In this installment of Women Who Wow, get to know Lavinia Calvert, the General Manager of Marketing and Business Development Solutions at Intapp where she is globally responsible for leading the growth strategy and success of Intapp’s Business Development and Marketing solutions business.

Intapp serves the technology needs of marketing and business development professionals in the legal, accounting and consulting sectors.

Learn more about Lavinia and her career path.

Why did you choose your profession?

I went to University thinking I wanted to be an accountant. After failing a management accounting paper not once, but twice (gasp!), I switched majors to Marketing, which was a relatively new discipline at the time.

One of our prescribed texts was In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. and that book really piqued my interest in business, management and leadership. Marketing became the gateway through which I entered the business world, and it has served me well throughout my career. I’m a passionate advocate of excellence in all things marketing as an important growth lever for any business – be it an entrepreneurial start-up or a well-established multinational – and to this day, I see everything through the lens of brand and the client or customer experience. Marketing is both an art and a science, and I love that it has afforded me so many opportunities for life-long learning. I can’t imagine remaining this excited about accounting all these years later!

What do you love most about what you do?

What I love most about what I do, is a combination of the global team of people I get to work with every day, and the intellectual stimulation from operating in a fast-paced, high-growth technology business. I feel blessed to be surrounded by such a rich and diverse group of colleagues, and to have so many opportunities for us all to keep learning and growing as a team. No two days are the same, and each day we move closer to achieving our goals, and improving our performance which makes it both personally and professionally very rewarding.

What do you think is the key for success in a role like yours?

I think the key, particularly in this operating environment, is adaptability. Being able to read the market, and intuit what’s happening with your clients, and how that potentially impacts your strategy or business model is critical.

Every market gives off signals, but if your antennae aren’t tuned into signs of a change in sentiment, expectation, or requirements for example – you’ll have a tough time staying relevant. By staying plugged into the market or client base you seek to serve, and genuinely caring about what’s important to them now, today, tomorrow – it’s a whole lot easier to figure out what operational or organizational interventions may be required to respond appropriately. As a result, I spend a good deal of my time listening, observing, and tapping into what’s happening with our clients and the market more generally.