Marlene Spensley
Strategic Partner Manager
I work for Hitachi Vantara, the digital business of Hitachi. We aim to be the preferred global digital innovation partner by unlocking the “good” in data that benefits our customers, raises the quality of people's lives and builds a sustainable society. Our portfolio is built upon a foundation of world-class edge-to-core-to-cloud offerings to help organisations derive insights and gain competitive advantage from the vast amounts of data being generated by their people, processes and machines.
I am responsible for driving business growth within our strategic partners at Hitachi Vantara. My role includes planning and executing our sales strategy to grow revenue with our partners, creating innovative campaigns and programs and working with a variety of people across the partner ecosystem to inspire, enable, and help them to promote and sell our solutions in the market.
I get to meet lots of different people from lots of different companies and have opportunities to travel. I am always learning about new things and although I deal with challenges I also have a lot of fun with my colleagues and customers. It is a social job where we work hard and celebrate our successes.
Sometimes I travel to the office or to a customer's office and sometimes I work at home. I have meetings in person or virtually over video to discuss a customer project, deliver some training or a presentation, or to brainstorm new ideas. I create new content, answer customer's queries, reach out to new people, try to find information and plan activities to grow our business.
I studied electronic engineering and computing at University but after failing to get a graduate position, I began right at the bottom in a junior role in IT sales. I worked hard, learned as much as I could and tried to be the best I could be until I saw the next opportunity to develop and progress. I have followed this philosophy in every job I have had and it has paid off.
Now that my children are growing up I would like to travel more and take on more responsibility, to develop my own skills and inspire and empower the next generation. I also want to encourage more women and girls to consider a career in technology and see the diversity of roles available, as well as supporting the women already in technology with their personal development.
I love to have fun with my children, family and friends and to travel when I can. I love beaches and forests and find being out in the open relaxing and good for the soul. I also really enjoy mentoring and helping others to excel which I find very rewarding.
Don't just keep looking up at what you want to achieve. Remember to look back at everything you have achieved and how much you've progressed!