What Stephen Kelly says on Customer Obsession and CEO’s Serving a Bigger Purpose

Listen to why serial CEO, Stephen Kelly is obsessed with customers. 

He says, growth cures almost all evils but the power is now with the buyers. It's all about trust and companies must establish themselves as thought leaders and not ask the customer the same question twice.

Sellers must understand the market has changed, that 90% of the research has been done by buyers, before talking to a salesperson.

Stephen says he is disappointed about the gender pay gap and that we are a long way from solving the diversity gap and suggests some ways of bridging the equality gap.

Discover who his soul mate is and what he would take with him on a desert island.

It was such an honour to interview my favourite CEO :-)

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Stephen Kelly has 35 years’ unique leadership experience in both the private and public sectors. He has held CEO positions with three successful UK & USA public companies, as well as COO of the UK Government, consistently delivering outstanding results in disruptive markets.

Stephen was Chief Executive of FTSE100 company, Sage Group. Sage is the UK’s largest technology company. During Stephen’s tenure, Sage became a global Top 10 publicly-listed cloud company by revenue and the fastest-growing from a standing start. Under Stephen’s four-year tenure, Sage saw it's market value double. Stephen launched the Sage Foundation, reaching out to communities and charities to bring social purpose to life.

Prior to his time at Sage, Stephen served as Chief Operating Officer for the UK Government (HMG) until November 2014. As the most senior Civil Servant, Stephen was responsible for the Efficiency programme including Digital, Technology, Commercial, Major Projects and SME strategies across Government. Between 2010 and 2015, the programme delivered £50bn of savings. Stephen was on the Cabinet Office Board and HMG’s Senior Information Risk Officer (GSIRO). David Cameron is quoted ‘Government Digital Service was one of the great unsung triumphs of the last parliament’.

Before this, Stephen was the Chief Executive Officer of two fast-growing public tech companies: FTSE 100-listed Micro Focus, and Nasdaq-listed Chordiant Software. During his four years at Micro Focus, the company achieved a 7-fold increase in market value. At Chordiant, Stephen was part of the Californian ‘start-up’ team to a ‘Deloitte Fastest 50’ of $100m revenues and Nasdaq IPO. Prior to this, Stephen was at Oracle for nine years on the European executive team. Stephen has held NED roles, including Curam Software which was acquired by IBM in 2011.

Over his diverse CEO career, Stephen has come to be particularly experienced in building strong teams and positive culture; creating compelling visions; leading market and digital disruption; positive customer & employee engagement and governing in complex stakeholder landscapes. His robust operational skills ensure for near flawless execution.
Stephen received an honorary doctorate from Bath University in Business Administration and has been a Business Ambassador for the British Prime Minister.

Currently, Stephen is NED of Kimble Applications and Healthtech provider Locum’s Nest; angel investor and mentor to CEOs. Stephen is on social media channels at @SKellyCEO.