The Top Five Investments Business Leaders Should Be Making In 2022
October 13, 2021
Roy Barak, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Vindicia, looks ahead to 2022 and shares his advice for business leaders.
If you’d asked me five years ago, “what will the business landscape look like in 2022?”, I probably would have come back with some well-thought-out ideas. But nothing could have prepared me or the business community at large for the global pandemic, and all the upheavals since that have been so challenging.
At Vindicia, we’ve been considering how to recalibrate for a bigger and better year as leaders in the subscription tech industry, no matter what comes our way.
“Every company can state its mission. But only the best companies have an ultimate purpose and strive to live up to it.”
Here are the top five “investments” (and not the strictly financial kind) that business leaders must make to stay at the top of their game in 2022:
1. Have a purpose
Every company can state its mission. But only the best companies have an ultimate purpose and strive to live up to it.
A mission is a statement of intent, and a vision is a description of what you wish the company to be. A purpose is different. It is your oxygen and reason for being. In a very crowded marketplace surrounded by high-quality competitors, mission and vision are no longer enough. Only the leaders who can define their company’s purpose – precisely and powerfully – will be the ones who can succeed.
2. Use your purpose to drive the best talent
If your purpose is your engine, then amazing talent will be your fuel. That doesn’t mean limiting yourselves to searching for “superstars,” those with both high aptitude and good attitude. These kinds of employees are in high demand, and no business can rely just on those. So, if you need to compromise (and you will), make sure to go for people with a good attitude – it’s worth gold. This is something I learned from author Frances Frei in her book “Uncommon Service.”
3. Build a culture of transparency and communication
At Vindicia, our purpose is “building better e-commerce connections,” so we like to think of ourselves not just as a tech company, but also as relationship experts. Any good relationship is built on transparency and communication, and these must be cornerstones of the way your business operates, day to day.
“Growth is a great thing, but it can’t be done haphazardly or on the fly.”
Start internally, by cultivating an environment where employees participate in or are aware of the deliberations and dialogue. That honesty and openness builds trust, which is the strongest glue holding your business together.
4. Processes will help you scale your business quicker
Growth is a great thing, but it can’t be done haphazardly or on the fly. In order to scale your business effectively and quickly, you need to invest in developing and implementing measured processes. These processes provide an organized and flexible framework that grows with your growth, supporting the momentum of success and ensuring viable and sustainable scale.
In 2022, leaders should not just be thinking about how to grow; rather, focus on what processes will help sustain that growth and turn it into long-term scalability.
5. Technology is key to scaling quickly and painlessly
The processes that support effective scalability will always be based on technology. Vindicia’s MarketONE, for example, is an all-in-one subscription technology platform that leverages customer data to reduce churn, create personalized customer journeys, increase customer lifetime value, and reduce errors in recurring payments.
“Every year, Vindicia recovers over $200 million of lost revenue for customers, helping them scale revenue fast, with simple integration in their existing systems.”
Every year, Vindicia recovers over $200 million of lost revenue for customers, helping them scale revenue fast, with simple integration in their existing systems. Technology is always advancing, offering new ways for businesses to improve operations and grow; the challenge is choosing your partners carefully, so you can realize the best possible return on your technology investment.
Be a leader in 2022
The massive increase in digital, the rise of the subscription economy, remote work, and omnichannel dominance – all of these have changed not just the way businesses operate, but also the way business leaders see their companies and the way they must invest their energy and resources with all their partners, customers, employees, and suppliers.
This year, make the mental shift to a different mode of business leadership, and you’ll be shifting your game upwards.
Roy Barak
Roy Barak is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at Vindicia. With over a decade of experience in the financial planning and analysis aspects of the IT and telecommunication industries, Roy brings extensive expertise in pricing models, financial modeling, and working with senior management to transform existing business lines and generating new ones. Previously, Roy worked at Amdocs, Vindicia’s parent company. Here he held key financial positions that supported the establishment of an internal accelerator, which introduced half a dozen successful new offerings. Roy also worked with the Amdocs services sales arm in transforming commercial and pricing models.