Two years ago I agreed to step in as the CEO at Sciata.  It was a daunting assignment- join a team and reset the vision.  Drive growth in two dimensions- organic growth with revenue customers and inorganic growth through M&A.  I'm now two years into the journey and wanted to take the time to reflect on our learnings.  Since this is a public posting I'll keep it to leadership lessons.

1) Set the vision with the team: It would have been quicker for me to set the company vision and strategy with our Private Equity managing partner.  However knowing this is going to be a challenging journey I needed not just compliance to our vision but also commitment.  Hence we slowed down a bit and set the vision together.  We took four weeks with the first set of in person meetings aligning on our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats- then setting an AUDACIOUS vision and supporting strategies for us all to achieve.  The second round of dialogue focused on setting key deliverables that would measure our success to the vision and strategies. 

2) Stay on track with discipline: The place where most companies go wrong is they let the strategy fall to the wayside when urgent priorities come up.  Our team meets weekly to review our KPIs and progress to quarterly deliverables.  We reset quarterly the current year deliverables.  Our norms and culture are lived daily in every interaction. We have added annual vision boards to let them bring in images and phrases that bring meaning to the work we are doing.

3) Energy is a plus factor: I'm human and some days I'm lacking the energy needed to spur on the rest of the team.  I need to recognize and reset my energy well so that I can coach the team to do their best work.  When energy is low we all feel it.  Sometimes we have to call ourselves on it and recommit to the vision and our collaboration with each other. 

4) There is so much to learn! I have worked on M&A in my earlier career in corporate roles.  Leading M&A activity in a PE backed company is even more challenging as you need to set the strategy, find target companies that fit the profile, and get those target companies to believe in the vision of where we are going.  The biggest risk is post deal integration so we are putting a lot of plans and thought into how that would be approached to truly drive value.

5) Gratitude drives your attitude: I am grateful to our team - not just the leadership team the entire team of contributors from field resources deployed at customers to our headquarters team that keeps things humming.  I have an amazing team and its important to recognize that and invest in their growth. 

As I noted our journey is not finished - we have a ways to go.  We are helping our clients transform their businesses by deploying software technology.  In the process we are transforming our company as well.  My favorite phrase is we are drinking our own champagne so we can authentically identify with the leaders at our clients. Cheers to many more years.

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