40 Influencers Under 40 October2021

w w w . i n s i g h t s s u c c e s s . c o m

VOL 10 | ISSUE 09 | 2021

Sustainable Success The Role of Influence in Leadership

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Instilling Commitment

Unlocking The Power of Persuasion

Editor’s Desk Impacting Through Influence

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am sure you all have come across numerous books, courses, and essays that talk about leadership. The one evident thing that came out from all these sources is that leadership has got nothing to do with titles.

Having a C-level title might make you a good manager but doesn’t necessarily make you a great leader.

For instance, if you are in a managerial position and are guiding your team towards successfully achieving their designated targets, you might be regarded as a good manager. But, if you encourage your team to go above and beyond, not only to complete their targets but also to transcend beyond their capabilities, then you will be known as a sound leader.

I believe that you don’t need any title to lead. If you are walking along with your team and if they are looking up to you and trusting you to guide them towards their desired goals, you have marked yourself as a great leader.

Undoubtedly, the definition of leadership has evolved through the ages. The approach and mindset that used to work earlier won’t be effective in today’s modern world.

Today, influence is the key ingredient that separates successful leaders from the herd.

Why do people see leaders such as Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos, etc., as their role models? Because they lead by example. They created a picture of what is possible.

It is certainly their influence, actions, and achievements that

inspire others to take an untraveled road and create a landmark of their own.

Influential leadership is all about making people believe in you by gaining their confidence and trust.

It ultimately creates a culture where everyone is motivated to bring their best to the table.

In this edition of “40 Influencers Under 40”, we have compiled a list of influential leaders who are setting an example for emerging leaders and entrepreneurs by being passionate, engaging, trustworthy, and demonstrating integrity.

Let’s unveil more alike and inspiring stories of such influential leaders and spread the word about their contribution to making this world a better place.

Lastly, you might come across the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CxO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have the know-how about different industries. Make sure to scroll through them, while flipping through the pages, Let’s get on board!

Sourabh More sourabh@insightssuccess.com

52 Sustainable Success The Role of Influence in Leadership

ARTICLES

CONTENTS 102 Instilling Commitment

Unlocking The Power of Persuasion

24

Leader’s Viewpoint Making the Mining Industry Safer and More Efficient for People and the Planet

32

Leadership Insights How Data is Transforming Leadership for the Better?

40

Precious Leadership The Relevance Of Collaborative Ecosystems in The New Competitive Payments Market: The Experience Of The Italian Financial Community With CBI

56

Digital Life Want Digital Transformation?

Start by Changing Minds

76

Leader’s Viewpoint When Construction Meets AI

84

Trends & Training Rethinking Traditional Training: The Forgetful Curve

96

Worthy Risks Arising Risks

16

Audie L. Chapman, II A Solution-oriented Leader in the Manufacturing Industry Ensuring Superior Products

20

Dakota Hendrickson A Leading Voice of Reason in Technology

28

Danny Sava A Savvy Veteran and an Exceptionally Dedicated Leader

36

Jared Tanimoto A Leader with a Client-First Approach

44

Jesse Parker Stowell Developing Strategic Campaigns that Interface with Consumers, Influencers, and Media

48

Joël Richer Determined to Safeguard Employee Safety

60

Kayla Russell Shaping the Future Generation of Accounting

64

Louw Barnardt Offering Specialized CFO and Accounting Services to SMEs

68

Manny Hernandez Driving Market Growth with Innovative Technologies

72

Myke Celis Helping People Become their Own #Bestmeever

80

Nick Greenfield Promoting Wellbeing of People by Redefining Oral Health Using Modern Technology

88

Philippa Dods The Ambitious Trail-Blazing Change-Maker

92

Rogayeh Tabrizi Leading Complex Science with Artful Simplicity

100

Shivani Pillay Empowering Women to Step Up

104

Zachary Garber A Trusted Advisor and a Passionate Leader

Editor-in-Chief Hitesh Dhamani Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor Sourabh More

Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

Co-designer

David King

Priyanka Rajage

Kartik Balapurkar

Shyam Sonawane

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Martin, Prathamesh

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Maneesh

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar

Research Analyst Frank Adams

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com October, 2021

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Featured Person

Company Name

Brief

Adam Cmejla President

Integrated Planning & Wealth Management LLC integratedpwm.com

IPWM subscribe to a core set of investment principles, largely dictated by the great empirical research done in both academia and at DFA.

Aliya Mohamed Head Of Public Affairs

TransLink translink.ca

TransLink brings the people and places of Metro Vancouver together.

Andrew Carnes VP of Economic Development

Partnership Gwinnett partnership gwinnett.com

Partnership Gwinnett is a public-private initiative dedicated to bringing new jobs and capital investment to Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Assaf Ben Or Founder & CEO

Greeneum greeneum.net

Greeneum is a decentralized platform and marketplace for local energy management that supports you to become energy independent and with no fossil and zero emissions.

Audie Chapman Quality Engineer

Bristol Metal brismet.com

BRISMET has been an industry leader in stainless, duplex, super duplex, 6 moly, nickel alloy and titanium welded steel pipe manufacture.

Charlotte Cain HR Manager

Continent 8 Technologies continent8.com

Continent 8 Technologies is the world’s largest iGaming data center and global network solutions provider.

Dakota Hendrickson Co-Founder & CEO

Filti filti.com

Filti distributes high-quality HVAC filters, face masks, and respirators.

Danny Sava Division Vice President

Jacobs Technology jacobs.com

Jacobs Technology deliver impactful global solutions from intelligence to infrastructure, cybersecurity to space exploration.

Dustin TenBroeck President

Presidio Capital Management presidiocm.com

Presidio Capital Management is an independent wealth management firm.

Borough of Bellevue bellevuepa.org

The Town of Bellevue was first incorporated in 1867 when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a tract of land called Sidney Bottom to Hugh H. Brackenridge of Pittsburgh and an adjoining tract, called Sandy Bottom to James Robinson of Allegheny Town.

Emily Marburger Mayor

Featured Person

Company Name

Brief

Garrett Taylor Managing Partner

Coastline Wealth Management coastlinewealth.com

Coastline Wealth Management believes in building personal relationships to lay a strong advisory foundation in a collaborative way.

James Hubbard President

Jacksonville Economic Development Corporation jacksonvilletxedc.com

The Jacksonville Economic Development Corporation (JEDCO) exists to serve the needs of existing businesses and to attract new investment.

Jamie Bosse Financial Planner

Aspyre Wealth Partners aspyrewealth.com

Aspyre Wealth Partners help successful business people to Master What’s Next® - in their career, life and finances.

Jared Tanimoto President

Ascent Wealth Advisors ascentwealth advisors.com

Ascent Wealth Advisors LLC is an Independent Registered Investment Advisor offering financial planning and wealth management services.

Jason Krein Tax Partner

RSM US LLP rsmus.com

RSM is the leading provider of audit, tax and consulting services to the middle market.

Jesse Stowell Principal

PARKER|PHOENIX PR parkerphoenixpr.com

Parker|Phoenix PR develops and executes strategic campaigns that interface with consumers, influencers and the media.

Joe Deobald Founder

Full Frame Marketing Full Frame is a complete branding and marketing agency based in Vancouver, BC. fullframemarketing.com

Joel Richer National Health & Safety Leader

Emco Corporation emcoltd.com

EMCO offers products in the distinct categories of plumbing, waterworks, industrial and HVAC.

Joshua Noonan General Manager

C.H. Robinson chrobinson.com

C.H. Robinson solves logistics problems for companies across the globe and across industries.

Ka'Neda Bullock President and Founder

Master Plan Investment Group masterplaninvestment group.com

Master Plan Investment Group is a comprehensive Wealth Management and Retirement Plan Advisory firm.

Featured Person

Company Name

Brief

Kayla Russell Practice and Business Services Manager

Palfreyman Chartered Accountants palfreyman.com.au

Palfreyman Chartered Accountants aims to provide you with advice when your business needs it – not just when you ask for it.

Lindsey Bell TitleChief Markets & Money Strategist

Ally Invest ally.com

Ally Financial Inc. is a leading digital financial services company.

Lindsey Cooksen Founder, Managing Director

Cooksen Wealth cooksenwealth.com

Cooksen Wealth is a boutique independent financial advisory firm serving affluent families.

Louw Barnardt Co-founder

Outsource CFO ocfo.com

Outsource CFO builds world-class finance functions for scaling companies.

Magaly Gomez Partner

Vaco vaco.com

Vaco delivers critical talent solutions to companies in the areas of consulting, project resources, executive search, direct hire and strategic staffing.

Mai Yang Managing Partner

Greenwald Wealth Management gwm.life

Greenwald Wealth Management helps physicians manage their finances so they can focus on their patients.

Manny Hernandez VP

Queclink Wireless Solutions Ltd queclink.com

Queclink Wireless Solutions empowers businesses worldwide by designing original IoT solutions.

Mauricio Olaiz Associate Broker

Lee & Associates Pasadena, Inc. lee-associates.com

Lee & Associates offers an array of real estate services tailored to meet the needs of the company’s clients, including commercial real estate brokerage, integrated services, and construction services.

Melissa Perlman Founder & President

BlueIvy Communications blueivy.co

BlueIvy Communications is a boutique communications and public relations agency.

Myke Celis Global Master Coach – CEO

Best Me Ever Professional Coaching Training & Development Services bestmeever.com

Best Me Ever Professional Coaching, Training & Development Services focuses on helping individuals and companies become self-actualized as they become empowered from within.

Featured Person

Company Name

Brief

Nick Greenfield CEO

Candid candidco.com

Candid eliminates barriers to orthodontic treatment and providing the highest standard of care, we empower people to change their lives.

Philippa Dods Head of Marketing

Meltwater meltwater.com

Meltwater is the world's first online media monitoring company.

Rogayeh Tabrizi Founder and CEO

Theory+Practice tap.work

Theory+Practice™ focuses on finding immediate, actionable insights with a sharp view of the client’s data assets.

Sabreena Braich CFO

Operation Eyesight Universal operationeyesight.com

Operation Eyesight invests in sustainable treatment, blindness prevention and community development activities to address specific problems as well as the root causes of avoidable blindness.

Shaun Gibbs Executive Director

South Coast Development Council, Inc. scdcinc.org

The South Coast Development Council, Inc. is a 501(c)3 private non-profit, economic development organization.

Shivani Pillay Managing director

Wicked Dips planit.za.net

Wicked Dips is missioned is to be a household name in the motor industry.

Steffi Hafen Partner

Snell & Wilmer swlaw.com

Snell & Wilmer is a full-service business law firm.

Stelian Damu Partner

Moss Adams mossadams.com

Moss Adams is a fully integrated professional services firm.

Zachary Bouck Managing Principal & Chief Investment Officer

Denver Wealth Management denverwealth management.com

Denver Wealth Management is a local, full-service wealth management firm.

Zachary Garber Vice President

Alex Brown alexbrown.com

Alex. Brown & Sons was founded in 1800 as the nation’s first investment banking firm.

40 Influencers Under 40

Audie L. Chapman, II, Quality Engineer, Bristol Metals, LLC (BRISMET)

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Audie L.

Chapman, II A Solution-oriented Leader in the Manufacturing Industry Ensuring Superior Products

T

he manufacturing sector is one of the most important sectors of all economies in the world. It is the pillar of the growth of any nation. Without a strong manufacturing sector, the development of any country cannot be wholesome and sustainable. It is only possible to provide superior products to the customers with a developed manufacturing industry, and the importance of quality engineers in creating such high-quality products cannot be emphasized enough. The role such quality engineers play in creating superior products is very significant.

Audie L. Chapman, II is one such quality assurance specialist who has made an overall impact in the manufacturing industry through his business strategies and overall leadership capabilities in finding solutions to the necessary problems that may occur during manufacturing production. He says, "when those problems occur, one has to be a great leader to solve them." He is a strong quality assurance professional with Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Grantham University.

With his profound knowledge and exemplary quality assurance skills, Audie has been instrumental in the growth of Bristol Metals, LLC (BRISMET). As a Quality Control Engineer at Bristol, he performs and implements quality assurance evaluations to ensure quality control. The company offers one of the most diverse product lines in the industry. From large diameters to gauge walls and pipe schedules to the broadest list of alloys produced and stocked in North America, it can offer one-stop shopping, customer commitment, and short lead times.

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At Insights Success, we caught up with Audie L. Chapman, II, to know more about his journey and how he has contributed to the manufacturing industry.

Below are the highlights of the interview: Brief our audience about your journey as an influential business leader. What challenges you had to overcome to reach where you are today?

My career journey as a Quality Engineer has been like any other Engineers in the manufacturing field, we are always in high demand and in a fast-paced environment. The biggest challenge I had to overcome is the ability to adapt to change at a moment's notice. Manufacturing is such a fast-paced sector to where things change by the minute down to the second. You must be ready for the change or else you will be late!

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

Bristol Metals, LLC has been an industry leader in stainless, duplex, super duplex, 6 moly, nickel alloy and titanium welded steel pipe manufacture since 1941. Our mission is to provide superior quality products to our customers while meeting our management principal standards.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

One Big value that drives our company is our overall teamwork, our commitment to Quality products, and service to our customers. Without a great team none of those values would be accomplished and met.

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“BRISMET is the undisputed North American leader in welded stainless, duplex, super duplex, nickel alloy and titanium pipe production with vast experience in providing stainless steel and high alloy solutions to projects throughout the world.”

Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your company's solutions resourceful?

Innovation is key to any business and plays a huge role in our Manufacturing sector. We embrace innovation to our

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quality efforts such as the use of High precision measurement tools in our Engineering labs and also innovation of keeping our workers safe during work hours.

If given a chance, what change would you like to bring in your industry?

The one change I would bring is to Highlight more manufacturing career awareness to young students. Many students are unaware about the great long term career opportunities that a manufacturing career has to offer. If given the opportunity in the future I would like to hold student shadow programs with our employees and company. Also, a student job fair with information on how to obtain employment for the future.

What advice would you like to give to budding leaders and entrepreneurs?

My advice would be " Always be on Time"! When you are on time that's means you are dependable and being dependable goes a very long way.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for your company?

My story is still being written. I know nothing is promised but I see myself finding new ways and new innovative ideas for our manufacturing processes.

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Dakota Hendrickson Co-founder and CEO

Fil

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40 Influencers Under 40

Hendrickson A Leading Voice of Reason in Technology

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he world has undergone significant advancements in the last few centuries. A couple of centuries ago, men on horseback rode through villages, pillaging and looting everything they set their eyes upon. Today, some of the biggest technology giants in the world enable consumers to reach billions with a few finger touches. In order to invest in this promising world we have built together, it is important for us to build systems with transparency, trust, and accountability. This is even more crucial in the world of technology, wherein sophistication often makes way for hundreds of regulatory loopholes. A voice of reason that promises its consumers a business solution like that is Dakota Hendrickson.

Dakota, the Co-founder and CEO of Filti, is not an inspiration to be trifled with. He founded Filti with a clear mission to bring highly efficient residential HVAC filter technology to millions. Filti’s patented technology took off globally. Meanwhile, Dakota worked on core operations at Filti, including building the brand, R&D for the filter, and expanding its offerings through e-commerce. However, soon after Filti launched, Dakota faced a challenge he had never envisioned – The coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic forced Filti to change its strategy to adapt to growing consumer needs, including demand for the face mask. Dakota took the challenge in his stride and changed the strategic direction for the company. Filti soon started supplying face mask material to various American manufacturers and launched an air filtration mask technology of its own. Dakota oversaw the development of one of the best air filtration mask technology at Filti, with inclusion of nanofiber that promises advancements - still a dream for many mask wearers.

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A Promising Technology Thanks to Filti’s amazing advancements in air mask filtration, the company soon supplied masks to over 40 million individuals across the United States. Furthermore, the company also partnered with various local law enforcement agencies, nursing associations, firefighting departments, government officials, and military personnel to deliver the best technology in the right hands. The company’s Grade A Respirators helped it get an ideal response as soon as it knocked on the doors of individuals and organizations in need. The story of Filti would have never been complete without the leadership of Dakota, who led the company from the shackles of the pandemic to a leading mask-manufacturer in the United States in adverse business conditions. Moreover, his leadership also established a benchmark of innovation at Filti that will likely remain irreplaceable in years to come.

Dakota remains humble about his achievements. He notes, “There is a growing need for advanced air filtration technology. People do not realize that indoor air quality due to pets and other similar reasons can be 2 to 5 times worse than outdoor air quality.” He believes this is the mission at Filti – to conquer the horizons of the best air filtration technology to alleviate a key source of suffering for individuals. The problem of polluted indoor air quality is much severe than many realize. Many people in the United States continue to suffer from illnesses like Asthma, lung problems, among others. Furthermore, the worsening quality of environment through growing wildfires has also exacerbated the air quality challenge for millions. Dakota believes the nanofiber technology of Filti is a promising solution to the problem.

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Filti’s air filtration technology is a rare breed of technologies that promise to meet the benchmark standards of the EU, with its high mechanical efficiency and growing ability to capture the tiniest of particles. Dakota expresses, “Our Nano fiber technology is at least 10 times smaller than the tiniest strand of human hair. This size allows our filtration technology to vastly superior than any other competing products.”

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A Transparent Chorus for Leadership Thanks to the tremendous advancements in Air filtration technology at Filti, the promise of its products continues to grow in commercial, industrial, and residential segments.

This is contrary to other technologies in use, including electrostatics, which attracts particles via charge. The competing technology is susceptible to water, humidity, and www.insightssuccess.com

moisture, which neutralizes charged particles. On the other hand, Filti’s technology remains a step above others and has been certified with the most promised benchmarks in technology, including the ISO 16890 certification. Dakota believes it is the need of the hour for standards like these to crossover from Europe to America to drive quality manufacturing in the country. Dakota asserts, “In ISO 16890 standard testing, ordinary mask producers need to neutralize their charges before testing. On the other hand, we don’t’ have any charges, because we are mechanically efficient in our air filtration technology.”

Dakota ends his insights in the air filtration business on a vision accomplished through vast business experience. He believes greater transparency in the industry is the need of the hour. There are many businesses selling air filtration technology to consumers, which is not par with their claims. An example of this is the MERV rating, wherein manufacturers claim a standard 11 rating when they are really testing at standard 8. However, despite the regulatory challenges, Filti keeps growing at tremendous speeds.

Dakota believes the goal for the company is to capture 5% market share in the near future. This doesn’t seem like an unrealistic goal, especially when the company has managed to create a benchmark in air filtration and continues to invest in brand building.

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Dakota also remains strongly patriotic in his mission to make Filti the leading business in air filtration technology.

He shares his patriotism with fellow entrepreneurs. “We're 100% Made in the USA, so we're trying to keep manufacturing here stateside,” he says. Only time will tell whether Dakota accomplishes all his stated goals for Filti in the years to come. However, he has led his company with a conviction, vision, and technology prowess that sits in the league of its own.

We strive to promote healthier living by providing superior air quality.

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Making the Mining Industry Safer and More Efficient for People and the Planet

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volution Mining has built a reputation for sustainability, reliability, and transparency – a strategy extending across the globe to its Red Lake Gold Operation in Ontario.

A proven record as a safe and sustainable operator sees this leading global mid-tier miner bring its vision, strategy, and discipline to Ontario – a welcome addition to help make the mining industry safer for both people and the planet.

Evolution is setting a new “gold standard” – a commitment to creating sustainable value for the communities in which it operates centres around its focus on people.

Most Valuable Asset Kirsty Liddicoat General Manager is in the driver’s seat as her team restores the operation back to a premier Canadian asset. The 39 year old has worked in mining for 18 years and is proud to share what Evolution sees as its most valuable asset and secret to cultural success.

“The mine transformation plan Evolution has in place at Red Lake balances our operational and mining discipline with our most important asset – our people,” Liddicoat says.

“Our sustainability approach means we mine gold with our employees and community front of mind every step of the way. We’re grateful to be operating in Red Lake – our approach stems from our values.

“Safety is Evolution’s number one focus– our Red Lake team is committed to living our safety value – it’s part of every job, every day. Accountability, excellence and respect

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are also central to our culture, success and support our social licence to operate.”

Red Lake gold mine has significantly expanded its capability under Evolution ownership – meanwhile the business isn’t shy about its sustainability commitment.

The successful gold miner aims to create value. A strategy adding sustainable rewards into every home in the Red Lake region.

History Since production commenced in 1949, Red Lake has produced over 25 million ounces of gold. Average grade is in excess of 20g/t. A world-class gold region Ontario’s is a history rich and proud and future opportunities are plenty.

Future In 2019 Evolution committed US$100 million over the first three years of ownership to Red Lake, and an additional US$50 million for gold exploration. March 2021 saw Evolution expand and consolidate “over the fence” at Red Lake– acquiring its immediate neighbour added processing capacity via a new mill.

“We have accelerated our ability to achieve our objective of producing in excess of 300,000 ounces of gold per annum from Red Lake. It’s an extremely exciting time for Ontario, for Red Lake and to work in Canadian gold.”

“Evolution remains committed to the region and our people to ensure a positive legacy long beyond our 13-year mine life,” Liddicoat says.

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Leader’s Viewpoint

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Environmental and social concerns remain the forefront.

Red Lake, a cornerstone asset of the ASX listed company, is where Liddicoat says an experienced and highly skilled mining workforce, who largely reside in Red Lake and Balmertown, are helping to provide regional security.

“We’re proud to support the prosperity of the region and commit to sustainable outcomes for a broad range of stakeholders including the local workforce, regional communities including Ear Falls and our Wabauskang and Lac Seul First Nation Partners.”

Safety and Strategy Evolution’s back-to-basics approach to keeping its people and community safe see Red Lake’s team focus on visible leadership in the field –underground and above it. The mine engages closely with the community. Liddicoat’s team is steered by Evolution’s values – and their boots on the ground impact positively and strategically.

Successfully acquisition and exploration opportunities extend to Red Lake management systems and sustainability frameworks.

Supporting the Region Supporting Red Lake is central Liddicoat’s team. Boosting recent local efforts to combat forest fires proves a commitment to partnerships which extend to protecting First Nations culture and local habitats.

A recent Net Zero commitment save Evolution proudly commit to actively reduce carbon across its operations. In

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July 2021 Evolution’s board endorsed a new, ambitious plan to mitigate the risks of climate change across the business and made a commitment to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2050 – recognition climate change is one of the most pressing problems facing the planet.

Evolution’s action to support climate see Red Lake lead Canada’s climate agenda -a committed to enhance itself as a sustainable operation places Evolution as one that is clean and productive for the environment and supports a healthy community.

Evolution’s commitment to align with the global goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius supports a clear plan of action. Interim targets of a 30% reduction in emissions by 2030 mean Red Lake will play an integral role.

Evolution, values Red Lake Evolution remains committed to understanding and proactively managing the impact of climate related risks to business and the environment and being innovative in tackling this challenge. Working to build climate related risk resilience in operations, communities and the environment means sound risk management processes are instilled across the business. Red Lake’s increasing success means Evolution’s focus stays on people and communities: “Evolution is proud to play a positive our role in Red Lake.”

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40 Influencers Under 40

Danny Sava A Savvy Veteran and an Exceptionally Dedicated Leader

A

chievement is a need that dominates the world.

Achieving a determined goal at a young age seems challenging. People throw away their entire life to attain heights of success. Individuals who have achieved this milestone at such early age are an inspiration.

Looking at such a focused personality is mesmerizing. In this endeavor of finding 40 Influencers Under 40, we crossed paths with Danny Sava, a Marine Veteran who served his nation for eight years.

Information Technology (IT) Planning, Engineering, and Innovation, which provided Tier 4 support to 76,000 users in over 40 locations. He enjoyed taking on new challenges and took on the proposal work for the NISSC II contract.

Through the win of the contract, he was awarded his latest position, which he is thoroughly enjoying.

In this exclusive interview with Insights Success, Danny unveils his impassioned journey.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Currently, Danny is serving as Division Vice President, Deputy General Manager, and Director of O&M, NISSCII at Jacobs, a company making the world smarter, more connected, and more sustainable.

Danny served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) from 1999 - 2007 as a Tactical Network Specialist and Data Chief. He was part of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit for four deployments, where he and his unit were part of the longest amphibious landing in history and first into Afghanistan after 9/11.

Danny was also deployed to Iraq three times and supported the march to Baghdad. The experiences he had in the Marines prepared him for everything he has encountered in his roles at Jacobs.

Danny started his career with Jacobs as a Personal Computer Technician at Marine Special Operations Command (MARSOC) and then moved to Project Manager at Naval Special Warfare Command. He went back to Afghanistan supporting the Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Organization as an Information Assurance Manager (IAM) and then finally ended up at the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). He held several positions, including Systems Architect and Director of

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What were the challenges you came across throughout your journey?

The biggest challenge was striving for promotions but always missing one of the requirements, such as certifications. Getting out of the military, certifications were not as valued back in 2007 as they are today. After being rejected several times, I made it my mission to be overqualified so my boss could never say ‘no’ again.

Being an experienced Information Technology Lead what is your opinion regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Engineering Industry? And how has Jacobs managed to overcome this significant challenge?

The impact affected raw material supply, disrupted the electronics value chain and of course, inflation of products.

I had a COVID outbreak of 40 personnel earlier this year, so I also had to deal with crisis management to support 24x7x365 operations.

Jacobs has excellent relationships with our metal partners, original equipment manufacturers and a variety of valueadded resellers, which resulted in our supply chain being impacted much less than others. We were fully staffed on our NISSC II contract during the outbreak, which resulted

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Danny Sava, Ph.D., Division Vice President, Deputy General Manager and Director of Operations & Maintenance, NISSC II, Jacobs

Dr. Danny Sava and Mr. Marcus Neal (Jacobs Director of NSOCC-A) being awarded Dis nguished Young AFCEAN Awards, 2019

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NISSC II Leadership team in from of the Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Complex, Colorado Springs, CO Mr. Clarke Moyer, Mr. Bill Johnson, Mr. Doug Cook, Mr. Clinton Aus n, Dr. Danny Sava, and Mr. Greg Stevens

in being able to maintain the mission and not experience any outages.

What people, what books, what life factors have influenced and impacted you?

The best influences I have had were my family being supportive of me throughout my entire life. I am very close with my parents, and I still depend on them for guidance and life decisions.

My wife has supported me through my military career, 10 years of deployments, multiple degrees, certifications, and she has always stood by me and encouraged me no matter what. My kids were always patient with my late nights and educational mood swings. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

Dr. Danny Sava, Jr., Mrs. Julia Sava, Ms. Alyssa Sava, Carol Sava, and Danny Sava, Sr. at family dinner 30 | October 2021

The most influential book during my career has been ‘Leading Geeks: How to Manage and Lead the People Who Deliver Technology’ by Paul Glen. Not every IT professional is the same, and this book helps leaders to understand how to motivate, reward, understand, and mesh with a variety of technical backgrounds.

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“I approach everyday as an opportunity to learn something new” The next big innovation I am hoping for is that the Department of Defense (DoD) will adopt virtual reality technology like, the Oculus as an all-in-one platform for accessing multiple systems. We use technology like a KVM switch for multiple enclaves but using an Oculus could provide benefits with being able to see all systems simultaneously while keeping separation within the technology.

We have too many systems and not enough time to go back and forth to process the data so any solutioning for ease of access and better display would be impactful to those outside of the DoD as well.

Mr. Clinton Aus n and Dr. Danny Sava providing a free AFCEA membership at a Jacobs Networking Event In what ways have you or the company contributed to the community? If given a chance, what change would you bring in transformation of Program and Construction Management, with IT Management?

For my own team, we work very closely with the local community. We have completed fundraising efforts for students needing school supplies, adopted senior citizens in recovery and provided them essentials and Christmas presents, and donated toys during the Christmas in July event for kids in the recovery ward.

We are heavily involved with AFCEA, where we complete a variety of fundraising efforts to support scholarship opportunities for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) for future generations.

What have you envisioned for your organization’s future, with regards to your role at Jacobs and for your personal ambitions as well?

I have my expertise in areas of project management and IT, but the great thing about working with a diverse workforce is that they still teach me something new and that is why I enjoy coming to work.

The best thing about my position is that I have learned different aspects of business management, finance, security, and over 80 different types of labor categories on this contract. I have been included in business development and proposal writing, which has allowed me to help the company win almost 3 billion worth of work.

All these efforts support my growth within the company and my ability to move into new roles in the future. My next goal is to become a General Manager with my own contract that I can build from the ground up.

Jacobs, as a company, has donated over 2.1 million (FY19) to support a variety of charitable organizations and has a special program in place where employees can recommend organizations for Jacobs to support.

According to you, what could be the next big change (technology/innovation) in the Scientific Research & Testing industry?

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bout a month ago, post a presentation to the Managing Director of one of India’s leading corporate groups, we were pleasantly surprised by his inferences and interactions. Inspite of being made aware of too many missed opportunities and impending challenges in our presentation, his reaction was very accommodative and positive. He congratulated his team for their contributions which had got the company to its present position, while taking the responsibility for all the inadequacies. We had read in management books about exemplary leadership qualities but have never heard such words spoken in any board room.

What made this person act this way were hard facts and data which corroborated business decisions. As organisations get more data oriented, data is freely available to all in the organisation. Every decision and its impact can be measured thus making management and each executive more accountable.

The biggest transformation which technology will bring in is accountability, the corollary: every action is measurable and its impact can be predicted with data. Today, it's easier to simulate different scenarios and understand business results better

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by changing any input variable. Thus, with data we have ability to analyse and thus the ability to take better decisions. The opportunities to analyse are limitless so are the possibilities to grow.

Predictive analytics is how some of this would be referred to as well as modelling. With data sciences being at the core of every activity, businesses are moving towards AI. Routine activities done by people are being replaced by algorithms. Very soon people are going to be expected to deliver more value than routine.

Robots are replacing manpower to cut costs and increase precision but we still need people to program the robots and innovate on products and processes.

Jobs have evolved from mechanisation to automation to artificial intelligence.

Organisations are being forced to think more and then do more, thus people will need to be trained continuously and keep them future ready. Human resources dept. is one of the functions which will need to play a very active role in improving human capital.

Considering that most of our tasks are driven by data and information one thing is certain that one cannot continue to deliver if one doesn’t adapt to technology and an understanding of interpreting data.

CEOs, CXOs or MDs aged above 45years are from an era when programming and computers made an entry in their colleges. They have excelled in processes, innovation, financial acumen but are they fully equipped to manage this information deluge and digitise their business?

Most organisations sit on tons of data but are unable to understand why they are failing or succeeding in certain areas. The ability of an organisation to deliver is limited at times by those who understand business, take decisions but may not be not strong in using data as a tool. While those who are strong in analytics do not understand which areas in business need to be analysed to identify issues. This gap will eventually get bridged as people learn or change. But today data analysis is often doubted.

When we say data and technology, they are enablers and a resource. The ability to use them to deliver high performance rests with the user.

However top management needs to demand the use of data in decision making. Only when there is a culture to support decision with data will decision making improve.

Few years ago, it used to be said in board rooms that we can’t wait for the data and its analysis as that would

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Leadership Insights

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delay the decision making. Decision was made on a hunch or by the power of the chair. However, in the last few years all functions and roles have mostly been digitised so the trends and numbers are available online provided we know what to look for.

Taking a cue from the various new age business whether its e-retailing, ecommerce, delivery integrators or data management and social media they have been forced to develop algorithms to survive and grow. They trace the customer journey at every point and map it. As their business is online it has been easier for them to

Tarun Khanna

Managing Partner Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP

34 | October 2021

track and capture customer loss real time. This is what will rule customer retention and behaviour. If an online customer is not happy, he gets on a chat or just clicks on customer feedback that he is not happy. A trained call centre executive calls him and settles the complaint immediately. This is something the brick-and-mortar industries are yet to understand and implement. The future of any business is defined by their ability to gain and retain customers with an exceptional customer experience.

ecommerce going forward. Thus, there will be an increased expectation of service and response from the customer and consumer who have been exposed to this medium. They expect issues to be resolved as they occur, they want a good experience or rather no glitches.

Are we designing an organisation which can offer such services, if not then customers’ expectations will lead them to make different choices.

Post the pandemic it is clear that the preferred medium of commerce will be

Vineet Trakroo

CEO Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP

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40 Influencers Under 40

Jared Tanimoto

CFP®, Founder & President

Ascent Wealth Advisors

36 | October 2021

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Jared Tanimoto A Leader w ith a Client-FirstApproach

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here have been false implications in the financial industry for years where people disguised themselves as financial advisors, but in reality, are brokers in disguise, wolves in sheep's clothing. They are known for putting the interests of their employers and themselves well above the interest of the clients they serve.

Sounds scary, right? What if I were to tell you that recognizing these flaws, one man separated himself from the herd, leaving all the sales commissions and incentive bonuses behind to become a pure fiduciary financial advisor? Would you believe me?

Executive Financial Planning program at The Graziadio School of Business at Pepperdine University.

Departing himself from such traits and system, Jared Tanimoto, a Certified Financial Planner®, started his financial firm, Ascent Wealth Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm, in 2017, utterly focused on client-first approach.

Jared has influenced the financial industry with his involvement in the Financial Planning Association. He is also the current president of the Orange County Chapter (FPAOC – Financial Planning Association of Orange County), a 500-member group of financial planners in the area.

Before stepping into his entrepreneurial drive, Jared worked with several large wealth management firms and time at a private hedge fund that managed the money of some of the wealthiest families in the country.

As the Founder and President of Ascent Wealth Advisors, Jared helps people prepare for retirement, families navigate retirement, and achieve financial clarity by implementing a unique and custom-tailored financial planning process combined with institutional quality wealth management.

Apart from helping clients, Jared can be found outdoors carrying fun activities with his lovely wife Paige, daughter Quinn and dog Grace (Schnoodle). He is very fond of backpacking and mountaineering to rock climbing, spearfishing, and skiing. He also plays golf when he seeks a little relaxation.

The Challenges

Jared has spent a considerable amount of time helping other advisors transition from the insurance and brokerage industry to the RIA side of the industry. After seven years at multiple insurance broker-dealers, he ventured to find his firm. He expresses his struggles, "It's been a challenge to go from the side of the industry that was driven by commissions and incentives to become a fiduciary advisor where I no longer can accept any commissions.”

Accolades

The firm operates under the fiduciary standard and never accepts commissions, kickbacks, or other incentives meaning its clients' interests always come first, even if doing so results in lower compensation for the firm. The firm is also part of the Financial Planning Association (FPA), National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), Fee-Only Network, and the XY Planning Network (XYPN).

Personal Life Jared is a proud graduate of The University of California, Irvine (UCI). He studied Business Economics and the www.insightssuccess.com

Jared has been featured in various media such as Forbes, Money, CNN Money, NerdWallet, Investment News, and other publications for his financial expertise. He was also nominated to Investment News' 2021 Top 40 Under 40 list for his accomplishments and contribution to finance.

Effective Contributions With countless hours dedicated to the financial planning profession and as the president of the FPAOC, Jared has helped run an organization that contributes to several professional areas from development, networking, practice October 2021 | 37

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A better approach to retirement planning.

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management. The organization also contributes towards continuing education of Certified Financial Planners.

Upholding Values Ascent Wealth Advisors is a fee-only firm with a mission to provide fiduciary advice where employees' recommendations are not affected by the way they get paid.

Jared believes that there is a difference in an advisor motivated by products versus the advisor or financial planner driven to provide the best value and service because it's the right thing to do. Ascent Wealth Advisors provides excellent planning and advice to its clients.

At the Forefront of Technology Technology has made people's lives more accessible, and Jared experienced these changes firsthand for many fintech as an early adopter and beta tester. As an RIA, he can implement new software and technology at a quick pace that allows him to provide more value to the clients.

The Change, The Future, and The Guidance Everyone wishes to make the world a better place, and its starts with you. Learning from his various experiences in the financial industry, Jared would love to make the industry a clear distinction between being a fiduciary and a salesperson because it's too easy for commission-based professionals to pretend to be the former.

Jared aims to help as many individuals obtain their financial goals and positively impact other advisors and planners in the financial industry. He advises budding and upcoming leaders and entrepreneurs to do the right thing for clients 100% of the time, and everything else will fall into place.

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The Relevance The New C

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ver the last years, the global payment landscape has changed faster and more dynamically than ever.

The pandemic has shown that the future will be digital. partnerships between newcomers and incumbent players are based on innovative technologies that are considered as enabler of new cost-efficient business models.

The main change that PSD2 has introduced is based on the concept of “open banking”, that forces banks to share their customers’ account information with the so-called third parties. Therefore, this new economic paradigm allows customers to refer to a variety of banking and non-banking players, including Fintech and Big Tech, to get financial services.

Liliana Fra ni Passi

Managing Director

CBI

40 | October 2021

Considering this revolution, banks are evolving through regulation and digitization to a new era which is based on open data. Needless to say, data are the fuel of new economic models.

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Precious Leadership

of Collaborative Ecosystems in Competitive Payments Market: The Experience of The Italian Financial Community with CBI With the publication of the EU Digital Finance Package (September 2020), the European Commission has set a new ambitious roadmap to strengthen the competitiveness of EU financial sector. In doing so, it aims to facilitate access to innovative financial services while ensuring consumers’ protection and market stability.”

Within the EU Digital Finance Package, the EU Digital Finance Strategy and the EU Retail Payments Strategy set several objectives and priorities that the Commission intends to achieve by 2024. It also includes legislative proposals on market in crypto-assets (MiCA), to pave the way for a regulated use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the financial service sector, and the digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA) to better manage ICT-related risks in the financial domain.

In this dynamic and competitive environment, focusing on pure regulatory compliance is the most short-sighted strategy with the less chances to be successful. In order to maintain a high degree of competitiveness, banks have to develop value-added services, also building partnerships with other players to cover their service gaps. This scenario encourages the creation of ecosystems, where different players cooperate with a coordinated approach to create an innovative offer that meets customers’ needs and guarantee interoperability among stakeholders in the payments market.

In Italy, CBI (www.cbi-org.eu), a Public Limited Consortium Company comprising around 400 Payment

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Service Providers (PSPs) as shareholders and customers, facilitates the establishment of collaborative ecosystems.

By operating from a Business-to-Business-to-Customer (B2B2C) perspective, CBI enables the Public Administration, the financial industry, enterprises, and citizens to easily communicate.

CBI operates as the hub of the financial industry promoting technological innovation and digitalization. Over the last 20 years, CBI has realized standards, IT infrastructures and digital services to the benefit of the Italian financial community and the Public Administration. These functionalities include the CBI and CBILL services and CBI Globe (www.cbiglobe.com). The latter is an APIpowered Reg Tech Platform, which supported 80% of the Italian banking system to meet the operational requirements imposed by the PSD2 and develop services beyond compliance.

CBI Globe allows banks to securely share their customers’ online bank account data with more than 180 domestic and foreign TPPs. The platform has facilitated, so far, the evolution of the Open Banking market in Italy: since its launch, CBI Globe has registered more than 130 million API calls.

After having overcome the “compliance phase”, banks have started partnering with Fintech and start-ups to further innovate their business models, offering services that go beyond the mere “banking” products. In Italy, banks have

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About the Leader Liliana Fratini Passi is the Managing Director of CBI S.c.p.a, an interbanking company that develops cross-border digital payment services focusing cash management, for all banks, and the Public Administration.

She performs a variety of roles, including those of Independent board member of listed companies; UN/CEFACT (United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business) Vice-Chair of the Pay Section of the International Supply Chain Programme Development Area and liaison Rapporteur of the UNECE to the ISO Technical Committee on Financial Services (ISO TC68); Italian Delegate for UNINFO of the ISO 20022 Registration Management Group (RMG).

Over the years she is the author of articles and papers that have been published at the domestic and international level. She is also a keynote speaker and an opinion leader for digitalization, e-payments, open finance and gender diversity. She has been selected by Forbes Italia amongst the most "100 influential Italian women of 2021" and she was nominated among the "Inspiring Fifty Italy". begun operating as Account Information Service Providers (AISP) and Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISP) thanks to the updated offer of CBI Globe, which implemented in 2020 an active functionality to allow financial intermediaries to play the role of TPPs. Through the new functionality, PSPs can reach the whole Italian banking community and main pan-European financial intermediaries.

Over the last few months, the service was made available also to the private sector. Hence, corporates and utilities can use Check IBAN to verify the IBAN and Fiscal Code or Vat Number of the clients wishing to subscribe to a service or to sign a contract. The service will enable corporates to optimise internal processes and strengthen the safety of corporates and end users, thus improving the user experience.

This new phase also coincided with the Covid-19 crisis, which paved the way for a fostered digitalization around the globe. The opportunities stemming from advanced technologies have induced CBI to develop Open Finance value-added services to support public governments and the private sector in carrying out their activities, despite the international health and financial crisis.

Taking into account the new trends deriving from Open Finance, CBI is also developing other data-based valueadded services, including Smart Onboarding and other functionalities currently in progress. The goal is to support collaborative innovation for banks and other intermediaries, so that they can offer value-added services to the Public Administration, Corporate and Retail customers. In the new Open Finance scenario, the competition shifts from a domestic to an international context, facilitating the birth of new global market players, and relativizing large banks the dominant positions. The challenge will be to guarantee the interoperability and connection among all stakeholders to ensure the implementation of a level playing field based on the principle “same activities, same rules, same risks.”

Thanks to the participation of the Italian banking community, CBI launched in 2020 CBI Check IBAN, an API service that allows public governments and corporate to check online the data (IBAN code and fiscal code or vat number) provided by a natural or legal entity to obtain a fiscal bonus or subscribe to a service. Thus far, the public administration has performed more than 5 million checks to guarantee the correct disbursement of economic resources to citizens and corporates suffering the financial consequences of the Covid-19 crisis.

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Jesse Parker Stowell

Principal Parker|Phoenix Public Relations

44 | October 2021

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40 Influencers Under 40

Jesse Parker Stowell Developing Strategic Campaigns that Interface with Consumers, Influencers, and Media

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he field of public relations is all about building relationships, sending the right message at the right time, and strengthening the bond between a brand and its audience. And it takes courage, ability, and eloquence to drive strong campaigns for brands that will increase awareness and drive their sales. You can find all these traits in Jesse Parker Stowell.

colleagues provide a hands-on, personalized client experience.

By getting to know the community and making connections between parties that want to serve the overall good, Jesse has been able to create public relations campaigns that raise awareness and funds for non-profit organizations around the country.

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

Jesse is a Principal at PARKER|PHOENIX Public Relations. But this isn't how it all started.

Jesse began his public relations journey with an internship at a Lansing-based PR and lobbying agency. He worked at a few agencies during college before settling in at an entertainment and lifestyle agency that he worked at for 13 years. The biggest obstacle for him was maintaining the stamina to stick with the job in New York City. 6 am call times at the Today Show followed by 2 am meetings over cocktails with clients and reporters at a nightclub. In 2015, he decided to take a step back and focus more on strategy, and shortened his client list by starting his own agency in Austin, Texas. Now, he continues to work closely with clients, working smarter, not harder.

From interning while at Columbia University to directing publicity for billion-dollar brands, Stowell and his

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We, at Insights Success, caught up with Jesse to know how he is helping brands increase awareness and drive sales.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

I work with clients to tell their story to the largest audience possible. Because I can pick my own clients, I work with people that want to be a positive contributor to their community, and as an agency I follow the same model.

Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in your respective industry through your expertise in the market?

I have been able to create PR campaigns that raise awareness and funds for non-profit organizations around the country.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

Parker Phoenix PR is dedicated to reliability and accountability to our clients, the media and our community.

We represent our clients to the best of our ability, consult with them on the best way in which to engage the media and develop and execute campaigns that better serve the

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By offering consulting services for media relations, special events, influencer seeding, strategic partnerships and social media, Parker|Phoenix Public Relations provides solutions to clients that will increase awareness and drive sales.

Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your company's solutions resourceful?

Technology has changed the media landscape from a handful of print outlets to hundreds of online outlets and social media influencers. We have had to streamline communication strategies to focus the message. I help my clients come to the table with everything they need to tell a clear story through every channel available.

If given a chance, what change would you like to bring in your industry?

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community, whether regional or global. Because we are a small and flexible firm, we can choose clients that make an impact, even if they don't have a high budget. The satisfaction of getting a story in a major outlet that gives a voice to underrepresented groups is one of the best feelings a publicist can have.

If I could change one thing about the public relations industry, it would be for its professionals to be more representative of the diversity of our clients.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for your company?

I'd like to continue building Parker Phoenix PR to serve brands and organizations based in Austin. As the city continues to grow and take a bigger role on the global stage, I'd like to be that voice for my community and show the world what a great place Austin is and will be.

What advice would you like to give to budding leaders and entrepreneurs?

I would advise any young entrepreneurs to take a risk. Have confidence in your work, but know what you need to improve upon. Use your network to build your business and don't be afraid to take the jump to do your own thing.

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Joël Richer

National Health & Safety Leader Emco Corporation

48 | October 2021

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40 Influencers Under 40

Joël Richer Determined to Safeguard Employee Safety

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n this volatile business world, a few companies genuinely embrace change and encourage new teammates to become leaders and challenge the status quo, which is what Joël Richer sought when he interviewed at Emco Corporation.

Joël is the National Health & Safety Leader at Emco, where he is determined to oversee the Health, Safety, and Wellness program for over 2500 employees across Canada.

He coordinates with Profit Center Managers across the nation helping them to become more efficient by streamlining operations and putting controls in place to protect their assets, people, and customers.

Joël has influenced numerous people in his life and continues to do so with his sheer dedication through his work. His hard work and perseverance gained him the knowledge and experience to improve his expertise in Risk Management and Health & Safety.

In our endeavor to find 40 influencers under 40, we at Insights Success came across Joël Richer and got into a conversation to know in-depth about his journey as the National Health & Safety Leader and unveil the distinct possibilities in the near future. Let's dive in straight away.

Let “ Your

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Imagination Soar.

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The Journey So Far Joël worked at a publicly-traded bank in accounts receivables and compliance for seven years while completing his Masters Degree in History. He wanted a change and kept searching for an organization to utilize his analytical skillset, ambition, and work ethic to help them reach their goals.

While interviewing for the role of Internal Auditor, Joël realized that Emco Corporation would be his home for a long time as the Core Values of the company and investment in its people resonated with what he was seeking. He took the job as an internal auditor looking for ways to improve efficiency, maximize profitability for Emco's local business units, and minimize risk exposure.

Over the years, Joël has played multiple roles in the organization, and after five years, he was designated as the National Health and Safety Leader. At the time, Emco's Health and Safety program was adequate, but there was a real need for leadership to create better awareness, alignment, and involvement to reduce risk, and most importantly, keep its people safe. As someone who grew up with a father left permanently disabled and unable to work from a workplace injury, Joël understood the ripple effects that workplace accidents could have and wanted to approach the development of a best-in-class Health and Safety program in a non-traditional way.

Joël is focused on enhancing the National Health and Safety Program. Once there was alignment on the need for action, he started implementing small changes over time that have led to significant reductions in recordable injuries, better awareness, improved inspections, improved training completion, safer work environments, and improved overall H&S culture.

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Joël expresses that perhaps his lack of expertise, rather than his specialization in some areas, allowed him to have the greatest impact in his industry and organization. Joël's initiatives to make organizational improvements and find ways for Emco to be more efficient and successful were not married to some philosophy or learned process. It was based on gut, building relationships, and looking at things strategically to understand where challenges were present that could be eliminated.

A Secure Work Culture Joël states that Emco's number one strategic priority is the protection of all teammates, which is reflected by the organization's safety mantra: 'No One at Emco Gets Hurt.'

From a business perspective, this mindset is extended to the organization's Core Values and Key Business Principles, where the philosophy is based on 'creating a safe environment to take the risk.' Emco prides itself on creating a high-performance culture by encouraging leaders to emphasize building their Dream Teams composed of S.W.A.N.'s (Smart – Works Hard – Ambitious – Nice).

With all initiatives, Emco consistently reinforces the goal of moving from Reactive to Proactive, from Tactical to Strategic, and from Compliance Mindset to Culture Shift.

Mission and Vision Emco's mission is to be the first choice for its partners, business and homeowners, neighbors, and communities.

Emco strives to provide world-class service at every location, every day. Its legacy goes back a century! And, today, it continues to offer the people, places, and products to back those commitments up.

Emco's vision is total customer satisfaction…always. Emco believes every customer's needs are important and unique, and it uses this as a guiding principle to stock its shelves.

Impactful Approach Through Different Perspective As the one member of the internal audit team without a formal business/financial educational background, Joël was often able to approach challenges and decisions from a slightly different perspective, which may have helped create some balance at times of crucial decision making.

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Emco's key business principles drive the organization forward. Its decentralized model allows its local leaders to think like owners and develop unique go-to-market strategies based on their respective client bases. The model also allows its local leaders to have the freedom to make independent business decisions with respect to almost every facet of their business. Everything from product mix to marketing to customer mix is decided and managed at the local level.

Leaping Ahead with Technology Joël expresses that technology is evolving at a blistering pace, and this reality has impacted all industries. As a leader whose key stakeholders are internal clients, leveraging technology to make processes more efficient and increase profitability through time savings and cost reduction is important.

Notably, Emco has recently invested in a new ERP to allow the organization to have better connectivity and effectively future proof. It has also taken the step to modernize a few of its outward-facing technology through investments in a

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self-service portal where customers can view and pay invoices online or on mobile.

continually invest in themselves, work hard, be ambitious, and, most importantly, be authentic.

These technological innovations allow Emco to align with its evolving customer needs for speed and efficiency.

Furthermore, on the Health and Safety front, it is investing in better data analysis to understand its underlying risks better and make value-added and targeted investments in safety.

“The key to success is building powerful alignment with others, and to do that, you must be approachable, genuine, and stand for what you believe is the most progressive path forward in both business and life," concludes Joël.

The Long Run Joël sees himself being involved in initiatives that help Emco minimize risk and maximize profitability by supporting its people and local leaders. In business, there is a constant need to evolve and be nimble to thrive, adds Joël.

He sees himself and the organization finding ways to focus on initiatives that will help them remain ahead of the curve and provide value to their customers.

Leading the Up-and-Coming Entrepreneurs Joël advises budding leaders and entrepreneurs to

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Sustainable Success

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INF UENCE in The Role of

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EADERSHIP

he ability to influence people around us is an essential leadership skill. Influence differs from power, manipulation, position, or control over others. It is about inspiring attitudes, behaviors, and choices to understand what motivates employees to perform better and using that as pre-existing knowledge to drive positive results, fantastic contribution, and peak performance. Being a trustworthy and exemplary leader helps influence others and make a positive impact on them. The level of influence goes on increasing with an increase in trust.

To succeed in the business world, leaders should have the ability to influence and inspire others to take specific actions that will benefit their organizational growth and development. Among different leadership styles, leading with influence is one of the most significant styles that assists the leader's opinion be valued by others only if the leader is trustworthy, credible, and exemplary. Leaders build trust by establishing credibility. The foundational elements required for establishing credibility are integrity, good intent, competence, and proactivity. Leaders can deliver fantastic results with their outstanding capabilities with these foundational elements.

Influential leaders are honest; they communicate their intentions, they have competence, skills, and knowledge to get the job done proactively. Their competitive and proactive nature helps them have the edge over others and influence others with their credibility because of their ability to deliver greater results. They engage with others and build a good connection with their team members and employees and bring out the best in others with their positive influence. They involve their employees and team members in making important decisions or proposing changes. They push their employees to capitalize on their inner strengths and potential to contribute their best for the organization's cause.

Today's business leaders understand the need to involve, connecting and inspire others in their organization to achieve remarkable feats in the industry. When they lead with an inclusive approach, these leaders can naturally

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influence others, and employees also reciprocate with their leaders by contributing to achieving organizational objectives most diligently. Influential leaders don't order people, but they motivate, train, and inspire others to perform better and deliver profitable results. They have great skills to unite people for a common cause for completing various projects and addressing the needs that need to be addressed most effectively.

Influential business leaders tap the potential of all the resources and are very good at consensus building. They inspire commitment from others for great causes and achieve remarkable results and great organizational intelligence. They are very clever at influencing others to get the job done most efficiently. They encourage their team members and employees to be more innovative and creative for achieving tangible business results. They leverage their network to empower themselves and their employees.

Business leaders can influence others with their good intentions and proactive actions. The harmony between their intentions and actions makes them even more influential and helps them contribute something meaningful to the industry. Influential business leaders are openminded. They demonstrate openness to utilize the skills and expertise of their employees for the cause of the overall business growth and development. Leaders who practice accountability by delivering results and meeting all the stakeholders' needs can create more significant influence.

With these influences, they can gain more credibility and can achieve greater organizational success.

Influential leaders can change or transform the minds of others to achieve organizational objectives. Good leaders equipped with great influencing ability can drive transformational change in the organizations for the tremendous success of the organizations. They use their influence to inspire others for more incredible actions, make strategic decisions, launch new initiatives, and drive positive organizational change. They drive higher profitability and sustainable success for organizations they lead with their positive influence.

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Digital Life

Want Digital Transformation?

Start by Changing Minds

- By Patrick McCreesh

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About the Leader Patrick McCreesh, Ph.D is the Managing Partner of Simatree, an advisory practice focused on Strategy, Technology, and Change Management. They harness the strengths of exceptional people to help clients transform their organization and build modern solutions. He is also adjunct faculty at George Mason University and Georgetown University.

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cross the globe, many organizations quickly adapted to the pandemic and moved their teams, their supply chains, or their distribution to a new digital platform. This process continues today as the global economy drives toward a more digital mindset through digital transformation. Digital transformation is the use of technology to strategically redesign the work or customer interactions of an organization. Each time an organization goes through a digital transformation, there is one central challenge – adoption. How will the organization adopt and use new digital assets? Will the company adopt the new technology and yield the expected gains to the bottom line?

Or will the employees resist the new technology delaying the delivery of goods, services, and business objectives?

The real question is will people change or will they get Stuck?

member’s “operating system.” It’s an attachment. We all have tricks and habits that get us through the day. Maybe it is how we respond to emails, how we communicate with others, or even just little things we do throughout the day like a favorite chair or beverage. All these objects or behaviors develop in our intuitive brain and come with certain memories, emotions, and learnings that created that attachment. When we are asked to change one of them, the response we have is a biologically driven emotional response triggered by the attempt of someone to change our MEL. How do we help people through a digital transformation understanding this biological phenomenon? There are four concrete suggestions that any digital transformation leader can do to reduce the reaction and increase adoption:

My colleague Victoria Grady and I have compiled over 20 years of research in a forthcoming book called Stuck: How to WIN at Work by Understanding LOSS (Routledge, March 2022). The central finding of our work is simple, people don’t actively resist change, instead they have a deeply rooted biological reaction that influences change response.

The change takes away something that they expected be there and, as a result, it disrupts their behavior in the workplace. A technological change can yield anxiety, reduce productivity, and can lead to withdrawal or even attrition by employees. And it is all biologically driven.

1. Speak to Logic and Emotion – We know that people create attachments with memory, emotion, and learning; but we often try to get them to change with logic. It just doesn’t work. Changes need to be presented as both logical for the business AND have some connection to the positive emotions of the team member. If a manager knows that someone on the team strongly supports the mission of the company and wants that mission realized, then talk about how the change supports the mission. If the person focuses more on family and homelife, find ways to describe how the change helps them spend more time with their family (e.g., efficiency).

The brain is reacting to the loss of MEL. This is a Memory, Emotion, or Learned behavior that is part of the team

2. Create a Prototype of the Future – Sometimes digital transformations can seem abstract. A key leader may

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describe all the “value creation” or the “enhanced efficiency.” These words have meaning, but they can be hard to connect with the brain. Instead, it is important for digital transformations to provide a real view of the future.

Sometimes, that is an actual view – a prototype – that helps team members feel and touch a digital reality rather than just hear about it. This will help shape and adjust emotions through new learning and memories.

3. Define the Transitional Space – Often in the shift from the current work to a future digital state, there is an inbetween period. This transitional space can be leveraged to ease people into the transformation. When our brain is moving from something we know and love to something unknown, we have a desire to play with the idea and create new solutions. With strong information-sharing and constructive guidelines, leaders can develop a transitional space that encourages co-creation of the change. Without clear information, the team members may fill in their own transitional space with rumors, conjectures, and the worstcase scenario.

4. Help form New Attachments – The shift from a current set of attachments to a new system requires that people create new attachments. Luckily, there is a tool to support this process. It is called a transitional object and it can be used to help someone address their own uncertainty and connect with a new system. Unlike the advice around messaging above, these are tangible objects that a team member can hold on to during the change. Often new system rollouts come with some sort of give away or

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knickknack. The right object can help someone deal with the uncertainty of the new system by giving them a tactile object to associate with the change.

As companies move through the uncertainty of a third year with COVID, we will continue to see digital transformations that re-shape businesses and industries.

Each digital transformation has expenses and an expected outcome to enhance productivity for the organization.

However, without the right adoption that yields effective use of new technology the cost has been a waste. It is not about the technology, but how people interact with new technology in a digital space. The only way to drive the effective adoption of digital assets across many people is to help each person change – one brain at a time.

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Kayla Russell Chartered Accountant Prac ce & Business Services Manager Palfreyman Chartered Accountants

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40 Influencers Under 40

S

everal aspects are essential for every microenterprise, and one of those aspects is better accounting. A reliable accountant can assist these enterprises to focus on the larger goals without worrying about their account management. Chartered Accountant Kayla Russell is an award-winning leader who mentors a talented team dedicated to their clients. She is the Practice & Business Services Manager at Palfreyman Chartered Accountants that offers unique and tailored accounting plans for micro-enterprises.

We at Insights Success caught up with Kayla in our endeavour to find '40 Influencers Under 40.' We got into a conversation to know and understand her approach to each business and how she contributes to achieving the firm's goals.

and grow her leadership skills. She says, "I feel it is important to surround yourself with the right kinds of people and build each other up. That's not to say it has been easy, it has certainly been hard work, but it's that sort of mindset that is willing to do the work that will get you there eventually.”

One of the biggest challenges for Kayla is to alter the perception among clients about her technical abilities. As a younger female, it can be difficult to be seen as a knowledgeable professional; some business owners weren't convinced of her abilities. Kayla always tries not to take offense to this and instead takes a more proactive approach to offer her assistance where possible and work on building those relationships of trust. This has certainly paid off and seen a shift in perceptions and created amazing relationships with her clients.

Let's delve in!

The Synopsis of the Firm The Build-up till Now It can be challenging to establish yourself as a business leader when commencing your career. Kayla thinks the factors that helped her create this type of trust and build relationships were dedication and initiative in her work.

These elements, coupled with being innovative and having a genuine desire to help her business clients and work with the firm to solve their problems, helped set her apart.

Palfreyman Chartered Accountants is a small business specialist with a strong focus on educating its clients to help them grow their business and succeed in their goals. Its professional, customer service-focused approach to meeting and exceeding client expectations is what sets it apart. It takes a holistic view to ensure that all aspects of its clients' business are considered and catered for.

Valued Contribution

Kayla has been extremely fortunate to work with an amazing leader in the firm's principal, Simone Palfreyman, who has been extremely supportive and presented her with the opportunity to step up and take on these responsibilities www.insightssuccess.com

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Inclusive Work Culture Kayla expresses that Palfreyman's workplace culture is one of support and inclusivity, with the main driving factor behind it promoting a healthy work/life balance. It maintains an exceptionally high level of quality in its work and prides itself on excellent customer service values.

Palfreyman's team members are valued and appreciated. It regularly calls upon them to provide insight and input into workplace practices and actively improve the workplace.

The firm's workplace is based on a holacracy system where everyone's input is considered and encouraged.

part of her role. The firm specializes in small business, which often asks to deal with clients with limited financial acumen. That means Kayla must explain complex tax situations in a language that is easily understood. She focuses on education and encourages personal and professional growth in her clients and those she mentors in the workplace. She aims to increase confidence through knowledge and empower those around her to take greater control of their businesses or careers.

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Implementing Technology for Better Proficiency Palfreyman’s is always searching for ways to improve efficiency for its practice management and its clients' businesses. Kayla states that as small specialists, the firm centres its approach on educating those it mentors to take greater control of the businesses, and innovative technologies have made this process much easier.

Through providing one-on-one training, Palfreyman’s can break down the processes for clients and give them that feeling of empowerment, which enables the team to focus

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on more complex advice rather than data processing. Its practice uses cloud accounting, digital document signing portals, and electronic work papers meaning that it has adapted to the ever-changing world due to the global pandemic rather seamlessly. Using these systems also assists in the firm's commitment to the community through a more environmentally friendly approach with less printing, thus helping to reduce its carbon footprint.

Setting Up the Future Kayla's long-term goals are to continue servicing the needs of her clients and improve their lives through educating and empowering them with the confidence to take control of their business and achieve their goals. She wants to create greater awareness of the importance of emotional intelligence in her industry and see a shift in client perceptions with more positive interactions and relationship building.

Kayla aspires to help bridge the knowledge gaps surrounding our taxation system for the younger generations to equip them better to enter the workforce with confidence. She wants to continue building her firm's reputation as the best small business specialist. Kayla hopes to mentor the next generation of young leaders to ensure Palfreyman’s can reach more clients.

Effective Guidance Kayla advises budding leaders and entrepreneurs to invest in themselves. She says, "Spend your time and energy on improving yourself through self-reflection, education, and personal growth. It's a long-term investment that will really pay off if you're willing and open to change.”

"Do you know why in the aeroplane safety speech they say you must secure your own mask first? It's because if you can't breathe, you won't be able to help others, and I feel this is so true in so many aspects. Make sure you look after yourself so that your BEST self will show up willing and able to help others," concludes Kayla.

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Louw Barnardt

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Outsourced CFO

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40 Influencers Under 40

Louw

Barnardt

Offering Specialized CFO and Accounting Services to SMEs

T

he business world consists of a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises. These enterprises play a crucial role in shaping any country's economy by having a massive foundation of innovation that is beneficial socially and economically.

However, these micro-enterprises often find it difficult to manage finance and seek consultants, which can be hectic and hard to understand.

A finance professional and Chartered Accountant, Louw Barnardt found a loophole in the finance system and, together with his trusted associates, ventured to co-found Outsourced CFO. Louw leads a team of talented individuals as the Managing Director.

Louw’s aim at Outsourced CFO (www.ocfo.com) is to help clients build world class finance functions for their growing companies.

Louw expresses that it was quite a challenge to find solid offers and convince clients with decades of experience in the industry. As a 25-year-old, it was interesting to find a solution based on his qualification over experience. Since then, Louw and his team bolted out, winning trust from one client at a time while creating a strong leadership team.

Another core challenge Louw came across was talent sourcing. Outsourced CFO is a people-centric organization that invests in its culture and core values to find the right individuals to join the team. It always strives to provide a very high-quality professional to its clients to work with them on their organizations.

Achieving Professional Excellence Louw states that Outsourced CFO offers various services to its clients, including its three core offerings viz., CFO services, cloud accounting, and automation.

The Entrepreneurial Journey Outsourced CFO was incepted to provide a better access level of finance professionals or CPA level finance resources to help SMEs grow and expand, as these companies cannot necessarily employ full-time CFOs.

It offers CFO services for funded companies to help them grow and scale. Cloud accounting provides bookkeeping, reporting, accounting, and technology for entrepreneurs to understand and access numbers. Lastly, automation service is for system integrations. It has a systems team that helps clients to navigate the different cloud systems in the operating environment to ensure a smooth and streamlined flow of information in which the finance function can flourish.

These resources would help them build companies on a more fractional basis. Over time, the company implemented innovative strategies to roll out vital accounting support functions for its clients.

Louw’s team ultimately builds a world-class finance function for entrepreneurial companies and identifies their roadmap towards scalable infrastructure to help his clients' companies grow and succeed.

We at Insights Success got into the conversation with Louw to learn more about his journey and how he has contributed to the finance space through Outsourced CFO.

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A Strong Impact in Entrepreneurial Market Louw and his co-founders started the company keeping entrepreneurs in mind and knowing that these companies can help create economic growth and jobs, ultimately leading to a social impact. He pushed the boundaries regarding how his business model works and its technology to be at the cutting edge of running a business.

Initially, Louw didn't know that their team itself would become a core element of their impact. However, over time, he understood that each person joining the team is an essential part of Outsourced CFO's impact in terms of career growth experience, the learning journey, and personal development. Louw and his team ensure that each person experiences a great company culture where they can flourish, be their best, and grow faster as a person and professional individual.

Value-Driven Culture Five core values drive outsourced CFO, and Louw ensures that every person he employs, lives, and breathes these values. Ÿ Family First: Clients and Colleagues are treated as a family with respect and are looked after. Ÿ Excellence: Striving to do the absolute best for the client with ultimate excellence. Ÿ Integrity Matters: Maintaining a high standard of molarity and ethics. Ÿ Switch-On Thinking: Pushing boundaries of the industry by thinking outside the box. Ÿ Growth and Success: Aiming to grow together at personal, organizational, and client levels.

‘‘

‘‘

Rethink, Automate, and Scale.

technology development in the finance industry.

Setting Up Future Goals Louw and his team have set a big hairy audacious goal (or BHAG) to reach 10,000 founder-led companies over the next ten years, empowered by a team of 1000 professionals.

“We feel that this would really make a dent in our universe.” And it's not just about numbers. They are dedicated to building a flourishing team, raving fan clients, and only doing sweet spot work. He also states that the company would achieve its goal sooner with the current growth rate, strategies, tools, and tactics.

Embrace to Lead Louw suggests fellow entrepreneurs stay resilient, keep at it, and keep figuring better ways to carry out tasks. He asks them to find out what changes are a must and meet the demands to stay relevant and don't give up easily.

He says, “Technology is changing the way finance is being done, and it's also changing the way companies work. It is a must to embrace technologies. I would want to challenge leaders, entrepreneurs, and finance professionals to make sure that you stay on top of technology. It is developing and changing the world so fast that if you don't follow suit, you might find yourself on the wrong end of the train.”

“Whether you lead a company or a team or anything else people are what it's all about. You do business with people at the end of the day. So, make sure you invest in relationships, and you invest in networks as much as you can because that ultimately lifts the journey onwards and upwards as you move,” concludes Louw.

Louw says that progress is happiness, so he ensures that every person who works with him experiences a developing journey.

Leveraging Technologies Louw thinks that the way cloud technology and the accounting industry are developing at a rapid pace creates some very exciting opportunities to spend less time adding more value per professional, which is super exciting for clients. He wants to stay at the cutting edge of cloud

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40 Influencers Under 40

Manny Hernandez

Vice President of North America Queclink Wireless Solutions

Manny Hernandez Driving Market Growth with Innovative Technologies

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ong before Manny Hernandez was the Vice President of North America at Queclink, he was a product manager and one of the bright minds leading the national launch of the first 3G+4G device. His team was leading the technological frontier that would set the course for the Internet of Things.

His work has enabled others to provide contributions that accelerated the world’s fastest mobile internet speeds, and today, those speeds are now 100 times faster than it was in 2008.

TechCrunch reported on the first 4G launch event where former Sprint CEO Dan Hesse marveled at the technology, saying, “This is the first of its kind device that allows our customers to take the internet with them wherever they go.”

It was an understatement then –, and this product launch would bring to life a new industry and a new era of mobile data communications that would embed itself into the fabric of our lives, culture and drive new economies for cloud services, automation, and telematics.

Manny never thought that he was a fit for the position because he was not formally trained in Product Management. Manny was fresh out of college - he served in the US Marine Corps as a logistics manager and worked in the finance industry before joining Franklin Wireless during the Great Recession in 2007.

The company made an excellent choice as Manny would eventually sign deals with Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner, Clearwire, and Google. During Manny’s time at Franklin Wireless, the company experienced a wild run-in revenue, growing over 10,000% from $2M in 2007 to over $100M in revenue by 2011. Under Manny’s product leadership, the company earned the 18th spot on Deloitte’s Fast-500.

We at Insights Success caught up with Manny Hernandez and congratulated him on the honor of being selected 40 Influencers Under 40. We now see the result of Manny’s contribution through the new embedded machines, smart appliances, sensors, and more than 10 billion devices worldwide.

Below are the highlights of the interview: IS: Thanks for joining us, Manny. So, let’s jump into it, how did you go from a product manager to a VP at one of the largest GPS companies in the world? And what challenges did you have to overcome to get to where you are today?

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Manny: Getting to a specific title became less relevant as I matured. At the beginning of my career, I wanted to become an expert at just about everything relevant to my industry, so I started to learn new skills on my own. I was constantly trying to figure out what I didn’t know. I was fortunate enough to pick up a few good books that helped elevate my understanding of business and finance. After many years of doing a series of different projects and seeing the cross dependencies of each role, it became easier for me to establish my value as a functional leader that can empower managers to drive results.

I think the challenge that I had to overcome was my expectations to move up fast. While it only took me about 5 to 7 years to be proficient in my ability – it took me longer to gain actual experience in execution. So, in total, it was about ten years before I was effectively equipped with the decision-making and execution skills I needed, and that was very difficult to cope with until I was able to accept that I needed to wait for the right time in my career to move up.

IS: Looking at the beginning of your career, for someone that had no previous experience with engineering, how did you overcome the experience gap?

Manny: I learned to be a better listener and ask only a few good short questions. I realized that a lot of my former peers would waste a lot of time asking questions to busy engineers, and it might have appeared that they were too lazy to look for the answer or too inexperienced. I guess that I was able to figure things out before I asked any questions – not always the best method, but it worked for me at the time.

IS: Now, you are leading the North American market at Queclink. Could you tell us what that’s like? What’s your mission in the market?

Manny: I love it. I have been in this industry for quite a long time, and I feel that Queclink has the best portfolio and the most experience to do well in this business. I have to depend on my experience to help us deliver a consistent experience. My mission at Queclink is to be a good and reliable vendor for our clients. I am committed to creating a better OEM experience by improving the onboarding process with our devices, improving operational communications, and enhancing forecast planning.

IS: Describe in detail your values and the work culture that drives your organization.

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“A connected future where everything is online.”

At Queclink, we are a family of people in over ten countries that are committed to achieving a like-minded goal through ethical means. I think that means a lot since we are a global company.

IS: So, in terms of running a successful business, what makes that a successful operation?

Manny: I’ve adopted the idea that you need three things to operate a successful organization - people, process, and product. I believe that you need all three. I think it’s obvious why companies need good people and good products, but a company without a process fails to deliver.

IS: What advice would you like to give to budding leaders and entrepreneurs?

Manny: As a culture, I believe in three things: honor, courage, and commitment – it was taught to me in the Marine Corps, and I hold myself accountable to it. It’s simple for me to explain it to people because if you have honor in what you do, you can be courageous in doing what’s right and hold the commitment to see things through.

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Manny: To be a good leader, you should be a great follower; it may seem backward, but nothing will offset the experience you need to see how you respond to other leadership styles. Teach yourself, read some books, learn how to find lessons in your failures before pointing at someone else’s failures. Ultimately, there is no tradeoff for the experience; you have to polish your skills before you can use them effectively.

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Myke Celis Global Master Coach - CEO

Best Me Ever Professional Coaching, Training & Development Services

72 | October 2021

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#

40 Influencers Under 40

Myke Celis

Helping People Become their Own #Bestmeever

M

eet Myke Celis a professional life coach and a CEO at Best Me Ever Professional Coaching, Training & Development Services. Myke is a whole-hearted person and a life changer who believes in celebrating the life journey and works towards achieving dreams for the people. He has transformed many lives by teaching life lessons to become overall better individuals.

He is an open-minded and optimistic professional with a wealth of knowledge in coaching and self-improvement.

We, at Insights Success, caught up with Myke to know more about his journey and how he is helping his clients gain clarity, overcome limiting beliefs, become empowered within, and achieve their biggest goals.

Below are the highlights of the interview:

Brief our audience about your journey as an influential business leader. What challenges you had to overcome to reach where you are today?

As I look back now, I think majority of the challenges I encountered were based on my internal battles. I used to struggle with the feelings of not being good enough and unworthiness and for quite some time, even if I was already achieving success in what I do, I felt empty and incomplete.

I remember how I used to question myself and my abilities, which led me to compare myself with others more, something that held me back in the process.

When I managed to resolve all of those issues with the help of my own coach, I began to reap the desired results I wanted in life as I allowed myself to be my authentic, unapologetic, grandest version of myself: my own #bestmeever.

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What’s interesting to know, as I redefined my own concept of success and live the life, I have always wanted in the process of embracing who I truly am, the things which used to bother me e.g., competition, changes, judgments from others, taking risks – they all ceased to exist because I finally became comfortable with being uncomfortable as I stepped outside of my comfort zone.

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

My coaching company, Best Me Ever Professional Coaching, Training & Development Services focuses on helping individuals and companies become self-actualized as they become empowered from within. Hoping to become one of the top coaching companies worldwide someday when it comes to self-empowerment leading to selfactualization, I look forward to empowering celebrities, top executives and highly successful people, become their own authentic, unapologetic grandest versions of themselves: their own #bestmeever, as they grow personally and professionally into the person that they’re meant to be.

Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in your respective industry through your expertise in the market?

I have always been considered a disruptor in the industry.

You see, I was the first-ever openly gay professional life coach and international bestselling author to be given a chance to represent the coaching industry not only in Philippine media as a subject matter expert but rather, globally as I speak in conferences and be interviewed by various international media outfits as well.

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When I was starting, I remember wanting to give the LGBT community a voice and a representation in the coaching industry because I advocate for inclusivity and equality, a battle which I had to face while growing up. And I am quite fortunate that during my journey, people have looked beyond my gender and focused on the real value I could give as a professional coach and mentor.

Now, seeing how coaching is fast growing as an important discipline in the Philippines, I can’t help but smile upon realizing how a dream can spark so much change in society as I work alongside other mental health professionals to

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ensure that people become mentally fit in a world where no one gets left behind.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

Authenticity, Integrity, and Success. Three core values that I hold close to my heart and that I share with my coachees and mentees. I have always believed that being true to oneself, coming from a space of self-love and acceptance, allows one to come up with inspired work grounded on honesty. As an advocate of becoming, one’s #bestmeever, excellence is always expected as each one gives 100% in all that he/she does/become to ensure that success, no matter how that will look like, becomes within reach.

A positive working environment that supports empowers and inspires is one thing that I implement in my space so that everyone within comes from a space of love and joy – something crucial to their growth and to my company’s success. I always take to heart that at the end of the day, if I am able to help my people grow personally and professionally happily, then they will also be able to contribute greatly to my company’s success.

If given a chance, what change would you like to bring in your industry?

I’d like to have an official international regulating body for coaching because as of the moment, there is none if I am not mistaken. I believe that as a fast-growing discipline, certain standards have to be met and practices have to be streamlined accordingly. I do appreciate the presence of the International Coaching Federation and the way they uphold the highest standards of coaching for their members. Maybe someday it can become a recognized global regulating entity for coaching on its own.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for your company?

I see myself running my own bed and breakfast coaching place by the beach, hopefully in Boracay, holding coaching retreats and workshops there for local and international clients. I also see myself and my coaching colleagues putting up our own Coaching University, that will offer coaching certifications, specializations, and even degrees, if possible, to aspiring professional coaches, in a highly structured manner, with core subjects and electives accordingly.

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René Morkos

Founder ALICE Technologies

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Leader’s Viewpoint

When

Construction

Meets

T

he construction industry has historically been one that has been slow to embrace new technologies.

The "tried and true" is precisely that, and general contractors and owners both have long been inclined to stick to products and processes they know.

But doing so has not been to the benefit of those building our bridges, airports, and office buildings, nor to the people who ultimately depend on those essential structures. In relying on "old school" tools, general contractors regularly miss their commitments. According to McKinsey & Company, large construction projects are typically completed 80% over budget and take 20% longer than originally scheduled. These are striking statistics for a sector representing 10% of global GDP. The good news is that we've seen a remarkable increase in the amount of venture capital investment in constructionfocused technologies in the last few years. In turn, this has led to the formation of a host of promising startups focused on solving different construction problems via technological innovation. From robots that install drywall to drones that inspect the quality of welding on oil and gas pipelines, these emerging technologies are helping contractors to build faster, cheaper, and less risky.

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AI

Artificial intelligence is a technology that can drive significant change in how things get built. AI is already prolific in other sectors. In the security sector, it is used to detect potential financial fraud and to secure our airports. In customer service, AI-powered "chatbots" are efficiently processing customer inquiries, helping consumers to do everything from changing a flight time to making a bank transfer. And in law, AI systems are quickly reviewing documents such as non-disclosure agreements, flagging potential problems with greater accuracy than humans, and in a fraction of the time.

In the construction world, startups are targeting different use cases and different phases of the construction process.

For example, Versatile.ai uses images that it captures from crane-mounted cameras, in combination with an AI engine, to compare actuals vs. plans and help companies determine how their projects are progressing. These data-driven insights are extremely useful as Versatile.ai users work to boost job site performance.

At ALICE Technologies, we began with an intense focus on the preconstruction phase. Traditionally, when developing construction schedules, general contractors have used a product called P6 -- originally created decades ago -- as well as tools like Microsoft Project and even Excel. With

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these tools, developing schedules is a long, laborious process. And given their labor-intensive nature, such solutions make it very difficult for contractors to do any "what-if" experimentation to try to find more efficient ways to build. With ALICE -- an AI-powered simulation and optimization platform built specifically for the construction industry -- contractors can do all sorts of experimentation into different potential building paths. Does it make sense to add another crane to our equipment mix? If we run a framing crew overtime on Sundays, is the increase in speed worth the investment? ALICE makes it easy to experiment with numerous different ways to build -- and to pick the one that best meets a client's business goals. It's an approach that reduces risk while simultaneously helping the contractor to trim build times and costs.

With the introduction this year of ALICE Manage, we're also helping companies to monitor their progress against

their initial schedule. And, if (or when) circumstances change along the way -- think of a materials delay, a labor strike, or even a global pandemic -- customers can use the power of AI to instantly revise their plan and get their project back on track.

Construction companies embracing such new technologies face organizational and process challenges as well as technical ones. After all, building a robot into your workforce or using AI to create thousands of potential construction plans in an afternoon is wildly new, and companies need to invest time working through the people issues associated with such changes. But for companies willing to make an effort, the outcomes can be extremely rewarding. They can meet the promises they've made to customers while simultaneously reducing their risk and boosting their margins. It is a tantalizing future -- and it is here now.

About the Author René Morkos is the founder of ALICE Technologies and teaches at Stanford University's Ph.D program in construction engineering. René obtained his Ph.D. in arti cial intelligence applications for construction as a Charles H. Leavell fellow at Stanford. He is a second-generation civil engineer with over 15 years of construction industry experience divided between industry and academia. René's professional experience includes working as a project manager in Afghanistan, underwater pipeline construction, automation engineering on a $350 million gas re nery expansion project in Abu Dhabi, ERP system implementations, and various Virtual Design and Construction projects.

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Nick Green eld Promoting Wellbeing of People by Redefining Oral Health Using Modern Technology

H

igh-quality orthodontics should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It was this idea that inspired Nick Greenfield to start Candid, a company that is redefining oral health by using modern technology to help deliver human-focused care.

Nick’s skills really lie in pinpointing what’s missing from the current market offerings, finding solutions to the problems with those offerings, as well as bettering their own offerings, and scaling strategically and sustainability.

He has always been a pioneering leader who keeps on finding superior solutions to everyday plights.

Candid works exclusively with orthodontists and has developed technologies that allow it to offer outstanding remote care, reduce the need for multiple in-office visits, and drastically cut down on the cost of treatment.

Delivering High-Quality Orthodontic Treatment at Affordable Cost Nick mentions that historically, orthodontics has been an expensive in-office treatment, often not covered by dental insurance. But Candid is reinventing orthodontics to be accessible and affordable without compromising on patient care or clinical excellence.

Nick’s career journey began at Lyft, where he was one of the first employees. There, he helped launch the service in eight markets, from San Francisco to Washington DC. Since then, he has been involved in a number of start-up ventures throughout his career, including Paribus (acquired by Capital One), where he served as COO for two years.

Candid does it largely through its AI-driven CandidMonitoring™ telehealthcare solution, which allows orthodontists to check in on the progress of their patients’ teeth remotely, at anytime, anywhere to ensure that their teeth are following the course of the treatment plan.

Shortly after co-founding Candid in 2017, Nick helped start Redesign Health: a venture studio focused on building the next generation of healthcare companies. It has raised $250 million since its inception and has 25 companies and counting in its portfolio that has been ideated internally and launched from scratch.

Candid is leading the industry by allowing orthodontists to deliver excellent care without the additional hassle and cost to the patient. Its telemedicine delivery system has allowed it to be a leader in delivering high-quality orthodontic treatment at a price point that is much more accessible to consumers without sacrificing quality.

Facilitating Exceptional Orthodontic Care

Most recently, the company launched CandidPro: its “orthodontics-as-a-service” offering designed specifically to help dental and orthodontic practices drastically increase their number of the new case starts while generating the single-most profitable per-chair-hour procedure. With CandidPro, Candid is able to bring its learnings from DTC into the dental practice to offer low-cost, accessible, and

Candid is on a mission to democratize safe and clinically superior dental healthcare and facilitate straighter, brighter, healthier smiles across the country. It believes that everyone should have access to exceptional orthodontic care no matter their location or socioeconomic status.

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40 Influencers Under 40.

Nick Greenfield Co-Founder & CEO Candid

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affordable clear aligners to patients geared in remote monitoring.

Building Business Ripe for Disruption As the first-ever orthodontist-directed telehealth company, Candid is building a fairly new type of business in an industry that is ripe for disruption. It has had the opportunity to make its own rules and build a team filled with folks who possess an undeniable passion for the work on both an individual and company-wide level.

Candid values out-of-the-box thinking, determination, and desire to do more. “We have seen this play out in a number of ways, including employees driving hours out of their way to meet with doctors in the Candid network or a group of colleagues traveling down to Mexico City to visit our philanthropic partners at Smile Train, all to get that inperson experience and interaction,” says Nick. Candid’s team members throughout the company take on this responsibility to learn, without prompt, to pursue their own passions and interests.

“At Candid, CandidMonitoring makes it easy to take scans of your teeth and track your progress from home.

Your scans are reviewed to optimize your treatment and also evaluate your overall oral health.”

Updating Both Clinical and Experimental Aspects of Technology As a telehealth-first company, the bulk of Candid’s care is provided remotely. Therefore, the company relies on its advanced technology to support its orthodon sts and pa ents through each clear aligner treatment. When pa ents come into Candid’s studio, it u lizes a cu ng-edge dental imaging system that simultaneously records 3D, intraoral color, and NIRI images to get the most accurate informa on possible to create its 3D-printed aligners. .

Candid’s remote monitoring technology is unlike anything else on the market – it utilizes a patent-pending remote monitoring system (CandidMonitoringTM) and its CandidApp for patient-doctor communications and tracking treatment progress. It continues to update both clinical and experiential aspects of the technology to ensure patients are achieving the best possible outcomes and emerging their most confident selves.

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Providing Affordable, Safe, and Superior Dental Healthcare From the very beginning, Candid’s goal has been to provide affordable yet safe and clinically superior dental healthcare.

This is because it did not believe the options available on the market were meeting these standards - they were either less effective but affordable or highly effective and extremely expensive.

Candid does not believe that patients should be excluded from high-quality dental healthcare based on location or socioeconomic status, especially since our oral health can greatly affect our overall health, primarily the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. So, the company’s goal has always been to be that change in the industry by giving anyone and everyone access to its care.

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Expanding Range of Products and Services Nick expresses that there are a lot of opportunities for innovation and growth within both the dental care and telehealth spaces, and he has a lot of exciting plans for Candid, including a few strategic partnerships and expanding its range of products and services.

Candid has more studio location openings in the works and plans to one day expand beyond the US to bring its methodology to the global market.

Advice to Emerging Ones In his advice to emerging entrepreneurs and leaders, he says, “Starting a company is all about learning from your failures to make the product better. If you have an idea, test it out. Look at the market and ask ‘Does this exist already?’ and if not, determine whether there is a hole in the market that needs to be filled.”

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Rethinking Traditional Training: The Forgetful Curve

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Trends & Training

P

icture this scenario – you are sitting at a computer in the breakroom, preparing to take your annual trainings. The acrid smell of slightly over-cooked microwave popcorn permeates the room (butter flavored, if you were wondering), and you hear a page for a department that is thankfully not yours. You click “begin” and the pixelated, tinny sounding video from the 80s pops up telling you all about sexual harassment. Your eyes glaze over immediately as you disengage: if they’re going to make you watch this outdated content, your attention can’t be that necessary anyway.

Even in a more ideal scenario, research tells us that within 1 hour of receiving training, the average person will forget 50% of what they learned! Within 24 hours, 70%; and within one week, 90%. In education circles this is called the Forgetting Curve (Murre, 2015). With better engagement levels, more knowledge can be retained, but the numbers are still stark. Employees will forget most of what they learn, despite corporate training being a $60 billion industry.

Why does the Forgetting Curve exist? At any given moment, your brain is receiving thousands of bits of information. Smells, sounds, sights, feelings, aches, pains, nerve impulses, and much more is flooding our brain. The brain simply makes a note and ignores unless we bring our mental focus and attention onto it. The training your employee is listening to is one of those bits of information flooding their brain with all the other messages. Experience the phenomena yourself with this test, seen by almost 25 million people as of this writing.

So, is training a lost cause? How do we make our content stand out amongst all the other impulses, so we can flatten the Forgetting Curve? The first step is avoiding distractions – reducing the information going to the brain that is distracting it from your training is the first step. The second is engagement, when an employee is actively engaged with training they will retain more. The third key to the puzzle is focus. Neuroscience studies show that when an individual is intensely visually focused on something, it greatly reduces all outside stimuli from distracting the brain.

Finally, Ebbinghaus (2013) and Murre (2015) found that when information learned is repeated there is a “savings measure” where the amount of time to learn the information

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a second time is 20-25% less than the first. Repeated measures can increase this time savings. This tells us that repeat trainings will be more efficient at relating information and can also increase retention of the information.

Also consider projects and tasks that force the employees to utilize what they have learned, which will help them understand and retain the learning being presented.

Explicitly stating the connections between the learning and the task being given will also increase the retention and help to flatten the learning curve. Father of modern educational theory, John Dewey, explains that when we learn from experiences, we make forwards and backwards connections, and the process of experiencing becomes the learning (Berding, 1997). This theory helps inform how to create quality adult learning – interactive and creative experiential trainings that require experiential elements and scenarios that require the learner to reflect and engage.

This tells us we need training that is both mentally engaging and visually engaging enough to help the employee to focus, and that it should be done in an environment free from distractions. In the modern workplace it can be difficult to achieve all of these, as training is often thirdparty purchased and can be bland or generic. Consider a specialized training provider, such as in2vate LLC, which utilizes all of these concepts for engaging training delivery.

About the Author

Dr. David Epstein, Ed.D is the content manager and instruc onal designer at in2vate, LLC. He is also a project manager, eLearning developer, curriculum writer, researcher, and web designer.

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To me, the most important thing is to have a positive impact in the world. So find your purpose,lead with integrity, and always strive to give back. This fuels energy and success.

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Philippa Dods Head of Marke ng Meltwater

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40 Influencers Under 40

Philippa Dods The Ambitious Trail-Blazing Change-Maker

here are plenty of women doing incredible work in the tech industry all over the world, while making space for others at the top. One of these women, who caught our attention here at Insights Success, is Philippa Dods.

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Future Females Foundation works to combat gender-based violence and discrimination. We work on tech-enabled, community-driven initiatives that are safe, scalable and sustainable, to eradicate gender-based violence and support, upskill and empower survivors.

Philippa is the Head of Marketing for Africa at Meltwater, the global leader in media intelligence. Here, she is responsible for the strategy development and execution of marketing initiatives and integrated campaigns across the continent.

All my life, I’ve been passionate about achieving gender equality.

She is also the co-founder of Women In Tech, a Meltwater initiative created to build a mutual learning exchange, resulting in progressive female leadership on a global basis.

In her spare time, Philippa runs Future Females Foundation, a nonprofit organisation fighting to eradicate gender-based violence and discrimination.

We caught up with the philanthropic businesswoman to learn more about her journey.

I want to see equal representation of women across all industries, I want to shorten the gender pay gap, I want all women to be free to choose to be who and what they want. I strive to create equal opportunities, and to open doors for women who come after me. I work towards gender equity in business, entrepreneurship, politics, sports and society. And I aim to combat gender-based violence and discrimination, which is why I launched Future Females Foundation.

That’s amazing. I’m sure both must keep you busy!

How do you juggle both?

It helps that I’m passionate about the work that I do, and that I’ve aligned my personal values with the company’s.

Below are the highlights of the interview: Philippa, congratulations on being selected as one of the Top 40 Influencers Under 40! You’ve had an influential career so far. Can you tell us more about the work you do on a day-to-day basis?

My full-time day job is Head of Marketing at Meltwater, for the African region. I oversee the marketing activities and campaigns across all 54 African countries. Meltwater is a global media intelligence company - the software helps clients track their brand reputation, manage social media campaigns, and understand industry trends.

It’s such an exciting industry to be in. I’m so grateful to do work that I love in a space that is really at the forefront of big data, innovation, social media and analytics.

I recently launched a nonprofit organisation (NPO), called Future Females Foundation, which I run in my part-time capacity, separate from Meltwater.

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Meltwater is a global leader in media intelligence, a major player in the tech industry and a publicly-listed company.

It’s so exciting to be at the forefront of media intelligence and innovation. I’m enthusiastic about marketing and the impact that it can have on brands, businesses and the bottom line, so love what I do on a day-to-day basis.

It also makes it easier to work for a company whose values you align with. Meltwater’s core company values are Moro, the Norwegian word for “fun, enjoying what you do” Enere meaning “number one / average just isn’t good enough,” and Respekt, meaning “respect, treating all people with respect and humility.” These values are strongly aligned with my own personal values.

Future Females Foundation has five core values; which we hold true to the centre of everything we do, every action we take and every decision we make: Compassion, Advocacy & Social Justice, Diversity & Inclusion, Peace, and Big, Bold & Brave.

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We’re here to make big, bold, brave moves. We’re here to talk about what scares us, the uncomfortable. We promise that everything we do is rooted in and will come from a place of compassion. We are passionate social justice fighters, who value diversity and inclusion, and will take peaceful forms of protest and action to create a nonviolent world in the future.

These are strongly linked to my personal values, too.

Can you tell us about the initiatives you’re running at Future Females Foundation and how our audience can get involved or help?

We are currently running the Future Females Foundation Financial Independence Program, a three-month program for survivors of gender-based violence in South Africa.

During the course, they learn practical skills: sewing, beadwork and garment production, as well as financial literacy, entrepreneurial and business skills, so that they can start their own businesses, become financially independent from abusive partners, and find financial and emotional freedom. During the program they also get access to trauma counselling sessions and motivational talks, to rebuild their self-confidence.

advancements and blazing the way for the rest of the industry.

A recipient of several awards including being voted as the number 1 Media Monitoring Software by G2 Crowd subscribers, Top 50 Best Products for Marketers 2020, Best Company for Happiness, Best Company for Women, Best Career Growth and Best CEOs for Women, Meltwater created a huge impact in the tech world.

I believe the internal Women In Tech initiative that you co-founded at Meltwater has had a big impact on the company too. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?

More women in the workplace is proven to increase profitability.

In fact, gender diversity helps to make companies more successful in every aspect, including better employee retention rates, broader talent pools, more creativity and collaboration, enhanced customer experience, as well as more revenue.

Yet - women are still largely underrepresented in the STEM industries (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), specifically tech.

We are also running Consent Workshops for school boys to teach them about sex education, and consent. We believe that prevention should start early in life, by educating and working with young boys and girls to promote respectful relationships, sexual health and education, and gender equality. Working with youth will help us to achieve a sustainable way of preventing and eradicating gender-based violence.

So, I joined forces with two colleagues who feel just as strongly about gender equality, and we co-founded Meltwater’s Women In Tech.

Please reach out to us if you’d like to get involved in any way, help, donate or volunteer.

Via active participation and support, together we hope to build a mutual learning exchange, resulting in progressive leadership on a global basis.

Technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make Meltwater’s software solutions resourceful?

Meltwater has more than two decades of experience, 55 offices across six continents, and a company culture second to none, that has contributed to the brand becoming a global player.

Meltwater leads the way in strategic acquisitions that help us stay ahead of the curve and improve our overall product offering of software solutions. We’ve completed 10 acquisitions over the past 3 years, and we are dedicated, as a company, to staying at the forefront of technological

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Women In Tech was launched to create a digital community within the Meltwater organisation to share ideas, continue learning, and be inspired, to create a safe space for employees to talk about topics that genuinely matter.

We host quarterly global, online events, where we invite fellow inspirational women leaders in tech to share their advice and wisdom with those trying to breakthrough the industry for the better.

What advice would you like to give to budding leaders and entrepreneurs?

To me, the most important thing is to have a positive impact in the world. So find your purpose, lead with integrity, and always strive to give back. This fuels energy and success.

To learn more about the work Philippa does, or to contact her, visit www.philippadods.com

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Rogayeh Tabrizi

Founder and CEO Theory+Prac ce

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40 Influencers Under 40

Rogayeh Tabrizi Leading Complex Science with Artful Simplicity

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ver the years, leadership has changed to meet the requirements of modern times and ever-changing business landscapes. Rogayeh Tabrizi has cultivated a team that practices honest and open feedback and developed an environment where continuous learning and curiosity is rewarded. Leading this type of environment allows Rogayeh and her team to ask the right questions to ensure Theory+Practice drives value for their clients.

Through her lens of physics and behavioural economics, Rogayeh noticed the business world was approaching data from a data-first perspective whereas she saw the true potential of data strategies being unlocked with a businessfirst approach. This observation led her to co-found Theory+Practice, which offers a range of services to help their clients stay ahead of an ever-changing market, including data analysis and value-first data strategies, automated and integrated AI, and behavioral economics.

As the CEO of Theory+Practice, Rogayeh analyzes behavioral economics, game theory, and behavior patterns in social networks and sees the need for corporations to understand their data better to serve their customers.

The Entrepreneurial Journey At the age of 20, Rogayeh came to Canada and continued her academic career in physics where she earned her Masters; however, she later completely shifted academic paths and achieved a Ph.D. in Economics. The changes www.insightssuccess.com

shaped and gave her the confidence to tackle significant business problems.

Rogayeh has faced several challenges in her professional career but took them as opportunities to improve and allow Theory+Practice to evolve and grow. Her co-founded venture started without any funding, bootstrapping the company. An early challenge was that it was difficult for enterprises to take the company and their promises seriously because of their size, scale, history, and background. As a small firm, working with influential organizations and government departments, working on projects that are sometimes orders of billions of dollars, there is much complexity to navigate in those highly complicated environments.

Theory+Practice now works with several Fortune 500 companies, and they continuously prove their value. The team continues to learn and grow and enjoys the challenges that the large, complex data work of Fortune 500 companies presents.

Mission and Vision The company is bridging the gap between theory and practice with a foundational ground-up approach to problem-solving and putting questions first. With exclusive skills and an intellectually diverse team, Theory+Practice has come together tackling and solving its clients' big complex problems with passion, ambition, and dedication October 2021 | 93

computer science with many different academic backgrounds, such as finance, behavioral economics, sociology, and psychology. This innovative approach uniquely harnesses typically overlooked Ph.D. skills, like a deep understanding of game theory and social networks, creating value and allowing spectacular (and previously unattainable) outcomes. It’s team is also proudly diverse in gender; 50% of its science team is female! Theory+Practice leads by example in the tech industry and hopes to inspire and train the next generation of female tech leaders.

The team Rogayeh has built is full of brilliant and diverse people, and it is doing things notably different, which is why Fortune 500 companies are seeking them out. Its lean team is achieving outstanding results and not taking a datafirst cookie-cutter approach. It recently built a recommendation model for a large investment management company. The model equips the company's regional managers with insight on who their most valuable customers are and the most appropriate products for them.

This work delivers an achievable added value of between $2.12 billion and $42 billion!

Robust Pillars Celebrating Navid's (Data Scientist) successful Ph.D. defense with some of the team. to generating value. Its academic and cultural diversity provides access to unique perspectives, fosters true innovation, and creates a real edge.

Theory+Practice is passionate about education and approaching AI in a value-first way. So, an integral part of their AI projects is educating and training their client's internal data science teams. By the end of project deployment, the client’s internal teams have learned a lot.

And that is the beauty of combining theory and practice.

The Effective Impact Theory+Practice works with leading companies at an executive level to help them translate their business strategy to a data strategy and then help them execute it. Rogayeh states that the company consistently bypasses the data organizing exercises commonly sidetracking large organizations, utilizing the data to get AI solutions into production and scale.

Theory+Practice demonstrates thought-leadership in deploying innovative end-to-end strategies that approach problems business-first. It mixes traditional skills like

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Theory+Practice stands on the pillars of innovation, determination, and collaboration. Rogayeh expresses that she emphasizes independent thinking, honest feedback, and the drive to learn and improve. Every team member is an independent thinker who challenges how things are done and approaches work through the lens of constantly improving and that there is always a better way.

In a similar vein, the company champions honest feedback internally and from clients. Having an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing positive and negative feedback is something Rogayeh has carefully cultivated at Theory+Practice. Built internally on a culture of experimentation, this extends to its clients and pushes them towards experimentation. And this is one of the ways the company bridges the gap between theory and practice.

So, while Theory+Practice values and practices teamwork, honest feedback, experimentation, and continual learning, equally vital is striving to approach everything with humility.

Significant Role of Technology Rogayeh states that Theory+Practice is a technology company with deep expertise in AI and data, focusing on business value; technology is only there to unlock business

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‘‘

The Science of Complexity.

The Art of Simplicity.

‘‘

value. It uses the technologies available in creative ways.

As a technology-agnostic company, it can unlock business value regardless of operating system or data storage methods.

Rogayeh asserts, "The beautiful thing about technology is that it is continuing to advance, and we are fortunate enough to work at the leading edge of things that are happening. For us, it's really about how we can utilize that technology to make users/customers' lives better and create value for businesses. That is where the opportunity lies today, and that is the philosophy of theory and practice.”

partners and clients. Believing in people and investing in them is crucial. Think about questions first, don't spend a ton of resources not knowing what you want to do. Then experiment, experiment, experiment! Results are best when a talented team takes the time to focus, start small, and experiment.”

"Building a roadmap is another great tool that gives a leader confidence in their direction and reduces any misgivings. So, to sum up, my advice, people are key, ask questions first, and always experiment!" Rogayeh concludes.

Above and Beyond Aiming towards a larger, broader, and more global scale the Theory+Practice team will remain focused on innovation and continue to problem-solve using their unique approach of Theory+Practice. It will focus on bringing the next set of new technologies, new innovative approaches, and technologies and techniques that will have a global impact.

Wise Words for Entrepreneurs While bequeathing budding entrepreneurs, Rogayeh says, "It's all about people. People in your team and with www.insightssuccess.com

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Susanne Skov Diemer Founder and CEO (Risk Mitigation, Crisis Management, Intelligence and Security Specialist and Advisor.)

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Worthy Risks

By Susanne Skov Diemer

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n a constantly changing world, new risks arise and dynamic risk management is required in these increasingly uncertain times. Risks are too dynamic and too unpredictable for out-dated risks management approaches. The world is more interconnected and technological than ever before, which enables some risks to change and escalate globally and rapidly.

In global business environments of constant change, companies should view risk management from a more strategic perspective rather than as a traditional compliance and loss prevention function. Viewing risk management as a key factor to achieve strategic goals pays offs in form of higher growth.

employees, internally and externally, and in the present and the future. As Winston Churchill famously remarked "never let a good crisis go to waste". We can learn, develop and improve – and prevent future crises by learning from the current crisis.

Timing is everything and the best time to prepare and prevent future crises are now, as we are coming out of a global crisis.

The current crisis has made the world even more digital and technological dependent. With that, many new risks are arising and should be handled. More hackers, more phishing, more ransom ware attacks.

Prevention & preparation

Today´s future

To avoid losses and to protect assets is only a part of risk management. Security doesn't make you money, but it does prevent you from loosing it. And it is an essential business enabler. The security and intelligence world represents the voice of the inconvenient truth. We have the knowledge and know-how that might be tempting to ignore, but no one can afford that in the long run or should. Prevention and preparation is always the less expensive option.

While researchers, historians and scientists often look to the past to gather information and learn from past mistakes and study lessons-learned; in the world of security, we constantly have to look to the future. Criminals do not enjoy predictability and new technological opportunities and risks arise. It requires us to look forward and be on the rise, alert and implementing new measures. Tomorrow ́s world will be different.

To prepare people both privately and professionally, I recently wrote "Your Urban CRISIS SURVIVAL PLANNER. With this book I hope to pass the awareness, understanding and knowledge to people and prepare them to take responsibility.

Awareness

Crisis, risks & domino effect A crisis never comes alone. A crisis creates a domino effect cross sectors, cross borders, cross department. It has an impact on turnover and human resources, customers and

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Security and risk awareness is key. By being aware of the risks and potential dangers of emerging technologies and the current business environment, we assure the foundation to prevent. Another key is to take responsibility rather than playing a blame game. We each have to contribute and be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. By facing risks, we can minimize risks. By overlooking them, we maximize them.

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Vetting More staff vetting is required trough out the supply chain.

Management, employees, partners, freelancers, producers, consultants, customers, subcontractors... With a pandemic, globalization and digitalization, human interaction is decreasing considerably. We have become even more digital and technological due to COVID. Many people have been hired virtually and are working together virtually without having actually met face to face. With this, new challenges and new risks arise. More background checks and vetting are required. Numerous studies of CVs throughout the years show the same results; people have a tendency to write inaccurate CVs. From smaller "improvements" to actual faking CVs. This issue is more current and relevant than even. Do you know who you are actually hiring? Who is on the other side of the ocean or screen? Who is the weak link in your organization?

Companies are using more freelancers and consultants than before and this tendency is likely to keep growing. Along with the growth, risks emerge that we must cover. It starts with awareness - with understanding and knowledge of the risks in order to take the optimal action steps. New measures and implementations are required.

cyber crime is the biggest threat in today ́s society as national year after year, country by country. And that cyber crime is the biggest threat in today´s society as national intelligence agencies also point out year after year, country by country.

The stakes, risks and bills are high. The attacks and failures on critical infrastructure can result in devastating chain reactions. We need to work closely together and all take responsibility – citizens, companies and governments. With more synergies, more cross border and cross sector, and more responsibility. Preventative actions are constantly required.

The challenges of risk management increase by the lack of awareness of risks and of people's roles and responsibility as far as preventing and controlling risks, and of ways of using risk data and new technologies and tools.

Risk management should play an important offensive and defensive role. It is important to preventatively and proactively assist a company in achieving strategic goals, innovation, and resilience. And a future.

The knowns and the unknowns The media and social media are full of fake news and inaccurate numbers, while many stories remain uncovered, unofficial or confidential. Statistics do show that cyber attacks are increasing considerately. What we don ́t know are the real figures. Many companies are hacked without knowing it, others keep it a secret - or try to. And the figures and statistics do not show the actual price and hidden cost of chain reactions when there is a cyber attack – for example an increase in insurance premium, operational disruption or destruction, lost value in customer relationship, value of lost contract revenue, devaluation of trade name and loss of intellectual property. Many of these costs are long term.

Critical infrastructure Our critical infrastructure is vulnerable and under attack.

We have seen countless attacks on critical infrastructure around the world, especially the past year.

The attacks on our critical infrastructure show that no open society is immune to attacks by cybercriminals. And that

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40 Influencers Under 40

Shivani Pillay

Empowering Women to Step Up

W

hen you realize your passion and discover your purpose, you can achieve the greatest milestones. An embodiment of the above statement is Shivani Pillay, the Managing Director at Wicked Dips.

Combining her passion for the motor industry with her purpose of empowering other women to achieve anything they want, Shivani has set a striking example of Influential Leadership.

In our endeavor to find 40 Influencers Under 40, we caught up with Shivani to know more about her journey and how she has created an impact in her respective industry.

Brief our audience about your journey as an influential business leader. What challenges you had to overcome to reach where you are today?

My business journey began over a decade ago with very humble beginnings in my mum's garage. I was only 21 years old, fresh out of school with a toddler. A young female with a passion for an industry dominated by males.

My vision for the business was always to grow something from nothing and to show other young women that they could achieve the impossible. I hit the ground running, and I never gave anyone else in the industry the opportunity to forget my brand. I always had a very strong online presence and took advantage of every opportunity to get my name out there.

Below are the highlights of the interview: With every success we had, there was also a fair share of unforeseen setbacks. A few of the challenges that we experienced were things such as logistics and the most common of all business traumas, financial woes. Once we overcame these teething issues and gained momentum, we were lucky enough to have gotten financial assistance to take us to the next level.

I went on to larger premises and became the sole distributor for the entire Kwa-Zulu Natal province.

Tell us something more about your company and its mission and vision.

My company’s mission is to be a household name in the motor industry. My visions lie primarily with empowering young women and previously disadvantaged individuals in business and give them the confidence to believe they can achieve their goals with a touch of hard work and perseverance.

Shivani Pillay, Managing director

Enlighten us on how you have made an impact in your respective industry through your expertise in the market?

I was the first organization to use a product of this kind, it was innovative and new technology that was never before

Wicked Dips

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seen in South Africa. Through tons of research and hours of trial and error, we became the leading company in removable coatings in South Africa. We then went on to provide training to other companies and gave them the skill set and knowledge to open and expand their own brands and businesses.

Describe in detail the values and the work culture that drives your organization.

The values and work culture within my organisation are fairly simple, never say never! Anything is possible in the world today, and by creating a positive work environment we, in turn, drive our staff to achieve the unthinkable.

Undeniably, technology is playing a significant role in almost every sector. How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your company’s solutions resourceful?

Advancements in technology have allowed us to provide our clients with a product that is completely removable, without causing any damages to the original bodywork.

Originally the product was rubber-based and did not react well to any chemicals or even fuel spillages that would cause the product to bubble and peel off.

We are now able to provide coatings that not only mimic original paint but can be treated the same way too! You can buff and polish your car the same way you would your original factory paintwork.

If given a chance, what change would you like to bring to your industry?I would like to create a product that has self-levelling properties, this will alleviate a lot of time spent sanding out uneven surfaces.

Where do you envision yourself to be in the long run and what are your future goals for your company?

Being a franchised company, I see myself expanding across the globe. I would also like to expand fully into the panel beating and major bodywork industry as this would work hand in hand with the products and services we already supply and apply.

“Work hard and push through the trying times for rewards that supersede even your own dreams.”

What advice would you like to give to budding leaders and entrepreneurs?

The advice I would like to offer to budding leaders and entrepreneurs is to never give up. Start small and grow into your success, having a solid foundation will enable you to build an empire. Success does not happen overnight.

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Instilling Commitment

UNLOCKING H

uman beings are more emotional creatures than rational. The natural response of human beings is based on their prominent feelings. Most human beings make decisions based on their emotions rather than their intellect. If we genuinely want people to do something, we need to tap into their emotions. Evoking the feelings or emotions of people with a variety of methods is the powerful ability to convey our message to them and prompt them to take specific actions.

Conveying our message to generate positive valence and high arousal in people influences them to make decisions as we expect from them. Positive valence and high arousal are related to happy and exciting feelings in people, and they are more likely to respond positively to the appeal we are making. The gut decision prompts the brain to react positively by appealing to people's feelings. People may forget what you said or did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

To effectively influence people, there has to be an activation of arousal of positive feelings. Arousing positive feelings in people is possible with storytelling skills, powerful words, sounds, and sights that appeal positively to their emotions.

Communicating messages with a particular language,

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PERSU confidence, good body language, and emotional appeal with captivating words can influence people to make decisions as they would like them to. The power of persuasion helps business leaders control the people's emotional response by letting them take actions as per their requirements.

The art of persuasion helps business leaders bring out the best in their employees and attract consumers to the products and services of the organizations they are leading.

Letting people know the benefits of products or services is also more critical. Having the skill of persuasion and

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THE POWER

OF

UASION invoking action in people is essential for business leaders. It also helps them effectively negotiate all profitable business dealings. The art of persuasion or the ability to influence others to help business leaders promote their employees to take beneficial actions for themselves, the organization's overall good, and all the stakeholders associated with the organization.

Utilizing the power of persuasion for the greater good of the organizational results and the welfare of the consumers by delivering something valuable to them is ethical. It should

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be utilized by business leaders more creatively for enhancing their business outputs. Tapping the power of persuasion has become more accessible with the utilization of smart devices and social media platforms. If the business leaders effectively utilize the available mediums, they can reap more incredible benefits through this power of persuasion.

Communicating important messages in a straightforward and crystal-clear language is more appealing to the target audience than elaborate details. Art of persuasion has more to do with inspiring people than manipulating them to take specific actions. Influencing others for a greater good is always a noble concept. Ethically, employing this art can lead to positive organizational results. Influential business leaders tap their potential to influence others with the power of persuasion for prompting them to make positive choices that will bring overall good results. These leaders unlock their power of persuasion to help people make better professional and personal decisions. The art of persuasion brings behavioral change in people for their greater good and success. Influential business leaders unlock the power of persuasion for propelling everyone forward along with high organizational success.

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Zachary Garber CFA Financial Advisor Alex Brown. A Division of Raymond James

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40 Influencers Under 40

Zachary Garber A Trusted Advisor and a Passionate Leader

eaders who are successful today knew how to define a common goal, communicate it clearly to their team, and ensure to have the right resources to make it happen. Zachary Garber CFA (Zack) is among those leaders.

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Throughout his journey, Zack has been blessed to have an incredible mentor - his father. Before joining his father’s practice, he developed his own expertise by graduating with honors from the MBA program at Wharton, completing the CFA designation, and working for five years in the industry.

Zack is the Client Advisor at Alex. Brown, a Division of Raymond James. With his enthusiasm and thoughtfulness into his work, Zack strives to help clients seamlessly navigate all aspects of their financial well-being.

Consistent Approach to Wealth Planning Zachary is a member of the Garber Wealth Management Team, which is part of Alex. Brown, a Division of Raymond James. He and his team strive to provide customized wealth management solutions with high-touch, excellent customer service. They believe that they are only as good as their last client interaction, particularly given that their business is primarily built on word-of-mouth referrals.

Let’s unveil how his journey in the wealth management industry started.

An Urge to Explore a Career in Wealth Management Upon graduation from Emory, Zack made the difficult decision to sell his college startup to join Deutsche Bank in its global wealth management training program. After completing the global training program and working for three years on the structured solutions team, he decided to attend the Wharton MBA program, where he started a fantasy sports company. Having soft-circled investment capital and having made the semi-finals of the Wharton Business Plan Competition, Zack was once again faced with the difficult decision of running the startup company or further exploring a career in wealth management.

Through a period of self-exploration and examination of aspirations, he ultimately decided that he could create the largest platform for positive change by joining and growing his father’s wealth management practice at Alex. Brown.

He felt that a career in wealth management would be more intellectually fulfilling for him and would allow him to play a unique role as a trusted advisor to families and institutions.

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The company’s mission is to serve clients in a way that it expects to be treated and provide an experience that helps clients develop a consistent approach to sophisticated wealth planning questions. Zack states that it is essential to help clients make informed decisions in uncertain volatile markets. The company’s vision is to be a trusted advisor to help clients and institutions build a platform to create positive change.

A Facilitator of Meaningful Connections Zack believes that he has made an impact in the industry through his consistent commitment to a long-term investment approach and client excellence in an environment in which many focus on the next short-term trade, fad, or meme stock. He strives to ensure that he is making a positive impact on the world through his work professionally and personally.

In an industry that sometimes has a negative public perception, Alex. Brown strives to leverage its practice, October 2021 | 105

should serve as a model for local and national change. He hopes that his work within the profession, as well as his involvement in Baltimore, inspires others in the industry to dream bigger and to leverage their resources, network, and time to benefit their respective communities.

A Heritage of Trust and Expertise Zack is motivated by the privilege of being a trusted advisor to families and institutions. He mentions that Alex. Brown takes responsibility as advisors on significant financial assets extremely seriously. The organization’s culture of transparency, authenticity, and dedication to consistent, informed, process-driven decision-making ensures that its clients receive the customized solutions and guidance they need to make educated wealth management choices.

The company strives to treat each client with respect he or she deserves and listen to their needs, goals, and risk tolerance before accepting funds or making any investment plans. He believes that its high-touch, sophisticated approach to wealth management is the reason that the clients enjoy working with and share its name in the community. Ultimately, the company aims to help its community and educate those around to make informed decisions on investing, preserving, and donating one of their most valuable assets: their wealth.

By learning something new each day, developing an additional meaningful connection with a new person, and investing wisely for the long-term over time, you will find success. investments, and firm resources to facilitate meaningful connections and support growth in the local community.

Zack does his best to act as a trusted resource and a facilitator of meaningful connections among community leaders, businesses, and individuals. In addition to his work in wealth management, he runs a podcast, “Charm City Dreamers”, in his free time. The podcast highlights visionary leaders in Baltimore whose groundbreaking work in areas such as race equity, digital access, food insecurity, mental health and addiction, and the future of industry

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Future Aspirations Zack hopes that his work in the industry inspires others to leverage their resources, knowledge, and connections to help the community around them. Furthermore, he aims to continue to bring transparency to the wealth management industry. He also hopes that in a world of meme trading and short-termism, he can continue to help those around him continue to invest for the long-run and remember that time and positive compounding is the most valuable investment tool.

Zack envisions himself continuing to grow and expand the team. He hopes that he will make a difference in the community through his professional work and act as a trusted advisor to those around him.

In the future, he hopes that when people speak of the Garber Wealth Management Team, they will discuss the integrity, unwavering commitment to excellent client support, and its thoughtful long-term approach to providing customized, consistent investment solutions amidst a volatile, dynamic market.

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