5 Minutes with … Jason Hardie AACS, Co-Founder & CEO at Digital Village
10th February 2021
Highlights
- Meet Jason Hardie AACS, Co-Founder & CEO at Digital Village. He shares with us his entrepreneurial journey and experience in the tech sector.
- Digital Village is a network of digital specialists. They help build teams, products and solve business technology problems.
- Digital Village is part of ACS’s Professional Partner Program, empowering the professional development of their team and staff. More details here.
1. As the Co-founder of Digital Village, what inspired you to start this business?
Well, ultimately, life is too short not to enjoy your work. When Luke and I started Digital Village in 2018, it was because we shared a strong belief that a person's work should be in line with who they are and how they want to live their life.
What that looked like for us was working with people we liked, respected and trusted and working on projects that were interesting and meaningful to us.
2. How is Digital Village embracing digital transformation? Has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted how the business has adapted?
Transformation implies two separate states (before and after). Given the age and nature of our business, we consider it to be more of an evolutionary process than one of transformation.
We’ve been successful in proactively adapting to change because of the flexible nature of the way we run projects and the way the company is structured. So, we have been a good solution to companies needing to adopt a more flexible IT workforce and deliver IT solutions. All in all, the pandemic has been a positive change for us because it has allowed our model to really flourish.
3. What do you see are the challenges for the sector? And how do you wish to contribute to resolving them?
This dramatic change is an opportunity for organisations to re-imagine their existence and re-purpose themselves to what their customers truly need and value. The challenge here is being able to best serve your customers in a meaningful way. Given the mass adoption and reliance on digital, organisations are needing to reach and serve their customers in new ways.
This is necessary because things have changed so much in the way people live, work and experience life. The need to be continuously innovating with new offerings to test what customers value and the need for people to experience that value digitally has become a necessity.
The challenge is, how does a company effectively validate, build and continuously iterate multiple digital offerings?
Our contribution to answering this question is by suggesting to companies to engage small teams of people to own each experiment like it’s their own business. By adopting a startup mindset for complete accountability and importantly, this is an enjoyable and meaningful way to work while reducing risk for the company.
4. As a recent member of ACS, why did you choose to join the community?
I'm excited to be part of the ACS community. I’m looking forward to attending the events and meeting more peers in the tech industry and potentially collaborating with the other corporate partners within the ecosystem as well.
5. Tech changes fast. How do you keep your tech skills up-to-date?
It certainly does. Personally, I struggle with keeping up technically. But I will occasionally play with new technologies and watch tutorials along with keeping informed by Hackernews and other subscriptions, including the Information Age too, which I have been enjoying. But I probably learn the most from chatting with the Digital Village teams about their projects.
6. What have you learned about being an entrepreneur? What advice would you give to others?
I’ve learned that business is a journey of trials, tribulations and self-discovery. Personal growth and business growth come from overcoming challenges. My advice would be to stare fear in the face and run towards it.