Interview with
John FrederiksenPresident Navision Software US
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On December 28, 2001, I was honored to have the opportunity to sit down with John Frederiksen, President of Navision Software, US. While my intentions were to interview John, it was really more of a case in which he interviewed me. John was very eager to listen to what I had to say about Navision, Navision's competitors, and my suggestions for improving the products, product marketing, and the reseller channel. John was very interested in learning more about the CPA community and the influence CPAs have on the software purchase decision. Before adjourning to lunch, John efficiently summarized my suggestions via a white board bullet list and checked with me to make sure that he had captured my thoughts correctly and completely.
I first met John through e-mail in January, 2001. I had delivered a keynote presentation at the annual Damgaard Axapta conference and John was in attendance. I specifically remember that John was the only person who contacted me after my presentations and specifically requested a copy of my power point slide show which I presented at the conference. John had not yet been named President of Navision Software, US - but even then he exhibited the same thirst for knowledge, information, feedback, and insight. Many accounting software presidents seem to think that they have things pretty well figured out, and they sometimes give the impression that they are listening to your feedback only to appease you. Not John. He is a man with a mission - no, its more of a passion for his job, his company, and his products. I am sure that John is the recipient of some pretty wacky ideas from people like me, yet he accepts all advice with grace and proceeds to mentally sort out the credible ideas for future reference.
As far as personalities go, John is like many of the Danes I have met. Very polite, very nice, very professional, and very analytical. Without knowing me very well, John encouraged me to come to Denmark and tour the world-wide Navision headquarters. He encouraged me to bring my wife and enjoy Denmark. I have no doubt that his offer was sincere and that if I were to take him up on his offer, he would see to it that some of the locals there would show me around and lead me to some sudsy Danish brew.
Internally within Navision Software, US, John has a reputation as being more of a hands off type of leader - trusting the talents and decision making ability a little more than his predecessor. Rather than getting involved in the various details of each manager's tasks, John prefers to focus on the bigger picture. He is still very approachable.
More to come...
Respectfully,
Footnotes
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