"The advice I needed was complete flexibility in changing the business strategy, according to circumstances and time."
Meet Mohammed Kifah, CTO at ALSCO, s a privately held Company that is dedicated to bringing first-class I.T services, technical support, and solutions to governments, companies, and organizations Worldwide.
Since 2007, ALSCO has been providing IT support, custom software solutions, and Cloud web services to goverment and companies of all sizes from large enterprises to small start-ups.
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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.
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino: My name is Mohammed Kifah; I am CEO of ALSCO, the company started around 2007. I hold a master’s degree in computer science from Bostin University/ Massachusetts.
I’m one of the inventors of secure gateway technology. Our company ALSCO has two patents registered in U.S. ALSCO owns Secure Gateway trademarks, its newly invented security technology for network security, performance, and reliability.
We specialize in innovative tools to help businesses protect their data. Secure Gateway is also the only hybrid multi-cloud platform that allows much-needed flexibility for companies.
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?
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino: The year 2021 and 2022 were difficult for all businesses due to the corona pandemic as many businesses laid off employees and closed their doors.
But we, as the ALSCO Company, decided to overcome these difficulties by changing a new marketing strategy. The employees were allowed to work from home and continue to provide services for customers around the clock.
There are many businesses, universities, institutes, and insurance companies that have also moved from local work to working online, and that working online requires advanced systems and greatly secured and protected data.
As a result, a lot of businesses used ALSCO Secure Gateway technology to protect their data and to keep their business running online.
The pandemic seems to keep on disrupting the economy, what should businesses focus on in 2023? What advice would you share?
Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino: I think all companies need to convert their sales and services to online work. As Corona has changed how we do business, and everything today is online.
It is thus necessary for every company to provide its services online, including sales, maintenance, and technical support.
How has the pandemic changed your industry and how have you adapted?
Mohammed Kifah: Prior to the pandemic, all employees were required to work at the company’s headquarters, and all meetings were held in my presence.
And the sales department has focused on communicating and negotiating skills with the client directly, but after Corona, ALSCO changed its strategy for managing people and customers.
As employees were allowed to work from home, And the company’s executives were developed to work with online trading skills and develop the capabilities of the sales department to process online as well.
What advice do you wish you received when the pandemic started and what do you intend on improving in 2023?
Mohammed Kifah: The advice I needed was complete flexibility in changing the business strategy, according to circumstances and time, The CEO of the company should read the circumstances surrounding it and find alternative ways and immediate solutions to meet the challenges and continue the success of the work.
Online business surged higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for 2023?
Mohammed Kifah: Depending on market expectations, 2023 will increase work, especially online sales, and continue working from home.
How many hours a day do you spend in front of a screen?
Mohammed Kifah: I work almost every weekday, so I don’t take a vacation, And I’ve got an average screen time of 6-7 hours.
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?
Mohammed Kifah: Communication with company executives is very important to any CEO because the CEO is the key to the success or loss of the company,
Usually, the successes and failures of other companies are used, like the experiences of other companies are used, like the experience of Nokia, Who left the market after the company was dominant in the market, because of not keeping pace with technological development.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as the real challenge right now?
Mohammed Kifah: The real challenge today is to find intelligent employees you can rely on to pursue any company, Because this year there are not many employees and many of them have left work, so the greatest challenge in my opinion is to keep employees in the environment of a single company.
In 2023, what are you most interested in learning about? Crypto, NFTs, online marketing, or any other skill sets? Please share your motivations.
Mohammed Kifah: Training in cryptography is very important because digital currencies will become an alternative to paper currencies, So cryptography technology has to work and how to integrate it into the current work system and in our current business module.
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?
Mohammed Kifah: Hearing the opinion of employees is very important to make the employee feel important to the company. But as CEO of the company, he is responsible for taking the opinion of the employee or not, according to the company’s strategy and its vision of the evolution of the company.
On the part of the employee, it is necessary to know that not all the opinions he presents must be taken. Because the final decision is made by the board of directors of the company because, In my opinion, it is the wisest decision to make as a result of the accumulated experiences.
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?
Mohammed Kifah: Knowledge, I believe that knowledge is the key to the success of companies, all the important companies in the market today have excelled because of the knowledge they possess.
What does “success” in 2023 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Mohammed Kifah: For me, success is about staying at work, opening up new employment opportunities, finding solutions to any barriers, and offering new products every year.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Mohammed Kifah 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 Mohammed Kifah or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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.
