siliconindia | | December 201919My philosophy is to hire excellent people and give them a positive, reinforcing working environment to help them strivecompanies. After understanding the bad experiences of PAYD programs in Israel, Spectrotec came-up with a program that is today used by Israel's leading insurer. Known for his love and expertise in IoT, Slavi recently came-out with a smart padlock that alerts its owner if it gets manipulated or opened. "We fig-ured that any padlock owner, whether he is locking his motorcycle, fence or container, would want to know if the lock gets picked, in real time. Hence, we developed a padlock with a GPS and SIM card as a solution for that," says Slavi. Peer as He is Slavi started his carrier when still in high-school, where he studied ap-plied electronics and got this Practical Engineer diploma. Later, he joined military service in the Air Force, dealing with complex electronics. "That is where I developed a grasp of large-scale sophisticated electronic systems. So I already had a great edu-cation and experience when founding the company," he explains. But Slavi comprehended that there is one more important aspect to make an innova-tive product a success ­ understand-ing people and business. Hence, he further pursued a bachelor's degree in psychology (to better understand people) and an MBA (to better un-derstand business). "My philosophy is to hire excellent people and give them a positive, reinforcing working environment to help them strive," affirms Slavi. What drove him to found Spetro-tec? "The first was, and still is, my love to be an entrepreneur and for developing new products. The second reason may sound odd, but I was naïve and optimistic. I had no idea how much stamina it would take to build a company from scratch and how much drive it took in the past and still to-day ­ to move the ship forward," ex-plains Slavi. "That being said, there's nothing like seeing the fruits of a long hard effort. So on the one side I pos-sibly wouldn't have started the com-pany if I knew, but now that the hard part is behind me, I love what I do," he further adds. Despite his passion for innova-tive ideas, Slavi's major challenge was bootstrapping and being a `Jack of all trades'. For him, knowing how to lead people is the most important aspect of a CEO. "To make the in-dividual employees act like a team, that moves a ship over the waves. In addition, of course, I needed to learn many fields that I wasn't an expert about ­ marketing, finance, overcom-ing technical issues and more. I over-came these challenges by team work and constantly improving my knowl-edge base ­ learning," he explains. An active member of Israeli ITS (Intelligent Transportation Society) that advances the research and de-ployment of intelligent transportation technologies to save lives, improve mobility and increase efficiency & productivity, Slavi actively partici-pates in several initiatives of smart mobility and smart cities, and in gen-erally advancing smart transportation systems in Israel. The Pillar of Strength Slavi started the company the same time he married his wife. "Those days, I would barely see the house in daylight and the whole idea of `work-life balance' was nowhere in anyone's agenda. I couldn't have done it with-out the incredible dedication of my wife and patience of my daughters," recalls Slavi. But with time, he learnt the importance of work-life balance in keeping a good team happy and pro-ductive over time. Hence, as long as the work is done, Slavi does not mea-sure his employees by their working hours and encourages them to `have a life'. His love for the sea isn't hidden from any one. It is rather a perfect escape for Slavi, who holds a skipper license for almost 20 years now. He loves cooking Vietnamese and Italian cuisines, and anything that comes in between. Company of the year
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