As part of our new partnership with Boardwave, we are excited to kick off 2025 with an inspiring Heads Up interview with Phill Robinson, the Founder of Boardwave and former CEO of Exact Software, conducted before Christmas.
Phill Robinson is among the most accomplished Chairpersons, CEOs and Non-Executive Board Members, in the European software industry. Phill founded Boardwave with the strong belief that all the knowledge and experience exists in Europe to build many more world-leading software businesses that compete on a global scale. However, that knowledge is often fragmented by geography, growth stage, sub-sector focus and investor portfolio.
Boardwave was created to connect the leading software CEOs, Chairs, Non-Execs, Founders and Investors in Europe. It enables them to share knowledge and best practices, network, and mentor one another. The goal is simple – to create strong connections that accelerate success in European software. H.I.E.C recently partnered with Boardwave to bring talent and scaling expertise to the European software community. You can read more about our partnership here.
What does good leadership mean to you?
Good leadership means inspiring and guiding others towards a shared vision while fostering an environment of trust, respect, and collaboration. It’s about making tough decisions when necessary but also empowering others to grow and contribute. A good leader listens, communicates effectively, and leads by example, showing integrity and humility in all their actions.
What is the best example you have seen of Transformational Leadership?
The best example of a transformational leader is Marc Benioff, the chairman and chief executive of Salesforce. When I worked for him as his CMO in the noughties, he had a vision; he called it the “end of software”. Of course, what he was really talking about was the movement of software from traditional data centres in business or on laptops at home into the cloud. And for software to be delivered as a service. He had amazing clarity and purpose that has led his company to become one of the most valuable companies in the world.
He has transformed the entire landscape of the software industry and the way we use and consume technology. He never wavered from that vision for one moment, not when times were tough at the beginning or when things got difficult in the middle. And the consequences? His company emerged as a bold global leader in the technology sector.
While you think of transformation in leadership as transforming a company, this transcended that to transform an entire industry, and that is what he set out to do.
What is the most important thing you have learnt in your career?
The value of vulnerability and the ability to be your authentic self. Which is a lesson I learned far too late in my career. There’s an entire generation of leaders who unwittingly put themselves on a pedestal and, by doing so, make themselves unapproachable. They try to be good leaders, but by being invincible, having the answers to every question for their investors, the board, their customers and their employees – to lead from the front. They try to be infallible without exhibiting weakness to those around them.
It’s not about ego; there is a genuine attempt to be the best leader they can be. But it’s an impossible place and it leads many into burn-out and can be a catalyst to mental health concerns.
Actually, there is far more value in being vulnerable. I learned this in my last job as a software CEO when I was running Exact software in the Netherlands. I was hired as CEO in 2017, at exactly the same time I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. I told nobody about my disease because I thought it would make me look weak and even undermine my position in the company with my investors and board members. But after two years, I took the bold step of letting other people know, as it became obvious that I had something wrong with me. In front of 2000 employees, I delivered the news that I had Parkinson’s. I didn’t know what to expect from my team.
Everyone was incredibly supportive and helpful, and it made me more vulnerable but also made me more human, more real and more approachable. And in doing that made me able to speak to anybody in the company or for them to speak to me on a human level, to understand them, understand the challenges and the issues they were facing both at home and work. And that created connections that I never had before and made me a much better leader. I was able to bring myself to work, having had a secret I left at the door for two years.
How did you get to where you are today?
80% luck, 20% hard work and focus.
Did you take a strategic, planned approach to your career, or has it been more opportunistic?
I’m very curious and, therefore open-minded about new opportunities; in fact, it’s my wife that says, “Never miss an opportunity,”, and she’s right. They are all around us, floating in the ether. And the people that grab them and take hold of them and use them to their advantage, are the ones that will most likely succeed. It might push you outside of your comfort zone or push you to think or do something you hadn’t considered before, but your journey will be richer for it. So many people today watch opportunities float past them without even considering them.
I never had a plan for my career, but I did take hold of every opportunity I could to move onwards and upwards. It’s how a 23 year old from a small remote village in the UK, ended up in Silicon Valley as a developer for one of the world’s foremost software companies. Until that point, I hadn’t stayed in a hotel before and had only been abroad once on a family holiday to Menorca. I didn’t even know where San Francisco was on a map. And that was the start of an incredible 37-year journey of opportunity spotting.
Is there anything you wish you’d known when you started your career? And anything you would tell yourself at an earlier stage in your career?
I had imposter syndrome. When I left school to attend University, I thought everyone was better than me. And that feeling never left until my 40s. So, having now worked with some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet, I would give my younger self a lecture about the fact we are all the same and make sure I didn’t live with that chip on my shoulder for 40 years. And having had some success along the way, I would also remind myself to remain humble and treat everyone the same way no matter who they are.
What changes to your industry do you anticipate over the next five years, and are you excited by them?
Our industry will be unrecognisable in five years. The exponential pace of change that AI will bring about will disrupt many industries. But the first industry to be turned on its head is the software industry itself.
With AI increasingly able to write its own software code, or deliver solutions in a whole new way to traditional software. If operating systems or cloud services are the platforms we use today, upon which we build software applications, then Gen-AI is likely to be the new universal platform upon which we write AI-enabled applications of tomorrow, that are infinitely more powerful than their previous incarnation. That’s hugely exciting…..
What are your three key priorities in the next 12 months?
It takes between 8-10 years to build and scale a US software company from $0 to $100m in revenue. The point at which they have terminal velocity and can become global leaders.In 2.5 years we have collected together a community of 1,800 Founders and CEOs of European software companies in our community. And so we now know In Europe it takes 15 years to achieve the same scale. Consequently most promising start-ups never achieve their true potential, as at that pace they often don’t get past the $100m before they; lose momentum, run out of money, get bought or give up.
The good news is that we also know 25% of our members DO exhibit the same growth characteristics as US firms. So we have two goals this year. One is to engage those leaders and help them sustain that performance so they can continue to achieve their global potential with less risk. And the second is to work to expand the group from 25%. Maybe by small marginal gains at first, but over time that’s what builds an industry.
What type of people do you like to work with, and what makes them good leaders?
Anyone who works hard puts in all their effort no matter their ability, who makes the most of what they have. Anyone who is honest and passionate about what they do.
Obviously, this is not restricted to people who are leaders in a traditional business sense. But it defines leadership in so many other ways that are not limited to a Board room.
What fascinates you about your job?
People. I get to meet incredible people, typically leaders in the software sector, for me the most dynamic sector there is. I have a natural curiosity, I love learning about them and their stories. Not just the one on LinkedIn, the corporate blurb, but about them as individuals, what makes them tick, their personal journeys, and how they came to be where they are today.
It’s something that gives me energy, and is right at the heart of Boardwave, my social enterprise, which is essentially about connecting people for their mutual benefit.
What skills do you continuously work on as a leader to keep you at the top of your game?
Avoiding complacency. If you are the leader in your market, and the leader of your business, the greatest risk of all is complacency. You work incredibly hard to achieve your goals both personally and professionally, and it can be swiped away in a moment if you lose your focus and discipline. And the same goes for all of your leadership team and the rest of the organisation.
Healthy paranoia in the right doses, is helpful. Continue to sweat the details, analyse the data, strive for operational excellence, and exceed the needs and expectations of your customers. Without sitting back on your laurels. If you can do this you and your business will continue to lead your market.
What’s your next big objective?
For Boardwave to lead the European software sector’s transformation from a history of underperformance on the global stage, to one which leads the world. For the last 20 years, we have seen the US lead the Internet Revolution to a point of dominance. Today 36 of the top 100 companies by value in the US are software companies. In Europe we have 7 out of 100, and 1 out of 100 in the UK.
But when there is an inflexion point, a change in the technological landscape, there is an opportunity to change the trajectory. For new players to rapidly ascend and scale globally (at a speed unlike any other sector). We are at that point today with AI, machine learning and quantum computing. If we take this opportunity to lead, we can move from laggards to leaders.
We have seen several phases in the internet era, from the irrational exuberance of the dot.com boom and bust and the dial-modem phase to the high-speed fibre and satellite internet of today. We are at the very start of the AI Revolution, akin to the dial-up phase of the web. There are a few early leaders but many amazing businesses that have not yet begun. Europe can be their home, offering strength, stability, economic growth and technological sovereignty for the region. If Boardwave can be a catalyst for this shift, I would be thrilled.
What is the best way to switch off in your free time?
Turn my laptop off, turn off notifications on my phone, and go outside. I spent my whole time as a kid outside playing in the fields next to our house. And the freedom of being outdoors is still liberating; walking, running, gardening, skiing – anything that’s outdoors!
Want more candid conversations with industry leaders? Subscribe to get our CEO interviews delivered straight to your inbox before they’re published anywhere else.