On the lighter side of things , we ask the industry experts what makes them tick . . . .
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Budd Ilic , ANZ Country Manager , Zscaler
wWhat would you describe as your most
memorable achievement ?
I was VMware ’ s Worldwide Sales Rep of the Year in 2010 . From a personal perspective , that was extremely rewarding . I started with the company in 2005 and was employee number six or seven in Australia , so we had a big job selling the virtualization story and the VMware brand in the region . My role evolved to running the Federal Government business and , by 2012 , there was evidence to suggest that the Commonwealth public sector was the most ‘ virtualized vertical ’ in the country – and Australia was the most virtualized country in the world as a percentage . That was a good feeling and testament to the hard work of my team .
What first made you think of a career in technology ?
I was always very good at maths and solving problems and that led me to study electrical engineering at Sydney University of Technology . By the time I finished in 1992 , IT and computer networks were becoming increasingly prevalent and working with them attracted me more than pure electrical engineering . Companies were migrating from the Unix workstation shared among 20 employees to networked PC environments – an exciting watershed . Once I completed my degree
and cadetship with the Department of Defense I looked for an opening in IT . After starting out in IT technical and consulting roles , I made the sideways shift into pre-sales and then sales and sales management .
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?
Like most people who ’ ve spent time in the industry , I ’ ve worked for good managers and bad . I ’ ve learnt more from the bad – on how not to manage ! I ask all my team members to treat their role as if it ’ s their own business and to think of me as an employee who ’ s there to help them . It takes a lot of hard work to be successful in IT sales and I ’ m happy to lead by example to give them every chance to be successful . It ’ s also important to think about the person as well as the job and to do all you can to support the people you work with , not just as their manager , but as a fellow human being .
Like most people who ’ ve spent time in the industry , I ’ ve worked for good managers and bad .
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