Secrets of Success

It’s hard to define career success since most c-level executives have different visions of their business’ success. When the day comes that you can look back on your career to gauge your success, if you can ask yourself: Have I done my best for my customers? Have I done my best for my employees? Have I done my best for my family? and answer with an honest yes, then in my mind, you have been successful.

There might not be actual “secrets" out there as far as what makes an individual or a company successful, but I think the most important elements of solid business leadership are integrity, forward thinking and intelligence. Business leaders first and foremost need to be respected by the people they lead. Without true integrity, the faith in their leadership will dwindle over time. Intelligence and the ability to “see the future," and keeping your ship moving forward, are also essential. If you are not moving forward then what’s the point in being in the race? And you can’t forget to listen to those you are leading. Listening is critical to being a good leader.

The key to keeping your edge and staying ahead of the curve is remaining in touch with your customer base – I can’t stress that enough. Too often, executives lose touch with what has made them successful … their customers. It’s important to listen to them. Find out what they like and don’t like about your products and service. Find out what their current needs are, but also what they want that you haven’t yet provided. Customers buy products not because YOU think they have value but because THEY think the products have value. Create a group of people in your company that will be able to create a collaborative environment and take that customer four to five steps ahead of where they want to be. It’s important to see where they are, see where they need to be and start to develop the things they will need in their foreseeable future.

That brings me to innovation. With technology companies in particular, as they grow, often at times the drive of innovation can be clouded by the drive of the business. It’s important to make sure that you embrace the innovative spirit that creates a successful company to begin with in a way that ensures the durable competitive innovation within your company. Innovation can also inhibit success. If that is part of what has made your company successful – and you lose that focus – you will suffer in the next evolution of the technology. In order to keep that durable competitive innovation within the company you need to constantly be on the leading edge of innovation.

You might be wondering why I haven’t yet mentioned being profitable – and that’s because your business needs to have something of value to provide before profits materialize. Don’t get me wrong, profits are critical to the success of any company. The difference between long-term profitability and short-term profitability is how you fulfill your responsibilities to your employees and to your customers first. If you can build and lead a smart business with good people and a great product, you will be profitable. If you miss any one of those components, I mentioned earlier, you will struggle to make profitability.

William R. Bumbernick is chief innovation officer for Alteva LLC . He has more than 10 years of senior management and entrepreneurial experience in telecom, IT and managed services. Since 1994, William has been involved in executive levels of leadership within the technology and telecommunications sectors.