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How COVID is shifting typical hierarchal structures.

On episode 32 of The Tech That Connects Us Podcast John Clifton and Tegan Lloyd Williams interviewed Nancy Goldberg, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Nagravision.  

From professional rock climbing and snowboarding to the EVP of Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at the Kudelski Group and Nagravision, Nancy has walked a very different path to most people in her position and one part of the interviewed that really stood out for us was how Nancy and Nagravision adapted their leadership style over the past 12 months.  

As a leader, how have you had to adapt your style over the last sort of 12 months or so? 

“I would say these last 12 months it’s been really tough, but incredibly helpful at the same time. It’s really pushed us in a way that we weren’t necessarily super comfortable with in the beginning, but it’s really opened our eyes and opened our ability to manage in a different way.  

I think one thing that we have been able to embrace over this last year is really looking at our entire employee base and shift away from the standard hierarchical structures, really empowering people across the entire organisation, with decision making, execution and what success even means.  

That is what has shifted for us in this organisation. This is a company that for many, many years was very hierarchical with our decision making; it was done from the top down. But when COVID hit we’re suddenly having to work in a completely different way, in completely different environment.  

Now, we have shifted into smaller teams all over the world. And all of these smaller teams can take on problems, resolve those problems, and push them back onto the organisation effectively. So that’s where I see where we’ve changed not only from a company perspective, but my own management style.”

What is the most positive outcome that has that has come out of this? 

“The most positive outcome, I believe out of this period has been camaraderie, collaboration and teamwork. Again, I think that as we have had to deal with the situation, and we are spread across 33 countries around the world with about 3,300 employees. We had to come together as ‘mini teams’ to resolve immediate problems and deal with time zone issues and deal with things in real time.  

For me the best thing that’s come out of this is this renewed sense of camaraderie of team spirit of collaboration. To me, that’s the biggest benefit that we have achieved over this period, or the biggest benefit from a very bad situation.”

Every Wednesday we sit down with some of the biggest names in our industry, we dedicate our podcast to the stories of leaders in the technologies industries that bring us closer together. Follow the link here to see some of our latest episodes and don’t forget to subscribe.   

The Future of Content is AI & Metadata

On Episode 31 of The Tech That Connects Us John Clifton and Will Trenchard sat down with the passionate Matt Westrup, VP Technology & Operation, A+E Networks UK and really delved deep into content, metadata, 5G and much more.  

A particular section of the conversion caught our attention as Matt expressed some interesting thoughts on the future and opportunities in the industry, especially when it comes to content and streaming, we caught that little soundbite and did a small write up, read more below: 

What do you think the future holds for the technology and consumer experience? 

I think AI and metadata will be the future. The idea of discoverability and personalization will become ever more a focus and will evolve very quickly, giving the chance for the consumption of content to feedback into the production of content, which is quite an interesting idea, and something people are going to have to find a balance around is creativity versus insights.  

5G is another future for consumer experience, this technology suddenly gives the consumer a whole different experience, especially with streaming and mobile use. These are the two technologies that will absolutely make a commercial difference. 

And where do you see the greatest opportunities in terms of the service? 

The ability to with confidence deliver content to a mass of people with the knowledge that they will absolutely love it and they’re appreciative that it ended up with them will be a big opportunity in the industry. But also, the different ways of partnering for distributions, the traditional lines of the ‘supply chain’ are being smashed, rebuilt and rerouted. And this change causes an initial lack of certainty on where your audience are on the supply chain, which is a big opportunity to innovate. 

And when it comes to the younger demographic, thoughts of short form video and gaming come to mind, do you think this has a role to play? 

Totally. And going back to metadata and AI, there are all sorts of businesses that are constantly producing new content, and that’s going to be having to be thought of very differently for those platforms, to be relevant, because we know the competition is there.  

But also, these extraordinary archives that many, many companies assessing how to we surface the data to be able to understand what value that could have? And what imagination can we apply to that to create something new out of it? So really there’s two kind of dynamics going on there. 

Every Wednesday we sit down with some of the biggest names in our industry, we dedicate our podcast to the stories of leaders in the technologies industries that bring us closer together. Follow the link here to see some of our latest episodes and don’t forget to subscribe.  

neuco to host Space Café United Kingdom

neuco will be hosting the upcoming Space Café United Kingdom, diving deep into many topics including the UK Space Industry.

This Space Café United Kingdom will feature lan Jones, CEO at Goonhilly Earth Station, in conversation with neuco’s Laurie Scott, Andrew Ball and Ewan Lawrenson, friends of SpaceWatch.Global.

The UK Space Buzz

Ian Jones, Chairman at Satellite Applications Catapult and CEO of Goonhilly Earth Station, one of UK senior experts that has helped developed and expand the satellite communication facilities whilst also adding new services such as Deep Space Communications, Earth Observation satellite tracking, data centre services, advanced manufacturing (electronics), training and outreach, will discuss with Laurie Scott and the neuco team what the future holds might hold for the UK.

The audience will have an opportunity to ask questions in dialogue with Ian Jones.

SpaceWatch.Global is a Switzerland-based digital magazine and portal for those interested in space and the far-reaching impact of the space sector.

Make sure you sign up through the Eventbrite page to take part in the upcoming regional webinar series featuring global space experts. One not to miss if you’re involved in the space industry!

UNICORN-UCOPIA. – $1bn Cyber Valuations we’ve seen this year

Investors have been chomping at the bit so far in 2021, creating a record-breaking* 12 galloping Unicorns to fight global cyber criminals.

Most recently, the end of April saw Vectra AI join the club, winning $130M in their latest funding round and a valuation of $1.2B.

In other news, UK stallion Darktrace went public, after a very thorough examination of its dental records.

*“A record was set in the first quarter of 2021, with 12 cybersecurity unicorns created globally, which is more than double the previous quarterly ” PitchBook (Private market data provider)

Vectra gains $130M funding and $1.2B valuation

Vectra AI, a cyber security, threat detection and response firm has announced an additional $130m round of funding.


Darktrace shares jump 32% in IPO

Cambridge-based cyber security company Darktrace and its backers raise £165m in London debut.


A unicorn on steroids

Wiz raises $130 million series B to reach $1.7 billion valuation a year after its launch


Aqua Security hits unicorn valuation after completing $135 million series E

The Israeli cybersecurity company has stayed ahead of the cloud revolution, refuses to be sold and has it eyes on some acquisitions of its own.


Orca Security raises $210 million, becomes ‘unicorn’ with $1.2 billion valuation

Google’s growth fund leads investment in the Tel Aviv-based cybersecurity firm set up 2 years ago by former execs of Check Point Software Technologies.


New unicorn Axonius raises $100M to expand its cybersecurity asset management platform

Cybersecurity asset management startup Axonius Inc. today revealed it has raised $100 million in new funding on a unicorn valuation of above $1 billion.


Automation for the people

Snyk raises $150 million at $1 billion valuation for AI that protects open source code.


Lacework Banks $525 Million as Cloud Security Market Heats Up

Lacework, a five-year-old cybersecurity company that automates security across enterprise cloud deployments, has reached unicorn status with the closing of a $525 million round of Series D financing.


These latest additions mean that there are now 31 Cyber Security Unicorns due to go public.

So what’s behind these huge valuations, is it set to continue – and what does it mean for the Cyber market in general?

Rather than dampen cyber spending, the rapid digitalisation caused by the pandemic has revealed worrying gaps in IT Infrastructure – further exposed by the accelerated move to Cloud and home working.

And it’s this exponential growth in demand that is causing investors to feel bullish and make sure they are on the right side of these major technological shifts.

Cyber is a huge growing market with healthy competition and – so far –  few monopolies to keep a lid on sky-high valuations, so the trend certainly seems set to continue.