Podcasts about smes

Andy Hooper is an investor, entrepreneur and international speaker passionate about helping e-commerce brands and SMEs scale globally. He has bought and sold many businesses and shares some great methods with us.Andy has developed frameworks like STEMS, OATS and GEP which he discusses with us and explains what they are.You can find Andy at www.linkedin.com/in/andyghooper/Your Business Hour podcast is hosted by the founders of Champ Consultants, Chantal and Matthew Baker. They are both accountants and bring a wealth of knowledge, experience, and business tips to their chat. They interview guests who tell their business stories, as well as consider the latest topics in business and finance.New podcasts are released weekly on a Tuesday and you can follow us on:Instagram: @your.businesshourFacebook: @your.businesshour

Thethe Mokele from Pinsent Masons explores the decline of SA's construction sector and the rise of SMEs through joint ventures and government support.

Nosipho Radebe is in conversations with Faiez Hartley, Head of Information Technology at Business Partners LimitedSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The UK has a new Prime Minister. Now come the big questions.In this special episode of Business Without BS, Chartered Tax Adviser Andy Oury and commercial lawyer Jemma Hotta discuss the policies they hope Andy Burnham will prioritise to help Britain become a stronger place to build businesses, attract investment and drive long-term economic growth.Think of this as a conversation with your lawyer and your accountant—you just don't have to pay for it. Honest opinions, practical insights and no political spin.In this episode:How can the UK attract more foreign direct investment?What incentives should Britain offer entrepreneurs?Can Britain compete globally in AI and innovation?Should wealth creation be encouraged or taxed?How can SMEs become the engine of economic growth?What should Andy Burnham's first priorities be?What policies would actually encourage businesses to invest?How can Britain become more competitive internationally?About the guestsAndy OuryAndy Oury is a Chartered Tax Adviser, Chartered Accountant and CEO of Oury Clark. Through The Rebel Accountant, he helps entrepreneurs understand tax, build stronger businesses and challenge common misconceptions about the economy.LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewoury/Jemma HottaJemma Hotta is a commercial lawyer specialising in corporate law, international business and complex legal structures.LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jemma-hotta/Listen to Business Without BSApple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/business-without-bs/id1528844106Spotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/6J1YMncmYCLODOKi8A0CFUWebsitehttps://withoutbs.comSubscribe for more conversations with the experts you'd normally have to hire.

Send us Fan Mail Our guest  for this episode of  the “What's Happening Across the Atlantic” podcast series, is Kerstin Jorna, Director General of the EU's DG GROW which is in charge of the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. In conversation with Yvonne Bendinger-Rothschild, Executive Director of the EACCNY, she discusses the EU's most recent actions to ramp up its competitiveness. Thank you for listening! Please be sure to check us out at www.eaccny.com or email membership@eaccny.com to learn more!

Stephen Grootes speaks to Thuto Motsie CA(SA), CEO of Thamani, about why the most valuable person in a business shouldn't be its founder. As companies grow, success depends less on individual brilliance and more on building scalable systems, strong processes and empowered teams. The Money Show is a podcast hosted by well-known journalist and radio presenter, Stephen Grootes. He explores the latest economic trends, business developments, investment opportunities, and personal finance strategies. Each episode features engaging conversations with top newsmakers, industry experts, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and politicians, offering you thought-provoking insights to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.    Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Money Show Listen live Primedia+ weekdays from 18:00 and 20:00 (SA Time) to The Money Show with Stephen Grootes broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/7QpH0jY or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/PlhvUVe Subscribe to The Money Show Daily Newsletter and the Weekly Business Wrap here https://buff.ly/v5mfetc The Money Show is brought to you by Absa     Follow us on social media   702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702   CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/Radio702 CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For small and medium enterprises, technology must do one thing above all else: get out of the way. Unlike large corporations with dedicated IT departments, SMEs run lean – and every hour spent wrestling with systems is an hour not spent on the business itself. In this episode of TechCentral's TCS+, brought to you by iStore Business, Sudesh Pillay, executive head of iStore Business South Africa, and Tamia Nontsikelelo, founder and CEO of womenswear label Tol'Thema, explore how SMEs can make smarter technology decisions and why the Apple ecosystem is increasingly the answer. They discuss: The pressures SMEs face and why low-maintenance, cost-effective technology is critical to their survival and growth; How Tol'Thema uses iPhone and Mac in the day-to-day running of the business, and the practical value they deliver to customers; Why historically fragmented SME IT is giving way to integrated ecosystems, and what is driving the shift; The total cost of ownership case for Apple hardware, and why the premium price tag isn't the whole story for budget-conscious businesses; How Apple's on-device AI, built into its silicon, helps SMEs future-proof their hardware investment; The support iStore Business provides to ease hardware transitions and reduce the disruption of moving staff onto a new operating system; Why native security and data protection features matter enormously to small businesses with no dedicated IT or compliance function; and Which software and AI subscription costs SMEs can avoid by making better use of tools built into the Apple ecosystem. Pillay also explains what happens when an SME's needs outgrow out-of-the-box solutions, and how iStore Business provides the specialist support to scale with them. Don't miss this practical conversation about technology that works for South Africa's small businesses. TechCentral

How do we cut through the hype and the gloom to really understand the potential impacts of AI?In this episode of Talking AI, Mel Kanarek is joined by Richard King, product manager and healthcare consultant, and Lorenzo Gordon, former software company founder and digital transformation leader in the NHS. Together they cut through the hype to explore what AI can genuinely do today, where it's already delivering value, and why the biggest challenges might have less to do with technology and more to do with people, data and decision-making.Rather than taking an overly optimistic or pessimistic view, the conversation asks what a more mature discussion about AI should look like. From healthcare and software development to education, workplace culture and the future of jobs, Richard and Lorenzo examine where AI can help, where it falls short, and what organisations need to consider before jumping on the latest trend.In this episode, we discuss:Why "AI" has become an unhelpfully broad term and why we need to be more precise.Real-world examples of AI improving healthcare through better analysis of complex data.Why good data matters more than clever technology.The hidden costs of AI, including energy use, infrastructure and long-term commercial dependency.Where large language models genuinely save time and where they don't.The risks of relying on AI for business-critical decisions.Whether AI is really replacing entry-level jobs, or if the picture is more complicated.How businesses can adopt AI without losing sight of their actual objectives.Why critical thinking, creativity and human judgement remain essential skills.What young people need to thrive in an AI-enabled workplace.Whether you're leading a business, working in tech, or simply trying to make sense of the rapid pace of AI development, this episode offers a balanced, practical perspective grounded in real-world experience.GuestsRichard King is a product manager, business analyst and consultant working in healthcare. Having worked across defence, finance, education, security and the public sector, he brings a pragmatic perspective on how AI fits into modern software development and product management.Lorenzo Gordon spent more than two decades building and leading a software development company before moving into digital transformation in the NHS. He now supports healthcare organisations, startups and SMEs across South Yorkshire, helping them adopt technology in ways that genuinely improve services and outcomes.Subscribe to the podcastIf you'd like to have new episodes of the show appear right in your podcast player, you can subscribe via our page on Apple Podcasts and follow the show on Spotify, or search for us in your podcast app of choice!Notes This interview was recorded on 24th July 2026 at The University of Sheffield.Join the conversationWe're really keen to get your feedback on the podcast. You can email info@sheffield.digitalThank you for the musicThanks to Alex Mclean – aka Yaxu – for the show's intro music, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

   We often treat macroeconomics and B2B marketing as two completely separate ecosystems that function on entirely different levels and scale. However, if you look closer at the underlying factors such as silos, transactional friction, supply chain bottlenecks, and trust gaps, you'll realise how striking the parallels are. Have you ever considered how high-level macroeconomic policies actually mirror the daily execution battles fought within B2B marketing departments? How can B2B leaders extract these macro-level insights to solve operational challenges, streamline campaign execution, build market authority, and generate better results?In this solo episode, Christian Klepp (Host of the B2B Marketers on a Mission Podcast) shared his core strategic takeaways from the Rebuilding Alliances / Reconstruire des alliances event in Toronto. He translated complex macroeconomic frameworks into actionable strategies for B2B marketing teams. Christian talked about the importance of removing internal silos to drive cross-functional collaboration, eliminating buyer friction throughout the sales funnel, and create strategic co-marketing partnerships. He also elaborated on treating data like an organisation's “critical minerals” and how to leverage internal subject matter experts (SMEs) to establish greater industry credibility. Finally, Christian stressed the value of employer branding in talent acquisition, and why building organisational trust while defending the marketing mandate is critical.This episode was sponsored by the Economic Club of Canada. 

Faith Forster has spent 15 years in product leadership. She was VP of product at Dex, acquired for approximately $600 million, and went on to serve as CPO at Legal, a payments and compliance platform. She now runs discovery.com, an AI-native platform that helps product leaders and teams make faster, better product decisions by connecting to their tools and synthesising competitor, customer and growth intelligence. She is also the driving force behind the Makers Manifesto — a cross-disciplinary set of values and principles for building great products in the age of AI, developed with 45 contributors from across product, engineering, design, and business leadership.We discuss:The manifesto emerged from 96 conversations with product leaders whose grasp of AI ranged from fully automated pipelines to treating it as a faster way to write PRDs — a gap that revealed an industry in urgent need of a shared reference point.Four values anchor the manifesto: purpose over possibility, value created over effort spent, learning loops over launch plans, and human accountability over full automation."Maker" was chosen over "builder" to signal that designers, engineers, salespeople, customer support staff, and founders all share equal ownership of the creation process — regardless of job title.Feature parity is no longer a defensible moat: when any competitor can replicate a capability within days, durable advantage must come from data, relationships, distribution, and business model.Product market fit can no longer be treated as a static milestone — in a market where products, competitors, and customer expectations shift simultaneously, fit must become a continuous, living part of decision-making."Done" now means adopted, not shipped. AI removes every excuse for clunky, one-size-fits-all experiences, and teams that still equate production deployment with completion are measuring the wrong thing.Making context explicit — codifying strategy in a form that agents and humans can both act on daily — is the principle teams consistently identify as their most urgent, immediate priority.Chapters00:00 Introduction 01:12 Faith's background 02:28 Origins of the Makers Manifesto 06:18 Makers Manifesto vs the Agile Manifesto 07:23 Why "maker" not "builder" 11:42 Four values and 16 principles 15:01 Purpose over possibility 19:10 Learning loops over launch plans 22:36 Who gets to be a maker 28:55 Durable advantage in the AI era 33:22 Staying close to customers 36:04 What's next for the manifesto 43:59 Wrap-upReferencedMakers Manifesto — https://makersmanifesto.orgdiscovery.com — Faith's AI-native product decision platformOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

How will artificial intelligence reshape the future of work—and will it create enough opportunities for the next generation?Over the next decade, 1.2 billion young people are expected to enter the workforce, but only around 400 million jobs are currently projected to be available. In this episode, host Tanvir Gill explores whether AI could help close that gap—or make the challenge even greater.Entrepreneur and content creator, Marina Mogilko, explains how workers can build an advantage through AI systems, agents and “vibe coding.”Mohamed Eissa, IFC Chief Investment Officer and Global Head of Venture Capital and Direct Technology Investments, examines how AI could transform businesses and create opportunities across emerging markets.Sharat Raghavan, Director of Data Science and Research at LinkedIn, shares what their data reveals about changing jobs, rising skills and the future of career progression.Timestamps[00:00] Will AI make or take the next billion jobs?[00:48] What Nairobi's tech community thinks[02:51] Marina Mogilko on vibe coding and AI as opportunity[05:06] AI and the future of content creation[08:00] The top skill for an AI economy[09:29] Introductions: Sharat Raghavan from LinkedIn and Mohamed Eissa from IFC[13:04] Human skills and AI entrepreneurship[14:40] AI opportunities in emerging markets[16:25] Where jobs are growing[17:25] AI for development: healthcare in Africa[18:35] The changing career ladder[21:44] AI disruption: reality or hype?[25:27] AI, SMEs and the missing middle[26:23] How to future-proof a career

Leadership principles are rarely complicated. The difficulty is remembering to practise them consistently when targets are missed, markets become unstable, staff disappoint us and the pressure keeps building. In Part One, we examined the first seven guiding principles of leadership. Here are principles eight to sixteen: practical reminders about respect, recognition, accountability, goal-setting, focus, resilience, work-life balance, worry and enthusiasm. They may sound familiar, but familiarity is not the same as application. How does showing respect improve employee motivation? Genuine respect is the foundation of sustainable employee motivation because people are more willing to contribute when they feel valued as human beings. This applies not only to star performers but also to the large middle of the workforce whose performance may be average or inconsistent. Many bosses naturally respect their top 20% because those people deliver results. The real leadership test is how they treat everyone else. Frustration can leak into the boss's voice, facial expression and daily interactions. Staff quickly recognise when they are being tolerated rather than respected. Leaders do not have to accept poor performance. They do, however, need to separate the individual's worth from the current quality of the work. Clear coaching, fair expectations and honest feedback can coexist with dignity. Do now: Check whether every team member receives the same basic level of courtesy, attention and respect, regardless of performance. Why are recognition and praise sometimes more powerful than money? People work for money, but they often go the extra mile because they receive recognition, praise and meaningful rewards. Fair pay matters, but salary alone rarely creates emotional engagement, loyalty or discretionary effort. Frederick Herzberg described salary as a "hygiene factor". When pay is unfair, it causes dissatisfaction. When it is fair, employees generally treat it as an expected part of the employment relationship. The stronger motivational effect often comes from achievement, responsibility, progress and recognition. Our Dale Carnegie research has repeatedly identified feeling valued by one's immediate manager as an important emotional driver of engagement. Employees cannot read the boss's mind. They know they are valued because the leader communicates it through specific praise, appreciation and acknowledgement. A vague "good job" is better than silence, but precise recognition is stronger: explain what the person did, why it mattered and who benefited. Do now: Recognise one specific contribution today and connect it directly to its positive impact. Should leaders admit their mistakes? Strong leaders admit mistakes quickly because accountability builds credibility rather than diminishing authority.A boss who pretends to be infallible creates defensiveness, fear and political behaviour throughout the organisation. Ego, face, pride and professional image can make an admission difficult, particularly in hierarchical business cultures. Some managers worry that saying "I was wrong" will weaken their position. Usually, the opposite happens. Employees already know the mistake occurred. The only unresolved question is whether the leader has enough confidence and integrity to acknowledge it. Admitting an error does not mean accepting chronic incompetence. Leaders and employees must still meet professional standards. The principle is to be quick to acknowledge genuine mistakes, slow to criticise others and constructive when correcting performance. A leader who accepts personal imperfection is also more capable of responding calmly when a team member makes an occasional error. Do now: Admit the mistake, explain the correction and focus the team on preventing a recurrence. How should leaders set challenging but realistic goals? Effective goals should stretch performance without becoming so unrealistic that employees stop believing effort will make any difference. Clear, challenging and attainable targets generate more commitment than numbers based on guesswork, hope or executive wishful thinking. Throughout my career, I have encountered targets that appeared to have no scientific, commercial or logical foundation. A wet finger held up to the breeze seemed to be the methodology. These goals did not motivate anyone. They encouraged cynicism, sandbagging and creative explanations for failure. Today, I use a spreadsheet to track each salesperson's results from the date they joined the company. This allows comparisons based on experience, historical performance, conversion patterns and realistic productivity expectations. Large corporations, SMEs and startups may use different metrics, but the principle remains the same: base targets on evidence, explain the rationale and confirm that employees can influence the outcome. Do now: Review whether your team's goals are evidence-based, clearly explained and difficult but genuinely obtainable. How can leaders maintain focus on the big picture? Leaders maintain strategic focus by protecting time for important long-term work, even while urgent problems compete for attention. Markets, currency movements, wars, technological disruption and economic downturns can easily pull leaders into permanent crisis management. Employees are often understandably focused on today's workload, career, compensation and immediate problems. Senior leaders must operate across a longer horizon. They need to keep reminding the organisation where it is going, why that destination matters and what must be protected during periods of disruption. The familiar advice is to work on the business, not only in the business. Stephen Covey's Quadrant Two—important but not urgent—is where strategic planning, relationship building, capability development and risk prevention normally sit. Unfortunately, these activities are easily postponed because they are not yet emergencies. The big picture does not maintain itself. Leaders have to schedule time to think. Do now: Block regular Quadrant Two time for strategy, people development and prevention before urgent work consumes the calendar. Does work-life balance improve leadership performance? Consistently high performance requires recovery because health, reflection and leisure support better judgement, creativity and endurance. Leadership is a marathon, even though ambitious executives sometimes behave as if every month is the final sprint. "I will outwork, out-sacrifice and out-commit everyone" can sound admirable. It becomes dangerous when exhaustion damages decision quality, relationships or physical health. Many of our strongest ideas appear while walking, running, swimming, exercising or gardening—not while staring at another spreadsheet late at night. My father established his own company at the age of 49 and achieved rapid financial success. He died from lung cancer at 51 and was not there to enjoy the rewards. That experience permanently shaped my view of success. Winning in business is meaningless if leaders destroy their health, family life and capacity to enjoy what they have built. Do now: Treat sleep, exercise, relationships and recovery as performance disciplines rather than optional rewards. How can leaders remain positive during severe setbacks? Resilient leaders take strength from what remains possible instead of allowing past failures and present negativity to consume their energy. Positivity is not pretending that serious problems do not exist. It is maintaining the ability to act despite them. The movie reel inside our minds repeatedly shows mistakes, humiliations, losses and disasters. News media amplify the effect because negative stories attract attention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the training industry suffered extraordinary disruption. Remaining optimistic while facing losses, uncertainty and upheaval was not easy. My mantra was TINA: There Is No Alternative. Quitting mentally would not improve the situation, so the only productive option was to keep adapting and fighting. Japan's well-known saying, "Fall down seven times, get up eight," captures the required mindset. Resilience does not remove the wound. It gets us moving again. Do now: Identify what remains within your control and take one constructive action before reviewing the problem again. What practical method helps leaders control worry? Leaders can reduce worry by converting vague fear into a clearly defined problem followed by practical solution choices. Worry thrives when the mind circles endlessly around uncertainty without moving toward a decision. Questions such as "Can we make payroll?", "Will we run out of cash?" and "How much longer can we survive?" became genuine concerns for many business owners during the pandemic, supply-chain disruption, market instability and geopolitical conflict. A simple four-part process can interrupt paralysis: What is the problem? Why is it a problem? What could I do to alleviate the problem? Which solution is best? This structure moves the mind away from emotional repetition and into analysis, options and action. The selected solution may not be perfect, but purposeful movement is generally healthier than passive anxiety. Do now: Write down the worry, answer the four questions and choose the next specific action. Why is enthusiasm essential for leadership? Enthusiasm gives leaders the emotional energy to influence others, sustain momentum and keep hope alive when circumstances are grim. It can move people, but it must also be protected from persistent negativity. Negative colleagues, commentators and acquaintances can act like kryptonite. Their pessimism gradually drains confidence and makes every idea appear impossible. Leaders cannot always avoid difficult people, particularly when the negative person is a colleague, client or family member. They can, however, control how much authority that person's outlook is allowed to have. Enthusiasm is not constant excitement. It is a renewable commitment to possibility. Leaders should identify the activities, people, purposes and achievements that reignite their energy. A small spark can become the blue flame that helps a team believe there is a worthwhile future ahead. Your emotional state is contagious, whether you intend it to be or not. Do now: Protect your enthusiasm, reduce unnecessary exposure to habitual negativity and reconnect with what gives the work meaning. Conclusion: How can leaders turn familiar principles into daily habits? The sixteen principles covered across Parts One and Two are not new, glamorous or technologically advanced. Most leaders have heard similar advice before. The problem is not a lack of knowledge. The problem is inconsistent execution. Respect, recognition, humility, constructive feedback, realistic goals, strategic focus, personal health, resilience, practical problem-solving and enthusiasm only create value when they become visible behaviours. Choose one principle each day and deliberately practise it. Treat the principles like daily business health supplements. One small leadership behaviour repeated consistently can improve trust, engagement, judgement and organisational performance. The obvious principles are often the ones we neglect. Leadership improves when we stop admiring the ideas and start living them. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" in 2018 and 2021 and received the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award in 2012. As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver leadership, communication, sales and presentation programmes globally, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including the bestsellers Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery, along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His books have also been published in Japanese, including Za Eigyō（ザ営業）, Purezen no Tatsujin（プレゼンの達人）, Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō（トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう）and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā（現代版「人を動かす」リーダー）. Greg publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and X and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery and Japan's Top Business Interviews for executives and professionals seeking practical strategies for succeeding in Japan.

Today we're tackling a problem that every consumer and every business leader can relate to: why is customer service still so frustrating in an age of AI, automation and digital transformation?Despite years of investment in technology, new research from ServiceNow reveals that Irish consumers are losing an astonishing 284 million hours every year dealing with customer service issues. Even more striking, nearly half of consumers say they would switch brands after just one poor customer service experience.So what's going wrong? Why are businesses still struggling to deliver seamless customer experiences? And with AI dominating boardroom conversations, are companies focusing on the right solutions—or simply adding more complexity to already broken processes?To help us unpack these questions, I'm joined by Paul Turley from ServiceNow, a company at the forefront of helping organisations modernise customer service and employee experiences through digital workflows and AI-powered solutions.In our conversation, we'll explore why customer service remains one of the biggest pain points for consumers, the common mistakes organisations are making in their AI and customer experience strategies, and the practical steps businesses can take to improve service without committing to massive technology budgets.Visit www.thinkbusiness.ie for more news and supports for start-ups and SMEs in Ireland. If you want to start and grow a business, ThinkBusiness.

In this episode, Alison McGonagle from WestBIC sits down with Evelyn Mc Glynn, entrepreneur, author, trainer and business coach with a passion for empowering women in business, building strong networks and encouraging a culture of giving across both business and community. Evelyn's own story is one of resilience and reinvention: after 20 years as a stay-at-home mum, she launched her marketing career in her 40s, proof that it's never too late to start and succeed. As owner of evelynmcmarketing.com, she's celebrating 14 years in business, mentoring SMEs to grow, adapt and thrive, and building extensive networks across Donegal and Europe along the way.In this conversation, Evelyn talks openly about starting her journey later in life, tackling imposter syndrome and learning to name your inner critic, and how to navigate marketing trends on a limited budget. She digs into the crucial difference between working in your business versus on it, and why solving a real problem for your customer, with clarity on exactly what you're offering, is at the heart of it all.Evelyn is also the face behind the much-loved Donegal Mammy brand, sharing relatable, humorous and heartfelt takes on everyday life and community. As founder of Donegal Giving, she's built a community-led initiative celebrating the power of giving time, talent and support, including a Transition Year programme that helps young people build confidence and discover their own capacity to give back.This is a conversation about communication, curiosity and connection, and about what's possible when you commit to all three, at any stage of life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By 2030, more than one in three people in Ireland will be over the age of 50, while the number of people aged 65 and over is expected to exceed one million. As Ireland's population ages, the need for stronger community connections, health supports and wellbeing services has never been greater.In this episode, we speak with Martina Calvey, founder of Hello GoodLife Ireland, a Mayo-founded social enterprise that is building a nationwide network of health and wellbeing hubs designed to help people stay active, connected and independent as they age. Martina explains the inspiration behind the business, the challenges and opportunities presented by Ireland's demographic shift, and why she believes communities hold the key to healthier, happier ageing.Visit www.thinkbusiness.ie for more news and supports for start-ups and SMEs in Ireland. If you want to start and grow a business, ThinkBusiness.

Liz Brooks brings a rare combination of traditional PR training and frontline podcast marketing experience to every client she serves. Having worked with blue-chip agencies including Allison PR and Ketchum, and with clients ranging from global B2B tech companies to health and wellness brands, Liz understands how media strategy actually moves the needle.She came up in the industry introducing thought leadership campaigns to journalists and was one of the first on her teams to recognize that podcasting belonged in every single one of them. In her role as Client Account Manager at Interview Valet, Liz helps SMEs and brand leaders identify the right shows, shape the right stories, andreach the audiences most likely to convert. Her approach is grounded inthe same fundamentals that drive great PR: know your audience, find the angle, and protect your client's voice, applied to the intimacy and reach of podcast interview marketing. For hosts, she delivers guests who are prepared, purposeful, and ready to add real value to the conversation.The PR Podcast is a show about how the news gets made. We talk with great PR people, reporters, and communicators about how the news gets made and strategies for publicity that drive business goals. Host ⁠⁠Jody Fisher⁠⁠ is the founder of Jody Fisher PR and works with clients across the healthcare, higher education, financial services, real estate, entertainment, and non-profit verticals. Liz Brooks website: www.interviewvalet.com/lizlinkedin: www.linkedin.com/lizgbrooksThe PR PodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePRPodcast/Twitter: https://x.com/ThePRPodcast1Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theprpodcast_/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theprpodcast?

27.07.2026 Ras Al Khaimah welcomed a record 670,000 plus visitors during the first half of 2026, driven by strong domestic tourism despite regional tensions disrupting international travel. We asked Phillipa Harrison, CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), how they achieved it. Earnings season continues, with Union Properties reporting a 68% year-on-year surge in H1 2026. As the Dubai developer transitions from financial restructuring to sustainable growth, CEO Eng. Amer Khansaheb told us more. Plus, we looked at whether the conflict is making SMEs more aware of credit insurance—and whether it should. Roopesh Punjabi of Earnest Insurance tells us more. And finally, our Summer Strategy series continues, examining how Dubai businesses are pivoting during the typically quieter months. Ekaterina Gorbacheva from Udora reveals the latest summer shopping trends and explains how the company keeps customers engaged throughout the slow season.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Seven years ago James launched The Lonely Leader. In that time he's had the privilege of coaching and mentoring leaders across FTSE 100 businesses, the NHS, SMEs and the wider public and not for profit sectors. Different sectors, different titles, different pressures, and yet the same handful of challenges surface again and again.In this milestone episode he pulls together the seven challenges that clients have raised most often over the past seven years. For each one, he points you towards the episodes in the back catalogue that explore it in more depth, so you can go straight to the area that matters most to you right now.Whether you're a chief executive, a founder or an emerging leader, the chances are at least one of these is sitting close to home.1.Loneliness in leadershipGo deeper: Episode 30 Preventing Loneliness in LeadershipEpisode 103 Escaping Leadership LonelinessEpisode 106 When performance stops feeling worth it2.Burnout Go deeper: Episode 9 Warning Signs of Burnout and Tips to Prevent ItEpisode 23 Lessons Learned from BurnoutEpisode 71 Holiday Illness, a Warning Sign You Cannot Ignore3.Imposter syndromeGo deeper: Episode 20 Tackling Imposter Syndrome4. StandardsGo deeper:Episode 61 Set your Standards High5.Psychological safetyGo deeper: Episode 22 Creating Psychological Safety in a Team6.CommunicationGo deeper:Episode 38 Mastering the Art of CommunicationEpisode 80 Feedback Culture Part 1: Giving FeedbackEpisode 81 Feedback Culture Part 2: Receiving FeedbackEpisode 113 Connection before command: The human side of leadershipEpisode 124 Feedback isn't bullying. Silence is worse 7.ClarityGo deeper: Episode 84 Leadership Essentials: Clarity Go further with The Lonely Leader AcademyIf you want to work through some of these areas properly, James goes deeper on standards, communication and clarity across the modules and lessons already available inside The Lonely Leader Academy.ABOUT THE HOST James is an experienced mentor, coach and thought leader who works with a range of clients from FTSE 100 companies, SME´s the NHS and wider public and not for profit sectors.His twenty year career in elite sport initially as a professional rugby player but predominantly as a chief executive has given him an invaluable insight in managing the success, failures and pressures associated with leadership at the highest level.As a high performance coach James specialises in enhancing resilience and leadership development. He is a passionate advocate of the notion that to find lasting fulfilment we need to take a holistic view of high performance. CONNECT & CONTACT The Lonely Leader Academy: The Lonely Leaderwww.thelonelyleader.co.ukThe Lonely Leader's LinkedIn James' LinkedInInstagramhello@thelonelyleader.co.uk THIS SHOW WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY LONELY LEADER MEDIA NEWSLETTERSign Up to The Leadership Accelerator Newsletter for advice, inspiration and ideas, you'll also receive James' Top 10 Tips for Combating Your Fear of Public Speaking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Don’t miss this massive SMB partner shift! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this pivotal episode, we sit down with Jose Gomez Cueto, Microsoft’s SMB leader for the Americas, to uncover the monumental shifts happening within the partner ecosystem and the $20 billion cloud opportunity currently on the table. The discussion dives deep into Microsoft’s commitment to the CSP channel, the explosion of AI agents, and why shifting from traditional headcount growth to outcome-based results is critical for survival. From navigating the complexities of the marketplace to the urgency of becoming “Customer Zero” with AI tools, this conversation provides the roadmap every MSP needs to thrive in the new era of technology. https://youtu.be/QE-1w7GeyPM Key Takeaways Microsoft operates a $20 billion cloud revenue business in the Americas alone, with 80% driven by the channel. The Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program is now Microsoft’s primary hero motion for the fourth region. The currency of SMB growth is shifting away from headcount and moving directly toward AI-driven outcomes. MSPs must transition from traditional IT outsourcing to strategic business process consulting to survive. Failing to proactively adopt and secure AI tools creates massive liability and shadow AI risks for organizations. IT providers are urged to become “Customer Zero” by deploying and testing Copilot and autonomous agents internally before selling them. 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. Key Tags CSP, Agent 365, SMB cloud revenue, outcome-based selling, Copilot for business, Defender for business, shadow AI risks, AI agent deployment, Purview data security, Marketplace API integration, autonomous agents, Customer Zero, Microsoft Americas segment Transcript Jose Gomez Cueto AUDIO PODCAST [00:00:00] Jose Gomez Cueto: And, and you know, if I might say something that is confidential, avid Vince, uh, to be quite honest, please, please, uh, by definition, a marketplace is eliminating intermediaries. [00:00:11] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. [00:00:13] Vince Menzione: The ecosystem is shifting beneath us. The way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:55] Vince Menzione: I am absolutely thrilled for our, our next guest. Um, some of you heard me talk about this maybe earlier or in various pockets of conversation. Um, I believe both the SMB market is an, is an incredible opportunity. We’ve called it the Acre of Diamonds at Ultimate Partner at previous events. And then the MSP community, which I want to thank so many of you to for coming, coming on board now. [00:01:25] Vince Menzione: ’cause we’ve had some MSPs that have come to all our events. And doubled, tripled, quadruple the sizes of their business. From what they’ve learned in these rooms. And so we invited our next guest to come. Oh, Jose, come on up. Jose Gomez Cuerto is the leader of Microsoft’s SMB business for the Americas. Come on. [00:01:43] Vince Menzione: Come on over. Come on over. Sit down with me. And I was so thrilled to get this gentleman to come join us. His team is doing incredible work. I got to meet some of his team actually earlier this year. And we know each other for many years ago. [00:01:56] Jose Gomez Cueto: We do. [00:01:56] Vince Menzione: When I was at Microsoft, right? Yeah. So, so great to see you again. [00:01:59] Jose Gomez Cueto: It’s a pleasure to be here. Uh, thanks for the invitation. I’m thrilled to be here. And thank you all for making time, uh, or traveling here. Uh, this is the best time. To be in the industry. [00:02:10] Vince Menzione: It’s an incredible time. [00:02:11] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah, [00:02:11] Vince Menzione: it’s an incredible time. So sit down. Yeah, sit down. Let’s, yeah. So let’s talk about you and your organization. [00:02:17] Vince Menzione: Um, let’s talk, well, I, I, I wanna bring this up because it was like, the noise I heard in the room when I was, I went to Interven earlier this year. Yeah. Is, does Microsoft Care about this market? And, um, I was at Microsoft many years, we worked together when I was a, a gm. And, uh, it was run differently back in the day. [00:02:37] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And there’s been a lot of changes to what we call the SME and C business now. Mm-hmm. Uh, and the SMB business, which you run. So let’s talk a little bit about your organization, where you sit in the organization, and then I want to kind of dive in a little bit about what’s changed. ’cause a lot has changed for the better. [00:02:54] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah, it’s a great question and I think that that’s what a lot of people think about, uh, SMB and, and who’s SMB and, and who’s at Microsoft and who do I talk to. So, [00:03:02] Vince Menzione: yes. [00:03:02] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, even though I know a lot of, uh, friendly faces in the room, I think it’s a great, uh, starting point. Vince, so. Basically, uh, I am responsible for what we call the small and medium business, uh, segment. [00:03:15] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, we can also call it small and medium enterprises. Uh, I would say that it is not a monolith. Uh, we do have, uh, subsegmentation, I think that our friend Jay was talking about up to 20 subsegmentation. Uh, we think about it for simplifi simplification purposes on three. Uh, so we have, uh, the smaller organizations, the medium-sized organizations. [00:03:36] Jose Gomez Cueto: And then what we call top point manage, which is basically large enterprise that we simply don’t have an account management team, uh, assigned to. And we are the happy recipients of many of those, uh, every year. Uh, so I would say that, uh, a best definition would be also anything that is unmanaged and is primarily driven through the channel. [00:03:54] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, we run in the Americas approximately more than $20 billion of revenue, uh, on cloud. Uh, that’s [00:04:01] Vince Menzione: crazy. [00:04:01] Jose Gomez Cueto: So, and 80% of that is done. Through companies that are here, [00:04:05] Vince Menzione: $20 billion of business. [00:04:07] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. So, um, the, the Americas region that I’m, uh, representing and under my responsibility includes basically three sales units, the United States, Canada, and Latin America. [00:04:18] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yes. Latin America is more fragmented because we have multi-country and multi, uh, subsidiary, uh, structure. Just to recap a little bit of what you asked me rewinding on what has happened in the last two or three years. Yeah. We brought basically, uh, probably something that you might remember from you were there. [00:04:36] Jose Gomez Cueto: I, yes. Uh, which is bringing the segment, uh, with the channel together. So, uh, I think that, um, uh. Earlier in the morning, uh, Steven was, uh, talking about it, what we call S-M-U-N-C, which is, uh, this segment with the channel. And the main reason is to drive, uh, that synergy, uh, and making, uh, a very bold statement that many of you might remember in the last two years, uh, Judson and Ralph, uh, heter or, or new, uh, president for this, uh, fourth region. [00:05:05] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, ’cause we call it fourth region. Yeah. ’cause the other one is our enterprises. [00:05:08] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So Asia, Americas Exactly. And, and EMEA. Then you’re the fourth region. [00:05:13] Jose Gomez Cueto: We’re the fourth region. So, so, um, making CSP, uh, our hero motion, and that is fantastic news. I, I started, uh, part of my journey, uh, in, in the channel, uh, way earlier in distribution in the year 2000. [00:05:30] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:05:30] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, and fast forward, I would say 2011, we were launching the first commercial SaaS offering, which was Office 365. Um, I had the privilege to be, uh, leading the launch globally for that. Uh, but then we, the first thing we did was build a channel, and that was called syndication. And basically the precursor of that, uh, became CSP, basically putting, uh, the partner or customer in the middle, the partner around it for the, not only the, the opportunity, but also the responsibility to serve the customer. [00:06:04] Jose Gomez Cueto: 360 from, uh, presales all the way to, uh, uh. Upsell cross sell, and in between deployment, uh, things, uh, around, um, servicing, bundling offers, uh, troubleshooting and support, et cetera. So, uh, back to your question was, this is a very important thing because we’re basically, uh, making our channel the scale and, and the vision that we have is, is that we are gonna be continuing to scale through the channel. [00:06:33] Jose Gomez Cueto: So, um, one last thing I say, uh, in terms of the organization that I think is important for everyone to understand, and I’m gonna go a little bit into more org structure, is that we, we have these three sales units that are geographic. But, uh, what we’ve done this year is to have, uh, more depth on the solution area. [00:06:50] Jose Gomez Cueto: So you might remember that, uh, we’ve simplified them, uh, same as we used to have 8, 13, 13 areas. Now we have only three Oh yeah, same, same, uh, in the solution area. So we have, uh, the AI business solutions. Uh, cloud and AI platforms. And then, uh, security and my team basically mirrors that structure. And we have, uh, team members, uh, primarily, um, our partner, solutions specialists that are, their job is to work with companies like you. [00:07:17] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, some few we do, uh, direct in others. What we do is work with, uh, our top distributors, and I think we have, uh, in the room many of those. I think Google is gonna follow up, uh, for PAX eight, and that’s, uh, how we’re going to market now. [00:07:31] Vince Menzione: So just a little bit of context too for me. ’cause I, I, I had heard this at another event. [00:07:36] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And I just wanted to share this. Um, when I was at Microsoft, we, we did not put the right emphasis and energy and resources in the s and b market when I was there, or, or it was fragmented. Every group did it differently. You remember those days too, right? Well, with public sector, we didn’t necessarily have a team focused, and every business did it a little bit differently. [00:08:00] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. And I think one of the contexts you, you mentioned Ralph and being in Ralph’s organization. Yeah. Pulling that all together and creating the fourth region created a lot of focus that didn’t exist. And consistency in terms of execution. I think that’s what you’re talking about here. Right? And then also the fact that like, we didn’t, I don’t think we had a sep, an SMB leader back in, back in the day. [00:08:22] Vince Menzione: Like we didn’t have somebody that we can go to to think about the MSP community the way we do today. Mm-hmm. Right. We were just, they were just almost like unmanaged entities out there. Yeah. Was that, would you, would you agree with that? [00:08:32] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah, I, we went through several iterations that, uh, you might argue, uh, were painful or not. [00:08:38] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, ultimately what we’re committed is to simplify the partner experience. And make that the same for the customers. But what we have is now one center of gravity, uh, a global SMB organization. We have three area leaders. And uh, and that helps us, uh, to be quite honest and in confidence. And you and I talked about it, Jose, this is a forum for, uh. [00:08:58] Jose Gomez Cueto: Speaking the truth. Uh, we, we, we have to fight the gravitational force of the managed space. The company has a big enterprise footprint, so, uh, many of us have become, uh, the chief agitators, uh, to fight the good fight, uh, for SMB. Uh, try to under unpack, uh, in every single conversation with senior Execut. [00:09:17] Jose Gomez Cueto: What is an MSP? And no, it’s not data consulting or one of the large, uh, global design. Uh, and then we explain what they do and then what is a two tier channel, how do distributors work? And, uh, and what about this and what about that? So I think that that has been, uh, a great, uh, progress and a lot of that can be reflected, uh, into how we’re, hopefully everyone in the room is seeing it in how we’re going to market. [00:09:40] Jose Gomez Cueto: I’ll give you two examples. [00:09:41] Guest: Yes. [00:09:42] Jose Gomez Cueto: Um, for, for quite some time. We, we have very limited, uh. Product truth. That’s what the lingo that we use internally, uh, related to offer that were targeted to SMB. And I would say that, uh, business premium, uh, for M 365, uh, was the fact to offer. But now we’ve been able to in, uh, increase, uh, the not so not only commitment, uh, but also the investment that we’re doing as a company into launching offers. [00:10:08] Jose Gomez Cueto: So we have a co compiler for business that is. At a lower price point that has, uh, the same capabilities at the enterprise, uh, that we’re, uh, doing that we also have some security, uh, offers, uh, that are now unattached to business premium, which is our hero motion for sub 300 space. So you start to see, uh, an important trend and it’s great to have jobson at a CEO, uh, of the commercial business capacity because, uh, we’re making things happen. [00:10:34] Jose Gomez Cueto: So what I would say is that I love coming here to these forums. A lot of my team members are here. We’re here to learn. We’re the learner. All we, we, we don’t know much. We need to learn more. Uh, and, and just keeping us honest in terms of bringing that, uh, ethos of, of the customer that most of you are serving and, and, and things that we can improve to get better to deliver value. [00:10:58] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And the speed at which you’re moving has been pretty fast. It’s been very nimble. Like I, I, I’ve been watching this progression. It’s really like you, you’re really leaning in. I was actually hoping because I could ask you a bunch of questions. Yeah. But we have such a great audience and for the first time we really have opened it up to a lot of MSPs in the room. [00:11:18] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And I know you, you wanna get some interaction with some of these folks as well. I thought maybe we would open if you’re okay with this. Yeah, absolutely. I’d rather than I go off script a little bit. I’d rather open it up to some of the MSPs in the room. We’re sitting here eager to learn how and, and what Microsoft is going to do to help. [00:11:35] Vince Menzione: Because I think the opportunity, I personally think the opportunity is huge right [00:11:38] Jose Gomez Cueto: now. Yeah. Let’s do that and well, we get, uh, warmed up. I would say that. [00:11:43] Vince Menzione: So we need some mics. Yeah. [00:11:43] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, something that I’m, that I’m seeing, uh, Vince, and, and, and a question that many of you might have is why now? And, and why this an, an exciting, an exciting time. [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:11:54] Jose Gomez Cueto: Um, and I would say that, uh. Right now we’re seeing, obviously Jay talked about it and, and the big transformation, but it’s a once in a generation or one in a lifetime. Yeah. Uh, shift of the entire platform. Uh, and, and a lot of the scenarios are even maybe scary, but what we see is huge opportunity. And from an SMB perspective, uh, the biggest thing that excites me is moving from, um, something that was. [00:12:23] Jose Gomez Cueto: More related to size, and now we’re moving to outcomes. So, so think about the future of SMBs, uh, with agents and things being measured on outcomes. And, and what this leads to is, uh, Jay talked about it as well, and sorry Jay, it’s such a good job that I keep quoting you. Um, we do that a lot. Uh. You got it. [00:12:49] Jose Gomez Cueto: So you talked about, uh, I noticed that Bill Gates when he said, you know, uh, uh, a pc, uh, in every desk and what we see is every human empowered with agents. Yeah. Especially in work. And what does that mean, that the currency changes being, because what you’re gonna be able to, to envision. Not in the, in the, in the near future, but now is an agentic explosion where then, uh, the currency is outcomes? [00:13:14] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yes. So if you think of an SMB growing, it’s not growing on, on, on full-time employees or headcount. It’s growing on the ability to do more through agents. So, so I think that’s an important thing and, and that’s something that we’re working very closely with our all, all our channel and the offerings that we’re launching to market as well. [00:13:32] Vince Menzione: I also think about the MSPs as being perfectly positioned because what you described, the new, the new model, the future customer and the outcomes is gonna require hands on the steering wheel at all times. [00:13:44] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yes. Yeah. So on that one, and still waiting for some, uh. Someone that is not shy to ask questions, but we’ll, we’ll keep going in the meantime. [00:13:52] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, I, I think that, uh, we are learning, all the [00:13:55] Vince Menzione: MSPs are lined up over here. I’m marching them all. [00:13:57] Jose Gomez Cueto: We, and, and I almost know by name all everyone in the first two rows. Yes. Uh, so, so, uh, I might pick on them. Uh, they’re too shy, but, but we’re learning together. Uh, Vince, uh, the important thing is, is the transformation, uh, and the opportunity, but also the risk of, uh, not acting. [00:14:17] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, what we were seeing, uh, for the first, uh, year or two was kicking tires, people testing, uh, ai. And now what we’ve seen is basically, uh, a full adoption. Uh, of the agentic technology, not even adoption of the tools, but embracing the technology. So I, I want to give you, uh, two specific, uh, examples or data points we have, uh, just in the Americas, more than almost 9 million, uh, people using copilot chat. [00:14:49] Vince Menzione: Wow, that’s amazing. [00:14:50] Jose Gomez Cueto: So imagine, uh, the, the potential that is there for people that are actively using the tool. Yeah. Uh, to en enable new scenarios of doing things. Uh, another example, and I think I have, uh, someone in my team here, is Amber in the room. Amber Kinney? No, she left. Okay. So Amber runs, uh, cloud and ai, uh, uh, or Azure platform. [00:15:12] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, her team has deployed, uh, more than, uh, 11 agents internally for our partner solution specialist, uh, from. Simple agents that will, uh, tell is if a specific deal is eligible for a pre-sales or post-sales program. And comparing all the complexity of our programs, oh my [00:15:29] Vince Menzione: goodness. [00:15:30] Jose Gomez Cueto: All the way to, to, to managing a pipe more effectively of opportunities. [00:15:34] Jose Gomez Cueto: So what we’re seeing is real. This is not something that people are just kicking the tires. It’s like this is the opportunity. So back to, to the point of m ms. P uh, is, is about learning together on how to transition. To, uh, a model that is gonna be based on outcomes. And, and we were discussing, uh, I was with some of our distributors, uh, many of them in the last two months in, in a specific partner advisory, uh, councils and, and some people were just sharing their experiences. [00:16:04] Jose Gomez Cueto: Oh, I decided to charge X amount for an agent. And how do you come up with that number? I don’t know. We’re just testing. Okay. And what about their current revenue? Uh, and, but what about the tokens? What if, uh, the agents start to consume and they’re gonna do the metering? So, so I think that we’re learning together in this space. [00:16:22] Jose Gomez Cueto: Um, but what it is important is just to think about the important, the, the, the critical role that the MSPs are gonna have in leading. And the biggest challenge that we’re seeing and, and we see it over and over and over is, uh, the part about scaling. [00:16:38] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:16:39] Jose Gomez Cueto: The skilling is not, uh, about learning how to use the copilot tool or to do, uh, some, uh, you know, tuning and that, because thankfully our, at least our, our technology as a platform, uh, pretty much carries the same, uh, security, uh, and compliance configurations that you have in your Microsoft 365 tenant. [00:17:00] Jose Gomez Cueto: But it is more the, the, the skilling about understanding how to do. Customer outcome conversation. What is your AI strategy? What [00:17:08] Vince Menzione: that’s scaling? Yes. [00:17:09] Jose Gomez Cueto: What really matters? Not [00:17:10] Vince Menzione: the technical skill. It’s, it’s really the approach that they’re taking. [00:17:14] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. [00:17:14] Vince Menzione: With the organization. I, it seems that MSPs for many years were down in the weeds. [00:17:20] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. [00:17:20] Vince Menzione: They were turning the, the wrench, so to speak, in the organization, and yet now it seems like this. Kevin Piker, your old boss used to use this term. The, the CIO. The CEO is the new CIO. In other words, you need to be selling upstream. You need, you need to be having the conversations in the organization that are strategic [00:17:40] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. [00:17:40] Vince Menzione: To that organization. [00:17:41] Jose Gomez Cueto: So, two, two twofold on, on that, uh, point, which is very important. One is, uh, not our, a lot of our MSPs are equipped right now. [00:17:49] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:17:49] Jose Gomez Cueto: To have a, a conversation about business strategy. Because traditionally has been more outsource it. [00:17:56] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:17:56] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, we started with, you know, managing the networks, then adding services, support tickets, et cetera. [00:18:03] Jose Gomez Cueto: So being able to have that conversation is important. Uh, we, we see through a lot of our tooling that, uh, the shadow AI is everywhere. And what I always tell in any MSP conversation that I have is risk security. You’re on the hook if something happens. That’s right. So if you’re not acting. Uh, then it is a liability. [00:18:22] Vince Menzione: You’re letting things take off in your own organization. Yeah. People are using [00:18:25] Jose Gomez Cueto: philanthropic on their own. The company can go, uh, bankrupt or get sued or get, uh, if they’re in a regulated industry, they can be taken out, et cetera. So, so that’s an important point, uh, related to, to that transformation. Uh, and, and the other part of the skilling that you mentioned that is super important is being in the weeds. [00:18:45] Jose Gomez Cueto: That is where the innovation is happening. Yeah. The later research that we have is being in the front line because it’s all about, uh, reinventing those processes. So I think that it’s a, it’s a good combination that if we have the MSPs, um, and we’re working, uh, not only internally but with our distributors to develop the right skilling around those other type of, uh, consulting skills. [00:19:07] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, data skills, uh, business process, uh, redesign and flows. Uh, that is where, where we see the big opportunity. [00:19:14] Vince Menzione: So it’s balancing out the technical skills with the business process skills, the consulting skills. Yeah, exactly. I think we have a question over here. Yeah. [00:19:22] Guest: Good afternoon, Vince. Good. Sorry. Thanks for the great content. [00:19:26] Guest: The question is around small medium businesses and the cost around cybersecurity. So. Basically, as new tools are coming up that are AI based, such as co-pilot for security, defender for AI, are also consumption based, is there a risk that SMEs will be left out under that cybersecurity poverty line? [00:19:52] Jose Gomez Cueto: I don’t think, uh, it is, uh, a risk to being left out, uh, in the country that the, the SMBs, I would say are more help is needed. And, and the way we think about it from a perspective of, of ai and specifically I’m want to talk about agents, uh, it was mentioned by Steven in, uh, in the morning, and I’m gonna talk a little bit high level and then I’m gonna try to bring it down to, to more tangible is this concept of intelligent and trust. [00:20:19] Jose Gomez Cueto: So on the intelligence, what, what we’re, what we’re trying to say here is that your AI is not just generic stuff that you just prompt and you get like anything that is on the web, but there’s contextual. Data, and, and that’s what we do, uh, with what you might be familiar with, which is the iq. Uh, so we have, um, iq, uh, also in Foundry and on our different data products. [00:20:40] Jose Gomez Cueto: So basically bringing the context of your work, of your contacts, of the people you interact, uh, of the meetings of, of the emails, of the SharePoint files, but also important connectors that are in line of business applications that you can bring to copilot. And then. That intelligence, uh, is relevant and that that basically increases innovation. [00:21:01] Jose Gomez Cueto: And the part about trust, uh, uh, not exactly in cybersecurity, but, but related is basically, uh, agent 365. Uh, can I see, show of hands, who’s aware of Agent 365? Maybe like [00:21:14] Vince Menzione: in the front two rows, [00:21:15] Jose Gomez Cueto: 20%? Yeah. So, um, that is basically, uh, an, an amazing opportunity for our MSP channel because it gives you opportunity to. [00:21:25] Jose Gomez Cueto: Basically observe, uh, govern and apply security to the, the agent activity that is happening. So we think in the context of ai, I think that that’s a, a, a super important, uh, aspect to mitigate any risk of, of what can happen if there’s not, uh, the right, uh, posture. Uh, and then, uh, on, on, on the other part of security, I would say that something, I mentioned something about offers. [00:21:51] Jose Gomez Cueto: We brought the capabilities of the enterprise, uh, SKUs and solutions into these add-ons to N 365. So I would say that with, uh, defender for business, uh, plan two, and sorry to go into the SKU language, uh, it, it is important to, to understand that you have those advanced capabilities. And then another one that we’re pushing, uh, hard and, and is had great receptionist, um, uh, purview, uh, and purview. [00:22:15] Jose Gomez Cueto: What allows you is just to really do everything related to data. Data security policies of what data should be prompted by the model, what information to stay or, or, or not stay. Uh, and I think that’s, that’s also a good opportunity that we’re seeing to bring those, uh, advanced capabilities into the SMBs. [00:22:33] Jose Gomez Cueto: The challenge that we have is how do we get them faster, uh, to everyone, especially when there’s, uh, you know, competing, uh, so solutions around it. [00:22:44] Vince Menzione: We have one more question, and I think we’re probably gonna have to break after that. I know we’re over time already and you’ve got a busy rest of your day. I got, well, we got one back there and we’ve got a mic up here, so, so we have two questions. [00:22:57] Vince Menzione: Yeah. We’ll do Tim first and then we’ll get the [00:22:59] Vince Menzione: mic up. I’ll go for the first 30 minutes and we’ll go from there. Yes. Long time listener. Great to see you again. Jose. Um, business premium, we did E seven. We talked about getting a voice from the MSP space. To build out a business premium, like additional offering. [00:23:13] Vince Menzione: Is there any context to that you have any vision in your crystal ball for October? [00:23:17] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, I cannot say or, or deny. Uh, but yeah, I think that what, what you I love it in, in all seriousness team. Uh, thanks for the question. Uh, I think that what you should expect is, uh, I call it product truth, uh, more, uh, SMB built purpose built for solutions. [00:23:35] Jose Gomez Cueto: So an equivalent of, of any seven as well. Yeah. [00:23:40] Vince Menzione: You still have, we have another question in the back? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. [00:23:43] Guest: Yeah. Uh, Jeremy here with Integral, um, there’s this kind of idea going around that while CSP has been very successful for many of us as MSPs and, and since the beginning, it’s been a great program that was focused on s and b and it’s come up now. [00:23:57] Guest: There’s this kind of shift saying, and CSPs and you think about being marketplace companies where CSP is, the plumbing and marketplace is, is the lead. If that is true, or maybe you comment on that, that idea. How does marketplace strategy playing into kind of, I guess I’m plugging serials piece now from behind, but how does marketplace strategy then play into the s and b market if CSPs are focused on that marketplace mechanism? [00:24:21] Guest: Where CSPs now are and the, and the modern work and all the things that we’ve been doing really well for a long time become, maybe plumbing is too far down the stack, but really marketplace being a focus, is that a strategy piece that we should be thinking about for CS p strategy overall? [00:24:36] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah, it’s a great question and I’ll try to keep it brief. [00:24:39] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, I think you need my v The vision that we have is we’re doing both. Uh, we’re empowering, uh, and customers to find what they need. Uh, in the marketplace. Uh, zero talked about also the opportunity for resellers to get enrolled and start to add services and other things. There’s also, another part of the is, is multifacet, uh, to work with ISVs to make it easier and recruit them to bring the right offers. [00:25:03] Jose Gomez Cueto: For SMBI would say that the feedback that we need is to make sure that the right SA ISVs are the ones that serving SMV are represented. Then from another front, I would accept that yes, we have some, uh, plumbing work to do because right now, uh, some part of the billing is not really that nimble for a two tier model if you’re working through a distributor. [00:25:23] Jose Gomez Cueto: So we made some great progress. Uh, we, we, uh, have, uh, announced something and Ignite, if you missed it, I think we might talk about it, uh, soon. Uh, but we have that, that connection via APIs with, uh, the four largest, uh, global distributors. So we’re making progress towards something that will be seamless. Uh, but I think that the biggest opportunity that we have is, is to crack the code, uh, for marketplace. [00:25:46] Jose Gomez Cueto: And, and, you know, if I might say something that is confidential, avid Vince, uh, to be quite honest, please, uh, by definition a marketplace is eliminating intermediaries. So that’s the dilemma. How do you bring the channel in between to help you expand, [00:26:02] Vince Menzione: right? [00:26:03] Jose Gomez Cueto: That that is really the, the, the, the, the holy grail, if I may use those words. [00:26:07] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, but that’s something that, that we’re working towards. And I think, uh, we have a great opportunity ahead and, and you should expect, uh, more announcements as we head into the summer events on how we’re gonna make that more seamless. [00:26:19] Vince Menzione: And REO really lit up the channel Yeah. In, in a big way. ’cause that a hundred percent, that was a blocker before. [00:26:24] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. [00:26:24] Vince Menzione: Yeah. But CSP is also an incredible opportunity if it, you know, I know, I know there’s other sessions and conversations around it. And it does feel, and I’ve heard this before, like I wanna buy from my MSP because they’re the ones I trust. [00:26:37] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yes. [00:26:37] Vince Menzione: But yet I go, I have to go around the system in order to transact my Microsoft licenses. [00:26:43] Vince Menzione: Right. Yeah. And that’s, [00:26:45] Jose Gomez Cueto: I think the scenario getting the gentleman was mentioning is related to marketplace. But yeah. Vince, uh, uh, I just wanted to perhaps close, uh, please. Because I think we’re outta time, right? Yeah, we [00:26:54] Vince Menzione: are. [00:26:54] Jose Gomez Cueto: Yeah. Uh, just in terms of what to expect, uh, we are continuing to be, uh, partner centric. [00:27:01] Jose Gomez Cueto: You should expect as we go into the next fiscal year, uh, more refinement into the customer subsegmentation, we have this concept of above 300 and below 300, uh, working even closer with our distributors to help us scale and amplify the efforts that we do around recruitment, scaling, go to market, uh, co-sell, et cetera. [00:27:22] Jose Gomez Cueto: Uh, and then, uh, obviously expect, uh, we, we, a call to action that I have for everyone is become customer zero. Vince, I’m gonna put you on the spot here. How many agents did you use today? [00:27:37] Vince Menzione: None. [00:27:37] Jose Gomez Cueto: Okay. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: I, I’ve been in the room leading the room today, [00:27:41] Jose Gomez Cueto: even with more reason. [00:27:42] Vince Menzione: No, I, in, I need to do [00:27:43] Jose Gomez Cueto: more. Put your autonomous agents. [00:27:44] Vince Menzione: I do. [00:27:45] Jose Gomez Cueto: I’m not kidding you and I didn’t, I need to be [00:27:47] Vince Menzione: more of [00:27:47] Jose Gomez Cueto: a frontier for myself. The answer I get usually is like one hand raiser, by the way. Uh, but, but, uh, jokes aside, uh, I think. Becoming customer zero is critical. We cannot be deploying and selling what we’re not using. Uh, we have, uh, great tooling for low-code scenarios, uh, in, in, in, now, I don’t wanna say like in a few months now we have no one, uh, people that have zero knowledge and coding already developing and deploying agents into a secure environment. [00:28:19] Jose Gomez Cueto: It is happening. [00:28:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:28:20] Jose Gomez Cueto: So, uh, then, uh. Copilot. It is not a competitor charge, GVP or cloud. It is a platform we have both included. [00:28:29] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:28:29] Jose Gomez Cueto: Do we have multimodal, we have iq. That is everything, uh, closed in terms of, uh, your intelligence. It is secure by default. Uh, and then allowing you to, to do, um, agents and then agents 365 to manage it. [00:28:41] Jose Gomez Cueto: So basically those three stages, customer zero. Uh, copilot agents and Agents 365 as your tool to, to manage them [00:28:50] Vince Menzione: and don’t go rogue and start doing your own things with anthropic and setting up your own instances because you’re gonna compromise your, your instance in your environment. [00:28:59] Jose Gomez Cueto: Well, actually, uh, if you do it in the copilot interface [00:29:02] Vince Menzione: Oh, well, I’m saying do it. [00:29:03] Vince Menzione: Yeah. I’m, I’m at RO going off, off, off, uh, [00:29:06] Jose Gomez Cueto: off. Yeah. Yeah, [00:29:07] Vince Menzione: yeah. Great. Well, thank you, sir. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. [00:29:29] Vince Menzione: And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time. Keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Daniel catches up with Ashlea Roach, Founder and Managing Director of People Co., to discuss what it really takes to build a high-performing team and why people and culture are one of the biggest drivers of business growth. After spending her career helping startups, scaleups and SMEs navigate the challenges of hiring, leadership and workplace culture, Ashlea founded People Co. to give growing businesses practical, commercially focused people advice that goes far beyond traditional HR. Today, she works with founders to build stronger leaders, more accountable teams and cultures that scale alongside the business. Daniel and Ashlea discuss hiring, performance management, difficult conversations, leadership development, retaining great employees, building culture as your business grows and the practical strategies every founder can use to build a stronger team.

Please enjoy the audio preview of Episode 30/2026 of Italy in English, one of We the Italians podcastsSubscribe here to access exclusive content https://www.facebook.com/WeTheItalians/support/Gen Z tourists are reshaping Italy's tax-free fashion marketItaly's housing market shifts from major cities to small-town provincesItalian hidden botanical wealth: 453 new plant taxa identified in 20 YearsA record €6.49 trillion reveals the strength of Italian saversItaly builds a new energy storage future from Alpine water to southern batteriesEurope's first space lending deal gives Italian aerospace SMEs €300 million to growItalian banks rise from crisis-era laggards to European market leadersThe best universities in Italy according to the 2026–2027 Censis rankingItaly's most loved beaches in 2026: Lampedusa wins while Sardinia dominatesNorthern Italy moves closer to becoming a European data center powerhouseMade in Italy companies keep investing abroad despite global uncertaintyMilan, Rome and Turin emerge as Italy's leading university cities

This week on Clive's Little Bit Extra, we're looking towards the future and asking a crucial question - is the future of UK small businesses in safe hands?From navigating a new Prime Minister in Number 10 to protecting your hard-earned kit from the scum of the earth, we're diving into what it takes for trades to survive and thrive.

The following article of the Finance & Fintech industry is: “Q4 Imperatives for SMEs: Turning Concepts Into ROI” by Sebastian Kreis, CEO and Founder, Xepelin.

Ciaran Burke is a fintech entrepreneur and business leader, serving as Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer of Swoop, a platform that helps small and medium-sized businesses access funding through loans, grants, and equity solutions. Under his leadership, Swoop has become a trusted resource for SMEs seeking faster, more efficient access to capital. Prior to Swoop, Ciaran founded Hiive, a professional networking platform that grew to over 150,000 members and supported more than 4,500 businesses, including organizations such as Google, BBC, Facebook, and Sony. His experience scaling technology-driven companies has given him deep expertise in operations, growth strategy, and innovation. Ciaran is passionate about leveraging technology and AI to improve business financing and empower entrepreneurs, sharing insights on fintech, SME funding, and building scalable businesses. During the show we discuss: Why traditional funding is fragmented and how it limits business growth How to access multiple funding types (loans, grants, equity) in one place Why choosing the right funding type matters more than just getting approved How FinTech platforms are transforming business funding access The advantages of having a centralized funding marketplace How to increase your chances of approval by matching with the right lenders Why grants and equity are often overlooked opportunities How to streamline your funding strategy to save time and maximize results Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burkecg/ https://swoopfunding.com/

Our HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

In Episode 109 of the Cybersecurity Readiness Podcast Series, Dr. Dave Chatterjee is joined by Joshua Weinick, AI Automation Engineer at Blink Ops, to examine a question every security leader is now facing: what happens when the volume, velocity, and variety of cyber threats exceed what any human-staffed security operations center (SOC) can handle, and what role do humans play in a security function that increasingly depends on AI agents executing at machine speed.Drawing on his background in cybersecurity consulting and his time embedded in Fortune 500 SOCs at Ernst & Young, Josh traces the limitations of legacy SOAR automation — rigid, Python-coded pipelines that broke whenever an edge case or a system change occurred — and explains why agentic AI, unlike its predecessors, is built to absorb change rather than collapse under it. The conversation moves through the three forces breaking the traditional SOC model — overwhelming alert volume, attack speed that has compressed response windows from hours to minutes, and the cognitive toll of analyst burnout — and arrives at a reframed model Josh calls “human after the loop,” in which agentic systems take initial action within guardrails while humans review, audit, and reverse where needed.The discussion examines what this shift means for emerging security talent, walks through a real-world 3 a.m. incident scenario that illustrates why a 45-minute human approval delay is now functionally equivalent to no response at all, and lays out five concrete steps organizations can take to begin the transition responsibly. Analyzed through Dr. Chatterjee's Commitment–Preparedness–Discipline (CPD) Framework, the episode reframes the SOC transformation not as a story about replacing security professionals, but about redesigning where human judgment adds the most value once the mundane, repetitive, and time-critical work is handled by governed AI systems.To access and download the entire podcast summary with discussion highlights: https://www.dchatte.com/episode-109-agentic-ai-in-the-security-operations-center-redesigning-the-human-role-in-automated-threat-detection-and-response/Connect with Host Dr. Dave ChatterjeeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dchatte/ Website: https://dchatte.com/Books PublishedThe DeepFake ConspiracyCybersecurity Readiness: A Holistic and High-Performance ApproachArticles & Cases PublishedChatterjee, D. (2026). The Cryptographic Reckoning: Why Quantum Readiness Begins with Agility, Not Algorithms, The INFORMS Analytics Magazine, June 26, 2026Chatterjee, D. (2026). The New Digital Fragility: How AI-Enhanced Cyber Threats Are Reshaping Operational Resilience, The INFORMS Analytics Magazine, March 4, 2026Chatterjee, D. (2026). Root: Automating the Remediation Gap, Ivey Publishing, Jan 7, 2026.Ramasastry, C. and Chatterjee, D. (2025). Trusona: Recruiting For The Hacker Mindset, Ivey Publishing, Oct 3, 2025.Chatterjee, D. and Leslie, A. (2024). “Ignorance is not bliss: A human-centered whole-of-enterprise approach to cybersecurity preparedness,” Business Horizons, Accepted on Oct 29, 2024.Isik, O., Chatterjee, D., and Lourenco, D.A. (2024). “Getting Cybersecurity Right,” California Management Review — Insights, Accepted for Publication, July 8, 2024. Chatterjee, D. (2023). “Mission critical – How American Cancer Society successfully and securely migrated to the cloud amid the pandemic,” I by IMD, March 13, 2023.Chatterjee, D. (2022). “Preventing security breaches must start at the top,” I by IMD, September 28, 2022, Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, SwitzerlandChatterjee, D. (2022). “Making Cybersecurity Readiness Mainstream,” Executive Blog Post, NETSPI, March 1, 2022Benz, M. and Chatterjee, D. (2020). “Calculated Risk? A Cybersecurity Evaluation Tool for SMEs,” Business Horizons, available online from May 4, 2020Chatterjee, D. (2019). “Should Executives Go To Jail Over Cyber Attacks,” Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol 29, Issue 1, pp. 1-3.Abraham, C., Chatterjee, D., and Sims, R. (2019). “Muddling through cybersecurity: Insights from the U.S. healthcare industry,” Business Horizons, July 2019.

EP 430 — Investors are betting AI-native businesses will outrun traditional operators by stripping out human overhead.Ben Thompson argues that the real divide in business is now AI-native versus everyone else. Legacy companies are still structured with humans at the centre, while fast moving AI-native firms start with agents and add people only where judgement is required.This episode breaks down how AI-first businesses are built, why investors are pricing SaaS firms like they will not keep up, and what SMEs should actually do as AI shifts employment, recruitment and productivity. It also digs into UK and Australian policy choices that shape hiring.What You'll Learn in This Episode:• Build an AI stack that puts agents at the centre of operations• Rethink recruitment workflows using AI screening and interviewing• Spot where employment regulation increases risk for SMEs• Prepare for labour market disruption without panicking about automation• Understand how tax policy influences where founders build companiesThis episode is for founders and operators who want a grounded, practical view of how AI is reshaping work and where SMEs can still win.*For Apple Podcast chapters, access them from the menu in the bottom right corner of your player*Spotify Video Chapters:0:00 AI native businesses02:00 Early work, first jobs05:00 Building Employment Hero10:00 Employment complexity and trust15:00 Unions, awards and compliance22:00 AI replacing labour27:00 Building an AI stack33:00 Recruitment, screening and agents40:00 Remote work and scaling globally48:00 Tax, capital gains and policy55:00 Culture, work and incentives1:02:00 Business or BSWatch and subscribe to us on YouTubeFollow us:InstagramTikTokLinkedInTwitterFacebookIf you'd like to be on the show, get in contact - contact@withoutbs.com

Australia is entering a major defence investment cycle, but what will it mean for the economy and which businesses and industries stand to benefit? Host Mandy Drury speaks with CommBank Senior Economist, Business & Industry Ryan Felsman about why the global peace dividend is over, Australia's growing defence investment, the role of AUKUS and the challenges of building Australia's sovereign defence capability. They also explore the opportunities for shipbuilders, engineering firms, technology companies and SMEs, as well as the states likely to receive the greatest economic benefit from increased defence spending. Plus, CommBank Economist and Currency Strategist Samara Hammoud shares the key focuses for markets in the week ahead. Important Information This podcast is approved and distributed by Global Economic & Markets Research (“GEMR”), a business division of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48 123 123 124 AFSL 234945 (“the Bank”). Before listening to this podcast, you are advised to read the full GEMR disclaimers, which can be found at www.commbankresearch.com.au. No Reliance This podcast is not investment research and nor does it purport to make any recommendations. Rather, this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not to be relied upon for any investment purposes. This podcast does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It is not to be construed as a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial products, or as a recommendation, and/or investment advice. You should not act on the information in this podcast. The Bank believes that the information in this podcast is correct and any opinions, conclusions or recommendations made are reasonably held at the time given, and are based on the information available at the time of its compilation. No representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made or provided as to accuracy, reliability or completeness of any statement made. Liability Disclaimer The Bank does not accept any liability for any loss or damage arising out of any error or omission in or from the information provided or arising out of the use of all or part of the podcast. Usage of Artificial Intelligence To enhance efficiency, GEMR may use the Bank approved artificial intelligence (AI) tools to assist in preparing content for this podcast. These tools are used solely for drafting and structuring purposes and do not replace human judgment or oversight. All final content is reviewed and approved by GEMR analysts for accuracy and independence.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode ofThe Bottom Line, Sevan sits down with Edward Alder, Managing Director of pay.com.au. Edward shares how his background in accounting, banking, corporate advisory and digital businesses helped shape pay.com.au, a platform that allows SMEs to pay business expenses by credit card, earn rewards and improve cash flow. Across the conversation, he explains how the team identified an underserved market, built a scalable business model and secured partnerships with major airlines and hotels. He also discusses the importance of strong branding, simple systems, employee ownership and a culture built around transparency and accountability. Edward also reflects on pay.com.au’s expansion into the United States, its approach to sustainable growth and the possible future pathways for the business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

"BẠN KHÔNG THỂ VƯƠN TỚI SỰ VĨ ĐẠI BẰNG CÁCH THU MÌNH LẠI." - Tom PetersĐỪNG TỰ HÀO VÌ DOANH NGHIỆP CỦA BẠN CHI ÍTTui thấy nhiều chủ doanh nghiệp có một niềm tự hào:“Công ty anh vận hành gọn lắm.”“Bên anh không tốn nhiều chi phí.”“Anh tiết kiệm dữ lắm.”Nghe rất êm tai hén?Nhưng có một câu hỏi quan trọng hơn:Tiền anh tiết kiệm được… có giúp công ty kiếm thêm tiền không?Vì trên đời này, có những doanh nghiệp không chết vì xài sang.Mà chết vì… tiết kiệm lãng nhách.Tui ví dụ.Một anh chủ quán cà phê nghĩ:“Tuyển nhân viên part-time rẻ bèo thôi, đỡ tốn.”Ừ thì rẻ.Nhưng nhân viên yếu kém -> phục vụ chậm, mặt chằm dằm -> khách chê, không thèm quay lại.Mỗi tháng trên sổ sách anh bớt được 5 triệu tiền lương.Nhưng thực tế anh mất đứt 50 triệu doanh thu.Vậy là anh đang tiết kiệm, hay anh đang tự phá chén cơm của chính mình?Cái này trong kinh doanh có thuật ngữ gọi là Vòng Lặp Tử Thần (Death Spiral).Doanh thu tụt -> hoảng -> lại cắt bớt chi phí -> trải nghiệm giảm -> doanh thu rớt tiếp.Game over.Thiệt ra tui có đọc một cái nghiên cứu của Harvard Business Review (HBR).4.700 công ty qua 3 đợt suy thoái kinh tế:Những doanh nghiệp suốt ngày chăm chăm vô việc cắt giảm chi phí, tỷ lệ vực dậy chỉ có vỏn vẹn 11%.Trong khi những công ty biết tối ưu nhưng vẫn "bạo chi" đập tiền vào R&D, truyền thông và trải nghiệm khách hàng thì bứt phá tới 37%.Starbucks năm 2008:Kinh tế suy thoái, doanh số giảm mạnh.Ban quản trị gào thét đòi gọt chi phí nguyên liệu, bớt nhân sự.Nhưng sếp Howard Schultz làm gì?Chơi lớn.Ông ra lệnh đóng cửa cái rụp 7.100 cửa hàng ở Mỹ trong 3 tiếng rưỡi chỉ để dạy lại 135.000 nhân viên cách rót một ly Espresso đàng hoàng.Tốn kém bao nhiêu?Bay mớ doanh thu khủng ngay ngày hôm đó, cộng thêm 30 triệu đô để xốc lại tinh thần quân cán.Người ta chửi ổng điên.Nhưng kết quả?Chất lượng quay lại. Khách hàng quay lại. Starbucks sống và cổ phiếu tăng phi mã cả thập kỷ sau đó.Như một báo cáo của McKinsey từng chỉ ra:Những doanh nghiệp dẫn đầu không phải là doanh nghiệp có chi phí thấp nhất.Mà là doanh nghiệp phân bổ nguồn lực khôn ngoan nhất.Tui thì tui hay chia ra 2 loại chi phí vầy để dễ quyết: 1. Chi phí tiêu hao   -> Chi tiền nhưng không sinh ra thêm được miếng giá trị nào.Ví dụ: - Làm cái văn phòng cho sang chảnh rần rần mà khách chả thèm quan tâm - Chạy quảng cáo mù mờ không đo lường được - Quy trình rườm rà, lãng phí nguyên liệuCái này? Cắt. Cắt mạnh. 2. Chi phí đầu tư   -> Bỏ tiền ra hôm nay để mua năng lực ngày mai.Ví dụ: - Trả lương cao để hốt người giỏi hơn - Đào tạo đội ngũ - Xây hệ thống dữ liệu (Data) - Nâng cấp trải nghiệm khách hàngCái này không những không được cắt, mà đôi khi còn phải gồng lên mà chi.Nhiều chủ doanh nghiệp nhỏ hay mang cái tâm lý:“Đợi có tiền rồi mới đầu tư.”Mà nghịch lý ở chỗ…Nhiều khi sự thật là: Không đầu tư nên mãi không có tiền.Nên bài toán rà soát ngân sách tháng này, đừng hỏi:“Làm sao để mình chi ít nhất?”Mà hãy hỏi:“Mỗi 1 đồng tui chi ra, nó đang kéo về cho tui bao nhiêu đồng giá trị?”Vì doanh nghiệp nghèo không phải vì họ chi nhiều.Doanh nghiệp nghèo vì họ không biết chi ra sao cho không phí.Để trò chuyện sâu hơn, mời mọi người lắng nghe tập podcast của Tùng BT cùng cô giáo, “bà ngoại tài chính” Thuý Tạ. Bên dưới nghen

"Be authentic. If it doesn't feel right inside, don't post it." – Amy WenhamIn this episode, I sat down with Amy Wenham, founder of the Women's Business Network (WBN) in Ho Chi Minh City, to talk about one of my favourite topics—authentic content marketing.The conversation made me reflect on my own content. We talked about the podcast studio, the countless hours spent setting up lights and cables, and how I'd often forgotten to share the journey behind the finished product. It reminded me that people don't just want to see the final result—they want to understand the work that got you there.If you're a business owner, marketer, or content creator trying to build a genuine connection with your audience, this episode is packed with practical advice you can start using today.Key Takeaways:How Amy grew the Women's Business Network from just 23 members to more than 900 without paying for advertising.Why authentic stories consistently outperform polished, "perfect" content.The biggest content marketing mistakes SMEs make and how to avoid them.How to use AI without losing your own voice and personality.Why podcasting is one of the most powerful tools for creating authentic, long-form content.Chapters and timestamps:00:00 – Rapid-fire questions and why authenticity beats viral marketing04:00 – Why sharing challenges creates stronger engagement than polished content08:30 – Listening to your community and creating content your audience actually wants14:00 – The biggest content marketing mistakes SMEs make20:00 – AI, authenticity, and why your voice still matters26:00 – Why podcasting is the perfect format for authentic content marketingSend us Fan MailBook a free call with me here to help you create the best podcast possible! Book your free studio tour today! Email me (niall@sevenmillionbikes.com) or contact me on Seven Million Bikes Podcasts Facebook or Instagram to book your free Podcast Audit!

"Be authentic. If it doesn't feel right inside, don't post it." – Amy WenhamIn this episode, I sat down with Amy Wenham, founder of the Women's Business Network (WBN) in Ho Chi Minh City, to talk about one of my favourite topics—authentic content marketing.The conversation made me reflect on my own content. We talked about the podcast studio, the countless hours spent setting up lights and cables, and how I'd often forgotten to share the journey behind the finished product. It reminded me that people don't just want to see the final result—they want to understand the work that got you there.If you're a business owner, marketer, or content creator trying to build a genuine connection with your audience, this episode is packed with practical advice you can start using today.Key Takeaways:How Amy grew the Women's Business Network from just 23 members to more than 900 without paying for advertising.Why authentic stories consistently outperform polished, "perfect" content.The biggest content marketing mistakes SMEs make and how to avoid them.How to use AI without losing your own voice and personality.Why podcasting is one of the most powerful tools for creating authentic, long-form content.Chapters and timestamps:00:00 – Rapid-fire questions and why authenticity beats viral marketing04:00 – Why sharing challenges creates stronger engagement than polished content08:30 – Listening to your community and creating content your audience actually wants14:00 – The biggest content marketing mistakes SMEs make20:00 – AI, authenticity, and why your voice still matters26:00 – Why podcasting is the perfect format for authentic content marketing"Send me a message!"Book a free call with me here if you want to start your own podcast! Book your free tour of Saigon Podcast Studio! Support the show

Welcome to a revamped Everything Compliance. We have a new host, Adam Turteltaub, and a new panelist, Rebecca Walker, who joins returning regulars Matt Kelly, Jonathan Armstrong, and Karen Moore for the next iteration of Everything Compliance. Matt Kelly analyzes Bosch's export controls violations involving Huawei under the foreign direct product rule, resulting in a $36 million BIS penalty, DOJ declination after self-disclosure, and major remediation hiring. Karen Moore covers the UK Commercial Payments Bill, aimed at protecting SMEs via a 60-day payment cap, mandatory late-payment interest, dispute-timing rules, a stronger Small Business Commissioner, and “name and shame” disclosures with potential ESG/fraud implications for supplier-treatment claims. Rebecca Walker shares NAVEX 2026 survey findings linking leadership “say vs. do” gaps to higher violations. Jonathan Armstrong covers a recent speech by the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, Graeme McNulty, who said the SFO intends to be a more active enforcer and to use the new failure-to-prevent-fraud offense with practical tips on policies, role-based training, fast tip-off response, properly resourced investigations, self-reporting, tone from the top, and third-party due diligence. Rebecca Walker focuses on speak-up culture, emphasizing post-report communications, lessons from KPMG Australia, and Navex data showing higher report volumes and longer investigation closure times. The members of Everything Compliance are: Rebecca Walker – a top legal mind in ethics and compliance. Woody can be reached at the law firm of Kaplan and Walker. Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com Jonathan Armstrong – a UK colleague and an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer in London. He can be reached at Armstrong@puntersouthall.law. Karen Moore, a principal at Sounding Board Compliance, can be reached at moore@soundingboardcompliance.com The award-winning Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

In this episode of the Big UC Update, UC Today's Christopher Carey sits down with Will Morey, Managing Director at Gamma, for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of the channel, the rise of AI, and what it really takes to deliver technology that works for SMEs.Will shares his journey from selling diesel to farmers to leading Gamma's channel business, and unpacks why the biggest opportunity in the industry right now isn't a product - it's helping customers figure out how to make AI actually work for their business.Topics Covered Include:Gamma's channel-first go-to-market and partner ecosystemWhy AI should be treated like electricity, not a productThe "iceberg model" — what sits below the waterline with GammaData sovereignty, compliance, and why they're suddenly front-of-mind for SMEsThe PSTN switch-off, CX, and what's next for the UC industry

Something that is not talked about enough is pay transparency and the fact that on the 7th of June 2026 all EU countries had to comply with the EU pay discrepancy act. Ireland missed this deadline but will bring it on a phased basis and employers have been urged to take steps to prepare for its full implementation. To find out more about pay transparency and the EU pay discrepancy act I spoke to Crystel Robbins Rynne CEO HRLocker and Fredericka Sheppard Co-Founder and Managing Director VoltedgeCrystal and Fredericka talk about their backgrounds, salaries, putting good frameworks in place and more.More about HRLocker and Voltedge:HRLocker is the Irish people-management platform that transforms admin-heavy tasks, such as time & attendance and leave management, into one secure, intuitive system, so HR teams reclaim hours, eliminate errors, and focus on strategic people initiatives, not paperwork. Voltedge Management is an Irish-based HR consultancy supporting scaling businesses, SMEs, and multinational organisations with strategic HR, leadership, and organisational development solutions. The firm partners with clients across Ireland, the UK, and internationally to build high-performing teams and drive sustainable growth. 

Tonight, we unpack market movements with FNB Wealth and Investments, explore how AI could reshape wealth creation with Purple Group, examine the funding challenges facing manufacturing SMEs with Lula, discuss the future of Tongaat Hulett with the Vision Group, and, in AgriFocus, look at how FMD traceability could support SA's red meat export recovery with the National Agricultural Marketing Council. SAfm Market Update - Podcasts and live stream

A global succession crisis is emerging as millions of business owners approach retirement without a clear succession plan. According to recent studies, a significant percentage of family businesses and SMEs across North America, Europe, and Asia face leadership and ownership transitions within the next decade, yet many remain unprepared.   In this episode of CEO's Desk, Corum Group CEO Bruce Milne explores the growing succession challenge facing technology founders and CEOs. He discusses the risks of delaying succession planning, the realities of family succession, management buyouts, ESOPs, SPACs, and IPOs, and why mergers, acquisitions, and recapitalizations often provide the most practical path for technology companies. Whether you're actively considering a sale or simply protecting the value you've built, this video offers essential insights into succession planning, value preservation, and maintaining control of your future before circumstances force difficult decisions. Learn: Why succession planning has become a global business issue The unique risks facing technology founders and CEOs Common succession options and their limitations When to consider a merger, acquisition, or recapitalization Key questions every founder should ask before planning their next chapter   Interested in learning more? Join one of Corum's upcoming Selling Up Selling Out events and explore your options before you need them. https://www.corumgroup.com/events   Key Takeaways A global succession crisis is affecting businesses globally. Most recognize succession planning is critical but still lack an active plan. Technology companies face unique succession challenges Unexpected life events can dramatically change a founder's options and company value. Family succession is uncommon in technology businesses. IPOs and SPACs are not realistic exit options for most founders. The best exits are typically planned before they become necessary. Understanding your options gives you more control over your future   Chapters 00:00 The Global Succession Crisis Begins 00:30 Succession Challenges Around the World 01:08 Why Tech CEOs Face Greater Risk 01:44 A Real-World Wake-Up Call 02:19 Why Succession Planning Matters 02:33 Understanding Your Succession Options 02:55 Family Succession in Technology 03:10 Management Buyouts and ESOP Realities 03:41 Why SPACs and IPOs Aren't for Most Founders 03:48 Why M&A Is the Most Practical Path 04:00 When Is the Right Time to Sell? 04:18 The Hard Questions Every Founder Should Ask 05:04 Succession Planning Is About Control 05:23 The Ultimate Founder Question 05:48 The Best Time to Plan Your Exit 05:56 Next Steps: Get Educated and Prepare

AI is not just changing how engineers write code. It is changing who gets close enough to shape the work.In this episode of The Tech Trek, Robert Stewart, CTO at Arbital Health, joins Amir to talk about how AI is bringing actuarial subject matter experts closer to product and engineering teams, especially in healthcare and risk based contracts. Robert shares how his team is pairing technically minded SMEs with software engineers, using AI tools in development, and rethinking technical hiring now that AI assisted coding is part of the job.Practical Takeaways• AI can reduce the distance between domain experts and engineering when the SMEs can clearly describe requirements, acceptance criteria, and edge cases.• Pairing a subject matter expert with an experienced engineer can be more powerful than traditional pair programming because each person brings a different kind of judgment.• Better written requirements matter more in an AI assisted workflow because tools can work directly from detailed tickets and context.• Technical interviews may need to test how candidates use AI, not whether they can avoid it.• Hiring teams need stronger signals around identity, environment fit, prompting skill, and how candidates respond to AI output.Timestamped Highlights00:00 Robert Stewart on Arbital Health, value based care, and the role of actuarial expertise in healthcare infrastructure.03:06 Why actuarial knowledge is hard to transfer into engineering teams through normal handoffs.04:40 How AI helps subject matter experts move closer to product and engineering work.06:08 Why engineering fundamentals still matter, even when AI makes code easier to create.09:55 How Arbital Health is using Cursor, Claude Code, and human review in a regulated environment.14:52 Why more detailed Jira tickets are becoming more valuable in AI assisted development.17:10 How AI is changing technical interviews from “you may use AI” to “you must use AI.”22:16 What suspicious candidates, remote interviews, and fake profiles are forcing hiring teams to rethink.One Line That Stuck“You can judge an expert by the type of questions they ask.”Pro Tips• Ask candidates to share their screen during AI assisted technical interviews.• Watch how they prompt, not just what they produce.• Look for whether they catch strange or weak AI output.• Use a rubric, but also evaluate whether the candidate fits the way your team actually works.• For AI generated code, add stronger human review, especially in regulated environments.Subscribe to The Tech Trek for more conversations on how technical teams are adapting around AI, data, product, platform, hiring, and engineering execution.

09 Jul 2026. We find out more about the Dubai vertiport that the aviation regulator has just signed off, with the people who built it, Damian Kysely of Skyports. Plus, we’ve got Malina Ngai, Global CEO of beauty retailer AS Watsons, in the studio during her one day visit to the UAE. And we’re kicking off a new series today, Summer Strategy, asking what businesses are putting in place for the hotter months. First up, Abdulla Al Shaibani of Axeed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ray White speaks to Jeremy Lang, Managing Director of Business Partners Limited about the growing pressure rising fuel prices are placing on South Africa's small and medium-sized businesses. The latest SME Confidence Index shows business confidence has weakened as higher transport and operating costs force many SMEs to focus on survival rather than growth. The Money Show is a podcast hosted by well-known journalist and radio presenter, Stephen Grootes. He explores the latest economic trends, business developments, investment opportunities, and personal finance strategies. Each episode features engaging conversations with top newsmakers, industry experts, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and politicians, offering you thought-provoking insights to navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.    Thank you for listening to a podcast from The Money Show Listen live Primedia+ weekdays from 18:00 and 20:00 (SA Time) to The Money Show with Stephen Grootes broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show, go to https://buff.ly/7QpH0jY or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/PlhvUVe Subscribe to The Money Show Daily Newsletter and the Weekly Business Wrap here https://buff.ly/v5mfetc The Money Show is brought to you by Absa     Follow us on social media   702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702   CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/Radio702 CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Charity Ibhadon is a Global Product Director at WPP, where she leads the development of an AI marketing tool. With 15 years in product — including three formative years at ASOS during its high-growth heyday — she came to the discipline via a decade in investment banking and an executive MBA. She has operated at VP and CPO level, leading large international teams across consumer technology and media.We discuss:— Why the explosion of product frameworks, books, and LinkedIn benchmarks has made it harder, not easier, to feel like you're doing the job well — regardless of seniority— How the physical symptoms of burnout can masquerade as markers of success, and why high-achieving women in particular are vulnerable to that misreading— What it actually takes to recover: stepping away, finding what your body needs outside of work, and stopping short of making your job your entire identity— Why being genuinely enjoyable to work with is a more durable career advantage than any certification or methodology— How the Eisenhower matrix — do, defer, delegate, delete — can be a practical daily tool for protecting energy, not just a poster on a wall— The case for "happy high status": remaining calm and unflappable under pressure as a learnable leadership behaviour, not a personality trait— Why commercial curiosity — understanding what moves the business and staying interested in the world — will matter more for long-term product careers than AI certificatesChapters:0:00 Introduction 1:29 Charity's background 4:00 Why product feels harder than ever 6:34 Why fun at work matters 8:45 Recognising burnout 10:25 When burnout feels like success 12:13 Finding your way back 16:18 Fun as a strategic advantage 18:00 Staying calm under pressure 22:26 The "CEO of the product" myth 22:41 Mindset for a long career in product 24:45 Building resilience 26:35 Wrap-upReferencedEisenhower matrix | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priorit...Charity's keynote at #mtpcon London |    • Product is Hard. It should still be fun: C...  Our HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

The Recfest Recap 2026   We're unpacking the absolute best moments, groundbreaking strategies, and actionable takeaways from RecFest 2026. Whether you were dodging the summer sun at Knebworth Park or couldn't make it across the pond, this exclusive recap session distills the high-impact content from the industry's top thought leaders. Get ready to supercharge your TA strategy, embrace the human advantage in an AI-driven world, and discover exactly what the future of recruitment looks like.   The Human Advantage in an AI World: Grace Lordan (LSE) explores how talent leaders can leverage AI, inclusion, and better decision-making to drive true performance rather than just processing efficiency.   From Recruiter to Talent Architect: A powerhouse panel featuring leaders from Amazon, EY, and Booking.com discusses the evolution of the recruiter role as AI absorbs operational tasks, shifting the focus to high-value, human-centric strategy.   The AI-Adjusted EVP: Joanna Hackett (Howden) reveals how forward-thinking organisations are evolving their Employee Value Propositions to focus on reskilling, internal mobility, and long-term career relevance in the age of automation.   TA as a Strategic Growth Engine: Chris Tennant (Infor) and fellow TA directors from Gilead and Mars share how to fundamentally redesign the talent acquisition function to operate as a core driver of business performance.   Amazon's Strategic Business Partner Model: Beckie Longworth and the Amazon TA team reveal how they shifted from a transactional, requisition-driven service into a strategic business partner function that acts as a consistent interface for growth.   Talent Intelligence at Scale: Andrew Sinclair and Charles Rue (S&P Global) demonstrate how to build a connected workforce by turning overwhelming talent data into actionable, confident market intelligence.   The Early Careers Talent Crisis: Aisha Lysejko (2040 Leaders) and experts from Shell and Danone warn against cutting early careers investments, explaining how doing so creates a dangerous "missing middle" that cripples future leadership pipelines.   Standardised Hiring Metrics: Adrian Thomas (Walbridge) and Jonathan Berry (House of Commons) break down the UK's first standardised hiring metrics, exploring what "good" really looks like in talent acquisition benchmarking today.   Global TA Transformation at Sanofi: Lia Manafova (Sanofi) shares the healthcare giant's journey of taking back ownership of their global recruitment landscape, transitioning away from decentralized models to centralise and streamline their tech stack.   Why should you carve out time in your busy schedule to join 'The Recfest Recap 2026'? Because the recruitment landscape is shifting faster than ever, and relying on yesterday's playbooks simply won't cut it. This webinar isn't just a summary; it's your shortcut to the strategies that are actively reshaping the industry—from deploying AI without losing the human touch to transforming TA into a strategic business partner. By signing up, you'll equip yourself with the tangible, future-proof tactics you need to attract top talent, elevate your employer brand, and lead your team into the next era of hiring. Secure your spot now and stay ahead of the curve!   We're on Wednesday 8th July at 2pm BST. Register by clicking on the green button (save your spot) and follow the channel here (recommended).   Ep392 is supported by our friends at Screenloop   Screenloop is the number one ATS for SMEs: covering interview intelligence, background checks, automations, candidate NPS and Quality of Hire analytics, all-in-one package.   Rated 4.9/5 on G2 our Interview Intelligence transcribes, fills scorecards, coaches hiring teams, so every hiring decision is faster, fairer and evidence-based. Importantly, our AI tools do hallucinate or over promise, it improves human led conversations.

In Episode 108 of the Cybersecurity Readiness Podcast Series, Dr. Dave Chatterjee is joined by Scott Harrell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Infoblox and former leader of Cisco's $20 billion enterprise networking business — to examine one of the most consequential security blind spots in modern enterprise governance: the foundational network infrastructure layer that every other security investment depends on, and that almost no organization actively governs.The episode opens with the October 2025 Amazon Web Services outage, in which a single automated misconfiguration in a core routing service triggered a global cascade that took down AI services, financial platforms, and consumer applications worldwide, producing an estimated $581 million in losses. The cause was not a sophisticated cyber attack. It was a governance decision that had never been made — nobody was actively watching the foundational layer. That event becomes the opening frame for a conversation about DNS, DHCP, and IP address management: the three-part infrastructure, collectively known as DDI, that assigns every device an address, maps every application name to a network location, and routes every piece of digital traffic to its destination. When it works, it is invisible. When it fails — or when an attacker exploits it — everything built on top of it stops.Harrell's central argument is structural: 92% of all malware relies on DNS for its initial call-out to attacker-controlled infrastructure. The first thing any malware does when it lands on a network is resolve a malicious domain — and if that DNS request is blocked, the entire incident cascade never occurs. The payload is never downloaded. Lateral movement never begins. Privilege escalation never follows. The problem is that most enterprise security stacks are built to detect and respond to malware after it has activated — not to intercept the first domain resolution that enables everything that follows. This is the difference between reactive and preemptive security, and it is a governance choice that shows up in budget allocations: currently, only 5% of enterprise security spending goes to preemptive activities, with 95% consumed by detection and response. Gartner projects that organizations will need to reach a 50/50 split by 2030.The conversation addresses how to make the governance case for foundational infrastructure investment, what differentiated DNS security looks like, how agentic AI is about to make network complexity exponentially harder to manage, and what three metrics every senior leader should be demanding from their security teams. Analyzed through Dr. Chatterjee's Commitment–Preparedness–Discipline (CPD) Framework, the episode reframes network infrastructure security from an IT operational matter into a board-level governance imperative. The episode's core message is neither technical nor vendor-specific: the organizations that will withstand the next breach are not those with the most sophisticated detection tools — they are those that have decided to govern the layer on which everything else depends.To access and download the entire podcast summary with discussion highlights - https://www.dchatte.com/episode-108-the-invisible-foundation-why-dns-security-is-the-governance-gap-no-one-is-watching/Connect with Host Dr. Dave ChatterjeeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dchatte/ Website: https://dchatte.com/Books PublishedThe DeepFake ConspiracyCybersecurity Readiness: A Holistic and High-Performance ApproachArticles & Cases PublishedChatterjee, D. (2026). The Cryptographic Reckoning: Why Quantum Readiness Begins with Agility, Not Algorithms, The INFORMS Analytics Magazine, June 26, 2026Chatterjee, D. (2026). The New Digital Fragility: How AI-Enhanced Cyber Threats Are Reshaping Operational Resilience, The INFORMS Analytics Magazine, March 4, 2026Chatterjee, D. (2026). Root: Automating the Remediation Gap, Ivey Publishing, Jan 7, 2026.Ramasastry, C. and Chatterjee, D. (2025). Trusona: Recruiting For The Hacker Mindset, Ivey Publishing, Oct 3, 2025.Chatterjee, D. and Leslie, A. (2024). “Ignorance is not bliss: A human-centered whole-of-enterprise approach to cybersecurity preparedness,” Business Horizons, Accepted on Oct 29, 2024.Isik, O., Chatterjee, D., and Lourenco, D.A. (2024). “Getting Cybersecurity Right,” California Management Review — Insights, Accepted for Publication, July 8, 2024. Chatterjee, D. (2023). “Mission critical – How American Cancer Society successfully and securely migrated to the cloud amid the pandemic,” I by IMD, March 13, 2023.Chatterjee, D. (2022). “Preventing security breaches must start at the top,” I by IMD, September 28, 2022, Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, SwitzerlandChatterjee, D. (2022). “Making Cybersecurity Readiness Mainstream,” Executive Blog Post, NETSPI, March 1, 2022Benz, M. and Chatterjee, D. (2020). “Calculated Risk? A Cybersecurity Evaluation Tool for SMEs,” Business Horizons, available online from May 4, 2020Chatterjee, D. (2019). “Should Executives Go To Jail Over Cyber Attacks,” Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Vol

① The Nordic Dimension of China–Europe Relations: Wang Yi's visit. (00:50) ② China's manufacturing and services sectors continue expansion in June. What role are SMEs playing in growth? (14:21) ③ Trump holds separate calls with Putin, Zelensky. Is there still political will for de-escalation? (25:03) ④ Britain and France pledge cooperation with Oman on maritime security. Could tensions in the region escalate further? (34:31) ⑤ FIFA's decision to suspend Balogun's red card sparks anger in European football: discussion of fairness. (43:56)

Vonny Laing is a user-centred design lead at the Student Loans Company, part of the UK government, where she oversees a service used by millions of people at every stage of their higher education journey. She has held roles spanning UX design, content design, and head of design across both public and private sectors, and completed an MBA specifically to earn the language of business — and with it, a seat at the table where design decisions get made. We discuss why designing from the majority inward produces invisible failures, how flipping to an underserved-first model creates a halo effect for all users, and why government service assessments make the happy-path approach structurally untenable. Vonny shares how a single day of guerrilla research at a further education college surfaced a critical gap between student loan payments and universal credit eligibility that years of data had never revealed — and why synthetic users can never replicate that. We also get into her "eat your greens" principle for designing across a user's whole life; the case for disaster thinking over happy-path optimism; how stories and verbatims move executives more reliably than dashboards; and why designers who learn to speak business become a secret weapon in any organisation.Chapters:(00:53) Welcome and introductions (01:23) Vonny background (02:10) Moving fast in the civil service (04:02) The UK government digital community (05:05) The pyramid model (07:03) Underserved versus edge case users (08:09) Designing at population scale (09:43) Service assessments and design accountability (11:01) Discovery research methodology (13:25) Finding users invisible in the data (16:22) Bridging gaps you cannot fix (18:42) Eat your greens: needs versus wants (20:07) Designing for users over time (21:04) Worst-case scenario thinking (22:11) Mining complaint logs and prioritising (25:47) Why synthetic users fall short (28:12) Where automated testing has a role (29:19) Leave the building: guerrilla research (33:03) Communicating research through storytelling (36:29) Why Vonnie did an MBA (39:03) Design's ceiling in organisations (42:04) Wrap-upOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

Becoming a new leader is one of the most dangerous promotions in business. The person who was promoted for hard work, strong KPIs, early starts, late finishes and personal accountability suddenly becomes responsible for other people's performance. That sounds like career progress, but it can become a trap. Many new managers in Japan, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the US receive little or no formal leadership training. They are expected to work it out alone. The problem is that the skills that earned the promotion are not the same skills needed to succeed as a leader. The new game is leverage, coaching, persuasion and building capability through the team. Why do new leaders struggle after promotion? New leaders struggle because they keep doing the work that got them promoted instead of learning how to lead others. They remain top performers, but they fail to multiply performance through the team. This is common in sales, finance, operations, technology and professional services. A strong individual contributor becomes a team leader and still tries to personally save the numbers. That works for a while, until the organisation raises the target and individual output hits its limit. A leader with ten people has access to eighty hours of team effort in a single day, while one heroic manager has only sixteen hours at most. The leverage is obvious, but many new leaders miss it. Do now: Stop measuring your value only by your personal output. Measure how much better the team performs because of your leadership. How can new leaders stop doing and start leading? New leaders must deliberately shift time from personal production to team development, coaching and performance management. The goal is not to be the busiest player; it is to become the conductor of the orchestra. The orchestra conductor does not play the violin, trumpet or drums. The conductor studies the musicians, aligns timing, manages egos, draws out potential and lifts the whole performance. New managers must do the same. Yes, some may still carry clients or operational responsibilities, especially in SMEs and lean organisations. But over time, they should move those tasks to capable team members and invest more time in developing people. Do now: Audit your week. Reduce low-leverage personal tasks and increase time spent coaching, delegating and improving team capability. How should new leaders balance people and process? New leaders need enough process to protect the organisation and enough freedom to allow creativity, ownership and experimentation. Too many rules kill initiative; too few controls create risk. Compliance matters. Rules protect companies from legal, financial and reputational disaster. We have all seen finance-world examples where weak controls and adrenaline-fuelled risk-taking damaged or destroyed firms. But if every action requires permission, the team stops thinking. In Japanese companies, where stability and process discipline are often strong, leaders must create safe space for ideas while respecting governance. In startups, the danger may be the opposite: too much freedom and not enough control. Do now: Clarify non-negotiable rules, then invite the team to find better paths within those boundaries. Why should leaders encourage ideas from the team? Leaders should encourage team ideas because creativity, ownership and engagement grow when people help shape the solution. If every answer comes from the boss, the team becomes passive. New leaders often let ego get in the way. They think, "I am the boss, so the best ideas should come from me." Or worse, they fear that a talented team member might replace them. That is small thinking. Organisations everywhere are crying out for leaders who create more leaders. A manager known as a "leader creating machine" becomes more valuable, not less. If nobody can replace you, you may be trapped in the same role forever. Do now: Ask the team for options before giving your answer. Build people who can eventually replace you. Why is coaching essential for first-time managers? Coaching is essential because the leader's job is to help people become better than they already are. If everyone keeps working the same way, the team will keep getting the same results. Many new leaders were self-sufficient high achievers. They did not need much help, so they underestimate how much coaching others require. But people do not automatically change because the boss wants better numbers. They may want the company, market, customers or boss to change while they stay exactly as they are. That is where coaching, listening and persuasion become core leadership skills. Dale Carnegie-style leadership is not command and control; it is influence, trust and development. Do now: Schedule regular coaching conversations and focus on behaviour change, not just task updates. What should new leaders study to keep succeeding? New leaders should study leadership deliberately because management skill does not arrive through osmosis.Promotion gives authority, but study builds capability. First-time managers should study delegation, coaching, listening, persuasion, conflict management, motivation and performance accountability. In Japan's consensus-oriented business culture, persuasion and listening are especially important because blunt orders often create surface agreement without real commitment. In Western organisations, speed and directness may be valued, but influence still matters. The Darwinian "up or out" business world does not forgive leaders who refuse to grow. Do now: Treat leadership as a discipline. Study it, practise it and get feedback before small mistakes become career-limiting habits. Final Summary New leaders succeed when they understand that promotion changes the job. What worked before will not be enough now. The leader must stop being only the best player and start building the whole team's performance. Three priorities matter most. First, stop doing everything yourself and start gaining leverage through others. Second, balance process with people so the organisation stays safe while creativity survives. Third, become a genius coach who listens, persuades and develops capability. Study the new role seriously. In leadership, survival and success belong to the people who learn fastest. Author Bio Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results. He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー). Greg also publishes daily business insights on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and hosts six weekly podcasts. On YouTube, he produces The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews, which are widely followed by executives seeking success strategies in Japan.

Democratizing Global Private Credit: AI Underwriting and Receivables Financing with Zach MarksIn a recent episode of The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Podcast, host Josh Elledge sat down with Zach Marks, the Co-Founder and CEO of Jia, to dissect the systemic financial bottlenecks that restrict capital access for small-to-mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) across emerging economies. Zach, a global fintech innovator with a deep understanding of localized relationship dynamics and cross-border capital streams, details how legacy banking frameworks impose a staggering $6 trillion financing gap on underserved markets. This conversation provides an essential strategic guide for institutional investors, international founders, and financial technology executives looking to leverage cutting-edge artificial intelligence and blockchain-backed liquidity pools to eliminate predatory lending and build transparent, highly automated capital distribution networks.The Architecture of Inclusive Finance: Processing Unstructured Data and Scaling Collateral-Free UnderwritingTraditional commercial banks in emerging sectors like Southeast Asia frequently strangle the scale of high-performing suppliers by relying on archaic, manual credit checks and rigid collateral mandates that small business owners simply cannot satisfy. Zach Marks explains that this systemic banking failure forces critical operations, such as regional snack manufacturers or agricultural wholesalers, to navigate 60-to-120-day invoice delays from corporate buyers without any cushion for cash flow management. When companies are unable to bridge the gap between delivering raw goods and receiving payments, they are routinely locked out of market expansion or driven into high-risk, unvetted private credit arrangements that carry opaque pricing and severe threats to their core business equipment. True operational scale is achieved when an enterprise bypasses centralized banking bureaucracies entirely, relying on tech-forward invoice financing platforms that convert outstanding receivables into immediate, fluid operating capital.Optimizing credit risk assessments and driving immediate underwriting velocity at scale requires an absolute commitment to integrating AI-powered document intelligence into backend compliance workflows. Many international financial institutions struggle to serve the mid-market segment effectively because they lack the administrative infrastructure to process messy, unstructured transactional data like scanned invoices, physical receipts, and fragmented bank statements. Real-world capital optimization is unlocked when a fintech ecosystem deploys advanced machine learning models to analyze this documentation in minutes, enabling automated credit decisions without sacrificing strict underwriting standards. This digital efficiency allows capital providers to review high volumes of application data, securely approving and delivering short-term liquidity funds to creditworthy business owners within a fractional 30-minute window.Furthermore, maintaining a premium global footprint and attracting top-tier institutional capital demands that financial platforms build resilient financing pipelines that pair secure on-chain ledger technology with deeply localized human support. Integrating decentralized blockchain infrastructure allows global investors to participate in secure, high-yield liquidity pools, democratizing access to private credit markets that were historically restricted to ultra-high-net-worth entities. However, technology alone cannot scale adoption in relational, cross-border markets where trust and human transparency remain the primary drivers of corporate validation. When an organization synthesizes a cutting-edge digital tech stack with a diverse, localized workforce that respects regional communication and cultural nuances, it successfully future-proofs its operations. This holistic approach converts international finance from an elite, exclusionary system into an accessible, highly structured asset class designed to predictably multiply market equity.About Zach MarksZach Marks is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jia, a disruptive financial technology pioneer, and a seasoned emerging-market strategist. Drawing from a diverse global background in team building and multi-cultural operations, Zach specializes in engineering automated, high-velocity lending solutions that empower small-to-mid-sized enterprises. He is a prominent fintech thought leader focused on dismantling systemic capital bottlenecks, optimizing international private credit distribution, and lecturing on the tactical use of AI and blockchain technology to drive inclusive economic valuation.About JiaJia is an elite fintech platform and alternative credit provider engineered to maximize financial access for underserved small businesses across emerging markets. The company specializes in delivering automated receivables-based invoicing solutions, AI-powered document intelligence, and blockchain-backed private credit infrastructure to eliminate predatory lending debt. Through transparent, collateral-free financing blueprints and structured technology licensing frameworks, Jia enables mid-market suppliers to optimize their cash flow velocity and safely scale their regional enterprise market share.Links Mentioned in This EpisodeJia Official Website: jia.phZach Marks on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zachmarksKey Episode HighlightsThe Emerging Market Credit Gap: Deconstructing the hidden operational bottlenecks that impose a $6 trillion financing deficit on global small businesses.Receivables-Based Capital Velocity: Implementing automated invoice financing to unlock immediate operational cash flow without asset-backed collateral mandates.AI Underwriting for Unstructured Data: Leveraging machine learning algorithms to instantly analyze messy physical invoices and bank statements for rapid credit decisions.On-Chain Global Liquidity Pools: Utilizing blockchain infrastructure to democratize private credit and connect international capital markets directly with localized SMEs.The Relationship-Tech Paradigm: Balancing advanced automated tech stacks with local human support desks to build authentic brand trust in relational economies.ConclusionThe conversation with Zach Marks reinforces that scaling inclusive global finance requires an intentional balance of advanced technological innovation and highly transparent corporate governance. By implementing rigorous AI data analysis, eliminating predatory fee structures, and ruthlessly protecting human-centric connection points, business leaders can transform a volatile, capital-starved environment into a highly organized, self-sustaining financial ecosystem.More from The Thoughtful Entrepreneur

In this episode, I sat down with my friend Heather Burright, who runs the Learning for Good podcast, and we got into our own career journeys, how we've invested in our own growth, and what it actually takes to build confidence and find your voice as an ID or L&D professional. If you've ever felt like you're doing great work, but still struggling to get a seat at the table, this one's for you.

Recorded live at #mtpcon London, Lily sits down with Emily Tate — former MD of Mind the Product for a broad debrief on the day's themes. They cover why product and design may matter more in an AI world than ever before, how heritage organisations can navigate transformation without the luxury of greenfield conditions, and what it actually takes to get internal stakeholders on side. Emily also makes a case for why SaaS isn't dead, why positioning fundamentals haven't changed despite the AI frenzy, and why remote work is draining the fun out of product teams.Chapters0:00 — Intro1:00 — The state of AI in product: still an inflection point3:18 — AI is a technology, not a moat4:57 — Keeping the humanity in product work6:13 — Advice for PMs new to the industry8:38 — Why conferences need both practical and inspirational talks10:24 — How to start speaking: find your local ProductTank13:46 — You don't need a novel idea to give a great talk16:01 — Charity Ibhadon's talk: product is hard, but it should be fun16:19 — Remote work and the slow erosion of joy at work19:15 — Innovating inside heritage organisations21:39 — Stop trying to educate stakeholders about product24:06 — April Dunford on positioning: what AI changes, and what it doesn't27:00 — The SaaS-pocalypse myth28:47 — Predictions: 12–18 more months of heavy AI talk30:59 — Filtering signal from noise: where Emily reads31:40 — Eric Ries' Incorruptible and building companies that resist corruptionKey takeawaysIf your only moat is AI, you don't have a moat. AI is a capability, not a product. The question is how you're using it to serve customers better than you could before — not whether you're using it at all.Building is no longer the bottleneck — deciding what to build is. That shift makes strong product and design thinking more important, not less.Stop trying to teach stakeholders about product. Drop the methodology, use their language, show them something tangible, and bring them along in ways that make sense to them — not to you.SaaS has a defensible edge. Products built on experience across hundreds of customers carry knowledge that a single company building its own solution can't replicate. That's a positioning story worth telling.Positioning fundamentals haven't changed. Sprinkling AI on your messaging doesn't sharpen it. Outside of tech, leading with AI can actively damage trust.You don't need a novel idea to give a great talk. Your version of a familiar concept might be the one that finally makes it click for someone. Start at a local ProductTank.Don't try to be someone else on stage. Find your style by doing it. Authenticity beats borrowed charisma.Remote work is eroding team joy in ways we're not measuring. The informal moments that build relationships and make work fun don't happen on Slack or in back-to-back video calls — and the resulting friction is real.Featured links  Incorruptible by Eric Ries — https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460881/incorruptible-by-ries-eric/9780241692028The Decision Stack by Martin Eriksson — thedecisionstack.comChristian Idiodi — Silicon Valley Product GroupApril Dunford — aprildunford.comFind your local ProductTank — producttank.comMind the Product — mindtheproduct.comOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.