“A smooth sea never made a skilful sailor,” there goes the proverb.
Hardships and challenges are indispensable for successful entrepreneurship. Ran Berger, the Founder and CEO of Flat Rock Technology is a successful entrepreneur who has outshined all the challenges along the road with astonishing self-reliance and self-motivation.
The Massive Beginning
In early 1999, the technologies were utterly different and the cloud of ‘Bug Y2K’ was putting a shadow on all businesses. Ran Berger was appointed as MIS Manager of a mid-size hardware distributor straight to lead an ERP/CRM/ BI project. After a journey full of hardships, Ran made the project a great success. This was Ran’s one of the first achievements in his professional career. The project delivery environment brought the best out of Ran as he is a mission-oriented person. It was, undoubtedly, a significant career blast for Ran.
After this initial achievement, Ran felt very fortunate to lead other system development and implementation in seven countries (Israel, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, England, Scotland, and Switzerland) and gained experience in global business and a good understanding of cultures. This was the period that shaped his management skills and approach to distributing business models.
Exploring and Harnessing the ‘New’—the success mantra
Ran is a passionate leader, in love with emerging technologies. It’s his personal goal to constantly evolve with the trends and the best practices of the industry. He believes that the current rapid growth and changes in the industry can be beneficial for stepping ahead in the success ladder.
The IT industry, and specifically the web and mobile development is going through a fast pace change and new mobility trends. Leading companies are adopting the cloud approach and realizing the value of the multichannel distribution of apps. The trend of mobility and constant intention to create apps also has on the verge of development, and it will definitely help in remote interactions. “Together with other trends such as ChatBots, IoT, Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, VR/AR we are experiencing a true revolution in the workplace environment and as consumers. Exciting times for all of us”, Ran asserts.
Source of Inspiration through ‘thick and thin’
“I have an endless amount of energy to challenge myself every day”, the self-reliant Ran states. He derives inspiration and motivation from the talented and amazingly creative people around him. Being an ardent leader, Ran also takes pride in mentioning his team of amazing and passionate employees who bring in a positive impact on himself.
“As humans, we are easily hooked into doing more and building more and the major challenge that we’re facing is being patient”, Ran says. He has learned to be more patient and more tolerant while achieving the goals and projects.
Flat Rock: A Brief Introduction of the Company
Headquartered in London, England, Flat Rock Technology was established in 2008 from the desire to find ways to create solutions that will push the boundaries of conventional thinking. It is an innovative web and software development company that operates from two locations – London, UK and Varna, Bulgaria.
The company provides businesses with professional services, a range of IT outsourcing solutions, web design, mobile applications development, as well as bespoke solutions to match every business specific needs.
Apart from the main business as a software development company, Flat Rock has recently started a new business line, which focuses on business process outsourcing. The structure of the company allows the team to respond thoroughly and quickly to their clients, and to utilize the best outsourcing location in Europe while at the same time being close to the customer base.
Stirring up Creativity at Work
It’s a proven fact that creativity is the heart of any business and every action that we take. Without new ideas and innovative products, the team at Flat Rock would never get the opportunity to grow and develop. In order to keep the creative flow intact, Ran takes any measure possible. The organization itself should be a place where the employees can come motivated and feel more passionate about their roles. Employees need to know that their creativity, efforts, and dedication are valued and appreciated. Ran believes that there isn’t a set formula to help in the overall process, but encouraging new ideas, working as a team and giving freedom of speech, are the right ways to achieve it.
Accomplishments as a Leader
Flat Rock has developed a variety of big projects and different solutions under the excellent leadership of Ran. However, the most significant achievement is that they have managed to build an excellent corporate culture. Over the years, Flat Rock has stayed closely aligned with their core values and ways of working, with the right foundations. Through constant dedication, they are able to accommodate continued growth and change. Ran mentions one of the most remarkable work events was acquiring Purify Digital. For a small and young company like Flat Rock, it was a major risk to make such a bold move, but it all turned out to be the positive side and paid off.
Source: The 10 Best Performing Leaders to Watch