In the world of business and entrepreneurship, genuinely exemplary leaders with innovative skills can create impact in the lives of people through the effective use of technology and all resourcefulness.
Such leaders make difference in the lives of people in a very positive way. They are solution-oriented leaders, and they want to be the part of the solution to the problems in the world and they aspire to make the world a better place through their efforts.
Ofer A. Lidsky is a prominent name among these exemplary and innovative business leaders. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in software development in the spheres of Genetics, Digital Health, EEG Signal Processing, BCI, VR, and Information Security. He has headed start-up companies and development teams towards successful creation of innovative platforms and solutions and is literally bringing ideas to life!
Ofer is the Founder and CEO of Excellent Brain, an innovative start-up developing advanced brain training solutions based on Neurofeedback. Excellent Brain’s technology enables anyone to engage in training programs for improving different aspects of life using Neurofeedback and Virtual Reality.
Below are the highlights of the interview between CIO Look and Ofer A. Lidsky:
Brief our audience on your professional journey, up to your current leadership position.
My journey beings in my childhood when I got my first personal computer at around 1980 (age of 7). This made me learn computer languages and by the age of 12 I started working in a real computer company. From there I grew up to be an entrepreneur and became an expert in a few technological fields such as Information Security, Virtual Reality, Brain Computer Interface (BCI) and Genetics.
I have established a few companies in my career such as Digital Dimension, which was established in 1998 and developed Virtual Reality Community Platforms. In 2005 I established TerraSafe (www.terrasafe.com) which became one of the leading Information Security Solution provider in the SMB market in Israel. Recently I had my first patent published in the field of Genetics and Blockchain.
Brief us about your company and its prominent solutions that make you a preferred choice over your competition.
Excellent Brain was established in 2015 with a clear vision to make a difference in people’s life by enabling home brain training using the effective Neurofeedback method. When we started, we did our first training programs with kids from schools with low-income population. The training programs were so successful that I understood I must spread this and make it accessible to everyone. And that is exactly what I did. I established a start-up which developed the most innovative direct to consumers (D2C) Neurofeedback platform. Today, we are a registered program in the list of programs of the Israeli Ministry of Education and we have been operating in many schools in Israel.
When we released our Excellent Brain ADHD Neurofeedback Home Kit, we started letting people train their brain and attention ability at their homes. Today the impact of ADHD on the education world is immense and we bring new possibilities into that space. Excellent Brain’s slogan is that everyone has an Excellent Brain!
What is your idea of impactful leadership? What style of leadership do you personally prefer and have implemented at your company?
A few years ago, I participated in a series of leadership courses which introduced to me a new model of leadership – the phenomenological and ontological leadership model, which relies on some very powerful concepts on how life and leadership works. Since then I have been studying and researching this model. What makes this model so favourable for me is the fact that it is highly effective in the results you get and relies on extraordinary distinctions which opens new ways to interpret and act in the world.
What were the challenges you came across in your career as a leader?
Challenges are always there and always will be, that’s part of life. I think that some of the most challenging leadership aspects is the human factor. Making people follow you and joining your action plans is one of the most important challenges in leadership. Moreover, leadership is also about setting an example to others
and acting like you say you would, which also demands high self-awareness and discipline. Honouring your word is the first law for being a leader.
Taking into consideration, the current pandemic, and its impact on global economies, how are you driving your company to sustain operations and ensuring safety of your associates and employees at the same time?
This pandemic has impacted the world in so many ways. It has made us implement new ways of operation in order to maintain the business. New challenges came with the pandemic, from lockdowns to working from home. I think that the more agile and flexible your business is the most likely you will be able to survive. Now we can really see the survival of the fittest come into play in the business world.
If given a chance, what change would you bring about in the ecosystem of your respective industry?
The psychiatric drug usage is a pandemic by itself in the world today. The changes I would like to see is in the way people consume drugs such as Ritalin (Methylphenidate), I think the regulation should raise the bar and combine other methods of training and treatments. What we see in schools today, all over the world, is a very high percentage of students which are on drug treatments, and I mean very high percentage. I think that if we got to this point, there are major problems to be dealt with in the educational systems.
What would be your advice for the emerging and aspiring business leaders?
If I need to summarise it in a couple of sentences: Inspiration, Motivation & Dedication are the keys to success, and I think dedication is the most important and hard to play (hint). Once you give up, the game is over. There is no magic, only hard work that accomplishes results. And we should always remember that any business in the world relies on cash flow, so without good marketing and sales there is no business.
What have you envisioned for yourself and your company to sustain its market position in the future?
Excellent Brain excels in innovation. We will keep being one of the leaders in the Neurofeedback brain training space. Our development plan goes far into the future with very exciting and innovative technologies coming up. STAY TUNED.
