Get to know the people and the passion behind Tivian
The next guest in our ‘5 minutes with’ series, where we introduce you to some of the incredible people who power Tivian, is Jonathan Pyefinch, SEVP Global Business Operations.
Join us as he shares his insights on industry trends and challenges, his background, expertise, and the driving force behind his unwavering commitment to Tivian’s transformative mission.
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Hi Jonathan, Thanks for chatting with us. Before we dive in, please could you share a few things about yourself, including the values you hold most dear to you.
What or who has inspired you most in your life, and why?
Wow, so no easy “what’s your favourite colour” starter questions then…? There are many people who have and continue to inspire me in all aspects of my life. Some are great leaders in their professional field, and others are just amazing, incredible, and “normal” people I have the great fortune to spend time with. What they all have is a true passion and belief in something and want to share this with you.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Spend more time with those you love/who love you – they really aren’t around for that long and have much to give to you.
What is/are the values you hold most dear to you?
Curiosity; Determination; Integrity; Fun; Respect
If you could be anyone else, who would you be and why?
I don’t think I would want to be anyone else for fear of feeling irrelevant as me. If I see traits in others that I admire, I try to learn from the experience and make myself better.
But, if I could be one person for one day, I would like to be any of the 12 NASA astronauts who walked on the moon. I would love the sense of achievement (of many thousands of people) they must have felt and admire how tiny, beautiful and fragile Earth is.
You can invite 1-4 people to dinner (dead or alive). Who would they be, and why?
It depends on the purpose….
Intellectual evening:
- David Attenborough – he’s a god!
- Dalai Lama (specifically the 14th)
- Albert Einstein – to see what he could come up with now given access to a quantum computer
- I K Brunel – have you seen the things he built?!
Musical inspiring evening:
- Quincy Jones – he has played with and led pretty much everyone who’s anyone in jazz/pop genres. He is the godfather of all that is great with modern music
- Aretha Franklin – Queen of soul musically gifted, super strong lady
- Leonard Bernstein – just to find out how he wrote (the music) to West Side Story
- Freddie Mercury – a unique talent
I’ve never laughed so much in my life evening:
- Joanna Lumley
- Peter Kay
- Billy Connolly
- Peter Cook
What is your go-to song when you want to feel happy, special?
- Birdland – Maynard Ferguson version
- The live version of Bring on the Night – Sting
- Candide Overture
Ok, I know that’s three and technically, two of them aren’t songs, as they don’t have any words!
Moving on to your career: Tell us about your background before joining Tivian.
By profession, I am a Production Engineer and started my career working for ten years in the oil industry for Mobil/BP in customer-facing sales/marketing/program roles. After a few years in a management consulting company/role, I began my career journey in the software industry. Tapping into the skills acquired previously, I became a leader in professional services of varying sizes, geographies, and disciplines (Customer Management and varying cuts thereof, ERP and SCM). I joined what was then Questback in 2017 and haven’t looked back since!
What does your role entail?
The role of SEVP Global Business Operations is a broad one and covers the following teams/disciplines for both Communicate Xi and Discover Xi parts of the Tivian business: Professional Services; Studio Production; Technical (IT and Dev) Operations; and QA. Plus, our Global Partners team continues to report to me too.
What prompted you to move into Global Business Operations?
It was a great opportunity to apply years of customer-focused knowledge and decision-making to augment our operational technical teams. I have always had a desire to improve business processes and learn from seriously talented people.
What does an average day in Global Business Operations look like?
Every day is completely different. Several of the teams are currently in an ‘improvement review and planning’ phase, with their medium-term objective set to enhance current processes and create a customer-focused strategy. The ultimate aim is shifting the pendulum towards the proactive end of the spectrum. The tech ops teams deal with some incredibly complex and seemingly ever-changing components. Creating a strategy that overlays the technical complexity with commercial necessity is, therefore, essential to delivering a seamless technical platform for Tivian’s global customers.
With such a broad portfolio of teams, effective and efficient communications will always remain critical to the overall success of both our day-to-day business and the delivery of Tivian’s future.
What are the challenges you see for EX/CX in 2023?
Survey fatigue is already a huge problem. Everyone wants to gather feedback for absolutely everything, plus 90% seem unable to act on the feedback they receive. Creating a compelling reason for individuals to give their time and insight is a super skilful task. Compiling and analysing the data and displaying it in a meaningful way, even more so. Finally, taking action based on this analysis and communicating it back to those who took the time initially completes the cycle and makes it all worthwhile!
How has the role of technology/importance in EX changed in the last five years?
Overall, technology has revolutionized employee engagement feedback processes by making them more agile, accessible, data-driven, and personalized. It has facilitated a shift towards continuous feedback and enabled organizations to create a culture of ongoing improvement and development. Technology has enabled Data-driven insights by collecting and analysing vast amounts of feedback data. The advanced analytics tools used to process this data generate meaningful insights and trends, helping organizations identify areas for improvement, recognize patterns, and make data-driven decisions to enhance employee engagement.
What trends can you see happening in the industry this year?
My top 3 areas for development this year and beyond:
- Integration with collaboration tools/software.
- Enterprise feedback software solutions will better integrate with collaboration and communication tools. The work we are doing at Tivian creates a seamless platform that ‘closes the loop’, pushing out professional multimedia messaging content with a clear objective to streamline the feedback process and make it an integral part of day-to-day work.
- Advanced analytics and AI-driven insights.
- Feedback platforms will leverage advanced analytics and AI technologies to generate actionable insights. AI-powered sentiment analysis, natural language processing, and predictive analytics can help identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement based on feedback data.
- Enhanced leadership and coaching solutions.
- Providing real-time omni-directional leadership feedback is critical to improving a manager’s ability to make any necessary leadership course changes rapidly. Therefore fostering a culture of continuous improvement in their teams. This is proven to improve both employees’ overall job satisfaction and the overall effectiveness of a business.
How does Tivian help businesses?
See above! Tivian is constantly evolving and creating new and exciting products/propositions which take our customers to the next level in engagement with employees/customers/panellists. We do this through highly adaptable software and exceptional people.
One more thing before you go. Can you share one interesting fact about you (outside of work).
I love making music. I’ve played the trombone for nearly 50 years and still play in numerous groups ranging from brass quintets through concert bands and big bands to full-on symphony orchestras. I would play every day if I could, especially now as I get to play in groups with one of my sons.
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