Since I was very young, my father has always encouraged me to try and experience everything that I could. The more I exposed myself to different things over the years, the quicker I discovered what I liked and what I was good at doing.

Fintan Lalor is Regional Manager, APAC of Wrike, - an online project management software provider. With experience across software and hospitality, we asked him to offer up a bit of advice.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
The first decade of my career was spent in sales and business development positions. My interest in tech was piqued in 2013 when I helped grow Citrix in the EMEA region. After that, I joined Wrike, where I have now been for over three years.

I am currently Wrike's Regional Manager for APAC in our first ANZ office in Melbourne. Since we opened in November last year, my primary focus has been to expand the team within the region. Before this, I was based in our EMEA HQ in Dublin specializing in multiple areas of the company, including new business, expansion, and customer retention.  

How does your previous experience in hospitality and software sales help you in your day-to-day role as the APAC business lead of Wrike? 
At first thought, the hospitality and software industries would appear to be poles apart, but both sectors require an enormous emphasis on the customer. They understand that the customer’s experience is critical in ensuring the success of their business. Also, they each channel a considerable amount of time and effort into understanding what people want and need to provide the best experience possible. 

I’ve been able to quickly adapt and evolve in my career across multiple industries because the customer experience has been at the forefront of my mind from the start of my professional life.

I’ve also found that the many teams across various industries and departments I have been a part of have influenced the way I work today. Having taken on so many different roles within these teams has allowed me to grow and develop not only in a professional capacity but also on a personal level.

How does Wrike support those in media manage their business?
Speed and accuracy are imperative for any organisation, regardless of size, when engaging in marketing or communication activities in business today. The ability to deliver a project and have it go live faster than a competitor is paramount in maintaining an advantage in the marketplace. Equally important in this process is accuracy within the content and design elements, ensuring high engagement and other desired results are achieved.

Wrike provides an end-to-end solution for media and media agencies, from internal marketing teams through to full-service PR or creative agencies. Wrike provides clear visibility across the entire project lifecycle, a built-in proofing and approval tool, and a deep integration with Adobe Creative Cloud, which allows designers to stay in the tool while still communicating with other team members and stakeholders through Wrike.

Define ‘media’.
Media, in a traditional sense, refers to forms of communication, as in radio, television, newspapers, or magazines, but today media, or digital media, is now used to describe any number of assets that creative teams produce, from images to videos and graphics.

What's the best career or professional advice you ever received?
Since I was very young, my father has always encouraged me to try and experience everything that I could. The more I exposed myself to different things over the years, the quicker I discovered what I liked and what I was good at doing.

My father also advised me always to make sure to set goals that I could work toward over time. He would sit down with me and help me outline small goals that could be achieved quickly, as well as larger goals that I could break down into smaller milestones and work on over the course of a number of weeks, months, or even years.

This advice was integral to how I would come to look at moving up the professional ladder and more importantly, has ultimately led me to really enjoy what I do today.

What education, training, skills and/or knowledge do you believe are necessary for upcoming industry leaders
Motivating yourself to get to know your chosen area inside-out throughout your career will undoubtedly set you up for success; however, you decide to do it. Educating yourself is the key to remaining at the top of your game in your chosen industry. That looks different for everyone. For some that could mean completing an undergraduate degree before entering the workforce, earning a masters degree part-time, or pursuing other training while you work.

Leadership and Management training is something those with the ambition to reach their full potential might want to consider. I would stress, however, just how important it is to know whether you genuinely want to become a manager or a leader - or both - before entering into this kind of training program.

Both are very different positions and require different skill sets and personality traits to master each. First of all, you manage things while you lead people. A manager's role is to ensure projects are executed well, on time, and within budget, making skills, like organisation, analysis, and planning critical. Conversely, a leader tends to be someone who is naturally more of a visionary with a skillset lying more in coaching, innovation, and the ability to cultivate new ideas.

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