The 10 Most Influential Tech Leaders of 2021

JUNE 2021

THE 10 MOST

INFLUENTIAL

LEADERS OF 2021 Major Traits of Top Executives in a Fast-moving World Modern Crises Management Hacks Employed by Tech CEOs

AMRESH

Mathur

CEO of

Numerals LLC

EDITORIAL Charging the Teams to Innovate Beyond the Mark with Effective Tech Leadership

T

his is an exciting time for the tech industry. Digital transformation has allowed organizations operating various

businesses to embrace modern technologies to alter their business processes. We're currently witnessing the

fourth industrial revolution and the growth across all technologies has been incredible, be it artificial

intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, and big data.

In these dynamic times, simultaneous tech advancements can make things chaotic. Questions like, “What technology do we need to address our issues?”, “Do I need to upgrade my systems to optimize this product line?”, “How do I extract all the potential out of this technology” echo conference rooms. To bring order to chaos, a tech leader's influence gives the organization adopting new technologies for innovation the required direction.

Being a tech leader is often rewarding and exciting but also challenging because it's a responsibility that cannot go wrong. For that, tech leaders have to learn new skills, update their industry knowledge, and understand the changing market dynamics with relation to the company. In short, it's a job role that requires constant learning and unlearning.

While learning and educating the team about new technologies and how to use them for innovation is a big responsibility, a tech leader needs to possess integrity in order to be cordial with the team. A good tech leader should be authentic, practical, and have the best interest of not only the organization but also the employees in mind. An organization can have all the technology in the world, but without a team that is motivated to work and put in efforts, all attempts will go to vain. Hence, it is imperative for a tech leader to make decisions that benefit the organization on the whole.

When a conversation about leadership is initiated, the first attribute that comes to mind is motivation. But motivation is not limited to motivating the teams to finish their tasks. A good leader, especially in the technological setup, should also motivate the team members to lead and learn the skills of leadership. Often in big organizations, finishing one's tasks individually doesn't amount to innovation. It's when a team brainstorms and collaborates, new ideas are nurtured. This wholesome grouping is only possible when every team member feels like their ideas are validated. While the final decision-making authority is on the leader, not paying heed to what the team wants will cause unrest and demotivation.

Speaking of teamwork, another thing that is crucial for tech leaders is respecting the employee's individuality. People in the modern setup strongly dislike micromanagement. With stringent rules, there's very little creativity. Tech leaders should empower their teams to independently work on the task. This way, the teams will learn efficient decision-making and pick up cues to become the next generation of leaders.

With the well-being of the whole team in mind, a tech leader can influence the working of an organization and lead them towards success and innovation. Having an efficient tech leader will also give organizations a competitive edge. In this magazine edition of The Most Influential Tech Leaders of 2021, we interviewed great minds who lead teams to innovate and transform various tech and business domains. Their journey to successful leadership will inspire budding tech leaders and prepare them to face the real business world.

- Apoorva Komarraju Senior Analyst

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C O V E R S T O R Y 08

Amresh Mathur

CEO

Numerals LLC

16

Akhil Kaza OfferUp

22

Angel Radcliffe Accenture

Dr. Garrick Villaume

Michael Harris

NETZRO SBC

NextgenID

Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu Product10x

Anoop Mohan Rockwell Automation

44

38

58

30

28

52

Piyush Patel SuccessKPI

ARTICLES

56

Major Traits of

Modern Crises

Top Executives in a

Management Hacks

Fast-moving World

Employed by Tech CEOs

Amresh Mathur

CEO

Numerals LLC 8

Leading Teams to Harness The Power Of Data-driven Transformation Solutions

I

n the business world, digital transformation is what everyone is implementing. Either tech giants are trying to scale up new

technologies further into their practices or small and medium-

sized organizations are preparing strategies to adopt modern technologies to their business processes. Businesses who have embraced disruptive technologies are seeing increased ROI and that's motivating other companies to lead the rest of the pack.

This increased demand is calling out several digital transformation solution companies to ensure their products are adaptable to varied business categories. One such company that is building customercentric, data-driven solutions to ensure the transformation is hasslefree is Numerals LLC, founded by Amresh Mathur as the CEO. As an exdigital transformation leader for Samsung Electronics America, Amresh's rich experience comes with valuable insights about the industry. Here's an exclusive interview talking about his journey to entrepreneurship, the challenges he faced, and his view on disruptive technologies.

COVER STORY 9

“

Digital Transformation is a philosophy of being perpetually agile and always ready to evolve as per changing market and customer needs.

Amresh Mathur CEO Numerals LLC

“ www.numeralsllc.com 10

Charging Data-driven Teams across Countries Amresh Mathur is a digital transformation leader with a

digital-led product management and data-driven

passion for bringing customer-focused experiences to

experiences he has, across buyer and owner aligned user

market. He has more than 22 years of experience in the

j o u r n ey s , s e t t i n g u p c a p a b i l i t i e s f o r c o n t e n t

technology sector enabling business transformation and

management, product information management, search,

leading complex turnarounds. As a leader, his primary

personalization, and campaign management, equipped

focus is to launch new products, build high-performing

Amresh to lead these teams.

teams, develop talent and manage growth.

Prior to this stint, Amresh was a trusted advisor to many

In his current role at Numerals LLC, Amresh is focused on

of the world's most influential businesses. He helped

ideating and delivering solutions built around consumer

organizations build, lead and transform user-centric

centricity, agility, and technology-powered platforms

capabilities, shaping and delivering game-changing

across multiple countries.

digital strategies, driving global P&L, and managing

Recently, his leadership roles made him responsible for

innovation at scale while modernizing the core.

driving the transformation of the world's largest

To add more feathers to the cap, he is also an industry-

consumer electronics company by launching an end-to-

recognized speaker and influencer, playing a leadership

end user-centric eCommerce experience across B2C,

role in technology consortia and academia partnerships,

B2B, and services from the ground up. The diverse

and has been the recipient of several industry awards.

Leveraging Personal Experience to Drive Industry-level Change Growing up in India, Amresh graduated in Engineering

driven direct to the consumer market. He was involved in

and worked in a leading manufacturing company.

leading and building a world-class product management,

Progressing in his career, Amresh then joined a small

digital marketing operations, supply chain, and

Indian software company which, fifteen years later, has

engineering organization to power digital and

become an US$11 billion organization. During those

eCommerce functions from the ground up.

years, Amresh had managed teams across Asia, Europe,

Subsequently, Amresh launched his firm Numerals LLC,

and the USA, while partnering with clients to transform

which aims at delivering transformation and laying the

their organizations, embed technology into everything

foundation for building data-driven, consumer-focused

they do, and build digital capabilities.

experiences, driving new paradigms in marketing,

In 2015, Amresh was drawn to Samsung's unique culture

deeper levels of engagement, and a stronger focus on

and value. The visionary leadership team of the firm

customer engagement and commerce for internet,

signaled its serious commitment to setting up data-

healthcare, and other industries.

11

The Journey to Entrepreneurship We asked Amresh about the most challenging part of his

and launching shorter solutions in response to consumer

journey so far to which he explained that achieving

needs also helped tearing down the structural silos in

digital-led transformation was the most demanding task.

large enterprises. By shifting the focus to gathering a

It involves championing the structural processes,

complete and unified view of the consumer, he was able

technological changes and rallying the entire

to bring about agility and faster unlocking of unstated

organization towards a common goal. Amresh was able

user needs. This led to a change in process and brought

to overcome some of the challenges by reorienting

agility within teams while reducing the cost of failure.

around the extreme consumer–centricity.

To navigate that phase, Amresh's hypothesis was to truly

He further added that working with the teams to

connect brands with consumers, technology and data

understand the voice of the consumer helped him

solutions focused on consumer centricity help generate

empathize with the consumer's needs. This helped

valuable insights leading to happy and engaged

Amresh frame every problem very differently. Iterating

consumers.

Disruptive Technologies and Leadership Go Hand in Hand Amresh is passionate about technology and everything it

personalized online capabilities and remote support

has to offer. He acknowledges that the volume of

across commerce and healthcare sectors.

information flowing through the physical world and the

Leaders of both technology and non-technology

global economy has increased tremendously. New

boutique firms have started harnessing the power of AI

sources of data, fed into systems powered by machine

to get into the race as these new platforms and analytics

learning and AI, are at the heart of this digital-led

tools are leveling the playing field and enabling

transformation. Technologies such as AI and Big Data

innovation. He also adds that creating teams of subject

make extensive and precise insights available easily and

matter experts to partner with data science teams allows

enable leaders to make more informed decisions.

leaders to go deeper into the local business armed with

Giving his two cents on how modern technology is

the knowledge logic of different cultures.

affecting the industry, Amresh states that AI and Big

“Accepting the fact that these technologies enable the

Data-driven insights have helped evolve the role of the

ability to connect individual-level data, analyze it, and

leader by bringing in agility and transparency into

then use it in a way that doesn't give away any individual-

decision-making. Some of these insights are being used

level information requires a lot of innovation”, says

by leaders during the pandemic to quickly offer

Amresh.

12

A Leader's Take on Effective Leadership Amresh believes that the secret to being successful in today's ultra-competitive market is product innovation.

If your product or solution is innovative, you've got a much higher chance to survive and thrive.

Product innovation represents a new way of solving a problem a high number of consumers have. When we emphasize on innovation, we don't refer only to products, but also to services, processes, and business models. It takes a village to develop and launch an innovative product in today's market—from the engineers to the manufacturing experts, from the marketing consultants and designers to the legal experts, we need everyone's involvement to make sure we are able to consider if the product is relevant, better or unique.

Measuring the success of the product can be through use cases and ROI. However, if the product is new, market research can provide a clear understanding of the consumers and competition.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs Amresh is of the belief that the pandemic experience has shown how work can be done in ways that make it more efficient, effective, and human. “Emerging leaders have an opportunity to lead in ingenious ways. They should recognize the barriers to change and inspire teams to reimagine the potential at this inflection point and become more efficient”, he added. He breaks down how by understanding the learnings on what worked during the pandemic, they can recalibrate company operating models to be more effective. Lastly, he concludes by saying leaders should help people maintain morale to create stronger and cohesive teams.

13

Amresh Mathur

Suresh Madhuvarsu

THE 10 MOST

CEO

Founding Partner

Numerals LLC

Product10x

Amresh Mathur is the CEO of Numerals LLC. He is a digital transforma on leader with a passion to bring customerfocused experiences to market. In his current role, Amresh is focused on idea ng and delivering solu ons built around consumer centricity, agility, and technology-powered pla orms across mul ple countries. Prior to this s nt, he was a trusted advisor to many of the world's most influen al businesses.

Suresh Madhuvarsu is the founding partner of Product10x.

With over fi een years experience in Enterprise SaaS and mobile products field, Suresh was also part of acquisi ons by Oracle & So ware AG. He has built several emerging technology innova on product teams, scaling groups of engineers, and product managers across the world. These enterprise level products leverage the technology of IoT, drones, etc.

www.numeralsllc.com

www.product10x.com

Angel Radcliffe

Anoop Mohan

Akhil Kaza

Piyush Patel

Business & Technology Integra on Leader

Managing Director

Vice President of Engineering

Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

OfferUp

SuccessKPI

Accenture Angel Radcliffe is the Business & Technology Integra on Leader at Accenture. Her role entails Client Delivery within ERP Projects, focusing on Financial & Digital Transforma on, and (SAP) for Fortune 100 & 500 companies that are primarily in Merger & Acquisi on phase. Angel has a track record of execu ng projects across global and domes c teams. She is a persistent team player who brings posi vity and innova on.

Rockwell Automa on Anoop Mohan is a hands-on Technology & Product Execu ve with over 20 years of experience.

He has held various execu ve posi ons such as SVP of Product in Samsung SmartThings, VP of Produc n Comcast, Director of Product in Cisco, and most recently, as the Managing Director in RockwellAutoma on.

Anoop is one of the well known execu ves in the IoT space.

INFLUENTIAL

LEADERS OF 2021

As the Vice President of Engineering at OfferUp, Akhil Kaza is responsible for the engineering strategy, developer opera ons, and data science.

Akhil is also a part of the execu ve team that manages OfferUp’s business strategy and volunteers in company ini a ves concerning diversity, inclusion, and hiring. Before OfferUp, he worked across big tech and startups and has focused his career on showcasing technology.

Piyush Patel excels as the CoFounder and Chief Technology Officer of SuccessKPI, Inc. He drives technology vision and architecture across the company.

Piyush leads a globally distributed and diverse team of technologists responsible for building, opera ng, and securing SuccessKPI's innova ve serverless, highly secured, and AIdriven products and pla orm. He is also a member of the company's Board of Directors.

www.angelradcliffe.com

www.rockwellautoma on.com

Dr. Garrick Villaume

Michael Harris

Sri Shivananda

Robert Law

Execu ve Vice President & Chief Technology Officer

DailyPay

www.about.offerup.com

Co-founder & CSTO

Chief Technology Officer

NETZRO SBC

NextgenID

Dr. Garrick Villaume is the Cofounder and CSTO of NETZRO SBC, an out-of-the-box company that uses modern technologies to take food produc on supply chain to the sustainable route. Garrick has a rich background in high energy physics, working with instrumenta on, computa onal, and analy cal systems to test models and refine the understanding of energy and ma er. He also worked in the data storage and solar industries.

As the Chief Technology Officer of NextgenID, Michael Harris applies his technical and commercial insights to define and execute corporate strategies to capitalize on emerging market trends and incubate gamechanging technologies. He is responsible for aligning the strategic technology roadmap and revenue genera on, while overseeing the design-build opera ons. Owing to his experience, Michael has developed broad knowledge in biometrics, smart cards, etc.

Sri Shivananda is the Execu ve Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of PayPal. At his role, he is helping PayPal remain at the forefront of innova on. Sri oversees Core Pla orm, Infrastructure & Informa on security, etc. He leads a talented global team responsible for the company’s secure, reliable, and scalable global infrastructure and strategic core pla orm, the founda on that enables PayPal to deliver innova ve products.

www.netzro.us

www.nextgenid.com

www.paypal.com

PayPal

www.successkpi.com

CTO & Co-founder

Robert Law is the Co-founder and CTO of DailyPay, a disrup ve company providing so ware solu ons. The company offers solu ons which enable them as pay daily payments for employees and contractors. Robert has a proven track record of building successful companies from ground up. His deep technical exper se along with his ability to operate at high-strategic level has played a huge role in DailyPay’s growth.

www.dailypay.com

15

Akhil Kaza Vice President of Engineering

OfferUp

16

Building the Simplest and the Most Trusted Mobile Marketplace

O

fferUp is one of the largest and fastest-

values, connect, and prosper. The things the company

growing online marketplaces for local buyers

buys and sells are a part of how they build their

and sellers. In this age of rising e-commerce,

community in America. In fact, it has created a

the company provides enhanced customer experiences

marketplace where everyone has something to offer.

through personalized web and mobile applications, bringing millions of people together under one roof from

Leading a Pack of Hardworkers

right where they are. In an exclusive interview with Akhil

At OfferUp, Akhil is the Vice President of Engineering

Kaza, we asked him a few questions to understand his

who is responsible for the engineering strategy,

roles and responsibilities and more about his

developer operations, and data science. His team

experiences and inspirations.

includes a local group at the company's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, and remote teams spread across

Earning a Spot in the Digital Marketplace

multiple regions. Akhil is also a part of the executive team

OfferUp is the largest mobile marketplace for local

that manages OfferUp's business strategy and

buyers and sellers in the US. It connects millions of

volunteers in company initiatives concerning diversity,

people every day and is committed to the founding

inclusion, and hiring.

mission, which is to build the simplest, and the most

The company's technology stack is comprised of a

trustworthy local marketplace. The company helps bring

microservice architecture spanning 120 microservices, a

people together in their communities to exchange

middle tier in GraphQL, a consolidated front end in React 17

“

Innovations powered by cloud computing, responsible big data and machine learning are delivering more personalized and predictive customer insights than ever before. Traditional business sectors that do not adapt to the incredible engineering resources we have today will become obsolete.

Akhil Kaza Vice President of Engineering OfferUp

“

www.about.offerup.com 18

for web/mobile, a highly personalized machine learning

innovation, reliability, maintainability, and extensibility.

pipeline, enterprise tooling, and third-party E-

Akhil shares that this change in focus was driven by a

Commerce SDK. The services include search, catalogue,

need to learn. Working backward from the

integrity, chat, notifications, identity, payments, billing,

customer/business need and driving that to solutions, in

data sciences, data warehouse, data platform, admin,

an iterative fashion is what it is all about.

autos, and the merchant platforms.

Before OfferUp, Akhil worked across big tech and

Challenges that Turn into Experiences

startups (including founding, advisory, and executive

Akhil mentions that a lot of his formative years were

leadership roles), and has focused his career on building

spent learning, adapting, and taking on harder problems

durable teams and showcasing the power of technology

across the engineering ecosystem. Identifying,

for consumer and enterprise products on a large-scale

confronting, and surmounting challenges were essential

basis.

for his growth.

His responsibilities grew over the years, he learned how

Paving the Road towards Executive Leadership

better he can communicate with his teammates, scale-up

According to Akhil, getting broad experiences

increasingly complicated projects, work through or with

concerning technology, leadership and processes were

other stakeholders and also how to view and think about

critical to helping him understand the end–to-end of

the big picture. The willingness to fail and know that

software development. He spent time in engineering,

learning comes from mistakes was a key perspective that

QA, product building and operations, while handling

took time for him to develop.

increasingly complex management roles, eventually leading to this Executive position.

At the Core: Embedding Innovation

He adds, “Knowing what to avoid is half the job, learning

Thinking about the customer path and experience is

from the misses; the other half, and the only way to get

always the baseline. One must design the strategy by

that is to always be in the learning mode. A big part of our

working backward in the customer journey. Then using

jobs is working with, for, and along with other people.

that as the basis will be valuable to break the work down

Understanding what works and what does not for an

into phases. Through iterative development, one can

individual is the key to drive common goals. It becomes

deliver value fast, phase by phase. Learning from the

easier to put yourself in their shoes if you have been in

delivery, at the same time is also imperative.

their shoes.”

Akhil says, “Being able to A/B test and learn from wide

Akhil spent time building large-scale software for billions

experimentation helps you define the right market fit.

o f c o n s u m e r s a t d i f f e r e n t l aye r s l i ke Ke r n e l ,

Tracking the usage of your products through telemetry is

input/output/application subsystem for what is now

essential to further tune that." Ultimately it comes down

Windows 10, platforms like HTML, Silverlight, WPF,

to data and analysis of information to drive the right

consumer services, and infrastructure across multiple

outcomes.

clouds using machine learning. He is also one of the

Software development is part art and part science. The

founding members of Silverlight (a successful UI

art part is about knowing what to do in the absence of

technology), was a key voice in the strategic shift at

data. The science part is about knowing what to do once

Microsoft to move from their HTML engine to Google

the data is collected.

Chrome; responsible for rewriting the tech stack for

Akhil strongly believes that one needs a bit of both to be

OfferUp and large parts of Windows to drive large scale

effective. He draws inferences from Amazon v/s Apple. A

19

lot of Apple products are intuitive out of the gate and

key factors of the future. 48% of Americans bought

have to do with a deep understanding of the customers; a

something through resale in 2020, and one in five

lot of Amazon's work has to do with learning from the

Americans used OfferUp to buy or sell something. Last

customer from real-time systems and iterating. For him,

year accelerated the shift from retail to resale that the

both are great models but it's always about the customer.

company had seen coming for a long time. Americans have discovered that resale frequently is less expensive

Leveraging the Might of Disruptive Technologies

and better for the environment than traditional retail. So

Every 10-15 years, there is a shift on where compute

it is Offerup's ability and responsibility to help people

goes. Akhil urges to think back to mainframes going to

connect and prosper through local e-commerce. It is

PCs, going to the internet to mobile phones, and going

more important than ever before.

back to the cloud. Computing is scaling up on both sides

In terms of the tech industry, the rate of change and

(client and server) and that trend will continue. What is

innovation is tremendous, and the biggest trends to

particularly fascinating about this round is the

watch for soon are the rapid developments of crypto, AI,

company's understanding of data on a global scale. This is

RPA, and the democratization of data. Decades-old

where AI and Offerup's ability to build real-time, near

trends in healthcare, insurance, commerce, finance, and

real-time and offline systems to draw inferences comes

legal are going to get disrupted at an unprecedented

in, especially true with the degree of personalization that

scale. These changes will amount to a better consumer

is happening.

experience because tech is growing more quickly, as

According to him, the role of the leader is no longer about

humans crave more and more personalization.

being just a manager, rather it is about thinking big in this large green space, working backward, learning from

Takeaways to be a Successful Leader

misses, and doing it while bringing people along. Unlike

On advising to emerging leaders, Akhil said one of the

traditional autocratic models, there is a need for a leader

primal qualities that a leader should possess is risk-

to be a mentor, a coach, a partner, and at times a decision-

taking ability, growing the breadth of experiences is the

maker. Smart people do smart things when empowered;

key to be able to pattern match as the leaders go through

that being said the leader needs to be well versed with

their careers. Impactful communication is critical to be

the overall landscape to drive effective tie breakers.

able to influence people at all levels, and lastly, being able

“Being able to differentiate between reversible and

to stand for what one believes in is imperative.

irreversible doors is the key to being able to act fast,

“Think big, but bring your team along and deliver success

iterate and learn. Failure within reason is a perfectly

in pieces. Do not be afraid to fail. Keep learning, cultivate

acceptable outcome as long as there is learning and it is

your network, and help others grow through you. Your

truer for a leader than anyone else”, he said.

career is a marathon, not a race, pace yourself and make quick decisions on reversible choices, and lastly, help

Towards the Bright Future

good people get better, ultimately you might work for

According to Akhil, commerce and sustainability are two

them and that's a great outcome,” he asserts.

20

Angel Radcliffe Business & Technology Integration Leader

Accenture

22

Taking The Charge To Upskill Work In A Male Dominated Industry

T

he world is changing and technology is making its

companies that are primarily in Merger & Acquisition

place in every domain. With every industry going

phase.

through a digital transformation journey, a lot of

Angel is an MBA graduate with 15 years of experience at

changes are bound to take place in organizations.

the intersection of finance and technology. Talking about

Strategies have to be designed to include the technology,

her work, she said, “My specialty includes Digital &

employees need to be trained, and the overall way of

Financial Transformations related to business processes

work needs to be changed. During such a shift, only a

and automation within accounting/finance

good tech leader can bring order to chaos. So, what does

departments.”

it take to be a successful leader in the tech industry? To

While building her corporate profile, she realized that

find out, here's an exclusive interview with Angel

she has a passion for both finance & technology,

Radcliffe, who is a self-made technology leader, working

eventually blending the two skill-sets through various

at Accenture.

consulting projects. Angel has a track record of executing projects across global and domestic teams. She has

A Leader and a Team Player

proven herself as not only a leader but a persistent team

Angel Radcliffe is the Business & Technology Integration

player who brings positivity, innovation, and initiative to

Leader at Accenture. Her role entails Client Delivery

her projects, while being dedicated and driven. Angel is

within ERP Projects, focusing on Financial & Digital

also passionate about creating diverse and inclusive

Transformation, and (SAP) for Fortune 100 & 500

environments while being an advocate of change.

23

“

Leaders are more cognizant of the importance of building diverse teams and having diverse voices in a conversation. Leaders now need to understand social issues and how these issues may impact their team's mental health or performance.

Angel Radcliffe Business & Technology Integration Leader Accenture

“

www.angelradcliffe.com 24

“While my corporate background precedes me, I am

The Initial Phase of her Journey

passionate about community, economic empowerment,

When Angel was transitioning from finance to

and making a difference in lives outside of Fortune 500

technology, she came across some challenges that she

companies”, she said.

had to overcome to become successful. “Due to

Ms. Radcliffe is also a community leader, author, public

transitioning at a mid-level role, I was expected to have

speaker, and financial educator. She has served 8 years as

the same knowledge as my colleagues who were working

Board Finance Chair, in addition to taking on leadership

in technology years before I thought of transitioning.

roles within non-profit organizations, leading diversity &

Late nights and early mornings were spent educating

inclusion/enrichment initiatives, and educated the youth

myself on the changing technologies, strategies and ways

to get involved in STEM programs.

to incorporate my past functional and leadership experience from finance. In a sense, I was in a 'learning as

Turning Challenges and Experiences into Wisdom

I go' mode, and underestimating the importance of 'fail

According to Angel, starting a career in finance and

fast' and leaning in on your network when you don't have

ultimately seeing the need for automated processes was

the answers”, she explained while talking about the

a struggle. Having the opportunity to be exposed to

struggle.

larger companies at an early age sets the tone for her future success. “I learned to understand the importance

What Makes a Good Tech Leader?

of continuing education and being 'in the know' because

Knowing about her journey, we asked Angel the

each company has its own way of working and utilizes

attributes that a good leader in the tech industry should

different technologies. The knowledge I obtained

possess. “Being a leader in technology has its advantages

through consulting in my earlier years prepared me to

but in order to be well-equipped, I suggest honing in on

transform smaller companies accounting processes and

the following attributes.

fall in love with technology”, she added.

Ÿ

Understanding – How technology impacts your world

Navigating her way to tech from finance was where

of business (also understanding the various areas

Angel struggled as she felt that she was trying to 'reset'

other than your expertise).

her career and starting in another male-dominated

Ÿ

Being Innovative – Understanding what is currently

space. “For a while, I felt as though I was re-learning from

being done and how you can make the technology or

another lens and often felt staying in finance would have

process better.

propelled me further at certain points in my career.

Ÿ

My goal of wanting to work between finance and technology before 'fintech' was a word unheard of.

Agility – Technology is constantly changing, staying on top of trends/processes and ways of working.

Ÿ

Delegation – Being a tech leader does not mean you

Eventually moving to technology years later and being at

are a 'one-man' show, you have to understand your

the intersection of finance and technology, it was an

team and each person's strong points to delegate

achievement in many ways”, said Angel. In the end, she

appropriately.

felt that the goal she yearned for and was pushed away

Ÿ

Upskilling - The willingness to continue education and

from was finally complete.

stay on top of technology trends, and building a

“Being resilient and staying in the course through

diverse 'tech tool kit'.

education, technology news, building my network, and saying yes to my career goals definitely shaped my

Ÿ

Communication - A tech leader needs to be a great communicator so that they can establish trust.

journey.”

25

Ÿ

Ownership - A tech leader takes ownership and

Ÿ

understands the deliverable.”

Mentorship – Having a mentor, you can have more than one. Remember you should always have an internal and external mentor when building your

A Leader must Adapt with Time

personal board of directors.

Angel believes that over the last 10 years or so, the role of

2. Upskilling

a leader has changed in many ways. One of the main

Ÿ

changes is the understanding and commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Leaders are more

Invest in yourself and your people - Continuing education/business conferences

Ÿ

cognizant of the importance of building diverse teams

Perfecting your soft skills (communication, emotional intelligence, time management, etc)

and having diverse voices in a conversation. She further

3. Being Authentic & Self Aware

adds that leaders now need to understand social issues

Ÿ

Being in tune with your emotional intelligence.

and how these issues may impact their team's mental

Ÿ

Show up as your authentic self and being self-aware.

health or performance.

Ÿ

Ask for feedback and learn to take constructive

They should also be in tune with their emotional intelligence and how they respond to others internally,

criticism. Ÿ

externally, and to the team.

allies, remember to speak up for yourself as well. Ÿ

Insights every Emerging Business Leader should Know “The advice I have for emerging business leaders falls

Self-Reflection – Revisit your goals & celebrate your success.

Ÿ

into five categories, many of these are vital in becoming a leading influencer in the business world”, explains Angel.

Self-Advocating – While you may have mentors and

Leadership does not equate to a title; it's more about your actions, behaviors, impact and influence.

Ÿ

Embrace your past failures - Use your missteps to guide others.

Here are the 5 categories, in her own words.

4. Giving Back Ÿ

but reaching back to mentor and guide others.

1. Networks (Your Network is Your Net Worth) Ÿ

Ÿ

26

Showing up on a community level, not only monetarily

Surround yourself with like-minded people; never be

5. Respect

the smartest person in the room.

Ÿ

Understanding that respect goes beyond how you

The Follow Up - Look at your network, when was the

speak or treat those in leadership positions; respect

last time you followed up? A vital key to building and

your team, colleagues, and most importantly,

growing relationships.

yourself.

Major Traits Of

TOP EXECUTIVES IN A FAST-MOVING WORLD

H

ow does one recognize today's executive? Are

from the top executives is also undergoing changes. A

there any defining features to identify them?

huge change in the nature of the qualifications of people

The questions are very important in a world

holding the top management positions is also impacting

that is fast changing due to globalization and cutting-

their functions and career paths. It is leading to the

edge technology. The corporate world is also changing

redefinition of their capabilities. This change-orientation

with the fast-paced world. Hence, the role expectation

is also related to the fate of companies. Many companies

28

are constrained by a lesser number of 'suitable'

achieve higher ROI. An optimistic risk-taker executive

executives who can lead from the front. The demand for

can efficiently focus on appropriate planning and hard

top management positions has increased but to fill them,

work without looking at the potential failures in the

the aspirants require a new kind of skill and capacity.

global market.

Exemplary corporate leadership rests on cultural adaptation and extensive employee engagement. It

Executives should be tech-savvy

needs the ability to evolve with the changing time and

The potential target audience is GenZ who are in

needs. It also requires the ability to devise strategic

constant need of modern and smart technologies to ease

business objectives. The major traits of successful top

up on the workload. The top executives should be tech-

executives are:

savvy for a better understanding of the needs and wants of the target audience. Cutting-edge technologies are

Executives should be accessible to both the employees

dominating the world that can enhance customer

and media

engagement if the top executives prefer to play with

The first requirement for this is making oneself available

machines for better customer satisfaction. The top

for all occasions and not shying away from challenging

executives should seamlessly make their employees

situations. In the global world today, it does not only

understand the importance of technology in Industry

mean being available only to a section of people. For the

4.0.

widest possible degree of availability, executives should harness networks and media of all variety. Social media in

Executives should treat company goals as one's own

particular is a major means of gaining exposure to a huge

goals

number of people. Such exposure also contributes to

Executives should be passionate with a profit-driven

transparency, a very vital criteria of company credibility.

mindset for managing a company in this competitive

Employees find executives accessible while the

world. Congruence is required between one's own goals

responsiveness of the management also increases in the

and the company's goals. Such congruence leads to the

eyes of the employees. It generates positive vibes among

better efficiency of the company. Top executives have the

the employees who feel encouraged by the executives.

utmost responsibility in ensuring greater employee

As a result, the ambience in the company becomes more

engagement. This can be achieved if the employees feel

oriented towards accepting challenges in times of

comfortable to set the same. An executive is a brand that

change and uncertainty.

encourages commitment and work dynamics among the employees. Branding, in this sense, refers to the process

Executives should be optimistic risk-takers

of giving meaning to the concerned company in terms of

As we have discussed above, the world is adapting to

its functionalities, products and services. Appropriate

globalization and digital transformation at a rapid pace.

goal settings from executives can enhance employee

The executives should be risk-takers to adopt certain

engagement to boost productivity.

changes within the organization for business growth.

Summing up, as the movers and shakers of the corporate

The risk-taking attribute is developed profoundly with

world, first and foremost, the top executives are to

the number of different risk-bearing situations that can

embrace change orientation. Because the world is

have a significant consequence, either a massive gain or a

moving fast, so must they, as leaders. In this scenario,

drastic loss. A company cannot move ahead of its

they have to make a fine balance between continuity and

competitors if any risk is not taken at the needed time to

change.

29

Anoop Mohan SVP | VP | Director | Managing Director Samsung SmartThings, Comcast, Cisco, Rockwell Automation

30

Leading the Next Generation of Intelligence with Disruptive Technologies

F

rom consumer to industrial - every vertical is on

save 1000's of gallons of water wastage in the middle of

the verge of being revolutionized by technology.

drought. Just imagine the possibility if everything around

The Internet of Things (IoT) is at the center of this

you was connected, monitored and nothing was a

pivotal change. IoT is the exponential magnification that

blackbox. That's the power of IoT and it's sole mission is

the internet is getting. IoT at it's basic is about connecting

to make the world a better place by connecting the

physical objects and getting data to make a meaningful

unconnected.

impact on various real world problems. Just imagine - if you could get an alarm or notification about your heart

An Experienced Technology Leader with focus on IoT

needing immediate attention or even better an

Anoop Mohan is a hands-on Technology & Product

ambulance arriving at your footsteps before you know

Executive with over 20 years of experience and has held

it's needed. Just imagine - world's best surgeons can

various executive positions such as SVP of Product in

perform surgeries around the world virtually, without

Samsung SmartThings, VP of Product in Comcast,

travelling and getting their services to every corner of

Director of Product in Cisco, and most recently, as the

the world. Just imagine - if a water leak from a pump in

Managing Director in Rockwell Automation. Anoop is

the middle of nowhere could be autonomously fixed to

among the well known executives in the IoT space. He is

31

“ Simple solutions are underrated.

Complex problems are overrated. The winner is one who would apply disruptive technologies to solve difficult problems by providing a simple solution.

Anoop Mohan SVP | VP | Director | Managing Director Samsung SmartThings, Comcast, Cisco, Rockwell Automation

“

www.rockwellautomation.com 32

highly experienced in identifying product-market fit.

Ÿ

Never hesitate to fold your sleeves and get hands-on.

Anoop is a result-oriented professional who has

Ÿ

Set a vision but give flexibility to the team on how to

strategized, owned, and built strong technology products with growing business applicability. He has

get there. Ÿ

Trust and empower your team.

developed products ground up, driving businesses from zero to 10's of millions, and has scaled products from

Disruptive Technologies' Impact on Today's Innovation

100's of millions to billions of dollars in revenue. Anoop

Simple things such as being able to view his home when

was also a board member of Open Connectivity

away and feel at home while traveling fascinated Anoop

Foundation (OCF) standard driving the next generation

to IoT. But as he understood the technology and the

of seamlessness in IoT.

components involved, the possibilities grew from solving first-world problems to third-world problems. Anoop

Anoop grew up the ranks of engineering, developing

has worked on every possible use case in IoT across

software across all the layers of the stack from physical

Smart Home, Smart Building, Smart City, Manufacturing,

to application. He spent his first decade of working years

Transportation, Fleet, O&G etc. “There is a common

in the mobile industry, enabling various mobile use cases.

thread across all of them - the technology components

The last product Anoop worked on in this space was in

and technology challenges are very similar. The biggest

Nvidia, partnering with Google and Motorola to build the

difference in applying IoT across verticals is mainly in the

first-ever Android tablet. For the last 10 years, he has

value chain involved, pace of adoption, and business

been working on the Internet of Things (IoT) and has

model/willingness to pay,” he adds.

launched over four IoT platforms/solutions across Cisco, Samsung, Comcast, and Rockwell, addressing consumers

Focus on the Product and not Technology

to various industrial use cases.

Anoop has always maintained that customers buy solutions and outcomes, not technology. He believes that

Attributes that a Successful Leader Must Have

IoT by itself is not a solution - it is a means to the end and

Anoop believes that as a leader, it is important to make

that difference has to be well understood. Identifying the

sure we balance business with technology. It is easy to

key problem statement where one can make an impact

get carried away with building the next shiny toy, but

and applying technologies like IoT to deliver the outcome

making sure we start with a customer problem and have a

is the key.

business justification is critical. As a technology leader, it

Having said that, it is important for anyone working on

is important to appreciate various functions that need to

applying IoT, to understand the nuances involved. IoT is a

come together to be successful as a company - Product

complex stack involving the end things/machine

Management, UX, Engineering, DevSecOps, QA,

generating data, protocol adapters, edge gateway as an

Operations, Customer Support and Sales.

intermediary to the cloud, ability to manage and

Anoop has five guiding principles as a leader that he tries

maintain connected thing and edge gateway remotely,

to follow

being able to normalize data across 'thing' vendors, sharing data across multiple parties and finally being able

Ÿ

Ÿ

Always be customer-focussed. Solve a problem that is

to securely bring the data back to cloud where it can be

meaningful.

visualized, analyzed and machine learning models

Lead with experience.

trained to be applied back in the edge.

33

Tackling the Wave of Obstacles

Ÿ

According to Anoop, understanding and appreciating the nuanced stack in IoT is important because without it the

Data governance - Ability for end customers to share data granularly with their vendors and supply chain.

Ÿ

Data normalization/interoperability - Ability to

user experience will be unusable and the whole project

autonomously normalize data across different

becomes a complex nightmare for customers to deal

vendors and have the devices interoperate with each

with. “Just imagine manufacturing or a public sector

other without any manual intervention.

customer who has to work with 7-10 vendors across the

Ÿ

IoT security - It's no secret that with more things

edge to the cloud to put together the whole solution. The

connected, the surface area of attack increases. A

cost blows up, user experience takes a hit and in the

tight security architecture end-to-end from device to

process, most IoT projects stay back in the pilot/PoC

edge to cloud to the app where data is consumed is

stage. The need of the hour in IoT is simplicity while

paramount.

hiding the complexity. It's not easy but that's the challenge the industry and technologists like us have to

Finally, it's artificial intelligence with IoT that is a smart

solve,” says Anoop.

duo solving real-world problems.

Anoop believes the key trends in IoT are: Offering Essential Advice to Upcoming Tech Leaders Ÿ

Ÿ

Simplicity – End-to-end IoT solution from edge to

Anoop advises emerging tech leaders to know their

cloud packaged together for easy and simple

customer in the complex value chain, start with a

consumption.

customer problem, pick an impactful problem,

Edge - It is a continuum of the cloud. A rule or analytics

understand various functions in the company needed to

has to be autonomously decided to run in the cloud or

pull together a successful product, and keep the solution

edge based on the scenario. Edge infrastructure

simple irrespective of how complex the technology could

managed just like cloud infrastructure using the same

be.

or similar tools.

34

Dr. Garrick Villaume Co-founder and CSTO

NETZRO SBC

38

Collaborating with Technology and Sustainability To Make The Planet A Healthier Place

F

rom farm to plate, studies suggest that there are

for upcycling byproducts in the food production supply

large amounts of food wastage all around us. Its

chain. The company aims to reduce food waste, recover

journey from fields to grocery stores and then to

viable nutrients, and re-harvest the intrinsic value of

our plates, the more steps the process contains, the more

materials that are otherwise disposed of in the

is the wastage. Not just plastic but food wastage is

environment. NETZRO's proprietary process platform

detrimental to the environment too. Recycling and

for upcycling various excess and unused portions of food

upcycling are concepts that are now taught in schools,

products is an operations model based on an “upcycling

but these practices should be implemented in every step

hub” for servicing local concentrations of distinct

of our lives, even while managing the food supply chain.

byproducts, such as the grain leftover from alcohol

To leverage this responsibility, NETZRO is an out-of-the-

production. Garrick's team is also working with

box company that uses modern technologies to take the

producers of different byproducts to integrate the

food production supply chain to the sustainable route. To

process directly into their native operations.

dig deeper into this noble cause that is the need of the hour, we interviewed Dr. Garrick Villaume, Co-founder

Employing Technology to Promote Sustainability

and CSTO of NETZRO SBC.

Garrick Villaume has a rich background in high energy physics working with instrumentation, computational,

Making the Planet a Greener Place with Technology

and analytical systems to test models and refine the

NETZRO SBC is an early venture developing solutions

understanding of energy and matter. For over 25 years, 39

“

Technology is a means, not an end. It is by, for, and of people by definition. All our endeavors, and enterprise and mastery over the world around us have value only to the extent they generate sustained prosperity for people.

Dr. Garrick Villaume Co-founder and CSTO NETZRO SBC

“ www.netzro.us 40

Garrick worked in the data storage and solar industries

children, in the same way it was difficult for him. Soon

that dealt with developing analytical decision support

after receiving his doctorate, Garrick began to grow in

systems spanning lab, fab, and field for global technology

his organization and faced the typical challenges of

enterprises.

work-life balance along with the pros and cons of

A few years ago, he resolved to develop and apply

growing ambitions in an intensely competitive

technology for sustainable growth and to

environment. After the downturn circa 2009, making the

#MakeGreenWork. Garrick met Sue Marshall,

transition from Fortune 500 enterprise to a startup in a

NETZRO's CEO, volunteering as a mentor for the

different industry presented new challenges to his

Cleantech Open business accelerator. He was drawn to

technical, management, and leadership skills. Some

the food waste challenge she was targeting because of

knowledge and experiences served him well, others not

his upbringing in straddling rural and urban worlds, and

so much, requiring “reweighting” of his preferred

his professional expertise in reducing scrap and waste,

methods and “best” practices for making decisions.

maximizing yields and operations efficiency, and improving product quality and reliability.

Making Nutrition Accessible and Simple

On the whole, Garrick's job as the Chief Science and

As the Co-founder and CSTO of NETZRO, Garrick

Technology Officer is to develop technology and

explained about the core of his business, which is

processes for transforming raw materials into products

enabling new value chains with systems to convert scrap

and grow the company's capability and capacity to link

and byproducts into nutritious ingredients. The

diverse sources across entrenched supply chains to

company is growing the ecosystem to sustain its model

multiple, complex market channels.

while scaling the capacity to serve it. Garrick and his team strive to prove the potential of the products,

Extracting Gold from Challenges

demonstrate its efficacy for delivering them to emerging,

Garrick believes that every experience leaves some

growing markets, and satisfy the needs of producers to

impression. Striving for something new or

handle their byproducts completely and safely. The

extraordinarily difficult with “everything” at stake tends

company's innovation model begins with identifying the

to shape us the most. Talking about the challenges, he

product potential of a given byproduct, then involves

expressed how completing his PhD as a married father of

applying the physics needed to harvest its intrinsic value

four while working full-time as an engineer tempered his

in a cost-effective process platform, and concludes by

resolve. Developing and producing new recording

demonstrating a commercially viable business model for

technologies and advanced data storage products by

sustaining its ongoing transformation.

collaborating with diverse global teams to deliver outstanding performance taught Garrick essential

Analyzing the Boon and Bane that Comes with

management and leadership skills. Working on

Disruptive Technologies

seemingly intractable problems in resource and material

Garrick's take on disruptive technologies comes from his

utilization have led him to recalibrate his value system

practical experience of working in the tech field. He

for understanding concepts like “return on investment”.

believes that disruptive technologies have clear benefits,

Going back to the memory lane, Garrick spoke about how

including capabilities to solve complex, previously

he started his family while still in school, and then began

intractable problems but these technologies are also

working professionally before completing his

fueling rapidly increasing complexity, uncertainty, and

dissertation. That was hard on Garrick's wife and

risk in every aspect of business. Solution times and

41

process error rates may be reduced, but the impacts and

sustainable food movement and is a founding member of

consequences of mistakes, biases, and faults may be

the Upcycled Food Association. The company has

substantially amplified, and the cost and time of recovery

recently been recognized by some international food

of systems gone awry or otherwise compromised is

companies and is negotiating long-term contracts to

increasing, not shrinking. “Looming over it all are the

upcycle byproducts with several large businesses. As

specters of security and the ethical quandaries of

more people appreciate the quality and nutritional value

running analytics on people. Such “disruptions” are

of ingredients upcycled from currently wasted food

certainly not all good and arise from misguided

byproducts, NETZRO is poised to establish sustainable

expectations and unwarranted haste to accelerate

commercial ecosystems to provide them.

outcomes that may not be actual improvements while overlooking significant hidden costs and undesirable or

Guidance for Budding Tech Leaders

unsustainable dependencies”, he added. Garrick asserts

According to Garrick, successful leaders guide people

that it's critically important to realize that technology is

and organizations to achieve greater goals and

by, for, and of people. Both the purpose of technology and

accomplish difficult tasks together, in harmony. “In my

the potential for misuse or abuse and the total costs and

experience, the best leaders are curious characters and

impacts must be weighed when deciding what, when, and

avid learners. They are interested in subjects beyond

how to develop and apply it.

their primary professional discipline, integrate knowledge and insights from diverse domains, and

Paving the Road Towards an Upcycled Future

promote development and learning throughout their

NETZRO is positioned to grow dramatically with the

organizations”, he further explained. These qualities

emerging upcycling industry. Garrick and his team of

typically go with the conventional attributes associated

skilled professionals are leading the way, developing the

with leadership, including integrity, honesty, empathy,

value proposition from both ends of the supply chain:

compassion, and fortitude. His valuable advice to

more and better food for less waste and lower

emerging tech leaders is the fact that it's all about people

environmental impact. The company's base technology

and it's crucial to remember that. He acknowledges that

has exceptional potential and can be applied to a wide

all our mastery of technology means nothing if it isn't

range of valuable materials and configured for operation

helping people live more securely and comfortably.

in diverse process settings. NETZRO is embedded in the

42

Michael Harris Chief Technology Officer

NextgenID

44

Uniquely Serving Customers through Ground-Breaking Technologies

I

ntroducing digital transformation and technological

automatically, securely, and “remotely” perform all high-

developments in business processes is helping

assurance proofing & enrollment for its customers. The

thousands of businesses to flourish and reach

industry is taking notice as the company is working with

remote markets. Having a trusted platform as a partner

some of the largest agencies in the U.S. Civilian, Defense,

to guide companies forward in establishing identities

and Intelligence markets, State/Local Government,

assures success. NextgenID is one such trusted platform

International Governments, and global, commercial,

that provides end-to-end solutions to both government

cross-vertical organizations throughout the world.

and commercial sectors. In an exclusive interview with Michael Harris, CTO of NextgenID, we ask him a few

Michael's Role in the Company as the CTO

questions to gain a deeper insight of his role in the

With over 30 years of identity and strong authentication

company, responsibilities, and inspirations.

experience, Michael has developed broad and deep knowledge in biometrics, smart cards, mobile devices,

Insights about the Company

and credentialling. His career spans several international

NextgenID specializes in providing Trusted Identity

executives and C-suite positions within the technology,

Proofing and enrollment solutions for individuals and

sales, marketing, and product management operations

organizations. The NextgenID Trusted Identity Platform

for market-leading global identity providers.

is built on proprietary hardware and software that allows

He has worked with the U.S. (DOS, NASA, IRS, DHS, FAA,

identity operators to run highly configurable identity

DOD, NIST, etc.) and foreign governments, Apple,

workflows that reduce organizational costs, increase

Verizon, Bloomberg, and system integrators delivering

efficiency, and centralize functions while maintaining

AFIS, National Identity, endpoint, and authentication

security and privacy.

solutions.

NextgenID's industry-neutral solutions revolve around

As the Chief Technology Officer at NextgenID, Michael

patented “Supervised Remote In-Person Proofing” to

applies his technical and commercial insights to define

45

“

Trusted identities reduce fraud, deliver enhanced benefits, create safe social interactions, and secure financial transactions. High-assurance identity is a necessity for the future of global internet connectivity, remote work, and social distancing. We are working to catalyze a selfsovereign identity owned by the individual.

Michael Harris Chief Technology Officer NextgenID

“ www.nextgenid.com 46

and execute corporate strategies to capitalize on

morning is a whole new game for business leaders.

emerging market trends and incubate game-changing

Building a self-motivated, self-managed team that can

technologies. He is responsible for aligning the strategic

work and function securely and autonomously from

technology roadmap and revenue generation while

home is an issue he had to deal with at NextgenID.

overseeing the design-build operations.

The company implemented Microsoft Teams as a tool for

Michael studied Computer Science and Biology at

collaboration and social interaction. Having daily scrums,

Moravian College and continues with a focused

using chat and video calls has helped the company

executive education in strategy at the University of

overcome the remote work challenge, retain momentum

Pennsylvania, the Wharton School. He holds an MBA

and motivation.

from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Innovation to Attract More Audience Understanding technology is less than half the job of a

Lessons that Framed his Successful Journey

technology leader. The equal, if not greater, share of the

For Michael, a successful CTO can be described as a

role is to understand the market and clients so that the

confident and humble mentor and shepherd that listens,

company may apply the right technologies to solve the

assembles, integrates, and shares the distilled

clients' problems.

knowledge and value introduced by new technologies.

It is easy to get lost in new technology for the sake of the

Often being among the youngest of the leadership teams

technology, but what appeals to the clients is applying

and fully loaded with emerging technologies, the

those technologies to help them solve problems.

greatest lesson that he learned early was to listen first to

NextgenID aims to use AI or machine learning, for

what is needed and then to curate those technology

example, to save time and resources on a specific

assets for purposeful impact.

onboarding process, or to utilize edge computing and IoT

"I might love AI and Robotics, but does it add value to

to assist with remote monitoring and security.

have an intelligent toaster serve and butter your

Michael's influence as a technology leader comes from

toasted muffin? Instead, what if we applied technology

understanding and sharing the client's pain points. He

to automatically match an individual to their ID that

maintains a regular cadence of discovery calls with

saves time and improves data accuracy during an

partners and customers, to visit with them at their places

enrollment?," he asserts.

of work, and to walk through their use cases and daily

Technologies are tools but listening and learning from

operations.

people to understand their perspectives and knowing how and where to leverage those tools is what makes a

Leveraging Disruptive Technologies to Serve

technology leader a successful CTO.

Customers Innovation is happening at ever-increasing rates as

Challenges Faced to Reach the Goal

technology spans the globe and reaches more diverse

Michael began working with NextgenID amid the

contributors. Cloud computing, internet connectivity,

pandemic, which was a surreal experience. The entire

and mobile technologies among others are enabling

onboarding process, meeting his team and clients,

collaboration on a massively parallel scale thereby

reviewing the products, all were done remotely.

increasing the revolution of new ideas and technologies.

With the "new normal" and people working from home,

Technology leaders must strive to recognize these

creating motivation to get employees out of bed in the

monumental shifts in how ideas germinate, and how new

47

technologies are incubated. The ability to masterfully

identities, citizens can share identities conveniently and

shepherd and leverage the introduction of these efforts

securely.

is what will separate the great technology leaders of the future.

A Piece for Emerging Leaders As the CTO, one of the most valuable attributes,

What is Ensuing Next for the Company?

according to Michael, is the ability to separate noise from

NextgenID believes that identity is a right and

value regarding new technologies. Each week, he is asked

requirement, not a privilege. Individuals have the right to

to remark on emerging technologies, buzzwords that are

identify as themselves and know the identity of entities

in the news, like crypto, AI, blockchain, quantum

with which they interact, whether people, organizations,

computing, LIDAR, augmented reality, Internet of Things

or devices. High assurance identities are rapidly

(IoT), etc.

becoming a requirement for daily interactions in our post-COVID, socially networked society.

Already today, many individuals require a trusted identity to access their remote work assets, office

Technology can be a tremendous tool when applied judiciously to the overall solution to introduce capabilities of value that make sense to the company and market.

buildings, cars, finances, and even their smart homes.

The key for a successful CTO is to distill the

With Identity Starts, the company stands at innovating

understanding of these new technologies to the broader

the way identities are created, stored, and consumed.

audience and introduce and integrate these capabilities

His team of subject matter experts is actively designing

and toolsets into products only when they make a valid

the next generation of identities. They are integrating

and valued contribution.

artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud, and

He states, "One of the things that helped me throughout

blockchain into remote proofing of high assurance

my career is recognizing, It is ok to be different and to

identities, creating new methods for identity providers

embrace our individuality and uniqueness. You can do

to run their programs, proof enrollees, and issue their

this both as an individual and as an organization."

credentials.

The bold, the unique, the individual is where the magic

The company is also working actively with the channel

comes from. To capitalize on this as an organization, the

partners to create a distributed public identity

leaders must build a challenging yet rewarding

infrastructure where multiple entities can operate as

e nv i r o n m e n t b a s e d o n t h e c o m p a ny ' s u n i q u e

tenants of this infrastructure to deliver enrollment and

personality.

proofing services.

NextgenID embraces being different, working and

Through this distributed network, citizens will benefit

operating in unique ways that honor and reward

from shared identity and credentialing service offerings

diversity. The team is enabled to run with their ideas, take

including national identity programs, driver's licenses,

ownership, and differentiate between strategic and

visa and passport programs, notary services, healthcare,

tactical objectives.

corporate, financial, and academic identities, to name a

This freedom gives them the ability to self-drive and

few.

motivate, and the company has witnessed wild

Once enrolled, citizens may be issued a high assurance

productivity gains. NextgenID started about a year ago,

mobile credential to store securely on their digital

during the height of social distancing, and the inclusion of

wallets for convenient authentication. By blending

diversity keeps their spirits alive and reminds the team

mobile wireless technologies and high assurance

that everyone adds value and perspective.

48

Piyush Patel Co-founder & Chief Technology Officer

SuccessKPI

52

Transforming Customer Experience with Enterprise Grade Contact Center Analytics Powered by AI and ML

S

uccessKPI is a pure SaaS analytics platform for

community empowerment, educational services,

any contact center platform and text analytics.

humanitarian relief, health and wellness, and

Using this rich BI tool, users can improve business

environmental protection.

outcomes through the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) driven Playbook Builder and

Prioritizing Trust and Security

Quality Monitoring tools. Customers can get started in

According to SuccessKPI's philosophy led by Piyush,

minutes and transform performance with actionable

successful partnerships are built on trust. The company's

analytics.

global team of hardworking security experts ensures its users' data is protected at all times. As a part of its

Meet the Pioneer

customer experience management program, SuccessKPI

Backed by his considerable expertise, Piyush Patel excels

makes the privacy and protection of the data on its

today as co-founder and chief technology officer for

network and platform a priority. The company has

SuccessKPI, Inc. Piyush drives technology vision and

innovated a full framework of operational systems

architecture across SuccessKPI. He leads a globally

policies and procedures to protect the data in transit and

distributed and diverse team of technologists

data at rest.

responsible for building, operating, and securing the

To seal the protection standards, SuccessKPI has also

company's innovative serverless, highly secured, and AI-

partnered with a blue-chip list of suppliers that are

driven products and platform. He is also a member of the

certified to meet SuccessKPI's gold standards of

company's Board of Directors. Through revolutionary

protecting customer data. As the third level of assurance,

machines and interfaces that are easy to use, business

the company has created a series of internal system

executives, supervisors, quality analyst, administrators

controls as a part of the responsibility model. With

and more can utilize the same platform with ease. In

controls like role-based access and role-level data

conjunction with his work through SuccessKPI, he owns

segregations, SuccessKPI empowers its enterprise

a Subway franchise, as well as an international school in

customers to further control and protect data in their

India titled Rangoli International School for children in

application space.

1st grade through 10th grade. Additionally, he

SuccessKPI's policies and procedures are renowned for

volunteers with BAPS Charities, which specializes in

meeting the highest standards industry benchmarks.

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“

SuccessKPI provides a comprehensive platform for contact center analytics with a powerful under-friendly interface and stateof-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning engines. SuccessKPI’s innovative AI and ML engines transcribe speech, perform natural language understanding, decode sentiment, and make decisions to drive business outcomes.

Piyush Patel Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer SuccessKPI

“ www.successkpi.com 54

Proven by its PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 2, and HIPAA

and prominence in a field are all taken into account

compliance certifications, the company boasts of leading

during the selection process. In the near future, Piyush

security and operation performance standards.

aims to expand SuccessKPI and stabilize it before embarking on another endeavour.

Experiences that Shaped his Journey Driven to work for himself and develop a product that

Fine Tuning Customer Experience with AI

would help others, Piyush began in the field as engineer

SuccessKPI provides a comprehensive platform for

with AT&T in 2003, and then joined as a lead engineer

contact center analytics with a powerful under-friendly

with Verizon Wireless in 2006. After two years, he

interface and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and

became manager of business intelligence for

machine learning engines. SuccessKPI's innovative AI

MicroStrategy Incorporated/Angel.com, where he also

and ML engines transcribe speech, perform natural

worked as senior manager of business intelligence and

language understanding, decode sentiment, and make

data management before the company was sold to

decisions to drive business outcomes. To simplify the

Genesys. Over the years, he gained valuable expertise

user experience for novice users and leverage its full

with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Deloitte in

functionality for intrepid analysts, SuccessKPI has

varying senior management positions. Piyush has over

integrated traditional call center analytics, next-

20 years of product development experience in

generation digital channel interactions, speech and text

enterprise software including leading analytics, big data,

analytics, machine scoring, supervisor scorecards, a

and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based platforms in SaaS

revolutionary Playbook Builder, and automated AI-

and cloud-based contact center space.

based quality monitoring scoring in a unified enterprise

During the early years of his career, Piyush earned a

data warehouse and data lake, powered by business

Bachelor of Engineering from Gujarat University, India in

intelligence, users can get a 360-degree perspective.

1999 and a postgraduate diploma in information technology and system engineering from GLSIIT,

Achievements that Recognize Excellence

Ahmedabad, India in 2002. Additionally, he is a certified

Under Piyush's leadership, SuccessKPI's innovative

cloud practitioner, certified developer, certified SysOps

solutions have been recognized with several notable

administrator, and certified solutions architect through

awards that boost the morale of its teams. Earlier this

Amazon Web Services.

year, SuccessKPI achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Throughout his career, Piyush has obtained a patent for

Machine Learning Competency status in the new

dynamic scheduling of extract, transform and load

Applied Artificial Intelligence (Applied AI) category.

processes, and earned a plethora of awards for his

SuccessKPI achieved Independent Software Vendors

expertise. In addition to receiving an Angel Wing of

(ISVs) partnership with AWS by leveraging and adopting

Excellence and a First Responder Award from AWS, he

AWS best practices. SuccessKPI is an advanced

won 2012 Best in Biz Enterprise Product of the Year

Technology Partner of AWS and launch partner of AWS

Award for Mobile Caller First Analytics Application.

Contact Center Intelligence. SuccessKPI has showcased

Piyush Patel has been recognized in January 2021 by

advanced customer success building AI-powered

Marquis Who's Who for his dedication to the Fields of

solutions for different contact center platforms to meet

Business and Information Technology by including his

partnership levels including Genesys Cloud Premium

profile in biographical volumes, individuals profiled are

application AppFoundry partner, Amazon Connect

selected based on the current reference value. Factors

Technology partnership, Twilio, Talkdesk, and Ujet

such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility,

integration partnership.

55

MODERN CRISES

MANAGEMENT

HACKS EMPLOYED BY TECH

CEOs

56

T

he year 2020 had ushered unprecedented

In most circumstances, tech CEOs exercise a laissez-faire

challenges with adversaries inflicted on

leadership. Laissez-faire leadership is a type of

business, technology, and economy on a whole.

leadership where the leader allows the subordinates to

The unprecedented hardships and challenges induced by

decide the course of an activity. This type of leadership is

the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic caused business

mostly prevalent in tech organizations where

organizations and tech CEOs to plan a technological

employees, under the leadership of their CEOs, are free

paradigm shift in order to restore balance. The post-

to curate business plans and models that suits the

COVID world is heavily dependent on digitalization and

immediate market landscape.

technologies as staying behind closed doors became a norm.

Experienced tech CEOs often employ people from diverse backgrounds. This welcomes and encourages

One of the primary concerns was recession. Around 45%

diverse perspectives that help in a strong team building

of the tech CEOs were worried about the recession that

process.

negatively impacted the revenue growth of companies.

Given the unprecedented hit of the pandemic, CEOs

One major step to get through crises is the internal

experimented with a structural shift to defeat crises.

assessments of an organization. The objective of such assessment is to gauge employee satisfaction and

The visions and missions of all technology companies are

performance levels. Good CEOs prioritize employees

to meet customer convenience and to create a consumer

and happy employees result in fruitful outcomes for

complaint-free world while maintaining a steady

consumers and customers.

revenue growth. Paradoxically, the surge in consumer complaints climbed the hill in the post-Covid world. This

Owing to the virtual culture the world is indulging itself in

has been the toughest challenges for tech start-ups. Tech

the recent times, providing proper virtual trainings to

CEOs of both start-ups and giant technology companies

employees is now an imperative.

have strived to overcome the anxiety of technological

technologically cognizant a business organization is, the

glitches with an objective to make modern technology

sooner a crisis fades away.

The more

ubiquitous even for the technologically inept population.

This signals the injection of a world that practices equity

Many tech CEOs follow a four-phase model, which talks

in technology.

about creative ways to think about disruptive ways that can not only bring healthy revenues to the companies but

Customers often etch their faith in the value proposition

can also set the company apart from the crowd.

of a company. Hence, companies function on “customerfirst” approach.

The model consists of acceleration of opportunities, redirection to new realities, reacting and responding to

In order to take the bull by its horns, successful and

customer needs in real-time, and a rebound to the future.

dedicated CEOs lean on certain qualities that help them

These dimensions are deemed as business postures that

to overcome difficulties and adversities brought about

can restore the balance of an organization.

the pandemic. After all, it is all about Plan B.

57

Suresh Krishna Madhuvarsu Founding Partner

Product10x

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Accelerating the Startup Ecosystem with Deeptech and Product-Led Growth

P

roduct10x is a deeptech accelerator for early-

As a technical founder, he built the “best product”

stage Enterprise SaaS startups. It focuses on

possible. WizKidz grew to 2500+ users in a matter of 12

product-led growth by tapping into its one-on-

months, raising over $100k in funding from friends and

one founder advisory and operator roles. Product10x co-

family while also focusing on sales and marketing. The

creates Enterprise SaaS startups using AI, and product-

team kept the company afloat for 18 months before the

led growth expertise, by focusing on Digital Health,

financial downturn hit the economy and they had to

Education Technology, HR Tech, and Future of Work

move on with lots of lessons.

industries.

Next, Suresh joined two super early-stage startups: JackBe and Skire, both with operations in the Bay Area.

A Highly Experienced Leader

As an early employee, he greatly contributed to the

Suresh Madhuvarsu, the founding partner of

growth of both companies. During these experiences

Product10x, has more than fifteen years of experience

Suresh learned how to build products and teams, and

with Enterprise SaaS and mobile products that scaled to

most importantly how to validate products with

over $100M in revenue over five years. Suresh was also

customers.

part of acquisitions by Oracle & Software AG. Suresh built several emerging technology innovation product

Overcoming the Obstacles

teams, scaling groups of engineers and product

Industry veterans and successful people always talk

managers across the world. These enterprise level

about how important it is to focus. The trick, however, is

products leverage the technology of IoT, drones,

deciding what to focus on when you have a thousand

blockchain, AI, and chatbots.

important tasks to complete every day. In addition, when adding new leaders to a company, it is challenging to let

Continuous Learning from Real-Life Experiences

go of some of your tasks. “At times you will be doing

In 2006 Suresh founded a startup called WizKidz that

things that other leaders are supposed to be doing. But

focused on social networking for kids. The company

you must decide where everyone needs to spend their

promoted social interactions for parents to help them

energies, continuously learning and course-correcting

find the best local trainers or mentors for whatever kids

when necessary,” says Suresh.

wanted to learn. “Think of it as Yelp for kids,” says Suresh.

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“

A combination of Deep tech and Product-Led-Growth is going to accelerate successful startups and help them thrive. The critical path is not only raising capital, but forming a great team and product to solve real problems.

Suresh Madhuvarsu Founding Partner Product10x

“ www.product10x.com 60

Important Qualities a Tech Leader Should Possess

portfolio company helps increase construction safety by

One of Suresh's mentors advised him to always look for

using computer vision and predictive models.

breadth and depth to completely understand and solve a

Product10x believes that the combination of the AI and

problem. Looking into the breadth of a problem helps you

the Cloud will help companies automate their traditional

connect the dots and assemble the right team, and

business processes and help to focus on innovation

understanding the depth of a problem helps you estimate

rather than on continuous operations.

its complexity. Suresh applies this breadth and depth approach to most every business situation. Some

Path to the Future

founders focus only on breadth and getting the big

Suresh can foresee Product10x evolving into a micro-vc

picture, whereas others become experts in one technical

and a co-creation company that helps founders create

area. Using both approaches in tandem, Suresh is able to

successful deeptech startups. You can't ignore the news

solve all business and product challenges that he faces.

about successful organizations like Asana, Slack, Datadog, Airtable and Calendly growing into billion

Strategic Innovation to Boost Target Audiences

dollar companies. Product10x, however, is focused on

One simple mantra for Product10x is continuous

helping founders build $250+ million dollar companies,

learning through empathy. This is harder than it appears,

thriving from the right support from industry experts

but he is a firm believer in emphasizing empathy as a

along with the right GTM strategy.

culture and leading by example with it in an organization.

The company's goal is simple; help build successful

All players must listen to each other and respect the

deeptech and SaaS startups in the Digital Health,

agreed upon vision while sharing common goals. This

EduTech, HRTech, and Future of Work industries.

then radiates out to the customers, where hearing and understanding their challenges is crucial for how the

Radiating Key Advice to Emerging Business Leaders

company can help them today.

According to Suresh, it is crucial to understand your customers' problems before trying to solve them. This

Effect of Disruptive Technologies on Today's

empathy is not solely related to understanding customer

Revolution

problems, but necessary to be a great leader within the

A decade ago software was eating the world and now AI

organization. Building a team is difficult, but the ability to

is eating the software. Suresh has worked in several

understand and think in the shoes of others is extremely

traditional industries such as Automotive,

important for building a great team that understands the

Manufacturing, Utilities, Construction and HR Tech, and

vision. In early-stage startups every employee must be a

he sees how these industries are getting disrupted by AI

leader to bring in maximum productivity and thus

and automation. Although this technology is in its infancy

contributing to make users successful.

stage, the current results are outstanding. Product10x

“Lastly, recruiting is the most important task for you as a

contributes to this space by collaborating with some of

leader. Your vision and the company roadmap are the

the portfolio companies, providing the right financial

tools you have to influence other leaders to join your

learning based on user reading habits and financial

company. Remember that every employee that you bring

behaviours. As an example, one of Product10x's

on has the power to make it or break it. Hire in a

portfolio startup provides great customer insights when

deliberate fashion, bringing in the best talent that

they are shopping on a website, while helping the

matches your vision during the initial days of the startup,”

business owners to cross and upsell. Similarly, another

says Suresh.

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