Insights

Strengths, Challenges and Future Growth: A Q&A chat with Beyondsoft Consulting Inc.’s CEO

I had the privilege to chat with our CEO Marshall Ma about the company’s vision, employee training, and his go-to method for de-stressing. Throughout our candid conversation, I have gained valuable insights into his experience, challenges, and aspirations.

Tell us about yourself.

Marshall: I am one of the founders of Beyondsoft and have worked for the company for 28 years. In 2015 I moved to the U.S. to drive the company’s most important market – North America. Our vision is to establish Beyondsoft as one of the top IT services companies in the Americas and Europe regions, focusing on cloud services, data, AI, infrastructure, cybersecurity operations, cost optimization, and business process management. I am grateful to work with a diverse team of talents who are rooted in customer success. I am proud of our achievements so far and look forward to conquering new sales wins.

“It is a team effort that has allowed us to expand our footprint in Costa Rica, Brazil, and the United Kingdom. It has been an incredible journey, filled with challenges and triumphs.”

–Marshall Ma

Many employees perceive you as an introvert and a man of few words. Do you agree with their observations?

Marshall: <Laughs> I am a former engineer who prefers deep thinking. As I grow in my role as a CEO, I am learning to listen more and ask a few clarifying questions. I now learn more from employees and dig deeper to help them adjust and adapt to changing circumstances. Like Bill Bradley, the American basketball player said: “Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.”

What do you think is the biggest strength of our company now?

Marshall: Have you done your homework, Sharon?

Sharon: <Laughs> Yes, and I want to hear your perspective

Marshall: We have a strong heritage in technology services, and a proven track record with many mid-sized and enterprise customers. We have a flat hierarchy in this organization and remain agile in helping our customers to be successful. We keep pace with innovation and commit to continuous learning from customers, partners, analysts, and our competitors. We bring local and overseas expertise to work with our customers to build a sustainable digital journey.

Every customer has unique needs, and there is no one-size fits all solution. We unpack the must-haves, the changes and improvements needed, based on our customers’ company culture, business requirements, and technology readiness.  

“I am confident that collective knowledge from data, intelligence, and humans will accelerate business growth for our customers.”

–Marshall Ma

In addition, I do want to point out that we know Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live, work, interact and use insights to improve decision-making processes. We’re glad to have invested in AI more than five years ago, enabling our customers to automate repetitive tasks, get actionable contextual insights for accurate forecasting, and provide a more personalized user experience. Our team of data scientists are also leveraging OpenAI’s ChatGPT to enhance our AI Ops platform. We’ll share more news about that soon.

What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced, and how would you change them?

Marshall: A challenge is an opportunity, and an opportunity is a challenge. I face challenges and opportunities daily. I have open, honest and tough discussions with my leadership team regularly. I don’t have all the answers, and I do my best to remove barriers and work with my leadership team to break down challenges into actionable tasks or opportunities to achieve the outcomes we need. John C. Maxwell, a popular American author, says it elegantly: “Leadership is about transforming challenges into opportunities for growth.”  

How do you see Beyondsoft change in the next few years, how would you prepare and what do you expect from your employees?

Marshall: New technologies will continue to develop over the next few years, especially in the field of AI, security and governance. This will bring profound changes to the IT services industry. Not only will our customers’ needs evolve, but traditional business models will also change, many jobs will be automated or replaced, and new jobs will emerge.

As a leader, I’m always on the lookout for investment in new technologies, keeping the organizational structure agile, and exploring new technology partner ecosystems to accelerate growth.

As we keep up with these changes, striking a balance between long-term growth and agility is a delicate move. I want to continue creating a culture that nurtures creativity, allowing us to leverage experiences from the past to better navigate future challenges. I also want to encourage employees to improve their skills and set aside time for training. I know our HR team has recently sent out a free training resources guide to employees

What is the ONE thing that you do regularly to maintain good mental health?

Marshall: I run 5km weekly . Exercise is a good outlet to de-stress and improves my concentration at work.

Sharon: Thank you for your time.