The 30 Most Inspirational Business Leaders To Watch, 2018

www www.insightssuccess.com July 2018

The

Most Inspirational

To Watch 2018

The Art of Leading Attributes of a Good Leader

Leader of the Month

Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk Vandana Luthra, Founder & Vice Chairperson VLCC Health Care Ltd.

Kim Vogel President, Co-founder

BaseVenture

Imprinting Success on the Walls of Innovation

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Editor’s Note

Inspiration:

www www.insightssuccess.com July 2018

The

Most Inspirational

An Emotion that Breaths Life in Every Idea

To Watch 2018

The Art of Leading Attributes of a Good Leader

Leader of the Month

Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk Vandana Luthra, Founder & Vice Chairperson VLCC Health Care Ltd.

Kim Vogel President, Co-founder

BaseVenture

Imprinting Success on the Walls of Innovation

D

o you know any kind of idea which is not a product of inspiration? May it is an enlightening poem or a master business plan; everything is driven with an emotion of inspiration. Some of us get inspired by the smell of money, some like fame, wherein sometimes surroundings or a situation motivates someone to do something fanciful. But it is an unwavering fact that moment of inspiration has a nonpareil impact in our life.

In the corporate world as well an enthusiastic approach towards work creates an environment that simply opens the door for determined success. We can see so many offices where the boss reprimands employees for no reason. Workforces are sucked due to the extravagant targets given to them. And the bosses are more concerned about the sales rather than the overall development of the company. Although organizations with such environment sometimes receives what they seek for but it is also true that this type of approach results in an ignorant work environment where we can witness a lack of vision, passion and creativity.

Hence, for a complete growth of organization, an inspiration within the employees is prerequisite and no can but the leaders of the company has to make sure it subsists. It is not a cake walk to establish a business and take it to the level where a world can notice its emergence. It requires certain set of qualities and hell lot of guts to lead an international organization. First the entrepreneurs must have a resolute belief in their idea and an ability to transpire the vision into reality. Secondly they are expected to have significant knowledge about the industry. We can pin point various qualities. However, the unique approach of leading a company that can inspire associates is what makes a potential entrepreneur an inspiring leader.

World’s top business tycoons have their own leading techniques to inspire their employees. An experienced leader like Ratan Tata inspires with the leading from the front approach. Trailblazer like Steve Jobs inspired his teammates with his knowledge and ability to be innovative at every level of business. On the other hand, young leaders like Elon Musk inspires with the challenge accepting capabilities. Not just leading techniques but the life stories of such leaders also motivates thousands of budding individuals to cradle the unconventional path.

Thus, an issue of Insightssuccess, “The 30 Most Inspirational Business Leaders to Watch, 2018”, spreads a light on some remarkable leaders whose penned journey and resourceful insights can inspire and help thousands to have a promising future in their respective industries.

Every business persona featuring in this issue has different set of qualities that allowed them to thrive in highly competitive industries. Considering the variances of different age groups in leading the organization we have included leaders of every generation. May it is young tech genius Amit On or an experienced wellness expert Vandana Luthra everyone has provided generous insights, and their enticing journey will surely inspire you.

Featuring as a cover story we have a story of Kim Vogel, the President and Co-founder of BaseVenture. It is an award-winning software company that is helping the alternative investment industry simplify and modernize how private funds are managed and administered.

Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.

Let’s start reading!

Kedar Kulkarni

Cover Story

10

Kim Vogel: Imprinting Success on the Walls of Innovation

Leader of the Month

Content Page

22 Vandana Luthra: Transforming the Definition of Wellness

Articles Imparting Wisdom

Editor’s Pick

The Art of Leading

Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women and Leadership

Attributes of a Good Leader

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84

Contents 30

52

70

Brand Vision

Expert Viewpoint

Expert’s Talk

Brand Building: The Right Way

Adding Intelligence and Agility to Digital Transformation

A Government Hacked into the Startup

26

Content Page Alicia Asin:

A True Reection of Leadership

28 Amit On:

34 Anil Bandari: Delivering Groundbreaking Analytics Solutions

A Young Leader with an Ultimate Call Management Solution

36 Anne Marie Kirby: A Born Leader Raising the Bar for Everyone with Humility and Purpose

40 Byrne Murphy: A Leader with a Penchant to Strike Gold

42 Dan McFall: An Exceptional Product Evangelist and Passionate Leader

48 Danielle Warner:

50

A Brilliant Team Leader and Disruptor

Dave Fletcher: A Transformational Leader with a Purpose

56 Jackie Elnahar:

58 Karen Contet Farzam: A Leader Crafting Leaders

Rising with Persistence and Optimism to Change the World

64 Mark Sawyier: Fostering Positive Organizational Culture

66 Nicole Martin: A Self-aware Leader Translating her Vision into Reality

72 Nush Khan: From Fascination to Success

74 Richard Rabins: A Formidable Combination of Innovation and Determination

78 Rob Adler: A Tech Entrepreneur with a Passion for Client Service

80 Vinny Lingham:

86 Zohar Ben Ner: Delivering Intelligent Agriculture Globally

Success through Bravery, Passion and Perseverance

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Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kedar Kulkarni Jenny Fernandes Abhishaj Sajeev Hitesh Dhamani Shubham Khampariya David King Amol Kamble Kushagra Gupta Poonam Mahajan

Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Pranay Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Ajinkya Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

July, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Kim Vogel: Imprinting Success on the Walls of Innovation

Always surround yourself with the smartest colleagues you can ind and ensure you develop your own unique set of skills.

Cover Story

Kim Vogel President & Co-founder BaseVenture

marketing agencies. Kim was one of the original members of the executive team that grew the business to become a global powerhouse with clients like General Motors, Orbitz and more.

Innovation was at the core of Semaphore Partners, and it designed many of the first websites and intranets for its clients. After Semaphore Partners was sold to a marketing conglomerate, Kim became a finance professor at Saint Mary’s College of California.

L

eadership comes in many forms.

Every leader develops their own formula for what it means to lead through hard work, risk, successes and failures.

True leaders inspire and motivate the people around them to achieve more.

We live in a unique time with an unparalleled pace of change that affects every area of our lives. The world of business has exploded with innovation that has helped usher in new industries and advances that couldn’t have been foreseen just a decade ago.

Technological advancements are at the root of virtually every commercial innovation, and some leaders have proven themselves exceptionally adept at harnessing innovation to succeed.

One such person that has made her mark as a successful leader is Kim Vogel, the President and Co-founder of BaseVenture. Kim is a technology entrepreneur and senior finance executive with more than 25 years of experience helping companies to finance, grow and monetize their business. Kim has focused her career on building innovative, high-growth businesses with transformational products.

Success, One Step at a Time Kim’s journey to becoming an influential leader began early on with her work as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) at KPMG, followed by earning her MBA from the Harvard Business School and working as a vice president at Montgomery Securities.

Kim forged her path toward entrepreneurship and innovation in the late 1990s as the CFO of Semaphore Partners, one of the first digital

Setbacks are an inevitable part of a successful path forward and I had to learn not to spend too much time drowning in them.

Kim rekindled her passion for innovation and entrepreneurship when she became one of the early executives at a pioneering mobile banking and payments technology company called mFoundry. This innovative company helped to redefine the way that people bank by introducing the then-crazy notion of banking on a mobile device. mFoundry was the first company to submit a mobile banking app to the Apple App Store and one of the earliest to introduce the ability to deposit a check via a mobile device. Kim served as CFO of mFoundry for almost a decade, which grew to become the largest provider in North America and was later sold to FIS. Kim currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Saint Mary’s College of California. Kim expresses, “This involvement in academia keeps me close to those who are just starting their careers and gives me an opportunity to share my story and lessons garnered along the way.”

Building is Contagious Part of Kim’s leadership drive is the thrill and reward of building teams. “I love building great teams, developing innovative & groundbreaking products, and most of all, working with really, really smart people.”

Whether in the board room or in the classroom, one of the central tenets of Kim’s leadership is to inspire and nurture the teams that work under her.

Kim has always taken a special interest

Cover Story in helping to develop people at the start of their careers and she is very proud and gratified to see many of these people having grown to become executives in their own right.

Kim is the first to admit that entrepreneurship and leadership don’t come easy, and that the path can sometimes be a challenging one. As Kim tells it, “Setbacks are an inevitable part of a successful path forward, and I had to learn not to spend too much time drowning in them.” While there is a popular myth about the thrill of the start-up life, Kim has learned from experience that starting and building any company, let alone a technology company, is very hard work that is marked by steep ups and downs. One of Kim’s favorite quotes is from Winston Churchill, who said “Success is the ability to get from one failure to another with enthusiasm.”

Kim uses fund raising rounds as one of the most important barometers of the success of a start-up. As she tells it, “Investors want to understand that they are going to be part of something great – not just big, but huge – so you need to make sure with every round of funding that you are taking the company to the next level. The best way to accomplish this is to nurture and build the right teams and make innovation a driving force of what they do.”

BaseVenture – Envisaging a Revolution Kim’s latest business is yet another example of leadership through innovation. Kim and her partner, John Pizzi, co-founded a technology company called BaseVenture in 2015, which has already become an innovative force in the alternative investment and wealth management industries.

BaseVenture is a cloud-based software company that develops innovative

Building is contagious.

I love building great teams, developing groundbreaking products, and most of all working with really, really smart people.

solutions in the areas of financial reporting, data visualization, and process management. The enterprise’s award-winning platform, “FundManager.io”, helps organizations simplify and automate how private funds are administered and managed.

By providing users with data intelligence, reporting, workflow management, and document storage, “FundManager.io” radically simplifies the process of fund management and provides a platform that is intelligent, scalable, affordable and secure.

BaseVenture’s most recent round of funding was led by the global leader in the financial technology sector. As Kim puts it, “This is a game changer for us.

The merits of the relationship are just beginning to unfold and the momentum is exhilarating.”

The product development team at BaseVenture operates using the agile Kanban method. Each feature developed is initially defined and documented to start the process. The highly experienced software development team builds the software using up to date best practice methods and tools. To ensure the highest quality results, the software development team uses peer code reviews, while the quality assurance team validates all output using a rigorous testing process.

“Because of the industry’s enormous size and expectations that it will double in the next 5 years,

there’s so much at stake and it’s crucial that stakeholders rely on technology designed to relieve industry-specific challenges,” Kim believes that the industry needs to shift away from tackling its challenges by merely adding more people and instead look to technology to help automate key processes, provide the necessary transparency and address increasing regulatory concerns. “We have tackled head-on the toughest and costliest operational and compliance related problems that our customers face, using modern, easy to use software in the cloud to solve these problems,” says Kim. Beyond serving the alternative investment industry from a technology standpoint, BaseVenture is well underway in its goal to be a key thought leader in shaping the narrative of how the industry must evolve to meet the changing needs. It is carving out a role as a catalyst that helps the industry to modernize and believes that serving clients is merely one component of that. The team at

BaseVenture authors an active blog in which it informs the industry of the latest news in the alternative investment space, provide insights into industry research, and predicts key industry trends.

Bequeathing the Keys to Success Kim strongly believes that great communication skills are a prime driver for effective leadership. She explains, “Good communication is learned with practice. I think it is ironic that when these skills are more important than ever, the mediums for communication are becoming more isolated.” According to Kim, the gist of leadership is all about motivating and empowering other people, which can only be achieved through strong communication and connection.

Kim says that another trait that an effective leader should possess is one coined by Jeff Bezos as “high-velocity decisionmaking”. Kim considers it the art of producing the highest quality decisions with limited information as quickly as possible.

Cover Story

Our lagship product provides a modern solution for investor reporting, document management, communication and key process automation.

Kim feels that this shouldn’t be thought of as just a personal skill, but rather it is an environment that leaders cultivate. Most decisions should probably be made with 70% of the information you wish that you had. If you wait for more, you are probably acting too slowly. Push forward and quickly course correct bad decisions because although they are inevitable, they are certainly less costly if reversed quickly.

Lastly, Kim recommends surrounding oneself with the smartest colleagues that can help nurture and develop unique skill sets. “Building great companies is a team sport and you will never be able to do it by yourself. Always try to create and be part of your own ‘dream team’. It is not only a ton of fun, but it is what it takes to make companies successful.”

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About the Leader With an affluent international expertise in fitness, beauty, skin care and food and nutrition, Mrs. Vandana Luthra, the Founder and Vice Chairperson of VLCC has acquired a global stronghold in the everchanging list of influential leaders.

Mrs. Luthra was recently ranked 26th in the annual Forbes Asia 2016 list of 50 Power Businesswomen, in 2018 Forbes Middle East recognized her amongst The Top 100 Indian Business Owners in The Arab World 2018. Her awards include the Padma Shri in 2013, The Asian Business Leaders Forum Trailblazer Award in 2012, and The Enterprise Asia Women Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2010. She has also authored two books, viz. Complete Fitness Programme and A Good Life.

Vandana Luthra Founder & Vice Chairperson

VLCC Health Care Ltd.

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|July 2018|

Interview with Insights Success

Vandana Luthra: I

n an interview with Insights Success, the founder and the charioteer of VLCC, Mrs. Vandana Luthra shares her insights behind the success of her journey as an entrepreneur. The ardently acknowledged leader has driven the health, fitness and skin care company to a global scale with her contemporary and innovative management skills. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Mrs. Luthra and Insights Success: Give us a detailed background of your journey as a leader.

I started VLCC with a simple dream. I wanted to create an environment where people would feel nurtured and supported; a place that would inspire people to be the best version of themselves, for themselves. During the last 29 years, while building the brand VLCC, there were numerous occasions when I had to struggle against all odds to fulfill my dream. Being in a largely unorganized sector, I struggled to raise capital, and banks were apprehensive of something that was hardly deemed as sustainable and scalable.

It was sheer perseverance and my interest in ‘transforming lives’ that made me stay on this path. To be able to make a difference in people’s life be that of VLCC’s clients or staff which constitute 70% women, gave me a sense of achievement and truly encouraged me to build this brand. |July 2018|

Transforming the Definition of Wellness

What are the services/products offered by VLCC? In the 29 years since it was established, VLCC has been driven by its mission of ‘Transforming Lives’, delivering best-in-class beauty and wellness services to millions of consumers. Its presence today spans over 330 locations in 14 countries across Asia and Africa.

Employing over 4,500 professionals, the VLCC Group operates three highly integrated businesses in the Wellness domain – Weight Management and Beauty services, delivered through a chain of over 250 VLCC Beauty and Wellness Centers; Skill Development Institutes for Beauty and Nutrition and manufacturing, in two company-owned plants in India and one in Singapore, over 250 skin-care, hair-care and body care products.

VLCC is also a leading player in the fast-growing ondemand services space in India, with VLCC VanityCube, which currently offers beauty service in 4 cities in India.

It also has a presence in the direct selling domain, with its VLCC Wellscience range of nutraceuticals.

What led you to start VLCC? What was your pivotal moment?

My initial interest in the field of beauty and wellness came from my family. My greatest inspiration has always been my mother. I feel she was a woman ahead

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About the Company VLCC, the chef-d’oeuvre of Vandana Luthra, has an evident multinational position. It offers weight management and beauty programmes encompassing advanced dermatology and cosmetology solutions. The organization’s weightmanagement solutions include a unique DNA-based weight management system. It possesses domination in operations within the beauty and wellness services industry in India. At present, the VLCC stores operate in 330 locations in 14 countries in South Asia, South East Asia, the GCC Region and East Africa.

of her time. She was an Ayurvedic doctor and practiced yoga regularly, and was very particular about the family’s diet, which sowed the seeds of my interest in health and beauty at an early age. Not having conformed to the gender norms, I felt brave enough to give in to the feeling of venturing into an area that had always interested me. I could not have done this without the support of my husband Mukesh, who has been my pillar of strength from day 1.

When I started in 1989, the beauty and wellness industry was at a very nascent stage with a majority of the sector being unorganized. The concept of health and wellness centers wasn’t well established in India and this is where VLCC came into existence. I wanted to create a brand which would be the one-stop-shop solution for all beauty and wellness needs of people.

24

My idea was unique and it was a successful concept which worked in our favor and clients started flocking to the center. Within a month we were able to break even which boosted my confidence and motivated me to expand the company into further territories.

What were the hurdles and obstacles that you had to face and overcome during the initial years as a leader?

Being a women entrepreneur in the late-eighties, trying to scale up in a highly unorganized industry domain like beauty and wellness services was one of my biggest challenges initially. The idea of a holistic wellness center was not prevalent and nobody was ready to invest in my idea. Despite facing these initial hiccups, I firmly believed in my concept as it was unique and being introduced in India for the first time. It took years of hard work, dedication and patience to build VLCC into a global brand that it is today.

What according to you are the most important characteristics that every leader should possess in this day and age?

When it comes to leadership, every person, especially women, have many odds stacked against them. From arranging for finance to establishing a stronghold in a male-dominated social environment, women have faced it all.

Despite all the challenges, one has to draw motivation from within. Passion, when combined with motivation, makes the journey a lot easier. A good leader must have faith in his/her abilities and the belief in their dream.

To conclude with, what would be your advice to some of the young and aspiring leaders?

The road to success is not easy. One has to be confident in fighting against all obstacles and norms that are waiting to pull them down. Never give up on your dreams. The farther you are willing to stretch yourself, the greater could be the degree of success that you may end up achieving.

|July 2018|

Alicia Asin: A True Reflection of Leadership

I

f we Google the word leadership, exactly 297,000,000 results pop up right at our screens. If we were to find a book on leadership in Amazon, we would have over 220,000 titles to choose from. Ask prominent leaders about leadership, and the answers would keep on shifting; multiple layer of opinions evolving through experience and struggles.

From helping others to succeed to having the capability to inspire, a true leader boasts the distinctive ability to motivate, captivate and encourage others to take action. Direct and candid in her communication, she makes decisions which matters and is willing to stretch her hand out to support others in need. She is a leader with purpose, an individual with an inherent passion to succeed and a figure with positive influence. Meet Alicia Asin, a true reflection of the above statements, who has shouldered her company, Libelium, to heights through her unparalleled efforts and dedication.

Libelium over the Years Libelium began as a business project with Alicia Asín and her partner and Co-founder, David Gascón. The computer engineering duo decided to bet for the undertaking of developing products based on wireless sensor networks. Fast forward eleven years, Libelium today stands as a leading wireless sensor network platform provider that delivers, open-source, low-power consumption devices.

26

During these eleven years of operation, the company has faced several critical moments. Recalling these key instances, Alicia mentions “…some moments have been very positive, such as the achievement of awards and recognitions that projected the image and notoriety of Libelium in the media, while the displeasing memories include the unfortunate fire suffered in 2014, serving as a revulsion to revive our company from its ashes and aspire for greater success.”

Presently, the company’s strategy involves moving – within the IoT value chain – from hardware appliances to cloud services. Libelium’s expertise lies in the sensors’ layer, but it has managed to develop an interoperable platform, that has reached compatibility agreements with more than 60 partners such as IBM Bluemix, Microsoft Azure, Telit, Telefonica, Arrow, Amazon AWS, Ericsson, etc.

The company firmly stands at a position to offer its customers with final solutions that combine its hardware with the cloud services of its partners.

“This is how we developed The IoT Marketplace, which we hope will become the Amazon of the IoT,” mentions Alicia. The IoT Marketplace is an ecommerce in which it sells ready to install kits, which includes everything one need (hardware, software and cloud connectivity) for different sectors: smart cities, smart

buildings, agriculture, water management, smart factories, e-Health, and smartphone detection.

Building Solutions for a Better Future Libelium designs and manufactures technological solutions to build wireless sensor networks, now known as the Internet of Things (IoT). The company builds solutions for a better future, especially in three crucial areas: Health, Quality of Life in Urban Areas and Competitiveness of Businesses.

In the health monitoring space, Libelium has its MySignals platform that allows it to measure, through a set of sensors, the most important vital signs of the human body. In the urban sphere, the company’s technology makes it possible to measure and therefore combat pollution, both air and noise; thereby drastically improving the quality of life.

When it comes to improving productivity, Libelium is working across different sectors such as industry, logistics and precision agriculture. The company’s sensors can improve the quality of crop life, save production costs and avoid crop losses and improve the quality of farmer’s life, favoring the settlement of population in rural areas.

Overcoming the Initial Barriers and Standing out as a Leader The path of an entrepreneur is filled with obstacles and difficult decisions, and Alicia’s path was no different.

Obtaining financing is one of the biggest barriers initially for start-ups, but Libelium was prepared in advance with its revenue generating thought through various online sales channels.

Alongside this, Alicia and David had to initially give more efforts to stand out seriously because of a pre-conceived notion surrounding youths and their lack of maturity.

|July 2018|

“I built my story through hard work and excellence.”

Speaking about leadership, Alicia mentions “We are living a digital era that requires special skills to adapt to the circumstances. That’s why a leader has to be resilient: be clear about the path and objectives you want to achieve with your company. At the same time, however, the leader must be able to recognize the mistakes made in order to get things right as soon as possible by implementing the necessary measures, which will always require flexibility. I also consider that it very important to communicate: hearing, talking and empathizing with the team. We need to know how to transmit enthusiasm so that the employees can undertake projects with determination and get everyone involved in the company’s culture to the fullest extent possible.”

Alicia not only believes in these characteristics and traits, but she resolutely strives to follow the same being a recognized leader in the industry.

Success Stories are built on Hard Work and Excellence It’s easy to tell someone to pursue their dreams, without warning them about the complications ahead. It’s good to have aspirations and a project to work for, but at the same time it’s also increasingly realistic and aware of the obstacles bound to come down your path every single day.

Alicia Asin Co-founder & CEO Libelium

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“Whether you start your own company or aspire to become an employee; we live in a society that craves easy success: creating a start-up, selling it fast and making a lot of money. But solid success stories are built on hard work and excellence,” Alicia concludes.

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Amit On Founder & CEO

A Young Leader with an Ultimate Call Management Solution

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magine a scenario where someone knocks on your door at home and puts their hand on the peep-hole. It might be a nice girl-scout selling cookies, but on the other part of the spectrum it could be a burglar. Would you open the door?

Something similar happens when we receive an unknown call. Today, we are part of the tech savvy generation where every sector, almost every task is dominated by the internet and smartphones. Smartphones in particular have completely changed the way we communicate and perform our daily duties, but we are still unable ďŹ nd the caller

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Amit On:

Now that we have advanced analytics programs, you need to understand that not every idea you have will perform well. Accepting when you are wrong and learning from it is something every leader should possess in this day and age.

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behind each phone call. The software and applications in the current market display very few call details as well.

Thus, the application which can improve the process of how we manage our calls and one which enables us to identify the unknown face behind the call is prerequisite!

Tech gurus around the globe are trying their best to develop such a futuristic app. One incisive individual who comprehended the challenging issue, and created a perfect solution is Amit On. The young tech genius developed a mobile app, called CallApp, which provides users with the ultimate call management solution for all their smartphone needs. Stereotypically, it provides users with Universal Caller ID, Call Blocking, Smart Spam Filtering, Call Recording, an Enhanced Dialer and a Social Contact Book.

Flourishing with an Incredible Speed CallApp is now booming with unmatchable pace and today it has over thirty six million users worldwide. The app also facilitates information such as birthdays, last email or message, productivity tools and multiple communication options that aggregate all of the major social networks and messaging applications. CallApp reinvents the way people communicate, by providing them with the right information & tools at the right time, right where they need it.

excelled in his work and climbed the designation ladder all the way up to be its Chief Architect. Followap was a huge success and the app was later acquired for $140M by the US Company, Neustar. After his successes at Followap, he joined the startup Amobee. He served as the company CTO for four years. Amobee was then acquired by Singtel for approximately $340M. Amit has also played a major role in many other startups as well.

The Pivotal Moment Amit decided to create CallApp because of his own personal experience. Once he was in a very important meeting and his mobile phone rang. Sounds fairly normal right? Well the number was unknown, and Amit had to decide on the spot if it was important enough to answer.

Amit answered the call, only to find out it was a spam call.

That was the moment when Amit decided that it makes no sense not having information about the person calling you.

Every time he made or received a call there was a lot of information missing. He knew that all of this information was already publicly available. Thus, he decided to create a solution for people to see this information in one easy to use place. Staying true to his words, Amit developed an astonishing solution within a year, thus forming CallApp. An Advice from a Young and Admirable Leader

The app was also acknowledged by the world’s best technology leaders. It was featured in TechCrunch’s The Top 20 World’s Most Promising Start-Ups list and was among the finalist at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC. CallApp was also selected by Microsoft, IBM and Qualcomm as one of the most innovative and promising Israeli companies.

The prime reason behind CallApp’s notable success is the young, compassionate leadership of its Founder and CEO, Amit On. 17 years of Technology, Start-ups, Internet and Mobile Amit started his journey at a very young age. By age 14, he started his first tech company, which was a very popular Bulletin Board System, BBS. A few years later at the tender age of 16, the internet arrived to households and this changed his life forever. While still in high school, Amit worked for two different startups, both of the start-ups were later acquired by larger companies.

Moving on a few years to the age of 18, Amit’s professional astuteness landed him a position in the IDF’s Special Intelligence Technology Unit. After the IDF, Amit joined a startup called Followap as a developer. Once again Amit |July 2018|

The biggest obstacle for Amit was something that many leaders have had to face and overcome 30 years ago, as the landscape was drastically different than today. Amit mentions that 30 years ago a CEO would never admit to being wrong. But according to him, having humility is a must for every new leader.

Amit also believes that every industry is growing at an exceptional rate, being able to adapt to any circumstance is a must for any leader in the 21st century. Although he clarifies that there is not a specific best piece of advice he can give to young and aspiring leaders, he implies on having a never give up approach. Amit claims, “There are times when you will fail, but this is a learning curve. You need to get back on your feet and give it another shot.

Nothing perfect is done in the first try.”

He feels in order to succeed at a young age, a leader must be the man of his words. He notes, “You need to say what you mean and mean what you say.” Above all this, Amit’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is to have an unwavering confidence on their ideas and people that keeps the ball of success rolling.

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Brand Vision

About the Author: Candice Simons is the CEO of Brooklyn Outdoor, a longtime industry leader who returned to Detroit from Chicago to launch the entrepreneurial venture.

The company’s multiple divisions include Outdoor, Experiential, Events, and hand painted. Brooklyn’s clients include national brands like General Motors, Adidas, Warner Brothers, Sprint, and Amazon.

Simons also founded the Detroitbased lifestyle blog company, J’adore Detroit.

She has been recognized for her work with both companies by Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40, DBusiness 30 in their 30s, Entrepreneur 360, Detroit Young Professionals Vanguard, Summit International Marketing and Creative Awards, MichBusiness, and Enterprising Women of the year 2017.

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|July 2018|

Brand Building: The Right Way

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n an increasingly saturated market, it is becoming increasingly harder to reach your target consumer through traditional channels. Brooklyn Outdoor is fortunate enough to be at the center of the oldest form of advertising – outdoor advertising aka out-of-home advertising. This is the only format of advertising that cannot be turned off in the digital age. This is an exciting time for this highly regarded industry to cut through the clutter and provide our key consumer with exactly what they need and where at point of purchase. We have had our ups and downs as a startup over the past five years battling our goliath competitors but have proven ourselves as a worthy opponent – just as our industry has stood the test of time. Just as we have built our own brand, our specialty is helping our customers build their brands just the same way through outdoor advertising, event marketing, experiential marketing, and more.

Out-of-Home (aka OOH) advertising is the catalyst for brand building. Advertisers can segment audiences and market campaigns more specifically than ever before and choose to reach consumers by multicultural audiences, general market audiences, age, etc. This long term and “always on” strategy is one that allows brands to be and feel as though they are everywhere to the targeted segment in the desired market. This is because OOH reaches almost the entire population and is the best mechanism for bright, in-your-face messages.

Consumers are increasingly on the go, and while on the go they are seeing various types of placements and advertising as they go about their daily routines. Reaching an audience at the bus stop, at the intersection, in a taxi, or during the commute has a tremendous impact on the modern consumer – especially when paired with mobile advertising. These

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various touch points allow brands and products to resonate with potential customers in a subtle, yet impactful way, as they go about their daily routine.

Digital out of home (DOOH) advertising is quickly becoming one of the fastest growing, technically advanced, and most interactive advertising formats for businesses to reach consumers.

DOOH advertising promises brand safety as it eliminates the risk of crisis by association. Promoting company content on social media platforms assumes the risk of having ads placed next to problematic or politically controversial content. However, in DOOH there is no uncertainty because advertisers know exactly where ads will appear and often make the site selections internally.

Additionally, DOOH advertising eliminates the potential marketing threat of ad-blocking. The biggest concern with most digital formats arises when an audience is able to avoid certain advertisements by shutting them off and media companies fraudulently account for proof of completion.

Due to this inefficiency, the word “digital” naturally brings concern to potential advertisers; however, with DOOH, adblocking is not possible for digital signage because it cannot be blocked, filtered or turned off. Real people are seeing our ads and formats.

When it is done correctly and thoughtfully, the public accepts digital DOOH more so than any other media formats due to the creative advancements in this exciting format. It becomes more than a selling tool for our clients – it becomes something much larger and more impactful.

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Innovation and Trends = Data-Driven Campaigns Real-time data feeds can be integrated into digital displays, as a result, clients are able to produce a very clear picture and snapshot of the “now” for target audiences. Innovation is the name of the marketing game these days, and DOOH does just that.

With the strategic and thoughtful use of data and technology, in addition to a general market campaign, a client can create a truly powerful and unique experience for their target audience. OOH advertising is THE top medium to create the lasting connection and visibility that an audience needs to take action at point of purchase.

Beacons Beacons are real-world data generators that are insanely accurate. With them, you can turn your OOH advertising locations into signals, which help to pinpoint a specific target audience and market to them directly. This innovation allows the world of mobile and OOH advertising to further connect and maximize the most efficient exposure possible. =

This cutting-edge technology proves extremely useful to reach consumers in specific situations that naturally warrant waiting time like the airport, bus station, or even hospital.

Strategically sending creative messaging via smartphones to consumers in these particular situations makes them much more likely to engage with the brand or product.

Recently, COACH used beacons at the Hong Kong International Airport to engage customer participation in a cutting-edge OOH campaign. The beacon-based, social media campaign prompted participants to share a photo with hashtag #CoachPreFall2016 to enter a drawing to win merchandise from the collection.

Beaconstac reports, “to participate, passengers, had to go near a beacon hoarding (with the Bluetooth switched on their smartphones), go on WeChat and shake their phones.

The beacons installed in the advertising media would then communicate with passengers’ smartphones and take them to the campaign landing page.”

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As a result of strategically placing beacons in a high-impact area with predictable wait time, Coach was able to engage customers and create a lasting impression of the brand while maximizing exposure through virtual outreach.

Hand Painted Mural Advertising Originally popular in the 20th century, hand paint murals are making a comeback in vibrant cities with strong artistic communities like Detroit, Brooklyn and Los Angeles. By commissioning local artists to create brand-promoting murals, advertisers connect with communities on a more powerful level. Using local artists to create advertisements, authentically generates interest in the community and results in public relation opportunities not typically open to run of the mill billboard placements.

Additionally, hand paint murals take time to create. While painting, artists attract attention from pedestrians and street traffic. The process of the mural’s creation can be used as a marketing asset in itself. Time lapse videos of the process from start to finish can be used to supplement OOH advertising campaigns. = Action OOH advertising is a tried and true method in initiating audiences to take action. Over threequarters of Americans have been noted as smartphone owners, which is an enormous number of potential customers ready to interact and engage with brands at the tip of their fingers.

A recent Nielsen study states that OOH generates more online activity per ad dollar spent when compared to radio, television, or print. Because of OOH exposure, consumers interact with brands via social media.

Because we are always turned on and, on the go,, OOH’s unsurpassed ability to bridge the gap between audience and brand will ultimately drive action from consumers.

About the Company: Brooklyn Outdoor is a Detroit-based independent outdoor advertising agency. The company was founded in 2013 and has subsequently emerged as a national and regional force in the outdoor advertising industry with satellite offices and full-time sales representatives in Detroit, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

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Anil Bandari: Delivering Groundbreaking Analytics Solutions

Transforming Data into Expert Decisions MATRiX was incepted from Anil’s inspiration, who has extensively worked with data, particularly in the Financial Services Industry. His goal was to leverage the data across various domains.

The data science team at MATRiX has always been inspired and driven by transaction data, inclusive of its volume, frequency, signals, noise and outliers generated across industries. The company has been building analytics solutions into various domains to simplify the day-to-day process of making decisions by using data.

It was this inspiration that led the company to build proprietary algorithms to transform data into machine form.

It also facilitated the development of genetic algorithm, machine learning, deep learning and goal programming based models, which are exceptionally dominant, robust and efficient for large volume and high dimensional data.

A Pioneering Leadership Anil Bandari founded MATRiX with the sole purpose of using advanced analytics and AI to democratize financial systems and make it simple for common person to have access to the financial services with the best possible pricing with respect to his/her risk given to the financial institution. Anil acquired a few big clients on-board in earlier stage of the company. From there on, the company provided custom analytics solutions to client, which far exceeded their expectation.

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With an extensive experience of more than 25 years in various leadership roles in the financial industry, Anil is leading the organization on the way to excellence. Prior to founding MATRiX, he headed global modeling and risk analytics in Citi for 7 major markets/countries including Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. He was the Director of Global Credit & Fraud Risk Management based in New York.

Along with this, Anil also holds a distinctive portfolio of being an innovator in the field of Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Transaction Analytics, Genetic Algorithms, Signal processing, Credit & Fraud Risk Modeling, and Strategy Optimization & Analytics.

Empowering Businesses MATRiX works with the Financial Services, Retail and Healthcare Industries to empower them with sophisticated analytics and data science solutions. The company enables them to mitigate risk, reduce losses, increase profitability and provide better customer experience. Delivering robust and high-performing models is the topmost priority of the company. This incorporates all the diagnostics needed for defense of model in internal audit and regulatory exams.

The methodologies used are time tested and validated.

MATRiX works closely with its clients in development,

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We strive tirelessly to be the leading custom analytics solution provider to serve individuals, communities, institutions and nations.

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t is exquisitely stated by a famous author and a speaker, Robin Sharma, that “Basically, to lead without a title is to derive your power within the organization not from your position but from your competence, effectiveness, relationships, excellence, innovation and ethics.” This quote applies very appropriately to the Founder and CEO of MATRiX ANALYTiCS CORPORATION, Anil Bandari. Not only has his title as a leader, but also his perseverance, competence and innovation set a noteworthy instance of Leadership.

deployment and post deployment processes in every modeling and analytics solution they deliver.

MATRiX’s solutions are based on the use of Statistical, Operations research, Machine & Deep Learning, proprietary, best industry known algorithms and state-of-art analytics business processes. Its solutions leverage all possible data sources, which are, on-us bank data, off-us credit bureau, and other available alternate data sources.

Discovering the Light after a Walk through the Darkness In the initial years of MATRiX, the only challenge for the company was grabbing a chance from the big banks to having them on-board as clients. However, the company eventually converted couple of big clients and started working with them. The most effective strategy of identifying right talent and people made it easy for the company to tackle initial struggles. With the dedication, professionalism and hard work of team to deliver the best to clients, the organization was able to provide analytics solutions to clients which far exceeded their expectations every time.

MATRiX has been and is growing day after day. The company boasts a group of satisfied customers. The company is working on building new analytics solutions for the client’s priority objectives these days and at the same time pursuing acquisition of new clients.

The company has earned the trust of its clientele and converted initial engagements into long-term partnerships.

Solutions We Offer

Credit Scorecards

Strategy Optimization

Fraud Anomaly Detection

Dynamic Risk Control

Signal Detection

Regulatory Modeling

Governance Solutions

Recommendation Systems

Product Sales & Vendor

Transportation Problem

Purchase Analytics

Inventory & Pricing Optimization

Genome Sequencing Based Models

Cross-Industry Soloutions

Anil Bandari Founder & CEO

MATRiX ANALYTiCS CORPORATION

The company’s first project rollout was with one of the largest banks in the country. Being a startup, it was competing with some pretty big names in the industry and the bank chose MATRiX. The company exceeded the expectation of the bank in the first project itself and it became a hit within the bank. Banks’ internal team had multiple road shows demonstrating the value of Machine Learning and Artificial intelligence across various departments within the bank. In review meeting of final presentation to the bank, the company told that the results and performance of its analytics solutions spoke for itself. The first project transformed into a long-term partnership with the bank and today MATRiX is working on multiple projects with the bank on an ongoing basis.

MATRiX was first to build inventory optimization solution in construction industry and the optimization solution that led the retail company have 30% gain in their cash flow in first year itself. The company has filed for a patent for the algorithm, which digitizes very irregular structures with random space allocation in 2dimensional surface. The application will be available for architects in the retail space.

Enlightening Aspiring Leaders Anil believes that the most important characteristics which every leader should possess in these days and age are Ethics and Innovation.

Strategy A/B Testing & Adaptive

Customer Analytics

Text Mining

Anil’s advice to the young and ambitious leaders is to give their best to whatever industry, kind of work they have chosen and funnel attention on the bigger picture.

Sometimes, it may need for the leaders to be patient to reap its benefits.

Control

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Anne Marie Kirby: A Born Leader Raising the Bar for Everyone with Humility and Purpose

“We support wellness visionaries in their quest to change the world one employee at a time to achieve healthy living.” ― Anne Marie CEO & Founder CoreHealth Technologies

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|July 2018|

here are many different types of leaders and leaderships around the world. Some believe in leading people and making a difference in their lives. These leaders are often admired and carry a warm glow around them because they are often in the limelight. However, others are more subtle because they wish to lead the world with their work and silently raise the bar for the world with their humility. One such outstanding persona in the business world is Anne Marie Kirby.

Similarly, CoreHealth Technologies develops and distributes a one-stoptechnology solution for corporate wellness companies. The platform is a state of the art SaaS solution and currently serves more than 2 million employees worldwide and over 1000 client organizations. Anne Marie humbly accepts her motives for changing her fortunes with the successful business but also firmly believes the product is making the world a better place for everyone by improving employee health.

Anne Marie is the Founder and CEO of CoreHealth Technologies, a leading wellness software company trusted by global providers to power their wellness programs for corporate clients.

A Dream and A Personal Journey Apart from her ambition to become a successful business leader, she also faced personal challenges that made her realise the need for preventative health solutions to help people improve their overall well-being. In the mid90s, she suffered from an immune system disorder that was triggered by undiagnosed food allergies. Using her expertise as a software engineer and her independent and initiative-seeking attitude, she wrote a software program to track and analyse food ingredients.

She realised her inclination to lead early in her career. During her long career as a software engineer, she always took initiative and led a life of example with humility. Her passion for understanding the big picture including the business case, overall environment and the people helped her quickly earn the deserving position of leadership, almost at every turn. She quickly captured her opportunities to lead, learn and grow as a leader.

The Big Picture and the Right Path Anne Marie believes that every good leader has an underlying purpose of making the world a better place. In the business world, this is often the most under spoken truth. Often business leaders have their ambitions and motives in order to provide a service or a sell a product. This honest statement needs to be made more often because it does not take away from the real contributions of business leaders. In the larger picture, business leaders and their work often contribute positively and make the world a better place to live in.

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Her passion to find a solution for her ailment motivates her to serve a purpose much bigger than herself and the industry she continuously contributes to. Currently, prevention is an underrated solution to medical problems around the world.

Additionally, prevention could save billions of taxpayer dollars when people take personal initiative and have the right tools at their disposal to make the best decision regarding their long-term health. Hence, Anne Marie and CoreHealth Technologies are transforming the world and raising the bar for every business leader with their work.

a team while building a solid foundation. It is perhaps these talents that made Anne Marie walk a path which is truly unique. In the current business world, some women talk about a glass ceiling they face. Anne Marie never noticed such a ceiling despite sometimes being the sole woman in a large group in the field dominated by STEM professionals.

Her determination to succeed and walk through life with humility turned out to be her reality as she was promoted and ended up forming a successful enterprise, which is a story envied by others.

She has been an active listener in her journey and has a few words of wisdom for aspiring young entrepreneurs around the world. She said, “Every day when you get up, think about the 2 or 3 most important things that you can do to move yours and your company’s agenda forward.”

Anne Marie believes that the world around entrepreneurs is filled with a lot of noise and it is important to take a quiet step back before focussing their energy on the most important agenda of the day, every day.

Anne Marie reveals a hidden good side of human nature. Human nature is filled with many inconsistencies and makes us often prone to committing grave errors. However, there is a good side to us as well. It does not lie in the contemplation of what can be or how it should be. It can come from a relentless pursuit of objectivity and truth in the larger picture. It can also be followed by the determination and zeal to achieve perfection in human nature.

When these qualities are put together with a purpose, the world can and does become a better place for everyone.

A Humble Leader As mentioned earlier, what sets Anne Marie apart from many business leaders is her quality of quietly leading

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ver the past 30 years, Byrne Murphy has spearheaded a number of ventures. Initially focussing on international property development, Byrne’s first step into the European market began by launching a successful range of outlet centres and private resident clubs. It was while successfully running these that his business and the world was forever changed by the arrival of the internet.

Byrne quickly came to appreciate how important the physical infrastructure was to the digital revolution.

Interested in where the virtual world meets the physical world, he rapidly identified data centers as that pivotal intersection point. This led him to start DigiPlex in 2001, then a company with presence only in Norway but with big Nordic ambitions that would redefine innovation in data centers across the world.

Data centres operate at the heart of nearly all streaming, ‘cloud-based’ or network-based services. As the world moves quickly towards wider distribution of Internet of Things, cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence, the demand for fast, secure and powerful data centres grows exponentially each year. Today, data centres are responsible for about 2 per cent of the world’s annual CO2 emissions and 3 per cent of the world’s power usage. Given that data centers are the heart of the digitization, this is just a sliver of the impact the industry may come to have on the planet in the years to come.

Businesses, and the data centers that support them, will both need to take greater responsibility for their environmental footprint.

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The Nordics immediately interested Byrne as the place to start and grow a data centre business, as the region offers some of the lowest costs for clean renewable power, and a climate with a low year-round temperature, ideal for state-of-the art energy-efficient cooling. With DigiPlex’s commitment to 100% renewable energy and constant drive to innovate to reduce power consumption, the company is pioneering sustainable practises within the industry.

Mission driven from the beginning, today, DigiPlex is one of the most cost-effective, secure and sustainable data centres in the world, taking full advantage of attractively low Nordic energy prices and clean renewable power to build its compelling offer.

Innovation is woven into the company’s DNA. Throughout its 17-year lifetime, the business has won multiple awards for innovation and constantly adhered to the concept of ‘there’s got to be a better way.’ As soon as a project is completed, DigiPlex automatically leans into tomorrow and starts to brainstorm around new innovative ways to do the next project even better. A good example of this is the recent modifications to DigiPlex state of the art data centre in Stockholm. The centre became operational in 2015 and is one of the greenest and most energy efficient in the world, however true to the DigiPlex innovation DNA the company took the decision last month to modify the centre to recover excess heat from the severs to heat the district. The agreement is the world’s first where an already operational data centre with an indirect evaporative airto-air cooling solution, will be retrofitted to recover

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‘‘ Byrne Murphy Chairman & Co-founder DigiPlex

excess heat to heat up for 10,000 residential apartments.

It is a virtuous cycle where everyday digital activities that start a process in DigiPlex’s data centre, like browsing or streaming video, turns into actions which contribute to heating the district.

fully commit and persevere it’s easy to fall behind.

This is a quality that DigiPlex looks for in all management positions. Ÿ

Build the right organisation culture. Long term survival requires the ability to constantly innovate.

Hence, innovation needs to be a collective state of mind deeply rooted in the corporate culture. At DigiPlex every department lives and breathes the “innovate or die” maxim.

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Stop waiting! “If you really, really, have the urge to be a business leader, take the leap now. You won’t regret having tried, even if you fail. But, you may bitterly regret it if you never even tried.”

Byrne’s long career as a business leader and an entrepreneur in international markets, has offered him a fair share of challenges and lessons learnt. Byrne’s piece of advice for some of the young and aspiring leaders out there is threefold: Ÿ

Recruit for ‘grit.’ To truly succeed in today’s fastmoving world, every business leader needs ‘grit.’

When building your management team ensure you recruit for the strength to never give up. If you don’t

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An Exceptional Product Evangelist and Passionate Leader Dan McFall

President & CEO Mobile Labs

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assion is the drive, ambition and the love for what you do and who you serve. It provides you with a unique ability to identify the undeniable possibilities of innovation. Notable examples include Steve Jobs, who had the vision of a phone with one button on the front; or, Amazon Tycoon, Je Bezos, who had a vision for a store that sells everything.

Every successful leader must have an inherent passion that drives them forward -- a core belief that keeps him or her pressing on. Such undying passion always leads the way and enables individuals to stay ahead of the curve.

Another prime example amongst such extremely passionate individuals is Dan McFall. From his very ďŹ rst job as a product support engineer for a supply chain software company, McFall has had a passion for helping companies solve problems with software and integrated technology.

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Without curiosity, there is no room for growth and that is when everything falls apart. |July 2018|

Today, he is the president and CEO of a leading provider of mobile device cloud technology, Mobile Labs. McFall has helped some of the largest companies in the world to design and implement complex optimization solutions for their mobile testing labs, while providing leadership of Mobile Labs’ technical sales, marketing, development and partner management teams.

Mobile Labs was a pre-product, pre-revenue organization when McFall first joined the organization. There was an unsure product-market fit and no go-to-market strategy for deviceConnect. This made for a challenging environment in not only selling the solution, but for determining what the ideal profile of new sales team members would need to be for success.

Mobile Labs: Your Appium Success Company

McFall’s true growth as a leader came when he joined Mobile Labs as the vice president of sales in 2012 and decided to take the plunge into a true start-up environment.

In this role, he was directly responsible for acquiring the company’s very first customer and also its largest customer to date. At the same time, he developed a full cycle field sales team which dramatically increased the customer base and revenue of the organization. With his passion for solutions, McFall often played and continues to play the role of ‘product evangelist’ with several speaking engagements, webinars, and industry events to his credit.

Mobile Labs is a leading provider of mobile device cloud technology for the enterprise. Easily deployed either onpremises or in a hosted cloud infrastructure, Mobile Labs’ deviceConnect™ allows development and testing teams to accelerate their mobile application release cycle with utmost confidence in application quality and performance.

Additionally, deviceConnect enables teams to accelerate mobile test automation strategies by enabling a wide variety of both commercial and open-source automation tools to run on their platform for mobile app and mobile website testing. By connecting remote teams of developers, testers, automation engineers, and quality assurance, Mobile Labs’ solution allows its customers to considerably decrease their time spent testing. deviceConnect has perceptively increased collaboration by enabling teams to share the same pool of real devices for improved mobile DevOps. For companies that are interested in building their automated testing strategy around Appium, Mobile Labs positions itself as ‘Your Appium Success Company’ by providing a built-in Appium server as part of deviceConnect that makes working with Appium easier and more productive. It particularly emphasizes on improvements to Appium architecture which can enhance performance and reliability of the platform. Those who are ready to make the shift to automated testing leveraging Appium, are further assured by Mobile Labs’ world-class support and training services.

Transforming a Pre-product, Pre-revenue Organization into a Market Leader McFall realized that everything was going mobile in late 2011. He envisioned that everything was eventually going to be mobile, resulting in all apps and mobile websites having to be tested on real devices.

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In 2016 McFall was promoted to the role of president where he took over expanded responsibility for all aspects of the business, including sales, development, marketing and customer care. In 2017, Mobile Labs showed a significant growth in both new subscription business and customer acquisition, culminating in McFall’s appointment as the president and CEO by the Board of Directors at the start of 2018.

Curiosity: The Core to Everything According to McFall, a leader must be curious, and not just about market opportunities. Leaders need to be curious about what their customers, employees and competitors think, in addition to focusing on what is happening adjacent to the company’s industry.

He notes that, “Leaders today also need to have the confidence to admit when they do not know something.”

They are not expected to have all of the answers about every aspect of the business. However, they must be capable of creating a team that can find those answers. He also adds, that aspiring leaders should trust in their team’s experiences and wisdom. They must be able to collaborate, and to go forward steadfast in their ability to integrate those experiences into a meaningful strategy for the business.

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egends never need an introduction. They tend to be victorious despite of their uneventful histories. They stick to captivating traits such as Discipline, determination and self-belief which help them accomplish wonders in the long run. One such example of an extraordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business Magnate, Investor and an engineer.

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Strong Risk Tolerance Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty and risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in business, 96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the statistics, Musk must have faced the same odds against him, when he had decided to leave an otherwise comfortable life to start a risky and uncertain business venture.

Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of Greece taken into consideration.

For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother in the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million.

Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by investing millions of dollars to found a company called X.com, one of the world's first online banks.

While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits that makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few traits much different from any other ordinary CEO, which has allowed him to build some of the world’s most respected and innovative organizations. Musk once quoted, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”

‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is that he is self-taught in programming and in many advanced level subjects. He read and understood a variety of books, which helped him gain endless and persistent knowledge and understand diverse concepts.

Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and characteristics that make him a contender for the most innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive.

The best piece of advice on learning and implementation is to constantly think about how things could be done in a better manner and question self to seek the answers.

Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about 100 hours a week, and has been productive since many years. He may even be considered as the hardest working employee of the company, setting standards for his colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.

Feedback Loop It is of prime importance to recognize the present symbol or otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an organization and re-position accordingly. Musk solicits constant feedback of the companies and executes ‘self-analysis’. He induces efforts and divergent strategies to improve customer feedbacks and strives towards perfectionism.

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Imparting Wisdom

For example, he seeks out his critics and tries to converse with them. This habit of self-reflection at regular and considerable periods is pivotal for any entrepreneur or organization to succeed in the long run.

Tendency for Vertical Integration Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or a firm acquires business operations within the same product vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this concept. For example, Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also generate public awareness about their cars via Tesla showrooms across various countries.

And SpaceX does not only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions; they develop their own rocket architecture as well.

Faith in Self and the Founding Team Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own capabilities

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as well as the potential-seeking factor of its founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected end-results.

It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any large scale organization. Under his supervision, Musk encourages in creating a positive and comprehensive environment across his firms.

Preferring to Stand Out From the Crowd Musk elects to bring up innovation at every level of his understanding. He tends to impart theoretical knowledge at the base level, applying changes and executing the same on the practical level. He relies more on transitional aspects such as research and development, thereby increasing the probability of ground-breaking inventions.

Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed

by Elon Musk, is anti-ordinary. Its compelling marketplace has become a one-stop destination for potential buyers where they can interact about product specifications. They also have video testimonials that far outperform in the sales-dominated industry.

There is no ambiguity that Musk, by far, has been a pillar of inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and investors because of his prolific and optimistic approach towards life All these traits possessed by Musk, in some manner or the other, coincide with most of your habits. The only thing that stands as a potential barrier between these two is identifying your strengths and working on them on a continual basis. Go on, apply these traits into your daily life, and you may become the next big CEO the world is in need of today!

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Danielle Warner A Brilliant Team Leader and Disruptor “Nothing excites me more as a leader than watching people find their inner drive and lighting that flame inside them. It’s what gets me up in the morning – it keeps me powered by purpose.”

— Danielle Warner Founder & CEO Expat Insurance

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usiness Leader is a rather coveted title. Most individuals in the world of entrepreneurship like the idea of being seen as a business leader. However, establishing and leading a successful company is difficult; it calls for a diverse set of skills - an undying passion for the business idea, significant management and communication abilities, the capacity to build an amazing team of employees, and a relentless desire to learn new things and gather knowledge. It is a prerequisite for any business leader to always be on the leading edge of the learning curve and have an unwavering approach to client satisfaction. Danielle Warner, the Founder and CEO of Expat Insurance is the consummate business leader. She founded this world-leading insurance company in 2009. The Singapore-based firm caters to the needs of more than thirty thousand satisfied customers.

In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, Danielle is also the author of a well-known book, Bulletproof: Building Better Employee Benefits. She was always a thoughtful leader but today, she stands tall as a successful disruptor, author and speaker as well. Danielle has blazed her own trail and made an impact on a global scale by breaking the status-quo in a stale industry. Her astonishing career and motivational words have inspired hundreds of individuals from Singapore and around the world.

A Period of Exploration The inception of Expat Insurance was a result of Danielle’s struggle to find travel insurance for her family’s frequent trips to Asia. Additionally, Danielle left New York and her job at AIG and moved to Singapore. She subsequently witnessed the lack of coverage options for expats living in there, and as a result of which Danielle

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started Expat Insurance. Expat Insurance is an independent insurance brokerage firm in Singapore that tailors medical, life, home and travel insurance packages that are relevant to the globally-mobile lifestyle of expats.

Immigration restrictions and the soaring cost of living in Singapore have reduced expat relocation packages significantly in the last five years. As a result, enticing the best talent to move to Singapore has become a tougher ask than it was previously. From 2015, Expat Insurance has begun to provide premium group coverage on behalf of companies so that their best talent feels protected, secure and valued during their time in Singapore. Today, Expat Insurance offers more than two thousand products and has long-term partnerships with twenty-seven of the world’s best insurers. These products are so reliable that the relatively new and fairly small company already has more than 30,000 satisfied clients.

In 2015, the company collaborated with the French insurance giant, Siaci St. Honore to elevate the Expat Insurance brand to the international level. The tireless efforts of Danielle and her employees were recognized in August 2016 and 2017, when Expat Insurance was named as the Broker of the Year for two consecutive years at the Asian Banking and Finance Magazine Awards. From being built at the back of Danielle’s apartment room, Expat Insurance has come a long way to be known as a leading insurance provider in Singapore. The company has witnessed unprecedented success within its short span of operation and one of the prime reasons behind this can be owed to the never-ending passion of Danielle and her resolute team of professionals. Danielle recalls, “We began running out of a room in our apartment and grew quickly, which prompted us to relocate to the building where our offices are currently. Now

we are an office of 30 people and still growing!”

A Visionary Leader with the Perfect Team The financial services industry is a really tough industry in which to stand out. The right innovation at the right time is the key to success. Danielle has several family members with a background in insurance and that allowed her to understand the industry very early. It gave her the vision to grasp the right opportunity. However, she recalls that finding the right team could be problematic initially, “My biggest challenge was getting that balance exactly right and finding those people.” When handpicking every team member, Danielle makes sure that the individual can help the company to stay authentic and true to its goals. She also emphasized on the desire within the individual employee to learn, to push boundaries, and to try new things.

“Every time we interview and onboard a new team member, I make sure that they watch Simon Sinek’s ‘The Power of Why’ – I’m all about the ‘Why’. It’s the focus of everything that I do as a leader and as an entrepreneur.

Surrounding myself with people that also ask ‘Why?’ is essential for me,” she reveals.

Danielle believes having trust in yourself and your people is one of the best qualities of a leader; it keeps the company growing, evolving and changing. Danielle also recalls a brilliant support of her general manger that run a tight ship to bestow the company with a team of best people.

She also advises other leaders to surround themselves with a team of capable people. The people who can ask themselves ‘Why?’ She believes it is the best gift that any leader can give to their team.

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Dave Fletcher: A Transformational Leader with a Purpose However, successful entrepreneurs today are beginning to see the value in opening up about their journey for the benefit of the next generation. One such leader is Dave Fletcher, CEO & DEO of The Mechanism.

Dave is the quintessential inspirational business leader, and has consistently demonstrated his power and ability to create, nurture and transform.

Charisma and Passion Dave Fletcher is a visual problem solver, creative thinker, committed futurist and a graphic designer. In 1995, while working as a creative director for a computer manufacturer in Cleveland, OH, he shifted his priorities from analog to digital experience design, realizing that his survival in the creative profession would involve a modicum of programmatic cognition.

Dave worked with several dot-com consultancies before launching his own digital design, branding and strategy firm, The Mechanism, in 2001. His career has taught him

CEO & DEO

The Mechanism

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ompanies are the empires of the modern age, and they rise and fall in the same way. Just like empires, some companies last considerably longer than their counterparts. The reason for their success is also the same – good leadership.

Great leaders have the ability to motivate employees, help others see and believe in a vision, and lead innovation in their company. Every entrepreneurial journey is marked by ups and downs. Any seasoned entrepreneur will tell you that it is difficult to contend with the moments of doubt and failure.

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Our internal mantra is to “generate the wave that others ride.”

In other words, we stay far enough ahead of the curve so that we can be predictive with our design and technology solutions rather than play catch up.

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Dave Fletcher

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practical lessons about the value of good leadership and the consequences of poor leadership.

Most agencies in the late 1990s and early 2000s did one thing well: they developed corporate identity or brand marks, or launched online interfaces to represent a brand mark.

With his background in visual identity development, Fletcher instead believed that a company’s entire brand DNA, not just a digital manifestation of the brand, was its sweet spot. He ran with that premise and it proved to be a good strategy right out of the gate.

He has built strong relationships with visionaries, entrepreneurs and individuals from diverse backgrounds on his journey, and has continued to learn and seek advice from many of them over the years.

A Difficult Start The Mechanism was established in New York City a few weeks before the 9/11 terrorist attacks which changed the world forever. It was not the best time to start a technology-dependent company anywhere.

However, the vibrancy and resilience of the city’s tech industry, thanks in part to a technology-focused CEOturned-mayor, Michael Bloomberg, created a conducive atmosphere for The Mechanism to grow and thrive in the following years.

Struggles and Motivations Dave Fletcher has performed the dual roles of both CEO and DEO (Design Executive Officer) for The Mechanism since its inception in August 2001.

Living in the city after 9/11 taught everyone lessons in human kindness amidst the horror. It gave Dave the perspective, poise and desire to not only lead but to follow the lead of the

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brave individuals that helped get the city and the country back on its feet.

His company has weathered technological and financial storms over the years, and witnessed trends come and go. Most clients don’t have time to keep up with every innovation or technical trend; they just want an effective digital solution and the technological guidance to stay ahead of their competition. Dave believes that experience is a differentiator, strengthening The Mechanism’s ability to predict changes in the diversified, evolving business ecosystem.

The Mechanism has witnessed many disruptions, too. The way businesses start up is very different from the scenario ten years ago when most companies were funded purely by venture capital. Today, crowd-sourced companies follow almost a starter model.

Dave recognizes that creativity continues to play a dominant role in the success of any business.

Services Offered by The Mechanism The Mechanism uses technology to develop authentic and affectionate interactions between human beings.

They are the creative conduit between an audience who wishes to engage with a brand, individual or product, and the individuals that manage it.

As an innovative and early force in the digital design and development industry, his company devised some of the first strategies for online digital publishing before it became a necessity. They are honored to have produced websites and mobile apps for popular bands like Flight of the Conchords and My Morning Jacket.

The Mechanism also works directly with the biggest real estate companies in New York City and Big Pharma to help formulate their digital and creative strategies.

Change is Good!

People are generally wary of change.

Dave, on the other hand, views change - a new market, a new organizational structure, or new leadership - as a positive opportunity.

He has learned over the years that empathy is an invaluable element in all design. Whether designing an app, a website or a hybrid user interface, Dave makes sure to remember the fact that there is a human being on the other side, looking to build an enduring, relevant relationship with a brand, individual or product.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs A good leader in the technological field advances everyone’s potential, not just their own, through innovation and a clear understanding of what it is to be human in the digital age. Aspiring leaders must help elevate individual potential, and deliver on the promise that every interaction we have with devices must be useful, helpful and empathetic.

Dave reiterates a truism: the opposite of movement is inertia, stagnation and eventual failure. He believes that one’s sole purpose as a leader should be to move forward and to move the organization forward. Building a company is not a sprint, it is a marathon.

He also underlines the importance of building meaningful relationships. Just as things connected to the Internet need to provide value, leaders must do so also if they are to engage and redefine this ecosystem.

From a digital design and development perspective, Dave advises that one should not forget that on the other side of the client’s device, there is a human being looking to be astonished and wishing to be connected to something bigger than themselves.

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Expert’s Viewpoint

Cindy Jutras President Mint Jutras

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Adding Intelligence and Agility to

Digital Transformation About the author: Cindy Jutras is a widely recognized expert in analyzing the impact of enterprise applications on business performance.

Utilizing 40+ years of corporate experience and specific expertise in manufacturing, supply chain, customer service and business performance management, Cindy has spent the past 12 years benchmarking the performance of software solutions in the context of the business benefits of technology. In 2011 Cindy founded Mint Jutras (www.mintjutras.com), specializing in analyzing and communicating the business value enterprise applications bring to the enterprise.

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have been watching evolving trends in enterprise applications for many years, trends that impact the software you use to run your business. These trends include cloud, mobile, social and analytics (often associated with big data). These have been somewhat unique in that seldom has an entire market agreed on what trends are most influential. Not only has the market reached an unprecedented level of consensus, but these trends have had some staying power. While their influence has not

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diminished over time, today they are simply woven into the fabric of our global, digital economy.

The Internet forever changed the business world, creating the digital economy and bringing new ways of conducting business. In many ways it created unprecedented opportunities and leveled the playing field, allowing any company, large or small, to create a global presence. But with these newfound opportunities comes new challenges and new trends. The pace of

business has accelerated, along with the pace of change. While automation helps you connect and survive in this new world, in order to thrive you and those enterprise applications that run your business, need to be smart and agile.

AGILITY Face it: We live in disruptive times.

The 2016 Mint Jutras Enterprise Solution Study found 88% of companies believe they face some level of risk in their businesses and/or

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industries being disrupted by new innovative products, new ways of selling or pricing existing products or services, entirely new business models, or some combination of all of the above. Early results from my 2018 study indicates this percentage has increased to 93%. For that 7% that feels there is no risk, consider this question: How do you think the taxi industry would have responded on the eve of the launch of Uber?

All this disruption has had a cascading impact on business application requirements, making agility - the ability to easily innovate, evolve and change - even more important than current functionality. Change is inevitable, bringing about new requirements. As your business changes, along with the world around you, the speed with which new features and functions can be developed, delivered and consumed will clearly impact your agility. The days of slow and limited innovation are long gone. The cloud plays a key role here, as well as new microservices and componentbased architectures.

But software must not only be agile today, it must also be smart.

“SMART” SOFTWARE We all use the terms “smart” and “intelligence” a lot today. We talk about smart devices, smart machines and even smart cities. Enterprise applications vendors refer to artificial intelligence (AI) as a feature and call their solutions “intelligent applications.” The technology that can make enterprise applications smart is no longer the stuff of science fiction. However, just as there are different levels of intelligence in human beings, there are different levels of intelligence in enterprise applications.

So, what does it take to make an enterprise application smart? Any application is smart in that it’s not dumb. It can follow instructions – instructions like, IF <this condition> THEN <do this>. The assumption is: If the condition does not exist, simply don’t take that action. Or you can make it just a little smarter with IF <this condition> THEN <do this> ELSE <do that>. Business applications have been built on IF THEN ELSE statements since the earliest computer programs were developed. They were intended to automate processes and procedures that followed clear rules, such as accounting processes and manufacturing procedures. And they were intended to report on status, operations and transactions.

Applications got a little smarter as analysis tools were added and also as they became better communicators. Early enterprise applications were notorious for being far easier to get data into than information out of. You had to know exactly where to look and how to get there if you had any hope at all of getting answers to business questions. And you had to ask all the questions because the solutions didn't offer up much to notify you of issues.

When most solution providers today talk about intelligent applications, they really mean new ways of interacting with the solution and analytics that help you derive more and better insights from the data. But this is the minimum of what you should expect today. You need to be taking those first baby steps towards real intelligence, whether it is through a digital assistant, understanding the analytical capabilities or weighing in on what you expect now and in the future.

You don’t need to be a data scientist, or understand the bits and bytes of the underlying technologies. But you need to make sure your vendor does.

If your current solutions are not headed down the path towards intelligent applications, if they aren’t agile and adaptable, now might be a good time to start looking for new, smarter ones.

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Jackie Elnahar: Rising with Persistence and Optimism to Change the World

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eing a guiding light to many is a tough task for any mortal. But, being a leader requires us to overcome our emotions and biases to see the world in an objective manner and keep a positive attitude at all times. It also requires us to let go of our own insecurities and let our experience flow within us to allow ideas and thoughts reach their concrete destiny.

Finally, being a leader is about seeing the plight of others and rising against all odds with persistence to solve real challenges.

A person who embodies these various qualities elegantly and applies her real experience to solve real world challenges is, Jackie Arnett Elnahar.

Jackie started as a TelaDietitian while working at a hospital as a clinical registered dietitian. She saw patients leave the hospital and rue the need to see an outpatient registered dietitian but would not see one due to limited access and possible in-convenience.

She then realized telehealth would be a perfect solution for providing more accessible medical nutrition therapy consultations. She then rose to meet the plight of patients against all odds to start, TelaDietitian.

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TelaDietitian offers telehealth medical nutrition therapy consultations over a HIPAA compliant platform. A patient can find the right specialized registered dietitian and speak with them over phone or video at a time convenient for them. There are 100’s of registered dietitians on the platform and it provides weekday night and weekend hours for convenient consultations.The platform also covers insurance with select health plans.

The platform was built to help patients and regular individuals find the right specialized registered dietitian and make an appointment seamlessly. Jackie was undoubtedly helped by her qualities, experience and drive to succeed. Additionally, she also names one more thing which helped her build an outstanding foundation to achieve her dreams.

Jackie said, “Vision was very important in helping me to stay focused as a leader. Because I was a registered dietitian first, it was helpful for me leading the product development team since the product was built by registered dietitians for registered dietitians.”

Jackie faces various challenges every day to transpire her vision into reality. Telehealth is still in its early stages even though adoption is growing rapidly. Additionally, as

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Being mindful and proactive has been helpful in letting

TelaDietitian be a pioneer in the field as we are a leader

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in the telenutrition space

that is shaping its future as well.

doing so in the most efficient manner requires a genuine input from customers. This can be obtained through feedback and validation from customers early to set goals and plan efforts accordingly.

“Being mindful and proactive has been helpful in letting TelaDietitian be a pioneer in the field as we are a leader in the telenutrition space that is shaping its future as well.”

Jackie also tells young entrepreneurs to enjoy their journey since it is a gruelling path to adapting to evolving goals everyday. If her achievements are anything to go by, it is also an inspiring journey.

the platform is evolving; keeping pace with clients is becoming the growing need of the hour.

Another major challenge is building the right team.

According to Jackie, this is bound to be difficult but it provides for good growing points as she gets to shape her own team.

Another obstacle is overcoming the different telehealth laws that differ throughout the different states.

So, how does she mitigate these uncertainities and keep moving ahead?

She replied with a simple but a powerful word, “Persistence.” She said, “I like John Rockefeller’s quote, “I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perserverance.”

Jackie finds solace in this quote because she has learned through experience that to withstand challenges and shortcomings, we need to have persistence and keep moving forward everyday.

She also offers a few wise words of advise for the young and aspiring entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

According to Jackie, it is essential for business leaders to reach out to their customers as early as possible. Jackie believes the path to creating a successful product and

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Jackie Arnett Elnahar Founder TelaDietitian

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Karen Contet Farzam: A Leader Crafting Leaders

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he synthesis of passion and ambition drives the creation of a significant business leader. To make practical use of one’s potential and to derive 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.

Karen Contet Farzam, Co-founder of WHub, is one such exemplary business leader. While describing her muse of innovation, she quotes, “the Chinese word for ‘crisis’ is composed of two Chinese characters respectively signifying ‘danger’ and ‘opportunity’. The financial crisis of 2008 was a key turning point in my journey and forced me to reinvent myself by choosing a new career path. This worldwide crisis turned out to offer me the best opportunity in my life.”

Karen started her career at JP Morgan as an Equity Derivative trader. She moved to Hong Kong in 2010 to reflect on the path she wanted to follow. Along with her best friend and now co-founder Karena Belin, she dived into the startup ecosystem and started WHub which is now Hong Kong’s biggest startup community and connector.

With a mission of building successful ventures in mind, she started to speak at different types of local events and international conferences such as JSconf, Vivatech and RISE. During this time, she attended a lot of web developer meetings and founded WomenWhoCodeHK. It started as a women web developers gathering and later became a professional community for women in tech that provides an avenue for women to pursue a career in technology, help them gain new skills, and foster environments where networking and mentorship are valued.

Karen is also a founding board member of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong which is composed of 12 board members, 14 committees and over 950 members. “It has been an extraordinary journey building a new community

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from scratch with passionate volunteering people,” states Karen while describing her achievements.

Fostering Innovation Globally WHub.io is Hong Kong’s biggest startup community, gathering more than 75% of Hong Kong startups on its platform. It is based on 3 pillars to help nurture and grow the ecosystem: Connecting the community – connecting startups with other startups, corporates, universities, government, accelerators and incubators; Recruitment – enabling startups to build their team; WHub has organized 9 Job Fairs for Tech & Startups; Education – organizing events and supporting global conferences, as well as issuing white papers on the Hong Kong Startup Ecosystem and Hong Kong FinTech Ecosystem.

WHub also connects corporates for innovating startups through Hackathons, startup competitions, workshops, top executive seminars, helping entrepreneurs prepare to raise capital, creating employment and building innovation.

The Conception of a Pioneering Idea WHub’s tagline is #StartupPassion, as WHub’s mission is to help startups innovate, scale as well as foster the growth of the entire community.

“Everything began around a cup of coffee on a Monday morning. Sitting with Karena Belin, who would later become my co-founder, we wondered why so many talented people could not find a job they really cared about,” were Karen’s thoughts during the time, she was looking at several opportunities to start her own business.

WHub’s startups, corporate clients, investors and other stakeholders recognize the company for making a true difference in providing quality access to resources and the ecosystem in a most efficient and transparent way. WHub has received several awards including Talent Unleashed Award by Richard Branson, Women of Hope Award, 10 Best Female Entrepreneurs of the World award by True Global Ventures, and has also achieved strategic partnerships with leading startup accelerators, organizations and conferences worldwide.

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Overcoming Adversities While describing her initial struggles as a leader, Karen expresses, “dealing with the unknown difficulties, loneliness, team building, decision making and consistency are the most encountered obstacles in an entrepreneur’s lifetime.”

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When leaders are sincerely enthusiastic and passionate, that’s contagious.

“Being an entrepreneur is lonely. That is why I feel lucky to have my co-founder Karena Belin, someone trustworthy to discuss honestly and deeply about the problems we encounter and who has complementarity skill. Karena is not only my co-founder but the runner with whom I have achieved 2 night trail marathons and a 60km ultra trail race in Nepal,” expresses Karen, while describing her companionship and partnership with Karena Belin. Finding the perfect co-founder to share the ups and downs is a key trait of a successful leader according to Karen.

“With entrepreneurship, what matters the most are the efforts you put in every day. You need to learn new things, meet new people, and reflect on yourself and your business.

Successful entrepreneurs and runners don’t give up and do not talk about failure but about opportunities to execute differently, which at the end results in a winning and successful outcome,” is what Karen asserts while expressing her views on the attribute of consistency in a leader.

Passing on the Key of Success “When leaders are sincerely enthusiastic and passionate, that’s contagious” quotes Karen.

While guiding the aspiring generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs, Karen expresses her views, “Get surrounded by people that are smarter than you. Smart people make you smarter and better. They spark interest in you, introduce you to new ideas, concept and opportunities you have never thought of. Be strong and decisive but stay humble. Humility is a proof of strength and it will enable your team to come up with ideas and constructive feedback.”

“Listen carefully to everyone but make up your own mind.

Train hard, build strong foundations every outcome will depend on it. This is where races are lost and won and where companies succeed or shut down.”

Using the example of Emil Zatopek, she states, “he is one of the greatest runners of all times but he was not genetically gifted. He made sacrifices and he won. As an entrepreneur and a leader, you will lose friends, spend less time with your family, but you can’t have it all at the same time.”

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Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pick

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The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women and Leadership “

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he glass ceiling is a barrier so subtle that it is transparent; yet so strong that it prevents women from moving up the corporate hierarchy” ---Ann Morrison, American Author The term “Glass ceiling” can be defined as an unacknowledged upper limit in corporations and other organizations, above which it is difficult or even impossible for women to reach out to the highest ranks.“Glass ceiling” is a popular metaphor widely used for the hard-to-see informal barriers that prevents women from getting promoted or achieving further opportunities in leadership positions. The metaphor of “glass ceiling” has also been used to describe the limits and obstacles faced by racial minority groups.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s 1991 definition of glass ceiling is “those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevents qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into managementlevel positions.” (Report on the Glass Ceiling Initiative.)

Famous American actress cum author Ann Morrison defines the concept of the Glass Ceiling as: “The glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person’s inability to handle a higher-level job.

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Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women.”

The Elements behind the Glass Ceiling: It is pretty obvious that women are facing a lot of hurdles to break through the glass ceiling and reach to the highest leadership position throughout the ages. Preventing both women and organizations from reaching their full potential, the invisible “Glass Ceiling” denies us all of the maximal benefits of gender diversity in leadership. Some of the most common barriers are highlighted below: Job isolation: Women are offered the same kinds of job roles like staff, public relations or occasionally finance specialties that rarely lead to the more powerful management positions.

Over time, women are eventually excluded from jobs in the mainstream of business, the route taken by CEOs and presidents.

Old-boy Network: There are many instances when men gets the managerial powers in an organization who manages greater numbers of people, enjoys more freedom of hiring and firing, and controls the company’s assets directly while women are deprived of such authorities and powers.

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It is the “Old-boys” of the organization that makes all the policy; where the women are kept virtually absent.

Sex Discrimination: In a recent survey, working women were asked about the greatest obstacle they had to overcome to achieve success; “simply being a woman” was the most frequent response. In another survey by the Wall Street Journal, women leaders quoted their most serious obstacle in their business careers to be “male chauvinism, attitudes toward a female boss, slow advancement for women, and the simple fact of being a woman.” These instances are enough to prove the prevalence of sex discrimination in the workplace.

Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment remains one of the biggest barriers for women in managerial roles. A corporate environment that tolerates sexual harassment intimidates and demoralizes women executives. Even after the adoption and enforcement of numerous laws against sexual harassment, women do not feel sufficiently encouraged and empowered to speak out for fear of compromising their work.

Benefits of Women in Leadership: Studies found that inclusion of women in business leadership has significantly improved such factors as firm value, financial performance, economic growth, innovation and social responsiveness and philanthropy.

The additional benefits of women in corporate leadership include stricter monitoring and supervision and fewer legal infractions such as fraud and embezzlement. A better balance among women in leadership positions can create a more diverse team of leaders with different perspectives and a greater ability to contribute new ideas and thus enhancing the profitability. The transformational leadership style often used by women tends to be a good option for contemporary organizations, as it encourages employee morale, motivation and performance.

Overcoming the Barriers: Strategies Women’s progress up the corporate ladder is still limited by the “glass ceiling” despite the myriad of Government policies and programs which have been introduced to ensure that their talents and skills are recognized and accepted.

Women can help themselves to overcome this career hurdle by: Acquiring appropriate business skills and know how; Taking up line-management positions rather than management service roles; Gaining the necessary experience through “apprenticeship” and “acting positions”; Seeking career counseling; Volunteering for leadership and executive positions; And lastly, acquiring the ability to measure their operating effectiveness in the workplace.

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An awareness of the emergence of new barriers to their progress is also worth considering. The current socio-economic situation is creating different “glass ceilings” in the form of the downsizing of organizations, new differentiated and self-directed career paths, the advent of the contractual worker, and the care of aged parents.

Conclusion: Since the latter half of the 20th century, women have made great paces in increasing their representation in the work force. However, a considerable gap remains in achievement of leadership positions across different fields.

Renowned feminist Gloria Steinem stated it best: “Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered in women.” It is far past time we strive to find out and finally shatter the glass ceiling.

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Mark Sawyier: Fostering Positive Organizational Culture

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he traits of confidence, perseverance, creativity, effective communication, and a knack for innovation are all essential to the personality of a good business leader.

Good leaders set realistic goals and strive to achieve them while keeping in mind prevailing economic conditions and the limitations of the business. They implement revolutionary ideas, attract positive attention, and leave a lasting good impression on the people with whom they interact.

Mark Sawyier, the CEO and Co-founder of Bonfyre, is a great example of an accomplished and widely respected leader. He is a dynamic problem solver proficient at product, strategy, and business development.

Mark founded his first company, an off-campus apartment website, as an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis. Today, the avid entrepreneur delivers his unique brand of inquisitiveness, inventiveness, and expertise to companies ranging from Fortune 500s to early-stage startups.

Mark is also active in local charities such as COCA, Saint Louis Art Museum, and Peter & Paul Community Services.

Talking about Bonfyre, he reveals that its focus stems from his personal philosophy of business leadership, “I believe people are the most valuable asset of any successful company. Maintaining a workplace culture that benefits employees has become my passion for the sake of the employee as well as for the continued growth of the organization.”

Mark Sawyier Co-founder & CEO

Bonfyre

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Transformational Leadership Over the last decade, Mark has consciously and continually strived to develop personal characteristics critical to the success of his employees and his business.

However, he acknowledges that the humility to acknowledge what one does not know, and to recognize that one cannot do everything are also important traits of a successful leader. |July 2018|

quickly evolved to meet the growing needs of the enterprise technology marketplace.

‘‘

Success requires a great team and humility is an important part of teamwork.

‘‘

“Success requires a great team and humility is an important part of teamwork,” he explains.

Mark stresses on the importance of creativity in determining what the vision of a business is, and also in navigating challenges along the journey. He believes in perseverance and optimism through the tough times that will inevitably come - those traits have the power to inspire a team to overcome great odds.

A Paradigmatic Innovation Bonfyre has its headquarters in St. Louis, where it was founded in 2012. It is a mobile-first communications platform designed to support employee engagement.

Bonfyre empowers people to connect, communicate, and engage.

Bonfyre’s concentrated focus on human interaction enables organizations to leverage their investments in human resources, events, communications, and employee engagement. This leads to more actionable intelligence on which investments in the workplace are having a positive impact.

The platform is designed to support dynamic, interactive communications upwards, downwards, and across organizations to engage every employee, regardless of department or title.

Bonfyre’s platform helps companies like Express Scripts, Schnucks (a regional grocery store), and Commerce Bank foster relationships that give leaders powerful peopleintelligence to keep their culture moving forward.

The company’s co-founders started the platform as a way for people to communicate with people they cared about, organized around topics about which they are passionate.

The organization has stayed true to this vision and focused on bringing it to life within the workplace. Although Bonfyre began as a social communications platform, it

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Today, Bonfyre’s team and its portfolio have grown exponentially, creating a platform that helps companies around the globe build an engaged workforce and promote vibrant work culture. It aims to change the way workplaces develop and thrive.

From Simple Beginnings Bonfyre was first launched with limited resources and, in one of its early iterations, was a corporate event app that set itself apart by focusing on attendee communication.

The company’s pivotal moment came when the co-founders saw that event users continued to leverage Bonfyre as a way to communicate beyond the event. They realized that there was a powerful connection between company events, a ‘bigger picture’ culture, and employee engagement priorities.

This marked the company’s transition from corporate events to a communications platform, with events becoming one of many avenues designed to drive and bring together key culture points such as employee communication, recognition, and surveys.

Finding Balance Devising an effective, practical strategy to overcome obstacles and differences is a vital part of a leader’s business responsibilities.

Heading a startup with limited resources, Mark wore many hats in the early years, striking a balance of the pursuit of a long-term strategic and financial vision for the company with the flexibility required to make it successful in the short term.

Mark reveals, “As a young leader, my biggest obstacle was limited experience. The first company I founded gave me a solid foundation, but Bonfyre was a very different endeavor.”

Passing the Baton When asked what advice he would give the next generation of aspiring business leaders, Mark says, “The only thing you know for sure about your business plan is that it’s wrong.

Over time, you’ll have to reshape your plan to account for the marketplace and organizational growth. Everything will become more predictable as the foundation of your business becomes stronger and the path to achieving the long-term vision becomes clearer.”

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Nicole Martin

W

hen the thought of a successful leader springs up in our mind, we most certainly think of an individual who is self-assured and confident. We tend to think of someone who doesn’t ponder upon the ‘WHY’ of their actions or someone who doesn’t contemplate on their past mistakes.

Truth be told, leaders, just like all human beings, don’t necessarily boast all the answers, and are often mistaken or fundamentally flawed with their methods. The true difference for successful leaders lie is their selfawareness. They realize their current position and are able to face and overcome challenges, and march towards success.

Meet Nicole Martin, the CEO and Founder of HRBoost™. A self-aware leader who stayed true to her vision and went on to build a human resource consultancy that provides its clients with proven and measurable results.

Fresh off from being nominated amongst The 30 Most Inspirational Business Leaders to Watch, 2018 by Insights Success, Nicole Martin, the self-titled ‘accidental entrepreneur’, shares her journey as a leader and highlights some of the key traits that led her towards success.

Being in the corporate world for so long, what prompted you to found and start HRBoost™?

Nicole: I consider myself the accidental entrepreneur.

When I left the corporate world, I was on a mission to find

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A Self-aware Leader Translating her Vision into Reality another business that wanted to create a winning workplace through their people. I essentially created HRBoost™ by doing what I love to do.

What was the pivotal movement that led you towards success as a business leader?

Nicole: It was back in 2012, when I began to articulate my value proposition. I walked into three prospect meetings, only to find out that I had closed three deals, doubling my revenue in less than seven days. I knew I needed a team and a business plan at that point. The fact is I considered myself as a freelance consultant for several years. That was until a client sought to invest in my “business”.

What were the hurdles and obstacles that you had to face and overcome during your initial years as an entrepreneur?

Nicole: The greatest enemy of success is fear. My business had high growth and with high growth comes challenge. I had to get access to financing, attract skilled talents that believed in the brand promise and the most difficult challenge was overcoming fear. Being a disruptor in the industry, you can get attention from big competition and calls can come in for acquisition before you even realize you are profitable. Staying true to the vision, my personal values and keeping the faith led to a solid team, and together we bring joy and purpose to people through their work.

What is one of the most important characteristics that every leader should possess in this day and age?

Nicole: Every leader must align their personal values to the

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organizational values and define success clearly so that every person can connect their role to a transcendent organizational purpose. The number one competency today is Generational Agility.

Finally, what would be your advice to some of the young and aspiring leaders out there?

Nicole: Looking back, I worked and attended school simultaneously. I feel it is imperative to get hands on experience doing what you seek to learn. Make sure it brings you joy before investing time, energy and dedicating your life to it. Enjoy the journey and be prepared to learn, unlearn and relearn.

— Nicole Martin CEO & Founder HRBoost™

About the Company Founded in 2010, HRBoost™ understands the changing needs of a firm upon expansion and growth and strives to smoothen the sail through its suite of human resource services. The solutions of the company are based upon some of the best practices and the latest innovations in the field of human resource management. Whether one is simply on the lookout for some HR related guidance or one needs to implement an entire human resource support system, HRBoost is ready to meet your needs. |July 2018|

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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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Expert’s Talk

I

n mid Sept, I received a confidential report from the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) stating that they hired a cyber security company to run tests on the Gator watch and found vulnerabilities.

I was actually delighted to receive this report as they are rarely done by startups due to high cost. I started acting on the vulnerabilities with the engineering team the very next day. I thanked the NCC for the report and told them I would go back to them shortly when the issues were fixed.

Product safety is extremely important to me as I am also a mother and so I took this report very seriously.

Just one week short of completing most of the fixes and only one month after the report was sent to me, the NCC took a headline that would invoke a lot of fear in parents and sent it to the media without our knowledge.

Industry standard allowed companies a minimum of 3 months to work on fixes before disclosing them so I was in shock as to why I was given one month.

As the NCC unilaterally decided to put my customers at risk by exposing our vulnerabilities to the public, we worked around the clock to finish the remaining fixes and a new app was launched in under 1 week. I did not have a PR team or lawyers as again it is very hard for a startup to employ such teams on a full-time basis, but I called everyone in PR and legal that I

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had met along my entrepreneurial journey. The response was phenomenal and I was offered PR and legal help free of charge. Most people just couldn't believe what had happened.

I then hired an independent cyber security firm in London, Intruder.io to do an independent penetration test. I did not want to simply read a report given to me by a third party at this stage. I wanted to know first had what the vulnerabilities were and to fix anything outstanding. ‘my view is that with the fixes they have currently put in place, your child is safer if they have this watch than without it’ – Chris Wallis – Founder of Intruder.io This cyber security firm decided to write a blog post about what happened as they were in disbelief. In fact, many experts in the cyber security world are shocked at the turn of events. The IoT Security Foundation is looking to do a case study on what happened to me and my business as this is not how consumers are protected and this is most certainly not how startups are encouraged to do business.

The day the media headlines came out, I sent an email out to all customers and investors explaining what had happened and confirmed that there has NEVER been a breach of data. We were never maliciously hacked and have never been. I made the decision to

offer full refunds to customers even though the headlines were very much one sided and only 3 customers returned their watches. ALL investors backed me as they are fully aware of how responsible disclosure works.

Techsixtyfour Gator watches sold by us now are all end to end encrypted and our servers and all data are stored with Amazon Web Services. Our systems are now reviewed monthly by Intruder.io to ensure that we are always up to date with our security.

This December was the best sales month on record. I am very honest and open with my customers when they ask me what happened. Once they know, the headlines no longer mean anything.

All technology companies have the potential to be hacked. It is how you deal with it that matters. When the media reported my story, I was in tears every night. I felt that no matter how hard I worked and with the highest level of integrity and honesty, something as unpredictable as this could come along and kill my business.

But what doesn’t kill you really indeed makes you stronger.

As I start 2018, I am more confident than ever. I have learned that being an entrepreneur means being resilient and to prepare to fight battles that you can not even foresee happening. And just be honest with your customer every step of the way.

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About the Author: Colleen Wong, Founder of TechSixtyFour, is a admired tech lady who held the position of Vice President in sales in two big shot investment banks in UK, and also worked in Asia for 10 years as both an entrepreneur and a senior government oďŹ&#x192;cial for Canada.

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Nush Khan: From Fascination to Success Dream. Be curious.

Nush Khan Key Account Manager Unified Inbox Pte. Ltd.

F

ascination and curiosity are the essential elements of innovation. A fascination with AI and IoT, fueled by curiosity, has made Nush Khan, Key Account Manager at Unified Inbox Pte. Ltd. (UIB), an expert and a trailblazer in a rapidly growing industry.

Nush was pursuing a rewarding career in Finance and Accounting when the opportunity to work for a global, multicultural team presented itself. Toby Ruckert, the CEO of UIB, offered her the opportunity to work for the company and Nush’s eagerness to dive into an ocean of new technologies motivated her to accept.

As Nush dove deeper into AI and IoT, she realized how these emerging technologies were already beginning to integrate themselves into our lives. She was fascinated by how technology was transforming how all of us around the world live, work, and play. Upon joining UIB, Nush overcame numerous challenges and she feels an immense sense of pride in helping the young company to achieve its critical milestones.

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UIB – Transforming People’s Lives UIB is a global software and services company. It invented the UnificationEngine™ intelligent IoT messaging platform to solve the problem of communications between cloud-connected software, services, chatbots, and devices This breakthrough has enabled global enterprises to transform their business results and given governments and smart cities the capacity to transform their citizens’ lives.

Adding a UnificationEngine-powered SmartContact to a smartphone’s address book allows users to talk to any connected ‘thing’ or ‘service’ in any language using natural language text and voice messaging. It also enables people to control and to receive alerts and notifications from their things on over 20 of the world’s most popular communications channels, including WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, email, WeChat, and many more.

UIB’s intelligent IoT messaging helps home appliance manufacturers, hospitality companies, telecommunication providers, airlines, hospitals, and others to increase revenues, decrease costs, and delight users.

A Determining Stage It is no surprise that advanced technologies and the emergence of smart devices are making our world smarter and have already changed how all of us live.

With technology’s ever-shorter cycle times, Nush could see how ground|July 2018|

breaking and disruptive communications technologies are for people, companies and governments.

It was at that pivotal moment she decided that she wanted to lead the transformation and put her own mark on the global market.

implement within their existing (but rapidly evolving) cultures.

Initial Struggles To reap the benefits of any new technology, whether through costs, growth or customer satisfaction, the critical success factor is people being willing and able to embrace change.

This is where Nush has faced immense challenges as a leader.

Characteristics of the Leader Leadership is the art of helping a group of people to achieve their common goal. It is about assembling a diverse team and removing the internal and external obstacles to effective teamwork. Regardless of discipline, leaders help each individual team member to realize their true potential. It is team members’ own growth and development that enables the business’ growth and development.

It is often tough for people to understand a disruptive new technology when they have little or no reference points, and no experience with similar ideas. Nush has spent much of her time listening to UIB’s customers’ technical and organizational concerns and understanding companies’ unique cultures to enable her to lead and facilitate people’s journeys to where they want to go.

According to Nush, the ability to continually learn, adapt and grow is the “must-have” skill every leader must now possess. She says, “All of us are seeing our challenges, markets, and models evolve faster by the day. As company and industry leaders, it’s our ability to be fluid, to be able to recognize and seize opportunities created by these changes that enables our own and our businesses’ success.”

Nush explains that while a technology can be great for a company’s bottom line (often creating new high-margin services), each company must actively manage the change process as the technology breaks long-held assumptions about their business models.

At the end of the day, she believes that the key to making it all work is not just identifying great people but also valuing them by helping them to succeed.

By thoroughly understanding users’ needs, wants, and fears, and the company’s unique history and culture, it became easy for her to pull together the right mix of technologies and people. With that, she could build holistic, cohesive solutions for her customers, which they could then

Advice to Aspiring Leaders Curiosity fuels passion and enables people to achieve their goals. Taking this into consideration, Nush concludes by advising aspiring leaders to, “Dream. Be curious. And carefully look at the changes your business is facing to identify the opportunities they create. No matter how high the hurdle, curiosity, drive, and passion will get you over it!”

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Richard Rabins:

A Formidable Combination of Innovation and Determination

Richard Rabins CEO

Alpha Software

S

ome people are born innovators. While most of us can identify problems, it is this remarkable minority that goes a step further and works actively to find solutions. Their vision of bigger, faster, better and more reliable products and services improve every facet of our lives, every day.

That innovative bent is what drives Richard Rabins.

The Innovation Habit Richard’s affinity for crafting pioneering solutions is a family trait, as is entrepreneurship.

In the 1990s, the Rabins family built a software company from the ground up. Their product was a rapid application development platform that was sold using direct mail. After distributing over half a million licenses, they sold the company.

However, the desire to innovate remained. About a decade later, as the trend of a departure from Windows to the web accelerated, they realized that mobile technology faced the very same issues of complicated applications development.

Only this time, the problem was even more dire because mobile apps are significantly harder to develop.

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“Apps must work offline, they must work on small screens, support rich media and there is the requirement to operate with one hand with no keyboard or mouse,” explains Richard as he discusses the challenges.

“We saw that the existing solutions were complicated and time-consuming. They had been designed with professionals in mind – you had to be highly-skilled to build business apps.”

On the other hand, Richard’s focus was on the average user and his goal was to dramatically expand the base of people who could build these apps.

It was then that he met Joe Alsop (founder of Progress Software) and Dan Bricklin (co-inventor of the first spreadsheet Visicalc). Incidentally, they were interested in solving the same problem. Dan, in particular, had a knack for finding elegant but powerful solutions to complex problems.

“We found that together we had the key ingredients in terms of right people, the right experience, and funding to pursue this venture,” recalls Richard.

Founding Alpha Software The fruit of their collaboration is the Alpha Software Corporation. Alpha software offers the only unified mobile and web development and deployment platform with distinct “no-code” and “low-code” modes.

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This unique feature allows line of business (LOB) professionals to work in parallel with IT developers on smartphone apps. This eliminates the traditional bottleneck in the mobile app development process and accelerates digital transformation.

One of the key concerns that defines the digital age is security, and Richard’s team has worked proactively to develop an effective solution. The result is their Alpha Anywhere platform.

Alpha Anywhere gives IT developers the power to add additional security or authentication features to protect corporate data.

At the end of the day, it is all about people.

Balanced Leadership Richard is an accomplished leader and drives the company’s strategy with a focus on global growth.

He served as CEO of SoftQuad International from 1997 to 2001. Richard is one of two co-founders of the Massachusetts Software Council (now the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council), the largest technology trade organization in Massachusetts.

Richard is always eager to share to share his strategies for leadership that promotes individual development while stimulating company growth.

“At the end of the day, it is all about people,” he says.

He has served as its President and Chairman. He has served on the boards of Silent Systems, Legacy Technology and O3B Networks. Richard’s experience in the industry includes the role of project leader and consultant with Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), and of management consultant with Management Decision Systems, Inc. Richard holds a Master’s degree in System Dynamics from the Sloan School at MIT. Prior to that, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Control Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

That extensive executive experience and formal education does not detract from Richard’s true personality as a warm, positive, and supportive leader. He has a penchant for bringing that warmth and flexibility to work and creating an environment that fosters innovation, cooperation, and outof-the-box thinking.

An example is his desire to bring his Irish setter, Clifton, to the Alpha office every day. His efforts have made the company a dog-friendly workplace. Clifton has now been promoted to ‘Chief Sniff Tester’, a role that they actively advertise. This unique strategy makes Alpha much more relatable and helps nurture existing business relationships as well as forging new ones.

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“Good leaders remind their colleagues that office politics is akin to civil war – it weakens the organization and resources that would otherwise have been devoted to everyone’s success are squandered. By focusing on the real competition out there, every employee’s skills and abilities strengthen the company, lay the groundwork for personal and professional progress, and make a real difference to the industry and to the world.”

Richard believes that a good leader has to have the ability to manage his or her team’s focus and to use that focus to win the battles that matter.

He also assesses leadership by an individual’s hiring skills.

“Be willing to hire people with more knowledge and skills greater than yours,” he adds, “Don’t be threatened by bringing in super-talented people.”

Richard’s spectacular success in his professional life is a testament to the fact that his approach really does work.

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Rob Adler:

A Tech Entrepreneur with a Passion for Client Service

W

ith years of hands-on, entrepreneurial experience and an immaculate track record of success, Rob Adler foresaw a vision for Financial Recovery Technologies (FRT) to lead it towards where it is today.

Over the last twenty years, Adler has cofounded four technology companies and maintained an active presence as an advisor, investor, and mentor for several Boston-area growth companies.

As an entrepreneurial leader with extensive experience creating companies from the ground-up, Adler had to adapt his approach to building a business when he took the helm at FRT. With limited background in the industry but aggressive growth targets, Adler built a team of seasoned professionals with legal expertise, class action knowledge and technological experience to achieve FRT’s goals.

Today, as the CEO of FRT, Adler oversees an industryleading global organization which is singularly focused to maximize recoveries for eligible investors in securities class action settlements. Nominated amongst The 30 Most Inspirational Business Leaders to Watch, 2018 by Insights Success, we took a brief look at this inspiring individual and the company he leads.

The Road towards FRT In 1997, Adler co-founded CCBN, which was a pioneer in direct internet communications between public companies and the investment community. He served as the President of the company from inception to successful exit upon its sale to Thomson Financial back in 2004.

CCBN brought many web-based and compliance related innovations to the market, including live webcasting and full-text, real-time transcription of thousands of corporate earnings calls every quarter.

Following CCBN, Rob founded 80108 Media, known as go2Media later on, which is a mobile media company that provides users valuable and compelling information finetuned for their mobile device. He then joined WordStream as its founding CEO, a venture-backed start-up providing search engine marketing software solutions to small and medium sized businesses around the world. Like CCBN, Wordstream announced in May 2018 its acquisition by Gannett.

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It was after this, in 2012, when Rob joined FRT with an aim to drive its growth and spread its presence across the world.

Solutions that Echoes Quality FRT’s comprehensive suite of services enables global monitoring of all types of investor recovery opportunities, from securities class actions to antitrust and global group litigations. Applied to these opportunities are industryleading filing capabilities, sophisticated pre-filing analytics, and reconciliation of all payments to maximize client returns. When combined with FRT’s online, dynamic reporting platform, users gain unprecedented transparency and confidence into their securities litigation recovery program.

A Brief Look at FRT’s History FRT was established in 2008 to help investors recover money from securities class action settlements. It is an affiliated company of The Cross Country Group LLC (CCG), a privately-held organization comprised of several independent operating companies with common ownership of the Wolk family.

Prior to the creation of FRT, Sidney Wolk was often burdened by completing the paperwork, obtaining proper documentation and submitting claims for the securities class actions that affected his investment portfolio. For one claim, Mr. Wolk received a substantial recovery, providing evidence that the time and effort it took to submit the claim was all worth it. Based on that experience, the Wolks determined there must be a way to use technology to automate and scale the settlement recovery process to relieve the burden investor’s face in addressing securities class action recovery opportunities.

Two Pivotal Moments of Success Amongst the many monumental moments of the company, two pivotal events have stood-out in the company’s transformation from a start-up to a world-class service provider.

The first of which was back in 2012, when the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world had put forward an RFP to identify a new vendor to service its securities litigation claims. Recalling this moment, Adler says “This was one of our first “institutional” clients, and its recognition of our team, expertise, technology, and commitment helped build

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the brand of FRT as an industry leading company despite our modest size at the time.”

The second is one that is currently unfolding in the marketplace, owing to the outcropping of Supreme Court decisions in 2010 and 2017. These two decisions are forcing significant changes for securities litigation around the world (not just in the US), and introducing a brand-new set of challenges.

Innovation is at the heart of FRT To address these specific challenges, Adler and his team at FRT have reimagined what technology, analytics, and client service can be for an institutional investor in this new and more complex era. FRT empowers its clients with the information, insight, and transparency to carry out their fiduciary obligations to shareholders with a scalable system for managing decision-making process as it relates to securities litigation. The Supreme Court decisions re-shape what is required for an institutional investor to act as a fiduciary in the area of securities litigation; FRT is the first company to recognize this, and has invested to create services and capabilities designed specifically to help these investors manage as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Molding a Great Leader and Advice to Aspiring Individuals In today’s fast paced environment, with customers demanding solutions that are better and more cost-effective, service providers are facing an array of challenges, one which they have faced never before.

Adler says, “Key to the success of every service provider is having a team of individuals capable of thriving, not merely surviving, in this highly competitive environment.”

Great leaders need to inspire their teams to remain focused on client-centric problem solving, and empower continuous improvement and learning. Open communication, trust, and respect for individuals on the team are vital characteristics for leaders today.

Adler concludes by advising aspiring and budding leaders with a thoughtful message, “See the world and your competitive situation as it is, not as you want it to be. Build a culture inside your company upon a foundation of openness and respect for the individual, but also where performance is measured and each employee is accountable. Remember that without a team of great people you can’t build a great company. And finally, be humble. Through humility we keep our eyes and ears open to ways we can improve.”

“See the world

and your competitive situation as it is, not as you want it to be.”

— Rob Adler CEO Financial Recovery Technologies

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Vinny Lingham: T

he desire to establish a business usually stems from one of two perspectives. For some, it is the potential for growth and financial gain while, for others, it is the desire to translate a vision into reality.

Someone with such an idea and impeccable desire mostly succeeds and flourish their business idea to best possible level with unending passion and perseverance One such example of adept startup is Civic, a pioneering identity verification system poised to revolutionize the industry. It is the brainchild of its Founder, Vinny Lingham an ingenious internet entrepreneur.

Civic was designed by Vinny to give individuals a reliable identity verification platform. It is now spearheading the development of an ecosystem specially designed to facilitate on-demand, secure, and low-cost access to identity verification services through Blockchain technology.

An Active Technology Investor Vinny Lingham is a well-recognized South African internet entrepreneur who moved to California a decade ago. He is an active technology investor, chiefly in Silicon Valley, and a General Partner at Multicoin Capital.

Vinny was born in South Africa and personally witnessed apartheid, where individuals were denied voting rights due to racial discrimination. The lack of access to voting cards for much of the population created an identity verification nightmare.

A geek-at-heart technologist, Vinny wanted to use digital technology to change this situation by creating a better platform that would ensure fair and secure digital voting

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Success through Bravery, Passion and Perseverance

systems. “In order to get to that point and make digital voting a reality, we first need to be able to verify online identities,” he asserts. This ideation is the force behind Civic.

Civic’s identity verification and management service enables consumers to protect and authorize the use of their identities in real-time, without the need for usernames or passwords. The system is designed to protect a user before, during and after an incident of identity theft.

Verified Civic IDs ensure quick but secure login to web and mobile apps of Civic’s partners. Consumers are able to upload and verify documents required for Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures safely. Additionally, they can securely log in through the Civic Mobile App which allows the company’s partners to validate and retrieve data protected by end-to-end encryption.

Civic has protected various businesses with its consumer identity solution and boasts a client list which includes several world-renowned global companies like Progrexion, BitGo and WikiHow. Numerous multinational banks, credit card companies, online lenders, wireless and cable providers, tech companies, and employee verification services also put their trust in Civic’s proven platform.

To meet the security needs of this diverse range of clients, Civic also offers a wide array of additional features, including ID theft monitoring, monitoring alerts, fraud support and ID theft insurance. Together, this everexpanding suite of services gives the company’s clients and their customers also, the digital peace of mind so necessary in our interconnected world.

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“ Founder

Civic A Versatile Startup Enthusiast Vinny Lingham is 360-degree entrepreneur who has invested heavily in various tech startups over the years.

Prior to Civic, he was the co-founder and CEO of Gyft, a mobile gift card company founded in 2012 which was backed by Google Ventures. Within two years of inception, Gyft become the leading player in the arena and was acquired in 2014 for over $50M by global payments giant, First Data Corporation.

He also co-founded an investment fund in South Africa called Newtown Partners. At Newtown, he has led early stage investments into successful and notable startups such as Sweep South and Augmenters.

Vinny has appeared as a Shark on Shark Tank South Africa and has also contributed as a Dragon on the South African edition of Dragon’s Den, the longest-running UK investment reality show. He has been an “Angel” in the non-profit spinoff of Undercover Boss, National Geographic’s Undercover Angel.

He is an astute individual who has inspired many ambitious entrepreneurs to start and lead their own companies through these shows. Vinny is a co-author of ‘I’m In: Essential Advice for Entrepreneurs’, a book which has given thousands of business enthusiasts piercing insight into the entrepreneurial journey.

“

Vinny Lingham

Talent shouldn’t chase money.

Money chases talent.

Do what you love and the money will follow.

building an innovative business; how you overcome those challenges is what matters the most - it improves you personally and professionally. Vinny recalls, “One of the toughest challenges I’ve faced was trying to raise capital for businesses that were ahead of their time. Disrupting the status quo is difficult, but rewarding.”

Though it’s tough to balance personal and professional life while working so hard every day, Vinny has successfully managed to do so with his characteristic perseverance and never-ending passion.

A Grounded Visionary Vinny says that it is essential for leaders to be strategic and visionary, but grounded as well. He adds that one must take the right chances bravely. He truly believes that fortune favors the brave, and if something goes south, then perseverance and grit will help it find the right way.

He also stresses that a good leader should always motivate and inspire their team to be the best they can be.

The fearless entrepreneur reveals that he has agreed to lower salary packages for himself just for the chance to work in a field about which he is passionate. His advice to budding entrepreneurs is to focus on an area for which they have a real passion and to learn as much as they can about it; the money will follow!

Balance and Perseverance It is normal to face challenges in the initial stages of

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The Art of Leading

Attributes of a

Good L

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.

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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 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.

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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.

Following are some of the qualities of a good leader: = 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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Zohar Ben Ner: Delivering Intelligent Agriculture Globally

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SupPlant changes the basic concept of irrigation methods; its unique technology helps saving water and improves productivity and yields.

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Zohar Ben Ner CEO & Founder SupPlant

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ood leaders pave a path to progress with the ultimate goal of implementing and executing revolutionary ideas while inspiring their subordinates. Integrity, emotional intelligence, a clear vision, and an exuberant delivery of ideas and goals are all integral to a good leader’s personality.

Zohar Ben Ner, the CEO and Founder of SupPlant is one such individual. His ideas, innovation and leadership are revolutionizing the agricultural sector.

Zohar grew up in the agricultural community of Kfar Yehoshua in the Jezreel Valley; farming is in his blood. He chose subjects at school that were focused on agriculture and this love continued into his career. His contributions to greenhouse technology through the Netafim company in the late 80s’ are still applied in the agricultural industry today.

Zohar was given the opportunity to establish a Netafim branch in Korea, from where he managed the company’s sales and projects in Korea and Japan. He introduced revolutionary technologies, specifically soilless culture practices, irrigation control and fertilization, that have changed the way vegetables are cultivated in S.Korea.

The Bucket list of Success With more than 30 years of experience in developing, marketing, sales, entrepreneurship and management of agricultural technology, Zohar is an industry stalwart. He was the VP of Marketing in the first company to offer plant indices for the management of growing boundaries in modern agriculture.

In 2002, he established his own company named BF AGRITECH which specializes in the study of the unique genetics of lycopene-rich tomatoes. It also exports agricultural measurement technologies to universities and research institutes, mainly in the Far East, China and Japan.

In 2006, Zohar contributed to the establishment of KAIIMA, a company that works in the field of genetics and cultivation. As a CEO and later as VP, he was part of a team that developed a unique technology for breeding varieties of plants. He later began to put together a team which would become part of SupPlant in 2012.

Over the past few years, Ben Ner has dedicated himself to AgroWebLab. This company has created an online platform and smartphone application to collect real-time sensor data from farms and provide continuous, actionable feedback to farmers.

plants,” explains Ben Ner. The company takes things one step further by automatically controlling the water supply according to the information coming in from the sensors.

Seeding Soils with Innovation SupPlant is a world leader in applying IoT technology to agriculture. It offers growers a unique product called GBI which optimizes irrigation to ensure robust yet sustainable yields. GBI is an artificial intelligence system which analyzes data generated from crops through sensors and translates this data into irrigation commands.

By changing the basic concepts of irrigation, the company’s unique technology saves water while improving productivity. The company is now in the final testing stages of testing its technology and implementing it for smallholder farmers at an economically competitive price.

SupPlant also handles turnkey vertical projects and works with large companies to implement proof of concept R&D testing.

Coherent Decisiveness The pivotal moment for Zohar in Agritech was in 1996 – it was then that he realized that people have the ability to get returns from plants and understand objectively what the best treatment is. It took till 2012 to secure the funds to actualize this vision.

Zohar believes it is important for leaders to create for their company a coherent vision based on connecting people to positive action. He understands that it is critical to give employees the feeling that they are an important part of the puzzle.

“It is equally important to have employees who embrace a positive attitude towards action and social added value,” adds Zohar.

Imparting Leadership The journey of a leader is incomplete until their ideology and their traits of determination, dedication, sincerity and compassion are passed on to the next generation of aspiring leaders.

Summing up that responsibility, Zohar explains, “A good leader is a charismatic and optimistic person who genuinely believes in the path he leads; someone who believes that failures are part of the process of learning and growing. Don’t be afraid to be bold.”

“Basically, our product provides online information on the plants through sensors that are placed directly on the

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