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Steve Vamos is a renowned global technology executive. He led Xero as CEO and previously served as CEO of Microsoft Australia and Apple Asia Pacific.
In his new book 'Through Shifts and Shocks', Steve distills his frontline experience into eight essential actions for leaders facing change.
Hosted by Vidit Agarwal, Founder of Curiosity Center and The High Flyers Podcast.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity.
Show notes
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In this episode #195, Steve Vamos joins host Vidit Agarwal.
Our host Vidit says "I really wish I had access to someone like Steve early in my career. He is a fountain of knowledge, and real-on the ground knowledge. I’ve met a lot of interesting people on this show over the past 5 years and Steve is one of the top 5 for sure. "
A veteran tech leader, Steve was CEO of Xero, led Microsoft Australia, and ran Apple Asia Pacific—but his journey started far from the boardroom.
Born to Hungarian refugees, he grew up in Sydney as the eldest of four. His dad spent 35+ years at IBM, while his mum, who learned English from TV, was a stay-at-home parent. As a teenager, Steve shares how he and his family moved to the U.S. for high school, where he picked up the nickname Skip, and developed a lifelong obsession with KISS.
His career kicked off at IBM, where he faced a brutal first lesson in leadership—announcing redundancies early in his career. That experience shaped his management style, which evolved further at Apple in the mid-90s when the company was a niche player with just 10% market share. We unpack his ambition, his fear of failure, and how he learned that great leadership is less about knowing the answers and more about coaching others.
Steve and Vidit also explore:
- Steve's time as CEO of 9MSN and lessons on leading through change
- How to create a culture of trust, openness, and care
- The five mistakes leaders make when giving feedback, as covered in Steve's Harvard Business Review article
- Why so many managers chase the title but avoid the hard work of leading people
- Case study and the full story of Steve ended up consulting at Xero before stepping into the CEO role, and how he scaled the business
If you care about leadership, resilience, and navigating change, this episode is packed with insight.
It’s now time to explore your curiosity. Please enjoy!
Timestamps
About us
The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world’s most relatable role models in business, tech, finance, government and sport in the US, Australia, Singapore, India and New Zealand.
Launched over 6.5+ years ago - our 275+ guests come from various industries around the world including:
Investing and Finance (VC, PE, Pension Funds, Family Offices)
Our guests across venture capital, growth investing, institutional capital, banking, pension funds and family offices include: Keith Rabois (MD, Khosla Ventures), Jason Collins (CEO, BlackRock Asia Pacific), Ryan Beiermeister (Partner, Founders Fund), David Haber (General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz), Kevin Hartz (Managing Partner, A*), Mike Vernal (Partner, Conviction; Ex-Sequoia), David Schneider (Growth Fund Co-Lead Partner, Coatue), Venky Ganesan (Managing Partner, Menlo Ventures), Mark Suster (Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures), Kelland Reilly (Partner, Airtree; Ex General Atlantic, D1), Niki Scevak (Managing Partner, Blackbird), Paul Bassat (Managing Partner, Square Peg), David Neal (CEO, IFM Investors), Sam Sicilia (CIO, Hostplus), Michael Kim (Partner, Cendana Capital), Beezer Clarkson (Partner, Sapphire), Gautam Chari (Head of Capital Commitments, Bank of America), David Shein (Managing Partner, OIF), Vivek Bhatia (CEO, MUFG), Rowan Simpson (Founder, Hoku) and more.
Technology, AI and software (Startups, Big Tech, Publicly Listed)
Our technology, AI and software guests include Jodie Auster (Uber’s Global Head of Travel), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Xero), Rob Giglio (CCO, Canva), Mel Silva (MD, Google), Jean-Michel Lemieux (former CTO, Shopify and Atlassian), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Google Chrome, Photos and Drive), Shiv Rao (CEO, Abridge), Jesse Zhang (CEO, Decagon), Dylan Babbs (Co-Founder & CTO, Profound), John Willett (Co-Founder & COO, Rogo), David Eckstein (CFO, Legora), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Stevie Case (CRO, Vanta), Jeanne DeWitt Grosser (COO, Vercel), Cristina Cordova (COO, Linear), Elena Verna (Head of Growth, Lovable), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Tim Doyle (CEO, Eucalyptus), Andrew Fraser (President, Halter), Bowen Pan (creator of Facebook Marketplace) and more.
CEOs, Boards and Major Company Senior Executives
Our guests leading some of the world's largest and most recognisable organisations include Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths Group), Aleks Spaseska (CEO, Kmart) Michael Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Paul Grosmann (CEO, R.M.Williams), Andrew Penn (CEO, Telstra), Vandita Pant (CFO, BHP), Sanjeev Gandhi (CEO, Orica), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis USA), Brendan Hargreaves (CFO, Officeworks), Andrew Fraser (Board Chair, Bank of Queensland), Jaddan Cummerford (CEO, Unified Music), Ed McManus (CEO, Deliveroo) and more.
Government and Policy Makers
Our government, diplomatic and public-policy guests include Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Amit Singh (Managing Partner, Mandala), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Australia's Foreign Service), Philip Green (Australia’s High Commissioner to India), Brendan Dowling (Deputy Secretary, Australia's Department of Home Affairs), Mukund Narayanamurti (General Manager for South Asia, Austrade) and Ryan Neelam (CEO, Centre for Australia-India Relations, Australian Government).
Professional Athletes
Steve Solomon (400m Olympic Sprinter), Ed Cowan (Former Test Cricketer), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Lisa Stahelakar (World Cup Winning Captain, Australian Womens Cricket Team).
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