After joining the Talent-as-a-Service tech business in 2020, current CEO of Mobica, Sam Kingston, overhauled the company’s operations top-down in less than twelve months – immediately recognising it was not ready for the rapid growth it was soon to encounter. Had Sam’s approach not been taken; would the organisation be where it is two years later?
“CEOs don’t work in isolation. Alongside every successful CEO is a strong and empowered leadership team. I’m not afraid to say when I joined Mobica a couple of years ago, this critical capability and the embedded values that go alongside it, were completely misaligned and needed rectifying, fast.
I immediately pulled together a strong senior management team to drive the business forward and prepare for rapid growth – this was the aim and we have stuck to it. We completely rebuilt the organisation top-down in a year. As part of this restructure, the leadership team embraced the clear strategic vision, direction and realistic company goals that everyone in the organisation now understands and can follow.”
Sam has previously held board level positions for several of the global IT majors and is a visiting professor for the MBA at the Metropolitan College of New York.
“After holding CEO and senior management positions for several years, part of this involves being fearless – unafraid to make big hard decisions, often quickly, to spur growth and specifically always think towards the future.
However, there is perhaps a single fear that can slip through the net. If a CEO or leader is faced with a team of employees questioning what the company stands for, how exactly it operates or not understanding the goals, all of which they should fundamentally be part of – this often sends alarm bells ringing. Without our ‘Mobicans’ – nothing would be possible, so it is vital that our internal comms is relevant. Mobica’s talent is core to the overall personality and culture of the organisation, and as CEO, I take a great interest in making sure everyone is motivated by having access too and support from the leadership team. The solution? Being authentic, stand-by your decisions, transparent, inclusive and consistent is key to winning respect.”
Fast forward to 2022, Mobica is a multi-national organisation operating 24/7 with physical and virtual offices. Their talented engineers who build and implement software solutions for customers specialising in connectivity and automation with the aim of combining physical and digital worlds.
“Connecting our internal global team of Mobicans has always been high on the agenda at leadership level – it’s fundamental in shaping the company both in the physical and remote sense. We are fortunate enough to have a globally connected team that operates 24/7 with offices on different continents, along with virtual comms platforms enabling us to service our clients wherever they are.
Every single new Mobican brings personality, culture and their own attributes to the company – we really take pride in this broad population melding into the Mobica family. We’re also extremely privileged to have a diverse and experienced team of employees across the business from software engineering to marketing who proactively form work & social communities, some are location centred others are pan company. We very much have a people first ethos with an ‘open door’ policy and even though remote working is a favoured option no Mobican is isloated ”
Mobica offers TaaS (Talent-as-a-Service) to industries where tech is changing at such a pace and with excitement. On-device development can often be overlooked, but the Mobica team is seeing a real competitive edge in offering such expertise.
“We already have and will continue to respond to market movement within the tech industry – this is the only way for our organisation to provide skilled software engineers and essentially, evolve our portfolio. When I think back to the first ‘IoT boom’ in 2008-2009, I’m not entirely sure any of us were prepared for how quickly adoption would take off or change in just a few years. But now, as CEO, I know it is imperative to think much further ahead.
Of course, there is always an element of risk vs. reward. As an organisation built on the Industrial IoT, we know that on-device development is our sweet spot, it’s a focus we’re proud of. Yes, we live in the here and now, with many exciting projects to deliver, but it’s the role of our entire staff as disruptive innovators to ask questions such as, ‘What’s next?’, ‘What would game change? That’s one of the challenges a leader may face in any organisation, but again, I know working in isolation is not the answer. I thoroughly welcome hearing from others within the IT sector about their ideas for tomorrow and future visioning – it’s important for a CEO to listen and engage with employees, customers and non-customers before taking decisions on business strategy .
It all comes back to having a confident, empowered team. If Mobica didn’t invest in operational guardians to balance portfolio innovators, our structured business focus could easily shift away from a fixed strategy, as there’s always a new and exciting opportunity to consider. So, my leadership team is not afraid to say ‘no’ from time to time, or equally to abandon entrenched activities which deliver diminished value because it’s important we get it right for all Mobicans and our customers.”
