Thinking Out Cloud

When Greg Malpass founded Traction on Demand, his mission was simple: Help people find “more time to play.” In his experience, there was a clear delineation between work and play. The “work/life balance” discussion was everywhere. Then the discussion evolved. We all thought technology would give us more time back. But technology has only sped things up and allowed us to deliver more. Now, companies are being evaluated based on how enjoyable of an experience they’re creating for their employees—and for good reason. In this final episode of season 1 of Thinking Out Cloud, Greg explain how amplifying the voice of his team members—and giving them a real say in the future of the business—has obliterated the need for work/life balance in his company and replaced it with “work/life harmony.”

Your company’s growing, and you need additional software. Do you build, or do you buy? Should you buy tech that fits some or most of your needs, or should you build a fully customized platform? It’s an age old question. The answer? Ask Reid Holzworth. He did both, and he gives us an exploratory answer behind his revolutionary insurtech, called TechCanary, built on the Salesforce platform. We invited Reid on our Thinking Out Cloud podcast to give us his insights on how he built a customized solution for his industry, and why he chose Salesforce to get him there.   This episode is a double-whammy: It also features special guest Aaron Zuccolin, VP of Industry Solutions here at Traction on Demand.

How is marketing cloud tech different? To answer this question, we went right to the source. Vidhya Srinivasan is marketing speaker who lives in the cloud. She is also the VP Marketing, Cognitive Service Management & Cloud BU with BMC Software. She sat down with us on our eighth episode of the Thinking Out Cloud podcast. She told us how marketing is changing before our eyes, how to deploy new marketing technology, where AI can help, marketing’s three goals, and how to tackle marketing’s hardest customer: executive management.

Everyone is wondering about cloud tech, about where it’s going, what to expect, and how to implement it. Everyone has questions Rich Jackson has answers. He is SVP and CIO for Hilton Grand Vacations, leading the global IT team, and covering technology vision, strategy, development, and operations. We wanted to get a few questions answered about how the cloud is impacting hospitality, so he sat down with us on out seventh episode of the Thinking Out Cloud podcast.

Everyone loves David and Goliath. The feeling we all receive when we witness the underdog defeat the big guy is euphoric. Small businesses across every industry are disrupting larger competitors with cloud computing and data storage. How should small businesses continue to utilize the power of the cloud to disrupt larger companies? We asked that question (and others) to Jim Chilton, CIO at Cengage. On this episode of Thinking Out Cloud, he gave us his secrets from 25 years of in-depth technology experience, with enterprise and smaller companies.

More than ever, the use of tech and data to drive transformational change, specifically, digging in how to capture big data can transform business. During this chat, David Norton, Chief Marketing Officer at GALE Partners, talks about how to harness this via his experience.

Rami Azzam, digital marketing director at USA for UNHCR, knows all about the ins and outs of marketing in the nonprofit world. Nonprofit companies face challenges unique to their sector, but can benefit by learning from the influence of the for-profit sector. Although there are many challenges facing digital marketing in nonprofit companies, there are plenty of valuable insights and ideas that are tried and true by experts such as Rami.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen a tremendous change in how consumers are buying and more importantly, how they are paying for it. With the explosion of mobile payment options, businesses may be wondering what best practices are and how to not be left behind in this convergence of technology. In this one we talk to Jeff Guthrie, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Moneris, on how they are helping to steer companies through these waters.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen a tremendous shift in the utilization of AI. With the amount of data it can provide, companies need to realize that the human element is a vital piece of the puzzle to making sure that an AI implementation is successful.

Peter Coffee, VP for Strategic Research at Salesforce, discusses the Ohana Economy and how changes in areas of data trust and control, global collaboration, entrepreneurship, and machine intelligence are changing how the world does business. He also talked about what the Ohana economy will mean on a personal level.

People and companies still haven't wrapped their minds around the sometimes nebulous concept of cloud computing and technology. That's where this podcast comes in. We'll be interviewing business leaders who have made the investment in cloud technology. The goal is to help you understand how cloud technology has helped major brands. You'll likely even hear about challenges that you're facing yourself—and their solutions, rooted in people and technology. Reach out to Brent (the host) at blandels@tractionondemand.com Reach out to the producers at toc@tractionondemand.com You can also find Traction on Facebook and Twitter.