S1 - Episode #19: Glyn Roberts - CTO of Digital Solutions - iTechArt Group
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About Glynn:
Glyn Roberts is the CTO of Digital Solutions at iTechArt Group, a leading software development company that helps VC-backed, mature start-ups and fast-growing tech companies build successful, scalable products. He’s worked as a CTO for many start-ups in the past, helping them find successful solutions to business problems. In addition, Glyn founded his own technology solutions company, called Zappit, that focused on bringing innovation to the OOH industry, retail space and events by heavily incorporating NFC, BLE and QR for payments, coupons and personalised experiences.
Synopsis:
In this episode of The Technology Leadership Podcast, Glyn Roberts discusses what it takes to be a CTO and technology leader today. He talks about the industry trends he’s witnessed, what he learned from founding his own technology solutions company, the work-from-home culture and its benefits and when and how to approach recruiters for your company. Glyn also shares his thoughts on building high-performance distributed teams and how they contribute to the growth of organisations.
Key Takeaways:
Understand the importance of having deep understanding of technology trends, being client-focused and directing an organisation as a CTO.
Learn why working from home offers more flexibility to structure time and achieve a better work-life balance.
Hear why you can't be fully reliant on an organisation to train you and the important of taking additional responsibility to ensure development.
Discover why you should make technology as simple as possible and use services that make your job easier.
Understand how to foster a better culture of diversity and inclusion using the way you phrase things and convey your ideas.
Learn how to manage recruitment partners and the benefits of having a trial period with specific goals and to get a sense of the calibre of candidates they can bring.
Get more insight into managing a distributed team and how to overcome barriers to communication and exchange information effectively as well as using software tools and choose appropriate technologies to work proactively and streamline the project vision.
Episode Outline:
[00:53] Meet Glyn
[04:44] Glyn’s most significant achievements so far, including the factors that led him to being a successful CTO
[13:07] Why the things that look hardest at the start are sometimes rewarding in the end
[13:58] The benefits of working from home and how to have a flexible structure to your day
[16:37] Taking responsibility for personal growth
[17:53] Choosing the right start-up to work for as a Leader
[21:43] Glyn’s first start-up and his experience
[28:43] Five things to keep in mind when approaching a startup to work with
[31:39] Building high performance, distributed teams
[34:57] How Glyn works with recruiters to find the best talent for his company
[41:19] Glyn’s experience joining his new company amid COVID
[48:30] Defining a high performance distributed team
[52:02] Avoiding burnout at work
[01:00:13] Why self-awareness in so important, especially in today’s times
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