The 10 Most Influential Business Leaders in Asia Pacific 2021

Feb 2021

www.primeview.co

The

10 Most

nfluential

JANAK SHETH

Managing Director (Century Pharmaceuticals Ltd)

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Soulful Stories That Behold the Power to Transpire Upright Self-motivated. Confident. Optimist & Positive. Accountable. Courageous. Full of Humour, Passion, Integrity, and Respect for self and others. And most important, Likable. These are some of the traits that sets a person on the wheels of leadership or frames them in broad light as people who inspire. But with the changing times and entry of new blood in the entrepreneurial world, it is time for the entrepreneurs to reinvent themselves upright and up now. Coming from diverse education & professional backgrounds, these entrepreneurs have become the epitome of change and are looked upon for inspiration and motivation by not just their employees but the society too.

Just like a fresh breeze of wind, these entrepreneurs bring fresh, innovative ideas, and Silicon Valley like work culture that has already transformed the way people here perceive being an entrepreneur. On the other hand, we cannot demean the efforts that our local entrepreneurs have put to bring in a change in the perception in the grass root level. Today they are not just creators of job who have huge followers, but one who believes in creating more leaders throughout his/her journey.

But many a times, their story remains untold, and unheard, which when brought to light have the power to transpire generations alike. Saluting such inspirational souls and bringing to you their untold story of hardships, successes, failures and motivation, Prime View dedicates the current edition to “The 10 Most Influential Business Leaders in Asia Pacific 2021”. We believe these stories when read will leave you awe-stuck and inspire you to wear the entrepreneur shoes and take up challenge to change the world you want to see it like.

Do let us know what you think!

The 10 Most Influential business Leader’s in APAC 2021

SONAL K

STEVE R DAVID S

DNYANESH K , JOHNSON J.

SAM K.

RICHARD D.

SAM D. , ANJALI G.

Visit: https://primeview.co Email: editor@primeview.co

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JANAK SHETH Century Pharmaceuticals Limited Managing Director

CONTENTS

PROFILES

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20 Christopher Carter

Ahmad Moradi

Approyo Founder & CEO

NETSTAIRS.COM, Inc CEO

24 Natasha Makhijani

Oliver Sanderson Group PLC CEO

Vineet Trakroo Evolution Strategy Advisors LLP CEO

ARTICLES

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32 Shilpa Mittal Ulatus CEO

TAKING THE PHARMACEUTICAL WORLD TO HIGHER LATITUDE WITH Lorem ipsum HIS VENTURE, CENTURY PHARMACEUTICLS LTD

Century Pharmaceuticals Limited Managing Director

A versatile business leader with an innovative approach, Janak Sheth is driving excellence throughout the pharmaceutical industry with his venture, Century Pharmaceuticals Limited. Dr Janak earned his B.Tech degree from IIT – Delhi and today, he is an Industry veteran in the Pharmaceutical world with a total experience of 45 years.

Century Pharmaceuticals Ltd has been manufacturing APIs for over three decades. It offers other services also apart from supplying APIs. The company undertakes long-term contracts for manufacturing intermediates and development of new Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients as per your requirement.

They are supplying APIs to the global pharmaceutical companies in India and abroad for the last 3 decades.

Some of their major customers operate in India and export their products to other countries. Century is also engaged in pioneering research of novel molecules for the treatment and cure for Asthma and allergy.

STORY OF JANAK SHETH As a young child, he always dreamt that he would not like to work like his father who was employed with a Bank but to start his own business. Dr Janak did not have any businessmen in his extended family nor had the resources required for setting up a business. So he knew that he had an uphill task in front of him. He decided to work towards his end objective by starting on the fundamentals – to get a good education.

Janak Sheth decided to get admitted to the best engineering institution – Indian Institute of Technology and pursued Chemical Engineering. He had a sharp focus on his future, so it kept him well engrossed in his studies and on “learning” rather than just excelling at exams. Dr Janak did his graduation with distinction and decided to join a company which could allow him to learn basics and he finally got that. Although he was very junior in the company, he decided to take decisions which many seniors feared to take. He became a sought after person owing to this ability by his colleagues.

However, he also got reprimanded by the top management for taking decisions which were way beyond his authority. He enjoyed it as there were few who dared to take decisions he was taking and it gave him a thrill. Although he was a just a Project Engineer for this new international project, he was effectively working as a Project Director taking most of the decisions including design and procurement of equipment etc. Later Dr Janak was involved with the installation of the equipment and thereafter production.

After 4 years he left them and started his own business with a paltry sum of only Rs 3,000. He was lucky that the government looking to his acumen and project details, supported him with loans to set up the business including an equity capital loan to bridge the gap in funds available with him and that required in the form of equity investment.

GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

DIVERSIFY THE ORGANIZATION’S OFFERINGS

Janak Sheth has a belief that any challenge is actually an opportunity. He has capitalized on all complaints received from his customers about their products and services. The recent COVID pandemic was also taken by them as an opportunity. They were amongst the first companies to get into action and started exports of their products when most people were in lockdown staying at home. This gave Dr Janak and his team more confidence and appreciation from their customers. As a result, they have seen much higher growth this year than in the recent past !

Initially, Century was started with only 2 products. It took time to manage the finances, produce goods and market them as they had no previous business experience. With limited means, it was far more challenging. However, they stabilized themselves after 2 years and slowly started serving more customers. With more confidence to run the business, Dr. Janak decided to expand the production capacity and add more products to the portfolio. Based on customer feedback and their confidence in the products and services, the team decided on the next few products. They had a very good response from all customers and this set the ball rolling for them.

Owing to his success in business, Janak Sheth got invited to several social forums for helping the downtrodden. He has the opportunity to encourage students for their extraordinary performances and also provide financial support to those that need it the most. When he sees these students graduate and shine out in their careers, it gives him great pleasure for having made a difference in their lives. In recent times Century is also involved with providing help to tribal children who have congenital issues like cleft.

They are able to win smiles from parents of these children and look forward to the day these children grow and become successful in their careers.

CHALLENGES ON THE WAY

Century Pharmaceuticals Limited is a three-decade old trusted name in the pharmaceutical industry!

SECRET SAUCE AND LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES

THE BIGGEST FAILURE IN BUSINESS AND LEARNING

“When I was working, I realized that the speed with which I could make decisions helped me take bold decisions which many procrastinated. This decisive nature helped me as I progressed with our business. This ability resulted in greater self-confidence and with my sharp focus on my business, I maintained my enthusiasm and determination to continue to work towards success. I kept my sharp focus on the few things we worked on and tried t excel”, asserted Dr Janak.

Janak Sheth and his team were working on a novel molecule which required a lot of funds – much beyond their capability. They were approached by GVFL to fund them as a private equity investor. Initially, they found them as a serious mature venture fund and therefore listened to GVFL the way to commercialise the molecule. This was their biggest professional blunder to listen to GVFL against their own thought process. Ultimately the Century team had to give them an exit by almost killing themselves but sadly achieved no progress. Had it not been for GVFL, they would have succeeded in making a significant development of the novel molecule and registered the first new biological entity in India.

“This helped us establish a niche for our products with extensive knowledge of the products we produced. Our positive attitude helped us look at the brighter side of things and this kept us always in the sunshine. One of the most important aspects was integrity in business. This made us very predictable and hence were in the good books of most of our customers with greater support with time. Over the years we learnt the art of strong communications within and outside our company.

Transparency in thoughts made our work very easy and smooth to execute”, he further added.

With this failure, Janak Sheth says that they have learnt to depend upon our own thought processes instead of depending on “experts”.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE?

BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED

Janak Sheth said, “Success for me means doing something that makes me happy, and something that I crave and enjoy. When I enjoy my work, I work with only a reasonable effort to cross new challenges. This success enables us to grow and develop mentally, spiritually and professionally”.

While sharing about the best advice ever received, Janak Sheth said, “Once I received a piece of advice that I am not innovating enough and that startled me as I was considered to be one who dares to innovate.

But I took the advice in good stride. With a strong and cohesive team managing the present operations in Century Pharmaceuticals Ltd, it is time to think ahead. We are now planning to invest further in R & D and also to expand production capacity although we have sufficient surplus capacity. We understood the advice that we are not growing as fast as we can and should”.

NEW IDEAS TO BE IMPLEMENTED “As we grow further, we would like to dedicate ourselves to the social upliftment where possible and to work on uncharted areas which help in providing new medicines with much less side effects. Currently, we are working on the development of personalized cancer treatment.

This is a targeted therapy approach which will specifically target and kill the tumour in the cancer patient and yet without any side effect. Our objective is to make a significant progress in this novel area and alleviate the pain of cancer patients”, Janak Sheth proudly shared.

MAIN DRIVING FORCE BEHIND CENTURY PHARMACEUTICALS LTD The strong and harmonious team in Century is the main driving force behind the success of the company. The team accepts challenges and achieves them.

It is geared for much better performances in future.

VISION OF LIFE

COMPANY’S FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

For Janak Sheth, the vision in life is to contribute to the national economy through taxes and duties paid on imports and sale of their products.

Presently, his company is doing various kinds of CSR activities in rural and tribal areas. The team gives special focus on providing basic education and drinking water facility to the people who live near their plant.

Presently, Century Pharmaceuticals Limited is on a very strong footing. The company was in a partnership with an Israeli Biotechnology company for research and commercialization of a novel recombinant protein for the treatment and cure of Asthma and Allergy.

Now, the company is looking forward to developing costly products which require much fewer resources instead of churning out tons of pharmaceuticals which also produce a lot of pollutants. The team is working hard on unmet needs of the industry and tries to focus on products which have much fewer side effects.

THE CHARACTERISTIC OF EVERY LEADER Every leader should be capable enough to think in a unique and different way and should be able to innovate in their business. Innovation is the key to growth!

Taking Businesses on Higher Latitude through Integrated Video Solution

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hmad Moradi, Founder and CEO of NETSTAIRS, is a visionary knowledge engineer with 40+ years of experience.

He has done a Ph.D. in AI and holds exceptional business knowledge and life experience. With hands-on expertise in human interaction, organizational behaviour, art, science and technology, Ahmad has introduced many new business models, products and technologies throughout his journey.

Presently, he is focused on AI-based Interactive Video, WebRTC, Health IT, ICT, software, hardware, Fintech, Media, Tech Biz, Distance

Education, Banking, Condo-Hotels & Global Projects at hand. As a "Knowledge Engineer", he used decades of hands-on AI experience and knowledge engineering to build methodologies, strategies, and algorithm around monetization, reduction of carbon footprint, lowering costs and increasing efficiency, As a consultant, he delivers know-how and technologies that enable real-time broadcast, collaboration, and communications serving the masses.

Ahmad Moradi has enjoyed being a pioneer 16

in introducing many "First" throughout the years. He has assisted with strategic vision serving Governments, Politicians, Telecom, CDN, Cable, OTT, DTH, Industries, Verticals (Health, Legal), Media, TV, Entertainment, Global Brands, Ad Agencies, and Enterprises in various parts of the world.

As per Mr Moradi, “Real-Time Video Communications is the genesis of an insightful digital transformation to the digital economy, by connecting creative minds, machine intelligence, while embracing human diversity around the world.”

The Beginning of an Innovative Story The inception story of NETSTAIRS began in 2000; it is the brainchild of Ahmad Moradi, who is one of the leading pioneers in video-based technologies on the global level. Since childhood, Ahmad Moradi has been in love with video technologies and their mechanism.

While working in Silicon Valley Ahmad collaborated with UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) professors and designated MBA students to create and join forces with a few mathematicians, delivering visually lossless imaging algorithms. After working on DCT (discrete cosine transformation) theories and infusion of wavelet theories, he came back to South Florida in 2000 and started NETSTAIRS with pioneering and introducing Cybermercial video email, a desktop email utility program.

While active in ICT, he studied Greek Philosophies, Zoroastrians, Bhagavata Purana, Bhagavad Gita, Bible, Torah, Zohar, Sufi, Rumi, and other old scriptures. It inspired him to reach a higher frequency of thoughts.

While talking about the leadership he mentioned that managing dread, individual evil presences, self-questions, and difficulties both at home and work is a piece of each human’s battle that affects our everyday lives. One must pick admirably. A leader must consider both at the smaller scale and large scale level with obligations of his/her actions.

Treating colleagues and friend networks/partners with “Absolute Love” without bias encourages all to hoist.

A Glimpse of NETSTAIRS Presenting interactive video and WebRTC services to the world, NETSTAIRS.COM, Inc. has culminated into one of the most sought-after companies offering middleware media broadcast and communication servers for the advertising and entertainment industry that seek Web-enabled unicast and email delivery communications. The aim of the company has been to become the leading source of multicast streaming & group video communication to Broadcasters, Publishers, Telecom, Government, Enterprises, TV Networks, Education, Advertisers and SMB. NETSTAIRS has been assisting brands to modernize their online presence via CAPEX and OPEX real-time communications technologies where privacy and security are the hallmarks of its services.

Service Portfolio • ICDN – INTERACTIVE CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK

• IMHS – INTERACTIVE MANAGED HOSTED SERVICES

• ICPT – INTERACTIVE COST PER TIME

• ICPS – INTERACTIVE CREATIVE PROGRAMMING SERVICES

Advance Solutions The company brings integrated Interactive Broadcast, Collaboration & Communication solutions with the assured quality that helps its clients to fulfil their need for real-time group interaction.

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• PIXEL SERIES: Made with pure HTML5 –

designed to provide not one but many virtual rooms where could be customized for clients’ use with a variety of services.

• ZIMZIM: Made for 5G to take Broadcast, Collaboration & Communications to the Next Level. Using ZIM ZIM real communication gets a new easier and quality dimension.

• Wall of OZ: A video wall containing several

multicast video streams. The Video streams are placed together and are easy to manage in all shapes and sizes.

• Interactive OTT: Solutions that help you to connect with the audience in real-time while broadcasting content.

Co-operative Team The NETSTAIRS team(s) comes from a different set of cultures and diversity. They help each other to manifest and overcome the challenges at every level of the work. They do not compete but try to excel themselves. This is about the higher self.

Creating a sense of purpose in which they could become the next leaders in their own endeavours while embracing them to learn from their own experiences, they strive for excellence.

Feathers in the Cap • Recognized as the company of the year 2019, by business connect.

• Ranked 7 amongst the top 10 fastest growing media and Entertainment Company by mirror review.

• Recognized as one among the“10 Fastest-

Growing Media & Entertainment Solution Providers to Watch in 2018 by the technology headlines.

• 2016 Technology Innovation Award (UK and US)

by CV Magazine.

• Most Innovative Digital Media Infrastructure

“

Revolutionizing the business world with real-time communication solutions!

• Hottest Florida Company Awarded by Lead411

Road Ahead NETSTAIRS is releasing https://icdn.video as “SHARE A LINK” supporting all browsers connected to leading CDN. ZIMZIM tied to ZOOM and LETSCAST (AI Stream) shall allow real-time events stream to large interactive audience. In Summer 2021, LENZ ZOOM will be introduced, made for group video messaging & collaboration with screen casting, planned recording and live streaming services.

NETSTAIRS also helps companies adapt Wall of OZ made for fan-based multicast video streaming. With the introduction of AI Video Services, NETSTAIRS believes the future lies with Real-Time Communications as the genesis of an insightful AI digital makeover guiding companies to learn and adapt to digital economy, by connecting creative minds, machine intelligence, while welcoming human diversity around the world.

Company – USA & UK – Best Interactive Loyalty Card: iCPT 18

Christopher Carter: A Passionate Techpreneur, Aspires to be a Benchmark in the SAP Service with Approyo

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pproyo Founder & CEO, Christopher Carter is passionate about SAP technology that provides value to people. His venture, Approyo is a reflection of his passion and decade-long expertise.

Approyo provides full SAP service technology with extensive capabilities in hosting and managed services, upgrades, and migrations for customers, running any SAP supported core functionality. With over 300 SAP environments

under management around the globe, the company supports businesses from production landscapes to migrations onto SAP HANA and SAP S/4 HANA.

The Initial Story With a love for technology, Christopher Carter started his journey when he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology. In college, he began working with SAP and in 20

that time he realized how much he enjoyed working with innovative solutions. Years later, he was inretirement for a very short period, until he heard about SAP’s announcement of SAP HANA. He saw great potential for this solution and decided to jump back into the SAP space, thus creating Approyo.

Unique Factors Christopher says, “We strive hard to deliver the best quality service possible. We work with partners and customers on a global scale and are able to provide a variety of services, tailored to the needs of each business. Our experts are available 24 x 7 x 365 to take care of our customers, and we hold multiple SAP certifications. Our partners allow us to expand our solution offerings even more so. Since SAP is our main focus, we hold quality expertise in this field, and we make sure that every SAP project is delivered on-time and on-budget.”

Hurdles on the Way Christopher says that he is always prepared for a challenge. The whole basis of Approyo is to solve problems, so him and the team are both are very much prepared for challenging situations. “Specifically working in the cloud computing space, you must give your employees the tools they need to succeed.

Meaning, we make any type of training or certification available to them. It is important to give them the proper training so that you can take more of a hands-off approach when it comes to their daily tasks. At the same time, I does oversee the entire business and hold meetings with both the executive sales team and Service Delivery team to ensure that operations are running smoothly. Be a leader, but do not be power-hungry.”

Leadership Principles Treat everyone fairly and equally in the workplace. Give the same opportunities to everyone, whether they’ve worked at the company for a day or a year.

Never stop learning. Although every business hires employees to take care of certain tasks, you should have knowledge of them as well.

Be passionate about your purpose. If you don’t believe in the mission and the vision of your company, who else will?

The biggest failures in Professional Life and Learning Christopher’s biggest challenge was the first company he had owned. When he had to close its doors, he felt like a failure. He hadn’t envisioned it ending that way and he had really high hopes for its success. Today, Christopher looked back on how he ran that business and changed many things when he went forward with Approyo. It’s never too late to learn.

Road Ahead Throughout 2020, Approyo experienced great growth and success. Future plans are focused on even more growth. The team is looking to grow their customer base, their partner network, and later on, their solutions offerings.

They are looking to add new innovative artificial intelligence technology, and custom solutions to the market place.

In Christopher’s Words What does success look like?

Success looks like happy customers to me. If our customers are successful, then we are successful.

Great Accomplishment My greatest accomplishment professionally is Approyo. Building this company from the ground up was no easy task. It took time to build up our team, perfect our services, and find the right clients, all while learning and growing as a CEO. In my personal life, my greatest achievement is my family who gives me purpose and the drive to be the best I can be.

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Leadership Style I like to lead by elevating and helping my staff improve. I don’t like to be a dictator; instead, I work on hand with them so we can all be successful together. I realize that employees have their own lives and individual goals and want to help them reach them as much as my own.

New Ideas One of the biggest things, Christopher wants to change in today’s technology landscape, is partnerships. He believes that partnerships are rising in popularity, but he would encourage businesses to partner with a large network of leading companies. It’s important to build each other up, even if we are competitors at the end of the day.

Vision in Life Christopher Carter’s vision is to grow Approyo to be one of the leading Cloud Solutions Providers in the world. His passion for technology and for this company is what keeps him driven. His strong team that delivers successful projects keeps him motivated, and most importantly his family gives him a reason to work harder.

Characteristics of a Leader Integrity and empathy! Every leader should be honest and straightforward. This builds trust among internal staff and leads to better communication and teamwork. It is also important for leaders to have empathy and compassion for their staff. Taking a step back and understanding your staff’s needs and workloads, allows for better productivity.

Best Advice To appreciate how far you’ve come. Sort of a “stop and smell the roses” type of saying. Looking back at my life, I am extremely grateful for all that I have achieved and been given. With that, I move forward with a positive outlook, always.

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atasha Makhijani is not your average headhunter. As CEO of Oliver Sanderson Group, Makhijani is pioneering innovative new approaches to executive search while breaking down barriers as a purpose-driven Asian woman business leader.

After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from City, University of London and a Master’s from DePaul University in Chicago, Makhijani began her recruitment career on the Graduate Scheme at Hays in 2000.

“Among a team of 200 I was the only female, so I had to learn to hold my own in a very traditional maledominated culture,” she recalled. “I learned about everything from blue and white collar in the logistics and supply chain space, all the way up to operations

directors, logistics directors, and supply chain directors.”

Fast-tracked into management roles, she achieved four promotions in four years and took a team from billing £10,000 to £80,000 a month. In her words, Makhijani grew “from a baby recruiter to a senior manager.”

“I absolutely loved Hays. It was a really great training ground, and for me it was the foundation for my recruitment journey. I was a top biller, and I had found my niche.”

From Hays she moved to Michael Page, and quickly gained recognition as a “super biller”.

Working on a hybrid desk across permanent and 24

interim leadership roles, Makhijani was given responsibility for growing Michael Page’s Public Sector division from its offices in London. She was the company’s number one biller in HR across the UK, and her success was rewarded with a place on the high-flier’s trajectory. But Makhijani always felt that there was another path for her career and having set up executive desks at both Hays and Michael Page, she set her sights on establishing a business of her own.

Natasha said: “I come from a very entrepreneurial community, and I always felt that there was something more out there. People questioned whether it was the right thing to do, but I took the risk. I knew it was the right thing to do, and I have never looked back.”

Oliver Sanderson was born in 2011, and what began as one lady and a laptop has grown into an international business at the cutting edge of executive search. “I left a great job, sold my car to consolidate my savings, and set up an office in the dining room,” she recalled. Within a couple of years she had built an international executive search firm with a dedicated research team. “Things have snowballed – we’ve made exceptional progress.”

Oliver Sanderson has built up a strong track record in recent years, having placed CEOs and senior leaders at FTSE 100, FTSE 350, and Fortune 500 companies. Specialising in both permanent and interim executive placements across a wide range of sectors, Oliver Sanderson provides clients with an end-to-end executive search process, harnessing the experience and creativity of its research team to solve complex recruitment challenges.

Oliver Sanderson’s Permanent Practice offers end-to-end executive search and consultancy. With a team of experienced consultants and researchers, the firm breaks the mould by providing a genuinely consultative and bespoke partnering model, helping clients achieve their ambitions by attracting, developing, and retaining high calibre business leaders.

A typical executive search process begins with a briefing, and Makhijani’s team prides itself on harnessing its experience and market insight to

fully understand the unique challenges and business needs of its clients. Following the briefing, Oliver Sanderson’s research team typically carries out a multi-faceted search of the marketplace using a range of innovative resources. In addition to the traditional methods of targeted mapping, profiling, and headhunting, Oliver Sanderson draws from its pioneering mobile apps.

New technology has been central to Oliver Sanderson’s rapid growth, and Makhijani is a pioneer of digital innovations in executive search and recruitment. She co-founded Snapp CV & Snapp Resume, the world’s first mobile job board with voice technology capability and Amazon Alexa connectivity.

The app currently has a database of over 25 million candidates in the UK and the USA, with over 250,000 positions listed on its mobile job board, and its directors are looking for Serious A funding as they look to expand further into the USA and India.

After the success of the Snapp suite, which includes Snapp Resume US & Global, Snapp CV UK, and Snapp INView video interviewing software, Makhijani recently launched a dedicated Oliver Sanderson Executive app. Designed and created by her in-house tech team, the app provides digital solutions at every stage of the appointment process, featuring introductory candidate and client profile videos, fingerprint and password-protected online NDA signatures, digital candidate packs, integrated job applications, and video interviews.

With digital platforms increasingly prominent in the executive search and recruitment industry, Oliver Sanderson is leading the way with its Executive app and integration with Snapp CV, harnessing the power of modern technology to discover and connect with the next generation of business leaders.

A series of world events has brought diversity and inclusion to the forefront of the corporate agenda, and Makhijani has drawn from her unique experiences as an Asian woman CEO to build an inclusive culture at Oliver Sanderson. “Being a BAME woman CEO in the recruitment industry has not been easy, but I’ve always seen it as a strength. I have always been unique, slightly different. Most importantly, I have had to be extremely assertive to get where I am today.”

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Makhijani is passionate about tackling diversity and inclusion challenges with her clients, and is currently establishing a charity with a team of industry leaders to address a range of issues related to race equality, disability, and gender.

In addition to the launch of her new charity, Makhijani has an ambitious vision for the next five years.

Planning an expansion in Oliver Sanderson’s Europe and U. S. operations, she is open to new investment opportunities to support these ambitions.

The launch of the company’s new JustInterims division is central to her plans. (Justinterims.com) Recognising the need for strategic interim leaders to help steer businesses through periods of change, the team identified the value of a dedicated executive interims division. JustInterims at Oliver Sanderson now specialises in finding high calibre business leaders for interim appointments, particularly in interim Board Practice, Business Change, Organisation Development, and HR Transformation projects.

“The only certainty in business is change,” Makhijani observed. As her firm continues to expand and evolve, Oliver Sanderson is poised to remain at the forefront of an evolving industry.

About Oliver Sanderson: Oliver Sanderson is an executive search firm with a difference, combining experience and expertise with innovation and fresh thinking.

The firm specialises in finding talent at board and senior leadership level for FTSE 100, FTSE 350, Fortune 500, and PE-backed businesses. Placing permanent and interim positions across a wide range of sectors, Oliver Sanderson has built up a strong track record of c-suite appointments.

With its suite of digital apps and its powerful diversity and inclusion work, Oliver Sanderson is leading the way in discovering the next generation of business leaders.

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W

e live in a world where we are dependent on others whether its to get the milk delivered or garbage taken from our doorsteps. Whether it’s the delivery of WiFi, electric, water connection or delivery of education. These are product/service created and delivered to your doorstep. Every element of work has some one contributing to a long chain and if this chain breaks the delivery fails. Each person who is part of such a process and delivers to a common objective is a part of a team.

There are members of a team who are seen while in today’s context most are unseen and work in silos but still contribute to a larger objective.

Whats a team has changed in this lock down whereas earlier most of the team use to sit together and deliver, now its remote and each does what he or she is supposed to deliver. Team use to be defined as a group of people working together to achieve their goal

The levels of team working are: 1. Team member works alone but contribute to the next 2. Team works together but do their own work 3. Team members have a shared responsibility 4. Team takes substantiative decision together 5. Work is interdependent between team members 28

Collaboration is this century’s skill set. One of the best examples of a team working together is the development of the many Covid vaccines and final delivery of the same to the public. This task would have taken years in the past but many processes were short circuited with the intervention of govt. compliance department, researchers and manufacturers. They all worked as a team an interdependent team fighting for a common cause.

For a team leader its important to be able to steer his team to achieve their objective. This leader is an effort aggregator who is responsible for the last mile delivery of the objective. The leader need not be an expert but should be a person who understands people their abilities and has the ability to make things work by clearing roadblocks.

To have an effective delivery it’s important for a leader to understand each of his team members on: 1. Their technical abilities i.e. level of skill required to deliver 2. Have a basic understanding of his team members work styles and emotional make up 3. Understand strengths of each member and their capabilities in socialising, coordination, communication, execution, planning and strategizing.

There is no doubt that all delivery has to happen within a time frame with the best quality which is the responsibility of each team member. The leader’s job is to make them realise this and steer them to deliver.

We are more inclined to look at teams in our work space our office and various corporate functions but some of best delivery of team work happens in the Govt., the defense forces and in public utility services. What makes these services so difficult is the sheer size of number of people involved and the scale of activity. We often only see the misses and wonder why things don’t work but for every success or failure each step requires careful planning, creation of a roadmap, systems for delivery, capture of data/ information, quality control and finally the delivery.

Let’s take an example of the Rohtang Tunnel which has recently opened. Its not just a civil engineering feat but had geological, environmental and social challenges. One often needs to go beyond the task and the role of the team expands.

Although in the past India has been seen as a country of compromises or jugaad. We had in the cut corners to make things easier but that’s not a skill which is dominating today. If at all it does, its with the lesser aware and the non-professionals.

With an increase in education and being exposed to global competition and with the presence of global companies (read global best practices) we have become a lot more professional in our approach.

Some of the exceptional projects completed in India have been in the technology: space and telecommunication, military- missiles, roads, railways, aadhar, digitisation of passport, income tax, gst etc.

Some of the basics of team effectiveness identified

by Richard Hackman a pioneer in organisational behaviour are enabling conditions (a stretched goal motivates), a compelling direction-, a strong structure with a balance of skills both social and technical, and a supportive context in terms of a reward. That’s what you would require to make a moon landing come true or deliver the wifi to your home.

A new element which has recently been added to above basics is a shared mindset. This is so due to cultural diversity, locational distance and language constrains. As teams get global and smaller and localised with digitisation we need to have a fair amount of information and resource flow between teams. Digitisation impedes nonverbal and contextual cues as we cannot gauge others response when one deals on emails or messages.

You can experience this when you work across time zones with people having different backgrounds, culture and priorities including work life balance.

As long there is humanity there will be teams as humans communicate and collaborate to create a better world.

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Due to the ongoing pandemic, the fact is that profitability for many businesses have been hit. .

As we slowly start to recover, there is certainly the need to take stock of things and prepare for the new normal. While growth has been hard to come by for many this year, it can also be seen as an opportunity to make smart investments to make the most of the improving conditions.

Translation is one such investment that is highly recommended and through this article, we will discuss why many businesses look at it as a very plausible option for growth:

Shilpa Mittal CEO

1) Quickest way to grow your potential Market If you are aiming to expand your business beyond the boundaries of your country, the simplest & fastest way to do this is by translating your website & all relevant content into the native language of the target audience. For instance, a customer in Spain will 32

always prefer to read the product information in Spanish than English. Once your content is translated in Spanish, your business right away gains access to 100s of millions of potential customers in numerous countries and regions that speak Spanish.

2) Cost-effective and efficient Many businesses look toward research and development to innovate new aspects to their products and services in the hope of upselling and increasing usage. As compared to that, translation is affordable and you can have your website and marketing materials localized in a matter of days. Handling incoming business from new geographies can also be planned based on demand which can be controlled.

3) Marketing efficiency From a marketing perspective, especially for online businesses, forecasting demand and competition is fairly easy with appropriate translation. Keywords can be looked up in the local language to estimate demand and cost of competition. Translating emails are also an underrated method to increase sales. From our experience, translated emails get more than twice as much opens and engagement than non-localized emails.

4) Higher ROI Businesses that are already in multiple geographies will testify that customer acquisition costs can vastly differ from region to region. Through carefully planned translated ads, outreach and landing pages, you can estimate acquisition costs before entering a region. Through organized optimization and gathered data, you can reduce your overall acquisition costs and significantly improve ROIs. Of course, trying to acquire more business with new countries does have its operational and legal requisites that you might have to take care of before you begin. However, considering the upsides, the next time you’re looking for that idea to meet your revenue goals, we suggest you strongly consider localization.

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