Recently I had the opportunity to interview Yaacov Cohen, Co-Founder and Social CEO of harmon.ie (previously known as Mainsoft) since 1999. A collaboration visionary, he believes in keeping it human. Technology needs to enhance our human interactions, not consume them. Yaacov and his team have eloquently combined human interaction and technology with harmon.ie, which transforms email into a collaboration console. He has presented at numerous collaboration conferences and was recently featured in Forbes.
Prior to joining harmon.ie, Yaacov served as a Software Engineer at the Israeli Navy Computer Center. He graduated Cum Laude from the Technion Israeli Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Computer Engineering.
What, exactly, is harmon.ie?
harmon.ie is the first platform-independent enterprise social software vendor. harmon.ie helps businesses become more social and collaborative using the platforms they already own from Microsoft, IBM and Google.
What about your background and experience prepared you for this endeavor?
I have always challenged the existing order, I left France for Israel when I was 18 years old, by myself. I was part of a start-up within the Israeli Navy that introduced open systems which replaced proprietary systems and ended up saving millions of dollars to taxpayers. I started harmon.ie to bring more collaboration and harmony to businesses.
Why do you think a company like yours is needed? What difference can it make in the marketplace?
harmon.ie increases business flexibility to enterprises by being platform-independent. They can pick collaboration offerings from different vendors, yet deliver an integrated user experience on mobile, desktop and cloud. More business flexibility means less vendor lock, more freedom of choice.
Tell me, briefly, what you see as the future of the social workplace.
The social workplace marks a profound transformation of business; businesses becoming more human, more people-centric. The social workplace brings people together to collaborate regardless of location and device: mobile, desktop and cloud. This takes creativity and productivity to a next level. It turns customers into business partners, and shifts from a short-term profit driven relationship to a long-term value-driven relationship.
Finally, you have written about the impact of religion on business. Would you elaborate? Also, the impact of business on religion?
In a value-driven society, there are no barriers anymore between business and spirituality. Business is the real world, that's the place where values are being really tested, that's the place your faith is being tested. Religion should not stop when we get out of temple, it actually starts when you get to the real world, to the business world.
Kevin Price is Publisher and Editor in Chief of US Daily Review and Host of the Price of Business on 1110 AM KTEK in Houston, Texas. He is the author of Empowerment to the People and has twice received the George Washington Honor Medal in Communications from the Freedom Foundation at Valley Forge. His column is nationally syndicated and he is a frequent guest on major media around the country, being found on Fox News, Fox Business, and other networks. For more see at http://KevinPriceCentral.com.