Johannes Scholtes, Chief Strategy Officer, ZyLAB North America

By Staff Writer | November 23, 2009

Outline your role at ZyLAB North America

For the past 20 years, I have been very hands-on with nearly all facets of our company in my role as President and CEO of ZyLAB.  In that period ZyLAB has grown from a small start-up to an internationally recognized information access technology provider with offices worldwide and more than 100 employees. Earlier this month I stepped down as CEO to become the company’s Chief Strategy Officer and will remain as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board. In my new role I will be focused on bringing new technologies and products to market and working closely with our current client base to ensure we are meeting all of their needs.
 
Provide a very brief overview of your business and overall market  

ZyLAB (www.zylab.com) develops award-winning information access solutions and robust proprietary technologies for enterprise search; records, e-mail, document and knowledge management; compliance support; and e-discovery and e-disclosure. All of our solutions include full installation, project management and integration services. We are especially strong in the compliance and legal sectors and are aggressively expanding into the fast growing e-discovery market, which is finding real value in our advanced capabilities for multi language support, searching, content analytics, document reviewing, and e-mail and records management (for both scanned and electronic documents). Overall, we have sold an astounding 1.7 million user licenses through more than 9,000 installations.

Headquartered in McLean, Virginia, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, we also serve our local markets from our regional offices in New York, Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, Paris, and Singapore. The company's products and services are used on an enterprise level by corporations, government agencies, courts, and law firms, as well as on specific projects basis by legal services, auditing, and accountancy providers. In particular, ZyLAB's law-enforcement credentials, targeted technology and early market penetration have made us one of the top vendors in the collection, processing and culling of information for e-discovery.
 
How would you characterize your leadership style?  

Open and hands-on.  We have many smart people within our organization and it is a team effort that makes us a strong global company. I have an open-door policy with every ZyLAB employee.

How/Why has your company thrived in the Washington DC technology sector?  

Our solutions have been used by the Federal government for over 25 years.  It is important for us to have a presence in the area to better support these customers. There are also many commercial organizations that need our solutions within this region.  It is also easy to travel to other major cities within the US and abroad.

From a business perspective, what do you like best about the Washington DC area? Least?  

I can’t really think of any downsides.  Although not an original response…but the traffic can get frustrating at times.  What I like best is the economic stability of the region. There are thousands of commercial and government organizations that need our solutions. Also, there is a very large talent pool of sales, technical and business development people to hire as our company grows.

What was your biggest business challenge in the last 12 months? Biggest success? 

The biggest challenge has been managing a fast growth company. The biggest success is the signing of new customers and building out our team with great people.

What is your current view of the economy?  

The economy will recover slowly and many businesses will continue to suffer.  However, in our core areas of expertise (e-discovery, records management, content management) the demand will remain strong and we anticipate a 25 percent year-over-year growth over the next five years.

What is the best advice you have been given?  

Delegate! If you do not delegate work then you will become a bottleneck and the biggest problem in the company.  Hire good people and trust them to get the job done. 

Last book read?  

Bonus: Why bankers are the big winners of the credit crisis

Favorite pastime:

Sailing (see picture)

Favorite movie?  

Pulp Fiction
 
Favorite quote? 

Rockefeller "Every Opportunity is an Obligation"

Note: ZyLAB has launched a new blog simply titled "eDiscovery and Information Management" and is located at: http://zylab.wordpress.com/.

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