Building a great team. Yes, it sounds like a clich\u00e9 but, as a co-founder, getting a group of people to align around a vision is hard. If you don\u2019t hire the right people, or there\u2019s someone who\u2019s fundamentally misaligned with the values of the organization, working through that can be challenging, for a small business. We\u2019re really fortunate to have 24 high achieving individuals who know how to work together \u2013 and who genuinely come to work each day focused on Forbury\u2019s goals and objectives. Luck has probably played a big part but nevertheless, it\u2019s something that makes me proud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2021\/04\/Scott-Willson-Landscape-web.jpg\")
What first made you think of a career in technology?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Growing up, my parents encouraged my sister and me to learn about computers but, although I was interested enough, technology wasn\u2019t really a focus for me as a young person. I spent a decade in various business and corporate roles before the ICT sector \u2018claimed\u2019 me in 2013. It was around that time SaaS businesses like Xero were starting to make their mark and I became aware of the very obvious intersection between technology and business \u2013 the way it could be harnessed to solve problems and make a real difference to performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A few years ago, I watched a presentation by Netflix\u2019s management team, talking about the way in which the company drives a culture of achievement. They discussed the concept of \u2018highly aligned and loosely coupled\u2019. The idea is that everyone is on the same page regarding the company\u2019s strategic direction and, at the same time, they\u2019re trusted to know what they need to do and how they should spend their time to best benefit the company. It really resonated with me and I\u2019ve tried to put it into practice as we\u2019ve expanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you think is the current hot technology talking point?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Uptake of cloud technology is really starting to gather pace in the property industry (at last!). Large businesses which traditionally used enterprise software are now being presented with opportunities and options for taking a more fragmented approach to technology adoption. Meanwhile, on the consumer front, the tokenisation of artwork seems to have suddenly become a thing. I\u2019m fascinated that people can create these digital works and someone will pay for the ownership of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you deal with stress and unwind outside the office?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I like to put a positive spin on stress. Often, the reason I\u2019m stressed is because I have to deal with something new and I\u2019m not sure how to approach it. Reframing it as an academic and emotional challenge helps me put it into perspective. After a really big week, I like to unwind by doing something off piste \u2013 taking my family away, going on hikes, riding bikes and just being silly with the kids. Music is another outlet. In my younger days, I played in a band and during lockdown last year I started having trumpet lessons. I was pretty bad to begin with but I\u2019ve been practising for 15 minutes a night and I\u2019m now a bit more listenable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you could go back and change one career decision, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a hard one. I worked in the resources sector for three years and I certainly don\u2019t regret the connections I made \u2013 it\u2019s where I met Steve Surridge and Pete Rose who are both directors of Forbury \u2013 but, from an ethical perspective, I probably didn\u2019t think about it enough at the time. When my kids are older, I\u2019m going to have a tough time explaining why I put three years of energy and effort into promoting the interests of a coal company that was indirectly responsible for generating a huge amount of CO2. It\u2019s not really in line with my values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For SaaS companies like ours, there are several: security; people and culture; market expansion; and marketing. We\u2019re trying to achieve our strategic growth ambitions across different time zones and places of work, and creating the right sort of environment for the people who work in the business is key to our growth and success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What are the region specific challenges when implementing new technology in APAC?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aversion to change is the biggest one we face. Property is a conservative industry and people are not always aware of what\u2019s possible. The prevailing mindset tends to be \u2018if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it\u2019. Outside of Australia and New Zealand, establishing trust is a big thing too. Asian companies generally won\u2019t contemplate change, unless it\u2019s with a partner that\u2019s known to them. Fortunately for us, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise have been really helpful. They have some excellent people and resources in situ to help small players like us connect with local businesses we can work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the next 12 months?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve added 10 people in the last 12 months, taking our headcount to 24. As a result, I\u2019ve handed on a lot of day-to-day responsibilities. My involvement in sales is limited to newer markets and really big deals, and on the development side we now have a team of experts who know better than I do how to optimize and expand our offering. Our UK launch is scheduled for late April and I\u2019ll be keeping a close eye on early results over there. If things go as well as we expect, we\u2019ll be getting ready to push the button on our next market, the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What advice would you offer somebody aspiring to obtain a C-level position in your industry?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Do it from a founding position. Team up with someone else so you can share the risk and bounce ideas off one another, and work towards the point where there is a C level role for each of you! If you\u2019re joining a smaller, fast growth company with the aim of working your way to the top, be realistic about the level of effort that\u2019s required. In companies with fewer than 50 employees, there is no downtime because there is so much work to do and everyone in the business needs to contribute to the outcome. That means being prepared to give it 110%, every single day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the lighter side of things, we ask Scott Willson, CEO, Forbury, about what makes him tick. What would you describe as your most memorable experience? Building a great team. Yes, it sounds like a clich\u00e9 but, as a co-founder, getting a group of people to align around a vision is hard. If you don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":5294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,35,55,40],"tags":[1857,155,1858],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-get-to-know","category-more-news","category-oceania","category-software","tag-forbury","tag-get-to-know","tag-scott-willson"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5306,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions\/5306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}