On Tuesday 23rd November 2021, our team at Annapurna ERUPT hosted their annual conference, ERUPT, which was attended virtually by over 1500 professionals from around Europe & the US. The conference covered contemporary issues surrounding business, technology, and transformation.
Hosted from 9am-5pm on 3 separate live channels; the People Channel, the Transformation Channel, and the Technology Channel, which saw an opportunity for business leaders to present their ideas on a wide scale.
In the afternoon, live on the Transformation Channel, ERUPT had the pleasure of holding the first LIVE ForTheFounders session. Hosted by Mark Frost (Sales Account Executive at Annapurna ERUPT), this session invited 3 business leaders from 3 different and exciting start-up/scale-up organisations.-
Will Hannan – Chief Commercial Officer, Mobius Labs
Ingo Hofacker – Chief Executive Officer, movingimage
Hendrik Schriefer – CEO, Sharpist
Some of the topics included ensuring that leaders within start-up and changeable organisations can build effective communications whilst thriving and scaling their business.
The session kicked off with the following question:
“The role of the CEO has undoubtedly been challenged over the past 18 months but has their skillset had to pivot to ensure they stay ahead of the challenge? What skills does a hybrid CEO require and how is this different to pre-pandemic?”
Hendrick Schriefer, CEO of Sharpist (the industry’s largest learning library and tailor-made content for personalised learning) took the lead in this discussion. Hendrick stated that even throughout the pandemic and the challenges that Sharpist faced, his business is still rapidly growing. However, he expressed that the micro-interactions within his business have slowed down and it is, therefore, harder to virtually interact with colleagues without an element of control.
The discussion then followed with suggestions from Will Hannan, Chief Commercial Officer of Mobius Labs (a business which creates AI solutions that transcend the boundaries of computer vision adoption). Will suggested that it is possible to “maintain ideas in a non-structured way.”
Ingo Hofacker, Chief Executive Officer of movingimage (a secure enterprise video solutions business), suggested that as a CEO you need to have a holistic view as to what is going on, to be able to actively listen and understand how your employees think.
After this debate, Mark posed another interesting question to the panel around “Where does the priority lie for growth between technology vs people?”
Hendrick stated that “people, product and process need to work in unison and a clear process map helps to create this”. Will expressed his beliefs of tech augmention and the requirements of the people to foster collaboration and to create a balancing act without straining. Ingo believes that people come first, and the company must strive to meet the people’s specific needs.
A Q&A session then followed, which included questions that came through the chat function from live viewers. “When a founder becomes more of a business leader and less than the original innovator, how can they cope with that transition?”
Hendrick believed that he has started to understand himself as a facilitator and a coach, spending time to get the right people to converse and align on product decisions. He stated that “once you become a facilitator, you can become a really powerful CEO and not just a founder of a business”.
Mark then posed another question, poignant to the theme of the event “How do you balance survival with growth?”
Will believed that there is no separation between both survival and growth and that within a scaling business, it is a thrive or die situation. It can be easy to pivot quickly in a start-up organisation and change ways of thinking. He discussed that it is easier to build agility, flexibility and resilience, which was made central to the culture of the business. “Grow or die is the nature of many businesses throughout the pandemic”.
Mark prompted further discussion about changing your business to support customers throughout the pandemic, “As you pivot a business, how you are redefining a product to meet the new business world and how do you define success to meet the change in vision?”
The discussion followed and the panel discussed where their customers are at, and how the business reacts in parallel. Due to the pandemic, it is about understanding that the situation has changed and that you will need to change too, to meet these requirements.
The final question asked “How do we bring our leaders on the journey with us? What skills differ from being an in-person leader in comparison to a virtual leader?”
The alliance concept, discussed by Hendrick, aligns with your personal goals as a leader. He discussed that you should set up your 5-year goal and work out how the company can help you achieve this. Within this debate, it became evident that creating a culture of openness and trust within the organisation where people in their business feel like they can come to you as a leader, is key for a successful business.
We would like to thank our speakers Will Hannan, Ingo Hofacker, and Hendrik Schriefer for taking the time to share their thoughts during our conference.
Please have a watch of the full session on-demand:
