Harry Parkes is VP of Product at OVO, he's passionate about the climate crisis, the decarbonisation challenge we face and how technology can be harnessed to help us live affordably, healthily and sustainably.
Harry was a pioneer of the UK tech scene, one of the founders of iCollector, a UK dotcom brand in the late 1990s, acquired by eBay, and the driving force behind CMi, a digital strategy and design agency that he established and successfully sold in 2001. Since then he’s enjoyed a multifaceted career marked by senior leadership roles in Product and Technology with across a range of sectors, working with brands such as HSBC, Just Eat and lastminte.com.
Upcoming Talks
10 October 2024
In this session, Harry Parkes, VP Product at OVO, explores the unique challenges of balancing growth with the structural stability required for large-scale operations, as seen through the lens of OVO's acquisition of SSE. Harry will deep dive into the strategies used to maintain agility while integrating into a more rigid established system, the advantages and challenges of sustaining product growth and proess improvement during the transition, and fitting in culturally to align with an overarching mission.
Key Highlights:
- Navigating integration between the "speedboat team" wanting agility and the "tanker" that takes time to maneuver.
- Overcoming the challenges of integrating a new customer base within a large business.
- Strategies for sustaining innovation during the transition from a scale-up with a good product-market fit to a large company.