Yann A. Skaalen: A Tech Savvy Business Leader
The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders to Follow in 2021
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The pinnacle of success is achieved by the
ones who are driven by vision and dedication. Business leaders with these two
personality traits can assess specific pain points of the market and bridge the
gap by adding value to the problem. One such visionary business leader is Yann
A. Skaalen. He is the CEO of Digtective Holding AS,
a company that monitors the effect of all digital marketing activities in every
media every day and can measure offline conversions with 100% accuracy.
At the age of nineteen, Yann had decided
about his goals and what he wanted to be professionally when he would reach the
age of thirty. These goals he achieved at the age of 26 and made a new goal to
be the leader of his own company. And one year later, he started his own
company. “This is what inspires me to work towards and achieve my
goals,” says Yann.
Yann had a job in cinema advertisement
where he realized his interest and knowledge in marketing. He explains,
“Combining these with my passion in technology digital marketing seemed like
the perfect fit for me. I saw great potential in the market and the solving of
its challenges.”
Taking Challenges as a Way to Success
For Yann, challenges are one of the
greatest motivations throughout his journey. He always tries to evaluate the
market’s pain points and finds great potential in solving them. He deems
everything is possible; the harder ones just take more time.
During the financial crisis in 2008, Yann led
and co-owned a mortgage broker. As you may imagine, the financial crisis struck
us hard, decreasing our revenue by 66% overnight. He considered that period of
his life when he truly learned some valuable lessons. He states, “Firstly,
I realized how vulnerable you truly are. We were vulnerable to something
happening across the world with no real connection to us, we were just a small
piece in a gigantic puzzle. Secondly, this crisis taught me the value of
liquidity in the company as this was determining our entire future.”
He further adds, “The pandemic
could also be seen as a bit of a roadblock. The main focus for Digtective is at
the moment to secure more customers. However, it is a hard task to accomplish
since the current restrictions make in-person meetings impossible.”
Services of Digtective Holding AS
Today’s biggest challenge in digital
marketing is staying compliant with the new regulation, but Digtective has the
solution. The team at Digtective solved the issue surrounding the inability to
conversion track compliant with the new privacy laws. The tracking has made
cookieless and stores no client data. Besides this, Digtective has also managed
to solve offline tracking by being able to offer 100% accurate offline
conversion tracking (this is also compliant with e-privacy and GDPR laws). It
offers its customers a compliant cookieless conversion tracking tool.
Digtective neither stores any client data nor uses cookies or fingerprinting,
leaving all conversion tracking 100% anonymous and 100% GDPR / e-Privacy
compliant. It is the only tracking tool that tracks all its users’ ad
conversions, even the offline ones, and lets them see all their digital
marketing on just one dashboard. Digtective offers its clients 100% accurate
conversion tracking.
As a CEO
At Digtective Holding AS, Yann is
responsible for all the major business activities. He says that describing a
regular day at work is borderline impossible as no day is the other alike.
According to Yann, building a good culture in the company with a big room for
growth and improvement for everyone is the key to keeping the team motivated.
He adds practices like having regular follow-ups with colleagues are essential.
Such processes let everyone feel seen and have the opportunity to express
concerns, ideas and become a significant part of the company’s growth. Yann
says, “Good routines in the company are always of big value since it
simplifies the workday and leaves room for the time to be spent at something
more productive.”
Supporting Others while
Leading
Yann asserts, “As a leader, the
best recognition that you can get is by far to see and hear how people who have
worked for you are happy with the leader and colleague that you were for them.” Yann
has had positive reviews from the people who have worked for him in the past.
It makes him happy that he is successfully created a safe and healthy culture
for his teammates so they can thrive in personal and professional life. He
opines, “To know that I can inspire, motivate and help others in their
journey of self-improvement is truly remarkable.”
Starting Day with Aligning thoughts and
Strategy
Keeping a balance between personal and
professional life is one thing that Yann finds truly hard and something that he
still struggles with to this day. He believes that one should cherish the
moments whenever one gets the chance and makes them count.
However, other than work, Yann’s daily life
follows the same routine. His day starts with answering emails between 5-6 AM
each morning, but more importantly, he likes to think during morning time. He
describes, “I like the peace and quiet in the morning to take time to
do much of my thinking work. I often lay out a strategy for the day and what I
want to accomplish during it.”
Culture of Innovation
One of the principal core values of
Digtective is to always strive for growth and improvement. As the saying goes
nothing is perfect, there’s always room for improvement. Another core value is
to always look after each other. “You borrow your employees, so make their time
in the company as positive and fulfilling as possible. Keep your employees
happy, and it will be easier to recruit your next colleague. It is by
maintaining this type of mindset that you as a leader can improve and connect
with your fellow colleagues,” states Yann.
To ensure a culture of integrity and
innovation within the team, it is necessary to constantly work and create an
environment that makes everyone feel safe. Yann asserts, “Your
colleagues shall always feel respected, important, and listened to. It is by
making the work environment a safe place that you maintain a culture of
integrity.” He further adds that it is also required to lead with a
good example and live how one preaches. He assumes one can never expect from
others what he/she can’t do.
The key to a culture of innovation is in
many ways in line with that of integrity. Yann also believes that
it is necessary to give individuals a lot of freedom and responsibility.
Responsibilities avail the opportunity for them to develop and grow.
Components of Growth; Values, Great
Team, and Understanding Costumers
According to Yann, the key to
staying abreast with the competition is to listen to customers because, without
them, the company is nothing. At Digtective, the team highly values its
customers’ opinions. The company takes customers’ feedback to heart and
improves accordingly. Yann opines, “We try to improve in the direction
the markets and customers’ needs take us.”
For Yann, having the right team is vital to
stay ahead in the competition. He believes that a competent and motivated team
will result in an improving company.
A Versatile Entrepreneur
Yann has been involved with digital
marketing since 1997 and has founded (and co-founded) several successful
businesses over the years that include Finansa AS and Mybank ASA. Finansa AS
was a mortgage broker that he founded and worked with for several years before
selling it.
Yann’s latest venture was Mybank, a
challenger bank that he was a part of co-founding. In Mybank, he is in the
position of CCO and CMO and then promoted into the COO while simultaneously
being the CTO. Yann is also the architect behind the CRM-system of Mybank ASA
called Amos that has built in tracking system.
For more information, please visit digtective.com.