TheCconnects: Can you tell our readers a little about your professional journey & how did you come to your current role/position?
Adam Greenberg: My career journey has actually been quite an accident. After graduating high school I took a job as a belayer with an arborist company. I found rope work really interesting and thought to pursue a career in search and rescue. I learned however that career prospects in this field were by and large with the military and that didn’t really appeal to me. While working for the tree company I met a couple who owned a small computer firm that built computers and set up networks for business. After injuring my back snowboarding and mentioning to this couple in a social setting that a career that relied on my physical abilities was probably not going to happen for me, they invited me to help their small but growing company by answering phones.
I did that for a while and noticed that most of their customers seemed to be dentists and doctors needing equipment and networks for their medical practices. I suggested to the owners that they niche down and become the dental/medical computer specialists and they agreed. They invested in the idea and they invested in me by putting me through some professional sales and management training. I built a sales and marketing team around this plan and over 3 years we grew the company 3X.
I was later recruited to Ceridian which really launched my career and I have led sales, and sales operations and been on the executive committee for companies such as Ceridian, Successfactors, Peoplefluent, Talemetry, SAP and Rizing. It was during my time at Rizing that I was recruited to MakeShift and asked to turn the company around and help it grow. I’ve been with MakeShift for a year now. We grew last year by 25%, managed to raise some capital and our prospects for the future look good. In fact, I plan to deploy that same formula at MakeShift of niching down that started my career so many years ago.
TheCconnects: Who has influenced you the most in life and why?
Adam Greenberg: It would be really hard to nail down a single person. Ultimately, my parents taught me to love, be creative, think critically, and engage in the world around me with positivity. They allowed me to take risks and have always supported me. That’s really the ultimate influence although I have had some great leaders over my career who I have learned from and grown as a result of as well.
TheCconnects: What are the biggest challenges you have faced in your life & how did you overcome them?
Adam Greenberg: Probably the greatest challenge was my cancer diagnosis. What I learned from that experience was how nothing really matters more than family. I also learned that saving is just as important as enjoying the moment. The biggest lesson through this experience however was to surrender to the process. I overcame my fear by accepting the diagnosis and responding to it intellectually instead of emotionally.
TheCconnects: What lessons you have learned from your professional career?
Adam Greenberg: Jobs come and go. Relationships with people are what matter the most. Relationships are built on trust. Your actions are what count both in the boardroom and outside of it.
TheCconnects: What do you see as the biggest challenge for brands in the digital space?
Adam Greenberg: The biggest challenge is standing out. The competition for attention is fierce. Content that adds value to people’s personal and professional lives is the key to staying relevant.
TheCconnects: How your product/solution can help to resolve the pain points of your customers?
Adam Greenberg: We help give people their time back to focus on what really matters to them. That means more control over their schedule.
TheCconnects: Do you have any advice for those who want to become a chief executive officer?
Adam Greenberg: Stay current. Business, technology and the challenges facing our global society are changing faster than they ever have before and at the same time, change will never move this slowly again so don’t stop learning. Invest in yourself.
