Episode 031 - Ken Male - IT Spend Visualization is a Game Changer

This week on the I Love Data Centers podcast: CxO NExUS, I interview the Chief Executive Officer of CxO NExUS, Ken Male. With more than 25 years of leadership positions in IT research, Ken Male possesses a deep understanding of how C-Suite executives leverage fact based data to improve decision-making. Male’s background includes experience working in senior and executive roles with Gartner, Giga (acquired by Forrester), Apptio, and Jupiter Research (also acquired by Forrester). Through interactive and customized Heat Maps, CxO NExUS helps Global 5000 CIOs and CMOs, CFOs, CPOs, and VMOs leverage data to increase efficiency by providing automated, role-specific views that simplify and optimize category and vendor spend management tasks. Their suite of services are proven to save money and enable more informed, data-driven decision making. Show Notes: 1:22 Interview starts 2:02 What does Ken Male do? 3:34 Ken Male’s upbringing and how he got into tech 5:50 What got Ken into 451 Research? 8:00 Ken’s experience working at Deck 12:23 Ken’s entrepreneurial upbringing 17:31 What did Ken learn from his father? 20:56 Ken’s experience working at Apptio 25:21 What is CxO NExUS? 29:28 Interactive and customized Heat Maps 35:18 What does Ken’s engagement cycle look like? 38:54 How Ken is seeing the market evolve 42:44 Has Ken seen any pushback from providers? 44:39 Has the process of growing and starting a business changed over the past 15 years? 46:51 What are the characteristics Ken is looking for in employees? 49:19 Lessons that Ken has learned that have helped shape his career 52:20 Bad examples Ken has seen over the years that he’s learned from 56:57 Advice Ken would have given his younger self 58:23 Misconceptions people have about Ken’s industry 1:08:08 Who is the ideal customer for a company like CxO NExUS? 1:10:21 How to get in contact with Ken Links mentioned: https://cxonexus.com/ Ken’s email: KMale@cxonexus.com Ken’s phone number: 917-861-0693