Recorded in partnership with Boardwave, this episode of The Difference Engine features Colin Tenwick - a leader whose career tracks the evolution of modern tech.

Colin began in the early enterprise software era with Ingres, later leading Sybase and driving Red Hat’s European expansion long before open-source and SaaS were mainstream. 

Colin’s career is one of constant reinvention. He scaled StepStone into one of Europe’s first major digital recruitment platforms, steered BookaTable as it brought online reservations to the masses, and chaired hybrid-cloud provider Control Circle through to a successful exit.

Today, Colin serves as a non-executive chair and investor across private-equity and venture-backed companies, from cybersecurity and marketplaces to consumer platforms and education.

In this episode, we explore how Colin maintains consistency and strength within an ever-changing tech industry and how his people-first approach has made him a trusted mentor to founders and boards alike.

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Red Hat right across Europe,

But he went on to be a non-exec director of private equity and venture backed companies, such as the security specialist, A VG. What I love about Colin's story is how he's navigated shifts from desktop software to SaaS, from web portals, to communications businesses from B2B to B2C, and kept finding new ways to make technology useful, not just flashy.

I remember people used to, uh, spend all their money on mainframes and, uh, in fact the, the thing that everybody enjoyed doing was, was showing you their mainframes 'cause that's where all their money had gone. So, so being paraded around what was equivalent now of for freezer factory, um, clearly, clearly everything's uh, changed and, uh, we've been through massive, massive changes in terms of where.

Um. Most businesses today are technology led, and we've seen every single wave from mainframe through to mini through to cloud, through to et cetera, et cetera, over the last 40 years. So huge, huge change from being, I suppose a, a, um, something that was, um, uh, an identifiable add-on to now its core and central to pretty much every business.

So it's a, it is a, it's a very different environment that we're now working in.

Um, HP and Compact, which is obviously one company these days and, and not quite what it was, but there's been a lot, a lot of change. And you'll notice that there, American companies and your career path, the early part of it, you were managing US companies, um, as they rolled out across Europe. Um, so it gives you a very unique sort of viewpoint as to, you know, you know.

Those two parts of the world and what they've got to do with tech. Any lessons from the early parts, those very early parts of your career and, and that you went on to apply, uh, later in your career? Yeah, I was, I was very fortunate

If you think about the way the eighties sort of evolved. They were formative times and, and things really, which I think, you know, still, you know, still stick with me. But I think the whole, a whole generation of people that, uh, that evolved at that time.

Going around with the title MD or CEO Europe, or you know, uk, Europe, France, Germany. Um, and of course the line in all of that was that they weren't really CEOs, as we would understand it. They were sales directors essentially. Um, under a lot of pressure to deliver some pretty big and rising numbers.

And, and, and I think whatever your title, you, you, you know, you were a glorified sales and, and um, you know, marketing director. Nothing wrong with that. Um, and, and in fact a lot of people, you know, that was the way their careers developed and evolved. And they've been extraordinarily successful, um, doing that with a number of, uh, you know, different US-led businesses.

Maybe that's not enough. They want to be more interested in the job. There are many more functions in the job of a, of a, of a real CEO than there are, than in a sales director.

And, uh, I was, I was feeling well, you know, have you reached the, the peak? Have you reached the top of that mountain? Um, and, and something in me said, well, actually, you know, you looked across, it was like sort of looking across and looking across and say, yes, you've reached the peak, but you're on the wrong mountain.

And so. That, that was something that I really wanted to, to, to explore in more depth. Having, having observed some great people doing those roles. And so, you know, role models are very important in anybody's career. Um, but I felt it was the right time to, uh, to see whether I could find

'cause that then led to, to sort of another part of my career. Um, I mean, StepStone, when I got involved was, um, in most people's views, um. A bit of a, a bit of a dead, a dead dog, you know, it had launched and, and been part of the.com boom. Had had floated on the, the London market right at the top of the boom, had raised over 200 million pounds of cash and then spent it in about 18 months.

Uh, I took that on. I mean, me, me and a couple of colleagues actually, we, we took that on crazily.

Scooters and, and other things alike in the first

I

It, it was in such bad shape that sort of what followed was Yeah. De-listing, refinancing, laying loads of people off, you know, not the, um, not the stuff you get outta bed for normally.

Um, uh, it became clear that we needed to have a more repeatable revenue stream rather than a pure transactional one. So. We, we, we started investing in this crazy idea of actually where people pay monthly for a, for some software, uh, which is one of the first sort of software as a service type, uh, offerings in, in, in, uh, applicant tracking systems.

Then we had two or three years of good growth then, and then, and then maturity. Yeah.

For, from those early days in, in enterprise software, I think that business was Booker table.

Um, and we were very fortunate that, uh, uh, we were able to do a partnership deal with Michelin, which then ultimately led to, to the sale, to Michelin. And Michelin had it as their, as their core. Online booking platform. Um, and then subsequently it was sold to, uh, TripAdvisor. But, uh, yeah, it, it was during that process that I, I said I'd give it a couple of years.

That was to my, to, yeah. To my first sort of, uh, NED roles. Um, so I, I became. Non-exec, um, chair of, uh, of Control Circle. Again, great company, UK company. Um, needed to be part of a bigger group. Um, and, uh, alternative, alternative networks. Um, was looking to consolidate the space and, and was able to, uh. To acquire the business.

So, uh, that was a just over a year and a bit in that

Um, and, and so we were, we were able to scale that business. Um. The board had, uh, some very strong players, uh, on it. Um, we had, uh, the chairman of Rabobank on there. We had, uh, CEO of O2, um, some very, uh, big, uh, PE players as well. And so. It was a really interesting board in terms of talking about strategy development and then really sort of focused on execution.

I find that very, very enjoyable,

Um. So this is about working with private equity owners and navigating the companies through a series of acquisition sales IPOs, and of course, this massively changing landscape over 15 years. And, and Colin, can you just. Finish this section by telling us a little bit about the two companies that you're involved in currently.

To me it, it's, it fits really three things. One, one is the CEO and leadership. Are they people that you really would value working with and you think you can add value? Second is the sector, and third one is the backer. Typically, they're the three things I look at. Oxford International Education has the most amazing CEO, um, and she, uh.

Better education is their starting point. And so bringing technology to this is critical. And, and I looked at the space and I felt there was a lot of players in there which were not as fast at moving, uh, adopting technology at the pace in which it needs to. And so there's an opportunity there. And Oxford International, um, is demonstrating that, uh, uh, being a leader in this space, it's the fastest growing, uh, international education provider.

Broaden skills. So to the point now, we're actually also running our own universities or running universities on behalf of universities in India and, uh, Canada and Australia. So a really interesting business, but one where a lot of the techniques that we've used in tech, we can now apply a lot of the ways we look at scaling a business can apply.

Whether it's via SMS text, WhatsApp, anything that enables businesses to be able to communicate with their customers effectively or, and or have a dialogue. Improving the productivity, but actually managing that through all these complex networks with the major network operators. That's what Comfy does.

And so, again, very different, but it's a, it's a, a big scale up opportunity.

The way you get there will, will change depending on the circumstances. But, but fundamentally, your job is to deliver or, or ensure that the company can deliver, um, on the, uh, strategic plan and the, and the expectations of the shareholders, um, and the owners. But by doing that, by essentially encouraging management.

Uh, to, uh, fulfill their, their, uh, ambition and, and fulfill their, their best alternative and make sure that the resources are in place, whether they're financial, uh, technical or whatever, to actually deliver that. So you're very much, um, ensuring that both sides, the operational side, and if you like the strategic side, the financial side, are aligned.

I was very, very fortunate that, uh, Jan Stenberg, who's, who's sadly no longer with us, but Jan, he was my chairman for, for, you know, over eight years. And, and I still, I still wonder, you know, I still question sometimes, well, what would Yan think in this sort of thing? He was an incredibly. Challenging individual in terms of, um, he put his finger on the, the key issue was able to identify the key issue, uh, in a debate and discussion.

Mm-hmm.

When you had a discussion with him or met him, or, but you, you, you couldn't help but be incredibly enthusiastic about the, the topic and, and, uh. And, and the way in which he presented it and, uh, the way he sort of articulated, I, I always thought, the thing that always reminded me is a bit like he, he would, he would, he would encourage you such that, you know, you could be a couple of lemmings leaping over a cliff and you could look at your colleague next to you and you say.

Then it's about internalizing that and figuring out are they things that you could use or not. And that, you know, you've gotta be, you've gotta be authentic. And there are certain things that, uh, you know, you just look at, well, I could never get away with that. Well, I could never do that. Whatever. And there are other things or techniques, you look at people and you think, actually, that, that may work for me.

So. That's also part of how do you continue to evolve and learn? You know, you, you've, you've gotta, you've gotta be able to be observant, but also I think authentic.

They've got the most to learn.

'cause one of the loneliest jobs in the world is actually as a CEO. Um, it is, uh, you, you are facing all those challenges across all those areas and. Where do you get your mentorship from? Where do you get your peer group re responses from? And so what we're seeing, I think, you know, with Board Wave as an example, it's tapping into this demand, this requirement that people want to be able to learn from others.

They want to stay relevant, but they also want to challenge their own thinking in a safe environment. And, um, so I, I, I think that it is. Wonderful way of bringing together all these things we've been talking about. Experience, people that are coming at it from either a financial perspective or an operating perspective or an industrial perspective, and this melting pot and bringing it together.

Problems and issues, challenges, but also solutions than probably we ever have done.

Uh, and what can you do or what can one do to encourage their development? I think

On the face of it, you look at it, say, this shouldn't work because these people are bringing different things. But it's actually, it's how you bring that team together and how you have a common purpose and common focus. Then recognize that those different people bring totally different skill sets to the table, which makes the actual solution that you're trying to get to better, better informed, um, uh, better debated, but ultimately better implemented.

In fact, a number of the business I'm involved in now do. But I've only ever used it as a means of confirming some of the thoughts and views that, uh, intuitively you may have when you've, when you've interviewed people and tested people. Um, I've ne I've not used it as the main source. And so I think we have to be careful that we don't lose, um, that ability to recognize that, uh, you know, not everybody's gonna do the job in the same way.

And you've gotta try and find out, you know, does a uniqueness bring a particular skill? That you, you can, uh, bring to bear. So that's another key factor.

Now, that might be a situation where you say, well, actually, I think this person is gonna do absolutely the job and bring that team along, but we're gonna have to really support and help them. Did develop some of those skills, that, that would be one example. Um, another example may be that, uh, you know, this person doesn't form relationships, um, which, uh, um, are.

Meaningful and, uh, and, and don't have the, the, the desired to quote you. Typically, they may be, you know, called a hired gun. Somebody that comes in, does a job, and then is gonna go on to the next. Would

So therefore you're willing to put that up for that. If it's somebody, however that's forming part of a team, that's the last thing you need. So, so it's about context and it's about, you know, what skills do you require for that particular role or that particular stage of company's act.

You know, we, we've talked about all these wonderful things, opportunities, all these things that are actually sort of emerging, but the context in which they're happening, which is, which is in the uk, um, the, you know, what does Brand UK stand for and, and what is it we're going to be? Staking in our future on, um, just is unclear in terms of with tech.

We are literally stuck in the Mid-Atlantic. We've, we've no longer able to depend on the US as our major source of support, security trading. We've cut ourselves off from Europe, uh, from that as well, and we do not have any clear. Manifest as to what we're going to be in the next five to 10 years. Uh, what our role is a service economy, which is typically we've been potentially is the one that's gonna be the biggest impacted by ai.

Importance and our relevance is becoming less and less, and that, that just worries me.

Truly capable, capable of category leadership. I'm thinking of some of the, the guys right now, like msra perhaps, and, and Agora, uh, out of the Nordics. Um, uh, we've had his saying on here, maybe his company Quench will be one of those. But why do you think, do you believe it's true that we just cannot scale European category leaders, or do you think that's, um, somewhat of a myth?

Whereas 20 years ago it was, it was hundreds of billions, uh, hundreds of millions. And, and before that, tens of millions. And the, the, the, the challenge we have is twofold. First of all, historically, Europe does not have a track record of serial CEOs. Um, we have a situation where we have CEOs building businesses, build it to a certain level, sell out, and then become, um, investors and, uh, uh, or, or, or, or non-execs.

We're seeing more and more coming out of, of, of scale up businesses. But there is this inevitable drive towards consolidation, and it's a very tough decision for somebody to make when they turn, turn around and say, actually I'm turning down this, you know, fantastic, um, financial offer in order to just continue to scale my business.

It's, it's not something that, uh, a lot of people do. The other thing that is happening is the source of that consolidation is changing as well. Um, we, we look to the us the us the US traditionally has always been able to pay higher multiples for European businesses than European public markets or, or, uh, investment.

Um. Ability to get into a large marketplace, which is difficult, notoriously difficult to crack. European businesses are, are good at that, et cetera, et cetera. What we're now starting, I think, increasing to see is new sources of income also coming in Middle East, for instance. I think the Middle East ambition far east, we're seeing domestic growth in, uh, India, China, et cetera, where people are recognizing that they can scale very rapidly again by.

Um, so could we be category leaders in that? Yeah, I think possibly. So. Um, the difference here though is the pace at which this is changing. Is fundamentally different to anything else we've ever seen before. This isn't something where people can sit on their hands, you know, really waiting to see is it gonna happen?

They're gonna be, have to be some very big bets. And in those bets there'll be winners and there'll be a lot of losers.