![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Michael-George-Continuum.jpg\")
Michael George, CEO
Continuum<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cOur employees wake up every day with the mission of making our office equipment\/IT service partners successful,\u201d said George, a 2018 ENX Magazine<\/em> Difference Maker. \u201cContinuum\u2019s technology platform and approach to the transformation of the industry are what makes us the disruptor of the entire market. The only thing I\u2019ve done is to have directed our efforts into the office equipment segment and help educate the segment about the opportunity before them.\u201d<\/p>\n George has sat at the helm of Continuum since its inception in 2011. He boasts a rich background of executive leadership roles that include OATSystems, Bowstreet and Interlynx, all of which he guided as CEO, as well as TALX Corporation and DEKA Corporation. With Continuum, George saw a golden opportunity to be a dominant provider in the office technology space. He felt dealers had all of the attributes to lead the market\u2014a large, existing customer base, professional sales organizations and major business objectives that were \u201ca matter of life or death\u201d because their traditional business was on a linear and terminal decline.<\/p>\n Sensing a true need for dealers to augment their offerings, George believed managed IT was the perfect fit for them and configured Continuum to be a platform provider that could usher dealers into this new era of managed services. Seven years later, George has proven to be quite prophetic.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are more than just a technology partner, we are a business partner to the channel, and the most rewarding part is seeing when it works really, really well,\u201d George remarked. \u201cOur more than 250 dealers are leading the IT services market in their respective geographies and are accelerating their revenue growth and achieving levels of profitability never thought imaginable. They are also dramatically increasing the retention rates of their multifunction printer business and taking new customers from competitors they were never able to penetrate with their undifferentiated MFP business.\u201d<\/p>\n George has benefitted from the wisdom of a wide range of leaders within the industry. Specifically, he credits Ed McLaughlin, a member of Continuum\u2019s board of advisors, and former MindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm as two critical influences who have made a difference in the firm\u2019s engagement in the office technology universe.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have an organization of that independent stature and respect in this industry so clearly illustrate, through factually and numerically calculated research, the benefits we bring to the Office Equipment market was our greatest achievement to date,\u201d George remarked.<\/p>\n Moving forward, George sees a tremendous opportunity to help dealer partners address cybersecurity\u001b. Continuum is tasked with empowering its partners to win more deals, expand their profit share and dominate their geographic markets. He hopes to take the platform to another level by listening to the needs of Continuum\u2019s partners and building upon its foundation of success.<\/p>\n George and his wife, Cynthia, are the parents of three boys\u2014all in high school\u2014which makes for a busy household. He\u2019s an ardent outdoors adventurer, with mountain climbing sitting atop the list. George and his son, Michael, plan to celebrate the latter\u2019s high school graduation by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania next summer, followed by Tiger Leaping Gorge in southwestern China. Sailboat racing, aviation and traveling to destinations that expand their view of the world are among his favorite pastimes.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone to several undeveloped countries where the kids teach English and help tutor in other subjects in remote schools, while my wife and I cook for orphanages and community centers,\u201d George added.<\/p>\n George\u2019s penchant for helping others extends to business, where he founded the Continuum Veterans Foundation, a non-profit organization that financially supports charities that help veterans transition into careers in IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael George is not one to bask in adulation. The CEO of managed IT services platform provider Continuum may have guided his company\u2019s foray into the office technology sector, but he credits the firm\u2019s executive and leadership teams\u2014as well as its 1,400 global employees\u2014with positioning the firm into an industry leadership role. Not that George is just along for the ride, but the ride has been a fun and prosperous one for Continuum. \u201cOur employees wake up every day with the mission of making our office equipment\/IT service partners successful,\u201d said George, a 2018 ENX Magazine Difference Maker. \u201cContinuum\u2019s technology platform and approach to the transformation of the industry are what makes us the disruptor of the entire market. The only thing I\u2019ve done is to have directed our efforts into the office equipment segment and help educate the segment about the opportunity before them.\u201d George has sat at the helm of Continuum since its inception in 2011. He boasts a rich background of executive leadership roles that include OATSystems, Bowstreet and Interlynx, all of which he guided as CEO, as well as TALX Corporation and DEKA Corporation. With Continuum, George saw a golden opportunity to be a dominant provider in the office technology space. He felt dealers had all of the attributes to lead the market\u2014a large, existing customer base, professional sales organizations and major business objectives that were \u201ca matter of life or death\u201d because their traditional business was on a linear and terminal decline. Sensing a true need for dealers to augment their offerings, George believed managed IT was the perfect fit for them and configured Continuum to be a platform provider that could usher dealers into this new era of managed services. Seven years later, George has proven to be quite prophetic. \u201cWe are more than just a technology partner, we are a business partner to the channel, and the most rewarding part is seeing when it works really, really well,\u201d George remarked. \u201cOur more than 250 dealers are leading the IT services market in their respective geographies and are accelerating their revenue growth and achieving levels of profitability never thought imaginable. They are also dramatically increasing the retention rates of their multifunction printer business and taking new customers from competitors they were never able to penetrate with their undifferentiated MFP business.\u201d George has benefitted from the wisdom of a wide range of leaders within the industry. Specifically, he credits Ed McLaughlin, a member of Continuum\u2019s board of advisors, and former MindSHIFT CEO Paul Chisholm as two critical influences who have made a difference in the firm\u2019s engagement in the office technology universe. It\u2019s one thing to have a personal belief in the value of one\u2019s business proposition, but Continuum enjoyed third-party validation from a 2017 independent study conducted by Service Leadership Inc. The study noted that of all the tools, technology and service delivery options available, Continuum\u2019s partners reaped more profit and faster revenue growth than those clients of other platforms. \u201cTo have an organization of that independent stature and respect in this industry so clearly illustrate, through factually and numerically calculated research, the benefits we bring to the Office Equipment market was our greatest achievement to date,\u201d George remarked. Moving forward, George sees a tremendous opportunity to help dealer partners address cybersecurity\u001b. Continuum is tasked with empowering its partners to win more deals, expand their profit share and dominate their geographic markets. He hopes to take the platform to another level by listening to the needs of Continuum\u2019s partners and building upon its foundation of success. George and his wife, Cynthia, are the parents of three boys\u2014all in high school\u2014which makes for a busy household. He\u2019s an ardent outdoors adventurer, with mountain climbing sitting atop the list. George and his son, Michael, plan to celebrate the latter\u2019s high school graduation by scaling Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania next summer, followed by Tiger Leaping Gorge in southwestern China. Sailboat racing, aviation and traveling to destinations that expand their view of the world are among his favorite pastimes. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone to several undeveloped countries where the kids teach English and help tutor in other subjects in remote schools, while my wife and I cook for orphanages and community centers,\u201d George added. George\u2019s penchant for helping others extends to business, where he founded the Continuum Veterans Foundation, a non-profit organization that financially supports charities that help veterans transition into careers in IT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":29080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,1650,82,84,1638],"tags":[1873,2533],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31633"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31633"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31655,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31633\/revisions\/31655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Difference-Makers-2018-Logo-2-300x300.jpg\"){kind=logo}
It\u2019s one thing to have a personal belief in the value of one\u2019s business proposition, but Continuum enjoyed third-party validation from a 2017 independent study conducted by Service Leadership Inc. The study noted that of all the tools, technology and service delivery options available, Continuum\u2019s partners reaped more profit and faster revenue growth than those clients of other platforms.<\/p>\n