The 2019 Elite Business Woman To Follow [ Business Magazine ]

www.insightssuccess.com

VOL 1 JAN-FEB-2019

ISSUE-2

The 2019 Elite Business

WOMEN To Follow

INSIGHTS’ SPECIAL 8 Most Effective Leadership Styles for Organizational Success

EDITOR’S PICK On-boarding More Woman can add Extra Shine to Your Business

Rebecca Ye

Rebecca Ye Co-founder & COO

Xcalar

Women’s Empowerment is No Longer just a Notion or an Idea

EDITOR’S DESK

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lass Ceiling is already a well-known phenomenon related to women in leadership positions. It’s a term used for the barrier still preventing women to reach to the highest leadership position in an organization. But, for the female leaders who become able to shatter the glass ceiling to reach the top, there awaits a ‘glass cliff ’ to slip them off.

This utterly disturbing phenomenon, named as ‘glass cliff ’ was unveiled by researchers Michelle Ryan and Alexander Haslam back in 2005. They found that women are often named as the “fall guy” for failed projects or failed companies, after being appointed when they are already halfway into the chasm.

Sandi Toksvig, British Comedian, writer, and co-founder of the Women’s Equality Party explained the concept in the best way possible: “It’s a case of men going, ‘Wow, it can’t get any worse, quick, let’s put a woman in charge’!”

It’s obviously been claimed that women are asked to save the drowning companies and compare them to the men who were leading the steady ones! As the women don’t own a magic wand to save a failing company, they are held responsible for the failure of the company. This is how society reaffirms the cliché that woman can’t rule.

Beyond the Glass Ceiling, a Glass Cli Awaits!

In order to prevent falling from the glass cliff, women should say no to the opportunities that seem awesome at first but may soon spiral downwards. Declining such offers might be proved to be a savior of self-respect.

Defining the success roadmap for the company in the upcoming years with the recruiters is another essential step in this regard. Attaining success and meeting the company’s expectation helps to avoid the glass cliff.

However, this is not only about avoiding the glass cliff, but also about climbing above it. Instead of focusing on the ‘stereotypical trap of Glass Cliff ’, we should fight against it and shatter all the barriers and come out with flying colors.

In this issue, “The 2019 Elite Business Women to Follow”, we’ve depicted the successful journey of some excellent leaders from diverse backgrounds that have made differences in their particular fields with their unparalleled expertise.

On the Cover of this issue, we’ve highlighted the glamorous life-story of Rebecca Ye, the co-founder and COO of Xcalar. As a next- generation platform for data processing applications and ML, Xcalar accelerates the ability of companies to derive business insights from big data. After two patents and four years of development, the platform is now capable of scaling to hundreds of nodes and thousands of users, handling data pipelines, virtual data warehousing, advanced ad-hoc analysis, and more. As COO, Rebecca is spearheading the company’s “phase of hyper- growth”, building out revenue, customers, and employees.

Rebecca’s thoughts regarding women empowerment are quite inspiring. She opines; “Society is starting to recognize that empowering women is the key to economic growth, political stability, and social transformation.”

Rebecca believes that the women empowerment movement has gained “momentum”, and pointed to California’s decision last year to legally require corporate boards of directors to include women as proof. She also cited how both market research and academia have linked women in leadership roles and corporate success. With world leaders, experts, and scholars alike all working together to put the ideas of women’s empowerment into action, Rebecca is confident that the momentum will only continue to build.

Following the Cover Story, we’ve enlisted profiles of other elite business personalities. We’ve included Alexandra Lung: A Brilliance Leading the Success Journey of Women in Business; Cara Scharf: A Fearless Trailblazer Propelling New Frontier of Digital Marketing; Connie Linder: Leading the World to a Sustainable Tomorrow; Lauren Boyer: Instilling an Innovative Advertising Approach in Health and Wellness Brands; and Natalija Counet: A Pioneering Architect of Progressive Future.

The issue also includes a guest article drafted by an industry expert and globally acclaimed entrepreneur Pam Batson. What a Tech CEO can Teach Your Business about Digital under Leadership Column will definitely increase your knowledge about the digital space in business.

While flipping the pages, don’t miss out the articles penned down by our in-house editors: Adding Extra Shine to Your Business with Women Leaders under Editor’s Pick and Insights’ Special: 8 Most Effective Leadership Styles for Organizational Success respectively.

Happy Reading!

Interview

Cover Story

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Rebecca Ye Women’s Empowerment is No Longer just a Notion or an Idea

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Articles

AMANDA WILLIAMS An Incredible Leader with Innovative Mindset

CXO

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LEADERSHIP COLUMN What a Tech CEO can teach your Business about Digital

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EDITOR’S PICK

INSIGHTS' SPECIAL

On-boarding More Woman can add Extra Shine to Your Business

8 Most Effective Leadership Styles for Organizational Success

ALEXANDRA LUNG

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A Brilliance Leading the Success Journey of Women in Business

CARA SCHARF A Fearless Trailblazer Propelling New Frontier of Digital Marketing

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CONNIE LINDER

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Leading the World to a Sustainable Tomorrow

LAUREN BOYER

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Instilling an Innovative Advertising Approach in Health & Wellness Brands

NATALIJA COUNET A Pioneering Architect of Progressive Future

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak Executive Editor Stella Andrew Contributing Editor Upama Goswami Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Asha Bange Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Priyanka Rajage Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Business Development Executive Kevin Thomas Sales Executives Joseph, Mary, Judy, Jennifer Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Swapnil Patil Technical Consultants Amar, David, Robert Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Gemson, Swati Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

Jan-Feb, 2019 Corporate Ofces Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story

Rebecca Ye Women’s Empowerment is No Longer just a Notion or an Idea

The 2019 Elite Business

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Rebecca Ye Co-founder & COO Xcalar

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[Society is] starting to recognize [that] empowering women is the key to economic growth, political stability, and social transformation

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Rebecca believes that the movement has gained “momentum”, and pointed to California’s decision last year to legally require corporate boards of directors to include women as proof. She also cited how both market research and academia have linked women in leadership roles and corporate success. With world leaders, experts, and scholars alike all working together to put the ideas of women’s empowerment into action, Rebecca is confident that the momentum will only continue to build.

Rebecca’s father was a professor in philosophy and comparative literature. Her uncle, on the other hand, was an engineering professor. “So you can see who had more influence on me”, she jokes. “I’ve always had a deep respect for how technology has changed the way we work and live.” But while enrolling in an engineering college was a matter of course for Rebecca, the same can not be said for other women: historically, women have lower participation rates in university engineering and computer science classes. Rebecca believes that the onus is on tech companies to change this trend by “making a deliberate effort to encourage women”. And as the statistics at the beginning of this article indicate, she practices what she preaches.

At Xcalar, we encourage women to be in leadership roles where there is a good t.

Xcalar has beneted greatly from their perspectives and contributions After graduating with a master’s degree in engineering, Rebecca entered the workforce as a programmer. Then after earning a MBA degree, she moved into product marketing, then into sales and business development, and at last into operations. She credits her success to her tenacity and her thirst for learning, adding that “learning is no longer limited to schools, it’s a constant theme in life.”

Change has become constant, paradoxically enough, and only those who are willing to experiment can make it. That is why Rebecca believes diversity is so important, as it is the meeting of people with different genders, backgrounds, ethnicities, origins, and skill sets that produces new ideas.

But at the same time, it takes a patient, open mind to steer a diverse group through debates, discussions, collaborations, experimentations, and inevitable mistakes.

And it is here that Rebecca thinks women have an important role to play, as they “tend to be effective communicators with empathy.”

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I believe [that] as society progresses, more women will have opportunities in senior leadership positions to make a real impact in the workplace and our community

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ased in Silicon Valley, Xcalar is a big data tech startup that has embraced diversity. It has employees from more than a dozen countries, a 35/65 female-to-male ratio, and multiple women in leadership positions. One of these leaders, co-founder and COO, Rebecca Ye, gave her thoughts on women's empowerment:

As a next generation platform for data processing applications and ML, Xcalar accelerates the ability of companies to derive business insights from big data. After two patents and four years of development, the platform is now capable of scaling to hundreds of nodes and thousands of users, handling data pipelines, virtual data warehousing, advanced ad-hoc analysis, and more. As COO, Rebecca is spearheading the company’s “phase of hyper growth”, building out revenue, customers, and employees. This is an exciting time for the company and Rebecca is optimistic that her diverse team will be able to meet any upcoming challenges. As a female executive of a fast growing company, she is eager to be a part of the momentum propelling the women’s empowerment movement forward, and hopes that her example will inspire other women.

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I’m very fortunate to be in Silicon Valley, working in a tech startup where conventions are constantly being challenged, and forward thinking is encouraged as the new norm.

We're leading by example to make this a reality for many more women around the globe

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With that all said, Rebecca does not believe empowerment to be a blank check. It “needs to be exercised with great discipline and respect.” To avoid unnecessary arguments, she recommends observing boundaries and seeking to understand before being understood. Rebecca encourages teams to identify owners, define end goals, and to truly understand and appreciate other perspectives and strengths. Only then will a team be able to build the best possible solution.

Our challenge is to be disciplined in how to apply these technologies in a moral and sensible way.

I am always encouraging my team to continue to take risks, to question the status quo and to, when in doubt, choose action Rebecca is optimistic about the role technology can play in improving lives, and expects IT, cloud, and mobile technologies to make an even stronger impact in the decades to come. She foresees big data combining with AI to provide a “wide range of new solutions and services to drive productivity and collaboration” in entertainment, life science, retail, hospitality, financial services, and many other fields. Indeed, she believes that we will soon enter “an era where computers will be capable of doing a lot more of what knowledge workers used to do.” But she is certain that computers will not replace humanity. Rather, these future solutions and services will free knowledge workers from repetitive busywork, and augment the human ability to find patterns and predict outcomes.

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Amanda Williams AN INCREDIBLE LEADER WITH INNOVATIVE MINDSET

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manda Williams is the Head of Innovation at Nest, who believes in a leadership style which is equally enriching and fruitful for any organisation. According to her, compassion and empathy are the two most important elements to be a successful leader.

We approached Amanda for an interview with our magazine. Amanda revealed a lot of precious wisdom on the concept of leadership along with a wide reflection on her success journey.

Q: Kindly brief us about you and your journey from the beginning of your career.

A: At University, I intended to do a biology degree, but an economics course to fulfil a liberal arts credit requirement helped me understand how business growth can be aligned with sustainability and I was hooked on the power of innovation and doing things differently. I ended up creating my own degree - combining economics, environmental sciences and political science.

I followed this multi-disciplinary approach with my Masters at London’s Imperial College, home to one of the oldest sustainability graduate programs in the world.

At Imperial, I developed an interest in renewable energy, which brought me to my first role with a micro solar startup. I believe that this experience, as the second employee in an early stage startup, was a better “how to” - and how not to - than an MBA. After my time at the startup I stayed in the energy sector, in consulting, at a high-growth startup, and finally in innovation and strategy for Centrica, the UK’s largest

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energy company. I spent 5 years there, in strategy, policy and innovation and had the great privilege to help build its impact investment fund, a real pioneer in corporate impact venturing. The fund invested in 10 impactful businesses, profit-making but values-led, and my colleague and I convinced the executive board to dramatically increase the scope and fund based on our outcomes over just two years.

Throughout my career, I have been a translator - aligning the needs of the business, the technology providers, the financiers, the policy makers, and the customers. I have searched for mutually beneficial solutions and helped both sides get there.

Q: How would you like to describe yourself as a leader?

A: I have always had a passion for the power of innovation, and I try to lead with purpose, making sure my team is aware of our end goals and clear about what success looks like.

Compassion and empathy are also incredibly important to me in my leadership style. Working with a diverse global team, trying to understand your employees’ perspectives is essential.

Q: Tell us about your passion, ambition and goal.

A: I’m passionate about progress, change, and innovation. I believe that we can do more with less if we use technology intelligently. I believe that success should never come at the expense of integrity - and for me that means looking after our environment and empowering those with less of a voice.

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Exclusive Interview with Insights Success

Amanda Williams Head of Innovation Nest

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We operate corporate innovation accelerators, invest in seed to growth-stage startups, and run an entrepreneurial community called Metta

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I want to do my part to facilitate change as I truly believe it can get better - more efficient, more productive, more sustainable, more equitable.

Q: What is that one thing that keeps you motivated?

Any philosophy that’s close to your heart or any role model who inspired you to become the best version of yourself?

A: The thing about innovation is that it never ends. There is always an emerging technology that can change the world, so the fact that the work is never done keeps me motivated. It’s that hope in the power of innovation that keeps me going.

I am a believer in the “triple bottom line” philosophy from John Elkington, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few times, and I’m motivated by the growth of b-corporations and others who are driving forward responsible economic growth.

Q: What are the qualities that turn an entrepreneur into a successful leader? Please share your point of view.

A: Communication and trust. Entrepreneurs are often solitary creatures. To go from a great idea to a successful business commercialising that idea requires a team, and eventually a management team. Entrepreneurs need to be able to communicate their vision effectively to recruit the first key members of their team. They then need to trust them enough to delegate activities. Unless they are able to give up control of some aspects of their business, they will never succeed.

Q: Kindly tell us about the biggest challenge you took and the risk associated with it. How did you conquer it?

A: I chose to “go it alone” in my career. I left the US, and the connections I had there, in pursuit of my own path. I was passionate about the positive benefits of globalisation from the start and knew that I wanted a global career.

I left the US to do my Master’s in the UK and then pursued roles with companies that were addressing global markets. With each new project, I had to

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understand not just the technology, the client and the market, but the cultural values that made that market unique. Moving to Hong Kong without a job lined up was the most recent challenge in my journey.

If you choose to follow an unusual path, you need to put yourself out there and talk to everyone you meet about what you do and what you’re trying to do. Luckily, the innovation world is a small one and a collaborative one.

Q: Brief us about the industry scenario from your perspective. What are your views on the digital disruption and its impact on your industry?

A: Digital disruption is a great leveller, with the potential to democratise information and destroy the barriers to entry that have kept incumbents in power. The incumbents that will survive will be the ones that acknowledge the rules are changing and find new ways to collaborate with breakthrough technologies.

When we speak with corporates, we discuss the relative merits of build, buy and partner. Technology is moving too fast for traditional corporates to build their own.

There is a great role for corporate venture capital, but outright buying of startups and attempting to integrate them into the corporate fold comes with a lot of challenges and a low success rate. Partnering is the way forward, as corporates can offer startups and scale-ups ready markets to scale their products and services.

Q: Kindly provide a brief glimpse of your company and its services/products.

A: Nest operates corporate innovation accelerators, invests in startups and runs a global entrepreneurial community called Mettā.

Our corporate innovation programmes are designed to drive commercial outcomes by connecting startups with corporates to solve specific challenges. Nest plays the role of translator and coach, helping the two sides communicate and reach a collaborative commercial deal.

We work with both sides, readying the corporates to experiment and ensuring that the startups are stable enough to take on a corporate contract.

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Nest has built an innovation ecosystem to connect the fast-growing markets of Asia, Middle East, and Africa.

These dynamic markets have fewer legacy barriers and young populations with increasing reliance on technology. Our Mettā network connects up entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, policy makers, investors and other drivers of change.

Q: Kindly state us your memorable achievements and your company’s accomplishments in your leadership.

A: I have only been with Nest for 18 months, but I am proud to say that we have grown in size and scale in that time, opening offices in Bahrain and Thailand. I oversaw our first corporate accelerator in the Middle East, bringing seven impressive startups from across the globe to Bahrain to work with American Express Middle East.

I am also hugely proud of the work that the whole team has done to increase the benefits of our programmes to both corporates and startups in the last six months. Of the four programmes we ran, each is on track to run commercial pilots with 50% of the startups we introduced to them.

Q: Your views on women in business A: With climate change and rising inequality, we are facing huge challenges and I would much prefer to be using 100% of our potential brain power to find solutions. We should all be trying to break down the barriers keeping women out of the workforce or from positions of leadership.

I have always worked in male-dominated industries and I have had to adapt my style accordingly to get into a position of leadership. I am committed to doing what I can to help the women and girls following behind me so that they do not have to change to succeed.

Women supporting women is essential. When I arrived in Hong Kong, I was lucky enough to get connected to a group of strong, intelligent women through my involvement organising TEDx TinHau Women, a local event tied to TED’s annual conference dedicated to women. The event itself was inspiring and being around a tribe of supportive women did wonders for my

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confidence. It was the ideal preparation for my interviews at Nest the week afterwards.

I encourage all women, especially those in male-dominated industries, to find their own supportive tribe of powerful women. Male allies are important, but there are some things that only other women will understand. I have a group of women that I have known since my student days in London and they are my go-to for all career-related issues and decisions. We all encourage each other to achieve the greatness that we believe the others are capable of.

Q: Any advice for the budding entrepreneurs?

A: Passion is great, but it’s not enough. Make sure you are solving a real problem.

Prove your market as soon as possible - prototype and sell. I always recommend that entrepreneurs prioritise sales - you are building market buzz, testing with real customers and proving value to investors, meaning you have to give away less of your company.

Lastly, make sure you have some trusted associates.

Surround yourself with people who encourage you but who aren’t “yes-men”. You need robust challenge to perfect your initial idea and avoid the pitfalls of ego.

Q: How do you see yourself and your company in the near future?

A: I see Nest building on its experience of the last couple of years. We have been “doing the doing” so now is the time to share our accomplishments and scale up our proven playbook of how to bring corporates and startups together to bring innovative solutions to customers.

I am excited by the potential in some of Nest’s new markets, Thailand and Southeast Asia especially. I am also excited to be putting in our first proposal for a social impact accelerator, uniting my passions of innovation and triple bottom line philosophy.

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Alexandra Lung A Brilliance Leading the Success Journey of Women in Business

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truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.”

Sheryl Sandberg’s view on gender equality as described in her book Lean in: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, has made an impact as a life-changing force behind many successful women business personae. Alexandra Lung dearly mentions it as a quote that inspires her a lot. The Senior Product Manager at Pivotal Labs, Alexandra has been listed in the top 50 Women in Product in Europe 2018 by the Product Management Festival.

Alexandra rightly says, “In order to make progress for women empowerment we should first realize just how much remains to be done. And we must first understand the scope and scale of the issue.”

Hailing from a technical background, Alexandra’s journey was never a cakewalk. Being a young woman, she had to fight against a part of the society and most of the time against herself as well, as she puts it.

Alexandra Lung Senior Product Manager Pivotal Labs

“We were taught to be good girls, to be humble, to not screw up, to do what we are told to....No wonder we still have too few women speakers at talks on stage and too few women in positions of power, she continues. “But this is starting to change. We know that we have what it takes and we go for it. Sharing women success stories also helps us all realize that is possible. Calling out and not accepting women discrimination of any sort is another.”

An International Voice Delightfully enough, Alexandra has been speaking at a lot of international conferences, debates and meetups. These

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events are a great opportunity to meet amazing professionals all around the world and share inspiring stories. She’s been also part of debates that inspire women to take a step towards Product Management and she has given talks for Women in Tech and Women in Product communities. According to Alexandra, these platforms are some of the most amazing initiatives that bring together talented women to share experiences and support each other.

The Eternal Mantra of Self Growth- Learning and Unlearning Alexandra mentions her personality and the way she grew up as the major contributors for her success as a leader. She was only 15 when she decided to join an NGO and organize a photo exhibition for children in need. She did everything from finding the funding to curation, logistics and communication. The next year, she joined a second NGO and engaged in a bigger project, took over the Marketing part of the NGO and organized a small team. Little did she know about Marketing or project and team management at that time. However, she learned and unlearned big time which fed her trust in her own capacity to take challenges, follow up on them and learn.

Pivotal practices a strong culture of feedback and they learn early how to both give and receive feedback in a kind, specific and actionable way which is also an another way of learning and unlearning.

“My best advice for learning and growing is to be open to feedback and to trying new things. There is always a better way to do things, even if you are already an ‘expert’ ”, Alexandra reflects.

Pivotal Labs- An Ambitious Platform for Cloud With world-wide presence, Pivotal helps the Fortune 500 transform into software companies, by providing a cloud-native platform that unleashes developer productivity as well as unlocks operational efficiency needed to build and run great software.

The cloud-native platform, Pivotal Cloud Foundry (“PCF”), accelerates and streamlines software development by reducing the complexity of building, deploying and operating new cloud-native applications and modernizing legacy applications by speeding up the process.

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There is always a better way to do things, even if you are already an ‘expert’

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The 2019 Elite Business

The company believes that fast organizations, and not necessarily large organizations, will succeed in the cloud era. Enterprises must turn their mass into momentum. It defines its role as to help them pick up speed. PCF customers can further accelerate their transition to a software company through our strategic services, Pivotal Labs (“Labs”).

Tech Insights from the Tech Savvy Leader Alexandra is passionately in love with tech and software since she was a teenager. Working on new products and technologies keeps her in the flow. In her opinion, we need to mix the technology with new methodologies and ethics in order to bring meaningful advancement in the industry.

By the term ‘methodologies’, she indicates specifically an user centered approach where teams are focused on providing value for the users and not only for the business and are mindful about the ethics of what they are building.

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Cara Scharf

A Fearless Trailblazer Propelling New Frontier of Digital Marketing

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full-service NYC-based digital marketing agency specializing in the video games and entertainment verticals was born in 2009. This mighty agency owes its success to Cara Scharf, the President and, Founder. Scharf works with her trailblazer team at Fearless Media and delivers outstanding campaigns that drive awareness and revenue among its clients. Scharf is aware of the need for real data that ties back to revenue. “All of our campaigns include extensive reporting and insights to ensure success based on KPIs”, Scharf asserts.

“We only take on a small group of clients at one time to ensure performance, provide best in class service, and drive ROI” asserts Scharf. We focus on specific categories so we became experts at understanding what we do”.

The award-winning campaigns of the company are a proven combination of strategy, planning, and overall innovation that enables its clients to be Fearless.

Cara Scharf President & Founder Fearless Media

A Fearless Attitude, the First Condition for Success Scharf launched Fearless Media in 2009, a certified woman-owned and self-financed business. She was already an expert in the industry with 20 years of prior experience.

She recalls about the hardship she’d gone through in the initial years. She describes the first years of Fearless Media as filled with days in which she didn’t sleep, didn’t eat, and worked harder than ever.

Prior to Fearless Media, Cara worked with a prominent marketing and advertising agency, which she defines as a scary experience.

“I’d risen to the highest level I could with that firm, but I found myself feeling unsatisfied and unhappy. Leaving was a huge decision, but a quick one. I’ve never looked back,” these words reveal the fearless attitude of the born leader.

Scharf’s take on Women’s Empowerment “One of the most difficult issues women face is that people don’t always take you seriously.” The fearless leader further

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resumes, “If I am running a successful business for almost 10 years now -that should mean something.”

Fearless Media- Turbocharged Marketing Social Media is the indispensable part of any marketing agency. No one can ignore a brand’s ability to efficiently and productively employ social media which is crucial to its immediate reach and profitability as well as its long-term success. Fearless Media combines story-telling with data-proven insights to create social media messaging that’s not just compelling, but also profitable.

Digital Media Fearless Media creates and manages integrated media campaigns using a combination of OTT, OLV, SEM/SEO, and programmatic amongst others. The company builds and delivers compelling digital marketing experiences for its clients along with personalized experiences, while retaining qualified audiences.

Adding to that, Fearless unifies media, creative, and buying strategies to create digital media campaigns that will increase the client’s reach, awareness, engagement and, retention.

Paid Search/ SEO Search marketing is a powerful tool that places a brand and its products in front of prospective consumers exactly at the moment they’re ready to make a purchase. It also returns real-time data that can be used to refine the client’s messaging and website landing pages. The team at Fearless also ensures that the client’s ads display in SERPs for as many queries as they can that are relevant and deliver qualified users. Fearless’s strong call-to-action copy drives traffic to its clients’ sites at above industry standard rates.

The team of experts monitors the campaigns of its clients, with special attention to the metrics that are most important to the specific business, such as CPA, CPC, ROI. Additionally, the team shows the respective client how to create paid search campaigns, use the proper keywords, track the effectiveness of every ad, keyword, and dollar spent, and refine the messaging on the fly. “Our proprietary dashboards are created for each client based on their needs.”

Content Marketing Content marketing provides an indirect and increasingly valuable approach to attracting and retaining customers.

Fearless Media uses its expertise and analytics to help its clients create and deliver relevant and engaging content campaigns that support the brand, increase engagement, drive sales, and foster customer loyalty and retention. “In particular, we design custom influencer campaigns that have won multiple awards.”

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Our proven combination of strategy, planning, & innovation delivers exceptional client ROI

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The 2019 Elite Business

Traditional Media Traditional media provides is finally making progress and new metrics are available to track results. TV, print, outdoor and radio such as its entrenched and favored position in the lives of most consumers. TV, print, radio– these all stand important to the team of Fearless Media. If traditional media is important to any respective brand, Fearless is always ready to help you get the best rates.

Successful Campaigns and Crowns of Glory The results of such high-level client care include dedicated, long-term relationships, glowing reviews, industry recognition, and a host of awards—20 in the last two years alone.

The Fearless Leader, Scharf’s successful journey has been endorsed and acclaimed immensely. She has accumulated a kaleidoscopic list of awards which includes Corporate Excellence Awards of 2018, ACQ5 Awards 2017, CV Awards 2017 and most recent Global Insights Award 2019.

Scharf has also been featured in the Clutch as a top digital agency, and Oprah Magazine in 2018 as Leading Women in Business in New York City.

“We like to think hard, move fast, and solve problems to ensure success”, concludes Scharf.

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Editor’s Pick

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ON-BOARDING

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he world is witnessing a gigantic shift towards how we perceive women power. Many studies and researches have proved that women can drive any organization towards better success and can help boost organization’s revenue. This is the reason why many companies want to hire women in equal numbers as men.

Companies worldwide, from Accenture to General Motors have recognized the power of women intellect and thus work in creating a much gender-balanced workforce in the near future. Tech giant Accenture hopes to increase women participation in their business process by 2025 and more interestingly foresees women to hold 25% of its top level executives post, globally, by 2020.

However, if we look towards the whole scenario, we can clearly see that women participation in the top think tank is still very negligible. It is true that there are more female CEOs in the blue-chip organizations than ever before but their numbers are still very abysmal. As of May 2018, there are only 24 female CEOs in the leading fortune 500 companies which comprise only 5% of the total list of fortune 500 CEOs.

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Women are considered as better communicator, collaborator, and a source of strength that can do anything if given equal opportunities. It is thus the right time, to embrace the change and tackle the under-representation of women in leadership positions, since women provide many competitive advantages to an organization towards attaining success that too better than men.

that- women co-sponsored more bills (6.29 v/s 4.07) on an average than men in the American Senate which indicates how women are more inclined to collaborate with peers to reach an agreement or decision. This famous study shows that what a company can achieve by including more women to its board i.e. increased collaboration.

Higher EQ:

Leverage Benefits by Having Women on Board More diverse Problem-solving Problems do come into any business process and the way you approach solving a problem reflects the true potential of you as a ‘leader’. Solving a problem with an out-of-box approach is very necessary. It is often considered; you look and approach a problem as par your worldview- what do you value, what is your behavioural pattern etc. When the workforce represented by employees who shares common worldview, chances of them to face a confrontational situation diminishes but when the real problem comes then severe issue arises. If the business fails to impress clients, and stuck on their path to innovation, loss happens consequently. However, by including people who possess different worldview can help in such crises, since it encourage a dialogue of different worldview and approaches at one common platform. In-fact, many studies have proven than a diverse workforce comprises of different genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, and race result in increased productivity. Such a greater diversity in leadership pool leads to improved problem solving and greater business benefits. By recruiting women from different backgrounds into your company thus gives an outstanding base to flourish.

Increased Organisational Collaboration Collaboration with colleagues is important for getting things done in quickest possible time. Teamwork and keeping all together are necessary things which are required for swifter decision making. Moreover, believing in co-worker’s capability and providing them enough opportunities to grow is what makes a good leader. In a study, it is found that women are more inclined to collaborate with others than men. It was found that on asking about the incentives plan, men opted for individual-based incentives while women were lean towards team based payment since they believed in the abilities of their teammates more than men. Interestingly, by strengthening this idea, The New York Times reported

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Emotional intelligence is a very vital aspect for leadership as it leads into better communication, motivation, self-confidence, empathy and decision making ability.

Having technical skills are important but a person cannot derive expected results without having adept emotional intelligence skills. Further, many researches have proved that emotional intelligence (EQ) has connection with creativity. More your EQ levels, more would be your creative thought process. Women who excel in soft skills and emotional intelligence can prove to be much more effective than men. In one study it is revealed that women have sharper emotional intelligence levels which can assist them to handle conflict in a better way, which is one of the important traits required in a good leader.

Boost Employee Engagement Employees are the most critical resources for any company.

Their engagement with the company depends upon many vital aspects with respect to their immediate manager like mutual respect, transparency, and trust factor among more.

If the manager is open to communication and listen to the grievances of all in the best possible manner then it boosts employee engagement. In one study done by MIT, it is revealed that a whopping 34% of the co-workers feel that women leaders are more honest and ethical and perceived that they can be a better mentor than male counterpart. Such a staggering percentage shows what most of the co-workers feel about women in leadership roles and how much they are comfortable to work with a female boss as compared to a male supervisor.

These are just the signs of what a company can achieve with increased women representation. If we hire more women then certainly it will help an organization to achieve its business objectives more swiftly and smoothly.

Excitingly, the McKinsey Global Institute stated that, through the increased participation of women in the workplace, $12 trillion could be added to the world’s GDP by 2025.

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Connie Linder Leading the World to a Sustainable Tomorrow

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eadership often requires one to be inclined towards adopting and upholding a certain cause, with the purpose of metamorphosing into someone who projects an impact. When this cause is directed towards aiding the sustainable development of a community, it becomes a noble responsibility. It is commendable how influential people and organizations voluntarily take up this responsibility and pledge to contribute in taking it global. Intengine is of a similar mission, making the information about such responsible organizations easily accessible to consumers and business that care for the same cause. But at Intengine’s core, is Connie Linder, the founder, CEO and Director, exhibiting a fervency for sustainability and innovative startups. She founded Intengine to make innovative, socially and environmentally responsible products and services, more widely accessible.

Connie’s vision for women in business is that they continue to face everything with a strong vision and the resilience to keep going despite challenges. This is also the most important quality that she attributes her success to. Through the years she was constantly told ‘this is too big’, ‘you won’t be able to do it’, however, she knew what she wanted as the outcome and that turned out to be the world’s largest resource and database for supply chain.

Connie Linder

Founder, CEO & Director Intengine

Driving a Global Change Intengine has the world’s most comprehensive and relevant database of responsible businesses, the largest database of social and environmental accreditation organizations with their certifications, and business listings with these standards.

Intengine includes all industry sectors and business listing types that can be filtered for local application with a global reach.

Acting also as an aggregator of in-depth knowledge, Intengine’s site is constantly expanding to deliver meaningful, multi-sourced information to its users, empowering them to educate themselves and make real changes by providing them with all they need in one place. They also highlight the

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Sustainable Development Goals of each company listed to reflect their social and environmental commitments.

“We are positioned to be the leading information source, database and global marketplace for healthier procurement and our name rings true to this! Intengine blends ‘intention’ and ‘engine’, making it the engine for good,” Connie expresses.

The Scepter of Empowerment Stating her insight over women empowerment and leadership, Connie comments, “You are empowered when you align yourself with a greater good, and work to be your best self.

Look inward and not outwards, and never allow yourself to be a victim of circumstance. Great companies are built, not born.

It takes perseverance and resilience. Love is the core.

Pragmatic action is the way forward.”

It is a competitive industry and can be brutal too. She remembers many occasions where mostly she has been the only woman in the board room. She has often been treated differently than her male counterparts, especially earlier in her career. She emphasizes on not falling into the trap of being the victim, and on staying true to one’s values, treating people as one would like to be treated and doing one’s best with an open mind and an open heart.

Connie expresses that trusting her instincts; discernment about people – whom to listen to, whom to trust; prioritizing what to work on and what to say ‘no’ to, were some of the most important decisions she has made as a leader.

She adds that in addition to the stress that comes along with being an entrepreneur, women often still are the primary foundations for their families at home. “It is important to establish a support system for yourself and your family,” Connie asserts.

Suiting Up, Setting Benchmarks In her advice to fellow entrepreneurs and budding women leaders, Connie states, “Respect yourself and try to bring your best self to your work and be really good at what you do. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck feeling like you are a victim of your circumstance. Step up and write your own story. I believe that the universe supports those who align with positive goals that are good for humanity and have the faith that big, beautiful dreams can come true.”

She additionally underlines the fact that entrepreneurs need to have vision, strength, patience, focus and perseverance.

Compassionate entrepreneurs need to base their vision on a foundation of integrity and an intention for outcomes that benefit people and the environment. Facing everything with a

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I believe that the universe supports those who align with positive goals that are good for humanity and have the faith that big, beautiful dreams can come true

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The 2019 Elite Business

strong vision and possessing the resilience to keep going despite challenges is of utmost importance.

Voyaging Every Horizon In her answer to what can be expected from her organization in the upcoming years, Connie asserts, “Growth, Growth, Growth.

We will be the centralized place individuals and businesses will come to for the new economy. Governments and businesses will use our database for procurement. We will connect consumers with information of the WHY and show WHERE and HOW. We have an important role as facilitators and educators for the new economy.”

Being a responsible citizen with a cause to create a sustainable environment, Connie considers herself responsible and able to answer the questions of “Where do we drop off this waste product? Where can we find a new widget that uses less water, has more recycled content, uses less energy, etc.?”

Connie is currently fine-tuning Intengine’s platform to improve functionality and visibility, while working on forging strategic collaborations with content providers and accreditation agencies to grow and scale the business and maximize its effectiveness for the company’s members. Connie feels encouraged after seeing first hand, her vision coming to life.

She also comprehends that with progress, comes challenges.

“My organization is transforming with new people with different skillsets. Ensuring that we attract the right talent with synergistic personalities that work together can be challenging,” states Connie.

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Leadership Column

Pam Bateson CEO Thrive Partners

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Pam Bateson is an expert coach and mentor in business, training others to Masters level qualiď€ cations and supervising coaches. She has worked within the NHS, 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/VC. She has designed change programmes that connect projects, outcomes, training and coaching. The performance outcomes have been outstanding. She is the founder of Zinnia Consulting and co founder of Thrive Partners.

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|Jan-Feb 2019|

WHAT A TECH CEO CAN TEACH

your

Business ABOUT

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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 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.

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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.

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?

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.

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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.

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.

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

Our answer? Everyone else in the system.

Early on in the development 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

I, for one, believe there are exciting times ahead.

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Lauren Boyer Instilling an Innovative Advertising Approach in Health and Wellness Brands

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ver the past 20 years Lauren Boyer, the CEO and owner of Underscore, has led dozens of unique advertising programs for brands of all shapes and sizes. While the majority of her work is in the health and wellness category, she has also contributed strategic marketing solutions for consumer products, retailers, energy, publishing, and entertainment brands. Lauren is known for her ability to turn strategic insights into actionable and accountable programs that yield strong ROI. Lauren has earned a degree in Specialized Technology from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and lives in South Orange, NJ where she enjoys spending time with her two teenage kids.

On Women Empowerment “I believe in equal employment and professional opportunity and compensation for everyone regardless of gender”, Lauren expresses her view on women empowerment. “What matters is the individual’s ability to contribute to the situation, and to fully realize her potential.

Woman should be encouraged and supported in their professional journeys, given the same opportunities and held to the same standards as their equally experienced and qualified male counterparts”, further she adds.

Lauren Boyer

CEO Underscore

As Positivity and Confident Leadership are the core values at Underscore, the women employees are given the same opportunities for training and to advance as their equally qualified male counterparts. “It’s important to me that we create a safe environment for all team members to learn and grow”, affirms Boyer.

Outside of Underscore, Lauren is also an active member of Entrepreneurs Organization (EO), serving on the board of her chapter in NY. She also speaks publically on topics around balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship, and regularly volunteers to mentor professionals to achieve their next level of success.

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Clouds and Silver linings of Lauren’s Life The childhood of Lauren was not like that of a fairytale princess. She reflects, “I grew up in what some have described as a challenging situation: I had divorced parents who focused more on winning against each other than being strong role models or creating a safe environment for their kids to grow and thrive in.”

Belonging to a family with limited financial resources, Lauren didn’t get any opportunity to hone skills and have experiences outside of school. “I was mostly on my own after school and responsible for my younger sister and for helping with the family’s needs while my mother attended night school”, she ruminates.

However, Lauren belives these experiences created a sense of drive and motivation that made her challenge herself to go beyond what others expected of her. She focused on what could propel her forward and away from the day to day survival challenges.

“I never really had a comfort zone, so stepping out of it wasn’t something I needed to learn. I think it goes to show that anyone can do anything if they truly focus on what’s needed to get them there”, adds Lauren.

Another important lesson she heard in her early childhood helped make Lauren the strong woman she is today. Her mother’s these wise words shaped her life unlike anything else: No matter what you decide to do in life, it is important to always be able to take care of yourself. Getting support from others is ok, but requiring others to support you could make you a prisoner in your own life.

While Lauren couldn’t fully grasp what her mother meant at that early period of her life, later on she decided that she would make sure that she could always support herself financially.

Unique Services of Underscore Underscore is a unique organization. Many consider it an agency because of the focus on advertising media planning, buying and campaign impact analysis, but it’s different than typical media agency in many positive ways. Underscore was built largely out of Lauren’s own experience working on the client marketing side of the industry. Given her unique perspective on why advertisers need to take certain tacts, every Underscore media program is developed with its client’s unique situation and end goals in mind. The

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We apply sound strategic thinking to every aspect of our planning and buying process

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The 2019 Elite Business

company figures out nuances that no one else thinks about because it approaches the challenge from a different angle, and the results are consistently stronger..

Experiences derived from Unlearning and Self-learning Lauren is personally committed to increasing her self- awareness and has worked to unlearn self- limiting beliefs and narratives that used to hold her back. She avoids labeling situations and people as no two things are the same. She reserves judgment on why we have a challenge and focuses instead on how to tackle it positively.

As a life-long learner Lauren strives to listen more that she speaks. She looks towards expanding her perspective with new experiences, new skills, and more deeply mastering those in which she’s already built some perspective.

Future Prospects While asked about the future prospects for her company, Lauren asserts, “Underscore is working on technical innovations that will further empower marketers with campaign intelligence. We are on a high growth trajectory and while positive and exciting, it will come with its own set of new challenges as we scale.”

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8

Insights’ Special

Most

E ective

LEADERSHIP ERSHIP Styles for

Organizational

SUCCESS A

n effective leader is the first and foremost condition for a successful business. The hugely successful leaders adopt a combination of multiple leadership styles or just one selective

style.

As a fluid practice, leadership is always changing and improving the way the company grows. There are different types of leadership styles exist in a work environment. The culture and vision of an organization determine which one is the most suitable style.

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8 MOST EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP STYLES

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP Inspires the staff through effective communication and collaboration

01

INFO GRAPHIC DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP welcomes views & suggestions from the employees

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02

LAISSEZ-FAIRE LEADERSHIP allows the employees to make their own decisions

TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP establishes a clear chain of command implementing a carrot & stick approach to management activities

04

AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP

05

have signiďŹ cant control over the staff, seldom considers any suggestions from staff

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP encourages collective decision-making

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BUREAUCRATIC LEADERSHIP follows a strict set of rules and policies

CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP charms the staff with individual charisma

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TYPES OF LEADERSHIP STYLE 01

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

One of the most effective leadership styles is the transformational leadership style.

Transformational leaders inspire their staff through effective communication and collaboration and thus initiating the path to success. They set challenging goals and higher expectation from each employee eventually achieving a greater result.

These individuals are often blue-sky thinkers. For the successful implementation of their strategic visions, the organization might need more detailoriented managers.

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LAISSEZ-FAIRE LEADERSHIP

The term ‘laissez-faire’ literally means ‘let them do' in French. In leadership, this is typically translated to ‘let it be’. In this leadership style, the leader allows the employees to make decisions. Laissezfaire leaders are known for their hands-off approach which is often criticized for poor role definition for managers.

Such leadership style is effective in creative jobs and workplaces with experienced employees.

However, active monitoring of performance and effective communication regarding the expectation from the leader’s end is must to get the most out of this style of leadership.

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02

DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP

Democratic leadership is another highly effective leadership style. Often known as Participative leadership, in this style the leaders often ask help and collaboration from their subordinates.

This leadership usually reports higher levels of job satisfaction and the company can benefit from individualistic creativity. However, this style involves more than one individual in the decisionmaking process which makes the process slower.

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TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transactional leadership is basically focused on group organization, establishing a clear chain of command and implementing a carrot-and- stick approach to management activities. According to Boundless.com, transactional leadership includes: clarifying what is expected of followers’ performance; explaining how to meet such expectations; and allocating rewards that are contingent on meeting objectives.

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AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP As the name suggests, the autocratic leadership style is the extreme version of transactional leadership.

Autocratic or authoritative leaders take control of the staff and rarely accept or consider employees’views or suggestions. Ruling with an iron fist is rarely appreciated by staff, which can lead to high turnover and absenteeism.

Autocratic work environment rarely has any flexibility.

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BUREAUCRATIC LEADERSHIP

Bureaucratic leadership models are most suitable for highly regulated or administrative environments, where adherence to the rules and a defined hierarchy are important. In this leadership style, the leaders set a strict set of rules, regulations, and policies which they follow precisely, and they expect their teams to follow the line.

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STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP

Strategic leadership is a commonly effective leadership style. This leadership style involves a leader who is essentially the highest authority of the organization. Strategic leaders are not, however, limited to the top authority of the company. They include a wider audience at all levels who want to create a high- performance life, team or organization. This is because of this approach this is one of the most desirable styles of leadership.

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CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

A tinge of resemblance is evident in both charismatic and transformational leadership. Both the leadership styles rely heavily on the positive charm and personality of the leader.

However, this style of leadership is seldom considered to be effective because the success of projects and initiatives are closely linked to the presence of the leader - Upama Goswami

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Natalija Counet

A Pioneering Architect of Progressive Future

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it”.

N

atalija Counet, the proud author of “Upskilling for the Future” and the Founder of 361degreesLAB believes in the authenticity of this wonderful quote.

Having a rather kaleidoscopic learning career from a business degree to creative film production, from entrepreneurship to post graduate study in psychodrama, Natalija is a habitual learner. It's her quest for learning new things that have paved her way towards success and excellence.

Knowing your questions is important, as she puts it.

According to her, “Some people look for a passion, the big why, the goal. I found for myself questions that I am interested to answer and challenges I want to address. What I do may change: I may discover a better way to work on the skill development or another interesting business direction to explore, but it will be still about those questions I am trying to find answers to. It is a mission.”

Natalija Counet Founder 361degreesLAB

Natalija envisions the professional life as a playground where one can play different roles, hold different titles and change the careers as a normal part of growth. That is enormously liberating. “If you think of your professional journey as 2-3 years learning sprint, this is no longer so hard. Every choice you make is a step towards the next interesting door to open.” So reflects Natalija.

Leaving behind the Gender-Centric Buzz Amidst all the buzz of Women Empowerment and equality, Natalija holds a unique opinion. Women empowerment is a contextual subject, as she states, where one has to be clear

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what he/she is talking about. Her views are far from being gender-biased.

If I think about why do we want to have more women in the boardrooms and empower more women to run their own business, for example? It is not simply about chasing the favorable 50% and ticking the box.

What we truly miss is having female qualities like care, intuition, collaboration, embracing emotions and the ability to have better dialogue out there. As a skill development professional, Natalija focuses mainly on skillset and mindset development..

361DegreesLAB- An Insight into the Services 361degreesLAB helps organizations and professionals to prepare for the future by focusing on the development of critical skills. It facilitates special learning experiences, workshops, labs, and offer future literary programs and events. The company runs learning labs for career hacking, digital intelligence, self- management, building relationships and on how to manage time, energy and attention in the era when the constant cognitive overload becomes a norm. They also offer future literacy programs and work on creating special learning initiatives and events.

361 DegreesLAB offers its services for organizations and professionals: For Organizations: With the new age digital innovations, it is time for organizations to move faster, adapt more quickly, learn rapidly and embrace dynamic career demands. It provides organizations with special learning environments, skill development labs and the way to access how future ready they are. 361degreesLAB offers interactive workshops and keynotes on the subjects of Upskilling for the Future and Skills for the future of work. The company also organizes special events, offer consulting services and facilitates the projects that focus on learning innovation. .

For Professionals: The company offers open workshops, master classes and learning labs for professional orientation, skill development, personal and professional growth. 361degreesLAB works with the best industry professionals to explore various subjects, help learn new skills, and unleash possibilities.

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Skill development is not the end, it is just the means to the end: creating the future you want to be part of

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The 2019 Elite Business

A Different Perspective of “Future” “We are working on creating incredible collaborations and initiatives to address the learning questions of today and tomorrow. What I am really interested in is changing the way we see the future,” Natalija states. Her interpretation of the concept of future is really exceptional. “Instead of trying to predict, anticipate, adjust and constantly be in the reactive mode to the ongoing change, instead of asking what the next big thing is, or what the future is going to be like, I think we need to start asking “What future do we want? What skills do we need to create the future we want to be part of ?” she suggests.

An Inspiring Message for Social Change “Go do it. Stop thinking about it, stop talking about it, stop being smart about it. The only difference between your dreams and reality is called action. There is no formula, no 10 ways of how to succeed. The only thing you can do to bring out a social change is to start somewhere. So go ahead. One step at a time. It is the best- kept secret of success. I haven’t discovered anything else that is more powerful than the habit of taking action.” Natalija expresses her views on achieving success.

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