A watercooler moment with… Chris Noblet

A watercooler moment with Chris Noblet, CEO of Rivo, the risk management software platform

A watercooler moment with... Chris Noblet

In a nutshell, what does Rivo do?

Rivo is a risk management software platform for organisations with high-risk operations, which helps them manage issues around safety, security and sustainability.

Where did the idea for Rivo come from?

In the past, large organisations spent lots of time collating incident data into local Excel spreadsheets, which was too clunky and ineffective. The market was crying out for software that allowed companies to report incidents into a single source that everyone could access without duplicating data. That’s where Rivo comes in.

When did you start up?

2005

How has it gone so far?

It has been a great journey. We had organic international growth and attracted a large number of blue chips from around the world, including some big household names. In 2013 we attracted a major round of investment that allowed us to scale our business further. The better we can make our software the better companies can manage their risk – and this is often life and death stuff. This year is really exciting for us as we release a major new version, which we see as disruptive technology, to the market.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

Growing any business is a challenge but it would be no fun if it wasn’t. Equally, if things ran smoothly it would be a sure sign you’re doing something wrong. Penetrating the US market has certainly been up there but now we have a really great guy leading the charge in the US and a number of major names such as Nissan, LinkedIn, Clorox, Trafigura and Dow Chemicals. We’re a tight knit team so we can be light-footed and respond to challenges both in the market and in terms of our own scalability.

How would you say you differentiate yourself from the competition?

We have the best technology roadmap both in terms of user interface and underlying tech. This is reflected in our customer retention. We’re also the only top 20 operational risk software to run a single version of software in the cloud. This means we can be lean and provide many more features than our competitors at a lower price. For the last year we have been working on a model that allows us to deploy fully-  working enterprise-class risk management solutions to customers within hours.

What has been the best decision you have made to-date?

To invest in a world class research and development facility which is helping roll out disruptive tech such as a social layer within our software platform to allow our customers to increase user adoption, which is paramount to getting that visibility of risk.

Where do you see the business in 12 months’ time?

We’re on a good trajectory with double digit growth forecasted each year for the next three years and right now we’re signing some really great names. We’re also building an extensive partnership network. In 12 months I expect the business to be entering new geographies and also seeing our technology disrupt a number of customers’ risk management challenges even further.

If you had one piece of advice for entrepreneurs, what would it be?

Take whatever management training you can get. I received a lot of training when I was at Arthur Andersen and that helped to define the way in which I do business. I still jump at the chance when training opportunities arise. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ryan McChrystal
Ryan McChrystal
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