Martin explains in his own words what his company RefactorIT does.
RefactorIT helps companies breakthrough the challenges of IT Leadership shortages in a world that’s demanding more business focused technology leaders, and the cost of finding and hiring from the outside. We give them the opportunity to rapidly advance the development of their IT Talent so they can be promoted to Senior IT Leadership and Management roles. We do this through an educational program called ‘The OwnIT Program”. We teach strategic aspects of IT Leadership, such as IT Strategy design, Innovation Frameworks, Sales, and Communication Methodologies. For smaller companies, we source and hire ambitious IT Talent and develop their fundamental IT Leadership ability so they can successfully hold newly created IT Management roles.
You can visit Martin’s website here
What are your main priorities and goals in your role?
Primarily my role is to find and develop new IT talent, in the tri-state area, and develop new relationships with companies which are seeking qualified IT leaders.
The program is also being moved online, and thus ongoing development of the program and sales are also key to our growth. Our specific targets for 2020 are to bring at least 15 new IT professionals on our online platform each month, placing 5 in new roles within 6 months with a negotiated income at least 5% above market value, and continued enrolment in the online program.
What are your biggest challenges?
Our primary challenges are twofold: The first is that as there are very few programs like ours, the barrier to entry can be quite high. Our mission and dedication to having our IT Talent succeed is highly important, so we cannot lose focus on that. The second is expanding our relationships and partnerships so our market can make a clear assessment of relevance and value for them. Our goal is to become the leading source for IT Talent development for our clients.
How do you keep your team/staff motivated?
Our team has been in the IT field for almost 20 years each, and we understand how hard it is for emerging IT talent to break into leadership positions. Our drive to help them progress into roles they are hungry to hold, and in doing so teach unique aspects of innovation, keeps up pointed in the same direction. This helps us formulate our sales targets, company niches, and IT Talent selection.
What are the challenges facing your industry going forward?
Online training has become so ubiquitous that education is clearly becoming less about the facility and facilitator, and more about the targeted knowledge and relevance of the teachers. Where the IT field is concerned, technical training is a great basis for specific roles, but over time that knowledge becomes outdated. Programs and Educators must stay fresh. And companies are looking for IT Leaders and Managers who are far more versed in the business side of things, and understand the technical world enough to create innovative solutions that drive growth. This is a major deficiency in the market right now. Our goal is to teach knowledge that offers capability that is sustainable over time and not just the current hot IT cert, and enables significant integration with actual business goals as they are defined and improved.
What new trends are emerging in your industry?
We continue to see demands for technical talent skyrocket, and many new technical training businesses emerge. From this we also see a greater demand for high quality IT Leaders with business acumen to help translate technology narratives into tangible and valuable business projects. We expect to see this trend continue as technology such as AI and ML develop and continue to become more broadly adopted.
Are you finding any skills gaps in the market?
Trustworthy boardroom level technology direction is a clearly broadening gap in the market. Studies have shown that there is high demand for technical leadership in the areas of Cloud Architecture, Data Analytics, AI, Machine Learning, and Cybersecurity to name a few. Businesses are defining and demanding bigger outcomes by seeking this expertise to design and lead innovations for new business lines and revenue streams. This is where our program and business sits.
How will Brexit affect you, or have you started to feel the effects already?
Potentially if there is a migration of IT Talent to the US, we will have a stronger pool to work with and select from for our clients.
How do you define success and what drives you to succeed?
Success for me is when the IT Talent that leverages our program demonstrates what they’ve learned through accomplishing something bold, innovative, and value based for their companies. The more we feel that buzz when someone does well with help from our program, the more it drives us to do it better, and to help even more IT Talent push to fulfill their biggest goals.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given, or would give, in business?
Listen, don’t just talk. Effective leadership requires hearing others views, ideas, interpretations, and goals so you can make a determination of what is most in line with your strategic objectives. Sometimes choices are hard and unpopular, but if you’ve done a good job of listening and managing the risk of each potential idea and direction, you’ll succeed.
What have been your highlights in business over the past year?
When our first set of individuals showed newfound courage to push forward and make a management role their own, then I knew we had something. It was wonderful to see them glow in their new responsibilities and actually be happier with the additional pressure they wanted to own. We want more of that!
What’s next for your company?
Our ultimate goal is to give every talented IT Professional the tools to lead and succeed for themselves and their employers. We continue to build relationships with good companies who need the help we offer through our program. As we build those relationships, learn more about what they need and how the IT job market is affecting them, we work this into our program to constantly improve it. We are on a path of growing our new business to accomplish our lofty objectives!
What opportunities or plans for growth do you see in 2019?
We are focused on technology companies and service providers in 2019. Our targets are clear, and we have accepted tremendous help from highly accomplished individuals who are on our advisory board to guide us on our course over the next 12-18 months.
Where do you want your business/brand to be this time next year?
We want to be the first name on our markets lips for developing their IT Talent because they know we provide a real source of competitive advantage for their business!
