By Business & Finance 
Scott McConnell, Regional Sales Director, Ireland & Emerging Markets, Equinix
Scott McConnell, Regional Sales Director, Ireland & Emerging Markets, Equinix, takes on the Business & Finance 60-second interview challenge.
Q. What was your first job? My first job was as a merchandiser for Cadbury’s covering SuperValu and Centra for the Dublin and Wicklow areas. It gave me a fantastic introduction to sales as you had to convince store owners to give you more display space for your product with the promise of increased sales and margin. This was my first introduction to the importance of building trust with customers. Q. What would you regard as your greatest achievement to date? Outside of getting married and having three beautiful children, I think my greatest achievement has been maintaining long-term sales relationships. I have continually tried to be a trusted advisor from my early career as a merchandiser, to my most recent role as a Regional Sales Director, and the evidence of my performance and success in this area are the long-term contacts and customers I have kept. Q. How do you define success? Your own happiness and the happiness of those around you in your personal and professional life. You have to enjoy what you do in order to feel successful. Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? The best piece of advice I have ever been given was from my dad, who stressed the importance of behaving honestly in business. Every decision can be considered an ‘Irish Times‘ moment. In practice, it means you can stand over, in good conscience, the decisions you make if they are questioned or appear on the front page of the newspaper. Q. How do you motivate yourself and your staff? I have no problem motivating myself because I am passionate about the business area I work in. Equinix is at the forefront of bringing the connected world together and I think it is incredibly interesting to see how people and businesses are evolving and growing through cloud and digital transformation. I try to instil this passion in my team through leading by example whilst also encouraging them to bring new ideas and ways of doing things to our sales organisation. I don’t believe in hierarchy when it comes to driving success. Q. If you could step into the shoes of one business person for a day, who would it be and why? Without doubt, Dermot Desmond. I have always admired how he has been so successful with so many different types of ventures and investments. Sport and technology are close to the top of the list and these are two of my personal passions. I would love to experience how his drive and attitude have contributed to his success over the years and also to see how he appears to be the same person as he was at the beginning of his multibillion-euro journey. Q. How do you relax? I love spending time with my family and friends, Leinster Rugby and Liverpool FC, going to the gym, listening to music, cooking and generally having a good time. Q. What’s your motto? Always do your best with the things that you can control and make sure it includes contributing to the success and happiness of others. This was really brought home to me at our recent Global Sales Kick Off where Magic Johnson was one of the keynote speakers. He said, what will make you be remembered is the way that you have touched and enhanced the lives of others, not by how you have grown the bottom line, enhanced the brand or the amount of money you have made. I believe that one will ultimately lead to the other and in the right way. Q. What are your aspirations for the future of the business? My professional goal is to oversee the growth of our Equinix business in Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria and Turkey to at least double the size in the next five years. This will come from Equinix being positioned as the centre of the connected world where enterprises can build their infrastructure footprint and reach everywhere. This is the centre of our strategy of ‘Reach Everywhere, Interconnect Everyone & Integrate Everything’. Most importantly, I want to continue to enjoy the journey.
I don’t believe in hierarchy when it comes to driving success.
Equinix connects the world’s leading businesses to their customers, employees and partners inside the world’s most connected data centres in 44 markets across five continents. In Ireland, Equinix operates data centres in Northwest Business Park, Citywest and Kilcarbery Park, Dublin.
