John Walters - Managing Director, NEXTGEN with Stan Slap - CEO, Slap Company
NEXTGEN tapped into the wisdom of business culture specialist Stan Slap, a New York Times best-selling author, to help Oracle channel partners transition to the Cloud.
Headlining a full-day strategic workshop in Sydney, the charismatic speaker provided confronting and interactive sessions for resellers, challenging the channel to assess leadership styles, while questioning the importance of culture in supporting change.
As a renowned management consultant, keynote speaker and facilitator, Slap specialises in understanding corporate culture, emphasising the importance of engaging employee and customer commitment to facilitate change.
The workshop represented a global pilot for Oracle, as the tech giant ups its support of channel partners adopting new business models in response to Cloud market growth.
Opened by Oracle Australia and New Zealand Managing Director Tim Ebbeck, the session included partners from across both sides of the Tasman, ranging from system integrators to traditional value-added resellers.
“It was a strategic move by Oracle to support their channel partners transform their business models and company culture to enable success in the Cloud world,” NEXTGEN Managing Director, John Walters, said.
“Oracle Cloud sales are accelerating and we are looking to the channel to support that momentum.”
According to Walters, key outcomes for the channel partners focused around increasing awareness and alignment of Oracle’s Cloud strategy, as well as the role leadership plays in developing a culture which enables management change.
“The sessions also looked at how the right culture of an organisation can act as key enabler for the successful execution of transformation strategies,” Walters added.
As Slap explained, local channel partners can lead the right cultural changes within organisations to enable the implementation of key change management strategies internally, as they support customer transitions to the Cloud.
The sessions signalled the beginning of a six month Action Plan, designed to align partner organisations to Oracle’s transition to the Cloud strategies.
“Transition and transformation to the Cloud requires a significant change management strategy both internally and externally,” Walters added.
“To be successful any change management strategy requires the right leadership and cultural attributes.”
As the CEO and President of international consulting company SLAP, Slap’s work has produced impact for a who’s who of successful companies, “the kind that don’t include ‘Patience’ on their list of corporate values”.
