Interview with Keith Scandone, Co-Founder and CEO of O3 World - Part II

8/4/17

Keith Scandone

Click here for Part I

An innovative digital design firm with an award-winning agency culture

Keith Scandone is the co-founder and CEO of O3 World, a digital product design and development company based in Philadelphia. As a strategic partner to its clients, O3 World provides clients with digital solutions in areas such as web and application development, mobile, and e-commerce. The company’s clients have included Thomson Reuters, Comcast, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the University of Pennsylvania. In recognition of its unique culture, O3 World has been named as one of Entrepreneur’s “Top Company Cultures” and “Best Entrepreneurial Companies,” as well as one of Philadelphia’s “Best Places to Work.” The company also organizes the annual Forge Conference, which brings together digital innovators from in and outside of Philadelphia.


EDWIN WARFIELD: What do you love about running a company?

KEITH SCANDONE: From a services standpoint, I love that we’re handling digital consulting, design, development, deployment, and marketing. Just like consulting companies who are trying to become digital agencies—you see that happening with Lloyd and Accenture—I look at it the same way from a digital agency standpoint. The more strategic we can be upfront, the more that we can be a consulting partner upfront.

I’d say the most exciting part of my job is just seeing growth. One of the core values of O3 is “always growing” and I look at that from certainly not just a financial standpoint, but how we become more efficient in the work that we do, that we create better processes inside the organization, that we work with larger clients, that we’re having a larger impact; but also just the people inside the organization, to see them grow and to see them mature and take on more responsibilities—see them grow personally, see them grow professionally. To be able to provide an opportunity and a forum for people to have that professional and personal growth, and to be able to just support them in that regard, is probably one of the best parts of running a company.

Q. O3 World has won awards for its company culture. What goes into creating that kind of extraordinary workplace?

A. The culture’s going to come down to the people. I mean, I can establish somewhat of a blueprint and it’s always going to be an extension of the founder’s vision and personality, but ultimately it’s the people that have to carry it through, and I think that’s no different at O3. But one of the big things that I’ve seen—a really important element of having a good culture—is you’ve got to delegate, and you’ve got to take your hands off the reins to some degree, and allow people to be independent, and allow people to succeed, and allow people to fail; and support them when they do both; and reward them when they hopefully succeed, and help them when potentially they don’t. That is one of the most important elements of a successful culture. It’s not about you; it’s about everybody, and it’s about everyone working as a team to contribute to the culture and philosophy and growth of an organization.

Connect with Keith on LinkedIn

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Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

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