“A manager once told me to stop trying to be so perfect; instead, get it 80% right, and we'll work out the rest, because otherwise you'll never do anything.”

In this episode of The Inner Chief podcast, I speak to the Managing Director of SAP Concur ANZ, Fabian Calle, on being agile in a large corporate, leading as an introvert, and the career skills obtained from martial arts.

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Fabian is the Managing Director of SAP Concur, Australia and New Zealand.

He has over 15 years’ experience working with SMBs in the computer software industry in a variety of roles at SAP Concur, including: General Manager for SMB; Senior Director of Regional Sales for SMB; and Director of Regional Sales for Enterprises.

Fabian’s expertise is in Business Process, Negotiation, Business Planning, Growth, Sales, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and has a business degree from Deakin University in Corporate Law, Business Systems and Finance. 

Fabian is also a keen martial arts enthusiast, having competed in karate, Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, claiming a national title in the latter only six years after starting. 

In this episode we talk about: 

✅  How working in the family business making boxes of strawberries for 2 cents each shaped his work ethic

✅  Manifesting agility and ideation in a large corporate organisation - Fabian articulates a wonderful story about creating a new product that led to it being 30% of the SAP global revenue

✅  The exact strategies he uses to manage his energy and get people to follow him as an introvert leader, and

✅  The incredible life and leadership lessons he has learnt from honing his craft as a martial arts competitor.

Connecting with Fabian Calle

You can connect with Fabian via LinkedIn.

Books and resources

• Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less - by Greg McKeown

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