This article first appeared on ARN as 'One on One: with Wiise CEO Charlie Wood' by Julia Talevski.
What was your first job?
My first job as a kid was a newspaper round. When I turned 18, I worked behind nightclub bars.
Both experiences taught me the crucial role of excellent customer service and communication skills in attaining success. Up to this day, I champion listening and understanding what customers need and maintaining great communications to drive positive results.
How did you get started in the IT industry and progress to where you are today?
I was training to be a pilot, but I needed money to pay for my flying lessons. So, I completed a few Microsoft qualifications and started freelancing at British Aerospace to work on Eurofighter and Tornado.
What are some of your plans for Wiise in the coming months?
We are launching a lot of new features...including the unveiling of our new partner portal to help us work more closely with our partners and their customers.
We are also focusing more on warehouse and distribution businesses. The pandemic has created enormous challenges in supply chains, and our customers and partners are leveraging Wiise to get a real-time view of how best to manage their businesses.
Our team is also consolidating new resources to provide the best-in-class guides, tools and training that will enable our customers to make the best of these new features.
What has been your biggest business mistake, and the lessons you've learnt from that experience?
My biggest business mistake is not getting close enough to customers at every opportunity. It sounds simple but it is the most important core value for my role, to maintain strong relationships with customers and partners.
In the past, when I’ve got caught up in the detail of the day-to-day running of a business, there’s this shift away from the customer and that can have some serious implications over time.
From there, I strive to build and foster solid relationships with key stakeholders.
What are some of your ambitions - personally and professionally?
When I was lucky enough to be offered the CEO role at Wiise, I was actually in the middle of planning an around-the-world sailing trip. At some point, I’ll come back to that and take a couple of my kids with me and we’ll take a year or so and see how much of the world we can see from a mid-sized yacht.
I look forward to taking Wiise to the next level. My goal is to double our growth and boost our market share in the cloud ERP space, by capitalising on several market opportunities here in Australia and, in time, even internationally.
What has been the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Many elements of business are like sailing. One is whenever you’re out at the sea, and the wind is changing, oftentimes, you think twice about modifying that sail, but it’s probably already too late when you think of doing it.
The same goes for business. When you see something, make that call, make that decision -- start and be the change!
