Where do you see the company/the industry changing over the next two years, and how do you think you will influence that change?
I would like to start with an example. Twelve years ago, as part of a research project, we designed a semantic content framework that is still used in many major daily newspapers today. At the time, the term Semantic Web still needed explaining, but today these technologies are used across the board. Since I am a technology enthusiast myself, developments like this naturally excite me. Back then, the technology had become deeply embedded in our industry, and today, 12 years later, we are in a similar situation. We are working on and researching the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in online projects. With our work on STRG.BeHave we have already achieved impressive results. Today, however, we want to focus on the terms AI, neural networks and machine learning. Hardly anyone has a clear understanding of these technological advances yet, and that is something the industry is struggling with.
Technology as a success factor
A company like ours continues to take technology very seriously. Ultimately, we see it as the driver of innovation. For years, neural networks were accessible to only a few people, but since 2016, thanks to TensorFlow (and other) open-source frameworks, they have been widely available and can be used freely. This has enabled a boom in this field, which raises the question of how these possibilities can be used to improve monetization. It is a great thing when we have image recognition and can automate publication processes, among other things. The decisive question, however, is a different one. How do we manage to control and improve monetization in such a way that media companies and other publishers can benefit from the technology, and economically as well? I am convinced that, with our research supported by the FFG under the title STRG.BeHave, we have made good progress here and can offer our customers a useful service.
Of course, this also changes a great deal in our team structure. We stopped working with pure design agencies in the digital field years ago, because user experience cannot be separated from the technology used. That is why we now also have mathematicians and data scientists in our teams, in order to make use of the possibilities offered by the available technology.
“The pace of innovation will continue to increase in the coming years, and I hope that, as a company, we will continue to be right at the forefront.”
What were the biggest challenges you had to overcome?
I am a technology expert myself and have been an entrepreneur in digital media and digital publishing for almost 20 years. Making a company in this industry fit for the future requires a completely new corporate structure. We have been working on this for two years now and have improved significantly. Agile software development is an excellent thing because it distributes responsibility.
“I wanted to turn my company into an agile service organization in which everyone is involved in the processes and can work independently and with personal responsibility.”
For trained managers, it is not easy to give an organization and the team this freedom without becoming incredibly nervous. I kept finding myself back in micromanagement. Sometimes for good reasons and out of necessity, but in other cases I found it difficult to let go of certain things. At the same time, I had to watch entire areas of the company being managed without accountability, because of course that is something you first have to learn. Initially, this led to a massive drop in our productivity. Nevertheless, everyone was quite happy with it, but we would not have survived for long. Ultimately, agility means being able to improve processes continuously and agilely, rather than stubbornly insisting on existing procedures. This agility in thinking and in continuous improvement was a major challenge. After all, it appears unplanned when you keep changing processes in order to adapt them to the organization’s actual needs.
In our company, it took about two years to make these changes. I exchanged and shared a great deal of information internationally. Unfortunately, I found very few examples in Austria itself. Although much falls under the heading “Agile”, it almost always concerns only software development and not the organization.
At the same time, however, we also had to change how we work with our customers and draw up new contracts. Like most other agencies, we always got things done quickly for our customers whenever they asked. Very often, that is simply a terrible way to proceed. It cannot be planned on our side, but, to be honest, it cannot be planned on the customer’s side either.
Today, we are very proud that our customers value the way we work and the very high-quality results they receive from us, and that they know what they can expect from us.
How did STRG. handle the special working conditions during the lockdown? How did you adapt as a company in order to continue meeting your customers’ needs?
As already mentioned, STRG.at has transformed into an agile service organization over the past two years. This step was extremely valuable in this situation. We immediately recognized many changes. By coincidence (in the first week of March there was a suspected coronavirus infection in the office, which, to our relief, ultimately did not turn out to be a COVID-19 infection), we switched to working from home on 5 March 2020. Thanks to our agile setup within the company, we had already created the necessary structures. We work continuously and intensively via remote connections with our partners in Slovakia, and therefore already had the necessary experience. The transition went smoothly and had surprisingly little impact on production operations.
“Ultimately, productivity increased because you can work with focus and determine your own schedule.”
The daily brief coordination meetings with all our teams (daily stand-ups) keep colleagues connected and in contact with the company. I think that without these structures it would become difficult (except, of course, in very small companies). In an organization with almost 30 employees, that is a different matter. By moving to working from home early, we also had the opportunity to make some improvements to the toolset, VPN connections, and so on before we closed the office completely on 15 March.
Our clients also had a very brief phase in which they considered postponing the measures and waiting for an “afterwards”. It was clear to us that this standstill would last at least two months and that even after that we would cautiously reintroduce everyday office life. That is why we also engaged with our clients and shared our knowledge of remote work with them. As early as the second week, I held a workshop with a large membership organization in Austria via Google Hangouts, attended by almost 20 people.
I am convinced that we can carry many of the insights gained into an “afterwards”. We will divide our future lives into a pre- and post-COVID-19 era and be able to recognize the changes in our behavior. What is impressive is that in just one day I held sales presentations with well-known partners at three different European locations – Paris, London and Berlin. A year ago, I would have been on the road for three days for these meetings. For me, the new normal of holding these appointments virtually is one of the most important achievements resulting from this crisis.
In financial terms, this is of course the greatest challenge we can all imagine. But I am an incorrigible optimist and convinced that we must learn from this crisis in order to organize ourselves better in the future.
As a company we are part of the movement Entrepreneurs for Future. I am convinced that these lockdown measures must be seen as a positive influence on our climate policy. After COVID-19, we must try not to fall back into the madness we came from. We are talking about business models that do not work, and about outdated models from which we must take our leave. The economy and its requirements have always changed over time. This time, it would be time to use these changes for better collaboration and a reassessment of our fundamental economic activities
“A new normal has the task of restoring civil liberties and further developing climate-friendly infrastructure.”
Motorways and airlines are no longer part of this. These are outdated concepts from the last millennium. It is primarily about the possibilities of digitalization and their positive impact on the climate issue. Real performance in internet connections, toolsets that allow decentralized work while still enabling international collaboration, and the willingness to rethink working methods in the minds of those involved.