Michael Koch of HubKonnect On How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level
Patience and the ability to identify and build strong teams with great team members and combine that with technology partners will drive growth and innovation. Find and hire smart people and make sure they aren’t “Yes” men or women. Healthy disagreement is a must to get to the best solution.
As part of our series about “How To Use Digital Transformation To Take Your Company To The Next Level”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Koch.
Michael Koch is an originating pioneer of the Artificial Intelligence, Global Digital Production, Machine Learning, and SaaS industries. He is the founder and CEO of HubKonnect, the leading AI-enabled technology company providing Local Store Marketing solutions to franchise restaurants. In addition, he is the Chairman of the QSR AI Research Lab. Michael’s expertise lies in developing new ventures and high-performance technology and teams that grow rapidly, effectively, and globally.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I have built my success as a tech entrepreneur who has founded, scaled, and ultimately exited four technology startups over the course of my 15-year technology career. I have pioneered and developed Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Digital Production for global top-tier brands including Procter & Gamble, Visa, FedEx, McDonald’s, Pepsi Co., Mars, Campbell’s, Nike, AT&T, and Microsoft. I have worked in the technology sector in various regions around the world, having lived in over 12 countries, where I was able to develop a true global outlook and Global CEO perspective.
In addition to managing/growing my current AI technology company HubKonnect, which is the leading AI Platform for Data-Driven Local Store Marketing, I also oversee QSR AI Research Lab, which focuses on research and development of Machine Learning Algorithms, deep learning, neural networks, large datasets and high-performance computing, all for immediate application. The mission of the QSR AI Lab is to develop real-world Artificial Intelligence technology that will significantly accelerate the restaurant Industry.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
Early in my career at my first (and only) corporate job, on my third day at work, I let go a co-worker who was underperforming. My colleagues didn’t have the guts to have the hard talk with him. So I thought I would be a great leader and sit him down, and tell him to submit his resignation letter to the Director of Branch Operations. Needless to say, this tousled some feathers and at first, alarmed upper management and the HR department. How can a newly hired employee let someone go? Who is this guy? I was new to corporate America and a bit naive with pecking order. Throughout my life, I never had an issue stepping up and having hard conversations with people. Luckily, after speaking with the company’s Regional Vice President and having an in-depth discussion with him, he immediately understood my motivation and intentions. He saw my vision to help improve the company’s internal environment. Leadership isn’t always about titles. I later went on to be promoted twice by the same Regional VP at the fastest rate anyone had ever been promoted in the company.
I took a strong stance on my decision and although it might have gone against the current corporate norms or company culture, the Regional VP was ultimately impressed with my passion to lead. By 24, I was overseeing/managing 32 people at that same company. My biggest takeaway from this story is that company culture is imperative to overall business success and being able to have hard conversations is a skill set that every CEO must have. True leadership is an intrinsic quality that some people just possess. Just maybe you shouldn’t show it by letting someone go on your third day on the job.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
My mom and dad have always been my biggest supporters and have taught me so many valuable lessons over the course of my life. They instilled in me that if I work hard, I can do anything and be anything I want in life. I believed them and have never seen boundaries or obstacles I can’t overcome. I’ve always applied this basic principle to my life and it has enabled me to start, scale and sell four successful technology companies.
The boundless love and support that my parents have always given me, combined with the support they have always shown towards my crazy dreams is invaluable. From telling them at 8 years old that they didn’t need to save for my college because I would earn a full athletic scholarship to becoming what I am today in the technology industry. I owe them everything. I work tirelessly everyday to continue to make them proud.
Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand has always had an impression on me because of the book’s main theme– having an unwillingness to compromise. It depicts the main character’s life as an architect who fought against the establishment and went against the grain. The main character is an advocate for individualism and believes in the importance of thinking for oneself and living by one’s core rational judgements and standards. This narrative is something I strongly believe in and it’s how I approach building my businesses.
As an entrepreneur in technology, I’ve always pushed against the norm despite experiencing push back from others who want to remain the same. My individualism has enabled me to build renegade companies that are solely focused on innovation, culture, and creating great products for users. I don’t care what the tech “establishment” says. To this day, Rand’s first edition book sits in a glass box on my desk to remind me of these important fundamental core values.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
Creating a purpose-driven business is immensely important to success and for my latest company, HubKonnect. When my co-founder, Kathy Hartman, and I decided to build this powerful AI platform, we knew we needed to empower franchise restaurant operators with world class technology that ultimately helps them serve their local customers and communities. Most franchise owners are small business entrepreneurs and are the backbone of America. With my innovative AI-enabled tech platform, I am able to take global technology and provide it to everyday entrepreneurs. It is all about providing them access to tech tools that provide immense impact. Our user-friendly ecosystem provides them with the tools and capabilities needed to market and grow their business. I’m proud to have created such a platform. Afterall, franchisees are all about community. They live in the city they work in and their kids go to school there. They are the quintessential entrepreneur heartbeat of America. It’s an honor to help them grow their business and impact their communities.
Are you working on any new, exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
The most exciting thing I have worked on in my career is my current company: Hubkonnect. We are pushing the technological boundaries of AI and in turn, it hasbecome the #1 leading AI-enabled Local Store Marketing platform for restaurant franchises across the U.S. For the past four years, I have fully immersed myself in HubKonnect. I have put my heart, soul, and focus into creating an optimal AI platform that drives real impact. I’ve built an outstanding team of former top quick service restaurant executives and together, we are scaling a revolutionary technology unlike anything on the market. Our technological expertise coupled with our QSR industry knowledge has enabled us to go from being a SaaS platform to creating a fully customizable local store marketing ecosystem for each restaurant. Our ecosystem provides Digital Asset Management, a Digital Production Studio, a Data Science team, and it integrates into all of the current technologies each client has to make sure everything is interconnected. That is the most important part of building a systemwide solution — eliminating redundancies and making sure all platforms are connected.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion about Digital Transformation. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what exactly Digital Transformation means? On a practical level what does it look like to engage in a Digital Transformation?
Digital transformation is a term that has been used by companies for quite some time to drive internal capability, understanding, and usage of technology. In 2022, the next frontier in the digital transformation for all businesses is going to be data driven. Every company no matter the industry should operate as a technology company if they want to remain competitive. AI is making its way into every kind of industry and because of this, everything will be smarter, connected, and more efficient. Digital transformation isn’t just a buzzword, it needs to be ingrained into a company’s culture because of how fast innovation moves.
Which companies can most benefit from a Digital Transformation?
All companies need a digital transformation in order to succeed in business in 2022. Smart business leaders will ultimately leverage innovative technology to drive a business forward. Having a strong technological foundation combined with smart people led by a great leader who understands this evolving world will achieve great success.
I believe in the coming years the “New CEO” will absolutely have to be tech savvy so they can easily work across all departments and have in-depth conversations with their CTO, CMO, and COO interchangeably. Understanding that a SILO business, or a company with multiple divisions that operate independently and avoid sharing information, is something of the past. Business leaders must be able to use technology to build an internal system that is interconnected and sophisticated so team members can communicate and receive/send important information in real time.
We’d love to hear about your experiences helping others with Digital Transformation. In your experience, how has Digital Transformation helped improve operations, processes and customer experiences? We’d love to hear some stories if possible.
A great example of helping others achieve a digital transformation was when I was brought in to McDonald’s by the company’s Chief Marketing Officer to advance and upgrade one of their key technology platforms. This was a massive Digital Transformation for one of the biggest food brands in the world. The success of the first project led to more projects including examining the entire organization to identify and eliminate technological redundancies and de Silo technology across departments.
In addition, we then built the technology that was needed to create an interconnected environment. In addition, we built out nine global applications/platforms that worked together to help the marketing and tech departments work more cohesively together. We also built out 14,500 websites for each individual McDonald’s franchise location in the U.S. and made sure each franchise website integrated with unique offers and the brand’s mobile app. We modernized the supply chain by developing an AI-based executive platform to look at business and make real-time decisions about products. To me as a CEO, there is nothing more important than my ability to drive real impact and push my clients beyond their limits to stay on the forefront of technological innovation.
Has integrating Digital Transformation been a challenging process for some companies? What are the challenges? How do you help resolve them?
The main challenges that I’ve seen are related to employee knowledge and technological capability limitations. In addition, there are often team members that will resist innovation and change. Change is hard for some people, but I believe it is something that must constantly be embraced. If you aren’t constantly changing or evolving, you are becoming stagnant and outdated. For example, instead of traditional brick and mortar sales, e-commerce sales are now driving most business growth in the U.S., especially since the start of the pandemic. The business world is moving fast and it’s important to identify and understand new challenges as they come. A culture of change and innovation needs to come from the highest levels in an organization.
Ok. Thank you. Here is the primary question of our discussion. Based on your experience and success, what are “Five Ways a Company Can Use Digital Transformation To Take It To The Next Level”? Please share a story or an example for each.
- Everything must be interconnected — All systems need to communicate with each other in real time. The days of SILO’d divisions are over; every department needs to support each other, which helps eliminate redundancies and improves efficiency.
- The Adoption of AI will help every kind of company synthesize data and help project smarter and more strategic plans for business growth.
- Embrace big data. Good data sources are essential to making a business smart and competitive in a constantly changing business landscape.
- Building a strong company culture that has technology and innovation at its core will make for a successful Digital Transformation. Trust and openness are essential components to creating a solid company culture as well.
- The best ideas should always win — it doesn’t matter who or where they come from. The days of hierarchy no longer matter.
- BONUS: Patience and the ability to identify and build strong teams with great team members and combine that with technology partners will drive growth and innovation. Find and hire smart people and make sure they aren’t “Yes” men or women. Healthy disagreement is a must to get to the best solution.
In your opinion, how can companies best create a “culture of innovation” in order to create new competitive advantages?
As previously mentioned, I believe the best idea must always win, no matter who the idea comes from. That means creating a business environment and culture in which all ideas are heard is key. It’s important to listen to your team and quickly identify their best ideas and then act fast — execution is crucial. You can have a great idea, but without implementation, it doesn’t matter. Motivate and encourage your team to constantly innovate and try new things; this will ultimately help drive innovation forward. Culture is built from the top down, so the CEO must lead by example and welcome all innovative ideas, even if they push the limits of the core business.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The speed of the leader determines the rate of the pack.”
I put leaders into two buckets. There are leaders that talk and then there are leaders that do. It’s up to the leader to set the tempo, roll up their sleeves, and lead from the front. If the owner of a business works hard and is passionate and dedicated, it will become infectious and create a tempo and strong company culture in which everyone falls in line. As a leader, you have to do the hard work, and show your team first-hand the speed needed to keep up and build a successful company. By setting that speed and tone from the highest position, the right culture and tempo is set to win in an ever changing world of technology. Now your company just has to keep up.
How can our readers further follow your work?
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MichaelKochCEO
Facebook Page URL: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelKochCEO/
LinkedIn Page URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelkochceo/
Instagram Page URL: https://www.instagram.com/michaelkochceo/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
