30 Best CEOs of the Year 2020 30 Best CEOs of the Year 2020 | Page 71

“Innovation is crucial in the field of IT, information security, and data protection. It is the guiding principle that lets Kerubiel towards success.” What would you say are the top three skills needed to be a successful CEO? Curiosity, self-improvement, and patience are the three important skills. Innovation is crucial in the field of IT, information security, and data protection. If you are not curious, not open to new applications, new solutions, your enterprise might find itself in a difficult position lagging behind the most innovative competitors ruling the market. What were the biggest initial hurdles to building your business and how did you overcome them? Counseling is a highly competitive market where many actors seek to reach clients first. With the application of the GDPR, competition has become even stronger. As a start-up, there is always the risk that one finds a “bigger fish,” this may be overcome if one follows three simple principles. Patience meaning that success comes in time if the company applies a well-defined strategy. Finally, adaptability is crucial in a market that is reliant on the ever-changing technologies, new applications or solutions. These are the guiding principles that let Kerubiel grow even bigger. Who are the other CEOs you look up to? Péter Árvai, CEO of Prezi. The success of his company showed the world as well as Hungary that based on a good idea, with strategic thinking, and patience, even a start- up from CEE may become a global player in the IT market. He and his company’s story is the model that we at Kerubiel try to utilize and follow. What are your three biggest accomplishments? First, Kerubiel has become an actor with great potential on a national as well as on the regional level. In the upcoming years, we will work to reach even more clients from CEE and to provide our services in the region. Second, is that our expertise has shown its strength to our clients. Finally, the third is that Kerubiel was ranked amongst the Top 10 GDPR service provider by CIO Applications in Europe, and among the 50 Innovative Companies to Watch 2019 by The Silicon Review. Thus, it is important to seek out and establish a network that may benefit its members. On the other hand, always seek feedback. Without information and – sometimes – critique of the services provided to a client, a company might not improve itself. If not a business leader/CEO, what else you want to be? This a tough question. I have always worked in IT, information security and data protection related fields, thus, and entrepreneurship that suits best this kind of expertise has been my goal from the very beginning. Yet, if I have to choose another occupation, I would choose my hobby. In recent years, craft beer breweries have become very popular in Hungary, thus, I have started my own home brewery making beers for friends and family. Although I am an enthusiastic amateur, I would very much like to try out myself in this field. SR If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be? Listen to others. One may gather crucial information concerning the new trends and challenges in the industry from other experts. 71