Episode 2 - Getting to Know Your CXOs - Joe Ward, CEO IKIN
Welcome to On The Edge, brought to you by Elite Sales Edge with your host, Steven Brown. In the series, getting to know your CXOs, we'll be diving deep into conversations with various c level executives. We'll explore the formidable challenges they encounter, the critical decisions they make and the lessons that have left a lasting impact on them. Sit back and prepare to gain some insightful knowledge from the leaders who shape the business world.
Stephen Brown:Welcome to On The Edge. I'm your host, Steven Brown. I'm excited to bring you another episode in the series, getting to know your CXOs. Today, my guest is Joe Ward. Joe is an accomplished self directed executive with an uninterrupted record of success in developing and leading high performance organizations, proficient in corporate strategy with a focus on creating winning cultures and driving both top and bottom line results.
Stephen Brown:With a reputation as a forward thinker, Joe has been on the front edge of numerous technologies, such as voice over IP, SaaS or software as a service, and platform as a service, and he is now positioning ICANN as the first company to bring holographic technology and applications to the personal use market. As an executive, Joe has assisted in the growth and ultimate sale of multiple public companies resulting in a significant increase in shareholder value. Joe currently resides in Austin, Texas with his wife, Sandy, and has 3 sons. He's also a big University of Georgia bulldog fan. Go dogs.
Stephen Brown:Joe, welcome to the show. How are you?
Joe Ward:Thanks for having me, Steve. Good to see you again.
Stephen Brown:Oh, you too. Why don't you take a couple of seconds and introduce yourself to the crowd?
Joe Ward:Well, I don't even recognize who you were just talking about. So that's, you know, that's, pretty well written. I guess I've done some things in my day. But, no. It's a pleasure to be on.
Joe Ward:You know, a little bit, to tie on to what you just read. I'm an old guy. Right? So I've been around a while, mainly in the telephony business, came up through the ranks in the sales marketing end of the of the the companies that I was with. And so, you know, was really fortunate to be put in a position early in my career where I was able to help grow businesses, learn along the way, and I think it's prepared me, pretty well to be a CEO today.
Stephen Brown:That's awesome. Well, that's the aim of this, this show, this series is about helping people. And, you and I have been in this business a long time. I was fortunate enough to be able to work alongside of you a number of years ago, learned a ton, and, good friend, good colleague, and, the ability to share your information and insight with folks that are moving into, you know, c level roles and others, I think is a great way to great way to give back to the community and help out. So so with that, Joe, let's let's jump right into it.
Stephen Brown:You know, let's say a person starting their first position as a CEO. You know, tell me, what do you think are the most important things that CEO needs to do in that first 30, 60 days to really get off on the right foot?
Joe Ward:Yeah. It's a multimillion dollar question. Right? And and I think I think there's 2 different answers to that question. Right?
Joe Ward:You know, if you're coming in as a CEO of an established organization, that's one track. If you're a CEO of a startup, which I've done recently, I think that's a completely different scenario, in terms of what action you take immediately because they're, you know, they're very different. But I I I think overarching, it's to be patient. At least in terms of learning as much as you can early on, I'd say in the 1st 30 days about your environment, your coworkers, the the business, what its challenges are, and then really kind of take a measured approach to how to implement policies and procedures that are gonna help. But again, it really depends on on the on the environment that you're coming into.
Joe Ward:From my own experience, I've done both growing businesses and cleaning up businesses, and both are very different.
Stephen Brown:Yep. Thanks for that. And, I've I've interviewed a number of people and, you know, the great ones like yourselves, I I hear the similar theme. It's patience, and and you gotta go in there and and understand first. Right?
Stephen Brown:If you go in kicking doors in and stuff like that, it generally does not work out well. Getting to know the people, getting to know the company, getting to know the customers, and, working through that is, seems to be a consistent theme across the folks I've talked to.
Joe Ward:Well, I speak from I speak from experience. I've learned the hard way. I've made some mistakes along the way. Right? And and, you know, it's it's it's a very, very fine line that you have to walk when you become a leader, whether it's a c e o or CTO or CXO as you say in your podcast.
Joe Ward:Mhmm. It's very easy to make mistakes, and that's okay. You gotta be pretty thick skinned. Right? Mhmm.
Joe Ward:But I have learned over my career that, waiting a little bit is probably the the best way to go about it. It it it's it's it's normal to feel a sense of urgency. You know, I'm now in a position, whether I've been promoted internally or coming into an organization from the outside, you're the new person. Right? So there's a lot of expectations on you, and it's very easy to kinda make those initial mistakes by acting too quickly.
Joe Ward:So it's been my experience that slowing that down a little bit and and thinking about, you know, the the next 5 or 6 moves as opposed to what's right in front of you, is probably gonna serve you well.
Stephen Brown:Awesome. Thank you, Joe. Having the right leadership team and people in place are critical to any company's success. Can you can you share with us, you know, what you think it takes to be a good leader, and and how you go about building out a team around you?
Joe Ward:Yeah. Again, I I I can't stress enough how important it is that you rely on your team. You know, you spend the appropriate amount of time hiring people, training them, but then they've gotta really produce on their own and you can mentor them. And and I found that to be probably one of the most rewarding parts of my career has been the ability to help people be the best version of themselves. And I think you do that not by micromanaging, but by giving guidelines that you've learned over time, that are that will lead to success, and then helping people stay on that task.
Joe Ward:At the end of the day, as a CEO going from, you know, a a a middle manager to a CEO, what's what's the most striking challenge is that you no longer have that person behind you or above you to say, hey. What are we doing? It's like, I've done that before where you turn around and go, oh, it's it's just me. Right?
Stephen Brown:Right.
Joe Ward:So so those those type of decisions are are new to to anybody who who comes into this role. And that includes how you manage people, because at the end of the day, the buck stops with you. And Mhmm. I think what I've learned most recently in the start up mode is that, it really is a all hands on deck environment. Mhmm.
Joe Ward:And that you have to give people the rope they need to be successful. The opportunity to make decisions, to support them in those decisions. They're gonna make mistakes. Right? We all do.
Joe Ward:Yeah. But but through those mistakes, you learn and and you become closer. And so in my most recent journey, which is now going on year 6, I can't tell you how, great it's been to really be part of the the core group of people here at ICAM. That's awesome. That is awesome.
Stephen Brown:So, we've as as leaders, particularly, again, in this space right now, actually, in any space, we were put into a situation where there was no playbook. You know? We had to manage or lead through a global pandemic. And, making decisions is is challenging enough, as you just said. Right?
Stephen Brown:And then then there's difficult decisions, and then you add a global pandemic on that. But, what advice or what thoughts, would you would you share with your, incoming or or existing CEOs on a process for making tough decisions? You know, how do you go about that?
Joe Ward:That's a, that's a tough one. Mhmm. You know, I I think at at the found at the core level, you have to be confident in your in your abilities. You have to realize that, people look to you for leadership. You have to be open to the fact that you might get it wrong.
Joe Ward:Right? But all of that is just part of the job. I think what what the company is looking for out of the CEO is confidence, is decision making, and, ownership, accountability.
Stephen Brown:Mhmm.
Joe Ward:You know, at the end of the day, if if things aren't going the way they're supposed to be going, it's on me. It's on the CEO. And you have to be willing to to accept that and make tough decisions, that that, are expected from your shareholders and your investors and the people that ultimately you serve. Mhmm. And and, you know, you you talk about the pandemic.
Joe Ward:Try starting a technology company, and being, you know, knee deep into r and d and manufacturing and hit supply chain problems and workplace problems and and, capital problems. I mean, a lot of companies failed during the pandemic. And I'm really proud of the fact that our team and our group really, really hung in there together through all of it. And we were in multiple states. We had we were doing a hardware manufacturing model with supply chain issues, had to make decisions on risk buys and timing and all kinds of things.
Joe Ward:But we were committed to the end game, and and we were able to deliver on it. But it really does come down to people. And we noticed from your from from our time working together. At the end of the day, it all comes down to people.
Stephen Brown:Yep. Yeah. I remember, being in in meetings with you, some pretty serious ones when we, you know, we were, you know, we had brought couple companies together. We're, you know, going and, you know, having to make product decisions, people decisions, and all that. And and the theme that, you know, I learned from you was like, hey, we're gonna figure this out as a team in this room.
Stephen Brown:And then once the decision is made after all the input, it's it's not my decision or yours. It's it's our decision. We've we've made it. This is what we've decided to do, and we're gonna, you know, we're gonna go out there and get it done. And that that was a great lesson because you want healthy debate, you know, you want differing opinions.
Stephen Brown:But at at the end of the day, once the decision's made, you gotta support it, you know, wholeheartedly. Go go get after it and and make sure your people get it, and you help them get there as well. But, man, you're not you're not kidding on, some of the supply chain issues. There were, like, products like, wait. What do you mean 26 week lead time?
Stephen Brown:What?
Joe Ward:Yeah. And and, you know, in my in my current, role, we're talking about new technology, never been done before. So we're going through r and d on form factor and and all of that goes with it. And so we're we're not even sure if what we think we need today, we're gonna need 26 weeks from now. Right?
Joe Ward:And and so it was it it's been tough. I'm actually sitting on some inventory as we speak that, you know, we're probably not gonna use anytime real soon. But, you know, those are the things that happen. But to your point, you know, on the one hand, I'm talking about be patient when you start, give give yourself some time, and and I stand by that. But then to your point, once you once you need to make a decision, Yep.
Joe Ward:You made the decision. You gotta execute really quickly. And you can't second guess yourself because guess what? Everybody else is doing that for you.
Stephen Brown:Right. Right. You got plenty of those people.
Joe Ward:You know, I, yeah. Yeah. One of my early mentors, and he hates that word. I won't mention his name because he doesn't wanna be a mentor. But one of my early, bosses, superiors, when I was struggling with a particular decision, and we had about, I don't know, 500 people reporting up through Mhmm.
Joe Ward:My organization. And he said, Joe, you know, they they all think they should have your job anyway. So they all think they can do it better. So just be you, just do your job. Yep.
Joe Ward:And and that's important for anybody in leadership to know that.
Stephen Brown:It's a great perspective, actually. Good stuff. So, technology business, I I don't think we can have a a conversation without this thing. So AI is coming into businesses quite rapidly. You know, what's your thoughts as a leader?
Stephen Brown:What, you know, what are you thinking about? What do you how do you envision this impacting business?
Joe Ward:Oh, it's huge. I mean, not only in our society as a whole, but certainly in my business, our current business. You know, I was looking at some articles where the value of a word Mhmm. Has dropped by over 95% in the last 18 months. And what does that mean?
Joe Ward:Well, it it means that it's it's it's becoming a it's a commodity. Right? Now in my world, take that and the real issue for for, I think, everybody is is the visual component of a your identity. How do you know that this is me right now?
Stephen Brown:Right.
Joe Ward:How do I know this is you? We don't. I mean, we do. Now the people that need to know that it's not Biden pushing the red button and sending nukes or Putin or the people that really need to know, and you've got a military background. The people that really need to know, know.
Joe Ward:But we're getting dangerously close to the point where you will not be able to tell. Yeah. So we have a, you know, our business is very much embracing AI on the visual side, and we've evolved to a point where we believe we have a cure for the problem. And so but to to answer your your specific question, I think the biggest challenge, there's so many. Right?
Joe Ward:There's certainly putting people out of work, figuring out how it's gonna affect the the economy and the ecosystem. But I'm really, really focused on security. Yeah. And what does it mean in terms of your personal identity and and how we can protect that? You know, in the future, I envision having a little green check at the bottom right corner of this call saying, that's really Steven Brown.
Stephen Brown:Yeah.
Joe Ward:And if it doesn't have the check, I'm not talking to you.
Stephen Brown:Right? Right.
Joe Ward:So we're really gonna all be have to be conscious of the fact that our world is changing, and you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Nope. But you have to sit down as a company and really whatever your your your your niche vertical market is, you really do have to be very proactive and sit down as a company and address it openly, honestly, and figure out how you fit into that that that, that that ecosystem because it's it's not going away. It's just going to accelerate, and it's a big concern to everybody.
Stephen Brown:Yeah. It sure is. I mean, it is the proverbial Pandora's box. Right? Because, you know, it's not gonna slow down.
Stephen Brown:I mean, we all are familiar with the technology adoption life cycle. Once this stuff starts, you know, it's going. A lot of it's gonna be good. You know, I think it's gonna save a lot of lives. I think it's gonna make, you know, a lot of things we do a lot easier, but we can't just go too forward too fast without really looking at the other side of it because there's already instances of things going sideways, and we've gotta get that under control quick.
Joe Ward:Well, hopefully, you know, calmer minds will prevail as they say. I think, you know, I'm a big believer in in the pendulum. You know, the pendulum always swings a little bit way too far to the right. I don't mean politically or way too far to the left. Maybe I do.
Joe Ward:But, you know, we've gotta find the center. Right? And that that sometime is a painful journey. Mhmm. But I do think that you're right.
Joe Ward:I think that AI, at least in the short term to medium term, is is very dangerous. It's going to be extremely disruptive. It's going to do some good things and a lot of bad things, but it's here to stay. So we gotta figure out how to use it, in a very productive way. And I I do believe that ultimately, that will happen, and it'll be it'll be an amazing tool that will help humanity as a whole, and I really believe that.
Joe Ward:We just gotta we gotta make sure that we understand, the the pros and cons for sure.
Stephen Brown:I totally agree. So you've served in a number of companies. You know? So this is kind of a 2 part question. You know, what are some what are 1 or 2 good memorable memorable experiences you could share, with the audience, you know, that you really drew from or learned from.
Stephen Brown:And then then I'd love to hear, you know, I'm sure the audience would too, you know, a little bit about, you know, ICANN and what drove you there. What's the passion behind that? And and what is ICANN gonna do for the world?
Joe Ward:No. Thanks for the opportunity. You know, I I go back to when I really started, my career in in the telecom business. Right? And like I said earlier, I'm an old man.
Joe Ward:Right? So I I remember going from analog big fat 25 pair cable on a 6 button set up in the, you know, the big computer in the basement driving a dumb terminal. So you go from analog to digital to IP to in the cloud to as a service. And and and all that that goes with it, you know. I originally remember selling phone systems to the sec to the to the office manager.
Joe Ward:Mhmm. Right? And then all of a sudden you're selling to the IT department and the CTO. And so it's really been a, an arc of technology and I've ridden that wave. And what appealed to me specifically was I was always with the smaller company.
Joe Ward:Mhmm. I was with, you know, the new guy on the block or the the smaller version. We were against AT and T, Northern Telecom. Mhmm. Cisco came along and you and I were generally, at least when we worked together on the smaller side of that equation, but we were very nimble.
Joe Ward:We were very quick to respond. And and, you know, it's interesting. In my current role, all of those lessons that I learned have applied to where I am today. We're we're going against Meta and Google and NVIDIA and these behemoth companies. But guess what?
Joe Ward:It's the same story. They're very, very big. They're aircraft carriers. They're very slow to turn. Right?
Joe Ward:They're they're beholden to quarterly numbers. They face these problems that the IBMs of the world faced when Microsoft when when Apple came along. Right? And so you learn from history and you implement strategies based on historical lessons that we've all learned. And and I think that's kind of lost on the younger folks.
Joe Ward:Right? Mhmm. And and it's really exciting for me because I can apply all those creative lessons I learned, all the mistakes I made, all of the successes I had. I think the biggest success that I remember the most and propelled my career forward was really figuring out how to beat the big boys. Right?
Joe Ward:Mhmm. We did that by doing things on the whiteboard and and just just drawing out, you know, applications that weren't really thought of by the big guys, you know, things in the call center environment, things in, in in in the personal use environment. So those those lessons were really, valuable to me as I move forward. As far as where I am today, you know, Ikin is really an r and d company. We we we believe we've got a a significant opportunity to help with visual technology, most notably holograms Mhmm.
Joe Ward:In ambient light without any headgear. So when we started Iken, everything was going to the goggles. Right? Meta or Facebook had just bought Oculus. We had, a lot of competition in terms of the goggles solutions, and they just don't work very well.
Joe Ward:They haven't really gained traction. They're trying to find their footing. They're very expensive, very clumsy. And so the ability to free up holographic information in this environment without any, headgear is is really what propelled me to to start to partner with my partner, Taylor Scott, who's really I call him the wiz kid. Right?
Joe Ward:And, but it's led us it's it's led us to really embracing AI and moving our product direction along visual AI. And so there's a lot of energy around that right now, and it's been really, really exciting. We're now prepared to walk into those companies I just mentioned with a solution to their problem. Very good. So I've got, people on board now that we're walking into Google, to Meta, to NVIDIA with, what I believe to be, as I said earlier, a solution to a big problem of security
Stephen Brown:in the
Joe Ward:vision space. So very exciting times for us.
Stephen Brown:Awesome.
Joe Ward:It's been it's been quite a journey. It's taken a little bit longer than I thought, but there was a global pandemic in the middle of the there.
Stephen Brown:And,
Joe Ward:we've weathered the storms, I guess, is what I'd like to the way I'd like to say it.
Stephen Brown:Yep. Well, I'm glad you did. And, I'm really, really hopeful for all you guys and wishing you the best. I have just one final question for you, Joe. You've been very gracious with your time.
Stephen Brown:I certainly appreciate it. So, one of the things that I'm trying to do as part of this podcast is an education and share, you know, how a CEO thinks or how a CTO thinks, because I don't know that people really actually get that. Everybody knows they assume rightly assume how busy they are on that and being relevant. But, the the profession of sales, it's forever changing. It certainly changed a lot in the last, you know, 5 to 10 years, you know, with the Internet democratizing information.
Stephen Brown:Customers are way more sophisticated and that. So what advice would you have for sales folks when they are meeting or going to meet with a c level person?
Joe Ward:Well, listen. I can only answer that from my perspective. And, again, older guy, been around the block, getting bombarded with all types of sales, whether it's text, whether it's email, whether it's phone calls, whether it's networking events, you know, Vegas shows. I mean, I am a target. Right?
Joe Ward:I am a decision maker. And all I can tell you is and I go back to that pendulum. Right?
Stephen Brown:Mhmm.
Joe Ward:And I was part of that pendulum in terms of telemarketing and cold calling and all that. But when somebody calls me on the phone or meets me in person and just says, hey, Joe. I wanna tell you about an opportunity that I think is gonna be good for you. I listen. Mhmm.
Joe Ward:Because I because I relate to that, you know, and I don't relate to getting a text. I don't relate to getting an email. It just doesn't work. And I don't I don't I understand that the technology is there, but for me and I talked to I belong to a CEO group, you know, and I and I network. And even the younger folks, it's like it still comes down to people.
Stephen Brown:I agree. If I
Joe Ward:were a salesperson today, I would spend all of my time figuring out how to get live interaction with your customer. Yeah. Whether that's on the phone or in person or some way of doing it because it's just a better scenario for you to be successful. Yeah. It's just get back to the basics.
Stephen Brown:You know, I've heard that a lot. And I think it's I think it's I believe that as well. I think the art of of selling has getting getting a little bit lost in translation with all the technology. Because, yes, you better do your homework before you sit down with somebody. You wanna be respectful of their time and and your own time, to be frank.
Stephen Brown:But, getting to know someone, know the business, meet with the teams, you know, it always cracks me up a little bit when when we just need to go straight to the CEO. It's like, well, does he even know what these I mean, I'm sure he's aware. But I'll bet you, he's got a bunch of people on his his team he's depending on to make a lot of these decisions, and he wants to depend on them. So, being relevant, I think is, something folks have to spend time on.
Joe Ward:Well, I think I I think throughout my career, I've I just believe that there's a difference between being busy and being successful.
Stephen Brown:Yep.
Joe Ward:And, you know, I've sat in front of so many coworkers who were who were working really, really hard Mhmm. But getting nowhere.
Stephen Brown:Right.
Joe Ward:So it's not enough to just work hard. You gotta get somewhere.
Stephen Brown:Yep.
Joe Ward:And the best way to do that I have found is is finding a way to get a real life connection with somebody. If you can't get to the higher level, get to the lower level and make them look really good. It's your job. Make them look good. It's their decision.
Joe Ward:It's their process. Make them make them get a win because they solve the problem using your solution, your technology. And I and I don't believe that's happening as much as it did when I when when you didn't have all this technology. Yeah. And I get it.
Joe Ward:I mean, technology is important. Hello. I'm in holograms. I'm eventually going to replace me, you know, this is but but but, again, we we gotta find a way to to really connect with the customer if you're in sales.
Stephen Brown:Alright. I agree. Wise words, sir. Well, Joe, thank you so much for, spending time with us here on the Edge. And, for folks looking, looking for the next generation hologram technology, don't look any further than I can.
Stephen Brown:I'm sure they can help solve your problems.
Joe Ward:Yeah. We got a lot going on. It's an exciting times, and thanks for thinking of me, Steve. Really good to catch up again, and, we'll talk soon.
Stephen Brown:Thank you, Joe.
