Damien Davis
Appearances
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Hello and welcome to the Growth Workshop Podcast with your hosts, me, Matt Best and Jonny Adams. In this podcast, we'll be sharing insights from our combined 30 plus years experience and hearing from other industry leaders to get their thoughts and perspectives on what growth looks like in modern business.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You know, what you see on LinkedIn is what you see here in the studio and what you'll see down the pub or in the gym, right? I don't feel I have to switch on some form of corporate persona. I can just be myself and I feel empowered to be myself thanks to that rich culture.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Bring your best self to work, you know, doing what you love, making an impact, all of that corporate well-being mantra, you know, that's what I think is first level employee engagement.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
If you had to refine and summarize your sort of journey on a chronological aspect, just for the listeners and the guests to understand a little bit more about your journey, what employee number you were, and just give that sort of little potted history, would that be all right? Yeah, sure. Well, my badge number is in a very small number of digits.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And I'm like, yeah. I'll have you as my board advisor. And then the second one will be my wife. Just keep feet on the ground, right? I've enjoyed a very successful career with ServiceNow, and I know we'll dive deeper into that. And while I'm on this trajectory of growth and learning, I think having the mantra of hungry but humble and keeping feet on the ground, Mrs. D definitely keeps me grounded.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
There's 125 in the entire company that have been there longer than me. Now, there's two ways to look at that. One, I've been there a long time in relation to most of the company. Two, Despite the fact that I've been there nearly 14 years, there's still 125 people that have been there longer.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
They've also chosen to stay as long as I have, which is testament to, you know, the opportunities and the culture that the company has provided us with. So if it was Hunger Games, that would be an interesting setup, wouldn't it? 125 of you try to see who survives. I remember watching a YouTube clip about how Workday grew and they grew from zero to 10 million.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And they talk about the commercial function and the commercial function had X amount of people in it. It had this type of competence in it. It had these types of processes in it. And then you go from 10 million to 100 million. There's a theory within the marketplace that you need to find the new team.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Leadership capital, for example, is a term that's used where you need to change your leadership team. You've clearly been on the journey and stayed on the journey. So there must be some secret sauce out there. Could you describe how you might have bucked that trend or how you've stayed within the organization throughout that?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
It's funny you say about like those growths and stuff like our CEO, our C-suite are internally referred to as the P5, which is phase five of growth. And, you know, there are obviously companies that, you know, nought to 1 million, nought to 100 million or whatever. I don't, I can tell you what the thresholds are, but we're now on that journey having hit 10 billion US dollars of revenue.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
So we're obviously in what we call phase five of growth. And we've done it organically. We've made acquisitions ServiceNow. I mean, obviously, I was there when we made our first acquisition back in 2013, when we acquired a small technology company, replatformed it and launched it as performance analytics as a core capability of the platform.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We've made several acquisitions, particularly over the last six years, as we build our AI capabilities, a number of AI acquisitions, starting with Virtual agents, chatbots, predictive intelligence, being able to predict fields on tables, generative AI, agentic AI. It's all this lovely AI-themed technology.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
But this growth now, I think if I go back to the very early days when I started my career at ServiceNow in the basement of our then office in Richmond... Our UKI workforce was 80 people, 8-0. UKI now has over a thousand people. And like I say, you know, obviously in Europe, Middle East and Africa, we're at nearly 5,000 and globally, you know, 26,500 full-time employees.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I don't think I could have imagined that in my wildest dreams in the early days. But I've also seen four chief executive officers. And we were the first tech company to go through an IPO since Facebook. So it was very high profile. And the IPO took us onto Wall Street on the New York Stock Exchange. We've just gone through the stratosphere.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And it's all about flawless, relentless, elite execution in every corner of our business. Right from the C-suite, our P5 team. Right, I say down or you can flip it whichever way you like. from every junior individual contributor right up to every senior leader, everybody is focused on people and elite execution. And that's what has been a big contribution to ServiceNow's trajectory and our growth.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Are there things for you, having gone through those different phases, that not have kept you at ServiceNow. I think what's really interesting is you talk about that authenticity. And I think we see this a lot of the time, and I see this in the mirror when I think about my career. There's definitely been times where I've felt that I needed to be something else at work. What is it?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Hungry and humble. Yeah. That's fantastic. And, Dame, you talk about your career so far, and obviously ServiceNow are a global enterprise business solution provider, and you probably do a much better job of introducing them than I just have. But maybe tell us a little bit about your role there and what it is that you do. Yeah, well, I kind of feel like I'm on my third career within ServiceNow.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Are there maybe sort of one or two things that on that journey have been... consistent at ServiceNow that have been the things that you've sort of anchored to? I'm curious, as you go through a lot of change in a relatively short amount of time, how you've been able to sort of navigate that, as it were? I'd like to say, we spoke earlier about hungry but humble, keep feet on the ground.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I feel very blessed, very lucky that I actually have a role that is deeply fulfilling and gives me a lot of job satisfaction. The company has given me tremendous opportunity, very lucky to have got in in the early days, so it's given me financial stability and security for my family. It's given me a career. I've grown and been promoted into a senior leader from a junior individual contributor.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
It's given me the opportunity to travel the world. I get to meet people and I'm a people person. I crave in-person contact. You know, when we all had to pivot to fully remote during the pandemic, I was like, ah, I'm going to be able to see people again. And now, as you know, we've come out the other side of that. And if anything, my travel is back to pre-COVID levels.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You know, I've got a very supportive family that empowers and enables me. That's why I said about Mrs. Davis being one of my board advisors. You know, I've got a wife that is managing my family at home while I'm on the road. But I also get that lovely balance. And I think, you know, if I was to put metrics around it, I'm home half the time and I'm traveling half the time.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And those travels could be off to glamorous locations across the world or to some northern cities. We don't have to name drop Sheffield, right? Yeah. Anyone who thinks business travel is glamorous hasn't done it enough. The actual travel can be exhausting. You know, long journeys, different time zones. It's not a complaint. It's an observation.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I know some people are saying, yeah, try doing it 26 hours in economy, Damien. And I'm like, look, I've done that, but... It's time away from the family, but what's worth it is when I get there at the other end. And I'd say the relationships and the opportunities and that in-person engagement that it gives me.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And my actual role, I get to evangelize what impact does, what our customer excellence group do for our customers, but I also get to listen. And you might be surprised because I talk a lot, but listening is such a gift. Being able to hear feedback,
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
and then drive actionable insights working with our customer experience organization, documenting that feedback, working out which funnel that needs to go in. Is it a complaint? Does it need to be addressed? Is it someone's very happy? Does it need to be turned into a case study or a marketing story? Or does someone need something? Do they need some help?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
So hearing that feedback, I can channel that into different buckets and drive some actual tangible actions from just listening. So it's really rewarding as well.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
perfect thank you for joining us on the growth workshop podcast and we hope that you join us again for part two of this conversation for more insights make sure you subscribe and if you enjoy the journey don't forget to leave us a review your feedback fuels our growth until next time keep up that forward thinking mindset goodbye
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I've actually been there nearly 14 years. They were a pre-IPO startup when I joined back in 2011. You know, we had about 300 employees globally, and we've now got 26,500 full-time employees. That's quite some growth. I did my first six years working in the customer support organization, working in tech support.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I did another seven years working in our IT service management business unit as a product management leader. And now I'm on my third wave of career and I now work in what's called our Customer Excellence Group, or internally we call it CEG. And my role is really to help ServiceNow customers unlock the value of their investment in our solutions. Amazing.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We'll cover all aspects of leadership, sales, account development and customer success, alongside other critical elements required to build an effective growth engine for your business. This podcast is aimed at leaders from exec all the way down to line managers. Hello and welcome to the Growth Workshop podcast. We're thrilled to have Damien Davies from ServiceNow joining us today.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And I know that has you traveling around the world as well. And I guess trying to balance that can be pretty tricky. I know as well, you told us previously that you've got this personal objective of losing 50 pounds by the time that you're 50. That's right. Talk to us a little bit about that. And I think what I think is really interesting for our audience as we think about growth is...
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
So often looking at that, what that requires in terms of mindset, well-being, both inside and outside of work. So how are you juggling that and how are you helping yourself get to that goal? Well, if I dial back first, my next birthday does start with a five. There's going to be a round number. And I've had this moment of realization and said, you know what? Look, I'm late 40s.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I'm not in great shape. I've got a successful career. I've got a young family. I have an older daughter as well. I'm like, look, if I'm going to be successful both in and outside of work, I really need to pay a bit more attention to how I look after my body.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And, you know, again, been following lots of podcasts, various posts from, you know, inspirational individuals and decided, you know what, if I'm going to be in the best shape of my life, I need to change habits and processes. I've lost weight and gained weight several times in the past, and I've been too focused on the goal and the outcome of hitting a target weight.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And so often people come up to me, oh yeah, what's your target? And I went, well, my target is building better habits and changing my mindset so that I try and do it semi-automatically. the weight will come off and it will be a byproduct of changing those habits.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
But at the same token, you know, if you're going to track and measure anything, so I did the initial measurements and, you know, the scales, if it was one of those talking scales, would have said one at a time, please. And I realized that, look, realistically, if I was going to be in optimal shape, body fat percentage was a big number.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
But how that translated into weight was around about 50 pounds in US, three and a half stone, 23 kilos. And I don't profess to be a nutritionist or a personal trainer, but I'm following, you know, a really good program. And, you know, I'm working out three times a week in the gym. I'm doing my cardio, getting my steps in, and I've completely changed my relationship with food.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
But I've already started to see some initial successes. And while it's still very intentional and very focused, I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm of building some of those better habits. Just curious, thinking about growth and that story, what's the thing that sort of triggered you to do this? Because I'm hearing a few things that might have been the trigger.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I'm going to be brutally honest, right? You know, it'd be lovely to use some inspirational quote, say, I just want to be there for my children and be in the best shape of my life. Look, I'm a man and my voice is vanity, right? I looked in the mirror and I didn't like what I saw. And I'm still not completely in love with what I see because I'm in the early stages of that journey.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You know, and I was like, look, I want to be like Ronaldo. I want to have that body. And I thought if I want to have that one, I'm going to have to work bloody hard to get there. And then I sort of did a bit of a balancing act and said, is that sustainable? And I thought, you know what? I know what's sustainable.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Eating healthily, avoiding junk, and making sure that I build a workout routine that I can sustain. Can I do six days a week in the gym for the rest of my life? No. Can I do every other day? Probably. It sounds like, you know, you've got this very, like you said, habits focused and someone who's clearly good and experienced at making those kind of changes.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Damien, welcome and thank you for coming along. Thanks for having me. Brilliant. Damien, we'd love to kind of get into hearing more about your career, your personal life. I know you've got lots of things kind of going on in your world and some really kind of incredible challenges as well, which we want to sort of dive into. But maybe before that...
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And we talk about this a lot in the context of sales and business development and establishing those productive habits and that regular track and that cadence and having access to those data points, be that data point, a photo of you in the mirror shows it applies in so many different contexts. It's the same process, right?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You think about if you're working in sales with a customer and you've agreed on a mutual close plan, Every day you're tracking that mutual close plan working out, right, what actions and next steps do I need to take today? I've just applied that same methodology to my body transformation.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And ultimately, my mutual close plan is building better habits, eating healthier, working out, and the byproduct will be me being in much better shape in the same way that we want to go and close a deal. I can almost hear the people screaming at this podcast thinking, but I don't have the time. And you're a senior leader in a large, significant business with lots of priorities.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
How have you found the time to not only start to focus on these habits, but actually follow through with that? Yeah, so, well, time is a commodity that we could all use more of, right? Time is not going away. And probably I'm going to continue to be busy until I reach retirement age. So do I want to put it off until then? Or do I want to start now?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And one of my really close friends, who's actually a gym buddy of mine, big shout out to Fred, he said to me that it's either one day or today's day one. So if you're worried about time, stop saying one day. Let's do it today, day one. Let's work it out. And then if you're really worried about time, then just figure, right, in the morning, can you get up half an hour earlier? Can you, right?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You know, ask yourself. I just think, look, time is not going away. So how we deal with it and how our mindset is in our approach to that, you know, let's not look for excuses. Let's find the time, make time. Was it Hannibal, I believe? Find a way or make one. Right. You know, when he was going over the mountains to go and fight the Romans. Right.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
It's like literally we'll either find a way or we'll make one. Let's find some time or make some time. Yeah. As you describe some of those things about time, there's also a great little snippet that I learned from a partner of ours that if you take the population of the London Marathon, the majority have a an age that has a nine in it. So it's twenty nine, thirty nine, forty nine.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And the science behind it suggests that when you are about to hit a decade, that you typically are willing to do something that you're not willing to do in those other years. And here I am in 49. I wonder if there's a little bit of that going on. But a lot of people who run the marathon or run marathons is because of that. I've not looked into that psyche.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I wonder if that's what's spurring me on subconsciously. Yeah, I was thinking when you hit that decade, you normally typically want to look back 10 years and go, hmm, what have I done? I want to look forwards. I don't want to look back. I want to look forwards.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And thinking about that as a sort of personal goal, I'd love to dive in a little bit to your career, the journey that you've been on with ServiceNow. And I think a lot of the time on the podcast, we talk about what are those frameworks? What are those things that can help our listeners?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And a lot of our listeners are leaders in some sort of shape or form, senior leaders, middle management, or just aspiring leaders, right? What are the things, what's the advice that you would give to some of those leaders listening here as they embark on their journey from the career that you've, the illustrious career that you've had so far?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Johnny and I were debating this morning, actually, that a fun question to ask might be, if you had to select two people to be in your personal advisory board, so this could be anyone, work, outsider work, personal, somebody that doesn't even exist anymore, who would those people be and why? Oh, that's a good way to start. Punch it. Look, we're on the growth podcast here, right?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Well, my number one giveaway or takeaway is it's all about the people. Nothing in business happens without relationships. You know, even in the tech world, we use technology in the service of people to make people's lives and certainly their work lives better. That's what enterprise software does.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
It automates stuff and it makes jobs better, makes companies more efficient, but it's all about the people. And as you build your grow, grow your career, you know, make relationships, find champions, open opportunities and open doors, both inside and outside of your organization with your customers, with your
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Business partners, stakeholders and your internal colleagues, senior leaders, peers, even juniors with like reverse mentoring. You know, I've spent the last decade expanding my network, really working and focusing on my personal brand because obviously our brand is what people see us as, right? Or what people will talk about us when we're not in the room.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And I think actually every single one of us has the opportunity to control the narrative of our personal brand. Certainly in the last two years, I've invested very heavily in my personal brand. What do I want to be known for? What do I want to be famous for? How can I be seen as someone that can enable and help others to learn and grow?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And I like to think that I've done a reasonable job of it because I get approached with questions and, you know, asking for advice. And I feel very humbled that people are coming to me to ask for that career advice. And I can only talk through my own personal experiences, which has been my growth journey with ServiceNow. I mean, it all comes down to the people.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I resonate with what you're saying, you know, massive impact on myself, you know, the people around me. Who on that journey, who's been the person that's given you the most impact? There's a few and it's interesting to use the word impact. Impact is a very important word for me for two reasons. Firstly, it's my personal mantra.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
If you look up my LinkedIn, I mean, my tagline is making an impact and it's something that really resonates deeply with me. And secondly, ServiceNow's flagship product for our customer success is also called Impact. So it's something that just resonates deeply every day.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And when I go to my career journey about people that have made an impact, honestly, there's been so many as I've built this network up. I've been very fortunate and very lucky to travel the world working in my various roles at ServiceNow. And in every city and every country that I've gone to, I've made new acquaintances, some of which have become really close personal friends.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And that network expands and then it opens opportunities and then someone will make another connection. And it's like a spider web. There's people of all worlds. walks of life. You know, once on a flight, I made friends with a CEO of a company. He actually boarded the plane late, was sweating profusely, sat down next to me.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We started chatting for the flight and we've become friends and he now messages and comments on my LinkedIn posts and invites me back to...
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
his place and stuff and it's like look you know there's all these lovely serendipity moments that I couldn't really in this length of this podcast name too many individuals because I've been humbled to have met so many great people that have had an impact on my life We talk about impact at SBR. It's our mantra, I guess.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Impact can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people, but I love the way that you talk about impact in the context of relationships. And I guess part of that is being impacted and also, as you said, making an impact on the individuals that you meet. How does that translate at ServiceNow? How does that translate to you in a corporate way? How do you deliver impact to your clients?
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
I mean, impact as a product or a solution is ServiceNow's customer success offering. Customers that have impact are not only buying enterprise software or subscription licenses, they're getting a success package as well. And we actually sell that in the form of a digital product.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We're talking about growth and I'm a big fan of growth and learning. And someone that really inspires me is Stephen Bartlett, you know, from Dragon's Den, Diary of a CEO, follow his content all the time on LinkedIn. And often it's almost like a daily feed to read. If I could have him in my corner, he's always advertising, isn't he? He's, you know, he's always saying, oh, come and join my companies.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
It's part of the core platform where there are various tools and applications and modules on the platform that help customers realize value, adopt the technical products faster, and maintain their platform health. But what it also gives them is that human layer, and that's where it comes to relationships, where they get access to expertise.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Governance, assurance, subject matter experts, product ninjas, as we like to call them. I think about Apple, iPhone. If you've got something wrong with your iPhone, you want to go to the product ninjas, and that's the genius bar in the Apple store. What impact is the genius bar for service now? That's obviously not brand endorsed or market endorsed.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
That's my personal analogy of how I would describe it to friends and family. I think there's probably some copywriter around that terminology. So I'm just caveating that. But like, I mean, it makes sense. If something's wrong with your iPhone, go see the Genius Bar. If something's wrong with your ServiceNow or you want it to work better, go and see the Impact folks.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And is there a way that you measure impact at ServiceNow? It seems to be a question that we're working with our clients on, you know, is there metrics that you use? Is there certain things that you do to ensure that you're tracking impact? Of course. I mean, Corporate metrics, right? NPS scores, net promoter scores, CSAT, customer satisfaction. Internally, we have a metric of undeployed backlog.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
You know, we'll look at, right, customer A has bought service now. They are licensed and entitled to X amount of modules. We look at, right, what if they actually switched on? What are they using? Again, we've got this great platform with an abundance of data.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We can actually see what's been turned on, what's being used, and we can then identify gaps and we can make recommendations based on that data on how they can get more value. So yeah, undeployed backlog is an internal metric. Yeah, CSAT and net promoter score are really sort of some of the driving metrics.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
We've had someone on this podcast before, a great gentleman called Mike, who talked about the leading way to retain clients is about having great employee engagement. So how are you impacting your employees to create engagement from them? Because as a byproduct, if you get great employee engagement, in theory, your customers are taken care of.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
Have you got any sort of ways in which you do that as servers now? Absolutely. So one person that comes to mind is Richard Branson. He made the famous quote, if you take care of your employees, they'll take care of your customers. And I think that's been quoted a billion times. It's in his books. At ServiceNow, we have what we call our People Pact.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
And our chief people officer launched this People Pact a few years ago during the pandemic years. And it was really about employee engagement. I'm very fortunate, you know, we have a huge culture of employee well-being. We get allocated a number of well-being days each year, which is giving people time off in addition to their personal time off holiday allowance and corporate public holidays.
The Growth Workshop Podcast
Episode 14, Part 1 - Driving Career Growth & Wellness: Lessons in Impact from Damien Davis
So we have well-being days. Then there are various initiatives and programs based on physical and mental well-being. And then the employee engagement mantra is like, bring your authentic self to work. If anyone lives and breathes that, it's me. 14 years, I haven't been fired yet. And, you know, I'm just me.