A Well-Rounded Education Is Vital For Becoming A CEO
Joel Davne is the founder and CEO of Cloudnexa, a managed services provider for clients using cloud computing. Davne has over 20 years of IT experience, while working in executive positions for other companies such as CEO of Content Solutions and COO at Talk Technology. Davne received his M.B.A. from LaSalle University.
What sort of education is needed to successfully do your job?
"A business (finance/management) or engineering degree. I'd also recommend a healthy concentration of electives in liberal arts studies, such as music, art or another creative study. If you aspire to be a CEO, it's important to have a well-rounded education and a diverse range of experiences. An education in creativity is important as it helps you to drive innovation when you're leading a company."
What is the most relevant aspect of your education that applies to your day-to-day job?
"As an undergraduate student, I participated in LaSalle University's small business administration development center. It provided practical experience to apply my education and cemented my entrepreneurial drive for my career. This real-world experience cemented my entrepreneurial drive. I remember meeting back in those days with a Philadelphia gourmet dessert manufacturer that was having trouble scaling to meet demand. Helping this business resolve its dilemma got me pie-eyed and made me want to become an entrepreneur."
What is the most fun aspect of your job?
"Driving innovation through teamwork to deliver new products and services to the market. It requires creativity, vision, drive and unwavering determination; I would not trade it for anything. As a business leader, you're presented a lot of problems and opportunities. It's fun to figure out that path to success for you and your customers. For instance, at Cloudnexa, our more affordable utility-based pricing model make us unique in the cloud industry. The path to figuring out our business model was challenging but rewarding since no one else had done it before."
What advice would you give someone just starting out in the field of technology?
"I would pass along the advice I received from my management 101 professor, Dr. Halpen, at LaSalle. Early positions are career starters. Focus on the experience to build your career as a primary objective. You really should try to get a promotion at your first job to establish yourself and prove that you have what it takes to succeed and that you are willing to commit to the team that hired you. If someone has multiple jobs in two years, it scares me a little. There is always the temptation to leave, but it may not work in the long run. A lot of kids come out of school dismissing traditional career paths but don't realize they're not ready to be the CEO of a startup."
Christina Thompson is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia. She reports on various topics such as: Social Media, Local Events, Entertainment, Food and Drink and more. Her work can be found at http://firstsendmedia.com/