New Highs and Opportunities: Welcoming David Schoch to Quantox

We are thrilled to welcome a significant reinforcement to our team - David Schoch, joining us as the New Chief Operating Officer at Quantox!

‍

With nearly 30 years of executive management and investment experience in Europe, David brings a wealth of expertise and strategic initiatives for growth and success. He believes in setting high goals, leading by example, and empowering teams to compete and win in the international marketplace.

‍

In the ever-evolving IT market, we are aware of the importance of staying ahead of trends and challenges. With this reinforcement, we want to continue identifying opportunities, reaching goals, and moving up the value stack. 

‍

Can you tell us some of your first impressions of Quantox and what inspired you to choose us as your next career move?

‍

Quantox is an interesting platform for me, it is developed enough such that there is plenty for me to work with to expand.  Some of the key attributes I was looking for in my next career move were: 

• Strong presence: very well-developed employer brand
• International focus: legal entities in eight countries
• Scale: several hundred employees
• Good capabilities: variety of technical capabilities, custom software development, and a portfolio of managed services 
• Entrepreneurial focus: willingness on the part of the founders to take risks and grow
• Investment partner: already backed by an international private equity fund 

‍

Yet at the same time, it is still small enough so that I can step in and have a real impact on the operations and overall success.  I looked at a lot of different companies and had several offers from groups with staffing services and outsourcing/software development groups with several thousand employees in Europe. Quantox ticked a lot of boxes for me and the relationship I built with Filip and Vuk sealed the deal.  

‍

Despite being new to the organization, your business expertise in the IT industry is already robust. Could you provide further insight into the responsibilities and segments of a company's operations that fall under the purview of the COO role?

‍

It varies from company to company, but fundamentally I look at my role as being responsible for taking Quantox to the next level.  For me, that means professionalizing and scaling the business, and to do that I think I need to focus on the following areas:

‍

Phase I:

• Strategic planning: create an overall organizational and reporting structure for monthly management meetings with full P&L reporting, KPIs, cascaded objectives, and key initiatives
• Go to Market: Drive strategic changes to the go-to-market plan to enable significant topline growth and margin expansion for the group
• Leadership and Management: Lead the building and scaling of the key business functions within Quantox.  Specifically working with and leading the key non-delivery directors of Human Resources/Talent Acquisition, Business Development, Marketing, Finance, and Information Systems to identify gaps, build key work streams, and create and refine key business processes that enable the business to scale 

‍

Phase II:

• Access capital markets: Interface with investors and prepare Quantox to be able to raise significant equity investment in the future
• Drive acquisitions: Responsibility for creating an M&A function and driving all M&A activity (deal generation, negotiations, closing, and integration) within the group

‍

What significant achievements or experiences from your previous roles do you believe will be valuable in your new position?

‍

I’ve taken two telecom groups from ~30 employees to >350 people and helped grow the revenue 10-20x.  I also helped one of the leading engineering services firms in the region scale from ~500 employees to >2,300 in less than three years.  

‍

Key things that I think I can bring to the table for Quantox are:

‍

• Sales - I started my career in sales in ‘93 and have always been very active in new business development, I have extensive experience in enterprise sales and in helping reel in $1M+ clients.  This will take time but it will come.     
• Identifying and developing talented managers - we will need a world class management team to realize our potential and achieve the goals we will be setting. I have been running P&Ls at a C-level since the late 90’s and have built multiple management teams from scratch.    
• Scaling the businesses - given my experience I understand how to go from a ‘locally run’ business to an international enterprise.  I’ve done it multiple times and will do it again for Quantox.  
• Raising capital - I’ve been involved in helping raise >$200M in the tech sector in my career and was in senior management of a company that we public on the NASDAQ in New York. 
• Managing an acquisition strategy - I have evaluated >100 acquisition deals and completed and integrated >20 acquisitions throughout my career. 

‍

Looking toward the future, what do you envision for Quantox in terms of growth, innovation, and market positioning?

‍

The sky's the limit for Quantox, yes the market is challenging given the economic situation, but the good news is that demand for digitalization is still robust and we are nimble enough to take the entrepreneurial steps needed to grow, and we are large enough to step into the market and address the serious needs of international enterprises.  

‍

The question is how long it takes for us to get back to 500 people, then to 1,000 and beyond, but that’s where we are headed.  We will adjust our market approach to try to move more into dedicated software development teams with full responsibility for delivery and over time try to move away from team augmentation where our value proposition gets diluted.  

‍

In your opinion, what are the key trends or challenges facing the IT market today, and how does Quantox plan to navigate them?

‍

The market is coming up to an inflection point, up until Feb 2022 demand was never stronger, today it is still there but it is more rational and more selective.  The market will separate over time into the companies that move up the value stack to provide solutions, versus companies that focus on providing bodies for customers to manage.  AI and generative tools will only accelerate this situation forcing companies to choose where they want and are able to compete.  We are now laying the groundwork through our market-facing channel strategy to address this trend and ensure we move up the value stack to a managed offering focusing on the enterprise marketplace.  

What is your approach to fostering collaboration and communication between various departments and stakeholders to ensure alignment and synergy across the organization? 

‍

At the end of the day, not much has changed when it comes to leading large groups of people, whether it be on the battlefield or the marketplace.  Vision, leadership, and execution always wins the day.  Quantox is very well placed to see where the market is headed and has the scale and capability to execute.  We will focus on setting our goals high, leading by example, and always competing to win.  There is a strong competitive spirit within Quantox, I intend to unleash that spirit on the international marketplace over the next several years.  

‍

What keeps you motivated and inspired in your business endeavors?

‍

Identifying opportunities, building and leading teams, developing talented individuals into young professionals, and competing hard with the goal to win - every time.  

‍