I welcome Damien D‘Souza on this episode who is a business and technology transformation leader. His CV states COO, CIO and CCO experience, yet he markets himself as an interim and fractional ‚CTO‘. With his vast years of experience across multiple industries, he has worked in his portfolio career since 2019. Things we discussed:
- Whilst he started his portfolio career in 2019, he started working for himself in 2012
- He left the corporate world after 30 years after taking redundancy and money for a runway to try 'self-employment'
- Work is all about what you want to do, not why you do it
- Damien started with IBM, then worked for Ericsson, Hutchison and Nokia
- The corporate world is about politics and if someone says jump, you ask 'how high'
- Most jobs come through his network
- Whilst he is a technology leader he is also a COO but has done work in sales and marketing and supply chain in senior roles
- It's not what you do but how you market yourself
- Working with start- and scale-ups
- How to help businesses to evolve and deal with things
- It's like being a 'father', a business mentor as much as doing the job
- It's about value add and outcomes
- He prices based on projects and outcomes, with regular milestone reviews
- Key principles he learned early in his careers:
- Listen not hear
- Never turn up late or unprepared for a meeting
- Don't waste anyone's time, get the terms of reference right
- People need to understand what you deliver (bring people along on the journey)
- Interim and fractional CxOs are equal in the C-Suite rather than being a contractor
- You constantly pitch for opportunities
- Going to work for something one loves with people you like
- Satisfaction through using one's skills
- Reward is the flexibility, and pay is just as good
- Priority is always oneself, not the work - a life work choice he made (Life-work balance NOT Work-life balance)
- Younger companies benefiting from experience and an external viewpoint
- Skill transfer and knowledge capital being important for the future
- New business models emerging
- Get out there and engage!
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/damiendsouza/
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