move from novelty to infrastructure, are businesses ready to redesign how work gets done, and what becomes possible when teams stop managing tasks and start compounding impact?

ITR is excited to announce the launch of a new monthly podcast series, Taxing Times with ITR, with the first episode available to listen to now.Hosted by ITR Editor Tom Baker and Senior Reporter Sam Sholli, the series will act as a monthly digest of the biggest and most interesting tax stories from the preceding few weeks as well as a preview of the big issues ahead. As well as analysing recent developments and previewing future stories, the ITR editorial team will offer behind-the-scenes insights into how such articles are researched and crafted. In our first edition, Tom and Sam analyse Deloitte's €20 billion EMEA merger and US President Donald Trump's tariff defeat at the US Supreme Court.Also on the agenda: the evolution of Venezuela's tax regime following the deposition of Nicolás Maduro, and exclusive ITR data which reveals that diversity, equity and inclusion policies are not influencing clients' buying decisions in the US. We hope you enjoy listening.

Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Seiko Kataoka‑Fisher, Director in Japanese Customer Sales for EMEA in London, explore why speculation over the Bank of Japan's upcoming policy shifts has triggered a fresh wave of yen weakness. They also examine how escalating tensions between Iran and the United States could shape the performance of the US dollar in the weeks ahead.

Brian Keenan leads international strategy and AI consultancy for WE Communications, a ~$200M integrated marketing firm. Brian counsels senior leaders from companies such as Adobe, HEINEKEN and Amazon to succeed in an AI-enabled future. Latest interest areas including AI search, agentic commerce, synthetic audiences, and autonomous workflows. He is a regular presenter at industry conferences such as ICCO, PRCA, WARC, and Mumbrella across EMEA & APAC. He brings a global and grounded mindset to his work from living in four countries and raising three children.

Esportmaníacos 2498: En el programa de hoy hemos hecho una cobertura total de los cambios que plantean para el EMEA Masters. Riot ha sacado la información pero nos ha hecho falta tener más filtraciones de Sheep Esports para poder tener todo a nuestra disposición. Nos han acompañado Disgrace, head coach de KOI Fénix y Fernando Cardenete de la LES. APÓYANOS AQUÍ https://www.patreon.com/Esportmaniacos https://www.twitch.tv/esportmaniacos Nuestras redes https://twitter.com/Esportmaniacos https://www.tiktok.com/@esportmaniacos Referido de AMAZON: https://amzn.to/36cVx3g 00:00:00 - Intro 00:16:30 - Nos visita Disgrace 00:48:30 - Elxokas se reúne con Riot 01:02:20 - EMEA Masters de Invierno, la info oficial (se caen Los Ratones) 01:25:45 - Impagos en la NLC, ¿hace falta la LEC 2? 01:35:00 - Caos 01:40:00 - Riot Games hace más despidos 01:47:40 - Cambios en los premios de LEC

AB sits down with Gordon Thomson, Cisco's SVP EMEA Sales and EMEA President, for a great talk about The EMEA Moment, sovereign critical infrastructure, and how AI is a tool that is helping unlock human potential.

Mardi 24 février, Frédéric Simottel a reçu Laura Modiano, directrice des startups EMEA chez OpenAI, et Roxanne Varza, directrice de Station F. Elles se sont penchées sur l'alliance entre OpenAI et Station F, dans l'émission Tech & Co, la quotidienne, sur BFM Business. Retrouvez l'émission du lundi au jeudi et réécoutez la en podcast.

Outcome-based selling in healthcare sales is the difference between educating your buyer and actually moving the deal forward. In this episode, Harry sits down with Simona Grandits, VP EMEA at QIAGEN and newly selected EU Women Leaders 2026 cohort member, to explore how modern healthcare sales leaders balance scientific credibility with commercial discipline - without losing momentum. Simona shares how consultative selling, customer centricity, and disciplined stakeholder management must work together to drive real sales performance in complex healthcare and medical device sales environments. She reflects on what disciplined sales leadership truly requires across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

AB sits down with Gordon Thomson, Cisco's SVP EMEA Sales and EMEA President, for a great talk about The EMEA Moment, sovereign critical infrastructure, and how AI is a tool that is helping unlock human potential.

Esportmaníacos 2495: En el programa de hoy hemos hablado de un leak de Sheep Esports que cambia absolutamente todo en el panoráma de LoLEsports en EMEA. Los equipos de ERL podrían asisitir a la Esports World Cup en Arabia Saudí, además de que los equipos de LEC podrían tener que jugar otro torneo más, siendo éste el clasificatorio a la EWC. Finalmente, hemos repasado las partidas que vimos ayer y hecho un poco de previa del G2 Esports vs Movistar KOI. APÓYANOS AQUÍ https://www.patreon.com/Esportmaniacos https://www.twitch.tv/esportmaniacos Nuestras redes https://twitter.com/Esportmaniacos https://www.tiktok.com/@esportmaniacos Referido de AMAZON: https://amzn.to/36cVx3g 00:00:00 - Intro 00:14:45 - Offtopic de LCK 00:22:35 - Posible retorno de Los Ratones y equipos de ERL a Arabia 01:19:22 - GX vs NAVI 01:32:00 - VIT vs KC 01:42:00 - Previa de LEC

Across our professional careers, many of us will come into contact with a difficult colleague or hard-to-please superior. But what happens when difficult behaviour crosses over into bullying at work? What effect does this have, not only on our wellbeing, but on our workplace as a whole? Evidence suggests that bullying may be on the rise in the UK. A 2025 survey of British workers conducted by ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) found that 44% of respondents had experienced conflict at work in the last 12 months. And on the global stage, the resurgence of ‘strong man' leadership has reignited a debate: does bullying behaviour get you what you want? Evan and the panel look at what workplace bullying is, when and why bullying can occur, and the steps individuals and organisations can take to tackle this behaviour in the workplace. Guests: Jason Warner, Managing Director (UK and EMEA) at SBS Kevin Rowan, Director of Dispute Resolution at ACAS Kara Ng, Senior Lecturer in Organisational Psychology at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester Production team: Presenter: Evan Davis Producer: Mhairi MacKenzie Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound engineers: James Beard and Neil Churchill Editor: Matt Willis The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

An interview between Aaron Jarvis (Geotab, VP EMEA) and Raymond Kelly (Circet, Group Services Director UK & Ireland) discussing the successful rollout of Geotab telematics across Circet's fleet. Raymond Kelly highlights why they selected Geotab, the successful rapid implementation across 80% of their fleet, and their focus on driver safety through a rewarding scorecard system. The discussion also covers how the technology is essential for accurate ESG reporting by providing physical fuel consumption data and enabling seamless management of their emerging EV fleet.

In this episode, host Sandy Vance chats with Sophie Cheng, the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Sinch. They discuss the most common communication pitfalls and share a handful of remedies so you can start sending smarter messages. You'll walk away with tangible tips on how to: ✔️ switch from omnichannel to optimal channel✔️ leverage AI to fix your no-show problem✔️ build patient trust through advanced messagingIn this episode, they talk about:What Sinch does and how it uses AI to simplify and personalize communication for customersHow AI-driven communication is being applied in healthcare and what leaders need to understandWhy better communication leads to faster interactions, improved patient experiences, and higher conversion ratesHow omnichannel communication strategies streamline workflows for healthcare organizationsHow Sinch helps organizations identify the right channels and interfaces for their patient populationsWhat it means to operate at the speed of trust, and why transparency mattersHow AI can make patient interactions feel more empathetic and humanWhy organizations should never underestimate the impact of their communication strategyA Little About Sophie:Sophie Cheng is the Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Sinch, the global leader in CPaaS and the company behind the Customer Communications Cloud. With more than 15 years of international marketing experience, Sophie has held strategic roles across Europe, Asia, and North America, partnering closely with Product, Growth, and M&A leaders to manage complex, global portfolios. At Sinch, she leads global product marketing, partner marketing, and analyst relations, helping organizations deliver seamless, trusted communication experiences across messaging, voice, and email.Before Sinch, Sophie served as VP of Global Product and Customer Marketing at ZoomInfo and led Product Marketing at Chorus.ai. A true global citizen, she has worked extensively across EMEA, APAC, and the U.S. Sophie holds advanced degrees from the University of St. Gallen and Singapore University and is an active member of the CMO Alliance.

At the crossroads of tradition and transformation, the Middle East is setting a new pace for growth and global connectivity. Join James Fraser, head of EMEA Payments, and Ambar Morshed, head of Subsidiary Payment Sales EMEA, as they unpack the region's dynamic growth, digital evolution, and the bold moves attracting corporates and multinationals from around the world. Discover how innovative strategies, regulatory reforms, and a thriving business culture are redefining what's possible in one of the world's most exciting markets. Whether you're headquartered in ADGM, entering the region, or establishing a key treasury hub, our experts are on hand to help you realize new opportunities in one of the world's fastest-growing markets.   Learn more at: https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/treasury/treasury-management/trends-middle-east-corporate-treasury https://www.jpmorgan.com/payments/treasury-middle-east   This episode was recorded on December 3, 2025.  ©2026 JPMorgan Chase & Co. All rights reserved. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Deposits held in non-U.S. branches are not FDIC insured. Non-deposit products are not FDIC insured. All rights reserved. The statements herein are confidential and proprietary and not intended to be legally binding. Not all products and services are available in all geographical areas. Visit jpmorgan.com/paymentsdisclosure for further disclosures and disclaimers related to this content. This video-podcast/guide is confidential and proprietary to J.P. Morgan and is provided for your general information only. It is subject to change without notice and is not intended to be legally binding. Any services described in this video-podcast/guide are subject to applicable laws and regulations and service terms. Not all products and services are available in all locations. Eligibility for particular products and services will be determined by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. or its affiliates. J.P. Morgan makes no representations as to the legal, regulatory, tax or accounting implications of the matters referred to herein. Any mentions of third-party trademarks, brand names, products and services are for referential purposes only and any mention thereof is not meant to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, or affiliation. J.P. Morgan and J.P. Morgan Payments are marketing names for certain businesses of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates and subsidiaries worldwide JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., organized under the laws of U.S.A. with limited liability. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of J.P. Morgan, its affiliates, or its employees. The information set forth herein has been obtained or derived from sources believed to be reliable. Neither the author nor J.P. Morgan makes any representations or warranties as to the information's accuracy or completeness. The information contained herein has been provided solely for informational purposes and does not constitute an offer, solicitation, advice or recommendation, to make any investment decisions or purchase any financial instruments and may not be construed as such.  

How will Lumen's recent EMEA divestiture impact your organization? The expansion and retraction of individual providers' networks that we see with Lumen's sale of its EMEA assets to COLT allows Lumen to focus on its North American core, while utilizing Colt's expanded footprint to serve international clients. In this 12-minute episode of Staying Connected, Tony Mangino and Frank Zagrodnik from TC2 are joined by LB3's Deb Boehling to outline potential impacts of supplier asset divestitures, some specifics on Lumen's recent EMEA divestiture, and how enterprises can manage these changes. If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Network Services Transactions and Technology Consulting and Strategy Development webpages.   

In this episode of Make It Happen Mondays, John sits down with Saif Khan, Regional VP of EMEA and APAC at Semrush, one of the top SaaS platforms helping digital marketers drive visibility, traffic, and growth. But this episode isn't just about tools or tactics—it's about the real human side of sales leadership.From growing up in a council estate in West London to building elite sales teams across two continents, Saif shares how a single ride-along with his uncle sparked his lifelong passion for sales. He breaks down how five years in retail taught him more about buyer psychology than any formal sales training ever could—and why emotional intelligence, not just methodology, is the real differentiator in today's market.The conversation dives into:• How burnout creeps in even during “success”• Why Saif hit pause on his career for a solo journey through Southeast Asia• The coaching crisis in frontline management• The line between AI augmentation and AI dependency—and what it means for the future of leadership.Whether you're an SDR, a VP, or somewhere in between, this episode is packed with real stories, fresh takes, and valuable lessons for anyone navigating the evolving world of modern sales.Are you interested in leveling up your sales skills and staying relevant in today's AI-driven landscape? Visit www.jbarrows.com and let's Make It Happen together!Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbarrows/Connect with John on IG: https://www.instagram.com/johnmbarrows/Check out John's Membership: https://go.jbarrows.com/pages/individual-membership?ref=3edab1 Join John's Newsletter: https://www.jbarrows.com/newsletterConnect with Saif on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saif-khan-cism/Check out Saif's Website Semrush: https://www.semrush.com/Check out these additional links for SemrushEmployment Opportunities: https://careers.semrush.com/jobs/Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/es/podcast/technically-her/id1871241654?l=en-GBSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7nBfeFVia9d7ClK7CVOBcV?si=9ef5467e40644435Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semrush_life/#Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SemrushLifeLinkedIn:

Why can't the UK shake its "confidence rut" despite having a £1 trillion savings buffer? How are global "populist" spending trends forcing the bond market to act as a fiscal referee? And is the UK actually poised to become an AI superpower? In this episode, Robert and Steph welcome back Karen Ward, Chief Market Strategist for EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management and former advisor to the Chancellor. The discussion dives deep into the 'split personality' of the UK economy, where high financial stability in the private sector is juxtaposed with a pervasive lack of confidence in government by consumers and business. The Rest is Money is brought to you by Octopus Energy, Britain's smart energy pioneer. Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠the⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠restismoney@goalhanger.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheRestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@RestIsMoney⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Andrea Hayward, Vice President of the Japanese Client Sales Group for EMEA in London, discuss the fallout from the lower house election in Japan. Will the USD extend its recent rebound on the back of the latest US employment and inflation data?  

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

The Equality Conversation podcast with bestselling author Joy Burnford explores how to create better workplaces for women. In this series, Joy sits down with forward-thinking HR and people leaders to uncover the policies, practices and cultural shifts driving real impact for women's careers, wellbeing and sense of belonging. If you're seeking insights, inspiration and proven approaches to help people thrive in your organisation, you're in the right place. So grab a cuppa, head out for a walk, or simply escape for a while and tune in to today's conversation.In this episode, Joy Burnford speaks with Gill Hardy, Head of Executive Talent for EMEA at WPP plc and global lead of WPP's Stella network for women, about what it really takes to drive gender equality in a global organisation. Gill shares WPP's approach, from increasing the visibility of female leaders and investing in targeted development, to embedding inclusive policies across the business. She stresses the importance of continuous, data-driven action, noting that the gap between perceived progress and lived reality can be wider than many organisations realise. The conversation also explores the evolving role of women's networks, the value of welcoming male allies, and how everyday micro-inclusions - such as consciously inviting women to speak first in meetings - can have a powerful impact on culture change.

The Pope Valley, a Historic winery, the Old West, Untamed & Isolated and interview w Michael Coode, GM & Winemaker of the Pope Valley Winery in the Napa Valley. ON THE ROAD with MR CA WINE is about California's cool, aspirational lifestyle and awesome wines hosted by Chuck Cramer, a California native, living in London and is the Director of EMEA & Asian sales & marketing, Terlato Wines. This is a wine journey covering the hottest topics in CA wine, chatting along the way with the experts who make it all happen. This week's episode includes an interview with Michael Coode, GM & Winemaker of the Pope Valley Winery.

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

¿Resistirá la distinción entre responsables y encargados del tratamiento a la evolución y modularización de las relaciones comerciales? ¿Es realmente gestionable la pirámide (o Matrioska) de subencargados?César Naveira es abogado, Senior Counsel para protección de datos e Inteligencia Artificial en la oficina londinense de Mastercard desde hace cuatro años, habiendo pasado antes cinco años en American Express como director del equipo de protección de datos en EMEA. Antes de esto trabajó en Barclays, incluyendo el rol de DPO de Barclaycard en España y Portugal. César se formó además profesionalmente en la Agencia Española de Protección de Datos, donde pasó casi tres años.Referencias:* César Naveira Barrero en LinkedIn* Elizabeth Renieris: On the illusion of control and the trade-offs of innovation (Masters of Privacy, marzo de 2021)* Dictamen 22/2024 dictamen sobre determinadas obligaciones derivadas de la dependencia de los encargados y subencargados del tratamiento (octubre de 2024)* Robert Bateman: the EDPB's Opinion on auditing subprocessors and the future of Meta's unskippable ads (Masters of Privacy, noviembre de 2024)* Javier Sempere: reclamaciones transfronterizas, sanciones por brechas declaradas y multas curiosas (Masters of Privacy, noviembre de 2025)* Caso por responsabilidad derivada de la falta de control sobre los sub-encargados (incumplimiento del artículo 28 del RGPD) de una empresa de “streaming” (Tribunal Regional de Lübeck) [DE]. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.mastersofprivacy.com/subscribe

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

£100k in Weekly GP in just 12 months is rare. Doing it after leaving a 16-year corporate career to join a scale-up is even rarer.In this episode, Dan Harris (MD of EMEA at InterEx) reveals the exact playbook he used to inherit a team, fix client concentration, and drive massive contract growth.Connect with Dan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielharrisrecruitment/-------------------------Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PmjAgU9oFTE-------------------------Sponsors - Claim your exclusive savings from our partners with the links below:Sourcewhale - Check Out Sourcewhale & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.Atlas - Check Out Atlas & Claim Your Exclusive Offer HereRaise - Check Out Raise & Claim Your Exclusive Offer Here.-------------------------Extra Stuff:Learn more about our online skills development platform Hector here: https://bit.ly/47hsaxeJoin 6,000+ other recruiters levelling up their skills with our Limitless Learning Newsletter here: https://limitless-learning.thisishector.com/subscribe-------------------------Get in touch:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hishemazzouz/-------------------------

Esta última hora hemos tenido el espacio Los Desayunos de Capital, donde hemos contado con Manuel Melenchón, Manager Director del Sur de EMEA de Hyatt, que ha hecho un repaso de las expectativas y los planes que tiene la compañía en 2026. Después hemos tenido el Foro de Empleo, en el que han participado Marisa Cruzado, socia en CVA, Luis Pérez, director de Relaciones Institucionales de Randstad y Rafael Pamillón, profesor de Economía en el IE Business School y la Universidad San Pablo CEU. Han analizado el impacto del absentismo laboral y la regularización de inmigrantes.

In this episode of Get Out of Wrap, I'm joined by the brilliant Shameem Smillie – CX leader, writer, speaker, one of the founding members of Women in CX, and Senior GTM Specialist for EMEA at Amazon.Shameem's journey is anything but conventional. From leaving school with no qualifications, to serving 13 years in the British Army, to becoming one of the most respected voices in customer experience and contact centres, this is a conversation about resilience, representation, courage, and doing the work.We talk openly about:What the military taught her about leadership, teamwork, and accountabilityWhy contact centres are the beating heart of organisationsThe reality of representation, allyship, and advocating for othersWhy AI shouldn't scare us and how it can genuinely help agents and leadersThe importance of culture, candour, and speaking truth in organisationsThis episode is honest, funny, powerful, and deeply human.If you care about leadership, CX, people, and progress then this one's for you.

From headline deals like Vodafone-Three or home builder, Barratt buying rival, Redrow, corporate mergers and takeovers are on the rise. Evan Davis and guests take a fresh look at what happens when companies combine. They discuss why deal-making is growing, why execs turn to M&A, what can go wrong and whether mergers deliver growth or simply disguise deeper problems. Guests: Vittorio Colao, CEO at Vodafone Group 2008-2018, and now Vice Chairman, EMEA, General Atlantic Pip Hulbert, CCO for International Markets at VML Farshid Azadegan, Director of BEC DistributionProduction team: Presenter: Evan Davis Producer: Sally Abrahams Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison Sound engineers: Russell Newlove and Andy Garratt Editor: Matt WillisThe Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University

Global managed services contracts are experiencing reduced momentum as buyers display notable hesitation to commit to long-term agreements during a period defined by organizational pivots toward artificial intelligence. The Information Services Group reported only a 1.2% quarter-over-quarter increase in large managed services contracts in late 2025, totaling $10.9 billion, with full-year growth barely above 1%. While U.S. activity partially offsets contractions in EMEA and APAC, the prevailing environment is one of caution, shaped less by CIOs and more by business and finance leaders redirecting budgets to support internal AI initiatives and flexible operating arrangements.The growth in technology distributor activity in North America highlights increased market fragmentation rather than expanded service levels. Omdia Tech Services data indicates distributor billings grew almost 15% in 2024, reaching $16.6 billion, with over 72% of transactions concentrated among six distributors. Most billings originated with technology advisors, and both value-added resellers and MSPs contributed smaller shares. This shift points to a market emphasizing flexible sourcing—with more intermediaries and shorter deals—but raises questions about MSP control, as authority and accountability can become diluted.Intel's latest financial disclosures reveal persistent supply and execution challenges in delivering AI infrastructure solutions. Despite exceeding earnings expectations, weak revenue forecasts and admission of supply constraints resulted in a 13% decrease in company stock. The vendor attributed its underperformance to capacity shortages and forecasting issues, underscoring the risks MSPs now face in hardware planning for AI deployments. Additionally, the commoditization of key offerings such as Microsoft 365 backup and the automation of technology review processes further compress execution margins, reducing traditional revenue sources for service providers.For MSPs and IT leaders, these developments reinforce the need to reassess risk allocation, authority, and pricing models in client engagements. With execution becoming both cheaper and less differentiated, value must shift toward governance, outcome accountability, and explicit decision ownership. Delays or misjudgments related to hardware supply and service fulfillment present direct threats to project continuity and client satisfaction, emphasizing the importance of operational flexibility, active vendor management, and strategic repositioning of service offerings. Three things to know today 00:00 As Managed Services Stall Globally, Distributor-Led IT Buying Gains Momentum04:58 Intel Beats on Earnings but Misses on Confidence as AI Demand Outpaces Capacity07:27 As Backup and Reviews Are Automated, MSP Differentiation Shifts from Execution to Decision Ownership This is the Business of Tech.     Supported by:  https://scalepad.com/dave/

Good morning Dragon Tamers!This week, TaffyStar and TacoDog are in the recording booth while HurricaneKaz takes a long awaited vacation! Together, the duo are both taken aback by the fact that we are at the halfway point in the cycle! Come and join us as we break down which teams are running away with their tier and which teams need an adjustment in order to not be relegated.Come join hosts HurricaneKaz & Taffystar as they dive headfirst into storylines between all divisions of the Battle Frontier. What storylines will be woven, and who will emerge as the top teams? Tune in to find out!Consider joining us on discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/EwCPezjQKNPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/EntertheDragonairDen⁠Music by Zame: https:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠//www.youtube.com/c/ZameJack

Bonjour and Hello, In this episode, Cory Connors interviews two standout winners of the Paris Packaging Week Future Leaders Program—Danielle Goad and Nicole Toole—to explore their journeys, innovations, and perspectives on the future of sustainable packaging. Danielle shares how discovering packaging at Cal Poly led to a global leadership role at SpecRight and her upcoming move to London as she builds the EMEA region. Nicole recounts founding ECGO as a college project and transforming it into an AI‑powered recycling education and behavior‑change platform used by students, universities, and brands.Both leaders reflect on being recognized among the top ten emerging leaders worldwide and discuss the importance of global collaboration, consumer behavior insights, regulatory preparedness (PPWR & EPR), and inspiration from younger generations. They share what they're most looking forward to at Paris Packaging Week—from innovation zones to reuse concepts to the energy of an international community passionate about packaging.Key Topics Discussed:Danielle's path from student to global leader and her work scaling SpecRight internationallyNicole's founding of ECGO and the role of AI, incentives, and data insights in improving recycling behaviorsThe significance and impact of being named Future Leaders by Paris Packaging WeekEvolving sustainability messaging and the shift toward value‑driven, consumer‑relevant communicationThe rapid pace of regulatory change and the industry's need for continual education (PPWR, EPR)Cross‑industry collaboration and the packaging sector's tight‑knit, globally connected natureExcitement about innovations in reuse, sustainability tech, and meeting global peers at Paris Packaging WeekResources Mentioned:SpecRight – Specification management platformECGO – AI‑powered consumer education and recycling platformParis Packaging Week Future Leaders ProgramContact:Danielle Goad:LinkedIn: Danielle GoadEmail: danielle@specright.comVisit SpecRight at their stand in the PCD space during Paris Packaging WeekNicole Toole:Website: ecgo.coLinkedIn: Nicole TooleClosing Thoughts:Cory, Danielle, and Nicole highlight the tremendous momentum building within sustainable packaging—driven by young leaders, new technologies, data‑driven insights, and global collaboration. They emphasize that meaningful industry change requires education, curiosity, and fresh thinking from every generation. Both guests hope their recognition as Future Leaders inspires other emerging professionals to share ideas boldly, challenge the status quo, and pursue innovative solutions that reduce waste and improve the planet.Thank you for tuning in to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors!https://anewearthproject.com/collections/new-earth-approvedhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-connors/I'm here to help you make your packaging more sustainable! Reach out today and I'll get back to you asap. This podcast is an independent production and the podcast production is an original work of the author. All rights of ownership and reproduction are retained—copyright 2022.

Good morning Dragon Tamers!This week, HurricaneKaz and TaffyStar breakdown what is probably one of the closest matches that had a handful of sweeps in Season 2 Cycle 2 in the Europe Middle East Africa Region of the Battle Frontier. The duo also look at some of the teams who are having a hot start. Will those teams continue their success? Tune in to find out!Come join hosts HurricaneKaz & Taffystar as they dive headfirst into storylines between all divisions of the Battle Frontier. What storylines will be woven, and who will emerge as the top teams? Tune in to find out!Consider joining us on discord: https://discord.gg/EwCPezjQKNPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/EntertheDragonairDenMusic by Zame: https:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠//www.youtube.com/c/ZameJack

In this season premiere of The Data Chief podcast, host Cindi Howson sits down with three industry leaders to unpack what's next for AI, and the concrete moves data and AI leaders need to make in 2026—many of which are detailed in ThoughtSpot's Top Data & AI Trends of 2026 ebook.Get ready for a deep dive into:Agentic AI goes mainstream with Paul Baier, CEO and Co-Founder of GAI InsightsAI-ready data and the rise of the AI manager with Jennifer Belissent, Principal Data Strategist at SnowflakeScaling agents with trust and control with Rory Blundell, CEO of GraviteeConsider this your field guide to navigating AI in 2026.Key Moments:Agentic AI Goes Mainstream with Paul Baier, GAI Insights (1:50): Paul Baier, CEO and Co-Founder of GAI Insights, explains why enterprises that already have GenAI in production are pulling decisively ahead, how agentic AI is reshaping enterprise operating models, and why leadership alignment and AI literacy will determine winners in 2026.AI-Ready Data and the Rise of the AI Manager, Jennifer Belissent, Snowflake (19:16): Dr. Jennifer Belissent, Principal Data Strategist at Snowflake, breaks down why data quality, transparency, and governance remain the foundation of AI success, and why the next critical enterprise skill is learning how to manage AI agents as part of the workforce.Scaling Agents with Trust and Control with Rory Blundell, Gravitee (35:11): Rory Blundell, CEO of Gravitee, shares how the agentic era is redefining API integration, why most enterprises are stuck at early AI maturity stages, and how agent management and security frameworks will unlock real action in 2026.Key Quotes:“Yo u have to treat AI as a capability and not an IT project.” - Paul Baier“ Transparency as a requirement is not slowing down adoption. It's actually accelerating it.” - Jennifer Belissent“My prediction is that companies that adopt robust security frameworks in 2026 will be the companies that accelerate fastest.” - Rory Blundell MentionsGAI Insights' Corporate Buyers Guide to Enterprise Intelligence ApplicationsHarvard Business Review: GAI Insights' WINS FrameworkGravitee's AI Readiness CurveThoughtSpot's Top Data & AI Trends of 2026 ebookGuest Bios Paul BaierMr. Baier is the CEO and principal analyst at GAI Insights. Mr Baier co-authored 4 articles about enterprise GenAI that were featured in Harvard Business Review and MIT Sloan Management Review. He was appointed an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and is a Forbes contributor. He is a seasoned software entrepreneur with two decades of experience and multiple exits. Related to AI, he was VP of Product at First Fuel Software, an enterprise AI company for 5 years. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a BA from Kenyon College.Jennifer BelissentAs Principal Data Strategist, Jennifer advises Snowflake customers on data and AI strategy and best practices in building world-class organizations. Previously, she spent over a decade as a Forrester Analyst, and has held management positions in tech sales and marketing, designed urban policy programs, taught secondary school math as a Peace Corps volunteer, and earned a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and a B.A. in econometrics from the University of Virginia.Rory BlundellRory Blundell is the CEO of Gravitee. He joined the company in March 2020, first as Chief Revenue Officer, before becoming CEO in September 2020. Prior to Gravitee, Blundell led SnapLogic's EMEA expansion from a technical sales perspective, overseeing significant growth in EMEA revenues over three years. Prior to SnapLogic, he was the CEO and founder of Velinko, a UK software and consultancy company for the legal and accounting sectors. Hear more from Cindi Howson here. Sponsored by ThoughtSpot.

What does real AI transformation look like when leaders stop chasing prototypes and start demanding outcomes they can actually measure? That question sat at the center of my conversation with Alex Cross, Chief Technology Officer for EMEA at CI&T, alongside Melissa Smith, as we unpacked why so many organizations feel stuck between AI ambition and business reality. There is no shortage of excitement around AI, but there is growing skepticism too, especially from leadership teams who have seen pilots come and go without clear return. This episode focuses on how CI&T is addressing that gap head on. Alex shared how CI&T frames its work as AI-enabled transformation rather than simply layering AI tools onto existing processes. The distinction matters.  Instead of using AI to speed up broken workflows, CI&T reshapes how work gets done so AI becomes part of value creation itself. We explored a standout example from ITAU, the largest bank in Latin America, where deep modernization work helped deliver gains that most executives only ever see in strategy decks.  Productivity rose sharply, digital launch cycles collapsed from years to months, customer satisfaction jumped, and the commercial impact reached hundreds of millions in uplift. These are the kinds of results that change boardroom conversations. A big part of how CI&T gets there is its proprietary Flow platform. Alex explained how Flow gives clients a day-one AI environment, removing the heavy upfront cost and complexity that often slows momentum. Instead of spending months building platforms before any value appears, teams can move from proof of concept to production in as little as six to eight weeks. Flow also plays a second role that many AI programs miss, acting as a measurement layer so performance, efficiency, and ROI are visible rather than assumed. We also talked about why partnerships matter when execution is the goal. CI&T works closely with hyperscalers like AWS and Databricks, combining native tools with its own codified expertise. That combination has helped the company achieve an unusually high success rate in bringing AI initiatives to production, a challenge many organizations still struggle with. For Alex, the difference comes down to a relentless focus on production readiness and collaboration between business and technology teams from day one. Looking ahead, the conversation turned to CI&T's expansion across EMEA and what the company's 30th year represents. Rather than chasing every new trend, the focus is on productizing services around real client problems, whether that is legacy modernization, efficiency, or growth. The goal is to bridge strategy and execution in a way that feels practical, fast, and accountable. If you are leading AI initiatives and wondering why progress feels slower than the hype suggests, this episode offers a grounded perspective from the front lines. So, as organizations head into another year of bold AI plans, the real question becomes this. Are you building faster caterpillars, or are you ready to do the harder work required to turn ambition into something that can truly scale? Useful Links Connect with Alex Cross Connect With Melissa Smith Learn more about CI&T Follow CI&T on LinkedIn and YouTube Thanks to our sponsors, Alcor, for supporting the show.

Ash Alexander-Cooper OBE is a former soldier, world-championship athlete, award-winning international musician and artist. During a 28-year regular and reserve career, Ash served as an airborne soldier, helicopter pilot, jungle warfare and counter-terrorist specialist, spending 82 months deployed on operations. Since retirement, Ash has been a Senior Partner at McChrystal Group, led international business development at Palantir, runs a Leadership Development firm and is VP EMEA & APAC for Dedrone by Axon. Wounded multiple times in combat, Ash is passionate about giving back and is proud to support several veteran and mental health charities. To that end, he has committed to donate all author profits from the sale of his upcoming book - Mindful Soldier: Building Resilience to Overcome Life's Challenges – which publishes in the UK on 22 January 2026 and is available worldwide from 27 January 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The start of the year is always a convenient time to think about consensus risk. Market watchers have all updated their forecasts and published their year ahead pieces. For the first episode of Street Signals in 2026, host Tim Graf, head of Macro Strategy for EMEA, carries on a tradition in going through a few of the most prominent consensus outlooks, mapping them to the message from our proprietary indicators and highlighting opportunities to go with or against the herd.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California & Washington, Napa to the Red Mountain AVA, the History of Chimney Rock, Rosebud and interview w Doug Fletcher, Vine to Wine Consulting. ON THE ROAD with MR CA WINE is about California's cool, aspirational lifestyle and awesome wines hosted by Chuck Cramer, a California native, living in London and is the Director of sales & marketing, EMEA & Asia for Terlato Wines. This is a wine journey covering the hottest topics in the world of California wine, chatting along the way with the key influencers in the industry who make it all happen. This week's episode includes an interview with Doug Fletcher, consulting winemaker, Vine to Wine Consulting.

Welcome back to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering® Podcast. AI agents are your next customers. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this exclusive interview, Vince Menzione sits down with Darryl Peek, Vice President for Partner Sales (Public Sector) at Elastic, to decode how Elastic achieved the rare “triple crown”—winning Partner of the Year across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud simultaneously. Darryl breaks down the engineering-first approach that makes Elastic sticky with hyperscalers, reveals the rigorous metrics behind their partner health scorecard, and shares his personal “one-page strategy” for aligning mission, vision, and execution. From leveraging generative AI for cleaner sales hygiene to the timeless lesson of the “Acre of Diamonds,” this conversation offers a masterclass in building high-performance partner ecosystems in the public sector and beyond. https://youtu.be/__GE0r2fPuk Key Takeaways Elastic achieved “Pinnacle” status by aligning engineering roadmaps directly with hyperscaler innovations to become essential infrastructure. Successful public sector sales require a dual approach: leveraging resellers for contract access while driving domain-specific co-sell motions. Partner relationships outperform contracts; consistency in communication is more valuable than only showing up for renewals. Effective partner organizations track “influence” revenue just as rigorously as direct bookings to capture the full value of SI relationships. Generative AI can automate sales hygiene, turning scattered meeting notes into actionable CRM data and reducing friction for sales teams. The “Acre of Diamonds” philosophy reminds leaders that the greatest opportunities often lie within their current ecosystem, not in distant new markets. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Keywords: Elastic, Darryl Peek, public sector sales, hyperscaler partnership, Microsoft Partner of the Year, AWS Partner of the Year, Google Cloud Partner, partner ecosystem strategy, co-sell motion, partner metrics, channel sales, government contracting, Carahsoft, generative AI in sales, sales hygiene, Russell Conwell, Acre of Diamonds, open source search, observability, security SIM, vector search, retrieval augmented generation, LLM agnostic, partner enablement, influence revenue, channel booking, SI relationships, strategic alliances. Transcript: Darryl Peek Audio Episode [00:00:00] Darryl Peek: I say, I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. [00:00:13] Darryl Peek: Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal, right? When you’re at end of quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: welcome to the Ultimate Guide to Partnering. I’m Vince Menzi. Own your host, and my mission is to help leaders like you achieve your greatest results through successful partnering. [00:00:34] Vince Menzione: We just came off Ultimate Partner live at Caresoft Training Center in Reston, Virginia. Over two days, we gathered top leaders to tackle the real shifts shaping our industry. If you weren’t in the room, this episode brings you right to the edge of what’s next. Let’s dive in. So we have another privilege, an incredible partner, another like we call these, if you’ve heard our term, pinnacle. [00:01:00] Vince Menzione: I think it’s a term that’s not widely used, but we refer to Pinnacle as the partners that have achieved the top rung. They’ve become partners of the year. And our next presenter, our next interview is going to be with an organization. And a person that represents an organization that has been a pinnacle partner actually for all three Hyperscalers, which is really unusual. [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: Elastic has been partner of the Year award winner across Microsoft, Amazon, and Google Cloud, so very interesting. And Darrell Peak, who is the leader for the public sector organization, he’s here in the Washington DC area, was kind enough. Elastic is a sponsor event, and Darryl’s been kind enough to join me for a discussion about what it takes to be a Pinnacle partner. [00:01:47] Vince Menzione: So incredibly well. Excited to welcome you, Darryl. Thank you, sir. Good to have you. I love you. I love your smile, man. You got an incredible smile. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you. So Darryl, I probably didn’t do it any justice, but I was hoping you could take us through your role and responsibilities at Elastic, which is an incredible organization. [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Alright. Yeah, [00:02:09] Darryl Peek: absolutely. So Darrell Peak vice President for partner sales for the US public sector at Elastic. I’ve been there about two and a half years. Responsible for our partner relationships across all partner types, whether that’s the system integrators, resellers, MSPs, OEMs, distribution Hyperscalers, and our Technology Alliance partners. [00:02:26] Darryl Peek: And those are partners that aren’t built on the Elastic platform. In regards to how my partner team interacts with our team. Our ecosystem. We are essentially looking to further and lean in with our partners in order for them to, one, understand what Elastic does since we’re such a diverse tool, but also work with our field to understand what are their priorities and how do they identify the right partners for the right requirements. [00:02:50] Darryl Peek: In regards to what Elastic is and what it does elastic is a solution that is actually founded on search and we’re an open source company. And one of the things that I actually did when I left the government, so I worked for the government for a number of years. I left, went and worked for Salesforce, then worked for Google ran their federal partner team and then came over to Elastic because I wanted to. [00:03:11] Darryl Peek: Understand what it meant to be at an open source company. Being at an open source company is quite interesting ’cause you’re competing against yourself. [00:03:17] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s true. [00:03:18] Darryl Peek: So it’s pretty interesting. But elastic was founded in 2012 as a search company. So when you talk about search, we are the second most used platform behind Google. [00:03:28] Darryl Peek: So many of you have already used Elastic. Maybe on your way here, if you use Uber and Lyft, that is elastic. That is helping you get here. Oh, that is interesting. If you use Netflix, if you use wikipedia.com, booking.com, eBay, home Depot, all of those are search capabilities. That Elastic is happening to power in regards to what else we do. [00:03:47] Darryl Peek: We also do observability, which is really around application monitoring, logging, tracing, and metrics. So we are helping your operations team. Pepsi is a customer as well as Cisco. Wow. And then the last thing that we do is security when we’re a SIM solution. So when we talk about sim, we are really looking to protect networks. [00:04:03] Darryl Peek: So we all, we think that it’s a data problem. So with that data problem, what we’re trying to do is not only understand what is happening in the network, but also we are helping with threat intelligence, endpoint and cloud security. So all those elements together is what Elastic does. And we only do it two ways. [00:04:18] Darryl Peek: We’re one platform and we can be deployed OnPrem and in the cloud. So that’s a little bit about me and the company. Hopefully it was clear, [00:04:24] Vince Menzione: I’ve had elastic people on stage. You’ve done, that’s the best answer I’ve had. What does Elastic do? I used to hear all this hyperbole and what? [00:04:32] Vince Menzione: What? Now I really understand what you do is an organiz. And the name of the company was Elasticsearch. [00:04:36] Darryl Peek: It was [00:04:37] Vince Menzione: elastic at one time when I first. Worked with you. It was Elasticsearch. [00:04:40] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. Yeah. So many moons ago used to be called the Elk Stack and it stood for three things. E was the Elasticsearch which is a search capability. [00:04:48] Darryl Peek: L is Logstash, which is our logging capability. And Cabana is essentially our visualization capability. So it was called Elk. But since we’ve acquired so many companies and built so much capability into the platform, we can now call it the elastic. Platform. [00:05:00] Vince Menzione: So talk to me about your engagement with the hyperscalers. [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: You’ve been partner of the Year award winner with all three, right? I mentioned that, and you were, you worked for Google for a period of time. Yes. So tell us about, like, how does that work? What does that engagement look like? And why do you get chosen as partner of the year? What are the things that stand out when you’re working with these hyperscalers [00:05:19] Darryl Peek: and with that we are very fortunate to be recognized. [00:05:23] Darryl Peek: So many of the organizations that are out there are doing some of the same capabilities that we do, but they can’t claim that they won a part of the year for all three hyperscalers in the same year. We are able to do that because we believe in the power of partnership, not only from a technology perspective, but also from a sales perspective. [00:05:39] Darryl Peek: So we definitely lean in with our partnerships, so having our engineers talk, having our product teams talk, and making sure that we’re building capabilities that actually integrate within the cloud service providers. And also consistently building a roadmap that aligns with the innovation that the cloud service providers are also building towards. [00:05:56] Darryl Peek: And then making sure that we’re a topic of discussion. So elastic. From a search capability, we do semantic search, vector search, but also retrieval augmented generation, which actually is LLM Agnostic. So when you say LLM Agnostic, whether you want to use Gemini, Claude or even Chad, GBT, those things are something that Elastic can integrate in, but it actually helps reduce the likelihood of hallucination. [00:06:18] Darryl Peek: So when we’re building that kind of solution, the cloud service provider’s you’re making it easy for us, and when you make it easy, you become very attractive and therefore you’re. Likely gonna come. So it becomes [00:06:28] Vince Menzione: sticky in that regard. Very sticky. So it sounds like very much an engineer, a lot of emphasis on the engineering aspects of the business. [00:06:35] Vince Menzione: I know you’re an engineer by background too, right? So the engineering aspects of the business means that you’re having alignment with the engineering organizations of those companies at a very deep level. [00:06:44] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. So I’m [00:06:45] Vince Menzione: here. [00:06:45] Darryl Peek: Yeah. And being at Elastic has been pretty amazing. So coming from Google, we had so many different solutions, so many different SKUs, but Elastic releases every eight weeks. [00:06:54] Darryl Peek: So right before you start to understand the last release, the next release is coming out and we’re already at 9.2 and we just released 9.0 in May. So it’s really blazing fast on the capability that we’re really pushing the market, but it’s really hard to make sure that we get it in front of our partners. [00:07:10] Darryl Peek: So when we talk about our partner enablement strategy, we’re just trying to make sure that we get the right information in front of the right partners at the right time, so this way they can best service their customers. [00:07:19] Vince Menzione: So let’s talk about partner strategy. Alyssa Fitzpatrick was on stage with me at our last event, and she Alyssa’s fantastic. [00:07:25] Vince Menzione: She is incredible. Yes, she is. She was a former colleague at Microsoft Days. Yes. And then she, we had a really interesting conversation. About what it takes, like being in, in a company and then working with the partners in general. And you have, I’m sure you have a lot of the similarities in how you have to engage with these organizations. [00:07:42] Vince Menzione: You’re working across the hyperscalers, you’re also working with the ecosystem too. Yes. ’cause the delivery, you have delivery partners as well. Absolutely. So tell us more about that. [00:07:50] Darryl Peek: So we kinda look at it from a two, two ways from the pre-sales motion and then the post-sales. From the pre-sales side. [00:07:56] Darryl Peek: What we’re trying to do is really maximize our, not only working with partners, because within public sector, you need to get access to customers through contract vehicles. So if you want to get access to some, for instance, the VA or through GSA or others, you have to make sure you’re aligned with the right partners who have access to. [00:08:12] Darryl Peek: That particular agency, but also you want domain expertise. So as you’re working with those system integrators, you wanna make sure that they have capability that aligns. So whether it is a security requirement, you wanna work with someone who specializes in security, observability and search. So that’s the way that we really look at our partner ecosystem, but those who are interested in working with us. [00:08:30] Darryl Peek: Because everybody doesn’t necessarily have a emphasis on working with a new technology partner, [00:08:36] Vince Menzione: right? [00:08:36] Darryl Peek: So what we’re trying to do is saying how do we build programs, incentives and sales plays that really does align and strike the interest of that particular partner? So when we talk about it I tell my team, you have to, my grandfather to say, plan your work and work your plan. And if you fail a plan, you plan to fail. So being able to not only have a strong plan in place, but then execute against that plan, check against that plan as you go through the fiscal year, and then see how you come out at the end of the fiscal year to see are we making that progress? [00:09:01] Darryl Peek: But on the other side of it, and what I get stressed about with my sales team and saying what does partners bring to us? So where are those partner deal registrations? What is the partner source numbers? How are we creating more pipeline? And that is where we’re now saying, okay, how can we navigate and how can we make it easier? [00:09:17] Darryl Peek: And how can we reduce friction in order for the partner to say, okay, elastic’s easy to work with. I can see value in, oh, by the way, I can make some money with. [00:09:25] Vince Menzione: So take us through, have there been examples of areas where you’ve had to like, break through to this other side in terms of growing the partner ecosystem? [00:09:33] Vince Menzione: What’s worked, what hasn’t worked? Yes, I’d love to learn more about that. [00:09:36] Darryl Peek: I’ll say that and I tell my team one, you partner program is essential, right? If you don’t have an attractive partner program in regards to how they come on board, how they’re incentivized the right amount of margin, they won’t even look at you. [00:09:49] Darryl Peek: The second thing is really how do you engage? So a lot of things start with relationships. I think partnerships are really about relationships. I say I tell my team from time to time, the difference between contacts and contracts is the R and that’s the relationship. So if you’re not building the relationship, then how do you expect that partner to want to lean in? [00:10:07] Darryl Peek: Don’t just show up when you have a contract. Don’t just show up when you have a renewal. Make sure that you are reaching out and letting them know what is happening. I like the what Matt brought up in saying, okay, talk to me when you have a win. Talk to me when you have something to talk about. [00:10:22] Darryl Peek: Don’t just talk to me when you need a renewal. When you’re at end the quarter and you want me to bring a deal forward, that doesn’t help ab absolutely. [00:10:28] Vince Menzione: So engineering organizations, sales organizations, what are, what does a healthy partnership look like for you? [00:10:35] Darryl Peek: So I look at metrics a lot and we use a number of tools and I know folks are using tools out there. [00:10:41] Darryl Peek: I won’t name any tools for branding purposes, but in regards to how we look at tools. So some things that we measure closely. Of course it’s our partner source numbers, so partner source, bookings, and pipeline. We look at our partner attached numbers and pipeline as well as the amount or percentage of partner attached business that we have in regards to our overall a CV number. [00:11:00] Darryl Peek: We also look at co-sell numbers, so therefore we are looking at not only how. A partner is coming to us, but how is a partner helping us in closing the deal even though they didn’t bring us the deal? We’re also looking at our cloud numbers and saying what amount of deals and how much business are we doing with our cloud service providers? [00:11:15] Darryl Peek: Because of course we wanna see that number go up year over year. We wanna actually help with that consumption number because not only are we looking at it from a SaaS perspective, but also if the customer has to commit we can help burn that down as well. We also look at influence numbers. [00:11:27] Darryl Peek: Now, one of the harder things to do within a technology business is. Capturing all that si goodness. And saying how do I reflect the SI if they’re not bringing me the deal? And I can’t attribute that amount of deal to that particular partner, right? And the way that we do that is we just tag them to the influence. [00:11:44] Darryl Peek: So we’re able to now track influence. And also the M-S-P-O-E-M work that we are also tracking and also we’re tracking the royalties. And lastly is the professional service work that we do with those partners. So we’re looking to go up into the right where we start them out at our select level, we go to our premier level and then our elite level. [00:12:00] Darryl Peek: But left and to the right, I say you gotta go from zero to one, one to five, five to 10, and then 10 to 25. So if we can actually see that progression. That is where we’re really starting to see health in the partnership, but also the executive alignment is really important. So when our CEO is able to meet with the fellow CEO of the co partner company that is really showing how we are progressing, but also our VPs and others that are engaged. [00:12:20] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we really do measure. We do have a health score card and also, we track accreditations, we track certifications as well as training outcomes based on our sales place. [00:12:30] Vince Menzione: Wow. There’s a lot of metrics there. Yeah. So you didn’t bring, you didn’t bring any slides with that out? [00:12:35] Darryl Peek: Oh, no. I’m not looking at slides, by the way. [00:12:40] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about marketplace. [00:12:42] Darryl Peek: All right? [00:12:42] Vince Menzione: Because we’ve had a lot of conversations about marketplace. We’ve got both vendors up here talking about marketplace and the importance of marketplace, right? You’ve been a Marketplace Award winner. We haven’t really talked about that, like that motion per se. [00:12:55] Vince Menzione: I’d love to s I’d love to hear from you like how you, a, what you had to overcome to get to marketplace, what the marketplace motion looks like for your organization, what a marketplace first motion looks like. ’cause a lot of your cut a. Are all your customers requiring a lot of direct selling effort or is it some of it through Marketplace? [00:13:14] Vince Menzione: Like how does it, how does that work for you? [00:13:15] Darryl Peek: So Elastic is a global organization. Yeah. So we’re, 40 different countries. So it depends on where we’re talking. So if we talk about our international business, which is our A PJ and EMEA business we are seeing a lot more marketplace and we’re seeing that those direct deals with customers. [00:13:28] Darryl Peek: Okay. And we’re talking about our mirror business. A significant amount goes through marketplace and where our customers are transacting with the marketplace and are listing. On the marketplace within public sector, it’s more of a resell motion. Okay. So we are working with our resellers. [00:13:39] Darryl Peek: So we work our primary distribution partner is Carahsoft. So you heard from Craig earlier. Yes. We have a strong relationship with Carahsoft and definitely a big fan of this organization. But in regards to how we do that and how we track it we are looking at better ways to, track that orchestration and consumption numbers in order to see not only what customers we’re working with, but how can we really accelerate that motion and really get those leads and transactions going. [00:14:03] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Very cool. And I think part of the reason why in, in the government or public sector space it has a lot to do with the commitments are different. Absolutely. So it’s not government agencies aren’t able to make the same level of commitments that, private sector organizations were able to make, so they were able to the Mac or Microsoft parlance and also a AWS’s parlance. [00:14:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:14:24] Darryl Peek: definitely a different dynamic. Yeah. And especially within the public sector. ’cause we have Gov Cloud to work with, right? That’s right. So we’re working with Microsoft or we’re working with AWS, they have their Gov cloud and then we Google, they don’t have a Gov cloud, but we still have to work with them differently. [00:14:35] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Within that space. That’s [00:14:36] Vince Menzione: right. That’s right. So it makes the motion a little bit differently there. So I think we talked through some of this. I just wanna make sure we cover our points [00:14:43] Darryl Peek: here. One thing I’ll do an aside, you talked about the acre of diamonds. I’m a big fan of that story. [00:14:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah, let’s talk about Russ Con. Yeah, [00:14:49] Darryl Peek: let’s talk about it. Do you all know about the Acre Diamonds? Have you all heard that story before? No. You have some those in the audience. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: I, you know what, let’s talk about it. All [00:14:56] Darryl Peek: See, I’m from Philadelphia. [00:14:57] Vince Menzione: I didn’t know you were a family. My daughter went to Temple University. [00:14:59] Vince Menzione: Ah, [00:15:00] Darryl Peek: okay. That’s all I know. So Russell Conwell. So he was, a gentleman out of the Philadelphia area and he went around town to raise money and he wanted to raise money because he believed that there was a promise within a specific area. And as he continued to raise this money, he would tell a story. [00:15:14] Darryl Peek: And basically it was a story about a farmer in Africa. And the farmer in Africa, to make it really short was essentially looking to be become very wealthy. And because he wanted to become very wealthy, he believed that selling his farm and going off to a long distant land was the primary way for him to find diamonds. [00:15:28] Darryl Peek: And this farmer didn’t sold us. Sold his place, then went off to to this foreign land, and he ended up dying. And people thought that was the end of the story, but there was another farmer who bought that land and one time this big, and they called him the ot, came to the door and said you mind if I have some tea with you? [00:15:43] Darryl Peek: He said, all right, come on in. Have a drink. And as he had the drink, he looked upon the mantle and his mouth dropped. And then the farmer said what’s wrong? What do you say? He says, do you know what that is? No. He said no. Do you know what that is? He says, no. He said, that’s the biggest diamond I’ve ever seen, and the farmer goes. [00:16:01] Darryl Peek: That’s weird because there’s a bunch right in the back where I go grab my fruits and crops every day. So the idea of the acre diamonds and sometimes that you don’t need to go off to a far off land. It is actually sometimes right under your feet, and that is a story that helped fund the starting of Temple University. [00:16:16] Vince Menzione: I’m gonna need to take you at every single event so you can tell this story again. That’s an awesome job. Oh, I love it. And yeah, they founded a Temple University. Yeah. Which has become an incredible university. My daughter, like I said, my daughter’s a graduate, so we’re Temple fan. That’s great story. [00:16:31] Vince Menzione: That is a very cool, I didn’t realize you were a Philadelphia guy too, so that is awesome. Go birds. Go birds. All right, good. So let’s talk, I think we talked a little bit about your ecosystem approach, but maybe just a little bit more on this, like you said, like a lot of data, a lot of metrics but also a lot of these organizations also have to under understand the engineering side of things. [00:16:53] Vince Menzione: Oh, yeah. There’s a tremendous amount to become. Not everybody could just show up one day and become an elastic partner [00:16:58] Darryl Peek: absolutely. Absolutely. So take us [00:16:59] Vince Menzione: through that process. [00:17:00] Darryl Peek: Yeah. So one of the things that we are trying to mature and we have matured is our partner go to market. [00:17:06] Darryl Peek: So in order to join our partner ecosystem, you have to sign ’em through our partner portal. You have to sign our indirect reseller agreement. ’cause we do sell primarily within the public sector through distribution. And we only go direct if it is by exception. So you have to get justification through myself as well as our VP for public sector. [00:17:21] Darryl Peek: But we really do try to make sure that we can aggregate this because one thing that we have to monitor is terms and conditions. ’cause of course, working with the government, there’s a lot of terms and conditions. So we try to alleviate that by having it go through caresoft, they’re able to absorb some, so this way we can actually transact with the government. [00:17:36] Darryl Peek: In regards to the team though we try to really work closely with our solution architecture team. So this way we can develop clear enablement strategies with our partners so this way they know what it is we do, but also how to properly bring us up in a conversation. Also handle objections and also what are we doing to implement our solutions within other markets. [00:17:55] Darryl Peek: So those are things that we are doing as well as partner marketing. Top of funnel activity is really important, so we’re trying to differentiate what we’re doing with the field and field marketing. So you’re doing the leads and m qls and things of that nature also with partner marketing. So our partner marketing actually is driven by leads, but also we’re trying to transact. [00:18:10] Darryl Peek: And get Ps of which our partner deal registration. So that is how we align our partner go to market. And that is actually translating into our partner source outcomes. [00:18:18] Vince Menzione: And I think we have a slide that talks a little bit about your public sector partner strategy. [00:18:23] Darryl Peek: Oh yeah. Oh, I share that. So I thought maybe we could spin it. [00:18:25] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. [00:18:25] Vince Menzione: I know you we can’t see it, but they can. Oh, they can. Okay. Great. [00:18:29] Darryl Peek: There it’s there. [00:18:30] Vince Menzione: It’s career. [00:18:31] Darryl Peek: One thing, I think this was Einstein has said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. So that was the one thing. So I always was a big fan of creating a one page strategy. [00:18:39] Darryl Peek: And based on this one page strategy one of the things when I worked at Salesforce it was really about a couple things and the saying, okay, what are your bookings? And if you don’t have bookings, what does your pipeline look like? If you don’t have pipeline, what does your prospecting look like? [00:18:51] Darryl Peek: Yeah. If you don’t have prospecting what does your account plan look like? And if you don’t have an account plan, why are you here? Why are you here? Exactly. So those are the things that I really talk to my team about is just really a, it’s about bookings. It’s about pipeline. It’s about planning, enablement and execution. [00:19:05] Darryl Peek: It’s about marketing, branding and evangelism, and also about operational excellence and how to execute. Very cool. So being able to do that and also I, since I came from Salesforce, I talk to my team a lot about Salesforce hygiene. So we really talk about that a lot. So make, making sure we’re making proper use of chatter, but also as we talk about utilizing ai, we just try to. [00:19:21] Darryl Peek: How do we simplify that, right? So if we’re using Zoom or we’re using Google, how do we make sure that we’re capturing those meeting minutes, translating that, putting that into the system, so therefore we have a record of that engagement with that partner. So this is a continuous threat. So this way I don’t have to call my partner manager the entire time. [00:19:36] Darryl Peek: I can look back, see what actions, see what was discussed, and say, okay, how can we keep this conversation going? Because we shouldn’t have to have those conversations every time. I shouldn’t have to text you to say, give me the download on every partner. Every time. How do we automate that? And that’s really where you’re creating this context window with your Genive ai. [00:19:53] Darryl Peek: I think they said what 75% of organizations are using one AI tool. And I think 1% are mature in that. But also a number of organizations, it’s 90% of organizations are using generative AI tools to some degree. So we are using gen to bi. We do use a number of them. We have elastic GPT. Nice little brand there. [00:20:11] Darryl Peek: But yeah, we use that for not only understanding what’s in our our repositories and data lakes and data warehouses, but also what are some answers that we can have in regards to proposal responses, RP responses, RFI, responses and the like. [00:20:23] Vince Menzione: And you’re reaching out to the other LLMs through your tool? [00:20:26] Darryl Peek: We can actually interact with any LLM. So we are a LLM Agnostic. [00:20:29] Vince Menzione: Got it. Yep. That’s fantastic. And this slide is we’ll make this available if you don’t have a, yeah, have a chance. We’ll share it. I [00:20:36] Darryl Peek: am happy to share, yeah. And obviously happy to talk, reach out about it. Of, of course. I simplified it in order to account for you, but one of the things that I talk about is mission, vision of values. [00:20:45] Darryl Peek: And as we start with that is what is your mission now? How is anybody from Pittsburgh, anybody steal a fan? Oh wow. No, there’s a steel fan over [00:20:54] Vince Menzione: here. There’s one here. There’s a couple of ’em are out here. So I feel bad. [00:20:57] Darryl Peek: The reason why I put immaculate in there is for the immaculate reception, actually. [00:21:00] Darryl Peek: Yes. And basically saying that if you ever seen that play, it was not pretty at all. It was a very discombobulated play. Yeah. And I usually say that’s the way that you work with partners too, because when that deal doesn’t come in, when you gotta make a call, when you’re texting somebody at 11 o’clock at night, when you’re trying to get that at, right before quarter end. [00:21:17] Darryl Peek: Yeah. Before the end of it. It really is difficult, but it’s really creating that immaculate experience. You want that partner to come back. I know it’s challenging, but I appreciate how you leaned in with us. Yes, absolutely. I appreciate how you work with us. I appreciate how you held our hand through the process, and that’s what I tell my team, that we have to create that partner experience. [00:21:32] Darryl Peek: And maybe that’s a carryover from Salesforce, Dave. I don’t know. But also when we talk about enhancing or accelerating our partner. Our public sector outcomes that is really working with the customer, right? So customer experience has to be part of it. Like all of us have to be focused on that North star, and that is really how do we service the customer, and that’s what we choose to do. [00:21:48] Darryl Peek: But also the internal part. So I used to survey my team many moves ago, and I said, if we don’t get 80% satisfaction rate from our employees how do we get 60% satisfaction rate from our customers? Yeah. So really focus on that employee success and employee satisfaction. It’s so important, is very important. [00:22:03] Darryl Peek: So being able to understand what are the needs of your employees? Are you really addressing their concerns and are you really driving them forward? Are you challenging them? Are you creating pathways for progression? So those are things that I definitely try to do with my team. As well as just really encouraging, inspiring, yeah. [00:22:19] Darryl Peek: And just making sure that they’re having fun at the same time. [00:22:21] Vince Menzione: It shows up in such, I, there’s an airline I don’t fly any longer, and it was a million mile member of and I know it’s because of the way they treat their employees. [00:22:29] Vince Menzione: Because it cascades Right? [00:22:30] Darryl Peek: It does. Culture is important. [00:22:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Absolutely. [00:22:32] Darryl Peek: What is it? What Anderson Howard they say what col. Mark Andresen culture eat strategy for [00:22:37] Vince Menzione: breakfast. He strategy for breakfast? Yes. Very much this has been insightful. I really enjoyed having you here today. Really a great, you’re a lot of fun. You’re a lot of fun. [00:22:43] Vince Menzione: Darry, isn’t you? Amazing. So thank you for joining us. Thank you all. Thank And you’re gonna be, you’re gonna be sticking around for a little while today. I’m sticking around for a little while. I’ll be back in little later. I think people are gonna just en enjoy having a conversation with you, a little sidebar. [00:22:55] Darryl Peek: Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it. Thank you all for having me. Glad to be here. And thank you for giving the time today. [00:23:01] Vince Menzione: Thank you Darryl, so much. So appreciate it. And you’re gonna have to come join me on this Story Diamond tool. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for tuning into this episode of Ultimate Guide to Partnering. [00:23:12] Vince Menzione: We’re bringing these episodes to you to help you level up your strategy. If you haven’t yet, now’s the time to take action and think about joining our community. We created a unique place, UPX or Ultimate partner experience. It’s more than a community. It’s your competitive edge with insider insights, real-time education, and direct access to people who are driving the ecosystem forward. [00:23:38] Vince Menzione: UPX helps you get results, and we’re just getting started as we’re taking this studio. 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