The 10 Most Passionate Business Leaders to Watch in 2022 March2022

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VOL 03 I ISSUE 02 I 2022

Pragmatic Strategy Leadership in the Times of Crisis

Solving the Puzzle The Role of CEO in Shaping Company's Culture

e Th

Mikael Hoier CEO

Mikael Hoier Curating Remarkable Teams to Propel Businesses

Most

Passionate Business Leaders to Watch in 2022

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Fathima Ebrahim Senior Manager Marketing (SA) Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa

Fathima

Ebrahim

Being a Perpetual Learner and Connecting People Digitally

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t is a mark of an educated mind to learn continuously and utilize learning for remarkable purposes. It is their passion to learn constantly, which helps them to be innovative and creative in the businesses they are leading. Fathima Ebrahim is one such business leader who is a perpetual learner and is passionate about utilizing technology for connecting people digitally.

Let's unveil her inspiring journey as a leader.

Fathima Ebrahim's first business leader was her dadand she remains eternally grateful for his guidance. Her father shaped Fathima's thinking. She then moved on to become a college principal- and moved to a different city. During this time, she realized her passion for media and communications- and after 7 years at the college, she moved to an entirely new field. During Fathima's stint at the media company, she had the privilege of working with The National Basketball Association (NBA)- certainly a big highlight of her career.

Fathima then moved onto Multichoice – which is the Pay Tv operator on the African continentand spent 10 years learning about the entertainment world and all its facetsincluding the world of set-top boxes. This is where her world and love for technology started. She was then

headhunted to work for Edelman – a global PR agency, in the role of Group Account Director. Subsequently, she also spent time at Weber Shandwick and the APO Group as Vice President – Media Relations- also well known for their PR and media footprint in Africa and the world.

For Fathima, the opportunity to work at Liquid Intelligent Technologies came in 2021, and she took on the role of Senior Manager of Marketing (SA). Since then, she has been successfully spearheading the company's marketing strategies and helping achieve its objectives.

Enhancing Experience of Customers in Digital Journey Liquid is now a full one-stop-shop technology group that provides tailor-made digital solutions to businesses in the public and private sectors across the continent. The Group also operates state-of-the-art data centers in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, Harare, and Kigali, with a combined potential 19,000 square meters of rack space and 78 MW of power.

Through this combined offering, Liquid Intelligent Technologies is enhancing customers' experience on their digital journey.

Creating Better and Brighter Lives for Everyone Liquid Intelligent Technologies is a pan-African technology group present in more than 20 countries,

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mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. It has firmly established itself as the leading provider of pan-African digital infrastructure with an extensive network covering over 100,000 km. The company is redefining network, Cloud and Cyber Security offerings through strategic partnerships with leading global players, innovative business applications, smart cloud services and worldclass security on the African continent. Liquid Intelligent Technologies is now a comprehensive, onestop technology group that provides customised digital solutions to public and private sector companies across the continent under several business units including Liquid Networks, Liquid Cloud and Cyber Security and Africa Data Centres.

At the very core of Liquid's business is its belief that every individual on the continent has the right to be connected. It believes that the power of technology will create better and brighter lives for everyone. Liquid's footprint spans the continent, and it serves a diverse group of nations and customers. It doesn't only do what it does for short-term profit, but to make a difference in lives of its customers.

Liquid Intelligent Technologies exists to deliver a superior customer experience, and that starts with a strong service mentality. It treats each business as if it were its own. It goes where none have gone before, providing the best solutions for its customers to succeed. It has invested heavily in its own network and technology. It created the largest single fiber network in the region, which stretches over 100,000km across borders to connect people locally, nationally, and internationally. It is not stopping there – it is continuing to invest so it can connect people all over Africa.

"We are courageous enough to reinvent and grow. We are dynamic and responsive to the market," expresses Fathima.

Being Sound with Technology Knowledge Fathima believes that impact is only possible when one is given the platform to perform and grow in an innovative environment. Her technical knowledge was born during her days at MultiChoice, having spent 5 years of that time in the broadcast technology division.

This was under the leadership of an amazing team, and an innovative company with a pioneering spirit.

Her technology knowledge grew in leaps and bounds, as during her tenure there, many great brands emerged from this tech/ entertainment leader- that being DStv

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“Liquid Intelligent Technologies is now a full one-stop-shop technology group that provides tailor-made digital solutions to businesses in the public and private sectors across the African continent.” mobile, DSTV Catch Up, and Box Office- not to mention the range of PVR set-top boxes. These were exciting times with teams who pushed the boundaries of innovation.

During her time at the PR agencies- she worked with many international technology brands – helping them craft strategies to amplify their presence on the African continent. At Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Fathima is blessed to be amongst such a world-class team, creating world-class products. She continues to learn every day.

Change in Mindset We asked Fathima what change she would like to bring in the marketing arena, to which she says a change of mindset. A change of mindset would enable a greater understanding and appreciation of the work of a MARCOMMS practitioner. That marketing does not only involve events and fun stuff but that, in fact, marketing and communication teams are responsible for the reputation of the company. This comes with a great thought of how best to amplify a strategy to raise awareness, educate, create sales opportunities and brand love.

A Mix of Traditional & New Will Work Fathima advises that trends indicate that consumers/businesses are purpose-driven. Having a purpose stems from a vision and set objectives.

According to her, brands and companies will continue to compete for customers' attention and share of wallets. She asserts, "The change comes about in how you

strive to gain their loyalty. What product portfolio you have to earn and keep their attention and loyalty.”

"Our South Africa CEO Deon Geyser continues to emphasize that customers must be at the heart of our business and operational excellence in everything that we do. This is his vision and how we continue to build on this," she adds.

Digital and social media have changed the way brands interact with their customers – but Fathima believes that traditional media still has its place. She expresses, "We have seen great advancements in AR and VR- but one must always remember that while it may seem hip and trendy, it may not necessarily resonate with your audiencehence a mix of traditional and new- will always work.”

Supporting Growth of Digital Technology Innovation Liquid Intelligent Technologies envisions leaving no African continent behind. Fathima believes that for Africa's tech scene to thrive in the 21st century truly, it needs to quickly develop local digital skills and expertise. It always looks for new ways to support the growth of digital technology innovation across Africa.

Also, a big milestone for Liquid Intelligent Technologies is that it achieved the 100,000 Km fiber network milestone, positioning the organization as the largest independent fiber network provider in emerging markets globally. It announced this in June 2021, and through milestones such as this- it creates opportunities for growth.

Teaching Future Generations and Leaving No African Behind Talking about the future, Fathima mentions that she will continue to play a mentor role as she believes it is vital to teach future generations. For Liquid, the goal remains that it will leave no African behind.

In her marketing role, she will continue to look at unique ways to gain customer attention and create avenues to continuously amplify customer excellence.

Also, she will play her part in helping its CEO bring Liquid's vision and objectives to life and strive to make every interaction meaningful and memorable.

Besides, Fathima will continue to seek networking opportunities to simultaneously learn and teach.

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Kenneth Kee CEO Origin Integrated Studios

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Kenneth Kee Taking Hospital Operations Processes to the New Heights

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ealthcare arena has witnessed a drastic transformation after several innovations have been taken place in the industry. Behind this transformation is the contribution of many organizations, who with their top-notch solutions have streamlined various processes in the healthcare industry. One such organization is Origin Integrated studios, which helps healthcare providers by transforming their healthcare facilities to be smarter and more efficient in this digital age.

Origin Integrated Studios was incorporated 6 years ago by a team of talented software developers with Kenneth Kee as their CEO taking a role in business development leading from first hospital customer to now over twenty hospitals running its mission critical HIS with EMR 24 x 7, 365 days.

A Proficient Leader Kenneth started his career as a Business Executive with a regional ICT company headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. He brings 18 years of enriching experience to the table. He has accumulated industry knowledge and expertise in the field of pre-sales, account management, sales, marketing and business development for software solutions and services for Banking, Healthcare, the Government and some cross industry applications.

Digitalizing Hospital Operation Processes Origin Integrated Studios specializes in Hospital Information System (HIS) and Electronic Medical Records (EMR). The company offers implementation services that include business requirement study, data preparation and migration, installation and setup configuration, training, user acceptance test and trial

run, and technical support maintenance services after system go live.

Origin’s goal is to help digitalizing hospital operation processes by providing a platform for Digital Transformation. Its business model is based on size of the hospital in terms of number of beds ranging from below 100 for small size and single disciplinary to multidisciplinary of ordinary setup of above 100 beds to large setup of over 300 beds. The company is on a mission to become a household name for EMR in the Southeast Asia region.

The solution provided by Origin is customisable to make it available as configuration in the system. With its continuous R&D enhancement, overtime it has developfeature rich and comprehensive solution compared to our competitors where some of them do not allow customisation or take in any good input of enhancement requirements from customers.

Origin EMR integrates to major sub-systems available in the market such as Laboratory Information System (LIS), Picture Archiving Communication System (PACS), Mobile Appointment System, Vital Signs monitoring system, Early Warning Score (EWS) system, Drug Database Decision Support System, Financial Information System and many others. The company has make its system interoperability among all new and existing hospital systems for harnessing the purpose of achieving full potential of EMR. Pandemic Turned out as an Opportunity As an ICT company supporting Origin’s healthcare system for healthcare providers, the company has approval to operate at 30% of its capacity, while the rest are working from home (WFH) to stay safe. Over

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Expanding in Progress

Set your path, inching all the way, because destiny is in your hand.

Under the leadership of Kenneth, Origin is recognized as the leading EMR solution provider with the largest implemented market share for EMR in Malaysia having three hospitals using its system in Indonesia. The company has no doubt of it expanding beyond its home country to the APAC region that has a market potential of more than 3000 hospitals, within this decade from 2021 to 2030. There are many existing obsolete systems that need replacement while there are many emerging economies such as Vietnam and Philippines that are prospering will then need the help of implementing advanced HIS and EMR. Origin is on it.

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A Take on Impactful Leadership

the past one year in the pandemic, Origin has learned to implement projects both local and overseas using better project management and communication tools because most activities such as business requirement study, data preparation, data migration, training, user acceptance test can be conducted online. However, for most GoLive of the system it has assigned resources for the planned activities.

The pandemic turned as an opportunity for the company, as more healthcare providers took this period to change or upgrade their existing obsolete system and adopt a newer with latest technology that includes EMR. As compare to other industries, Origin has been seeing growth in its sales revenue in this trouble times.

An Intent to Disrupt the Healthcare Ecosystem Kenneth mentions that Origin is working on launching an enterprise portal for all clinics to refer their patients to their respective choice of hospitals. As the company has large numbers of hospitals using its system that it can integrate and share information, therefore it can build an alliance within its customer network. At a later stage, it will add in insurance claim, provide online consultation as advisor, and all other permitted patient information into this enterprise health record system.

Kenneth believes this will somehow disrupt the ecosystem of the industry.

In the opinion of Kenneth, running a business is not about making profit, revenue and immediate success; it is more than that. Leaders must inculcate honey empire philosophy, which is about building the business by doing the right things and being nice to people. It is no hate towards other people or businesses, and when the opportunity comes where you can help people out by doing it. He says, “As a leader, we need to be the figurehead of the company running the business acting as if like a media company producing regular ads images and write-up materials of branding, useful information, knowledge sharing dissemination, event and activities for blogs and social media. Storytelling is one of them.”

Kenneth believes that every leader needs to have patience in almost everything. One should have the patience to sow the harvest after all the hard work the company puts into with their strategic goals. It is a job as a servant leader working for your team, leading with empathy and weathering storms. He asserts, “What got you to where you are today won't get you to where you want to be tomorrow. If you want to continue to be successful, you need to adopt a growth mindset that means building a learning and coaching culture that draws upon expertise from both inside and outside your organisation.”

In his advice to emerging leaders, he says “Don’t lose focus on your goals you have set as nothing come easy, work extra one percent harder and persevere until you achieve your desire outcome and accomplish your goals.”

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EarlyBirds Mission: Engaging Society in Actionable Innovation!

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In 2021, the number of tier one, public and private sector organizations became EarlyBirds customers to solve their wicked problems as well as scale their capacity and speed to innovate. EarlyBirds and Kris have been recognized global leaders by various media companies during 2021.

Standing Tall to its Mission EarlyBirds was set up with a mission to engage society in actionable innovation.

For Early Adopter organizations - EarlyBirds helps them to become a self-learning organization through: continuous improvement across all business functions; resolving business and technical challenges quickly; and exploring disruptive business models, solutions, and innovations.

For Innovator Organizations - EarlyBirds helps them to engage with Early Adopter customers and partners to adopt their solutions and products, creating a revenue pipeline.

Besides, EarlyBirds is a technology-based company that uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to provide insights into global actionable innovation capabilities. Technology also helps its customers to find appropriate innovators based on their business and technical challenges.

Innovation as a Service EarlyBirds has built an Open Actionable Innovation Ecosystem where customers can focus on the challenges or opportunities that are important for them. The company identifies appropriate disruptive innovators, including startups, scaleups, or mature, that are already working on solving customers' current challenges or opportunities in any part of the world.

In this Open Innovation Ecosystem, Subject Matter Experts helps both Innovators and Early Adopter organizations with EarlyBirds programs to either solve a specific challenge or ongoing innovation as a service.

Aspires to Build Agile Strategy We asked Kris what change he would like to bring to his respective domain, to which he answered, "I would like to bring actionable innovation to build an agile strategy of the organization that can be evaluated and tested on a regular basis using open innovation ecosystem. Actionable innovation brings an outcome-based approach to building organization capability and capacity to innovate.”

Future Ahead Kris is always looking forward to adding value to society and business. His vision is aligned with EarlyBirds to engage society in actionable innovation.

EarlyBirds identifies over four million global innovators in various industries to solve specific business and technical challenges.

Words of Wisdom In his advice to emerging leaders, Kris says, "Look for solving problems for your customers where you would feel it worth solving. Take risks, have your own views and vision as sometimes customers might not know what exactly they are looking for.”

For Subject Matter Experts -EarlyBirds provides them with a flexible contract; it is a business framework, assisted programs, training, and platform to solve challenges and accelerate innovation for a wide range of customers.

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nprecedented time requires an unprecedented response. We may not be able to avoid crises, but how we deal with them can be a complete game-changer. We become stronger by facing challenges courageously without giving up. The greater the resistance we face, the stronger we become. Many people give up in times of crisis. But great leaders deal with it effectively and eventually crossover such situations and emerge stronger.

Let us see what type of leadership is effective in times of crisis: Hoping for the Best and Preparing for the Worst It is important for leaders to hope for the best and prepare for the worst so that when the challenges come, they are able to be part of the solution. A crisis situation teaches a person more than success. How leaders respond to the crisis makes all the difference for many institutions. A leader's mettle is especially tested in tough times or crisis-like situations.

Proving Reliability Even in Tough Times The greatness of a person is estimated by their ability to overcome challenging situations and how they handle crises. Crises have the capacity to make or break a leader. Covid-19 is one such unprecedented crisis that tested business leaders very much. Those leaders who successfully handled this crisis and managed the tough situation with new methods have proved their reliability. Such leaders ensured that there was no communication gap between employees and clients.

They ensured communication with their teammates through online tools and provided solutions to the clients by working remotely without getting lost in the pandemic wave.

Responding Pragmatically with Cool Head The crises can be of different nature. Great leaders believe in transforming crises into opportunities. They don’t see things from a narrow-minded perspective.

They have a broad mindset, and they know that what happens to them is not more important but how they respond to the situations matters much more. Great crisis managers or crisis leaders believe in taking some time for responding instead of responding instinctively or without overall evaluation of the crisis. They take a pause and respond most pragmatically with a cool head.

They prepare themselves by taking advanced training and developing their skills, abilities, and resourcefulness to deal with the crisis effectively. And when the crisis hits, they execute what they have

learned so well that altogether minimize the threats or challenges that situation creates.

Being an Eternal Optimist Great business leaders have a never-give-up attitude.

They are an eternal optimist. They know that they can emerge victorious sooner or later. They understand that neither success is final and nor failure is fatal.

Courage to continue is what matters to them most.

They know that crises are inevitable, but the way they will respond will determine the organization's future.

Optimistic Leaders find a way to come out of the crisis situation with their imaginative approach. They focus on what they can do instead of complaining about what is happening to them. They believe in responding cleverly.

Taking Strategic Actions and Having Contingency Plan Leaders in times of crisis respond more cleverly, and they transform that situation into an opportunity for doing something different and innovative for dealing with the situation. They take the most strategic actions to deal with it effectively. They also keep themselves prepared with the contingency plan to deal with the crisis most effectively without being disoriented.

Navigating Tough Times Brilliantly The amazing traits of leaders make them different from the rest. They step up and lead from the front in times of crisis by taking even more responsibility. They are sharp at navigating tough times brilliantly. They collaborate effectively. They are sharp at leveraging all the assets and resources diligently. They have great negotiation abilities, and they use those abilities wherever needed.

Valuing People Over Projects In times of pandemic, many great leaders put concern for the well-being of their employees ahead of everything else. Great leaders put people ahead of their projects. This attitude helps them be a more successful business leader than the rest.

Crossing Challenges by Holding the Nerves Leaders, especially in times of crisis, believe in encouraging and empowering people. They encourage people and bring their best out. They make people feel safe around them. They don’t unnecessarily judge them.

They give constructive feedback with empathy as well as courage. They cross the challenges by holding their nerves and not panicking.

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Pragmatic Strategy

Leadership in the

Times of Crisis

An Audacious Business Leader and Idealistic Thinker

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ue to the constant change in business processes the world has transformed into a small global village; a village in which there is a huge stream of contentions and competitions between organizations. In this scenario the most effective and beneficial practice for any organization is to create innovative ways in conducting business. This dissertation deals with the responsibility of leadership in the phenomena of organizational change and innovation. Leigh Rust is such an innovative leader who drives his organization’s success by combining a modern innovative approach with a visionary attitude.

Outstanding Leadership Awards: Finalist Australian Men in Leadership.

Leigh Rust is the Co-founder and Director of Safetyline Jalousie Louvre Windows. The company is the market leader in producing high-quality performance louvre window systems. He asserts “Our product is used in various projects across the country, including classrooms, multi-residential developments, sporting complexes, social housing and correctional facilities.” He adds, one thing that sets them apart from their competitors is that the company’s products are built to last.

After becoming a qualified mechanic, Leigh worked his way up through the ranks at Vergola and after 10 years, Leigh and his brother made the leap to launch their own venture - establishing Safetyline Jalousie in 2010. In the past decade, the company has grown from a small family operation based in Sydney to a multi-million-dollar company with offices in Queensland, Victoria and Malaysia.

One of the company’s key strengths lies in the short time it takes from providing a quote to being installed on the project. “In some cases, we’ve been able to achieve this in just three weeks,” says Leigh. As a company, Safetyline Jalousie prides itself on its relationships with government departments, architects, builders, and design managers. The services are personalised, and the teams are informative, accessible, and approachable.

In 2020, Leigh Rust was selected as the Sydney Young Entrepreneur of the Year ‘Property & Construction’ and

Beginning as a Business Leader From a young age, Leigh and his brother were exposed to business, entrepreneurship, and development through their father’s manufacturing company (Vergola). “I saw what our dad was able to create and the strong work ethic he put into everything he did. I knew I wanted that for myself,” says Leigh.

As an Australian-based company, Safetyline Jalousie is proud to support local manufacturing, producing its highperformance louvre window onshore to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

Notes on Impactful Leadership Leigh believes in an open door leadership style, with a flat management structure. His idea of impactful leadership is to lead by example and empower others. He established a great culture at Safetyline Jalousie where everyone works hard, gets along well and is passionate about what they are

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doing. He opines “I encourage my team to set their own goals and objectives which they can take ownership of and are accountable for - knowing that they have my support along the way.” He adds, fostering this healthy and collaborative team environment, where the staff feel valued and comfortable bringing their ideas to the table, has always been important.

Facing Pandemic Head-to-Head Like every business owner, Covid posed a whole new level of challenges that Leigh had not faced before. For the company, Leigh is always looking to push forward and see how it can grow, but with a lot that was out of control, it was difficult to know what specific goals the team could work to.

According to Leigh, the team knew it was going to be more important than ever to maintain visibility, so they focused their efforts on PR and lobbying the government after the announcement of a $17.6 billion stimulus package designed to support the construction industry. By meeting with politicians and government representatives, Leigh made sure they knew about what Safetyline Jalousie was doing, allowing it to create mutually beneficial relationships moving forward.

Needed Changes in the Industry On industry development, Leigh believes one thing that should change is to get more people to care about the things that are not tangible and to want to purchase quality, Australian-made, sustainable products. He finds that people can be much more money-driven in his industry than they are outcome-driven. Decisions are often made based on what is going to be cheapest at that point in time without much consideration of the long-term impacts.

In manufacturing, the idea of developing ‘sustainable’ products can often be thrown around as a buzzword; however, getting more companies to actually care about this, and work towards lowering emissions is so important.

Learn, Plan and Achieve Leigh’s advice for the next generation of business leaders is “work hard, be confident in your abilities and surround yourself with people who inspire you and want to celebrate your successes.” From his experience, he has learnt that quick money does not last, so one needs to roll up their

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Work hard, be confident in about your abilities and

surround yourself with people who inspire you and want to celebrate your successes.

sleeves and do the hard yards. In the times that are tough one draw upon resilience - this is something he has developed through over a decade in entrepreneurship.

Today, in a work environment that is continually changing it is essential to look for opportunities for learning, growth, and development. Leigh adds, plan for future, be adaptive and flexible. Consider long-term goals and write down all the different tactics that will allow you to achieve them.

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Maninder Singh, Founder, Manzeera Solutions

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Manzeera Solutions Passionate about Empowering Businesses through Data

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RP systems like SAP and Oracle are a crucial component in business intelligence landscapes.

Although it plays a vital role in an organization’s data landscape, it is often difficult to extract data from ERP systems to deliver insights swiftly. To solve these challenges, Maninder Singh - Managing Director at Manzeera Solutions bridges the gap between missioncritical ERP systems & modern BI platforms.

Maninder Singh implements a flat organizational structure at the company that helps to communicate the goals and business objectives clearly to all staff members as it ensures a clear understanding of their role in the delivery of exceptional service to the clients.

As a Founder, Maninder Singh personally implements a transformational leadership style. He interacts with all his employees one-on-one and inspires them through effective communication & collaboration, initiating the path to success for the organization.

A Digital Transformational Pioneer After more than 15 years of experience in the field of business intelligence and advanced analytics, Maninder Singh decided to go solo and found Manzeera Solutions, an independent UK based consultancy focusing on bespoke customer-orientated solutions & approaches.

Manzeera Solutions was inherently connected to Maninder’s professional journey and his experiences in the data and analytics space over numerous years.

Throughout his various roles, Maninder identified the same problems that needed to be solved: enhanced modernization and customization in the field of business intelligence. This was important across the board, at small,

medium, and even large enterprise organizations. In light of this, Manzeera specifically focuses on the challenges faced by different organizations at the nexus of data, business intelligence, and IT with its mission of ensuring that clients reach their full potential.

An Experienced Consultancy Team Founded in 2014, Manzeera Solutions is a UK based consultancy specializing in business intelligence, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics. Manzeera Solutions works on providing real-time analytics, combining ERP extraction with the integration of unstructured data.

Manzeera’s operations revolve around its best practice methodology the “Pentagon of BI Success”, a flagship model of the consultancy, generated over many years of project implementation experience.

This helps to guide clients on the right path to success.

This methodology provides unique 360-degree coverage for the clients, enabling them to ensure both maximum ROI and optimum adoption of any initiative.

This, along with other intellectual assets, make Manzeera unique in the market. Manzeera Solutions is committed to constantly reviewing the market and partnering with the most innovative BI platforms & technologies to ensure they can assist in the selection of the most appropriate landscapes for their customers, providing best-in-class solutions.

Solving Issues with Customer-Centric approach As a strong business leader, whether it is a small-scale business or a large established organization, Maninder Singh would want to change the way some businesses operate in an unstructured manner and ensure all the

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Furthermore, a holistic approach at Manzeera is what makes the consultancy truly unique: innovative ERP Extraction Frameworks such as GYD(Get Your Data) providing data as a service are combined with customized project management and business strategy to achieve the highest ROI & create large-scale positive impact for an organization. Sustainability, long-term results, and customization where appropriate remain at the heart of any service or solution provided by Manzeera.

Leadership Development Initiatives On Leadership Mr. Singh’s intake is “Business leaders need to appreciate, acknowledge, and be open to different disciplines and cultures. This definitely helps any organization to strengthen its foundations. Secondly, practicing core values in day-to-day activities that truly reflect the collaborative culture of the organization and maintain a healthy working environment is key to success.

Undertaking Technology & Innovation As technology is a fast-growing and fast-changing industry with new solutions & tools emerging each day, one of the major challenges is to stay focused on constant innovation for its client-based solutions & to work closely with our primary and secondary stakeholders throughout the process. Whilst this is a challenge, this approach also has its advantages, with it ensuring Manzeera Solutions remains up to date and ahead of the curve with the latest emerging technologies & trends.

Focused on Achieving Desired Outcomes Manzeera Solutions is now focused on maximizing its success by keeping the core characteristics of the consultancy – its agility and dynamic nature as well as its customer-centric approach. The growth of the consultancy will be vitally linked to keeping up to date with new & emerging trends and technologies at the same time as keeping true to its identity and roots that make the clients return customers through the company’s approaches, work ethic, and result-driven nature.

Manzeera Solutions is looking forward to very exciting times ahead, with the path to Manzeera Solutions’ most fruitful year yet being paved in 2021.

Additionally, dynamic business leaders should be highly adaptable and flexible in their approach. This will help both the leaders and the organizations in crafting strategy during unprecedented situations like the covid-19 pandemic.

Finally, employees play a vital role in every organization and therefore they are the most important asset. They play a crucial role in determining the success of the business and I strongly recommend valuing them, listening to them, and showing compassion at all times”.

Making the Seemingly Impossible Possible Manzeera Solutions is striving to keep its investments aligned with changes in the industry & the requirements of its clients, growing and shifting in line with the market.

Manzeera is creating a strategy to expand the business geographically in a fast-growing market. The company is specifically focusing on regions where the demand for such innovative BI solutions is high, to stay competitive and reach as many clients as possible to deliver services to them, help them make better business decisions in this fast-growing and changing era.

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Manzeera Solutions provides up-to-date technology while cutting down deployment time, optimizing efciency, and drastically reducing longterm costs for its clients.

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businesses stay customer-centric in their approach, Customers define the success of any organization – Manzeera’s success only follows after customer success and this mantra ensures that it has the right client-centric approach to all it does.

Marne Martin

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ffective leadership is all about empowering others and creating a change for the better. To lead that change requires courage to take risks, persistence, and fearlessness. An embodiment of such leadership is Marne Martin.

Embracing Challenges Marne has been an exemplary leader, who leads by example. Her corporate journey started at an early age being involved in the family’s ranching, farming and real estate endeavors. During her school years she also was able to explore different jobs and interests in summer internships knowing by the time she was 17 that she wanted to pursue an international career. When she was 21 coming out of undergraduate, she was looking for opportunity and accountability, not a “copycat” job in investment banking, finance or a big company as one of tens of thousands. She also enjoyed living in London and traveling, so desired opportunities where she could see much more of the world.

Fortunately, she went to work for a successful and entrepreneurial high net worth family that worked across telecommunication, technology, life sciences, and several other sectors with a great deal of contacts in the business and investing space. In the eleven years that she spent there, the company launched numerous businesses with successful strategic exits and even an IPO, and she moved up through the levels to be the President of that company overseeing the investment vehicles and operating companies by either being the President / CEO or managing the overseas or divisional

CEOs of the individual businesses. Often opportunities came because they were challenging or people didn’t want to work overseas or accommodate the level of travel and personal disruption needed.

The ability for her to have those experiences in her 20s and early 30s was virtually unmatched and she made the most of it while also getting her MBA. Expanding and diversifying a long-standing family-owned business in primarily the telco space, to include an IPO, moving from operations in three countries to operations in 20, was a worthy and interesting challenge during her mid30s, and took her to additional countries around the world as part of the global expansion.

In 2013, Marne realized her ambition of being a CEO of a public company at the age of 38. Often woman get leadership positions in times of crisis when Boards don’t have other opportunities. Research has shown over and over that woman at her level have often above average leadership skills, and it is when there is a socalled “glass cliff” that a female leader is put in to save it. Taking over a company that was already listed but struggling to make the transition to SaaS and consumption pricing models, modernize its software portfolio, including launching a new mobile, artificial intelligence based and new web portals, without any significant injection of working capital, and getting it to grow faster and with more profitability was certainly a challenge, but a satisfying one to see the success. The 5 years there running a company operating in primarily ten countries with enterprise grade customers and a diverse software product portfolio was a successful

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Marne Mar n, President

IFS Service Management

“In tech, we are more like coaches of an elite sports team than one might think given the talent that we hire and cultivate is such a great differentiator to success.

While our touchdowns, goals or baskets are measured in different ways, we are assembling our dream teams the same way any World Champion coach does, and also need to manage that dream team to win at a rate ideally greater than the competition. ” March 2022 | 39 | www.ciolook.com

testing ground that eventually also resulted in a successful go private.

By staying in the software industry, Marne joined IFS in 2018 as the President of IFS Service Management Business Unit. This stride was moving to a larger company that post a go private was looking to accelerate growth and gain market share. IFS in 2018 was in a great position to take its focus on service centric ERP, best of breed FSM and EAM, to accelerate growth, which it has done following Darren Roos, the CEO of IFS, joining from SAP. In her role, and with the fabulous talent cultivated and recruited in from the competition, IFS’ Service Management Business Unit has generated significant momentum, accelerating growth to 50% new license sales in 2019, and in 2020, by more than 100% despite COVID. Its leadership and customer peer insight scores with Gartner continued to showcase IFS as the leader in the service management space outpacing growth in both best of breed and platform competitors. The organization also closed one acquisition in Q4 2019 by taking a company private from Nasdaq and bought another market leader from its founder and shareholders in Q4 2020.

Marne feels very fortunate to have interesting opportunities in her life at the right time when she needed them where she could be both successful and challenged, “Challenges are part of life, they come in big or little ways, and the only question is how one approaches, or embraces, and overcomes them” she says.

A Take on Impactful Leadership Marne’s idea of impactful leadership is built upon inspiration, trust and respect that employees and customers can rely on. In her opinion, leaders are by their nature problem solvers and decisive, but to build the levels of trust and respect, integrity and reliability are also key. She believes that the most impactful leaders are not those that sit back and lead apart from their teams and the real-life challenges those teams are facing, but those that are also able to teach and mentor where needed.

According to Marne, recruiting, retaining and cultivating talent is a key factor (the #1 factor in her opinion beyond her own leadership journey) to a leader’s success,. But is also an ongoing challenge to invest the time in that talent, especially as organizations become larger. She always says that genuine caring goes a long way. In her opinion, talent that knows that their leaders believe in them are much more productive, the same as positive cultures are more productive.

Being an Inspiration for Women Some may say being a woman in business is a challenge in itself, but Marne has truthfully not found it so, albeit she recognizes that growing up in a a rural environment, playing sports, and generally being in male dominated environments made that common place long before her professional career. Hard work, resiliency and courage are of course part of her, but she has always found ways to differentiate herself and

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contribute such that she doesn’t think her career would have been any different if she was not a woman. That being said, she cares very much about cultivating more female leaders and hopefully being an inspiration for women and girls that are looking for mentors, motivation or confidence.

She advises aspiring female leaders to work hard, take chances, learn from every experience, and believe in their ability to be among the best in relevant or aspirational roles – and reach out to woman that are now in the workforce that most typically are very willing to be mentors.

to seek to be impactful to them. I continue to see and sense that we are not finding the talent and the innovation everywhere it could be due to organizational hierarchies, socio-economic impediments, and also the speed and pace of global innovation not allowing us to slow down and really learn at times what matters most to our people – and sometimes also our customers. Perhaps we need efforts like Nvidian’s to be churning through innovative and inspirational ideas that we can then monetize. We have a lot of liquidity in tech, but it isn’t always deployed I expect in ways that will be the most impactful when you look out 20 or 50 years. I have seen this myself that great ideas didn’t become great companies because of a lack of talent or a lack of capital. Fortunately, here at IFS we have both.”

Embracing Digital Innovation Moore’s law is as much about economics as it is about technology. Pertaining to a similar thought, IFS is looking to change some of the dynamics to drive return on investment in digital transformation in tangible ways that match with the bulk of our economic activity globally being service revenues. IFS cares about investing and using technology also in ways that drive sustainability in our businesses, economies and lives as an added differentiator. The way IFS utilizes economic trends, puts technology to work to deliver impactful Moments of Service to its customers and enabling those Moments of Services to be the vehicle of growth and retention for their customers, is how the company positions itself the best.

Besides, Marne believes that investments in digital transformation, and profiling internal and external talent for their capability to drive and monetize digital innovation, will continue to be key factors in the most successful global companies. She mentions that having the centricity or focus on IFS’s customer to provide technology that enables their focus to be on their customers, people and assets is a differentiator that will continue to both drive success and innovation here at IFS. IFS wants to remove the historical pain points customers have seen and believes that customers want technology that enables their business, not that constrains it. Being able to put technology and data to work is what will continue to power the business models that emerge in the future and be what the digital dream teams deliver, opines Marne.

Diverse Talent is the Key Diversity is always on the top of mind of Marne. She asserts, “Our global customers are diverse, and so needs to be our talent. It is very satisfying to me to get to know people at all levels in our organization and from all cultures

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he company's leadership determines the company's work culture because it can create a direct impact on everyone in the company.

Leader, especially the CEO of the organization, plays a massive role in shaping its culture as it is the most crucial position in the company. CEOs affect the employees' confidence by the way they deal with them.

They should see employees' mistakes as learning experiences instead of seeing their mistakes as a failure of the employees. Leaders should inspire confidence, courage, hope, and enthusiasm in the employees.

The value-driven work culture can sustain for a more extended period and be more organized and freer from any haphazardness. Great CEOs lead by cultivating a value-centric culture in the company. They make sure that they follow the organization's values and imbibe and develop the same values in their employees.

Leaders of the company inform their employees very well about the mission and vision of the company. They build the company's culture so that it is conducive to accomplishing the company's mission and for making the vision of the company a reality. CEOs of the company play a significant role in determining the company's values for accomplishing the company's mission and vision. CEOs empower their employees to contribute their best for the company's cause. They promote discipline, ethics, morality, a culture of respect, dignity, and shared responsibilities in the company. They make sure that there is no approach of complacency in the team, and everyone is focused on the company's projects.

The best way to inspire others or create maximum impact is by setting an example, being genuinely exemplary, or leading from the front. Great CEOs lead so that people naturally would like to follow them because of the leadership traits they embody. Great leaders embody the change or result they want to see.

They lead by example and take decisions in the organization's best interests. Great leaders reinforce attitudes or behaviors in others that reflect the company's values. The responsible CEOs of the organizations diversify their research and efforts to innovate to ensure the future success of the company they are leading.

The CEOs of the organizations have a responsibility to lead with a broad-minded approach and inculcate the same approach in their teammates and employees.

They should be capable of seeing the bigger picture.

The Role of

C

COMPANY

They should not see things in fragments. They should see every isolated event in the context of the larger picture and then take the most rational, analytical, and profitable decisions. Great leaders drive a hunger in the employees for constant learning.

Leaders of the organization should be great at communicating their ideas brilliantly to others. They should take good inputs from others and implement them in the organization. They should encourage the employees and empower them to attain their best. The CEOs of the companies have a huge responsibility to uphold the morale of everyone in the team. CEOs of organizations should promote a culture of diversity, equality, and inclusion to avoid any form of discrimination against anyone in the company. CEOs uphold the dignity of everyone in the company, and they promote the same culture in everyone, caring about the well-being of everyone in the company. They believe in doing justice to all the stakeholders of the organization they lead.

The company's CEO should award the best performing employees to appreciate the best contribution and encourage others to do the same. It helps CEOs achieve great results for their companies and assistance from the employees, and more profitability for organizations. Great leaders drive outstanding results by being personable and boosting employee engagement for great causes. Creating a culture of discipline, shared responsibilities, win-win attitude, respect, dignity, research, innovation, team spirit, unity, cooperation, contribution, and appreciation is helpful to leaders for driving successful results for the company.

CEO in Shaping

Y'S CULTURE

Solving the Puzzle

Neil Laughton Founder Laughton & Co Ltd

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nnovative and impactful leadership is something that is hard to define, but you know it when you see it. If a business leader can create a compelling and inspirational picture of the future, whatever the situation or circumstances, then they will be followed.

Neil Laughton’s personal style of leadership involves trying to deliver on the above but also listening to other people’s opinions, not asking anyone to do anything that he would not do himself, and leading from the front. Neil believes in the Latin Proverb: “Fortis fortuna Adiavat” (Fortune favors the brave). He is the Founder of Laughton & Co Ltd. Laughton & Co helps individuals and companies in creating the best strategies for growth and profitability, improving leadership and management skills, and developing happy & high performing teams.

Helping People to be Adventurous After an underwhelming time at school, “Neil is trying very hard but achieving very little” said one school report. He managed to pass the selection process and become a Royal Marine Commando Officer aged 19 and went on to serve as a Reservist with the Special Air

Service Regiment (Special Forces). On leaving the military, he tried various employed jobs but kept failing so decided to back himself and became a self-employed salesman for hire. This led eventually him to forming a commercial interiors business in London which grew organically. After a 17-years journey, this business had a T/O of £40 million and after delivering a high profile £20 million project at Heathrow Airport, he took an offer from a FTSE100 company and was made redundant (but this time on his own terms!) Then he decided to concentrate his efforts on helping people and organisations be more adventurous and started Laughton & Co .

Creating a Dynamic Team Culture Laughton & Co. is an experiential training, development and events business helping individual business leaders and their people become more adventurous in their outlook, strategies, and outcomes. It does this through the principles of Discovery, Teamwork and Adventure.

By continuous learning, creating a dynamic team culture and being adventurous, the company helps its clients achieve better outcomes than they could

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Neil Laughton Leading Bravely and by Example

possibly have imagined themselves. Laughton & Co offers several innovative senior leadership peer group programs, developmental training courses, and unique adventurous retreats in inspirational locations both at home and abroad.

independent Associates. So, Neil tries to encourage more independent coaches, trainers and advisors to collaborate more often for the benefit of their clients.

Communicating with all Clients Being very much an in-person events business, the current pandemic has greatly impacted Laughton & Co’s normal activities. Regular group meetings have had to be cancelled, training courses postponed, and adventurous business retreats delayed. However, the company has reverted to even more outdoor events, kept communicating with all its clients online, and used the extra time to design new training programs and initiatives for when the situation improves. An example would be its brand-new experiential leadership program called "Commando Culture” - a (Royal Marine) Commando Methodology for Winning.

Encouraging More Inspirational Leaders Neil firstly advises aspiring business leaders to let them know that every successful and sustainable organization must have inspirational leaders at every level. It is generally no-good relying on just one or a handful of effective leaders, so Neil encourages aspiring business leaders to step up! Second suggestion Neil gives to them is to do their homework. He believes that not many business leaders can jump into leadership roles effectively without any formal training, close mentoring, or on-the-job practical experiences. He suggests knowing the roles and responsibilities of a Company Director, to ask lots of questions and not be afraid to seek advice from an experienced mentor before making those big decisions.

Collaborating with Complementary Practitioners The learning and development / life & business coaching industry has long been a crowded market and quite a fragmented one with millions of solo practitioners. It is pretty hit and miss whether a client will get value from just one person. There is not a single program that is run at Laughton & Co that does not involve at least one leadership associate helping Neil in the delivery. For example, The Inspiration Programme, the company’s flagship adventure retreats offering at inspiring locations around the world is run by three

Working on Principle of Honest Feedback Laughton & Co works on the principle of honest feedback at every opportunity in order that the company can continue to improve its services and to offer the best training, support and advice. Their clients are then inspired and encouraged to give referrals - the most effective and inexpensive form of client acquisition. With this open, transparent and authentic approach to their work, the Laughton & Co team can concentrate of delivering great value, with the freedom to innovate and to enjoy what they do every day.

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Laughton & Co Ltd helps individuals and businesses develop their powers of Discovery, Teamwork and Adventure to become more inspirational leaders and develop high performing teams.

‘‘

Recognized Leadership

Neil is recognized for his exemplary leadership. Below are the few highlights from that: 2005 - Ness Award for Leadership of Expeditions; The Royal Geographical Society 2009 - You did WHAT? Award for the Skycar Expedition; Wanderlust Travel Awards 2016 - Business Personality of the Year; Brighton & Hove Independent Business Awards 2016 - Entrepreneur of the Year; The Sussex Business Awards 2018 - The Highest Dinner Party, Mt Everest; Guinness World Records 2019 - Top 30 Inspiring UK Entrepreneurs; Business Leader Magazine 2019 - Three Penny Farthing speed / distance records; Guinness World Records 2020 - Most Inspirational Leadership Development Consultancy, England; Global Business Awards 2020 - Best in Leadership Development and Coaching Solutions, UK; Business Elite Awards

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Nykole Wyatt

Broker/Realtor/Owner/Member Kole's Keys Real Estate

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N

ykole Wyatt

Steering Ways Towards Success

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hen facing wind out of the sails to land on the shore, prevailing the storm defines one of the essential traits: courage. Akin to such a trait to overcome the significant challenge by learning how to not second guess herself, Nykole Wyatt rose in the world of real estate.

Today, Nykole helps people who desire to own real estate as the Broker/Realtor/Owner of the Kole's Keys Real Estate. Her compassionate and humble approach towards her clients creates magic, making her one of the most innovative business leaders.

CIO LOOK reached out to Nykole to tell her story that redefines the way of the real estate industry. Let us delve in!

The Rise Nykole has come a long way in her professional journey, but her career saw substantial growth at Kole's Keys Real Estate. Her prior experience in marketing endeavors shaped her value system to succeed.

Working with people from every aspect of society pushed her to seek growth and opportunities continually.

Nykole's open-mindedness and accountability, incorporated with her ability to treat clients the way she wants to be treated, are distinct, making her an admirable leader. She lives by her core values, but most importantly, Nykole keeps God first in everything she does, ensuring his favor reigns on her and those connected with her, including her clients. She says, "If I were out here being unethical and taking advantage of clients, media outlets like you wouldn't be reaching out to

me, calling me a leader. I certainly wouldn't have the network that I have that continually refers clients to me.”

The Key to All Things Kole's Keys Real Estate mission is to assist anyone who desires to own real estate achieve that goal and assist anyone looking to sell real estate to do so while maximizing their profits.

Its vision statement is: • To provide work-life freedom that keeps clients at the forefront of what we do.

• To provide a real estate experience that exceeds the "Wow Factor.”

• To maintain honesty & transparency throughout a transaction to ensure client satisfaction • To uphold local, state, and national laws while remaining ethical • To continue our personal and professional growth for continued excellence Its core values are honest integrity, commitment, diversity, client-centered focus, respect, and laughter.

The Technical View When asked about how technology plays a significant role in the business, Nykole shares, "Technology is definitely here to stay. I incorporate it into what I do. Plus, when I have a not so tech-savvy client, I take my time to work with them. I make sure they do not feel lost in the sea of technological advancement. I let them know it is okay not to know about technology. I certainly don't know it all.

However, the days of signing a contract with ink are long gone when you have electronic means to do the same.

When the pandemic first occurred, the need to sign documents electronically skyrocketed. We now found

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We are here to propel those beyond their comfort zone for optimal growth.

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ourselves not wanting to touch an ink pen handed to us without sanitizing it first…and then after using it. Showings become virtual, and new clients and customers become ready, willing, and able to see home strictly by video. But for those that still are unable to grasp the new ways of obtaining real estate, I'm committed to meeting my clients at their level of comfortability.”

Desiring Change Nykole would love to see more diversity in real estate, among all races especially with the rise of consciousness in our country around race relations. For example, when buying or selling real estate, Caucasian people interacting more with African American Realtors without hesitation or second thought. She shares, "There are some excellent Realtors out there of all races; however, from my experience as an African American female Realtor, we still have to work twice as hard just to get a fraction of the clients as our Caucasian counterparts.”

The Predictive Shift One cannot predict the future. Indeed, the pandemic and its effects on the Real Estate industry is evidence of that. Nykole mentions, "When we realized we were in a pandemic, people instantly thought we were headed for another real estate crash. No one could have predicted the exact opposite would have occurred. The world shut down, and the effects are still being felt today. I believe that people need to pay attention to interest rates. They can and will be a big indicator of how the market will be. I have a real estate coach with over 35 years of experience in the real estate industry, and even this crazy market has him stumped.”

Kole's Keys Real Estate is doing what all agents should be doing…saving for a rainy day. It is also educating its clients and customers about changes in the industry.

Nykole asserts, "We are keeping our minds abreast with required and elective continual education courses. I recently completed my Graduate, Realtor Institute designation, a designation that typically takes five years to complete. But it doesn't stop there.”

The Goals Ahead Nykole ultimately wants to teach real estate. She asserts, "I have been certified to teach by the North Carolina Real Estate Commission, I have yet embarked on that journey in a solidified position. Right now, the growth of the company is paramount. As we partner with agents in the industry to build and connect on a higher spectrum, we are also here to propel those beyond their comfort zone for optimalgrowth.”

Guiding the Way Nykole advises budding entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the Real Estate sector to get a coach. In her advice, a coach is more than a mentor, and it's an investment in yourself. She notes, "Believe in yourself and Brand yourself. There is a simple saying that it takes money to make money. I pay for a coach because I do not know it all, and having someone who has literally 'been there and done that,' speeds up the learning curve and provides you with a different perspective on things. My outlook is not the same as it was when I went out on my own and launched my real estate brokerage firm. My mindset has changed too.

My growth has been exceptional, and my branding is topnotch! No one will go harder for you than you go for yourself. And that's the key to success.

I am a firm believer that all things all possible if you set your mind to it and back it with action that includes preparing yourself mentally, spiritually, and physically. At the end of the day, you've got this; but only if you want it.”

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Sukhi Jutla COO and Co-founder MarketOrders

Sukhi Jutla Taking Jewellery Industry to the New Heights

Image Credit- Fold London

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I

t was a calling to make a valid contribution to the business world that led Sukhi Jutla to leave her corporate life and become an entrepreneur.

Upon securing a highly sought out graduate position with a top US investment bank, within a few weeks Sukhi Jutla knew it wasn't the place for her. She found she didn't actually enjoy working for banks. This then led her into management consulting which she enjoyed much more and after 5 years she set up her own financial consultancy company.

After a few years Sukhi decided she wanted to leave banking altogether and work on something that allowed her to use more creativity and have a greater sense of freedom over her lifestyle. She also became quite disillusioned with the corporate way of life. She found the 9-5 grind boring and stale. She also discovered the bigger the organisation, the slower they are to adapt to changes and make changes and this frustrated her. She wanted to do more than just wake up and go work and come home. She actually wanted to enjoy her work and feel like she was making a valid contribution.

During her time on the corporate ladder, Sukhi tinkered around with multiple different business ideas that she worked on during her lunch breaks, after work and on the weekends. That's where her entrepreneurial streak started to show up.

During this time, Sukhi wrote and published three books (using her lunch breaks to write the first draft!), re-trained as a life coach and started two other ventures in the jewellery space before settling onto MarketOrders; so, it has been a nonlinear journey to get to where she is today. That is how she came to being an entrepreneur today as the COO and Co-founder of MarketOrders.

Besides, Sukhi has been an award-winning entrepreneur for her proactive approach towards business. She is named as Top 100 European Digital Pioneer, Top 100 Woman in Tech, and '35 Women under 35' to look out for, to name a few.

An Award-winning B2B platform MarketOrders is an online global marketplace for the gold and diamond jewellery trade industry using new technologies to bring transparency, speed and trust to supply chain processes. The company is developing a

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We use technology to bring transparency, speed and trust to the jewellery industry, putting the retailers' interests at the heart of our business and vision.

Image Credit- Startup Van blockchain-based marketplace and provenance chain, specifically focused on helping retailers source the gold products they need more efficiently and at better prices, turning the traditional gold jewellery supply chain model upside down by digitising every element of the customer journey.

For the first time, retailers can order, pay and have their items delivered securely online. Over 90% of small, independent jewellers have limited or no online presence and less than 5% of the major suppliers have online capabilities that allow their customers to order, purchase and track products. The industry is old fashioned and lagging.

Most retailers wait for a wholesale salesperson or distributor to visit them in store, in order to see the product range and place an order. Digitising every aspect of this supply chain creates scalable efficiencies through the entire operational process. MarketOrders provides an online and seamless end-to-end transaction process for all retailers, suppliers and manufacturers.

Leading a New Dawn for the Jewellery Industry The changes MarketOrders is bringing about in its industry is helping the jewellery trade to buy the products they need with trust and confidence online.

The company wants to bring this industry online as it has been slow to adapt to digital transformation and it hopes its digital first approach will help to lead to a new dawn for the industry.

Having a Solution-focused Mindset Sukhi loves that her every day is a new challenge. She learns something every day. She finds the tech

development equally exciting and the way her company is disrupting an outdated industry. The difficult part is that when running a business there will always be things one would come across one has not faced before so he or she needs to be good at making quality decisions fast and troubleshooting most of the time.

Sukhi is of the opinion that it's vital to have a solutionfocused mindset and this is what will help her company to sustain and expand its market share in the future.

A Take on Leadership According to Sukhi, impactful leadership is about being inclusive and leading from within. She believes good leaders must practise what they preach and do what they say. They are the primary example setters in the company so it must start with being the employee you want to recruit to your company.

Secondly, leaders should have the ability to cultivate an understanding that their team are all on different levels of understanding and motivation so having to really understand what motivates each employee and being able to provide that for them. Most people see leadership as the person standing at the front giving orders but what Sukhi learnt was that true leadership is about being at the back and observing and most importantly, listening.

She advises emerging leaders to lead with their gut and intuition. She asserts, “Too often we can look outside of us for advice and mentorship - which is OK up to a certain point. So, don't be afraid to make tough decisions and to trust your gut when you have a strong feeling about something.”

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