What’s pleased you most about Empowered and OrderWork having now completed your first year in the business?

A couple of things stand out; our people are passionate about solving customer problems. We have engaged with customers with real purpose for helping them with their objectives, ensuring we know WHY they need to adopt our services, as well as how and what it is we provide. When I joined, we set out to adopt a strategy that would make us attractive to our customers, our partners and our people, and we ultimately proved that recently when we concluded the acquisition of our group by a serious player in our market – Evernex. Not only a reflection of our success but also represents a great opportunity to supercharge our strategy. 

You’ve described your organisation as a “people business” — what does that mean to you as a leader?

I have a belief that ‘people’ are capable of anything when they work together towards a goal, or (even better), a purpose. I try to encourage high levels of collaboration across our teams – focused on supporting our customers and ultimately making our day-to-day pursuits enjoyable and as successful as possible. 

On the recent acquisition by Evernex , how do you feel about the fit for the group, and how does the acquisition accelerate your strategic vision?

Firstly, when we met Evernex and discussed a ‘partnership’ it became clear we were aligned in how we see the market, supporting the channel and offering ‘solutions’ to operational challenges. Then as soon as we started to discuss their desire to acquire the business – the cultural and strategic alignment was excellent.  The final proof point for me was that we didn’t have to change our strategic direction – the acquisition and now working as part of Evernex, will only increase the value and momentum of what we’re building for our customers.   

What aspects of the Evernex acquisition are you most excited about for our customers, partners and people?

Evernex has made it clear they’ve acquired us for our skills and experience, so for now they want us to ‘lead’ them into new opportunities. As well as help them cross-sell and upsell to their customers. Ultimately as we realise the benefits of being a global services business with turnkey solutions – our customers will be able to trust us to deliver wherever they need us to with core capability to support them across the entire technology scope.   

What have you learned about what partners really value from a channel services enablement provider today?

Success in the channel services market relies heavily on strong relationships, with a high degree of trust. We must show that we care what our customers are trying to achieve to help inform how we help them solve their challenges. When we have achieved a level of trust, then they need agility and often scale to be there when and how they need services to be made available. At the beginning of last year, we made a decision to invest in the sales team to ensure we had excellent relationship managers with the acumen to discuss ‘business’ with all of our customers. 

A book/podcast/idea that’s influenced your strategic thinking this year?

I am a bit of a geek about leadership and strategy so have read a few books that help me learn – but the two books that have long been the most valuable way to approach our business – Start with Why and The Infinite Game, both by Simon Sinek. They essentially define that, it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters WHY you do it. And that the objective is not to ‘win’ the next deal – but build business and relationships that will sustain any ups and downs (pandemics, geo-political impact, or just economic cycles). Both of these ‘messages’ perpetuate the need to build loyal trusting relationships with people. 

What do you want Empowered to be known for 12 months from now — in one sentence?

Continuing to solve our customers’ problems, albeit now, on a global scale and building trust based on authentic relationships with the people we work with. 

Great partnerships start with great conversations. To explore how we can support you, contact us at [email protected]