Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Katherine Kostereva, CEO of Creatio:
Q: Can you tell us more about the company and what you do?
A: At Creatio, we provide a world-class low-code platform, process automation and CRM for companies around the globe. Our mission is to equip organizations with technologies that can help automate their business ideas faster. We believe that with the right platform, anyone can become a developer and start making solutions they need to automate and optimize their work, so that’s what we strive to enable with our products.
Q: You state that your mission is to help companies accelerate. How do your products achieve this for your customers?
A: Our platform enables every company to become a software company and every employee in a business to become a developer. We accelerate sales, service, marketing, and operations teams by equipping them with a robust set of process automation, CRM, and low-code development tools. Our platform features agile capabilities that provide organizations with sophisticated customization possibilities and the ability to implement changes faster by embracing the ‘everyone a developer’ concept using low-code. This enables business users to create custom business logics and applications that align with their specific business needs. We help business accelerate by automating and optimizing processes and simplifying data management, making it easier to share and collaborate on critical customer information. Our platform also has hundreds of out-of-the-box solutions, templates, and integrations on the Creatio marketplace that enable faster deployment and higher adoption rates. By giving employees the opportunity to automate and their work and become a “citizen developer,” as they’re called, businesses benefit from more efficiency and acceleration of their transformation.
Q: Why do you think digital transformation is so important for businesses today?
A: The modern world is fast-paced and tech-focused. By integrating a low-code platform like what we provide at Creatio, any company can become a software company, accelerating their transformation, keeping them more competitive in the modern market, and promoting growth. The automation of processes reduces the risk of error, allows the company and its employees to work faster, focus on more creative tasks, and enables them to provide better and more personalized customer service. It is integral for companies today to digitally transform if they want to stay ahead of competition, provide excellent customer experiences, and grow.
Q: You’ve been recognized in the industry as one of the few female CEOs leading a successful software company. Can you describe the difficulties women in your industry face in leadership positions?
A: I can say that as a woman in this industry, I don’t feel like I experience many challenges related to gender, if any. Men and women face the same obstacles and have the same struggles in these leadership positions. You could maybe say that men are taught to face challenges more head-on than women typically are, I would agree with that. They’re taught to be more ambitious and to get back up if setbacks knock them down. Society definitely doesn’t instill this in women in the same manner – we are taught that we could always be good mothers if we face too many challenges in our careers. But I think you won’t face any adversity when reaching for a leadership role as a woman so long as you have a good work ethic, tenacity and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Q: I know that Creatio has just renamed from bpm’online. How did you come up with the idea to rename? And how did you approach renaming?
A: We really wanted a name that reflected what inspires us most: the creations that our users make. The name “Creatio” emphasizes our idea that anyone can become a developer and create solutions to automate their work, and it reinforces our mission to help companies accelerate. The new company name accurately describes what our platform allows users to do – it’s a very fitting name.
We also wanted our renaming to be a celebration and a bold statement – to announce a name like Creatio, we needed to get creative. That is why over 160 employees, including myself, went skydiving to launch the new name in the sky! We turned it into an online event featuring a video that anyone could view. I think it was a fitting way to announce the renaming, because we wanted everyone from our partners, customers, and just the public, to celebrate the name change with us.
Q: The skydiving stunt sounds interesting; can you explain more about that portion of the event?
A: Well, like I said, we knew we’d have to do something big and creative. During a brainstorming session, the idea of launching our name in the sky was suggested. We all agreed it was a perfect way to announce the new name – it had the flair and fun we were looking for. Initially I thought that just a few people would want to volunteer. None of us knew how our team would respond to “Hey, would you be willing to jump out of a plane for the renaming?”
To our surprise though, we had an overwhelming number of employees who happily volunteered to skydive. There were so many that we actually had to separate them in groups for everyone to be able to go. I was so impressed and inspired by the willingness of the team that I decided to join them, too. And honestly, it was a blast!
Q: Does your renaming signify any other changes within the company?
A: No, it was just a renaming, not rebranding. Our company, vision, team, and products are not changing along with the name. We just got a new name that I think does a great job of embodying what our company is already about. Our dedication to provide clients and partners with the best low-code, process automation platform and leading CRM software remains the same. Our mission to help companies accelerate and enable anyone to become a developer remains unchanged as well.
Q: So you see acceleration as key for the next couple of years or even a decade for businesses?
A: Absolutely! I can say so from our experience. Creatio targets midsize and large enterprises that are forced to seek new ways to win over the digitally-native customer and grow revenue to remain competitive in today’s aggressive business environment. Unlike 20 years ago, now software is capable of providing organizations with the necessary level of agility to update their processes and implement changes as fast as the market requires to prevent losing both productivity and profitability. When business leaders empower employees with the right software, it creates numerous opportunities for revenue growth.
I’m a strong believer that moving fast matters. Technology needs to allow for better alignment of all customer-facing departments, a higher level of intelligence, more personalized customer engagements, and more effective orchestration of data and applications. This in turn allows for the acceleration of operations to foster to business development and growth.
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