This is Techie and the
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Biz–a podcast to explain and simplify how business technology
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is changing and why it can benefit your organization.
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Today we’re joined by Lori Thomas, Senior Vice
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President of strategic engagement for MetTel. Lori
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leads the firm’s strategic engagement and
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transformation efforts with over 20 years of
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experience working for Fortune 50 organizations. She
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served as the global head of sales and
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Professional Services and board member for
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Vodafone Global Enterprises Telecom management.
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She is also the recipient of a Stevie
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award for women of the year for business services.
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Lori is also a member of Chief the only private
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membership network focused on connecting and supporting
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women executive leaders. Welcome Lori.
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welcome. Hi. It’s so good
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to see you both.
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You having me? This is great. It’s
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been a while.
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It has it has some Lori. Just to kick
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us off. How did your career in tech really
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influence your current success in a
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customer engagement leadership role? I think the last few decades
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in being in the technical environment and just having
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a very deep interest in emerging technology. It’s
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giving me a great foundation for
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understanding digital trends and then applying that to
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customer engagement and I think that
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you know having a technical background some others might
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be adverse to adopting that new technology where
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I’m always looking for something
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to make the engagement better. I think too being
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able to take a technical concept whether
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I’m working with senior technologists or
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just business strategists within our customer base being
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able to translate those technical Transformations into
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business terms and strategies has been
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invaluable.
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What is the focus of your role at MetTel?
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So I’m primarily focused working with our
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largest, most strategic customers. Typical, you
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know, type multinational corporates Fortune
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type Enterprises that are
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very complex in nature. And I’m test
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with customer. Advocacy making sure
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we’re delivering on our commitments but also really understanding
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their business and taking all
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of that Intel and listening and bringing
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it back to the organization so that every level within
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MetTel that works with those customers. We have
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a singular view and how we help them achieve those goals
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and you know a big part of what my
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team works on is customer education and
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we have a few platforms that have been really successful one
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of which is our Innovation Summit, which
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I host on behalf of MetTel every year and it’s
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really bringing industry thought leadership and
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bringing peer to peer use cases
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together so that they can really
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even more educated than they than when they showed up and so
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that’s that’s really important and then arming them
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with those business intelligence tools and Reporting making sure
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they have real-time consumable data.
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One thing in business that the pandemic
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taught us is that while business can continue to adjust
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and fit a new normal nothing replaces the
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face-to-face one-on-one customer engagement. It’s hard
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to forge relationships through a computer screen and
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to feel motion and to connect and to
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get that personal engagement understanding your customer
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facilitating open communication anticipating their
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needs as you say, how is customer engagement involved
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over the last 20 years and the recent pandemic.
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What is the difference?
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Yeah, it’s it’s changed quite a bit. I think,
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you know with technological advancements consumer Behavior
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just new channels for
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interaction. I think, you know with the emergence of the internet and smartphones
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and social applications customers want
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to control their narrative. They want to control how
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they interact with their vendors and
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it’s all of those things and it’s really important
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today to make sure that no
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matter how they’re interacting in person, which is invaluable
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but smart Bots websites social
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media that it’s a seamless interaction
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no matter how they do that. And so that they can get
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their real-time information when they need it. They get their
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problems resolved, but it’s it’s how they want to do it and I
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think it’s changed so much because it used to
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be very product Centric vendors would just push out what they
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were selling and today it’s really, you
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know, much more customer-centric you need to
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understand what your customers challenges are.
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What
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trying to solve for and then give them
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the ability to interact with you and solution
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what’s really best for them and keep them ahead of
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their competition.
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That’s interesting. So it’s really transitioning
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from what used to be selling from what you know,
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from what I’m seeing to more collaboration and
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education. Absolutely, you know,
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they’re really looking for while you’d like to
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sell them everything and be there one step shop for
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everything and I think it’s most important to
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just understand what they need and very often we find
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ourselves solutioning things that these very
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complex Enterprises Global Enterprises have
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so many touch points and
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interconnections with different vendors that being able to
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collaborate with them and work with them and often their their
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other vendors really makes for a very
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frictionless type deployment and very successful.
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Nice, you’ve mentioned in the Innovation Summit,
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which I hear was a huge success award-winning Innovation
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Summit. I will probably be happy. I
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will forever remember Max talking
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about how great that it was in Arizona, especially because
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he got to take pictures with a
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camel. It wasn’t a camel. It was a Lama.
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Oh, it might have been
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in alpaca. But oh, okay do
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it on that. Oh my gosh and
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alpaca. Well, that’s the one that doesn’t spit right
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because I was gonna say he’s lucky that it didn’t spit on him.
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You mean llama spit I thought only camel
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spit. No, they actually the distinction. I
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think they do spit on they do it to get
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them when the males are giving them advances that they don’t like I hear
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they spit on the female llama spit
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on the males. I did not know that yeah.
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Anyway, well now you know, we maybe we
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need to look into this the animals. I see a theme here,
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you know, maybe you can get some long horned.
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What are they called the thing? I think they’re looking at armadillos
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now for our next one in San Andreas San
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Antonio? Okay similar races. I don’t
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know the other one. I remember was a donkey. Oh my
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yeah, that’s it. Right there. We are. See
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she’s got a picture of it. Thank you. Very attached
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to that donkey. Yeah. Yeah, I was gonna say
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the the long horns for Texas with
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for the next one the upcoming, you know coming Summit.
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I love it. I could see my next selfie coming.
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Yes, I can see it too make the world. So just
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to get us back on track. I know we have a
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development initiative. We call the metal Innovation lab for
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creating unique forward-thinking products.
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Can you describe how that plays into
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customer engagement? Absolutely, so,
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you know being able to
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work with often it’s our early adopter customers
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that want to make sure what
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they’re bringing into their organiz.
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And is right for their organization our Innovation
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lab was initiated to really co-develop Solutions
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with them when it’s non-invasive
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in a very controlled environment that
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they can test and trial and measure
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success as we develop with
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them so that when it does roll out, it’s very
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very effective and you know in line with our Innovation lab,
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we have a client Advisory Board who
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it consists about two dozen sea level
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technologists from public companies and
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and very often they are early adopters
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and and often have tapped into our lab and
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we’ve done some pretty interesting. I’m sure people have seen
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our startling press release where we took our
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Management Services and our sd-wan solution and
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did that over Starling and that started in the lab and
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it was to make sure that when we were ready to deploy it was
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going to be a success and we were able to give good
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news to our customer base.
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That’s great. So what would you say are the benefits to
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organizations of taking this customer first approach versus
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just developing a product that would
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you know, an organization thinks the market can consume and
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then just Distributing it.
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Yeah, so I think you know being able to
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build something with your customers. They really appreciate
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the willingness and the time that you would invest
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to to build something for them and with them versus just
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trying to have prepackaged hand solutions
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that they have to retrofit and and often
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don’t work and then they have to start from scratch again. I
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think two, you know in a customer first approach
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having longevity or consistency. So
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for mettel in particular are founders
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have been there for you know,
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almost 30 years right from the beginning that
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you know that consistent message and
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customer first approach has you know
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infiltrated the organization and our customers really
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appreciate that. I mean Max you and I are over 10
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and we’re you know, we still here that’s
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right. Exactly. And you know, we hear this all the
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time particularly in Telecom in Tech or
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you know, our customers are constantly telling us.
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We get a different account team every other week from this vendor or
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that vendor and our customers themselves, you
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know, if many customers a big
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retailer as an example, we’ve been with them, you know, 15 plus years for
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maybe nine or ten of those every year they
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completely changed out their leadership team. And so
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that’s incredibly disruptive and distracting
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when they’re trying to roll out new tech and
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do transformational activities. So often are
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consistency and Longevity and
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stable account teams.
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Have become an extension of their it teams
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because we have all the tribal knowledge of what was happening
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in their environment and we’re able to help them navigate as they’re
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trying to do new things. So I think I think they really do
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appreciate that that consistent and frequent
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understanding and communication to help
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them move forward. I think it’s important
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to point out some of the greatest products or the greatest
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product success. We’ve had over the last 10 years and I
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don’t think people realize it started with this Innovation
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lab and engagement with the
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customer approach whether it’s St. Wayne mobile
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devices a service or mdas offering
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or single Sim which has been hugely successful all
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started out utilizing this format and
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engaging customers and having them tell us
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what what works and what doesn’t so that we can make slight
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changes in the product to make sure it’s a perfect
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fit for their industry. Absolutely. I I endless
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meetings where I sat with Max and other
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of our
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technologists with our Advisory Board where
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you would bring them a briefing
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whether it was 5G or MDS or what’s
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happening in the management work service space and they
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they would often start out
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with how does that relate to us to me
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specifically in my industry or what’s the use
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case and those early conversations?
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Helped shape our development of
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where we were going to go with it to make it really really useful for those
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customers. And yes, so it’s it’s been a
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great success and they help they help us shape our product
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roadmap. That’s that makes it very unique to
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their industry for sure.
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Laurie today in Tech it’s common to see women leadership roles,
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but that was not always the case. Can you share the
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experience from your journey?
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Yes, that’s very true. When I started out
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in the technology in Telecom space
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there were very few women leaders. And even
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the ones that were there were not broadly recognized
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or publicized at all.
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So it was very difficult to navigate and you
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know, I think if you asked anyone off the street
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at during those decades who are male,
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you know influential mail
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technology leaders, they would tell you Gates and Steve
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Jobs in Bezos and Elon Musk and it would come readily available.
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And I think if you ask those same people about women leaders,
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they’d be hard-pressed to name some but that’s
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changing. It’s definitely changing for the better not fast
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enough, but it but it is changing.
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That’s actually exciting news to hear especially with
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our 17 year old daughter thinking over
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future and applying the colleges. I keep
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telling her and her brothers that the future is in
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cybersecurity. So start coding every day
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every day. He’s telling them this great advice
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because it’s it keeps me up at night. What I
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what I the little I know and all that I don’t know. So it’s
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a tremendous fields for aspiring young
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business professional for sure. I’ve always found it
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interesting that it really depends on the field when speaking
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of leadership roles because in healthcare for
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example in the nursing profession where I was working for
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a long time women held the leadership roles
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and it took many years for the men to feel like
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they were equals in the profession, but with women entering
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leadership roles in Tech where there have
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been predominantly men as you say and in these roles, what would
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you say is influencing this change?
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I think it’s a couple of things I
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think one is just awareness of gender
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inequality and and an increased
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awareness for diversity and inclusion. And I
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think having now more education more
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awareness has been opened the
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door to an openness to hire more people in
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underrepresented groups and therefore as that permeates,
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there’s more of an acceptance and and
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you know, it it becomes a contagious in a
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very good way. I think also the the
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women in Tech are
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more there’s more advocacy and mentorship which
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was not always available in past
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decades and there’s much much more of
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that and you touched on Chief at the beginning of our
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session. I’m very proud to be a part
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of that organization that started in
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2019 Carolyn Childers
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and Lindsay Kaplan they
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launched.
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And that’s the year that I joined and they’ve just
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done tremendous work in helping get
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women to the top and bringing others
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with them and keeping them there. And so it’s
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it I think all of those awareness education
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and advocacy and mentorship
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are all contributing to to the change and
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actually this year the first year that
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the Fortune 500 list hit 10%
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of women CEOs, which
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is you know, tremendous it’s at 53
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long way to go but it was seven, you
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know back in 2002, so
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huge huge step chain, but a long
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way to go yet.
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Awesome, that’s exciting. Yeah 10% So that’s a
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big number. Yeah, but like you said there’s there’s obviously a lot
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a lot more to go.
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Okay. Well that brings us
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to game time.
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This is where we play a game with you Lori to
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get to know you a little better. And for this episode. We’d like
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to play a game called drinks deal or defer.
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March being women’s History Month. I think it’s
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a perfect opportunity for three strong and
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dynamic women for the game. So after
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all empowered women in power women,
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so our first person that
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I would like to tell you about is Dolly Parton.
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Dally is the most successful female country singer of
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all time.
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The bulk of dollies Fortune comes from her
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stake in the theme park Dollywood. She’s also
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owns her own catalog and thanks to a million
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dollar donation. She helped fund the
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research behind the Moderna covid-19 vaccine.
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This oh, by the way, do you know have you ever been to Dollywood?
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And Tennessee, I have been there you have
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heard about it though, by the way, I did not know that I
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know you’ve been to Dollywood and
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I’m not gonna give up my answer yet because I haven’t heard
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the other Canada right? That’s call me
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Dolly for you know Affinity to
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to her name I have
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to say a fun fact about dolly is that
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she has never gone on any of the rides in her
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park. So apparently there is some type of
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motion sickness or she just doesn’t want to mess up her hair
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or both and appreciate and appreciate.
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All right, number two Gwen Shotwell
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president and CEO of SpaceX in
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her time at SpaceX. She has built the Falcon
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vehicle family manifest to more than 70 launches SpaceX
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was the first private company to put commercial
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satellites into orbit and the first private company
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to send humans into orbit to the International Space Station.
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It is also the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation
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operator.
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Shotwell has also been included in the women in Technologies International Hall of
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Fame.
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And she was named one of two time magazines 100
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most influential people in the world in 2020.
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And number three a Mal Clooney
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Amal Clooney is the co-founder and
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co-president along with her husband George of the
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Clooney foundation for justice. She’s also a
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barrister specializing in international law and human
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rights and represents victims of human right
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violation and National and international courts. This is
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Clooney is also helped secure freedom for political prisoners around
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the world, including journalists and opposition figures.
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So here we go. Who would you like to have drinks with
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make a deal or defer Dolly Gwen or
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Amal?
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Wow, those are some.
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Fantastic and influential women and it’s a
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tough one. I would say that so Amal
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Clooney was a speaker.
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I think a repeat speaker at Chief and she is
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a great inspirational, you know influenced to
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the world but also to the chief community and I
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didn’t get the privilege of hearing that and so
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I would be very interested in hearing her. So I
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think for her I would have drinks and I
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would like to hear all the incredible initiatives that that she’s
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doing and ongoing basis and I think when
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Wow, I mean the next Frontier and
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this is you know, very near and dear from from a
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professional perspective was what we’re doing with satellites and
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with SpaceX and just the influence
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that she has and also being a woman and I
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think that that from a professional standpoint. I would love to do a
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deal with her and extend that to our customer base and
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well, I love Dolly and I love her name. I
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guess I will have to defer since I only get to pick two
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but maybe for the next time and I’m not big on rides either.
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So maybe when she opens a different park
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that’s not rides. I’ll I’ll pick her. I think
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she’s looking into a museum, but you mentioned that your husband refers to
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you as Dolly. So where’s that connection?
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You know, I it was just something that he started when
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we were dating. I don’t think it had any affiliation to teleport
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but you know,
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it comes out when we’re in mixed settings
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and it always takes people’s Dolly. How does how did that start
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so it’s not anything too exciting but it is it is
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what he refers to me as unless he’s mad Glory. Those
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are all great choices. I
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mean you can’t go wrong. Like you said with all these amazing women. So you
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think yeah enough time.
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I’d love to meet them all for sure.
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I actually would too.
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Thank you Lori for talking to us today. It was so nice to speak
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with you. It was great to see you both and thank you
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so much. If you’d like to learn more about strategic engagement
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00:20:50.800 –> 00:20:53.600
team or any other services at metal
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00:20:53.600 –> 00:20:56.700
go to metal.net or contact your Meto
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00:20:56.700 –> 00:20:57.600
sales representative.
