Martin Balaam
Managing director, BT Engage IT
Career so far I recently joined BT Engage IT as managing director after four years at the helm at Redstone as chief executive. Prior to Redstone I was chief executive of Xpert Group, and before that I worked for Hays for five years, holding several senior financial and commercial roles within the group, and leaving as president of Hays IMS based in Houston and Dallas, Texas. I qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte & Touche, where I worked for five years.
Do you care about green IT? I am a keen proponent of green IT both from designing solutions that not only consume less energy while in operation, but also enable organisations to measure and reduce their carbon footprint. I believe that the business emissions will increasingly become a key measure in investment criteria for IT projects.
If you could be in a rock/pop band, which one would it be and who would you be? The Jam, Paul Weller - back in the early 1980s though!
What is the best corporate jolly you have ever been on/taken partners on? I once took a small party of customers and prospects to see the Monaco grand prix. The weather was great, everything was fantastic and we closed a large deal and converted a prospect to a major customer - result!
Has 2009 been as bad as everyone said it would be? Despite the current climate, there are still pockets of success in our backyard. I continue to be encouraged by the creativity of businesses and firmly believe that there will always be opportunities for innovators. Any business can thrive in 2009 if accurate planning and careful spending are at the forefront of business decisions.
Have any of your predictions come true this year? Pretty much all of my views came true - that it was going to be a bad recession and that whatever action we took was probably not enough and we had to do more.
What do you see as the channel's biggest challenge in 2010? Planning for growth, when everyone is watching their costs and looking inwards operationally it seems counter intuitive to start planning for growth, but this is vital - those that do will steal the advantage.
What is the best part of your day? Either early in the morning or late at night when I can concentrate on thinking about the bigger picture.