FINANCE MONTHLY CEO AWARDS 2014

EUROPE

demonstrate that open dialogue is a solution to every issue, you can find a good way to manage these challenges. I try to make my colleagues understand that everyone is different, i.e they have their own interests, views and conflicts can only be avoided through honesty and communication. We all need to focus more on developing our emotional intelligence skills that will make us be better people and colleagues; we need to learn to respect each ones’ differences. The sure thing this is that when conflict arises – you need to handle it! You cannot ignore it, otherwise it will come back and chase you forever.

Q

How do you balance and manage various stakeholders’ interests?

The keyword here is balance. You need to make sure that stakeholders are equally satisfied – and this can only happen by proving to them that you did the right thing, you made the right choice, and that in long term your decision will bring value to each one of them. Again, open communication and honesty is crucial because it builds trust and people know what to expect from you. If you cannot deliver something, there is a reason – and you need to be open and communicate all reasons behind. If you do this, you build long term trust that will ensure smooth relationship with all.

Q

How do you describe your leadership style?

I believe that I am a direct CEO. I make clear what the goals are and offer the ultimate support to all in order to achieve them. I can be ‘hands-on’ if required, however, I expect people to deliver. I encourage people to take risk and to accept failures it is part of a learning organisation, but I do not tolerate if people do not take ownership. I am open to new and innovative ideas but you have to convince me that this is worth investing time and money before I give the final go ahead. Above all, I try to lead by example.

Q

How do you compete in a global business environment?

You need to have your eyes open and react proactively to market trends. This is the only way forward. You need to know what is coming, when, how it influences you and your business – and then make a plan on how to compete. Every CEO needs to be aware of where the global market is going and what are the factors that will shape the industry in which they operate in. In our case, we need to have a very clear about where the technology and automotive industries are going…and ‘sync’ them.

Q

How do you compete in a recession?

Although I am sure that controlling costs and resources is the main common answer and I would totally agree, however, I need to say that beyond these two elements you need to remain customer focused. So the key thing here is that you keep the organisation at a level that while operating in an environment under recession, it still can provide high quality services to its customers, perhaps through different and more cost effective ‘channels’ but make sure that you are there for your customer across the whole time, so when recession ends your business reputation is still on top.

Q

How do you see the future of your industry?

About incadea

The automotive retail and whole industry is changing constantly. Technology trends are greatly impacting the retail industry and the digital consumer has a leading role. Automotive retailers are going to play an instrumental role in how they accommodate future demand and expectations of their customers – technology has changed tremendously and so has sales and service approaches. Looking ahead, technology changes will have an even greater influence on the relationship between the customer and the

incadea (LSE AIM: INCA) is a leading international provider of software solutions and services to the global automotive retail and wholesale market. incadea addresses the needs of this industry by offering global solutions with state-of-the-art innovation and local execution capabilities. Products include dealer management, business intelligence, and customer and vehicle relationship management solutions. These are used by multinational car manufacturers, Original Equipment Manufacturers (“OEMs”) and their dealership networks. Through continuing global expansion, incadea serves more than 70,000 end users in more than 2,400 dealerships in 87 countries across the globe.

Headquartered in Germany, incadea has offices in Austria, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Russia, China, Japan, India, Taiwan, Mexico, New Zealand. The Group has a network of worldwide certified channel partners, and its range of blue chip customers include over 50 OEMs such as BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen, Peugeot/Citroën, Ford, Scania and Mercedes-Benz. For more information, please visit www.incadea.com.

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retailer—online, in store, on their mobile device. The automotive industry will need to find ways to best tackle these challenges and transform them into opportunities for better customer communication and satisfaction. Connectivity is the key. Consumers want more connectivity, are focused on active safety and ease of use, and are increasingly using digital sources in making their purchase decisions. So, both we as technology vendors and automotive businesses need to follow these changes and respond successfully. Other than that the automotive industry has recovered by the economic crisis and recent studies describe that by 2020, global profits for automotive OEMs are expected to rise by almost 50 percent. So, these are good news!

Q

What advice would you give to policy makers to help the economy and your business?

One thing that I would strongly highlight is the need to invest further in e-business models and necessary related infrastructure to support the upcoming innovations that will inevitably arise in the global market place. Policy makers need to prepare a solid ground and proactively train their market to be able to successfully adapt to the new consumer demands. The truth is the whole internet age has just started and if you look back 10 years and people thought was an incredible change of innovation , today is

just a standard must have element of our daily life. Education has a significant role to play here.

Q

Can you please share any life or personal lessons that other CEOs might relate to?

In my University times, I was a rock climber and had the opportunity to climb many of the big rock faces in the world such as Charmonix, Yosemity, and Patagonia. One thing I have learned and practiced both in my professional and personal life over the years, is the so called ‘mountaineer wisdom’. This says that if you are about to climb a 2000m face and have thoughts on how you will accomplish the task and you feel scared, focus on climbing first the 50 meters of your rope, and then another 50m and another 50m. At the end of the day, you will manage to do the 2000m and meet your initial goal. Therefore if you a clear target which is hard to achieve, focus and break it down to smaller and more achievable ones. If you do this and you believe in it, very soon you will reach your 2000m goal!

Q

Can you share with us a CEO humour?

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”. Napoleon Bonaparte