BIF- Josh Bentley

My colleague Mark MarcusMark Marcus asked me to join the “Blog it Forward” challenge.  I think it’s an interesting way to start using SCN.  Those of you, who are not familiar with the “Blog It Forward Challenge”, please read Moshe Naveh’s blog [http://scn.sap.com/community/about/blog/2012/08/20/blog-it-forward-community-challenge].  And if you want to read Mark’s BIF, here it is: http://scn.sap.com/community/about/blog/2012/10/08/blog-it-forward–mark-marcus

I am building up my experience interacting with SAP customers in my pre-sales role of Mobility Solution Engineer in North America.  I have over 5 years at SAP, of which 4 was spent in our amazing IT department.  It was hard for me to leave other jobs in my life, as well as relocate to Pennsylvania from Georgia over 13 years ago, but I have to tell you that leaving our IT department was hard as well.  I was happy, and I am happy.  This is a great place to work if you assert yourself and your skills.  SAP is huge and that means a lot of areas to focus on, and a lot of areas that need your focus to keep us all growing.  So now I am in pre-sales, 100% customer facing and sharing my 15 years of mobile and telecom experience with them.  In the process I learn how smart our customers are, and they really are!  From time to time I post a tweet via @bentley_Josh on twitter, and here is my Linkedin account..

For this BLOG I wanted to answer some stock BIF questions and add a few of my own before unleashing it on some new colleagues:

• Name the person who affected you most in your career/ way of thinking and why?

Ayn Rand.  When I was told that I would get angry if I read the novel Atlas Shrugged I took it as a challenge.  I already had some independent streaks in me that helped provide confidence, but when I finished this novel from the 1950’s written by an immigrant from Communist Russia I was floored.  It seemed the freedom she was seeking the USA was under attack right in front of my eyes.  Now I am not trying to start a political BLOG here so I will save more on this topic for later.  (photo source: http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/web/20060902-ayn-rand-fountainhead-atlas-shrugged-objectivism.shtml)

• What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?

Implementing iOS technology at SAP.  With the help fo a lot of amazing people at SAP we went from 5 iPhones on my personal account in 2007 to now having over 30K iOS devices (secured by our Afaria product).  To help put in the plans, infrastructure, wiki pages, and all the associated steps was a once in a lifetime chance.  I thank the late Steve Jobs from Apple and our current global CIO Oliver Bussmann for (@sapcio on twitter) for this opportunity.

(pic of me working the SAP Runs SAP booth in Newtown Square office to raise awareness)

• If you could have any job, money and skill are not an issue, what would you wake up everyday and do with your time?

I often ask this question when I want to see if someone is telling me what they think I want to hear, or if they really are sharing something.  I would be a documentary filmmaker.  I love to learn, and to watch a well done documentary I think is a great way to pass on information.  I lke to figure out if the film is so guided by the filmmaker that facts supporting the opposition are omited, or if a historical documentary teaches me something factually new about an event I thought I already knew a lot about.

Being born and raised in Georgia, living in Pennsylvania, and traveling well over 50% of my time I have plenty to share.  I suggest we all remember that any interaction, good or bad, leaves us with knowledge. 

So if you want to use my three Q&A items they are:

• Name the person who affected you most in your career/ way of thinking and why?
• What was the most fun project you ever participated in and why?
• If you could have any job, money and skill are not an issue, what would you wake up everday and do with your time?

And I am sending this BIF task to:  Martin Lang and Marilyn Pratt so they can contribute if they would like.