Renée La Londe

iTalent Digital is a woman- and minority-owned digital transformation consultancy and also a SaaS software engineering company that helps Fortune 1000 companies achieve exceptional business outcomes through a robust suite of digital transformation services and dynamic SaaS product solutions.

A Proactive Leader

Before iTalent Digital, Renée La Londe worked at leading tech companies including Apple, Cisco, and NetApp. During her career, she managed many multimillion-dollar contracts with a variety of consulting firms and she noticed a gap in the market: either the consultancies were too big, charging enormous fees and lacking agility, or they lacked depth and expertise in their consulting or software development capabilities. Renée understood that many other companies out there had the same frustrations as she did. In 2005, she left NetApp to found iTalent Digital with the goal of building a consulting firm that brings together the best of both worlds: a full-service consultancy that has the world-class expertise of the biggest consulting companies, combined with the agility and cost-effectiveness of a specialized firm. The company’s logo has three connected pixels in the same configuration as the three brightest stars in the Pictor constellation. Pictor, which means painter in Latin, describes the role of iTalent Digital consultants as a combination of expert engineers and innovative artists who create beautiful works of technological innovation in partnership with their clients.

A Mother’s Sacrifice for a Fruitful Career 

While talking about her experiences, Renée speaks about her mother and father, who were both instrumental in shaping the path she is on today. She says that her father was an entrepreneur and he was the one who instilled a sense of passion for business in Renée from a very young age. “During school vacations, he was always involving us kids in one business venture or another. He died when I was only 12 years old, but even at that young age he had already taught me a lot about business,” she said. When Renée was 13, the University of Texas offered a summer coding camp for kids. Renée relatesthat her mother could not afford to send her to the program but she was so relentless in her pleading that her mother made sacrifices to scrape together the money so she could attend. “That experience enabled me to discover my love for coding and steered me towards a career in technology. Coding allowed me to pay my way through college – I customized and managed software programs for local businesses. And my first job out of university was with Apple,” she recalls.

Innovation is the Only Way to Succeed

Speaking about innovation, Renée says, “At iTalent, everyone works in partnership with their customers, not as vendors. This means the employees put themselves in the customers shoes and see things from their perspective. In doing so, we can perceive what they need, and because we have full-stack DevOps teams located around the globe, we can innovate solutions to their challenges. The world is changing so quickly, we find that often, the solution they need doesn’t exist yet. We can see the need and innovate the solution, thanks to the depth and breadth of our expertise. All of our innovations were born from an immediate need we perceived in the marketplace.”

Hallmarks of a Transformational Leader

In Renée’s words, first and foremost, transformational leaders need vision. Transformation means a change to something different. She says, “You can’t create something you can’t envision. You have to be able to see what is possible, not just what is there. And, your vision must be big; it must be transformational, not incremental.”  She also believes that leaders can’t have their heads so far into their vision that they can’t see reality. Renée asserts that they have to keep their eyes on the vision, but their feet on the ground. She advises to be realistic about how much you can accomplish at once by carving out a path to success that consists of manageable steps. She says, “There are pitfalls on either side of the road to success: on one side, you can fall into the pit of not dreaming big enough, and on the other side you can fall into the pit of unrealistic expectations. Maintaining this balance is essential to become a transformational leader.”

Defeating Limitations by Filtering Out the Negative Voices

There are inevitably obstacles to starting something new. When speaking about the challenges she had along the way, Renée says, “When I founded iTalent in 2005, the kind of consultancy I envisioned did not exist and I was constantly confronted by naysayers trying to convince me that my vision wouldn’t succeed. They claimed the market was already saturated with tech consultants and that there wouldn’t be any demand. If I had listened to them, I would not be where I am today. Entrepreneurs need to be good at filtering out the negative voices and staying focused on their vision.”

AI and Machine Learning: The Essential Criteria for Success

According to Renée, the pace of change will continue to accelerate, so the use of big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning will not only be advantageous, but indispensable for success. Companies that do not adopt a business model that embraces and leverages continuous change and which do not harness the power of their data will be left behind. iTalent Digital exists to help companies on their digital transformation journey.

A Piece of Advice for Emerging Women Leaders

Renée’s advice to emerging leaders is, be generous. To this she adds,, “The age-old law of reaping and sowing is as real today as it ever has been. The more you sow, the more you reap. So, build your business and create solutions from a genuine desire to serve and to make the world a better place. If you do this, success will be inevitable. But if you build your career or your business on a desire to serve yourself, you will find yourself swimming against the current and headed towards burnout.” At iTalent Digital, there is a budget category for recognizing and promoting others. The company regularly nominates its customers and partners for industry awards, and founded a non-profit (GLAM – Girls Leadership Academy Meetup) that instils business and leadership skills in girls aged 8-12. “Serving others gives meaning to what we do. Business means nothing if we’re not providing ways to help others,” Renée says.