What We Learned Early In Our Careers That Helps Us Provide Sage Advice To Our Clients
By Andy Miller, Managing Partner and Dino Di Palma, Managing Partner
As you may have seen in True North Advisory’s press release, we joined Mike, Jim, and Scott to help our clients grow and scale their businesses. We wanted to share our moments and learnings that enable us to assist clients in their growth strategy and initiatives. We both come with extensive CxO experience and deep industry knowledge. Let’s start from the beginning.
Hello! Let me introduce myself. I’m Andy Miller and throughout my 30 + year career in the technology space, there were moments that I can reflect upon now that I feel are powerful nuggets of learnings which should resonate with our clients, whether they are start-up entrepreneurs or larger public/private companies.
Probably my most impactful memory was when I decided to depart Cisco after a ten year career that was meteoric in terms of growth, to assume the CEO role at Tandberg which was based in Olso, Norway. While at Cisco, it was easy to assume that in fact culture, leadership, customs, and the US lens of business was transferable to any company. It was when I landed in Oslo for my first day, that I was able to see that there was a very different set of customs, expectations, culture and looking at the world through a non American lens.
This experience, living aboard and as the only American on the executive team, was a wake up call to me. I had to earn the respect of the team and the business, no matter what my track record was at Cisco, this was a brand new world that I now live in. Fast forward, having travelled over 4 Million miles over my career, I always tell my clients that you have to look at your business not only in a global sense, but to be prepared to gear your business to the culture, customs and processes for the country you are doing business in.
One of the first lessons learned on day one is when our Chairman at Tandberg told me to stop talking about culture, and focus on the values and attitudes of that particular geography. It was a wake up call that I discuss with all of my clients when discussing geographic expansion.
What an impressive beginning, Andy. Let me share my story. I’m Dino Di Palma and was former COO of Acme packet. The question I had to answer a few years ago on a podcast regarding startups was “how hard can it be”. The Acme Packet journey was not for the faint of heart. I want to share a few key early learnings.
It was around 7 AM on a Monday morning and we are checking into some hotel around the world. The early Acme Packet days included a crazy amount of traveling. As I would walk into the hotel I would often hear my name being called out. Inevitably it was Jim, Mike or Scott leaving the hotel for a BroadSoft customer meeting. In Europe I was often accompanied by Mario Oliveira. Mario always looked ready to go while I was a tad disheveled. The Broadsoft crew would have the same customer agenda as Acme Packet. In France we would do our rounds visiting the likes of Orange, SFR and the one Telco that no one could pronounce Bouygues. Let’s also not forget the partner visits to Alcatel and Ericsson.
Early on we understood that this journey was not going to be a 9/5 job. You needed to invest an unimaginable amount of time and energy listening to your customers. This was instilled early in my career. Prior to Acme Packet I worked at another start up in the comms space called Priority Call Management. At Priority Call Management I was responsible for the two high growth emerging markets Asia & Latin America. The best lesson I learned from our local partner CEO Mr. Chan was you need to spend time in the local market to truly make an impact. This demonstrates your long term commitment to the region. In the early days I would reach the 1K mark on United Airlines 2-3 months into the year. The best way to listen to customers is to be with your customers. This investment enabled us to understand the local requirements and culture. This guided our go to market strategy and product roadmap paving our way to a leadership position in the market. Stay tuned for more key learnings and the growth in the Broadsoft - Acme Packet relationship.
