Employee experience in the modern workplace has been put under increasing spotlight. The Great Resignation means that providing a culture that engages and motivates employees is what gets the best talent through your doors. And keeps them there. Dogesoft provides enterprises with the means to exceed even modern employee expectations, so we interviewed their founder, Leo Qin.
In this Q&A with Leo, he talks about how Dogesoft has evolved, what it takes to run it, and throws in some advice about how to utilise emerging tech in the employee experience space. He also delves into how he came to feel so passionately about employee experience and where he thinks enterprise culture will go from here. Read on for exclusive insights.
Meet Leo Qin
Founder & CEO, Dogesoft
Leo Qin is the Co-founder and CEO of Dogesoft, an employee and stakeholder experience innovator that delivers excellent enterprise culture through just a single application. His passion for technology, the continual growth of the cloud era, and how it can be used is what motivates him and drives the development of products that stands apart.
Leo leads by motivation, inspiring his teams to manifest their dreams into tangible realities. A Stoic, he believes that understanding our true nature, not external forces, is the key to discovering the virtues of our existence.
CEO.digital: How has Dogesoft’s vision evolved since you founded it in 2011?
Leo Qin: “Dogesoft was created to make enterprises more productive and human by bringing social networking tools to enterprises 10 years ago. But it wasn’t long before we realized that a standalone Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) application couldn’t achieve its goal without integrating with business processes. So, we started reframing our approach by using a super mobile app to connect and empower business stakeholders five years ago.
“Since the start of the pandemic, employee burnout has become an important issue. We’ve seen the great value that a connected digital stakeholder community can bring to enterprises that are struggling with people engagement and operational efficiency. After having served industry-leading brands like Starbucks, adidas, Disney, and Porsche, we reinforced our vision to become a leading company to bring compassion and efficiency to every organization.”
Tell us a little bit about what your priorities are on a daily basis.
“Refining strategies, hiring and sparking more conversations with our customers are my daily priorities recently. I love to reflect on the strategies when taking a walk after dinner every day.”
How does Dogesoft’s offering distinguish itself from its competitors?
“We put people first and we value operational efficiency.
“When you look at the collaboration and community software market in the world, almost all of them are generic and non-customized products. But when it comes to improving employee digital experience, we all know that tailoring apps based on each role’s needs is key.
“In addition, applications like Teams and Workplace are mainly designed for office workers to increase office productivity. In a more connected business environment, engaged frontline workers and external stakeholders have been the key to a company’s success. To meet their needs and to increase operational efficiency, enterprises need tailored solutions. A one-size-fits-all approach may work for in-office collaboration, but it doesn’t work in business operations.”
Tell us about when the penny dropped, for you, about the value of people-focused transformation.
“Four years ago, when we started the Partner APP project with Starbucks, we still had a tool-focused mindset. Then we came to know this famous business mantra of Starbucks – ‘making our barista happy, they will make our customers happy.’ With a mission to make Starbucks’ frontline workers happy, we started digitalizing their store operations with an all-in-one engagement and operation app.
“It turned out to have a huge positive impact on the frontline workers’ daily work and life. Even after some part-timers left their jobs, they missed the connectedness and humanity that the digital community brought to them. At that moment, I knew we were going to stick with people-focused transformation for good.”
Would you mind explaining the intersection between cloud and compassion-based management?
“In a hybrid work environment, most management will be achieved via cloud tools – a new challenge both to employers and employees. Just as 100 years ago when workers were first forced to work on assembly lines, scientific management emerged. Now we’re entering this new era where ‘cloud-based management’ is looming. Should management be more scientific, or more compassionate? There is not too much choice.”
Listening, caring, and encouraging autonomy will become a must-have. This is unfortunately easy to say but hard to do. The key is to build a work environment where employees, especially Gen Z, can speak up.
Leo Qin Founder & CEO of Dogesoft
How does stakeholder experience factor into corporate success, and why is it a core focus of Dogesoft?
“Since the term ‘experience economy’ was first used in 1998, it has started affecting all aspects of a business’ operation, not only on the customer side. Every stakeholder unquestionably desires great experiences, and more and more businesses are responding by redesigning and promoting them. Any companies that don’t follow suit will be left behind.
“From our view, a great stakeholder experience is an epitome of efficient operations and engaged stakeholders. That’s why we think it’s essential for businesses to get an edge by increasing stakeholder experience.”
How do you see the evolution of enterprise culture over the next five years?
“Three things:
- Listening, caring, and encouraging autonomy will become a must-have. This is unfortunately easy to say but hard to do. The key is to build a work environment where employees, especially Gen Z, can speak up.
- Transforming HR to be more strategic about culture will be essential. It’s hard to build a culture of compassion and autonomy only through corporate communications. HR must become involved with the business processes related to stakeholder experience and relationships.
- Leveraging digital to shape culture will be a key capability. This is not an option over the next five years. I’d say it’s the only (good) choice for most enterprises.”
What are the main mistakes enterprises make when trying to establish a successful workplace culture?
“Two main mistakes from my opinion:
- There is no or little alignment between words and deeds. The root cause is that there is not a set of principles and SOPs tied to culture building. When management does things haphazardly, there is no consistency in culture building.
- Lack of an integrated digital tool that should be used to fulfill employee’s daily work, but at the same time, is also the same digital tool to embody and reinforce the corporate culture.”
In a new hybridized world of working, how should leaders be implementing optimization tech like AI to complement their workforce?
“Many leaders are already pushing the adoption of automation-focused AI technology in their daily operations. This should be a top priority for freeing frontline workers to focus on more valuable tasks. AI-powered store inventory management in restaurants and digital visual merchandising in retail are great examples of automation in action.
“I think the most overlooked aspect of this is investing in people-focused technology to galvanize teams and upskill employees, and to make them feel seen and heard. The people-related elements of increasing operational efficiency have been long undervalued. Leaders should pay close attention to technologies such as AI-powered micro and adaptive learning, or instant recognition.”
Among the many technological developments on the horizon, what excites you most?
“If we group all technologies into two categories: tech that helps people do less, and tech that helps people create more, the latter always excites me. AI will be continuously evolving towards AGI, which may not be achieved eventually, but people will do less and less with the help of it.
“When it comes to the technologies that will empower people to create more, I think the intersection between neuroscience and nanochip tech is holding out hope for igniting and exploring our brains to create more.”
Learn More About Dogesoft
Dogesoft reshapes customer and employee experiences by unifying marketing, service, collaboration, and people engagement on ONE super app. Their vision, to bring efficiency and compassion to every organisation by empowering employees, partners, and customers to work together effortlessly and happily, is informed by three core values. Stay Simple. Stay Human. Automate Operation. Dogesoft is future-focused, continuously developing new solutions across industries to make digitalisation simpler.
