The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019

Volume 09 | Issue 02 | 2019

Judy Davies

Pushing Boundaries and Instilling Entrepreneurial Style

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019

It’s all about Leading

by Example!

R

ecent years have marked a tremendous paradigm shift in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The wind of change finally seems to have arrived after women are been witnessed making a remarkable progress in heading companies.

Though, women are not new to the sphere of leadership, but were undercounted since past few decades. The essence of entrepreneurship and drive to bring a change can be seen in the leading styles of some profound leaders such as Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, who has taken social media channel to the next level, Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, who being a first female CEO of a major automobile manufacturer perfectly exemplifies grace under pressure, and the list is long.

Many such women with their exemplary leadership skills have broken all the myths about women’s inborn limitations and serve as models for emerging women leaders.

I have never doubted the power of women to bring the change. From the experience I have gained on leadership, the leaders’ attribute of being creative has fascinated me the most and I have inculcated the same into my professional world too. I believe that I have got this trait of creativity from my mother. By just her actions, she has taught me how to be simple yet creative in doing things. This quality of women of inspiring others with just their actions has been the foremost reason for milestones women-led businesses have achieved.

Be it business, technology, administration, education, healthcare or government, women have gradually made their mark in almost every sector at regional, national, and global levels. By walking an extra mile, they have been at the helm of every field.

“

“ Hitesh Dhamani

With an intent to admire and acknowledge the contributions of women, who are shaping the future of unbiased entrepreneurial ecosystem, Insights Success has curated a list of "The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019". These women are not only bringing the reformative solutions to the business world, but are also setting an example for other upcoming women entrepreneurs.

Inspiring business leaders stimulate the minds and hearts of co-workers, cultivate corporate intelligence and encourage optimal performance while directing the overall growth of the business. Judy Davies is one such inspiring businesswoman and thus, features on the cover of this edition. She is contributing through the role of Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at Advantest.

During her more than 20 years in the semiconductor industry, Judy has been responsible for various aspects of marketing communications, from PR, IR, M&A and customer and employee communications to product launches, brand management, trade shows and digital marketing. Active with several non-profit organizations, Judy serves on the Boards of Raphael House of San Francisco as well as the San Francisco SPCA. Delve in to more such inspiring stories and lessons from many such significant entrepreneurs in this issue and reap the fruits of motivation. Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.

Happy reading!

Articles

08

38 Women Empower Dynamics of Women Participation in the Ever-changing Modern Workforce

50 Changing the Status Quo isruptive Technology and Changing Trends Inuencing Business

62

JUDY DAVIES

From Editor’s Desk The Journey to Self-Discovery

Pushing Boundaries and Instilling Entrepreneurial Style

Inspiring Women of The Year

ROSE BENTLEY Combining Excellence with Prociency to Achieve Success

20

CONTENTS Assertive Leadership Tipe for Millennial Women in Business

24

Industry Intel Rethinking the Products of Today for Better Tomorrow

30

Unbaised Future Establishing Gender Equilibrtum

36 Tech-Know Insights What a tech CEO con teach your business about digital

44 Expert’s Outlook Balancing the Needs of Business

54 Stellar’s Vision Successs in the Venture World

60 Intergated Apporach How to do best work when you’re not Actually working!

Maintaining a personal and Professional life balance

66

Cindy Hollar Committed to Improving Student Achievement

28 Kirsten Bay A Trailblazer in Cyber Security

32

42

Nicole Martin Empowering Businesses with Astounding Human Resource Management

Trina Watt Providing Technical Marketing for Technical Companies

Victoria Lennox A Management Doyen with Exceptional Entrepreneurship Skills

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48

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor

Assistant Editors

Hitesh Dhamani

Jenny Fernandes Rohit Chaturvedi

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Sanket Zirpe

Senior Sales Manager Co-designer

Co-designer Mayur Koli

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Mark, Sagar

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Sanket

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Frank Adams

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com July, 2019

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Photography: Achille Bigliardi www.achillephoto.com Hair and Make-up: Patrick Evan Salon, San Francisco

Judy Davies Pushing Boundaries and Instilling Entrepreneurial Style

Judy Davies Vice President of Global Marketing Communications Advantest

Photography: Achille Bigliardi www.achillephoto.com Hair and Make-up: Patrick Evan Salon, San Francisco

B

eing an exemplary entrepreneur is about going beyond the normal thought process and leading by example. To do this, one has to tap all available talents, skills, abili es and resources.

Inspiring business leaders s mulate the minds and hearts of co-workers, cul vate corporate intelligence and encourage op mal performance while direc ng the overall growth of the business. Judy Davies is one such inspiring business woman, contribu ng through the role of Vice President of Global Marke ng Communica ons at Advantest. During her more than 20 years in the semiconductor industry, she has been responsible for various aspects of

marke ng communica ons, from PR, IR, M&A and customer and employee communica ons to product launches, brand management, trade shows and digital marke ng. Ac ve with several non-proďŹ t organiza ons, Judy serves on the Boards of Raphael House of San Francisco as well as the San Francisco SPCA. Broad Scope of Responsibili es Judy’s educa onal background is in communica ons. Her early career experience includes working in adver sing on the agency side and communica ons work within technology companies. In 2006, she joined semiconductor test equipment

supplier Verigy. Then in 2011, Verigy was acquired by Advantest, the world’s largest provider of IC test and measurement systems. Over the past eight years at Advantest, she has striven to push boundaries by applying what she has learned in other areas while also ins lling an entrepreneurial style in Advantest’s marke ng, branding and communica ons ac vi es. To get visibility for Advantest in the technology-driven, rapidly changing semiconductor industry, Judy’s Communica ons Group has leveraged marke ng communica ons approaches that are well beyond the scope of tradi onal corporate and product marke ng. While her responsibili es include a broad range of both internal and external communica ons, she also manages impac ul programs ranging from the recent refining of Advantest’s Core Values to the company’s annual VOICE Developer Conference, which is a ended by more than 500 customers and partners around the world.

Leveraging Skills and Experience Advantest’s communica ons are inherently diverse because its audiences are so varied. They include not only its semiconductormanufacturing customers around the globe, but also outsourced assembly and tes ng companies (OSATs), technology partners, market researchers, financial analysts, shareholders and company employees at its facili es throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. Advantest’s communica ons are designed to meet targeted marke ng objec ves, but also must convey the company’s technical acumen and project its integrity to people across different cultures. To accomplish this, Judy has implemented an entrepreneurial structure in the Communica ons Group that she leads.

This approach allows her to leverage the skills and experience of both inhouse and independent marke ng communica ons professionals, some

A good leader takes a little more than their share of the blame and a little less than their share of the credit.

Photography: Achille Bigliardi www.achillephoto.com Hair and Make-up: Patrick Evan Salon, San Francisco

Be the type of leader that you’d want to follow.

of whom are based in other me zones.

To be successful, an entrepreneur needs to be resourceful and open to new ideas, consider uncommon op ons and bring a posi ve a tude to work each day. Exploring the untried and unknown is required. Judy firmly believes that, no ma er how daun ng the challenge, a solu on is out there to be discovered. She believes that nothing is impossible with resolute efforts.

Naviga ng Tough Times In work, Judy has dedicated herself to staying focused on the objec ves at hand and the possibili es that lay ahead. She has learned how to navigate turbulent mes – which are a

fact of life in the always-shi ing semiconductor industry – by working closely with brilliant and innova ve business leaders. Judy has been given opportuni es to succeed and grow professionally, but she also knows how to create her own possibili es and realize what she envisions.

services and strategic vision to provide details that otherwise might be overlooked. In this way, everyone at Advantest works together to tell the most interes ng stories, showcase the advantages that the company offers to its various audiences and ul mately deliver the best results.

Delivering the Best Results

In addi on, Judy’s Communica ons Group is con nuously advising and training company spokespersons on topics such as talking with the media, product posi oning and overarching corporate messages.

Advantest’s communica ons efforts draw from and affect many different groups within Advantest – from product development to customer service to strategic partnerships – with the common goal of conveying the company’s value to customers and its overall market leadership. As head of global marke ng communica ons, Judy frequently coaxes content owners in charge of Advantest’s products,

Being Commi ed to Goals Being a female in the male-dominated semiconductor industry presents both challenges and opportuni es. Judy feels the lack of female role models and the underrepresenta on of women in execu ve leadership posi ons speaks to the need for inclusion and diversity.

Within her job, Judy remains focused on her commitment to being true to herself. She embraces the quali es of op mism and confidence, tenacity and grit, passion and purpose, and most importantly authen city. The abili es to be a good storyteller, be open to change and – a characteris c that she admi edly has struggled with – be comfortable with ambiguity are important as well. These quali es have helped her maximize her capacity for leadership and be more impac ul for her company, community and family.

These traits also have helped her navigate through the world each day – direc ng how she approaches challenges as well as opportuni es, and reminding her to make conscious efforts to shape not only what she does, but who she is as a leader.

Judy observes that society – both publicly and in the corporate world – is growing more accep ng and encouraging of women in leadership

posi ons. She has faced hurdles in her day-to-day work environment, but she focuses on learning from those around her and ac vely mentoring within Advantest and beyond. She enjoys working with like-minded people who are commi ed to mutual goals and to achieving posi ve results.

Always do the right thing.

Throughout her working life, Judy has learned much about the keys to successful collabora on, and she draws upon that knowledge and experience in dedica ng herself to mee ng whatever objec ve is at hand.

Ambi ous and Passionate Judy has the same ambi on for advancement and passion for her job as when she first began working in the global semiconductor industry. She wants to con nue to help drive Advantest forward and posi vely impact the work of other groups within the company as well as foster growth in society overall.

Being a Role Model As vice president of global marke ng communica ons, Judy has the opportunity to serve as a role model and guide for the next genera on. She strives to help others grow and move up in their careers, especially women who are just now entering management roles. She tells them to dedicate themselves to understanding their companies and industries from all angles, to develop their technical and business acumen, to work hard to exceed expecta ons, to welcome feedback and do something with it, and to volunteer for addi onal responsibili es.

As for Judy’s personal goals, she wants to remain ac ve on the Boards of Raphael House – the largest privatelyfunded homeless shelter for families in Northern California – and the San Francisco SPCA – a privately-funded and na onally recognized leader in animal welfare. Both of these charitable causes are dear to her.

There are two quotes, both from Audrey Hepburn, that best describe Judy’s philosophy in life. The first is “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

Charitable work keeps Judy grounded, and she believes that there truly isn’t a be er feeling than doing well while you are doing good. The second quote is “For beau ful eyes, look for the good in others; for beau ful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” The nega vity that a person projects will very likely come back to them in an even bigger dose so it’s important to see good and beauty in everything.

Judy offers three precious ps to aspiring entrepreneurs: “Never complain. Never over-explain. Never let them see you sweat.”

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019

Photography: Achille Bigliardi www.achillephoto.com Hair and Make-up: Patrick Evan Salon, San Francisco

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September 2019

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September 2019

between. We call this pervasive data intelligence. It's the answer to the complexity, cost and inadequacy of today’s analytics.

What was your life changing event/ incident that changed your life?

Moving to Silicon Valley put me on a new and rewarding course. Not only did I get to work with and meet the man of my dreams, I suddenly found myself in a place that took no prisoners.

Growing up in Montana and through school in Utah I was always seeking the best and brightest minds to learn from and when I landed in San Francisco I realized I was a small fish in a big pond – and it thrilled me!

Never did I think my childhood of playing in creeks, floating rivers, watching breakfast club over and over on snow days and arguing with my adoring brother regarding what camping games we were going to play over the Summer– would ever leave me with the desire to live in a big city and swing for the fences but it did and I am a better person because of it.

How necessary is it to align business with technology and what are its outcomes?

Business and technology alignment are vital for market impact and growth.

Aligning the two means as business goals pivot, technology can more readily respond with necessary solutions to support and maintain enterprise momentum. In turn, technological advances and improvements are hardwired into existing and future strategies and initiatives.

What strategies do you undertake to make your employees resourceful?

They say everything you need to know about life you learn by age 5 – well, with a mother as bold and beautiful as mine she instilled in me the curiosity, I needed to always find a way forward, she use to say “where there is a will there is a way.”

When I recently ran into an issue of how to help an employee become resourceful I leaned on a few of the truths I was taught – First, if you want someone to believe they can do it you have to give them the tools to be successful, whether that is structure to work within, a playbook, or even basic training. From there you need to empower the person to be resourceful.

Let them know it is ok to fail, and that you expect it and can't wait to hear about it!

And last you need to create the environment for them to be resourceful – guide them into the questions that help them solve the problem without you. When someone presents you with a problem ask them “what have you done so far to solve for this?” “Or what would you recommend we do?”

Then give them the space to bounce ideas o ffyou but help them realize they are on the hook for finding a solution.

What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion, that every leader should possess?

Everybody defines leadership differently, but I really like the way John C Maxwell defines leadership, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Regardless of how you define a leader, he or she can prove to be a difference maker between success and failure. A good leader has a futuristic vision and knows how to turn her ideas into realworld success stories.

To become a good leader, you will have to set a good example for others to follow. That is where your commitment to the business, passion for learning, and empathy come into play. I also believe good communication skills and decisionmaking capabilities play a vital role in the success and failure of a leader. You need to be able to communicate effectively and call the jump balls. If you don’t like carrying the weight of the hard decisions it can be very hard to lead. Every leader needs to feel comfortable making decisions with what data they have in front of them, because you don’t always have the complete picture.

Lastly, leaders need to be able to know when to set aside time for innovation and creative thinking, as well as the futuristic vision – having a North Star gives you the ability to set the right roadmap for success and then support your teams to get there.

I will say though “Technology is designed to accelerate a business outcome. Don’t expect technology to fix a business problem – expect technology to help you drive the process forward and enable best practices you need within your business to be successful.”

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September 2019

Co-founder

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September 2019

Assertive Leadership

W

omen in business have come a long way since Katharine Graham, the first female to lead a Fortune 500 company, assumed the role of Washington Post CEO back in 1972. Here in Australia, women now comprise 42% of all employees and more than 30% of all business owner-managers. In the large Australian corporations, the story is quite different; women hold the reins at only 10% of today’s companies and 14 of our Top 200 firms.

Has my journey always been easy? Far from it. A lot is expected from an expat like me. Or from any woman in business, for that matter. If we want to get promoted at work, we need to appear assertive, confident, and even dominant. We become chameleons and adjust our behaviour, according to what the situation requires, as we navigate our way from the war room to the board room.

How to Be an Assertive Leader Below, I share some lessons I’ve learned along the way, to help other young women navigate the different challenges and demands that a leadership role requires. To be more confident and decisive but also constructive and empowering, incorporate these five habits into your daily conversations and interactions, and learn how to fine-tune your ability to adapt.

The data suggest that it’s becoming more difficult for women to make the jump from key executive to chief executive. Macquarie Group founder Mark Johnson believes it might take another 20 years for the scales to tip again in our favour. It’s the story of many of today’s women CEOs. Being Chameleon-in-Chief As a founder of the Australian company WeTeachMe, I can’t say I agree with Mark. After all, today’s world and business climate look nothing like they did 20 or 30 years ago. I hope that my own story will inspire courage and pave the way for others to create businesses that will create value, especially for other women.

Listen for cues. To be a good leader, at times, you will need to be a psychologist, a counsellor, an expert, a sister, a mentor, a friend. At WeTeachMe, I have worked in sales and in marketing. Both roles required me to master the art of active listening and hone my ability to quickly read the room. To be aware of what a customer or stakeholder is thinking or feeling is crucial to building trust and rapport, and helps foster the creation of long-term business relationships.

Before founding WeTeachMe, I had barely just arrived in Australia from Greece, to complete my masters in global media communications at The University of Melbourne. I had no background in business, and some may say I had no “business” entering into the arena of entrepreneurship. And yet, through sheer grit and desire to pursue our passion for education, my team and I grew WeTeachMe into the largest school in Australia, with thousands of classes available and even more learners enrolling every day.

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Mind what you say, and also how you say it.

Assertiveness doesn’t mean being overbearing or abrasive. Be direct and communicate respectfully so that the other person can focus on what you’re saying, instead of how you’re saying it. Getting the message across is half the battle.

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September 2019

Express ideas from your own point of view.

Starting your sentences with “I” can spell a world of difference. Instead of saying “you’re not listening”, put it in your own words: “I think what you’re saying is...” Rather than instructing someone to “work this way” say “I’d like your help with...” Convey your feelings and let your empathy come through.

Photographer: Nathalie Saruhashi

Learn how to say no. In the early years of WeTeachMe, I wore multiple hats. Most days, I took on more responsibility than was physically possible. Because that’s what a founder does; you go above and beyond the call of duty. From cold calling one minute to providing customer support the next, juggling tasks requires flawless execution. As WeTeachMe grew, I had to give up some of my hats. This was not an easy lesson to learn!

Today, with a better understanding of the value of focus, I pick three important things to accomplish every day and then, delegate the rest.

Maintain a professional demeanour. If you’re entering into a negotiation, present your case with confidence, without getting argumentative or emotional. Create a winwin situation for everyone, and they will see you, not as an adversary, but as a partner.

Leadership That Inspires Being in business is not always about cutthroat competition, winning at everything, and having it all; it’s also, if not more, about creating personal connections and nurturing the relationships that get us to where we are.

In and out of the workplace, we need to be effective and diplomatic, not just goaloriented. Lead through trust and respect, not through fear. Teach, don’t micromanage. And never stop learning.

Leadership is about having the ability to influence those around us, to rally everyone around a shared vision, to inspire people, and to get those who follow us excited to come to work day after day.

Leadership means celebrating our victories.

But it’s also about forgiving ourselves for our failures, because that is how we become wiser and better. Failing is the best way to learn, and a good leader never stops learning.

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September 2019

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019/ Cindy Hollar

Cindy Hollar

C

indy Hollar, former CEO at TE21, spends her days thinking about children. Now a vice president at Cer ca Solu ons—the company that acquired TE21 in April—Cindy became an educa on entrepreneur at the age of 34, following a business career at IBM. Having also been a kindergarten teacher in her early years, Cindy has always looked for ways to posi vely impact the lives of children.

With her business background, Cindy knew she could have the greatest impact by providing products and services that would help teachers and students. Her first educa on-sector venture was a drop-in day care business housed in a store front. Cindy sold that business in 1995 and then worked as a consultant, mee ng her future business partners—most of them corporate trainers. TE21 was launched in 1999 as training company, thus the name "TE21, Training and Educa on in the 21st Century." Over me, Cindy narrowed the company's focus to K-12 educa on, offering products from educa on publishers (such as curricula and instruc onal programs), as well as developing new products for K-12.

Committed to Improving Student Achievement

students. Cindy and her team created assessments that evaluated what students were learning in the classroom—and gave all students the opportunity to improve throughout the school year.

Acquisi on of TE21 TE21 grew to a mul -million-dollar company with 58 employees and school district customers spanning 6 states in the Southeast. The company was known for its excep onal assessment products and support organiza on, but TE21 lacked the technology and processes to scale its assessment products to a na onal level. As CEO, Cindy and her leadership team felt it was me to either bring in growth capital which would enable them to take the company to the next level or consider an acquisi on by a complementary company which could help them expand. Cindy and her team engaged with Cer ca Solu ons, a na onally recognized K-12 provider with both educa onal content, So ware-as-a-Service, and data and analy cs offerings. The addi on of TE21's assessments with Cer ca's analy cs applica on deepened the value of both company's products. The combina on of high-quality student assessments and rich data visualiza ons have resulted in a powerful classroom offering that provides teachers with meaningful, immediate, ac onable student data.

As a one- me teacher, herself, Cindy understood the needs of teachers and students and wanted to develop products that would help students achieve their full poten al. Cindy learned from her school and district customers about the need for highquality assessments that would not only guide the teaching process but could ul mately change the lives of

Further, although the acquiring company, Cer ca, is based in the Northeast, and TE21 is based in the Southeast, the two companies share a strong commitment to excellence in

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educa on and a culture of outstanding customer service. It was a good match.

Accountability is Key Cindy observes that accountability is a key theme in K-12 educa on today.

Teachers are searching for tools and methods to improve student performance in their classrooms. "Our team at TE21, now Cer ca Solu ons, is dedicated to developing high-quality assessment solu ons to help teachers verify that learning mastery is occurring in the classroom," she adds.

TE21's benchmark assessments follow each state's blueprint but are customized to the instruc onal scope and sequence of each school district the company partners with—this differen ates the TE21 benchmark assessments from other assessments.

The TE21 team works to both prepare students for the rigor and type of assessment they will take at the end of the year and gives data to teachers with a rapid turnaround me, to guide instruc on and interven ons.

Most state summa ve assessments today are given to students at the end of the school year and reveal that students either learned what they should have or that they did not. By the me that data is available to educators, it is too late for teachers to make course correc ons and modify instruc on to meet the needs of students. With the company's benchmark assessments, TE21—now Cer ca Solu ons—tests what is being taught in a school or district every nine weeks and gives data back to teachers within a 72-hour window once the assessments are completed.

September 2019

“As a leader, I must

Don't Underes mate Funds Cindy asserts that one of the biggest challenges at the me of business incep on is monetary support. In her words, nobody wants to lend small business and start-ups any money un l they are making money. She went into the ini al phases of the company's development underes ma ng how much money would be needed and learned along the way. She is thankful for her "angel investor" who worked with her to provide the necessary support in the start-up years. In her words, "he has been a true angel." To all those start up leaders who seek her advice, she suggests doubling or tripling what they think they will need financially.

“

Communica ng with Teams Cindy consults and strategizes with her teams daily in order to stay current. She is a believer in being a player-coach, so she's on the road with her sales team and customers con nuously, listening and learning from them. She reads as much as possible to keep her hand on the pulse of educa on news and trends. All in all, she believes that her outstanding products and customer service have been the key to her success.

listen, learn, and love what I do.

Cindy Hollar CEO

Future Aspira ons Cindy is excited to be back in the field as vice president of Assessment Sales for Cer ca Solu ons. She believes the strong opera onal founda on and vision of Cer ca will help take their business to new heights. Cer ca has embraced all the TE21 staff and is commi ed to con nuing—and expanding— TE21's important work. Cindy's commitment to educa on is evident in her aspira on to serve on boards of small businesses and con nue to work with small business owners and other entrepreneurs in growing their companies and reaching their goals.

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September 2019

Rethinking the Products of Today for a Better Tomorrow

Celia Pool Co-Founder DAME

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September 2019

Industry Intel

“

T

he world is finally waking up to the single-use plastic crisis.

Over the last 10 years we have created more plastic than the whole of the last century combined. Half of the plastic we create is used just once, and then thrown away, taking 500 years to decompose. By 2050, the oceans are predicted to contain more plastic than fish. The plastic crisis is now too big for recycling alone to fix.

Global governments, businesses and consumers need to collaborate quickly to make impactful change before it’s too late. However, change is difficult when environmentally damaging habits have become so entrenched and often appear more financially appealing.

Technology is helping in this fight.

Reusable water bottles are now widespread, and apps that help you locate drinking water refill stations are now emerging. At the same time, reusable coffee cup technology is addressing the half a trillion disposable coffee cups discarded every year. Such items are gaining increasing social currency with consumers, who are keen to display them as markers of their environmental conscience. This revolution is encouraging, but what about the products that people aren’t so willing to talk about?

100 billion menstrual products are thrown away globally every year.

These are single-use, mostly made of plastic and cannot be recycled. You can choose not to have a coffee, you cannot choose not to have a period. Reusable options (e.g. menstrual cups, cloth pads) have been on the market for decades, yet the adoption rate has been slow. The primary barrier to entry is the fear of habit change.

So how do we bring about a revolution? The answer is keep it simple. And take time to consider consumer psychology. As humans, we abhor change. We are creatures drawn towards the comfort of the known. By

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keeping habit change to a minimum, consumers are much more likely to adopt a new idea.

This was our philosophy at DAME when we created the world’s first reusable tampon applicator. We ensured the design was familiar and intuitive, so women did not have to compromise on their convenient, established rituals. We knew that hygiene could be a significant barrier to entry, so we worked with leading micro-biologists and medical engineers and used the best medical grade, antimicrobial materials on the market. As a result, the consumer only must rinse the applicator in cold water after use to keep it clean. Simple steps, minimal habit change.

However, it is challenging to tackle an issue that has such little awareness.

Menstruation has historically been shrouded in shame, fear and discretion.

It is not a topic openly talked about.

This is a problem with feminine care as a whole: it is frequently dismissed and the women trying to address it are critically underfunded. In 2017 female founders got 2% of the $85 billion VC investment pot. About 8% of partners at the top British VC firms are women.

According to Harvard Business Review, stereotypes about female entrepreneurs persist: women are overly cautious, shy away from growth, have insufficient resources and consequently their ventures underperform. Yet there is no performance data to support these stereotypes.

How are products used by women supposed to change in line with human and environmental needs, when they aren’t given appropriate recognition or have women involved in all stages of the process? Women need to be given more of a voice if we are to create meaningful change. The world of AI is already highlighting the need to diverse away from male, white, Western coders if we are to avoid

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unconscious bias in the robots of tomorrow. Amazon had to abandon an AI recruitment tool that was discriminating against women, instead favoring prospects who mirrored Amazon’s existing male engineer workforce. At DAME women have been involved in every stage of the journey, not as a token gesture but as an absolute necessity.

However, our overarching business strategy goes beyond issues of inclusivity to incorporate a wider mission. DAME was founded on the belief that business can be used as a force for good. We use this core value to guide every decision we make in the business, bringing great clarity to our route forward. By communicating our genuine and authentic commitment to this mission, we hope that our message will quickly be picked up by those eager to join a movement for change.

To date, we have seen this happen not only with our consumers and the press, but with employees. People are increasingly drawn to companies doing good. 75% of millennials would take a pay cut to work at a socially responsible company.

All this strengthens our resolve at DAME to continue to tackle critical problems that are not openly acknowledged, that are significantly underfunded, and that have historically been controlled by giant monopolies.

Today we are focusing on menstrual products, but our vision is to revolutionize the entire bathroom.

These are big mountains, but having strong guiding principles makes the navigation much easier.”

-Words by Celia Pool Co-Founder of DAME For more information visit wearedame.co

September 2019

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019/ Kirsten Bay

Kirsten Bay A Trailblazer in Cyber Security

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irsten Bay is the CEO and Co-founder at Cysurance. She has created Cysurance with the concept to change how small businesses think about and mi gate against cyber threats. She brings more than 25 years of experience in risk intelligence, informa on, and policy exper se across a variety of sectors.

Since its incep on, Kirsten and her team took the Cysurance concept from deck to launch in 7 months and signed distribu on partners who will begin co-marke ng to over 200k customers.

In her career, Kirsten has been appointed to congressional commi ees developing cyber policies, ini a ves, and recommenda ons for the intelligence community. She has developed recommenda ons in partnership with the Center for North American Studies (CNAS) and Center for Strategic and Interna onal Studies (CSIS) for the White House energy policy and collaborated on informa on studies for MITHarvard and several federal agencies. She has gone before a parliamentary subcommi ee on recrea ng trust in the global economy, presented na onal security and cri cal infrastructure concepts at conferences such as Black Hat, Secured Americas, Enterprise Architecture Ins tute, SC World Congress, and the Eurim Informa on Management Commi ee. She has also spoken on applied economics and its rela onship to both cyber and na onal security around the world.

Strategizing Challenges Kirsten has worked in cybersecurity for over a decade, and has held a variety of roles that have allowed her to learn ďŹ rst hand the pain

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Kirsten Bay CEO & Co-founder

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points of the customers. Working for very large companies for the first half of her career afforded her a level of infrastructure to achieve milestones in an organized environment with a lot of resources. According to her, while the large corporate culture can be s fling to many, there is a structure in place that allows one to know what is next. She le that world to start her consul ng prac ce while developing a new professional network where she had to start from scratch in crea ng her opportuni es.

Some of the ini al roadblocks were being an unknown in the industry while simultaneously crea ng her client pipeline and exper se. Fortunately, she had a very suppor ve group of colleagues who helped her through that me such that she became an important voice in cybersecurity. While she has a broad understanding of the cyber market, she con nues to learn about innova ons as well as staying in front of customers to understand how to help support them in solving a problem that feels infinitely complex.

Important Quali es an Entrepreneur Should Hold Kirsten believes that pa ence and curiosity are the most vital a ributes for an entrepreneur. Accordingly, curiosity is the fuel of the entrepreneur, as it is the desire to understand the complexi es of the world and how to make them simpler. She has spent most of her life pushing herself beyond the comfort zone to see what she could achieve. Some mes that resulted in a broken bone, but mostly it helped her accomplish most of her goals. This helped early in her career when she had roles with significant responsibility, and the desire to become an expert at her profession drove her to push harder despite some mes feeling daunted by the challenge. Kirsten believes, "It is not the lack of fear that keeps me going, but the ability to harness that nervousness into the energy and vitality I need to keep pushing ahead."

Company's Contribu on to the Society Cysurance's product was created to reduce the fric on and complexity small and medium-size business experience

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The intuition of faith, in the ability to rise through the difficulties of the day, is what connects you to be the best you can be.

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when trying to adopt a cyber insurance and risk program.

The company sought to create a single product that addresses the key pain points in for an SMB – What insurance do I need? What technology do I need? How do I hire and pay for a team to help me in the moment of a breach? The Cysurance program was designed to iden fy a breach, provide breach remedia on, and supply a comprehensive insurance policy that covers the events that most impact SMBs. Cysurance was developed from the idea that there are not enough complete risk solu ons that help customers contextualize and manage their cyber risks regardless of their size.

Determining Organiza on's Goals Kirsten's mission is to get strong market penetra on with SMBs to support them in being protected against the growing risk of cyber-a acks. Parts of this mission means helping to redefine how people think about and invest in cyber risk management by adding to context to how certain products can help them not only be secure but support their financial recovery in the event of the a ack.

In the longer term, she aims to bring be er data to both SMBs and their financial partners to understand how their risk profiles differ from larger organiza ons so that the company can be er support their needs and vulnerabili es.

Shaping the Journey of Entrepreneurs Kirsten's advice- First, be very clear on what it means to be an entrepreneur. While it can be both personally and financially rewarding, it requires an incredible amount of sacrifice, hard work, resilience, and leadership in mes of scarcity before prosperity becomes a reality. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely experience, find a networking group that focuses on the needs and the challenges that you will have as a leader of a fledgling company. The friendships and opportuni es that you will acquire can make the difference between success and failure.

Kirsten's View about Cyber Insurance Kirsten asserts that Cyber Insurance alone is complex and difficult for the average consumer to understand, as it is o en unclear what is covered, how much coverage is needed, and whether there is a true benefit in adop ng a cyber insurance policy. Cysurance has developed a comprehensive cyber insurance program in partnership with Chubb to cover the cyber events that most impact small and medium-sized businesses and their revenue.

Unlike other insurance partners, the company sets out to ease complexity by elimina ng underwri ng and lengthy applica on process.

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September 2019

Unbaised Future

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t the top “It’s all about finding someone’s strengths. Women don’t outperform men and vice versa. But I won’t deny that it takes a lot of discipline to stay at the top as a woman,” Ineke expresses. Just like men, women have a lot of qualities that match perfectly with a leadership role. It’s important that leadership comes from the heart. And you need to have the intention to help others grow and make them better through your role. I call it Servant Leadership.

If you want to make your company a success, you need to be of service to the company and its people. This has nothing to do with gender or background.

That’s why a quota for women at the top is completely nonsense, according to me. All women who really want to reach the top, will find a way to break through that glass ceiling. No bias in the world will stop a woman on a mission to reach that top position. But it’s wrong to think that anyone with the right capabilities – man or woman – can work anywhere they want. There should be a match between your personality, the company’s values and its culture. And sometimes it’s just a case of pure luck. Being at the right place at the right time. If this match doesn’t come naturally, it’s just not meant to be.

But if there is a perfect match between you as a leader and a company, it’s the first positive step, in my opinion. It’s still a lot of work. Having all that responsibility takes a lot out of you. You shouldn’t be afraid to make choices, and that also means saying no to certain activities in your personal life.

I am a mother of two and am not home every day. My husband and I have been able to make it work. I notice that a lot of women still find it difficult. But you can’t run a company part time. You need to dare to go full in. Those doubts often appear during the initial job interview. Women insightssuccess.com

say “I want to be a director, but I still have children that I need to bring to school. Is that possible?” As if there are no male CEOs that bring their kids to school. The big difference is that men don’t ask these kinds of questions.

They just do it!

Balance It’s all about balance. Recently, I attended a forum on female leadership, where I talked about my role as a CEO. In the audience, were female students who were just about to graduate. When the moderator asked which of them wanted the same job as me, only three of the four hundred students raised their hands. The moderator was shocked, and asked the audience what was going on. “She works too much”, was the answer. “And we also want to be able to go to parties, exercise and have a social life.” That shocked me a little. It’s not that I don’t do anything else besides work.

My downtime, social life and work activities are just one big mix. It’s true that I’m constantly thinking about work.

But I also allow myself to go for a run in the morning or see my hairdresser during the week. To me, it’s just one full week in which I can do a lot.

Did I have this go-getter mentality as a child, since I already knew I wanted to one day reach the top? I think so.

But, at the same time, all the things I hoped for as a child didn’t come true. What I got is a lot better. I definitely don’t regret the choices that I’ve made. I started a family, got married, and am the CEO of a young and ambitious company. I should therefore be the last person to decide whether or not one should have a leadership position based on a ‘home situation’. How you combine the two is up to you. And yes, that takes a lot of discipline. But if you have natural leadership qualities, I believe everything is going to be alright.

The key to achieving this? As a female – or male – leader, you need to learn to let go and prioritise. Just do your best and focus on making things better for other people.

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Dynamics of

Participation in the Ever-changing Modern Workforce

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September 2019

Women Empower

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collaboration, and not the cutthroat competition, is the modern era’s principle virtue to achieve success. Many endeavours which seem to be beyond the bounds of

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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September 2019

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019/ Nicole Martin

Nicole Martin

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n an interview with Insights Success, the CEO, of HRBoost, LLC., Nicole Mar n, sheds light on the company's cu ng-edge solu ons based on strategic HR leadership and the latest thinking in the field of human resource management. And she also shares her insights about the company's core competencies and its future and broadly discussed about her overall journey as a marke ng aspirant. Considering these influen al and inspira onal aspects, Insights Success recognizes Nicole Mar n as one of the most inspiring women in business 2019.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Nicole and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of your background as an entrepreneur.

Empowering Businesses with Astounding Human Resource Management

How do you diversify your organiza on's offerings to appeal to the target audience?

We have diversified our offerings by allowing our clients to engage us on an ala carte, project, or retainer basis.

This provides mul ple ways in which my clients can choose to engage us.

Essen ally, it is our mission to meet them wherever they are on their journey to be a best place to work.

Whether they are a small, growing business or a large, corporate employer, we can address their specific needs at a price point and service level that is customized for them to maximize their investment.

“We strive to bring joy and purpose to people through their work.

In 2010, I le my corporate career to establish HRBoost, LLC. My ini al vision was to find leaders who wanted to be the next Best & Brightest® employer, while providing support to growing businesses facing a myriad of workforce challenges. Within two years, I realized I was growing at an astounding rate and that I needed a team. With 50% growth year over a one-year period, it became clear HR outsourcing was not HR as I knew it and that with HRBoost, I had found a niche.

The real a ributes of an individual at the helm of their business is curiosity. I never intended to build a business, I sought work that fueled my passion

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“

Describe some of the vital a ributes that every entrepreneur should possess.

and, in turn, created my perfect intellectual playground full of challenge. O en it is the leap of faith grounded in belief that you are doing something greater than you, something for the greater good itself, and then you turn around one day and realize that you have people on your team as passionate about it as you.

When that passion was transferred to my team, only then did I truly feel comfortable calling myself a Chief Empowerment Officer.

What were the past experiences, achievements or lessons that have shaped your journey?

There are so many things throughout my life that have helped shape me, my choices, and my journey. For me it starts with childhood and being raised by a single mother. She taught me the value of hard work, the importance of tenacity and, she gave me uncondi onal love and the confidence to follow my dreams. Importantly, all of them taught me that there is no place for complacency, if you wish to succeed. And, others have taken me under their wing and shared their experience as entrepreneurs and thought leaders, giving me encouragement and showing what it means to be a mentor. This has inspired me to con nue that, so that I too can help shape the next genera on of business leaders.

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Nicole Martin CEO HRBoost, LLC

How do you strategize your game plans to tackle compe on in the market?

I listen to my clients carefully as they are on the front lines of their respec ve industries and, I stay abreast of what is happening in my industry. Researching and reading market trends, analyzing higher educa on focuses, and tapping into the concerns of employees and job applicants, gives me great insights into the future of human resources.

Because of this broad-based outlook, I have experienced rapid growth, and for this reason I have enjoyed the pace of word of mouth alone.

What were the primal challenges and roadblocks you faced during the ini al phase of your career as an entrepreneur?

I think the ini al challenges of being an entrepreneur are many. One is needing human capital and the ďŹ nancial capital to source human capital. Some entrepreneurs do not grow because they are not inves ng in talent or taking the ďŹ nancial risks that are necessary. I made a calculated risk to invest in my talent and invest in my bench strength.

In the early years, I was reac ng to my business rather than being proac ve.

Where do you see yourself in the near future and what are your future goals?

rewarding. For our larger clients, I am excited to see them grow and reach their Best & Brightest™ recogni on. For myself, I am excited to be sharing my knowledge through my books and speaking engagements. My next book, No Fear Nego a on for Women, is being released in August 2019. I am excited to share some of my successful nego a on methods to help other female entrepreneurs as they build their businesses.

What is your advice for budding and emerging entrepreneurs?

I feel it is impera ve to get hands on experience doing what you seek to learn. Make sure it brings you joy before inves ng me, energy, and dedica ng your life to it. Enjoy the journey and be prepared to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Surround yourself with people who inspire and support you, but also don't patronize you. Remember, even if it gets harder, or takes longer, stay diligent. Anything you love will be worth it.

For my business, I would like to expand our service op ons and spotlight our Small Business Bundles for clients that typically do not have access to strategic HR day one, employee one. Helping small businesses to succeed is truly

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September 2019

Pam Bateson CEO & Co-founder Thrive Partners

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September 2019

Tech-Know Insights

What a tech CEO can teach your business about digital About the Author Pam Bateson is an expert coach and mentor in business, training others to Masters level qualifications and supervising coaches. She has worked within the healthcare, retail, hotels, construction, media, agencies, education and public sector. She specialises in Coaching, Mentoring, Employee Engagement, Change Management, Learning and Development and Organisational Design. She has worked with all levels in organisations from graduates to the CEO. She has designed change programmes that connect projects, outcomes, training and coaching. The performance outcomes have been outstanding. She is CEO and Co-founder at Thrive Partners. insightssuccess.com

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am Bateson set up Thrive Partners, an on-demand coaching company, three years ago. In this article, she shares her point of view on how important humans are in a more digital world, what she’s learned as a tech CEO, and what this means when you’re looking to use tech in a way that’s both disruptive and works for customers. In October 2015, I gave up a successful career as a management consultant and coach to set up Thrive Partners. Lots of people thought I was crazy. I was approaching 50, with two children still at home. But for the decade running up to that decision, I’d been thinking about a better way to deliver coaching – supported by digital, to share more widely the coaching tools I’d used to help clients for many years.

This was the business I set out to build three years ago. Today, we’re working with 25 clients on five continents – delivering our own brand of on-demand coaching, backed with insights for the whole business. The learning curve has been steep – particularly for someone who, by their own confession, didn’t have

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a lot of experience in learning technology. So here, I wanted to share some of the things we’ve learned – and what it might mean for your business.

Early on in the development of our MyThrive platform, we realised that delivering digitally would enable us to do more than just scale and facilitate coaching in global organisations; it would also mean we could spot trends and patterns within communities of users, in organisations or society at large. Just as carefully listening has a powerful and transformative role in one-to-one coaching conversations, carefully listening to and analysing anonymised version of the conversations we host has a powerful and transformative role within whole organisations.

Dream big I didn’t really set out to build a business that would be considered disruptive, but my background as a lean engineer and coach did mean that we ripped up the rulebook when it came to the coaching industry. We scrapped the idea that you needed to meet face to face, and that sessions had to last an hour, or even two hours. And we made it a lot easier for people to access a coach to answer the questions they had there and then – increasing access so people could chat to an expert within an hour.

The whole-system insights we produced has helped to make sales processes smoother, improved communications and created more opportunities for people to learn.

Working with my co-founder, we then rebuilt the industry by asking the biggest questions we could imaging. What if we could make coaching available to whole organisations? What if we could get listening as valued as speaking? And what if we could help organisations learn as quickly as individuals?

Keep it human With suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45, loneliness sweeping through developed economies in epidemic proportions and a third of all young people suffering from anxiety, I strongly believe that we have a duty to keep talking to each other as a society.

I found these questions irresistible: I wanted to do for coaching what Uber had done for getting a taxi, Netflix had done for home entertainment, and Tinder had done for dating. It’s these big dreams that have galvanised our success in the last few years – and which has set us in the right direction for the future.

We believe that keeping the art of conversation alive in this digital age is essential; only humans can master creativity, empathy, humour and imagination in a way that’s compelling.

Information is everywhere, so we’re using technology differently – to offer real human experiences at scale, at any time of the day, whenever our clients need a conversation, for everything you can’t Google.

Build for modern users Despite big dreams, we’ve also made our fair share of mistakes! A lot of them mistakes happened when we took our attention away from our end customers. It sounds obvious to see it there on the page. But it can be easy to lose sight of the customers that matter most, especially when, as a tech CEO, sometime we get preoccupied with a shiny piece of new technology.

And what of the future? Curiously, even the structures of artificial intelligence and machine learning look set to mimic human patterns. It’s still early days, but leaders in this space talk of ‘deep learning’ with AI – by layering up different tools that connect in the same way as our brain’s neural networks.

So, what to consider first when it comes to users? The main thing to bear in mind is that they expect experiences that are easy and fast to access – a shift brought about by what we call the ‘Amazon Prime Mindset.’ In this era, clunky user experiences reduce the chances of uptake of services. In short, if your technology can’t match or exceed the quality of digital experience people get in their everyday lives, then you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

And so, the next three years?

My recent experiences have led us to ask even bigger questions than we did to begin with – which I suspect will lead to our next irresistible set of adventures! What if we could transform learning management systems into learning ecosystems? What if any community of learners could connect with any community of teachers? And what if a better understanding of outcomes from learning could help both individuals, organisations and society to thrive?

Create wins for the many So, if users come first – who else can we harness the power of technology for?

I for one believe there are exciting times ahead.

Our answer? Everyone else in the system.

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September 2019

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019/ Trina Watt

Trina Watt

Providing Technical Marketing for Technical Companies

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usinesses run by women con nue to be the shining light in the present market. The recent Global Entrepreneurship Summits are tes mony to the fact that more women are playing an important role in business and inspiring others. One such inspiring businesswoman is Trina Wa , Founder of Wa Knowledge, a technical marke ng agency providing a range of marke ng services that address the specific needs of technology based companies.

With a marke ng background in global technology companies, Trina started Wa Knowledge in 2015 so she could use her wealth of marke ng experience to help start-up and scale-up technology companies in their early years.

Transla ng Technology Having been in the technology industry for over 25 years, Trina had seen a lot of technologies fail – even with a really good product – and companies failing to understand why people weren’t ge ng excited about their technology. This is especially true as technology is ge ng more complex with more innova ons at risk of failure before they get started.

With her background in engineering and marke ng, she knew it was o en due to poor marke ng messaging, not the technology itself. If the customer does not understand what your product brings to them or why it is be er than the current products you will not be successful.

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Trina has the rare ability to translate technical concepts into easily digestable marke ng and business messages that are cri cal to the success of technology dependent businesses. This enables companies to maximise their visibility thus gaining a compe ve edge and maximising business impact.

Most marke ng/PR companies start at the marke ng level, however Wa Knowledge goes to a more technical level star ng at the engineering level and building the marke ng message from there. By doing this it translates the technology from the engineering level avoiding key features being lost in transla on.

While men oning about the challenges on the journey, Trina men ons that one of the challenges many technology startups have is ge ng experienced technical marke ng people who can cover topics ranging from technical discussions through to PR. Wa Knowledge fills this gap in a flexible way that enables companies to gain an experience marke ng team at lower cost or supplement their exis ng teams.

Focusing on Start-ups Trina men ons that the UK is full of innova ve startups and Cambridge in par cular has both strong technology and biotech sectors. Ini ally in just the tech space, Wa Knowledge has diversified to include biotech bringing their wealth of marke ng knowledge and exper se to this growing area. The

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company has also moved away from focusing on all company sizes. Over the last two years it has focused more on the start-up/scale-up space where it can bring the biggest return during these cri cal years of a company.

Celebra ng Good Stuff While explaining about the essen al a ributes every entrepreneur should possess, Trina highlights the importance of pa ence, resilience, having fun, and having fantas c group of people in the team. To begin with Trina found rejec ons hard to handle. She had always been in large organiza ons where losing business didn’t feel personal, but with it being her own company found it hard not to take personally. It took her a few years to work out that this can go both ways and that she can also reject working with companies that wouldn’t suit working with Wa Knowledge. She strongly believes that as a virtual marke ng agency it’s important to work well with your clients and for them to see you as part of their team, even though you’re not in the same office.

As an entrepreneur, you need to have pa ence as things don’t happen overnight, resilience as things don’t always go in the direc on you had planned, and you need to find ways to get through the difficult mes. Trina advises celebra ng the good stuff. She says, “It can be easy to overlook this but it is vital to celebrate – it helps to reassure you of why you are being an entrepreneur.”

Another lesson she learned on her journey is that the people you work with are what makes it possible. She men ons that her team at Wa Knowledge are all at the top of their game and she trusts them explicitly. This means it doesn’t all sit on her shoulders as it did in the early days. She stresses that you have to have fun and works with “the most fantas c group of people

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both in my team and my clients. Keeping it fun helps to get through the harder days”.

Clients are Best Advocates When Trina started Wa Knowledge there were no other companies like it in the Cambridge area so many people were not sure how it could fit in with their current teams. This was overcome by her first clients all being people she had worked with before in previous companies. Since then all of Wa Knowledge’s business has come in through word of mouth. Trina men ons, “Our clients are our best advocates.”

Trina Watt Founder

Strengthening an Ecosystem of Startups Wa Knowledge has a wide range and variety of clients and partners it works with on a daily basis. Many of them are working on market areas or products that are complementary. Trina’s near future plan is to grow and strengthen an ecosystem of startups and scale up who can help each other to be successful.

Trina advises emerging entrepreneurs, “Go for it! If you have spo ed a gap then you know there is a market. Don’t be frightened to pivot if your ini al idea isn’t working – it is not a sign of failure but a poten al route to success.”

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Translating Technology. Working to maximize the business impact of innovation through compelling marketing.

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September 2019

Disruptive Technology and Changing Trends Influencing Business

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ew decades ago, reaching the moon was beyond imagination. But not today, because technology has completely changed the world and made it possible.

Technological inventions were revolutionized in the 18th and 19th century with the steam engine, the telegraph, fiber optics, typewriter, sewing machine, etc. Later, it changed the way we communicate on a real-time basis with telephone, radio, and internet.

Let us see how trends in technology are changing businesses.

Internet of Things IOT has begun to change the world around us. It allows the businesses to access their information virtually, creating a flexible and global way of accessing data, any place, and any time. It reduces the cost by maintaining IT system, rather than purchasing expensive systems and equipment. It also allows employees to be more flexible in work practices. Let us see some fields where IOT must be adapted.

Innovations in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and information technology are already helping to solve challenges that occur in these sectors. Through the breakthrough innovations in health services, technology has been able to improve the lives of poor people in developing countries.

Healthcare Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are largely paperbased industry. The pen and paper approach is still followed largely around the world. Patient’s record sharing is still done in the traditional way which is time-consuming.

Whereas, real-time monitoring via connected devices can save lives in an event of a medical emergency. IOT devices collect and transfer health data and are stores in the cloud.

These data can be shared with a physician or a health firm, in order to allow them to look at it, regardless of their place, time or device. Therefore, in an event of an emergency, patients can contact a doctor who is many kilometers away with a simple smartphone.

Manufacturing field is increasingly being automated and technology driven. Advanced technology and systems such as automation, nanotechnology, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and others are changing the face of manufacturing to improve business technologies. So, the adaption of technologies in work will revolutionize the way it was in the past in the field of manufacturing as well.

Fleet Management Fleet operators spend a large amount of time, money and resource in maintaining the safety standards and resource in maintaining the safety standards and operate at the desired performance levels. Through various sensors, fleet companies have access to a vast amount of data. This information can help the company to make real-time quick decisions for instant improvements. In fact, these insights can help in effectively managing the overall supply chain.

Undoubtedly, IOT has set to become the backbone of the fleet management industry. insightssuccess.com

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Changing the Status Quo

Public Transport Management In today’s major cities at rush hour, getting to and from work is a nightmare. Imagine a world where not only the cars are smart, but also the street and traffic lights. Public transportation systems like trains and buses are connected to individual’s smartphones.

This will help to know the exact time to leave the houses accordingly. In smart cities, passengers are already enjoying Wi-Fi and USB charging stations on public transportation. Overall, IOT already started affecting the aspects of our life.

Renewable Energy Will you like earning money on reducing the use of electricity? Thanks to IOT energysaving tools, you can significantly decrease the numbers in your bills. IOT energy solutions are sensor-based technology. It analyses weather and environment condition, helps automate the management of wind farms, optimizes maintenance and thus reduces the cost dramatically. People (both households and companies) get a better understanding of their usage habits and adjusts them accordingly. These system collects data on electricity consumption in real-time and helps generate important insights for environmentalists, researchers, and conservation strategists. Thus, installing IOT smart energy device can join the environmental initiative, cut down on energy consumption and lessen the greenhouse effect.

Agriculture The global population is set to touch 9.6 billion by 2050. So, to feed this much population, the farming industry must embrace IOT. Smart farming based on IOT technology will reduce waste and enhance productivity. Ranging from the quantity of fertilizer utilized to the number of journeys the farm vehicles have made. In IOT based smart farming a system is built for monitoring the crop field with the help of sensors and automating the irrigation systems. It is highly efficient when compared with the conventional approach.

Thus, with the population growing rapidly, the demand can be successfully met, if the farmers implement agricultural IOT solutions in a prosperous manner. insightssuccess.com

Blockchain Technology Blockchain technology is changing the way we do our day to day businesses. Companies are starting to work with Blockchain technology because it gives you privacy along with it is transparent. Let’s see how blockchain can help to deal with business.

Smart Contracts Contract is where consent of the parties is involved to agree and interact with each other. Blockchain technology helps to guarantee the validity of a transaction through a secure validation mechanism. Industries and institutions are heavily reliant on contracts, such as insurance, financial institutions, real estate, construction, entertainment and, law. A smart contract helps formalize the relationships between people, institutions and the assets they own. They eliminate the need for trusted third parties and are self-verifying, self-executing and Tamper resistant.

Blockchain will be an important part of our financial and technological digital future. It is one of the incredibly creative inventions that technology has ever seen. So how we use it is up to us, it could indeed transform the global scenario.

Technology and changing trends in businesses is not something which is going to happen in the future, it is happening right now. It has already started affecting a lot of businesses. So businesses have tremendous opportunity to benefit from such technological advancement. There is no doubt that technological innovations are largely followed all over the world and it will revolutionize the businesses.

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Balancing the Needs of Business

I

am mumpreneur. I am very proud of this title. It evokes an image of a frazzled yet sincere, middle-aged woman effortlessly juggling the needs and expectations of loved ones, with running a business.

About the Author Sofia Fenichell is the Founder and CEO of Mrs Wordsmith. Mrs Wordsmith is on a mission to illustrate the English language with the awardwinning artists behind Madagascar and Hotel Transylvania - so children fall in love with learning words. We are the first company to illustrate the English language to re-imagine the dictionary for digital natives and the visual world we live in. Prior to Mrs Wordsmith, Sofia was the CEO and Founder of Rockpack, which created two of the most downloaded video curation apps, regularly featured by Apple. She has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in History from Northwestern University. She is also an agented writer on a novel in the works, called Silicon Sally.

In reality, it is very different, especially the ‘effortlessly’ part.

Over the past 4 years I have been in over 100 classrooms teaching Mrs. Wordsmith or just observing how students learn. I have had the pleasure of working with highly regarded academics, fellow entrepreneurs, large companies and informed investors in the edtech sector.

I have learned more than I have taught.

Here is what I have learned in and out of the home and the classroom, and how it relates to being an entrepreneur.

Lesson #1 It’s important to stand for - or against - something meaningful People love to rally around an idea or a mission. At Mrs Wordsmith, we stand for the fight against boredom, both in classrooms and at home. If you can hold the attention of children, you can educate them. Easier said than done. But in our case, we think about this every minute of every day.

We vet our ideas and our products around this simple concept - can it hold the attention of a child? If we fail to insightssuccess.com

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Expert’s Outlook

Sofia Fenichell Founder & CEO Mrs Wordsmith

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engage children, we have failed to deliver on the most critical aspect of learning.

delegate. The more you delegate, the faster you will learn how capable people are.

Lesson #2

Lesson #5

Lean hard into change until it feels like you are about to topple over

Don’t take your culture for granted Culture is something you build, not inherit. Culture can be a powerful, single organising principle. It can also be a disease. You want people to feel safe but slightly unhinged so they can be creative. You want them to feel under pressure from the customer, not management, so they genuinely bring their A game to work. And lastly, take care of your people. They will feel more inspired.

And don’t worry about falling over because you will.

Heavily discount market perceptions that people are not looking for change. It’s not true. We are all looking for change - parents, teachers and schools. It’s just that we may not be able to articulate what we are looking for until you the entrepreneur show us what good looks like. There is so much we resist in life until someone shows us. When we first started Mrs Wordsmith, everyone said to us, “you will never be able to illustrate words that aren’t nouns” and sure enough, it’s the hallmark of what we do. We know how to illustrate words that are difficult to illustrate like ‘ambitious’ or ‘blaring’.

I have learned a lot from two - very different - books on culture. One is called Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull the founder of Pixar and the other is Powerful, Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, by Patty McCord of Netflix.

Lesson #3

Lesson #6

Don’t make incremental changes - kicking the can up the road is for hobos

Execute, iterate, and execute It’s been said so much. But that’s because it’s the hardest thing on earth. Execution is highly nuanced too. You have to read, think and listen a lot to execute well. You have to plan and iterate.

You need to think big. Being an aggregator, making minor improvements to products or services that exist today - this isn’t innovation, it’s repackaging. There is a place for this.

But don’t expect customers to pay for it, or students to truly benefit from it. The single biggest problem in the education sector today is incrementalism. Instead of thinking about how to repackage spelling exercises, think about whether we need to teach spelling to primary kids at all? Should we bin the lists and just give kids the space and time to read?

Instead of spending 80% of classroom time learning about our history and who we were, how about learning about the future and who we could become? Entrepreneurs shift the 80/20 rule in unexpected and meaningful ways.

Lesson #7 Saving the best for last. Family and exercise The idea for Mrs Wordsmith came from my children, because I was so connected to their needs at school. After a lot of fruitless searching for a product, I decided to create one. The entrepreneur’s story only has a happy ending if you remember to put your family first, or at a minimum, on par with your business.

Being an entrepreneur is hard work. There are times when the boundaries between work and home, or work and health, will be blurred. Only you can set these boundaries. It’s not always easy. But if you truly believe in what you do, you will play the long game. You will set the boundaries that make you a better wife, mother, person, friend - whatever it is that gives you perspective, anchors and rejuvenates you.

Lesson #4 Hire well You can’t do it alone. You can’t. Hire people you can learn from. You should admire the people you work with. Hire people who disagree with you, Hire a diversity of personas and mindsets. Make sure you feel a connection to them.

You are going to debate a lot of issues together. And then

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September 2019

The 10 Most Inspiring Women in Business 2019/ Victoria Lennox

Victoria Lennox

A Management Doyen with Exceptional Entrepreneurship Skills

V

ision, courage, perseverance, and resilience ARE THE most essen al skills to determine the poten al of a business leader. Being a business person means that one has to be a visionary like an entrepreneur and commi ed like a leader at the same me. An entrepreneur and execu ve leader with a track record of designing, building, and opera onalizing ecosystems, clusters, networks, and organiza ons, Victoria Lennox, President and Co-Founder of Startup Canada has propelled Canada to the global stage as an ‘Innova on Na on.’ As one of Canada’s leading proponents of entrepreneurship and innova on with deep rela onships and es across academia, industry, government and media reaching every industry ver cal from AI and Machine Learning to Cleantech and Fin-tech across Canada and the World. Victoria is a commensurate diplomat with the ability to lead, communicate and forge consensus in any environment.

Victoria founded the Na onal Associa on of College and University Entrepreneurs, Startup Canada, and the Startup Na ons, scaling organiza ons from zero to 35 employees.

She is working alongside 3,000 volunteers, raising more than $50M from private and public sector partners, and growing membership beyond 250,000 members.

Exemplified Leadership Ms. Lennox sets her organiza ons apart by focusing on na onal and global challenges, empowering individuals to become advocates, commi ng to collabora on by default, and always focusing on the end result impact. This approach aids her to mobilize people, resources, informa on, and everything required to take an idea and build it into a thriving organiza on. With this approach, Ms. Lennox doesn’t need to appeal to a target audience, as the target audience is engaged from the onset in building and the products, services and programs that are created.

According to Ms. Lennox, “This approach to co-crea on leads to greater speed, quality, and impact of the services and programs for the targe ed audience — it removes the guesswork and replaces it with teamwork”.

Passionate about educa on, entrepreneurship, innova on and technology to foster peace, hope, equality, and sustainability, Victoria possesses principal diplomacy and poli cal acuity. She creates and communicates a compelling vision, and inspires higher levels of achievement and impact of individuals and organiza ons alike. As a digital powerhouse, Victoria leverages technology and digital media to unite, grow and reinforce communi es, ecosystems and organiza ons, launching robust digital programs and omni-channel campaigns.

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She is first Canadian to receive the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promo on at Buckingham Palace on the recommenda on of the Bri sh Prime Minister. She also has represented Canada on Governor General State Visits to Colombia, Chile, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank; APEC

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Summits in the Philippines and Vietnam, G8 Summits, UNDP Summits, and led dedicated Innova on Tours across Mexico, India, Israel, Estonia, Lithuania and Helsinki to promote and forge es to Canada's innova on, startup, and scale-up ecosystems.

Experience Leads to Proficiency As with every entrepreneur, star ng up can be challenging. Building an idea into a business requires wearing every hat including fundraising, fulfilling, driving impact, and scaling at the same me. Ms. Lennox a ributes her success to her co-founders, team, mentors and the advisors that have li ed her and her organiza ons to great success.

Ms. Lennox’s past experiences at the intersec on of business, academic, government and entrepreneurship have shaped her journey and the organiza ons she has built. From her early undergraduate studies and posi ons in government,

“I encourage anyone with

a burning desire to take action on their idea to do so with courage.

University of Oxford focused on AI ethics, governance and geopoli cs.

“I am driven to be of greater service of humanity through developing ins tu ons, systems, policies and approaches that lead to greater equality, sustainability, peace, and freedom for all” Ms. Lennox asserts. Her short term vision is to complete by her doctorate and contribute to the scholarship and field of knowledge in her domain; be involved in cu ng-edge innova ons, enterprises, and ins tu ons where she can make an impact; and to con nue to speak and write.

Believe in Yourself Ms. Lennox is a strong advocate of entrepreneurship as a vehicle for individual empowerment, economic independence, and social change. Further she states “Don’t wait. Reach out to mentors. Connect with your start-up community. You owe it to yourself and the world to give it all you’ve got.”

Victoria Lennox

President and Co-founder Startup Canada

“

she learned the value of ‘service’; from her global travels across more than 25 countries and her work in China, Ghana and the UK. She learned the values of ‘diplomacy, collabora on and global impact’, and, from her work in entrepreneurship she learned the values of ‘empowerment, economic independence and social jus ce.’ The combined values have propelled Victoria to put her skills, experience and knowledge to use to tackle everlarger societal challenges, with what she calls a ‘systems lens’.

Inclining towards Equality, Sustainability, Peace, and Freedom A life-long learner, Ms. Lennox con nues to support her Canadian-based non-profit organiza on, Startup Canada as its President and advises economic development, government and private sector organiza ons on advancing innova on and entrepreneurship. She is a keynote speaker on the topic of innova on ecosystems, is wri ng her first book, and is set to embark on a DPhil at the

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September 2019

A

s of 2017, 6% of the venture capitalists were women and only 2.7% women owned businesses received venture capital funding. Being a VC in this startup economy, where 90% of startups fail, is a tough job. However, it has noting to do with gender.

While there are number of factors responsible for success in the venture capital industry including timing and luck, top of that list is a disruptive technology. A disruptive technology is an innovation that changes the way an existing industry functions and also helps create a new market and value network, displacing an earlier technology or a way of doing business.

“Hi. I am Nin Desai. I head a crowdfunded technology venture capital ďŹ rm, NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC). We invest in Series A & B rounds of disruptive technology companies.â€? insightssuccess.com

E.g. 3D printing has been used for rapid prototyping and is being applied in a number of industries today, including

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Stellar’s Vision

manufacturing, automotive, consumer, aerospace, defense, and especially healthcare. As the accuracy and materials market have improved, the medical space shows great potential for this technology. There are about 114,000 people currently on the organ recipient list in United States; and only 34,770 transplants were performed in 2017. Every 10 minutes a new person is added to the waiting list and 20 people die every day because they cannot find a right organ.

What if 3D printing tissues can help save some of those lives?

Every sector at some point is up for disruption. E.g. Ad Tech. Over time as consumer behavior patterns changed, Digital has now replaced Traditional Television. People are now spending more time on their personal devices like phone, tablets, & PCs. An average American spends about 3 hours everyday on their personal devices, and this is the first time, the time spend on personal devices have surpassed time spent watching Television, which is a big change and opportunity for the Ad Tech Industry.

E.g. 4th Industrial Revolution. We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the 3D, 4D, digital, other smart and biological spheres.

However, great ideas and technology needs to be backed by a solid revenue model in order to attract customers as well as attain profitability for the company to be an attractive investment opportunity for a VC. E.g. our new initiative, Total Capitalism. A startup needs an ecosystem to thrive upon, thus it is very important for a company to understand the market dynamics, its impact on their industry, product, and also have a good understanding of the competitive landscape in order to achieve long term success. A disruptive technology needs to scale and a through analysis helps gage those risk and rewards.

A CEO is the captain of the ship; and at NIN.VC we start with an entrepreneur because entrepreneurs build companies and not the other way around. Some of the qualities VCs look for in an entrepreneur are ability to dream big with ideas that scale, certain personality traits and work ethics like being focused, disciplined, and hard working. It’s important to have industry expertise and knowledge or surround yourself with people that insightssuccess.com

compliment. However, flexibility and choices an entrepreneur / the team makes determines the future of the company. An amazing entrepreneur with a disruptive technology, a solid revenue model, and good understanding of the competitive landscape goes to vain, if the company does not communicate effectively or has a good execution strategy.

Venture Capitalists are known to invest in unicorns that prove to be home run for their LPs and while there is no secret recipe for success, hope this helps in understanding the art and science behind each of that investment.

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ntrepreneurs set up their new ventures with a new and unique vision, goal, and its future. These entrepreneurs face many challenges over the course of their journey. However, financial challenge is the most painful ones they have to face. Making a list of all the financial challenges can aid a business and a new starting player in attaining sustainability and economic stability.

E

which can help them in engaging new customers and create a productive business pipeline. Players can also avoid inadequate working capital by cutting-costs up to twenty percent and set the cut out as the working capital. For the startups that are yet to make profits, should make sure that they are adequately financed before taking any harsh decision, which can affect their survival in the industry.

The Small Business Association estimates that around forty-four percent of startups and small business survive at least for four years only. Others cite that poor capital management, overspending, and the lack of reserve funds are some of the common reasons behind a business closure.

All these three terms come under the finances of a company.

One way to address the financial problems is to use the 4R formula i.e. Review, Revamp, Research, and Rewrite the company’s business plans. By using this formula, they can take action against the things that are not working out.

Non-consistent Cash Flow Issue Most of the project-based business relies on their cash flow, which further relies on the flow of the project and the services rendered. It is therefore important for the company to have a good business team ready to connect new and reliable clients and projects. For the company that does not rely on the cash flow, must construct a flow of consistent cash flow at the proper time. If the client is unavailable to pay on-time, the businesses should think newer methods of client engagement. They should be patient and make decisions that would help them while dealing with the clients in the future.

Working Capital Issue Startups have to wait for their big clients to pay up so that they can manage their expenses. Entrepreneurs must save at least the expenses of six months as its working capital,

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Another way of improving the cash flow is to get a down payment for the product and the services provided. This

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From Editor’s Desk

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down payment will aid the companies in covering the expenses associated with the project sales and profit margins. Firms can also set a day in the week to go through the accounts, payables, and checks.

Hiring Issue Hiring a good staff is not an easy task. A decision like overhiring can create additional costs for the company in contracts and long-term employee liabilities. The employer is responsible for its employees and they have to provide them with the employee benefits that increase the costs. The key solution lies in hiring the term-based employees, freelancers, and independent contractors as they will provide services only for the time worked and employer do not have to add payroll costs in paying them. These independent contractors are paid only for their time spent on the work. Depending upon the job, firms can easily find out that whether these are perfect for the job or not. In return, these can absorb the work-related wages and can add the benefit of costs.

Bookkeeping Issue Corporations can hire organized bookkeepers, which can save a lot of time. If they cannot find one, they can give this responsibility to one of its team member. The firm can improve by distinguishing the discretion and non-discretion spending. These include rent, office overhead, inventory purchases, and wages. The companies can even save further by polishing their overall marketing plans. Identifying and creating a larger clientele that can develop marketing strategies can help in promoting the service and products.

Firms must set goals and expectations for marketing initiatives and develop the tools to improve the revenue outcomes.

In eliminating the conundrums, the mind-power and descision-making of the entrepreneurs is important. They can seek loans and grants which are specifically tailored towards boosting the company's finances. Even some of the vendors allow the company to offer their assistance and can refine the business debts. The players should not haste in making a decision. They should be thoughtful and intellectual for deciding the expenses. It is important for them to think strategically. They should be aware of their decisions and should seek guidance in decision-making and in expenses.

Wrong Predictions and Revenue Issue Businesses on a day-to-day basis have to predict the company’s revenues. This is even truer for the businesses that are dynamic in nature. Most of the predictions can be measured on a month-to-month basis. Although a lot of factors that are dependent upon the revenue prediction, but mostly it rely on the relevancy of the business. By foreseeing accurately, the firms can generate good revenue that is crucial for the cash flow statements. By paying attention to the seasoned fluctuations and affected timelines, they can predict the revenues accurately.

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I Tessa Clarke Co-founder & CEO

OLIO

n my role as chief evangeliser for OLIO – the world’s only neighbour-to-neighbour food sharing app – I speak about our work and journey at a lot of events. And without fail I’m almost always asked something along the lines of “How do you juggle having a family with a start-up?” Whilst this is an extremely valid question – and it touches on a topic that’s very close to my heart, it really frustrates me because I never hear the same question levelled at male peers. As a result, this seemingly innocuous question is laden with an enormous amount of gender bias, generally to the exclusion of men. I would suggest that if we want to achieve a fulfilled balanced life for all – male and female – we have to ensure that we’re all participating in this debate about work/life balance, and that inclusivity needs to be the starting point.

Another challenge in this area is, funnily enough, the gender bias experienced by men who choose to be the “stay at home Dad”! Several years ago my husband and I decided that given our respective career paths and motivations in life, it made sense for me to be the “bread winner” and for him to look after our two kids and home, whilst developing property in his remaining time. This has given me the flexibility to pursue the opportunities for OLIO with full vigour, and has been absolutely invaluable in terms of helping me to achieve a balanced life. However, sadly, my husband experiences more than the occasional disparaging passing comment and has even been asked “When are you going to get a proper job?” Thankfully he has no self-

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Integrated Approach

esteem issues, and thinks he has the best job in the world!

But I highly doubt that in this day and age anyone would ever dare say this to a woman; and so why to a man? If women are to be truly equal in the workplace – and to achieve a balanced life, then we need to adjust our perceptions of what it means to be a male in a modern society, and accept that this will require men to taking on an increasingly prominent role in the delivery of childcare – which is to the benefit of all involved, not least the children!

Gender issues aside, I spend a considerable amount of mental energy working towards achieving a ‘balanced life’.

I prefer the terminology of a ‘balanced life’ rather than ‘work/life balance’, because when you’re an entrepreneur (and especially an entrepreneur working from home), the two can become very mixed! And to suggest that ‘work’ and ‘life’ are the antithesis of one another surely isn’t what we should aspire to. In the very early days of setting up OLIO, it was pretty much impossible to lead a balanced life because we had to achieve so much, in so little time, and with virtually no resources. As we’ve grown the business and the team however, both Saasha my Co-founder and I have achieved a much more balanced life – which is important, because the start-up journey is a series of marathons, not a sprint, and so it’s essential to avoid burnout. We find that working predominantly from home is extremely helpful in achieving balance (5-10 hours per week gained back through not having to commute!), and we both carve out time during our working days to exercise. In the early days we used to feel quite guilty about exercising when we ‘should’ be working, but now we recognise that if we’re to perform at our best then we need to be mentally and physically fit and exercise is absolutely critical for this.

Plus, I find that I have many of my best insights and inspirations for OLIO when working out, so it really is killing two birds with one stone!

employee’s induction, we talk about the importance of a balanced life, and in our line manager training, we stress that the line manager is responsible for working with their direct reports to ensure that they are achieving a balanced life. What this means is that on a day to day basis our team chat will often show someone walking the dog at mid-day, someone else with their kids at 3pm and others heading off to swim or yoga. Each team member is responsible for ensuring that their work is done, according to whatever schedule best suits them, and as a result, we have an incredibly motivated and productive team, the majority of who say that working for OLIO is the best job they’ve ever had! If you aren’t already talking about how you can achieve a balanced life as individuals and as a company, then I can highly recommend spending some time on it, as the rewards will be enormous!

As well as working towards a balanced life for ourselves, we’ve really baked this into the DNA of the company too.

And this has manifested itself in a couple of important company policies. The first is our holiday policy – we have no cap on the number of day’s holiday an employee can take; however we do have a minimum and insist that everybody has at least 20 days off. This is because we saw research from other companies who had adopted a limitless holidays policy, and it actually showed that the number of days worked by employees increased, not decreased! We also think it’s really important for the team to have a collective break over the Christmas holidays so everyone can really relax, confident in the knowledge that their email inbox isn’t rapidly filling up! We also ensure that in every

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