My First 100 Days

They say one day is a long time in business. So given how much has happened since I left Zebra Technologies 100 days ago, my first 100 at Celerway Communication felt more like 200, but in that adrenaline-inducing, positive way!

Leaving Zebra Technologies was a tough decision, given how much I enjoyed my time there. I headed up a brilliant and successful team, who frankly made me look good and brought a smile to my face every day, no matter how difficult a day it had been.

But walking into Celerway from the first day felt almost serendipitous and too good to be true.

I'd bought into the vision, drive, passion, intellect, and humble brilliance of our CEO, Audun Fosselie Hansen . But I was surprised how his values permeated the entire organization: not only is the team pulling in the same direction with focused energy, but they also do it with a sense of pride and enjoyment.

One of my learnings in life is to do what fuels your passion. If you do that and have like-minded people around you, that energy propels you to accomplish the extraordinary and deliver outcomes that normally take three times the effort in any other sphere of life.

Absorbing that collective energy in my first 10 days, I interviewed all the stakeholders in Celerway to understand what they felt great looked like so we could construct a vision and mission. This way, everyone can get behind it. And when I say all the stakeholders, I mean every associate at Celerway, as everyone's perspective and opinion were critical to driving success.?

Just one roadblock from my stakeholders would delay execution. And if there's one thing I learned from a great mentor of mine, Girish Rishi , it is that a great first-to-market beats a perfect second every time. And with what I know about Celerway's unique solution offering, speed-to-market will be key.

Over the next 30 days, I combined these findings with my 25 years of industry experience and drafted a vision and mission.?

First, I restructured our channel program to give our partners a foundation to grow from: it is rich in margin and services so they could be successful, with systems and processes to ensure we have a minimally onerous program.?

Then, over the following 30 days, I aligned with the company to build an outcome-based sales program to go hand-in-hand with Celerway's solution set. This portfolio sets Celerway apart from everyone else: it lets us give every industry persona in key verticals we are addressing precisely what they need to improve their businesses from a sales, efficiency, outcome, and customer differentiation perspective.?

We could only have done all the above by drawing on an incredibly talented team and adding to that talent some critical new hires in Operations, Geographical Leadership, Inside Sales, and PR. These hires ensure local execution by gifted people in our target geographies.

If the first 70 days were invigorating, the last 30 have been just as energizing as we took the outcome-based program to key personas in Field Service, Enterprise Sales, Retail, and Utilities sectors, winning plaudits and POCs with immediate effect. The channel also embraced our new Partner Select program, both legacy-wise and incrementally, with new regional and global partners actively coming on board to be part of the success we are creating.

I am proud to say we have achieved a lot in my first 100 days in the saddle as a team. With the results we are seeing, the future looks incredibly bright, exciting, and fun not only for Celerway but our partners and customers.

It's no surprise that our founders, Audun Hansen and Kristian Evensen , derived the name Celerway from the Latin word Celer, meaning speed. A powerful mantra of mine has always been the "speed of execution". So the initial word I used at the start of this blog, "serendipity", certainly resonates once more.

My go-to business books have always been The Go Giver series (by Bob Burg and John David Mann ). They speak to the 5 laws of stratospheric success, genuine influence, and legendary leadership. And team Celerway has all that in spades as an organization. I am grateful and humbled to be part of this phenomenal team.

I can't wait to share our journey beyond my first 100 days as we help our partners and clients develop and grow with Celerway's outcome-based solution portfolio.?

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy holiday and a fabulous New Year. I look forward to connecting with you all in 2023.