#212 - Marco Jetmir Ndrecaj of SSCL

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of Get Out of Wrap.

[00:00:04] Do you have team leaders in your contact centre or would you be interested in helping team leaders by sharing your experience?

[00:00:14] Two years ago now I created the only and the first online community for team leaders.

[00:00:21] It has everything a team leader needs to be able to thrive in their role and enjoy it too.

[00:00:28] If you are interested in adding your team leaders, your aspiring team leaders or maybe you'd like to join yourself,

[00:00:36] all you need to do is email me at martin at getoutofwrap.

[00:00:41] Now let's get on with the show.

[00:00:43] Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Get Out of Wrap, the first of 2025 and one that's been long overdue.

[00:00:52] A good friend of mine, very well known in the industry, super successful leader.

[00:00:57] I'm absolutely buzzing that he's here to chat to us today.

[00:01:02] Marco Jetmir Ndraj.

[00:01:05] How was my pronunciation, Marco?

[00:01:08] It's alright.

[00:01:09] It's Ndrezay.

[00:01:10] Ndrezay.

[00:01:11] Marco, it's awesome to have you here.

[00:01:14] Thank you so much Martin.

[00:01:15] I know we've been talking about this for probably over a year to be honest.

[00:01:20] Easily.

[00:01:21] But no, no, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity and I'm looking forward to having a chat with you today.

[00:01:28] And we've promised, we've already had our football conversations.

[00:01:32] I support the best team in London and Marco supports one of the other teams in London.

[00:01:38] Come on Chelsea.

[00:01:40] Come on Tottenham.

[00:01:40] So, let's start right at the beginning.

[00:01:43] I think, you know, I'm not saying this lightly.

[00:01:47] So many people know you.

[00:01:48] Every time that we see there's an award, you guys are up for it and you're very prominent in your passion for our industry.

[00:01:57] But also, it comes across.

[00:01:58] And I've seen this firsthand, having spent some time with you and your lovely team, just how important your teams are to you.

[00:02:06] But where did this all start for you in our industry?

[00:02:09] Where did this start?

[00:02:10] I told this story before, Martin.

[00:02:14] You know, a lot of my friends in the industry and my colleagues, they jumped in the industry by chance.

[00:02:22] Whereas for me, it was a goal.

[00:02:26] I come from very, very humble beginnings.

[00:02:28] I, myself and my family migrated to the UK.

[00:02:32] We come from a beautiful country called Albania.

[00:02:37] When we first moved here, I couldn't really speak the language.

[00:02:42] I didn't know anyone.

[00:02:45] The culture obviously was very different.

[00:02:47] At a very, very young age.

[00:02:50] I wanted to support my family because, you know, they were struggling financially.

[00:02:53] So I started a job in a restaurant, washing pots.

[00:02:59] I'd do that after I'd finish school.

[00:03:03] And on weekends, I didn't really get to good weekends.

[00:03:07] I used to be washing pots and mopping floors.

[00:03:10] And yeah, I used to see professionals having their business meetings, business events, business lunches in the restaurant floor.

[00:03:22] And I used to, you know, I used to envy, I guess, what they portrayed.

[00:03:29] To me, that was success, you know.

[00:03:31] It's like, you know, having a nice time, having those nice conversations with your nice laptops and so on.

[00:03:37] And I really, really wanted to get into the end because I knew there were a lot of compact centers dotted around.

[00:03:42] I remember back on stage, I got my salary and half of it, I put it aside.

[00:03:51] I went to Primark at the time.

[00:03:55] So Primark.

[00:03:56] Primark.

[00:03:57] And I bought a suit.

[00:03:58] I was a horrible looking suit back in Martin, honestly.

[00:04:03] And yeah, suited and booted.

[00:04:05] And I went for some interviews.

[00:04:07] I got a job in a call center, as we called them.

[00:04:11] And it was a very hardcore sales type of environment.

[00:04:16] Nothing like, you know, what our industry is today.

[00:04:19] And yeah, that's where I started.

[00:04:21] And the rest, I guess, is history.

[00:04:24] But very soon, very early in my career, I understood that, you know what?

[00:04:29] As long as you have the right work ethic, the right attitude and willingness to learn,

[00:04:38] it doesn't really matter what you sound like.

[00:04:40] It doesn't really matter where you come from.

[00:04:42] This is a new industry that can actually become a career for yourself.

[00:04:47] And thankfully, that's what it has become for me.

[00:04:50] I love this story.

[00:04:52] How old were you when you came over from Albania?

[00:04:54] 13.

[00:04:55] So that's a hard, hard age to...

[00:04:58] Yeah, 13.

[00:05:00] We had no friends.

[00:05:01] You know, all my friends way back home.

[00:05:03] No, no.

[00:05:04] Obviously, I had my mom and my dad and my sister here.

[00:05:08] But yeah, it was really, really difficult because all I was doing is I was going to school.

[00:05:14] It was difficult to adjust because I couldn't understand what people were saying to me.

[00:05:19] And there was a lot of bullying when I first started because, you know, I was a new guy.

[00:05:24] I was physically developed for my age.

[00:05:29] And people used to go like, oh, there's no way he's 13, 14.

[00:05:32] He's 13.

[00:05:33] What is he doing?

[00:05:33] What is he doing here with us kind of thing?

[00:05:35] So yeah, it was difficult.

[00:05:37] But I guess that is what has made me the person that I am today.

[00:05:42] And that's why I'm so passionate and driven about providing opportunities to people and

[00:05:48] supporting wherever I can.

[00:05:50] And that kind of background, you talk about providing opportunities and support.

[00:05:57] Is there also a strong element of making sure that everyone has a chance?

[00:06:03] You mentioned before the great one of the great things about our industry is it doesn't

[00:06:08] matter where you come from or what you sound like or any element of who you are.

[00:06:13] If you if you bring a work ethic, an open mind, a willingness to to learn, then there is

[00:06:21] a place for you in our industry.

[00:06:23] So this making sure that people that might have some differences, whether that is background

[00:06:31] or any other aspect of their their life, it's important for you to make sure that they are

[00:06:38] included.

[00:06:39] Yeah, it goes.

[00:06:40] It goes without saying.

[00:06:42] And I think, you know, I've said this number of occasions, but I genuinely see, you know,

[00:06:46] differences as well as people's superpowers, you know, that can only aid the diversity because

[00:06:52] that diversity generally breeds innovation and creativity.

[00:06:56] And I think that's why our industry in the UK is so successful because of the diversity

[00:07:02] that sits within within us, our society.

[00:07:06] And then from agent, where did you what was your next step?

[00:07:10] Yeah.

[00:07:10] So so agent for a couple of a couple of, but well, there was a financial in-house organization

[00:07:16] that I moved into the BPO outsourcing.

[00:07:18] And then from agent, you know, your supervisor trainer from trainer to team lead from team leader

[00:07:27] into insights from insights, operations manager, business manager, CX, head of operations,

[00:07:35] head of contact centers, consultancy.

[00:07:38] And now I am a, I'm the director of customer experience management, which basically I lead

[00:07:44] the contact center business for SSL, a organization that operates within Soprasteria.

[00:07:51] And your, your journey through all these different roles and your exposure to other leaders, did

[00:07:59] that, did you have a clear view of what type of leader you wanted to be or were you observing

[00:08:05] how other people led?

[00:08:07] I think I'm in amalgamation of some of the great leaders I've had through, through my,

[00:08:16] my journey, let's say, I always, you know, tell my teams that, you know, you need to be

[00:08:21] like a sponge.

[00:08:22] You need to start understanding what good looks like and try to bring those little nuggets and

[00:08:31] form that leadership style.

[00:08:33] I don't think anyone is born with, you know, a settled leadership style.

[00:08:37] So, so yeah, it is amalgamation of, of different individuals throughout, throughout my career.

[00:08:44] Yeah.

[00:08:45] I mean, I was having a, a, a team meeting yesterday, Martin, with my direct reports, and we're

[00:08:51] talking about great place to work.

[00:08:53] And we're talking about, you know, we need to have now a strategy day for 2025.

[00:08:57] We need to make sure that the first point in the agenda is the people strategy.

[00:09:02] How do we maintain and build on the success that we had last year?

[00:09:06] And what I said to them is guys, always remember, always remember, because a lot of you on the,

[00:09:13] on this call started as an advisor, always remember what I felt like.

[00:09:18] Never, never lose sight of that.

[00:09:20] And always remember, you know, the things that gave you purpose, the gifts, the things that

[00:09:27] motivated you and they gave you drive and the thing, the things that, you know, almost

[00:09:32] turned you off in a job.

[00:09:35] Because we work in, I guess, people business and our people are our main asset.

[00:09:41] We've had a lot of success the last two, three years, Martin.

[00:09:44] And yes, absolutely.

[00:09:45] We've invested heavily on technology, you know, innovation, AI, and so on and so forth.

[00:09:51] Well, the absolute backbone, the absolute foundation of our success is our amazing teams and the

[00:09:59] amazing people that work for us.

[00:10:01] And that's been, that must be then the fact that you opened your, how are we approaching

[00:10:06] this year with your team, starting with people.

[00:10:10] Has that, has that always been one of your kind of key, key values then in leadership?

[00:10:18] Has it always been?

[00:10:20] It probably wasn't the top priority as I was climbing the ladder.

[00:10:27] And that is because of inexperience at the stage of my career, Martin.

[00:10:33] I remember when I was a up and coming, you know, leader in the industry, my main focus

[00:10:43] was how do we get a shinier tool to impress the clients?

[00:10:48] And, you know, how do we make sure that whatever happens, the SLAs and KPIs are green?

[00:10:56] You know, I had that drive.

[00:10:59] And then, you know, through professional maturity and through, I guess, challenges, you get to

[00:11:07] learn that without the people, without making sure that you truly treat people the right way

[00:11:15] and you take them on a journey with you, that you'll never have genuine, sustainable success.

[00:11:22] You may have a great month or a great quarter, but if those individuals are non-nurtured,

[00:11:29] if they don't feel challenged, if they don't feel motivated, they'll just leave and go all

[00:11:35] the way.

[00:11:35] You make such an interesting point because I can remember very distinctly that, and you

[00:11:43] used a great phrase as well, that kind of professional maturity.

[00:11:47] Before that, like you, I was very focused on our outputs.

[00:11:53] So I'd get my team together and say, here are the areas where we're on target or above

[00:12:00] target.

[00:12:01] Here's where we're not.

[00:12:03] What should we do about it?

[00:12:05] What are your thoughts?

[00:12:05] I want to hear them before I tell you what I think.

[00:12:09] And part of that would be, do we need to invest in new technology?

[00:12:15] What then evolved was actually remembering each of the people in that room I hadn't spent

[00:12:23] enough time with, getting to know them, making them feel valued, developing them, and then

[00:12:30] focusing on them.

[00:12:31] And then the outputs will look after themselves.

[00:12:34] Not without any stewardship, but thinking people first rather than outcome first.

[00:12:40] And it is something that comes with experience, isn't it?

[00:12:45] It absolutely does.

[00:12:46] It absolutely does.

[00:12:47] And the thing is complacency as well, Martin, because yeah, you can put the right strategy

[00:12:51] in place and you can think like, okay, you know what?

[00:12:54] The people strategy, tick, box, nice, it's done.

[00:12:57] You know, they all seem happy.

[00:12:58] Our service are telling us that they are happy.

[00:13:01] And a lot of leaders fall into that trap.

[00:13:04] So it's not a tick box exercise.

[00:13:07] It's a continuous, I guess, approach.

[00:13:10] It's one of those things that you have to do absolutely on a daily basis.

[00:13:15] It's one of those things, Martin, that you have to do it when no one is looking, when

[00:13:19] no one is watching.

[00:13:20] You know, it generally needs to come from the heart when it comes to the people element.

[00:13:26] Because that's the only way you will create, I guess, a successful, compact, loyal team.

[00:13:35] A team that wants to do well for you.

[00:13:38] A team that wants to do well for your clients.

[00:13:41] A team that, you know, absolutely loves and has a connection with your brand.

[00:13:47] And a team that wakes up in the morning and they got purpose.

[00:13:51] And the purpose is key.

[00:13:52] You know, why am I doing what I'm doing?

[00:13:55] What impact will that have?

[00:13:57] So as a leader, you have to be clear and concise enough to actually make sure that you translate

[00:14:03] those strategies and those visions and you create that purpose for them.

[00:14:07] I love that.

[00:14:08] The element of purpose is so, so important.

[00:14:11] And you mentioned something there about this kind of unseen work, right?

[00:14:16] So you're working to get yourself in a position that you're really well prepared to then deliver

[00:14:22] all of the things that you've talked about.

[00:14:25] And that work ethic has come from your background.

[00:14:29] Do you, you'll often hear whether there's a concern of, for the future leaders we have

[00:14:36] coming through, whether society is shaping them to think there's an immediacy, right?

[00:14:41] Which is, I'm going to try something and if it doesn't work, then I'm not going to try

[00:14:44] it again.

[00:14:45] Do you see that?

[00:14:47] Or do you think that's a bit of a fallacy?

[00:14:50] I see that.

[00:14:51] I think there's sometimes too much information out there can have the opposite effect on people.

[00:14:59] Martin, you know, there's a lot of talk around.

[00:15:02] You don't necessarily have to work hard, just work smart.

[00:15:05] And a lot of people actually misunderstand that, you know, they see that she's going to have

[00:15:10] to put a lot of effort, you know, if it doesn't work, just kind of move to the next one.

[00:15:15] I think the work ethic, it's personally for myself and teams I've worked with and leaders

[00:15:21] that, you know, I've had the pleasure to play a small part in their journey and they've gone

[00:15:27] and done amazing things for themselves.

[00:15:30] That character, that work ethic has always been washed to them, you know, out from everyone

[00:15:36] else.

[00:15:37] If I'm recruiting for a key role, I will put 80% of weighted output on the work ethic,

[00:15:46] on the person, on the individual and 20% on the skill set because the skill set you can

[00:15:50] teach them.

[00:15:51] Character, you can't teach character.

[00:15:53] You can't teach work ethic.

[00:15:55] And that's why it's so, so, so important.

[00:15:58] For me, it's absolutely key.

[00:16:00] And I guess it comes from within as well.

[00:16:04] I think we all have it, but we have to be in the right place at the right time.

[00:16:12] And sometimes with the right people around us as well to, you know, make us understand

[00:16:18] like, you know what?

[00:16:19] La fire is that.

[00:16:20] We just need a little kick and then it'll kind of explode into something beautiful.

[00:16:25] Maybe you can help with Angie's team talk tonight and give them a bit of a kick.

[00:16:29] So they, they, they explode and we beat Liverpool.

[00:16:33] I don't know what we want.

[00:16:34] I mean, I guess whether I want Liverpool to win or whether I want Tottenham.

[00:16:39] No, I'll give that a pass.

[00:16:41] Perfect.

[00:16:42] Do you, as you think back on your, your leadership career and journey, and as you said from the

[00:16:49] start, we're constantly learning, right?

[00:16:51] There is no finish.

[00:16:52] There is no finish.

[00:16:53] Much as there's no one that's a born leader.

[00:16:55] There's no one that's the finished article.

[00:16:58] But when you look back at that element of leadership, the you, that were a real challenge.

[00:17:06] And if so, how did you, how did you kind of overcome them?

[00:17:09] I went through a stage, Martin, in the previous, in the previous fall where I really, really,

[00:17:17] really found it difficult to switch off.

[00:17:21] I, you know, I was young.

[00:17:24] It was one of my first senior roles.

[00:17:27] I had about 1,300 staff under me in terms of the organizational structure.

[00:17:36] And I really wanted to make it a success.

[00:17:40] I'd start and work.

[00:17:41] I'd be the first one in the office at half six in the morning.

[00:17:45] And I'd be the last one to leave at half eight, nine o'clock in the evening.

[00:17:50] And I generally became a control freak for a stage.

[00:17:56] And I don't know why, because I had an absolutely amazing team around me.

[00:18:01] Passionate people, people that were capable, people that, you know, wanted to do well.

[00:18:05] But I misunderstood what leadership was.

[00:18:09] I felt, as you know, I am the leader here.

[00:18:13] I'm basically leading and heading up the flagship, the global flagship account for this huge BPO.

[00:18:21] I have to do it all, this and that, and that.

[00:18:25] That couldn't be, could have been it for me because literally it impacted mental health.

[00:18:30] It impacted my, you know, general health.

[00:18:34] It impacted my social life.

[00:18:36] And I needed to do some, you know, soul searching and really go back to why am I doing what I'm doing?

[00:18:45] And what does leadership actually mean to me?

[00:18:48] I went back to my academic side of things because I've got a degree in international business management as well.

[00:18:54] And looking at, you know, what some great leaders did in similar situations.

[00:19:00] And then I kind of started letting go bit by bit.

[00:19:04] And the more I started to let go, the more I started seeing my amazing team at the time flourish.

[00:19:10] You know, really take ownership and really come up with ideas that I'd never thought of.

[00:19:17] Ideas that were better than what I was trying to actually achieve.

[00:19:21] And, yeah, that then changed the way I learned moving forward.

[00:19:26] This was about 10, 15 years ago.

[00:19:27] But that was a difficult, I guess that was a difficult point in my journey so far because I really got to a point where I was stuck.

[00:19:38] I thought I was doing the right thing.

[00:19:40] I was, I genuinely thought I was doing the right thing.

[00:19:42] And when you're in that bubble, you know, I had my little glass office, literally numbers all over and I was in my own world.

[00:19:51] And, yeah, I was, I was sinking and I didn't even know it.

[00:19:55] And I didn't know that the help was just outside.

[00:19:57] And that was my team.

[00:19:58] So revealing.

[00:19:59] It's so insightful as well.

[00:20:01] That kind of the passion, the passion to succeed in your first, in a first senior role can, can lend itself, can't it?

[00:20:08] To equating that to, I am going to work.

[00:20:12] I've worked hard to get here, so I'm going to work even harder.

[00:20:15] You take it personal, don't you?

[00:20:16] Yeah.

[00:20:17] Yeah.

[00:20:18] And how those, can you remember the feeling when you first started to let go?

[00:20:25] What was that like?

[00:20:27] What was, it was, I felt relieved.

[00:20:30] I felt, I felt that I was actually achieving much more.

[00:20:35] I felt a sense of achievement when I saw some of my direct reports sitting on board rules with our clients and actually taking charge.

[00:20:47] And I actually felt more secure.

[00:20:51] I felt, you know, I had this little word, this little whisper in my head going, you know what?

[00:20:57] It's going to be all right.

[00:20:58] That kind of thing.

[00:21:00] Yeah.

[00:21:01] And yeah.

[00:21:01] Yeah.

[00:21:01] And one of those individuals actually, he works for me even today with SSEL.

[00:21:07] So yeah, it's just about finding the right people, making sure that you trust them, making sure that you give them the right autonomy, making sure that, you know, you challenge them.

[00:21:17] When, you know, a challenge is due, but you do it the right way.

[00:21:21] They are there.

[00:21:22] You're paying them a salary because they are capable of doing the role they're fruitful.

[00:21:27] So let them do it.

[00:21:29] I mean, I wouldn't, I'm not sure how, how I would call if my boss came to me and he wanted to know absolutely everything that I was doing.

[00:21:39] And he was a control freak.

[00:21:41] He would, it would probably suffocate me and it would probably do that creativity spark.

[00:21:48] Does that make sense?

[00:21:49] Yeah, completely.

[00:21:50] Because you at that point were crossroads where you could have easily gone to burnout.

[00:21:56] Yeah.

[00:21:57] But through self-reflection, right?

[00:22:00] Through looking at going, leaning into your academic background as well, but a real self-awareness there to recognize that you needed to make a change really does point to, you know, the fact that as leaders, as senior leaders,

[00:22:18] you still need to, A, look after yourself, but B, explore what you're doing and utilize your teams.

[00:22:25] You know, it's not the, you're not the oracle that knows everything and then must do everything yourself.

[00:22:31] Exactly.

[00:22:32] And that wellbeing aspect, Martin, is such an important thing.

[00:22:37] And people sometimes, they don't prioritize it as much as they should because when you are healthy, when, you know, you have that clarity, you are rested.

[00:22:46] And I'm thinking then about how the challenges of leadership for new leaders coming into an environment that looks very, very different to when you were making those, making those progressive steps through your leadership journey, right?

[00:23:04] Like our, there's so much of our industry that's still the same, as well as there's so much of our industry and society that is, is very different in terms of management with, with greater awareness of cultural mental wellbeing, emotional intelligence.

[00:23:24] Technology has accelerated hugely in its capabilities.

[00:23:29] Customer demands have increased.

[00:23:32] When you look at the leaders that are taking their progressive steps now, do you think their challenges, their, their journey is going to be harder than the one you had?

[00:23:44] Or is it just variations of the same?

[00:23:47] Yeah.

[00:23:48] I don't necessarily think it would be, it will be harder because you need to work extremely hard in any scenario to actually get to a certain point and, you know, deliver amazing results.

[00:23:59] Whilst you take people on a journey with you.

[00:24:02] Well, I think it will be very, very different, Martin.

[00:24:05] And I think, you know, I guess clarity and integrity are two of the values that they absolutely need to possess from, from the get-go.

[00:24:15] And, and the integrity piece, I'll tie that with AI as an example is, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of questions.

[00:24:23] How, how, what will AI do to our industry, to our teams, the way we deliver services and so on.

[00:24:30] And that's why integrity is, is, is, is so, so important.

[00:24:33] You have to take people on a journey with you.

[00:24:36] They have to be part of the solution bill.

[00:24:39] They need to understand what the, what the outputs of the solution will be.

[00:24:43] So, you know, so it doesn't, so you don't do things to them, at them.

[00:24:47] You do things with them.

[00:24:49] And collaboration.

[00:24:51] Back in the day, you used to have a few core teams that would basically form the main pillars of an organization.

[00:24:58] Whereas now, as you mentioned a few areas earlier, that you need to have a broader understanding and broader expertise on a broader number of things like diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

[00:25:13] It's, it's, it's, it's something that is absolutely paramount.

[00:25:16] And, and, you know, as leaders, we need to educate ourselves in, in, in that space.

[00:25:23] So we are, so we are better leaders.

[00:25:25] We are better human beings, but we are able to, to provide an inclusive work environment for our people, but also for our clients.

[00:25:34] And innovation.

[00:25:35] You really need to do your homework now, Mark, in terms of what's out there, what the competition is doing.

[00:25:42] Again, back in the day, more or less, it was the same technology.

[00:25:46] People just had different people capabilities.

[00:25:48] Whereas now things are changing.

[00:25:50] That's such a fast pace and, and you need to be switched on in terms of, you know, what's happening with tech, who's doing what, what tech goes where.

[00:25:59] Otherwise you are potentially left with a, you know, with a very expensive piece of technology that no one can use.

[00:26:06] And it just becomes this massive overhead.

[00:26:09] Well, you, you must be doing something right.

[00:26:11] You guys have been, you guys have been winning awards.

[00:26:14] And like I said, at the start, I've spent some time with your teams, super high energy, really like just excellent.

[00:26:25] Is continuing that, you know, when you look ahead to the rest of this year, what, what's next for you and your teams?

[00:27:01] Yes.

[00:27:02] So in 2020 books, we had the CCMA down to go through the CCMA accreditation.

[00:27:08] And one of our assessors went around and spoke to different teams and spoke to, you know, advisors from different contact centers within our, one of the first questions was what you do.

[00:27:22] And no one said, I take calls.

[00:27:26] I look after emails.

[00:27:28] I look after emails.

[00:27:29] I look after AI, this and that.

[00:27:31] What they said is, I make sure that the streets of London are police and secure.

[00:27:38] I'll make sure that all the prisons, HMPPS, they are fully staffed and there are no riots.

[00:27:44] I'll make sure that we have enough staff for border patrol to keep our borders secure.

[00:27:51] Now you can't buy that.

[00:27:53] I love that.

[00:27:54] That is, I generally think that is one of the absolutely underpinning factors that has given us the success that we've had.

[00:28:03] Because when you have that purpose and when you have that passion, it becomes so much easier, you know, to, to, to, you know, to deploy your own technologies and so on and so forth, because you get buying, you get buying straight away.

[00:28:17] If the workforce understands that what we're doing here is for the better of the customer and the better of the workforce, they will of course support and, and adopt it and jump, jump on board.

[00:28:28] So, so yeah, that, that purpose has been seen for us now.

[00:28:34] 2025 will be different.

[00:28:36] There'll be different challenges.

[00:28:38] We are working hard on growth.

[00:28:40] We are working hard on making sure that our teams feel engaged, feel challenged.

[00:28:48] They are learning new things day to day.

[00:28:51] They get better understanding of AI, how AI will impact our industry moving forward.

[00:28:56] So, so, so, so there's a lot that we need to unravel and put into a plan that is easily digested by, by everyone.

[00:29:06] The people element, like I said at the start of this recording is the absolute number one goal around how do we keep trading?

[00:29:15] How do we keep motivating?

[00:29:17] And how do we provide opportunities?

[00:29:20] Because there'll be different roles now in 2025, 2024 didn't exist that much at least.

[00:29:25] So yeah, a lot in that space.

[00:29:27] Having said that, we're looking at AI.

[00:29:31] We're looking at AI for numerous case studies around making life easier for our customers,

[00:29:39] making life easier for our staff and overall providing more compelling solutions to our customers.

[00:29:49] Marco, to start with, I absolutely love what the advisors were saying because that is, that's amazing.

[00:29:58] That is absolutely amazing.

[00:30:00] And if we can, if the people listening can take one thing from this, I was sure they'll take lots more actually,

[00:30:06] but they could take one thing is to work with their teams to let them see where they fit in the bigger picture.

[00:30:15] There's nothing, you know, that's so powerful.

[00:30:17] So cool.

[00:30:18] It reminds me of the story around Disney, isn't it?

[00:30:21] Where the janitor's asked what he does and he says, I help make people's dreams come true, you know,

[00:30:27] because he's bought into, he has an integral part in the smooth running of a much bigger operation

[00:30:34] and he's bought into what their purpose is.

[00:30:37] And it's more kudos to you that the same thing is happening for you guys.

[00:30:43] It's just brilliant.

[00:30:45] Yeah, I'm extremely proud of that, Martin.

[00:30:50] And I'm so thankful to the leadership teams and, you know, the management teams because it comes from love.

[00:30:58] You know, team leaders play an absolutely key role.

[00:31:01] Operations managers, heads of service, our support structures, our HR teams, engagement teams, learning development teams.

[00:31:10] You need absolutely every team to be on the same page to achieve and create that true purpose.

[00:31:18] A purpose that, you know, breeds values and I guess creates an organisation that focuses on what's best for the customer at all stages.

[00:31:29] And what about for you?

[00:31:30] You personally, what are you hoping for this year?

[00:31:35] What am I hoping for this year?

[00:31:37] Don't mention Chelsea.

[00:31:38] Maybe get in a nice suit.

[00:31:42] Chelsea, I hope we finish top four, to be honest with you.

[00:31:45] That will do me for this year and then next year win the Champions League, the League and the Big Cup.

[00:31:53] That aside, it's about continuing learning.

[00:31:58] There's a lot changing in our industry.

[00:32:00] I'm lucky that I work for an organisation that encourages us leaders to actually take time and make sure that we retrain, we learn and we go out there and study the market and understand what others are potentially doing that we do as well.

[00:32:19] Make sure that I continue nurturing my teams.

[00:32:21] It'll be a challenging year.

[00:32:25] And we need to make sure we are prepared.

[00:32:27] You know, you cannot control the weather, but you can prepare for it, Martin.

[00:32:30] And that's what we need to make sure we do.

[00:32:34] And with the drive growth, I genuinely think we have such a compelling offering in terms of what we do within SSL and Snowpress area.

[00:32:44] Very high level.

[00:32:45] We haven't failed one KPI or SLA in three years.

[00:32:50] 93% first contact resolution and 92% CSAT school.

[00:32:56] External attrition rate in single digits is a lot that is absolutely industry leading.

[00:33:03] And we want more organisations to have a taste of that.

[00:33:08] Hey, Marco, I wish you all the best.

[00:33:10] I know you and the teams really well and you are genuinely awesome, apart from the team that you support.

[00:33:17] But we'll let that go.

[00:33:19] Thank you for coming on.

[00:33:21] Long overdue.

[00:33:22] I'm sure it won't be this long before we do another one because there's other areas that we can look into.

[00:33:28] But thank you for everything you do for the industry as well, because you are a real role model.

[00:33:35] Coming from you, that means a lot.

[00:33:37] Thank you, Martin.

[00:33:38] Thank you very much, my friend.

[00:33:40] Cheers.

[00:33:42] Thank you for listening.

[00:33:44] Does your brand or company fancy increasing your brand awareness and sharing your stories

[00:33:50] and all of the things that you have going on at the moment?

[00:33:53] Then you should think about partnering with me here at Get Out A Wrap.

[00:33:57] We can do podcasts, live events, create content together, do research.

[00:34:03] You can come on and appear on Get Out A Wrap TV.

[00:34:07] And of course, I will share your brand and your logo across all of my channels.

[00:34:12] If this sounds something like you would be interested in, all you need to do is drop me an email at Martin at Get Out A Wrap.

[00:34:20] Thank you for listening.

[00:34:22] I'll see you next week.

[00:34:23] Or maybe join us on LinkedIn for our Get Out A Wrap TV show every Tuesday at 10 a.m.

[00:34:31] Thanks a lot.

[00:34:32] Bye.