Tanya Arrowsmith 0:01
Okay, it looks like we’re at the top of the hour. So good morning. Good afternoon, and good evening, depending on where you are in the world. Welcome to day three of shared service tech, it is my great pleasure to be opening the first session of today, multigenerational workplace a win-win for all. So my name is Tanya Arrowsmith. So I head up the marketing for Highradius. And I’m based out of London. And it is a great pleasure to be hosting this session today. So just a couple of housekeeping notes. Before we get started. All attendees will be on mute for the duration of this live broadcast. Should you have any questions for the panelists, please do pop them into the Q&A chatbox, and we will answer them at the end of the session. Just let you know this session is being recorded and will be available on-demand later today. We’d also appreciate you rating our session. We have some hearts just above the video screen you’re viewing right now. But if you’re in full-screen mode, you’ll need to exit this to submit your feedback and, of course, also all important questions of the panelists today. So okay, that’s all the housekeeping notes done.
Thank you very much. And I will now introduce our panelists. So we have Mark Harrison and Fernando Azevedo. Apologies for your pronunciation. Mark has 35 years of experience in credit management. And his career path has taken him into a wide range of industry verticals, where he has been part of technology innovation and implementation. Mark is the founder of Callisto Grand and strongly believes that by putting effort into credit management, it will give back 100 fold with talent development, technology, and transition.
Fernando is Director of Digital Transformation at Highradius and his partner to his customers and clients to unlock business outcomes through process technology, and organizational changes, Utilizing the Highradius integrated receivable platform. Fernando brings over 15 years of experience in order to cash, IBM, and consulting experience at Deloitte supporting finance transformation projects within the global business service practices.
Welcome, gentlemen.
Mark Harrison 2:20
Thank you. Pleasure to be here.
Fernando Azevedo 2:20
Thank you, Tanya.
Tanya Arrowsmith 2:23
Great, great. Okay, so let’s start off those all-important questions you all. So first one to you, Mark. today’s workforce is more complex than ever before, diluting stereotypes that each generation comes with. How important is the multi-generational workplace setting during these current times and I’m sure in the future?
Mark Harrison 2:44
Yeah. Thanks very much. I think it’s, I think the first thing to recognize is that it’s important to appreciate that the pandemic triggered in the current recession and difficulties is really only one of many challenges that this is facing, and simultaneously today. And the key to multi-generational workforce really is to have leadership and vision. And I think this is an area that we’ll talk about, as we go through today, that there’s still a lot of opportunities for things to be different. But it’s really important. The key thing is experience and to draw on people that have, I’ve seen previous recessions and many other things. And because we are in unusual times. And I think it’s fair to say that the last 10 years have seen, I’ve been very, very kind of quite pleasant for businesses rate is very low-interest rates, not too much to say trauma, and so on. So this has led to a very much a sales orientated workforce, often at the expense of how we say Good Housekeeping around working capital, as in lots of quite high percentage overdue. And now that we were in this situation, it came upon us quite quickly. CFOs are now saying cash is king. But it’s very difficult to change what has become kind of standard practice. Not necessarily good practice. In terms of allowing, for example, longer payments, not so much focus on cash collection, and so on. So this is when we need when these multi-generation really come together. We’ve got the older heads who have, perhaps have experienced this before. A lot of people know how to negotiate and change the situation. A lot of customers were saying we haven’t asked you to pay 30 days before, Now we’re gonna say, Well, you know, these are the terms and conditions, we’re having to be more, more focused on this. But that’s trying to change kind of 10 years of, you know, one mindset to another is not something that can happen easily. So, experienced people can do this, can negotiate, can change things, understand that they get the business picture. And then I think that younger folks can learn from this as well. And bring their energy and enthusiasm and desire to learn as a combination. So it’s actually a great opportunity. Yeah, but visibility through coordinating and so on, but challenging time, pretty exciting times, and opportunity for everybody.
Tanya Arrowsmith 5:50
Absolutely, absolutely. And so, Fernando with your varied experience, working across industry verticals, right from FMV, to the latest, FinTech like Highradius, what would you say of the differences in the way various generations think about similar challenges?
Fernando Azevedo 6:08
Yeah, I think in general, you know, the way the generation might face challenges, you would think that you know, they can apply in most of the industry, they’re going to see those challenges the same way. But at the same time, I think technology plays a key factor, right. So when we look at, you know, traditional industries, which can be transportation, government, or manufacturing. I mean, there’s only like 10% of workforce are millennials or Generation Z, right. And then when you go to technology service, it’s over 35%. So that, you know, shows that technology will still, you know, even be on the attracting, you know, those new generations to the workforce. And I wouldn’t say repelling, but you know, just it’s going to take more time. So that’s one aspect of that, but at the same time, every industry, it needs to, you know, go into this digital transformation, it’s happening, the pandemic accelerated that for sure. To be, you know, able to not only being remote for the work, but every single system now is changing the way they, you know, support that, even if you just want to follow through what everybody is doing are really to lead your market, you need to bring, you know, AI, you need to bring technology and cloud solutions. So, when you apply all this new technology to a traditional industry, that’s going to be more attractive to you know, younger generations. So you just kind of level up a little bit the playing field, I think for cross-functional, I think integration between the generations. So and of course, you know, once these technologies are put in place, I think that’s where Mark was also bringing, I mean, you can have an odd experience. And that you know, really fired that, you know, new generation always bring to the workplace combining and working together. And, and again, as I said, the pandemic really accelerated that everybody needs to, you know, work in a different way.
Tanya Arrowsmith 8:07
Absolutely. So, as you touched upon technology, so GBS leaders are planning to digitally transform order to cash processes across shared services. With thriving, multi-generational, and obviously multilingual employees in terms of automation evokes different responses from different generations ranging from disbelief to excitement. And so is digital transformation embraced by employees from all generations and how can we best handle the change management and Fernando, can you kind of expand on that maybe?
Fernando Azevedo 8:45
Sure, sure. Yeah, I think that that’s a key topic. You know, when you think about the different Generation Z, it’s, you know, when they enter the workforce there started with the phone in their hand, right. So they’re the largest generation group alive today, I mean, but they are only 25% of the workforce. So change in management communication, I think it’s one of the most undervalue critical path digital transformation, when it’s you know, really properly planned and executed, it can reduce a lot of the, you know, the noise that you have on adoption rate and training and usage. So the more involvement that you have from the workforce on the transformation project, that better is going to be the acceptance and that you know, it brings from, you know, the experiences Mark was sharing from you know, older generations that have, you know, a lot of experience in the business, in the industry, in the systems. But with the new generation, they need to be together on that journey. You cannot just, you know, have always a top-down approach. You need to get them evolving from the beginning because that way, you have that buying, you have that support for the objectives there you’re doing. So, I mean, I have participated in a lot of different projects and changed management a lot of times. it’s, you know, relegated to one little piece of the work. And we always try to bring that for and say, Hey, this is key and needs to start now. You cannot do things, you know, just behind the curtains and people just waiting, expect to see the show, because they might not like it. So make them participate in that, you know, creation of that story. And that show is going to be you know, it’s going to be great.
Tanya Arrowsmith 10:29
Absolutely, absolutely couldn’t agree more. So, generational diversity has great potential people from different generations growing, learning from one another, as they are exposed to one another’s ideas and experiences, and the new perspective that they gain can spark new ideas and new ways of working. However, there is obviously a potential for conflict and misunderstanding, as we’re all very aware of. So, intergenerational conflicts within the workplace are a growing issue. How do you think leaders should be equipped to establish inter-generational cohesion effectively? So, Mark, would you like to kick that one off?
Mark Harrison 11:15
Yeah, sure. And I think we’re just past going back to the previous point that Fernando was making as well. I was thinking that the, we’re talking about sort of different generations going perhaps from my generation of baby boomers right through to university leavers today. The kind of, the understanding of change, I think, is a lot different now than, you know, so to carry on with my generation, they say, from my parent’s generation, you know, where, you know, that we had social change or technology changes, they were huge, because there wasn’t anything there before. So it really was a revolution. But in kind of my working time, when I started working 1979-1980. And then the credit area, we were still working with handwritten ledgers. And then we’re working in an accounts department and it was literally built up our own neural network and our company, you know, my first job as a junior was to run down into town and go get a new Amstrad Computer with floppy disks, and all this kind of stuff. So we’ve, you know, this generation actually, step by step grown with the technology transformation. And it’s not unusual now for people my age, or even older, my parents and so on, you know, to be quite comfortable with computers with, you know, Netflix, or Skype or whatever. So that kind of thing is not so, it’s not perhaps so unusual.
However, going back to your question, I think the two really kind of embrace and be cohesive, the keyword is leadership. And I think and I think that applies anytime, anywhere, anybody, but because of what we got going on now, there are so many different challenges that businesses face, it’s down to the leaders to inspire and encourage others to be the best they can, and to push their individual boundaries. And as you were saying, Fernando, just now it’s a great opportunity to get as many people involved in this change management as possible. And, and not to make that mistake I’ve seen and for you, you were referring to project teams, and I promise some elite force that gets parachuted in from the head office, and then they go for this, to really embrace into these to be sustainable projects, you need everybody who’s in, let’s say, in the shared service center to be part of the preparation to look at their portfolio, to tidy them up, to think about what data is going into Highradius, you know what, and what can be new and better coming out the other side is, often one of the mistakes of project management is businesses which just replicate what they had before. They don’t actually really embrace what can be done now. And we’ll talk more about what’s possible later on. But yeah, I think so. Yeah. So these have been able to challenge accepted norms. Yeah, say, right, we were doing all this investment. We’re doing all this stuff. What can we do better that’s done before, what is best in class, move away from silos. One of the things I talk about a lot in Order to Cash is a silo. And then when you have country responsibilities, you actually have silos within silos. And I think what we’re facing now are the pressure on cash flow and working capital and cost reductions and so it’s a wonderful opportunity to think where can we, where’s the waste? Where’s the lead? where’s the benefit? What is being different really has to be the watchword and this is the really strong leaders, you know, people who are prepared to say, No, we ain’t gonna do that and we have all these wonderful opportunities, let’s push it to the max. And then the younger folk are there, to drive that, you know, to really to take that forward over the next decade or whatever it is..to the next recession, which by the way, it’ll be about 20. Yeah. Is there another surprise? And I said, Sorry, carry on,
Fernando Azevedo 15:28
No, no, and I think that’s a marquee you know, just that’s a very good point. It’s, um, you know, its focus on the process, right, focus on you know, the issues that you have to face and not on, you know, what age we have in our workforce. So, for me, like one of the biggest traps that we have when we talk about you know, intergeneration, it’s that stereotyping. If you overstay your type and say, oh, all my young generation is going to be like these all my baby boomer is going to you know, be like these those are just like one of the traits right that you have from people and then you understand you need to learn about them but it’s not the only one you have cultural aspects you know, you have background right you have there what the moment in their life they are right because they might be seeking different things in their life. They might be seeking a short term opportunity to raise their CV, they are looking for financial support, they are looking for stability and that actually I remember there was a kind of a study last year at the Lloyd which showed that like some really key aspects let’s say of stability or work-life flexibility you would imagine that you know, the younger generation will you know, want more of that then you know, older generation but actually, from the past few years that gap between the two has been shrinking a lot what happens you know, people because they’re more interaction today, they’re starting to look a little bit more alike so they’re not that different than imagine the difference just in the age but what they really wanted it just getting to get people being more vocal about what they wanted than 20 years ago in the company and that’s for all generations not for only you know, the new ones.
Mark Harrison 17:11
Yeah, I think that is a good point that people just you know, people are more selective and where they work and you know that and that’s fine there’s nothing wrong with that, you know, and it’s good that they actually that there actually is a choice so that’s a good thing. Yeah. So yeah, it is an interesting thing and you’re also saying about there isn’t that much difference you know, and..and I agree and when I’m one of the other examples I tend to use when we have this conversation, I tend to go around sports as an example. You know, you were saying about stereotyping of the young person. Young people just kind of want to be somewhere for a year, and then they’re off somewhere else, they haven’t got an attention span. Well, this can’t be true. You know, because if we take the business environment and move into a sports environment with very few exceptions, all elite sportsmen are Generation X, Generation Y, Generation Z right? They are all young people, everybody has the talent, and the coaches and the mentors are the older people. right you know so and they and they are then encouraged to be the best they can possibly be in their given sports whatever that is. Yeah, and so so yeah, you know, so I and I something that we often miss in the workplace because we’re driving so much into the process, we lose sight very often of this. They’re mentoring leadership, succession planning, not being afraid to have people challenging managers positions, you know, so you know, encouraging your team to in a year’s time to want to have your job you know, in theory, that’s what everybody should be doing because they just want to move on as well and they can only move on if there’s somebody there to take over it. So I think that there are many facets to this, we look at it in all sorts of different ways. Gen X, Gen Y and so on they’re equally or more talented than any other generation you know that it is no different as you say it’s just being given the opportunities
Fernando Azevedo 19:17
Right right. I think there’s one you brought up a good example is sports and when we look to now hopefully someone here on the chat you know, from the US not gonna crush on me, okay, I’m from Brazil, I’m learning still the NFL, you know, the American football but most of you know, the coaches as you said, you’re going to be you know, that a lot of experience had, you know, I would say older, you know, like, the older generation of coaches, but very recently had a coach for I think, the Los Angeles Rams, Sean McVay, really, and I think his first year he was 33 or 35. And he changed the game. It was a surprise to anyone because you know, he just brought a totally different aspect of how the game was played. He was successful to a certain point, He didn’t win a Superbowl, I think yet, but it really brought down, you know, for one to three years. Everybody says, Well, what is he doing? Nobody did that way before. And you know, and that’s the beauty of it, it just is you can be in that position of leadership being young, and it’s you bring something different to the table, and it’s you being successful.
Mark Harrison 20:19
It is another thing, sport, again, is another good parallel. But another stereotype is, you have to go to university, you know, and I know there’s nothing wrong with that, you know, and where I live in Central Europe, the whole system is geared up for people to get to university. But yeah, but it’s not, it’s not essential, when you look at all the great leaders are Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, I don’t think any of those finished degrees. I’m not saying I’m in that class, but I left all this. You know, I just worked my way up, you know, so that’s another stereotype, you got to have a degree, you know, to be able to succeed, and it’s just down to application and opportunity. Which are they? Right, so for anybody who doesn’t have a degree, don’t give up?
Tanya Arrowsmith 21:11
I certainly didn’t. So I can join that bandwagon. Here we go. So that obviously talking about, you know, education, and so forth, that obviously we need to, you know, do to motivate and re-train your workforce. And so, especially when people are working longer, and they’re delaying their retirement, and internal career paths have probably changed a little bit over the past few years. So incentivizing, motivating people could be different, maybe across the generations. So what do you think those differences could be? And how would you manage those as well? Do you wanna go ahead, Fernando, let’s pick you first.
Fernando Azevedo 21:55
Yeah, sure. Sure, I think is this, you know, very, very related to what I was just showing before about stereotyping. Yeah, and sometimes, you know, can be dangerous, as it should not be the only element for you to evaluate your workforce. So again, you know, aspirations, profile financial needs, is all should be, you know, considered. So the challenge for the leader is really allowing them time to know their team, their trends, their needs. And, and that’s, you know, what that’s what you need to do. You know, I recall a few years ago, I had and I had a large team of about 24, direct reports. And each one had a different need. And I had people that I, you know, was really expecting me to make like a big announcement on to recognize them for something, some good achievement. And there are others that, you know, they would be, you know, they just didn’t want to, even if they have, you know, really done something that would deserve like an award, to be recognized. If I just sent an email and copy everyone, they would be fine. They didn’t want to be publicly recognized for that. They would actually turn them down. So really having the time and that’s a challenge, right? finding time to you know, get to know your team, get to know your people. At the end, they’re the ones doing the job.
Tanya Arrowsmith 23:15
Definitely, definitely.
Mark Harrison 23:17
Yeah, I like that. Because one of my bugbears if you like, of modern businesses, is people spend you spend so much time in meetings. And I think this has become kind of a sign of productivity, you know, the more your calendars fall out, the more you’re doing when you largely you’re not here we’re talking about I’m sure most people out there will say, half of the meetings I do I’d rather be somewhere else. But the thing about that the reason why I say that is that the point you made about getting to know your people is so important. in ways the Fraser Ankle managing by walking about, you know, which is the great mentors I had in my early career were people who did that, you know, I see, all that guy seems to do a walk around with his hands in his pocket, looking, you know, but, but he knew everything about me, and everyone, all my colleagues and every other department and different businesses I worked in. And I think that’s a bit of a lost art. And that also kind of follows through to the notes I made here about what incentivizes people, you could never really go far wrong if you look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Yeah, but whatever generation that is, whatever time that is. It never stands the test of time. You know, that wherever people are in their time of life or their aspirations, it’s, it’s all about engagement, empowerment, reward, and recognition, I think you touched on earlier. And now, those rewards and recognitions might change as you get older or your situation changes. Whatever, whether that’s you move from being a single person into Parenthood, or you move from your 60s into the 70s, or 50s into your 60s, you know what it is will change, you know, as I’m getting older. Now, the thought of, you know, when I think back 20 odd years, we just thought standing at a bus stop at seven o’clock in the morning in the freezing cold going to work is not so appealing anymore.
Fernando Azevedo 25:25
Yeah? Why not?
Mark Harrison 25:26
So if we might do so well, okay, so you work from home for three days or four days now, then you just come in once or whatever, you know, and so, so this is, but this comes back to the point you made about knowing your people or knowing what it is, you know, and I think this, this working from home disruption we’ve had in the last year, has allowed for a lot more humanity, shall we say, or empathy in the world. So there’s a lot of that, then when you align that with, you know, what we’re talking about, really about digital transformation, and upskilling, and all these other things? Yeah, I just keep thinking that windows have been open that perhaps we’re, you know, we’ve been so busy doing the last 10 years, but now, with so many windows open, that we can just Challenge accepted norms to accommodate so many more people. Another one that runs alongside that was like here in Central Europe and other places a large dependency on language skills. And then being within, you know, Prague or Budapest or, you know, wherever the center was located. And the, you know, working from home has turned that on its head, that, you know, your, your talent pool can be so much wider, you know, if you want a French speaker, you could either go to France or North Africa or somewhere else and you know, employ somebody from different talent pools. If you have Spanish speakers, you could go to Costa Rica, or, you know, there are wonderful opportunities to engage people from a much wider pool. And I think, again, this will bring other experiences and other benefits can be brought to bear on this.
Tanya Arrowsmith 27:07
Absolutely. I think he’d bring some fun in as well. I think that’s integral to keeping the motivation going as well.
Mark Harrison 27:16
Having a laugh is important.
Tanya Arrowsmith 27:22
Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so but also, you’ve touched upon upskilling, the workforce is obviously you know, the key to educating people and move them through to different roles, and so forth. So Mark, obviously I’m very well aware of the Callisto Grand Academy that caters to training and development for Order to Cash professionals. And so how do you see the need for upskilling being perceived by different generations? And maybe you could share some anecdotal real-life experiences for us?
Mark Harrison 27:52
Yeah. I was thinking about the experiences? Yeah, I think I think something, perhaps we have to recognize, again, I keep coming back to this kind of a process orientation that a lot of skills, say I’ve been diluted over the years. So I think perhaps the first thing to recognize is that we’re not necessarily upskilling. But right skilling, often just bringing a lot of the basics back or joining up into a listener, which in a Shared Service Center environment, quite often gets lost as a geographical divide. And there’s also kind of a knowledge-sharing divide as well. And digitization is the future, and there’s no better example than Highradius. And job roles are going to transition as we go forward. There are going to be a lot more jobs, I think I read somewhere something like 50 million jobs in this decade are going to be called either digital analysts or digital sciences. So when I read it from what they are, what it really means is that you need to have exactly the same job skills today, or 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. If you’re going to be a digital analyst or a data analyst, you’ve got to understand what it is that you’ve analyzed, where it’s come from, why it is what it means. What can we do with it? Where can we add value to the business? And digital sciences I think is largely the same, but with the ability to write some programs as well. But it’s connecting to the end-to-end business cycle. Skills initiative, drive, digital transformation, business acumen, data savviness, Having a strategic mindset, being agile, being able to be creative and innovative, and, and forge really strong relationship management. These are the skills that are needed, but they all come from understanding a bigger, bigger picture, say that, in our world, credit management or invoicing starts at the point that we are manufacturing company eyes is raw material, materials and manufacturing turned into some pizza delivery to study that manifested an invoice. So to really understand what we’ve got in the order cash area of the credit area, that you really appreciate where it’s come from, and all the stakeholders and the impacts that energy what we can do about that. And that’s where the technology Highradius comes from because you can capture so much data and do so much with it. Under shared service, and delivery for whatever. Examples Well, I think rarely, probably, in many to mention, there’s always been rewarding when you can encourage people to push themselves beyond their own limits. So I can’t do that, I can’t do that. Even if it’s just making a collection call, then you create the right environments, and then they made the call and they’ll see the money, and the wow factor, and the confidence thing. So whatever that is, whether it’s an account payable, or, you know, wherever this is, created that environment, again, that’s leadership, mentorship, experience, all the things we’ve been alluding to over the last half an hour, to create the environment that people can grow. Now, and that’s, to me, that’s always been the pleasure. And that’s why Callisto Grand is still doing what we’re doing in our training and mentoring, and qualifications and so on. And we’re also still learning and learning and adapting as well. So ultimately, all of this, that’s upskilling, right skilling, investing in people is, is really all about giving, giving people responsibility, allowing them to make decisions, and recommendations. And ultimately, I think, to feel part of the community dedicated excellence. And that’s what leadership is about. Leadership is about having a vision that everybody buys into a world-class environment in the center of excellence.
Tanya Arrowsmith 32:31
Absolutely, totally, totally agree on that. So, Fernando, so obviously, Highradius has had more than 1000 implementations across, you know, six continents. How was the platform received by employees from different generations? And obviously, how has Highradius helped customers overcome those initial apprehensions? Oh, have we lost him?
Mark Harrison 32:59
I think Fernando’s dropped off,
Tanya Arrowsmith 33:01
Oh no. We’ve lost Fernando. Every time I say “Fernando”, I want to sing it.
Fernando Azevedo 33:10
I’m here.
Tanya Arrowsmith 33:13
I’m, we’re back.
Fernando Azevedo 33:14
You know what I did right? I just shrink the screen and just drop me. the thing that I said to not do it. So sorry for that. Right, right. So I know you’re talking about, you know, the High-radius. Right? And yeah, I mean, it, it’s actually I would say, you know, it’s a very pleasant experience, right, and how much you actually can learn from new Generation. So I mean, the experience and relationships that we have from generation, you know, x and boomers, and really all the excitement in technology or knowledge, the, you know, the new generations create, that really brings a lot of value for your growth. So I think that are about over 40% of millennials and 20% of Generation Z are ready for a people management position. So it’s not that you know, it, just Hey, they just, you know, coming through it, and it No, it’s already kind of just going to continue to grow. And there’s something like over 10% it’s already on see suit positions. So we had to think that not only we had to think on our, you know, when our structure inside our company, how our generation, our clients also changing. So the interactions between, you know, ourselves and our clients, it’s also changing, you know, the other side to have the same potentially depend on the industry, the same, you know, the spectrum of generations. So we can only think I’ll just change it on my side, how do I deal with that it’s the same happening. And again, you know, I think we are, we plan to, you know, add about 1000 new employees this year. So, we need to have that strong foundation to cross-generation, because that’s going to give us the, you know, the power to face this industry that changing across the globe. Yeah, and one aspect that just a quick comment on, you know, Mark has shown before about automation. When we think about, you know, it’s changing the way the roles are going to be changing, but we have to think that, you know, initially automation was more about, hey, let’s put this robot here and let’s take out the people. This is not how, you know, really mature GBS organizations are looking at, they’re looking at this as a point of how do I create capacity? How do I improve my performance? How do I deliver better client experience, better experience to my end-user, so the, you know, upscaling or you know, getting better at what you do, and learning new, the technology is going to be essential for you to perform the work. But that doesn’t mean that it just gonna continue to reduce heads. It’s still going to have those roles. It’s changing the way you approach the work. Every time you know, I speak to my clients today and we talk about, you know, the benefits of implementing this digital transformation. It’s what this can create and help your business to grow. How can you be ready to grow, to scale? And not you know, specifically, Ayee this is gonna help you reduce to hats. This is not the conversation of maturity of an organization.
Tanya Arrowsmith 36:23
Absolutely. Well, that’s all my questions from me. But let me see if there are any questions from the audience. So let me just quickly scroll through here. Okay, so it looks like a Mark, quick question for you. You talked about the importance of upskilling and training with remote working continuing, how effective has online training been?
Mark Harrison 36:52
Thank you. Good question. I think online training is now here to stay. And it’s really actually kicked on in the last year or so. I think the first thing we’ve learned is difficult for people to study on their own and I include myself in that as well. Having the discipline to read material online and we will all find reasons not to study I certainly found times when I’d either expand my working hours, fit around the internet, read the newspapers, watch Netflix may be and there are times when even things like washing the dishes and doing the ironing become incredibly attractive. So I think with all training, it’s really effective when there’s a context, a connection with kind of why you’re doing what you’re doing, and other some disciplines around that you know, time disciplines and so on. So one of the things that we’ve learned in particular is that E-learning is one thing but it’s really important to work alongside your learners. So say what we do is we combined self-study with online mentoring sessions. This combination makes it effective but it mainly overcomes the temptation to drift. If you say you have to do certain things at certain times then our coaching sessions are every Tuesday morning then you have to read so much material prior to that it actually kind of helps to complete focus. So I think that’s the with regard to training. It is effective but the trainer is putting as much effort as the learners as well. It’s a two-way thing, it’s a relationship thing. And just like being in the workplace and you get to know your learners better, you get to understand them, what they’re good at work, what are their strengths and weaknesses in the workplace, and where you can work with them in a situation like this you know just talking over zoom or whatever and then helping them to get the max out of what they’re learning. So it’s like everything, one of your mottos in Highradius is “Everything is about talent and technology” and E-learning is no different. It’s people and technology in harmony.
Fernando Azevedo 39:27
And I was gonna mention that I remember you know, I had times in my career where you know I had this various instructors, hey, every year you have to do 40 hours of training, so you go there you almost completed to hit the 40 hours not even looking right what you’re actually learning. Because at the same time, you have that available at any time which is good. But if you don’t really put some time, even if you take that you know on a monthly basis, I’m going to put two hours to do that and put it in your agenda throughout your working hours, every time you’re going to find something else. Even if washing dishes, right Mark even better than the right? We’re really like, during that time right, that you are focused on the job, you have the time you say, hey, three from 3-3:30 pm, you have a mindset of work, you separate that half an hour on it, you know, to, you know, every two weeks to do something, it’s, I think it might have a better absorption that he just tried to do off-hours just because hey, I can’t do it my tablet, you know, sitting at the, you know, at the bed with the TV on, you’re not gonna get it right. And, and but the other way that because of course, when you have more traditional training, where you have everybody in the room, there’s a lot of interaction. And we do E-learning, self-paced, you lose a lot of there. But the way the leaders I think can help is just like, have some brief discussions like, hey, throughout this month, you know, we have new courses here, here, and here, we’re gonna do, you know, half an hour debrief session, you know, bring your ideas what you thought, because either we can improve the process, right? The training, we can get feedback, but really to share, what have you learned from that, it just brings that, hey, I, you know, let’s pay more attention, I will be asked to say something, you need to spark some interest on why I’m doing that. And not just being a, you know, let’s check the list of all the training I have to perform. So again, it’s really how you deal you know, with your team, and how you lead that.
Mark Harrison 41:21
That’s actually a very good point. One of the things I say when I’m talking to managers about doing our training with their colleagues when I say, you as managers should really be doing this training, as well as you know, what it is that your colleagues are doing. And whether you do or not, it’s a partnership, because, you know, we will know we will share all these things we share. But it’s important that you as managers and leaders, encourage people to actually use what they’ve learned and be able to embrace it, as you said, you know, to have these connecting sessions say, right, what have you learned this week? How can we use any of this? Is it for the benefit of our workplace? To do that, it does reap the benefit? Because everybody can see, investing in talent has a value not just to the individual, but actually to, to the business itself? Yeah, it’s a partnership.
Fernando Azevedo 42:18
Absolutely.
Tanya Arrowsmith 42:22
And one last question I can see has come to screen. So what do you think is the next frontier in order to cash tech? So any ideas on where we see the next generation of tech coming? And how do you think we need to be equipped to handle this?
Fernando Azevedo 42:41
That’s great. And I wish my CEO was here to talk about it. I’m just kidding. I think it’s a lot about, you know, once we think about our, you know, clients and you know, the technology that we offer them, you know, amazing capabilities that it can be offered, but we have to think what’s on the other side, we have another company, we don’t know their culture, we don’t know their system, we don’t know their perspective and focus. So it’s, I think, you know, the future is more the integration part. It’s really how does it integrate with what the other side of that negotiation because there’s always something there a negotiation with, either if it’s data files if it’s, you know, just a salesperson, IP, or just, you know, trying to collect an overdue invoice. But really the connection between, you know, the end-user, our clients, their suppliers, all the other functions, that’s going to start to, you know, come up really, really, really stronger.
Mark Harrison 43:45
I think it is incredibly exciting, but I can see, certainly, there’s going to be more AI, machine learning. Yeah, and I think that’s gonna lead to a lot more predictive analytics. And I also see, we can start to think about proactive error-proofing as well as stopping errors from happening in the first place. And then I think the other, the other thing that’s coming along would be more voice recognition. You know, to your Freeda, for example, or Alexa, as many people have, or Siri is it the other one, you know, you just talk to your television or whatever and it does. As you can see, I haven’t quite got that far myself yet. The other one is something that has been talked about for quite a while, and it’s going to happen more and more is instant translation. So literally talking to people in your mother language, and it’s gonna translate the language of the people that are receiving it, you know, and that’s, I think that’s, I don’t think that’s too far away, Google Translate is already written, the verbal form is not far away. And then when you combine that with the technologies and you know, the purpose of collecting money, or dealing with data, when you put those things together the next, this decade I think is going to be another incredibly transformative decade.
Fernando Azevedo 45:16
That’s gonna, yeah, that’s gonna remove so many barriers that we currently have.
Mark Harrison 45:22
It’s also my excuse for not learning Czech as well. It is, it’s super exciting, and opportunities for people to develop the programs and assess because that’s not a simple thing that the language recognition is incredibly complex. Yeah. So but I think, again, how we’ll see if you can combine finance and those wonderful opportunities, you know, for next 10 – 20 years as well for people to get stuck into.
Tanya Arrowsmith 45:54
Absolutely! wonderful. Well, thank you very much, Fernando, and mark for your time today. We’re gonna call it a wrap right now because we are at the end of our session. So if you’re interested to learn more about Highradius and Callisto Grand Academy, which HighRadius is proud to be a partner with, please do simply go to the homepage of Shared Services Tech, scroll down to the bottom, and request to speak to an expert. And also you can see shared on the slide here. We have an event coming up next week, next month even, called Credit Skillcon. It is an online learning fair brought to you by Credit Today and Highako.com. It has 53 live sessions, on-demand training, panel discussions on skills, including negotiation, financial statement analysis, collections for bankruptcy protection, credit policy, it goes on and on, and much more. So if you’re interested in sharing this with your colleagues just go to Academy and Highacko.com and register today. So but back to this, this Trade Credit Tech. So the next session we have coming up today is an eight-hour success story titled “90% Increase in Productivity for Collections and how Ivanti is driving touchless and integrated accounts receivable”, which will begin at 9 am Central Time, or 4 pm CET, as we’re a global brand.
Thank you to everybody and goodbye.
Fernando Azevedo 47:25
Thank you all. Bye
Mark Harrison 47:27
Bye
