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Sam Clarke , CEO , Skynamo
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What would you describe as your most – memorable achievement ?
One of my best memories was my December holiday that was not meant to be in 2012 . Skynamo had been operating for seven months or so and in late November we signed what was a very big customer for us at the time . They initially committed only one branch to Skynamo and said they would see how it goes over December and if it could cope , they would bring the rest of their team on in early 2013 . December was their silly season and they expected teething issues . I flew up to Gauteng and trained the pilot team and then left for my family camping holiday . A little over a week later I got the email that Skynamo was doing an amazing job and that they wanted the rest of the team on it before Christmas . It was such a big ask at that stage – I was in the mountains three hours from Port Elizabeth . But , every staff member from Skynamo got involved and went to one of the branches to get them live . I left my family in the tent and went to do the Port Elizabeth branch in the only semi-decent clothes I had packed for camping ! Proving that we could be responsive to a client of that size was an amazing achievement .
What first made you think of a career in technology ?
I have been a tinkerer my whole life . From a very young age , I would take things apart to see how they work
often even getting them put back together again . I started teaching myself to write software when I was 12 years old . I wrote a few software programs for friends while at high school , but nothing serious . The first time I was paid for writing software was over my summer holiday when I was 17 years old . I don ’ t think there was ever a future in which my career was not in technology .
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?
I believe in hiring great people and just letting them do what needs to get done . I see my role as providing alignment , sanity checks and ensuring that the environment is right for people to flourish . It is very important to me that Skynamo is a great place to come from – I want all past employees to be very proud to have Skynamo on their CV ’ s . I want other employers
I went too far down the technologist route and went entrepreneurial too late . At one point I was enrolled for a PhD in computational electromagnetics .
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