IT Leadership Series: Zapper CEO Mike Bryer on building with customers

By IT Leadership Series21 November 2022 

Mike Bryer 

Zapper CEO Mike Bryer says his passion over the past 20 years has been in the delivery of digital and e-commerce experiences to end users.

Many people are familiar with the Zapper brand – it offers contactless payment options in restaurants and at many other points of sale, along with loyalty and rewards programmes.

“My role in the enablement of commerce through digital interfaces – by mobilising teams to efficiently deliver quality experiences – has been one of searching for the best formula to organise and motivate people to produce their best,” he says in this IT Leadership Series interview with TechCentral.

“Driving a minimalist mindset to declutter the experience and simplify the technology stack is key to a successful digital product — and nothing beats talking to your customers for guidance and feedback on what they value.”

TechCentral posed a few questions to Bryer.

What does your company do?

Zapper customers can perform contactless payments via QR codes, and receive loyalty and rewards digitally from Zapper merchants. Merchants can also accept tap-to-pay card payments from their Zapper merchant app.

What do you see as the IT leader’s top priorities in 2023?

Security remains the top priority to ensure customer data is protected and merchants receive their funds. Availability of services 24/7 is critical as customer and merchant expectations are that digital services will always be available. Customer experience is the next priority as this is key in our competitive industry.

What do you most admire in business and why?

Firstly, business models that allow a business to scale without needing a large staff compliment. Secondly, businesses that are able to execute at speed without compromising the integrity of the business or customer service. Finally, as a business grows, maintaining a healthy company culture is a tricky task, so is also something to admire when leaders get it right.

How do you attract and retain talent?

A business needs a strong vision and a sense of why it exists and the customer pain points it aims to solve in order to attract the best talent. Top staff want to be part of something they will be proud to discuss with their family and friends over the weekends. Retaining staff is about listening, engaging and investing in the talent so that your can apply their energy to the most relevant challenges that will stretch them and allow them to learn and grow.

If you could go back and give your 18-year-old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Make sure you understand where your passion lies and then find the best mentor you can to help you along the way. Set a goal, listen to your mentor, and work hard and smart. Rinse and repeat.

What’s your favourite productivity hack?

Do not multitask – focus and complete one thing at a time. Get really good at prioritising urgent vs important tasks.

What occupation (other than your own) would you like to try?

Professional sports – it seems like an awesome way to spend each day.

Where do you see the technology industry heading in the next three to five years?

We will see the prevalence of AI in products we consume and use every day and not even be surprised by the way in which companies implement AI to learn customers’ behaviours and respond. Blockchain will start delivering real business value. The debate over remote work will settle into a well-recognised hybrid pattern where management and staff no longer arm-wrestle over full remote vs office-bound environments. 5G data speeds will empower industries that previously would be unable to operate in a distributed manner, such as medical surgeries that could be performed by surgeons working from home. IT security will continue to be a running battle between attackers and defenders, where the humans remain the weak link in the chain. Larger premiums will be paid for those engineers with conceptual and execution skills.

What is one book you’d recommend to our audience and why?

Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love, by Marty Cagan. There is nothing more wasteful than building something that customers do not like using, whether physical or digital. Marty is a Silicon Valley rock star who has codified how businesses should go about solving customer pains in a way that they are part of the co-creation process. This lowers business risk, improving the chances of success, and makes for a far more rewarding way of working.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media - https://techcentral-co-za.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcentral.co.za/it-leadership-series-zapper-ceo-mike-bryer-on-building-with-customers/217684/?amp=1

That’s my bro!!!

Simple is Hard

Image credit: Erik Burke

Great advice from Charafeddine Mouzouni

Simple is hard. 

Making the overly complex seem simple is an art that is mastered by the  best UX/UI designers.

If you want people to use your dashboard/product and for it to have traction  - you need to nail The UX and UI 

Keep it simple

Invest in the best UI/UX people.

a Monetisation & Growth Framework for Disruptive Subscription Companies Focused on Scaling

 

Building an effective pricing strategy can make a huge difference to whether an organisation is able to achieve its growth ambitions.  Monetisation is the most effective lever of profitable growth (4 times more effective than acquisition), yet companies spend less than 10 hours per year on this critical piece of work, consequently leaving huge amounts of money on the table by way of uncaptured value.  For SaaS companies, the stats are even worse, with an average of only 6 hours spent on pricing strategy over the life of the business!

Most companies are not using pricing to its full potential. We all know pricing is important, but because it is complicated, and often intimidating, we choose an overly simplistic approach. 

 Ayon Bhattacharyya presented a Monetisation & Growth Framework for Disruptive Subscription Companies Focused on Scaling. 

The talk was held on 27 October 2022 AND then followed by a thinktank with members of our Nexttech Transformation Forum – who shared their insights on how Ayon’s strategies could help them and their clients. 

Here is the playlist. 

Ayon Bhattacharyya’s brief biography

Ayon is an experienced Revenue Leader and Monetisation & Growth expert with significant success in unlocking profit and growth potential through value innovation, positioning, packaging, and profit-optimal pricing strategies. Ayon is a CIMA qualified accountant and recently gained his Executive MBA from a US-based business school.  Drawing upon two decades of business leadership experience within the corporate sector in the UK, Australia, and NZ, with brands such as Westpac, Hoyts, Trade Me and Equifax, Ayon now works with CEO’s, business owners and senior executives of mid-sized disruptive growth companies to assist them with finding and monetising their competitive advantage.

As the founder of consulting firm Biz Growth Spurt, Ayon has a strong track record of helping tech & SaaS companies win more business at higher prices, achieving significantly higher valuations by improving their pricing power.

Traits of a good Leader

Traits of a good  #leader   From my mentor Allen Pathmarajah 

L listen - listen and silent have same letters  

E - empathy  being able to sit in someone else’s shoes 

A- attitude / your attitude will determine your attitude 

D- determination - Passion 

E- Energesse enthuse Inspire and engage 

R- be resilient - you need to be like a spring and spring back up from Setbacks - of which there will be many   

AI bill of rights

AI Bill of Rights has just been released 

Needs to 

• Be Non discriminatory against -  gender age race disability, coolability , religion 
• Be Protected from Irresponsible use of data 
• Protect privacy 
• Be Protected  from unsafe systems 
• Have a System that  identifies how info and data  being used 

What else should it include?

Craig Saphin and Dr Steve Barlow interview Ivan Kaye on the "Future of Work"

  

Ivan is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of BSI, a group of companies that have resulted from a series

 of acquisitions. His priority is to surround himself with great people.

How work is done and people go to work has completely changed. We are living in an environment of a distributed workforce. Going to a physical office is a rare phenomenon, not every day, as it was only three years ago. There is a blend between working from home and in an office.  

There needs to be a way in which people can communicate and collaborate, ideally, on a face-to-face basis. Speaking regularly and continuity are vital behaviours to foster.

Every employee is the centre of their universe. Everyone has their Agenda, Values and Vision.  

For the Strategy to work in this environment, the stakeholders must be aligned on values and be on board with the strategic journey.

People leave managers and leaders because the values and Vision are not aligned. Money is not the priority.

Heather McGowan wrote a piece on the future career profiles of younger generations - they will have over 20 jobs and multiple professions over their careers. 

They will be lifelong learners .

With the advent of social media, every employee is a journalist. Treat employees as customers of the business.

Education, lifelong learning & career advancement are critical drivers for the retention of young people. At the end of the period with the company, the personal and career goals should be realised. The achievements can range from skills to earning capacity and business networks.

A lot of companies do not expect their staff to stay at the organisation for an extended period of time.

A key to attracting talent to an organisation is to be clear on the Vision and Values of the organisation. Their Vision and Values need to match with the organisations. Employees will join an organisation when the Vision and Values align with their unique Vision and Values.

The companies that will do best will spend most of the planning time working out the details which define the ideal client. What is the client's avatar, age, social demographic, individual or company? An accurate definition of the client permits meaningful targeting.  

How is it best to engage with the ideal client? Unique offerings are optimal. 

Everything you do and stand for in the workplace and personal life reflects your Values and Vision. The acronym TREAT is relevant in this context.

TREAT:

·       Team

·       Respect

·       Energy

·       Adventurous

·       Trust

There are many reasons to be optimistic in the current times. Technology is only now starting to gather pace. There is a lot of wealth for investment. The energy future is exciting, with many possible outcomes.

Podcast on Spotify

Episode 72: How is it best to engage with the ideal client with Ivan KayeEpisode 72: How is it best to engage with the ideal client with Ivan Kaye

Humanised Workforce - Future of Work - part 1 

Humanised Workforce - Future of Work - Part 2 

https://www.craigsaphin.com/humanised-workforce-future-you-podcast-show-notes/2022/9/5/episode-72-education-lifelong-learning-amp-career-advancement-are-critical-drivers-ivan-kaye

How can Australia generate a $52 billion windfall from Science?

The Prime Minister , Albert Albanese is in full support  of helping to commercialise Australian science, with a focus on clean technologies and local manufacturing.

Upskilling Scientists to Commercialise their Inventions 

Science and Technology Australia (STA), a group representing more than 90,000 Australian scientists and technologists met at the National Jobs Summit this week . They believe that with Government  support there is an opportunity to generate tens of billions of dollars for the economy. 

At the symposium , the group believes that a  “modest investment” in training 2000 entrepreneurial or “bench to boardroom” scientists would generate a $52 billion economic windfall.

Keeping Manufacturing in Australia 

Albanese agreed and said the manufacturing bases of the companies capitalising on clean technologies like electric vehicles should be in Australia.

“We need to support the likes of Tritium, a Queensland electric vehicle fast charger company which this week opened a US manufacturing facility. These facilities should be in Australia “ says the Prime Minister 

“How amazing would it be if we can be seen to be an exporter of renewable energy.”

“There wouldn’t be a solar panel in the world that doesn’t have some intellectual property that was invented by an Australian scientist… and yet we haven’t commercialised that opportunity. We need to be better at it, and we’re determined to be better at it,” Mr Albanese said.

“We need to seize the opportunity which is there.”

Creation of Centres of Excellence 

STA president Professor Mark Hutchinson, 

from the University of Adelaide, and a director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, says that the centre has  created 16 startups with a combined market capitalisation and market value of nearly $520 million .

These centre of excellence should be rolled out , as that conservative level of success would not just create a wealth of new jobs for Australians, it would kickstart whole new industries and create an economy powered by science,” STA chief executive Misha Schubert told Startup Australia 

Government support in USA is huge - Australia should take note 

The USA is  supporting in American science, technology, research, manufacturing and education with the recent US CHIPS and Science Act investing a record $52 billion

“Australia should be every bit as ambitious for our science and technology ambitions,” Ms Schubert said.

The Prime Minister seems to agree . We look forward to action being taken in this sector

Onwards and upwards!

Source

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