The 30 Powerful Leaders in Business 2019

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VOL 3 March 2019

ISSUE 11

30 T H E

POWERFUL

LEADERS I N B U S I N E S S

Editor's Choice Emotional Intelligence for Highly Effective Leadership

Editor’s Viewpoint Tactics that Elevates Remote Team Management

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Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Abhishaj Sajeev Contributing Editors Suhel, Nilam, Ryan Visualiser David King Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Art & Design Assistant Poonam Mahajan Co-designer Paul Belin Art & Picture Editor Mayur Koli Business Development Manager Mary D'Souza Marketing Manager Sophie Smith Business Development Executive Karen Holland Sales Executives Kevin, Misty, Josh Technical Head Jacob Smile Assistant Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Consultants Amar, David, Robert Digital Marketing Manager Alina Sege Assistant Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale SME-SMO Executives Gemson Research Analyst Eric Smith Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

March, 2019 Corporate Ofď€ 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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Editor’s Note "Leadership demands determination and profundity, and in return, it delivers unprecedented success."

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he world of business, a profound ecosystem encompassing the ambitions and aspirations of individuals set out on an entrepreneurial voyage.

Additionally, this ecosystem shelters an aggressively intimidating race for success. But, real success can only be attained through the struggles which an individual withstands on the path to building an empire. This path inculcates within us the lesson that success isn’t just about crossing the checkered flag and arriving first at the finish line, where sparkling champagne bottles await us, but it is more about earning loyalty, respect and our identity. The realization of this path is what reveals that distinguishing line between the dreamers and the achievers, between those cursing their luck and those polishing their instruments of trade, and between mere followers and the leaders.

Tuning the Leadership Tools

True leaders know that it is their duty to be the guiding light for those who look up to them as a beacon of inspiration.

Along with being subject matter experts in their respective industries, leaders must also exhibit a forte in giving direction to the organizational vision and mission. Leadership is like a journey towards unforeseen horizons, sailing uncertain tides of success and failures, and at the end, the mighty winds spreading the tale of your profound victory.

With the agenda of discovering and featuring such exceptional leaders, and considering their ardent demonstration of leadership traits, Insights Success brings to you, this comprehensive list of “The 30 Powerful Leaders in Business.” Delve into the inspiring stories and lessons from a list of significant entrepreneurs featured in this issue and reap the fruits of motivation. Also, flip through the CXOs and articles penned by industry experts and our editorial team, and relish a brief taste of various industrial sectors and technologies.

Bon Appetite!

Abhishaj Sajeev

Astute Thoughts Can You Really See Your Customers?

CXO STANDPOINT

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Expert’s Opinion Refusers welcome!

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Akash Agarwal Inspiring Leadership, Delivering Simplicity

16 Ann Chapman A Bibliophile, Creating waves in the ‘Patenting Vertical’

Alvin Ea A Budding Trailblazer of Logistical Arena

22 Brett Caldon A Compassionate Leader Nurturing HumanCentered Environment

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Editor’s Choice

Editor’s Viewpoint

Emotional Intelligence for Highly E ective Leadership

Tactics that Elevates Remote Team Management

28 Chad Burmeister A Decorated Frontrunner of the Sales Vertical

34 Dr. Srinivas Kilambi

Serial Entrepreneur with the True Thrill of Success

36 Edward Van Leent

A Leader Who Changed the Data Centre Training and Audit Industry Forever

38 Gary Olson A Confident & Creative Entrepreneur In Pursuit Of Innovation

CONTENTS

Articles

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46

Jin-Ni Gan

Jos Burger

Larry Pfeifer

At the Helm of a Global Ascension

Fortifying Organizations, Contributing for Change

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54

Mike Walsh

Moises Pontremoli Leading the Automation Revolution

Paul Luen

An Epitome of Entrepreneurial Brilliance

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Robert Ross

Tim Grace

Vishal Barapatre

A Towering Professional of Technological Sphere

Making a Di erence in the World of Risk Management

Reforming the Global IT Ecosystem

Enabling Mobility, Connecting the World

A Revered Technocrat, who is On a Mission to Transform Citizen Lives

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‘True leadership lies not in creating followers, but in creating more leaders.’

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he very core of leadership is to make an impact, leave footprints, and to pass on its eternal flame to the ones born from it. What good are leaders if exploiting people is their agenda, and what good can leaders not do when the power of positive persuasion is bestowed upon them? Coming to the kind of leadership that’s required to run a company right from scratch to glory, it could be safely said that Akash Agrawal, the Co-founder and CEO of Sahaj Software Solutions, is an ideal representation.

Akash

Agrawal

Inspiring Leadership, Delivering Simplicity

Akash has been in the IT industry for over two decades now and displays the same level of proficiency. He started his career with some of the major global IT Services Companies like HCL, Infosys, Aditi and ThoughtWorks. He started off as a Java developer and went on to do projects in the ERP space. Akash has played the role of Managing Director and COO for ThoughtWorks India and grew the company's India operations from 250 people initially, to about 850 people by the time he left.

In 2014, Akash started Sahaj Software Solutions along with four of his colleagues from ThoughtWorks. “The idea of Sahaj was very straight forward, we wanted to create a company which is all about its people and tries to reduce exploitation of its people and clients. At the same time we realized that in the last 20 years, very little innovation has happened in the IT services space,” states Akash.

Considering this as an opportunity, Akash and his team at Sahaj, used this opportunity to create a disruptive and innovative IT Services company, which came up with its own unique delivery methodology, backed by a strong people culture.

Exhibiting Expertise The Sahaj Software delivery model reduces wastage in software delivery by more than 50%. The company delivers complex technology projects and products much faster and with a minimalistic, but high powered technology team.

Broadly, Sahaj is a premium technology consulting company and offers Custom Development, Product Design

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Akash Agrawal Co-founder & CEO | MARCH 2019

and Technology Advisory.

Sahaj takes pride in delivering simple solutions to complex business needs.

Akash evidently comprehends that designing and developing a simple solution needs in-depth understanding of clients’ problems, the ecosystem, years of experience, knowledge of the best practices in order to come up with intuitive designs and technical choices, and finally like that of an artist, a knack for drawing the best solutions.

All these requirements most certainly need a different set of people, and what better an example than team Sahaj?

The Sahaj team collectively has the experience of taking multiple start-ups from an idea stage to market stage in about 2-4 months. Such product design and development engagements start with a short 2-3 day discovery, ideation and product design exercise, followed by service / experience design going in parallel with development, managed in short iterations that are typically 1 week long. Each iteration ends with an evolving version of the working product, facilitating feedback at the end of each stage.

Sahaj helps its customers make appropriate technology and process choices. It also helps them define their technology roadmap for new business strategies, new product architectures in the evaluation of existing or new and innovative product ideas to assess the technical robustness of existing solutions. The company’s recommendations are based on years of collective experience, its passion for solving complex problems as a team and passion to find simple solutions.

Staying Inspired, Staying Successful Akash’s goal in life is to keep learning,

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“A great leader is one who inspires others to be a leader, to believe in something and lead others, to grow others and to create a movement.” experimenting and building something that can inspire others. Whereas, his biggest source of inspiration is his partner, friend, the guardian of his values and mentor, his wife Nidhi.

“She has been a perpetual source of inspiration for me. Her ability to keep fighting all odds, keep calm when in deep trouble, ability to think out of box and above all motivate people around at all times, has been the biggest inspiration for me,” Akash expresses.

There have been times in Akash’s life when he felt lost or broken in his journey. His approach towards surpassing such times has always been going back to the drawing board and trying to rehash everything, and also the ceaseless support of his wife.

Success for Akash is not the growth of the company or the idea, but in the growth of people who believe in that idea. According to Akash, a leader is just not about the idea but more importantly about the people who believe in the idea. Akash knows, if the

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people who are on the journey have learnt, and grown then that’s success.

“A leader’s best asset is the ability to influence and inspire others. If a leader is not able to inspire others then that’s job half done,” says Akash.

Bequeathing Excellence In his advice to the budding entrepreneurs, Akash states, “I am still in the learning process of entrepreneurship, but one thing that I can say is have an unwavering belief in the team that you build for your venture. Spend good time in making the right choices when you build the initial team. In my mind entrepreneurship is a team sport. Every member of the team has an important role to play in the game. And also play to enjoy the experience and not only win it.”

Concluding his perspectives and opinions on leadership and inspiration, Akash talks about the future roadmap for himself as well as his company. He says, “Ten years is too long a time.

I believe in taking life as it comes.

However, I do see myself helping young leaders and playing more of an advisor and a coach kind of a role in the years to come.”

Akash and his team of experts aim at redefining the entire premium software services space and establish Sahaj as the Market leader in that space. After establishing the company in India, US, now they are looking at setting up an entity in UK and also have Singapore next on the cards.

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ALVIN EA: A Budding Trailblazer of Logistical Arena

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ith the vision of saving time and resources for hauliers, while improving visibility and reliability for end customers, one entrepreneur thought out of the league, and crafted a brand new eco-system to overhaul logistics operations.

Alvin Ea is that trailblazing leader who is on a mission to bring value to the various stakeholders within the container trucking space. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Haulio, which provides a revolutionary collaborative B2B platform to get containers moved.

Mesmerizing Entrepreneurial Journey Alvin started his logistics profession through his family business HUB Distributors Services, a local SME 3PL firm in Singapore since 1988. He decided to start the company’s container haulage arm in 2013, and from there built it up from scratch – from a fleet of 1 to 15 trucks – in the span of 3 years.

“The process was painstaking, as I built it through the traditional way. It wasn't easy meeting the expectations of customers and juggling the demands of an unpredictable job that lacked operational stability,” asserts Alvin.

After years of toiling in the traditional logistics industry, Alvin understood the importance of technology and observed the likes of eCommerce companies changing the entire landscape in ridiculous speed.

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He was very happy with the remarkable growth of his company but wanted to do something different. He was tired of trying to make a change to solve his own company’s daily struggles, when in actual fact these problems resonate with the rest of his other “friendly competitors”. The turning point came when Alvin met Sebastian Shen, the co-founder of his company, who had the same grand vision as him – to change this traditional industry through technology.

Haulio’s Offerings Alvin’s company offers a web-based platform that bridges the information gaps across the industry today by simply matching demand to supply.

“Due to the consolidation of vessels upstream and increasing vessel sizes, there is an increased volatility in spikes and troughs of shipment. Haulio helps to even out haulage resources through the sharing of resources,” added Alvin.

As the CEO of Haulio, his goal is to maximize haulage resources through industry level sharing to improve job productivity and asset utilization. He also gives equal emphasis to add value to end customers by providing realtime visibility and reporting of fleet operations.

Further, Alvin continuously pushes his team to read widely and to document their learnings. He wants each of them to grow with Haulio – be it as a UX researcher, a product designer, a software developer or a marketer.

“I hope that through Haulio, they will build and develop into professionals in their respective fields,” stated the CEO. Alvin’s Biggest Feat Alvin considers his biggest achievement till date with Haulio is the validation of the work that he is contributing. He cannot emphasize enough about the role that the trucking community plays in the industry and by seeing the impact that they have on the industry regardless of the size of the customer, is what drives him forward.

“A notable achievement would be getting one of the largest Port Operator in the World to be our investor and client where we managed to develop on a project that was once their “Innovation of the Year” and servicing a contract with them from the start of our incubation till today,” stated Alvin.

Viewpoint on Leadership and Entrepreneurship Alvin believes that a leader should lead by example. As the leader of the company, “I represent the core values that the company stands for and the best way to set the culture is to be the one who display the values within,” added Alvin. Moreover, walking the ground and getting to interact and know more about his colleagues is another way which he uses to influence employees in a positive and interactive manner.

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I AM CONNECTING CONTAINERS TO CONSUMERS FOR THE BETTERMENT OF EVERY

STAKEHOLDER For budding entrepreneurs, Alvin has a piece of advice.

He says, be the change you wish to see in this world.

There is no problem too big to solve. He has already stepped into a highly fragmented industry like haulage to try and make a difference. According to Alvin, there will be many walls and obstacles that will come your way, just learn to deal with them, one at a time. It always seems impossible until it’s done, reflects Alvin.

Furthermore, he added, there are also many stakeholders and departments involved, each with differing agendas - the challenge will be to get companies to fully adopt the changes and move towards a digital platform for the booking and execution of their daily Container Haulage requirements.

On recalling his future lookout about the industry, Alvin said many interesting things. “I see Haulio as the future of haulage – this is what haulage SHOULD be. Haulage today is still stuck in the 80s, and this needs to change,” concluded Alvin. “I hope that in 10 years, haulage will be digitalized, with Haulio leading or partnering with others, to bring this change.”

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Alvin Ea, Co-founder and CEO

Alvin’s Take on ‘Challenges’ and ‘Future Outlook’ Alvin considers that the biggest obstacle that occurs in most of the businesses is of longer conversion cycles.

He explained, to effect reformative changes in the traditional industry like haulage needs longer time as more time is needed to change the mind-sets and business processes.

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Ann Chapman MD & Co-founder

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atenting is an important activity to secure intellectual property and sell goods abroad. A good patenting solution every organization needs to exploit the commercial value of IP and scientific information throughout the innovation process. Ann Chapman is providing such leading-edge patenting solutions that can connect to the target audience in a rightful manner.

Ann is a bibliophile who loves written words and languages. She is the Managing Director and Co-founder of Minesoft who always finds new ways of crafting innovative software solutions concerning patenting requirements.

Dissemination of information and knowledge is what always inspires her.

ANN

CHAPMAN A Bibliophile, Creating waves in the Patenting Vertical'

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Ann began her career working with renowned publishing company, Thomson Reuters (then known as International Thompson) and was sent all over the world to visit clients and secure business. Later, she moved to another US publishing company (Ziff Davies Group) in the field of business information (companies and markets). After some time, she returned to patents and Scitech publishing with France Telecom Group.

After gaining vital experience of the professional world, she ultimately took the plunge into the entrepreneurial world. As a businessperson, Ann gives special attention to Marketing, PR and Finance operations to a great level. Besides these, she is very much active in developing the skill sets and management team to boost organizational efficiency and productivity.

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“Nothing is static and embracing change is an advantage in business life but keeping focus on the bigger picture helps me personally”

She gives special credit to her husband Ophir Daniel, a seasoned professional for her remarkable success as the MD of Minesoft.

Ophir drives innovation through product design, development and IT infrastructure. He is a genius innovator who has a new idea every day. He grew up as an engineer on a kibbutz in Israel, a big collective farm with advanced manufacturing facilities.

Rahman Hyatt, Board Director, is another key person at Minesoft, who has assisted significantly towards the growth of Minesoft.

“We also have a highly motivated and hardworking team that is comprises of adept professionals. In my opinion, a company needs a variety of assets for prolonged success and it is the role of the leader to enable others to fulfil their potential too,” asserts Ann. Minesoft’s Illustrious Offerings and Remarkable Feats With leading corporations, patent offices and law firms among its customers, Minesoft has come a long way from its humble beginnings. It has achieved this without taking on outside investment but instead in always being forward thinking in growing the company’s network and locating new partners.

Minesoft’s history spans over 20 years of innovation and development – an achievement in itself. In 2003, Minesoft & RWS launched PatBase, a new searchable database of patent documents designed by experts in the complex art of the patent information research. Since the first critically acclaimed public demonstrations in 2003, PatBase has gone on to attract over 70,000 users worldwide.

“Whilst we are probably best known

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for PatBase, a professional patent search and analytics system, we have clients so far spread that many never search at all,” stated Ann. “ For example, legal operations professions who may be paralegals or the like require access to clean data but for entirely different purposes.”

In 2009, Minesoft won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for an outstanding achievement in rapidly growing export markets in the field of Intellectual Property (patent) information – a tribute to the international success of PatBase and to the dedication of the development, sales and support staff behind it.

Minesoft has expanded its portfolio of innovative patent information products to include PatBase Express, PatentOrder, Patent FamilyPortal, PatentTracker, Legal StatusTracker, CiteTracker, Chemical Explorer, PatKM and PatBase Analytics. This continuous innovation was instrumental in Minesoft being awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for a second time in 2015.

The Award was given for an impressive, sustained growth in International Trade, the company having demonstrated an outstanding achievement in rapidly growing export markets in the field of Intellectual Property (patent) information.

The company has introduced a new product called PatDocs in late 2018 which provides fully automated patent family trees, the ability to instantly create a fully filled in SB-08 information disclosure document (ready for PTO submission), the ability to download any number of patent PDFs (in bulk or individually) within seconds and the ability to create a sharable work product between colleagues or between inside and

outside counsel.

Uniqueness of the Company Minesoft is a renowned patent solution provider that has partnered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in the ASPI programme. It provides researchers in developing countries free or low-cost access to sophisticated tools and services, like PatBase, for retrieving and analyzing patent data to help drive innovation worldwide. Minesoft has been providing industry with reliable and powerful solutions to access the technological and scientific information that is often only available in patents for the past 20 years.

“We invest a lot of time and effort in the design and development of exactly the type of search tools our User Base requires to handle the multiplicity of data and sources – based on the feedback we receive,” added Ann. “Giving unfettered access to this data helps to drive innovation worldwide and make big advances in the scientific and technological landscapes whether it’s a new pharmaceutical drug or technology for electric vehicles… building on these ideas can change the world for the better,” stated Ann. Future Endeavour Minesoft is working on developing a new search engine that should be released later this year. Moreover, the company is ready to develop some neat new functionality in areas like natural language searching and semantics.

“We will also develop the area of automated translations and landscaping analysis. In the coming 10 years, Ophir and I will continue to travel widely to learn about our globe and help develop new technologies for the future,” concluded Ann.

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EMOTIONAL

INTELLIGENCE FOR

HIGHLY EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but with creatures of emotion- Dale Carnegie, a renowned American writer and lecturer

E

motional Intelligence (EI) is not a new concept and it is widely known that people with high Emotional Quotient (EQ) are more likely to succeed in their careers. A leader’s emotional intelligence can have an extensive impact over their relationships at work, how they deal with their teams, and how they cooperate and interact with people in the working environment. Sometimes, they have difficult conversations as a part of the job. They have to discuss on employee’s less satisfactory work performance, to tell the team that they need to work extra time, or announcing an unpopular change. All such issues are simply parts of the leader’s job. Such tough conversations often lead to affect the emotions and feeling of themselves and the people they speak with.

An Indispensible Trait for Leaders Research has demonstrated that the most effective leaders have more competence in emotional intelligence. EI is especially important for the leader when things get tough. Whether it’s an urgent deadline for an important project requiring everybody to stay late in office or a colleague has lost concentration or drive for work. At that time, leaders have to take intelligent steps and have to keep everything and everyone on track. Leaders who are emotionally intelligent

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encourage safe environments and open organizational culture, where employees feel comfortable to share their individual opinions. Such leaders plan the most appropriate ways to introduce and carry out the change in organisation.

When Leaders Aren’t Emotionally Intelligent Leaders with low in emotional intelligence tend to act out in stressful conditions because they’re not able to manage their own emotions. They might be inclined to behaviours such as, yelling, blaming, and being passive aggressive.

This can make a much more upsetting condition, where co-workers can’t communicate freely with the leader and trying to prevent themselves from the next outburst. This will lead to create an unhealthy work environment and inhibit collaboration.

When leaders can’t control the feelings and emotions of their own, the co-workers tend to feel nervous about contributing their idea for fear of how the leader will respond. Most leaders deal with conflict, and those who don’t understand others’ emotion may find it difficult to recognize and understand the problems and deal effectively with its resolution.

Work on EQ to Boost the Performance Self-Assessment and Self-Regulation Recognize and manage one’s own emotion, strengths, weaknesses, values and drivers and understanding their effect on others. An effective leader needs to know when he or she is feeling anxious, furious, disappointed, frustrated, proud, or sympathetic. Manage those emotions to best meet the demands of the team. Recognizing those feelings at the time is essential because it allows the leader to consider whether they are appropriate for the situation, and whether they signal something that needs to be dealt with. Also, the leader who can see or feel the wrong or negative emotions are coming out; there are better chances of controlling it and routing that energy in more vital direction.

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Recognising and Regulating Others’ Emotions Observing and dealing with other peoples’ emotions lie at the heart of effective leadership. It is called the ability to precisely pick up on emotions in other people. In team, different people have their own plans and to cope up with those differences to achieve united goal requires emotional adjustments. But a good leader reads how individuals in the entire team are feeling on the basis of subtle cues as well as interactions and figures out how to inspire productive participation. It becomes easier for the leader to listen to what other people are saying clearly and without judgment, which leads to develop effective team work.

Compassion Understand how co-workers may feel or react on a certain situation and show empathy for workers’ fates and needs.

The more one can relate to others, the better understanding may build that helps to motivate them. In short, this shows that the leader cares about the team and can successfully achieve the team’s goals. Leaders high in EI show empathy when they need to and willing to put him/her in other people’s shoes; it is an incredible method to perceive what it will take to get the team motivated.

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.-Jack Welch, a Famous American Business Executive and Author said rightly.

A great leader always behaves in a way others will respond to positively toward getting things done both individually and collectively. To become a highly effective leader, one doesn’t need to develop a robot and turn your emotions off but it is required to focus on the development of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. Being an effective leader is about having the technical skill, strategic thinking, and knowledge but being a highly effective leader also requires emotional intelligence.

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Brett Caldon A Compassionate Leader Nurturing Human- Centered Environment

“We don’t hire the smartest people to tell them what to do; we hire them so they can tell us what to do.” – Steve Jobs, Former Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Apple Inc.

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ith more than twenty-five years of experience in financial services and leading organizations, Brett Caldon follows these wise words of Steve Jobs. Currently, Brett is the CEO and Co-founder of Workgrid Software.

Let’s reflect on the inspiring story of this passionate entrepreneur.

Brett started his career in a large Fortune 100 firm. During mid-90s, the time of tough job market conditions, it was hard to get a job in the recession.

But he got an opportunity to enter the financial industry during that time.

Brett always wanted to be in the field of technology, but according to him, he was fortunate enough to get diverse opportunities that compounded over time and has allowed him to succeed in bridging the technology and business landscapes.

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He asserts, “Taking risks and embracing opportunities even with uncertain outcomes has been a major factor in my development.” He continues, “Keep a mindset to grow and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself and accept the results, for better or worse, and be authentic in your intent, carry that forward and build on it.”

About the Company Backed by Liberty Mutual Insurance, a leading Fortune 100 global insurer, Workgrid Software is not a typical technology startup. The company focuses on building intelligent workplace software solutions that are purpose-built for an enterprise, by an enterprise.

The Workgrid Assistant, Workgrid’s

Brett Caldon

Co-founder, and CEO

premiere product, provides a unique platform that integrates with all the common systems and tools found in the workplace from HR, expense management, business applications, office productivity, benefit applications, calendars, and even custom applications to aggregate employee tasks, approvals, and needto-know information into a single, modern consumer-like experience.

At the core of the Workgrid Assistant is the Workgrid Chatbot, which provides personalized information and suggestions to employees based on their role, location, user preferences, and conversational history.

Brett’s Views on Leadership According to Brett, leaders are those who understand diversity in approaches, skill sets and behaviors -

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whether it’s strategy, execution, mentoring, building influence, championing their people, etc. Brett is a strong supporter of servant leadership and has the ability to listen, empower, have empathy, and remove obstacles.

He believes in providing a continuous learning environment, where team members can learn and grow from new challenges and where innovative ideas can flourish.

Overcoming Obstacles Like many leaders, Brett has faced his fair share of hurdles, but he’s managed to turn many of his challenges into successes. One challenge he faced early on with Workgrid was the positioning of the brand. It was difficult to define, while maintaining the balance between the backing of a Fortune 100 company in a nonadjacent industry, and educating customers on the value proposition Workgrid provides.

Brett and his team had developed various strategies to overcome this.

They put in a significant amount of time and effort collaborating with companies across multiple industries and discussing the value proposition of solving for the pain points that exist in the enterprise digital landscape. It was more about building trust with potential customers beyond the solution offering.

Brett can attest to when you start a new venture with innovative products and services, you hit new hurdles every day, but these challenges help you learn and enable you to move forward successfully.

Awards and Achievements Brett asserts, “I feel my biggest achievement is the culmination of all the failures, successes, learning, and

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experiences throughout my entire career. That has allowed me to be in the position I am today.” While getting Workgrid off the ground, Brett and his team have been recognized by several prestigious industry awards such as, · Agenda18 Digital Edge Award by IDG · 2018 Digital Workplace Award by Digital Workplace Group · 2018 Intranet and Digital Workplace Award by Step Two Designs · Gartner’s Eye on Innovation Award 2018 Preparing for the Future Brett’s future plans include a focus on the growth and evolution of Workgrid Software. He is planning to expand the product portfolio to continue bringing new solutions to other enterprises.

Moreover, he wants to build the brand to where Workgrid is among the most trusted and valued technology partners in the B2B space.

Brett’s Piece of Advice to Young Entrepreneurs According to Brett, the idea is just one percent of the entrepreneurial journey.

He advises, “You need to understand the whole picture and own it entirely.

You don’t have to journey on your own, but you need to be willing to invest in learning and doing things to succeed that will stretch your boundaries.

Embrace it.”

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“I feel my biggest achievement is the culmination of all the failures, successes, learning, and experiences throughout my entire career.”

He further says, “Be open to opportunities that arise. Continuously learn. Pay attention to what’s happening around you and don’t be afraid of pivoting, even if you have to give up on something you’ve invested in. Don’t hold on to a mistake just because you spent so much time and effort making it. Learn from it and apply that learning to what’s next.”

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Tactics that Elevates

REMOTE TEAM

MANAGEMENT I

n today’s digital world, more companies are hiring remote employees to get the talented and skilled employees from worldwide.

Employees nowadays prefer to work remotely and many leading companies offering this opportunity to gain more productivity. Adding such remote employees to the team has some challenges. Remote work has its pros and cons. The best part about working remotely is that a person can work from anywhere. It is flexible and saves cost at the same time remote employees have less interaction with the team members. Communication gap is one of the biggest challenges while managing a virtual team. It is the responsibility of the leader to bridge these interpersonal gaps and take several steps to connect remote team.

Set Clear Goals If the goals and outline are clearly defined with the remote employees, then it will help them to perform the task quickly in prescribed time boundaries. As a manager and leader, it is important to discuss the

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Editor’s Viewpoint

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expectation clearly with them such as work hours, availability, communication system, key project, and deadlines.

The team mates who works in the different country with different time zone especially with them discuss work schedule clearly. This will help the employees to follow the schedule and they can timely complete the work. A manager can conduct virtual meetings to discuss the goals and work schedules with the virtual team mates. Such transparency will help to maintain a positive relationship between leader and team mates.

Right Communication System How important is to have a good communication system when your team might be spread across multiple cities or maybe countries? The office team meets and interact on daily basis during official meetings, can ask questions during lunch break or casually talk with a coworker at any time. But for the virtual team, who cannot meet personally on daily basis, it is necessary to have clear interaction.

Video chat Some communications can be handled over the voice call or emails but some communication needs to handle only with video call or chat. Especially with virtual employees who aren’t physically present in the office, the video chat is a perfect alternative of face to face communication. Video chat would be even better as it gives more visual signals of what is going on with the other person. It makes the remote team feels more real about the company’s culture.

Many apps are available for quick real-time interaction.

Screen Sharing Tools Several tools are available that enable to share the screen with another person so that a person can see exactly track and view remote employees screen. These tools also allow controlling the other computer remotely. Many of such tools are available for small teams, including TeamViewer and Join.me. These tools provide real-time updates regarding the screen and make project management easier.

Team Chat Apps In this instant chatting and sharing period, it is essential to have a chat room open for each team in the business. The team members can easily leave messages for the team that they are a part of. Virtual team members can receive prompt reply on important issues and it makes them feel connected with the whole team. Team chat apps can be used to brainstorm, pass files back and forth, compare notes on new releases, and many more. It is a place to talk about anything, work-related or not which helps to synchronize the remote team.

Use Time-Tracking Tools To keep the track of remote employees’ performance is a cumbersome task for the manager. But with the use of time tracking software and tools, the clear data on the work time can be gathered. Such tools provide accurate login and log out timing and at the same time, unproductive activities can be spotted easily. Attendance software provides accurate time reports which help the manager to track the timings of the remote employee and measure the performance. The App like Due time tracking which allows tracking the idle time of the remote employee, many such apps like Harvest, TopTracker, RescueTime and more which are effective time-tracker tools for freelancer employees.

Gone are days when remote working was considered as a low salary employment option. With the change in trend, it has now become a full-time career. Today, technology gets the same job done wherever the person is in the world.

Managing a remote team is a big deal, to get done assignment on time, keeps track of the work and building a strong relationship with them. Moreover, it is very important to have loyal, hard-working and productive employees that will help to reach the company vision. Companies are trying to get into this changing scenario to keep up with the changing need of their employees and to adapt to talent from different parts of the world.

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S

uccessful entrepreneurs are passionate and dedicated. They are characterized by an unrelenting zeal to succeed. Such leaders have a creative streak and an unrelentingly strong work ethic. One such dedicated and goal-driven leader is Chad Burmeister, the CEO of ScaleX.ai and BDR.ai.

Chad Burmeister, CEO

Chad Burmeister:

A Decorated Frontrunner of the Sales Vertical

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Chad has been a salesperson his entire life. In his early childhood, he used to sell candy on the bus on the way to school. Over time, he evolved into a seasoned professional and has held various positions in sales and marketing with renowned companies like FedEx, Cisco-WebEx, RingCentral, and ConnectAndSell. After having an experience of over 25 years in the marketing domain, Chad discovered that he was not destined to be confined to rules and regulations and to operate within a “box”. As a result, he ventured out to start his own company. In 2004 – 2006, even before “digital sales” had attained prominence, Chad launched Tele-SalesForce and signed nearly 50 clients to help them with telemarketing and appointment setting. “Over the last 10–15 years, the world has changed. It turns out, optimizing multiple channels of communication from phone, email, social, video, and more, has become important (and complex)!” says Chad.

Subsequently, he launched ScaleX.ai in 2017, and more recently, BDR.ai in 2018. ScaleX.ai takes care of the entire Sales Development Representative (SDR)/Business Development Representative (BDR) role, powered by artificial intelligence. For about the same cost a full-time BDR, the company delivers 10,000 sales activities per month (10X more than a typical SDR or BDR), and typically delivers between 10–50 meetings/month. BDR.ai is an offshoot of ScaleX which takes care of the entire digital outreach strategy on behalf of a quota carrying salesperson. BDR.ai sources 1,000 leads/month from

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leading data providers, and then executes 100 emails/day and 100-200 social selling activities/day for about rd 1/3 the cost of a dedicated BDR. Tackling Challenges with a Game-Face on The turning point for Chad’s career in sales came when he was fired from his first job out of college. He was a born introvert, and it showed. He had to overcome numerous hurdles to make it to the pinnacle of success. Over countless years of practice and hard work, Chad was able to become a “learned extrovert” and an incredible sales leader. His hard work paid off as it turned him into an outstanding individual. “The outward facing part didn’t come natural though, even though many who know me would say they had no idea. Hard work beats talent every time,” he adds.

Chad believes in looking at every challenge in the eye and transforming them into opportunities. Finding technology partners who will partner in a way that is meaningful for their clients has been a challenge. It has taken several attempts – many successes, and a few failures. Chad’s team of world-class operations combined with great sales and marketing allows him to listen and deliver to the clients, and pivot to what is meaningful in the market.

A Dedicated Leader Chad is a firm believer in working hard and playing hard. He believes that as one works hard to achieve their desired objectives, they should also

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“If someone isn't doing something right, don't say they are doing it wrong.

Show them the proper behavior then coach to neutral elements.” spend some time to celebrate their achievements. “My goal is to build a company that drives so much economic value that I can afford to ride off into the sunset with my wife and enjoy flying my children to unique “ports of call” in Europe, Asia, and all over God’s great planet!” says Chad. He believes in empowering his employees by understanding their goals and desires, and then helping them to achieve the same.

Ensuring Employee Growth and Empowerment The company relies on Gong.io to capture call recordings that are integrated automatically into SalesForce.com. This allows Chad to have 1:1s with sales reps, as well as customer success, to provide appropriate call coaching. He has been a firm believer of the notion – “coach to neutral elements”. He says, “If someone isn’t doing something right, don’t say they are doing it wrong.

Show them the proper behavior then coach to neutral elements”. Chad also

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recommends that sales people read great books like Gap Selling, by Keenan, which will motivate them to improve themselves and enhance their performance.

Winning Laurels on the Road to Glory Under the insightful leadership of Chad, ScaleX.ai has won numerous accolades. It has achieved various noteworthy landmarks throughout its illustrious journey. In 2018, ScaleX.ai won two awards – Top 20 Sales Management Application and Top 50 Most Admired Company of the year by two respectable organizations. “The thing I’m most proud of – 50 new clients in 2018, and 20 already by the end of January, 2019!” he adds.

Words of Advice for Up-andComing Entrepreneurs In the years to come, Chad plans to participate in some sales related businesses, but more from an advisor point of view. Chad feels that emerging entrepreneurs should stay with a company for at least a while early in their career. They should learn the basics and hone their skills.

Constantly working on improving their skills will be beneficial for them.

He advises them to find business problems that need to be solved. They should attend events that encourage and promote entrepreneurship. This will nurture their knowledge about business and entrepreneurship. Chad concludes by saying, “Find a mentor.

Work hard, play hard!”

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Can You Really See Your Customers?

About the Author Shiva Kris is currently working as Chief Technology O ďŹ cer at Ad2pro Group. Prior to this, he has worked at Yahoo!, Hyperion (Oracle) and [24]7.ai in US and in India.

He has more than 20 years of rich experience in engineering, product and program management, data science. Shiva is passionate about technology, especially AI and big-data.

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Shiva Kris Chief Technology O cer

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Astute Thoughts

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he more data we get about our customers, the more we realize we don’t really know them.

Because there’s no way to put all that information together and see them in one 360-degree view. Some tech providers and marketing consultants promise a view of the customer journey, but it’s really partial at best.

Businesses are spending more and more resources, and depending more and more, on a wide range of digital innovations aimed at increasing convenience, intensifying experiences and tracking involvement with brands.

AI, AR, and VR lead most conversations and conferences, and investment keeps escalating.

According to recent research by Accenture, one-third of companies are planning to increase their innovationrelated investments by more than 50 percent, as worldwide spending on technology and services to enable digital transformation reaches approaches $2 trillion by 2022.

Similarly, ADWEEK published a summary of leading applications. And Gartner published a spend survey showing that 63% percent of CMOs expect their innovation budgets to increase in 2019.

At this rate, you’d think we are making quantum leaps in marketing efficiency and customer development. But all the investment is actually falling short of the grand expectations that B2C and B2B technologies have created.

The biggest problem, despite years of focus, is the inability of organizations to establish the user’s identity across the ever-increasing channels, devices and data sources. Forrester recently

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confirmed that the ability to establish users across data sources remains a top-priority problem for businesses.

In other words, we still can’t really see our customers. No amount of what magic from the Internet of Things toolkit can overcome this fundamental problem.

So what good is it to advance marketing innovation if we don’t know who we’re marketing to?

If we don’t establish user identity, we can’t accurately profile behavior across channels or journeys across multiple sites. That makes it impossible to budget and communicate optimally to the right audiences, particularly for those companies that have many distinct brands with offline presences.

What’s more, it compromises the quality of automated experiences they can offer customers.

When you can see your customers, it’s transformative. Unlocking the profile and journey of users showed a show company it was misdirecting its marketing at 20- to 25-year-old men when married women were actually buying for their husbands and sons.

But the overwhelming majority of marketers end up like the growing digital commerce electronics company that still struggles to find what its consumers are doing just before landing on their website. Were they searching on Google or commenting in Facebook? Were they making mobile purchases, and what banks and payments systems did they use?

marketers to operate from unprecedentedly clear vision on their platforms, the customer vision stays inside the wall. The user data provided by platforms amount to a pinhole vision; typically, small cohorts of users specific to channels rather than a 360degree spectrum of behavior across digital, offline and real-world action.

DSPs, CRMs, and DMPs all provide value, but none deliver a unified user view in a cross-media, cross-channel, cross-device, online and offline arena.

Many third-party sources readily offer a list, but by the time that data has been segmented, joined, uniquified and optimized for user identity, weeks pass by and the prospect has long disappeared from the business radar.

But what if we had one universal user ID system? Using blockchain, it would be possible to establish and maintain a single view of user identity that evolves with activity. By consolidating the various user tracking pixels, event emanating scripts and other first-party data generators, we could unify firstand third-party data. We could see customers across platforms and technologies.

It’s possible. Privacy concerns can be satisfied with anonymized data and the security of blockchain technologies.

And the intensely competitive walled gardens can come to realize it’s essential to the growth of their businesses when marketers give them no choice. Because in the years ahead, marketing innovation and business growth will depend on how clearly and completely we see our customers.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to seeing customers is the irony of the FAANG proprietary systems we now refer to as walled gardens. While they allow

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Dr. Srinivas Kilambi: Serial Entrepreneur with the True Thrill of Success

Dr. Srinivas Kilambi Founder & CEO

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“I believe in achieving excellence in your chosen field or profession.

Success always is a corollary and follows excellence like a shadow.”

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H

e is a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, a CFA and a Serial Entrepreneur. He has also worked at C-level for two corporates with $70B in annual revenue as well as for the prestigious Fortune 100 companies. Having great experience in the world of entrepreneurship, with strong academic background did not mean that he did not go through struggles. There might have been constant hurdles but the other constant was the determination to get through them and rise. Dr. Srinivas Kilambi’s journey of to flout the odds has been a colorful one!

Dr. Srinivas began his career in late 80s as an entrepreneur with the vision to introduce India’s first biochemical plant and received the country’s best entrepreneur award for this project. He then moved to the US to pursue MS and Ph.D. in chemical engineering.

Two of his Ph.D. patents have been acquired by NY based private equity firm and both companies went IPO in 1996 and 1997. He got married to Jaya Kilambi, was the turning point in his life. His wife supported him to complete his CFA, MS, and Ph.D. and helped him to start the companies, taught him the greatest virtue of patience and love. In 2014, Dr. Srinivas started DXI along with Dr. David Dodds.

How He Started Out DXI Dr. Srinivas talks about some important aspect of DXI’s inception, “The Company was founded more by accident or necessity than choice. The two of us were working on a renewable materials project and were looking for some equipment and materials on many online sites. We never could find what we were looking for and even though we searched extensively”. He continues, “However, no sooner had we exited the site in sheer frustration, we

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received several calls and survey questionnaires asking us to inform the sites as to how we felt. We were shocked, and we realized that the sites had no clue about our experience and satisfaction levels and they assumed that since we spent a lot of time on site, we were quite satisfied, and we were a step away from buying online.”

This is how he decided to find a better way to understand user experience (UX) rather than through surveys. After six month’s intensive brainstorming they started ambitious project to mathematically convert a very subjective ‘Consumer Engagement and Experience’ into an objective number.

DXI’s mission and capabilities have evolved over a period of time. It has moved from initially an UX/DX tool kit for digital experience to an UX/DX Solution to a Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) solution to now as a being benchmark index for ‘Consumer User Experience’.

Moreover, the company has also applied the underlying technology engine into verticals like manufacturing productivity index, HR attrition index, healthcare predictivity index, airport customer satisfaction index etc. In summary, the company offers two distinct products namely a ‘Consumer Intelligence Index’ and ‘Business Intelligence Index’.

An Avid Learning Attitude Dr. Srinivas is inspired by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have not just achieved excellence in their chosen professions but have also been chosen to give back most of their wealth to noble causes and improvements in global human life standards. He looks at life from a very holistic position and excels as an individual in multiple disciplines namely entrepreneurship, innovation, and philanthropist.

He has been recognized and honored with several prestigious awards. He has won ‘TAG 2011 award’, ‘TiE Global Award in 2010’, ‘TiE Southeast Entrepreneur award in 2009’, ‘Frost & Sullivan Most Innovative Green Technology in 2010’ and more. He was one of the WEF 2010 finalists for the most innovative technology. Moreover, he has been recognized as ‘Youngest CEO of Reliance India’. During his academic journey, he has accomplished some significant places by securing second rank in CFA India and did one of the fastest PhDs in UTK. His Definition of Success Effective execution of plans is the most important part to achieve the goals.

According to him, a great idea is necessary for successful startups but success of the business totally depends on the execution of that idea. A great idea is only worth 10-20%. Success is 90% execution of a great idea. His approach for accomplishing goals in life is to follow and execute the fundamentals very closely. Breaking down goals into simple fundamentals enables a much easier execution.

He asserts, “Success always is a corollary and follows excellence like a shadow. I believe in measuring success through quantifying the level of excellence you have enabled in others’ lives or to the environment or humanity and not just in monetary terms of revenue generated.”

His advice to the budding entrepreneurs is, to follow your dream from a holistic purpose, chase excellence as success will definitely follow and be 100% innovative.

Finally, entrepreneurship is 100% full time effort and passion and is not a part time hobby.

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E

xceptional leaders are dedicated, honest, and confident. They have an indomitable will to overcome insurmountable odds and lead their team towards success and deliver services which add value to their customers. Such leaders are inspirational, possess excellent communication skills, and have an innovative streak. One such pioneering leader with an undeterred will to succeed and make a mark in the industry is Edward Van Leent, the Chairman and CEO of the EPI Group of Companies (EPI).

Edward pursued his education in economics, electronics, and electrical engineering. After leaving school, he gained work experience in designing chips and printed circuit boards. From there on, he joined the world of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering (CAD/CAE).

Eventually, he moved into highavailability computing environments, through which he entered into the data center domain. Then, Edward was hired by EPI to setup the Asia business.

Two years later, he ascended to the position of Chairman and CEO of the company. Edward turned the organization around from a data center design and built organization and transformed it into a data center services company. From there, the company quickly grew into the largest data center training and audit organization in the world which currently has nine offices covering all continents and having a large partner network.

Conquering Challenges to Attain Excellence Under Edward’s visionary leadership, EPI overcame many challenges from

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Edward Van Leent A Leader Who Changed the Data Centre Training and Audit Industry Forever

being an unknown company from Europe trying to establish itself in Asia and other continents, as well as moving from a design and built company into a data center services company. As a result, the company had to transform completely in terms of their positioning, services, marketing, processes, competences, and so on. “I was lucky in that in one of my previous organizations, we had to move the company from a hardware organization into a solutions-based organization which had a major impact,” says Edward. The lessons learnt there made it easier for him to carry out the transformation at EPI. Ensuring Development with Effective Communication Edward believes that direct communication is essential to make sure everybody understands the big picture and comprehends the reasoning behind the decisions he makes. He says, “I always find that if you make a decision and indicate to the staff why you made it, highlighting both the good and bad reasons it makes it easier for them to understand and accept the decision”. Edward believes that the challenge is always when one has information which they cannot disclose yet, for some reason, and they have to take a decision without prior

explanation to the staff. It could lead to the staff not fully understanding why a decision is made.

A Result-Focused Entrepreneur Edward has a clear perspective for himself and his team. He is focused on the goals and objectives of the company. He says, “I believe it is one of the most single important thing to do being in a management position which is to make sure that everybody understands where the organization is heading and what is expected of everybody and what role they play in the total scheme of things”. Edward is of the opinion that it is important for everybody to understand how they contribute to the overall success of the company. “I am blessed with having an amazing team”, he adds.

Edward’s source of Inspiration Edward believes in making the most out of life and to always do the best one can. He takes inspiration from his previous managers as well as Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of Singapore.

Edward moved to Singapore in 1997 and he admires the country for the way it transcended from where it was to where it is today. He says, “Lee Kuan Yew changed this country in a mere 30 years from what people called at that time “a swamp” to a first world

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country and keeping harmony in a multicultural environment. He was a focused leader and although not everybody always agreed with his ideas and way or getting things done, the results of his achievements speak for itself”. He gathers inspiration from various videos where Lee Kuan Yew provides his amazing insights and views on life and the world. Edward believes that Lee Kuan Yew was, without a shed of doubt, an amazing leader putting Singapore on the world map and one the world will probably never find again.

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Remarkable Accomplishments Throughout his illustrious career, Edward has achieved many noteworthy landmarks. There are many accomplishments which he fondly looks back at from a work perspective. He has achieved various accolades throughout his celebrated career. These include getting his first management job, winning his first big award – the ‘Chairman Achievement Award’ at Mentor Graphics, and achieving the position of Chairman and CEO at a relatively young age. “The ultimate position of being a CEO is which so many aspire but yet so little people realize what it entails. It has been a very exciting and rewarding career and life”, he says.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs Edward recommends emerging entrepreneurs to focus and work hard to achieve the desired goals. He suggests them to listen to customers and always look at how to help them with their business. “There are three steps every entrepreneur should think about. First of all, have a good strategy, make sure you have an operating model in place to execute the strategy and finally, make sure you hire the best people you can to make it all work”, Edward concluded.

“It is not about hours people work but it is about the output/value they can create” MARCH 2019 |

Edward Van Leent Chairman and CEO

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Gary Olson

A Confident & Creative Entrepreneur In Pursuit Of Innovation

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he successful entrepreneurs are not just the hardest working, they are the most innovative. One of those successful innovative entrepreneurs who think differently is Gary Olson. He is one of these tech- savvy entrepreneurs constantly looking for innovative solutions to solve problems. Just like every entrepreneur, he also has a different story about why he decided to start a business. Let’s take a closer look at his insightful story and remarkable aspects of his life.

Start of Something Extraordinary Gary has always been interested in new technologies with an innate curiosity on understanding how things work. He never thought his engineering degree in computer design would lead to his career in the media industry and then become the basis for his interest in bridging the gap between broadcast and computer technologies. His father was a small business owner. This guided Gary to work for himself and become his own ‘Boss’. Gary is one of the few people who never worked for anyone else in his professional career. Currently, he is a Principal of GHO Group and leading the company as strategist, designer and project manager for a variety of communication and information technology projects.

Gary is considered one of the Thought Leaders in the media technology industry and provides services as an IP Broadcast & Media Technology Designer.

He is a successful author with his book ‘Planning and Designing the IP Broadcast Facility - A New Puzzle to Solve’ an industry standard. He regularly publishes articles providing knowledge and

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Gary Olson Principal of GHO

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“When you are asked if it can be done, always say YES, then figure it out and get it DONE.” “ education to the media industry with a considerable following reading his articles on ‘The Broadcast Bridge’ and LinkedIn, including webinars and online courses.

At the beginning of his career, he solved interesting challenges that typically bring together computer and video technologies. He was involved in the efforts to introduce Teletext into the US market and was the part of the team that created the first interactive satellite video conference network and launched the first satellite business television network. Gary was part of the team launching the first video fiber network for Teleport communications.

When he was asked to design a new televised shopping network, he saw this as the opportunity to start his first company entering the world of entrepreneurship, designing and launching a new satellite and television cable networks.

About GHO Group The GHO Group is an independent consulting firm that specializes in planning and designing media production facilities for broadcast and cable companies, corporations, educational institutions, and cultural organizations. It provides unique, practical and cost-effective solutions

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to the challenges faced while building new facilities or implementing new technology strategies. GHO builds the bridge between technology and business, converts vision from its initial concept to final implementation whether it is traditional media, a Web, smartphone, eBook, portable media player, or anything in between.

His Mantra of Success A strong leader builds a strong team and such a leader always keeps the goal in the mind. As a leader, Gary recognizes the strengths in people and encourages and empowers their development creating a strong team to solve problems. He says, “One of my responsibilities on many of my projects is to help the new senior management with change. I explain that a large organization is like a pyramid, if you are at the top you can see what’s happening across the organizations and manage.” He continues, “If the pyramid is upside down because the manager is also doing everything they are crushed by the weight of the organization. My colleagues embrace the concept and became successful change managers.”

Gary has also faced challenges, but he turned his hard hitting challenges into powerful victories. For him, building

the first commercial television broadcast networks in six Central European countries was challenging as well as a ‘once in a lifetime experience’.

His best piece of advice to budding Entrepreneurs “Entrepreneurship is doing everything that needs to be done to be successful. Behaving like an executive when there’s no real business is a recipe for failure. Not all entrepreneurs make good CEO’s.

Know your own strengths - maybe the right thing to do is hire one.”

Gary on Future of GHO The company is going through a changing phase now, moving into artificial intelligence and into a new industry sector of Public Safety and National Security. It is applying extensive media knowledge to an industry overwhelmed by video and struggling to analyze it for useable information in the prevention of incidents and attacks. GHO is looking forward at the role artificial intelligence will play in the industry and how other industry sectors are using media requiring broadcast knowledge and expertise to assist them as they produce more and more media.

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I

n our sublime strife for progress, we often disregard the fact that passion acts as a catalyst to the composition of our success and as the fuel to our fire wherein the creation of transcendent ideas take place. To leverage this passion, and turn it into profits and goodwill, is a quality which an efficient business leader possesses. One such passion driven leader, who has marked her presence in the micro-mobility sector of Asia, is Jin-Ni Gan, the Founder and CEO of Telepod.

Jin-Ni Gan

on i t c rfe ng e p i t e e l b t m no o r f o D u T.” “ o N y E stop XCELL E

Founder & CEO

Jin-Ni Gan

Enabling Mobility, Connecting the World

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Shortlisted as a nominee of Forbes 30 Under 30 (2019), Jin-Ni has always been a visionary leader.

She has fostered strong track records for Telepod by establishing partnerships with governments and industry players to develop an international presence, thus being recognized as one of the top 8 micro-mobility players to watch by The Information. Jin-Ni holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Hons.) with Minor in Entrepreneurship from Nanyang Technological University and a Master’s in Transportation System & Management from National University of Singapore.

As a leader, Jin-Ni measures her success by her team’s performance and cohesiveness. In her opinion, a leader’s best asset is empathy. “It’s about being able to understand the challenges that your staff faced and communicating about problems and solutions clearly; It’s about being able to understand who you are serving and what are their pain points,” states Jin-Ni. In the coming years, Jin-Ni envisions to be a successful serial entrepreneur and also a nurturing mother to either her own kids and/or many more young JinNi(s) out there.

The Making of a Pioneer Jin-Ni recalls, growing up in the suburb of Kuala Lumpur, she was deprived of freedom to head wherever and whenever she wanted to. Public transportation was lacking and the only way to get out of home was by car, and as a kid she couldn’t drive. That sparked her interest and passion to improve transportation system over the years. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree

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in Mechanical Engineering, she worked in Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) for a couple of years, in a field where female engineers were a minority.

During her SMRT days, she had the opportunity to work on some exciting projects and was also awarded the CEO Service Leadership Award, but she felt like her potential wasn’t being utilized efficiently. Subsequently, she made a life-changing decision to quit the SMRT job, picked up mobile app development skills, and also took up a part-time Master’s in Transportation System & Management and started Telepod concurrently.

Jin-Ni feels blessed to have been able to assemble a team of skilled enthusiasts who are disrupting the transportation ecosystem with Telepod’s smart scooter sharing system which is powered by an in-house patent pending Proxima technology.

“I have learned so much along the journey and am inspired to encourage and enable more micro-entrepreneurs through the new platform which Telepod is about to launch,” states Jin-Ni. Through operating a sustainable business model and the exciting new platform, she hopes to be able to help the billion other kids who are just like her when she was young, to live a life, because Jin-Ni is of the opinion that, if they can’t go where they want to go, they can’t do the things they love to do.

Telepod, being a forerunner in the e-scooter sharing space, is the longest standing as well as the mostexperienced e-scooter sharing operator in the continent. Telepod, is solving the last mile problem which is the distance that is too far to walk, yet taking any other modes of transport would not

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make sense, because it takes almost the same time as walking. The organization also provides insightful advises for policies and regulations that allow the urban mobility to flourish as a part of the transportation ecosystem.

Advocating Progress At Telepod, the team practices a culture which Jin-Ni summarizes in four letters, viz. ‘AERO’. To break it down, ‘A’ stands for acknowledgment, wherein the team emphasizes on comprehending the fact that the first step to solve any problem is to first acknowledge that there are issues to be resolved. Further, ‘E’ means to express after acknowledging ‘why each party did what they do’ and ‘what each party is unhappy about’. ‘R’ stands for rectifying the issues and problems by being logical and discussing the solutions and to conclude, ‘O’ stands for omitting the occurrence of the deciphered issue or misunderstanding.

The team practices AERO session when necessary and anyone in the company can initiate a session. The organization also follows a half-yearly performance review, wherein Jin-Ni would personally speak with each and every individual in the management team to align everyone’s goal and progress. Additionally, there are also the End-of-Week (EoW) emails which are sent weekly by each Head of Department for a quick update/sharing and make intervention if goals or values are seem to be straying.

Surpassing Adversities Talking about the challenges she faced while taking the organization to heights of success, Jin-Ni says that in the beginning, Telepod and its co-founders were nobody. “As harsh as it may sound, the reality is – many of the

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investors do have higher preference for the ‘brand names’, i.e. graduates from Ivy Leagues or working experiences at one of those startups that are going or went through exponential growth,” Jin-Ni expresses.

Time and again, Jin-Ni and her team proved these people wrong, and today Telepod has become the longest standing e-scooter sharing operator with an exponentially growing user demand, to a point that its supply could not cope.

The organization’s persistence and willingness to execute at a fast pace despite an imperfect product, which was sufficient to test the market and helped in ceaselessly improvising, has brought it this far. “The ability to iterate at breakneck speed, I would say, is the biggest edge any startup would have over a large organization,” Jin-Ni expresses.

On The Trophy Shelf Following is a list of achievements in Jin-Ni’s and her organization’s ledger of success: · Being invited to be a panel speaker at Bloomberg as it demonstrates the impact and influence Telepod has created in the industry, · Bringing Telepod’s products as far as United States and Chile through its partnerships. · Governments’ adoption of Telepod’s ‘dockless-station’ methodology as a requirement to all micro-mobility sharing operators in Singapore for controlling of indiscriminate parking. · SMRT’s investment in Telepod which speaks heavy about how values are aligned in terms of serving the public transportation space.

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Jos Burger At the Helm of a Global Ascension

T

he prominence of 3D printing in this tech driven era is signiďŹ cantly revolutionary and a promising one as well. It is safe to say that the sphere of 3D printing possesses the potential to drive itself to a point where it could aid a plethoric development. The application of this technology in the disciplines of construction, pharmaceutics, robotics, and other conventional industries, evidently justify the transformation which 3D printing can bring to businesses and equally to the common public. The organizations leveraging this potential are ceaselessly enabling and empowering its optimum application in every possible place.

Jos Burger CEO

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One among such organizations is Ultimaker, a 3D printer manufacturing company based in Netherlands. The company has been in operation since the year 2011, and through the years

has developed to become an unparalleled brand in the market, creating powerful, professional and accessible desktop 3D printers. This commendable global ascension of Ultimaker is being avidly led by a comprehensive, proďŹ cient and intellectual driving force named Jos Burger, the CEO. From everything around telecom, software, computer-related design business and all kinds of ventures, Jos has had a proliďŹ c and hands-on career in European and US companies, expanding over 25+ years, instilling an admirable number of feathers in his hat. He has had his own startups, been in venture capital, private equity, and also been helping a lot of IT and tech companies to expand in the US and also in the European marketplace. Jos has been known in leading and supporting start-up and later stage

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“Ultimaker helps the world's businesses to ride the wave of change, to design digitally and to manufacture locally by enabling professionals to produce exactly what they need, when they need it.” companies in volatile, challenging markets through the growth phases of their business life cycles.

Enabling Empowerment Coming to the company, Jos has been spearheading the company’s progress since 2014. At Ultimaker, what Jos and the team are really doing is facilitating the transition from, central manufacturing to local digital manufacturing. The company enables engineers all over the world, and people in industrial environments to produce locally whatever they need.

Jos expresses that it is not only his passion but the passion of the company too, to achieve this motto. “Ultimaker basically enables professionals locally, wherever they are, to produce the parts, the components, the products, tools, everything they need to keep innovating every day,” states Jos. It is apparently evident that Ultimaker is on a growth-spree in the 3D-printing space. The company is heavily focused on supporting all kinds of companies globally, with the partnerships of all kind of material partners and chemical companies, to offer a platform to the market where every engineer, every producer, everyone who’s responsible for a specific part of the production process, or the life cycle of the product is able to take its platform, its printers, its software, and the right materials to produce what is needed. The key aspect of Ultimaker is that it not only controls the hardware but also the software that is needed to tell the machine how to behave relatively to the material that’s being ridden through MARCH 2019 |

the machine. “This aspect gives a lot of flexibility for Ultimaker in the market to support all kind of use cases in a wide variety of industries, whether it’s aerospace, automotive, medical, education, you will find us everywhere,” Jos expresses. Thus, in that sense, the company positions itself as a utility company in the 3D printing space across all kinds of geographies, all kinds of applications, all kinds of industries and facilitating a wide variety of people in accomplishing their tasks and goals.

Redefining Benchmarks Commenting upon his source of inspiration which drives him to be a leader, Jos implies considerable amount emphasis on the people he works with. He comprehends the fact that him and the company are in an extremely interesting market, with tons of opportunities, and every day he feels inexplicably motivated by the enthusiasm and the intellectual capabilities of his colleagues and subordinates.

Elucidating his perception of the challenges one faces during an individual’s career as well as those of a company in a competitive market, Jos states, “It’s basically all about overcoming all kind of perceived hurdles, it’s about forcing yourself to do things, to learn things, that may be out of your comfort zone, and if you do that, then the challenge is turning into an asset.” Further, on a company level, he emphasizes on hiring and retaining the best people, getting the right product-market fit, having enough

funds to execute, a little bit of luck, and timing, are key aspects and define the success of a company in overcoming its challenges.

Passing the Scepter of Knowledge In his advice to the aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders in the 3D printing space as well as others, Jos asserts, “If and when you start a new company, make sure that you really have something to offer that is disruptive enough to justify its existence and is able to attract the funds to grow your company.”

Jos expresses that he has seen too many people trying to do the same thing and many others not offering a real solution but merely a feature or an aspect. Thus, according to him, to be in this business, being very careful, being very thoughtful, and making sure to have a disruptive offering that can be sold globally to a relevant marketplace is of utmost importance.

The aforesaid aspects do lucidly exhibit how Jos is a distinguished leader and particularly this one aspect of his personality, which is about inculcating and sustaining humor and irony, makes him, in an unconventional way, a person who has his priorities sorted. “I think if you don’t have irony and if you can’t play with that then you have an issue with your personality.

I’m probably a typical straight Dutch shooter, I always aim for big laugh and I love to be ironic. But again, I’m a humble guy so you should probably ask someone else,” concludes Jos.

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LARRY PFEIFER

FORTIFYING ORGANIZATIONS, CONTRIBUTING FOR CHANGE

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n the era of everything-digital, the primary concern, equally for end-users and organizations is the protection of data. As promising as the digitalization of sensitive information seems to be, it is also equally prone to an overabundance of threats. Organizations dealing with and in information technology and related aspects are the most familiar with the gravity of these threats, and one leading industry expert of the enterprise security discipline, is of the same opinion. This is Larry Pfeifer, the President of Consortium Networks. Conveying his perspective about the current scenario of the industry, Larry says that the enterprise security market, as it stands today is booming with a plethora of solutions and product offerings; so are the threats, vulnerabilities, and alarming instances of devastating breaches. Pertaining to this, Larry expresses that identifying the right solution has evidently become more of a ’fill in the gaps’ puzzle, wherein Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are burdened with the tasks of separating ‘the noise from the signal.’

Larry is also of the opinion that heavy market competition tends to overwhelm, and at times, confuse enterprises into making nonessential and risky investments. While a onesize-fits-all solution may be idealistic, achieving a robust cybersecurity strategy not only demands cross-departmental participation within an enterprise but also, a ‘beyondenterprise’ community-level engagement among CISOs and other enterprise leaders. Moreover, as threats build up on the horizon, the line of defense shouldn’t be dictated solely by the solution provider, but also by a rightly informed CISO. This is where Consortium Networks helps companies realize their enterprise security needs with its revolutionary collaboration platform for security experts.

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Larry Pfeifer President

Advocating Innovation Built upon the proven notion of crowd-sharing intelligence, Consortium Networks’ portal provides real-world feedback and data on tools meant for physical and cybersecurity product offerings in the market. In contrast to the hugely prevalent, biased reviews from paid analysts and consultants, Consortium Network’s platform fosters a learn-frompeers approach to help security experts and enterprise leaders address the predicaments associated with choosing the right security solution for their enterprise. “The whole idea is to reduce the risk and get the truth about all the products that are out there, including diving past the power points, the proofs-ofconcept and actually sharing what people are using,” states Larry.

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When asked upon his company’s mission and source of inspiration, Larry expresses, “Two of our key values are integrity and altruism. A percentage of all our profits go to charity each year.” Having helped many enterprises attain robust security decision-making, Consortium Networks continues to expand its capabilities to tackle some of the prevalent issues in the enterprise security arena. The company plans to make its platform more interactive so as provide real-time answers to user queries. In parallel, the company has in its agenda the task of addressing the huge shortage of skilled employees in the space by spurring up a mechanism to match skilled professionals with companies in need. “We want to help people. That could mean customer, vendors or just people that need help!” adds Larry.

The organization also incorporates charitable donations in its activities and marketing events which aligns to its core value of giving back and helping people in need. Over the past few years, the company has contributed to FBI Fallen

“We implement technology solutions that best fit your company’s needs”

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collectively responsible for devising a successful solution.

Similarly, the team at Consortium Networks considers it important that its members mentor each other with any obstacle so that it can learn from each other’s experiences and mistakes and grow from them. Larry comprehends that honesty is important, so any news or information that will impact the company is presented to the team to work through any questions or concerns.

Attaining Zeniths When it comes to achievements and accolades, Consortium Networks has studded its hat with many feathers. There are many achievements to be noted but Larry emphasizes on instances like, when a mother and wife of a fallen FBI agent approached him to thank the company for helping their family after her husband departed. “That was emotional for me and helps further validate that we are truly doing something different,” he says.

Larry also recalls how a CISO stood up at an event, unsolicited, and said openly that she thought Consortium Networks was a different kind of company based on its values and what it does to help, and that she would work with them anywhere.

Beholding Progress

Heroes, Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation (CLLF), Alstom Foundation, Teen Challenge, as well as Feeding Foundation for the homeless.

Triumphing Challenges The biggest challenge for Consortium Networks while establishing its position in the marketplace was keeping up with the growth of the business without any disruption with the level of service and personal touch it delivers to its customer base. “Our great team of employees put on multiple hats to help ensure we continue the endurance of customer service and have been an integral part of our success as a company,” says Larry.

It is considered that, to efficiently resolve any issue, the team at an organization has to be efficient and be

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Consortium Networks aims to keep doing the same thing it’s doing now, but just in more places. “I love what we do and we are making an impact and having fun at the same time,” states Larry. The company is releasing some products this year. It has decided to release two products for free to its customers. First is a No Cost cloud-based threat intelligence aggregation platform. The organization figured a way to help companies operationalize threat intelligence even if they don’t have a team to do so. Second, it will be releasing a cloud-based DNS filtering solution at no-cost again. The organization found out a way to significantly reduce spam and modern malware through DNS filtering.

“This is really going to help a majority of our customers protect themselves with little impact to their environment,” Larry asserts.

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MIKE WALSH A REVERED TECHNOCRAT, WHO IS ON A MISSION TO TRANSFORM CITIZEN LIVES

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here are many entrepreneurs who are leveraging the power of technology to transform their fortunes.

But, only few are utilizing it to make a difference in a common person’s life. Mike Walsh, CEO and President, MetroQuest, is one such trailblazing technocrat, who is leaving no stone unturned, empowering governments to meaningfully engage with citizens and involve them in planning their communities … to ultimately help people live better lives.

Mike is a software engineer, who has over 20 years of vital experience in designing and developing computer-based learning and communication tools. He is the chief architect of MetroQuest’s software-as-a-service public engagement solution. MetroQuest online surveys both educate the public and collect informed feedback about important transportation and land use planning projects that directly impact people’s quality of life. Transportation agencies, local government and planning firms engage thousands to ensure that plans for the future will meet the viable expectations of citizens.

Mike’s company helps government agencies and planning firms do a better job of involving the public in planning for multi-billion-dollar public investments. “MetroQuest began in 1997 talking to folks about different regional growth options; now we help millions of people participate in planning the places where they live, making those places better, more accessible, and increasingly sustainable,” stated Mike.

With an annual subscription, organizations like the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP), AECOM, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), use MetroQuest to build online surveys that educate the public about planning alternatives, collect quantifiable input, and deliver actionable insights to inform

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and build public support for better transportation networks and more livable communities. “While attendance at public meetings across the nation continues to languish, government agencies and firms are engaging thousands of people online with MetroQuest surveys,” added the CEO. About the Company Vancouver-based MetroQuest was started some 20 years ago to solve a problem that was not well understood at the time. Better land use and transportation options enhance everyone’s quality of life, foster economic vitality and improve mobility for all people. But there was hardly any solution that helped bridge the gap between urban planners and citizens to facilitate collaboration and engagement.

Mike and company cofounder Dave Biggs recognized the need for better public engagement tools and founded MetroQuest.

MetroQuest, like many other innovative technologies, invested in considerable education of the market to find early adopters. Today, MetroQuest is the leader in helping agencies, from cities and Metropolitan Planning Organizations to State Departments of Transportation, to plan better transportation networks that move more people between their homes, work, education, healthcare and entertainment.

Mike’s Life Before MetroQuest Mike believes diverse education with meaningful work experiences have helped him to shape his personality and career at large. During his two-decade-long challenging yet inspiring professional journey, he gained critical experience and skills in renowned organizations including technology giant IBM. He is an engineering graduate who also completed an MBA and subsequently pursued further education in

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“I 'D LIKE TO CONTINUE TO LEVERAGE THE POWER OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO HELP PEOPLE LIVE BETTER IN THRIVING COMMUNITIES” Mike Walsh CEO & President

sustainability. “While learning about environmental impact assessments at business school, I can recall thinking that there was an opportunity to use the power of computers to help the process,” added Mike. “This idea became more tangible while studying sustainability. Fortunately, aspects of all these experiences were vital to the creation of MetroQuest.”

Mike’s Take on Leadership Mike stated that a good leader always thinks about his or her team first and is ready to go an extra mile to let them flourish in their work. “Having people who you trust to manage aspects of the business, letting them succeed and fail, and watching them grow is the best indication that things are on track,” added Mike.

Recruiting, retaining and empowering talented folks and keeping them aligned with the business objectives (in a hassle-free and friendly manner) helped establish Mike’s style as a revered leader in his organization.

Mike’s company uses online HR software to help manage various critical processes, including goal setting and performance evaluation. The company has a set of core values that align with Mike’s own values.

“MetroQuest has crafted a strong corporate culture, based on a clearly articulated vision, mission, and values, to

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ensure smooth transactions of its business operations,” asserts Mike.

The Turning Point Some time ago, Mike decided to pivot MetroQuest to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. However, to implement such a transformation was no small task. It required proficiency in many areas including technology, management and more. And now, as the company is a growing SaaS company, Mike believes he was absolutely right in making that decision. “Guiding that transition is my biggest achievement,” stated Mike.

Mike also gave advice for the budding entrepreneurs. He encouraged young entrepreneurs to take advantage of every opportunity to diversify their skills and knowledge. He further added, surrounding yourself with people who offer different skills and perspectives can help entrepreneurs reach farther.

On speculating on the company’s future, Mike revealed many interesting details. He said and concluded, “I hope to see MetroQuest become an indispensable public engagement tool for all government agencies as well as planning and engineering firms, providing everyone access to inclusive planning of better places for all of us to live, work and play.”

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MOISES PONTREMOLI LEADING THE AUTOMATION REVOLUTION Degree in Industrial Automation, and multiple MBA degrees in Business Administration, Business Intuition, Business Identity and a specialization in Business Management.

Talking about his mission in life, Moises expresses that firstly, his roles as an individual, a father and a leader, have shown him that we are solely responsible for our destiny.

He comprehends that everything that works out, is our responsibility, and everything that goes wrong is also our responsibility. Moises states, “If we want to find a culprit to inflict the blame for our mistakes, we will always find one, but if we want to be more, we must understand that we have to be both, the protagonist and the antagonist of our lives.

We can reach wherever we wish, as long as we are willing to pay the price to achieve our goals.”

Moises Pontremoli Founder & President Director

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he art of leadership is practiced by many, but only mastered by a very few. To assume responsibility, exhibit expertise, and personify compassion, is what it takes to be a celebrated leader. One such individual who retains these qualities is Moises Pontremoli, the founder and President Director of PONFAC, a Brazilian Machine Vision Automation Company. Being a prolific leader, Moises displays expertise over the industry through leading the innovation his organization ceaselessly caters to.

Elucidating his academic qualifications, Moises holds an Undergraduate Degree in Electrical Engineering, a Master’s

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Secondly, as a driver of PONFAC, Moises is on a mission to seek the supply of more and more Products and solutions that enable more efficiency and quality of life for his company’s customers and their customers. For this, Moises and his team at PONFAC work with innovation to seek solutions which achieve these goals. Since 1997, PONFAC has developed comprehensive solutions for automated visual inspection (artificial vision) oriented to industry, retail and urban environments. The company aims to improve its customers’ performance with innovation and intelligence in image processing. PONFAC’s competitive advantages include self-innovated technology, round-theclock innovation, international partnerships, numerous successful use cases and rapid return on investment, and presence in several vertical markets.

The Onset of Excellence Moises’s career has always been based on certain fundamental aspects that can easily be seen in his curriculum and professional performance. Constant training, constant self-criticism, self-accountability for his results, have been the fundamental driving forces of his professional and personal journey. “Just because I want to be responsible for my destiny and inheriting a legacy form an entrepreneur father, this has always been my goal, since | MARCH 2019

One of the conclusions that the company derived was that it acclimatizes to all the upcoming challenges for PONFAC. “Everything seems easy when it’s the other one that does. If we don’t take care of the details, they’ll be our limiters,” states Moises. Another conclusion was that all the team members are angels of a single wing, and to fly they have to embrace. “This is a verse of Luciano de Crescenzo, an Italian writer who inspires us to take the partnerships as a basis for advancing faster and getting farther,” Moises expresses.

Outlasting Adversities The primary challenge for PONFAC is that it is in a limited market (Brazil), with a smaller scale than its global competitors. “To overcome this limitation, we are moving precisely in innovation, so that we can have solutions that can be replicated in the global market, increasing our scale and our competitiveness,” states Moises.

Commenting upon the approach, in which he is guiding his team to tackle such difficulties, Moises states, “Because I believe that each of us has to take responsibility for our goals, I work with my team so that each of them also sets their individual goals and often reviews and presents the solution plan when necessary.” Moises is of the opinion that by doing this, everyone can be enables to always sense what is limiting their progress, plan how to overcome those limitations, and grow as professionals and leaders.

From Local to Global

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We improve our Customers’ Performance with Innovation and Intelligence in Image Processing

‘‘

the Faculty of Electrical Engineering,” says Moises.

The turning point for Moises and his team was while developing the fruit picker for the company that involved three main technologies, viz. image processing, industrial automation, and fruit transport. During the development of this machine, they learned the harsh feathers that the needed technologies, which the company takes care of every detail to study and collect the necessary information, had already been optimally developed. The fruit transport technology which wasn’t paid due attention to because it seemed dominated, was where the company had the greatest difficulties and budget overflow.

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PONFAC. They had indications of our model of innovation in image processing that is based on win-win partnership with our customers. They decided to invest in one more attempt, this time with PONFAC. The success was absolute for both companies and for the market, bringing an innovative product that controls the loss in the POS of supermarkets, already placed in thousands of points in whole of Brazil while planning to soon expand to the other countries and other innovations in development to continue innovating and improving the efficiency of Gunnebo’s customers.”

Passing on the Keys to Success In his Advice to the future entrepreneurs, Moises says, “Take responsibility for responding to your results and constantly analyze what was right and what was wrong.

Understand the limitations that caused the errors, and plan quickly and constantly how to override these limitations.

Understand that with the current speed in which the world changes, you become much more agile and competent with partnerships than trying to do everything yourself.”

Moises’s future endeavors include internationalization of PONFAC, creation of other companies with similar values, and sharing with new entrepreneurs his experiences so they can get farther and faster with their ventures.

Talking about PONFAC’s accomplishments, Moises says, “We have a client, Gunnebo that is a leading Swedish retail loss control company which had a need for a Brazilian customer of theirs, a supermarket, which needed to innovate to decrease losses in the front of the POS. They had already had a non-successful experience with a competitor of

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Paul Luen An Epitome of Entrepreneurial Brilliance

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he ones, who avidly exhibit their endeavour of struggle and of valuable experiences, are leaders. The ones, who nurture the seeds of opportunities and provide an equal share of its fruits, to all those who’ve ploughed through thick and thin with unwavering efforts, are leaders. The ones, who comprehend the virtue of leadership, in its entirety, by pushing open, the muffling doors of their comfort zone and thus, setting upon the path to greatness, are leaders. One such leader is being brought into limelight in this edition of The 30 Powerful Leaders in Business. With an aim to project a noteworthy impact across his extensive portfolio of companies and to share what he has learned in life, this is Paul Luen, the CEO and Owner of Martek Group and Coptrz.

Paul’s unparalleled business acumen can be dated back to his first venture, at the age of nine, when he used to sell blackberries to shoppers entering the local supermarket. At the age of fourteen, Paul got a significant lesson about personal financial responsibility when he crashed his bike into a parked car and his parents took his wages for 30 weeks to pay for the repairs. These experiences were the foundation of Paul’s entrepreneurial journey.

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Paul Luen

CEO and Owner

Leading a Revolution In February 2000, Paul founded Martek Marine, his first start-up venture, which was formed with £6,000 capital, supplying safety systems to commercial ships. In 2010, he founded Martek Lifecare to help reduce unnecessary deaths from sudden cardiac arrests. In 2013, he founded Lucava, named after his kids Luca and Ava to build and manage his property portfolio. In 2016 Coptrz.com was founded to help change the world using commercial drones. In 2017 Martek Aviation was founded to pioneer maritime application of drone services. In 2018 Lucava Developments was founded to rethink housing delivery using innovative modular construction techniques.

Talking about Lucava Development, Paul says that with high

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demand set against a dwindling supply, industry experts agree the market is calling for new, more radical building practices. This is where modular building comes in as a solution to the housing crisis in the UK. Lucava Developments delivers top quality and highly efficient affordable housing to housing associations, local authorities and buyers/renters, faster than anyone else, using modern methods of construction (MMC), whilst delivering secure and compelling returns for investors. By embracing the Government’s ‘Building for Life 12’ standard, Lucava creates places and communities with character that people love to live in.

Surpassing Adversities Commenting upon the challenges he faced during his path to success, Paul expresses, “In 1999, I won a huge contract worth twice their turnover and bizarrely, this was to be the beginning of my end. Within 12 months, I was constructively dismissed, and I had to personally petition the high court in London, with no legal advisor as I couldn’t afford one, for redemption of my shares. It was a harrowing time which taught me many lessons that I’m grateful for to this day.”

During the initial phase of his first start-up venture, Martek Marine, Paul took no salary for 6 months and rented out a room in his house. He and his team quickly delivered 2 market leading products and world firsts, winning two Queen’s Awards for enterprise averaging 126% growth in the first five years. Meeting the Queen at Buckingham palace and visiting Richard Branson’s house were early highlights of his career.

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Later, in December 2008, Paul saw the shipping industry indices plummet and it was clear the recession would be devastating on the company. On 4th January 2009, he released 25% of the staff, imposed a 4-day week and started a process to systematically re-invent the business. This was an epiphany moment for Paul and he realised he’d gotten complacent and had no real long-term strategy. “I was not the leader I thought I was and was grossly under-invested in my own and my team’s professional development. On reflection, I’m so grateful for the lessons that the global financial crisis taught me,” states Paul.

The subsequent years for him as well as the company, were focused on attracting and developing great people to build amazing cultures, whilst pursuing disruptive innovation in business models and new product development. When asked upon what his approach was, towards this achievement, Paul comments, “I take one step backward and two steps forward. I make sure that I have a clear roadmap towards my goals and that I am doing something each day to achieve it.”

Setting Benchmarks At work, Paul is a straightforward, challenging, and supportive leader, committed to serving people to fulfill their potential. “Wasted talent, mediocrity and negativity annoy me,” states Paul. Throughout the years he’s invested more than £1million in continuous professional development (CPD), accessing some of the best courses, coaches and mentors around, reading hundreds of books. Paul makes sure that his team also uses CPD to improve their skills. Whenever there is

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“Dreams can come true if you work consistently hard and smart and ANYONE CAN DO IT. #JFDI” bad news to deliver to his team, he does everything he could to deliver it to them personally, and not in a method that makes the communication one way. “This way I can empathize, answer tough questions or even take responsibility if I have to,” Paul expresses.

Paul’s business start-ups have so far generated revenues well in excess of £100million and have sold to more than 3000 customers across more than 100 countries. “I’ve travelled the world, seen and experienced things I could never have dreamed of; worked and played very hard which I continue to do every day. At heart, I’m a working-class boy from Hull who has dared to be different, taken a few risks and worked my hind off to get where I am,” states Paul.

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About the Author

Markus Ulrich Founder and CEO

Refusers welcome!

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Markus Ulrich is the founder and CEO of geniusthinkgs. His think-tank offers unconventional solutions for tough nuts to crack. Markus studied mechanical engineering, founded and led an ITdatabase company for 13 years and built machines for all his life.

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Expert’s Opinion

W

hy (company) success depends on outsiders, fresh flesh redds cash -and nerds

top herds.

When I drove onto the parking lot I could already see the shear dimension of this chemical producer. The barriers and welcome center only confirmed the impression: Now we are talking giants.

I even hesitated to comment on the boring façade -and the orange tiles in the restroom proving the building must be of my age already- when the director led me to a glazed playground with foam benches, claiming the company has realized that a new era had arrived, and they were in midst of ramping up a special place, special team, special customer experience, special…I could see the engagement, motivation and devotion in this man, around 60, white beard, tie under a dark blue v-necked pullover. He gained all my attention when I heard this surprising phrase: “Markus, I know that I cannot build up a leading team in this new, chaotic 3D printing environment, not with my staff holding highest academic credentials”. For a second I thought this team builder, founding entities within evolving technologies, had understood what it takes to reinvent and bring new energy to old power. Fresh flesh redds cash!

A short moment later I was disenchanted with the news that the position of strategy manager would be given to a guy who could prepare papers in a presentable way to the CTO. What? Bold bones cold coins?

A few months later I gave a workshop to another big player trying to find chemistry for this post-hype 3Dprinting sector, examining our many patents. Their team was led by a French marketing guy who ought to build the best team -showing no

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knowledge of mechanics, physics, chemistry...would he ever like the phrase: Been there, did it? When discussing bringing in hindsight from our team specialized in this field my interlocutor laughed out loud: “Could you imagine our human resource team talking to non PHDs? Haha”! Where on earth does this arrogance come from? Only PHD´s got the pansophy?

Last week I visited yet another giant chemist showing the slogan: Power to do the new. I started dithering: They all want the same, and they all do the same: they try to reinvent from the inside! Power to do the new, but shouldn’t the NEW bring the power?

Isn’t a company where it is because its people are who they are? Now how can it evolve?

When a thousand horse powers weren’t enough, Bugatti added another 500, changed the beast´s name from Veyron to Chiron, and the price tag from one million to two. Yes, two! What do you expect from that team to come next?

Won’t they probably stick to their track?

Comes Elon Musk, accelerates his electric roadster faster than Bugatti will ever be able to burn fuel for –and does it for a tenth of the price.

Business as usual: THE REFUSERS RULE! They don’t need Harvard.

Huge success derives from good ideas, and nerds top herds.

Take Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla…there is a world of people without PHDs, some didn’t even bother studying. What they have in common is that they were what I call refusers. They did the really big things without the intention. Many inventions, even honored with Nobel prices, were “accidents”. Refusers ignore the “no

trespass” sign, they enter the no-go zones. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. We only hear from the winners of that strategy, yet millions lose. Now we are looking for the next Musk, or at least for the original´s next thing. He forces the whole auto-world to fire the old ignition magician and hire the new accumulator demonstrator. When the paradigm shifter was asked what has been his best idea so far, he said: “Moving to the USA”. Because if you need to fail in order to learn (80% do so), the best place could be progressive California. Go insolvent in conservative Europe and you are done in most cases.

This is where my experience meets my expectation: Times move fast, old companies need to turn faster than their staff is willing or capable (the same applies to nearly every civil society).

Success will be determined by CEOs who prepare for the unexpected (even Jeff Bezos knows he will fail) and yet invites, welcomes and protects the “accident”, integrates the hesitating refuser, copes with internal quarrels –and presents the unforeseen.

We need to broadcast these success stories of the few mighty seekers who risked a bit more than the standard golfers, and should neither flinch from collar´s nor skin´s color, sex, distance, certificates or whatever could hold us back from examining an idea, it might be the best one the herd will never see.

Geniusthingks is a technical think-tank that has filed many patents and is currently looking for partners to realize promising 3D-printing technologyprototypes.

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ROBERT ROSS A Towering Professional of Technological Sphere

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eing a leader means you can no longer measure success on individual performance. Leaders look to make lesser decisions in terms of quantum and volume but instead, look towards making valued proprietary decisions for the betterment of the organization.

Creating a clear path and value chain are first steps towards the path to success; along with having the right complementary teammates – which is any leader’s best asset. These revolutionary thoughts crafted a leader out from (once) a common man- known as Robert Ross. He is the Chief Technology Officer of Singapore Life, a prominent life insurance company in Singapore.

He believes, a leader should lead by example, not by preaching. As a leader, it is vital to not only communicate organizational core values to employees, but also nurture them through your own approach to business. Otherwise, things won’t last,” stated Robert. “In my team, I have 40 personalities and 40 distinctive characters that go along with that. The approach and style used when communicating and working with them should be in line with the overall organizational values.” He further added, employing active listening skills, patience, and a fair dose of humor is also needed to build cohesion in a team that consist of diverse set of people on its board.

Inspiring Professional Journey Robert was born and raised in rural Illinois, USA. After earning his graduation in computer science from Northern Illinois University in 2002, he started his professional journey at the tender age of 19. He was involved in work related to insurance technology and business strategy as part of a Kemper Insurance scholarship that he had earned.

In the subsequent years, Robert’s smart work habits, and diligent efforts helped him achieve various tech leadership

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Robert Ross CTO positions in Axis Capital and Allied World Assurance Company.

On recalling his early struggle, Roberts says: “My first gig out of university ended up being an experience that would shape my career. It was a startup insurance where I was asked to build the entire tech platform that would the entire company would operate on.” In nine months, he was promoted to global AVP and head of software development.

He built a technology team that powered the growth of the

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company for years, long after his departure. “Without that career stint, I would never have learned nor experienced the amount of information and discovery knowledge that would eventually place me on a path I am on today,” said Robert.

Singapore Life makes life easy

Skills that makes him Unique among Equals Whether it is about - product management, enterprise architecture, development of large-scale multi-national applications, building global IT teams or increasing the capacity and capabilities of IT and operations - Robert always led from the front, as these have been his core expertise. He has vital experience in managing sizeable global teams across continents including the United States, Europe, Bermuda, and Asia. Mostly, he has worked in commercial, personal property, casualty insurance and fintech industries.

Vision for Singapore Life Robert is a tech geek who enjoys working with one of the most digitally enabled wealthtech companies in the city-state - Singapore Life. He is committed to ensuring Singapore Life remains in the forefront of cutting-edge wealth and insurance solutions, to cater to its valued customers in a hassle-free manner.

“To enable my vision for Singapore’s most well funded insuretech, I have a fairly large team of developers and techtrained staff to help me audit, and find better solutions,” asserts Robert. “In short, I am constantly finding ways to modify and better our tech capabilities; and my team is put to the test each and every day to find me efficiency and effectiveness in the Singapore Life digital space.”

Talks on Challenges, Mentor and Colleagues On recounting his early days at Singapore life – Robert revealed many interesting things. He said that when Singapore Life started, selling life insurance directly to consumers by incumbent organizations did not exist. In addition to that, collecting e-signatures to complete the sales journey was equally unheard of. He thanked Singapore Life for providing a level of professionalism and comfort necessary to get these two concepts on one unified, simplified platform to all consumers and would-be customers.

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He gives special credit for his success to Walter de Oude (the founder and CEO of Singapore Life) and his fellow colleagues. “The drive, passion and love they have for wanting to bring the easiest, simplified solutions to consumers so that they live their best lives is simply one of the best working cultures I have ever come across,” stated Robert.

About the Company Singapore Life is the first local independent life insurance company that is fully licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It is the next generation life insurance company that offers a myriad of wealth-tech products and solutions that include term and life insurance, and other high-networth products.

As a testament to the strength of Singapore Life’s strong capital base, governance and capability, Singapore Life successfully acquired Zurich Life Singapore’s business portfolio and achieved more than SGD 6.6 billion in life insurance coverage to date. The company delivers on digital-first journeys by offering life insurance and savings products made exceedingly efficient through the use of cutting-edge technology.

As Singapore’s fastest growing life insurer, Singapore Life empowers consumers through simplified purchase experiences by harnessing convenience, transparency and accessibility. “Singapore Life continues to build its digital footprint with a view to ensuring all customers are able to leave behind a financially sound legacy for their loved ones,” concludes the vibrant CTO of Singapore LifeRobert Ross.

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POWERFUL

Tim Grace

IN BUSINESS

30LEADERS T H E

Making a Difference in the World of Risk Management

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n enabler of innovation, Tim Grace is an entrepreneur who has founded and grown multiple companies. Across the global payment card, mortgage and automotive finance industries, he has led the development of several game-changing solutions – one of which achieved a worldwide market share of more than 60%.

Tim is currently CEO of PointPredictive Inc., an innovative predictive analytics company focusing on risk management and fraud prevention in the automotive finance, consumer lending, and mortgage lending industries. Tim began his career as an industrial engineer in the aerospace industry, followed by ten years at HNC Software/FICO where he honed his skills for understanding a market and solving industry-wide challenges using advanced analytic scoring technology. During his tenure at HNC, he realized the numerous opportunities for building and implementing predictive fraud and loss prevention solutions.

In the world of risk management, Tim intuitively identifies inefficiencies in the credit application process (as well as in risk and fraud management processes) that result in financial institutions losing millions in revenue due to defaulted loans. By applying predictive analytics technology to these processes, he has become a pioneer in helping lenders prevent unnecessary losses.

Invincible Entrepreneurial Spirit Tim finds inspiration from innovators, his family, and most importantly his adopted son, who has overcome difficult childhood challenges. Tim’s credo is to work hard and never give up, and to thrive while overcoming the challenges endured along the way. Through hard work, grit and determination, he believes adversity can turn into great triumph.

Since launching PointPredictive in 2014, the most significant challenge Tim faced was educating automotive

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lenders that they were suffering significant financial losses due to fraud and misrepresentation, and that the problem was large enough to warrant their attention. To overcome this challenge, PointPredictive data scientists used millions of lender-provided data points that proved automotive application fraud was hiding in early payment defaults. As a result, PointPredictive was the first to sound the bell that auto lending fraud had escalated from $4 billion in losses in 2016 to $6 billion in losses in 2018. It was then the first to launch predictive analytics scoring solutions that have the potential to cut those losses in half without affecting a lender’s operational productivity.

This challenge led to one of PointPredictive’s biggest triumphs to date. In an industry-wide collaborative effort to combat fraud, many of the industry’s biggest lenders joined the PointPredictive Automotive Fraud Consortium to share best practices. Many customers and partners are adopting the company’s technology, and PointPredictive has become an inspiring, disruptive technology company.

PointPredictive: The Solutions for Automotive Lending Fraud PointPredictive emerged in the auto finance industry during a time when lenders were facing many of the same warning signs that led to the mortgage industry meltdown ten years ago. PointPredictive develops solutions and services that help automotive lenders leverage machine learning and predictive analytics to improve the profitability of their loans. Its solutions include Auto Fraud Manager, Synthetic Identity Alert™ and Income Validation Alert. These technology solutions proactively identify and score loan applications for fraud and misrepresentation that could lead to financial loss.

Auto Fraud Manager is the company’s flagship product that can identify more than a dozen different types of fraud in a loan application. Moreover, income fraud and synthetic identity fraud are currently top-of-mind concerns for customers in the automotive, mortgage and consumer

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Every day I aim to have my team working at the leading edge of technology and making an impact for our customers’ business.

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lending business and PointPredictive has built solutions to specifically address these fraud types across the lending spectrum.

Customer-Oriented Culture Engagement and trust are cornerstones that Tim instills within PointPredictive’s culture. Team collaboration and communication are designed to get everyone involved and engaged. In company-wide meetings, everyone can look each other in the eye and talk about what’s important. Tim actively participates in conversations about product innovation, customer implementations, customer business problems, and customer needs.

Customer service, accuracy, privacy, and trust are integrated into everything the company does and every conversation PointPredictive team members have. Customers share their most sensitive data with PointPredictive and rely on the team to care for that data to improve their business.

Outrageous Goals Lead to Success Tim considers his team as his ‘best asset’ for achieving corporate goals and is leading them to ensure PointPredictive solutions become the ‘best in class’ standard for the industry. His approach for achieving this standard is through his tried-and-true mantra of success: set outrageous goals and assemble a great team to over-deliver on them.

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Tim Grace Co-founder and CEO

PointPredictive’s talented team is comprised of industry-leading scientists, business experts and technology gurus. Tim told us, “I’m fortunate to work with people who are already great at what they do, so my goal is to provide an enhanced context to help them think ‘big picture’ about what we’re working on and help them ask better questions.”

Encouraging Future Leaders Tim is intent on bringing the next generation of innovators forward. Tim and his colleagues acknowledge there is a need for new leaders in predictive analytics to continue the charge against fraud and misrepresentation. He is actively seeking the next generation of technology and business leaders, putting them in positions for learning and success, and mentoring them to achieve great things in the machine learning and predictive analytics space going forward.

His Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs “Learn everything you can from everyone you can. Some of the greatest advice I received came from conversations with people who had done it before. I also advise entrepreneurs to always start with listening to their customers (and potential customers). Understand their business problem and then move to designing solutions. With deep customer engagement, your chances of success grow exponentially.”

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VISHAL BARAPATRE REFORMING THE GLOBAL IT ECOSYSTEM

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he IT industry, over the last decade has transformed comprehensively and also aided the development of a plethora of associated disciplines. However, for an organization working in the IT sector to leverage opportunities and ascend the stairway to global success, requires an epitomical leader. One evident representation of such leadership is Vishal Barapatre, the Co-founder and CTO of In2IT Technologies.

Vishal prolifically carries out his responsibility for creating and building up the company’s portfolio of innovative services and solutions with a view to serve customized offerings to each client. He has also used his extensive expertise in leading process improvements, collaborating on program design, implementing talent management strategy and workforce planning into driving measurable business outcomes.

Vishal has 20+ years of experience in the field of IT, specializing in network and telecom. Renowned for his thought leadership and technology steered business acumen, he is instrumental in conceptualizing and creating business propositions for markets all across the world for big IT multinationals including the platforms and products addressing in particular new age technologies viz IOT, Blockchain, cognitive platforms addressing infrastructure management and Artificial Intelligence.

anticipating the rapidly changing technology landscape and the impact on clients. It also offers IT Strategy, IT Process, Service Management, Business and IT Architecture, IT Performance, process maturity, technology-driven transformation, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine to Machine, Cloud Computing Company.

The company believes through experience that serving clients well brings success and excellence with ease. The clients’ interest is always placed first at In2IT. Its employees are the biggest asset. The company invests and trains its employees keeping the long term future in mind. It also provides a faster growth plan to the employees than the industry. For every job, it puts great emphasis towards hiring the best individual for the job. In2IT focuses on a Consultative approach to business development and its key strength lies in being a trusted ICT advisor to the clients.

The key business services it provides to clients include, Business Intelligence and Analytics, Cordys BPM Services, Oracle suite of services, Infrastructure services, Digital drive and Sourcing Advisory Services. In2IT has sales and delivery offices in India, South, Singapore, Australia, UK, Kenya, USA and Canada.

Redefining Benchmarks IT Consulting:

Prior to In2IT, Vishal’s shelf of experience includes, being the Global Practice Head at HCL Technologies and many other prominent roles, a Network Consultant at Samtech Engineering, a Network Engineer at Infotech Network Systems, and a Business Development Engineer at Team Computers.

In2IT understands that IT transformation is a key aspect for organizations to deliver optimum business results and the company offers IT enabled business transformation, use of solution accelerators and proven processes, customized solutions, governance, risk and compliance services, and enterprise architecture and consulting.

The Grounds of Innovation Application Development & Maintenance: In2IT is a global technology services firm focused on providing IT Consultancy, Application Development & Maintenance, Technology Infrastructure Services, Program and Project Management as well as Future Edge Services to its Clientele. The company constantly drives towards

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For end-to-end application development In2IT uses in-house developed service enablers across technology landscape for architecting, requirement gathering, modeling, application designing. This service covers

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POWERFUL

IN BUSINESS

30LEADERS T H E

Application Transformation, Application Maintenance, Testing, Consulting, Portfolio Assessment, and Application Rationalization.

Program and Project Management: In2IT uses the Four-Step Project Management Process laid down by PMI in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), for managing Projects. Each project is therefore divided into phases to enable efficient management and effective control over the quality of the project. In2IT’s PMO team covers Establishing and upholding PMO process guidelines, Identifying ongoing process improvements based on historical performance, Presenting executive reporting and decision support, Conducting ongoing project alignment against clients’ strategic initiatives, and Automating manual processes to ease the burden on project managers.

Enterprise Solutions: With its commitment towards constant innovations In2IT strides towards evolving new ways for quick adoption of future technologies and making them simpler for organizations to derive best value for clients’ businesses.

Technology Infrastructure Services:

Cloud Services: In2IT’s cloud services facilitate organizations to achieve business efficiency and operational excellence on system administration, security, compliance, privacy, performance, sizing, management, and monitoring.

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Technology Infrastructure Services (TIS) provided by In2IT have been created with an objective to thrive ahead of the technology curve. The company provides excellence through its unmatched experience by building IT Infrastructure geared towards specific consumer-based needs. Whether clients need to reach subsidiaries on the other side of the world with real time video, or connect with their Africa-wide offices through a secure network, In2IT can make it happen. Data Center Transformation Services, End User Computing Services, Network Consulting Services, and Information Security Services are covered under this segment.

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