by Anna Grechishkina – iCN Journalist (Ukraine)
Thomas Flemming turned his passion into a business becoming one of the pioneers in the navigation software development. His company QuoVadis Software, when created more than 20 years ago quickly, won the market making it the unquestioned leader.
Until the new realities, the demands of the market and new bigger players jeopardized success and the very existence of QuoVadis. How to survive seemingly insuperable challenges… whether there is a place for small businesses at all in this highly competitive world … how life coaching can help. Thomas Flemming dwells on all the above in this interview.
Anna Grechishkina (AG): How did you come up with the idea to build your own business?
Thomas Flemming (TF): It started not actually as a business, but as a hobby, as a dream. My dream always was to travel. But working for someone and having just a normal vacation you can’t go too far. One day I got a chance to go to Africa for three months, in the Sahara desert, and that’s where this basic idea for QuoVadis came.
I wanted a nice software to travel for my own. So I started programming because software development was a kind of hobby for me. I created a software which helped me to program the GPS devices which I had on the handlebar of my motorcycle. And this is basically QuoVadis, software which helps you to prepare at home routes and waypoints which you can use later on your GPS device. This is how it started.
Quite soon this software, which I developed quickly for myself all of a sudden found interest from other people because this was just a time when the GPS devices started to spread on the market. All of a sudden there was a business opportunity for me. I was the first guy who developed such kind of software. There were no Google Maps at that time. It was a kind of a historic moment. And we were selling a lot in those years, we actually ruled the market in Germany.
To see Anna’s full interview, you can watch it HERE
Source: iCN Issue 35 (Business Coaching: Building your Organisation); pages 45-47
About Anna Grechishkina
Since July 2013, Anna accomplished an around-the-world trip on her motorcycle with the aim to break the Guinness Record on the longest solo female travel on a motorcycle. At the moment she has travelled 160 thousand km and 65 countries in total.
She is a motivational speaker for businesses and educational institutions with a wide range of topics, like how to set and achieve your goals and dreams, dealing with cultural differences in the modern world, Womanpower – making a big difference in a men’s world, Surviving depression and loneliness – can they be friends, to name a few.
