"A single person's dedication and ideology aren’t sufficient to take any organization to the next level."
Jonathan Tian is the co-founder and operations manager of Mobitrix. He leads the daily operations of the company, including product development and marketing. In addition, he works with each individual to help them fulfill their ambition to build our team more than efficient processes.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Jonathan Tian: Hi, I am Jonathan Tian, Co-Founder, and COO of a startup tech company named Mobitrix. The fundamental idea when establishing this company was to help ordinary people, like me and my friends, to deal with the technical difficulties related to smartphone issues during the pandemic as well as post-pandemic era.
I got this idea from an incident in 2020. In the middle of June, my iPhone had a black screen issue when I was driving and using Google Maps. That was a problem that could not be fixed by iTunes. What’s more, all Apple stores within 50 miles were temporarily closed due to the virus. The only solution at that time was to mail my phone to Apple and wait another 7-10 days to get it back. But the crucial part was, they couldn’t guarantee if my phone could be fixed or not and I was most likely to lose all my data. All of these gave me an idea: what if I could create a software tool that could help iPhone users fix their system errors wherever they go. This way, there’s no need to rely on a local repair shop or an Apple store miles away. I aimed to provide a one-click at-home solution for all people regardless of their tech backgrounds, increasing their phone safety in the pandemic and protecting their treasured memories. That’s the story about why I want to establish a company like Mobitrix.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Jonathan Tian: The most influential person who changed my life is Elon Musk. That guy’s dedication, passion, and energy to never stop inspire me. I learned a lot from him and have wanted to be like him since I was young. When he first came up with the idea of sending a satellite towards Mars, I was shocked and wanted to know how he would be able to do that, but he did. At first, many people doubted him, even his ideas, but he made his dream come true and is still creating and showing the world a different reality through his thinking and ideas they aren’t expecting.
He gave me a will of fire, that is, to never give up on your dream. This fire will help me throughout my profession and career as an inventor. People doubted, but I never paid attention to them, so see, I created this. Moreover, he contributed to me; there are many more, but he is the first and the person with the most significant impact on my mentality change overall. Some other guys that I adore are Jeff Bezos, Shahrukh Khan, an Indian Bollywood star, and Barack Obama.
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Jonathan Tian: Well, the year was terrible, and we faced many problems throughout the year, but I am glad we fought it together and are still in good condition. The biggest issue in 2020 is that, which is right in my own eyes too. People are starting to focus more on their health than being digitally satisfied, which is good. But it impacted our business in a lot of ways. The biggest challenge that we faced in the year of the pandemic is: Coming up with an idea regarding products and services that doesn’t sound harsh to our viewers and customers was when any unnecessary step to make a lead could become a reason for your business’s downfall. And I am not that kind of person either. So I wanted my customers and viewers to be safe and secure first.
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Jonathan Tian: No… it didn’t affect me at all. Whenever our company hires someone, I contact them and have conversations with them. I make sure only to have those people in my organization who are true to themselves and can accept their flaws and work with them. Sometimes, it inspires them, and sometimes they become competitive by talking to me regarding their other fellow mates. But overall, in the end, they all become pillars that can never fall, and I am proud of them. Not only that, but I know I am nothing without them. Well, it’s common sense that a single person’s dedication and ideology aren’t sufficient to take any organization to the next level.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Jonathan Tian: It’s so unfortunate for entrepreneurs that they lost a lot of employees during this period when they needed them the most. After the pandemic, it’s a curious time for businesses to make a strategy and implement it, so if anything like this ever happens again, they can face it. Still, as you are saying, “according to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs.” I think now they will face many difficulties in making that kind of strategy and even more implementing it in the market.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Jonathan Tian: Yeah, it is alarming now for me too. If you want to increase employee retention in your organization, I have my criteria for doing that. You can use it for yourself also, and you can add things that you want in your retention process. The requirements or we can say tips from my side, for employee retention are:
-By offering accurate job previews, you can attract many new and experienced people to your organization.
-By conducting employee consultations, we can’t set any job previews for existing employees, but you can provide them with consultation from your side.
-Offer development and progression to your existing employees. I do this a lot. It helps an employee develop different skills, but it also helps the organization.
-Always address the perception of unfair or unethical behavior. It helps to win the trust of your employees that in this organization, nothing goes wrong. And it is ethical too. According to my thumb rule, there isn’t a place for unfair behavior in my organization.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Jonathan Tian: These days, poverty has become a real issue in the organization. People always want to do more, but there are only 24 hours in a day when they have to do everything (& it is less, I know that). I prefer playing only at my strength; it helps me manage my work life and personal life. But sometimes, even on your strong side, you have too much work to handle at the moment. At that point, I prioritize time, creating a mental schedule for the day and a time limit for dealing with specific tasks. It helped me a lot to manage things from the start.
You didn’t ask about it, but there are employees in my organization who also face this issue. For them, I organized a flexible schedule. They can work whenever they want for 24 hours and can leave anytime, but before that, I made sure they were trustworthy or not. These are only for employees I trust and carry a lot of authority on their side because it is necessary.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Jonathan Tian: Well, for some things, you can never be prepared, and sometimes even when you are ready, it comes with a lot of weight that you can’t handle. It is one of those situations. We can’t make people wait like you will get a job when this person leaves. It is not possible. But we can retain those employees who are planning to go. By supporting them financially, mentally, practically, or in whatever way they want. But it also can’t make sure that they won’t leave. It is a cycle where you can’t handle everything. Sometimes you need to depend on others and trust them even when you know they are going to break it, because in this case, perhaps your trust will be able to change those people.
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Jonathan Tian: Thanks to you guys too. It was my pleasure to be with you and share some insight that I gained through my time in the world. The biggest challenge and my organization I am facing is expansion. I want to expand my business and cover many of the remaining areas this year. And for that, I’m striking deals with and being partnered with a slew of major corporations, as well as one major corporation that I desperately wanted on my side. If it happens, surely we will cover a lot of areas through our expansion.
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had 10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Jonathan Tian: Hahaha plan to invest the entire sum in various companies in various proportions. Will live like I always do without telling anyone.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Jonathan Tian for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Jonathan Tian or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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