The second part of the tenth edition of the Putting the Human back into technology podcast is called Digital Transformation or Continuous Improvement John Stenton – Part 2 . 

For the tenth episode, we decided to change things a little. We broke the interview into two parts and will release each part separately. This is part 2, the final part of John’s interview.

We have made a tweak to our questions too. You can find the questions asked in part two below, along with a transcript of the answers.

This week’s Guest is John Stenton, The Head of IT for Thrive Homes. John gives a very candid interview about how his organisation uses technology and the impact the last year has had on the people of the Thrive Homes. 

The Questions – Part 2 

We asked John the following questions.

1. Thinking about Digital Transformation, do you think most organisations need to “transform” or is it more about “continual improvement”…and why?
2. Do most organisations want to drive value from data/technology? How do you think technology and people solutions should be weighted or balanced?
3. What advice would you give your younger self or those starting/changing their career?
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself that perhaps nobody else knows about you?

The Links

You can view Digital Transformation or Continuous Improvement John Stenton – Part 2 on YouTube

You can listen to Digital Transformation or Continuous Improvement John Stenton – Part 2 on anchor

Previous Episodes

• Episode 1 – Special Guest Mark Williams
• Episode 2 – Special Guest Simon Jones
• Episode 3 – Special Guest David Rawle
• Episode 4 – Special Guest Ben Kite
• Episode 5 – Microsoft Build Edition
• Episode 6 – Special Guests Simon Grosse and Liz Rogers
• Episode 7 – Special Guest Ben Morris
• Episode 8 – Special Guest Edwin Sarmiento
• Episode 9 – Special Guest David Richards
• Episode 10 Part 1  – Special Guest John Stenton

The Transcript

Question 1 – Thinking about Digital Transformation, do you think most organisations need to “transform” or is it more about “continual improvement”…and why?

John Stenton  

It depends on the business. If you’re a one-person business, I don’t know fixing fences? How much digital do they need? As long as people could call you? But if you’re trying to sell products over the internet, you 100% need to be digital. But it depends on the circumstances. It does on what you what products you’re selling it and how you are you selling it.

Small businesses for example definitely need to be involved in social media. But does is that what would you call that digital transformation or continual improvement? You’re not changing the infrastructure or changing the business model?

Question 2 – Do most organisations want to drive value from data/technology? How do you think technology and people solutions should be weighted or balanced?

John Stenton  

You’re actually getting into two or more pet subject? So if I if I ramble on too long. Okay. Okay, technology and people in the business, the business should drive the tech. Good, absolutely. 100%. But the business doesn’t know what tech to drive. If you own voeckler, what’s available. So it’s around what the possibilities are, and what the business needs, and how that’s going to work with the people. And it’s it goes back to the triple constraint every time. What does the business need, what technology is available? And what can the people actually use. But my real pet subject is data. Data is king. I really 100% don’t mind what applications my users use, as long as it’s safe and secure, and do the job. If they don’t like their I don’t know their CRM in two years and they want to change it, that’s fine. But I keep that base data. That data always stays there. It’s always in real time. It’s always single source of truth. And it’s always accessible by anything else that we want to hook on there. Whether that’s a customer portal, or a finance system, or anything else that data needs to be available in an understandable form. And then we can start using that data to start guiding the business.

Currently, we’re running on KPIs, and they’re a month out of date. So you’re, you’re, you’re driving a barge on the steering from the bike. And if you change that paddle, the nose goes. And he swings a long way. If we can get the data, the data to give the decision makers the data, they need to make a decision, or guide it from the front, they only need tiny, small tweaks on the business, to map out where they want to be to put the waypoints in the way and to get to the one after another.

Question 3 – What advice would you give your younger self or those starting/changing their career?

I’m not going to limit it to it. But definitely, career-wise, the one thing that I would advise is to follow your passion. Always, always try to do something that you really, really enjoy, and gets you out of bed every morning. And I know I was exactly the same when I was younger chasing the money. But the money comes. And if you’re following your passion, you are going to be flippin good at your role. And the money will come with it. And I know it’s hard when you started off your career. But do what you enjoy what you really, really, really want to do.

Question 4 – Tell me a fun fact about yourself that perhaps nobody else knows about you?

Okay, very, very few people know this, but I have a pawn shop for body art. So I have several tattoos. Do a lot more dragons. Well, we’re guessing I well, should I have a read, though? Oh, sorry. was quite lucky up until that point.