Peter Lorant

Head of enterprise partners (Europe, Middle East & Africa), Google

Career so far

I have more than 20 years sales and marketing experience in leading B2B IT hardware, software, services and channel organisations.

What was your first job and were you any good at it?

Flipping burgers at a fast food restaurant. As a greasy 16-year-old in a greasy kitchen, I was perfectly suited to it. And I adapted well to eating ice cream all day.

Who was your top teenage pin-up?

Sorry, but I'm not currently into "pinning up" any teenagers. The Met Police are looking out for that kind of stuff now!

My colleagues won't know this about me but... when I was a little kid we had a sand box. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child. Eventually.

What is your favourite snack?

Google provides us with a wide selection of free fruit in the office. So naturally my favourite snack is chocolate and crisps.

What has been your career high point to date?

Flipping burgers at the age of 16. Maybe I peaked too soon, but it has been downhill since then.

Has 2013 been good, bad or ugly?

It's been a good but tough year. Cloud adoption has become mainstream and our partners are winning more deals and building a solid and sustainable business. I think we're at an inflection point as more and more customers invest in cloud, big data, social and mobility - right in Google's sweet spot.

What do you say when asked at a party what you do for a living?

I quickly change the subject and discuss something much more interesting - like how obscene property prices are again, the awful weather or why England are so rubbish at football.

If I wasn't working in the channel I would probably be... flipping burgers in a greasy spoon.

What will be the channel's biggest challenge in 2014?

The biggest challenge is to help customers innovate when they themselves don't know what they are really looking for. They can no longer simply ask customers what they want and then deliver. They need to lead not follow. This will be exceptionally tricky as it demands real expertise, vision and ability to execute. But when they are able to do this, they will gain incredible customer loyalty and lock out their competition.