Category: Leadership

Eddie Austin, CEO, Operam Education Group

Thought Leadership within the Education Recruitment Sector

Posted on | by Kathryn Hall

Operam Education Group has built an exceptional reputation in the education recruitment sphere through an ethos defined by resilience, dynamism and innovation. Following CEO Monthly’s recognition of CEO Eddie Austin’s significant achievements, we endeavoured to take a closer look at the company and its numerous successes.

As the unfolding impact of COVID-19 begins to hit the economy, business leaders are being tested more than ever. Today’s CEOs continue to navigate unchartered waters of the lockdown whilst rebalancing business amid the constraints of COVID-19.

Founded in 2017 by Eddie Austin and Andrew Frome, Operam Education Group (OEG), is a forward-thinking company, specialising in the acquisition and development of education recruitment agencies. Since completing its first acquisition in 2017, it has acquired a further  3 well established education recruitment brands, bringing together 40 years of collective experience.

Eddie Austin is a recognised business leader, entrepreneur, board member and highly respected thought leader within the Education Recruitment Sector, with over 30 years of experience in both global public and private sectors. As well as being Chief Executive of OEG, he supports various UK and international organisations; he currently sits on the board of ‘The Sovereign Trust’, a specialist SEND multi-academy trust.

The client and candidate relationship at OEG go way beyond matching candidates to vacancies, it’s therefore not surprising to hear that during the impact of Covid-19, communication pathways remained extremely active. Eddie Austin, Chief Executive of OEG, drew upon his years of education and recruitment experience to demonstrate how a strongly framed business with positive liquidity can not only survive, but continue to build for the future.

How did you respond to the impact of Covid-19?

“We quickly established an operational plan with our staff and investors and most importantly the frequency of communication and support needed. Client and candidates’ conversations and communications followed the same structure, as well as providing reassurance, clarity and in some cases, simply being there to listen.

We also felt compelled to support our suppliers, who had supported us over the years rather than to simply suspend services. We readjusted project timelines to bring forward plans, enabling us to make a significant investment in our technology infrastructure and CRM. We also pushed ahead with our marketing, social media, and advertising strategies.

How do you maintain business clarity amidst the chaos?

“In some ways we chose to capitalise on the chaos, our investment in technology being a prime example. For us, people are our most valuable asset, and success of the OEG brands depends on the success of our people, and we therefore communicated as much as possible with them.

Our values paint a picture about how we do business and are based on our core beliefs and principles. It is not a list of statements but a live dynamic set of behaviours that our employees exercise each day they come into work. Orchestrating a support network for our people, candidates, clients and suppliers came very naturally to us and was implemented within days.

The senior leadership team have created a very ‘connected culture’ at OEG, almost immediately we realised connectivity was key, so we set up private social media groups where people could feel secure in sharing their lockdown experience, as well as providing regular updates throughout the day relating to Covid-19, education, wellbeing and of course some light entertainment.

Our wellbeing programme already embedded within the company, played a pivotal role in our support strategy. An employee survey was devised mid lockdown to help us gain insight into employees’ personal and work experiences. The feedback allowed us to utilise the information to develop well-being interventions, devise support plans and assist us with amalgamating government guidance of return to work measures with people’s needs and preferences.”

How did you overcome the uncertainty of Covid-19?

“The only way to out manoeuvre uncertainty, is to balance the ‘now’ needs of business with the future competencies needed for growth. Our business strategy is very much geared towards organic growth and acquisition. We accelerated our technology investment and strategy by fourteen months, which included plans around applications, architecture, data, cloud, infrastructure and network. This investment allows a speedy shift to a remote workforce to protect and empower employees, connect with candidates and serve client, whilst establishing business continuity.

Our transition back to business is seen as an important opportunity to transform business agility further. Orchestrating a robust and resilient technology platform now, which will enable us to become more data-driven, more digital and optimise automation. This agility will allow any further business adaptation to be easily made, whilst supporting future acquisition integration and synergy.

Underpinning Eddies’ aptitude to identify opportunities and ability to develop creative solutions, is his passion for education and this means he naturally drives change for improvement.

We strive to strengthen regionally intimate relationships to position our brands as the recruitment agency of choice. Our innovative and developmental approach, as well as our fundamental principles of getting to know the people we do business with, means we deliver a great service, regardless of the Covid-19 challenges ahead.”

Find out more about Operation Education Group here: https://www.operameducationgroup.com/

company growth

Algolia Hires New CEO to Lead Next Stage of Company Growth

Posted on | by Kathryn Hall

Bernadette Nixon Brings Proven Company-Building and Deep Go-to-Market Experience to High-Growth Search-as-a-Service Leader

Algolia, the leading Search and Discovery solution, today announced the appointment of Bernadette Nixon as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Nixon most recently served as CEO at Alfresco, where she led the open source content services provider in redefining its go-to-market strategy, launching strategic new products and building a world-class team to scale the company’s growth. Nixon will leverage this experience to guide Algolia through its next phase of growth, as it continues its mission to empower every company to deliver delightful and inspiring search and discovery experiences that drive business results. Nicolas Dessaigne, Algolia’s co-founder, will transition from the role of CEO and continue to serve as a board member.

“Nicolas has built a world-class company powered by a team of search and customer experience experts that are a force to be reckoned with. Algolia’s product innovation, passionate customer base and top-tier investors all validate that,” said Bernadette Nixon, CEO, Algolia. “As digital usage accelerates, the need for fast, relevant and scalable search is increasing. Algolia is uniquely positioned to help customers with this problem through its platform for powering the entire search and browse experience. I look forward to applying my experience in scaling companies by fostering great relationships with employees, customers and partners, and taking Algolia to new heights.”

Before joining Alfresco, Nixon served as president of SDL plc—a global software and professional services company—after growing its sales team as chief revenue officer. Prior to SDL, she held positions at OpenText as general manager and senior vice president of its BPM Business Unit and Corporate Sales. Nixon was also executive vice president of sales for the Americas at Metastorm, and served in similar roles at CA Technologies, InterQuad and NCR. Nixon also held a position at the United Nations in Geneva, which today would be known as deputy CIO.

“Since co-founding Algolia eight years ago with Julien Lemoine, our chief technology officer, we have worked to make Algolia a true search innovator and market leader. Our series C funding round completed in September 2019, and the trillion searches that our customers perform yearly from everywhere in the world underscore our strong growth,” said Dessaigne. “I have always been focused on building a great company and culture to ensure Algolia can reach its true potential, and believe that Bernadette’s experience and skill set will advance the company through its next stage of growth. Her track record of scaling companies is exactly what Algolia needs at this stage. I am extremely proud of this company and am pleased to pass the torch to Bernadette for this exciting new phase.”

Over the past year, Algolia has experienced tremendous growth, spanning e-commerce sites like Under Armour, Dunelm, The RealReal and ManoMano; media and streaming companies like Ouest-France and Dailymotion; and technology companies like Stripe and Slack. With over 9,000 companies using Algolia across 120 countries, Algolia’s platform will power over one trillion searches in 2020—touching one in six web users each day. The reason for this growth is the business results Algolia delivers for its customers, such as reducing total cost of ownership by 80% while increasing conversion rates by 30% or more.

“From day one, Algolia has delivered on a need for personalized, relevant search experiences, and the company continues to be the Search-as-a-Service market leader,” said Philippe Botteri, partner, Accel. “Algolia has achieved impressive product innovation, international expansion and industry leadership to date. We’ve believed in the business from our initial investment and are more excited than ever about the opportunity in front of us as digital transformations accelerate.”

To learn more about today’s announcement, read Dessaigne’s blog or visit www.algolia.com.

Yellow Jersey PR

In Testing Times, Family Is Best – An Unusual CEO Growing A Remarkable Family

Posted on | by Patrick Doherty

The world of PR and communications is one that is constantly changing – the extraordinary period since February 2020 is testament to that shift. To keep up with these developments, a business requires a leader who can adapt, who can influence and who can get results. With support from an excellent team, and through a challenging last decade, Dominic Barretto has guided Yellow Jersey PR through wars, recession, bull markets and now into a totally new form of global crisis.

Recognised in this month’s CEO Monthly as Most Influential CEO, 2020 – the United Kingdom, we look at the way in which Dominic and his business have achieved success to make it one of the leading communications brands in the UK.

Culture is at the heart of any business. It describes the narratives, processes, ways of thinking, values and behaviours that inform what gets done, when, and how. Culture often remains hidden and unacknowledged — but it buzzes away in the background and has a direct impact on the functioning of every single process in the machine. In this context, substitute “process” with “people”.

For as long as the concept of work has existed, culture has been forged as a result of an ongoing, often implicit, negotiation between people sharing a physical environment about how they prefer to coexist. People are programmed to want to be part of a tribe, and to want to work in ways that are acceptable to that tribe. Culture grows out of these desires and every individual in every business influences culture in some way.

Out of a kitchen in East London, Dominic Barretto created what he expected to be a lifestyle business that would suit his family, against a backdrop of the 2009 financial global
crisis. Dominic had a simple, yet defined, set of beliefs then. Lead by example, taken from his school motto “Exemplum Docet”, and treat everyone with the same level of respect you would have for those closest to you.

Fast forward a decade and he is back in the kitchen from his agency’s second office in Zurich, where he and his family of five reside part-time. This time in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing his growing team within what is now an award winning financial, corporate and brand communications agency for entrepreneurs of private and listed businesses.

On the face of it, Yellow Jersey assists clients across smart messaging, content generation, media relations, investor communications and crisis communications – but the service cuts much deeper to provide a family-led approach to how it manages people either side of its headquarters’ door in Oxford Circus.

“ Yellow Jersey is my kind of PR agency ”, quoted Sir Ken Olisa, a highly recognised Non-Executive and former
board member of the IoD and the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. “ In our case, they viewed having deep media relations as mere table stakes .” Another long-standing client, Ariana Resources plc, went on to say, “ they feel like a true extension of our own team, who take the time to really understand the Company and what makes us tick .”

From the outset, Dominic has impressed on his team the need for absolute integrity, truth and belief in that we are all in it together.

The multi-faceted approach that Yellow Jersey carries is complemented by the recent strategic alliance struck with IPREX, the world-leading and gold standard global PR platform, which operates across 100 countries and where the firm has been selected as its investor relations agency.

Outside of the agency’s core sector expertise of fintech, finserve, TMT, healthcare, energy and natural resources, where it provides support across capital markets (IPO and aftermarket) and corporate (content generation, media relations and digital), Yellow Jersey engages in pro bono work with the 30% Club,

The Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Europe, The British Swiss Chamber of Commerce, and advises the Lord Lieutenant of Greater London. These wonderful organisations reflect Dominic and his team’s belief to play in the most compelling of playgrounds, again with people that share a common set of values.

For Dominic, finding the right employees to grow Yellow Jersey into a loved and appreciated brand has taken longer than he thought. “ It was not without sleepless nights, but it is absolutely possible to run a successful and profitable business that encourages room for family and life .”

In Yellow Jersey, Dominic has ultimately created a business where the culture is one of the key components in its success. The PR community is facing perhaps its biggest challenge to date with COVID-19, but it is likely to be those companies that put family at the forefront of their businesses which will emerge fastest and strongest.

Company: Yellow Jersey PR
Contact: Evie Lelliott
Website: www.yellowjerseypr.com

As the COVID-19 emergency evolves, SME directors and owners are inspiring their teams, and charting as clear a course out of this public health and economic crisis as they possibly can.

What Kind of Leader Shines During a Crisis?

Posted on | by Patrick Doherty
Kevin Johnson, Vistage Chair and Executive Coach

By Kevin Johnson, Vistage Chair and Executive Coach

As the COVID-19 emergency evolves, SME directors and owners are inspiring their teams, and charting as clear a course out of this public health and economic crisis as they possibly can.

Although I’ve had the privilege to run complex organisations and work with some of the world’s most-outstanding leaders for over 35 years (including through various other crises), seeing how top CEOs and MDs have responded these last few weeks has been the most humbling and inspiring of all.

So, what type of leader is best at ensuring that their business not just survives, but emerges enriched? What they do matters hugely – including applying keen eyes, laser focus and calm conviction amidst the turmoil. However, who they are as a leader and as a person is more critical still. As so often before, the best decisions right now are being made by leaders who

1.Care deeply

Deep, genuine care – for your staff and their families, customers and key suppliers – is the root of all else. During traumatic times, understanding and compassion goes a massively long way.   

To see heart-felt thank-you notes from employees to CEOs for their empathy and fairness, and for inspiring hope despite market collapse, financial loss and family fear;  to hear of customers prioritising payments to suppliers who engaged candidly and caringly; and to observe remarkable examples of collegiate energy and support from furloughed staff, is humbling.

It demonstrates how a mindset and culture, cultivated by forward-thinking leaders during good times, comes into its own when the chips are truly down. Best of all, the goodwill advantage once this horrendous – but temporary – period is over, is immeasurable! 

2. Have a compelling sense of purpose

When truly compelling, the core purpose of any business, and the values which underpin it, are the North Star that holds its team together through thick and thin. When championed with a passion, “Doing the Right Thing” remains the default response – whatever the extremes of pressure.

Strong sense of purpose has fuelled brilliant recent examples of adaptation and impact. For instance, a life-sciences marketing company I work with in South East England who, within two days, created a huge volunteer network of scientists for Coronavirus testing. Another, a training company which made its materials freely available to furloughed staff across the country. And, the housing service firm who ceased all non-critical services early – taking a financial hit to reduce risks to vulnerable people.    

When a powerful cause is lived with every pore of a leader’s being, passive staff compliance becomes full, lasting commitment both here and now, and carrying through post-COVID!

3.Yearn to engage – clearly, candidly, relentlessly

The value of open, crystal-clear, over-communication during a crisis – internally and externally – is immense. That requires the Chief Decision Maker to embrace being Chief Engagement Officer.

Those companies that I see riding the current tsunami best (as well as already having a powerful, caring, purpose-led culture, anda tight grip of their finances) are communicating, communicating, communicating – with staff and customers, suppliers,investors andtheir wider communities.

Their CEO/MD is visible like never before, daily, weekly and in multiple ways. They are being transparent and focused, warm and empathetic, are collaborating closely with fellow CEOs for mutual support and ideas, and are calling people unexpectedly to simply understand how they are, and to show that they care.

4.Nurture a clear and creative forward vision

Exceptional times inspire exceptional innovation. What I do gives a remarkable vantage point to see this in action: how virtually every growth-minded entrepreneur, having addressed immediate crisis implications with vigour, stopped almost immediately to pause, reflect and think creatively.    

For some, that means testing radically new market or product opportunities. Others, it’s using this time to unleash the creative energy of staff with time on their hands and a hunger to be involved.

For many, this is about crafting a “resumption-then-growth” strategy, with clear one and two-year visions, while for most, it also involves reflecting on the wealth of valuable learnings that are emerging about operating practices and enablers, leadership approaches, or individual people and organisations.

A “can-do” mindset is important. However, at times like these, a “can-think” one is, I suggest, of

infinitely greater value!

Leaders – like crises – come in many shapes and forms. Hindsight, however, is a powerful teacher, and what is being seen today reflects in graphic detail past evidence: that if you are in the business of thriving, not just surviving,who you are being trumps what you are doing hands down.  

How Business Leaders Can Drive Successful Cross-functional Collaboration

How Business Leaders Can Drive Successful Cross-functional Collaboration

Posted on | by Patrick Doherty

So often do members of the various departments in a business have a narrow view of the company as a whole. This can have a detrimental effect on staff productivity and company culture, and is something that business leaders should be tackling. Creating an atmosphere that not only facilitates, but encourages cross-functional collaboration, is an excellent way to drive a business forward and secure an optimum workforce.

 

Cross-Functional Collaboration: What it is & why it matters

The term cross-functional collaboration refers to when employees from different departments work together, combining their skills and expertise. This could be on individual projects, or across the board on a regular basis.

Cross-functional collaboration helps you get the best out of your teams, who often feed off each other’s ideas and use conversation to stimulate creativity. Managers are likely to notice improved efficiency and productivity, as well as a positive atmosphere among staff.

Benefits of Cross-Functional Collaboration

As well as seeing a difference in productivity and staff attitudes, there are a number of other advantages for creating a workplace that facilitates cross-functional collaboration.

 

To achieve interdepartmental alignment

Most business leaders will be all too aware of the problems that come with poor communication, not only among senior staff but also between teams. When departments are not informed of what other departments are working on, business strategies can become disconnected and non-cohesive.

Every department in a business is there to carry out work which meets the needs of the business as a whole; each one is an integral cog in the company machine. When a team works independently of another, it could be discovered that the work they have been doing is redundant. An example of this could be a creative design team who have put together a modern design for your website. Without collaborating with your IT team, it might become apparent that your website does not have the capability to support their idea, after time has been spent creating it.

 

To avoid clashing objectives and targets

Another common problem in companies that don’t have collaboration among departments, is the occurrence of conflicting goals. A lack of awareness of the work of another department can easily lead to department heads setting targets and KPIs for their staff, which are either contradicted or not supported by other areas of the business.

An example of this might be if a content writer has been asked to deliver content which obtains x number of ‘click-throughs’. The writer might depend on a specific channel, such as an email marketing campaign, for their link to be shared, but this might not happen if the email marketing team has been set a target of including more deals on an email – in place of sharing the content.

 

To inform employees about the big company picture

Ensuring that every member of staff within a business is educated about the company’s goals and vision for the future, is a must in order to achieve high employee morale. Only when each employee knows how their work impacts everybody else, and helps the company to achieve its goals, do they feel valued. Feeling valued is absolutely imperative to get the best out of employees, who are likely to put in less than 100% effort if they have no understanding of why they do what they do.

 

To instil a sense of equality and respect

Cross-functional collaboration is a very effective method for getting staff to understand and respect one another. When they have the opportunity to hear each other’s ideas, and when they can learn about what other teams and departments are tasked with, it is far easier to appreciate the work they do. So often feelings of animosity and disdain are borne out of a lack of understanding of another team’s day to day.

How to Achieve Cross-Functional Collaboration

Cross-functional collaboration is something that should be ingrained into company culture; something that should not take a back seat or be forgotten over time, when new members of staff are brought on board. If this can be achieved, a sense of teamwork will become apparent in all areas, as collaboration will be the natural response to any problem.

It’s up to business leaders to start creating an atmosphere that encourages cross-functional collaboration, and up to senior staff to find ways of putting it in place. There are a number of ways to begin implementing this team-based philosophy.

 

Provide the necessary tools

They key thing to start implementing cross-functional collaboration is to make it easy for staff to collaborate. While face to face meetings are probably the most effective way to stimulate conversation and team work, it’s also important for staff to have access to other departments’ information. This could be in the form of shared digital boards, folders, or apps – anything that facilitates visibility of the work being carried out.

It should also be easy for all employees to be able to contact each other. In addition to phone and email, consider offering a companywide online chat group for convenient instant messaging. Remember to inform all members of staff about such software, and to run training sessions on how to use it, if necessary.

 

Schedule frequent meetings

While it’s unlikely to be possible to have every member of every team in a meeting, inviting one member from each department as a representative, or hosting optional open meetings, is a great way to encourage cross-functional collaboration. Encourage employees to use these as opportunities to ask questions, voice opinions, or offer ideas. The meetings should be seen as an idea-exchange platform from which every department can benefit, and a chance to give updates and information about the company as a whole.

It should be each department head’s responsibility to nominate a team member, or encourage their staff to go to interdepartmental meetings.

 

Job-shadowing opportunities

Job shadowing not only offers an employee the chance to learn about their colleagues’ roles, but it also allows for an effective means of collaboration. This is because it can sometimes take a fresh pair of eyes to solve a problem, or to make a suggestion for how to improve a process.

Business owners who have tried to implement a job shadowing scheme in the past might have found that it is too disruptive to the day to day, however making it a once a month or even once a quarter exercise can make all the difference. In addition to potential new ideas, job shadowing almost always leads to an increased sense of respect among employees.

 

Regular communication

Effective, regular communication – from the top level of the business down – is a must in order to achieve a collaborative culture. Illustrating the importance of communication by sending staff regular newsletters, or posting bulletins in the office to display news, is a helpful way to encourage the rest of your employees to follow suit.

When colleagues are aware of what’s happening in the company, and within other departments, they have a clearer picture of the business as a whole and their own position within it. Understanding this big picture is a huge part of stimulating cross-functional collaboration.

Business leaders who manage to instil a culture of cross-functional collaboration within their company will no doubt see a number of significant benefits. From happier staff to innovative thinking, the advantages of such a culture will help senior staff to go above and beyond delivering the business goals, driving the company to new heights.

Matt Bragg is a Director of FMP Global, one of the world’s leading outsourced payroll suppliers for SMEs. He’s also a commentator on HR and payroll, and a thought leader on digital working and employee engagement.

ceo of the month 2

Budding CEO Brings Success

Posted on | by root

In each issue of CEO Monthly, we seek to highlight those individuals who have made a tangible impact on their businesses by being outstanding CEOs. March sees Robert Kubin take the spotlight, for his work as part of Polish insurance group PZU, and in particular, his role as CEO of the asset management branch of the PZU Group. Join us as we highlight his success.

Across the entirety of Poland, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe, PZU Group has remained one of the continent’s largest financial institutions. As a group, and a brand, the history of PZU stretches back in time more than two hundred years to 1803, to a time when the first Polish insurance company was being established. In the many years since that fateful first insurance company founded, the core purpose of PZU Group has not wavered in the slightest. It remains as dedicated and focused as ever on insurance activity, aiming to ensure a matchless sense of peace and security for all clients. By offering comprehensive insurance protection in all crucial areas of private, public, and economic life, PZU Group has continued to build on the foundations that have seen it stand the test of time for such a lengthy period of history. Now, a new figure has emerged to help steer the company into a new era of success; Mr Robert Kubin.

Experienced, exceptional, and educated to the highest level, Mr Kubin is an investment specialist who brings more than fifteen years of professional and international experience in managing insurance portfolios and investment funds to the company. Prior to joining up with the team at PZU Group, and subsequently PZU Asset Management, Mr Kubin worked across Europe gaining extensive experience in building strategic and tactical asset allocation skills through a variety of roles including investment project management.

Mr Kubin’s journey towards leadership with this historic Polish insurance firm first began circa 1996, when he enrolled and began studying for a Master of Science degree in Finance, Financial Markets, and Banking at the University of Economics in Prague. Following his graduation from there in 2001, Mr Kubin quickly turned his attention elsewhere, seeking more knowledge. He then joined Fio Banka in Prague as a trader and analyst, working hard to analyse US macro and equity markets whilst also being responsible for clients’ order processing. After refining his knowledge for a little over two years, Mr Kubin then moved on again in 2003.

From March 2003 until early 2007, Mr Kubin took on a new challenge working as investment director at AIG. With the company offices situated in the beautiful city of Prague, he was primarily responsible for a variety of different kinds of tasks during his time there. One of Mr Kubin’s major roles was having oversight the overall investment strategy of the life insurance company of AIG in the Czech Republic. While working for the company, Mr Kubin took the opportunity to enrol at the CFA Institute between 2004 and 2006, before becoming a certified chartered financial analyst whilst delivering excellent services for AIG. Following his accreditation as a CFA, Mr Kubin then took on a new role with AIG, that of chief investment officer. Once again, this role was largely similar to his previous one, but the area of responsibility covered a much wider area, now including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Ukraine.

By this time, his wealth of knowledge was extensive and the management levels jobs were coming thick and fast for Mr Kubin. Following a nearlyeight-year stint working for global insurance, annuities, and employee benefits programs providers MetLife, he finally joined the team at PZU Group in September 2018. For approximately eleven months, Mr Kubin served diligently as chief investment officer, where he was responsible for all investment aspects of the company, including managing life, non-life, active, and passive portfolios, strategic and tactical asset allocation, and leading a team of investment professionals.

PZU Group, which is one of the largest insurance companies in Central and Eastern Europe, has benefitted hugely from the work that Mr Kubin completed in his role as CIO, especially handling so many asset classes and portfolios. Just a handful of the many asset classes he worked with include money market instruments, government bonds, corporate bonds, equities, real estate, private assets, and much more. And yet, the company still sought to elevate to even greater heights.

In August 2019, the Polish insurer appointed Mr Kubin to the role of chief executive officer of PZU Asset Management, which manages assets for its parent company as well as third-party clients. Whilst much of his role remained the same in terms of asset classes that were internally managed, Mr Kubin also focused his efforts on managing external assets, developing business on a domestic and international level, as well as generally managing the company from his newfound leadership position. Now well into 2020, PZU Group has big plans for the future; of which Mr Kubin will no doubt be a big part.

As it searches for new directions of development and continues to respond to the needs of its clients all across Central and Eastern Europe, PZU Group has continued its inevitable and seemingly dominant expansion into the fields of investment and health. While the firm has developed an excellent reputation for delivering excellent service with insurance needs, it is now seeking to raise investments in the banking sector. This is a job that no doubt will have Mr Kubin’s
fingerprints all over it, given his outstanding ability to invest, and manage that investment wisely.

Should the firm manage to accrue the necessary funding and successfully invest in the banking industry, it will no doubt become the largest financial group in Central and Eastern Europe. Not content to simply lead the way in insurance and asset management, PZU Group is now seeking to lead the way in banking too, marking a new era of success that Mr Kubin will have been directly involved with.

Ultimately, it is clear to see the connection between Mr Kubin’s exceptional leadership skill and the excitement that is building around PZU Group’s impending foray into the banking sector across Central and Eastern Europe. His role as CEO may still be in its infancy, but he continues to show just how skilled he is, and why he is a major player in the financial sector across Europe as a whole.

ceo of the month
Keysite Technologies

Key Insights Effect Great Success

Posted on | by root

Every breakthrough, every goal, every moment of corporate brilliance begins with a vision. That is the belief of the team at Keysight Technologies, instilled in them by CEO of the Year 2019 – The USA, Ron Nersesian. To discover how the firm and its leader are empowering visionaries to imagine what’s next for a more connected and safer world, we profiled them both in CEO Monthly.

Offering key insights into the acceleration of innovation within electronic design, test, manufacturing and optimization, Keysight is at the very forefront of exploration into the technology of the future. With a rich history of innovation that stretches back more than eighty years, the firm remains as strong as ever in its commitment to continuing that tradition. Currently, the firm has more than 1700 domestic and foreign patents either issued or pending, with customers in more than a hundred countries around the world that are served by a passionate and diverse workforce of more than 13,000 employees.

Even the most innovative of entrepreneurs can run into stumbling blocks when attempting to come up with breakthrough solutions that are focused on changing the world. That is where Keysight comes in, offering unparalleled tenacity and passion to see entrepreneurs do what they do best and keeping delivering technological solutions unlike any others. Whether seeking to overcome barriers, transform development processes, or become the best in a market, this insightful firm can help any entrepreneur get there.

Since its formation on November 1st, 2014, Keysight has become the world’s leading electronic measurement company, helping to drive game-changing innovations in wireless, modular, and software solutions. Working across a broad range of industries, the firm has been instrumental in delivering solutions in wireless communications, aerospace and defense, and semiconductor markets to name just a few. These important industries have benefitted from their work with Keysight, developing world-class platforms, software, and consistent measurement science.

Measurement is key to any industry where even the smallest of margins can be the difference between remarkable success and devastating failure. Scientists and engineers need to be able to rely on software that can calculate measurements ranging between the most miniscule, and the most massive, including everything in between.

Keysight’s singular focus remains on electronic measurement, and is designed to help scientists, researchers and engineers everywhere handle tough problems with confidence and precision. The kind of customers that Keysight serve are visionaries and innovators who are committed to delivering the greatest advancements in technology. Backed by decades of research and insight, Keysight’s solutions augment systems, mix workflows, and authenticate the technologies of the future with unique performance. Overseeing this outstanding success that the firm has seen in just six short years of existence is chairman, president and CEO Ron Nersesian.

Long before beginning his career with Keysight, Ron worked as a systems engineer for satellites communication systems with Computer Sciences Corporation in 1982. Just two years later in 1984, Ron then joined Hewlett-Packard where he served in a variety of management roles before his subsequent departure in 1996 to LeCroy Corporation to become vice-president of worldwide marketing. Having gathered experience there over six years, Ron then returned to Agilent Technologies, a company that had separated from HP. There, he became the vice-president and general manager of the design validation division in 2002.

In the seventeen years since joining Agilent Technologies, Ron’s journey has been one of continual growth and achieving greater levels of success. After almost ten years in various management roles alongside his vice-president role, Ron was named executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Agilent Technologies. The following year, in November 2012, Ron became president of the firm and oversaw the separation of its electronic measurement business in 2013. That electronic measurement business would go on to become Keysight, which Ron was then appointed president and CEO of.

Since then, Ron has successfully engineered the launch of Keysight and seen it become a public, independent company as of November 2014. After five years of remarkable growth and success for both himself and the firm, Ron was then appointed chairman of Keysight in 2019. During his tenure there, Ron continues to surround himself with a leadership team that is entirely passionate about creating value through solutions that help accelerate customers’ innovation to connect and secure the world.

Under his sage leadership that has seen the firm through periods of separation and growth, and into an era of great prosperity. Now established as a source of tremendous innovation for businesses across America and beyond, every single one of the top twenty-five technology companies use the services offered by Keysight. A true testament to the leadership that Ron constantly shows, the firm also has 78 of the Fortune 100 companies as customers, and all twenty-five of the top telecom operators and service providers also use its offerings.

It is not just simply corporate excellence that Ron has cultivated for Keysight during the last six years. Alongside the firm’s vision of helping to build a better planet in terms of safety, security and connectivity, the firm also takes is corporate responsibility towards the environment to heart. Throughout the company, operations are created to be environmentally sustainable and socially responsible, which has led to it being one of only five North American companies included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

Ron’s remarkable loyalty and desire to see the world changed through innovation has positioned Keysight as a real force to be reckoned with in the American economy. Offering some of the most accurate measurement electronic software available in the world today, it is a testament to Ron’s leadership just how quickly and how well he has led the team at Keysight.

Crimson

Driving Innovation In Education

Posted on | by root
 

Jamie Beaton, CEO of Crimson Education, reveals how he started his £200 million education business. He discusses the challenges he has overcome and shares his successes.

 

A Young Student

As a student in New Zealand coming to the end of school, I started considering opportunities to continue my studies overseas. I applied to study at the top 25 ranked universities in the world – which wasn’t easy. I found the information available on the internet complicated and overwhelming, and applied to so many as I was unsure how successful I’d be.

When I received letters in the mail confirming that I had been accepted to every institution I applied to, I was blown away with excitement.

The Beginning

In 2013, at just 18 years old, I founded Crimson Education with my friend Sharndre Kushor. Our plan was to show others wishing to apply to the top universities that the world really is your oyster. If you’re interested in studying at top global institutions like Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy Leagues then it really can be possible, as long as you have the right information, mentoring and support.

I started the business on a small scale initially by leveraging my own experience and engaging the help of other young Kiwis. Back then I had just forty New Zealand dollars in my bank account.

In 2014, during my first year at Harvard, I got in contact with Julian Robertson of Tiger Management to talk about the software used by some of the scholars sponsored by Robertson’s foundation each year [the foundation pays the tuition fees of 36 potential future leaders each year]. He was impressed by me and my business idea, and hired me on the spot as his youngest-ever hedge fund analyst. Not long after, Tiger Management invested in Crimson and the business grew from there.

 

Business Growth

I think it’s key to get fast validation when growing a company. Often people think of a business idea, but then fall into the trap of spending too much time sitting in a room researching. It’s far more valuable to actually go out and receive immediate feedback. You can read as many books and articles as you want, but at the end of the day the best feedback you can receive is from investors talking about why they should invest in your business, as well as speaking to potential and current customers.

The next step is to drive results.  You need to back claims with numbers and you certainly can’t scale an organisation that doesn’t deliver. Right from the very beginning, we worked tirelessly to create value for the students that enrolled with us. Strong results generated positive feedback which in turn propelled the business further.

As a business grows, you need to have a relentless focus on improving the service you provide. We made a number of strategic acquisitions to fill our knowledge gaps. We also received funding from investors with wide networks, who were aligned to our vision.

I have been very strategic from the beginning in terms of who has joined the team and what investors have come on board. These networks have been incredibly important to our growth. Our recent raising of an additional 20 million US dollars from Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook Education Group and Korea-based Solborn Investment is just the latest example of our dedication to team up with groups that have the same values – providing students with the resources to be the best they can be.

Not Without Challenge

With regards to challenges, there have been many, especially when scaling as rapidly as we have done (and are still doing!).

There’s a moment in a company’s growth, as it transitions from a headcount of around fifty to around two hundred, where you pass the point when each person in the company knows each other. Going through that transition is a huge test of culture.

All companies stumble with building culture through that phase. We realised that the whole company didn’t have a connection to me or my founding team in the way the early employees did. We had to find new ways to improve communication and strategic coordination of the business. I think that cultural junction is a key challenge that a lot of companies have to go through.

Another challenge has been attempting to break the mould in terms of people’s mentality around what university counselling and admissions support involves. My team offers something most schools can’t, and it can be difficult to make people see that. To overcome that, we’ve focused on results. The success of our students speaks strongly to the value we provide.

Technology Is Key

Technology is essential to providing the best service and value we can. We use technology to match students to the right institutions, as well as to connect top mentors in places like the US with students in the UK and beyond, who would otherwise not have this exposure. Our students are not restricted by geography or time – no matter where in the world they are, they can access support and services that go far beyond what a student at a top school in the UK or the US would receive.

Technology also allows us to drive greater value at a greater scale while limiting our costs. We use psychometric testing to pair each student with a mentoring and tutoring team that is optimised to their interests as well as their learning style. The student/teacher matching model is trained on historical data and is constantly refined as we grow into different territories with different cultures and education practices. This has helped us to deliver value beyond what was traditionally possible.

By engaging with technology we’re providing our students with an education for the twenty-second century.

I believe that talented, hard-working young people should have the opportunity to reach their full potential through education. That’s why I’ll continue to help thousands more students on their journey to get into the world’s best universities.

 

Jamie Beaton is the CEO of Crimson Education, which helps students gain acceptance to the world’s best universities. You can find more advice on applications at www.crimsoneducation.com/uk.

Kantar

The Market Research Experts

Posted on | by root
 

Lightspeed Research, now part of Kantar, are in the market for leading market research, driven by a need to understand ‘truth through data’. Earlier this year, CEO Monthly recognised Lightspeed Research’s Global Chief Executive Officer, Caroline Frankum, as one of the CEO Top 100 for 2019. Following this, we endeavoured to take a closer look at the company and their expertise.

Data, in all of its forms, is crucial to the future of business, regardless of industry, sector or field. Those that prioritise data are sure to reap the benefits and unlock a path to continual growth and enduring success. After all, if you truly understand your clients and their behaviours, you can understand why they buy and how best to attract new markets and demographic segments. Data, then, is a potent weapon, wielded by the innovative and the disruptive.

Of course, it takes an expert eye and a guiding hand to make the most out of data, and to source it in a meaningful, insightful way. This is where Kantar, and Lightspeed Research, come in. From next generation surveys, polls and networks to comprehensive segmentation, they have the tools on hand to help achieve that vital next step in your business’s growth plan.

As the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, Kantar holds a formidable position on the global business landscape, commanding a level of expertise and analytical insight that others struggle to compete with. This is only aided by the breadth of their solutions, which focus on producing a clear, holistic image of their client’s businesses, with results-driven and actionable goals.

Where Kantar truly distinguishes itself is in its proprietary ‘Profiles Network’, which aims to provide clients with a platform to access respondent profiles. Their extraordinary reach – some 88 million research-ready respondents are involved in the network – has swiftly help differentiate the firm from a wealth of competition, offering any client with an essential data collection tool.

But it would be remiss to jump over Caroline’s role in building Lightspeed Research into the firm it is today. With a history of succeeding in data-driven roles – often in roles that relied on a keen sense of how to grow company divisions- she remains one of the company’s assets, guiding the way to their future success. Now, as a part of Kantar, that success is all but guaranteed. For this, she was spotlighted in the CEO Top 100 programme – a worthy inclusion by any measure.

Kantar is the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, dedicated to understanding how people think, feel, shop, share, vote and view than anyone else. Combining their expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies, Kantar’s 30,000 people help the world’s leading organizations succeed and grow.

Hot Yoga Club

Simply The One To Watch In Health and Fitness

Posted on | by root
Hot Yoga Club
Peter Williams is the Managing Director of premium health, fitness & wellbeing centre The Thames Club. Now operating two successful businesses – The Thames Club and Hot Yoga Club – we caught up with Peter to find out more about how his business activities were going.

Nestled in suburban Staines, Surrey, The Thames Club has been around for 16 years. Offering the same wide range of exclusive health and fitness facilities in stylish and comfortable surroundings that brought it success originally, the continued success of this business can be laid firmly at the feet of Managing Director Peter Williams. With a team of over 30 staff dedicated to delivering a personal experience to over 2,500 members, this business has gone from strength to strength. Offering excellent gym facilities in their Cardio, Functional and Weights zones, a heated swimming pool, spa and sauna, along with your choice of personal trainer, Peter runs a facility that caters for every gym-goer’s needs and desires. Indeed, under his watch, The Thames Club has expanded its operations, opening the Hot Yoga Club in January 2018.

As a separate business in its own right but fully owned by The Thames Club, the Hot Yoga Club offers a diverse range of challenging hot yoga and Pilates classes for all abilities, shapes and sizes taught by first-class teachers. This innovation has proved to be quite the boon for the successful Staines gym. ‘Hot Yoga Club made a positive financial contribution within 12 months of trading which is an outstanding result for any new start-up,’ Peter tells us. ‘We have a number of students who tell us “this place has literally changed my life”.’ One of the major developments in this area going forward is a diversified range of classes, workshops and courses along with member focused benefits and programmes to increase retention. ‘Our front of house team provides the highest level of customer service every time someone enters the studio, making every single person feel comfortable when they visit. Our doors are open to everyone and each student is greeted with a smile and we know them all by name. We’ve built a real community here that knows each other, looks out for each other and has fun together.’

It’s no surprise that Peter turns his attention to the community he helped to build up at The Thames Club. He sees it as the heart of the enterprise and encourages its development at every opportunity. ‘Our members are the backbone of our club and we are proud to say that they stay with us for a long time. Some of our founder members have been here since we opened 16 years ago.’ Retention is key to the success of The Thames Club. It means that members are willing to engage with the vision of the enterprise. ‘When we have vacancies, we ask our members who they know and often have them actually join us as employees,’ admits Peter. ‘Who better to know and work with our members than a member!’

‘We are very much a people business and believe that our team is the key differentiator that truly makes us stand apart from our competition,’ Peter explains.

‘There are many clubs with great facilities and equipment, but we believe that our team across the business are dedicated to delivering the very best and most caring member experience.’ Peter is also quick to credit his staff with the positive impact they bring to each of their clients. ‘We’re extremely focused on recognition of both our staff and our members,’ Peter explains. Staff have a quarterly MAD (Made A Difference) award, where they can be recognised for going above and beyond in their daily roles, while the Member of the Month reward scheme focuses on those who overcome mental and physical disabilities and achieve their fitness goals. ‘We pride ourselves on the service they receive every time they visit the club and after running regular quarterly surveys with our members, we are proud to see that our NPS (net promoter score) continues to increase year on year and is currently above industry average.’

“In October 2019 we were delighted attend the Spelthorne Means Business awards. The Thames Club was voted as ‘Best Business in Staines & Laleham’ with Hot Yoga Club being voted ‘Best Small Business’. To win the latter within 2 years of trading is a huge achievement that would not have been possible without our dedicated team of teachers and support staff.

Getting more people involved in the business is key to the longterm plan that Peter has drawn up. By being a strong supporter
of the local community, it brings the Club to the attention of others in places that they may not have been seen. ‘We are partnered with local businesses to offer our members discounted rates and special events. We are proud to be associated with Ashford Manor Golf Club, Notcutts Garden Centre, Thames Motor Group,’ says Peter. Similarly, the addition of the Hot Yoga Club has been a huge success. ‘We have the ability to attract students from the base membership of The Thames Club, but we are now seeing significant growth from a wider catchment area and we will continue to maximise social media and other channels to attract clients specifically to the Hot Yoga Club.’ By being able to hold its own, the Hot Yoga Club is also unique in that Peter is now able to cross-sell between both products.

It’s not just in the Hot Yoga Club that Peter has added something special to the work of The Thames Club. ‘We have recently partnered with ‘Roost’ café as our lounge partner. Roost offers healthy food and beverage options catering for gluten intolerance, vegetarian and vegan tastes and has kicked off with huge success. The lounge area they have created is relaxing, open and is a lovely space for our members to gather and socialise over a coffee or healthy meal after their visit to the club.’

Peter is very excited about where the future will take him and his businesses. ‘We will continue to innovate and ensue people are highly engaged in their fitness journey by utilising the latest technologies as well as delivering the personal motivation and service that inevitably helps people achieve their goals. We always strive to increase our member retention and by delivering a higher value experience this will lead to more members remaining with us as their chosen premium health club.’

Ultimately, Peter has aimed to create an atmosphere where everyone feels welcomed and valued. It’s clearly a valuable part of his business approach, putting customers first and ensuring that they feel, above all else, comfortable . Add to this a series of partnerships that have proved advantageous to all parties and you have a businessman who continues to innovate his business to better serve his clients. When asking customers if they were likely to recommend Hot Yoga Club to a someone, they received a score of 78. Peter tells us that ‘the creators of the NPS system suggest that a score of 50 or above is excellent, and above 80 is world-class… so next year we hope to just tip-over to world-class!’

Contact: Peter Williams
Company: The Thames Club
Website: thethamesclub.co.uk
Telephone: 01784 463 100

rms

Superb CEO Secures Legacy

Posted on | by root
 

Founded in 2005 by visionary retail expert Peter O’Toole, RMS has consistently grown year on year to become one of the country’s leading merchandising companies for many of the top retailers throughout the United Kingdom. Following the passing of the baton to son Daniel O’Toole, discover his journey to become the UK’s leading CEO for 2019.

Almost fifteen years after the firm’s initial formation, RMS has come a long way under the sage leadership of both father and son, Peter and Daniel O’Toole. Following his father’s death in 2015, Daniel’s appointment as CEO has seen him go on to secure his father’s legacy and cement his own place amongst the very best CEOs in the United Kingdom today. Making significant progress, securing big-money clients and driving the business forward, the story of this family business is fascinating.

Working with some of the UK’s biggest retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA, John Lewis, Boots, B&Q, Argos, Waitrose and Wilko to name just a few, RMS are fulfilling their potential to be the retail change partner of choice Experts in the retail industry, the leadership team’s unrivalled knowledge, passion for the industry, and cuttingedge technology has firmly established them as more than capable of delivering industryleading services.

Daniel’s story of growth from loving son to inspiring leader is the exemplification of how RMS works, their people and growing talent from within. Upon his appointment to CEO in late 2015, Daniel was thrust into a brand new world of executive leadership in which he had previously experienced very little. However, being a family firm, the choice was logical, and has since proved to be the right one.

Regardless of his lack of experience in retail and the fact he was now responsible for a large company that had exciting future prospects, Daniel delivered. Not just for the firm, but for his father as well. Peter always worked hard to grow the business, and Daniel has made that happen as CEO. Between 2015 and 2017, RMS went from 100 to 500 employees in the field, as well as almost doubling turnover from £8m to £15m.

The expertise and experience of the leadership team around Daniel at RMS cannot be overstated. Despite the challenges that lay before the firm following the tragic passing of founder Peter O’Toole, both sons Daniel and Connah have truly stepped up and delivered the company into a period of great prosperity and success. Alongside a management some team of twenty experts, the team leaders and all the flexible merchandisers at RMS boast a combined 3,000 plus years of retail experience.

Since becoming CEO, Daniel has successfully managed to get his entire team to buy into a new culture and new business model with a refined strategy and core company values. With such a wealth of experience and knowledge around him, Daniel felt it key that RMS management staff were engaged and empowered to not fear failure or innovation, instead seeking out opportunity to influence the direction of the business.

Partners of the firm had such faith in Peter, given his retail expertise and consistently high quality of work. Despite the low expectations for how the company would fare following his sudden death, Daniel was keen to meet with partners and lay to rest any concerns. His commitment and drive for the business’ achievement won over clients, and have continued to do so to this day, as success keeps on coming.
In his short time as CEO, Daniel has already made significant progress for RMS staff. Ensuring the company recognises the effort and commitment of its staff, the pool of direct company employees has grown, and the firm have introduced the “RMS-First” policy which puts staff before anything else. All members of staff can now also access increased levels of benefits, with a massive focus placed on training and development to ensure everyone is at their best.

As part of his staff development plans, Daniel ring fenced significant spending for training purposes. Key staff have been enrolled on courses designed to enhance management and finance skills, and every officebased employee has a personal development plan to better see how their RMS career will benefit both themselves and the business. Taking his father’s idea that staff are the company’s most valuable asset, Daniel has expanded greatly on it and truly put his staff at the heart of the business.

Incredibly, Daniel’s refreshing outlook on leadership earned him not just one, but two Institute of Director Awards in 2018, which was made even more special because Peter won the same award a few years previously. After Peter’s passing Daniel had big boots to fill, and it is fair to say that he is certainly doing that.

Not just delivering for his inhouse workers, Daniel has also continued the growth of RMS as a business. Over the last few years, securing Sainsbury’s as a multimillion-pound client has proven to be a major accomplishment, finally catching the one that got away from Peter for so long. As was also signing a contract with Boots, seeing the firm become involved in a nationwide revamp project in 400 stores.

One of the company’s newest core values is that of innovation, as Daniel is determined to have RMS find better ways to do things. Sharpening their focus on the role that technology plays at the firm, they have invested heavily in developing a new end-to-end system, flex. The initial purpose of flex was to replace an archaic scheduling system. However, in December 2017, RMS supported several of their biggest retail partners at the busiest time of the year with replenishment support. In two weeks leading up to Christmas, RMS moved £500m of retail stock from storage to shop floor. Fundamental to this successful project was flex, and RMS’s partners soon began having conversations about how this technology could suit their needs. It was a lightbulb moment; Daniel realised that with further development flex could be a force to be reckoned with, a true industry disruptor.

The core philosophy upon which flex is built is the idea that any company, regardless of size, should be able to find skilled, flexible workers to complete shifts and support projects. flex also aspires to make flexible working actually be that – truly flexible. Daniel wants workers to take control of their worklife balance, giving them the power and choice over when and where they work, because he understands that happy employees have such a positive effect on productivity.

Constantly evolving and innovating, flex has provided RMS with a more productive workflow, greater quality control, improved brand awareness, and reinforced positive relationships with partners. Once flex is launched, Daniel knows that other companies will reap these same rewards.

Instead of deliberating, idling and remaining fixed, the successes of both Daniel and RMS are down to the company’s ability to do, innovate, and flex. With an expert team around him, including Chief Morale Officer Murphy the dog, Daniel has calmly steered the business through turbulent times into a future of financial prosperity. A business is only as good as its leaders, and therefore, this business is very, very good indeed.

CEO

Mihai Ivascu: A CEO Changing the Face of Business

Posted on | by root
CEO
 

There can be no doubt that Mihai Ivascu has made a bombastic impact on the global technology space. As CEO and Founder of Modex, he has become one of the leaders of a landscape that has become defined by innovation, evolution and adaptation. We spoke with Mihai to find out more about this extraordinary company and his ethos as one of the guiding figures in this challenging environment.

“Modex is a blockchain enablement platform. We radically simplify blockchain deployment so businesses can balance security and innovation.” – Mihai Ivascu

Even in the fast-developing world of finance, Modex through Mihai’s leadership, has managed to stay ahead and at the cutting-edge, offering best in clas services to a truly global market – an impressive feat by all considerations. Working in the blockchain industry, Modex has become a stalwart, helping to define and determine the future of this ever-changing arena.

Ultimately, the foundation of Modex was established on a need for a solution to the problems that plagued the -largely still developing – blockchain sector, as Mihai explains in more detail. “The initial concept was a marketplace which would bridge the gap between developers and end-users, but we discovered that the tools required for blockchain development were rudimentary and fragmented. As a response to this issue, we decided to create a development environment which would encompass an extensive set of tools, specially tailored to meet the needs of developers.

Our current project – Modex Blockchain Database (BCDB) provides enterprises a way to integrate blockchain technology in their business model in a matter of days, without requiring them to build a new business infrastructure.”

Crucially, Modex’s central ethos can be summarised by a need for proactivity, and a restlessness which drives every action and decision. Here Mihai talks on the company’s need to react to every development and to capitalise on every opportunity. “We carefully analyse every emerging trend in the blockchain area since day one, but we choose to focus our efforts only on the ones which show potential to solve realworld problems. For example, at the beginning of this year, the concept of a hybrid blockchain increased in popularity. For some time, Modex was developing in-house its hybrid solution for blockchain adoption with a highend possibility of customization. The end result is Modex BCDB, which we want to become a gateway to every single company who wants to migrate its database server to a hybrid blockchain database. At the end of the day, we see ourselves as pioneers – creating solutions before they gain traction.”

“We created the world’s first ecosystem for blockchain developers, which has all the tools necessary for development unified in a single place.”

As a result of this proactivity – which feeds off of Mihai’s naturally ambitious personality- Modex have quickly amassed a burgeoning global client base and have implemented over sixty projects. “Among the blockchain implementation projects that are underway we start to work with Dietsmann company, Oil and gas giant, the global leader in energy maintenance and operations. We also have early Modex BCDB early adopters like Evonomix, Maillon, Box2M, AlphaBlock , SigTree and KPEYE.”

For large financial institutions, Modex can offer a complete package, providing the initial analysis, achievable technical solutions, implementation and maintenance of any systems. “We’ve asked the question: Why are businesses contacting us? Because Modex BCDB simplifies the adoption process of this technology by 90%.”

Despite Mihai’s significant achievements, he credits the work of his staff in securing Modex’s enduring – and growing – success in the industry. “The core of our business is our magnificent team.

Every product or functionality relies on the cutting-edge work provided by these guys. Modex has an amazing team of engineers and programmers who are working on projects right now that will take financial institutions and enterprises to the next level.

“Every team and department in the company has – and continues to do -an exceptional job. I like to think of Modex as a tourbillon watch put together by many experienced people from tech and non-tech companies, with innovation at the core of our business model, which can be, in this analogy, the skeleton itself. In other words, you can see the technological breakthrough at the centre of the company and watch how the mechanism works around it,” Mihai adds.

“When you talk about the benefits of blockchain, for developers or for companies, everybody is missing one truly important thing: the government.”

Mihai continues, moving to discuss this point in more detail. “Without government implication, without legislation and administrative interest, this cutting-edge technology is a diamond needing to be discovered. Solving real life problems for people in need will be much easier with the government’s endorsement.”

Finally, when it comes to the future of Modex, Mihai offers more insight into the firm’s efforts to expand their product range and solidify their position on this most challenging of environments. “We are a global company. We have clients in North America, Asia, Europe, and we recently entered the Middle East market. Our company is currently evaluated at over 100 million EUR, but we have made it our goal to become the first unicorn blockchain company. In two years we managed to build a blockchain enabling platform which covers every sphere of blockchain adoption. In 2019, we launch our core product – BCDB – and the plan from now one is to expand the blockchain adoption for businesses.”

“With blockchain we are experiencing a vast paradigm shift, similar to that presented by the dawn of the internet three decades ago. Blockchain will be like the internet today: we cannot see the internet, but we know that the internet is, to put it simply, doing things. Important things. Crucial things. Allowing us to develop faster, improve, evolve and be -simply- better.”