How We Focused On Customer Experience And Grew Revenue By 30%
This is a follow up story for Wolfpack Digital. If you're interested in reading how they got started, published almost 5 years ago, check it out here.
Hello again! Remind us who you are and what business you started.
Hello again! I am Georgina Lupu Florian (Gina) and I run Wolfpack Digital, a company that I started 6 years ago in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We build powerful web and mobile apps start-to-end for businesses in various industries from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, US & Canada. Our team has now reached the 60 people threshold, as we’ve just had our 6th (online) anniversary.
Tell us about what you’ve been up to! Has the business been growing?
Since we last talked, our team has grown by almost 20%, and our revenue has increased by 30%, which is more positive than initially expected at the start of the pandemic in March last year.
Stay true to what makes you tick! Be persevering and results will come in the end. Don’t forget to play and experiment, besides sticking to the plan!
Fortunately for our industry, tech is one of the solutions to today’s problems so the overall context has been a favorable one in this respect, along with the fact that we are present in multiple industries. This is not to say that there haven’t been many challenges, especially in the management area during the early weeks of the pandemic.
Our strategy was to be as adaptive as possible to suit the changing needs of our existing clients. Additionally, we focused on proactively getting involved in proposals that could help new clients with their accelerated digital transformation. Being there for them has definitely helped with strengthening our working relationships. We’ve changed development plans swiftly and managed impressive launches with our clients for apps in the beauty, fintech, transportation, sports, and IoT industries.
What have been your biggest lessons learned in the last year?
In the past year, we learned that processes and people break when exposed to unprecedented shifts (such as Covid-19) in places where we have the most vulnerabilities anyway. The resulting cleansing is simply accelerated by crises, and although it is sometimes painful, it is in the end beneficial. I can say the last year has made us more resilient and strategic, with a willingness to focus more on strategy in the future. This may sound counter-intuitive, given that in the past year adaptation seemed to top strategy for everyone, however, the two do not exclude each other.
We have also been quite lucky in the past year, as we had quite good stability faced with the pandemic, and none of our major projects got interrupted (we had some scale-downs, though). Some companies in our industry, which remain blessed during these times, have had serious challenges. On some level, it is a gamble. On another level, not having all your eggs in one basket (depending too much on certain revenue flows) does pay off.
On the personal side, I am happy to have found, surprisingly, better balance and heightened motivation levels. I believe this is partly due to the less stimulating external environment in day-to-day life, which allows for organizing a busy daily schedule more easily, plus I’ve gotten back to meditation as a habit. I’m also grateful to have connected with good old friends living abroad now more than before since remote connections have become the norm.
What’s in the plans for the upcoming year, and the next 5 years?
We believe in the power of investing in people and in that of being inspired in everything we do by the Wolf: agile, powerful, performant, in sync with its environment.
We plan to continue our focus on being our absolute best and on improving ourselves day by day. In this sense, in the next year, we’ll be piloting our internal career development program. Our focus for the next 5 years is mainly on improving service quality, with a revenue target (growing by at least 20% annually), rather than a headcount target. All while enjoying the ride.
Have you read any good books in the last year?
I enjoyed reading Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, because of the convincing plea it brings for productivity and optimization. I also found Quiet: The Power Of Introverts by Susain Cain to be especially soul-nourishing, as it helps celebrate introverted aspects of the human personality and leverage them in teams and daily life.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who might be struggling to grow their business?
My advice for them is to think globally and integrate tech solutions in whatever they do! The opportunity for them now is that it’s much easier to reach global audiences, plus there is a uniformization of pricing taking place across the globe.
Last but not least, stay true to what makes you tick! Be persevering and results will come in the end. Don’t forget to play and experiment, besides sticking to the plan!
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We are always looking to hire exceptional developers and managers. Although the pandemic has changed the way we work, we still prefer having our team close to home (our office), so if you are based in Cluj-Napoca, please do not hesitate to get in touch!
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
