The B2B Experience

In this episode, Ev Garde, Head of Marketing at Hilti GB, explains how the business creates value beyond the product by combining tools, software and services to solve customer problems. He shares practical B2B customer experience insights on turning customer feedback into innovation, building trust through direct relationships, and designing solutions around outcomes rather than products. The conversation explores B2B digital transformation strategies, from subscription services and IoT-enabled asset management to using AI for operational efficiency and reducing admin for customer-facing teams.  Tune in for a practical discussion on customer-led innovation, service-driven growth and scaling digital transformation in B2B.  https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Jorge Vacca has spent more than two decades leading digital commerce, transformation and growth across global markets. Drawing on experience spanning DHL, Philips and Kimberly-Clark, he shares practical lessons from real-world digital transformation stories, from launching ecommerce platforms to driving large-scale organisational change.   In this episode, Jorge explores what makes B2B digital transformation strategies succeed, why execution matters more than endless planning, and how leaders can overcome resistance to digital transformation. He discusses the role of trust in B2B customer journeys, the importance of sales alignment, and why pilots are often the fastest route to proving value and gaining buy-in.   The conversation also covers digital transformation ROI challenges, sales resistance to ecommerce, AI readiness in organisations, and the realities of scaling digital transformation in B2B. Packed with practical examples, this episode offers valuable B2B customer experience insights for leaders looking to turn strategy into measurable commercial results.https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience 

Laura Sabatini has built her career at the intersection of data, customer behaviour and commercial performance. Now leading a £500m+ ecommerce and marketing function at LKQ Euro Car Parts, she’s applying retail discipline to B2B digital transformation strategies inside a complex environment where speed, trust and scale all matter. In this episode, Laura explores how B2C expectations are reshaping B2B and what B2B customers expect today, from simpler journeys to more seamless digital experiences. She shares practical B2B customer experience insights and explains how analytical thinking and customer understanding can unlock growth, even in the face of customer journey complexity and legacy systems. The conversation goes beyond theory, tackling the realities behind digital transformation ROI challenges and exploring why transformation programmes fail in practice. Tune in for a grounded look at transformation in action, with real examples and clear thinking on how to simplify, scale and bring the organisation with you. https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Chris Monery entered food wholesale from the fast, unforgiving world of online retail, where technology, data and constant optimisation are the norm. What he found was an industry shaped by relationships, routines and workarounds, where businesses could operate successfully without the systems and digital discipline he took for granted.  In this episode, Chris talks openly about what it means to bring a digital mindset into a traditionally low‑tech B2B environment. He reflects on the early realities of the sector, the gaps he saw immediately, and why fundamentals such as forecasting, stable platforms and clear processes became the foundation for change. He also discusses the practical work of scaling in a protected market, from building trust with suppliers to persuading independent van drivers to join him, to developing the tools he couldn’t find off the shelf.  For Chris, real transformation isn’t about disruption for its own sake. It’s about seeing where a system is fragile, strengthening the parts no one else wants to fix and proving that technology, relationships and execution can work together to build something better. https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

John Kelly has spent over 25 years navigating the realities of FMCG and Food and Beverage, an environment defined by operational discipline, complex routes to market and a low tolerance for risk. In this episode, John reflects on his 15‑year journey at Heineken, where he helped scale a B2B digital ecosystem from three pilot markets to more than 30 countries, generating over €2.5bn in digital revenue and fundamentally reshaping how the business goes to market. John shares honest stories from the frontline of transformation, from failed big‑bet initiatives to the power of incremental innovation, agile ways of working and building belief market by market. He explains why early pilots should focus on adoption, not ROI, how to balance annual planning with sprint‑based delivery, and why customer centricity must come before technology. The conversation also explores practical AI use cases, including dynamic sales routing and next‑best‑action models, alongside John’s framework for scaling digital capability through distinct growth phases without moving too fast. Grounded, pragmatic and deeply experienced, John’s perspective is a reminder that successful transformation in FMCG is rarely about disruption for its own sake, it’s about patience, proof and bringing people with you. ⁠https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Özlem Özümer has spent her career navigating the world of global trade, first through banking and later through credit insurance, but she’s clear that her motivation has always been helping businesses grow with confidence. In this episode, she reflects on launching a greenfield operation in Turkey, the realities of building trust in an emerging market, and why credit insurance sits quietly behind so much of the world’s commerce. She talks about the human side of risk, the importance of being close to buyers on the ground, and the role people play in guiding clients through uncertainty. Özlem shares the story behind Allianz TradePay, from early experiments that didn’t land to the breakthrough moment when co‑creation with a major client shaped the product’s future. She explains the challenge of innovating inside a large, established organisation, the resistance faced by a small new team, and why sponsorship, alignment and constant communication matter more than any single idea.Her perspective is thoughtful and practical, a reminder that real innovation in B2B comes from patience, proximity to customers and the determination to keep going when the easy answers run out. https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Maxim Gelmann didn’t set out to make edible spoons. He set out to change how people think about sustainability. His journey from strategy consulting to Burning Man to Dragons’ Den shaped the way he now builds his brand: with creativity, playfulness and a refusal to make sustainability dull.  In this episode, Maxim talks about building Stroodles as a brand from day one, not just a product line, and why fun travels faster than fear when it comes to behaviour change. He explains how edible tableware creates the kind of memorable, shareable moments that no carbon‑reporting framework can match, and why B2B hospitality and wholesale adoption requires more than innovation, it requires storytelling, patience and “pre‑chewed” ideas that help chefs and venues imagine what’s possible.  Maxim’s view is clear: sustainability only shifts when it becomes visible, tangible and joyful. And for B2B leaders wrestling with innovation, distribution complexity and customer expectations, his story offers a reminder that differentiation often comes from narrative, not novelty. https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Przemek Kotecki has spent his career sitting between business and technology, but he’s the first to say his leadership style didn’t come from corporate life, it came from volunteering.In this episode, he reflects on how working with people you can’t “manage” in the traditional sense shaped the way he now leads transformation at Brenntag, a global organisation built through decades of acquisitions and complexity.Przemek talks candidly about the hidden work of transformation: understanding motivations rather than mandates, building bridges between legacy systems and modern expectations, and creating clarity in environments where nothing is simple and everything is interconnected. He shares stories of outages, crisis recovery, difficult conversations with CEOs, and the mindset shift that changed how he operates: “do not negotiate with yourself.” His perspective is steady, practical and grounded in real experience, a reminder that meaningful transformation happens through people, trust and shared purpose, not technology alone.https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Tejal Patel has spent her career inside some of the world’s most influential brands, from Virgin and the BBC to Microsoft, Nokia and Cisco. In this episode, she explains the simple truth many B2B organisations overlook. You cannot innovate if your foundations are broken. Tejal shares how easy it is for teams to overengineer marketing, lose sight of customers and gravitate toward rational messaging while ignoring emotion, even though every B2B buyer is still a human being. She talks openly about the gaps she discovered when moving from B2C into B2B, the absence of customer research in large enterprises and the over rotation on technology instead of customer insight. She reflects on the relationship between sales and marketing, the need for marketing teams to raise their ambition and why proving value internally is just as important as storytelling externally. Tejal also explores how to use AI with purpose, not hype, and why human judgement can never be removed from the process.A clear reminder that before you chase new technologies, you must understand your customers, simplify your marketing and get the basics right.https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience

Abdul Khaled’s career did not follow a straight line. He moved from contract work to shaping major digital and CX transformations, learning along the way that impact does not come from titles or long term plans, it comes from knowing your strengths and using them with intention. In this episode, Abdul talks about finding his superpower, how contracting compressed decades of learning into a few intense years, and why emotional intelligence became the skill that unlocked his leadership style.He explains how thought leadership can shift the perception of an entire brand when it is rooted in real change rather than rhetoric, and why organisations must prove disruption instead of simply claiming it. Abdul shares stories from energy, fintech and beyond, showing how authentic ideas, delivered through action, build trust at scale and create opportunities no strategy document could predict.This is a conversation about confidence, contribution and momentum, and about why the future belongs to leaders who look forward, not back.https://biglight.co.uk/theb2bexperience