Meet Ralf Parfuss, the Chief Executive Officer of Connect.it, whose unique ideologies and methodologies have led him and his company to its current successful stature. His decisive nature and driven by implementing innovation to transform the traditional custom ways. Through quoting, “It is not about being the best, but being better than you were yesterday,” he emphasizes over one’s ability to be persistent and march forward for the greater good. He suggests many a book by Daniel Kahneman titled “Think fast and slow”, which he believes is exceptionally brilliant to understand functioning of whole life.
Tycoon Success admire such leaders and appreciate Ralf’s contribution in the evolution of business. The magazine takes pride in featuring him in this special issue.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Into the Shoes of Ralf
Ralf mentions, at the age of 45, he was already an exceptional manager specializing in IT and IoT projects and start-ups with their finger on the pulse. As a visionary, he follows his inner drive. He prefers and sees the big picture, can imagine what it is like when you change things and implement his visions and ideas in his company with persistence and a culture of innovation. As a free and lateral thinker, he succeeds in identifying and solving problems in an incredibly creative way and through various means and ways.
His will to personal commitment is unruly in the foreground. Driven by a thirst for knowledge, he is never satisfied with simple answers. His extensive network of contacts, which are mutually beneficial, proves his decisiveness also existing ideas of other people are taken up and improved. His vision is to forge new paths, to question previous “truths” and to confidently and independently commit to something. Ultimately, he often trusts his intuition and cannot always explain everything down to the last detail. He instinctively follows his nose and is mostly sure to be on the right track.
In the year 2019, he was honored as one of the 10 best CEO’s. As IoT enthusiast he founded 2014 among others the company t-matix with the first programming free IoT platform worldwide, already before the IoT market was born. In order to make his start-up a success, he was convinced that it was necessary to bring in the know-how and clout of an international player and sold t-matix to this company. Due to his experience, technical competence, creativity and implementation skills, he has a good eye for markets and technology and is someone who recognizes at an early stage needs and potential and brings an idea to implementation. Countless contacts to major players and experience in the field of financing and M&A take all projects to a great success. Driven by a thirst for knowledge, Ralf Parfuss is never satisfied with simple answers. How can you do something better? Why does something not work, or: If A works, B should work too – such questions and considerations are typical for him. His main principle is to have fun at work. This is the only way to successfully implement products and projects. Right from the start, the focus is always on the conclusive definition of goals and well-structured business plans in order to be able to measure progress afterwards.
Products to Rely On
Ralf states that with connect.it he and his team are specialized in business development of digital products in software, telematics and IoT. Whilst, these technical skills combined with its ERP and process knowledge cover all necessary and mandatory things to be successful. A wide range of small companies but also big international players trust in its developing small to huge products and projects, which are predominantly of a technical nature. In the past few years, company have implemented more than 100 IT projects. Currently it has successfully supported the establishment of a large cell phone operator and a company with toll and traffic management, but also implemented telematics products for OEMs and large construction companies, and not at least, it has created and developed the world’s first independent and programming-free IoT platform within t-matix. Moreover he states that the company is planning and executing the visionary orientation of several start-ups, mainly supporting and connecting their products with revolutionary IoT processes., most exciting is the realization of an unprecedented invention.
The company works for small startups up to large international companies. He states that the overriding principle is to gain trust in its work with openness, honesty and handshake quality. “Even if things don’t go well, you have to address things openly and solve them together,” he adds. The company focuses on the goal and the solution, technology is always challenging and has no place for a culture of claiming. Connect.it counts on its team with extensive know-how and a lot of experience as well as all the necessary resources for successful implementation, which are:- Visionary orientation and creativity combined with technical know-how- Financing and operational processing including controlling- Marketing and Design- Software and hardware development- Project implementation- Operations and support- High M&A experience
Well-led Team Ralf states that to be based on an equal footing and appreciation always have top priority, and thus the focus must be on people. He and his always try to promote the strengths of every employee and at this point it is important to understand that not everyone can do everything, but that strengths have to be evaluated first. Further he states, the team with the right skills and responsibilities needs to be aligned. He and his team achieve fairness by working out and setting goals with every employee from individual employees to top management. “Only under this circumstances an employee has the chance to reach a successful day-to-day work,” says Ralf.
Overcoming the Challenges
“Growth is the primary challenge,” quotes Ralf. It sounds very simple, but the challenges are that every employee has the right work orders on the table every morning, that the goal is clearly defined and that everybody has the chance to go home after a successful day with the feeling that he or she has brought the company a step forward again. He states that in particular, leading across multiple levels is extremely difficult for managers. As defining goals and good communication is the key to success yet, this is often underestimated and creates a lot of problems for employees. He also emphasizes that the key to success is to focus on the goal and get everyone on board with power and enthusiasm. “But above all the right team and people around you who can be relied on are crucial. And even when things don’t go well you have to learn to hand over responsibility,” he states.
The company has won many awards and attained many achievements, are mention below:
- 2017 Telematik Award Gold
- 2018 DIGITAL Impuls Award
- 2019 Telematik Award Gold
- 2020 Top Smart Cities Provider in Europe
- 2021 Top List in Telematics
Advice worth Appreciating
Ralf advices that one must take time for his/her team and management to develop a clear strategy. One must also define targets and milestones with KPI’s that can be measured. “In the next step synch and communicate with your team and review the progress at least monthly,” says Ralf. Further he states that excellent co-operations with good partnerships are the key, especially in the complex tech area one need to scale. “You can reach this goal with great partnerships and the right planning,” he adds.