International company SOFTSWISS develops innovative iGaming software products for online casinos, sports betting and more. A recognised industry leader, Softswiss was also the first online gambling software company to start working with cryptocurrencies. Here, Ivan Montik, the Founder of SOFTSWISS, describes how through agile management and technological innovation, the company has grown to an international group employing over 1,500 people worldwide. 

You have been developing the SOFTSWISS company for over 10 years and have grown it into a leading software provider for iGaming projects. What management approach do you see as being themost efficient – and effective – in such a dynamic industry? 

I see flexibility and the capacity to adapt quickly to changing situations as the two most important principles of company management. Every time we make a decision, we keep other options in mind and are ready to change our strategy according to new market requirements. 

At SOFTSWISS, we believe in agile management. Even with over 1,500 employees, we don’t let ourselves become an enterprise with a rusty and unbending structure.

Although we do have a clear and well-established organisational chart, it remains very dynamic. We constantly evaluate the efficiency of every employee, checking how they collaborate in their roles and how it impacts company goals. If it looks inefficient to do so, we change the organisational layout. Thus, we keep the employee satisfaction rate high and see the company goals being reached. 

I also put great emphasis on company values. They accompany SOFTSWISS from the very early stages and are more than just words. They work both as the main operational guidelines and as the criteria for hiring new candidates. That’s how we make sure we are all on the same page and moving in the right direction.

How have you changed as a leader since you established SOFTSWISS? And what advice would you give yourself, if you had a chance to go back in time and rerun the company?

I don’t think that my main leadership qualities have changed a lot over the years, but of course, they have evolved together with my company. When you run a small business with 10 employees, you can afford friendly relationships and personal talks with each of your colleagues. But when you grow to several hundred, you can’t reach out to everyone and ask how they are doing. You have to put up with some natural hierarchy and necessary bureaucracy. 

This was quite challenging for me in the beginning. Before, I was the type of leader who thought ‘I can do it better than anyone else so I’ll just do it myself’. But this approach can easily lead to burnout. So I’ve learnt to delegate tasks and trust my colleagues, and now I only focus on key strategic tasks. However, I’m still very involved in the day-to-day operation of SOFTSWISS. I participate in weekly meetings and talk to our key clients when they want to talk. Staying up during the night still remains part of my routine and an essential component of successful leadership.

If I had a chance to go back and change something, I’d tell myself to have more self-confidence and not to rely on external help. Unfortunately, I’ve come across unscrupulous investors promising mutually beneficial partnerships and expert support, but in reality, they were just trying to take advantage of a quickly growing business. None of such ‘cooperation’ attempts has ended successfully, and now I know that SOFTSWISS should just go its own way. 

What was the biggest challenge for you as the company leader and how did you overcome it? 

The biggest challenge is to achieve significant business growth without any external financial support. It’s a time-consuming process which requires staying focused and trusting your gut instinct. Until 2016, SOFTSWISS had been working on our main product and investing every cent into software development. 

Coming to this whole new level was the best reward after many years of hard work- Ivan Montik

We had no extra source of finance to quickly boost the cash flow. Our clients were also small businesses at the very initial stage of development just like us. In 2016, the situation changed as these businesses grew together with our products and became important players on the market. It provided us with the necessary funds to invest in new technology, innovation, and product development. Coming to this whole new level was the best reward after many years of hard work. 

SOFTSWISS characterises its products as a winning combination. What helps you to stay hyper-sensitive to the latest tech trends and forecast which of them will be the most promising for the company's product strategy? 

We believe in innovation and use it as one of the main criteria for defining the SOFTSWISS product strategy. Instead of meeting existing market requirements and following the latest tendencies, we are creating new trends and encouraging others to follow them. The key idea is to have an alternative perspective on the traditional market workflow and see how it can work differently. 

The whole R&D department at SOFTSWISS is constantly analysing the processes happening in the industry and providing us with insights that define our development strategy. 

We also listen to our clients very carefully. They are experts in their own businesses and know how our software can help them stand out among the competition. They come up with genius ideas. Together, we bring them to life and create high-end products and cutting-edge technologies with no analogues in the industry.

Finally, we invest a lot into building a pool of talents by hiring the best professionals in different countries, providing them with attractive working conditions and encouraging their initiative. In return, we get their most innovative vision and the most creative implementation of our projects. This helps SOFTSWISS build its ‘winning combination’ and share it with the market. 

How do you see your future in five years and what do you expect from your team?

I’m not a big fan of long-term planning, especially in our quickly changing environment. I prefer setting short-term goals and seeing them through. But even without clearly-set objectives, I remain very ambitious in terms of SOFTSWISS' future. I expect organic and sustainable development of all companies of the group. We will be adding new products to the portfolio and expanding our geographical markets. I want my team to stay energetic and involved, and open to new challenges. 

About SOFTSWISS 

SOFTSWISS is an international iGaming company supplying certified software solutions for managing gambling operations. The expert team, which counts 1,400+ employees, is based in Malta, Poland, Georgia, and Belarus. SOFTSWISS holds a number of gaming licences and provides one-stop-shop iGaming software solutions. The company has a vast product portfolio, including the Online Casino Platform, the Game Aggregator with thousands of casino games, the Affilka affiliate platform, the Sportsbook Platform and the Jackpot Aggregator. In 2013 SOFTSWISS was the first in the world to introduce a bitcoin-optimised online casino solution.