June is the time of year when many students around the country graduate and move on to the next phase of their lives: jobs, college, or graduate or professional school. The idea of commencing or beginning a new chapter in life is a powerful one.
Chances are that you are the parent of a graduate, whether now, in the past, or in the near future. It’s a proud moment, and one that lends itself to reflection. As I composed a letter to my son on the occasion of his high school graduation, I attempted to share with him some of the most important lessons that I have learned from a lifetime in business: setting goals, striving for excellence, individuality, tenacity, and courage were some of the recurring themes that I want to pass on to him as life lessons. These are the same themes upon which I built my company, and which define our products and solutions:
Setting goals: I set out to build a solution that would do what none other had yet done: to give businesses an affordable, economic way to maximize their collective business, operational, and human intelligence by leveraging the best of next generation technology and cloud computing.
Excellence: I do not settle for good enough. I will not hire people who settle for good enough. I hold my company and every person in it, to the highest possible standards of achievement and excellence for the sake of our customers. We strive for the best product, developed on the fastest time line, implemented and supported by the smartest operators.
Individuality: A lot of companies say they do the same things we do. But when you take the time to learn about our solution, you find that we are unique in a sea of “me-too’s”. No other Business Intelligence or Manufacturing/Operational Intelligence vendor can offer our unique and affordable blend of products and services, our unifying product architecture, our intuitive interface with financial KPI’s, and our speedily adaptable and easily configurable solution.
Tenacity: It has taken time to do this right, and there were easier options along the way. But determination and dedication, perseverance and tenacity have paid off. I continue to apply that tenacity to keeping my products on the forefront of changing technologies, committing to next wave developments such as mobile optimization, remote collaboration platforms, and open architecture for app building.
Courage: Any one who has taken that first step on their own – from leaving home to starting a business –knows what I’m talking about here. The most courageous thing a man or woman can do in professional life is to put his or her own career on the line. To risk something easy and certain in order to gain something greater.
When our school years end, it is up to us to shape our lives on a continuous journey of endings and beginnings, some profound, some less so. But every Commencement marks the leaving behind of the old, and beginning the new. I invite every one of you to graduate from the old way of thinking, from the idea that you have to go with the “big guys” to get quality and robust functionality, from the idea that you have to pay millions to get it, from the idea that standard is good enough. There comes a time when we all have to move on and embrace our future.
On that note, I invite each one of you to consider taking the IQity Challenge. We are newer than many established players in this space, and you have many options when you choose a new application provider. But in business, as in life, where there is little risk, there is little reward. Celebrate the power of individual thought, have the courage to bet on IQity Solutions, and it will pay off for you.
IQity is here to support your own professional commencement and your company’s next steps into the future. Join us.
