"If a business was not already employee focused, it needs to be."
Mathew Georghiou is an engineer, inventor, designer, writer, and entrepreneur. Mathew has founded and operates businesses in educational technology, toys, social media news and advertising, and metal art and signage. Mathew’s creations have reached millions of people around the world through thousands of schools, nonprofits, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.
Mathew is a leading expert in the design of educational games and simulations, particularly for entrepreneurship education and training. He is the author of two books — Business Superhero and Budding Entrepreneur — and recently launched the world’s first and only fully game-based training for future business leaders and entrepreneurs.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Mathew Georghiou: I’m an entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, designer, and writer.
I’ve started and operate businesses in educational technology, toys, social media news and advertising, and metal art and signage.
My primary focus is designing educational games and simulations under my ed-tech company MediaSpark, which I founded in 1994.
Under our GoVenure brand, we have one of the original and most widely used series of educational games and simulations in the world.
2021 and 2022 threw a lot of curve balls into business on a global scale. Based on the experience gleaned in the past couple years, how can businesses thrive in 2023? What lessons have you learned?
Mathew Georghiou: If a business was not already employee focused, it needs to be.
Employee expectations of their work environment have changed. People want more flexibility, less rigidity. And as I like to say, “no stupid rules.”
Businesses also need to become more efficient in how they communicate and operate internally. This means adopting better processes and the right technologies.
And they need managers with better leadership skills who have the common sense and experience to make the right decisions under changing circumstances.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2023? What advice would you share?
Mathew Georghiou: Focus on cash flow and building cash reserves to weather future storms.
And consider how to diversify into new markets with current or new products, so that if one line of business drops, there will be another that can keep revenue flowing.
Beyond the health pandemic, the world has changed and uncertainty is likely to continue into the future, so it’s best to be somewhat cautious if you want to mitigate risks.
Climate change has also changed weather patterns and increased the likelihood of disruptive weather. This can lead to extended power loss, supply chain, and other challenges. Businesses should plan to implement more robust systems, add backup power options for the office and for people working at home, and other support infrastructure.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Mathew Georghiou: My primary industry is education. Education has been very slow to change, despite the advanced technologies and new methods of learning that have been introduced over the past 25 years.
The pandemic has helped accelerate change. Initially, because education delivery had to be moved to distance and online learning. But this experience has also permanently changed student expectations of how education should work overall. Students now want and expect more options that better fit their personal preferences, schedules, and lifestyles.
And many people are questioning the value of conventional educational paths, given the high costs. They are looking for alternatives.
My company MediaSpark has adapted by offering students a faster, more inspiring, and more affordable alternative to college business school. For people who want to start a career in business, level up their career, or start their own business, our businessXP training is the world’s first and only fully game-based business and leadership training.
In the past, our simulation and game-based training programs were only available to schools and businesses, but now students can enroll directly with us. We continue to work with thousands of instructors and trainers around the world, but at the same time we also now offer training directly to students.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2023?
Mathew Georghiou: With the addition of our businessXP and other training programs that we can now offer directly to students, we are focused on expanding our marketing efforts to reach the right prospects. This has resulted in building out all of our social media channels and strategies.
My current challenge is to revise our employee policies to formally allow people to work from home. We’ve always had flexible work hours for our team and people could occasionally work from home as well. But the pandemic moved everyone to home and I don’t think it makes sense to force people back into an office. Creating a policy to formalize the work-from-home option is not easy because each job is different and each person is different, and the policy has to be both flexible and fair.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2023?
Mathew Georghiou: There’s no turning back. More and more people will start side hustles and look for entrepreneurial opportunities to enhance or replace their employment.
More people will look for work that aligns with their preferred lifestyles, rather than fit their lifestyle around their work.
Conventional education will be pressured to change faster as more and more companies no longer require degrees and diplomas for as many jobs.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Mathew Georghiou: 12 to 16 hours a day — almost always a computer (not a phone).
The majority of executives use stories to persuade and communicate in the workplace. Can you share with our readers examples of how you implement that in your business to communicate effectively with your team?
Mathew Georghiou: Our human brains love stories. And I use narrative stories when designing our training experiences.
But efficient communication (and persuasion) in the workplace doesn’t come from the occasional story shared by leadership. It starts with having systems in place that make it easy for a team to communicate and collaborate — every hour of every day.
Employees want to feel like they are making a difference and that they are not being held back by inefficient processes and bad policies. Or that important information is held only by leadership.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Mathew Georghiou: People are busier and more distracted than ever. Getting people’s attention has become extremely difficult, given how inundated everyone is with advertising, marketing, social media, and more.
This makes sales and marketing particularly difficult. Even customers who pay money for our services are often difficult to communicate with.
Being able to reach and support customers and prospective customers is a key obstacle to growth for many businesses.
In 2023, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Mathew Georghiou: In 2022, I’ve invested time and money in online marketing (which has changed a lot in the past few years), crypto, and NFTs.
A record 4.4 million Americans left their jobs in September in 2021, accelerating a trend that has become known as the Great Resignation. 47% of people plan to leave their job during 2022. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued and misunderstood in the workplace. Do you think leaders see the data and think “that’s not me – I’m not that boss they don’t want to work for? What changes do you think need to happen?
Mathew Georghiou: Recently, a new entrepreneur posted online that they were hiring an employee for the first time and were nervous about their ability to do it right and to be a good leader. My reply to them was this — “Bad bosses don’t think about failing to be good bosses. That’s why they are bad bosses. You are already a step ahead.”
For sure, many leaders don’t think they are the problem, even though they may be. And many good leaders also know what needs to be improved, but may not have the ability to do so because of circumstances beyond their control.
Mix in the fact that employee expectations of their employers and leaders are so varied that it’s impossible to satisfy everyone. Leadership is complicated. Business is complicated.
Most business leaders are not equipped with the skills to make good decisions. And conventional leadership training misses the most important ingredient needed to develop successful leaders — helping them learn how to make good decisions.
I’m trying to help solve the leadership gap through our game-based training program called businessXP.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Mathew Georghiou: Having a large number of engaged followers is the modern-day business superpower.
I don’t have it, but if I did, I would use it to introduce more people to the solutions my team offers and the social causes that I believe in.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Mathew Georghiou: Reaching more people with our solutions to their challenges — helping improve their careers and lives.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Mathew Georghiou 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 Mathew Georghiou or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
Disclaimer: The ValiantCEO Community welcomes voices from many spheres on our open platform. We publish pieces as written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team and must meet our guidelines prior to being published.
