The 2020's Most Successful Business Women To Watch

VOL -1, ISSUE -7, 2020

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202 ’s

Women Most Successful Business

To Watch

Jenny Lin

Resolutely in Pursuit of Efficient Pharmaceutical

Celebrate Achievements and Inspire to Bring the Change that you Desire

W

hich scientist or mathematician, of past or present, do you admire the most? Is it a woman? If yes, Thank You. If No, I’m not surprised! Moving on, did you know, between 1901 and 2017, the Nobel Prizes were awarded to 923 people and organizations. As some received the prize more than once, the total comes to around 892 individuals (including 844 men, 48 women) and 24 organizations.

See the number of women there? I’m not surprised and so are you. So is it that women don’t make good scientist or mathematicians or laureates? The answer, in my opinion, is No. Women are capable of doing everything they set their eyes on. Then why is it that we have so limited number of women to look up to?

I agree that the question is an age-old one. And so is the answer. But why, even in the 21st Century and a new decade into it, is the age-old question refusing to budge? Isn't the question a question in itself on the way our society has been progressing? Hasn’t the time come, as yet, to implement the answer and the solution on a wide-spread scale so that the next generation doesn’t have to deal with the question?

To bring the required change, we need to work together at every level of society. At the top, we need to highlight women who are achievers. We need to make sure that no woman, who pitches-in an effort to grow, has her stature belittled by minds who refuse to accept and acknowledge their hard-work and dub it as plain luck or chance or the lack of competition. We need to present them as role-models, that little girl and grown-up women can look up to and emulate as, when and wherever necessary.

At the ground level, we need to educate girls and women, not just in a formal way but informal too. They first need to believe in themselves that they can be anyone they want and that there’s no reason why they can't take up a particular course or job. For every Albert Einstein, they are taught in the class, they must also be told the story of Marie Curie. They shouldn't just be provided free education but should be encouraged to take up education as the key to their long-locked aspirations. Once every girl or woman understands that they are the ones who can bring

about change by changing themselves, the society and the world will change for good and equality in true sense.

At Insights Success, we are delighted to start the year with this issue that salutes the women in business.

‘2020’s Most Successful Business Women To Watch’ showcases women who are not just breaking the proverbial glass ceiling, but shining like stars in the firmament to light-up the paths of fellow women in business and women in general too. Their story inspires us to be our best and more.

The Cover Story celebrates the success of Jenny Lin, COO and Board Member, CMIC, Inc., a leading CRO and a provider, specializes in bioanalytical services in support of TK/PK/PD studies for pre-clinical and clinical developments. Jenny has more than 25 years of experience in executive/lab management, bioanalytical and analytical laboratory operations in support of drug research and discovery, and pre-clinical and clinical drug development. She also oversees general operations of Business development, IT, Safety and financial operations of the company.

Also featuring in this issue are Cara Scharf, Founder, Fearless Media, a full-service, NYC-based digital marketing agency, specializing in the entertainment, retail, education, and technology verticals. Dr. Celeste

Fralick, Chief Data Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer, McAfee LLC, a device-to-cloud security company that provides many state-of-the-art solutions in both enterprise and consumer segments; Jeanne Groenewald, Founder, Elgin Free-Range Chickens, which was started as a poultry for family but soon grew big and now supplies free-range chickens to leading South African retailers, selected delis and some of the Cape's top restaurants.

Our list continues with Julia Hunter, a PhD in Astrophysics and Senior Vice President, Virgin Galactic, the world's first commercial space-line for private astronauts; Lauren Boyer, the CEO of Underscore Marketing, a unique solutions-based media company built largely out of Lauren's own experience, working on the client marketing side of the industry; Marina Tognetti, Founder, mYngle, a company that offers customized language training programs through video conferencing; and Mina Jeong, the Managing Director of M&K PR, a fullfledged marketing platform company.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did while creating it!

Sneha Sinha

C O N T E N T S

08 Cover Story

JENNY LIN

Resolutely in Pursuit of Efď€ cient Pharmaceutical

Article

22 Empowering Women Dynamics Of Women Participation In The Ever-changing Modern Workforce

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28

Cara Scharf Building Spectacular Marketing Campaigns

28 Julia Hunter Voyaging the New Horizons of Space-based Research and Travel

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32 Lauren Boyer A Value Driven Entrepreneur Boosting Companies' Digital Growth

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36

Dr. Celeste Fralick Pursuing her Passion for Data with Perseverance

26 Mina Jeong

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Helping Businesses Reach the Right Customers

34 Marina Tognetti An Inspired Entrepreneur Driven by Innovation

Jeanne Groenewald Working With Nature for a Healthy Lifestyle

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Sneha Sinha Publishing Control Team Rahul, Shruti Quality Assurance Team Abhishaj, Darshan Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Shweta Ambilwade Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Sapana Shinde Business Development Manager Sophie Smith Marketing Manager Mary D'souza Business Development Executives Michael, Anna, Vishnu Sales Executives Kelly, Karen Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Amar Sawant Technical Consultants Pratiksha, Aditya, David Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Gemson, Uma, Manoj Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

January, 2020 Corporate Ofď€ ce Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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JENNY LIN

Resolutely in Pursuit of Efficient Pharmaceutical

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e are committed to hire, engage, motivate and develop the most talented and excellent employees in the industry

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COVER STORY

Y

Jenny Lin COO & Board Member

T

o lead a fulfilling life, we need to stay healthy. Only then can we enjoy the rains and the sunshine that life has to offer. To stay healthy, apart from a healthy lifestyle, we do need an occasional administration of medicines or drugs that help us ward off or recuperate from sickness. Developing these drugs to effectively help us stay fit is an ardent and very critical task. A medicine, to be effective, needs to have a precise composition of its elements so that it produces the desired effect and causes no harm or side effects. To ensure the same several branches of science, bioanalysis or bioanalytics being one of them, come together to help develop the perfect drug.

Bioanalysis and Analytical testing has emerged as a critical tool for drug discovery and development.

Pharmaceutical Companies have to perform a battery of tests to ensure product quality, safety, efficacy, purity and stability through qualitative and quantitative characterization of their compounds. With the rising emphasis on the use of pharmacokinetic(PK)/toxicokinetics(TK) and the greater potencies of newer drugs, a sensitive and specific bioanalytical technique is essential. Fasced with these challenges, drug developers are turning to expert service providers like CMIC, Inc. (formerly JCL Bioassay USA), which has the capability, capacity and flexibility to handle bioanalytical testing in a new era of drug development.

Creating Value Located in Hoffman Estates, IL CMIC is a leading Contract Research Organization(CRO) that provides cutting-edge capabilities and sophisticated expertise in bioanalytical method development, method validation/qualification and study sample analysis for small and large molecules. As a strategic drug development partner, CMIC helps sponsors to overcome challenges in bioanalysis with expertise,

rapid turn-around-time, and highquality services. CMIC Group started as a company assisting in the development of pharmaceuticals, and it now offers greatly expanded services that encompass an entire value-chain of pharmaceutical companies, including manufacturing, sales, and marketing, based on its unique “Pharmaceutical Value Creator” (PVC) business model. It now has over 30 years of experience and a reputation for excellence and a strong commitment to helping improve lives around the world. It also offers services to medical device manufacturers, academia, bio-ventures, and medical institutions. It provides prophylaxis and health-enhancing services to the public.

An Accountable Leader The criticality of CMIC's work needs someone at the helm who understands the complete process like the back of their hand. Someone who is experienced, has extensive knowledge about the field, knows inside out on how to build a quality system and chain and is a responsible person.

Jenny Lin, COO and Board Member is an amalgamation of all these factors and more. Jenny joined CMIC in 2009 and since then has been a voice to

reckon with. She has more than 25 years of experience in executive/lab management, bioanalytical and analytical laboratory operations in support of drug research and discovery, and pre-clinical and clinical drug development. She also oversees general operations of Business Development, IT, QA, Safety and financial operations of the company.

Tracing Jenny’s Growth Jenny began her career in a contract research laboratory at MediChem Research, Inc where she worked in various managerial positions in Chromatography groups and analytical chemistry teams. Moving on she found herself spending 11 years at deCODE Chemistry as Director and then, Vice President of Analytical Chemistry.

Jenny directly participated in analytical and bioanalytical development for numerous pre-clinical and clinical trials in support of IND/NDA filings.

Apart from her corporate responsibilities, Jenny has authored and co-authored more than 30 publications, white papers, and presentations for international conferences. She is also the inventor of 7 issued US patents. Jenny earned her BS in Analytical Chemistry at Peking

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Women Most Successful Business

To Watch

“Our mission is to contribute to high quality, efficient drug development and conduct science that contributes to the public welfare”

“For many critical steps in handling bioanalytical testing, “we have actually purposebuilt a double checking system into our lab”

University and her MS in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Connecticut. She continues to grow her knowledge and is working toward a Master of Business Administration.

Jenny is a member of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry (ASMS), American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS), American Chemical Society (ACS), National Association of Professional Woman (NAPW) and Global CRO Council (GCC).

Catching up with the Trend With each progressive year, there has been a marked shift in research and development(R&D) pipelines, from traditional small-molecule drug candidates towards biologics, oglio-nucleotide-based therapies, PD biomarkers, and other novel compounds that typically combine increased structural complexity with greater susceptibility to disruption and contamination during the developmental process. “It’s a significant trend,” says Jenny. “We have been working with many pharmaceutical and biotech companies and have experienced this shift in development needs first-hand.”

In the last few years, Lin continues,

“we have noticed a lot more clients wanting, for example, antisense oligonucleotide drug-development work done, rather than classic smallmolecule therapeutic development. And particularly in most recent years, the significant role that biomarkers play in drug safety and efficacy evaluation is becoming more and more apparent.”

The fast-growing influence of biomarkers in steering drug development has evolved in parallel to increasing molecular complexity. With margins under pressure, companies are looking to instill more precision and efficiency into their targetidentification and translationalmedicine activities.

“Most of the pharmaceutical companies are looking at exploratory biomarkers that could direct and correlate drug research and development programs,” Lin elaborates.

The current focus on more productive, better differentiated drug-development programs, and the need for cuttingedge analytical/bioanalytical testing that informs and supports those programs, also reflects the commercial realities of a marketplace in which many conventional large-volume

Staying Competitive As drug-development pipelines have adapted to these changing circumstances, they have created new challenges and expectations for bioanalytical testing of experimental medicines.Product complexity has also spawned new instrument platforms and assays that demand advanced technical know-how. “Even from the regulatory point of view, there are many unknown factors and requirements that come as a big challenge to the industry,” Lin comments. One way in which CMIC stays abreast of these developments is by participating in leading CRO consortia such as the Global CRO Council (GCC), where “we closely interface with our peers in the industry and closely monitor regulatory changes”, she says.

The company is also an early adopter of new technologies, working hand in hand with its sponsors to develop inhouse expertise that addresses emerging needs at different stages of drug research and development. “For example, we are established leaders at providing bioanalytical testing for oligonucleotides,” Jenny explains. “We have supported numerous development programs, including the top oligonucleotide developers in the US. Seeing all the different phases of oligonucleotide development, experiencing different oligonucletide strategies, tackling different issues in the lab, we have built a very strong technology platform and know-how.”

This breadth of experience has enabled a specialist provider such as CMIC to move beyond traditional CRO services

INSPIRING WOMEN

blockbusters are genericized or marginalized, and demand for value extends far beyond innovation for its own sake.

As a prominent woman leader, Jenny shares that the most prominent challenge for women in the business world is balancing business and family life. She believes that the dual responsibly towards business and family, and finding ways to devote time to both can be challenging at times.

However, she does think that the culture of work is shifting to allow women more flexibility, which is a welcoming change.

As a leader, Jenny encourages women to take up more of leadership positions.

She emphasizes the importance of continuous learning; continual development of necessary knowledge and skills; maintaining positive attitudes and focus; valuing team success and preparing self (never a believer of glass ceiling); not being afraid to take on additional responsibilities; and conscientiousness.

To know more, please visit www.cmic-inc.com

“Our sophisticated analytical instrumentation and advanced technologies produce ultrasensitive analyses”

and into more of a consultancy role in bioanalytical testing, Jenny adds. “We can help them look into certain issues propose some solutions and provide some resolution to drug-development programs relating to bioanalytical challenges.”

Looking Forward to Growth CMIC has responded to the growing demand for analytical/bioanalytical-testing partners capable of handling complex new drug candidates by investing significantly to expand, deepen and diversify its capabilities, technologies, infrastructure and human resources in the field.

It now offers a comprehensive suite of safety evaluation, bioanalysis, chemistry, manufacturing and control, and biomarker testing services from facilities in Japan, the US and China, with particular expertise in fast-emerging areas such as oligonucleotide analysis and exploratory biomarkers.

As of 30 January 2018, CMIC had either completed or was actively handling 77 oligonucleotide-analysis projects. Its biomarker-analysis capabilities run all the way from identifying and optimizing drug targets to PK/PD studies, proof-of-concept testing, patient stratification, target validation and post-approval safety testing.

With many diseases still sorely lacking optimal therapeutic options, if indeed any therapeutic options, the shift towards more complex drug candidates is likely to continue unabated. That will put even more pressure on analytical-services providers to keep pace with innovation. With its mixture of innovation and experience, breadth of services and highly specialized capabilities, flexibility and stability, CMIC is determined to stay ahead of the curve.

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Choose E xc e l l e n t, Choose Insights

CARA SCHARF Building Spectacular Marketing Campaigns A Leap of Faith Comfort-zone is a beautiful thing. It keeps you happy in your own little space, where you can bask in the achievements of your world. However, it makes you too comfortable to explore your own strengths. You never know what you are capable of doing if you don’t give it a try.

Cara, until the year 2009, worked as Executive Vice President at an agency where she successfully led the agency’s growth and business development, by boosting the company’s revenue from 10 million to 50 million USD.

Cara Scharf Fearless Media

D

igital Media has opened up avenues for marketing today, like never before. For any company, the prospective clients are just a click away. To compel digital media users to choose or click for one’s services, a company needs media campaigns which are attention-grabbing and unmissable.

Cara Scharf led Fearless Media is doing just that and more. Fearless Media is a full-service, NYC-based digital marketing agency, specializing in the entertainment, retail, education, and technology verticals. It creates beautifully integrated solutions and communication across all media and helps companies develop marketing strategies, execute campaigns, and drive revenue. The company believes that every element of a campaign is vital and informs each next element, which is why its approach is always integrated.

18 | January 2020

For someone like her, who thrives in challenges, the sense of comfort soon became overbearing. She says, “I’d risen to the highest level I could with that firm, but I found myself feeling unsatisfied and unhappy. When my former employer asked me to climb to get a paperclip, that was when I knew.

It was time. Leaving was a huge decision, but a quick one. I knew I had to be my own boss so I would never feel taken advantage of again.”

Cara’s years of experience and motivated persona resulted in the establishment of Fearless Media. After taking the huge decision of starting on her own, she was now faced with everyday decision-making to keep her new company at the top of the charts.

The initial two years got her working on all aspects which were tiring and gratifying at the same time. Cara soon became a successful and renowned businesswoman.

Here are the current awards- rather they be current • Influential Businesswoman Of The Year 2019 – Leading Ad Agency In Market Channel Integration • Global 100 – Most Innovative Marketing Business Leader 2019

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202 ’s

Women Most Successful Business

To Watch

• Insights Success 2019 – The 2019 Elite Businesswoman To Watch • Clutch Awards 2018 – Top New York Marketing & Advertising Agencies | US • Oprah/Entrepreneur Magazine September 2018 – Top NY Women In Business Section Feature Fearless Solutions Under Cara’s tutelage, team Fearless Media has developed a proven combination of strategy, planning, and overall innovation which enables its clients to be Fearless. The company creates powerful integrated solutions and communication across all media for the client company. It can build and develop marketing strategies, execute campaigns, and drive revenue to bring the company to the front lines of its respective industry. Everything at Fearless Media begins with ‘digital’ at its core. Its proprietary, customized analytic dashboard gives the client's brand management team the exact data they need to make informed decisions.

Its core competencies include Strategic Planning and Buying, Programmatic Buying, Co-Marketing Strategic Alliances, In-Depth Analytics, and Traditional Media. We also work in the core demographic of the 18-34 yr. audience and we know how to reach them. We have a vast understanding of the esports, videogame and consumer electronics categories.

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We are your link to a better reach, deeper message, and a relevant place in today’s fast-paced world

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People Matter As a valued leader, Cara believes that success in business depends heavily on the kind of people you hire. She states, “You need to hire skills for today and aptitude for tomorrow. It’s crucial to hire smarter people than yourself.”

Every year the bar is raised for an ad agency, which means your hiring needs are even more important. It is imperative that you have the right skillsets and adjust your staffing as needed based on where you see the market heading. At the same time, as a woman, she feels that woman empowerment shouldn’t be talked-about but worked-on.

The need for diversity, not only in the marketing and advertising industry but across all industries is irrefutable.

Citing her own example, Cara states, “I think people take for granted how driven you need to be to run your own company. They typically reserve that ‘drive’ for a man and resent when women are tigers. You don’t need confidence to start, you need guts. The confidence comes with knowing you have been able to beat all the odds. Only 0.1% of the founders in advertising are female. That is what I think about, if I ever start to doubt my abilities. I am still here 10 years later, and I keep learning every day.”

Driving Digital Experiences For a decade, Cara and her team have been building and delivering compelling digital marketing experiences. They have been creating personalized experiences which engage and convert client's customers in memorable and enticing ways across all platforms. They have been combining storytelling with data-proven insights to create social media messaging that’s not just compelling, but also profitable.

Going forward, Fearless Media will continue to unify media, creative, and buying strategies to create omnichannel campaigns that will increase reach, awareness, engagement and retention.

To know how Fearless Media can carve your space in today’s fast-paced world, click here.

January 2020 | 19

DR. CELESTE FRALICK PURSUING HER PASSION FOR DATA WITH PERSEVERANCE

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ong before Data became the gold that it is today, there were people who were trying to mine it, process it and transform it into comprehensible content. It is their intense focus that the omnipresent data today is being utilized to develop solutions in almost every industry.

Dr. Celeste Fralick, Chief Data Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer, McAfee, is surely one of them. Her 40 years of professional journey began as a Quality & Reliability (Q&R) Engineer at Texas Instruments. Her first assignment was to develop statistical process control (SPC) where she became enamored with statistics and data.

Additional Q&R positions at Fairchild Semiconductor and Medtronic continued to fuel her data-science on-the-job training. She then joined Intel, and stayed with the spin-out, McAfee, where she works today as Chief Data Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer.

McAfee LLC is a device-to-cloud security company that provides many state-of-the-art solutions in both enterprise and consumer segments. Our products can be mixed-andmatched to provide the right solution to any customer. With over a billion sensors across multiple threat vectors around the world there’s a LOT of data to move and analyze in milliseconds.

Read on as Dr. Celeste Fralick speaks her mind and heart out on matters that are close to her.

• How do you keep yourself motivated? Please tell us about what inspires you and who do you look up to.

I am most impressed with our leadership team, including our CTO (Steve Grobman), and VP of Enterprise Engineering (Lynda Grindstaff) who were long-time Intel employees – it is not trite to say I followed them to McAfee! I was able to hire a wicked smart team that

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inspires me daily, and I am surrounded by techies who want to catch the bad guy and seamlessly protect us. It is a very mission-oriented market – like medical, where people feel driven to help and serve, and the air is electric with their passion. I keep myself motivated by learning daily from each of them.

• Share with us the most memorable and remarkable moment of your life, in a professional scenario. Also share with us the lowest phase of your life or the toughest deal to crack.

There have been many! Being selected by Forbes in 2018 as one of the America’s Top 50 Women in Tech, presenting the keynote with McAfee CTO Steve Grobman at the 2019 RSA conference, creating a medical product group at Intel, leading a 150-member company technical engineering committee, and changing the culture for data and women at each company – well, every instance was incredibly memorable. As a lower-middle class kid from small-town Alaska, I consider myself quite lucky, but I have worked very hard to earn my stripes.

My toughest challenge was realizing I was blind to a particular leadership pillar (“enabling others to act” per the book “The Leadership Challenge” by Kouzes and Posner) that was limiting my success. You can’t fix what you don’t know is wrong. It was very difficult but, following my projects and “awakening”, I was not only awarded the “most improved” trophy but my projects were so successful, I was promoted shortly thereafter.

• State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership.

Data is the lifeblood of our company and we are embracing its leading-edge science and positive impact to our customers’ experience. We lead our industry in the

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study of Adversarial Machine Learning (“Model Hacking”), Deep Fakes, and Explainable Artificial Intelligence, to name just a few. Our translational research in security analytics as well as the creation of an Analytic Center of Excellence enable our products to be innovative with a minimum of false positives and false negatives. I’d like to think we have enabled McAfee to be a data-driven company with industry-best security analytics, and it is reflected in our industry recognized high ratings.

• How do you ensure that there’s a healthy culture at the work space?

• What would you advise to the budding and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Never, EVER, believe anyone when they tell you that you can’t do something. Stay tenacious and focused, go after what you want. If you’ve failed, pull up your big-girl pants and go after it again.

• What are the most important lessons you’ve learned throughout your career and would like to share?

Build your career on your strengths, not weaknesses.

Lead - don’t manage: inspire, challenge, listen, encourage, and model the behaviour you expect. Don’t stop thinking your crazy ideas – just implement them. Be a duck – let the rain roll off your back, stay calm, but paddle like crazy to get to where you need to go. Don’t get your knickers twisted – there are more important things in life. Keep your body and mind healthy. And, for goodness sakes, enjoy the journey.

The Journey in a Nutshell Dr. Fralick found herself engrossed with all things statistical as soon as she began her career. She considers herself fortunate to learn from the best (like the late Dr. Joseph Juran); however, in 1992 she became restless to

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Dr. Celeste Fralick Chief Data Scientist & Senior Principal Engineer

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As a Stage 4 breast cancer patient, I emphasize to anyone who will listen to get a mammogram. It saved my life, as does the every-three-week chemo that I endure to stay alive. While I am in remission (nearly five years), the constant chemo does wear me out and I have unique side effects that are often debilitating. So, health comes first.

No stress, no negativity – stay happy, stay healthy. Enjoy your work, live every day like it’s your last. I try to ensure that everyone I connect with – even though I work virtual – feels the same way.

formally learn. She began an MS in Biomedical Engineering, focused on statistics, Design of Experiments, and bioelectricity while still working full-time and raising two young boys.

She recalls her Intel interview as a ‘why-not?’, winging-it, unplanned interview. She was able to influence a much larger company while she finished her Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. focused on neuroscience, statistics, and neural networks (NN), a technology which had suffered a bad reputation for years but has become incredibly fashionable. Dr. Fralick was fortunate to be on the leading edge of their comeback and transfer her academic learning to her daily work. At MacAfee, her role is to provide company-wide data strategy as well as lead the McAfee Advanced Analytics Team to translate research of state-ofthe-art security analytics into products.

January 2020 | 21

Dynamics of

Participation in the Ever-changing Modern Workforce

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Empowering Women

G

one are the days when women were stereotyped to a certain set of skills and professions, restricting them from exploring the world of endless opportunities. Today, women have announced their arrival in many fields of the business world. Therefore, it seems more important than ever before to recognize female contributions in every profession.

Fighting through biased work culture in favour of male dominance, women have conquered the unconquered on the account of their distinct calibre and predilections. In the times when the world female participation rate is to the dispiriting levels of around 67% and pay-off rate of about 63%, achievements by women go-getters are praiseworthy.

Listening capabilities is one of the distinguishing aspects of feminine species as compared to their male counterparts. Instilling and pursuing ones thoughts is undoubtedly important for effective working.

But being a better listener is something that can make a difference as studies show that the customer values and trusts the firms if they perceive that they are being listened to by the firms. With inherent caring and affectionate traits, women outclass men when it comes to understanding critical demands of the customers.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) - the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others - is an essential skill when it comes to dealing with a diverse class of consumers. Women are naturally gifted with higher EI making them better suited for pressure situations and avoiding counter-productive decisions while keeping emotions in check.

Emotional Intelligence encompasses two major dimensions – awareness of one’s self and awareness of others. Both the attributes are very much significant for the survival and success of any organisation. Self-awareness involves being familiar with trigger points and behavioural traits when put to the test. This, in turn, helps to modulate impulses avoiding conclusions which are harmful for the welfare of business. In addition to self-awareness, an awareness of others is equally critical in business. Analysing and decoding non-verbal communication – that amounts to 93% of the message – eventually benefits in convincing and converting a lead into a client.

Collaboration, and not the cutthroat competition, is the modern era’s principle virtue to achieve success. Many endeavours which seem to be beyond the bounds of possibility can be attained by combining efforts from

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different resources, channels and departments. Further, collaborating products with consumer experience are enormously important. It leads to crafting the best solutions for customer’s pain points and compelling value propositions that reflect their overall business objectives.

Multiple studies have found that women prefer to work in teams, while men prefer to work alone. An unfaltering affinity towards collaboration primes women to garner success in different fields of business which gives them an edge over others.

Increased profitability can be a motivating factor for many firms to hire more pool of female talents as many studies support the fact. Statistical research shows that Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women on boards financially outperform companies with the lowest representation of women on boards. Moreover, genderdiverse teams have higher sales and profits compared to male-dominated teams, and a recent Gallup study found that gender-diverse business units have higher average revenue than less diverse business units.

Trust over female leaders is an attribute which needs to be reciprocated while making the choice. More American workers perceive female executives as honest and ethical than male executives. Pew’s “Women and Leadership” surveyed Americans in 2015 and found that 34% say women are better at this, while only 3% say men are better at it (64% say there’s no difference).

While it’s unclear whether this means women are actually more honest, it’s a subtle reminder of how tangled some business decisions can be. Leaders are often tasked with choosing between options that aren’t black and white, ethically speaking, and the capacity to lead honestly is important to the entire company’s success and job satisfaction.

Not to mention, increased job satisfaction and organizational dedication to cite positive and meaningful business culture are the added advantages feminine employees carry to the organisation.

However, the journey is not all merry go round every time.

Hindrances – seen, unseen – are there to check the unrelenting zeal of women aspirants to thrive in the industry. These obstructions need to be pointed out and rectified to create an environment that fuels women empowerment.

January 2020 | 23

Lack of confidence, according to many experts, is one prime reason women tend to question themselves and doubt their worthiness. In order to advance, they must coach their inner critics.

Out-speak and define what women want professionally if they want to get succeeded. Too often they don’t know or rely upon others to define it for them.

“Building relationships with those in positions of leadership is critical,” Susan Brady, executive vice president of Linkage Inc. says. “Put down the to-do list long enough to connect with decision makers across the organization, and help them understand who you are and what you bring to the table.”

Women are generally uneasy about asking for what they want. They must stop thinking about what they need as a self-serving request. They must develop the courage and fortitude to stand up and ask for what they want.

24 | January 2020

While proving value, women tend to overcompensate in order to demonstrate that they are adding value. Instead of doing it all alone, change the paradigm and track to encourage others to take on more responsibility, thus enabling them to scale and multiply their own impact.

Not to forget, biased work culture and regional barriers are the crucial obstacles in the road of women work participation. But, today women are breaking these shackles and coming out boldly to be a part of economic processes shouldering their male counterparts.

There has been obvious progress in achieving gender equality around the world over the past two decades: more girls are attending school, more women are working and are being elected to public offices, more women hold management positions, and the situation involving women’s legal as well as social rights have also improved.

However, a great deal still remains to be done to achieve equal outcomes for women and men. Recognizing women’s abilities, the values they bring to the organisation, the transformation they achieve as far as work environment is concerned, and considering monetary benefits associated with the female work participation, corporate sector need to welcome their emergence with open arms. No future is far where maledominated workplaces will be a tale of extinct, we believe.

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Women Most Successful Business

Working With Nature for a Healthy Lifestyle

Groenewald

Jeanne

To Watch

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2007 survey by Smith and Wiseman found that 59 per cent people, of those surveyed, in sub-Saharan Africa(SSA) were suffering from severe energy deficiency. Children under the age of five showed signs of stunting, wasting and slow mental development in rural areas of SSA. Pregnant and lactating women were found vulnerable towards diseases arising due to inadequate dietary energy and protein.

Providing them chicken meat and eggs—considered the best source of quality protein—was suggested as efficient and healthy. They are not just high-quality protein, but also provide important vitamins and minerals, are high in lutein which lowers the risk of cataracts and macular degeneration, and also the cheapest of all livestock meats.

As a result, poultry developed as a major industry in developing countries. The industry set-up and produce are relatively inexpensive, widely available, provides employment, has a less detrimental impact on the environment than other livestock, and uses less water.

However, the condition in which the poultry is kept in these farms has always been a cause of concern. The birds are placed in a closely packed cage most of the time, are fed inadequately and sparsely, and injected with antibiotics and hormones to keep them disease-free and increase their net weight respectively.

All these conditions, while increasing the quantity, adversely affect the quality of the produce. As a result, instead of providing nourishment to the human body, gives empty calories and in acute cases, causes harm.

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We Work With Nature To Keep Our Birds Healthier And Happier, Which In The Long Run Also Improves The Flavour And Texture Of The Meat

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Turning to Nature In 1997, concerned about her family’s well-being due to increasing use of processed and chemically treated food, Jeanne Groenewald reached a point where she decided that she could no longer feed her family any mass-produced meat.

Born and brought up on a farm in Wellington, Jeanne started experimenting with free-range chickens. The freerange method of raising poultry demanded that chickens, for at least some part of the day, are allowed to roam freely outdoors and is not confined 24 hours a day.

Jeanne recalls, “When I started, there was no one else farming free-range, so I had to teach myself, and learn by trial and error because there were no mentors in the field. I started with about 100 chickens that I reared in my backyard, allowing them to forage freely. I fed them only

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Jeanne Grœnewald high-quality, all-grain foods, without animal by-products like fish or poultry meal.”

The result was more than Jeanne could have imagined.

Smitten by the amazing taste of the chicken, her friends help spread the word and Jeanne started receiving orders for her chicken. "Between 1998 and 2000 the business grew from 100 chickens every six weeks to 2000 chickens per week," says Jeanne.

To meet the growing demand, Jeanne and her family converted existing outbuildings to rear the chickens. They first built dedicated houses, but soon the chicken outgrew the space available. To accommodate the rapid growth, Jeanne approached three contract growers and helped them build similar houses to accommodate 15000 birds each. She also established the Elgin Poultry Abattoir in Grabouw, and today supplies free-range chickens to leading South African retailers, selected delis and some of the Cape's top restaurants.

The secret to Good Chicken Jeanne makes sure that the birds on her farm and the contractors’, lead as natural a life as possible. Chicks are placed indoors for the first 10 days in summer and 14 days in winter at a stocking density of 15 birds/m2, after which they range on natural vegetation during the day at a stocking density of a mere 5/m2.

The farm area is covered in lush vegetation with trees and shrubs providing a natural shade during the day to forage under and branches to perch on. The birds are also allowed to sleep properly at night from four days old. The whole environment makes for a stress-free living which Jeanne believes is crucial to the birds as well as business.

becomes stronger, which allows it to fight most disease challenges it is exposed to. The fact that bird mortality on all our farms averages 3% is proof that this farming philosophy is paying off,” says Jeanne. The chickens at Elgin are reared according to humane farming practices and are given no antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) which makes them drug-free as well.

The Challenges Raising Free Range Chickens at Elgin has its share of challenges. Diseases are always a threat lurking around the corner. But being Free Range, Jeanne doesn’t want to depend on antibiotics. Instead, her focus is on increasing the immunity of the birds to help them fight diseases.

To tackle diseases and boost the immunity, she uses high quality, all-grain diet for chickens, and also get them vaccinated for Coccidiosis, Newcastle disease and infectious bursal disease (IBD). When a chicken falls ill, her team works very closely with the avian vet. A change in temperature is another challenge as the houses aren't climate controlled yet. Here again, they make use of natural ways to protect the chickens against extreme climate.

The side-effect of these practices is that the production cost shoots up. Free-range chicken is expensive to produce thus increasing the cost to consumers. She adds, “Consumers must accept they are paying a premium for better quality, more nutritious food.”

Looking Forward 20 years into the industry, Jeanne is yet to register a slowdown in the demand of free-range chickens. Her plans, as for the next few years, is to start producing more valueadded products. “The growth in the industry has been stable. I think the selling points for free-range chicken are health and animal welfare issues,” concludes Jeanne.

"Without stress, a bird’s own internal immune system

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T

he endless space has always enticed us humans, with endless possibilities and opportunities. The mere thought that there might be people like us or different from us sharing this universe, is enough to get one excited to explore.

With the kind of development we have been making in science and technology, it doesn’t sound a distant dream that one will be able to plan a vacation to Moon or Mars.

However, before a dream comes true, it must be seen, not in deep slumber but with eyes wide open. In 2006, Julia Hunter, a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Manchester and Cofounder of District Commons, a US non-profit organization, moved to London. This was to start a career in commercial space-flight with Virgin Galactic when the company was a relatively small startup.

She listened to Sir Richard Branson explain how this startup would put a product on the market for the public to experience space-flight and see the earth from the vantage of space. Julia became enamoured with this idea of space for everyone and has since poured nearly every ounce of her efforts into its success. She expresses, "There has been no clear-cut roadmap for the path I have paved, but it

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continues to be the most extraordinary journey.”

Finding New Horizons Julia's career has taken her from astrophysics and academia to helping operate the world's first publicly traded commercial space-line company which recently began trading on the NYSE. Before joining Virgin Galactic, she cofounded District Commons which served as a network of resources dedicated to building community and collaboration to catalyse and advancing society.

Being the Senior Vice President for a company which aims to change humanity’s relationship with its home planet, is both a privilege and pleasure for Julia. Her responsibilities include the management of a senior staff team, organizational operations, and ensuring that safety and regulatory compliance is met.

On a broad scale, her work has her strategising the direction of the company through operations while developing and maintaining key corporate relationships.

The Fuel to Drive

During and after college, she engrained herself into aerospace, attending conferences, becoming a member of the National Space Society, International Association of Astronomical Artists, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Women in Aerospace, and working various projects with ESA and NASA. Virgin Galactic is the world's first commercial space-line for private astronauts. Julia explains, “Our business aim has always been to Change the World for Good, and we do that from how we operate and treat our teammates, to how we are opening access to space.”

Julia’s overarching role is to work and support a team of incredibly talented and driven people that, like her, also carry Virgin Galactic's goals in their DNA. The challenge of human spaceflight is a constant motivation and a constant place of learning. It is what drives her and many others in the space industry. Seeking personal balance in this environment is how Julia finds and encourages others to find, sustained energy for optimal human performance demanded from these types of endeavours.

At Virgin Galactic, Julia promotes the concept that balance can provide a selfpowering, self-sustaining charge which

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“Both professionally and personally, I am passionate about exploration”

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is often needed with the intensity of aerospace ventures. She explains, “Seeking balance does not necessarily always mean finding balance, but it does mean making a conscious choice to add value to my life through differing avenues; finding time to quieten the mind, play with my kids, have date nights with my husband, train to run marathons, and climb mountains. Of course, I don't do all of these things every day, but I have found that making an effort each day to do things outside of my professional role, has made me a much happier and more balanced person.”

The Starry Moments Reliving the moment her crew flew to space for the first time in December 2018, Julia categorizes it as the most remarkable moment. She recalls, “It was an electric period leading up to that successful flight which landed back in Mojave with the world's newest astronauts. Watching the flight from the vantage of the mission control room, was impressive and restless and it took some time for the success of that flight to sink in. The look on the faces of the crew members reflected how meaningful and inspirational this endeavour was and would always be to the dedicated group of talented people who had made it possible.”

Virgin Galactic entered 2019 as a private organization with one spaceflight under its belt and its commercial operating base still under construction.

It finished the year as the world’s first publicly listed human space-flight company, operating from the globe’s

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only purpose-built commercial spaceport, with two space-flights completed and five commercial astronauts among its teammates. Julia applauds the effort put in by every team member saying, “Our team has done that in twelve months, and I am proud to be one of the people at the helm.”

Bolstering a positive company culture has brought Julia a lot of professional gratification. Science shows that both positivity and diversity do drive success. They provide efficiency in problem-solving, boost creativity and allow for a much more dynamic and fun workplace. In recent years Julia has relished championing inclusion, helping develop Virgin Galactic's intern and mentorship programs. She also shares her knowledge and journey at forums such as the Google Women in Tech forums.

On the same note, she advises the blooming entrepreneurs to “Approach every problem with the unwavering conviction that it has a solution.” She feels that obstacles to space exploration are innate and although many of the trials that one faces in this line of business are unique to the field, so many aren’t unlike what new entrepreneurial ventures encounter.

Challenges generally have multiple solutions. Applying creativity and tenacity to find one, and preferably the best one to fit the circumstances always proves useful.

science and business, and is an impassioned leader connecting, empowering, and supporting culture in the workplace. Guided by the Virgin Galactic brand values and the greater Virgin values, Julia and her team, work hard to promote a work culture where the teammates feel that they can fully engage. Creating a healthy culture has meant creating a space where the workforce is happy, fulfilled, and engaged. One way is through providing access to any teammate.

Julia elaborates, “In a company where safety is our north star, we promote and very highly regard, accessibility to one another as well as openness in communication. I sit wherever I can find a seat, in one of many office locations, and if someone has a question for me, I will stop what I am doing and make myself available.

Although we have a chain of approval, we strive for familiarity.”

Of Grit & Gratitude At Virgin Galactic's sister company, The Spaceship Company, one of the core values is that of ‘pure grit.’ It’s the idea that resiliency triumphs. Julia shares this belief, along with another – gratitude. “Gratitude for me allows perspective and re-energizes me. With tenacity and gratitude you can create and recreate new norms, and push boundaries daily,” concludes Julia Hunter.

The Work Culture Julia is analytical in her approach to

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Women Most Successful Business

To Watch

Boyer

A Value Driven Entrepreneur Boosting Companies' Digital Growth

T

he term entrepreneurship isn’t merely what its literal definition explains. It is as volatile and unpredictable as the world of business. To comprehend and assimilate what the modern day entrepreneurs’ job description includes, we have to know, and sometimes even live, their stories.

Stories of determination and innovation. Stories of integrity, compassionate leadership and endurance. Stories which inspire and encourage. Stories which guide others in their own entrepreneurial journeys.

We at Insights Success, through this edition, 2020’sMost Successful Business Women To Watch, have endeavored

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“

“ Lauren

across different industries, markets and disciplines in search of such stories. In light of this purpose we have striven towards, we’d like to bring to you, the story of Lauren Boyer, the CEO of Underscore Marketing.

Lauren’s career in marketing and strategy began in the mid 90's, just as digital was becoming a viable communication channel. As an early pioneer, she was a part of some amazing teams, launching first-of-its-kind initiatives such as the first digital media campaign for SmithKline Beecham; the first website for Medicare Supplement and Replacement Insurance for Independence Blue Cross; dozens of first ever websites for mid-scale companies; and launching multiple dot com brands, including one she

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helped to lead, iAnswers.com.

Values of Growth

Lauren's focus towards generating ROI and her passion for finding the critical details that transform campaigns from good to outstanding, are exhibited through her proven expertise and experience. This includes: developing a projection approach for predicting ROI prior to media investment; teaching Wyeth Consumer Healthcare how to test and learn their way into leveraging ‘new media’ to reach new audience segments and extend their portfolio of brands; developing a methodology for a $100MM private publisher to create digital revenue streams incrementally and without cannibalization of the printed base portfolio; developing a grand scale multivariate test framework using fractional factorial analysis for understanding ROI potential in digital media across Pfizer Rx brands within the Pfizer for Living portfolio; and Helping a Fortune 100 company learn how to add TV media to their marketing mix. She carried this experience and many others to Underscore Marketing, where she was able to focus the team and her vision on helping marketers make media easier to implement and hold accountable.

Underscore’s culture is key to its healthy workplace success. It pervades all the company does and all it believes in. The company has five core values: Top-Notch Expertise, Assuming positive Intent (API), Confident Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration and Mindful Innovation.

The team carries over these values into both its brick and mortar space as well as the remote offices. Employees are given clear and descriptive printed reminders of the company’s values as they walk in the door on their first day.

Lauren believes, just knowing the values does not make a successful culture.

“We believe that core values are best realized through engagement. With our employees scattered throughout many time zones, investing in bringing employees together for all-company meetings, inter office travel, holiday events, community service, global holiday Secret Snowflakes are all important to breed happy and fulfilled employees. Throughout this all, we have learned that our employees not only like each other, but also appreciate learning from and about each other,” Lauren expresses.

Exhibiting Excellence Bequeathing the Keys to Success Underscore Marketing is a unique solutions-based media company. “Many consider it an agency because of the focus on media planning, buying and campaign impact analysis, but it’s different than typical media agency in many positive ways,” says Lauren.

Underscore was built largely out of Lauren’s own experience, working on the client marketing side of the industry. “I have built it in the direction of what I always wanted from a media partner in my former roles,” she expresses. Every Underscore media program is developed with the clients’ end goals in mind. The team at Underscore figures out nuances that no one else thinks about, because it approaches the challenge from a different angle. This makes it evident that the results are consistently stronger when Underscore compares its work with other competitors.

“My role at Underscore is to lead the aggressive growth of the company through focused positioning, operational innovation, and a culture of enrichment and evolution. I believe Underscore is the model for how media and marketing agencies should, and will, evolve in the future,” states Lauren.

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When asked about her source of motivation, Lauren says, “I gain motivation from my deep need to share what I know with people who can apply it for their own growth. This has led me to a commitment to mentorship—internally with my team as well as externally with burgeoning entrepreneurs.”

“I look up to humble people who have experienced impressive success in their area of expertise and have chosen to lend their wisdom to others rather than keep it close to the vest or flaunt it. I have met many of these people as peers in Entrepreneur’s Organization (EO), the non-profit organization I participate actively in,” she adds.

In her advice to the aspiring and budding entrepreneurs, Lauren says, “Trust your gut and keep going in the direction that inspires you. Find other entrepreneurs to connect with and seek a mentor that truly wants to see you thrive. Be open and willing to move in different directions as long as they don't change your grander vision. Whether you chose to bootstrap, raise funds or otherwise, do so in a way that doesn't compromise your values. And, remember, the business is an entity and you are not one in the same.”

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Marina Tognetti An Inspired Entrepreneur Driven by Innovation

I

f you look closely, you’ll find many similarities between athletes of extreme sports and entrepreneurs. They both are passionate about what they love i. e. sports and a business idea respectively.

They both take risks (calculated), go beyond what others are willing to do, and have the drive to be the best one can ever be. They need to get out of their comfort zone and push themselves beyond boundaries. And last but not least is persistence. They need to try again, and yet again until they succeed and realize the dream that they set out for.

On a similar notion, Marina Tognetti has always found herself inspired by such people who dare to push the limits. But inspiration wasn’t just enough for her to leave her comfort zone and venture into unknown waters.

She was nestled in her successful career that boasted of large multinationals such as Procter & Gamble, Philips, Sara Lee, The Boston Consulting Group, eBay. She also has an MBA from INSEAD and has lived and worked in different countries.

While working as a consultant on a project on internet strategy, she first saw the potential of the internet to disrupt entire industries and change forever the way businesses buy, sell or interact. Awestruck by the idea and its potential, Marina realized that she had to be part of it. That moment sparked her entrepreneurial journey and acted as a driver to start an innovative company as mYngle.

At that exact moment, she knew that

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she could make a real difference.

The Jolt after a Dream Marina launched mYngle as a marketplace, something she knew very well from her previous experience at eBay. The start was a smooth one. But the main challenge lay ahead. As Marina puts it, “When we started, we were pioneering, amongst the first to provide one-to-one teaching of all languages over the internet. We thought we got it all: funding, lots of Awards and PR, a very motivated team.

But something in the business model was not functioning as we expected.”

The toughest parts of the journey are also the most memorable in reminiscence, once you overcome the challenge. The biggest challenge was when the team had to ‘pivot’ from the initial business model to a completely different one that mYngle is today.

To set the path right, Marina and her team listened to the customers and they gave them the new direction, from an open marketplace to a quality global online school, from B2C to B2B. She says, “That was the key to success of mYngle. We now have prestigious business clients and learners all over the world, with tens of thousands of lessons given each month and 95% of learners that rate mYngle as excellent.” mYngle’s Journey so Far mYngle offers customized language training programs through video conferencing in 45 different languages anytime, anywhere. Its lessons are one-

on-one, with highly qualified native coaches and related to the learner’s job-position. The virtual classrooms enable learners to take classes 24/7.

The platform serves as a solution for busy professionals who need language training to be successful in their international business. Companies, that want great learning results and a transparent and controllable learning process to make their investment successful, find mYngle as the best bet.

When mYngle was established, it was just at the beginning of the disruption of one of the most traditional industries, that of education. So the company had to bypass all sorts of resistances—those of a still immature market—especially the stereotypes that consumers had in their minds about education.

For these reasons, mYngle has also won numerous awards as recognition for its contribution to online education.

Immediately at the start (2008): Accenture Innovation Award, European Ventures Summit Award, Benelux Venture Summit Award, and so on.

Marina, as a tech entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of mYngle, also received numerous awards such as 50 most inspiring women tech leaders in Europe, 50 most inspiring women in the Dutch technology sector, Iconic Women Creating a Better World for All and many others.

A Culture that Inspires Inspiration and happiness are

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contagious. Marina finds it extremely motivating, being part of the transition in the world of education. And as a leader, she says, “I know that me being happy and in balance gives my company the right leader able to drive it in the most difficult situations.” Her positive state of mind rubs off onto those around her.

In mYngle the management stimulates a culture of experimentation and allowing mistakes. They believe that innovation cannot exist in a culture of fear of consequences. Marina adds, “We try to develop people who think and not only do ‘jobs’. We look in our staff for entrepreneurs, people who do not keep the status quo but push themselves beyond their comfort zone.

If you try ten new things, some will fail, some will be OK, and one will make a difference. We are looking for that ‘special one.’”

Marina’s Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs “Probably the most important piece of advice I can give is to stop comparing.

The stories you read about the few that ‘got it all’ are rare exceptions and often not the full truth. Let go of all of that. Stop trying to imitate types of leadership you see around but which are not you and be true to yourself,” Marina expresses.

“I had to take the plunge. That is what makes the difference between visionaries and followers. If you don’t succeed at first, try again. Being innovative meant that there was no set path I could follow. I had to discover the way, keeping the vision clear ahead of me. Don’t always stick to the plan.

Things might evolve differently from what you had initially anticipated.

Take advantage of it,” she concludes.

To know how mYngle can help you communicate better in business, click here.

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Marina Tognetti Founder & CEO

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CONFIDENCE COMES NOT FROM ALWAYS BEING RIGHT, BUT FROM NOT FEARING TO BE WRONG” January 2020 | 35

‘‘ ‘‘ Mina Jeong Managing Director

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F

or success, apart from creating products and services that benefit customers, companies need to work on how they are perceived. A company's work and image is always under industry and public scrutiny. As the company's influence grows, so does the responsibilities on it to maintain its image. A good Public Relations (PR) campaign helps companies to get noticed by existing and potential clients and business partners. It helps them to boost digital traffic, enhance client and community engagement and improve ties within the industry. A PR campaign, as such, can do wonders when done right. And if a company wants to enter or improve their PR in the Korean market, their best bet, as per the industry, is Mina Jeong led M&K PR. Mina Jeong, the Managing Director of M&K PR, founded the company in 2002. M&K PR is a full-fledged marketing platform company. Herein, traditional PR communication expertise at the core, advertising (ATL), customer promotions (BTL) and digital capabilities were brought together to create the very best client solution at a one-stop shop.

Mina has two decades of experience in the Public Relations field since she started her career as a PR consultant in 1997. Her clients were initially global B2B tech companies that needed to raise public/industry awareness and keep a positive reputation in the Korean market.

She is considered as a reliable communications advisor by the Clients.

She has provided her expertise to senior executives, journalists and influencers regarding the local industry. Particularly multinational companies who want to enter the Korean market have benefited

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Helping Businesses Reach the Right Customers from her expertise and experience to guide their successful entry to the Korean market.

have approximately 50 staff members working with 30 numbers of clients worldwide.

As her and M&K’s reputation in the industry grew, opportunities built up to work with aspiring tech startups, like Airbnb, Shutterstock, Pure Storage, Dassault Systems and other companies that have been able to globally expand successfully. Once the team developed a positive relationship with many foreign clients, introductions to other types of clients started to flow in.

Our past and current client roster includes B2B, tech (various software, hardware + new innovations like AI, blockchain, etc.), manufacturing (semiconductors, specialty glass, telecoms equipment, etc.), gaming, consumer brands (lifestyle, F&B, appliances, automobiles) and government/public sector (patent, history preservation).

Since then, the business has expanded from tech area to consumer brands, government & public organizations.

Naturally with the digital transformation led by an age of mobile-first began to change the industry, M&K's business practices and services have grown alongside.

As the kick-starter in most of the client work, our company has a unique approach to the digital consumer journey. We provide the most effective campaigns with a focus on finding the right customer profile and increasing consumer engagement. Our creatives incorporate data-analysis based insights and latest market trends to make compelling stories that resonate with the audience. Whether it is B2B or B2C, we create the most impactful conversations between the product and customer to develop lead generation to support sales.

Recently our company has incorporated AI based tools to its digital campaigns which goes a step beyond data-driven marketing, helping businesses identify and track potential customers at a level

The following interview showcases the rise of Mina and M&K PR. Tell us more about M&K PR and your passion towards it.

I pride my company on the strength of people doing the work – striving to provide the best client service, forging lasting media relationships, swift and efficient execution based on brilliant strategies and great planning. We now

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unmatched by human experience.

How do you keep yourself motivated?

Please tell us about what inspires you and who do you look up to.

Personally, I have a drive for constant learning and growth. I look up to the clients I work with, many from Silicon Valley, seeing how they create business out of ideas and how they grow globally in an almost systemic process, it never ceases to amaze me. As I help them gain footing and grow success in Korea, I get to learn how they go global. Companies with unique corporate culture, companies with ambitious visions have gone through terrific journeys.

I'm always inspired by dynamics of the communications world. The curiosity and drive to adapt the latest trends, strategies, methodology or technology in the work we do for clients makes the work ever-changing and constantly evolving. I think that the work done by peers and challenges tasked by clients are always surprising and full of learnings and takeaways to make our work better.

Share with us the most memorable and remarkable moment of your life, in a professional scenario. Also, share with us the lowest phase of your life or the toughest deal to crack.

May 2018, when blockchain was at the peak of world attention, I had a chance to participate in New York Blockchain Week as a speaker at Women On the Block, I met many wonderful women leading work, thought and conversation in the latest technology world. I had the opportunity to publically introduce my own knowledge and experience – this was unlike any client work before. It was a moment to share my voice and thoughts on the latest technology and the change it can bring. Especially earlier in March, I had co-authored and published [BLOCKCHAIN to Master in One Night], a beginner’s guide to blockchain technology in Korean.

The book had been written on weekends at coffee shops while I was working and managing my company during week days. It was an accomplishment to be personally proud of. It had also enabled

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me to be very much involved in the Korean blockchain scene as advisor of communication and marketing strategies to many startups. Even foreign startups have seeked my advice and M&K PR became a prominent name in local market entry.

Business-wise, winning new clients are always rewarding. After long negotiations and many revisions, once a long-term contract is signed, it gives me a moment of exhilaration. Those moments are hard to forget, even if they are repeated throughout the course of my career. Each client is special and the new journey we embark together is another adventure – finding common grounds on goals and paths, seeking the critical results to impact business, making meaningful strides in the mutual course is a growing moment for both parties.

As an agency, the worst moments would be when we have to part with clients due to reasons beyond our control. Yet time has told me that, once positive connections are made, the people we have worked with come back when the time is just right.

State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership.

First, the growth of the company is one of my best achievements – from one person to 50+ staff, 20 years of accumulated experience and also sales volume is outstanding considering it was all self-made from scratch.

B2B tech, tourism, automobiles, consumer devices, consumer F&B, startups, semiconductors, platforms, materials, beauty, gaming, blockchain to AI marketing the client list is ever growing.

How do you ensure that there’s a healthy culture at the work space?

As the leader of the company, I try to become a life coach for each employee.

I aim to help every individual find a balanced life while making the best achievements at work.

myself and staff not only helps to keep a close relationship but also assures them to be confident to reach out to me directly for any issue.

What would you advise to the budding and aspiring entrepreneurs?

Challenge yourself, although attempts come with risk and you may experience failure. There is value in the trial and error process. At the end continuous tries can make the final success.

As an agency we participate in multiple biddings – even though success is unlikely. Sometimes we enter against internal staff opinions. In the process we learn in-depth knowledge about new industries and when similar opportunities arise, we find the previous experience become stepping stones to success, not isolated failures. It’s like connecting the dots to create a complete drawing.

What are the most important lessons you've learned throughout your career and would like to share?

Learning has no limits. I taught myself about cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain through hours of self-study.

It helped me challenge myself and overcome the technological barriers when helping tech companies enter Korea and vice versa.

I think that contributing to the industry is also very important, not just trying to grow in isolation. Since 2016, I was the digital committee head of the Korea Public Relation Company Association and also the vice president before becoming the current president. I am trying to contribute to the mutual development of our fellow members, always looking for ways to improve and better serve.

A personal accomplishment is becoming the co-author of two books. The books are, Blockchain to Master in One Night (March 2018) and 30 REWIND: Historical Moments with PR Insights (November 2019). I have written an analysis of the 2010 G20 Seoul Summit, a pinnacle in Korea’s PR history as one of 30 influential PR professionals.

Regular one-on-one meetings between

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