Prashant Narula, Managing Director at Ciklum UK: How to Build a Powerful Network
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Prashant Narula is Managing Director of Ciklum UK, where he helps organisations use technology and AI to build better products and experiences. He is passionate about leadership, resilience and helping people grow through honest, values-led careers.
Episode Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:19 Why success is about what you give, not what you get
1:00 The true traits of a great leader
1:55 Meeting Prashant Narula
2:14 Prashant’s first job on the factory floor
3:09 The importance of a great manager early in your career
4:31 How honesty landed Prashant his first role in tech
5:28 Why honesty, resilience and reliability matter most
7:21 Why resilience is more important than ever today
8:41 Build a multi-skilled support network
10:08 How to network by giving value first
11:24 From beginner to leadership roles in hypergrowth companies
12:30 Leading teams through tough times
13:04 The leadership principles that actually work
14:48 Enabling teams vs micromanaging
15:02 Can everyone become a leader?
16:21 Career advice that changed everything
17:02 Make your work visible to leadership
18:52 When careers feel messy and chaotic
19:42 Why chaos early in your career is a good thing
20:22 Lessons in resilience from Ukrainian teams
22:51 The importance of understanding different cultures
24:05 Why learning never stops
25:02 The power of 30 minutes of daily learning
27:30 Why you shouldn’t compare your career to others
27:39 Inside Ciklum and what they do
31:01 The risks and opportunities of AI
32:09 Why now is the best time to join Ciklum
33:29 The invisible habits behind success
34:22 Stop worrying about what others think
36:23 Final thoughts
36:47 Prashant’s duvet flip
Episode Partners:
📊 Compare the Market
Discover how you can make a difference at Compare the Market, the company behind one of the UK’s most popular comparison sites. From tech and data to marketing and operations, they’re on a mission to simplify decisions for millions.
https://bit.ly/4i53Svj
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The main thing which you have to think about is that you have to give the other person something in return. It's a two-way street. What you have to go about doing is saying what can I give in return to that person. And that's good outlook, isn't it? Not what you can get, but what you can give. Exactly. Seek to understand first before you understood. Absolutely. Hi, my name is Prashan Narula. |
| 0:21.2 | I'm the managing director of Ciclum UK |
| 0:23.9 | and AI Experience Engineering Consultancy. |
| 0:26.7 | We employ 4,000 people worldwide |
| 0:29.1 | and this is my Juve Flip. |
| 0:31.1 | What's a piece of career advice |
| 0:32.5 | that you would want to pass on to pay poll? |
| 0:35.3 | The best advice I got was make sure that your work benefits me |
| 0:41.4 | and make sure that it's not just me, but my entire leadership team. |
| 0:45.0 | Do you believe everyone can be a leader? |
| 0:47.7 | I think so. |
| 0:48.4 | Everybody can be a good leader in the current job |
| 0:50.9 | and then build upon that incrementally to make a positive impact to your teams. |
| 0:56.0 | What would you say are the traits of a true leader? |
| 1:00.0 | A leader never tells their team to do something which they can't do. |
| 1:03.0 | The leader needs to enable the team rather than micromanagement. |
| 1:08.0 | The most important character of leadership is that you can enable your |
| 1:11.6 | team both in good and bad times to meet tasks or objectives while feeling good about themselves. |
| 1:17.6 | What should do they flip? What gives you out of bed in the morning to flip the do they? |
| 1:21.6 | Is making sure. Hi, my name is Prashan Narula. I'm the managing director of Siklum UK. Before sitting down with Jack, |
| 1:29.3 | I'm actually feeling quite excited but also intrigued. I think of Jack as a very dynamic personality. |
| 1:36.3 | He just oozes energy right through the camera. There's one thing people can take away from this episode is that career growth is never linear. |
... |
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