Meet Paul Chapman, the newest member of HTEC’s Advisory Board.
With an impressive career spanning three decades, Paul is a distinguished figure in the technology industry with significant demonstrated leadership in business strategy, digital transformation, and innovation at global corporations, including Cisco, Box, HPE, and VMware. Recognized as a thought leader, he is also a sought-after speaker on diverse subjects such as digital transformation, organizational change, and artificial intelligence.
Paul’s experience and dedication to building strong teams and focusing on customers align well with HTEC’s goals. This adds great value to the company’s success.
We sat down with Paul to learn more about his background, his new role, as well as the priorities and objectives of the HTEC Advisory Board.
Past experiences, future impact
During his professional journey, Paul has learned three invaluable lessons that have influenced his approach to business strategy and technology leadership. The first revolves around the significance of those he has collaborated with and the entities he has worked for.
“I feel I am truly blessed that I’ve had the opportunity to work with exceptionally brilliant minds who are bold enough to go to unexplored territories where others have not gone before. Learning from individuals who think and operate differently has been instrumental in my growth. Their success is not just defined by what they have achieved in their careers but also by their commitment to giving back and enhancing the capabilities of those around them.”
Paul believes there’s a little bit of serendipity in what happens in our careers. They rarely follow a predefined path where we check certain boxes resulting in predictable outcomes. This brings us to the second lesson he has learned: the importance of building a strong network of connections.
“Establishing connections early in one’s career is instrumental to building a professional community powered by wisdom, knowledge, and advice. It brings together individuals with diverse experiences, insights, and perspectives, which not only adds value to personal growth but also provides access to a broader network. I truly believe that investing in your professional network gives you access to a massive amount of knowledge and wisdom. If I’m the smartest person in the room, I’m in the wrong room.”
Finally, Paul explains that the third thing he learned is how to internalize and respond to adversity, challenges, and complexity.
“You have to learn how to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Things will go wrong, and you will face adversity; that’s the inevitability of life. The question is, how do you respond to this?”
Throughout his career, Paul has led many organizations and seen many outstanding individuals advance in their careers.
“In my view, all these individuals exhibit a certain trait. When something goes wrong, they don’t explain it away to make themselves feel better. It’s easy to do that. Instead, they are open-minded and reflective and internalize what happened to prevent the same outcome from happening again in the future”.
This resilience and forward-looking approach are differentiators that drive individuals along distinct career trajectories.
“I believe that these people are the ones who progress through their careers versus the ones who get stuck in their careers.”
Spotlight on: Starting the HTEC Advisory Board journey
Paul firmly believes in the essence of companies led by their founders. He says that it contributes to the energy and culture within organizations and is one of the key values that inspired him to join HTEC’s Advisory Board.
“Having met the founders of HTEC, Dušan and Alex, I am confident our future collaboration and endeavours will lead to outstanding outcomes. I truly appreciate the opportunity to learn from them, collaborate with them, and enjoy the journey along the way.”
As our careers progress, accumulating experiences, both successes and setbacks, it becomes essential to question the purpose of that journey. For Paul, the value lies not only in personal growth but in the ability to share these insights with others.
“What’s the point of going through all this learning and experience if you can’t share it with others? When talking with Alex, I emphasized that being a CIO involves more than just making purchases and working with vendors; it’s about nurturing mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships. My experience, insights, and network align with HTEC’s innovative approach that embodies innovation and forward-thinking. This convergence sets the stage for fruitful collaboration—a great opportunity to leverage collective experiences and perspectives to embark on meaningful endeavours together.”
Having served as a CIO for many years, Paul understands the role of economic buyers in the realm of technical services. With a wealth of experience as a technology buyer, he realized that an organization’s value extends beyond the services it offers.
“It’s about how these organizations bring additional value—educating on the market, introducing emerging technologies, and offering insights gained from diverse customer interactions. In essence, it’s about bridging the gap between individual experiences and organizational dynamism, creating a space for collaborative work that goes beyond transactional engagements. This is where I believe HTEC brings enormous value.”
The board impact: Leading in a brave new world
Paul sees an opportunity for HTEC to raise global brand awareness, pointing out that there’s a need for a shift in approach, particularly in creating, leading, and nurturing programs that focus on thought leadership.
“In my discussions with Alex, we explored the idea of HTEC sharing knowledge within the technology leadership community. This isn’t about showcasing a portfolio of offerings for immediate purchase; rather, it’s about bringing value through perspectives and insights that resonate and educate. The aim is to establish HTEC as a thought leader known for bringing substantial value to the community.”
The immediate focus should be on generating brand awareness—making HTEC a recognized name that is seen as a contributor to the technology leadership space.
“To achieve this, the ambition should be to devise strategies to create, lead, and nurture programs that foster a genuine connection with the audience. The plan needs to involve bringing together a collective of individuals, each contributing their unique perspectives. It’s about harnessing the power of a diverse group to curate actionable initiatives for HTEC’s future.”
Paul explains that this collaborative effort aims to elevate HTEC’s brand recognition by showcasing value not only to potential customers but also to the wider technology leadership community. Ultimately, it’s about introducing HTEC to those who may find alignment between their needs and what HTEC has to offer.
The role of the HTEC Advisory Board in an age of constant change
The constant flux of change has been Paul’s steady companion throughout the years. He’s experienced in working in various environments, from large legacy organizations to born-in-the-cloud digital firms. It’s been an adventurous ride, especially having worn the hat of a CIO for a long period.
“What I was doing 30 years, 5 years and even 2 years ago is very different from the things I do today. Each role and job change requires you to think and operate differently. This helps me understand the complexities and challenges of the CIO role and to have very relatable conversations on everything from networking and desktop management to data, business processes, software engineering, and now, navigating the unique elements of digital transformation and AI.”
Paul points out that no single person is wise enough and the wisdom of our community adds significant value here. It helps us learn to understand and recognize what new trends are emerging and how they will shape the future. This helped him realize that remaining relevant in this ever-evolving landscape involves constant adaptation.
“Currently, there is a high demand for capabilities in cybersecurity, coupled with the integration of AI into various aspects of our work. There’s a tsunami of AI possibilities out there and navigating through it involves figuring out where we can bring exponential value, considering the broad spectrum that AI covers. Navigating the wave of AI involves more than just understanding; it’s about contributing to the conversation. In the context of HTEC, perhaps, it begins with education, sharing insights from the HTEC lens on the future of AI.”
According to Paul, there are Innovators, Visionaries, Pragmatists, Conservatives, and Skeptics who resist change. He emphasizes that whichever course of action we choose, embracing change is pivotal and quoted “change is necessary, but suffering is optional. If you don’t like change, you’ll like irrelevance even less.”
“Given the constant change and the evolving trends, there is a lot of space for engaging in discussions about how to position HTEC in the thought-leadership realm and how to shift towards higher-value work through automation and enhanced productivity.”
Courage under fire: What it takes to build crisis-ready boards
Juggling innovation and business growth when disruption strikes can be challenging. One of the board’s key roles is to build resilience, foresight, and adaptation capabilities that will empower the organization to manage future shocks. From Paul’s perspective, there’s often a reliance on intuition when an organization is trying to build resilience in the face of disruption and uncertainty. However, there’s also a crucial need for validation. Bringing together people with different experiences improves predictability, like a social engine or crowdsourcing.
“Whether dealing with growth, scale, turnover, or unforeseen challenges like a pandemic, the key lies in bringing together a trusted group of people. I see it as a type of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing models have shown a better chance, though not certain, of predicting the correct direction and results. It’s like launching a satellite into orbit; a slight miscalculation at the start could lead to significant deviations later. The beauty lies in having a collective that not only identifies potential deviations but also course corrects more efficiently.”
In essence, even if there’s a slight deviation, it’s much easier to make necessary adjustments when there’s a collaborative effort.
“It’s about using collective knowledge to overcome challenges and move in the best direction for good outcomes. To me, envisioning a group of advisors coming together with aligned incentives to ensure the best outcomes for HTEC seems like a winning strategy.”
Focus on: Fuelling HTEC’s growth
For Paul, a chance to work with the right people — individuals who embody a contagious passion and energy, crafting a culture that’s embedded in the organization’s DNA — is what excites him the most about fuelling HTEC’s growth.
Also, Paul says that, over time, you come to realize that the true enjoyment lies in sharing what you’ve learned.
“Partnering alongside individuals who genuinely enjoy what they do is a rarity. As you reach a certain point in your journey, you discover that sharing your experiences gives you profound satisfaction. I think that the essence lies in recognizing your ability to share the lessons you’ve learned over the years. It’s about contributing in whatever way you can to help others, be it through insights, guidance, or support.”
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Reach out to Paul to connect and explore potential ways HTEC can help you navigate the future through digital transformation and the application of emerging technologies.
Learn more about HTEC’s founders, their career path, future ambitions, and their perspectives on key trends in the world of tech in this blog post.
