The 10 Most Influential Tech Leaders of 2021

ISSN 2582-127X

JULY 2021

TOP INFLUENTIAL

LEADERS

TO WATCH IN 2021

10 Aspects for Tech Leaders to Watch Out for Setting Priorities for Future Sprints

Importance of Leadership Skills in the Technological Era

ABHISHEK GOEL FOUNDER OF DASCEQ

EDITORIAL Leadership skills may come naturally to some, but even natural-born leaders will need to develop their leadership skills for a career in technologyrelated management. As executives climb the IT ladder, they will need to constantly evaluate their leadership style to ensure that their organization is growing along with them. While technology has most importantly focused on creating a stable environment for the easy existence of humanity, tech leaders are holding the responsible role for to drive it towards the dramatic growth we can barely track. From the discovery of how fire can be controlled in the prehistoric era to the aspect of the human-machine interface, someone has to lead the change. For a very long time, influential people have stood by their grounds on various initiatives.

Now, in the digital world, they take responsibility for the technological advancements we enjoy every day. The tech industry evolves and pivots faster than any other field, and if a company's tech leadership doesn't keep up, it can quickly set the business aback.

The potential of artificial intelligence is far from being fully exploited, thus making now the new best time for many countries to sprint to the front of the race. In a nutshell, we have never seen technology evolve as quickly as artificial intelligence. In today's world, every industry is becoming extremely competitive, thanks to technology. The technological shift has shined the spotlight on AI-driven innovations in the new normal, the road to efficient deployment of technology, human and machine interface to leverage efficient workflow, etc.

Tech leaders are some of the most influential and talked-about people in the digital world. Although many household names like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, etc. are making a remarkable stance in the technology sphere, other emerging tech companies and their leaders are also performing well in the market. They are increasingly becoming responsible for the creation and continued development of disruptive trends that people from across the globe use in their everyday lives.

Remarkably, many tech leaders have not only outsized influence on their industry but have made dramatic changes on society as a whole. The pandemic was the biggest challenge company leaders or executives overcame with success. They rethought their business strategies during the lockdown and devised a leaner strategy that was fitter for the challenges ahead.

At the core of strategies and innovations, technology leaders play a vital role in accelerating a company's change. They incorporate both skill and knowledge, which helps companies to contribute more to the digital revolution.

Technological skills are the most sought after and one area where supply still hasn't matched the d e m a n d i n m a ny d e v e l o p i n g e c o n o m i e s .

Fortunately, tech leaders hold the courage of influence and innovation in the tech industry that tends to change the tailwind of disruptive s o l u t i o n s . Te c h l e a d e r s s t ay u p d a t e d o n developments in their industry and contribute greatly to the evolving needs. Stepping into the new decade of autonomous cars and automatic drones, tech leaders are taking the role of devising the future of digitization with safe and unbiased initiatives.

-Adilin Beatrice Senior Analyst

CREDITS Ashish Sukhadeve

Adilin Beatrice

Editor-in-Chief

Senior Analyst

Apoorva Komarraju

Disha Sinha

Senior Analyst

Content Analyst

Satavisa Pati

Sayantani Sanyal

Content Analyst

Content Analyst

Nikita Das

Soniya Raghav

Marke ng Manager

Research Analyst

Dharmendar Passi

Kushagra Gupta

Sales Manager

Crea ve Head

Anusha Polneni

Jyothi Pandey

Marke ng Analyst

SEO Analyst

ABHISHEK GOEL

Pravallika Thammana Web Developer

July 2021

540/6, 3rd Floor, Geetanjali Towers KPHB, Phase-6, Hyderabad 500072 Telangana, India Tel: +91 40 23055215

177 Park Avenue Suite 200, San Jose, CA 95131, USA Tel : +1-408-380-2566

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08

Cover Story

Abhishek Goel Dasceq

16 Executive of the Month

Peter Sheldrick MassMutual

Anurag Verma

Danilo McGarry

FN MathLogic

Alter Domus

C O N T E N T S

Elena Rodriguez-Falcon NMITE

Federico Protto

Ken Forster

Martin Flusberg

Retelit

Momenta

Powerhouse Dynamics

Patrick Bangert

Ronald Ck Ong

Shrinivas Kumar

Samsung SDS, America

SearchDigital

Templegate Technologies

Articles

Varun Garg

W Daniel Cox III

Digital Glyde

Ascention Services

34

72

10 Aspects for Tech

Importance of

Leaders to Watch Out

Leadership Skills

for Setting Priorities

in the Technological

for Future Sprints

Era

Abhishek Goel Founder Revolutionizing Debt Collection with an Expertise in Consumer Behavior

W

ith the rapid growth of consumer credit and the huge amount of financial data developing effective predicting models is very crucial. Dasceq is focused to

change debt collection by understanding customer behavior leveraging

proprietary alternative data. Dasceq's proven PCC framework has processed more than 140 million accounts and US$42 billion and improved money collected by more than 22%, reduced cost to collect by more than 30% and significantly improved consumer experience. The company's mission is to transform collection practices as FICO transformed credit underwriting through AI/ML and big data. Dasceq has developed AI/ML solutions across the lending cycle, created predictive analytics to identify high-risk patients and has founded multiple leading analytics companies.

COVER STORY 08

09

“

Disruptive technology is an innovation that significantly alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses operate. A disruptive technology sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has

“

attributes that are recognizably superior.

- Abhishek Goel Founder Dasceq

www.dasceq.com

10

A Passionate Consumer Behvior Expert Abhishek is the CEO and Founder and Consumer

(http://jindal.utdallas.edu/marketing/ms-marketing/).

Behavior Expert for Dasceq.com. He led the

Springboard is an online learning platform that prepares

development of analytical solutions for employers and

students for the tech industry's most in-demand careers

clients that have saved or improved profit by more than

with comprehensive, mentor-led online programs in

US$3 billion. He has an experience of working and

software engineering, data science, machine learning,

providing consulting and strategy services to C-level

UI/UX design, cybersecurity, and more.

executives of global financial institutions. Abhishek is

Abhishek is also the owner of an education company

passionate about giving back through teaching how to

called A-Data Leader that helps experienced data

learn and apply data science. He is an adjunct professor

executives to become high performance Data Leaders

and advisor, teaching data science concepts and

and scale delivery and their careers . He is a regular

applications to various professional, corporates, and

speaker at local and national data science conferences,

graduate programs such as Springboard.com, SMU

collection industry conferences.

( h t t p : // w w w. s m u . e d u /c a p e) , a n d U T D

The Journey Towards Success Abhishek has successfully bootstrapped analytics

development, data mining and segmentation, consumer

practices and multiplied revenue for multiple business

behavior and transaction analytic, spend analytic using

units as part of Big 4, global financial services, and fintech

multiple analytical tools like SAS, Python, Hadoop/Hive,

companies. Abhishek's expertise includes data analytics,

Neo4j, SAS E Miner, SAS E Guide, SQL, Tableau and

analytics strategy, machine learning, deep learning,

Qlikview.

artificial intelligence, predictive modeling, robotics,

As an entrepreneur starting a next-generation company

compliance analytics, credit scoring, marketing

in a new low awareness market is time-consuming and

analytics, collection analytics, voice monetization,

needed a lot of teaching. Abhishek has spent

political campaign analytics, risk, and operations

considerable time explaining the product and networked

analytics, consumer lifecycle analytics, marketing

with people to generate awareness about the changing

analytics, data mining, data visualization, model

market.

validation, predictive/statistical modeling, model

11

Driving Innovation in the Marketplace Dasceq continuously seeks guidance on requirements

and appraised granularly. Abhishek believes that the

from consumers and clients. It supports consumers

tech industry especially AI companies have a great

affected by debt and engages them to understand their

opportunity and responsibility to ensure these changes

expectations. The company deep dives its 8bn+

benefit the consumer positively. Though overall

alternative data records and more than 140MM

technology cost to start company has reduced there is a

transaction processed to identify areas of improvement

significant increase in marketing and sales accompanied

and improve the consumer experience. Additionally

by deep regulatory or compliance requirement in most

Dasceq also does Consumer Survey to understand

area. Most importantly there is certainly more product

expectations of the consumer. Dasceq develops

adoption due to the complex technology infrastructure

innovation strategy in convergence with marketing,

and fast rate of change in every and I believe in long run

product, collection experts and clients. The company's

most of these application would improve the lives of

multi-year plans with clearly defined objectives and

customers.

barometers of progress ensure that innovation is plotted

Leveraging Disruptive Technologies to Serve Customers Disruptive technology is an innovation that significantly

products include the best way to implement solutions so

alters the way that consumers, industries, or businesses

that clients can get the best value. The company

operate. A disruptive technology sweeps away the

leverages industry best practices along with new

systems or habits it replaces because it has attributes

technology and deep consumer behavior-driven studies

that are recognizably superior. Even a start-up with

to get the biggest return. Dasceq is actively using 36

limited resources can aim at technology disruption by

technologies for its website, according to BuiltWith.

inventing an entirely new way of getting something done.

These include Google Apps for Business, Microsoft

Established companies tend to focus on what they do

Exchange Online, and Facebook Sharer. This year,

best and pursue incremental improvements rather than

Dasceq is projected to spend US$57.2K on IT New

revolutionary changes. They cater to their largest and

Technology Development alone and significantly more in

most demanding customers.

marketing and innovation for Data Science initiatives,

Dasceq goes beyond just technology or new tools. Its

according to Aberdeen.

Insights into the Future Abhishek asserts that the industry is changing rapidly

Dasceq. Dasceq is continuing to understand and is

with regulatory pressure and consumer behavior.

coming up with an additional product and deepening

COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption by consumer

products to help clients improve the consumer

and creating a void for industry to fill by leveraging

experience.

12

A Leader Drives Strategic Marketing with Right Team Abhishek always believes that a tech leader should

important that the leader should hire professionals and

always have patience. It takes more time to build a

experts and not those who agree with him and let go of

profitable and sustainable company and reputation in

even good friends if they are not aligned. Being able to be

the industry. A leader must focus on marketing and

resourceful is key to success.

innovation. Moreover, having the right team is so

A Piece of Advice to the Emerging Leaders The biggest advice Abhishek offers for emerging leaders

emotions of his tech team, enabling him to keep

is to figure out the challenges of prospects and work hard

motivation high, improve communication as well as

to solve them. There is a lot of opportunities currently

empathize with the team. Building resilience within the

and one can make a deep impact by leveraging

tech team will help members of them to cope with this

technology. As a tech leader keeping track of trends and

level of uncertainty and foster a culture of adaptability

the skillset that the leader will require throughout the

t h a t c a n b e ex t r e m e l y b e n e fi c i a l i n t i m e s o f

year will enable him to track how he can apply those skills

unpredictability.

to future opportunities. When working in a remote

Moreover, the collection industry is going through a

environment, it is fundamental to practice emotional

paradigm shift. Most collectors do not understand how

intelligence as a tech leader. Being in a virtual setting,

to influence the consumers. Over the next few years,

speaking with the team through screens rather than

Dasceq foresees a major aggregation and change in shift

face-to-face in those office 'water cooler' moments can

as lenders and debt collectors will be forced to adopt new

make it more difficult to ascertain how the members of

technology and always be aware of consumer

the team are feeling. Practicing emotional intelligence

experience.

will allow the leader to manage both his own and the

13

Abhishek Goel

Peter Sheldrick

CEO, Founder and Consumer Behavior Expert

Head of Data Engineering and Analy cs

Dasceq

MassMutual

Abhishek Goel is the CEO, Founder, and Consumer Behavior Expert of Dasceq.com. He led the development of analy cal solu ons for employers and clients that have saved or improved profit of the company by more than US$3 billion. Abhishek has experience in working and providing consul ng and strategy services to C-level execu ves of global financial ins tu ons.

As the Head of Data Engineering and Analy cs for MassMutual’s Corporate Audit organiza on, Peter Sheldrick envisions crea ng the future state of internal audi ng at the company. Peter aims to build scalable processes for automated audi ng, enabling the auditors to access and analyze data by themselves without his team ac ng as an intermediary source.

www.dasceq.com

www.massmutual.com

Varun Garg

Federico Protto

Shrinivas Kumar

Ronald Ck Ong

Founder

CEO

COO

Founder and Group CEO

Retelit

Templegate Technologies

SearchDigital

As the CEO of Retelit, Federico Pro o aims to develop the company with an expecta on of more convergence between connec vity and cloud solu ons.

Taking up the posi on in 2015, he used his managerial skills to successfully steer Retelit into a growth trajectory with his two principles of leadership namely trust and credibility.

Shrinivas Kumar is the COO of Templegate Technologies. He has previously worked with major mul na onals like Inten a, Oracle, Infor & SAP as a Business & Sales Leader. His past s nts gave him an exhilara ng experience and learning in Business Management. Shrinivas is a consistent sales performer with mul ple sales awards and a track record of achievement.

Ronald Ck Ong is the Founder and Group CEO of SearchDigital. He began his journey in delivering digital solu ons as an early adopter of the World Wide Web. Ronald acquired the label ‘Computer Genius’ at a very young age and emerged as the visionary of the company. Along with his three friends, he published a computer magazine named ‘CAS.’

www.templegate.co.in

www.search-digital.com

Digital Glyde Varun Garg is the Founder of Digital Glyde. He created the company to bridge the technology gap and make business be er with innova ve and cu ng-edge trends.

Varun is also the Founder of VercX and has specialized skills in business intelligence, so ware project management, SaaS, business analysis, IT strategy, SOA and many more. www.digitalglyde.com

www.retelit.it

TOP INFLUENTIAL

LEADERS

TO WATCH IN 2021

Patrick Bangert Vice President of Ar ficial Intelligence Samsung SDS, America

Prof. Elena Rodriguez-falcon

W Daniel Cox III

Danilo McGarry

CEO

President and CEO

Ascen on Services Pty Ltd

Technology & Digital Transforma on Execu ve

NMITE

As the CEO of Ascen on Services Pty Ltd, W Daniel Cox III concentrates on achieving three essen al principles namely focusing on extraordinary outcomes, upskilling and transferring knowledge and experience to the company’s clients’ staff, and ensuring value in every engagement with clients to promote be er business.

Daniel has over 20 years of experience in the data and analy cs industry.

Patrick Bangert is the Vice President of Ar ficial Intelligence at Samsung SDS, America. He started his career as an Assistant Professor of mathema cs at a new university that had only existed one year before he began working there.

Currently, under Patrick’s leadership, Samsung SDS is leveraging disrup ve technologies to give the company a compe ve edge in the market.

Prof. Elena Rodriguez-Falcon is the President and CEO of NMITE. Star ng her career in 2001 as the Founder of the University of Sheffield Enterprise (USE), she later held many roles before taking up the CEO posi on at NMITE. Elena aims to educate engineers for problems that do not yet exist, to use, and more importantly, to create technologies to address those problems.

www.samsungsds.com

www.nmite.ac.uk

www.ascen on.com

Alter Domus Danilo McGarry is the Global Head of Automa on at Alter Domus, a market-leading asset management services company and part of the Permira Private Equity Group. His speciali es include automa on, RPA, OCR, NLP, data mining, machine learning, ar ficial intelligence, reusability analysis, big data management, desktop analy cs, manual touchpoints analysis, star ng and scaling automa on, and innova on programs. www.alterdomus.com

Ken Forster

Martin Flusberg

Anurag Verma

Execu ve Director and Founder

CEO

Founder and CEO

Powerhouse Dynamics

FN MathLogic

Mar n Flusberg, the CEO of Powerhouse Dynamics is an accidental serial entrepreneur. He joined an MIT faculty so ware start-up and ended up becoming the CEO several years later. In his current role, Mar n is responsible for developing and evolving the business plan and raising capital of Powerhouse Dynamics. He par cipates in all aspects of the company from finance to product development.

Anurag Verma is the Founder and CEO of FN MathLogic. He has nearly 25 years of experience in the analy cs and consul ng industry.

Before star ng MathLogic, he has worked for mul na onal companies including Accenture, PriceWaterhouseCooper, American Express, and Genpact across geographies. At MathLogic, Anurag is the key decision-maker along with the Co-founder.

Momenta Ken Forster is the Execu ve Director and Founder of Momenta. He is a digital industry veteran who has been building 'connected' products, services, and businesses for over 30 years at his senior leadership roles in Syngenta, Coca-Cola, and Altria.

Ken founded Momenta in 2012 a er co-founding several industrial automa on companies.

www.momenta.one www.powerhousedynamics.com

www.fnmathlogic.com

Executive of the Month

Transforming the Insurance Industry with Data-Driven Insights

M

assMutual is a leading mutual life insurance

goals, he works closely with his peers in the enterprise

company that is run for the benefit of its

technology and experience area. He has also utilized the

members and participating policy owners.

enterprise architecture group to ensure his

Founded in 1851, the company has been continually

department's strategy and approach align with the

guided by one consistent purpose. It helps people secure

enterprise's goals. His team uses the same patterns and

their future and protect the ones they love. With a focus

practices instituted by the enterprise data management

on delivering a long-term value, MassMutual offers a

and delivery group to ensure consistency and limit

wide range of protection, accumulation and wealth

technical debt.

management products and services. Peter Sheldrick is currently the Head of Data Engineering and Analytics for

The Journey of a Successful Data Science Leader

MassMutual's Corporate Audit organization. His

When Peter began his journey in data science back in in

ambition is to create the future state of internal auditing

2005, he had quickly recognized the need to collaborate

at MassMutual. He aims to build scalable processes for

closely with his customers. If the customer does not

automated auditing, enabling the auditors to access and

understand the model then the data scientist must have

analyze data by themselves without his team acting as an

essentially failed. Often the customer's discussion

intermediary source by using descriptive, predictive and

begins with narrowing the scope of the problem

prescriptive analytics in the audit process. Wrapping

statement and ensuring a thorough understanding of

around these categories is a significant training

how or where the model will be implemented. In addition,

component where the environment encompasses formal

the data scientist must take the time to coach and

training, self-service training and coaching to upskill

educate the customer on the utility of the model using

auditors' capabilities in analytics. To accomplish these

non-technical terms. Before 2005, he worked in finance

16

Peter Sheldrick Head of Data Engineering and Analytics MassMutual

17

“

Artificial intelligence and automation can have the largest impact on the internal audit function.

Generally, risks to an enterprise continue to grow.

Using automation, audit tests can be deployed to analyze the environment instead of auditors, thereby covering more of the audit universe and

“

providing assurance of the control environment.

Peter Sheldrick Head of Data Engineering and Analytics MassMutual

www.massmutual.com

18

and other operational areas so he understood the

possess enough technical knowledge to articulate their

insurance business. Peter sought out knowledge on how

desired end state. In this situation, his team mocks up

the MassMutual business model as well as through

potential solutions and then creates a small

mentoring and training opportunities.

demonstration of them. From there, the results are finalized.

Obstacles that Came on the Way Peter experienced difficulty finding a role in data science

The Vital Role Played by the Disruptive Technology

in 2005 with his non-traditional technical background.

Of the focus areas listed, artificial intelligence and

He began to read college level statistics textbooks and

automation can have the largest impact on the internal

academic journal articles, and then he found a mentor in

audit function. Generally, risks to an enterprise continue

the data science group. In addition, he began building

to grow. Using automation, audit tests can be deployed to

models to demonstrate his understanding and capability

analyze the environment instead of auditors, thereby

in this functional area. Eventually, this approach along

covering more of the audit universe and providing

with a supportive hiring manager landed him into his first

assurance of the control environment. Machine learning

official data science role.

models can be used to aid the auditors in identifying areas of potential risk that require attention. As an

The Attributes of a Technology Leader

example, clustering algorithms can bucket records into

Peter believes a technology leader is accountable for

groups that are differentiated and may reveal items for

delivering software and services that meet customers'

an auditor to investigate.

needs while minimizing cost and time. Since business priorities can shift and the technological landscape is in a

What Lies in the Future for the Company?

constant state of flux, the ability to adapt and quickly

Peter has a vision of the insurance industry accelerating

change the direction is necessary, as is the resiliency to

its digital transformation at a more rapid pace.

maintain a steady sense of purpose during challenging

MassMutual is at the forefront of digital innovation in the

projects. Finally, the ability to cultivate relationships

industry and is investing heavily in technology and

with the customers by developing a strong

people that will allow the company to remain ahead of

understanding of their business while communicating

the curve.

technical concepts by using non-technical terms is the key to success.

Wise Words for Emerging Business Leaders The digital transformation is well underway, enabled by

Driving Innovation in Products and Solutions

technology. Peter would like to strongly encourage every

Peter makes sure his team takes a balanced approach in

business leader to obtain a basic understanding of

delivering products and services for their customers. At

information technology and continue to expand their

times, the customer is clear with their expectations and

knowledge by keeping abreast of the relevant changes.

requirements. Other times, the customer does not

19

Driving Innovation in Analytics-Based Consulting Solutions

F

N MathLogic is an a niche analytics consulting

and a delivery manager. He holds a Master's degree in

and training company with qualified and

Business Administration from IIM, Kolkata and a

experienced professionals providing products

Bachelor's degree from IIT, Kanpur.

and services across select business verticals. The founding members of the company have a global

A Leader with Great Expertise

experience of over 10 years in providing analytical

Anurag with great expertise in selling and delivering

solutions and services. MathLogic's only mission is to

solutions had opportunities to set up analytics delivery

provide clients with insights that can help them grow

teams from scratch. He was responsible for revenue and

profitably creating a sustainable value. Anurag Verma is

sales across America, Europe, Middle East, Asia and

the Founder and CEO of FN MathLogic. He has nearly

Australia. His hands-on evolving tools and techniques in

25years of experience in the analytics and consulting

the field of data science helped him in the industry to a

industry. Before starting MathLogic, he has worked for

great extent. In this industry, he believes one way to earn

numerous multinational companies such as Accenture,

the respect of people in the organizations is to help them

PriceWaterhouseCooper, American Express and

grow technically.

Genpact across geographies. At MathLogic, Anurag is the key decision-maker along with the Co-founder Manu

Innovations with Reflections

Chandra. As required in a small set-up, he often plays

MathLogic constantly looks for innovations and

diverse roles being a CTO, recruiter, solution architect

breakthroughs. As an organization, the company has a

20

Anurag Verma Founder and CEO FN MathLogic

21

“

Artificial intelligence, open-source software and cloud computing have a huge impact on the innovations and the way MathLogic works. These technologies benefit the organizations along with pay-per-use options of the cloud provider in managing costs to great extent.

They can also reduce the human resource requirement for repetitive and programmable tasks, providing time

“

for innovation.

- Anurag Verma Founder and CEO FN MathLogic

www.fnmathlogic.com

22

culture to scout around innovative services that could

likely to become common shortly, there is always the race

benefit the potential customers. It spends nearly 25-30%

for the next cycle of innovation in the market.

of its time on internal research projects that are not directly connected to immediate revenue opportunities.

Initial Challenges

It is a constant process of shifting through news items

Initially, MathLogic has faced the usual challenges of

and headlines evaluating potential applications. Every 6-

customer's not recognizing the brand, financial crisis and

12months, the company makes it a point to reflect on its

employee attrition were foremost. Like other start-ups,

research efforts thereby deciding it for the next 6-

MathLogic also sacrificed profits and has been a supplier

12months. Then again back to the grind of shifting

of analytical resources wanting to scale up fast. The

through news headlines and creating lists of internal

company focused more on areas that could add value.

research projects. The robust internship program of

Needless to say, the company was not always right and

MathLogic takes the help of young minds in taking some

has corrected it several times. In the process making

of these research projects to a conclusion.

people understand how MathLogic could be a niche service provider was one of the great challenges. To date,

Disruptive Technology's Vital Role Today

the company does not set any revenue target for itself.

Artificial intelligence, open-source software and cloud computing have a huge impact on the innovations and

Optimistic Outlook on the Future

the way MathLogic works. These technologies benefit

As a 10years old set up, MathLogic is very nimble and can

the organizations along with pay-per-use options of the

pivot quickly. The company is gearing up for exciting

cloud provider in managing costs to great extent. They

products collaborating with industry veterans and

can also reduce the human resource requirement for

academia to develop niche products and services.

repetitive and programmable tasks, providing time for

Anurag with an optimistic outlook believes that the

innovation. The company leverages the open-source

future belongs to entities who are capable of managing

software in a big way for delivering the products and

the pace and adopting it quickly.

services. Since what is considered, innovative today is

23

An Industry Veteran and Acknowledged Thought Leader in AI and Automation

D

anilo is recognised internationally as a market

budgets of USD$100 million, staff and 3rd party vendors

leader executive in making companies more

as large as ~1000 people. Danilo is also a highly skilled

Tech enabled through Digital Transformation,

negotiator and thoroughly enjoys building and

Artificial Intelligence and Automation programs. His

harnessing strong relationships. Exceptional track

programs have gotten attention from The Times,

record of setting up new tech and innovation divisions as

InfoMoney Bloomberg, Techco, Ai Magazine, Computer

well as restructuring companies as a result of successful

Weekly – he is ranked top 10 in the world by research and

game changing initiatives delivered. Experience also in

consultancy firms in various tech domains. He has

creating IP and commercialising it often in partnerships

extensive technical knowledge and people skills that he

created with the private and public sector.

gained from managing key technology programs, some of

Danilo also has extensive board level experience having

which are the world's largest Innovation and Ai programs

sat on boards in Financial Services, Energy, Fintech,

in Blue-chip market leading companies in various

Startup, IT and Education companies in various

industries and countries.

countries. He has also had vast board level interaction at

Previously, he worked with Motorola, JPMorgan, BNP

the companies he has worked for given the strategic

Paribas, Royal Bank of Canada, UnitedHealth Group &

importance of his programs, board level interactions

CitiGroup. In several of these companies he has broken

were frequent.

records or set new ones, as well as win awards from

Danilo has qualifications and courses from Harvard, Yale,

respected institutions.

Northwestern, MIT and Bath Universities. As an eternal student he is constantly learning and takes avid

An Experienced Leader

participation in C level mentorships and round table

Danilo has a stellar proven track record in delivering

discussion groups both as a participant and a mentor

global business technology critical initiatives, managing

himself.

26

Danilo McGarry Technology & Digital Transformation Executive Alter Domus

27

“

By sharing, collaborating, and helping one and another, we will be able to continue the great debates and discussions of how

to do all this better and how to manage the transformational change cutting edge technology will all bring. What is important is that we utilise technology in a practical way that can drive real transformation in a

“

business.

- Danilo McGarry Technology & Digital Transformation Executive Alter Domus

www.alterdomus.com

28

AI and Automation are Transforming Global Industries

Innovation and Automation for about 15 years. He

Leading advisory and research firms predict that AI and

worked in many different industries such as banking, oil

automation are going to add roughly anything between

and gas, healthcare, and owned a consultancy firm of his

US$9 to US$15.7 trillion in terms of economic growth by

own as well for several years. So, he has been a client, a

2030. The World Economic Forum has coined "AI" to be

consultant, and an advisor to most of the largest tech

th

the 4 Industrial Revolution. Automation is and will

c o m p a n i e s t o d ay. T h i s m a ke s h i m c a p a b l e o f

ultimately impact every individual, organization,

understanding the tech and innovation market well. “The

government, and industry. It is because of this that

most tricky part of digital transformation is the human

Danilo tries to disseminate as much good information,

element of it and not the technical difficulties” Danilo

lessons learned, and tips on how to be part of and run

said.

programs in this space as much as possible. “Reskilling is also a huge component of this, everyone will need to

Collaboration for the Growth of the Industry

make a shift in their skill sets to stay relevant in the

For Danilo, it is vital to continue to collaborate and help

marketplace of tomorrow,” he adds.

others understand this industry better. “By sharing, collaborating, and helping one and another, we will be

Understanding the Human Element of Digital

able to continue the great debates and discussions of

Transformation

how to do all this better and how to manage the

Danilo has been working in tech enabled digital

transformational change this will all bring,” he said.

transformation programs all his life, specialising in Ai,

29

Prof. Elena Rodriguez-Falcon Leads the Way for Next Generation Engineers Amidst the Pandemic

P

rof. Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, the President and

Director of Enterprise Education and Director of

CEO of NMITE believes that to develop

Women in Engineering. She also became the Director of

products that appeal to the customers or target

Communications and External Relations of Engineering,

audiences, one must understand their needs and wants

whilst holding a Chair in Enterprise and Engineering

first. And once that is done, creativity can flow freely

Education. In 2012, she was awarded the status of

through experiments, errors and trials. One must always

Principal Fellow at the Higher Education Academy

bring the customer perspective into the company's

(PFHEA) - one of the first ten in the UK. She is also a

innovation cycle, where co-creation is at the heart of it

Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology

all. Elena became the President and CEO of NMITE in

and the Chartered Management Institute.

2018. In 2020, she was named the Executive Leader of

A c c o r d i n g t o E l e n a , d i s r u p t i ve a n d e m e r g i n g

the Year by Equal Engineers, Distinguished Mexican in

technologies have to be an essential part of that learning

the UK by the Mexican government and Woman of the

process, where technologies demonstrate the trends, as

Year by FDM everywoman in Technology Awards.

this will without doubt be part of the future engineers

Elena started her career in 2001 as the Founder of the

working lives. She aims to educate engineers for

University of Sheffield Enterprise (USE); Institutional

problems that do not yet exist, to use and more

Director of Learning Inclusive Learning and Teaching;

importantly, create technologies to address those

30

Prof. Elena Rodriguez-Falcon President and CEO NMITE

31

“

Disruptive and emerging technologies have to be an essential part of that learning process, where technologies

demonstrate the trends, as this will without doubt be part of the future

“

engineers working lives.

- Prof. Elena Rodriguez-Falcon President and CEO NMITE

www.nmite.ac.uk

32

problems. Elena is confident that NMITE will succeed in

transformational. The company has reflected on the

educating work-ready, socially aware, and diverse

journey that engineering education has had over

change makers. She thinks that in a post-Covid world, the

decades if not centuries and listened to the stakeholders,

pedagogical model of her institution will be highly tested

employers and students. They have taken into account

and they may have to reimagine engineering education

such a diverse range of experiences and voices to create

once again. But, for her, facing the changes is like second

something that trains students to immediately feel like

nature. Elena feels that the future for higher education is

they are not just students but engineers in training. At

unclear but what is clear is that emerging providers will

the end of a three-year accelerated programme, they will

continue to challenge the current practices, with

be work-ready, fully qualified and highly employable

established universities already responding to those

professionals ready to tackle global problems in industry

challenges and to a digital world in education.

and their communities. There is a huge lack of women in

Creating a higher education institution from scratch is no

this profession and Elena aims to train more female

mean feat, particularly as it is a start-up enterprise, with

engineers and keep them in practice. That's why the

limited resources, operating in a highly regulated

company has an open and stated commitment to equality

environment. Elena has handled this challenge perfectly.

and diversity in making the programme itself more

However, with Covid in the mix, matters like remaining

attractive to female learners.

financially healthy, developing a reputation, recruiting

Elena is passionate about developing a culture of

students, and delivering results have exponentially

philanthropy. The company has been very fortunate as

increased that challenge. On the other hand,

there was a group of volunteers already raising money to

experimenting, taking risks, making mistakes, and

prove the concept of this new model of education 10

learning from them has always been at the core of Elena's

years ago, even before NMITE was established. The

leadership approach, having had it instilled into her by

company is definitely in a challenging and competitive

her very first employer. As a leader, she believes that one

environment, and unlike other HE institutions, they do

has to take opportunities of a lifetime, in the lifetime of

not have a database of thousands of students or a proven

the opportunity. She extensively encourages and

track record. Their success has been igniting the passion

supports her teams to follow the same philosophy.

of donors using the power of their vision.

Elena believes that the new model of her organisation is

33

10

ASPECTS FOR

TECH LEADERS TO WATCH OUT FOR SETTING PRIORITIES FOR FUTURE SPRINTS

Sprint is becoming a familiar concept, especially to tech

the final decision on what comes first.

leaders as more companies across industries are

A team leader must have the ability to explain the

adopting agile methodologies. To maximize the expertise

reasoning behind the prioritization decisions. A team

and benefits of a team sprint, it is important to start

leader must work to unite the team and give the best

planning with a firm hold of the project or focus based on

efforts during the sprint. Following are certain aspects

top priority. Since there are many opinions provided by

that are needed to be considered by a team leader to

the staff members of the organization on top tech

review and determine priorities for future sprints.

priorities, it is usually the tech leader who has to make

34

Business Goals and Needs It is important for tech leaders to ensure that tech

Quantifiable Value Tech leaders must always look to exhibit what's going to

priorities are driven by business goals and needs. There

measurably drive value to the business. For example, a

can be an increase in value only if there is a positive

project that enhances the efficiency of a critical business

impact on the business. Technology providers who do not

process or that drives new sales or higher revenue will

focus on business impact and business problems always

take top priority. And even for those projects that deliver

end up by the wayside.

value, tech leaders must be confident of the plan to measure the business impact.

Objectives and Results of the Business It is important to take into consideration the objectives of the business while organizing future sprints. This will

Business Security Sprint teams should always have a mentor that can

help the team to focus on and commit to the plan that can

communicate the needs and trouble points of the

make real differences. By integrating objectives and key

business in real-time. Persistently the team must

results of the business with sprint goals and the product

prioritize work around what helps the business most.

vision, teams can successfully prioritize high-impact

Sometimes before addressing business needs,

items and trace their progress against measurable

cybersecurity threat remedies should be given top

targets that generate positive business results.

proprietary.

Organizational Priorities In terms of money, resources, and time, tech always has

Risks and Benefits A team leader must consider both benefits and risks of

competing priorities. Integrating sprint priorities with

the company. For example, if an item is technically risky, it

business priorities is the one factor that can help in

should be planned first. It is important to consider

identifying priorities for future sprints. If the priority of

architectural changes before anything else. The items

the organization is customer retention, then prioritize

can then be tested more accurately by the working team.

sprints that increase customer satisfaction.

Exterior Factors The task that unlocks the future work is the most critical

Customer Needs It is always important to determine the needs of the

task. It is important to balance this task with tasks that

customer. It is crucial to ensure that the company's

have all their dependencies met and are ready to work. If

solutions meet the expectation of the customer and to

this step is not followed then many items can get blocked

identify existing customer challenges, and understand

in the future causing inefficient thrash.

investment opportunities. The company must be able to tie plans to customers' long-term strategic plans.

Principles of Architecture Tech priorities should be combined with the architecture

Value Delivered to Customers A project should be of high priority to deliver higher

principles of future business requirements and the maintainability of the solution. For the short term, tech

progressive value to customers. By prioritizing sprints

priorities should be linked to the relevance and impact of

based on progressive customer value delivered and

features in the next minimum viable product. In every

repeatability of the feature request, as well as weighing

alternate sprint, teams should identify new updates and

the importance of the product feature to customers'

the roadmap of technology used to avoid unnecessary

needs, the leader will help drive the team to maximize the

custom code.

value delivered in a sprint.

35

Driving Digital Transformation through Cutting-Edge Communication Network

T

he emergence of digitalisation, the advent of 5G

to benefit from an open, flexible, scalable and vendor

and the development of Industry 4.0 with the

lock-in-free environment. That being said, Retelit shows

progress in Artificial Intelligence and Cloud are

a strong focus on its cloud service offering. The CEO of

revolutionising the global market across all major

the company, Federico Protto has an aim to develop

businesses and infrastructure. The execution of complex

further with an expectation of more convergence

projects based on sophisticated technology is required

between connectivity and cloud solutions.

to promote and deliver the digital revolution

The company tends to find new business and markets

successfully. Retelit has endeavoured to satisfy the

with the advent of new technologies. The emergence of

market connectivity demand by drawing up a plan for

5G network has created a plethora of new possibilities

growth and foundation of its valuable assets over the last

such as network slicing, ultra-low latency and remote-

five years. Retelit has closed two important M&A

controlled vehicles. Artificial Intelligence is enhancing

projects in 2020 to satisfy the ever-growing demand

efficiency and effectiveness in the current business logic

from national and international enterprises. It has

by speeding up the innovation process and eliminating

invested in skills and competencies to cover all the

any obstacle. These new technologies also drive new

digitalisation and ICT value chain such as infrastructure,

consumer buying behaviour that represents a potential

data, network and applications. The target market share

market segment.

requires tailor-made digital projects specially post-

Affordable technologies boost research and accelerate

COVID pandemic.

innovation processes not only for multinational

The company is focused on improving internally

corporations but also for several enterprises,

managed platforms such as a partnership with Huawei,

irrespective of company size. It allows the companies to

which developed a Multicloud platform to manage

transform the ideas and concepts into viable products

Hybrid Cloud solutions on an end-to-end basis. It is based

and services.

on Openstack software that allows customers of Retelit

There were some foundational challenges faced by

36

Federico Protto CEO Retelit

37

“

Affordable technologies boost research and accelerate innovation processes not only for multinational corporations but also for several

enterprises, irrespective of company size. It allows the companies to transform the ideas

“

and concepts into viable products and services.

- Federico Protto CEO Retelit

www.retelit.it

38

Retelit at the initial stage to achieve such outperformed

EMEA region at Verizon Business as well as the Head of

milestones in these recent years. Federico observed that

Technical Service for the release of services for the

the company was incurring massive loss during before he

business market at Telecom Italia.

joined in 2014. The shareholders entrusted him with the

Federico studied Electronic Engineering with enormous

task of bringing the business back on track. He decided to

satisfaction but soon he realised that being “just” an

change its course to gain credibility in the financial

engineer was not sufficient for him. He kick-started his

market with this fundamental step. It was a tough time to

career in Telecom Italia where he used to manage teams

make people understand the life of this company. Yet

of people in call centers. Federico considers that period

together, they prepared a very challenging business plan

to be an important formative period as it allowed him to

that has helped the company to gain respect and also

successfully deal with industrial and trade union

outperform in the following years.

predicaments and complex dynamics. Federico shortly

But, apart from being face-to-face with challenges,

engaged with MCI Worldcom before commencing a 13

Retelit is claimed as a “little big player” in the current

year-long experience with Deutsche Telecom. It has

scenario. The product portfolio of the company is as wide

allowed him to grow from a managerial point of view with

as big competitors in the market. It is a boutique for large

an orientation to control and management as well as

customers who prefer to reduce the number of suppliers

understood the importance of defining a strategy. The

by creating a partnership with which they can undertake

long term planning is impracticable but any company is

the path to their success. Retelit accompanies the

dead without a defined strategy. The main challenge for a

customers from the initial journey, the first encounter to

business leader is to define a 5-year strategy in a context

further implementations and renovations. Retelit will be

that changes every six months. The leader should have a

increasingly capable of providing digital solution running

clear vision and goals in a dynamic environment.

on its own infrastructure. The digital solution is

Federico has always set précised and realistic goals by

specifically for customers who will opt for full package

using his managerial skills to both capitalise on trends

service. The brand positioning in the wholesale market

and to respond to fast-pacing developments in the fields

will strengthen itself due to the never-ending growth of

of technology and infrastructure. That being said, Retelit

bandwidth demand across the world.

has gradually transformed its identity to achieve major

Federico was appointed as CEO of Retelit in 2015 for his

goals such as the completion of an international subsea

managerial skills developed over 25 years of experience

cable project known as AAE-1, important M&A projects

in the TLC sector. He has been successfully steering the

and expanded the clients base such as operators,

company into a growth trajectory with his two principles

enterprises as well as governments. The leadership in

of leadership, trust and credibility. He was born in Milan

Retelit has become more robust by carrying out

in 1967 and a Bocconi's MBA graduate with a Master's in

ambitious expansion plans with a revised infrastructure

IT. He has worked for T-Systems International GmbH

network. The KPI improved and achieved a historical

(Deutsche Telekom Group) where he held multiple

milestone when the company earned an operating profit

positions. He started his journey in 2002 in the B2B

(EBIT) amounting to Euro 2.2 million in 2016. This was

segment and he was recognised as the COO and the

the first-ever feather in the cap of the Group. It has

Head of the International Telecommunications Services

grown faster than the industry has grown and

in 2010 across 25 countries. He also held the Executive

accordingly, the market share has been expanding. These

positions as Service Delivery Director for Southern

achievements have been reflected in the positive

Europe and Access Network Director for the whole

numbers in the recent financial statements.

39

Leading the Digital Transformation of Industry

A

s the leading Digital Industry Venture Capital

A Leader's Journey Towards Success

firm, Momenta has delivered digital

Ken was born at the intersection of technology and

innovation, growth, and leadership to

innovation. His father was an actual rocket scientist, and

companies in energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and

Ken followed his footsteps into the field of remote

supply chain for nearly 10 years. Led by experienced

telemetry. It led him to his first start-up, joining

industry operators across its venture capital, executive

Wonderware in the early days of digitization of process

search practices and strategic advisory practices,

control solutions. He co-founded three industry start-

Momenta has invested in over 50 companies, placed over

ups before serving in senior leadership roles at Altria,

250 leaders, and advised over 150 clients, helping

Coca-Cola, and Syngenta. A realization that the ne-w

develop essential strategies and drive some of their

term of Internet of Things (IoT) encompassed his

largest acquisitions over the past several years.

experiences and perspectives of 'digital industry' catalyzed him into founding Momenta.

Ken Forster is the Executive Director and Founder of Momenta. He is a digital industry veteran who has been

Innovation Runs Through the Company Culture

building 'connected' products, services, and businesses

Momenta's deep industry practitioners believe that

for over 30 years, with senior leadership roles at

companies with the best people, strategies, and

Syngenta, Coca-Cola, and Altria. He founded Momenta

innovation will be the winners in a digital future. Across

in 2012 after co-founding several industrial automation

three core practices, the company interacts with key

companies.

leaders, disruptors, and thinkers working toward the digitalization of industry every day. Momenta focuses

42

Ken Forster Executive Director and Founder Momenta

43

“

Connected technologies are improving people's

way of life globally. Fueled by intelligent networks, the connected world shares massive amounts of data that can improve society in

different ways, bringing value through deeper

“

insights into everything people do.

- Ken Forster Executive Director and Founder Momenta

www.momenta.one

44

relationships and intellectual property on core

Future of the Company Lies in Digital Technology

challenges faced by companies working in energy,

Momenta is well-positioned to help shape the future of

manufacturing, smart spaces (which encompasses smart

digital industry. The company is already the leading

cities, smart buildings, and agricultural tech) and supply

digital industry venture capital firm accelerating digital

chain.

innovators across energy, manufacturing, smart spaces, and supply chain. Momenta's third digital industry fund

Disruptive Technologies Playing Vital Role

is called AioT; based on the premise that Artificial

Ken believes that digital industry is just at the beginning

Intelligence (AI) and IoT are closely related.

of its impact - this digital revolution and patterns will keep transforming the factory floor and field operations

Ken is also a strong believer that being part of an

for decades to come. Driven by global production and

ecosystems is critical for success; the complexity of

supply chains and ever-heightened needs to produce and

products, supply chains, the ever-changing markets is

operate more sustainable, resilient, and efficient

too great for any one organization to address on its

products and services, digital technologies provide the

own. Yet, the future of ecosystems goes beyond

catalyst to optimize and rethink business. As a by-

partnering; it is also about leveraging the sharing of

product of digitalization of industrial infrastructure,

data, applications, operations, and expertise.

c o m p a n i e s e n d u p w i t h i m p r o v e d e f fi c i e n c y, transparency, new business models, which contributes

With that in mind, Momenta has built a digital

to the growing strategic and financial emphasis on ESG

ecosystem sharing its knowledge and expertise through

(Environmental, Sustainability, and Governance).

webinars (they have produced over 25), white papers, and weekly insights into Digital Industry. In Momenta'

Connected technologies are improving people's way of

podcast series, The Digital Thread, Ken has interviewed

life globally. Fueled by intelligent networks, the

over 150 thought leaders, entrepreneurs,

connected world shares massive amounts of data that

technologists, innovators, and investors. During these

can improve society in different ways, bringing value

interviews Ken dives deeper into the digital technology

through deeper insights into everything people do.

landscape, looking at next-generation technologies,

Focusing on technology-driven industries that the

processes, people, and companies that are redefining

company knows exceptionally well, the team deeply

global industries today. Under Ken's leadership,

integrates into customer engagements, helping clients

Momenta set out in 2012 to serve as growth partners

transform from traditional enterprise to disruptive

to leaders and disruptors in the industry. Nearly a

solution provider ready to stand the tests of time.

decade later, Momenta remains true to its focus and

Momenta likes the idea of investing in the future to

value proposition.

change the world for the better and foster continuous adoption and innovation of emerging technologies.

45

A Successful Serial Entrepreneur Leading the IoT Industry

I

oT solutions are currently very popular among

individual pieces of equipment and tracking gas and

organizations as they help build massive networks of

water usage. Advanced analytics deliver actionable

IoT devices, driving innovation across industries

intelligence via diagnostics and alerts, and the platform's

looking for growth opportunities and operational

enterprise-wide benchmarking helps identify stars and

efficiencies. Powerhouse Dynamics is a leading provider

underperforming assets. Open Kitchen includes

“internet of things” (IoT)-based solutions to connect,

functionality specifically targeting Food Service and

analyze, and control equipment to deliver enterprise-

Retail, integrating directly with kitchen equipment to

wide operational efficiencies for portfolios of

enhance kitchen operations, enhance food safety and

c o m m e r c i a l f a c i l i t i e s , i n c l u d i n g r e s t a u ra n t s ,

food quality, and reduce food waste.

convenience stores, retailers and others. The company's

Powerhouse Dynamics was acquired in 2019 by one of

flagship solutions SiteSage and Open Kitchen enhance

the largest manufacturers of kitchen equipment,

e q u i p m e n t p e r f o r m a n c e , p r ov i d e o p e ra t i o n a l

Middleby, because of its unique ability to connect

transparency, and significantly reduce energy expenses.

kitchen equipment across any OEM and deliver a wide

Powerhouse Dynamics is focused on using cloud-based

range of operational improvements.

controls and analytics to deliver energy and operational efficiencies to its customers. Thousands of locations,

Martin Flusberg, currently President of Powerhouse

including restaurants, convenience stores, retailers and

Dynamics is an accidental serial entrepreneur. He joined

others, use the platform to save money by centralizing

an MIT faculty software start-up while on the faculty and

control, analysis, and management of energy-consuming

ended up being the CEO several years later. Powerhouse

equipment, and to obtain a range of operational

Dynamics is his fourth start-up and represents his 3rd

improvements. Engineered specifically for smaller

successful exit. Martin was not the original founder of

facilities, the system, known as Open Kitchen in the Food

Powerhouse Dynamics (PhD) but he joined as CEO very

Service and Retail industries and SiteSage elsewhere,

early on and was responsible for developing and evolving

features powerful analytics delivered via simple online

the business plan and raising capital. He participates in all

and mobile interfaces. The system continuously

aspects of the company from finance to sales to product

improves efficiency by controlling major loads,

development

monitoring power consumption and performance of

46

Martin Flusberg President Powerhouse Dynamics

47

“

After years of talk about IoT in the industries we serve, it is finally starting to happen, and we are expanding rapidly. That creates challenges as we

expand not just sales but markets and geographies. And the need to continue

“

to innovate on all fronts remains strong.

- Martin Flusberg President Powerhouse Dynamics

www.powerhousedynamics.com

48

Leveraging Past Experiences to Build Future

Extensive Use of Disruptive Technologies

Each prior company Martin worked with provided an

Powerhouse Dynamics is involved in all of the areas

experience that helped the next company. Having one

mentioned, except robotics. The company provides a

failure taught him how to make sure to never run out of

leading IoT-based platform that connects, monitors and

cash and this paved the way for taking his last 2

controls equipment for foodservice and retail companies

companies to successful exits. His last 3 companies,

and delivers significant operational efficiencies. The

including the failure, were a little ahead of their time in

cloud-based system generates significant amounts of

terms of product, and learning not only how to preserve

data (for one customer, the system generates over 217

cash but how to preserve patience has played a key role in

billion data points per day). As a result, it is critical to have

eventual success. Martin was CEO of software

the appropriate analytics and machine learning to

companies Multisystems, Inc., REALink Systems Corp.,

interpret and leverage the data. As IoT expands, this is

and Nexus Energy Software, and also ran an energy

fast becoming the rule rather than the exception.

software unit of TASC that later became Lodestar Corp.,

Effectively leveraging these disruptive technologies can

subsequently acquired by Oracle. He has also served on

provide significant benefits to adopters. The company's

the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental

new 'Open Kitchen' has revolutionized food service and

Engineering at MIT. Martin has an MSCE from MIT and a

food retail operations. It provides real-time access and

BEE from the City University of New York. Martin

insight into kitchen and equipment operations and shifts

learned that companies evolve like people and can

from reactive to proactive equipment servicing.

expect to continually fine-tune the business model without pivoting wildly from the original business

Challenges that Come on the Way

description. He also learned the importance of not trying

Martin states that the problem with being early to

to expand too quickly or too wide and has seen multiple

market is that companies end up serving early adopters

other companies fail as a result of doing just that. Martin

and it takes much longer than expected to begin to scale.

has spent most of his career developing innovative

He is well familiar with this. It obviously has implications

technologies that address sustainability; initially in

in terms of cash needs and credibility with investors and

transportation and since then in energy. With the

makes managing the growth of the company much more

evolution of Powerhouse Dynamics, he has also gotten

challenging.

involved in sustainability related to food.

What Lies in the Future?

The Element of Innovation in the Company

Martin explains that after years of talk about IoT across

Powerhouse Dynamics takes the voice of the customer

multiple industries it is finally happening:

seriously and continually solicits input from all

“After years of talk about IoT in the industries we serve, it

customers. It regularly looks at how the company can

is finally starting to happen, and we are expanding

innovate the products and go ahead and develop new

rapidly. That creates challenges as we expand not just

functionality that it then shows to customers after it has

sales but markets and geographies. And the need to

been built (generally then tweaking and not deleting

continue to innovate on all fronts remains strong. It has

based on their feedback). The product team of the

been extremely gratifying to see the concepts we have

company is always looking to adopt and advance the

been promoting finally seeing acceptance. But it is also

state of the art.

exciting to know that it is not time to rest on our laurels”.

49

Leading the Artificial Intelligence Industry with Disruptive Innovation

B

efore innovating any product or solution, it is

audience of undergraduates. It was a difficult lesson that

essential to understand the pain points or

forced him to explain things in simple terms. The dual

challenges of the audience. Conversations with

skills of making a complex subject accessible in simple

people in the audience help towards that goal, and the

terms and breaking it down into digestible pieces are

Samsung SDS team actively seeks them out to learn from

crucial to leadership and the inevitable sales and

them. Often, the challenge becomes clearer only when

marketing function as a leader.

one understands the practical daily life of the users.

His challenges did not end there. Patrick explains how at

Patrick Bangert is the Vice President of Artificial

the beginning of his journey, he did not know where to

Intelligence at Samsung SDS, America. He mentions that

begin and lacked a clear vision of where he wanted to end

once, he was asked to construct a damage forecasting

up.

model for a certain kind of pump to lower maintenance

"With hindsight, I recognize that having a vision now of

costs. At that time, he lacked experience and asked to do

where you want to be in your life at an older age is a boon

a three-day 'internship' with the maintenance crew to

because it acts as a guiding principle in decision-making."

find out. They took him along, and he performed the work

Patrick recalls several people guiding him and offering

with them; all the while experiencing what they go

him suggestions to do this and not do that. He followed

through. In the end, he had a clear picture of where the

the advice most of the time because he respected them

problem lay and then could solve it much more easily.

but did not necessarily understand why, except for short-

Patrick started his career as an Assistant Professor of

term tactical reasons. Naturally, this led him to make a

mathematics at a new university that had only existed

few costly mistakes, the worst being choosing the wrong

one year before he started working there. There was no

business partner in founding his startup company. He did

curriculum set up for the courses that he was supposed

not know how to perform proper due diligence and did

to teach. So, he started by putting together a coherent

not do it. His partner was unable to fulfill his

end-to-end program and then explaining it to a large 52

Patrick Bangert the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Samsung SDS, America

53

“

If we categorize human history by its most influential tool into stone, copper, bronze, and iron ages, then the current time has sometimes been called the information age. While the information itself is an asset, it is only really the conclusion of an analysis that adds value. So, currently, we live in the analytics

“

age with a ubiquitous impact on further innovation.

- Patrick Bangert Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Samsung SDS, America

www.samsung.com

54

responsibilities, creating a profoundly serious problem

way to go to adopt the analytics we have. Those who have

for the business. Subsequently, he was forced to change

developed the analytics must work on making them

his role and fulfill both leadership functions at the same

b e t t e r. T h e p r i m a r y d i r e c t i o n s a r e A I e t h i c s ,

time. For him, this was an existential challenge, but he

explainability, and the challenge of small data.

learned a great deal.

As a large IT services company, Samsung SDS is one of the

Currently, under his leadership, Samsung SDS is

chief players in this transition and the importance of

leveraging disruptive technologies to give the company a

analytics grows both internally and externally. The

competitive edge in the market. These technologies

company will keep developing new tools and models to

make it easier and faster to innovate and enable several

serve the needs of the global business community. At

innovations themselves. Recently, Patrick has been

present, it is actively focusing on the challenge of small

working on using AI to diagnose diseases based on

data: the fact that often the dataset has a limited size and

medical images. He says that creating these models is

cannot be increased readily, so AI must make do. A host of

very effortful, particularly annotating the images to

new algorithms are needed to make good quality models

generate the dataset on which to train the models. Using

once the standard quality improvement mechanism–get

AI to help the annotators, the company can lower the

more data–becomes impossible.

labor cost by over 80%, making it significantly faster and

As a Ph.D. mathematician, Patrick started to work in

cheaper to make models. The company is calling this

academia as a Professor in Germany and proceeded to

2

technology AI since it is using AI to create more AI.

found a startup in the field of machine learning as applied

“If we categorize human history by its most influential

to the oil and gas and chemicals sectors. During this time,

tool into stone, copper, bronze, and iron ages, then the

he led projects all over the world to do predictive

current time has sometimes been called the information

maintenance and process optimization for almost all the

age. While the information itself is an asset, it is only

major oil companies. Having grown that company to

really the conclusion of an analysis that adds value. So,

maturity, he was hired as the VP for AI at Samsung SDS,

currently, we live in the analytics age with a ubiquitous

the IT company of Samsung Group.

impact on further innovation,” he said.

At Samsung SDS, he leads three teams. AI Engineering

According to Patrick, there have been many changes to

makes software tools for data scientists, primarily in

human society in recent centuries. The current AI-driven

speeding up the process through distributed training and

transition is the so-called fourth industrial revolution.

AutoML. AI Sciences does the model building within

There is some fear attached to the inherent change, as

Samsung Group and for outside customers. The third

any transition can make some jobs less needful, but other

team does the sales and marketing for the other two

new job functions usually take their place. There is less

teams. Besides the company's regular work in natural

and less need, at a grand scale, for manual labor. In the

language processing, computer vision, and time-series

industry overall, the transition towards using AI is still in

modeling, it has recently shifted its focus to medical

its early days. AI is mature only in the retail industry and

imaging.

in some isolated applications elsewhere. There is a long

55

Leveraging Innovative Technologies to Bring Industries into the Future

D

igital creativity is the driving force behind

first paycheck as a programmer at the age of 12 for

business growth and the technological

Future Plc.

transformation of modern communications

He acquired the label of “Computer Genius” at a very

channels. It has disrupted the current standard of living,

young age and emerged as the visionary of SearchDigital.

improving the way everything is done, from buying

He also published a computer magazine named “CAS”

products to gaining information.

along with his three friends.

Pioneering maestros today strive to balance innovative

Ronald released his first computer game at 14 in C++ and

advancements with real-world applications to enhance

had one of his works featured in an art exhibition at 15.

operational agility and business performance, increasing

He received his Mensa certificate at 16. His passion for

brand recognition. It is what SearchDigital does best.

digital art grew from using Degas Elite on the Atari ST

What makes a company stand out? For SearchDigital, it is

published by Electronic Arts.

creating unique sector-leading products and delivering digital services that are unrivalled amongst

The Birth of a Business

contemporaries. In addition, the team specializes in

Always looking for new ways to expand his digital skill

processes and strategies of the highest standards,

set, Ronald's 3D modelling experience began with

ensuring capital efficiency and maximizing ROI for its

learning Autodesk's 3D Studio. His first 3D demo helped

clients.

him win his first role - designing real-world environments for aircraft simulators, which aspiring pilots used in their

A Founders Journey Begins

training. Ronald then joined Virgin Groups' games

Ronald, the Founder and Group CEO of SearchDigital,

division as a digital designer in its London HQ. Later, he

began his journey in delivering digital solutions as an

worked with the original members of the Bullfrog

early adopter of the World Wide Web. He received his

Productions team before founding SearchDigital.

56

Ronald Ck Ong Founder and Group CEO SearchDigital

57

“

In today’s ever-increasing competitive

landscape, it’s crucial that businesses use every

competitive advantage they can over their rivals, especially in a digital landscape, and that’s

“

where SearchDigital’s expertise comes into play.

- Ronald Ck Ong Founder and Group CEO SearchDigital

www.search-digital.com

58

With over three decades of experience in programming

unique communications journeys replacing traditional

and digital product design, he also uses his knowledge to

mass media, it is paramount for company leaders to

help directly advise Chartered Institutes by teaching

recognize and deploy these solutions. Companies that do

Digital Strategy Master Classes.

not adapt and harness the power of modern digital

Ronald always strives to put his expertise to good use by

technology will not flourish in today's marketplace.

merging technical and creative disciplines to deliver

As an evangelist of digital, the main challenge that the

outstanding products for his clients. Like its founder,

company faced was conveying the importance of a

SearchDigital believes in always creating unique and

robust digital strategy for all businesses and brands.

sector-leading digital solutions.

Many business owners were stuck habitually with traditional marketing channels and generationally not

What Makes SearchDigital Different

accustomed to digital best practices.

While many other agencies use template systems for their website development, the products delivered by

A Digital Future

SearchDigital are poles apart from those built on

It has taken a global pandemic for some to realize the

WordPress and similar systems.

power of digital technology. Those who embraced and

SearchDigital approaches everything with user

have always believed in the strengths of modern

experience in mind. With Ronald's background in the

communications channels are now thriving. If anything

computer games industry and deep programming

good has come out of the current health crisis, it is that

knowledge, combined with a heavy-weight designer's

more companies than ever are now implementing new

eye, SearchDigital's focus on UX/UI and unrelenting

media and embracing new technologies, forcing global

attention to detail in everything it creates are hard to

industries to transform digitally.

match.

SearchDigital embraces the accelerated digital evolution

In today's ever-increasingly challenging landscape,

induced by the global pandemic. The speed and efficiency

businesses must use every competitive advantage they

of modern communications allow savvy businesses to

have over their rivals, and that's where SearchDigital's

achieve rapid, sustainable and unprecedented market

expertise comes into play.

growth.

The company continues to push the envelope of digital

Harnessing Technology for Today

excellence in everything it does, promoting the strengths

SearchDigital acknowledges the fact that digital

of digital solutions and harnessing new technologies

creativity, technology, artificial intelligence and

with the ultimate goal of effecting positive change for all.

automation enable dynamic user experiences. With truly

59

Relentlessly Innovating AI Solutions for Customer Satisfaction

A

ll innovations begin with customers and users.

configure the solution as per their requirement. This

Given the fast-changing business environment,

makes it a win-win scenario creating customer delight.

and market dynamics, improvement and

innovations in software solutions necessitates constant

“Strategy and Success is good as long as you have a Great

feedback and value identification for customers. This is

Team”

what Templegate Technologies believe in. The alignment of teams coupled with customer inputs is helping the

The COO of Templegate Technologies, Shrinivas Kumar,

company build and take its products to the next level. It

has worked with major multinationals like Intentia,

strives to focus on the next level of practices for

Oracle, Infor & SAP as a Business & Sales Leader. His past

customers to be competitive in their markets.

stints have given him an exhilarating experience and

What makes a company stand out? For Templegate

learning in terms of processes for Business Management.

Technologies, it's the fact that innovations are focused

It helped him to be a consistent sales performer with

on tying up the People, Processes, and Technology to

multiple sales awards and a track record of achievement.

help its customers get their ROI and a stellar user

His vision of providing an excellent user experience

experience by keeping it simple. Every customer's

comes from his consistent focus on working effectively

business is different. Keeping that in mind Templegate

with customers and teams to deliver innovative solutions

Technologies allows its customers to customize or

for customer ROI and great experience with software

62

Shrinivas Kumar COO Templegate Technologies

63

“

The current pandemic situation is certainly posing a challenge to the business world.

However, Templegate Technology strongly feels

that the markets and business environment will bounce back in the second half of 2021.

“

- Shrinivas Kumar COO Templegate Technologies

www.templegate.co.in

64

solutions.

when the company will see a substantial leap in its

But this success didn't come easy for Templegate

growth in terms of market penetration and customer

Technologies. In our interview with the COO, Shrinivas

acquisition in the coming years. This will be done by

Kumar explained how sustained performance in terms of

continuing to push its AI-based predictive analytics

revenue and growth with limited budgets and constantly

solutions and also launching the company's upgraded

changing market dynamics has been one of the biggest

software solutions with advanced capabilities to address

challenges. Additionally, there were also pressing

multi-industry segments in the space of Intelligent

concerns about surviving in the competitive market,

Spend Management, Customer & Supplier Experience

changing customer behaviour, and curtailed spending

Management, Assets Management and Supply Chain

patterns.

Management Solution. These innovations were built

Templegate Technologies works with CyborgIntell as a

with customer feedback and the challenges they face in

Sales Partner to give companies the much-required

mind. The software uses an embedded AI engine that

competitive edge. CyborgIntell is an AI driven Data to

helps the solutions to constantly adapt to their business

Decision platform helping organizations to rapidly

and make it worthwhile.

develop, deploy & operationalise predictive models to

A customer-focused business leader with over 24 years

make AI driven decisions around revenue enhancement,

of experience in building and managing business and

risk mitigation and cost optimization, as business activity

high-performing cross-functional teams, partnerships,

changes. Use cases include Customer acquisition, Risk

and operations based on extensive B2B sales and

Assessment, Debt collection, prevent revenue leakage,

marketing expertise is behind the functioning of team

cross sell and up sell opportunity, default prediction with

Templegate Technologies. As a Founding Member &

powerful algorithms and globally known predictive

Chief Operating Officer at Templegate Technologies,

models, the solution can deliver forecasting with great

focusing on collaboration, talent management, and

accuracy and help to solve and take decision on complex

adding value, whilst balancing P&L, channels, and

business problems

objectives at the local, regional and national levels, COO

The current pandemic situation is certainly posing a

Shrinivas Kumar holds the mightiest responsibilities that

challenge to the business world. However, Templegate

require constant innovation and development of

Technology strongly feels that the markets and business

products and identifying areas of problems for the

environment will bounce back in the second half of 2021,

company to solve for businesses and the industry.

65

Empowering Clients by Bridging Digital Divide through Image Data Extract Technology

D

igital Glyde is known as a global technology

In an interview with Analytics Insight, Varun explains

service company in Houston, US, that provides

how the team gained an expertise in delivering multiple

digital transformation strategies to build

digital transformation projects with patent-pending

expertise and deliver innovative projects to clients. The

technology by deploying artificial intelligence and

team uses cutting-edge technologies to accelerate the

analytics.

delivery of custom software solutions efficiently. The company leverages artificial intelligence for digital twin

A Visionary Entrepreneur in Digital Transformation

oil and gas, digital property management, digital oil field,

Varun leads an incredible team of technologists for over

digital image reader and digital VercX. It is focused on

25 years. The team is an expert in delivering thousands of

providing expertise in cloud, virtualization and other IT

digital transformation projects that have created billions

services to more than 100 service providers and over

of dollars in business value for clients. Varun has advised

5000 customers across the world.

CIOs and CTOs for Fortune 500 companies and helped

Varun Garg is the Founder of Digital Glyde, who has

numerous business leaders harness new technologies to

created this company to bridge the technology gap for

improve their results.

making business better with innovative and cutting-edge technologies. He is also the Founder of VercX and has

Seeking Eye-Opening Experiences

specialized skills in business intelligence, software

Working with successful business leaders has opened

project management, SaaS, business analysis, IT strategy,

the eyes of Varun to the almost unlimited range of

SOA and many more. Varun also has received four

potential each of the team members has to make a

certifications from Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystem,

positive difference in business and beyond. An insatiable

and AWS.

curiosity drives his appetite for new technologies and

66

Varun Garg Founder Digital Glyde

67

“

Disruptive technologies change nothing but many of those who deploy AI, advanced analytics, etc. have changed

“

and will change everything in business.

- Varun Garg Founder Digital Glyde

www.digitalglyde.com

68

makes the work interesting with clients. Varun looks for

operation connectivity. Its more than 95% accuracy level

people who share these attributes which in turn

has accelerated payments and deliveries to save millions

motivate them more about creating a game worth

of dollars on flagged entries which were not part of the

playing than dictating each person's moves on the board.

operation connectivity.

Logistics System: Bridging Digital Divide

Positively Influenced in Unprecedented Times

Digital Glyde looks for good answers to two things--- the

Varun rebranded the company in January 2020 and

value gap in the business that the team is trying to bridge

made substantial investments in the US and India just

for clients and something else the company can do that

before COVID-19 shut down so many businesses

would change the game significantly. Recently, the

globally. Rather than retreat, the team pushed forward

company saw the opportunity to help the Governor of

with several in-house machine learning and advanced

Texas complete his dream of bridging the digital divide by

analytics developments which felt were needed for

getting over 4 million computers and hotspots to the kids

current and future clients to create real business value

who needed them. With schools starting and most

from their digital transformations. During the worst

students unable to attend in person due to COVID-19,

times of the pandemic, the company actually saw the

the timeline was critical. The team deployed the logistics

business being picked up and those developments gave

system used to achieve the Governor's vision made from

the team and clients a tremendous head start.

components that included Azure, HubSpot, and DocuSign. The team also added an SAP analytics cloud

Accelerating Innovation with Trust

integration with ESRI to help the Governor, legislators,

The word partner has lost much of its original meaning so

Texas Education Agency and over a thousand ISDs as well

Varun sees Digital Glyde as a trusted ally for clients.

as LEAs make better decisions about where and how to

Technology executives used to have five-year plans and

spend over US$750 million on operation connectivity.

many still make three-year plans but the pace of innovation has accelerated to the point of making these

Inception Tale with Disruptive Technologies

counterproductive.

The technologies change nothing but many of those who

Today, one needs someone to trust to stay current with

deploy AI, advanced analytics, etc. have changed and will

the amazing and inexpensive technologies that are

change everything in business. Another recent example

available off the shelf. A company also wants a team that

was the first commercial deployment of a patent-

is adroit with these technologies from a variety of

pending technology that Digital Glyde developed for

sources like Azure, AWS, Google and SAP so there are

clients called 'Image Data Extract'. It works with

best capabilities without getting stuck on a single

computer vision technologies from Azure, Google and

platform.

AWS to advance those capabilities from technical

A hundred years ago children made their own toys--- so

success rates of 80% to rates above 95% required for

one can think of the future as those kids who make

business applications.

amazing things from Legos. When they build a robot or

In its first use, Image Data Extract technology took on all

starship, they are not afraid to experiment and change

the heavy lifting to reconcile thousands of free form text

components to make it better. That is how the team of

and handwritten invoices, ranging from 100 to 8,000

Digital Glyde works together in creating better and more

pages each, sent to the Texas Education Agency by ISDs

valuable digital transformations.

and LEAs across Texas for expenses related to the

69

IMPORTANCE OF

LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN THE

TECHNOLOGICAL ERA

T

h e n e w a d v a n c i n g t r e n d s l i ke a r t i fi c i a l

upskilling and adopting innovations through leadership

intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and

is the only way. Leaders should start focusing more on

other cutting-edge technologies are

where and how employees can get work done at a faster

transforming the way of work changing the profile of the

pace than on the results and accountability. Most of

workforce. Since technology becomes more horizontal

today's roles must be designed keeping in mind the

that affects every industry vertically, the workplace

future.

evolves in lockstep. The future of work is dependent

Although this transformation is not easy, it is not

heavily on technology. The leaders of today need to

impossible either.

inculcate the right skills to help organizations maintain a

The leader needs to standstill throughout this transition.

sense of competitiveness, in aspects of upskilling as well

Since repetitive tasks can be taken over by technologies,

as initiating mentoring for the betterment of the teams.

employers need people with strong technical skills

With several benefits, technology has also impacted the

across various streams such as artificial intelligence,

staff as every robot took over 1,000 workers, thereby

machine learning, data science, analytics, and cloud

reducing the employment rate. According to the report,

computing. Teams should be given priority when it comes

Robots and Jobs estimate that nearly 400,000 jobs

to more value-generating tasks as technology cannot

would be lost as evidence from U.S Labour Markets.

make decisions on its own. In such a case, critical thinking

The World Economic Forum also expects that

skills are essential for leaders as well as for teams.

technological innovations in the workplace will likely eliminate nearly 85million jobs across the globe by 2025.

What Kind of Leadership is Needed?

On the other side, technologies are also capable of

Technology evolves on a daily basis and so organizations

generating 97million jobs with new and diverse skill sets.

should constantly adapt to the cutting edge and bleeding edge to stay in the market. This requires agile leadership,

How can the Workforce go Hand in Hand with

and companies need the right leadership structure in

Technology?

place to allow for this evolution.

Hiring a diverse skilled workforce comes with cause and

What do you think? Does the hierarchical strategy work

effect since productivity has not kept pace with

here? The answer is no. The hierarchical strategy may not

technological innovations. To catch up to this speed,

be the right approach here. Rather pick up selected

70

people from the company and train them with

understanding the strengths and weaknesses to

management responsibilities that can be spread across

coordinate effectively. This can be of great help in

the organization. Leadership models should be capable

providing training or additional staff with the right

of capturing the new path forward in this digital era.

skillset.

Large teams are not quick moving as that of the small

In the current scenario, communication skills are

teams that are easy to reassemble to move to new

imperative. The team members need to receive constant

projects and challenges. This model is more product,

feedback so that they can adjust goals moving ahead.

customer, and service dependent and can help bridge the

More frequent communication means more

gap between technology and productivity. But to form

transparency, which is the foremost key in developing

teams requires a clear understanding of the various

teams.

skillset, scorecards, and purposes.

The company's resources need to change for a growth

To the Leaders of the Future

mindset that can ultimately drive the leaders to

The leaders of the future need to be able to provide a

strategize things along with the latest trends and

clear direction and strategy to staff. They should be

innovations. The companies and organizations should be

capable enough to influence and guide people. Leaders

able to dislocate themselves before their competitor

outgrow when they have followers rather than the

does.

transitional model where leaders are promoted

It is vital for leaders to be strong advocates for their

regardless of the following. It is wise to be mindful of the

teams so that individuals and the team as a whole can

strategies and technologies being adopted by the leader

achieve their set goals. The leader needs to equip the

for the future of the organization.

team with the right resources and direction,

71

Proposing Citizen360 on Data Management and Governance for a Better Client Relationship

W

Daniel Cox III is a proven global authority

external stakeholders including regulatory bodies and

on Data Governance & Management and

customers formulating our clients Data Governance

drives the vision of Ascention Services to

frameworks.

deliver world-class outcomes in Enterprise Performance

E: Explanation of data in business context to better

Management for clients turning 'Data into Profits'.

understand value and data-driven initiatives instituting

Being the CEO of Ascention Services Pty Ltd, Dan

Data Literacy programmes.

concentrates on achieving three essential principles ---

A: Accountability of programme deliverables through

firstly, focusing on achieving outcomes for our clients

promoting Data Ownership, Stewardship, Quality, and

employing our frameworks as the CLEAN Data Experts;

Culture.

secondly, upskilling and transferring knowledge and

N: Not alone, ensuring guidance, advice and strategic

experience to our clients' staff enabling them for

leadership with clients maintaining and enhancing the

ownership of and future-proofing their solutions; and

value and usability of their data into the future.

thirdly, the ROI (Return on Investment) and TCO (Total

The team at Ascention treats Data as a Language, and

Cost of Ownership) targets ensuring value in every

developed six principles to help clients better

engagement with clients to promote better business.

understand and use data:

Ascention continuously evaluates their solution

Ÿ

propositions against their CLEAN data engagement

Data Importance: Stories/outcomes/decisions need a language

framework ensuring value creation to clients.

Ÿ

Data Governance: Languages need standards

C: Caring about the stories and outcomes of clients,

Ÿ

Data Literacy: Standards need understanding

influencing and directing what data is critical to support

Ÿ

Data Lineage: Understanding needs ownership

decision making resulting Data Importance priorities.

Ÿ

Data Stewardship: Ownership needs accountability

L: establishing the Language, standards, and governance

Ÿ

Data Quality: Accountability needs monitoring

to help communicate consistently across internal and

Tapping on several third-party and internally developed

66 72

W Daniel Cox III CEO Ascention Services Pty Ltd

73

“

Every organisation, individuals and technology need to have clean data for outputs and outcomes to be valuable and

“

usable.

- W Daniel Cox III CEO Ascention Services Pty Ltd

www.ascention.com

74

technologies, Ascention's solutions for customers are

staffing, their skills, and the market understanding,

focused on the outcomes to achieve the best results for

cumulating to an improved model promising higher

clients. These solutions are developed out of clients'

margins solving complex enterprise-wide data problems,

needs and sometimes leverage on expertise from global

but resulting longer more intricate sales cycles.

partners. Some of these preferred partners who address

The secondary challenge for Ascention Services was

market needs in data management, data science and data

vendor-partner acquisitions and the need to re-evaluate

analytics are TIBCO, Ataccama, InterSystems, Microsoft

existing partnerships while adding new ones. This has

and ASG Software.

been an ongoing challenge for the company to develop

Ascention is extremely proud of the flagship solution of

the best technologies to support solutions and outcomes

TM

Citizen360 – a solution designed for citizens. It enables

for respective clients. Through this practice, the

citizens to control, maintain and administer their data, its

company can continually update its capabilities and

usage and interactions with state and federal

technologies available to support client needs through

governments. This allows governments to have

better solutions. The transition also had to reshape

centralised access to authorise and consented citizen

senior leadership roles within the company, which at

information to increase the quality of services and with

times were difficult to align with the direction, mission,

better programme outcomes. Bringing a 360-degree

and vision for the future.

view for the citizen and for each government agency

“Every organisation, individuals and technology need to

servicing that citizen, seeing the full customer journey

have clean data for outputs and outcomes to be valuable

and all touchpoints enabling amazing service with an

and usable.”

enjoyable experience; all the while having the highest of

The company's expansion is underway into Southeast

priorities for secure and safe data.

Asia while experiencing immense growth in the ANZ

Despite its numerous successes on the global stage, the

markets on future growth plans. ANZ is the solid

initial path to success has not come easy. The journey of

foundation of the company market segment and

Ascention Services started with delivery of Business

Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia

Intelligence and Data Warehousing implementations.

and the Philippines act as a major opportunity to prove

These two fields offered many work opportunities with

the company value in achieving amazing data outcomes

shorter sales cycles, but the primary challenge was the

for organisations. The industry will continue to see

continuation of commoditisation and reduced margins.

improvements in capabilities, technologies and speed to

Dan realised that the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ)

markets in the upcoming years. Ascention Services is

market could not support a pure niche consulting firm

required to be agile, forward-thinking and relevant to

like Ascention Services. It was imperative to keep an eye

focus on aiding to clients with their targets and goals. The

out for better ways to ensure the right data got to the

mission of the company--- “Energising Corporate

right people at the right time.

Advantage Through Awareness and Insight” is lived by

Data Warehousing is a time-consuming process with

the staff every day in their work with clients.

excess duplication of data and manual consulting. The ultimate goal for the company was to provide decision-

An Experienced Leader

ready information to decision-makers. Thus, the

Dan has over 20 years of experience in the data and

company pivoted its business model to specifically

analytics industry in organisations in the US, the UK,

prospect into entities with data issues, to help them

Europe and ANZ, leading to work closely with clients

realise their data dreams. The transition changed

across the entire APAC region.

75

Dan grew up on a large farm while learning many

US$2 billion 50-year-old asset. As the Fiscal Manager, he

leadership and life lessons from his father, an ex-Army

negotiated new 35-year contracts with Seattle and Alcoa

Captain and helicopter pilot. He was just 12 years when

and, as part of the team, floated nearly US$800 million in

he started managing up to 100 employees in different

bonds for new construction projects. He started working

jobs. He needed to gain sufficient knowledge of his

with the “IT guys” on automating data at a rapid pace to

employees such as their jobs and responsibilities so that

take faster decisions. New technology was implemented

he could demonstrate the processes, correct them and

to get faster data daily known as Cognos instead of

even fire them. This learning process provided the ability

receiving 12 monthly books of financial and performance

to sift through tasks and prioritise while keeping the

statements three to four weeks after the month-end.

vision and outcome constant.

Senior Consultant with Cognos: Dan attended a Cognos

Dan's parents taught him entrepreneurship, dreaming,

user conference at Disneyland in 1999 with more than

focus and responsibility during his high school days. He

2500 attendees. He was so inspired that he informed the

has maintained these lessons throughout five distinct

then CEO, Ron Zambonini, that he wanted to work for

careers or phases in his professional life.

Cognos. He was on his way to Ottawa Canada for his

The Farm: His parents gave him a 5 acres field to plant,

induction at Cognos after a few weeks of meeting with

maintain and harvest with full responsibility during his

the then CEO. He helped Cognos to expand their

high schooling. He organised every detail--- schedules of

Western US business and was asked to visit Australia for

labourers, equipment, tree tendering, chemicals, timings

further help. Dan was globally recognised as the

of harvest, testing, meetings with fieldmen, advisors and

Consultant of the Year in 2002. He worked for the

packing plants.

company for several years till his clients inspired him to strike out on his own for further success in life.

High Risk & Compliance Auditor, Fraud Examiner for The Washington State Auditor's Office: Dan decided to

Founder and CEO of Ascention Services Pty Ltd.: As

learn high-risk and compliance auditing with the WSAO

discussed above, the company faced multiple challenges

instead of joining one of the “Big 8” accounting firms. He

to become a successful organisation focused on data

received a wider degree of exposure and autonomy

management consulting. Ascention broke the AU$10

developing and leading audits for state and local entities.

million mark in the financial year 2019/20 and was

This position led him to discover his first fraud case and

ranked #2 in the CRN's Fast50, which is a tremendous

subsequently became the Eastern Washington State

accolade.

Fraud Examiner. This stature provided him with a love for

Dan explained that every day brings new challenges and

numbers and a sense of grounding as well as humility

experiences, achievements, and the lessons learned

from listening to the emotional background stories

since the Farm has always supported him throughout

during the investigation of fraud schemes.

these different work lifecycles. At Ascention, the team is looking forward to greater heights with the expansion in

Fiscal Manager of Rocky Reach Dam at Chelan Country

New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Gaum,

Public Utility District: Dan met various people at

Vietnam and the Philippines.

CCPUD while working for regular audits at the WSAO. A major opportunity came to expand his career in accounting and corporate finance. He oversaw a US$35 million O&M and a US$750 million CapEx Budget for a

76

71