25 Years Strong: Behind the Scenes with Our CEO

I'd share the wisdom I found in Wendy Luhabe's book "Hard Work & Horse Play: Conversations With Blue-Chip CEOs." The advice is straightforward but powerful: persevere.

This means continuing despite inevitable resistance and obstacles, maintaining firm purpose, accepting delays without becoming overly frustrated, building resilience to recover quickly from difficulties, and developing the endurance to sustain efforts over the long term.

Looking back, embracing this philosophy was essential to our journey and continues to guide us today.

A business is fundamentally a collection of people—without them, there would be no iX. Past and present team members have collectively built what we have today. For all of them, I am grateful, humbled, and proud.

The relationships we've built with our team members, clients, and partners over two and a half decades have been the most rewarding aspect of this journey.

Having been in this industry for 25 years, we've witnessed numerous shifts—some cyclical, others permanent.

We continually monitor industry trends and technological developments to ensure we're positioned to help our clients navigate change effectively. By staying agile and forward-thinking, we've been able to turn potential challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.

Our growth has remained remarkably steady throughout our 25-year history. We've found a direct correlation between effort and results—as the saying goes:

By maintaining our focus on client needs and continuously refining our services, we've been able to build lasting relationships and achieve sustainable growth.

The compliments we receive from clients are what make me most proud. We get an unusually high number of positive comments, which aligns perfectly with our primary purpose: keeping clients happy.

These testimonials reflect our commitment to quality, service excellence, and genuine partnerships with the businesses we serve.

We started young, and 25 years later, our team remains energetic and dynamic. Our guiding philosophy has always been straightforward:

This manifests in practical ways. We don't believe in locking clients into lengthy contracts—they stay with us because they want to, not because they're obligated. Similarly, we don't insist that clients use our services exclusively. We're happy to fill gaps and collaborate with other service providers to make things seamless for our clients.

Our goal has always been to be easy to work with, and I believe we largely achieve this.

Over 25 years, we've witnessed so many of our team members grow from young professionals into parents and established leaders. While it's difficult to single out one story, I often think of our early team member, the late Gary Mackay. His influence remains visible throughout our business, and he lives fondly in our memories.

The collective journey of watching our people develop professionally and personally has been one of the most rewarding aspects of building this company.

Johan and the late Gary Mackay, whose influence lives on in the company's 25-year legacy.

This simple idea has helped us maintain direction through changing markets and technologies. While we've always embraced opportunities and innovation, maintaining strategic focus has been essential to our success.

Leadership is always evolving, so I prefer to think in terms of continuous aspirations rather than established habits. I strive for empathy in all interactions, prioritize skills transfer to develop our team, create growth opportunities wherever possible, and ensure we gather input from all stakeholders before making significant decisions.

These principles guide how we operate both internally and with our clients and partners.

I've learned two seemingly contradictory but equally valuable lessons. First, understand the importance of delegation—do less yourself and manage more through others.

However, for entrepreneurs especially, there's also tremendous value in doing the hands-on work yourself, at least initially. This provides invaluable management insights that inform decision-making for years to come.

Finding the right balance between these approaches has been key to our sustained success.

Our partnership with Lightstone represents an exciting new direction. Together, we offer comprehensive services across motor, property, finance, and insurance industries—often in interconnected ways.

This alignment comes at an opportune moment as the motor industry undergoes significant transformation. Emerging technologies, particularly AI, will play an increasingly important role both in the industries we serve and in our own operations.

We're energized and prepared to embrace these changes to create meaningful advantages for our clients.