1673 – Shaping The Path Forward with TRG International’s Rick Yvanovich

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0:58with us right now rick ivanovich rick you are the founder and ceo of trg internationals found on the web at trg international and in your personal website uh you're a master coach uh and you're found on the web at rick ivanovich.com your book is business as usual how to thrive in the new Renaissance. I like it. Rick, it's great to have you. Thanks for having me, Josh. Now, before we start, I'd just like to share with you and your listeners a core belief that I hold dear. We all have the potential to be architects of change. So in our current era at the moment, which is defined by constant transformation, our task is not just to keep up, but to actively shape the path forward.

1:56Now, speaking for myself, from stacking shelves, that's where I started, and learning the ropes of people management as a trainee in a supermarket, to immersing myself in the more precise world of accounting and later navigating the constantly evolving landscapes of technology and humans. My story really demonstrates the power, I believe, of transformation and continuous learning and the significant impact each one of us can make. So every day, our actions, big or small, shape our future. And as we discuss whatever you're going to throw at me today. I want everyone listening to remember this. You are your own brand and every single decision you make is part of the unique story that you are crafting for yourself.

2:51How you react, how you adapt and how you innovate in the face of all the change that's happening at the moment will define your story and your legacy. And this belief, inspiring each of us to aim for consistently higher achievement, is the cornerstone of my work, my life purpose. So as we dive into our conversation today, let's not just think about adapting to change, but about how we can define it. After all, when we embrace our unique qualities and strive for personal growth, we are not just participants, but were actually catalysts in our ever-changing business as unusual, or bow world, as I call it.

3:40So let's get started, Josh. What evidence might you point at, maybe in terms of trends or innovations, technology, that lead you to believe that we may be in what you call a new renaissance? Let's just pick one simple one that's, I think, taking the world by storm at the moment, and that is generative AI or AI in general. I mean, some people are out there panicking. Some people are embracing it. Some people are still scratching their heads wondering what is going on um there's been so much chatter about it it's it's huge and um yeah it's it's going back to you know why do I think it's the renaissance it's just another one of those unusual things that's that's hitting us and and and the reason why I've got got that I'm bringing the renaissance i've put that in the title of the book is because ai that may be scaring some people it's not scaring other people and although there may be all sorts of that information going around that a you know is going to take over our jobs the robots are coming type of thing at the end of the day um what i think is very important about it is it actually highlights the importance of us being human that is very very important i mean an ai is just a is just a dumb program that we tell it it just does whatever we tell it to do and it's smart if we ask it to do something smart and it's pretty stupid when we ask it to do something pretty stupid uh so in that in in that respect it's pretty dumb um so it's like all tools it's how you use them so going back to the renaissance you know there there are a lot of qualities that we have as humans that are totally unique okay that makes us well human okay and it's i love the fact that AI has come in, because it really gives me the opportunity to reemphasize to people like, it's our humanity and the skills that we have as humans that will make us human, and that makes us unique, and that makes us different.

6:12And that's why we're all so wonderful. Yeah. Well, and I agree with you. And I think that, you know, some of the things that we're seeing right now, you know, The more I learn and the more evidence that I see, I think we're, again, kind of headed into this. It feels like an acceleration because AI touches nearly everything and the applications are widespread. So it doesn't matter if you're afraid or not. It's almost like it's an inevitability. So it's like a larger market force that you have no control over. Well, you may as well decide how to adapt to be a part of it. And specifically, I think here's what we're looking for right now is we're looking for leaders because AI by itself is not going to innovate and change lives and change history.

7:05It's the people who use the tools. And so I think a great reminder for all of us, how are you showing up in this moment? absolutely i i i agree i mean you know how we show up is is so important um and um it's and even more important is is how we're showing up when all these things are changing um if you are the if you are the leader out there you can't be the you know the deer stuck in the headlights. We can't be like scratching our heads and running around in circles. We need to be decisive. You know, we need to take action. We need to be moving forward. We need to embrace these changes. So, you know, a lot of this is sort of linked to what you could call VUCA leadership, you know, and us being prepared for VUCA, that volatility, that uncertainty, okay, the complexity and their ambiguity.

8:09I mean, it's hitting us from all angles. And as we've just been talking about AI, that's confusing an awful lot of people, okay? And there you could have a lot of employees that you're employing who are very confused or a little bit apprehensive and a bit scared of their jobs. And as you say, we need leaders. We need people to be decisive. We need them to show the path. We need them to walk the talk. We need them to be the ambassador of change. We need them to be the role models. And so there's a tremendous opportunity now for people to step up. Yeah. And how do you, Rick, would you mind maybe talking about your background and the work you do today?

8:53Oh, sure. It's been a long background. Well, I'll tell you what, give us the condensed version if you could. Condensed. start I mentioned supermarkets okay I did actually start off as a management trainee in a supermarket chain in the UK uh uh no no no kidding um and for some reason um I decided to begin to become an accountant within the first year so I quit that went back to school learned accounting um and now I'm an accountant that was four decades ago or something five decades ago something like that long time ago. So I've always been an accountant, primarily a systems accountant. So I've always dabbled with computers, given that when I left school, the PC hadn't come out yet.

9:46So I'm showing my age there. The year that I left school was the year that the first PC came out. and so you know I've been doing accounting in all sorts of industries and it eventually brought me to oil which brought me out to China and then to Vietnam and I've been here in Vietnam for the last 33 years. I retired back in 1994 but I'm a bit of a workaholic or I was a workaholic it's something I'm working on at the moment to get rid of. And I started my own company doing what I had been doing, which was implementing accounting systems before I'd done it for the companies I worked for. And now I did it for anybody who wanted it done.

10:38So that's primarily what I've been doing for the last 30 odd years is implementing accounting systems, plus, you know, related systems to that like consolidation systems financial reporting statutory reporting manufacturing you name it we've probably done it so that's the main thing uh that i've been been doing um as a numbers person um as i was scaling my company i suddenly realized that i'm a numbers person and i didn't understand people very well they don't compute there's no formula to them which led me on the pursuit of finding out well how do I scale a company if I need people if I'm not really a people person I'm that horrible well not horrible I'm that stereotypical accountant who's a bit nerdy and I'm a super introvert which doesn't help and so I came across psychological assessments okay and psychometrics that's probably about 15 years ago I loved it I I thought, yes, formula for people.

11:45Wonderful. So embrace that, started doing that, learned all about that, got certified in all of that and started selling those kind of systems all around the world as well. Liked it so much, actually set up a startup with a bunch of other people. And we have our own company doing exactly the same thing. So we do talent to help recruit people, to help make all those people decisions and to help develop people. that's sort of primarily what we do and in the last four years or so five years ago I've sort of morphed into becoming a coach I suddenly realized that's what I've been doing coaching and mentoring people for decades I never called it that I just sort of did it and suddenly realized I really really really enjoy doing it so that's why I became a certified coach and I'm sort of pivoting more in that in that direction these days all right yeah I'm gonna get to that in just a second too, because I want to ask you about that, particularly the book.

12:41But I want to ask you, TRG International, obviously you're proud of, you know, for 30 years now as CEO and founder, you've definitely achieved a great level of success with this company. Who is TRG for and who should be engaging with? Who should be, yeah, who should be researching, connecting and engaging? okay so so what do we what do we really do okay i'll tell you if i i you know i'll try and reframe what we actually do and then the people want to engage with the people who want that because they primarily uh what i've uh what we've been doing is is is selling and providing those systems that run your accounting and stuff like i can't i'm an accountant i can't get away through it i love it i like numbers accounting reporting performance management even manufacturing so we We've been doing that for customers in 80 countries.

13:35We've been doing it for a long, long time in all sorts of industries, obviously from oil and gas, because that's where I came from. But in my eclectic past, I've touched so many other industries. We sell into all of those as well. Our biggest vertical is hotels. So we work with standalone hotels and chains. And the chain could be within a country or across a region or across the world. And yes, we have to supply probably 50 percent of the top 20 global chains in the world. OK. And as you know, hotels are in many countries. Chains have hotels in many countries. That's why we are in many countries.

14:20So we do that. So we're interested in speaking to the finance folks, the sea level people who are working hotels or or in other industries like oil and gas and stuff like that who are looking for an accounting solution or which sounds horrible put it another way they want a system that works that's the number one thing you know we're trying to provide systems that actually work so you forget they even got them because they just work right Right. So that's the main thing that we do. The other thing we do, I say we run a boutique ODC offshore development center. That's 350 engineers for hire. So this is software engineering.

15:06OK, we don't do contract engineering. We do offshore ODC work, which means the companies say, hey, we need 10 people or 20 people. uh we you know we these are the type of programs that we want um we provide them they manage them so think of like um um a virtual office you know except we provide you a virtual office with people and fit you managing it all right uh and we're not very big only about 350 engineers And we do that for clients mainly in the Americas and in Australia and in Japan. And so what we're looking for there is we're looking for people who are interested in offshore development, maybe want to increase capacity.

15:57But what they really want is a group of people in their center who aren't going to keep changing. some of our clients we've had for more than 10 years all right and some of them the same people they're the same employees that we're giving them they're part of the company the final thing we do is around assessments which is the psychometrics and 360 surveys and so therefore they're we're looking to contact with HR leaders or really anyone in the c-suite who seems to have a people challenge, whether it's recruitment, whether it's retention or motivation, or they're looking to do succession planning, or they're just looking to grow them.

16:45Okay, so that's what we do. Yeah, and we've got about three minutes left on your website, rickivanovich.com. You have quite a storied background, so it's kind of a great opportunity for the right person who can use the insights and kind of experience and wisdom that you have. But who would make a great client or kind of mentee to be able to work with you? And again, your website, rickivanovich.com. Yeah, that's a great question. And I've been thinking very hard about that over the last year or so, even having to choose to not renew some coaching clients that I have. So what I'm really looking for are the people who not only want to change, but are committed to change.

17:38As through coaching, I will transform them. Okay. And transformation is permanently changing. It's going to permanently change you. So people need to want to do that. If you're not prepared to be changed, if you're not prepared to put in the work in, and you just want to turn up over a nice chat, I'm the wrong person. I would not enter into that kind of engagement. This person also has to be curious and open-minded. Open-minded is really, really important because it's not just seeing other perspectives, because the second part of open-mindedness is not just seeing the other perspectives, but is being prepared to change your own perspective and change your own mind.

18:26and we definitely need a growth mindset because I'm looking to grow people to to change them the tendency is the the clients I'm working for tend to be high achievers or hyper achievers okay and and and I'm finding out with with those people although they seem to be achieving a lot they still feel a bit empty. Something's a bit off. So I try and fill that hole, make them feel more fulfilled, make them have more balance in their life. Yeah. Your book, Rick, Business as Usual, How to Thrive in the New Renaissance. Congrats on the on the recent launch as of when we're recording this literally just came out nine days ago so congratulations on that I'm sure that's a lot of work that's now you know again it's nice to see you know you've birthed your baby yeah who should be picking up this book and what would you expect the transformation that would take place by someone reading okay so I'm finding that the This is business as unusual, which is an unusual title because it's not business as usual.

19:50It's business as unusual. And it's the first in a trilogy. Hence, that's why you might see on the on the face of it, on the on the book cover. This one is really looking at the unusual world that we're in from a business leader or a business owner perspective. okay um that being said an individual who is not a business leader or is not a business owner they might want to be one day okay and they might just be looking at it for themselves because they are their own business leader they are their own business owner of themselves um so what the book's about is is really i found that during the pandemic because this is when it was born, where it's really birthed, during the pandemic, it affected people in a lot of different ways.

20:47And one of the things that I saw is that it caused tremendous confusion with people, because the basis upon which we all got up every day and went to work, got thrown out the window, because at some points in time we couldn't even go to work because you weren't allowed in your own home or the office was closed the building was closed you know and just crazy things started happening it was just super unusual and it's left a lot of people completely and utterly confused now we've seen what was coined more than a year ago the great resignation or the great reshuffle or the great insert word as millions of people, literally millions of them have started voting with their feet and leaving whatever company they were at and going elsewhere because the grass is greener.

21:46The reason why it didn't go one iteration, it's still iterating because the grass wasn't greener, was it? And so the analogy that I use is that pre-pandemic, we used to get up we used to go to work we'd be stuck in our cubicle we're like that little hamster in the wheel going nowhere okay but we accepted it a lot of people accepted that and then the pandemic comes away and they threw the cubes away they threw the office away and they threw the wheel away all right so like well that's a bit of a problem now we're just we're still lost we don't know where we're going we're like lost in a maze and so there's this uneasy feeling with people very very uneasy feeling with people like what is the point of all of this okay and what I'm doing in the book is trying to give a framework that people can follow that's very easy to understand and a shed load of tools to help them get out of that brain fog out of that malaise and get some clarity and direction in their life and get their balance back and get them going and get their oomph back.

22:54And, you know, they, they, they wake, wake up, you know, all excited in the morning and they know what they're doing and where they're going. I want to put that back into people. Yeah. Rick Ivanovich, again, the book is business as unusual, how to thrive in the new Renaissance. Just hit, just hit Amazon. So you could go check that out. And you can also Rick, go to your website, rickivanovich.com. And again, that's where as well, you'll find resources and information about the book and your coaching. And then, of course, I just want to put a shout out for TRG International to your baby, 30 years in the making.

23:32So Rick, it's been great having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much, Josh. Thank you very much.

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