BUSINESS PROFILE
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What would you describe as your most memorable achievement ?
One recent achievement was spearheading the strategy and analyst relations initiatives with a fantastic fusion team , which culminated in Gartner naming Laserfiche a visionary in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms .
We were also named a Customers ’ Choice in the 2021 Gartner Peer Insights Voice of the Customer : Content Services Platforms report . It was an exciting milestone for our company and a great collaborative effort by so many talented colleagues .
What first made you think of a career in technology ?
I was an avid fan of Star Trek starting from my middle school days – the original series , TNG , DS9 and Voyager . I fell in love with this alternate universe that was replete with computers , interactive touch screens and the Star Trek Communicator .
In Star Trek , chronic pangs of hunger and poverty – which I experienced growing up in an orphanage and later as an adopted child – were long solved on Earth . It inspired me to get jobs delivering newspapers or detasseling corn in the hot Iowan cornfields to save up for my first computer in high school .
I ’ m not sure if Star Trek is what led me to Motorola after graduating from high school , but the stark reality was that I couldn ’ t afford to pay for college . Instead , I found a job at a Motorola factory making two-way radios . After developing a six-sigma based quality tracking system-using computer skills that I taught myself , I was soon promoted to being a quality inspector for a new assembly line that used robotic SMD machines .
Years later , I helped start up a new Motorola Internet Software Products division led by the Motorola CIO . I was elated to hold my first Motorola StarTAC flip phone – albeit it wasn ’ t for me as I purchased it for the CIO .
After graduating with an MIS degree from the University of Texas at Austin , I started my PwC career in technology risk consulting . And of course , I splurged on my very own Motorola StarTAC phone .
What style of management philosophy do you employ with your current position ?
On the lighter side of things , we ask Thomas Phelps IV , CIO at Laserfiche and Chair of Innovate @ UCLA , what makes him tick .
I believe in both transformational and servant leadership . It ’ s important to set a clear vision , provide strategic direction and inspire a culture of continuous innovation .
Innovation :
A catalyst for growth
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