Things go a bit differently in the tech industry compared to other sectors. The tech world is constantly introducing changes, new regulations, and novelties of all kinds at accelerating speed by the day.
Hence, when a tech CEO is planning to overcome all obstacles or similar, they should be prepared in advance by knowing what those challenges could be, or more importantly, to what extent they go and how to resolve them.
But, for tech managers and CEOs, it is essential to know that employer branding is more than just the bells and whistles of a successful brand in the busy tech industry. It also encompasses challenges and obstacles that naturally come along the way without exception.
It’s hard to form a team altogether without an employer brand and a long history of the company, even more so if it operates remotely.
Usually, someone from human resources would be responsible for posting a job ad, conducting interviews, and finalizing the hiring process. However, young tech companies don’t always have the resources to invest in a recruitment team that will then source the best candidates to work for the company.
Here is where a quick and affordable solution would be to consider vetted and tested freelancers, from software developers, all the way to marketing and design specialists.
By working with freelancers, you cut on costs around hiring, onboarding, traditional employment benefits, and most importantly – they are ready to work quickly and sometimes on a limited-time project if that is what you are looking for.
Team management
In tech companies, especially in the first stages of their existing, it is sometimes hard to manage the employees, since they can grow rapdly and the organizational chart changes often. What you can do to ensure that everyone falls into the right place into the company, is ensure that there is good task delegation, a clearly described job role for everyone, and overall good communication.
If your tech company operates remotely, team management can improve greatly by improving the communication overall through including various apps, set expectations clearly upfront, and be empathetic.
Of course, also to invest in top-quality project management software as a most crucial link connecting everything in the remote enterprise.
Relevance on the market
It is important to stay not just highly functional and excelling but also relevant on the market in such high-speed innovation times. Any tech CEO knows that an overall strategic plan goes a long way, especially when they envision the brand's future and its relevance and progress.
In the tech world, the novelties come so fast that it is almost impossible to stay in touch with all offered to end-users. There are thousands of apps and gadgets that pop up left and right. In this context, tech CEOs must stay relevant in the market by regularly introducing novelties and upgrades, not just waiting until various annual events.
To stay relevant in the market, tech CEOs should always follow updates and events with notable brands, and they should know their customers well to envision the following steps and keep their attention.
Also, using the same apps or methods intended for the customers themselves and engaging with them to build trust. And most importantly, awareness of the competitors and learning from them.
Advertisement challenges
In small or rising tech industry businesses, the advertising challenges are more or less similar – they exist for all, regardless of the business size.
For example, let’s say until recently advertising was relying on cookies, it is naturally surprising that things change once cookies are out of the picture, according to recent announcements for advertising – and we all know how tech businesses rely on cookies most of the time for the advertising purposes.
In any case, good advertising is an underrated asset. Still, advertising is not just proclaiming something and missing out on the company's core values, its success, and stats that speak for themselves.
Advertising is, in a way, a minor method for brand recognition, where the brand itself plays the leading role and lets success show naturally. If something catches the users' attention through functional apps, the quality of developers and their service, or the company's work that grows over time, these things advertise themselves. For tech CEOs, all left to do is think broader about long-term advertising and brand visibility over the following periods.
To overcome advertising challenges, there needs to be a readiness to quickly act and readapt advertising methods is a great asset for all visionaries and CEOs in the tech world. A well-developed marketing plan and more online visibility are also a must.
Brand growth without obstacles
The business that grows is the business that allows its brand to expand and thrive. However, the real challenge is not just to achieve growth and popularity but to maintain it. It is challenging to always keep up with the same popularity as the first time the brand peaked to fame.
Reaching brand success is hard, but sustaining it might be more complex.
To resolve such challenges, CEOs should always hire the best experts in their fields and delegate accordingly to them all to overcome growth challenges. They should also keep in mind that specializing and training courses are an investment into the existing hired talent and will grow the brand further.
Capital needs
The capital needs are another possible and significant challenge because as the brand grows, so do the financial requirements for sustaining it. Finances are among the leading business drivers, and without them, growth is difficult or near impossible. The challenges could be related to lack of capital, no budget plan, and even hypergrowth (otherwise expected to progress slower than it does), among many others.
But, to ensure resolving issues around capital needs, developing a plan is one way to overcome this issue. With a strategic plan for managing the funds and capital, and with predicting growth stagnation, or fast progress, – resolving such challenges down the road will be easier.
Automation of the business processes
Automation of a business process means using various software to automate all repeatable transactions and multi-step actions, most common for IT enterprises and companies.
One example is integrating project management software into customer support software, where for example, inquiries and messaging will be automatically redirected to the specific person dealing with the communication aspect, a management team member or else – this shortens the time needed to resolve something within the project and reach the right person fast.
Automation of this type can be applied to almost every repeatable action within a company.
To resolve automation challenges, there needs to be mapping out the steps and processes overall, defining success criteria, and using cloud platforms for scaling apps. Also, management focused on the employees and their needs.
Novelties in technologies
There are no escaping technologies in this day and age, and as mentioned by now, tech companies face this challenge constantly because tech novelties appear frequently and very fast.
Keeping up with novelties of this kind puts a certain pressure on the tech CEOs, no matter how small or giant the businesses are. As demanding as it sounds, it is incredibly relevant to always be up to date with all-tech things for brand growth and better reaching of customers. When a company engages with the latest technologies or novelties, they care for the brand and prevent its stagnation foremost.
To keep up within a fast-paced IT world, there needs to be a lot of online presence and presence at relevant conferences and tech events. A lot of specific IT industry events offer innovative news beneficial for companies. Tech news is available to everyone, from social media to other websites. Observing other similar-level and successful enterprises is an excellent way to discover good tech news.
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Traffic and conversion challenges
The issues that arise here can be of various types. Maybe the traffic is at a high level, but conversions aren’t. Another huge challenge is SEO which does not drive much traffic and attract audiences or is non-organic and ‘fluff’ content.
An improper conversion strategy is another common issue, harnessing analyzed data incorrectly. Also, an excess of metrics and delving too deep into them all, but measuring everything isn’t the sole solution – this list could go on.
To overcome traffic and conversion challenges, CEOs need the right strategy. Web presence is crucial, and without organic content and good SEO, it does not have too much value, regardless of the success of all employees day to day.
Tech CEOs need to pay attention to CRO (conversion rate optimization) as part of web analytics. These relevant numbers hold the most value out of the heap of metrics available.
Investing in a good SEO strategy, content production with thorough research, removing redundant forms, improving the CTA copies, adding more testimonials and reviews, adding a live chat, or even pop-up ads can improve the conversions. Let’s keep in mind how much an appropriate website optimization does a wonderful job.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is nothing to be ignored, especially recently, when everything moves insanely fast in the virtual world, and more and more significant businesses transfer into a virtual shape.
For tech CEOs, this is a thought that instills worries. Still, it also makes them think of ways to increase cybersecurity and protect the company against cyber attacks in a time of digitization, as everything necessary is shielded from technologies.
The risks are quite a lot, from supply chain attacks, ransomware attacks, phishing scams, and possible 5G risks linked to weak connections to hacking into a website or directory and crashing everything built in one day.
To increase cybersecurity, it’s crucial to propagate strong passwords, regular and frequent software updates, and place on hold all services otherwise idle and unused. Also, VPN usage for specific actions, investing in high-bandwidth scalable infrastructure, and constantly checking the security already used within the company.
The takeaway
Every tech CEO faces challenges that most of us do not meet, and they have to think on a large scale and for the long run to ensure everything goes smoothly.
With everything mentioned above, we can conclude that the key challenges revolve around thinking into the future, anticipating issues, being prepared, and constantly affirming the success of a brand through distinctive company culture – without exceptions.
There is quite a lot of pressure in the role of a tech company CEO. Still, a strategic plan for all concerning matters – cybersecurity, advertisement, capital, growth, and improvements, does the trick for running a successful enterprise.
