The Most Inspirational Business Leaders to Watch, 2019

2019. Vol. 08 Issue. 01

+ The Most

Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019 SANGEETA PRASAD MARKING SUCCESS WITH PROFICIENCY

Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

The Art of Leading Attributes of a Good Leader Unbiased Future Establishing Gender Equilibrium

Editor’s Note Success Demands Adaptiveness and Endurance

A

n idea could bring a small change in current events or could be a disruptive modification. No matter how small or big it is, an idea is the beginning of something new, it can also be the beginning of an entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship demands willingness to take risk no matter how difficult situations are and thrive the success out of

it.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” this statement from Mark Twain is the core characteristic of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are budding achievers who constantly strive to bring changes and take the much necessary steps to achieve those. As a visionary, the role also demands the quality of leadership where a major responsibility is to lead people successfully and accomplish the course of action.

Adaptiveness is a major trait of entrepreneurs which helps in expertly distinguish between what is expendable and what is essential. Now entrepreneurship is not limited to put ideas into action, it covers a wide area, where management techniques, advance marketing, and explicit understanding of modern technologies required. Being adaptive is also necessary in order to create a sense of compatibility which is quite essential to motivate others and join them with the goal. An adaptive leader is a social architecture for the people who follow him and the reason of trust and optimism that ensures the success.

Other than adaptiveness, endurance is one important word in entrepreneur’s dictionary. An entrepreneur has to face daily struggle and departure in decisions where every day is a challenge. This situation becomes much more crucial in the beginning of a start-up. This is the specific zone when endurance is truly tested. This is also termed as "Valley of Death" where service/product is introduced in the process to get the much needed acceptance in the market. These moments’ endurance decides the victory or defeat, especially at the beginning of the business cycle.

Self motivation is what transforms an individual into an entrepreneur.

“

“

Rohit Chaturvedi

In order to celebrate the crucial characteristics and novel approaches of the world class entrepreneurs Insights Success has curated a list of “The 30 Most Inspiring Entrepreneurs of 2019” which are exemplifying the meaning of entrepreneurship.

These entrepreneurs have acquired all the necessary skills, such as vision, perseverance, dedication, and the ability to inspire and nurture, that are important to thrive in businesses. They also bring the expertise, confidence, and a deep business acumen that they have accumulated through their journey.

Sangeeta Prasad, the Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited (‘MLDL’), is featured as the cover of this edition. Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited (‘MLDL’) is one of India’s most trusted developers with a proven track-record in residential and industrial developments. She built great relationships – both professional and personal.

Under the direction of Sangeeta Prasad both residential sales and collections at MLDL registered record numbers in FY’2018.

Delve into some inspiring stories and lessons from many such significant entrepreneurs in this issue and reap the fruits of motivation. Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.

Happy reading!

Cover Story

Unbiased Future Establishing Gender Equilibrium

26

Tech Outlook Emerging Tech and Revolutions to Avoid Digital Irrelevance

08 SANGEETA PRASAD Marking Success with Proď€ ciency

38

Articles

Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

20

The Art of Leading Attributes of a Good Leader

32

CONTENTS 16

24

Balaji Ramachandran

Lance Crosby

Leading the Team with Inspiration, Integrity, Innovation, and Intellect

Taking the Cloud to the Edge

18 Ismael Wrixen A Trailblazing CEO in a Cutting-Edge Industry

Marcus Schmalbach Mounting Leadership through Perseverance

30

Owen Richards Boosting Business Development through Customer Centric Offering

36

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Executive Editor Hitesh Dhamani

Managing Editor Anish Miller

Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Kaustav Roy

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

Co-designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Tejas Kulkarni

Mayur Koli

Senior Sales Manager Co-designer

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Vaibhav

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Tushar

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Calvin Jones

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com August, 2019 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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SANGEETA PRASAD

Marking Success with ProямБciency

The Most Inspirational to Watch 2019

“Transforming urban

landscapes by creating sustainable communities.

“

COVER STORY

Antheia by Mahindra Lifespaces Pune

T

he concept of leadership is shaped by people who are eager to convert ideas into ac on.

Leaders must be crea ve with their ideas. They must also possess the ability to look at challenges in new ways and solve problems by seeing things that others don't. The role of a leader in an organiza on is to harness inven veness, imagina on, innova on, vision, progressiveness, originality and resourcefulness to drive sustainable and meaningful business growth.

Leadership requires a keen sense of responsibility towards the organiza on, its vision and its people.

It is crucial for a leader to establish eec ve communica on, so she/he is approachable to everyone and every team member is well aware and accountable in achieving his/her goals.

Sangeeta Prasad, the Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited ('MLDL'), is one such transforma onal leader and role model. With her determina on and proďŹ ciency, she is

an inspira on to many and is con nually raising the bar on leadership.

An Intellectual Businesswoman Sangeeta started her career with Tata Steel, where she gained strategic experience and exposure across businesses, func ons and loca ons.

She holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University and an MBA from Indian Ins tute of Management, Lucknow. She took over as MLDL MD & CEO in 2018 and is responsible for se ng the strategic direc on that will guide the company in its next phase of growth, as it completes 25 years of urban developments across India. She is also a frequent speaker and panelist at pres gious industry and interna onal events. She has addressed audiences at mul ple edi ons of the World Economic Forum Annual Mee ng in Davos, where she led discussions on trends, challenges and opportuni es in urbaniza on; business and people strategy in the digital era; and ac on

on climate change. She was also a speaker at the 2015 United Na ons Climate Change Conference, or 'COP 21', in Paris, and at the eighth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8) held in Beijing in 2017. Addi onally, she is also a member of the RICS (Royal Ins tu on of Chartered Surveyors) South Asia board and Co-Chair of the Confedera on of Indian Industry (CII) Urban Development and Smart Ci es Council.

Trust and Reliability Mahindra Lifespace Developers Limited ('MLDL') is one of India's most trusted developers with a proven track-record in residen al and industrial developments. The company is the real estate and infrastructure development arm of the Mahindra Group, a USD 20.7 billion federa on of companies headquartered in Mumbai, India since 1945. MLDL is commi ed to transforming India's urban landscape through its residen al developments under the 'Mahindra Lifespaces' and 'Happinest' brands; and through its integrated ci es and

industrial clusters under the 'Mahindra World City' and 'ORIGINS by Mahindra World City' brands respec vely.

Rising income, urbanisa on and economic growth are driving demand for real estate and infrastructure development in India. A new regulatory framework has resulted in a shi towards transparency and accountability in favour of organised developers with strong brand equity.

India's real estate markets are increasingly end user focused and the value proposi on of both the product and experience is more important than ever before.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers is at a naturally advantageous posi on in this new business and regulatory environment, given its strong focus on project design, quality and mely delivery. The company's strategic priori es emanate from its core value system, which is built on trust and accountability towards its stakeholders and the environment. Mahindra Lifespaces is driven by its Credo of 'Sell

The residential zone at Mahindra World City Chennai

in Chennai earlier this year and has already signed up Yanmar Engine Manufacturing India & Nissei Electric as customers. MLDL's industrial developments have been designed to enable faster go-to-market for businesses via world-class plug-andplay infrastructure, strategic loca on advantages and a range of valueadded services.

Amphitheatre at Mahindra World City Jaipur

genuinely, Build responsibly, Deliver on me'. Sangeeta is passionate about raising the bar on customer delight through right-sized and right-priced products that cater to evolving market needs and create tangible value for stakeholders. A strong balance sheet, good governance and the Mahindra brand — a name synonymous with honesty, transparency and trust in India — add to the company's a rac veness for both consumers and investors.

MLDL's pioneering industrial developments – the Mahindra World Ci es in Chennai and Jaipur – together span approx. 4500 acres and enable the 'Make in India' vision for 150+ reputed global and domes c companies. These include BMW, Infosys, Fujitec, JCB, Deutsche Bank Group, TTK Healthcare Limited, Gaston Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra, to name just a few. The Mahindra World Ci es have been set up in public-private partnerships with state governments and have created employment for 50000+ persons ll date. Its joint venture, ORIGINS, which is in development with Sumitomo Corpora on of Japan was inaugurated

MLDL has done seminal work in adop ng 'green' & 'though ul' design and construc on principles: a way of doing business that Sangeeta strongly espouses. Sangeeta proffers that not only is environmental sustainability good for the planet, but also translates into product differen a on and business process efficiency. All MLDL's developments incorporate green architecture, environment-friendly building materials and a sustainable supply chain. Its customers enjoy reduced u li es and maintenance costs in homes designed for conserva on of water and energy.

Abundant natural light and ven la on and low-VOC (Vola le Organic Compound) materials improve indoor air quality for healthy and balanced living.

A Perfect Blend of Technology and Quality Sangeeta readily acknowledges the importance of technology as a key differen ator in India's real estate industry. The right technology, when aligned to business vision, can aid construc on speed, boost product quality and enhance customer experience. Mahindra Lifespaces uses applica ons to automate business development processes and improve internal visibility and predictability.

These ready-to-use business applica ons can be integrated with its core systems faster and more efficiently. Innova ve technologies in construc on process, new material

Moreover, Mahindra Lifespaces effec vely uses social media to reach out, engage and address queries from customers and the larger stakeholder community. It leverages its social media presence to proliferate causes it espouses, such as environmental awareness.

MLDL will con nue to combine technology with organisa onal and opera onal innova on to achieve business growth. At the same me, the company believes that las ng, industry-wide innova on requires a collabora ve approach, encompassing mul ple stakeholder communi es.

Towards this end, it has established the Mahindra-TERI Centre of Excellence (CoE) together with The Energy and Resources Ins tute (TERI), India. The CoE is a first-of-its-kind research facility that will leverage state-of-the art research techniques and tools to develop energy-efficient solu ons adapted to Indian clima c condi ons. Sangeeta believes this is a perfect illustra on of partnership in science and technology for the greater good of society — and yet another example of the core value systems that define and guide Mahindra Lifespaces.

Changing Difficul es into Professional Success Sangeeta a ributes her success to the challenging projects and professional environments that have helped shape her leadership skills.

Sangeeta joined Tata Steel a er comple ng her MBA and was ini ally based in her hometown of Kolkata.

Marriage and a move to the Indian

“Our journey towards building a sustainable multiplier organisation will result in the happiest customer being in a Mahindra home and city.

capital of Delhi meant that she had to step outside of her comfort zone. This was also the me when she transi oned from a commercial func on into a sales role, taking up new responsibili es in a work environment that was largely maledominated. Sangeeta had to work doubly hard to make her mark. The first year was possibly the toughest and yet, she reminisces, one of the most sa sfying. This early stage, though ini ally unse ling, helped her build the inner confidence that is needed to take on uncharted professional territory and she emerged as a stronger and more resilient leader.

She did more than thrive during this me; she achieved record sales and

“

adop on and automa on have helped improve quality of product and reduce construc on melines. The company is con nually evalua ng and adop ng new technologies that can improve its business processes and make its developments future-ready.

built a strong distribu on equity and sales pipeline for Tata Steel. Most importantly, she built great rela onships – both professional and personal. Cut to the present - both residen al sales and collec ons at MLDL registered record numbers in FY'2018-19 under Sangeeta's leadership.

Sangeeta's current focus is on accelera ng momentum with impac ul launches, both in the residen al as well as the industrial parts of the business. She asserts that "Tolerance for chaos and ambiguity is the key to professional success. Hec c decision-making and moments of strong doubt are par for the course.

Luminare by Mahindra Lifespaces

Gurgaon

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The Most Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019

Balaji Ramachandran: Leading the Team with Inspiration, Integrity, Innovation, and Intellect

“

Founder & CEO

I

n this time of evolution, the corporate world has entered an unprecedented era. Now, business sector is more prevalent and accessible than ever before. To maintain the privacy of a business and move it with the integrity is becoming primary challenge for business leaders. Few of the important traits of leadership in the business world of today is to have an amazing leader who inspires and innovates to grow people/team around them.

One such business leader is Balaji Ramachandran – Founder and Chief Executive Officer of SoftClouds, showing resilience and positivity against all the difficulties persistently. In an interview with Insights Success, Balaji (Bala) shares insights about his company’s unique offerings and vital traits of leadership.

Below are highlights from the interview conducted between Bala and Insights Success: 16 |August 2019

“

Balaji Ramachandran

Bala strongly believes in innovation and comes up with soul striking ideas which convert the routine mundane business activities into a relentless drive towards achievement.

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

The solutions of SoftClouds are varied across a wide segment of industries, from automotive, high-tech, manufacturing, communications and financial services.

In the CRM/CX Industry, the main issue is that customers aren’t sure what they all want in a CRM solution – Thus we need to make sure we have an understanding of their needs and come up with innovative solutions incorporated with today’s most cutting-edge technologies like Bots, Internet of Things (IoT), Proactive CX, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence. Our experts constantly work on ideation, creating proof of concepts and revolutionary solutions that are equipped to fabricate businesses for futuristic opportunities.

www.insightssuccess.com

Describe some of the vital attributes that every leader should possess.

For me, a good leader is the one who is ready to be there for his team at any time. It is true a saying, “Leadership unlocks people’s potential to become better”. Today, being a leader is tougher than being a team member. In order to have the teammates excel, a leader needs to serve others in the first place. Leaders must make conscious choices to inspire others.

To me, some of the characteristics of a good leader are being a source of inspiration, leading the team with integrity, motivating the team to innovate and helping grow their intellect.

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

Motivation from industry leaders has always been a constant force in shaping my journey. In 2007, with the invention of iOS/iPhone, the mobility industry changed the way we look at the world. That innovative move by Steve Jobs was very inspirational to me. It has always brought out the best and probably the most innovative side of mine and shaped my journey in the best possible way.

Also, this ever-changing industry teaches us a lot on an everyday basis.

SoftClouds believes in learning from our experiences and continuing to strive to be one of the top-notch CRM/CX Solutions Provider in the US.

room. We have to overcome barriers like these and educate our customers right from the ground level on how next generation solutions are the need of today!

Also, a trusted team of experts is built with much effort and guidance. I can summarize the journey of SoftClouds starting with 5 people to becoming a 150-person company in two sentences.

First, the experience has been absolutely amazing and second, all the roadblocks and catastrophes became opportunities to grow with greater experience each time.

Where SoftClouds does sees itself in the near future and how will you catalyze the change?

I foresee SoftClouds working with many more big players in the market from various industries and growing in size to between 800-1000 people by 2023-2025.

What is your advice for the emerging leaders?

The road they take is neither straight nor easy, but it is worth the pain.

Technology is feeding on itself and outgrowing all the possibilities. The technology industry is evolving faster each year. Today – Change is the most important thing. We must learn to change and invent a new tomorrow! If I can share a few nuggets from my personal experience – Emerging leaders will also have to learn to make others grow in order to grow themselves. Leadership is a huge obligation and a charm at the same time.

About the Leader Balaji Ramachandran is the Founder, CEO and a member of the Board of Directors at SoftClouds. At SoftClouds, Bala leads the development of the strategic vision, recruits and develops new talent, and translates the vision of SoftClouds into inspired execution. With his broad vision and persistent intellect, he has continued to lead SoftClouds to boundless heights since 14+ years now. He also has hands-on experience leading startup companies in CX, Cloud and Mobile technologies.

Bala’s Entrepreneurial & Innovation leadership has helped shape today's CX software industry. Surely, Bala is an inspirational, motivating and people leader and builds relationships with teams around him – may it be customers, partners, employees, friends, family, or anyone else. He can be best described as Humanitarian. Tenacious.

Dreamer.

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

It is very hard to have our customers envision our solutions. The CRM industry has been lagging a lot. When you try to demonstrate the future to them, they cannot follow along unless we have a similar futuristic mind in the

www.insightssuccess.com

August 2019| 17

The Most Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019

Ismael Wrixen A Trailblazing CEO in a Cutting-Edge Industry

S

ome people require decades of experience before they can take on leadership roles. For others it is a natural fit. An example of the latter is Ismael Wrixen, Group CEO at FE International. A radical shift in his early career sent him down an entrepreneurial path, and now Insights Success proudly recognizes Ismael as one of our inspiring business leaders.

Below are the highlights from an interview we conducted with Ismael: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in FE International.

I began my career at Citigroup where, for two and a half years, I worked on a brokerage team that brought IPOs to market. I felt hampered by the standard rate of career progression in the industry, and I felt that the long working hours would be better spent working for myself.

I teamed up with an old friend from university, Thomas Smale, whose burgeoning company was involved in brokering the sale of online businesses.

Seeing the potential overlap with his business and my background, after some careful consideration, I joined the company as CEO, bringing new formality and structure to the business, as well as my corporate experience. I now oversee day-to-day operations at FE, splitting my time between our New York and London offices.

How do you diversify your 18 |August 2019

organization’s offerings to appeal to your target audience?

FE started out by catering to smaller online businesses, some only earning a few thousand dollars per year. FE’s Founder, Thomas, became adept at reinvigorating and selling these businesses and soon realized there was a whole market of larger online businesses requiring assistance. FE’s services have shifted over the past decade, broadening out to help larger companies while better specializing in three core areas of online business; ecommerce, content and SaaS. The business has benefitted from catering to this wide range of clients. To this end, we have recently launched a fund to provide even more options for people looking to invest in the online space.

benefit if you possess innate leadership instincts, but it is always rely on experience where possible.

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

An important lesson for me was going into a traditional corporate job and seeing how the other half lives. While I learned a lot and there were aspects of the job I enjoyed, it was helpful to get an understanding of what I didn’t want to do before following a more entrepreneurial route. I pursue my current work more confidently as a result.

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

Describe some of the vital attributes Our biggest problem was spreading the that every leader should possess. word about our services. We knew Experience is first and foremost when there was a large market out there, but it comes to leadership. There have been how to get ourselves in front of people some great first-time entrepreneurs but was our biggest hurdle. We had to the people who build large and become marketers, and overtime we successful companies are usually worked out the most effective channels people who have good and relevant for generating leads and built out teams leadership experience prior to starting around them. It’s an area of the up. Leadership in a business context business we are proud of and can be learned, or at least heavily continuously evolves. improved. One’s character can have a major bearing on the effectiveness of Where does FE International see the company, but if you have good itself in the near future and how will experience, and you match yourself to you catalyze the change? the right business model and the right FE International sees itself as the employees, leadership can be a natural premiere online business M&A fit. Experience always trumps any Advisory and, as time goes on, we see innate attributes. It is of course a ourselves cementing this reputation. www.insightssuccess.com

The best time to plant a tree was twenty Ismael Wrixen Group CEO FE International

years ago, the second

best time is now.

There are new markets to enter and a wider audience to reach within the USA. We have started our first fund, LTV SaaS Growth Fund [https://Itv.fund/] where we hope to capitalize on our knowledge of the industry while creating new investment opportunities for our clients.

We have also opened a new location in San Francisco, and we aim to continue to expand and improve our services for the benefit of all online business owners and investors.

What’s your advice for emerging leaders?

Build the best team you possibly can and instill a problem-solving attitude.

At our company one of our core values is to “find a way”. This means that only by pursuing new ways of solving problems, outside one’s usual working channels and experience, can you be at your most effective. www.insightssuccess.com

August 2019| 19

Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

L

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

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

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

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

Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about 100 hours a week, and has been productive since many years. He may even be considered as the hardest working

20 |August 2019

employee of the company, setting standards for his colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.

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

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

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

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

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

www.insightssuccess.com

Imparting Wisdom

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

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

Tendency for Vertical Integration Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or a firm acquires business operations within the same product vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this concept. For example, Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also generate public awareness about their cars via Tesla showrooms across various countries. And SpaceX does not only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions; they develop their own rocket architecture as well.

Faith in Self and the Founding Team Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own capabilities as well as the potential-seeking factor of its founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected endresults.

www.insightssuccess.com

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

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

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

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

August 2019| 21

The Most Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019

Lance Crosby Taking the Cloud to the Edge

T

hanks mainly to the rise of the internet, our world has changed massively in last two decades.

And as technology has changed the way we live our daily lives, the CEO of Dallas-based StackPath, Lance Crosby, has been at the helm of industry shifts, creating ventures that lead their respective sectors into the future.

Lance first gained acclaim as the founder, CEO and Chairman of SoftLayer, which was a major leader in leading the era of the cloud that both companies and consumers rely on to run digital systems today. After building up the organization from scratch, IBM bought SoftLayer in 2013 for $2 billion, and SoftLayer became the backbone of IBM's cloud technology. As a part of the acquisition, Lance joined IBM to head the organization's cloud division.

While working at both SoftLayer and IBM, Lance became particularly attuned to a few pain points that resulted as side effects of the cloud industry and keeping cloud systems secure while scaling at a rapid pace.

After SoftLayer's acquisition by IBM, Lance knew he had his work cut out for him in fixing this problem for the industry he had championed as it grew to holy-grail status for internet-using companies and consumers.

He left IBM in 2015 with this goal in mind.

Make the Internet a Safer Place Lance's current vision is StackPath: an

24 |August 2019

inherently-secure and scalable platform of edge services that enables developers of organizations of any size to protect, accelerate, and innovate any cloud properties, from websites to media delivery to IoT services, without needing cloud security and delivery expertise of their own. With an innovative global edge network infrastructure, StackPath delivers enterprise-grade security and performance in a frictionless, ondemand platform with cloud-scale control and flexibility. It is specifically designed to accommodate the crushing demand of increasing internet traffic in an ever-expanding spectrum of cyber threats for companies using the very cloud technology Lance helped to bring into existence.

StackPath came out of “stealth” in July 2016 having already acquired four companies: content delivery network provider (CDN), MaxCDN; Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection company, Staminus; website security and traffic management software company, Fireblade; and virtual private network (VPN) provider, Cloak. StackPath has since acquired Highwinds, a second CDN provider; and infrastructure monitoring and management company, Server Density.

While competitors are doing individual pieces of what StackPath is doing, the difference is that StackPath is creating something that doesn't currently exist: a multi-sided platform ready for

however the Internet grows and whatever StackPath, or StackPath customers, can innovate. Lance believes that the entire cloud revolution is shifting and that it is time to transform the cloud, starting at the edge. Lance and StackPath won't stop creating, innovating and growing until the Internet is safe. In fact, that is StackPath's mission: make the Internet safe.

Making of an Acclaimed Leader Lance holds an Honorary Doctorate, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Science in Finance, and a Bachelor's in Finance and Management from Tarleton State University – a part of the Texas A&M University system.

He also holds a Juris Doctor from Texas Wesleyan School of Law and a Master of Law from SMU. He is a licensed attorney in the state of Texas, where he is an active member of the State Bar of Texas. Even though he received a law degree, and everyone recommended him to practice law, he decided to go against the tide and focus on “the internet thing” instead.

Before working with SoftLayer and then StackPath, Lance also served as a Chief Operating Officer of ThePlanet.com, where he managed all operations. He has also served in management roles at Catalog.com and Dallas Internet. With these successes in addition to his renowned work with SoftLayer, IBM and now StackPath, Lance has set a consistent example for Dallas entrepreneurs of finding the big opportunities in any given sector and

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creating companies that lead the charge into new eras of business.

Lance is regularly recognized for his leadership. In 2018, he was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Technology for the Southwest Region. He won this same award in 2011 with SoftLayer. Lance has won a number of additional awards including CEO of the Year by Metroplex Technology Business Council in 2013. A renown authority of the edge, Lance speaks regularly at events around the world on the topic.

Advice for Young Entrepreneurs For young entrepreneurs, Lance suggests that, when an innovative idea comes in, look at what it will take to bring that innovation to fruition in terms of both time and money.

In the case of the six companies StackPath has acquired, it made more sense to purchase these innovative companies with the pieces of the puzzle necessary to create an inherently secure internet services at the cloud's edge than to develop them from scratch and it appears to have been the right decision. In the first 18 months after launch, StackPath grew from 30K customers and $16 million in revenue to 1 million customers and almost $160 million in revenue. An amazing accomplishment in a relatively short time.

“

Love what you do.

Never stop innovating.

Never stop asking “why” and challenging the status quo.

—Lance Crosby CEO StackPath

www.insightssuccess.com

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About the Author Ineke Kooistra is the CEO of YoungCapital, a leading Dutch recruitment agency, since 2013. She has been working in the recruitment and secondment branches for 25 years.

Additionally, she has also set up and expanded various specializations within the IT stafďŹ ng market. Her role as the CEO of the company is to get people moving, motivate them and coach them.

Together with three male founders, she directs a predominantly female management team and 1,300 employees, of which 80 percent is also female. This is pure coincidence, because Ineke doesn’t believe in selecting her employees based on gender.

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Unbiased Future

Establishing

Gen der A

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

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

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

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

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

E uilibr um

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

They just do it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Most Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019

Marcus Schmalbach Mounting Leadership through Perseverance

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eadership is more of a responsibility than a designation. It involves inspiring others and and building trust betweeen team members. Leaders also have toto strategize the work culture management and associate with organization as a symbol of perseverance. Dr. Marcus Schmalbach (MBA / PhD), a renowned professor of business management and Founder and CEO of RYSKEX GmbH is one such leader who is exemplifyingstrategic leadership with some impressive business management traits.

Marcus has a long-standing experience in risk and captive management in various industries. Prior to RYSKEX, he was Head of German of MBA program located in Bielefeld, Germany. He is still working as a visiting professor on Innovation and Risk Management matters with universities in Germany and USA. Serving Top Players RYSKEX’s customers are the risk and insurance management departments of blue-chip companies that are both very 30 |August 2019

smart and at the same time very traditional thinker. The company uses the possibilities of modern technologies like AI and Blockchain to support its highly innovative solutions.

However, the company focuses on value addition, customer needs, and creating a symbiosis of future-oriented technology with trustworthy cooperation. Especially in the B2B sector, customer confidence -even in the age of digital transformation is the elementary component for success.

Leaders are Risk Takers Marcus advocates the opinion that leaders are born and one can’t train these skills. It’s also hard for him to name the real characteristics of a leader. Many people believe that a leader has to be a positive guy with a high empathy, but Marcus has some different opinion to it. He opines,A leader must have a higher goal in mind and radiate the faith and charisma that people follow him whether he is punctual, attaches importance to diversity in the company or possesses a lot of empathy is irrelevant to me.”

According to him, integrity, charisma, goal orientation and the backbone to be

able to make unpopular decisions are some of the most important attributes that every leader should possess.

Every Day is a New Challenge Marcus considers that in a start-up with a disruptive business model, every day is a challenge and a test. A daily struggle and a departure from decisions where cooperating with traditional market participants, yes or no, which venture capital company is the right one?, Which form of financing is the right one in the medium or long term?, What do we focus on, which markets, which technical solutions must be included in the MVP, and which can be implemented later? These are the frequent questions one has to deal with several times a day and which can decide whether victory or defeat, especially at the beginning of the business cycle. He thinks founders are the people who look around for that thrill. If they are equally equipped with a "leader gene", they can create a game change.

An Extraordinary Approach Marcus in his early thirties had already completed an academic career, and was www.insightssuccess.com

RYSKEX is pursuing the goal of revolutionizing the insurance market in a similar way to Uber or Airbnb towards a platformbased sharing economy.

Dr. Marcus Schmalbach CEO RYSKEX

extremely young for a study program director. Building houses, getting married and having children seemed to be the next logical steps to him. But he was never like that and was constantly looking for a new challenge. Convinced with this thought that his life’s work would be something else he put together an extraordinarily talented team, he left university and founded RYSKEX. And with all the challenges or precisely because of the daily challenges, this became best decision of his life.

Steady with the Course The progress of RYSKEX shows that its model can certainly determine the future of the industry and the goal is to create exception. However, this is still a long way off and the future will show whether the company will still be on the market in next years’ time or whether traditional companies such as Lloyd´s of London have overtaken it.

The team at RYSKEX is confident enough to say that the company cooperates with very reputable and economically well-off companies that believe in it. Marcus has a positive look at the globe and say that in just two to three year RYSKEX has established itself in the market. As a CEO one takes the lead by taking responsibility on the journey and has to present himself as a leader. Successes from the past are the basis to look positively into the future. www.insightssuccess.com

Perseverance and Self Confidence is the Key Marcus admires two men of world history and their testimonies to shape his mindset. One is Mahatma Gandhi and the following quote from him: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

The other quote comes from Steve Jobs: “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do, we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.” Real game changing business models are often difficult to identify or are torpedoed by the “old economy”. According to Marcus, perseverance must be shown and at the same time capable employees must be united in the company whom one trusts, and with a lot of luck, one win in the end.

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Attributes of a Good

Leader

32 |August 2019

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The Art of Leading

L

eadership is about using the power of a position to empower a group of people in order to attain a common goal. A leader’s task is to implement the plans that usually look good on paper, through a delegated team, in a specific time with an ongoing motion. She/he may use the traditional method or may think out of the box. It depends on the leader as how to do it; the ultimate motive is to get the job done.

Although, each and every individual has a different approach on leadership, some might say it is about setting examples, some might say it is about sharing the authority; what matters is, taking the right decision when it is most needed.

Leadership varies from one organization to another. An organization is a dynamic body and creates new probabilities every now and then. And with new probabilities, come new challenges.

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

Incidentally, this style of leadership fits best in a scenario when there is a limitation of time.

The Transformational Leader A transformational leader inspires the team through effective communication and an intellectual environment.

However, these individuals require

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more detail oriented managers to successfully implement their strategies.

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

The Transactional leader The transactional leadership, as the name suggests, enables the leader to incentivize the team corresponding to their performance. The team gets rewarded when it attains the goals and the Leader has the power to review the results and act accordingly when the team fails to do the same. The goals and the strategy to attain them are decided by the leader and the team itself.

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

Qualities of a good leader There is an old proverb that says, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.” So is the case with leadership. One of the basic qualities of a Leader is to pass on the leadership skills.

Following are some of the qualities of a good leader:

communication grows. Especially, when it comes to leadership, there is no scope for lack of communication. A Leader who fails to develop this skill is looked up as incompetent, because it is his job to send the message loud and clear. Although, it is also important to listen as it is an integral part of communication.

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

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

Decision making There is risk in decision to making.

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

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

Communication Skills Communication is the basic requirement for efficiency in a business. As the level of hierarchy elevates, the requirement of Ÿ

August 2019| 33

Owen Richards

Boosting Business Development through Customer Centric Offering

I

n marketing, potential buyers are not only convinced with hyper marketing, but also observe the hard work that an organisation puts into customer service.

Understanding the true power of customer service and vigorous competition in telemarketing Owen Richards, Managing Director at Air Marketing Group is displaying the outstanding leadership through innovative and proven business development strategies.

Below are highlights from the interview conducted between Owen and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in Air Marketing Group.

I began my sales career in 2007 when I joined Forrest Marketing Group in Australia. I stayed with that organisation for 8 years building my way from a Telesales Executive to the Head of Sales & Operations. In 2016, I started Air Marketing Group in the UK, having moved home to start a family. In our first 3 years Air has grown to a team of more than 60 people and has made its mark as one of the leading outsourced sales and marketing organisations in the UK. As a result of the success, we now have two more organisations launching alongside Air. As Managing Director, I spend much of my time working strategically on our business as well as leading the senior management team who inspire our wider team every day.

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

Transparency plays a huge part; every phone call made on behalf of our clients is recorded and is accessible, we offer reporting in live time on all our activity and we welcome our clients into our office to meet and work with their team directly. We use data in an intelligent way to learn from our activity and maximise the efficiency of each of our clients’ programmes. We automate processes to increase productivity and we integrate direct sales with a digital marketing approach. However, the quality of people within our team is always our biggest attribute, and the culture that is driven from within. The people in Team Air are ultimately what sets us apart and this is what I am most proud of. And these are just some of the reasons our clients tell us that our services deliver such a great ROI (£18 revenue for every £1 invested last year.)

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Describe some of the vital attributes that every leader should possess.

For me, leaders need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, comfortable with change and comfortable with being vulnerable. All too often I meet business leaders who are afraid of being wrong, who are afraid of showing their emotions, or whose emotions drive everything they do (especially when under pressure). The best leaders I’ve met and have had the pleasure of working with are those who I knew as a real person. They are those whose faults I was aware of and took the time to praise and constructively criticise in an open and honest way. They have always been the people to drive, encourage and welcome change. And the best leaders are those who are prepared to make mistakes openly and accept the learnings that come.

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

Like everyone there are far too many to mention. However, some do always stand out. In 2016, when Air was only 6 months old as an organisation, we won a contract with a large financial organisation which meant that we had to hire 20 people within the space of around a month. Now, at that time we only had around 15 employees, so this meant more than doubling our team almost overnight. That month seemed to be, at the time, one of the worst months of my career. However, looking back on it now it was one of the best and it was certainly the month in which I learnt the most. In Australia, my business partner and I grew the business from around 10 people, when I started in 2007, to over 100 people over the space of 8 years. The biggest lessons that stick with me today and that I continue to repeat to others are: Say yes and find a way- do not be scared of new opportunities, even if you don’t know how you’re going to make them work just yet.

Culture is key- within any business driven by people, your culture will make or break you.

Hire people who are better than you - you can’t be the best at everything so recognise your faults and hire people who have strengths in those areas.

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The Most Inspirational

Business Leaders to Watch 2019

Let people do their job- micromanagement is the single worst thing within business leaders.

Drive change, encourage change and welcome changethings will change, whether you like it or not, so why not embrace it?

work hard. Many have forgotten that! But for me, one of the most impressive traits in an emerging leader, even more so in the market we work in today, is loyalty. If you work only for the reward that might come today, you may suffer from short-sightedness. However, if you can remain focused on tomorrow’s rewards, my experience is that it will always pay off.

Where does Air Marketing Group see itself in the near future and how will you catalyse the change?

We intend on continued, aggressive growth. My role in that is simple; I must empower others to drive that change, help them to feel a sense of ownership and pride in the organisation and ensure that they are rewarded accordingly, because one person cannot do it all.

What is your advice for the emerging leaders?

There is so much but it goes without saying that you must

“

Be real, be human, and look like you’re enjoying the ride. And remember that you have a life outside of your business, so live it.

”

www.insightssuccess.com

Owen Richards

Managing Director Air Marketing Group

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Emerging Tech and Revolutions to Avoid Digital Irrelevance

T

he past several years have brought about sweeping changes in business technologies from main stream adoption of AI and voice activated devices to AR and VR solutions. Personal assistants power multiple devices and the internet of things push companies to keep up or get left behind. As emerging technologies push forward, consumers are getting use to a level of service, unimaginable just a few years ago. Millennials and Gen Z’ers have grown accustomed to being able to customize everything, get it the next day, and return it with no ramifications.

All of these technological advances are changing the way business is conducted at a base level and automation is finding its way into everything from marketing to warehousing. To cap it all off SEO is becoming increasing qualitative. Since quantitative factors can be gamed to beat the system, giants like Google and Amazon have decided that just because your company has an excellent keyword and schema strategy, doesn’t mean your business is the best at what it does. Both are relying more on qualitative factors like customer conversions, customer reviews, and even the amount of foot traffic you have at your physical locations.

Amazon and Google get set to square off as the Ecomm arms race continues to escalate and Zero Click ECommerce becomes ground zero for these platforms to gain your business. Zero Click Ecomm allows you to book a service or buy a product from your home speaker or phone without leaving the Google or Amazon platform or going through a traditional checkout process.

In order to succeed, businesses need to be flexible, adapt to a changing landscape and meet consumer expectations.

What often is not addressed, however, is whether a business should adopt these technologies and how to decide which ones make sense. With development costs for custom built consumer-based apps starting at 100k and lead times over 3 months, todays CITOs and CEOs need to drive innovation, protect it, and capitalize on it just to stay ahead of the competition. Three technologies or revolutions that every 38 |August 2019

business needs to consider right now are Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Zero Click Ecomm. Ÿ

Artificial Intelligence (AI): No matter what generation you are from, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has impacted you in some way. The old chess playing robot Deep Blue project, with origins dating back to the 80’s, has evolved into the advanced systems like IBM Watson and Amazon Lex. Once highly guarded proprietary systems, AI platforms have become open and friendly to developers with systems capable of learning and driving results. Today Artificial Intelligence drives consumer interactions through website and texting platforms.

Many automated marketing platforms are incorporating AI to make sure that your advertisements reach the people most likely to purchase your product.

AI is an emerging tech that all businesses need to put on their short list. PWC predicted that AI will help marketing solutions based on Big Data and we already see business systems like Buxton incorporating AI into their mapping models. AI is advancing science, marketing, and business management, AI has the power to predict results, improve ROI, and save money. Ÿ

Augmented Reality (AR): Augmented Reality is becoming a game changer for many industries, however, what exactly is it and how does it benefit modern business? Many people I talk with still confuse Augmented Reality with Virtual Reality (VR). Virtual Reality is a 3D environment, a complete virtual world that is immersive where the consumer is fully rendered inside a digital space and requires somewhat cumbersome electronics like headsets and haptics to complete the experience, (á la Ready Player One).

Augmented Reality (AR) is much more practical and prevalent. AR allows the consumer to change things about their real environment with the assistance of technology, www.insightssuccess.com

Tech Outlook usually a phone app or integrated web tech. The beauty space has flocked to AR to allow consumers to virtually try on make up or change their hair color such as the YouCam Makeup – Magic Selfie Cam showcased at the 2019 CES show. These are practical solutions to consumer pain points, allowing them to try before they buy. AR can help a consumer choose furniture, car accessories, and more, as they look in real life on themselves or in their own house as opposed to how they think they will look be online images. Wayfair has been leading the charge in this space and revealed at Shoptalk that they are digitizing much of their online inventory and converting them into interactive images. Ÿ

Zero Click Ecomm: Zero Click Ecomm isn’t tech, but it is a revolution. Powerhouses Google and Amazon are going head to head for your business and it is a two-pony race. According to an Adeptmind Survery, 46% of product searches originated on Amazon compared to 34% originating on Google. Amazon has been dominating the global Ecomm market, proving a long tail strategy can be immensely successful. As they grow, Amazon is bringing that level of innovation into the brick and mortar world with automated checkout and account based transactions.

Google however has not given up. They may be behind in product search originations, but according to Statista.com 63% of all searches still start with Google. Google’s goal over the next couple of years will be to have you never leave the Google Platform. Google’s technology investments in Google Business, Google Merchant, Google Manufacturer, Google Reserve, and Google Analytics, allows business to list their location, sell their products, book their services, advertise their wares, and track their ROI, all without ever leaving the Google Suite.

As business tech evolves and progresses, business need to keep pace to avoid becoming obsolete. The good news is that as the tech advances so do the solutions, and many software companies are building out of the box solutions for various industries to bring you up to date. There are AI solutions for customer service, marketing, and management. There are AR app builders who can help you utilize the technology for your consumer solutions, even if your company hasn’t been keeping up to date. It will be every CEOs responsibility to provide the vision of how the tech fits into their organization and CITOs and CMOs will be integrating the technology and pushing it even further. If we embrace the change, we will be able to do more and achieve higher ROIs with deeply satisfying consumer experiences. Artificial Intelligence will make sense of Big Data, Augmented Reality will provide the ultimate customer experience, and Zero Click Ecomm will make the transaction process easier and simpler, bringing more ROI to companies with the vision to utilize the technology and avoid digital irrelevance.

www.insightssuccess.com

About the Author Greg Forsythe is the Senior Director of Branding and Innovation for Deka Lash and serves as a marketing consultant and advisor for the beauty and wellness industries.

Greg has directed commercial projects for Fortune 100 clients such as Wal-Mart, CVS, Verizon, Kroger, Walgreens, Johnson and Johnson, and UPS. Greg studied Operations Management at Penn State before obtaining his Marketing Certification from The Wharton School.

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