An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Collaboration — Perfecting team dynamics across the entire business can seem impossible but championing a culture that promotes diversity and education can help teams work more collaboratively and efficiently. Intercultural understanding of diversity and the positive impact on individuals and the wider business is key to promoting anti-racism and community harmony across the group. Learning to appreciate cultural differences and understanding unconscious bias helps employees understand barriers different groups face. In turn, this heightened cultural awareness fosters teams to work together and avoid clashes that could negatively impact the team dynamic or delivery timeline.
As a part of our series about “How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elona Mortimer-Zhika.
Elona is the Chief Executive Officer of IRIS Software Group and is responsible for all operations across the Group. Elona is dedicated to ensure IRIS is the most trusted provider of mission-critical software and services. She is very passionate about building winning teams that provide customers with an exceptional experience and value-add solutions.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into the main part of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit more. Can you share a bit of your “backstory” with us?
I grew up in Albania and was fortunate to be awarded a scholarship for the International Baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College in Wales, UK. I was only the second Albanian child ever chosen alongside 200 students from 130 different countries. Accountancy has always appealed to me. My Dad was an economist, and as a child, I was a numbers geek, so I was delighted to secure a further scholarship for an accounting and economics degree at Reading University. This degree was a revelation — Albania previously ran on a centralized economy, so I had little concept of what privatization or free trade meant until I started studying.
In my final year, I went to role-play as an interviewee on Arthur Andersen’s manager training programme, which led to joining their graduate training scheme. When Deloitte acquired Andersons in the UK, I stayed and became a senior manager, after which I took a role as group financial controller at one of my clients, international text messaging business called Acision.
Can you share an interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? Can you tell us the lesson or take away you took out of that story?
During my time at Atlantic College, I was surrounded by students with incredibly diverse cultures, traditions, and beliefs.
I lived in a dorm with someone from Czech Republic, who wanted to keep the windows open and someone from Rwanda that wanted the windows shut because it was cold. My Rwandan dormee was also a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, she had seen her whole family killed in front of her and she was still searching for relatives she hoped might have survived. She would often wake up in the night screaming, and then pick herself up every morning, living life to the fullest.
There was no other place that made me live the true effects of war, no other place could have taught me what true strength and resilience mean.
I came away realizing that the power of diversity produces the best results.
If you hire to your own cut, your team will be the same as you and the decisions you make will not be as informed as they could be. Don’t work with ‘yes’ people. Bringing together multifaceted teams not only gives learnings along the way, but makes your world bigger, raises the bar and enables you to make the best decisions.
I am a great promoter of diversity at IRIS because diversity, in its truest form — and I’m not only talking about gender — creates an incredible working environment. Each of us is unique, regardless of race, religion, color, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability or age. It is these differences that make us great. In diversity there is beauty, there is strength and better outcomes.
My learning from this experience is to hire a diverse team and bring challenge to the table.
I firmly believe that people from different backgrounds makes for better decision-making.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you tell us a story about how that was relevant in your own life?
My favorite phrase is part of a Roald Dahl quote, ‘Lukewarm is no good’. If you’re enthusiastic about something, you should really go for it. 100% or nothing. Life is too short to waste time on things we are not passionate about and I have returned to this time and time again throughout my career.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
I’m fortunate to have some amazing people in my life who have supported me throughout my career. When I was younger, my Dad inspired me to follow my passions. I was a numbers geek and he was an economist, so he really fostered my curiosity to learn more about the world around me. I’ve also been fortunate to have some supportive bosses and mentors, and my leadership team constantly amaze me with their dedication to go above and beyond to ensure our customers and colleagues have the tools they need to focus on the work they love.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
There is of course our innovation, customer service and our unswerving mission to make crucial business processes efficient and intelligent that makes IRIS stand out.
However, I firmly believe this starts with our colleagues. We use a monthly survey tool to constantly monitor employee feedback, and champion and encourage equality regardless of age, gender, race, religion and sexuality. Our training and development programme includes a high-potential initiatives, celebrations of our top talent and mentoring. We’ve created awards based on our IMPACT values (innovation, making it happen, passion, accountability, customer focus and teamwork); provide opportunities for colleagues to progress entrepreneurial ideas through our #madeinIRIS CEO awards; partner with specialists in mental health and LGBT+ support; organize working parents’ panels; and arrange diversity and gender equality initiatives.
The combination of our focus on employees means our customers receive unparalleled software solutions and services from colleagues who are the best version of themselves.
Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
Our mission is to make critical business processes as efficient as possible. Our unified technology platforms are transforming industries by reducing the time, energy and effort working professionals spend on admin, reporting, and data entry.
With this in mind, we seek to enhance the world around us, inspiring the generations around us to recognize, understand and manage the insight our smart technology provides. We believe knowledge is one of the most powerful tools you can give someone and actively encourage colleagues to contribute to the communities around them, giving them the time to share their experience and skills to make the world a better place.
Our initiatives include working with Bookmark, a charity that aims to ensure every child can read; partnering with charities who work with young girls (15–16-year-old girls) to give them experience of working in the technology industry, a space stereotypically dominated by males. We work closely with universities, including UK-based Salford University, chairing activity such as Hackathons and providing sponsorship opportunities, such as sponsoring a student. Social mobility is also vital, and we work with organizations to improve social mobility for university students by working to create the conditions for undergraduates from less-advantaged backgrounds to access and sustain top graduate jobs. Finally, we work alongside the UK Government, championing a Kickstart Scheme to create six-month work placements in a variety of different departments, to kickstart the careers of young people.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
We all have a duty to pay it forward. On a personal level, I am very grateful for the opportunity to study at Atlantic College, it was life changing for me. In return, I now work closely with the college to make sure other children have the same opportunity. I also give back in time by mentoring other women in leadership, including participating in the UK industry body, ICAEW’s mentoring initiative.
Ok. Thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our interview. This may be obvious to you, but it is not intuitive to many people. Can you articulate to our readers five ways that increased diversity can help a company’s bottom line? (Please share a story or example for each.)
Innovative ideas — When everyone at an organization looks and thinks alike, ideas can run stale and creative ideas are not incentivised. This can cause an organization to stay stuck in a loop, functioning on historical ideologies that are no longer relevant and unable to connect with the world today. Embracing diversity enables everyone to pool together their different life experiences and ways of thinking into innovative new ideas. With diverse teams and by rewarding innovation, you can set yourself apart from market competitors.
At IRIS, we understand the importance of diversity and employee innovation which is why we launched the ‘Made in IRIS CEO Awards’. This initiative was designed to foster employee entrepreneurship, new ideas and innovation to enhance our business. Each quarter, employees can present business plans for new or existing mission-critical software and services to further support our vision to ensure customers get it right every time. A panel then reviews the proposals and chooses the strongest business plans and provides funding and resources to make the business plan come to fruition. Every plan which receives funding is automatically enrolled into the annual Made in IRIS CEO Awards, which allows colleagues to win a one-off prize for their contribution. This healthy competition across IRIS is well received and demonstrates our ongoing mission to encourage employee innovation.
Client relationships — Embracing the strength of diversity will allow your business to assist clients better and meet their needs. As humans, we inherently value working with those who share our experiences and interests. We appreciate that each person experiences life differently and offers varying levels of subject matter knowledge and expertise that drives passion and relatability. When prospective clients meet us, whether in the office or via a Zoom meeting, they may not feel comfortable if they look around and see nobody resembles themselves — and may seek out an organization they find more relatable. Prioritizing diversity can help attract and retain clients to drive increased value.
Talent retention — It’s clear that prospective employees value diverse organizations in their career journey. Nearly one-third of millennials report already leaving an organization for a more inclusive one. Fostering a culture of diversity starts from the top down and lack of diversity amongst leadership can affect the perceived diversity of the organization. Nobody wants to feel like an outsider or ‘token’ in the workplace. Diversity is a critical tool to attract and retain key talent in the workplace as employees take the values of companies increasingly into account. When employees are happy and agree with company values, they will be more inclined to stay on your team and put their best foot forward to deliver outstanding products and services.
Collaboration — Perfecting team dynamics across the entire business can seem impossible but championing a culture that promotes diversity and education can help teams work more collaboratively and efficiently. Intercultural understanding of diversity and the positive impact on individuals and the wider business is key to promoting anti-racism and community harmony across the group. Learning to appreciate cultural differences and understanding unconscious bias helps employees understand barriers different groups face. In turn, this heightened cultural awareness fosters teams to work together and avoid clashes that could negatively impact the team dynamic or delivery timeline.
At IRIS, we understand the value diversity plays in team collaboration, so we created the Team of the Quarter category at our IMPACT Awards to celebrate teams who genuinely exemplify the IRIS values. Rewarding teams in this manner demonstrates to employees that we value those who collaborate and truly embody IRIS values to further our mission.
Employee empowerment and growth — Diversity amongst the top-level leaders at your organization can positively benefit junior employees. When entering a new company, employees look to their leaders for mentorship and guidance to grow in their roles and career. Prioritizing diverse leadership can show employees that you value diverse ideas. Anybody, regardless of differences, can achieve high-level leadership positions if they are driven and work hard. As a female CEO, I hope to be an example to women in my workforce that despite working in a male dominated industry, if they work hard and achieve agreed goals, they can grow into leadership roles.
What advice would you give to other business leaders to help their employees to thrive?
To help employees thrive, you must listen to employee feedback and foster a culture of learning and development. Investing in staff training helps create a happy, successful and engaged workforce, leading to higher retention and productivity amongst staff. Formal and informal training that focuses on soft skills and professional skills lead to employee development and enables employees to thrive in their roles within the company.
What advice would you give to other business leaders about how to manage a large team?
It is essential to be your authentic self in leadership positions rather than the person people expect you to be. Unfortunately, you will never be able to please everybody — but remember your job is to make decisions for the greater good and protect your business.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this 🙂
I would love to have lunch with Madeleine Albright and/or Michelle Obama.
Madeline resonates with me as she emigrated from Eastern Europe to the UK, and then to the US. I also admire her for saying, “There is a special place in hell for women that don’t help other women.” In fact, I recently wrote an article about women in leadership which took inspiration from Madeleine.
Michelle is also inspiring. Her journey of self-creation and personal growth enthuses me, especially when she talks about removing finishing lines as there is always room for more growth and evolution. This is how I feel about my personal journey.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elona-mortimer-zhika-000b204/?originalSubdomain=uk
Thank you for these excellent insights. We wish you continued success in your great work.
Elona Mortimer-Zhika Of IRIS Software Group On How Diversity Can Increase a Company’s Bottom Line was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
