Founder and CEO of SMSGlobal Carl Krumins was nominated for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. Since 2007, he has led the company as it expanded to become the “leading international provider of mobile messaging technology.”
Years before SMSGlobal, Carl Krumins started out tinkering, pulling apart computers and putting them back together in his Melbourne garage. That was when he developed his passion for technology. He was naturally inquisitive, and he taught himself information technology. In university, he found that his teachers couldn’t really give him what he wanted to know about IT, so he left “to focus on building a new business strategy for SMS.”
Carl Krumins founded SMSGlobal because he saw “a gap in the market and aimed to create a robust and versatile platform,” complemented “with a focus on tailored customer service to differentiate his business from his competition in the marketplace.” The company did what the few big players that dominated the global SMS industry could not, while “charging a premium for a fairly standard service.”
Under the leadership of Carl Krumins, SMSGlobal has “achieved rapid growth.” Today, the company delivers “mobile messaging and platform development solutions to businesses in almost every country around the world.” They have also “secured major contracts with high-profile multinational companies, ensuring sustainability through a diverse customer base.”
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When I started expanding my business, someone told me to make sure I’m across everything. Carl Krumins, SMSGlobal
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Carl Krumins: We think outside the box and go a step further in everything we do. For example, a few years ago, I wrangled a team of corporate adventurers from SMSGlobal to climb to the base camp of Mt Everest for the ‘Trek4kids’ cause. We wanted to demonstrate how today’s mobile technology can facilitate running a global business, even while trudging up the Himalayan ranges of Mount Everest.
I took a solar mat, satellite phone, and a notebook in my backpack. That’s all I needed to communicate with my team back home and keep leading the business. The power of mobile technology allowed me to stay connected to the business throughout the trek. All while raising money for a fantastic cause.
Once we can travel again, I hope we can continue these campaigns and power our commitment to support those in need through state-of-the-art technology.
Jerome Knyszewski: Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
Carl Krumins: When I started expanding my business, someone told me to make sure I’m across everything. As the business grew, I got completely burnt out trying to be across everything rather than focusing on what I’m good at — the technology side of things. Now, I am selective in the areas I focus my time and attention on. When you find good people to manage their own area of expertise, you can trust that you don’t need to be involved in every department or every decision.
You can’t give up when it gets tough.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a successful business leader. Which 3 character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Carl Krumins:
Resilience
You can’t give up when it gets tough. In the initial stages of SMSGlobal, when I was doing the work of about 10 people, I never gave up. Was it hard and demanding? Of, course. But it taught me a lot about the power of resilience and rising to the challenge.
Endurance & determination
I once worked almost three days straight. Sometimes that is required of a business leader to get the results that you want.
Self-assuredness
If I didn’t believe in my abilities or my ideas, why should anyone else? Even as I was churning through credit cards and struggling to juggle the entire business operations, I trusted that I knew what I was doing — and that it would pay off in the end.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Carl Krumins: Every business leader or entrepreneur knows just how hard it is to disconnect from work altogether. There’s always another email to get back to, another project to flesh out, and so on. Being CEO for many years now, I’ve come to know myself better and have learned to catch myself before reaching complete burnout.
I think everyone needs to sit back from time to time and asks themselves, ‘Am I overdoing it? Do I need to unplug for a bit?’ If that answer is yes, then do whatever you need to re-charge and wind down — even if it’s just for a night, or even an hour.
If you have a clear goal in your head of what you want to achieve, and exactly how you can achieve it, it really is okay to just listen to yourself.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Carl Krumins: I see way too many budding CEOs and start-up founders not having faith in themselves or their abilities. If you have a clear goal in your head of what you want to achieve, and exactly how you can achieve it, it really is okay to just listen to yourself.
Collaboration and feedback are important. But it’s equally important to trust your gut and know when you know best. Having too many cooks in the kitchen can damage innovation and make you lose sight of your core values and mission.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Carl Krumins: I had no idea how hard it would be to manage teams across different time zones. Taking SMSGlobal overseas was an inevitable and exciting expansion. First, we laid roots in Dubai then in the US a few years after. But we quickly found out that it takes more than just a Slack group chat to keep everyone on the same page.
It’s a constant balancing act — ensuring that everyone is clear on the company’s core goals whilst addressing the needs of diverse markets and clients. The management side of things goes deeper than copying across processes and company values. You have to keep everyone in the loop of every decision or change. Otherwise, you risk losing alignment and unity.
We schedule in the necessary catchups and team meetings, but it’s still something that we work on every single day. As a global team, we know better than anyone that communication and connectivity are key.
Education builds knowledge, and knowledge can be used to move mountains. Carl Krumins
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Carl Krumins: As Nelson Mandela said, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world’.
At SMSGlobal, we have a culture of learning. Everyone is continually developing in their role, learning, and upskilling in any area that interests them. I know firsthand how impactful this has been for our business and our staff’s personal development.
Education builds knowledge, and knowledge can be used to move mountains. If I could start a movement to bring a great deal of good to as many people as possible, it would be to give free and easy access to education for everyone, everywhere. Just imagine what we could achieve.
The power of education and knowledge has steered us through this pandemic with medical, scientific, and technology communities coming together to push us forward as a globalised society. With that same force and backing, I envisage a time when we can work together to overcome some of the world’s biggest challenges. Global warming, famine, disease and illnesses; I can only imagine how education for all could unlock the solutions behind these global issues. Education doesn’t just empower the individual; it empowers everyone.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Carl Krumins: Follow me and SMSGlobal on:
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
