Employee Spotlight

Meet Josh Krohn

We are back again with our Employee Spotlight. For those of you new to this, we choose a Beyondsoft employee and ask them questions about their role in the company, as well as a few “just for fun” questions, so our readers get the chance to learn more about the incredible people who make up our team. This month, we are featuring one of our senior managers, Josh Krohn.

Marketing: Hi, Josh! Thanks for taking the time to let us learn a bit more about you. To start, can you tell us a little bit about your background and what you do for BCI

Josh: Hi! I’m happy to be here. I’ve had a pretty varied background. I started my professional career in resort management at Stevens Pass. I then moved on to a sales position with U.S. Airways and an operational role with Holland America Cruise Line. After that, I joined Microsoft as an FTE, where I led the team building Consumer Sales across all of Microsoft Consumer Call Centers worldwide. I followed my last Manager from the Microsoft Online Stores team to Samsung, where I started my most recent Consulting career. At Beyondsoft, I oversee our Managed Services, handling back-end logistics for World Wide Learning, and dabble with the Sales and Marketing teams.

Marketing: That is variety. What has been your favorite project at Beyondsoft so far?

Josh: Without a doubt, the World Wide Learning project has been my favorite experience in the Consulting space. We have three teams engaged with this group and have experienced consistent growth during my time. The opportunity to collaborate with the great Managers on my team overseeing the different programs and affect real change in how we operationalize these businesses has been gratifying.

Marketing: Growth is always good. And the fact you’ve been able to do it in a year where so many parts of businesses are shrinking is fantastic. Speaking of this year – I know we’ve chatted about working from home and productivity tips before. Can you share your biggest tip?

Josh: E-mail folders! I learned during a training session years ago to follow this guide with e-mail, which helps me stay on track:

1. Read mails as they come in – immediately.
2. If I can answer an e-mail in 2 mins or less – do so immediately.
3. Those things I need to read and don’t reply to – put in a folder specific to the mail topic.
4. What’s left in my inbox are things that will take longer/more thought, so my to-do list is my inbox, which is usually pretty manageable as a result. I can always find anything I need to refer back to in my folders. I currently have around 50 active folders.

Marketing: That’s a great tip! I might have to try that. What is the best advice you have ever been given?

Josh: Ah, well, my first Manager at Microsoft trained me on how to pick my battles. He said there were three kinds. The first is the battle that you know you’re right, and you know you can win. You should fight that battle every time. The second battle is where you know you are right but don’t think you can win. Is it worth your credibility fighting? Then there is the last battle. That’s the one where you know you’re right, but you know you won’t win, and it’s not worth staking your credibility on. He told me never to waste my time on those.

Marketing: I think we can all use that strategy. Well, you are full of useful advice today. How do you equate all of this to success?

Josh: This is an easy one – is my family happy, and can I give them the focus they deserve! Second to that – success for me comes down to a couple of factors. First, am I making a difference? For work to be rewarding, I want to feel that I’m impacting the area I’m engaged in. As a close second, am I able to translate my own experience and background to help I direct to be more effective in their roles.

Marketing: That’s great. I’m sure your team appreciates that. Okay, so for a few fun questions. First, what is the last book you read?

Josh: I’m an avid reader on my Kindle and consume a lot of fiction. The most recent book I read was written by my brother, though, non-fiction titled Bombarded by Cyrus Krohn. It’s about the media and politics and how your unconscious biases are being used against you. A great topic in the current climate in the U.S.

Marketing: That’s interesting! I’ll have to look for that. So, tell me three things most people don’t know about you?

Josh: I live on a small farm between Woodinville and Monroe, where we raise Cows, Pigs, Turkeys, Chickens, and Sheep for our dinner table. We also have eight horses, half of which are wild Mustangs; my oldest son has trained. I have three boys (16, 14, and 6) that make my life whole! Lastly – I work part-time a few weekends a month driving snowcats up at Stevens Pass, grooming the ski slopes for your skiing pleasure!

Marketing: You joined the Diversity committee at Beyondsoft recently, and you told us you were Jewish. Can you tell us a little more about that? What are your favorite traditions? What is a common misconception people have about Judaism?

Josh: My family has a very strong background with the Reform Judaism movement, to the point that my great Grandfather was one of the founders of the movement. I was raised going to Temple twice a week and had both a Bar Mitzvah and Confirmation. Judaism has such a rich history of traditions and Holidays, and this time of year, the celebration of lights of Chanukah. There are multiple correct spellings of this Holiday you may see. Chanukah celebrates an event where the Jewish people had only one day’s worth of oil to light the holy light, and through a miracle, the oil lasted for eight days and nights. There are many misconceptions people have about Judaism. The most common I run into is that people don’t understand the differences between Orthodox, Hasidic, Reform, and other religious movements. Like various sects of Christianity, Islam, and other religions worldwide, different groups have many different practices in terms of how they celebrate and translate the teachings. For example, as a reform Jew, I don’t keep kosher and am happy to have a good slice of bacon, whereas an Orthodox Jew would definitely not.

Marketing: Wow! Thanks for sharing. Is there anything else interesting you’d like to share with the team?

Josh: I’m an Army brat and grew up around the world, and in the past 20 years, my career has taken me to even more countries. If you ever want to know the best restaurant to eat at in almost any airport around the world – I’m your guy! Singapore is hands down the nicest airport I’ve been in, although the tunnels in the Detroit airport are also pretty cool.

Marketing: Thanks, Josh! And to everyone else, be sure to tune in next month to learn more about another member of our great team! Stay safe and have a wonderful holiday season!