by Kenzie Lee
June 2, 2020
On a recent podcast episode of All Ears on Digital Transformation, Sarah Harkness interviewed Luke Orell, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Cattle Dog Digital. Luke shared the company’s founding story, guiding values and open culture. In this post, we will take a closer look at the conversation and CDD’s business philosophy.
In 2015, Nashir Uddin, Luke Orell, and Sarah Harkness founded Cattle Dog Digital as a full-stack, full-funnel digital consulting firm that specialises in digital transformation, strategy, implementation continuous improvement. The company’s name, Cattle Dog Digital, was chosen to represent the true characteristics of an Australian Cattle Dog; hard-working, loyal companion, leader, part of a pack, bright. Since its inception, the company has developed three primary service areas: Marketing Automation, CRM & PSA, and ERP.
In the podcast interview, Luke reflected on his time working at a ‘Big 4’ consulting firm and how his experience there formed his approach on how to run CDD’s business operations, culture, and values. Luke recalled that he, “felt just like a number” at the ‘Big 4’ consulting firm. In creating Cattle Dog Digital, the founding team wanted to construct a different environment, where employees and clients were valued all while delivering fantastic best-of-breed services to customers.
– Luke Orell, All Ears on Digital Transformation, Episode #2
In building CDD, Luke shared that the founders highly value the people that make up the company, stating, “We really do invest in our people.” CDD looks for people who are open, bright, and excited to drive value for clients, stakeholders, partners, and internal team. Cattle Dog Digital aims to provide a platform for people to do their best work and deliver outstanding outcomes to clients. Through the high-performance work and critical client projects, Luke said, “We’re a lot more than just generating revenue and delivering projects. It really is more about providing that platform for our team to do their best work that they have ever done and really help them drive their career and get to where they want to be.”
Cattle Dog Digital’s primary practice areas: Marketing Automation, CRM & PSA, and ERP require a diverse skill set to create successful outcomes for clients. Luke spoke about the challenges and benefits of creating a diverse team and how the company seeks to bring everyone together through cultural values; inclusion, openness, and teamwork. In the interview, Luke stated, “Having these diverse people, we need them to be able to work together and come together as one team to reach the goal at the end of the day.” Diversity and inclusion are important components that drive Cattle Dog Digital’s core business function.
– Luke Orell, All Ears on Digital Transformation, Episode #2
Cattle Dog Digital follows their model called, V3MoM to guide the strategic decisions of the business. Similar to Salesforce’s V2MoM: Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures, CDD’s V3Mom includes a third ‘V,’ ‘The Vibe.’ Luke described ‘The Vibe’ as an extra piece in being the loyal trusted companion to clients, people and partners. Cattle Dog’s values include loyalty, integrity, openness, transparency and a focus on agile methodologies and practices. In being a high-performance team, the culture encourages fun and the x-factor, “It’s The Vibe.”
– Luke Orell, All Ears on Digital Transformation, Episode #2
Cattle Dog Digital highly values their internal team. CDD recognises that they bring on very successful people with rich backgrounds who bring their wisdom and insights. The culture and values give the team the freedom to do what they want to do and be successful in their work.
It is very clear that people are at the centre of Cattle Dog Digital’s culture. Cattle Dog Digital values doing good for the team, partners and clients. The work environment is built on ‘best-of-breed pedigree,’ where CDD aims to provide a platform for people to do their best work and be who they want to be.
Cultural values are important to the founding team, so they look to bring people on the team that will nurture and drive Cattle Dog Digital’s culture. In keeping on a path of further developing the core cultural values, Luke shares the importance of bringing on people that are the right cultural fit; who are open, bright and collaborative. Luke explained that ego, ‘energy going out,’ is not part of the culture; it’s more of an, “I’ve got your back” culture. As a diversity and inclusion leader, Cattle Dog Digital is a Lotus safe workplace. They do not tolerate bullying and harassment.
The pandemic was a very challenging time, CDD dove into their strategy and focused on sustainability, keeping the team, and continuing everyone on their existing pay rate. After a few months, the team realised, “we’ve got this.” Cattle Dog Digital then started to expand and over the next couple of months and made deliberate decisions to move forward with their growth strategy and achieved 2X growth.
– Luke Orell, All Ears on Digital Transformation, Episode #2
In the interview, when asked, “What are the plans for the future of Cattle Dog Digital?” Luke responded, “The future is bright.” Looking ahead, CDD plans to continue delivering RevOps-as-a-Service and driving awareness of RevOps. They are looking to expand the team in their three practice areas: Marketing Automation, CRM & PSA, and ERP. Through the growth, Cattle Dog Digital plans to continue living to their value set and make what they do fun and enjoyable for the team and clients.
Keen to hear the full interview? Listen to the episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or on our podcast page!
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