John Clifton, Author at neuco

Lessons on Leadership from Lawo COO Jamie Dunn

Posted on April 23, 2021 by John Clifton

We recently interviewed Jamie Dunn, COO of Lawo pioneering IP-based video and audio technology company for broadcast production, on an episode in our weekly podcast The Tech That Connects Us.

John Clifton and Tegan Lloyd Williams discussed a wealth of insightful information from taking opportunities, lessons learned, the boom of audio, and his thoughts on leadership; which we thought was especially poignant during these strange times.

So we’ve shared our version of his thoughts on leadership and communication below:

There are many ways to be a good leader, but one thing I think is fundamental in these times is communication.

I always thought that it was about reading a lot of books on leadership, but they were just talking about this difference between management and leadership.

And I concluded myself after thinking about this is that leadership for me is just about personality. Leadership can’t be trained, it’s something ingrained in someone whether they have a good idea of what it means to lead people and know-how their actions are going affect others around them or not.

Leadership is about belief. You have to give people the confidence that what they are doing matters, and you should be able to do this without face-to-face contact if your messages are strong enough; from my point of view empathy in messaging is key for producing effective leadership.

Empathy is all about leadership as well, understanding that what people are going through and where they want to go can be very important.

I always loved the leadership aspect of my work. As a leader, I can help guide and empower those around me to be their best selves while also being well-connected with them. One area where this is really apparent is communication – as someone who has built his career on great communications skills it’s paramount that all leaders are proactive about listening and understanding what people go through to communicate effectively. This way we can support others during difficult times or celebrate together when things get better!

It’s not easy just to say, you must do this, you must do that. Because of safety and traveling restrictions we have lots of limitations for what used to be a walk in the park. This is not an easy task; however, it starts with listening and understanding what people need to make adjustments that will help them succeed any way possible.

Understanding how our guests excel in their respective market’s is always a great talking point of our weekly Podcast The Tech That Connects Us, So don’t hesitate to go through our podcast archives and listen to some of our fantastic conversations with business leaders and experts.

A Generational change in diversity – How a diverse team helps decision-making.

Posted on March 22, 2021 by John Clifton

John Clifton & Will Trenchard sat down recently with Margaret Davies for a fantastic and insightful episode of The Tech That Connects Us Podcast, in which we thought the conversation just flowed.

Margaret has held a number of senior commercial roles in her career and is now CMO at Red Bee Media, having rejoined them 3 years ago. She’s seen a swathe of changes occur during her time in the video/broadcast world and remains hugely excited about what is still to come.

Among other topics, we explore how she felt very early on that she was clearly “woman in a man’s world” and touched on her thoughts and feeling for diversity in the STEM industry. From ways it has changed but also what needs to be done to address the balance.

We learnt a lot from Margaret that episode so we’ve shared our version of her thoughts below:

A Generational change in diversity – How a diverse team helps decision making.

There is a generational change in progress, and it starts first with the importance of encouraging young girls to enter STEM fields. However, we must also make sure that boys are encouraged to do other things as well.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, the tech industry needs your skills. This is why recruiting from diverse backgrounds is so important. It doesn’t matter what gender you are; the tech industry needs all of our skills.

Diversity helps with decision making. It makes us more open and creative in the decisions we make, which is good for both customers and commercial engagements. It helps make us more open and creative in the decisions we make, which is good for both customers and commercial engagements.

What will drive the change is not just reaching targets, it’s about business leaders recognizing that to improve your business and drive more revenue, you have to invite diverse voices into the conversation.

That’s why diversity is important because the female voices that come through cut through very clearly, because women that work in this industry have to be smarter because they had to work harder to succeed.

There’s a phrase in relation to sustainability. And it applies to diversity as well, which is:

‘Sustainability as an initiative within any business is not sustainable, unless it delivers business value, it has to contribute to the bottom line’.

And while we have clear laws that protect bias against a raft of categories, the reality is diversity has to drive business value.

And that’s where it comes back because diversity lends itself to more diverse, more challenging decision making. And that’s what ultimately should drive business value. And it comes with, quite frankly, the men who are business leaders, recognising that they have to let more voices through in business to be able to drive a different type of business value.

Diversity is an important topic that we cover on nearly every episode of our Podcast. So don’t hesitate to go through our podcast archives and listen to some of our fantastic conversations with business leaders and experts.

Discovery CTO Simon Farnsworth is our new Non-Executive Director!

Posted on March 11, 2021 by John Clifton

What better way to launch our news section than with one of the most exciting announcements in our history!

As of this month, we have a new member of the team, and what a catch it is…

We are beyond delighted that Discovery’s Global CTO, Simon Farnsworth, is our new Non-Executive Director!!

With over two decades of commercial and technological experience across Broadcast, Satellite, Media and Tech, his industry knowledge will be invaluable in ensuring we’re focused on the areas where we can add the most value to our clients and candidates.

In addition, his business acumen and expertise will be a key asset to our management team. Simon will bring additional clarity to our strategy and decision making, helping us become an even better organisation than we already are.

Ahead of joining, Simon shared his thoughts…

“To see how the neuco management team have put their foot on the accelerator since the start of the pandemic shows a great determination to succeed, and that’s something exciting to be a part of.

“With my background and experience, I feel I can add real value to their growth plans as their new Non-Executive Director. There’s a massive opportunity for neuco, they operate in growth sectors coupled with a very talented group of people, which makes it’s an exciting proposition.”

Whilst the last year has been incredibly difficult and stressful, the team have been incredible as we’ve successfully navigated through some tough times.

The appointment of Simon at this particular moment, takes on even more significance as we embark on our next stage of growth…we can’t wait to start working with him!

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