Interview with Christoph Platzer — First 100 Days as Parkside CEO

Posted

Mar 29th 2021

Christoph-Platzer-First 100 Days as CEO-Parkside-Interactive

Early this year, we announced that, in order to facilitate our business growth further, we were strengthening our management team and introduced Christoph Platzer as our new CEO. Fast forward to three months later, and we are here today to find out how his first 100 days at Parkside went and what he will be focusing on in the upcoming months.

Q1: We often hear that the first 100 days leading an organization are determining the success of the years to come. So Christoph, how did you approach this period, and what did you focus on during your first 100 days at Parkside?

Although I find that statement a little bit exaggerated, I do agree that the first 100 days set the tone for the rest of the time in a particular position. Since I strongly believe that employees are those who make a company successful, I put a lot of emphasis on interpersonal communication and relationships. That is why my main focus during this period was getting to know my colleagues, talking to each of them, listening to their ideas and concerns and gain an understanding of the market potential. When I first came to Parkside, I was amazed by the company culture, values, and team spirit in general. This was something I wanted to explore further and something I now wish to preserve.

Q2: What surprised you, and what did you learn the most about during these three months as the CEO at Parkside?

Coming from another industry, I tried to learn as much as I could about software development & UX design in general, how we are doing it here at Parkside, and what it means to work in agile and cross-functional teams. As I was getting familiar with our clients and projects, I was pretty surprised to see how much of software development is actually being outsourced and how our clients are benefitting from it in many different ways. They trust our teams fully because we deliver projects, no matter what.

Q3: You mentioned some success factors when it comes to outsourcing. Can you elaborate a little bit further on that?

Sure. Companies often believe that in order to have a good digital product, they have to develop everything themselves and shouldn’t be dependent on an external service provider (developer). But they usually underestimate the relevance of speed, flexibility and implementation skills. Sometimes there is also a concern that outsourcing is not paying off considering the effort required for project management and monitoring. But as a customer, not only are you gaining access to the partner’s expertise, but also getting a co-creator on board. Companies often need a sparring partner who will conceptually contribute to the project and share the responsibility for its implementation and success. Working with us as a partner is an accelerator for any digitization project. The time and know-how that our customers gain when working with us are simply invaluable and we contribute enormously to their business success.

In practice, however, many digitization projects fail because of insufficient user acceptance, even though the importance of user experience is growing. And this is exactly the success factor that Parkside brings to the table. By combining the latest tech stack and great UX design, we create market-leading digital products and solutions for our customers and, therefore, for their users as well.

Q4: What are your plans for the next 100 days?

After gaining an initial understanding of the company and the market, we are now about to launch some strategic initiatives to enable further growth. Our goal is to increase the visibility and perception of Parkside as a digitization expert in Central Europe and the US. We are a classic hidden champion with a success story in Silicon Valley, and I am convinced that we will continue to help many customers increase their business success. This is how we measure our own work and success. In addition, we will continue to develop even more technologies and partnerships that generate added value for our customers. The foundation of all our plans is and will always be an excellent corporate culture. The Parkside spirit is clearly noticeable and something we try to inspire our customers with again and again.

Thank you Christoph for taking the time for this interview. We are already looking forward to the next update on significant changes and accomplishments.