I believe it is way more important to execute a decent strategy than crafting the perfect plan, which then nobody…

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The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing
The Greek poet Archilochus

In my favourite strategy book “Good to Great”, Jim defines the hedgehog concept like this:

A Hedgehog Concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles. — Jim Collins,

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Your work experience is a predictor of performance, creativity and innovation and whether you're going to stay with your work or not.

The Weekly Check-In Email provides you with an opportunity to store a "historic fact of your work experience“.

When you record 52 data points per year about your personal experience of work, you create a huge data set to re…

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The magnetic interviewing method achieved a 96% offer acceptance rate. This article summarises the best practices I de…

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I never felt more valued, loved, stretched, challenged, respected, and inspired in my work life than in my time as a Zenian.

When I started to write down special thanks for individuals, I realized again: making some people win (elevated) means other people lose (lowered). Being radically inclusive is hard. Thank you all for so many epic moments and for being a big and happy part of my life. You truly transformed me.

I’ll probably sing along every Friday to our unofficial hymn:

My decision to leave

I want to plant many seeds and impact more businesses and people, making culture their sustainable advantage.

Not people are companies greatest asset, but their culture is (or their greatest liability). It’s certainly been the glue that holds Zencargo together while scaling up. I feel accomplished because I made a big contribution to Zencargo’s culture. I’ve built a company to last and something greater than the sum of its parts.

Since last year, I’ve been working on my succession and found great people in Tamir Strauss and Tim Ball to bring Zencargo from here to there. I’ve learned so much from them quickly and will keep in touch as I still am a shareholder in the company.

I'm excited to start something new to accelerate my learning and increase my network by meeting more people, hopefully transforming company cultures better by growing brave leaders and building a courageous and inclusive culture.

Without the support of my co-founders Alex and Richard, the SMT, and our investors, it would have been hard to step out of the crazy rollercoaster and spend time thinking about my future. I thank my team for supporting me in my decision.

About Zencargo

Alex, Richard, and I started Zencargo in “The Koppel Project” (an art cafe in Baker Street) back in December 2016. Our first employee was freaking out when they realized that we don’t have an office yet.

In March 2021, we are approx 160 people building a world with smarter trade.

Zencargo is a thought leader in the global supply chain optimization industry and turning around seven digits per month in revenue, bringing people closer together.

Zencargo makes a real difference.

1. Zencargo reduces landfills globally by reducing over-capacities in warehouses due to high-quality data.

2. Zencargo reduces emissions by improving decisions. Choosing to airfreight something because mistakes are made in the supply chain is entirely avoidable CO2 that they highlight

3. Zencargo improves mental health. Working in supply chains is hard. Not responding to an email in time will have a knock-on effect in another time zone. This stress to constantly react has a huge burden on people's mental health. Zencargo gives operations tools to be more strategic.

4. Global supply chains are a major contributor to world peace, and Zencargo brings global supply chains closer together. Despite the rise in investments in the arms industry, the interdependence on global trade secures our lives.

I’m super proud about how we helped our customers during the COVID-19 pandemic and how we’ve been fast responders, shipping essential personal protective equipment (PPE) to National Health Service workers.

We’ve scooped the Sunday Times Tech Track: Ones To Watch Award and have been recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the UK by being nominated for Tech Nation Upscale Program (Cohort 5).

We’re backed by Holzbrinck Ventures (HV) and LocalGlobe (LG). I thank our investors for believing and investing in us.

Why so radical?

Diversity and Equity are outcomes of Inclusion. This publication aims at sharing failures and insights on how to become more inclusive and create psychologically safe spaces to think, learn and compete.

My goal is to affect the fundamental nature of leadership prevalent in the tech-startup community and probably in most of our business world.

I advocate for social change, practicing the most progressive leadership style possible through conscious inclusion, calling out unconscious bias.

That’s why I chose the word radical (in addition to having the domain available, haha).

What am I known for

❤️ People say they join companies because of what I stand for — I champion a purposely inclusive and courageous culture to build the most progressive people-centric workplace as a serial entrepreneur.

🚀 Bringing remote product companies from inception to scale — The pain of growing a business is a privilege that I earned by accepting uncertainty and failure as drivers for accelerated learning. I am rich in human and network capital, which I demonstrably invested in people around me to celebrate wins as a multiplier.

👾 A deep passion for technology and software development — I’m a polyglot programmer and a huge cloud-native advocate. I love to code, teaching to code, and designing software organizations that get it right. I have been an active contributor for all my businesses, laying the groundwork of the technology strategy.

What I want to be known for

A track record of creating purposely inclusive and courageous cultures — I want to plant many seeds and impact more businesses and people, making culture their sustainable advantage. I am passionate about 🌈 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). During Zencargo’s Series A, I had a daughter and took three months of paternity leave to lead by example, supporting my wife in her career and addressing the gender pay gap while relying on a world-class team.

Growing Great Leaders — I want to look back on people I influenced, which influenced others. I want to be part of people’s transformation, there is nothing more satisfying for me, and those moments of making a difference in people’s lives are what I look back on with pride.

A loyal husband and a great father — My family is my priority. I intend to be in the moment and give attention to the needs of my beloved ones and to promote leadership that includes parents, leading by example. Curiosity and Kindness are what I wish for my little one, and to achieve a transfer in values, I need to be a role model (that’s how parenting and leadership works).

My goal with this publication

1. Convert one thousand subscribers for radical-cto.com by May 2022.

2. I publish at least one article every other Thursday.

3. I support 10 Senior Software Developers to become CTOs in Series A companies by May 2023.

4. I coach startup CTO’s a total of 36 hours by May 2022 (e.g., 3 CTOs for three months, one hour per week).

More about me

You can read more about my background on my about page (https://www.radical-cto.com/about).