Steve Vamos, CEO of Xero says humanity is the beating heart of the accounting software solution ’s business. Speaking at Xerocon 2018, the company’s annual conference, Vamos outlined his plans for the future of the brand, which has grown from a local New Zealand outfit to a company with global impact.
Vamos attributes much of Xero’s success to its values. He describes the company as innately human. He tells an enraptured audience that it is the “humanity of the people at Xero” that has enabled the brand to succeed. Vamos explains Xero is on a mission to rewire the global economy by connecting millions of businesses to their banks, their advisors and each other.
“This is not just a dream we have. It‘s about building connections. Having an understanding of what is going on in the small business economy and what is happening in that space and building the connections to allow businesses to grow” he says.
In pursuing this mission Vamos suggests there are three important factors:
Driving cloud accounting growth, growing Xero as a small business platform and growing technology and innovation.
When it comes to technology, Australia is a nation of early adopters. Currently, there are over half a million Xero users and counting, and cloud accounting has a penetration of over 40 per cent. But Vamos says he won’t be satisfied until every small business on the planet has access to cloud accounting.
To achieve this dream, Vamos says Xero is investing tools to make their products more productive. According to Vamos, this has created an opportunity to build an app market and partnerships that extend Xero, so in his words, “more businesses can get things done more beautifully”.
That’s why we have evolved from beautiful accounting products to beautiful business,” he explains.
Vamos says Xero is determined that the great ideas and innovative capacity of Xero reach the customer. He pledges the company want to stay ahead of the game and maintain their commitment to innovation.
In keeping with this, the platform has announced a number of new updates and a suite of features that will provide business owners with better visibility of their business’s financial well-being.
Vamos suggests the new features will free up countless hours for time-poor business owners. Features such as synced bank feeds, email invoicing and code-free entering of data will be game-changers.
And while all this technological disruption may have some SMBs feeling nervous, Vamos is quick to point out technology doesn’t innovate, people do.
“Tech hasn’t disrupted anything. You are the innovators and the leaders,” he concludes.
The author was a guest of Xero at Xerocon 2018.
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