115: Transformers | Allan Boyle on Growth Stage Scaling, People and Change

Allan Boyle, founder of Saltwater Consulting, joins the show to talk about helping growth-stage companies scale, putting people at the center of digital transformation, how to get to the root of a problem…and his love-hate relationship with handwriting!

Show Notes
Guest Profile

This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by PAT Fintech, the training partner that demystifies fintech and digital finance for financial services professionals.

EPISODE OVERVIEW:

Saltwater Consulting is an Ireland-based strategic consulting firm specialising in providing businesses with experienced executive capacity and resources where needed during periods of transition and rapid growth.

When Allan connected with Pete Townsend and Eoin Fitzgerald, what stood out is Allan’s diverse track record across geographies, industries and business stages, and the number of repetitions in problem-solving he’s had. Also, given his focus on growth-stage companies, the problems Allan is helping to solve are the problems that earlier stage startups will eventually face, so there’s a crystal-ball context to this episode for early-stage startups as well.

HIGHLIGHTS:

On why he started his business: “Being part of AWS for a couple of years and watching how even the largest companies can scale rapidly was absolutely fascinating. That led to me starting Saltwater Consulting earlier this year, as what I really want to do is help companies scale.”

On his modus operandi: “As companies scale, [for example], getting that alignment between sales and engineering can be challenging at times. That's where I come in - I work with tech leaders to help them understand where they're going, identify people and process gaps, and help implement operational mechanisms.”

On the Rule of 3 and 10 from Hiroshi Mikitani: “Every single time the business triples in size, everything breaks - systems, people, the organization, everything. Technology is easy; you can replace that, you can scale it, you can adapt it, whatever. But it's the [organisational] systems, the processes and the people side I'm interested in, and that's why I'm doing what I'm doing.”

On his focus on the people side of digital transformation: “There's a need for people in anything you do. If you build a digital platform where you’re going to have millions of customers, you need to have some level of humans behind that.”

On an example of measuring what matters: “If you want to have a certain conversion ratio of sales, your metrics are what you’re putting into the funnel. What's happening with marketing? What are the activities people are doing at various points of the pipeline? You're not going to get that conversion If you don't track every step of the sales process.”

On looking ahead: “The future, for me, is about understanding how customer service evolves in this new digital world.”

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