Innovation and determination are the two driving forces of the software development industry. Leaders from various industries are harnessing software and technology to drive evolution, disruption, productivity, and profitability of their enterprises. Moreover, properly aligned technology empowers people with the information and required processes to succeed in serving customers, while creating a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The pandemic has pushed many companies to the edge. It has introduced incredible stress to operating margins, product development, and service delivery programs for teams across a wide range of industries. So, with these additional stresses pressing in, robust technology leadership is rising as a key distinguishing factor between success and failure.
With agility and persistence, Steve Simons (CEO and Founder) has been pivoting Restyn to meet these challenges. Steve has a reputation for visionary technical leadership, business strategy, and change management because of his real-world experience driving top-line and bottom-line results for the companies he serves.
Prior to launching Restyn, Steve was a key executive anchoring a residential solar installer to great heights as it grew from being a local brand to having national reach and hitting #2 on the INC500 before being successfully acquired by the largest energy retailer in the U.S. He has served on boards and advisory boards for various companies and non-profits across a range of technology, education, and manufacturing start-ups. And is a Christian evangelist who co-founded Creation Springs Church along with his wife.
Array of Customer-Centric Approaches
In 2016, Steve launched Restyn with a single customer. Since its establishment, the company has expanded by providing truly strategic IT for small and mid-size, high-growth enterprises. Instead of technology as some sort of abstract silver bullet, Restyn considers people as the ultimate solution that it is delivering. Abiding by this philosophy, the company focuses on providing an unfair competitive advantage for its customers in the marketplace by empowering their people with well-aligned technology platforms.
In a world of project consultants and managed service providers, Restyn stands out as a true full-stack IT provider for its customers, bringing a full range of services including strategic vision, project leadership, software development/implementation, and infrastructure support to allow Restyn’s customers to focus on what they do best—serving their own customers.
A Visionary Leader
Being at the helm of the company, Steve focuses on building up leaders, cherishing Restyn’s vision and culture, and empowering others to fulfil their individual missions. Moreover, he also believes leadership is achieved by defining and measuring success:
“We enjoy playing a pivotal role in helping our clients grow and succeed at both the top line and the bottom line, by driving grassroots innovation and healthy culture and technology at every level of the organizations we serve.”
According to Steve, persistence, intelligence, and vision are key to succeeding in the IT space. The ability to master the evolving landscape of technology while also developing full command of the business processes served by those technologies is the “secret sauce” that has led to Restyn’s success. Steve believes that it is not enough to understand what a platform can do, one must also be able to create effective alignment between people and technology for a platform to succeed.
Strategizing Strengths during Crisis
The global pandemic posed severe challenges to every aspect of businesses large and small. From raising cybersecurity concerns to forcing innovation in reasonable accommodations for work-from-home support in accordance with the circumstances, to re-inventing approaches to lead generation, networking, and business development, every aspect of the business was impacted by forces that were far beyond leaders’ immediate control.
Restyn’s approach to overcoming these challenges was to rise to the occasion by identifying and defeating every obstacle to continue delivering high quality, white-glove experience for their customers.
Staying Ahead of Trends
Restyn’s upcoming project—currently under development—concerns a next-generation solution for social/personal networking, privacy, and data management. In a world dominated by BigTech, the company believes that there is a better approach to building relationships, meaning, mission, and purpose together as people and as a civilization. They believe this will be achieved by bringing people together to grow more intentional community, connection, intimacy, and success based on the core values of free markets, free people, and robust individual human rights.
Passing on the Legacy
Steve believes that software development is one of the most challenging tasks anyone can pursue, even going so far as to suggest that colleges and universities should rename ‘Computer Science’ courses to ‘Computer Arts’. As he puts it, “There is such a big difference between what I would describe as “paint-by-numbers” solutions versus the far more effective “DaVinci” solutions that truly disrupt the market and change people’s lives for the better.”
For a better grasp on leadership, Steve recommends reading a wide range of books and investing in life long learning. Some of his favorite books include The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Switch by Dan and Chip Heath, and Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff, among others. But, most importantly, Steve heavily recommends digging into The Bible—specifically the New Testament parables of Jesus Christ. Steve believes that Jesus shared some of the best management, leadership, and investment advice available. Seeing business as a ministry, leadership as a servant, and keeping God first place are core values that Steve uses to build his business and help his customers succeed.
To be a successful leader, Steve recommends consistent focus and investing in people, rather than ideas. He also suggests that one should value character over knowledge, as he says, “Knowledge can be trained and educated, but character in need of change requires conversion, which poses a serious binary risk to your business.”
