GrowthOps boosts tech leadership with key hires

Entrepreneurial advisory and operations partner, GrowthOps, has today announced the appointment of one of the most accomplished Salesforce leadership teams in the world, with a strong track record in achieving tangible business outcomes on the Salesforce Einstein Analytics platform.

Joining GrowthOps from Accenture are: global lead, John Cosgrove; discovery and creative lead, Kylie Long; technical lead, Robert Houston; and functional and governance lead, Robert Rymer. This team together previously led Accenture’s global Salesforce Einstein Analytics offering.

GrowthOps also announced today the appointment of Grant Thomson as group director – sales, who brings more than twenty years’ enterprise and entrepreneurial technology experience to the GrowthOps leadership team.

Salesforce Einstein Analytics empowers every person in a business to make better decisions by giving them the data they need in a format they can actually use.

Having formed the first dedicated practice for Salesforce Einstein Analytics in Australia as part of Cloud Sherpas, the Salesforce Einstein Analytics team then moved to Accenture when it acquired Cloud Sherpas in 2015. The team has continued to lead implementations for major global brands across the world.

GrowthOps managing director, Phillip Kingston (above right) welcomed the new team to GrowthOps recognising their exceptional talent and the benefits that Salesforce Einstein Analytics will provide to GrowthOps’ clients.

Says Kingston: “John, Robert, Kylie and Robert are global leaders in their field. They’re a crack team, with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, that’s a great fit for GrowthOps and our clients.

“The Salesforce Einstein Analytics platform, combined with AI, is transforming customer experience. By harnessing the power of AI and Einstein, the team is embedding predictions and recommendations directly into the interfaces used by sales, service and marketing teams every single day. This helps augment workflow, drive meaningful customer discussions, and most importantly, will help our clients grow.

“The Einstein capability is also an important pillar in GrowthOps’ cloud strategy as the company capitalises on the growing demand for cloud services, in addition to further strengthening our relationship with Salesforce.”

John Cosgrove takes on the role of GrowthOps partner, Salesforce Einstein Analytics. He is a passionate advocate for data democracy and data-driven work, with a relentless focus on the user, not the report.

Says Cosgrove: “The confluence of big data technology, cloud application layers, mobility, and an increasing need to compete on the quality of human connections created the opportunity to launch a new way of designing customer relationship management systems. Einstein can put meaningful data in the hands of every employee so it’s a seamless part of their daily work lives.

“Regardless of size, we want to work with companies who truly embrace entrepreneurship and innovation to drive growth, which is exactly what GrowthOps was created to do. We want to work alongside these companies to make their vision a reality in the fastest way possible.

“We believe one of the biggest implications of ‘AI for everyone’ is a fundamental re-think of how we consult. Part of the incredible promise of platforms like Einstein is the speed with which they can be deployed, and value can be realised. We think it’s time for digital consultancy to take a radically different view towards risk and value and actually facilitate how markets adopt a platform, instead of just how a business deploys the relevant app.”

As group director – sales, Thomson will formalise and implement a single strategic account management structure across GrowthOps, building on the process and systems established when GrowthOps listed on the ASX earlier this year. Importantly, Thomson will coordinate cross-selling and collaboration across the group, building a single, end-to-end growth engine for GrowthOps’ clients.

Thomson has more than twenty years’ enterprise and entrepreneurial technology experience, including roles with IBM and Salesforce. More recently, he worked with smaller companies, such as Versent and Nebulr, to help them scale and better engage enterprise clients.

GrowthOps chief executive officer, Paul Mansfield (above left) welcomed Thomson’s appointment recognising his unique mix of blue-chip and entrepreneurial experience.

Says Mansfield: “Grant brings extensive enterprise experience to the company. He is also an entrepreneur at heart, having co-founded numerous startups, in addition to mentoring and advising many others across the technology industry.

“Grant is solution-focused, not product-focused, with a strong track record of helping clients identify where they actually need help, and then successfully implementing those plans, which makes him a strong cultural fit for GrowthOps.”

Thomson added that his key mission has always been to help clients solve problems.

Says Thomson: “For most of my career, I’ve operated at the intersection of business and technology. I want to enable clients of all sizes to use technology to solve problems, transform and scale. Now, as part of GrowthOps, I can do that at the next level, working alongside best-in-class specialists in a single company.”

Earlier this month, GrowthOps announced the appointment of Khemistry co-founder, Andy Fyffe as its inaugural chief marketing officer. Fyffe is leading the development of the GrowthOps brand and will support Thomson as he brings the company’s integrated service offering to market.