Agile Businesses: Tim Beyer Of Sana Commerce On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Always keep a very close eye on what the competition is doing. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming complacent, arrogant, or lazy. When you’re doing well, it’s easy to get lulled into a state of overconfidence. Just because you’re ahead of competitors now doesn’t mean you will be tomorrow. And if you’re behind them today, there’s no reason that couldn’t change a year from now. You need to know what’s going on in the ecosystem where your business exists and continue to always look for your next opportunity.
As part of my series about the “How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face of Disruptive Technologies”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tim Beyer.
Tim Beyer is global COO of technology scale-up Sana Commerce, and currently based in NYC as President and CEO of the Americas region: comprised of offices in NYC and Medellin (80 FTE). Sana Commerce started as an extension of ISM eCompany (2007) but has since evolved to offer an innovative B2B e-commerce software solution. Sana has won various awards since it began and is one of the fastest growing SaaS companies founded in the Netherlands (500+ FTE / +20M ARR / +17.5M Service Revenue).
Upon graduation, Tim was hired by the former Dutch Secretary of the Treasury and Cabinet minister of Finance (who is also a tech entrepreneur), Jan Kees de Jager, to guide the international expansion of the then largely domestically-operating firm. Tim established the Sana Commerce branches in New York and Sri Lanka in early 2014. The following year, he was appointed Global COO and became part of Sana Commerce’s global management team. In this role, he was made accountable for international (expansion) activities (10+ countries YTD), and scaling up its global business support services (Finance, Tax,; HR; Legal; IT; FM; IM). He was formally appointed to the Board of Management of the holding group in December 2016.
As the company has more than tripled in size in just 5 years’ time, scaling up and managing these (global) operations, with an awesome team across 3 continents, was Tim’s primary challenge. As Sana’s American operations started to gain real traction, Tim moved over to NYC in January 2019 to further accelerate and manage Sana’s growth in this region. It has since tripled its footprint in the region.
Tim is a highly coveted guest lecturer and keynote speaker, having presented at various prestigious educational institutions and companies in the Netherlands and abroad, sharing insights on topics like international entrepreneurship, cross-cultural management, market entrance- and growth strategies, scaling up, and the Rockefeller Habits.
Tim holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business Administration and two Master’s degrees in Finance (MSc) and Financial Law (LLM, cum laude).
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
I started out as a fresh college graduate with a dream, like many, to work for a large, internationally renowned brand. However, a friend of mine recommended that I work for Sana Commerce: a small business based out of Rotterdam that was looking for someone to conduct market research. At the time, I thought I would stay for a few months while I continued my job search, but almost 9 years later, I am proud to still be with the company that helped me grow to where I am today. I’m so fortunate to now be able to help our business thrive as well.
As I worked for Sana over the years, new opportunities kept coming and the business continued to grow at a 50% year-over-year rate. Change and growth came with new requirements and new needs. I ended up leading the internationalization process, setting up a product development center abroad to account for the lack of local IT resources in the Netherlands, and supporting recruitment, HR and finance as the business’ Global Chief Operating Officer. In 2019, I was appointed CEO of the Americas, and moved to New York City to lead our operations and expansion across North and South America, where we’ve continued our growth trajectory.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?
When you expand a company internationally, things feel exciting and full of possibilities. However the realities of global expansion are always different than you expect, even when it comes to simple things like socio-cultural differences, regional customs, or dietary needs. For example, when Sana Commerce first started to go global, we set up an office in Sri Lanka and brought that first group of Sri Lankan colleagues to the Netherlands. We wanted them to experience the office culture at our headquarters, to get onboarded face-to-face, and give them a chance to meet their fellow colleagues. We organized a six-week training period. What we didn’t realize at the time was that most of them had never left their home country, and therefore had never experienced cold weather like what we have in the Netherlands. Plus, we had scheduled the training in February, where the daily average is below 35 degrees Fahrenheit.
I learned quickly that when working with colleagues, partners, or customers of many cultures, it’s important to be aware of differences in your backgrounds, to not make assumptions, and to be open-minded about the thoughts, preferences, and opinions of others. For that training period in particular, we ended up having to take a company shopping trip to stock up on jackets, hats, and scarves for our new colleagues. It was certainly an eye-opening mistake at the time, but it’s particularly funny looking back on it now because cultural-awareness training is part of our onboarding for all employees, and it’s a mistake we would never make today.
Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
For me, that would be our shareholder and founder, Jan Kees de Jager. He not only founded the company and hired me for my first role at Sana Commerce, but also resigned for six years to go into politics and take on the role of Dutch Secretary of the Treasury.
Back then, he was working with some of the best and brightest people around the world. So, when he hired me, he established clear expectations. “The bar is set high, and I don’t expect anything less,” he said. Although it was slightly intimidating at the time, it was also a moment that pushed me to challenge myself, to get the most out of my own abilities, and to hold a high standard for myself throughout my personal and professional life.
He has been a critical coach and mentor all along the way as I’ve grown with Sana, and what I appreciate most is that he is always honest with me. A great mentor will give it to you straight. They will praise you when you’ve done outstanding work. They will offer constructive criticism when they see areas for improvement. But most importantly, they advocate on your behalf and are a constant source of support. Having a mentor that made all of this possible for me was instrumental to my development and to navigating the path that has brought me to where I am now.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your company started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
When I first started out at Sana, our purpose was very clear and explicit: we wanted to make things easier, more tailored, and more scalable for B2B organizations who were looking to invest in e-commerce and their business’ digital transformation. Back then, traditional B2C sellers were the ones truly being catered to when it came to e-commerce technology. There was no real commerce product out there that fit the specific use case of a B2B company and its online customers, nor one that was built to handle the complexity of B2B buying and selling. Our purpose was to not only offer that one-of-a-kind product, but to be an innovator and leader in that space.
Our vision at first was more implicit to our business. It was firmly in our DNA from Day 1, but it was something that we didn’t even uncover ourselves until we developed our identity as a brand. In 2019, we conducted market research with a brand development expert who unearthed the true differentiator that set us apart from competitors, and simultaneously revealed the true vision of Sana Commerce. What makes Sana Commerce stand out is not just our product’s functional benefits or how we help our customers; it’s in the way we boldly choose to redefine what e-commerce and digital transformation mean for B2B businesses. E-commerce and digitization are, at their core, about the relationships they enable, foster, and strengthen. And our vision as a brand is to make sure that we share that fundamental truth: that doing business successfully and for a long time is about prioritizing relationships, not just about transactions.
Can you tell our readers a bit about what your business does? How do you help people?
Sana Commerce provides a scalable, user-friendly, and reliable e-commerce platform, “Sana Commerce Cloud,” for growing B2B organizations looking to embrace digital transformation and accelerate business in a constantly changing market. Our unique approach to developing the software has resulted in a one-of-a-kind product, one that integrates natively with Microsoft Dynamics and SAP ERP systems without the need for additional middleware or connector technology.
Our seamless integration makes it possible for our customers to run a high-performing web store that’s reliable, data-rich, and both easy and engaging to use. But that’s only the beginning. What’s exciting is the positive impact that our web stores and services have on the success of our customers’ businesses. They enrich the relationship between supplier and buyer. They leave positive impressions on customers, who come back and refer new customers to us. And they ensure the organization remains relevant, resilient, and agile in the face of disruption.
Which technological innovation has encroached or disrupted your industry? Can you explain why this has been disruptive?
In the time since Sana Commerce was founded, we’ve moved from an on-premise hardware business to one that enables global expansion with cloud-hosted software. Market-wide, the move to the cloud has made it possible for organizations doing business nationally or locally to reach their global ambitions. It’s torn down boundaries in B2B.
The rise of the cloud has created an efficient and cost-effective way to scale your business. Organizations can expand around the globe without needing to make large investments in infrastructure and heavy servers the way they used to. It’s as easy as it’s ever been to launch a web store, software, or environment wherever you are active or want to be active in the world. But that has also required solution providers like Sana to pivot, adjust their ways of working, and embrace multiple kinds of hosting to meet the preferences of B2B buyers.
What did you do to pivot as a result of this disruption?
It’s simple. We made sure to keep pace with it. At Sana Commerce, we always aim to innovate and stay on the cutting-edge of the next big thing. And that needed to be true of our software as well.
In the past, we needed to work with our customers to set up their physical infrastructure and then also to ensure our software was installed within it. Now, we have more flexibility. Whatever region or territory our customer wants to expand into, we can leverage the Microsoft Azure server to provide them a hassle-free and fast implementation of a future-ready, cloud-hosted solution.
Was there a specific “Aha moment” that gave you the idea to start this new path? If yes, we’d love to hear the story.
There was no specific moment of epiphany that sparked the cloud-based path for Sana. It was more so a decision to act after monitoring trends and understanding where the market was headed.
These days, every business hoping to get the most out of their software is switching to a subscription-based model hosted in the cloud. Cloud technology today allows us to access these massive databases via smartphone, mobile, tablets, etc., from anywhere, and build a more connected world. We knew that was the future and we pivoted toward it.
How are things going with this new direction?
It’s going well so far, but it can only go further. The days of organizations paying for a bundled package of technologies, regardless of whether they will use them all, are gone.
Today, businesses want to rent what they need and pay as they go when it comes to software and services. More and more customers are interested in usage-based pricing, so they can ensure that they pay for what they use and nothing more, in order to spend their budget strategically. Organizations that once invested in a perpetual license or hardware now prefer a subscription-based model and more flexibility to be able to adapt, change, and scale in the face of disruption. There’s a lot of opportunity there as well.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this pivot?
What stands out to me about the pivot in our business is how massively and quickly it’s allowed us to scale. Since the shift, Sana has opened nine offices around the world, most recently in Dubai, and we have customers across several dozen countries — something that would not have been possible for us before.
We went global as a business in a way we couldn’t otherwise, and we’ve also allowed our customers to go global in new and unprecedented ways.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during a disruptive period?
The key is to communicate, and to use that communication as a way to provide stability, comfort, and clarity across your organization. Often disruption goes hand in hand with uncertainty and that tends to worry people.
During a disruptive period, it’s important to address how you want to adapt and what you want to achieve to get through it, but you also need to remain transparent. On an uncertain road, you don’t know where it will lead or end, and that is okay. Be upfront about what uncertainty you face, but also continue to look ahead and move confidently toward your end goal.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
I think what’s most crucial is that you’re always a team player, not just a leader, but a true part of the team. Don’t put yourself above or outside of your team. At Sana, we have what we consider a very flat organization, and we’ve steered away from rigid hierarchical ways of working. What’s always worked for me is that I’ve always tried to be approachable, and always worked on the floor alongside my team.
The reality is that if you do your hiring right, you hire rockstars. You hire the people best equipped to come up with the fresh ideas and innovative solutions your business needs. That may also mean that you won’t be the one with all the answers. Be open to learning from your team and ask questions. Create a work culture where people want to speak up, dare to be themselves, and don’t hesitate to tackle new initiatives. Then it’s up to you to assess those initiatives, and set the right priorities and proper focus for the team.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
Be open and transparent. That’s a lesson I learned quickly, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine period. In the first few months, we didn’t know how the economy would be impacted, or how our business would be. But we were always honest and direct about what scenarios we faced at any given time, how the business was doing financially, how it could impact the team, and what might happen next. It gave the team some comfort, but also ultimately sparked lots of new and creative ideas from within the organization on how to navigate an uncomfortable time together.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make when faced with a disruptive technology? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
Disruptive technologies are everywhere, and even more are in development as we speak. But how businesses react to and adopt these technologies can often spell success or failure — depending on how well-prepared the business is for that shift. Some of the mistakes I’ve seen businesses make in my career include:
- Those who don’t think it will impact their business and do nothing.
- Those who rush into adopting an emerging technology before they fully understand how it fits their business needs.
- Those who go all-in without experimenting and testing.
Organizations, and the leaders guiding them, need to be fully and properly educated before implementing a disruptive new technology. Don’t rush the decision-making process. Get a clear grasp of how the technology works and how your organization will need to adapt in order to adopt it. But it’s important not to worry unnecessarily about pivoting your business 180 degrees just to implement a new technology. You can (and should) experiment with and test new technologies before you rethink your tech stack, processes, or business model altogether.
Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things a business leader should do to pivot and stay relevant in the face of disruptive technologies? Please share a story or an example for each.
1. Make sure you get relevant market insight and knowledge about the new technology first-hand, especially as your business grows. Over time, it becomes easy to rely on the people around you and to absorb new information through the lens of others. So, I think it’s important to truly understand the disruptor at hand and to take initiative to learn that yourself. It’s necessary before you can properly guide your business through potential disruption.
2. Always keep a very close eye on what the competition is doing. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming complacent, arrogant, or lazy. When you’re doing well, it’s easy to get lulled into a state of overconfidence. Just because you’re ahead of competitors now doesn’t mean you will be tomorrow. And if you’re behind them today, there’s no reason that couldn’t change a year from now. You need to know what’s going on in the ecosystem where your business exists and continue to always look for your next opportunity.
3. Listen (closely and intentionally) to your employees and your partners. They are the ones experiencing what it’s like to work with your company and your product on a day-to-day basis. Often, organizations collect this data, but it never makes it back up to the decision-makers. Make sure there’s a system implemented in your organization to retrieve that feedback and act on it.
4. Become experts in relevant market information. Never stop being curious about what’s going on around your business. Many make the mistake of focusing only on what’s happening within their organization, and that’s precisely the moment when competitors outpace them.
5. Create an environment where people dare to experiment and innovate within your organization. Hire people who want to try out new things and prioritize forward thinking over just short-term revenue goals. Businesses that get too bogged down in hitting their next target never give their teams the space and time to uncover the next big thing. But you can fuel these ideas with the right approach to leadership.
“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” — Steve Jobs
I personally and wholeheartedly believe that in life, you must explore and be curious to find what you love, and then do what you love. For that reason, I’m also a firm believer in travel and in discovering the world. It’s important to get out of our own contexts and live in the moment to gain perspective. Once we have that perspective, we can figure out the things that truly motivate us and make us feel passionate, and then pursue those goals with confidence, drive, and excitement.
How can our readers further follow your work?
You can connect with me on LinkedIn, where I often share articles I find interesting, my own insights on the latest trends, and any recent articles or blogs I’ve contributed to recently: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beyertim/.
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Agile Businesses: Tim Beyer Of Sana Commerce On How Businesses Pivot and Stay Relevant In The Face… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
