What are my goals in running Stebby and it's other projects, like marketing campaigns or sister companies like FitQ? I am an energetic person and I have started liking being in business and it is a kind of sport for me. I am fond of sports, as you know. But still, why I am in this business and not selling oil, hamburgers or solar panels?
The answer is that I believe in the fact that getting people to be more active will make them more healthy, energetic, productive and positive. I am working out almost daily and I really like all types of moving and feel happy after working out.
I think that this mindset will in total help to create a better world. Less depression, less anger, more creativity, more willpower, more positivity. I really like the moto of Europe Active and I think we should always keep that in our minds - more people, more active, more often!
So I think everything Stebby is doing should be pointed towards this goal of getting more people involved in more activities and more often. An active user is our main currency! Everything else (money etc) is a byproduct of being successful in achieving this.
Yes, providing wellness is important and also keeping those people involved who are buying secondary products like health insurance for instance. That way we can get to them with our mentality and alter that plus get additional funds for financing our quest. Also, efficient rest and recovery is a crucial part of remaining physically active for a longer period of time.
But all in all we are doing this for activating people.
Getting our goals aligned in the team is important
Reading your feedback to the board gave me the impression that we are far from being on the same page. A lot of you do not get or share these ideas or I have not communicated them well enough or both.
Reading statements where our own employees do not get what is behind the mentality of the company and express ideas that the CEO should not share those ideas in public feels weird.
Knowing where we come from, it is also weird to read statements where some people say that it feels like the board is only interested in financial results and not the people. This is so far from being the truth and makes me think where does this impression come from?
Of course, we have lived through so many rough times in the history that last couple of years where we have been in a stable small profit state are kind of exceptional and a result of a huge work that has been done in the previous years. Sure, money has always been somewhat important to us. When a house is burning then water is the most important thing.
What is your reason to be here?
For some reason, you have joined our company. What was your motivation is personal, you can share it with me or you can keep quiet. That is your choice. But never ever write sentences like - we will never start working for or believing in FitQ's success since this was forced upon us.
Getting people being active is our number 1 thing and everyone who does not believe in this philosophy has to seriously look inside him/her if Stebby is the company that you want to work for. Because working against the targets that the company has set is wrong and demoralising for everyone else. I cannot tolerate this type of attitude.
Now if the reason is that you feel that you have been left out of some discussions or decisions, then this is another thing. Here we (as a board, but even more concretely me) need to improve our internal communication with the team so that the reasons why we are doing something does not remain a secret.
But you can help me as well. I encourage everyone who has a question of why always ask me in person or on slack that question. Sometimes people are in difficulty seeing things the way others do. This happens to me as well. I think you see things the way I see them and I might not have the understanding that it is not so.
All in all I am hopefully looking forward to the board meeting the teams. I remember that before the crazy corona times, we were a lot better aligned. I have heard that lot of other companies are also struggling with the remote work being a reality and things always rapidly changing in the society. We are not a huge exception here but we can be an example of figuring it out and getting our team well aligned again.