{"id":2149,"date":"2020-10-15T13:55:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T12:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2020-10-15T13:57:44","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T12:57:44","slug":"get-to-know-will-barrera-leader-regional-sales-asia-pacific-and-japan-thousandeyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/2020\/10\/15\/get-to-know-will-barrera-leader-regional-sales-asia-pacific-and-japan-thousandeyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Get To Know: Will Barrera, Leader \u2013 Regional Sales Asia Pacific and Japan, ThousandEyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the lighter side of things, we ask Will Barrera, <\/strong>Leader \u2013 Regional Sales Asia Pacific and Japan, ThousandEyes about what makes him tick.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you describe as your most memorable achievement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My ICT career spans more than 20 years but my most memorable achievement is a recent one. When I joined ThousandEyes in 2018, I was the first employee in Australia and responsible for helping launch the company across the region. Within two years, the APAC team had grown to 14 staff, before the company was acquired by Cisco. Having that happen was testament to the incredible company, platform and culture our founders, Mohit Lad and Ricardo Oliveira, had built. Playing a part in that success story has been incredibly rewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What first made you think of a career in technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was more by chance than design. I was studying biochemistry at university in the early 90s but ended up dropping out, following a family tragedy. My eldest brother was working in the computer industry and suggested I could do worse than follow suit. I completed an Advanced Certificate in Microcomputer Technology at a private college and I got an \u2018in\u2019. The industry was fast paced and exciting, especially at that time when personal computers were becoming ubiquitous, and I never looked back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been lucky enough to have had some really good leaders over the years and I\u2019ve tried to learn a little bit from each of them. Fostering a democratic environment is important to me and I like for everyone\u2019s voice to be heard. I\u2019m also a big believer in transparency and I do my best to share what I feel is important and what our priorities are. Celebrating the achievements of your team is also critical. So is not getting a big head!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think is the current hot technology talking point?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, most organizations have relied on an internal network but the COVID crisis has changed that. With so many people working from home, the Internet has become the new backbone but, unlike the corporate network, it\u2019s not owned or managed by anyone. When something goes wrong, the technical support team can\u2019t necessarily step in and solve it. Businesses need to adapt to operating in that new environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife and children keep me grounded. Everyone in the house is busy \u2013 my daughter is completing her HSC and my son is studying Nanoscience \u2013 but we enjoy doing everyday things together, like walking the dog around the harbor. I\u2019m a sports fan \u2013 playing and watching \u2013 although my soccer career was curtailed when I broke my ankle and developed tendonitis. Three years ago, I switched to running and I\u2019ve clocked up three half marathons. I wouldn\u2019t say I really love it but once you\u2019re in the zone it\u2019s not too bad. In fact, I need to do more of it \u2013 like many people, I\u2019ve packed on a few kilos during COVID!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could go back and change one career decision what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wind the clock back 25 years and I wish I\u2019d headed off with a backpack to work my way round the world. I didn\u2019t travel overseas much until I was posted to Singapore by CA Technologies in 2011. Seeing other countries is endlessly fascinating and I\u2019d love to have had the opportunity to do it as a younger person. Having said that, I\u2019ve well and truly scratched the itch in middle age \u2013 I worked out recently that I\u2019d been on something like 150 overseas trips in the last decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technology that enables end to end visibility of operations is coming into its own, courtesy of the pandemic. COVID has overturned traditional procurement protocols for equipment and systems in many organizations. Historically, companies could make informed decisions about the products employees could use and the infrastructure needed to support them but that\u2019s gone out the window. People are saying they want to use Office365, cloud applications, Zoom \u2013 all these solutions make for a better employee experience but they\u2019re not \u2018owned\u2019 by the IT department and, when problems arise, they can be trickier to diagnose and resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the region-specific challenges when implementing new technologies in APAC?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no better place to work than APAC. I love the region, but people have to trust you before they\u2019ll work with you and winning that trust isn\u2019t easy. You\u2019re selling one suite of products but the markets are incredibly diverse. The way you sell to customers in India is completely different from the way you sell to customers in Australia, in Japan, in Indonesia\u2026 Adapting your offering can be challenging, particularly for a smaller organization which doesn\u2019t have high brand recognition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost two years ago, I was a one-man-band single-handedly working to grow the ThousandEyes brand in APAC. Fast forward to now and I\u2019m part of a multinational corporation which employs 75,000 people who all share that mission towards growth. It has been quite the trip! Being acquired by Cisco is a big change and now is the time to fully harness that potential and the resources that will allow us to do so much more for our customers, and so much faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year I saw a colleague wearing a T-shirt with the slogan \u2018be comfortable being uncomfortable\u2019. That really resonated with me. Doing things that you might not be used to or that others are unwilling to do can give you an edge over people who are less prepared to get stuck in. Working hard is always important but so is being visible. I\u2019m not a proponent of showing off or mindless self-promotion but people do need to see the value that you add.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the lighter side of things, we ask Will Barrera, Leader \u2013 Regional Sales Asia Pacific and Japan, ThousandEyes about what makes him tick. What would you describe as your most memorable achievement? My ICT career spans more than 20 years but my most memorable achievement is a recent one. When I joined ThousandEyes in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":2152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,21,40,44],"tags":[243,1152,1153,1151,1150],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia","category-get-to-know","category-software","category-top-stories","tag-covid-19","tag-mohit-lad","tag-ricardo-oliveira","tag-thousandeyes","tag-will-barrera"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2149\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}