The 30 Most Influential Business Leaders in Tech 2018

www.insightssuccess.com August 2018

The Art of Leading Attributes of the Good Leader

Empowering Workplaces Constituents of a Productive Work Culture

DJ Paoni

Building a Better Tomorrow with People & Innovation at SAP

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Editor’s Note

www.insightssuccess.com August 2018

Envisioning Change!

The Art of Leading Attributes of the Good Leader

Empowering Workplaces Constituents of a Productive Work Culture

DJ Paoni

Building a Better Tomorrow with People & Innovation at SAP

A

ddressing the most clichéd phrase, change is the only constant thing in our lives. Whether the change is expected or unexpected one it is subjectively tempting. In some situation it might create an urge to do something new while sometimes it leads to grave pessimism. A common reaction to change is factorizing the uncertainty of life and accepting it as it comes. Although our actions create a ripple of change most of the people are afraid of it. Some progressive minds get out of the comfort zone and create their own way through unpredictably changing situation. But few ignited minds have an ability to envision the change, and very few of them brought it up.

In a typical business vocabulary these people are called visionaries. In the world of business, competence to envision the change in sector is a product of many objectives. It requires a complete understanding of the market situation, a series of selfless efforts and a novel approach which is ready to take on any challenge. Their vision and approach further leads to incredible innovations that revolutionize the complete system.

From 19th century tech powered innovations are dominating every sector. The pace of change in technology is remarkably superior to any other sector. With every rising day we hear a new update.

Tracking the changes even becomes impossible sometimes. Hence, envisioning change in such rapidly growing sector is surely praiseworthy, and coming up with an innovation which the world will recognize is just implausible achievement, isn't it?

Whenever asked about the inspiration behind innovation, almost every tech leader has marked their urge to bring up the change in situation. They whole heartedly speak about how this urge and vision has kept them motivated while taking the bull down by its horn. Through their responses we get to understand deeper meaning of envisioning change, it simply means an elementary inspiration behind innovation.

Sometimes it is not just about innovation. An urge for change also leads to an inception. Inception of the company, enterprise or any type solution or service provider that envisions making its mark on the sector by finding a contemporary way to offer it. May it is innovation or inception the prime motorist behind it is the tech leader. To understand this process of change and power of vision, knowing leaders opinions, inspirations, struggles and aspirations is essential.

Upon considering this insights success has curated list of some inspiring tech leaders who has raised the bar of innovation and brought a venerable change in the rapidly growing sector of technology.

Featuring as the cover story we have DJ Paoni, a renowned President of SAP North America.

SAP North America, Inc. develops enterprise application software. Its business suite applications help enterprises to improve business operations, such as supplier relationships, production, warehouse management, sales, customer relationships, and administrative functions. As the president of the company he is responsible for driving the strategy, profitability and customers' success in the US and Canada. He is one of the trusted advisors of the company who place a high priority on helping customers become best-run businesses.

In addition to this we have interesting profiles of thirty tech leaders contributing in various sectors.

Their gripping stories have made the magazine more captivating. Also, make sure to go through the articles, written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts.

Let's start reading, shall we?

Kedar Kulkarni

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kedar Kulkarni Jenny Fernandes Abhishaj Sajeev Assistant Editors Brian Smith Hitesh Dhamani Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Prashant Charpe Co-designer Shweta Shinde Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Anup Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vishnu Vardhan Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chauhan, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editors

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Cover Story

DJ Paoni

Building a Better Tomorrow with People & Innovation at SAP

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Our commitment to the success of our

customers is one of the primary reasons

why 98 percent of the top 100 most valued brands in the world today run on SAP.

DJ Paoni President

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The culture at SAP is best described as inclusive and innovative, and we believe you can't have one without the other.

T

rusted with helping businesses lead in their industries, enterprise technology companies face constant pressure to innovate. Success in this environment requires leadership to look outward towards the new and unknown. But to maintain such an unrelenting enthusiasm for growth and innovation, technology companies must also turn inward – toward their culture and their employees to help drive these changes. SAP North America President, DJ Paoni is one leader who has spent more than two decades putting principles of teamwork and collaboration into practice at SAP, investing in people and innovation to deliver quality results for the company’s more than 160,000 customers in North America.

When he joined SAP in 1996 as an account executive, Paoni quickly realized the potential SAP had to disrupt the enterprise technology industry. Today, with 22 years under his belt with the company, Paoni leads SAP North America and is responsible for the strategy, day-to-day operations, and overall customer success in the United States and Canada. For him, the reason for his long-standing belief in the power of SAP is simple: “What has enabled the company to keep pace through many highly-disruptive market shifts is our people,” Paoni explained. “I am fortunate to come to work every day feeling supported, challenged, and inspired by my colleagues, and I’m proud of the culture we’ve fostered that empowers us to evolve and where change is welcomed.”

Leading in a Changing and Challenging Landscape Today, companies face a number of seemingly overwhelming odds, leaving little room for ineffective decision making. In some industries and scenarios, the difference between business success and failure can be as little as 24 hours. According to a recent report from MIT Sloan and Capgemini, 90 percent of CEOs believe their business will be changed drastically by the digital economy and that success will depend on leaders’ abilities to take immediate measures to stay relevant.

Unfortunately, despite the rising stakes, only 15 percent currently consider themselves able to execute on a digital strategy in the near-term. SAP recognized this challenge and has spent time and resources reinvigorating its services to expand beyond ERP and into a complete portfolio for the digital business, with in-memory data platform SAP HANA as the backbone. Today, they have more cloud users than any other company and a breadth of offerings spanning mobile, big data, and a host of other emerging technology areas.

The next step in SAP’s growth journey, Paoni explains, is helping organizations enter the new era of the Intelligent Enterprise — where businesses can apply intelligent technologies like Machine Learning, the Internet of Things and advanced analytics.

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“With the intelligent enterprise, we’re building upon the promise of digital transformation by enabling organizations to capitalize on the next wave of innovation and better compete,” said Paoni. To help organizations become intelligent enterprises, SAP is offering new ways to use data assets to achieve desired outcomes faster – and with less risk. Outcomes include freeing up employees to do more with less through process automation, delivering best-inclass customer experiences with the ability to better anticipate and respond to customers’ needs, and inventing new business models and revenue streams by monetizing data-driven capabilities.

It’s these outcomes that will define the future of business in Paoni’s view.

“Enterprises must help their employees make faster and more effective decisions by providing them actionable insights from their data. This is what will give them the agility they need in today’s fast-moving world.”

The Future is Bright Powering SAP’s strategy for the Intelligent Enterprise are SAP’s customers and people, says Paoni. He personally champions a ‘customer first’ mentality, leveraging his keen understanding of the sales function to not only attract new customers, but use the feedback he’s received from existing customers to help reorient SAP’s culture in support of its customers’ objectives. “Our teams are working in lockstep with our customers every day, giving them incredible insight and context that can be brought back into our organization to develop innovations that are truly informed by our customers’ needs,” Paoni said.

In surveying SAP’s broad customer base across 25 different industries – from energy and financial services to consumer industries and the public sector – it’s clear this customer first approach has been rewarding for the company. When asked about this positive track record, Paoni said: “Our commitment to the success of our customers is one of the primary reasons why 98 percent of the top 100 most valued brands in the world today run on SAP.” To ensure SAP and its customers’ successes are sustained long into the future, Paoni places an emphasis on cultivating the next generation of future business leaders to work in technology. Each year, 250 early talent employees from 55 different countries fly to the Greater San Francisco Bay Area to take part in the ‘SAP Academy,’ a unique, immersive training experience for high potential young salespeople. The SAP Academy has helped move the needle from 2

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I am fortunate to come to work every day feeling supported, challenged, and inspired by my colleagues, and I'm proud of the culture we've fostered that empowers us to evolve and where change is welcomed.

DJ Paoni with the SAP Academy

“When you empower your employees with a culture of inclusion, mutual respect, empathy, and mentorship, you will create agents of success in your organization.” percent representation of younger generation talent in its global sales workforce up to 12 percent in just three years, with the goal of reaching 50 percent by the year 2025. This approach comes back to the empathy SAP has for its customers, and having a keen understanding that to reach younger generations, businesses need support from nextgeneration talent.

Committed to empowering students as young as middle school and high school, Paoni also serves on the board of GENYOUth and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, both non-profit organizations that collaborate with schools, communities and business partners to unleash students’ inner entrepreneurial mindsets and prepare them to thrive in the innovation economy.

A Culture of Innovation At its core, SAP is committed to improving people’s lives, which begins within the organization itself. SAP offers a great deal of resources for professional development, health, and wellness to its workforce, and has a clear culture of diversity, inclusion, and equality—which has led to retention rates that exceed the industry average and recognition on numerous ‘Best Workplaces’ lists across the region. Says Paoni: “The culture at SAP is best described as inclusive and innovative, and we believe you can’t have one without the other. When you have people with varied backgrounds and perspectives, who are empowered to share

their point-of-view, you end up with a much richer set of ideas.” Those diverse ideas, Paoni expanded, are what enable SAP to continuously innovate for their customers.

By many measures, SAP has been successful in building an inclusive workforce that reflects the diversity of the businesses and communities it serves. The organization has committed to comprising 1 percent of its global workforce of people on the autism spectrum through its renowned Autism at Work program. It has also been recognized as a best place to work for LGBTQ equality by the Human Rights Campaign and as a best place to work for women, for millennials, for giving back and in technology by Fortune Magazine and Great Place to Work.

In an industry in its relative youth that is seeing rapid growth by early stage companies, Paoni sees a responsibility for SAP, with its decades of industry leadership, to serve as an example with its continued push to create a truly inclusive environment for all. “When you empower your employees with a culture of inclusion, mutual respect, empathy, and mentorship, you will create agents of success in your organization,” said Paoni. With this judicious focus on the company’s people to drive a culture of innovation, Paoni sees no limits to SAP’s future success and, ultimately, the success of its customers.

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Anychart anychart.com

Anton Baranchuk Co-founder & CEO

AnyChart offers universal, versatile solutions for interactive data visualization and business graphics.

Arkadin Cloud Communications arkadin.com

Mark Alexander Chief Operating Officer

Arkadin is one of the largest, and fastest growing global provider of cloud communications services in the world.

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Traci Burgess CEO

BrightBytes is a research-based, end-to-end data solution that provides education organizations with comprehensive data management, from integration to analysis.

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Delcure LifeSciences delcure.com

Prashant Pathak Founder, CEO

DelCure LifeSciences Ltd. (DLL) is a full-scale pharmaceutical company with an aim to bring differentiated high-quality products through international collaboration with innovator companies from the USA, Switzerland and European countries.

Eight eightsleep.com

Matteo Franceschetti CEO

Eight is a leading company that builds technology which can measure, understand, and optimizes the way people sleep for the ultimate goal of a healthy and happier life.

Fraud.net fraud.net

Whitney Anderson CEO

Fraud.net enables merchants of all sizes to combat the threat of cyber-crime with advanced AI technology and intelligent analysis.

FUJIFILM fujifilm.com

Steve Bagshaw CEO

Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies is a world-leading cGMP Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) supporting its partners in the biopharmaceutical industry with the development and production of biologics, vaccines and advanced therapies.

GameIQ spindyapp.com

Balazs Wellisch CEO

GameIQ develops and provides a reward and loyalty platform that combines real-time promotions with the gamification technology to engage customers and grow businesses.

Company Name

Management

Brief

Hitachi Lumada hitachiinsightgroup.com

Asim Zaheer CMO

Hitachi Vantara helps data-driven leaders find and use the value in their data to innovate intelligently and reach outcomes that matter for business and society.

Infobeyond Technology LLC InfoBeyondtech.com

Bin Xie Founder & CEO

InfoBeyond is an innovative company specializing in Network and Data Security within the Information Technology industry.

i-Sprint Innovations i-sprint.com

Dutch Ng CEO

i-Sprint is an Identity, Credential and Access Management Solution which enables individuals, organizations and societies to build trust and identity assurance for powering huge productivity gain.

iZND Services iznd.xyz

Isaac Andy Founder CEO

iZND Services provides complete spectrum of infrastructure outsourcing services which helps in building and managing a highly available, reliable IT infrastructure that is capable of meeting the dynamic needs of your businesses in a multi-sourcing scenario.

Kovair Software kovair.com

Bipin Shah CEO & Chairman

Kovair Software is a Silicon Valley based software Product Company specializing in the domain of Integrated Application Lifecycle Management – ALM solutions.

Multi-Tech Systems multitech.com

Sara Brown Vice President, Marketing

MultiTech delivers a deeper understanding of businesses, governments, organizations, and individuals, which will, in turn, transform the way we live and work.

Noggle noggle.online

Lars von Thienen Founder & CEO

Noggle is one such document management solution which delivers a less time-consuming and more productive approach in files and document organizing.

North Bay Solutions northbaysolutions.com

Jim Keller Senior Vice President & Managing

NorthBay is a cloud big data, ML/AI and Database Migration and firm focused on helping companies extend their brands and achieve brand engagement and loyalty from customers, partners, and vendors.

ON Semiconductor onsemi.com

Keith D. Jackson CEO

ON Semiconductor is a Fortune 500 semiconductors supplier companywhich provides power and signal management, logic, discrete, and custom devices for automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, LED lighting, medical, military/aerospace and power applications.

OSNEXUS Corporationos nexus.com

Jay Iyer VicePresident of Engineering

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Company Name

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Philippe Courtot CEO

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Rhoynar Software Consulting rhoynar.com

Harsh Murari Co-Founder & CTO

TestFramework.io is leading software test automation services provider with unified software testing solutions.

RM Applications rma.com.my

Lokesh Gupta Co-Founder & CEO

RMA specializes in offering Online Remittance and Payment solution, ETL Development, Data Mart Development, Microfinancing, Interface Development, Business Consulting, Project Management, IT enabled services and Turnkey Solution Development.

SaasMAX Corp saasmax.com

Dina Moskowitz CEO

SaaSMAX Corp. is a marketplace platform that helps SaaS companies to recruit, manage and monetize their reseller channels.

SAP sap.com

DJ Paoni President

SAP North America, Inc. develops enterprise application software. Its business suite applications help enterprises to improve business operations, such as supplier relationships, production, warehouse management, sales, customer relationships, and administrative functions.

ShapeShift shapeshift.io

Erik Voorhees CEO

ShapeShift is a digital asset exchange platform that allows users to seamlessly convert between over 50 different digital assets.

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The ID Co theidco.com

James Varga Chief Executive Officer

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Brief

Anton Baranchuk: Revolutionizing Data Visualization & Business Graphics with Disruptive Solutions

allow you to create any chart and business graphics out of any data, perfectly suitable for any web projects in any browser and on any platform. Under Anton’s leadership, the company prominently delivers a powerful HTML5/JavaScript charting engine that is marketed as a product family comprising four JS libraries, each inherently optimized to serve a specific dataviz purpose:

Anton Baranchuk CEO & Co-founder AnyChart

AnyChart — For basic charts (over 70 chart types are available out-of-the-box).

AnyMap — For maps and seat charts.

AnyStock — For charting stock, financial, and any other date/time based data.

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he mind-power to change the world is what makes an individual worthy to leave their footprint on the list of the most influential entrepreneurs ever. Few leaders around the globe have the ability to transform the industry with their unique ideas and disruptive approach. A geek at heart, technologist Anton Baranchuk, Co-founder & CEO of AnyChart, is one such leader.

In addition to AnyChart, Anton has stirred a string of successful enterprises in various fields of the IT industry: multimedia processing, software protection, location-based technologies, and more. He holds a PhD in math. Anton has been instrumental in unlocking the success doors for the company since its inception in 2003, with the vision that “Team is everything.”

AnyChart and its Innovative Services AnyChart is a company offering universal, versatile interactive data visualization and business graphics solutions. As the name ‘AnyChart’ implies, its products

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AnyGantt — For resource, project Gantt diagrams, and PERT charts.

Getting new features on no less than four major updates throughout a year, these solutions make all aspects of charting easy for its customers. With a flexible licensing model, AnyChart offers everyone to choose the best options depending on their specific needs, perfectly fitting any companies and projects, from pre-revenue startups and simple websites to corporate apps, SaaS, and OEM. “For educational and other nonprofit use, AnyChart offers a free license,” says Anton. Apart from this, his sheer determination helped the company in establishing its own graphics engine and then making it open-source in 2016.

This graphics engine was published on GitHub under the name of GraphicsJS — a lightweight SVG/VML-based JavaScript library with intuitive API. It lets developers easily draw any HTML5 graphics and animation and is absolutely free.

Anton’s constant efforts resulted in framing AnyChart amongst the global leaders of data visualization tools.

August 2018|

Leading with Compassion

Staying Ahead of the Curve Back in 2003, recognizing that any data can be converted into XML and then get smoothly visualized with the help of Adobe Flash-based charts, Anton set the foundation of AnyChart. At that time, both Flash and XML were on the rise. But also, those technologies were still young, so the company had to deal with number of inherent bugs, security shortcomings, and some other issues. “The key to success appeared to be large partnerships that we managed to launch right away,” says Anton.

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Being the leading light of AnyChart, Anton asserts: “I believe maybe the most important thing is openness, in the widest sense. To your teammates. To your customers. To new ideas, experiences, and information in general. Then, analyze what you’ve learned or thought about and think how it can actually be applied in what you are doing, and not only for now but also for later stages.”

We give you the most advanced, best designed and supported dataviz solutions.

“When Oracle introduced our data visualization component in APEX, we started getting a whole lot of feedback from users, which greatly helped us in shaping our product development, support, and business strategies and tactics to the best possible extent. So I can say it was essentially important for us as a tech business to quickly roll out a product and earn our first big clients,” he adds.

The voyage to create a niche was not an easy task as there was a downfall of Flash seen in the some years later.

Embracing HTML5 as the next universal web technology, Anton’s AnyChart created a brand new charting solution, almost from scratch, and provided full support of both Flash and HTML5-based components. Adding the SVG support, AnyChart released JS chart libraries under its umbrella, which have been named the best in JavaScript this year.

Acknowledging what its team did to get where it is currently positioned, Anton proudly asserts “I am happy we’ve done it with such a success and are among the global leaders in interactive data visualization nowadays.”

“It is crucial for a technology company to stay in the know of what’s going on out there, predict any possible changes that can affect it, follow the trends, and of course, always do your best to fully satisfy the needs of your clients at all times,” he added further.

Embracing the Technology and Innovation

number of ideas and solutions out there in almost every single field, it is important to properly analyze everything and see what’s going to work best in each particular case.”

Recommending a Never Give Up Attitude Anton advises aspiring tech enthusiasts to analyze the overall market and think several steps ahead to withstand the complexities. But most significantly, he believes in order to experience a principle work-ethical environment, a professional and enthusiastic team really matters.

Addressing a proverb saying “Fall seven times and stand up eight,” Anton asserts: “Don’t give up if something goes worse than expected and in case of any failures.”

A Bright Future With thousands of happy customers — from startups to corporate giants like Microsoft, Ford, Samsung, Bosch, Citi, Merck, GE, Juniper, and many others, Anton’s future plans are about working more and more to make AnyChart’s data visualization solutions even better to further justify the trust of the customers.

Anton believes that in this fast paced industry it has become essential for the technologists to keep up with the techenabled trends. Emphasizing upon AnyChart’s distinctiveness in the market, he asserts, “Due to a big |August 2018

23

Asim Zaheer

Asim Zaheer CMO Hitachi Vantara

Crafting Prolific Marketing Strategies in the Age of Digital Disruption

W

ith the introduction of digital platforms, the marketing discipline has been disrupted to take many different forms. Marketing personnel have an additional benefit of exhibiting products and services on various digital and social channels to influence customers at various stages of their buying journeys. A competent marketer is what an organization requires to cater to the widening use of modern marketing techniques. A knowledgeable practitioner of modern marketing methods recognizes, visualizes and executes actions that develop and analyze successful marketing strategies.

An effective marketing strategy follows an organization’s business approach. The organization’s outreach to the intended audiences relies on the marketer’s vision and determination. Maintaining an efficient and appropriate marketing strategy must be a chief marketing officer’s strength. One such successful marketer is Asim Zaheer.

Asim is the CMO at Hitachi Vantara, a multibillion-dollar subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. Rooted in Hitachi’s over 100 years of history, Hitachi Vantara helps companies digitally transform to take advantage of the full value of their data.

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Asim takes pride in being a B2B marketing executive with expertise in introducing disruptive new companies and technologies into emerging markets. He possesses a passion for generating results, winning in the market, building great teams and developing future leaders. He has lived through mega-mergers and has been a keen observer of what’s happening in technology and the world. And he is a tech geek at heart.

Empowering Workplace Hitachi Vantara helps data-driven leaders find and use the value in data to drive outcomes that matter for business and society. It combines technology, intellectual property, and industry knowledge to develop data-management solutions that help enterprises improve their customers’ experiences, develop new revenue streams and lower the costs of business. The company elevates customers’ innovation advantages by combining IT, operational technology and domain expertise.

As the CMO at Hitachi Vantara and a member of its Executive Committee, Asim helps drive the strategic August 2018|

Asim’s background includes product management and marketing roles at several high-tech startups as well as senior roles at large global corporations. He was on the ground floor of bringing new companies to market, disrupting established players and creating new categories.

He started his career at Digital/Compaq, and later shifted to two venture-backed startups, Storability and Archivas. The latter was later acquired by Hitachi.

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Execute really well and always be clear on the vision of where you are taking people.

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direction and go-to-market initiatives for the company. This includes global integrated marketing campaigns, competitive and market intelligence, global communications and branding, and all demand generation and awareness. He also oversees the company’s global learning and education efforts.

Defining Roles

Reforming Benchmarks

Asim believes that the key traits a leader must possess are agility to adapt quickly to a volatile market and quick decision-making to adjust plans promptly without being tangled in loops of analysis. Leaders must also have a desire to learn because they shouldn’t pretend to know everything. After all, knowing it all is never possible.

Asim is aware that the role of marketing has evolved over the years. In the present digital world, people interact much more digitally and now machines are interacting with other machines digitally, which is opening up entirely new markets and businesses. “Technologists need to further embrace and enable this new world, making it a better place and creating opportunities for people, business and society,” says Asim.

When asked how he strives to diversify his company’s marketing solutions in order to appeal to the target audience, Asim says, “You start with the business challenge. Understand the industry you are selling into, look at the buyer profile and buying center, and tailor your offerings and your message for the business needs of buyers. You must create complete solutions that encompass the necessary services, software and integrations needed to help the customer do something faster or more efficiently, or to help them innovate in their business.”

Voyaging Toward Excellence Asim’s perception of constantly having to prove himself is what shaped him. “For the longest time early in my career, I was the youngest person in my peer group of leaders. I had to demonstrate the ‘vital attributes’ and most notably in those days, the desire to learn. I had a steep learning curve coming into high-tech out of school and needed to not only understand the technology, but also the market overall and how business was done,” he says.

He believes that a marketer must now further rely on digital and online communications to his or her targeted audience through multiple media. In addition, a marketer must be a data geek and have knowledge of his or her customers and prospects, and their buying patterns and needs, which differentiate from the competition and anticipate the future to some degree.

When asked about his future endeavors, Asim said, “I see myself continuing to help drive the digital transformation of Hitachi Vantara. We are rapidly evolving as a company and have much more work to do.”

While advising the future leaders and tech enthusiasts, Asim says, “Stay humble. If you take risks, which you should, you will fail on occasions. Learn from it, don’t repeat it and move on.”

“Indirect age-ism certainly existed given my youth and relatively fast career trajectory. In addition, there was more of a bias toward leaders in high-tech having an engineering background that was usually essential to advancing your career. Although I studied engineering in college, I earned my degree in marketing. I had to overcome the perception that I was ‘non-technical,’ especially in my first few roles as a product manager and later running a product management group,” he adds. |August 2018

25

Balazs Wellisch: Pioneer of Operational Expertise

I

n an interview with Insights Success, the CEO of GameIQ, Balazs Wellisch shares the key insights powering his transformative results as the Chief Executive Officer. Learn the innovative product development strategies.

Below are highlights from the interview conducted between Balazs and Insights Success: How do you diversify your tech solutions that appeal to your target audience?

Appealing to broad demographics or even targeted demographic segments is no longer a sustainable product development strategy.

Instead, consumer demand is driving businesses to develop products and services that can be personalized to individual needs. At GameIQ we strive to create products that appeal to a wide array of demographics but serve the unique needs of each individual.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every tech individual should possess.

The most successful leaders in tech today possess a passion for solving problems, endless curiosity and the ability to think holistically. Knowing technology is an essential attribute, but to truly excel, a born tech pro should be in love with technology, both past and present. It’s no longer sufficient for a successful tech pro to be confined to a niche. Sure, they may specialize in AI, security, data, etc. but they should be able to tackle any tech problem. Also, successful tech pros are good at breaking down complex problems and explaining their solutions in simple terms anyone can understand.

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

Balazs Wellisch CEO GameIQ

I was born in a communist country with very limited opportunity for success at the time. Our family was very poor, we were even homeless for a while, and the future looked bleak. It was through great personal sacrifice and incredible perseverance that my parents were able to escape the choking confines of communism and immigrate to the United States to provide a better life for me and my siblings. I’m grateful for their sacrifice and the example they’ve set for me. Their lessons in perseverance, their “never give up” attitude, is what continues to drive me today.

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“Be passionate about creating value by solving big problems.”

It’s no longer sufficient to have a niche in tech. Today’s technologist must be a jack of all trades, with an inexhaustible passion for learning. Innovation will continue to move forward at break-neck speeds. Keeping up with the ever-evolving world of tech will be our greatest challenge.

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

GameIQ has a bright future and I see myself continuing the journey of pioneering consumer gamification for many years.

What is your advice for the emerging tech enthusiasts?

What were some of the primal challenges and roadblocks that you faced during the initial phase of your journey?

I became fascinated with computing at the age of thirteen, when personal computers first started appearing on the market in the mid-80s. Getting access to personal computers in a communist country at that time was next to impossible. But somehow, (and to this day I don’t know how they pulled this off) my parents were able to get me a Commodore 16. I was hooked on computing and later began developing software for both the Commodore and Atari platforms. However, my fledgling software engineering ambitions were put on hold when our family began the process of immigrating to the United States. We spent two years living as refugees in Vienna, Austria. I wasn’t able to seriously get back into computing until several years later when I ended up at San Diego State University majoring in computer science. This was where I first heard about the internet, jumpstarting my career in technology. I was finally at the right place at the right time and within a few years I was founder and CTO at a successful .com startup. A few painful lessons followed when the .com bubble collapsed, but that experience drove me to learn the proper way to run a business and gave rise to a new passion. I’ve been following my passion to build businesses that utilize technology to solve critical needs ever since.

Focus on solutions, not the tech. Tech is a tool, like any other, and it should be used to make people’s lives better.

Tech is never the silver bullet; it doesn’t solve anything on its own. Instead, it is an amplifier. It can amplify chaos, or it can amplify efficiency and organization. Successful solutions are built to solve problems and utilize tech to deliver those solutions. Those with the ability to combine creative thinking with the technical know-how to solve pertinent problems will become the most successful tech leaders of tomorrow.

About the CEO With more than twenty-five years of experience Balazs is an accomplished e-business expert and successful entrepreneur who founded, operated and guided to acquisition several profitable ventures throughout his career. Balazs has an extensive background in computer science and a proven track record of business leadership and operational expertise.

About the Company GameIQ creates gamification technologies to digitally engage consumers and reward spending. The company delivers fun, innovative and effective forms of real-time digital engagement and cash rewards, which allows retailers and brands to provide a deeper, more interactive and meaningful experience to consumers.

With the ascent of pivotal and ground-breaking technological advancements the role of technologists is continually evolving. How according to you, has this role changed over the years? |August 2018

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Director’s Viewpoint

Want to

Build Ralf Jacob Head of Digital Media Services for Oath

Whether you’re part of a small startup or a multi-billion dollar company, below are key leadership tips you can use today.

Embrace the Hard Conversations

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uccessful leaders don’t view their teams as working for them; instead, these leaders work for their teams. Our main role as business leaders isn’t to focus only on results, but ultimately, it’s to clear hurdles so that others can exceed at their jobs.

In my 20+ years of experience across sports, music and now tech, I’ve learned that creating a culture built on trust and respect is the first and most important priority when setting up your business for success.

Yet taking the time to actively nurture these qualities from the top down can become increasingly difficult as you juggle the different responsibilities that come with running a company.

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With leadership comes tough decisions and hard conversations, especially when strong emotions and working relationships are involved. And while you might be tempted to shy away from these discussions or delegate the responsibility to your direct reports, ultimately, you as the leader must initiate and drive the dialogue.

I’ve found holding monthly roundtables with my employees to be an effective way to have a pulse on how everyone feels and to also dive deeper into sensitive topics in more intimate settings. Within these roundtable discussions, I address any confusion head on. I also encourage participants to ask questions, even around difficult topics, and I always try to give thoughtful, candid answers. Having a regular cadence of these meetings helps build trust and lets people know we can talk about anything.

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Implementing an open door, open ear policy Listening to employees — regardless of rank — can motivate and excite people about the work they’re doing.

With an “open door, open ear” policy, you create a culture where everyone feels heard and valued.

Make yourself available to discuss anything with anyone, direct report or not, and actively practice listening more than you talk. This policy means that sometimes you’ll have to put important priorities aside to ensure that your team feels they have the space to freely express what’s on their minds.

Carving out time for these meetings is key, and you’ll learn important information about what’s working and what’s not working across different areas of your business. This is invaluable information that will help make sure your team is operating at their full potential for maximum results.

Make sure to listen more than you talk; feeling heard is a key part of building trust.

Trust and Be Trusted You built your team structure for a reason; each individual has unique traits and special attributes that you value. Trust the team you assembled and let people do the jobs you hired them to do. That means giving them the freedom to make decisions, to experiment and to try new strategies.

Sure, sometimes these ideas work out, and sometimes they won’t, but risk-taking is essential to get to the next level.

The important nugget here: make a decision! And if you see an idea going in the wrong direction, course correct but do not stagnate, or else you will turn in circles.

I’ve never met anyone who has enjoyed being micromanaged let alone doubted in his/her ability to get the job done. Alternatively, creating a professional environment of support and encouragement can breed creativity, stellar performance and take the organization to new heights. Your team must know it has your full trust — that you will embolden ideas, provide the power to execute and underscore the importance of taking on new challenges.

As a business leader, it’s easy to get caught up in the ideas you think will drive more revenue and really move the needle. But it’s more than that; it’s about building a team that genuinely loves waking up for work in the morning, |August 2018

About the Author Ralf Jacob is the Head of Digital Media Services for Oath. Ralf brings more than 20 years of technical and executive management experience to the organization. He has a vast experience in his entire professional journey. Prior to the acquisition with Verizon, Ralf was the Co-founder & CEO at upLynk from 2010 to 2013, VP of Digital Media at Deluxe Digital Studios from January 2011 to September 2012, VP of Operations at Blink Digital Ascent Media from January 2010 to January 2011, and the queue goes on. Ralf earned B.A. degrees in Marketing and Computer Science from Fachhochschule Wiesbaden, Germany. He was a member of the German Olympic team in diving.

and you do that by ensuring trust and respect are at the forefront of everything you do as a leader. When I look at my team and see people who have been with me for 18+ years at four different companies, I know that it’s because of the trust and respect we’ve built into the work environment and the business. Plus, this means my team can perform at the best of their abilities.

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Bipin Shah: Raising the Bar of Innovation Bipin Shah Chairman & CEO Kovair Software, Inc.

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hen we talk about the amazing leaps in technology that the world has seen in recent times, the individuals responsible for that remarkable progress all too often fade into the background. Name and fame do not matter to these underappreciated visionaries; they are content with the knowledge that they have made a difference.

Standing tall in this select crowd is Bipin Shah, the Chairman and CEO of Kovair Software, Inc. Even though Kovair is hardly 12 years old, some of the world’s most respected brands rely on this Silicon Valley Company for products that simplify and streamline their workflow and collaboration processes.

Recognizing Possibilities Bipin’s path to his role at Kovair is somewhat out of the ordinary. A trained electrical engineer with an MSEE from the University of Wisconsin, he spent the first 25 years of his career in the chip and semiconductor industry. After three years at the helm of Altera Japan, he gravitated towards venture capitalism.

It was here that Bipin discovered Kovair. Even then, when the company was in its infancy, he recognized that it had massive potential. That potential would only be realized with the right leadership – Bipin took over as CEO. Standing Apart Today, Kovair is one of the most prestigious names in the ALM/ DevOps and tools integration spheres. When we asked Bipin what the crux of that success is, he touched on two factors.

“Our unique value proposal as a company is, firstly, that we are an omnibus integration technology enterprise service. We have the skill and the experience that allow us to integrate 85 third-party and open-source tools. Kovair’s solutions embody a completely agnostic approach and work with all premium vendors without bias.”

“The second area where we excel is DevOps. DevOps has become the buzzword with organizations across the spectrum, and for good reason. Kovair’s workflow process engine and Omnibus integrations gives our clients the flexibility to adopt DevOps in conjunction with existing tools so there is no redundancy or minimum additional investment.”

Bipin believes that while creating revolutionary solutions is the seed for success, it is by no means the end.

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“You have to keep innovating because the industry is dynamic and constantly shifting. We introduced APIs to enhance our integration capabilities and that was very well received. Now, we are about to roll out the next phase of the evolution – DataLake.”

DataLake is Kovair’s expansion of its products and services to incorporate business intelligence. The platform will extract information from all tools in the development lifecycle and decipher both mapped and unmapped data to create incisive data analytics.

Overcoming Challenges The steady pace of progress at Kovair today is a direct result of the lessons Bipin has learned along the way in his journey as an entrepreneur.

“Challenges come thick and fast when you are a new player in any industry,” he says, “There are challenges with inadequate funding, with marketing and sales, and with the competition.”

“We did not anticipate the amount of funding we would require when we were starting. That shortfall morphed into growth challenges that had to be overcome before we could begin to have a real impact in the field.”

With Bipin’s stoic leadership and diverse experience, Kovair did manage to conquer those initial obstacles relatively quickly. He acknowledges that raising funds is never easy but believes that is important because it accelerates success.

When the funding issue had been addressed, the specter of sales and marketing hurdles arose.

“Kovair had to establish itself as a brand and earn a reputation for reliability and excellence. Remember, simply being reliable and creating great products is not enough – you have to proactively showcase those capabilities and accomplishments to the world.”

He continues, “Fortunately, we took the initiative early with digital marketing and our team did phenomenal work to highlight the best of our brand.”

The challenges continue to come but Kovair is ready to face them.

“Competition challenges will always be there. Product innovation, competitive pricing, and the lure of cloud and subscription services – these variables represent different fronts of a battle to remain at the top of our game.” |August 2018

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Be aware of who is doing something better and why, and monitor not just the technical aspects of success but also business techniques.

Bipin notes that success is not all about facts and figures; the human element is just as important.

“I have learned to adapt my management style to the people with whom I work. The key is to balance how aggressively you drive your team with giving them the emotional support that acknowledges their contributions.”

This nuanced approach to team building and empathetic leadership imbue Bipin with a natural ability to attract the best people. It inspires loyalty to both him as a leader and to Kovair as a brand.

Insight and Advice The issue of leadership led Bipin to reflect on the traits he believes are essential for an individual to succeed in the tech industry.

“Innovation must be at the core of any tech professional’s repertoire of skills,” he says, “It is not enough if you are doing well if your competition is doing better – the relative pace of progress is the real gauge of success. If they are outpacing you, you lose. Simple.”

Bipin’s advice to all professionals is to keep an ear to the ground.

“As we attain seniority in any organization, it is a natural consequence that we delegate more. However, you have to maintain control over the things you delegate. Use statistics and metrics to maintain focus and course-correct.”

There is no doubt that Bipin’s achievements put him at the apex of the tech industry. He is at the stage where the desire for personal successes pales in comparison to the desire to reinforce Kovair’s foundations.

“I want to tap the right person on the shoulder and have them prepare to take the reins. It gives me great pleasure to see that I have such a talented pool of colleagues from which to choose.”

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Christopher Grey: Revolutionizing Businesses with Smart and Secure Sharing Platform

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n today’s business world, the entrepreneur acts as a trigger head to give a spark to industrial activities through his entrepreneurial decisions. He plays a pivotal role not only in the development of organization but also in the enhancement of product and service segment. He is sometimes a trailblazer who emphases the feasibility and growth of the organization by holding vision and mission.

Christopher Grey is an Entrepreneur, Investor with in-depth knowledge in technology and its trends. This approach and frame of mind led him towards success.

Christopher holds Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree from Stanford University.

After completion of his former education, he started his journey as a Managing Director at Crestridge Investments in the year 2000. The company was a private equity firm that made debt and equity investments in micro-cap and middle

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market companies. Later in 2005, Christopher was a Managing Director position at a subsidiary of Emigrant Bank, the largest privatelyowned bank. After that, he also founded a company named as Third Wave Partners, which made debt and equity investments in distressed situations.

As entering 2010, Christopher founded CapLinked, the company which deals in a secure and easy-touse virtual data room solutions. He is a Co-Founder and COO of the company and the company is headquartered in Los Angeles, the U.S. The firm helps all enterprises from the Fortune 1000 and large financial companies to small businesses securely share information at any time and any place.

Diversifying Tech Solutions CapLinked looks to its clients for honest feedback on what they like about their platform and what they think it lacks. The company follows

its customer’s perspective as important to enhance business growth. CapLinked also gives prominence to all its customer feedback regarding usability, processing, and support. The company focuses on delivering new features and updates based on customer demand and being ahead of the game for applications in the industry.

CapLinked retains its expertise with integrated business values and principles such as the way the company emphasizes a high-level vision with detailed roadmap and a clear metrics at each stage for measuring progress.

Perceiving Success through Challenges Originally, CapLinked was set up to improve the process of raising money for startups. In 2012, the firm decided to enter the virtual data room industry to empower businesses to retain control of their assets.

CapLinked has also been featured in

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CapLinked is a simple and secure document sharing tool for confidential and sensitive information.

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Christopher Grey Co-founder & COO CapLinked

one of the journals as ‘The 10 Best Collaboration Technology Solution Providers’ category and named as “the go-to place for setting up and closing deals” by the Wall Street Journal.

Christopher states that, “Our biggest challenge was finding the right people for the team. Everything starts with that. If you have the right people, good things can happen. If you don’t, it’s not likely. Today we are fortunate to have a very strong team.”

He has also mentioned another biggest challenge as, “Focusing on basic needs of what particular investors, customers, or founders wanted to do. We wasted a lot of time and resources on ideas that would not have been supported by a datadriven approach.” says Christopher.

Emerging New Technologies CapLinked is working towards the emergence of new technology and trends. This new emerging

|August 2018

technology enhances the company’s technological platform and reliability. Christopher put his views as, “If you can’t find a clear advantage in what you are doing now, you should try doing something else until you find it. Once you find it, push that advantage as hard as you can until it stops working. Then begin at step one again and find a new advantage.”

Foreseeing a Successful Tomorrow At present, the technology is deeply embedded in almost every aspect of life. Many people spend more time interacting with technology than they do with people. So today the technologist must be substantially more concerned with the psychological and social impact of technology on humans and their lives. Understanding this progression, CapLinked has also evolved its technology which impacts people and making them more interactive with the technology.

The company is ultimately using this method, as the key to success for

themselves more than the technology itself.

For future endeavors, CapLinked aims to continue to be a leader in the collaboration technology market and expanding its virtual data rooms and secure document sharing solutions across the globe. The company has also launched TransitNet, a product for recording chain of title ownership and audit trail of crypto assets, that will be accessible via CapLinked’s API and will be the first in the industry.

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Dr. Bin Xie: L “

eadership often varies in form and technique, but a leader’s influence remains unparalleled” The foundations of any organization are largely shouldered by the grit and intellect of an efficient leader. Being au fait with the contemporary trends of technology, devising all-encompassing business strategies, maintaining a prolific approach, and possessing the quality of delegation, aids in precise sculpting of an ideal business leader. Exemplifying these traits of a business leader is Dr. Bin Xie, the CEO and Founder of InfoBeyond Technology LLC.

Dr. Xie grew up in a small mountain village with his parents and grandmother in China. As a child he often trekked between the mountains; this grew in him a spirit of perseverance. He discovered his boundless passion for technology innovation during his college studies. After graduating, a driven Dr. Xie packed up his belongings and moved to the United States to further his Ph.D. study in his new-found passion. He manifested his fervor for IT innovation by authoring three books and 70+ publications.

Not being satisfied with early-stage research alone, Dr. Xie took another leap forward. By leveraging his passion, he shifted his focus on developing cutting-edge solutions as an entrepreneur. Starting from a tiny office in 2008, InfoBeyond’s enthusiasm and dedication have propelled into motion by solving critical challenges in Cybersecurity and Intelligence. Since its inception, InfoBeyond has been recognized by the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, National Institute of Standards & Technology, and large enterprises for its efforts.

The organization’s team has doubled every two to three years and is supported by millions of dollars per year. Dr. Xie has recently been honored for Significant Contributions in Advancing Quality, Reliability, and Security by IEEE Communication Society in 2018.

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data protection capabilities in confidentiality, privacy, restoration, integrity, sustainability, and controllability.

A Unified Team As its team has grown, InfoBeyond has been consistently taking on business in the form of new customers utilizing groundbreaking products and fostering new partnerships with leading organizations. The company celebrated its 10year anniversary in June. This was an especially rewarding celebration to reminisce about overcoming challenges in the early years of growing the business. Through perseverance and a ‘don’t quit’ attitude, InfoBeyond is proud of where it stands today.

Passion and perseverance are the teaming spirits at InfoBeyond; unraveling the challenges faced while pioneering new products and business. “Be willing to take risks, don’t be afraid of failure, empower the team by leveraging the unique strengths and skill-sets, and keep focused on innovation in a constantly changing IT industry,” is what Dr. Xie advises.

Distinctive Solutions InfoBeyond wields its passion for innovations to provide key enhancements to businesses and organizations around the globe. Noticeably, a critical challenge concerning access control is preventing unintentional access to online resources, namely, access control holes. As a result of years of dedicated development, Security Policy Tool emerged as a unique tool to close the door to access control leaks. It solves these challenges by enabling security experts to compose and verify access control policies to ensure an online system is free from access control errors and logical flaws. Security Policy Tool has been awarded the 2017 Innovative Security Solution Award at the Big Data and SDN/NFV Summit and also featured as a NIST SBIR Success Story due to its pivotal value for security professionals.

The joy of streaming graph big data is at highest when previously hidden insights become visible in a real-time fashion. To accomplish this, InfoBeyond explores and utilizes graph embedding, machine learning, graph theory, and data streaming technologies. A software tool, EStreaming, has been deployed for military big data graph applications. InfoBeyond is also excited to provide innovations using fragmentation, moving target defense, cryptography, distributed storage, learning, intelligence, and other advanced technologies.

NXdrive offers advanced holistic data security for enterprises and personal usages. Data stored online using NXdrive has self-protection capabilities to prevent data breach, ransomware, data destruction, and other cybersecurity attacks. NXdrive’s brilliance is seen in its |August 2018

In today’s fast-paced, constantly changing world, cybersecurity presents new concerns in keeping online assets safe from threats. Emerging areas InfoBeyond is exploring include continuous network/cloud security monitoring, real-time cybersecurity risk assessment, management, and mitigations. InfoBeyond is grateful to have received exceptional support from the Department of Defense and Department of Energy. InfoBeyond has been devoted to the journey of solving these issues with a focused and compassionate heart.

InfoBeyond has received many accolades with regards to it myriad of disruptive innovations. The company and its products have been recognized as a Top 50 Fastest Growing IT Small Business by Silicon Review in 2017; Innovative Security Solution by IEEE Computer Science Society in 2017; and SBIR Success Story by NIST in 2018.

Beholding New Horizons InfoBeyond is on a fast trajectory toward mainstream adoption of its products and solutions. The company has emerged, and will continue to grow, as one of the world’s leading cybersecurity solution providers. InfoBeyond expects to continue empowering businesses to keep their online assets secure and intact from cyber threats.

When being asked to share his advice with future generation of business leaders, Dr. Xie states, “Stay relentless to accomplishing your goals, don’t be afraid to take chances and fail sometimes – there is always a lesson to be learned from it.”

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Erik Voorhees: A Leader who turned his Fascination for Bitcoin into Business

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eing involved in Bitcoin since 2011, Erik Voorhees, CEO of ShapeShift, has built several companies over the years including SatoshiDice and Coinapult. He was also involved in BitInstant with Charlie Shrem, an American entrepreneur, and Bitcoin advocate. Erik sees Bitcoin and the innovation that has grown out of it as a tool that could fundamentally change the world and give money the freedom it has long deserved.

There was a time when Erik had Bitcoin and wanted to exchange it for Litecoin. He was surprised by the cumbersome process of exchanging, as it seemed to him like something that should have been quick, easy and safe.

It was at that moment the idea for ShapeShift was born, and today the company is grown into a 100+ person company, with over a million customers around the world.

ShapeShift is a digital marketplace that allows users to seamlessly convert between over 50 different digital assets.

A Revolutionary Part of the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem

Erik Voorhees CEO SpaceShift

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The ShapeShift team has put a lot of thought into the simplified process that can best serve the crypto community with its products and services. Where need arises, the company works to meet it, and thus has built several products, utilizing various technologies emerging in the crypto industry.

ShapeShift allows users to seamlessly trade one digital asset for another. It has introduced three of its distinctive platforms which includes, Prism, which offers a simplified, trustless method for diversifying one’s crypto holdings, KeepKey, which provides safety and security as a hardware wallet for long term storage of digital assets, and CoinCap, which keeps users up-to-date on price and market information in these ever-changing markets. The betterment of the community is always at the forefront of ShapeShifts’ mind. It builds products that help people recognize the incredible potential of this technology.

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ShapeShift is growing and continuing to work towards becoming the most influential crypto company in the world.

Gaining Wealth of Knowledge and Experience When Erik was first introduced to Bitcoin, everything changed. He believed that Satoshi created a technology that could operate objectively, providing a system that operated outside of the realm of standard law, yet following knowable rules, enforced by the protocol. Erik was of belief that man-made laws can be easily corrupted in the hands of those who define them, yet protocol-based rules operate exactly as they are programmed, and this operation is predictable, leading to a far more stable and resilient system. However, Bitcoin became his life as he saw it as the most realistic hope for removing the connection between money and state.

Additionally, BitInstant was a good learning experience for Erik. Through his work with investors and Charlie Shrem, he gained a wealth of knowledge and experience.

A Decision that Resulted in Impudence Erik faced challenges for his decision of supporting the growth of altcoins along with Bitcoin. For many people in the community, he was a Bitcoin maximalist, a hard-liner.

When he began to do his research, he realized that although he is an advocate of Bitcoin, true decentralization takes place when there are more than one blockchains operating across a wider ecosystem. The system becomes truer to itself and thus, companies foster innovation, rather than letting it pass them by. To this day, many in the Bitcoin community no longer like or respect him since he abandoned the tribalism of blockchains.

Addressing the Role of Technologists According to Erik, the role of technologists has always been to keep moving forward and push new technologies to their limits. After pushing and finding the limits, they innovate to push past the perceived boundaries and seek out the new lines, drawn somewhere distant in the sand. Entrepreneurs always follow this cycle, but the pace in crypto is perhaps unprecedented.

Erik doesn’t think that the role of the technologist has changed. To this, he asserts that, “We’re in a new setting, interacting with new technologies, but we still have to ask ourselves the same questions as before. We have to apply moral and ethical lenses to the objective technologies being built. We have to ask ourselves, “How can man corrupt this?” and we have to try to the best of our abilities to create systems that pass that test.” |August 2018

“All of my work centres around the freeing of money from government, which is to say, freeing people from government to allow for a society in which individual liberty is not just a slogan, but an ideal and a standard of conduct. When making business decisions, I use this principle to guide me.”

A Direction to the Emerging Tech Enthusiasts Erik believes that the ability to adapt is the key. An entrepreneur can’t survive in the blockchain space without being challenged, and growing through those challenges. In his opinion, technologists in the space should keep their eyes and ears open, while holding a healthy skepticism.

Further, an ability to actually build an organization of people unrelated to any technology is very important, and an aspect of tech entrepreneurship that I did not appreciate in the beginning. At the end of the day, business has to do with people, not technology.

To address the upcoming entrepreneurs he says, “You’re arriving at a time unlike any point in history. Recognize that we’re in the middle of something absolutely unique, and absolutely revolutionary. It may be hard to wrap your head around the fact that blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies will impact every aspect of our lives, but they will. Be bold when creating. Be respectful of the community, and work to understand the ideas that permeate this technology.”

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Harsh Murari: A Trailblazer with Expertise in Software Testing Automation

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n an interview with Insights Success, the Co-Founder and CTO of TestFramework.io, Harsh Murari shares his great insight towards organization’s journey and its specialized solutions and services. Also, he broadly discussed about company’s core competencies and about how company is establishing in the market.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Harsh and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in the company.

I began my career in software field 15 years ago working for large corporations. I felt something missing in my daily activity and was bit by the startup bug in early 2015. Later that year, we started software training courses oriented towards Test Automation, which later morphed into our consulting practice. We now work on custom Test Automation and DevOps consulting solutions, along with Managed Testing solutions for our clients. We build Test Automation Frameworks and DevOps, CI/CD frameworks and provide reliable maintenance for these frameworks. I am also a certified BDD transformation coach and work with companies to transform their development paradigms to focus on the shift-left, test-first philosophy.

How do you diversify tech solutions that appeal to your target audience?

There are many non-standard ways of doing test automation. My focus was to streamline the test automation framework development process, so we can reliably identify the maximum number of defects. Test Automation frameworks are also large pieces of software and therefore require quite a lot of design/architecture inputs to get it right. I work with our team here to provide architectural and design inputs to build maintainable and robust automation frameworks.

Frameworks that are decoupled and immune to changes in UI, layouts, APIs etc.

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Describe some of the vital attributes that every tech individual should possess.

One of the things that is very important, especially for startups, is to have people who can persevere in the face of adversity. We are always faced with unique challenges, and it’s our responses to those challenges and the ability to stray above the day-to-day stress of the job that can make a company successful. We need to think outside the box, and treat every challenge as a potential improvement opportunity and work on implementing a solution to such problems.

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

As part of my past jobs, I was always looking for potential process improvement opportunities. I hate doing repetitive

Don’t blame others for a problem, instead get down to it and solve it.

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work and ended up implementing multiple automation solutions as part of my previous career as well. These included tools to automate crash debug process, ticket handling process, email based workflow management etc. What I learned from each of these experiences was that these challenges, which most people used to talk about and blame the system, were technically very interesting and rewarding to solve.

What were some of the primal challenges and roadblocks that you faced during the initial phase of your journey?

One of the challenges I faced during my initial startup journey had to do with the expectation. I had to tame my expectations on how much we can achieve and how long some of the sales cycles take. This was a good learning exercise for our team that allowed us to focus on managing our sales pipeline better.

With ascend in the number of pivotal and ground-breaking technological advancements the role of technologists is continually evolving. How according to you, has this role changed over the years?

Technology keep changing rapidly and new technology is released on a constant basis. What this has forced us to do is to focus on the latest technologies and keep ourselves |August 2018

updated with all the recent advancements. Many of our fundamental principles and values we learn in college days are still applicable, but there is a new interface to implement these principles using the latest technological advancements.

What used to take months to implement using the old technologies, can now be implemented in a matter of weeks. And since our company is focused on automation and process improvements, keeping abreast with the latest technologies is a must.

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

We have few products in the pipeline that we are planning to launch later this year and I am really excited about those. I usually don’t project out more than a year but this upcoming year should be exciting with these new product launches and business development.

What is your advice for the emerging tech enthusiasts?

Keep abreast of new technologies they can save you tons of time when you are developing something on your own.

Have a do-it-right-now attitude, instead of waiting for the right opportunity.

Don’t be afraid to take risks but do calculate the risk-reward benefits. If you are in product development, do market research with MVP and LEAN

Harsh Murari Co-Founder & CTO TestFramework.io

methods to ensure the right product is delivered.

About the Company TestFramework.io provides robust Test Automation Management and CI/CD services. It helps software teams to become more effective by adopting Automated Software Testing and DevOps practices. The company has built over 40 Test Automation Frameworks in all languages for different types of applications including web, mobile and embedded IoT. The services offered by TestFramework.io are: Continuous Managed QA Services: Build and nurture test automation, ondemand QA resources to augment company’s software team, on-demand CI/CD and DevOps environment maintenance.

One-time Test Framework projects: Develop robust and maintainable Test Automation Framework solutions.

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Determined to Make Dreams Come True

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Always have well-defined goals to fulfill your plans.

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n pursuit of his well-defined goals, Isaac Andy, Founder, CEO and Director of iZND Services, started his own venture, offering companies the complete spectrum of infrastructure outsourcing services.

After realizing that he had not much control & decisions that are being made, and on the way his solutions were getting used or charged to the clients, Isaac determined to start his own venture.

While working for other companies, Isaac built & set many processes himself, which have been used as a standards for most of the IT Outsourcing Services provided by major IT companies.

Work Experience that took the Shape of iZND Services Isaac started as an Analyst Programmer for a retail company known as Parkson Corporation, where he was developing modules of their POS systems.

While working with them, Isaac got an opportunity to travel throughout Malaysia to implement & train the Store managers & staff. Here, Isaac was running ahead of the targeted schedule for the module he was developing. It was after completing his task, Isaac found out that there was no more room for development in the projects he was assigned. Isaac decided to move on and start something new.

Isaac Andy Founder, CEO & Director iZND Services

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Just after completing the project with Parkson, Isaac was offered an opportunity to work as an Onsite & Deployment Lead with Getronics for a new Outsourcing Project with Dell. After the August 2018|

successful deployment throughout Malaysia, Isaac was promoted as a Technical Manager to oversee the deployment that was done throughout the rest of the world.

A few months later, Dell got the contract for MAS’s technical Call Centre & On-site support service which was then placed under Isaac’s responsibility to manage their operations with an SLA of 95% to be resolved within 5 business days.

The Turning Point This was the turning point of Isaac’s life when he realized that this is the time he should move forward and start his own, where he can offer the solutions he desires and take his own decisions when it comes to instrumenting solutions.

In pursuit of his dreams, Isaac built close relationships with the vendors, with whom he and his team had worked closely through these years assisting & supporting each other.

Isaac, Making Impossible Possible It was in 2003, that MAS’s Signs IT Partnership with IBM, where Isaac was responsible for designing & producing the first Deskside Management process that was used to Manage entire MAS Desktop (and Windows Server) operations, which also included with a 10 years roadmap for the Desktop Management technologies as well as the support structure that focuses on: Ÿ Ÿ

Minimal technical support interventions Improving reliability based on the requirements of each department responsibilities within Malaysia Airlines.

These support services include an average of 7000 incidents per month with an SLA of 98% resolution within 4 hours.

It was Isaac, who made it possible to successfully achieve these SLA throughout the contract MAS Outsourcing project with IBM & maintained the standards committed by IBM - the contract value was USD 13.2 million per year.

A Challenge that was Defeated by Instrumenting Wit In 2008, IATA gave a deadline for all Airlines to be eTicketing compliant. Whereby failing to do so, may result in, that the Airlines would not be able to provide their travelling services across the globe, due to which the system might not be able to be integrated with the new guidelines. The results would be, the other Airports would not receive data on the flight details.

Isaac was assigned on this 6 months project to work with their vendor SITA to work on the solution & ensure successful integration at Malaysia. Due to the limited time constraint & urgency to work on the PSS (Passenger Support System), which included e-Ticketing system & DCS (Departure Control System) to be up and running.

Isaac decided to get involved with their technical solution team & could identify the issue and provided a solution for them. This enabled them to successfully get their system working & the Migration Guide for the rest of the team to rollout throughout the rest of the world resulting in 100% success in the cutover within the deadline given by IATA.

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And the time came when Isaac revealed his plans to begin iZND Services to the vendors with whom he was working closely. The vendors showed belief in Isaac and extended their products & services to Isaac to represent them as their Partner to bundle solutions & their services. This proved to be the biggest boost for Isaac, since he was having these large corporations as iZNDs’ partners to gain client’s confidence and trusts. iZND, One Stop Solution iZND provides a managed services program featuring a dedicated team of hardware and software professionals specialized in developing services and products to meet the customers’ needs and their best interests. iZND have broad experience providing IT Services and have invested extensive resources and have developed a mature Managed IT Services Program, Cloud Computing Solutions and Professional IT Project Delivery.

It is simply smart to outsource your core and critical IT requirements with iZND as it is easy to lose track of your priorities. iZND will provide you a One-Stop solution providing all necessary hardware or software according to specifications identified based on your requirements.

Isaac’s Advice for the Young Entrepreneurs Ensure that you have well-defined goals for the targets that you have. Understand that there are always obstacles ahead and will continue to remain there, but know that you can get pass through it by addressing and dealing with it, that when you come across it again, it will no longer be an obstacle, but pathway that you are able to go through.

Always take note of these issues & ensure that everyone in your organization are clear on the processes needed to be done, so that any recurring issues will no longer be a problem, since the workaround is already in place. With all issues out of the way, it will give you & your organization more time & resources to focus on building & improving the necessaries to achieve the long-term goals that you have defined.

And most importantly, Have fun & enjoy yourself throughout your journey.

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Empowering Workplaces

Constituents of a Productive

Work

Y

ou cannot mandate productivity; you must provide tools to let people become their best.” –Steve Jobs

When it comes to work culture, it is a tedious task for organizations to assume as to what kind of an environment, will the employees be most productive in. However, there are traditional methods of setting up the work culture, but with the consideration of all generations of employees, the process becomes even more complex. Moreover, there is always a dilemma of whether the employees create a productive culture or the culture makes the employees productive. But what consists of a work culture?

Apparently, it includes everything from an office space with good lighting to the organizational structure and the way communication flows. Ÿ Ÿ

Ÿ Ÿ

Ÿ Ÿ

In recent studies it was found that: 58% of employees became managers because they were good at work and not because they were good at managing the force.

79% of employees quit their jobs because of lack of appreciation from the management.

50% of the paid leaves were left unused by the employees in America, reason being having the fear of being left behind in the work place, 53% Americans are unhappy at work.

58% employees admitted that they don’t trust their bosses and would rather trust a stranger than the former.

Evidently, the facts reflect a huge scope of improvement pertaining to work culture. The initial change towards the same is associated with the vision of the company. The employees must be well versed with the notion that drives the organization and the whole culture must have this

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essence imbibed within the vision. The next most vital part is values. The values that the company believes in must align with the value of its employees. However these are the key points which will direct the employees towards making the environment productive.

Following are the steps that will help the management create a productive place: Enabling Self-exploration Acknowledge individuals and their performances. Make them understand what they are doing rather than explaining what is to be done. This will maintain a track on their performance, growth and scope of improvement allowing them to understand the difference between their belief and the organization’s culture. These changes must be in context of the business needs.

Enhancing Perspectives Every employee has an outlook on his/her position in the organization. These outlooks, when combined, create the work environment. These beliefs may have generated before the employees were in the organizational ecosystem, but they do impact the overall approach of employees towards their work. Every little detail of how the reviews are given and how the task is operated, conditions the employees to behave accordingly. Organizations must pick the flow and reframe the perspective by formulating a routine that best describes the culture.

Devising Examples How employees perceive the organization depends on the knowledge they receive from their leaders. The values August 2018|

inculcated by the leaders decide how the employees will approach towards their roles, which will ultimately design work culture. There should be a role model to make the employees grasp the mindset and values of the organization which promotes a culture that is best for the business.

Embracing Change Change is inevitable and in order to sustain, organizations need to change every now and then. However, while some employees are always ready to come on board, some are reluctant to change. In which case, the management must get into the skins of employees by knowing their zones and pushing them gently towards the change they require, keeping in mind certain limits.

What is your Story?

productivity if the workers are suffocated by the restrictions, then they will not be able to perform and there will be no productivity.

Long story short, the culture that runs through the organization plays an important role in the productivity of the same. The organization must make efforts in creating an environment that promotes efficiency and it must update its processes consistently in order to sustain growth. These strategies will work both ways, for the employer and employees, making everyone satisfied. But like Steve Jobs said, “It’s not the company and the tools that we should believe, it’s the people who we should have faith in.”

Every tribe has a story. These stories are a hardbound copy of the values, beliefs and culture a tribe believes in.

Similarly, an organization must have a success story which precisely defines its culture. It will keep the values right in the minds of people who work there. Moreover, the story enables a dialogue for the workers to communicate easily, which leads to productivity.

Making it Employee Driven One important thing to note is that it’s the employees that form a company. It is the people of an organization that decide its fate. So whatever the strategy is, make sure it is people friendly.

Because in the process of

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James Varga: Creating Convenience for Global Consumers

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n an interview with Insights Success, the CEO and Founder of The ID Co., James Varga shares the insights behind his triumphant dominance in the era of open banking. Through the innovative and reliable online identity verification services provider The ID Co, James envisions creating online trust by leveraging the data identity established through online bank accounts.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Mark and Insights Success: 1. Give a brief overview of your background and your role in the company.

I founded The ID Co. in 2011 with a mission to create convenience—to allow us as consumers to sign up to new products and services in seconds.

The ID Co. builds products based on (open) bank data that helps businesses like online lenders to onboard their customers efficiently by solving pains such as affordability and credit risk.

Our business service, DirectID, solves key business pains such as assessing customers’ affordability and verifying their account information, thereby offsetting credit risk. DirectID powers leading lenders such as Prosper, Marlette, Amigo, and more.

James Varga Founder & CEO The ID Co.

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I am active in a number of local and global efforts to help people do more online, including the Fintech Delivery Panel (FDP), FDATA, Open Banking Excellence | Edinburgh, and Trust In Digital Life (TDL), whose mission is to create a trusted ecosystem that protects the data and assets of citizens and enterprises across Europe.

2. How do you diversify your tech solutions that appeal to your target audience?

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The products and solutions we build are based on the real world needs of consumers and businesses. It’s all about understanding the pain and going back to first principles.

Once we understand that it’s easy for us to build products that solve those pains and diversify or extend the solution from there. To that end we have developed, and are in the stages of developing, several different products. At this time, our B2B offering is the DirectID platform, while on the consumer front we have built a personal finance management (PFM) app called NoMo. This helps bank customers to stay on top of their finances, offering a dashboard and advice on how much money you have in your account.

3. Describe some of the vital attributes that every tech individual should possess.

Great technical people like to learn and answer questions, solve problems and be challenged. We all want to create great things especially when we are driven by a passion for technology and how it in all walks of life it is changing the world we live in. We conform to Lean and Agile and have weekly scrums to ensure that all staff know their priorities and how it fits into the bigger picture. As a company we’re also very nimble and have been able to respond to outside pressures very quickly. I’m not sure you’d see that in a bigger company.

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

Each experience is a lesson and in this startup world, where you are always pioneering new ground, it is all about the lessons you learn along the way. That said it’s all about having and working with a great team - doing something you love and being true to yourself and vision. This is especially the case in the world of financial services where as a FinTech you have an uphill battle to change a riskadverse by nature industry. We learn every day. Some of the learnings are small, and some of them are huge. But every bit of cumulative knowledge that we have, we ensure is understood by the team, and used to the benefit of the company.

5. What were some of the primary challenges and roadblocks that you faced during the initial phase of your journey?

Timing and finding that elusive product-market fit that generates the ‘click’ moment where traction starts to accelerate is always the biggest startup challenge. Realising that you’re too early for the market, as we did a few years ago, and having to pivot is a huge challenge for any business. They say every startup has three near-death experiences. We have had two but are still here and thriving. Challenges and roadblocks can be found where |August 2018

“

Iterate, iterate, iterate = it’s not about knowing the answer it’s all about how you answer the question.

”

ever you look for them. What’s more beneficial is being prepared to counter them and maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity.

6. With an increasing number of pivotal and groundbreaking technological advancements, the role of technologists is continually evolving. How according to you, has this role changed over the years?

As technology becomes commoditized and functionality becomes a utility it’s becoming less and less about creating new technologies but finding the right solution for the right problem. Technologies have to understand the problem they are solving and the reasons or motivations behind them as there are always a thousand ways to create a solution.

7. Where do you see yourself in the near future and what are its future goals?

We are in the middle of a global storm and huge, fundamental shift in the market. The global trend of Open Banking is opening up access to consumers bank data while at the same time GDPR and other consumer protections are putting more controls in place for the individual. It is within these two opposites that we operate. Consumers demand that banks are much savvier with their data, and some of the digital only banks are responding to this challenge. At the same time as creating products and services that will improve the lives of bank customer, we must also have data protection front and centre of our thinking. We are at the middle of that storm and it’s exciting. Our goal is to make these trends a reality.

8. What is your advice for the emerging tech enthusiasts?

In any situation, I always try to go back to first principles so that I can move past the assumption and get to the problem.

Once you have done this then you can embrace an agile approach to coming up with a solution.

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Jayaraman ’Jay’ Iyer: Exemplifying Leadership and Teamwork

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n the digital world, data is generated at a tremendous rate and storage management becomes an important aspect of business strategy. In such a case, Software Defined Storage (SDS) simplifies the task by offering a flexible and efficient storage system by reducing dependencies on the physical hardware. OSNEXUS Corporation assists companies in managing their storage ranging from small sites to hyper-scale deployments across global data centers with QuantaStor, the leading Software Defined Storage (SDS) platform.

A Frontrunner’s Expertise Jay Iyer is the Vice President of Engineering at OSNEXUS. He has worked with leading enterprise storage companies including Veritas Software, EMC/Isilon, and Brocade. Therefore, he brings in more than twenty years of enterprise storage software development experience to the company.

As the VP of Engineering at OSNEXUS, one of Jay’s responsibilities is customer troubleshooting and he has an excellent approach towards the target audience. He gets an inside look at how the customer is using the platform and issues they come across relating to software or hardware.

He then takes issues to his engineering team so that they can fix the bugs or come out with new features designed specifically for customer needs. This produces a wellrounded platform that is designed for market-specific use cases.

Humble Beginnings Jay has been primarily involved in software development for storage management at enterprise data centers. In the late nineties, he was involved in software development of maintaining and enhancing storage, network, system management drivers on OS/2, and Windows for HP

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Platform. He has worked on building a generic framework for managing heterogeneous storage systems at EMC, Compaq, Netapp, Hitachi, Sun, and HP all under one roof.

This datacenter storage software management suite ‘San Point Control’ was fairly popular within the data center community and helped solve a critical problem that arose in configuring, managing, monitoring, and reporting for storage administrators.

Sharpening the Tools of Success Coming from a non-metro city in India, the biggest hurdle for Jay even before graduating was to find a willing employer to give him an opportunity to intern for his final semester. Bangalore was the ‘must-go’ destination for a large portion of prospective fresh graduates in Software Engineering from all over India. This created a very skewed supply and demand scenario. Getting the initial break was a major hurdle, recalls Jay. Once onto his first job, there were different kinds of challenges to overcome in the initial years with access to information and documentation. “There was no substitute for hard work or perseverance,” states Jay. Jay has closely worked with a Fibre-channel switching software development team, to bring in high-availability infrastructure software for intelligent data migration solutions, integration with multiple external key management solutions for Brocade encryption switches, and a software stack to configure ethernet fabric. He and his team were primarily involved in bringing their first embedded key management solution on the OneFS platform to enable integrated encryption capabilities.

Over the years, Jay has been working at different layers and integrating with multiple third-party software stacks. He has learned the critical role played by control plane software in any IT infrastructure. “If this layer is developed right, it goes a long way in scaling up the infrastructure and August 2018|

“Be emphatic to customer business needs and conduct business in an honest, ethical manner.”

—Jay Iyer

Vice President, Engineering OSNEXUS Corporation

optimally utilizes the capabilities that a heterogeneous system has to offer,” Jay expresses.

Defining Roles Jay points out the vital attributes which every tech individual should possess in the business world driven by technology. Strong technical skills in the primary domain of expertise and basic working knowledge of related areas; Critical, out-of-the-box, thinking & willingness to learn and adapt as the technology landscape continues to constantly evolve are a few essential requirements of an ideal tech individual. “He must be ethical in character, eager & enthusiastic to learn and share knowledge,” Jay adds.

Communication skills are indispensable to clearly articulate ideas which play a vital role when it comes to interaction within the team or with customers. An ideal leader should also possess good problem-solving skills. Jay’s advice for the emerging technology enthusiasts is, “Be tuned in with the developments in the industry. Learning is a continuous process that never stops. Every new problem is an opportunity to learn, innovate and solve.”

increased in manifold forms. Technologists today have to embrace the scale and scope of ceaseless development when they design a system.

Technologists today are required to have a better understanding of the core business and be able to better define the scope of the problem and the proposed solutions. These factors play a key role in helping businesses remain agile and competitive.

Jay’s focus continues to be in building a great team that contributes towards the innovation in Software Defined Storage Platform at the company. “This helps us to give our customers a high-quality compelling SDS alternative to proprietary storage solutions,” says Jay.

Emphasizing on Technology According to Jay, the primary task of the technologists still remains the same over the years, which is to leverage technology to solve problems. With the advent of the internet, social media and computerization of various aspects of business, the source and consumers of data have |August 2018

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Pitching Excellence

E

xecutive summary

Since Internet of Things technology started to gain mainstream traction, multiple platforms, solutions and strategies have been developed. At the moment there are more than 450 ‘platforms’ commercially available.

Yet, realistically speaking, most of these have been designed for a very specific function on out-dated technology and mostly down a vertical application path.

The true power and differentiator in IoT.nxt resides in our full IoT stack capability encompassing the edge and the cloud.

Background Our thinking from the outset has been that we wanted to adopt thinking and develop tech that creates horizontal interoperability between multiple systems and platforms in a technology agnostic manner.

Why? Well, historically, technology companies argued that the best way to quickly create commercial value was to develop a strong vertically integrated application encompassing an ecosystem of partners.

In 2002, it was all about the cloud.

Amazon Web Services was launched and, when OPC Unified Architecture was released in 2006 enabling secure communication between devices, data sources and applications, adoption of IoT began to rise. The early adopters developed their projects with the cloud in mind. The thinking being a simple connected mindset where billions of sensors will be deployed and easily spin up supercomputers at low cost in the cloud to process all of this valuable Big Data… how could they go wrong?

The quickest way to show value was to focus on a vertical and go after it. We have a different view.

During the .com bomb era, people ran around with amazing ideas that they thought would take over the world

Similarly, gateway players have developed powerful gateway technology with a portion that generically aggregates data to the cloud.

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once mass adoption took place. This was followed by an implosion which saw a huge number of concepts, ideas and investments disappear. A similar trend is developing in the adoption of IoT and in digitalisation in general.

Part of the demise of this is because they were too early on the initial curve and either ran out of cash, were unable to build what they said they could, or saw new, sexier, more agile technology drive competitors closer to adoption.

The .com bomb was a rationalisation and a reality for companies and their investors resulting in fortunes being made and lost in the hype. Timing is key in driving Big Tech. If you’re too soon, you are potentially busy developing a concept that will not only age quickly but give competitors plenty to learn from and piggy back off

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allowing them to develop better tech that is more relevant and value driven. Often a cool idea is exactly that - a cool idea, but without real substance it doesn’t get wide commercial adoption. The commercial viability ultimately sits with the ability of a product to produce ‘real value’, whether quantitative or qualitative.

And then there are the guys who make it.

Amazon, Alibaba, Google. They were unprofitable for a number of years before they started to bear fruit simply because they played the long game. They saw past the hype and created products of real value. They made sure they will be relevant in future economies.

The importance of timing Timing is everything, and tech is hard to time We entered this market at the perfect time. Two years in, our solution is strong and businesses at enterprise level are rallying to adopt Big Data technology. They’re embracing VR, AR, AI, cognitive, algorithmic machine learning technologies as they become a reality.

As irrelevant solutions are being seeded out, the IoT.nxt approach to the problem of IoT is making us a major contender; cementing our position in the market.

If we look at the solutions currently available, we understand more than most of these ‘platforms’ have all been built in the cloud. Five years ago everything was in the cloud, it is therefore unsurprising that it is still dominating IT discussions.

Anyone who has, up until this point, embarked on an IoT initiative, has probably 1. built a solution that resides in the cloud; 2. leverages the power of the cloud and its ability to centralise and leverage processing power from the supercomputers that exist there; 3. adopted a top down approach incorporating the cloud as the central power behind the application.

The competitive landscape Looking at the IoT industry and where the ‘competition’ and ‘incumbents’ are in the current IoT cycle, it is evident that IoT development are in a perfect bubble that I believe is not far from rationalisation. I think it will be less severe

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than 2000 as I think investors have been more calculated; but there certainly will be a correction in the not so distant future. Driving my belief in this is that you need this type of event for eminence to be created. People need to start understanding where the true value lies. The companies that have the ability to lock into this IoT business value proposition and convert that into investor value will survive and will gain eminence. There are a number of great technologies and concepts available but only the ones that are able to truly unlock value will remain.

What sets us apart The IoT.nxt approach has been somewhat different, defying the norm and, to date, it is my firm belief that ours is the only company that has this unique approach. Addressing the problems of interconnectivity from the bottom up, our solution acknowledges the power of the cloud and Big data, but also acknowledges that power is greatly diminished or even nullified if the edge layer is not correctly managed.

Our definition of interoperability and data orchestration is, at times, diluted by platform players claiming to provide the same. They don’t.

The general platform interoperability discussion talks to cloud interoperability. This is a hugely complex play that causes massive headaches for some of the most influential players as they try to fathom how to seamlessly integrate multiple platforms. API’s are the talk of the day, with the current solution to solving this dilemma, but it is simply not sustainable or practical. On a whiteboard it might look great having several platforms integrated via API and then plugging into some ESB via microservices, but I challenge to you to construct all of that and take into consideration the small part all of these guys initially did not deem necessary – the edge.

This methodology is hugely reliant on smart sensor technology that has the ability to push data into the cloud.

There’s a heavy reliance on networks and, as a result, ‘platforms’ are struggling to grapple with edge technology, all the while hopeful that a 5G, no, 20G network will resolve this problem.

At almost all the international conferences we have attended in the last 24 months the major discussion has been Big Data and smart sensors, so most of the more mature platforms have been designed around the premise of them being able to receive data directly from the sensor.

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The problem now is how to talk back to the sensor or machine and, more importantly, how to do this cross platform. An even bigger issue creeping to the forefront of discussions are regarding ecosystems in which near real-time data feeds are crucial.

Yet still, the focus is on the cloud and understandably so, especially if you have invested millions into a technology that is reliant on the cloud.

We do not believe this.

For some time now we’ve been saying that the edge is eating the cloud.

We’re not implying that the cloud will lose relevance. What we’re saying is that a true IoT ecosystem will become less and less reliant on the cloud and, in fact, that ecosystem design will rely heavily on edge capabilities.

A natural oversight, but a crucial detail destined to form an integral part of this industry’s ability to commercialise in the near future. The IoT industry is inhibited by an inability to create interconnectivity and interoperability at the edge.

Retrofit and decrease the barrier to entry and sweat the assets.

Correctly designed and engineered, edge technology enables edge interoperability and, more importantly, the ability to retrofit into legacy systems. Legacy systems, to a large extent, were disregarded, with current players relying on the ‘rip and replace ‘mentality that has governed and, to a degree, plagued the IT industry since the beginning, befuddling brands that have become household names.

This mentality of winner takes all is not congruent with the ideation of a connected world and certainly does not embrace the concept of true scalability.

Having to rip out and replace existing

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technology and infrastructure on your journey towards digitalisation introduces a huge amount of additional complexity, disruption and a cost, all of which makes it a difficult sale to the business, contributing to the slow adoption rate of the 4th Industrial Revolution.

So whilst the ‘big dogs’ are all trying to figure how they can develop and ensure technology lock-in to secure future revenue, they’re contributing towards the mixed message that is being sent out to the market, diluting the value of IoT technology as a tool to unlocking real business value.

Value is a simple exercise for any business leader – Look at expenditure, then ROI. Satisfied? Great. Here’s the next question - is it relevant to my business?

All data is not the answer.

When we enter into discussions with big companies, the issue of legacy investments in technology at the edge comes up without fail. Remember that everyone is selling some type of cloud platform that is going to ‘change the business’, but that cloud engine is reliant on edge data i.e. devices, sensors, machines, protocols, PLCs, SCADAs, CCTV, access control systems - the list goes on and on.

Clients start considering negotiating with each vendor and realising that, much like when our 1000 piece holiday puzzles has 1 missing piece can ruin the picture and make the whole exercise seem futile. It’s the same with many of the algorithms and predictive applications - the true power of these platforms lie in their ability to provide companies with insights. For this they are 100% dependent on having the correct, filtered, aggregated, curated, secure, real-time data from the edge, and they need all the pieces of the data puzzle to build the Big Data picture.

In every environment, on every piece of the puzzle there is information that is critical to the task at hand, and then there’s other information that isn’t needed in real-time. Things like whether a device needs to be serviced in a weeks’ time, whether stock is going to be depleted by the end of the month, etc. Now consider a sensor having a fixed normal range, and only recording exceptions rather than all data all the time - you’re able to reduce the amount of data passed by around 60%- 90% in real time monitoring environments, as a basic statistic.

We are throwing away the rule book.

While the rest of the industry scrambles to figure out how to showcase the exponential value of IoT whilst also attempting to lock clients in to their technology stack, we’re taking the IoT rule book and throwing it out of the window.

We don’t care what technology our clients have now, and what technology they will have in five years’ time. We don’t talk about vendors, we talk protocols. We’re driving our clients to get to Big Data quicker, using what they have, thanks to our trademarked Raptor.

Raptor technology is the missing link in most of the discussions around digitalisation. A normalised, edge layer of physical and virtual intelligence that can be retrofitted, deployed and connected seamlessly into an ecosystem of existing technologies and things, radically reducing the cost and time of having to develop multiple edge integrations into disparate cloud applications.

The IoT.nxt Power-play Being able to retrofit onto all deployed devices, whether analog-, or IP-based has a huge benefit.

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Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

It reduces disruption to business processes, cost of implementation, cost of training, cost and impact of enterprise-wide change management, reduces vulnerability and cyber risk because of less technology disparity at the edge, reduces data moving across the network that reduces the cost of the network and network congestion, reduces processing required at the cloud platform level as the data has already been curated at the edge, reduces the cost associated with maintenance of edge integrated gateways, has less attack surface at the edge as the gateways are rationalised and simplifies real-time subsystem integration

All of this allows us to better leverage the power of our cloud platform as we can now understand the up-, and downstream effects of an event-triggered occurrence and effect dynamic and seamless recalibration and interoperability throughout ALL edge connected devices.

We ensure that all the pieces of the puzzle are in the box, and ready to be pieced together to create the big picture.

Conclusion Edge normalisation of data at the edge gateway layer form the foundation for rapid digitalisation and digital transformation. The disruption that everyone talks about is vested in the ability for an organisation to continue its business but iteratively and rapidly start to address the core issues within its business through digitalisation. This leads to more visibility on a real-time basis allowing for dynamic recalibration back into the business ecosystem to achieve optimised levels of production and efficiency that bring about change and new ways of doing the same thing, better.

Peer-to-peer intelligence and learning will further drive this thinking – Raptor thinking - making us even more relevant as the necessity to drive edge analytics and decision making in critical business environments nullifies the cloud. Are you with me?

If you control the edge you unlock the cloud, a bottom up approach.

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Karen Chung Sculpting the Future of Special Education

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synthesis of passion and ambition drives the development of an impactful business leader.

How a leader makes practical use of one’s potential and extracts success out of collective efforts determines the efficiency of a leader. Realizing opportunities and crafting pioneering works of art out of them should be a leader’s definition of achievement.

A beacon of inspiration, an amicable coworker, and the enthusiasm to be the torch-bearer of an organization’s vision are the evident traits of a complete leader. One can only imagine the outcomes if such potent traits were put to use for transforming the lives of people across the globe.

Karen Chung, the Founder and CEO of Special Learning, Inc., is one such exemplary business leader who is on a path to provide the global community with access to quality training, education, and virtual services to support people with autism and other special needs. She achieves this commendable feat through her magnum opus, Special Learning, Inc. “We are a company with a mission to positively impact the lives of every person in the world living with autism and other special needs,” states Karen.

Karen’s development as an entrepreneur kicked off during her job as a CEO Coach for a company called Inc. Eagles CEO Roundtable. Her three-year tenure at the CEO group, working with CEOs of high growth companies, gave her the motivation she needed to enter the entrepreneurial world. Karen asserts that in retrospect, she feels she has ended up exactly where she needed to be to carry out her personal mission. All the decisions — positive or negative — she’s made in the past have put her on a path on which she can leverage her background and experiences spanning over 20 years to create a business that can make a global impact.

Karen Chung

Founder & CEO Special Learning, Inc.

Karen possesses a natural tendency to embrace diversity and inclusion, as well as a global outlook.

With Special Learning, she is able to fully embrace these aspects, and create opportunities to encourage and facilitate collaboration among parents, educators, and clinicians who provide education and intervention to people with autism and other special needs. “Collectively, we can do a better job of helping many more people attain greater levels of independence to achieve happy, fulfilling lives,” states Karen.

A Socially Reformative Organization Special Learning, Inc.

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Special Learning, Inc. is striving to maximize the productivity of the very small group of 31,000 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), the only group of certified experts in the field of ABA available to serve the needs of the global market.

The organization is currently working on projects that use augmented reality to revolutionize the learning and implementation of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), the world’s only evidence-based intervention with nearly 50% success in mainstreaming children with autism. “With use of this technology, we can solve the problem of parents not being able to access qualified experts in behavior analysis,” says Karen.

Defining Roles Karen believes that every tech entrepreneur has an opportunity to make a significant positive contribution to the world. She asserts that if every tech entrepreneur made a conscious decision to incorporate a single functionality or an aspect that can positively impact the world, into their tech solution, be it a single app or an entire enterprise solution, what can be done collectively would be evident.

In her view, the single vital attribute that a tech entrepreneur should possess is the intent to do good. What she implies here is that every tech company, whether a multinational or a single app designer, with profit as the primary mantra, has an opportunity to positively impact the world. She adds that this can only be realized if a motivation to do good becomes a conscious and deliberate part of one’s thought process and a way of looking at the world.

Uprooting Adversities Karen recalls that her greatest challenge was jumping into a market in which she had zero knowledge, limited resources, and virtually no connections. The first project that she and her team decided to undertake was in yet another area that she knew nothing about, which was, mobile app development. “The idea was solid. The execution was rocky. As someone with very limited technology experience, managing a team of developers located around the world was challenging, to say the least,” states Karen. |August 2018

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Let your conscience be your guiding light and keep your heart and mind open every day to recognize possibilities to use technology to change the world for the better.

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supports the autism community by creating innovative resources that can serve the greatest number of parents, teachers, and professionals who are charged with helping individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities achieve independence, quicker. The organization places tremendous emphasis on providing parents, teachers, and clinicians who provide intervention with access to quality training materials, curriculums, and virtual consultation at the touch of a button. This way, parents and service providers are best able to maximize the time they have to deliver the highest quality service in the moment.

Through this experience, Karen learned how to effectively manage remote teams. Applying these lessons from running a virtual tech team to her business, Karen has learned how to hire the right talent, put controls in place to drive accountability, monitor and maintain progress across all departments, and move at the speed of the Internet.

Charting New Horizons of Excellence Karen and her team are now working on using technology to connect the global autism ecosystem. The organization’s new platform, Special Learning Connect (SL Connect), provides real time peer-to-peer consultation to connect clinicians with others for collaboration, consultation, and second opinions.

Phase II of the technology will be to connect parents around the world with experts so that they can bridge the gap between the ‘have’ and ‘have nots,’ in terms of the availability of the clinical resources that exist today.

In her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs, Karen says, “By making a conscious decision to use technology to create something, understand that you have the power to help a lot of people, while still making a lot of money. In every app or device, you can add lines of code that can add value to people’s lives. Do that with intention and no matter where you end up, when looking back on your accomplishments, you should be able to say that you made a positive contribution. In doing so, your journey would have been worthwhile.”

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Inventor of a Cognitive Knowledge Management App

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Engineering the Switch to Digital in Accelerating Business Transformation through IT Innovation.

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oday, most of the business methods and software suites are built around the concept of centralized, top management and system approaches for large-scale corporations. Plus, even the people are unable to manage their information and finding hard to identify, capture, evaluate, retrieve, and share information assets, to accomplish a task and get their job done.

Lars von Thienen Founder & CEO Noggle

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Recognizing this, Lars von Thienen Founder and CEO of Noggle invented a standalone desktop search and knowledge management app named ‘Noggle’. Lars founded Noggle in response to a personal discovery to easily and quickly find, retrieve and share the numerous documents that he has shared or stored online. This way the need of a solution to lighten the personal information tracking overload, became the starting point for Noggle.

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Today, Lars manages the Noggle’s strategic positioning and development roadmap, all the while focusing on making Noggle a vital tool in the digital workplace arena.

The Initial Phases Lars began his software coding when he was a kid by starting with Commodore C64, followed by Amiga and then the first PCs during the 1980s. Nowadays, coding helps him relax after his hard day of business management. Others might play sports and socialize with friends to wind down and relax; Lars has become so confident in coding that he states he can do so while he is asleep.

He is not only an expert with coding, since prior to Noggle, he had supported the leading German DAX companies to develop their internet and business strategies. He used to supervise large-scale projects and managed IT service organizations. In addition, Lars had performed legal practices as a commercial judge for over a decade in the judicial system. He was appointed by the Minister for Justice. In this role, he was required to uphold the secrecy of deliberations, to show moderation, and to maintain neutrality.

The Core Feature of Noggle At Noggle, Lars helps his team to focus on the core feature that is conducting cognitive searches for personal, private and team knowledge. This unique service fills a muchneeded gap which instantly returns the desired results to the users, who then can create, update, and rapidly access their own personal knowledge library. In other words, this core feature stays local and the cognitive search function is not a cloud-based solution. Once located and retrieved, all documents and personal knowledge reside on local storage devices as Noggle does not require uploads or information sharing.

From the central starting point, the company created tailored Noggle solutions for individual use where the capability enables quick, efficient browsing of the user’s knowledge library. It also provides document autoclustering. This eliminates the need to create and maintain a folder structure. Wherever a document is saved, Noggle uses its cognitive feature to find it and then build a contentbased cluster of like documents.

The Pinnacle of Learning One key challenge is that technology needs to be understood and trusted by people; otherwise even the best “tech solution” will fail. That’s the reason simple things work for many users while good, helpful things that are too complex often get ignored.

At the earlier stage, Lars started Noggle with a complicated solution for knowledge management. Along the way, he learned how hard it was to explain all its benefits to potential users. In the end, the company’s user numbers were low, not because it was a bad solution but since he didn’t approach and develop the solution from a user perspective. During those early, he failed to focus on the ‘customer Journey’.

Soon Lars learned and recognized the hard way and decided to simplify its solution’s functionality, making it easier and simpler for average users to understand. This lesson taught Lars something very valuable and essential about the tech products in general. Recollecting his experiences, Lars says, “The key lesson is that technology needs to be understood and trusted by people; otherwise even the best “tech solution” will fail. Put bluntly, simplicity overrules unrealized benefits from complex solutions that average users do not trust.” Integrating these lessons, Noggle continues to create more user-centric solutions today.

Exploring the Future As the information is no longer found to be free and democratic, the CEO of the company states “Knowledge should not be owned and stored via centralizing solutions instead it has to be directly linked to people and their individual retrieval capabilities that are neutral and unbiased” So, Lars wants to continue his exploration on finding new features as a nerd and thinking about how to make people’s lives easier, especially regarding how new technologies can change the way of life. His goal is to make the people understand the way of storing, retrieving and sharing their knowledge of information in the digital workplace and suggesting everyone to fight against the centralistic solutions and monopolies which is currently ‘destroying’ the internet.

In addition, the company provides image intelligence services and Noggle automatically tags photos and images.

It detects people and adds picture descriptions in text. This information allows users to search and cluster pictures based on this text. In general, it diversify Noggle’s core requirements to suit its target audience, thus delivering personalized features for the digital workplace for users to retrieve and find relevant information from their personal knowledge files and libraries.

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Digi-Talk

DIGITAL

Transformation

Shifting the Gears of Energy Sector

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he energy industry is undergoing a paradigm shift with the disruptive changes in digital transformation. Increased use of renewables, as well as resiliency and sustainability concerns, is just a few of the factors behind the industry’s need to make encroachments. The digital age has not only brought us a ‘digital twin’ version of the physical power plant that monitors every asset, but also provides an intelligent response with analytics. Thus, it activates appropriate actions from the maintenance and service perspective.

A few years ago, the Internet of Things (IoT) and its potential impact on industry were the untouched concepts.

But now, it is transforming the way power plants and assets are monitored, serviced, and managed which has bought several advancements in the energy sector. However, according to a recent survey, it has been observed that improvements of as small as one percent in all of the

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world's industrial assets increase the potential of over $60bn over a period of fifteen years in terms of gains for the power industry.

These changes in the energy sector are going hand-in-hand with the implementation of Big Data analytics and the IoT. Organizations in the energy industry are utilizing digital transformations to their fullest. Real-time analytics and wide range of connected devices are assisting energy providers to transfigure the way power plants and assets are managed, monitored, and facilitating them to determine where efficiencies and values can be traced.

Adoption of Data Analytics and the IoT Performance Tracing: In the process of performance tracing, the information is recorded as well as digitally captured for the engineers to study operations with a deep-

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neck analysis over time and to make improvements. This approach can be enhanced through specialized software and few of them can be automated through smart technology.

Also, knowing the performance of turbines at various points of time allows service schedules to be updated which can save on the engineering time.

Managing Remote Assets: This is an important aspect when rural areas are managed by the localized power supplies.

With this aspect, power companies will explore more opportunities that could further improve efficiencies using data analytics. With the application of distributed generation, companies can shift the power production closer to the point of consumption via solar tiles or wind farms.

This all becomes possible because the technology is now intelligent enough to plan, monitor, service, and manage the remotest of assets.

Cloud-based IT: Generating performance data from generators is more accessible that allows information to be faster responded and the appropriate resources to be deployed. Through data analytics, engineers can gain a better understanding of a particular device which is likely to get fail; helping to reduce the downtime. The top two reasons for adopting this cloud-based IT technology are to improve the agility as well as responsiveness and moneysaving.

Increased Automation: Here, computer controlled automation is applied to turbines. The use of digital sensors

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brings in fine-tuning which not only extract more power out of the existing machinery but also keeps an eye on the performance and potential failure if equipment. Hence, it is all about making smart plans, capable of adapting the change more efficiently, in terms of cost and capacity.

Values and Efficiencies at par with TechTransformations Recently, an electric firm has reported over 40% of improved service reliability since the implementation of data analytics. This shows that energy companies are looking to gain value and efficiencies through the use of new technology and to seek these key forms of transformation. Also, one does not have to look far to find industry trailblazers that are already implementing these innovative methodologies. ‘Smart Grids’ are aiding utilities to gain deeper views on capacity demand and to provide power consumption more intelligently as per the business and consumers.

For the power industry, digital transformation is combined with IoT connected field service which offers both a short as well as long-term solution. This solution would cope with the varying regulatory and pricing demands of the market along with dealing costs, uptime, and service more probably. Digital transformation has opened new opportunities for those who embrace them. Thus, digital transformation is apparently increasing the pace of innovation and broadening the competitive gap.

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Lokesh Gupta: A Financial Tech Expert

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okesh Gupta is the Co-Founder of RM Applications Sdn. Bhd. (RMA), a MSC status boutique software company based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is passionate about Remittance, Payments and Data Management. Being part of boutique software organization, Lokesh is honored to wear many hats based on the situation and his role, demands involvement in wide scale with greater responsibilities. He takes end to end ownership by getting involved in all aspects of the organization and sees the ideas transform from the conceptualization stage, to become a full-blown product and keep it evolving to match Industry needs and to be part of RMA’s expansion.

Significant Professional Journey Lokesh has accumulated an experience of more than 18 years in the sector of Financial Technology in Conventional and Islamic Banking Domain as a Techno Functional. He has achieved specialization in Data Management, Remittance, Payments and Solutioning for bespoke solutions. Lokesh started his journey by being part of VISA certification team for Citibank by implementing Card Management System. Since then, he has been implementing projects for various regional banks in South East Asia ranging from Banking Merging System Integration, Bulk Payments, Core Banking, Cash Management, Payment Gateway, Stock Trading, Core Remittance, Digital Remittance, Data Marts development for Regulatory, Basel Compliance and Operational Reporting etc.

Lokesh Gupta Co-Founder RM Applications Sdn. Bhd.

At RMA, Lokesh established a collaborative environment together with his employees, where he practices flat organization structure, also known as RMATEs, and develop his team, creating customer-centric innovative solutions.

Lokesh supervise the solutions which are developed inside RMA including OmniRemit (Core Remittance Suite with Anti Money Laundering i.e. AMLA Compliance and Treasury Functions), Vehicle Inspection Management System (VIMS), Digital Remittance (Online & Mobile Touchpoints), OmniPay (Digital Payments), and now the company is working on prototype for integrating with blockchain. Similarly, another solution is OmniData, a bespoke DataMart development platform to provide centralized meaningful data for Asset Liability Management (ALM), Basel 3 (Liquidity Reporting), Fund Transfer Pricing (FTP) Reporting etc. OmniData is now in the process of evolving from pure data transformation to reporting platform and making inroads to adapting to Big Data technology.

Lokesh has also co-authored books and published articles in Islamic Banking and Finance. In addition, he is also an active speaker. His recent publication, ‘Islamic Finance: A Practical Perspective’, is published by Palgrave.

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Ideology that Motivates Lokesh is a firm believer of being a ‘Doer’, as he always remains ready to jump in, explore options, work hard and like to get involved in finding solutions. He has been a driver for bespoke solution. According to him, the workable strategy for it is to analyze “As Is”, which could gain insight into the manual or partly automated process and then sketch out “To Be”, how one think it ought to work.

The demand of industry is for ‘Doers’ rather than ‘Thinkers’. It is important to distinguish from the masses by adapting to fast and dynamic workflows, industry practices and technology, which is evolving at a faster pace. For him, being passionate is the key, as one should love what they do. He recommends to believe in self, to stay confident, to be a strong leader, always see problem as an opportunity to learn and always be ready to do something new or differently. He established a thumb rule of his own that teaches to ‘Unlearn’ what an individual has learned in the past and ‘Relearn’ what client wants and design the solution accordingly.

He acknowledges that Business is all about ‘relationships’ and ‘trust’ which got to be earned and we can’t just demand it. His core strategy is to collaborate with client and have their continuous feedback to design and deliver solution that meets there expectation and industry demand. Beyond tailored solution delivery, he take customer support very seriously, which is very important to address the pain points, which may arises due to operation and business as usual activities.

Obstacles to Tackle with Lokesh along with other Cofounders has started RMA with a clean slate and tried to establish something different.

Thus, he faced hurdles in making trust among his clients, maintain the growth ratio, meeting the customer’s expectation, keep them happy, and keep the company being agile as a team.

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Every Problem brings Opportunity.

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About the Company RMA started its journey as a delivery-oriented system integration company and later went on to be a provider of end-to-end bespoke business driven technology solutions for Conventional and Islamic Financial Institutions. The company successfully delivers leading edge technology solutions in areas such as Digital Remittance & Payments, ALM & Liquidity Reporting Data Mart, Data Management (ETL) Consulting & Development, Bespoke Data Mart, Localization and integration of Partners’ Solutions.

financial solution providers as subcontractor to establish its capabilities and building track record.

Marketing and brand building has never been RMA’s strength as the company is delivery driven organization. It was not an easy journey, but the sincerity, passion and its commitment become a driver for its clients to gain an opportunity.

RMA is business funded, and hence, initially there were possible gaps in cash flow due to lag in invoicing and payment. Lokesh learn a lot from this experience to monitor cash flows closely and to have cash flow management practices in place to address these gaps.

Foresight towards the Future Lokesh aims to make RMA a company, which provides advanced, innovative and value-added bespoke solution in the remittance/payments and data management landscape leveraging on Big Data technology. He wants to be the company a well-known provider of digital technology driven solutions to move away from cash based payments to digital payments using advance hybrid technology with QR Based, Blockchain and using Digital Assets as a method of processing remittance and payments. His ambition is to be expansive in terms of the broader product offerings and broader regional expansion.

Leader’s Advise According to Lokesh, his journey with RMA has taught him that, staring a venture requires firm dedication, commitment, hard work, sacrifices and open to accept criticism. There comes time when the success and growth seems unexpected and also the situations of tight cash flows, which worsen the situation further. Thus, he advices budding entrepreneurs to consider problems came across as an opportunity and one should work on it instead of giving up. However, he advice to embrace the failures, believe in self and the team, and have faith that one can pull through the rough tides with which every problem can become an adventure.

The primary challenge faced by RMA in beginning was the lack of trust from its customers. Being a small company, clients were not confident due to limited client base and track record, and prefer to work with large companies to minimize the risk. RMA overcome it by working with other |August 2018

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Alexander: R Reforming the Benchmarks of Communications Cloud Communica

Mark Alexander

Chief Operating Officer Arkadin

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n an interview with Insights Success, the Chief Operating Officer of Arkadin, Mark Alexander shares the insights behind his triumphant dominance as an entrepreneur. Mark’s contemporary and innovative entrepreneurial and technological expertise has driven Arkadin’s ascension from its early stages as an audio provider to a leading provider of cloud communications and professional services today.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Mark and Insights Success: Could you give a brief overview of your background and your role at Arkadin?

Attitude and effort will determine your success.

Pursue your goals vigorously.

I joined the company in 2010 as the President of the Americas. I had already worked for Cloud based businesses

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prior to my work at Arkadin, so I had a good knowledge of the collaboration market. That surely made my transition to Arkadin easier. From 2010 to 2018 I fully dedicated myself to the Americas region which grew from $25M of annual revenue to over $100M. We expanded into new geographic markets, launched new services, and made a number of acquisitions during this time. It was a very exciting time with a lot of successes. In April of 2018 I then took on a new assignment as Chief Operating Officer of Arkadin.

How do you diversify your tech solutions that appeal to your target audience?

Our customers buy solutions, not technologies. We provide Cloud based solutions to help customers operate their business in a more efficient manner. Whether it is holding a simple staff meeting, communicating with shareholders, launching new products, training employees or fostering employee communication - we help our customers operate more efficiently. We segment our products into Service Lines and our sales into channels based on customer size.

We help our customers operate more efficiently. In that regard it’s important that we don’t just provide and deploy the technology for our customers. We help them find out what the right technology is for their specific needs. We have a whole team that helps businesses look beyond the pure technology, making sure they choose the right solution for the people they actually want to reach. We believe technology alone is worth little without the people who use it.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every tech individual should possess Attention to detail and a willingness to learn in a dynamic environment. It seems that technology is evolving more rapidly every year. Early in my career it was about Moores Law or a doubling of chip technology every year. Now it feels like you have an accelerated Moores Law with many more components affecting the technology revolution. So I think it is more important than ever to learn and then continually be open to more learning. Regardless of your position, whether you are selling or programming, you must understand the customer needs and be able to put them at the heart of the digital transformation. The modern workplace is not just about the technology deployed – it’s truly about the end user of the technology and that is why you should focus on people and make sure they adopt and are happy with the deployed tools.

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

I have had the good fortune of working for and with many exceptional people. You learn from your experiences and from people. For example, the way to learn about |August 2018

Acquisitions is to participate in a few. Watch how other people do it successfully, ask a lot of questions, and learn from your mistakes. I often tell people you can plagiarize 98% of life by copying successful people, successful habits, etc. This leaves 2% to be creative which isn’t too bad! I think this is true for your personal and professional life. So when you want to learn about technology ask the smart people. They will tell you about the technology, what books to read, what classes to attend, and help shape your own roadmap in that area.

What were some of the primal challenges and roadblocks that you faced during the initial phase of your journey?

I have always been a very results-oriented person. I learned fairly early that success is not just about personal success at any one moment in time, but more importantly about building lasting success. The only way to do that is with good people you trust around you. For instance, a good sales person needs good support people around them, like a sales engineer, project managers, and the like. A good CEO must have a solid executive team. Realizing that your team is critical to your success, it’s not necessary for all to report to you, but you must provide leadership to all of them.

How according to you, has the role of a Tech Strategist changed over the years?

The technology choices and pace of application integration is staggering. Take a look at the collaboration space with audio conferencing, integrating with web collaboration, then video rooms, now desktop video, all while moving towards more Unified Communication solutions with telephony and desktop application integration. More choice for the customer and more opportunities for the technology service providers. It is really fun and dynamic.

A tech strategist need to comprehend the fact that, due to the ever increasing choice for customers, it gets more and more important that they have someone to guide them and help them make the right choice. Don’t rest for too long because the market waits for no one. The technologist is no longer siloed and is forced to become a consultant many times integrating best of breed solutions to meet customer requirements.

What is your advice for the emerging tech enthusiasts?

Pick an area that interests you and create your own area of expertise. Pick something that you have fun with and are naturally motivated by. Then continue to develop yourself professionally and remain flexible to evolve with your markets and technology. For sure 100% of everything comes to an end at some point. Continue to ride your wave and see where it takes you.

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Matteo Franceschetti: Optimizing Sleeping Habits with Smart Technology

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n today’s busy lifestyle, sleep and well-being go hand in hand. Getting a good night’s rest is just as important to overall health as eating well and exercising regularly. Eight is an innovative tech company promising its customers a better night’s sleep and a healthier lifestyle. Their signature Smart Mattress combines personalized comfort and cutting-edge machine learning technology to improve people’s sleeping patterns Matteo Franceschetti is a Co-Founder and the CEO of Eight, who was born and raised in Italy. The idea for Eight came from Matteo’s own struggles with the negative impact of Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) on his sleeping patterns. He decided to make something that could help people to track, understand and ultimately, optimize their rest.

Prior to founding Eight, Matteo was a practicing attorney and member of the Italian Bar Association. He eventually left the legal field to co-found and manage Global Investment, which was acquired in 2011 and later GIR, which was also successfully acquired in 2014. Both companies operated in the renewable energy space.

Matteo currently serves as a Co-Chair at FWD.us, a company whose goal is to give voice to the technical community in American politics. He enjoys using his experience to help other entrepreneurs as a Mentor at Techstars, Microsoft Bizpark and the NYU Summer Launchpad Program. You can see Matteo’s writings in

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Forbes magazine, where he is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

Driven by Data and Customer Feedback Eight has developed patented sleeping solutions centered around their signature product, the Eight Smart Mattress.

The mattress has built-in high-tech sensors that track sleep stages and biometrics during the night. Their Smart Alarm uses information from the sensors to wake you up in the lightest sleep while their AI-Powered Sleep Coach interprets your individual sleep data and delivers personalized insights and recommendations to each user.

The company has tracked over 2.5M nights of sleep, setting Eight on the path to becoming the world’s largest sleep database for understanding and studying sleep on both a biological and behavioral level. This trajectory has attracted the world’s top sleep researchers to join the company’s Scientific Advisory Board, including doctors and clinicians from Harvard Medical School, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Mount Sinai and Stanford.

Investors are also enticed by Eight’s promising future, recently pouring $14M into a Series B led by Kohsla Ventures. Other investors have included Y Combinator and Yunqi Partners.

Beyond data analysis, there is something else that drives development and innovation at Eight: it’s customers.

According to Matteo, “Part of our culture is to be driven by customer discovery”. This includes regular calls and August 2018|

“Designing products to promote health, energy, productivity, and happiness for everyone.”

Matteo Franceschetti Co-Founder & CEO Eight

meetings with customers to understand what they want or need. “Based on their feedback, we take actions on both the software and hardware side to solve their problems,” Matteo explains. “Customer discovery is at the core of the way we work.”

A Culture of Testing While participating in Y Combinator (YC), a Silicon Valley startup accelerator, Matteo learned some valuable lessons that he has woven into the DNA of Eight’s work culture. On what he took away from that experience, Matteo shared, “we learned to focus on what really matters and how to break down any problem or project into smaller problems or projects that can be addressed quickly.” Instead of working on a project for 60 days and then launching, Matteo advises that you think about how you can break it down to 60 steps and then work to accomplish something small each step of the way. The thinking behind the concept is that you want to be able to start learning right away.

startup will face ups and downs and problems will need be solved quickly,” Matteo shares. Second is the ability to inspire others. He finds this to be crucial because the inherent mission of technology is to shape the future that doesn’t yet exist. Matteo says that, “You need to be able to share that vision with your team and motivate them to believe they can build it.” Third is the conviction to solve problems for consumers. Matteo believes that to be successful in business, you need to identify problems that people have and find business opportunities to solve those problems through technology.

On the Future of Eight On what he sees for the future of the company, Matteo said, "I see a future where we will be able to help people live healthier and longer lives through the power of data and AI technology."

“It’s okay to build something that isn’t perfect and launch it. That way you get feedback and start learning as fast as possible,” Matteo says.

Leading a Tech Company Matteo believes that there are a few qualities that are important to have in order to build and lead a successful technology business. First is resourcefulness. “Every |August 2018

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Ph Philippe Courtot: C A Elegant Intellectual An with a Remarkable Wisdom wi

Philippe Courtot Chairman and CEO Qualys

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t takes a deep ingenuity, sharpness and courage to build several start-ups and lead them towards the highest peak. A shrewd entrepreneur exemplifying business acumen along with technical vision, Philippe Courtot has repeatedly incepted and led multiple small innovative start-ups and turned them into industry-leading companies.

Presently, he is serving as Chairman and CEO at Qualys, a leading provider of cloud-based information security and compliance solutions. He has earned a master’s degree in physics from the University of Paris.

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Anonymous by Choice The ultimate goal of every businessman is making billions of dollars and staying in the limelight. But Philippe has a different opinion on this. Like other money but businessmen, his goal is also to make money, he both wanted to spread the wealth across the didn’ want the burden of making too teams and didn’t money much money.

Currently Philippe is a multimillionaire after Currently, selling three of his successful companies. Before joining Qualys, Philippe was the Chairman and CEO of Signio, an electronic payment start-up that he repositioned to become a significant e-commerce player. In February 2000, VeriSign acquired Signio for more than a billion dollars.

Today, VeriSign’s payment division, based on the Signio technology, handles 30% of electronic transaction in the U.S., processing $100-million in daily sales.

Prior to Signio, Philippe was President and CEO of Verity, where he re-engineered the company to become a prominent player in enterprise knowledge retrieval solutions. Under Philippe’s direction, the company completed its initial public offering in November 1995.

Philippe also turned an unknown company of 12 people, cc:Mail, into the dominant e-mail platform provider, achieving a 40 percent market share while competing directly against IBM and Microsoft.

Acknowledging the market leading position of cc:Mail and the significance of e-mail in corporate environments, Lotus acquired the company in 1991.

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In the opinion of Philippe, the progress of making the internet safe and trustworthy is stuck due to ever-increasing data breaches. Cyber criminals operate with total impunity on the internet. To cope with this scenario, he launched the Trustworthy Internet Movement in the year 2012, to integrate security measures into the product-making process. He always strives to come up with ways to bake protection into public as well as private clouds. Philippe has also served on the Board of Trustees for The Internet Society, an international non-profit organization that fosters global cooperation and coordination on the development of the internet.

Apart from setting milestones with these companies, during his three decades in Silicon Valley Philippe has also helped in the formation of 10 startups by providing both his deep industry insights and angel investments. He could have become a billionaire, but he didn’t want to become too visible and lose his life. Thus, rather than becoming a billionaire, Philippe chose to stay anonymous.

Qualys: A Novel Approach towards Securing IT Infrastructure Founded in 1999, Qualys helps businesses simplify security operations and lower the cost of compliance by delivering critical security intelligence on demand and automating the full spectrum of auditing, compliance and protection for IT systems and web applications. With its Cloud Platform and integrated Cloud Apps, Qualys currently serves more than 10,300 enterprise and mid-market customers in over 130 countries, including 74 percent of Fortune 50 companies, 46 percent of the Global 500 and 25 percent of the Global 2000. The company has established strategic partnerships with leading managed service providers and consulting organizations including Accenture, BT, Cognizant Technology Solutions, DXC Technology, Deutsche Telekom, Fujitsu, HCL, IBM, Infosys, NTT, Optiv, SecureWorks, Tata Communications, Verizon and Wipro.

The company is also a founding member of the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA).

However, Qualys does not focus on the diversity of its tech solutions. To the contrary, it looks for synergies between them, as it provides value to its customers. It is moving towards its goal of helping build security into the fabric of the cloud, so security can become both stronger and more transparent.

Enriching Experiences and Exceeding Lessons Philippe believes that competing head to head with Microsoft and finding the way to defeat it through cc:Mail was an enriching accomplishment. However, he mentions thats selling cc:Mail to Lotus was a big mistake. Both consequent successes and failures have shaped Philippe’s journey of reaching the heights. He learned that acquiring and selling companies is a challenging task. Now he always |August 2018

“Always focus on ‘what is in it for your customers’ and not for yourself, continuously look to bring them more value either by improving what you provide or by finding new and better ways.”

takes various factors into consideration, while acquiring or selling companies. First it is all about the quality of the team, second about how well they can integrate and third about a fair valuation.

Glorious Recognitions In 1986, as CEO of Thomson CGR Medical, a medical imaging company, Philippe received the Benjamin Franklin award for his role in the creation of a nationwide advertising campaign promoting the life-saving benefits of mammography. Philippe has also received the SC Magazine Editor’s Award in 2004 for bringing on-demand technology to the network security industry, and for co-founding the CSO Interchange to provide a forum for sharing information in the security industry. He was also named the 2011 CEO of the Year by SC Magazine Awards Europe.

Be Ready to Change According to Philippe, curiosity, modesty, high technical integrity and an outcome driven approach are the vital attributes every tech entrepreneur should strive to possess.

He asserts, “while continuing to gain more depth in your area of expertise, keep your eyes and mind open for new emerging technologies around you and be ready to change.”

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The Human

Approach to

Business

About the Author

Mentor's Standpoint

Melanie Mulligan-Pittarelli is one of Big Bang ERP’s consultants who has significant experience implementing and customizing cloud-based solutions in a variety of industries including for: Digital Marketing & Advertising Agencies, Publishing & Media, Healthcare, Government, Non Profit, IT Services, Professional Services, Consulting, Education. She is Big Bang ERP’s internal Salesforce practice lead and business systems analyst. She specializes in BPR (Business Process Redesign), optimization, support, implementation and training.

Melanie Mulligan-Pittarelli BIG BANG ERP Consultant

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August 2018|

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n our fast-paced industry, it is very easy to lose track of the fact that we are all people. As a society, we are heading in a direction that reduces human interaction.

According to a research article by Michael Chui, James Manyika, and Mehdi Miremadi, Four fundamentals of workplace automation, “45 percent of the activities individuals are paid to perform can be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies”. Emerging technologies, revolutions and crisis that occur in the business environment are all factors in directors overlooking the importance of a human touch in the business world. According to W.Brian Arthur, a visiting researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center’s intelligence systems lab and a former economics professor at Stanford University, “digital versions of human intelligence” are increasingly replacing even those jobs once thought to require people (How Technology is Destroying Jobs, David Rotman). Tech companies have grown accustomed to virtual conversations and minimal human contact overlooking the fact that we only evolve and progress because of our human nature. Read on to discover the benefits Big Bang ERP has encountered by choosing real-time contact methods to connect with people instead of relying solely on emails, text messages, etc.

At Big Bang ERP, we promote human interaction and strong communication between people and across all departments. As a service company, it is our duty to apply it in our daily tasks. In fact, responsiveness is one of our core values, internally and externally. If you get an email from an interested person, pick up the phone and talk to them. It is important to ensure they know someone is ready to help and is interested in understanding what they need. We enable trust by humanizing ourselves and creating an environment with an open communication.

In a world that has been taken over by technology, emails, direct messages, we forget that the easiest and fastest way to communicate is through the phone. It doesn’t even need to be a long call. It can simply be calling your prospects to schedule a virtual meeting and using emails to confirm the details. How much time would you save if you did that instead of scanning through long electronic threads until you both agree on a time and day?

Moreover, we want our customers to fully trust in us, and it is difficult to trust someone you have never seen or spoken with. As trusted advisors, we need to prove our reliability, our presence and our concern for our customers’ success.

Establishing a human connection with our customers is a priority at Big Bang ERP. It has proven to be successful over the years and the feedback we receive from clients tends to highlight the good job we do at communicating and being responsive. So simple isn’t it? |August 2018

The human approach is important to business in terms of generating leads and establishing loyalty, but it is also extremely crucial internally. At Big Bang ERP, all team members are encouraged to go see their peers in person when they require assistance - yes we encourage people to take a little walk and tackle the problem “LIVE”. It also means they need to respond to all communications as efficiently as possible, even if it means picking up the phone instead of going through emails. The Big Bang ERP office is an open concept, from intern to CEO, to encourage face-to-face communication as much as possible. This collaborative workspace helps us save a lot of time, but it also helps us to grow as a team. Open communication allows us to build stronger bonds with other team members and trust that we are all here to help each other out. We have a common goal, and it is easier to be aware of that when we initiate face-to-face conversations to ask questions or help. Big Bang ERP sponsors several team building activities to keep these bonds strong. We refer to our peers as our Big Bang Family, because in reality we often spend more time at work with them, then with our loved ones in our personal lives.

At the end of the day, the person we are working with and the person we are selling to, or buying from all have one thing in common: we are people and we all appreciate human interaction one way or another. For example, at Big Bang ERP, we like to stay traditional and send out cards by mail to our customers and partners to thank them, to wish them well during the holidays, etc. We even take the time, as a company, to sign all the cards, even the birthday cards, personally because we want to show appreciation and gratitude. It is just one way that we maintain our relationships because nothing we do is merely transactional.

All of these methods have proven to be crucial for Big Bang ERP’s success and satisfaction for our employees, customers, and partners.

The team at Big Bang ERP has been able to differentiate by striking a perfect balance between tradition and modernism.

The team knows when technology should be leveraged, and when a grassroots approach is required. The one lesson worthy of sharing, is that all the benefits of technology and cloud need to be optimized and sometimes bypassed by the human approach by creating relationships and genuinely caring about the success of each person we work with, because when our customers, partners, and employees succeed we implicitly do as well.

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Prashant Kumar Pathak: An Inspiring and Visionary Leader

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e are living in a day and age where technology is advancing at a rapid speed, creating new fields and disrupting existing processes and models. As technology and biology are becoming extremely intertwined, new opportunities are taking shape to progress healthcare through the use innovative digital technologies.

From a career viewpoint, staying abreast of newfangled innovations in pharmaceutical can be tremendously helpful.

It helps individuals to adapt to change, clutch new opportunities and concentrate on developing the skillset that will be required in the future. One person in the pharmaceutical industry who understands the multi-faceted complexity of this upcoming horizon of innovation is Prashant Kumar Pathak.

A Walk down the Lane of Experience As the Founder, CEO and MD of DelCure LifeSciences, Mr. Pathak bears an enormous burden of responsibility to keep the company on the path of growth and success.

Currently in his 35th year in Indian pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Pathak started his career as a regular Medical Representative. During most of his career, he walked the long path of experience through sales, marketing, brand building and business operations management for some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country, as well as in the international markets in the US, EMEA and Southeast Asia.

Diversifying the Products and Solutions To diversify the solutions, Mr. Pathak starts by perceiving the experience differentiator that a potential tech solution can offer to the customers. While the back-office operations of pharmaceutical has leveraged technology to quite a good extent in last two decades, the front-office aspects of the business have remained fairly untouched.

Mr. Pathak sees the front-office aspect as an opportunity and focuses on bringing holistic adoption of technology

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across all aspects of business so that the company doesn’t remain focused only on productivity gains of internal customers, but also drive superior consumer and partner experience through apt use of technology.

Roadblocks in the Initial Phases Mr. Pathak started his career in the state of Bihar, which even to this day, remains at a disadvantage when it comes to infrastructure. The early days in his career were marked with challenges in even basic business functions like customer coverage and source of training. Here, resources for selfdevelopment were also very limited. However, Mr. Pathak was blessed to have access to streak of managers who were genuinely interested in helping him realize his true potential and extend every possible support in the early phase of his career.

Learning’s that shaped his Journey Having had the opportunity to start from the grassroots level in the industry, Mr. Pathak managed to successfully observe the inner workings of the industry from a very close distance.

One common thread that he can trace back to every successful chapter in his professional life is that whenever actions were motivated by value for customer rather than profit for the company, it always saw great results.

Vital Traits for Tech Individuals Mr. Pathak states that a 360 degree vision of the challenge at hand is utmost necessary. Unless a solution solves a business challenge across the value chain in the company, it is just shifting the bottleneck from one business process or unit to another in the company and any such approach cannot be a profitable long term bet.

Other important aspect tech individuals must possess is customer centricity without consumer bias when it comes to innovation because customers, on many occasions, may not know what they want unless they see it and use it.

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Thought on Technological Advancements Mr. Pathak firmly believes that the role of technologists has changed with change in role of technology. Earlier, technologists were perceived as skilled operators of highly specialized machinery, and thus their direct involvement in making fundamental changes outside the scope of operations was limited.

Since the time technology stepped out of the back-office closets and grew beyond the boundaries of tools like ERP and other business function management systems, technologists have been playing a more active role in defining product strategy and roadmap, and other strategic endeavors like customer engagement and market expansion.

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Deliver superior customer experience and business outcomes which is appreciated for value and differentiated by technology.

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Therefore, a tech individual seeking any groundbreaking solution should visualize their customers from an elevated plane but should not lose touch with their customers.

Wise words for Tech Aspirants Technology for the sake of technology is rarely a fruit bearing approach. A simple, elegant and frequentative solution that allows a business to move over, under or sideways of a roadblock is much better alternative to a highly complex technical solution that needs to rip apart every bit of practice in order to be successful.

Technology serves business best as a lubricant rather than as a raw material.

Mapping the Future Mr. Pathak knows this is an exciting time to be in the industry as groundbreaking changes are taking place in how businesses are done and conducted. In near future, he expects DelCure LifeSciences to make some contribution in bringing differentiated engagement model for all stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry while continuing to further the growth of the company’s portfolio of affordable and high quality medicine. In the long run, Mr. Pathak expects DelCure LifeSciences to establish itself as the flag bearer of technology driven change in the global pharmaceutical arena.

Prashant Kumar Pathak Founder, MD & CEO DelCure LifeSciences |August 2018

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R. Whitney Anderson:

A Leader in the Uncertain Times of Cyber Crime

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n an interview with Insights Success, the CEO of Fraud.net, R. Whitney Anderson shares valuable insights acquired through his long and rewarding professional journey. This acknowledged industry leader has driven his company’s product offerings to a global scale with his modern and innovative management and operational expertise.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Whitney and Insights Success: 1. Give a brief overview of your background and what are you doing now?

My background spans over 25 years in technology, fraud prevention and startups. I started out in international finance, then was recruited by Kroll Associates, a specialist in complex and large-scale fraud, then, for the past 15 years, I’ve been building technology startups to solve big, difficult problems. I currently run Fraud.net, an AIpowered enterprise fraud prevention platform, which I’m really excited about.

The costs associated with cybercrime are projected to reach $8 trillion by 2022. That’s an enormous number, about 5% of all global corporate revenues. It’s one of the biggest and least discussed challenges facing businesses globally, but is especially threatening to e-commerce, travel and financial services companies that operate in the digital world. And to make matters even worse, every dollar lost to fraud is also a dollar that goes to fund the enemy.

US businesses are disproportionately targeted by bad actors, for a number of systemic reasons. But more importantly, companies worldwide need to coordinate their defenses and embrace a collaborative, technology-based approach to

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R.Whitney Anderson CEO Fraud.net fighting fraud. Credit card networks don’t share fraud data so merchants eat the loss and they aren’t given the data necessary to defend themselves. It’s an impossible situation for them. No single company stands a chance against the better capitalized and more technologically-advanced adversaries, so broad-based cooperation is the only viable solution.

2. What is your role in the company?

My role in the company is to set our strategic direction, and to make sure we have the resources and ‘A’ players needed to execute our plan. We are deeply involved with our enterprise clients and are becoming the ‘go to’ company to solve the really complicated fraud problems when all other solutions have been exhausted. There is nothing more satisfying than helping big enterprises adopt artificial intelligence to solve some of their thorniest problems – many of which were unsolvable before the machine learning era.

3. How do you develop your tech solutions and how are they used by your target audience?

Our technology is used by enterprise risk managers, CFOs and fraud executives, to combat digital fraud. Because the enterprises’ adversaries, both hackers and fraudsters, have become much more sophisticated in the past few years, it is very important that we arm these enterprises with the most powerful, modular and agile tools that exist to contain the problem. While we are constantly testing out new tech approaches, we always try to apply the simplest solution that can solve the problem.

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We track over 200 distinct types of digital financial fraud.

Certain types of fraud are harder to control than others. For instance, if an enterprise is falling victim to account takeovers, in which the credentials of legitimate customers have been stolen or acquired, we need to install device fingerprinting and behavioral analysis software to begin anti-fraud measures from the moment a suspicious visitor enters the merchant’s website. Having collected billions of patterns, we can pretty quickly differentiate legitimate from malicious visitors.

4. Describe some of the vital attributes that every tech individual should possess.

We look for ‘full-stack’ professionals, whether they are developers, data scientists, or sales and customer success executives. In our world, ‘full stack’ means that you are experienced enough to apply your learned skills successfully to a wide range of adjacent problems and solutions. In only hiring full-stack professionals, we can draw from a broader and deeper set of expertise, generate more creativity, and solve tougher problems.

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

The best lessons come from adversity, and I’ve certainly learned a lot during tough times. Working at a startup is often idealized in the media, but it’s a difficult road and the people that chose to be entrepreneurs are gluttons for punishment. To get through the tough times, I try to envision the absolute worst case scenario, then ask myself ‘can I live with that?’ Getting clear on what the downside is makes that period less stressful, and the worst case rarely happens.

“I’m excited every day to work on helping big companies stop fraud, helping them to implement arti cial intelligence, enrich their data to drive better decisions, and to making their processes more ef cient.” |August 2018

6. Given the ever-increasing, pivotal technological advances, the role of technologists is continually evolving. How, according to you, has this role changed over the years?

Technologists have to be very comfortable with change and uncertainty. It’s a very exciting sector to be in. For the first time there are no real hardware constraints. If you are helping to build a software business, there is almost unlimited potential, and software engineers are limited only by their imagination. Great technologists can keep pace with the changes and can read enough to know what important technologies are around the corner. The best ones are reading, analyzing and testing new technologies obsessively.

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

I’m excited every day to work on helping big companies stop fraud, helping them to implement artificial intelligence enrich their data to drive better decisions, and to making their processes more efficient. I consider myself fortunate to be able to work with such smart, capable people. I get to learn new things and feel challenged every day. It’s great.

8. Provide one line that best describes your vision and approach to business?

Try different work until you find deeply rewarding work, and when you find it, taking the risks and putting in the effort is easy.

About the CEO R.Whitney Anderson has been an inspirational figure in the technological sector for many different accomplishments.

One previous venture, PlanetRx.com, an e-commerce pioneer, not only found the much-needed ‘turn-around’ strategic direction under his leadership, but also secured millions of dollars in investment to support its rapid growth.

His expertise in building startups also proved to be useful for MotherNature.com where he led its revenue growth by over 600% in 6 years, at a compound annual growth rate of over 40%.

Through various challenging journeys, Whitney has acquired a skill for objectively seeing the complex reality of business challenges and finding unique solutions to fuel the growth of various startups. Hence, today, it is not a surprise Fraud.net has achieved a remarkable feat of protecting over 2% of global e-commerce against payment fraud and identity theft. His efforts and vision of the future has earned him numerous accolades, including the prestigious 2017 and 2016 ‘Red Herring Top 100 Award’.

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Omnichannel Agent and Customer Engagement Solutions Simplify and personalize the customer experience, empower agents and achieve business success with one workspace for all channel interactions, application integrations, and CX reporting.

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Business

Raja Banerji: A Marketing Strategist Leveraging Business Value with Certainty

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ommitted in providing best in class IT services, Tata Consultancy Services is delivering real results to global businesses, with unmatched levels of certainty. In an interview with Insights Success, Raja Banerji, Global Head Industry Marketing of TCS briefly mentions some of the strategies that are being adopted in order to ensure marketing’s foothold in the internal and external ecosystem. Here are his perspectives.

transformation journeys for the last fifty years. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest multinational conglomerate, TCS has over 400,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries.

Explain your background in detail and tell us your prime goals?

During my career, I have managed a wide-range of business functions; the marketing role came across in 2010. This role further grew earlier this year when I was offered the opportunity to oversee the marketing function for 13 TCS Industry Solutions units. My inspiration was to apply a keen sense of business knowhow to the marketing vision set forth by leadership.

My 27 years of diverse experience includes the spectrum of insurance and employee benefits, healthcare, risk management, group and corporate business, and government. Our primary goal is to support the leadership focus on TCS’ brand elevation as a Growth and Transformation partner for our customers. The objective is to catalyze marketing initiatives through the AAA strategy (Articulation, Awareness and Amplification) and drive up the value of contextual knowledge to enhance the customer experience while generating tangible business value.

Creating and executing a comprehensive Service Design strategy includes integration of value messaging, thought leadership, digital, events, analyst and advisor relations, academic collaboration with premier institutes, account based marketing, public relations and media.

Tell us about the company and the services it provides.

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their

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How did you decide to pursue the career you are working on today? What was the pivotal moment or inspiration?

What is the most important characteristic that every Marketing Professional should possess? What are the most pressing challenges that Marketing Professionals are facing today to be innovative? and Why? As our customers adopt Agile, Automation, Cloud, AI, and other rapidly changing technologies, we have to continuously adapt and evolve at the same pace. It is important to constantly transform yourself to be relevant in the exciting future ahead of us. It is vital to be aware of the incredible work that we do, articulate the great stories and amplify the message that is being created for our customers and other key stakeholders.

One of the key challenge facing marketers today is the ability to transition from the tactical to strategic storyAugust 2018|

“The Road to Success is Always under Construction.”

Raja Banerji Global Head Industry Marketing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) telling, contextual content curation, and the ability to remain agile based on a constantly changing business environment. Another challenging aspect is identifying the optimal way to measure and quantify marketing’s impact to the overall organization.

Creativity – Collaboration - Communication - Consistency –hold the keys to a successful marketing operation.

What are the key values, which helped you to overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career as a Marketing Professional? Tell us something about your memorable incident under your leadership.

Continue to serve the vision set forth by our Chief Marketing Officer, enhance collaboration with business leadership, our domain experts, and the marketing ecosystem to articulate and amplify the best of our stories.

Client engagement via Account Based Marketing (ABM), contextualization and customization of the value propositions serves as a key propeller in driving this broad vision. I also plan to sustain momentum on a robust institutionalized operational framework to facilitate best practices sharing across marketing teams.

Alignment to the TCS vision and mission is at the core of all marketing initiatives. During the course of the last decade, there has been a tectonic shift in the way marketers communicate, advertise and promote themselves to their target audiences. The strategy we successfully implemented was to align messaging with executive guidance, partner with subject matter experts, and identify, procure and leverage assets to address our customer’s business needs.

The adoption of the “MVP” marketing model – Messaging, Validation, and Positioning – with tangible outcomes has been good to see. When detractors of marketing’s value turn into advocates, that is indeed gratifying.

What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs and marketing individuals entering into the market?

Belief and confidence in marketing as a strategic function, alignment with organizational vision, persistence to achieve desired outcomes, and ability to gauge ROI are some key ingredients for success. A 5C approach - Content|August 2018

Where do you see yourself in coming years, and how do you see yourself catalyzing that change?

About the Leader Raja Banerji has been with the Tata group for 11 years, including eight years with TCS. He has held positions of Sales & General Manager with MetLife, Senior VP with American Healthcare Providers, Managing Director for AON Worksite Solutions, and Senior VP with Marsh and TATA AIG. An alumnus of the Tata Group Executive Leadership program at the Ross School of Business and a board member of the Harlem Educational Activities Funs (HEAF), he holds a Masters in International Relations from India and a Masters in International Business from the Patterson School of Diplomacy & International Commerce at University of Kentucky.

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Sara Brown: A Keen en Mar Marketing Leader

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Market Leader in designing, manufacturing and providing global data communication solutions.

Sara Brown

Vice President, Marketing MultiTech

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very business requires a marketing person who is comfortable in any business environment. Without that skill, a marketer simply won’t be able to build the necessary relationships for business and its objectives.

Sara Brown, a dedicated marketing professional from the US, is a highly skilled communications professional with extensive experience in delivering results in executive, internal and marketing communications, and public relations.

Currently, Sara is Vice President of Marketing for MultiTech. She is responsible for brand strategy and product marketing, as well as all global marketing and communications. Sara has more than 20 years of technology marketing experience, with twelve focused on Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). In addition to her experience in the technology sector, she also worked as a Senior Copywriter at Ogilvy, a premier advertising agency. Her long resume also includes working for IBM, Wavecom/Sierra Wireless and Telit Wireless Solutions. She has consulted with numerous global technology companies and was recognized as a Woman of IoT in Marketing in 2016.

Sara started her career in 1990 as a reporter at Capitol Hill and later in the trade press covering mergers and acquisitions in the broadcast industry. After moving to North Carolina, she switched to public relations and marketing.

Communication Solutions for Industrial IoT MultiTech offers a broad portfolio of communications solutions designed to provide the customer with a choice of bearer technology in order to enable the exact right fit for purpose. For 48 years, MultiTech has worked closely with customers to understand individual use cases and customize its offerings to better suit the customer’s needs.

MultiTech designs, develops and manufactures data communications equipment for the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The company’s commitment to quality and service excellence means customers can count on its products and people to address their needs. In addition, the company’s history and dedication to innovation ensures that it stays ahead of the latest technology.

Curiosity about what’s happening in the market. Most importantly, curiosity about how to overcome the “big picture” problems of our world.

Creative Problem-Solving: Creative problem solving refers to the process that involves breaking down a problem and generating new ideas to find effective solutions. It is one of the important attribute of any tech individual.

Sara explains, "It begins with the belief that even the most challenging problems can and will be solved. From there, the ideal tech individual can draw the stick-to-it-iveness to try and try again until a solution is found.”

Business Acumen: Business Acumen is a crucial attribute that helps businesses to build credibility and deal with a "business situation" in a manner that leads to a positive outcome.

Sara explains her views about business acumen as, “Real success comes from tailoring technology to address the specific pain points of target customers and getting the word out that their problem has finally been solved."

Lifelong Learning: Engaging with people from other cultures and backgrounds has given Sara an appreciation of different thought processes. More importantly, it is a great way to hone in on those universal human needs, feelings and desires – essentials for any marketer. Having worked across industries and countries, as well as product and service types, Sara has learned that an understanding of those universal drivers is portable. We all respond to a set of motivators, whether selling entertainment, charitable causes or technology.

Emerging Tech Enthusiasts Sara also has a word of advice for tech enthusiasts. She says, "Technologies can be learned and mastered, while relationships require tending. I’m not just talking about personal life I’m talking about applying relationship principals to professional connections as well. Looking back, mastering BASIC or BetaMax or POTS, while impressive, isn’t super useful today. Relationships, on the other hand, if well-tended, are likely to outlive technologies and survive your entire career."

Dynamic Attributes of Tech Individuals Curiosity: Sara believes a natural curiosity is critical to succeed in tech. Curiosity about the technology itself. |August 2018

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The Art of Leading

Attributes of a

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eadership is about using the power of a position to empower a group of people in order to attain a common goal. A leader’s task is to implement the plans that usually look good on paper, through a delegated team, in a specific time with an ongoing motion. She/he may use the traditional method or may think out of the box. It depends on the leader as how to do it; the ultimate motive is to get the job done. Although, each and every individual has a different approach on leadership, some might say it is about setting examples, some might say it is about sharing the authority; what matters is, taking the right decision when it is most needed.

Leadership varies from one organization to another. An organization is a dynamic body and

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creates new probabilities every now and then. And with new probabilities, come new challenges.

Although, it is impossible to overcome every challenge, the business environment has adopted certain leadership styles for the efficiency of business: The Participative Leader Participative Leadership is the process of sharing authority with the work force in order to get optimum efficiency. The team, after getting access to certain powers, works responsibly to accomplish the goals set by its leader. The shared leadership also helps in case of any requirement of change, as the employees adapt quickly in such environment. Incidentally, this style of leadership fits best in a scenario when there is a limitation of time.

The Transformational Leader A transformational leader inspires the team through effective communication and an intellectual environment. However, these individuals require more detail oriented managers to successfully implement their strategies.

Transformational Leadership is considered among the most effective employees of the organization. One of the examples of this type of leadership is when a leader is assigned on a higher level for effective environment.

The Transactional leader The transactional leadership, as the name suggests, enables the leader to incentivize the team corresponding to their performance. The team gets rewarded when it attains the goals and the Leader has the power to review the results and act

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accordingly when the team fails to do the same. The goals and the strategy to attain them are decided by the leader and the team itself.

The Situational leader Situational leadership is a theory that the best leader will adapt to the required leadership style according to need of the hour. A Situational leader may adopt democratic style while discussion business with senior executive, but may switch to transactional at the time of team review. However every individual has a natural style of leadership and it may be difficult to switch roles at a certain point of time.

Qualities of a good leader There is an old proverb that says, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.”

So is the case with leadership. One of the basic qualities of a Leader is to pass on the leadership skills.

Integrity C.S. Lewis said, “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” Be it giving credit to one of the team members or be it admitting a mistake, a leader wears integrity as a badge of honor. They do what is right, no matter what.

Empowerment Ÿ

As mentioned earlier, Leadership is about using the power of one’s position to empower a group of people in order to attain a common goal. A good leader shares his authority with the team in order to get the job done. By doing this, he shows confidence in the team and obliged by the gesture, the team works with full enthusiasm to accomplish the goal.

Decision making There is risk in decision to making.

Great leaders take great decisions when the stake is high and it is the success of those decisions that make them great. To add up, a good leader takes right decision at the right time.

In conclusion, a good leader can be defined by the dynamics of his style in leadership, the values that he brings to the organization, the methods he uses to make the best of the resources, and the kind of decision he makes in the given situations. At the end it is about the attitude of an individual to bring the change for good. Ÿ

Following are some of the qualities of a good leader: Ÿ Communication Skills Communication is the basic requirement for efficiency in a business. As the level of hierarchy elevates, the requirement of communication grows. Especially, when it comes to leadership, there is no scope for lack of communication.

A Leader who fails to develop this skill is looked up as incompetent, because it is his job to send the message loud and clear. Although, it is also important to listen as it is an integral part of communication.

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Steve Bagshaw:

A Visionary Leader Benefitting Society across the Biopharmaceutical Industry and Beyond Steve Bagshaw

CEO FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies

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or 25 years the companies that today make up Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FDB) have been at the heart of the biopharmaceutical outsourcing industry making it one of today’s leading players. With sites in the northeast of England, UK, North Carolina and Texas it is a globally recognized ‘top table’ Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization known as a CDMO providing its partner clients a wide range of services and solutions needed to ensure successful drug clinical development through commercialization to approval and long term manufacture across the full range of recombinant proteins, vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, other large molecules, viral products and medical countermeasures expressed in a wide array of microbial, mammalian, and host/virus systems.

Fujifilm’s mission to deliver recombinant proteins, viral vaccines and gene therapies to the patients requires long term commitment and partnerships built on successful delivery underwritten with transparency and trust

microbial fermentation and advanced therapies with worldclass cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice) manufacturing facilities to advance tomorrow’s medicines.

By doing this, the firm builds long-term relationships in the market that enable its partner’s clinical and commercial success.

The company provides its clients with unrivaled product experience including: Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

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Being a CDMO, Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies mainly focuses on combining technical leadership in cell culture,

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Process development and manufacture of over 310 biologics Licensed manufacturer for six commercial products Over 2,000 cGMP batches manufactured at range of scales from 100 liters to 5000 liters with a 20,000 liter scale microbial facility under construction in collaboration with MSD Creators of the class-leading pAVEway™ microbial expression technology and the Apollo™ CHO Cell Line System Strong inspection history with the major global regulatory agencies

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Steve Bagshaw is the Chief Executive Officer at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies. As CEO Steve has global responsibility for all the business activities of Fujifilm Diosynth reporting directly to Fujifilm Corporation in Tokyo. He has been CEO for 4 years and a senior business leader for 15 years in this company. He has extensively contributed to the development of Biologics Contract Development and Manufacturing sector both in UK and US, with this company and its predecessors. Prior to Fujifilm Diosynth, he served as President at Image Polymers Inc, a joint venture between Mitsui Chemicals and Avecia for three years and prior to that had a number of roles across the pharmaceutical intermediates and specialty chemicals industries having graduated from Manchester University in the UK as a Chemical Engineer. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and was awarded the North East England Business Executive of the Year Award in 2018 in recognition of the outstanding growth and success of Fujifilm Diosynth under his leadership as well as his national contribution as Chair of the UK Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum and as Co-Chair of the UK BioEconomy Strategy Board working with his fellow industrialists and UK Government to create a vibrant vision and action plan to further the use of biotechnology across the societal sectors – healthcare, foodstuffs, fuel and materials.

Providing Auxiliary Solutions Fujifilm Diosynth offers numerous industry leading solutions including; Stability Programs for BDS and DP: Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies offers a full suite of testing required to support the release of the drug substance, drug product, and placebo and stability studies. The Quality Control Team works very closely with the Analytical Development Team to ensure a rapid and seamless transfer of analytical methods as programs progress from process development to cGMP manufacture.

Formulation Development: It is an experimental design of a buffer and excipient combination that maintains the integrity of the purified protein during routine bioprocessing, storage, handling, and delivery to the patient. These molecular characteristics will directly impact the formulation development process, at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.

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Committed to working in partnership with our customers along the clinical path.

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A Trailblazer with Biopharmaceutical Expertise

drug development, allowing effective process control strategies to be developed for successful process validation and commercial manufacture.

Process Validation: It is a pivotal lifecycle activity that involves the collection and evaluation of process data and knowledge to establish a defendable control strategy that defines a capable manufacturing process that reliably meets product quality attributes.

An Innovative Journey While sharing about Fujifilm’s journey Steve mentions "I have personally been on a journey from the 1950’s technologies of my starting days in fine chemicals to the cutting edge of today’s advanced therapies – at every stage of life there has been a blend of experience working with those who have done it all before alongside the tangible excitement of exploiting new technologies.”

"In the early days of pre-computing technology might even be optional. You need to be fast and you need to have a company prepared to act fast with you – my role is to create the environment where this happens," adds Steve further.

Emerging Future Goals Personally, as CEO of Fujifilm, Steve is continuously contributing to the company growth investing in smart people partnered by developing and acquiring technology, systems, and assets. Steve lives the company vision of becoming a leading Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization that serves unified biopharma, therapeutics, vaccines, and advanced therapies worldwide.

Steve advises emerging tech enthusiasts who are contributing in the Biopharmaceutical industry. He asserts, "Find awesome people you want to work with doing cool stuff on projects you care about – life’s too short to do anything less."

Process Characterization: Process characterization is a critical activity during the lifecycle of biopharmaceutical |August 2018

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Traci Burgess: Mission-Driven Leadership

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he most effective leaders are thoughtful, “big picture” individuals. They are conscious of business from the ground to 10,000 feet. This has proven to be one critical attribute of Traci Burgess, CEO of Brightbytes. Burgess’ ambitious mission to improve the way world learns is largely informed by her own experiences in the classroom. An education visionary, Burgess recognized the same challenges across every classroom for decades. She saw more and more data, and fewer educators able to use that data to drive decisions.

Burgess is now leading educators into new territory to address these issues across evolving technologies.

Improving Learning on a Global Scale Traci Burgess has spent her career primarily in education.

Her early love for mathematics led her to pursue a career as a math educator. When she saw barriers in the classroom, she didn’t ask why it was happening, she asked how could it be solved. She knew that she could help drive new solutions, so she pursued a new path that helped students and educators on a larger scale. Burgess made the move from a K-12 classroom teacher to leadership roles in education sales and publishing, and eventually, into educational technology.

A seasoned veteran with over 20 years building and executing scalable operational strategies to optimize student achievement, Burgess dramatically increased market share and school outreach as the Chief Operating Officer at Think Through Math. She has also served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Catapult Learning, and the Vice President of Sales at Blackboard and Thomson Learning.

Her role at BrightBytes has allowed her to lead efforts specific to data challenges.

data into big benefits for students. In an industry overwhelmed by DRIP (Data Rich, Information Poor) conditions, the solution provides educators across schools, districts, and at the state level, data interoperability and research-driven analysis. The solution makes data actionable because educators not only see the data in an educative and engaging format, they also know what actions to take to address any gaps or challenges across personalized reports and dashboards.

Collaborators Sharing a Common Passion Burgess believes that strong leadership is about more than deep knowledge about the product and the market. A great leader understands that ultimately, people determine the success of any venture. With this top of mind, Burgess has cultivated a collaborative, agile team of highly experienced individuals to ensure success. Comprised of a diverse group of data analysts, researchers, education experts, designers, and system dynamics modelers, each individual works tirelessly to create cutting-edge tools that truly improve the way the world learns. Burgess expressed, “The team has a keen sense of the challenges that educators experience every day. As a result, every member connects with our customers and deeply understand their needs. Many of our team have either been previous educators or have been connected to education in some capacity.” She maintains that the team is successful due to the company’s missiondriven attitude and every colleague’s deep respect for one another. As Burgess continues to lead efforts to provide powerful data solutions, she plans to strategically grow the team and guide everyone to achieve long-term and shortterm goals.

Integrated Platforms Providing End-to-End Data Solution

BrightBytes: Empowering Educators to Use Big Data From complex integrations to actionable analysis, BrightBytes is the leading end-to-end data solution for education organizations. The BrightBytes solutions efficiently unify education data and combine top research and advanced analytics, delivered across easy-tounderstand, intuitive dashboards, so educators can turn big

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BrightBytes’ unparalleled value is a result of the two unique, yet complementary data platforms, DataSense™ for data integration, and Clarity® for data analytics. Together, these platforms constitute a first-of-a-kind solution that employs an intricate four step data management cycle that includes effective data integration, advanced research-based analysis, engaging user experience, and actionable insights.

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‘‘

BrightBytes has a great future ahead. Our deep experience within the industry enables us to help solve the challenges educators face, and will continue to face,

‘‘

—Traci Burgess CEO BrightBytes

The DataSense platform allows education organizations and ed tech partners to effectively capture, clean, and integrate disparate data into a centralized location and enables bidirectional flows between applications. DataSense solves the growing challenge of data integration by providing one central, online medium to unify all data, utilizing purposeful data from software applications and preparing it for state reporting.

Alongside DataSense, a decision support platform, Clarity, allows educators to better understand data and improve student learning outcomes. The platform employs advanced analytics, including machine learning, psychometrics, and predictive analytics to organize and visualize actionable data across research-based frameworks to drive student learning. Each of Clarity’s modules offers insights to address common education challenges, such as financial transparency, technology learning, graduation and postsecondary enrollment rates, digital security and privacy, and more. Educators can access role-specific results across intuitive, easy-to-understand dashboards and reports.

Prestigious Recognitions As a result of Burgess’ keen leadership, and her team’s dedication to education data solutions, BrightBytes has earned a reputation as a leader in the industry. Currently in 1 in 5 schools across 47 states, millions of students have experienced the positive impact of BrightBytes. The product has been recognized for over thirty awards, including multiple CODiE Awards, and consecutive US Microsoft Education Partner of the Year titles. With more |August 2018

than 90% renewal rates, it’s clear that BrightBytes is celebrated as a both an education data management expert and a leading ed tech partner.

Vision of Reaching Great Heights in the Educational Sector Burgess plans to continue to solve data challenges for educators. BrightBytes is set to expand their product lines and sales teams across the US and internationally. By building strong partnerships with leading research organizations, the team continues to leverage content and direction from true experts. This research-driven approach further enhances product offerings as additional analytics needs arise in the education space. Given that accountability levels in K-12 have reached an all-time high, more and more educators are looking to utilize data to make decisions. BrightBytes not only solves for many of these needs through their solutions, but also strives to support district leaders with challenges on the horizon.

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