Ep.13

Podcast: How to motivate multicultural teams with organizational psychology

Description

In this week’s episode, Shahar and Romi talk with Nicholas Kontopoulos, Twilio’s VP Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Nicholas has built and scaled teams internationally as a marketing veteran with experience in 65+ countries. As a “Westerner operating in Asia,” he’s learned what works and what doesn’t when it comes to finding success in unfamiliar markets.

Nicholas tells us about the importance of building an agile organizational structure and defining a clear purpose for your business to anchor around.

He talks about the need to understand and appreciate differences and similarities between the countries you’re looking to expand into – what translates and what doesn’t – and why you should avoid the “cut and paste” approach to selling your brand across different territories.

Nicholas firmly believes that “culture eats strategy for lunch,” – so how can you scale while staying true to your baseline culture?

Like this episode? Make sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and hit subscribe so you never miss when a new episode drops.

Bio

As the Asia Pacific & Japan Vice President of Marketing for Twilio, Nicholas Kontopoulos harnesses over 30+ years of professional experience across multiple industries and geographies. He’s passionate about challenging the ‘status-quo’ and ‘management dogma’ that stifles the creative thinking processes that are paramount to delivering amazing customer experiences, Nicholas ensures that ‘Customer Experience’ is a core business ideology at the heart of the brand.

Previously, Nicholas was the APAC Head of Growth Marketing at Adobe DX and the Global VP for Fast Growth Markets Marketing at SAP. He has also held several highly strategic global and regional Sales and Business Development and Marketing roles throughout his career.  

An international speaker, Nicholas has been regularly published on Forbes.com, News Asia, Bloomberg, CampaignAsia.com, Marketing-Interactive.com, THEDRUM.com, and Customerthink.com.

Meet your hosts

Shahar Erez

Shahar Erez

Co-Founder & CEO

Shahar Erez is the Co-founder & CEO of Fiverr Enterprise. In 2021, Fiverr Enterprise was acquired by Fiverr for $110M just 15 months after coming out of stealth mode.

Shahar is a tech-scene veteran and serial entrepreneur in Israel and Silicon Valley. He has 20 years of executive experience in engineering, product, and marketing under his belt at companies like HP, VMware, and Kenshoo.

He has a BA from IDC University and an MBA from the Technion Institute of Technology in Israel.

Lastly, he is a proud father of 3, an amateur cyclist, and an avid reader.

Find Shahar on LinkedIn

Romi Davidor

Romi Davidor

Marketing Manager

Romi was educated on three continents; she grew up in Japan as a baby, in California as a young adult, and now in Israel.

Romi has had an interesting career path (she’s a classic Gen Y story), starting as a CSR and sustainability consultant at BDO firm, to becoming an innovation management professional.

That lead her to become a mentor at different entrepreneurship programs, a podcaster, and today the marketing manager at Fiverr Enterprise.

Find Romi on LinkedIn