"The biggest challenge of the future is the war for talent."

The latest episode of the Leaders in Cleantech podcast featured Toon Bouten. CEO of Tado, an energy efficiency business changing the way we heat and cool and use energy at home and at work.

Repeated studies have shown that managing our use of energy is one of the most impactful ways in which we can avert the climate crisis yet energy efficiency is one of those topics that is stubbornly stuck in the ‘boring’ camp despite its crucial part in our clean energy future.

So it was great to hear of a truly innovative business driving forward a highly effective technological solution to reducing energy use and thriving in the process. Toon talks about the challenge of finding the right talent to help the business grow, why change is crucial for growth and why he continues to admire Steve Jobs, revealing an exclusive story about a company that nearly bought Apple before Steve Jobs returned to it in the 90s!

Here is our summary of the key insights:

1.     The journey from start-up to scale-up can be a daunting and potentially dangerous one. Toon shared his insights on the Tado perspective - from the founders handling everything from legal to sales to technical development to a position where now specialists have been recruited to focus on their areas and the leaders are left to lead, a good example of how to handle this tricky transition.

2.     The cleantech industry seems to be able to take on any challenge and emerge with an elegant solution. Toon explained how Tado has overcome the massive challenge to connect hundreds of thousands of devices from multiple manufacturers onto one coordinated platform, truly remarkable stuff and well worth a listen.

3.     The theme of how large corporates can help and inform early-stage companies has come up a lot lately on the podcast and here too a great example. Tado are lucky enough to have Amazon as a shareholder which has brought them connectivity to Amazon devices, access to markets and the ability to quickly evolve their proposition. I am convinced that this type of partnership can play a key role in helping to develop our cleantech economy at sufficient scale to deliver a sustainable future economy.

Hear more from Toon on our latest podcast here (or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your pod platform of choice.)

Every leader I've had on the podcast has cited the importance and the difficultly of finding the best, hidden talents. That is why so many of them are clients of Hyperion Executive Search. The 'war for talent' isn't a soundbite, it's the reality, even in these COVID times. For a consultation on how we solve this problem, drop me a message.

David