Because of the current economic climate our publication has started a series of discussions with professional individuals meant to engage our readers with relevant companies and their representatives in order to discuss about their involvement, what challenges they have had in the past and what they are looking forward to in the future. This sequence aims to present a series of experiences, recent developments, changes and downsides in terms of their business areas, as well as their goals, values, career history, the high-impact success outcomes and achievements.
Daniel Avital is the Chief Strategy Officer of CHEQ, a Cybersecurity company for digital media, protecting online advertisers from ad fraud, click fraud and non-human traffic across all their buying channels. With offices in New-York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Tel-Aviv, the company’s mission is to help sustain the digital ecosystem by protecting leading advertisers from the risks of online advertising and helping them restore confidence in the space.
More about CHEQ and Daniel’s experience can be found below:
Tell us more about your role in CHEQ?
As Chief Strategy Officer, my role is to work with all departments, from product to sales, marketing, partnerships and customer services, to ensure they are all aligned with the company’s strategy and vision. My goal is to keep the company focused on the right markets, audiences and messaging, so that we can continue to solidify our position as the leader in Cybersecurity of digital marketers. I also run the marketing department hands-on, handling the brand and marketing strategy, as well as the entire marketing operation, together with my trusted team.
What is the most difficult part of your job? But the most rewarding one?
The greatest challenge is operating in an environment of constant and rapid growth. As a category leader, CHEQ is one of those companies that keeps growing at a remarkable pace, and the need to adapt and scale constantly is no simple task. That being said, we have a strong and experienced organization with a remarkable leadership team, so we have the know-how to address that challenge.
Is there anything that you would change about your professional path?
No. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing more than building, together with an elite team, one of the most exciting tech companies in cybersecurity. Sometimes a career path is all about timing and I have been fortunate in that regard.
What’s your key strategy for the development of your company?
Focus, focus, focus. Tech companies undergoing massive growth are easily derailed if focus is not practiced religiously. Ideas for new products, new partnership opportunities, client feature requests, all of these can be very tempting. But organizations should ask themselves – are these new ideas and opportunities aligned with our core business? Do they help us achieve our immediate goals? Or do they take time, energy and resources away from our immediate goals? For us at CHEQ, focus is key and the development strategy is to funnel all of our resources towards our best selling products and markets.
What do you think about the next period of time, keeping in mind the pandemic and the new business climate? How will your industry be affected?
I think we should seperate the pandemic from the “new business climate’. The pandemic, I am hopeful, will not play a major role in our life moving forward, as we begin to vaccinate the general population. The new ‘remote’ work culture however, is here to stay I believe. For almost a decade now, we as a society have had the technology to go remote, especially with the prevalence of smart devices, high-speed internet, video-conferencing and enterprise management software. But I think most organizations didn’t trust that they could be productive when employees don’t come into the office. The pandemic forced us into an experiment, and what we’ve learned is that remote work makes a lot of sense. We can already see industry trend setters like Twitter, Facebook and Google, adopt remote work as long-term strategy and I believe that this will be an integral part of business-life moving fow. As for our industry – I’m optimistic. Demand for cybersecurity is only increasing, and I don’t see this market slowing down anytime soon, regardless of the pandemic.
What books do you have on your nightstand?
I’m very much into classical history and political science. Some of my nightstand highlights currently include: The History of the Peloponnesian War (Thucydides), The Histories (Herodotus), The Iliad (Homer), Churchill; Walking with Destiny (Andrew Roberts), The Prince (Macchiaveli), 1984 (Orwell), Leviathan (Hobbs) and many others. Other more contemporary highlights on my shelf include Money (Martin Amis), Against Empathy (Paul Bloom) and A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
