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www.thebusinessfame.com Special Edition | April 2022
10 of The Most Trusted Brands
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randing might sound like the most marketing lingo, but what goes behind building a brand is hard work, perseverance and patience. Because after all building a brand is building your company up to a point that it is recognized as a brand. Sure, at first there are hardships and troubles, but once you set a tone for your company, it is already on its way to become a brand! This issue of 10 of The Most Trusted Brands of The Business Fame features the stories of some of such companies that have built their brands and taken them to a global presence. Founded in 2013, XSOLCORP is a privately held services company. The firm, which is a boutique consultancy that provides technological services to life insurance companies, assists its clients in lowering operational and administrative expenses, improving time to market, and, most significantly, improving customer experience. The company's services are managed and staffed by the same people that created the apps and provided value-added support services including updates, data conversions, platform migrations, and functional and technical advancements. Whether it's reaping operational cost savings, adding functionality, or expanding the application to clients' sales force and end users, the XSOLCORP team has done it all and pioneered powerful solutions to extend and boost the value of customers' investments. Though headquartered in Quebec, Canada, GoliathTech has over 189 open franchise locations globally. GoliathTech is a leader in the engineering, design, manufacture, and distribution of helical piles. Implementation of their products and designs range from the smallest residential jobs to largest commercial projects. Including new building foundations, foundation repair and stabilization (underpinning), signage, decks, railway infrastructure, agricultural infrastructure, solar and so on. Their highly dedicated, experienced network of franchisees put their talent to work to ensure optimal installation of each pile for the specific project. GoliathTech has In-house Engineering, Manufacturing, Business Development, Customer Support, Marketing and Field Training teams to continually support their franchisees, from start up to working through huge challenges when tackling tough projects. GoliathTech handles over 3500 construction projects every month. BizMerlinHR was established in 2013 and is seen prolific growth since. BizMerlinHR is a robust and comprehensive solution
covering the entire life cycle of the employee, from the search and selection process to retirement. This is generally known as the “hire to retire” lifecycle of an employee. So in that sense, it is a broad platform and also very deep, with dozens of advanced features that can be configured in a no-code, low-code environment, and including support for seamless “drag-and-drop integrations.” BizMerlinHR is especially well suited for global multinational firms that have presence in different countries due to BizMerlinHR's configurable framework, support for country and region specific processes, multilingual interface and scalable and modular application structure. BizMerlinHR has been named as a Cool Vendor for HCM sphere by Gartner, author of the Magic Quadrant. BizMerlinHR is cool because it provides the organization with choices, away from the prevalent one-size-doesn't-fit-all model. It is cool because it provides options for the HR solutions while integrating seamlessly with the larger IT environment companies work with at large, be it their CRMs, accounting and payroll providers and a long list of other third-party applications. SEEM believes that the Financial system has the responsibility and power to steer the economy in a direction that is environment friendly, inclusive and sustainable for the long term. While doing so, they will solve not only the climate issues but also many other bigger challenges the world faces today. The sustainable development goals are achievable when the investor community, the investee and the entire supply chain transforms and becomes long-term focused. They have a purpose beyond just making a profit. The business entities disclose meaningful and comparable data on ESG aspects and the Financial Institutes capture data accurately and authentically, use that data in meaningful and transparent ways to measure businesses creditworthiness including both ESG and financial aspects of their performance, comply with all regulations and respond to their business needs with agility.
GoliathTech Inc. Stronger. Reliable. Precise
08 Global Adjustments Offering High Value Insurance Consulting Services at Reasonable Prices
10 BizMerlinHR Award-Winning HR Software for Global MNCs
16 Lok Bharti A Catalyst in bringing change in the Development
20 XSOLCORP Creating an ecosystem that nurtures businesses to thrive, grow and become sustainable for the future
28 ARTICLE What makes a brand Authentic and Successful?
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Stronger. Reliable. Precise
T
he sight of tall concrete buildings over the horizon is ofen an impressive one as you are approaching a big city from a distance, but few people think of the most important part of those structures, the founda on. Those structures are only as strong as the strength and stability of their founda ons. With an engineeed founda on using Goli thTech Helical Piles, they can guarantee that strength for years to come. GoliathTech is featured in The Business Fame's "The Best Franchise Open Opportuni es in 2022". Goli thTech is one of the largest manufacturers and distributors of helical piles worldwide. With its large network of cer fied installers, this Quebec, Canada-based company is also one of the largest installers of helical piles. The Company Though headquartered in Quebec, Canada, GoliathTech has over 189 open franchise loca ons globall. GoliathTech is a leader in the engineering, design, manufacture, and distribu on of heli al piles. Implementaa on of their products and designs ranges from the smallest residen al jobs to the largest commercial projects, including new building founda ons, oundaa onepair and stabilizaza on (underpinning), signage, decks, railway infrastructure, agricultural infrastructure, solar energy, and so on. Their highly dedicated and experienced network of franchisees puts their talent to work to ensure op mal installa on of each pile or the specific project. GoliathTech has in-house engineering, manufacturing, business development, customer support, marke n , and field training teams to con nually support their fanchisees, from start-up to working through huge challenges when tackling tough projects. GoliathTech handles over 3500 construc on pojects every month.
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The Products and Services Resembling a large screw, helical piles are installed deep into the ground using calibrated installa on equipme t. The load-bearing plate of the helical pile is installed beneath the ground frost level, past any soil that could be affected by groundwater or expansive soil, into "good" or solid soil that is guaranteed to support the structure of your project. This is an advantageous alterna e to form tubes and is less expensive and quicker than concrete founda ons. Opt or a simple and rapid installaa on, without excava ng. Ÿ Minimal damage to the landscape Ÿ Perfectly leveled structure Ÿ No delays between the end of the installa on and the beginning of construc on on the piles Ÿ Ideal for restricted spaces and environmentally sensi e areas Ÿ Installa on in virtually a y weather Ÿ Removable and reusable system What Makes GoliathTech Stand Out Superior quality galvanized steel, worthy of the most ambi ous pojects "Our galvanizing process protects steel against corrosion to guarantee maximum product longevity. No mater the condi ons, Goli thTech piles are designed and built to last the life of your structure” When Details Make the Difference GoliathTech pile heads are equipped with a nut-fastening system. This exclusive anchoring solu on allo s the structure to be installed directly on the piles, thereby preven ng l teral or vvertal movement. Goliathtech piles heads feature a patented zero upli , adjustable-height design. This ensures your structure will
remain atached to the piles in the all ccondi ons and requires no onsite welding. -Easy final height adjustments -No need for other e-down m thods. Piles with reinforced joints The GoliathConnect joint system allows a pile to be extended by joining tubes using locking bolts. Unlike the compe on's solu on, this in aova trengthens long piles and eliminates the risk of movement or buckling. The Journey So Far In 2013, Julian Reusing changed the business model to a franchise model afer the previous owner operated for 9 years as a non-franchise model that he was opera ng out of a garage. Immediately afer the purchase by Julian, GoliathTech opened its first 18000 square foot factory. In 2015, GoliathTech entered the US market and started to distribute to franchisees that eventually ended up in 33 US states, and mul ple p tents were issued. In 2016, they moved into a larger, 65,000-square-foot factory, and they already had 50 open franchise territories. In 2018, they got their first franchise in Europe (Reunion Island) and the Canadian franchise territories were prac ally sold out. In 2019, they had 100 open franchised territories. In 2021, they opened new franchises in the Caribbean, covering 3 countries and opera ng in 185 opeaa ng territories, and they are opening 1-3 new loca ons ones every month. By 2022, they will move into their new 120,000-squarefoot factory. The Franchise Model they Follow No royal es. The ini al year Franchise Agreement can be renewed every 5 years at 25% of the then-current franchise fee. A protected territory included. Franchisees must have business management experience. They must also have the financial capacity to cover the ini al fanchise fee, purchase the starter kit as well as a mini-excavator or skid steer, a pick-up truck, and a trailer. They must also be able to cover the cost of their first 2 or 3 orders. No large inventory is required, and this business can be run with minimal office space, or in some cases, home offices. The franchisee is considered open for business when he has met the following: Ÿ Paid franchisee fee and starter-kit in full Ÿ Received their starter-kit Ÿ Have a machine, truck, and a trailer branded with GoliathTech logos Ÿ Completed their GoliathTech training & cer f aca on
Julian Reusing Founder & CEO GoliathTech Inc.
Julian Reusing-Leading the Way Julian Reusing is an accomplished entrepreneur. He has founded and owned many major corpora ons in the pat, growing them interna onall. On June 15, 2004, “Les PieuxGoliath” Quebec, Canada Corpora on as established. Julian purchased this small manufacturer of helical piles in April 2013 and immediately converted the company into a global franchise model. Julian Reusing was in Japan for the firsst me in 1999, and he was mee ng and signing ontrracts with mul ple mul n a onal Japanese manacturers, among them the top 10 globally recognized manufacturers. As an individual, Julian believes that as a Canadian company, this was an incredible achievement. He feels the immense joy of learning to transact with these Japanese companies that are so culturally different from his own. He finds that experience great learning, where he got the chance to rebuild his company model by mee ng those companies' requirements to perfec on. "My goal is to get the franchise chain to have over 1000 open units in at least 25 countries in the world," says Julian. His personal goal is to guide the company in that direc on with synergy. He will live and or travel anywhere in the world to make it happen. 10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
OF THE MOST
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XSOLCORP
F
ounded in 2013, XSOLCORP is a privately held services company. The firm, which is a boutique consultancy that provides technological services to life insurance companies, assists its clients in lowering operational and administrative expenses, improving time to market, and, most significantly, improving customer experience. The company's services are managed and staffed by the same people that created the apps and provided value-added support services including updates, data conversions, platform migrations, and functional and technical advancements. Whether it's reaping operational cost savings, adding functionality, or expanding the application to clients' sales force and end users, the XSOLCORP team has done it all and pioneered powerful solutions to extend and boost the value of customers' investments. Today, the company is proud to boast a strong team who thrive on rolling up their sleeves and solving its clients' problems and meeting their business needs. The team says, "We are on a mission to exceed your expectations and
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Offering High-Value Insurance Consulting Services at Reasonable Prices
form a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with you.” Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between The Business Fame and XSOLCORP's management: Could you please share your noted milestones and accomplishments throughout your journey so far, along with the company's highlights and achievements under your leadership?
OUR SERVICES Customization Services
Modernization, Upgrades & Conversions
Support & Training Services
Established in 2013 with the primary goal of demonstrating leadership and value to customers with every interaction. We recruited the top subject matter experts in our field. The people who designed, built, and deployed this insurance application suite successfully for customers. We have grown our base of active customers from 7 to 30 in the last 4 years, expanding globally. In the last 3 years we've more than doubled our team of business and technical subject matter experts. Delivered 30+ projects in the last 3 years relating to modernization, upgrades, new products, performance optimizations, and support; on track to deliver 18 more this year. We established formal rd relationships with 3 party vendors such as Micro Focus to allow more seamless interactions for our customer base. Completed the first conversion of INGENIUM to a .Net and SQL
10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
‘‘
We are on a mission to exceed your expectations and form a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with you. Server platform to better align with the client's technology roadmap and to reduce operational expense. allowing our client to develop in C# using the Microfocus COBOL environment. Our message to clients is simple — we modernize, extend, and futureproof your investment. The company is the leader in providing support to Life Insurance companies running Solcorp/EDS/HP/DXC INGENIUM, CAPSIL, PathFinder, and ProductXpress. Please share the most memorable and remarkable moment of your life. Establishment of XSOLCORP; having endured the entire journey from CAPSCO, to SOLCORP, to EDS, to HPE, a contingent of employees concluded that the internal processes of large companies impede their ability to wholeheartedly service clients. As a result, we decided to form XSOLCORP and institutionalise core values that would forge symbiotic, long-lasting relationships with customers.
what is your goal to mark its uniqueness in the future? XSOLCORP's goal is to continue to be the leader in subject matter experts in the modernization and support of Life Insurance systems, so that we can save our clients time and money by improving their operational efficiencies and time to market. We are also recruiting and building for the future. We have built out a recruitment and training programme to allow us to build the next generation of life insurance experts who will be there for our clients. In addition, this programme can be used to train our clients' newest team members as well as enable them to build out centres of excellence and do succession planning as required.
Our plan is to continue to expand and support existing and new clients' needs with regard to modernization and support their ability to take advantage of new trends and technologies as they help to improve their business models and delivery on their strategic objectives. What is the one thing that is acting as your motivational tool? Or, who is your role model and how does that person inspire and motivate you? Steve McKeown, the original founder of CAPSCO/SOLCORP, is known for his passion for building a business by solving problems and cutting through red tape to deliver more value to the client. It's a core principle that continues to drive XSOLCORP today.
Where do you see yourself and the company in the future? Or,
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10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
OF THE MOST
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BizMerlinHR Award-Winning HR Software for Global MNCs
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aving a streamlined HR system in your organization can bring immense changes in the working of your organization. With every system set and everything in its place, HR software can do wonders to your company and also reduce your other risks. Featuring in this issue of The Business Fame of 10 of The Most Trusted Brands for 2022 is BizMerlinHR.
BizMerlinHR has been named as a Cool Vendor for HCM sphere by Gartner, author of the Magic Quadrant. BizMerlinHR is cool because it provides the organization with choices, away from the prevalent one-size-doesn't-fitall model. It is cool because it provides options for the HR solutions while integrating seamlessly with the larger IT environment companies work with at large, be it their CRMs, accounting and payroll providers and a long list of other third-party applications.
In this interview let us find out more about the company. 2. Brief us about the CEO/Founder of the company?. 1. Brief us about the journey of rich experience - origin, inception, early issues, success stories, and major milestones, to name a few. BizMerlinHR was established in 2013 and has seen prolific growth since. BizMerlinHR is a robust and comprehensive solution covering the entire life cycle of the employee, from the search and selection process to retirement. This is generally known as the “hire to retire” lifecycle of an employee. So in that sense, it is a broad platform and also very deep, with dozens of advanced features that can be configured in a no-code, low-code environment, and including support for seamless “drag-and-drop integrations.” BizMerlinHR is especially well suited for global multinational firms that have presence in different countries due to BizMerlinHR's configurable framework, support for country and region specific processes, multilingual interface and scalable and modular application structure.
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The CEO of BizMerlinHR, Dr. Amrinder Arora, is an expert in the field of artificial intelligence. He has a PhD in computer science and has won multiple teaching excellence awards at the George Washington University. Dr. Arora has 15+ years of experience in artificial intelligence field both in commercial and government settings, with experiences as broad as designing an AI powered Risk Targeting System screening millions of transactions to designing an awardwinning intelligent transportation system for a major seaport. He has over 35 peer reviewed conference and journal publications and hundreds of citations. He has multiple patents, and his books on algorithms are standard text for many computer science students. Kindly talk about the exclusive products or services offered by the company, how does it distinguish you from your competitors? BizMerlinHR offers a robust and comprehensive solution covering the entire life cycle of the employee, from the
Dr. Amrinder Arora Co-founder & CEO BizMerlinHR
search and selection process to retirement. The software platform consists of a variety of code-free configurable advanced features, including support for seamless drag-anddrop integrations. Our unique solutions enable easy hiring, onboarding, performance guiding, and training. The software platform provides flexible and customizable centralized employee records that can be accessed anytime in multiple languages and locales. The configurable 360degree feedback system promotes a healthy work environment and brings the employees closer. BizMerlinHR applicant tracking system help evaluate applicant information and hire the best candidate. The clients can equip their team with better candidates, by using a simple intuitive interface. BizMerlinHR also supports Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Slack, Jira, Hubspot, and Zoom with out-
of-the-box connectors. BizMerlinHR has an open API, so it can deliver an agile and scalable framework of apps tailored to each customer's individual needs without costly integrations and custom extensions. 3. What is the vision and mission of the company? BizMerlinHR is on a mission. We want every company to have a great HR experience, and to be free to do what they really set out to do. Their HR experience should be free of any friction. It should be invisible until it is needed, and play the powerful cross functional role when appropriate. Within this mission, we recognize 3 core characteristics of HR: Ÿ HR experience is broad: From Hire to Retire, there is a lot in between. So, HR is broad by its very definition and will remain so for a long time (at least until the robots replace us). BizMerlinHR aspires to be
10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
comprehensive, well integrated, and to serve as the base HR application framework. Ÿ HR experience is varied: Every company is unique. There are no “set choices”. Everything is configurable. To start a company and to configure your HR processes can (and does!) take some thinking. However, once it is done, the experience is likely unique to your organization. Your HR software should make that experience seamless. Ÿ HR experience is diverse: The users, end customers and partners in the HR processes come from many different backgrounds and ability levels. Some people have memorized the time o ffmanuals of their state, and read regulatory notes for bedtime reading. Others live and breathe workflows and business process automation. And still others think of their involvement with HR as limited to pressing a green button on a tablet in the morning and a red button in the evening. Each of them brings a unique perspective to HR, and needs a seamless experience. It is our job to provide them with that experience, even within this diversity of expectations and needs. 4. What is the present scenario of the same industry? How are you contributing to making it better? BizMerlinHR is inspiring other competitors and new entrants to create a scalable application platform that scales up with ease and provides unlimited coverage of configurability while being super agile. Technology has been a pioneer in bringing the waves of change in several industries. With the introduction of AI and ML, it has unleashed numerous opportunities for the automated world. However, when it comes to Human Resources the technology is yet to be adopted in a widespread fashion. The emphasis on research on employee behavior or employee development plans etc is significant but when it comes to the adoption of technology in the HRMS, it is still somewhat lagging. The main emphasis while developing BizMerlinHR was to ensure that it comes with the latest technology trends and be a leader in the HRMS space. 5. What are the marketing strategies adopted by the company?
an unusual circumstance: the Russia-Ukraine war. Thus, marketing is an always evolving field and even for organizations driven with product-led growth (PLG), marketing always represents an exciting opportunity to experiment and innovate. 6. With respect to your distinctive products and services, how have you helped bring positive developments in the same industry? The focus of BizMerlinHR has been to create a product that works on its own; that takes the work o ffthe people, not something that would require the organizations to hire more sta ffto run the software. The objective is to create the software that just works! There is a clear distinction between BizMerlinHR and its competitors in terms of being easy to roll out and scale up. Most of the competitors take months to roll out while BizMerlinHR's efficient modularization of the features allow a very quick turnaround and set up while saving our customers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ultimately, it is the customers that benefit the most from these changes. 7. What is the current same industry scenario from your perspective? HR is ripe for becoming the next industry to become significantly more AI driven. Simultaneously, there is regulation and expectation that AI systems become more “explainable” (the rise of “explainable AI”). Due to these two competing marketing forces, BizMerlinHR is especially well suited to serve the global market. BizMerlinHR is the next generation, AI-powered Human Capital Management system that enables the “Datafication of HR”. Whether it is using the amazingly accurate and automated competency matrix, the ContextualML ATS that gives smart recommendations about candidates, the employee flight risk calculator, or the irreplaceable Expertise Evolution Pathways, BizMerlinHR is fundamentally different from a traditional HR software systems, which are likely to get replaced within the next 510 years. Future is bright and becoming brighter every day.
Marketing and the marketing strategies are very dynamic. We saw unusual times during Covid outbreak. The marketing strategies were rewritten and newer channels were introduced and explored. And now we are again facing 18 | APRIL 2022
10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
Mr. Nitin Seth CEO Lok Bharti Group
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Lok Bharti A Catalyst in bringing change in the Development
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ndia is the first country to have made it mandatory for the corporate to commit 2% of the Net Profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (Corporate Social Responsibility) To accomplish this purpose, CSR allows enterprises to contribute to the betterment of society, the environment, and nature. CSR implementing organizations play an essential role since they directly contribute to a variety of programs and help Corporate achieve their CSR goals. Although the majority of businesses are still in the early phases of creating collaborations with implementing agencies, a wave of new and long-standing firms are leading the way in bringing Governance and domain experts, as well as a system-based approach, to the table. Drawing on a historical precedent, these businesses recognize the pivotal role of businesses in nation-building and are building relationships with implementation partners to leverage their expertise in bringing change. Lok Bharti plays a more active role in the industry and community outreach. It aids industrial management in persuading the community to support the expansion program by adopting a proactive and social-environmental development policy. Lok Bharti's exciting adventure began with the goal of creating a well-educated/ trained workforce in India by providing Industry-specific and Industry relevant training to the country's young brigade and with a specific goal in mind of making women self-sufficient.
Lok Bharti continues to evolve, with a variety of new project designs based on its values. Lok Bharti endeavors to prepare people for a better future and has always highlighted the importance of community development directly contributing to the nation's economy, therefore it tries to reach out to various communities within communities to reach the last person to receive the benefit of the initiatives undertaken. Lok Bharti was established in 2010. Since 2010, It has been collaborating with the National Skill Development Corporation to achieve a broader goal to improve the caliber of marginalized and unemployed communities, by providing them with an opportunity for gainful employment. Mr. Nitin Seth, Chief Executive Officer A professional with over 23 plus years of expertise in endto-end organizational business and internal operations, with a focus on personnel, manpower management, education, and training. Nitin has donned various hats in multifaceted roles, ranging from, manpower provider to corporate to CEO. His extensive experience in the entire lifecycle of right from skilling staffing to deployment gives him a competitive advantage in the industry. He believes in combining traditional techniques of working with contemporary ideas to achieve quality in his job deliverables and within his team. A Six Sigma certified business leader who is goal-oriented, ambitious, imaginative, and upbeat, with demonstrated ability and expertise in strategic planning, managing projects, and 10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
improving the efficiency of operations, team building, and detailing project information to determine effective functions for any level of capacity building and training operations. Incomparable Qualities of Lok Bharti The Lok Bharti Group has the following entities: Lok Bharti Education Society (Lok Bharti Education Society) is a non-for-profit. Its parent vertical, LBES, is a 29-year-old non-profit that does consulting and implementation for corporations and their CSR strategies and drives the thematic areas keeping corporate CSR goals & SDGs. The company is 70 team members strong who work on a variety of functions of Development initiatives that include education, school infrastructure development, environment, water restoration, corporate intervention, environment, and vocational training and manpower deployment that are made fit for purpose for the corporate. On the other hand, it is also working to ensure that the education infrastructure is made conducive that increases the active engagement of children to be a part of the education ecosystem in the country, and it encompasses the entire environment in 360 degrees.
is frequently accomplished by thinking outside of the box. New development concepts and process reorganization result in value creation for both the corporation and its constituents. With zeal, the company carried out its Vision: to set up skill development centers pan India and explore for new sectors of vocational training, opening job opportunities for the youth, and empowering women to sustain the imperative digital inclusion, by making them digitally literate. Working in such a long and constant competition, the company strengthened its mission - The main objective of Lok Bharti is to provide adequate training in relevant sectors and provide the youth and women with jobs to sustain a livelihood, in the underdeveloped sectors, by skilling and reskilling and upskilling the targeted youth and women. Lok Bharti is not only working to encash the Demographic Dividend of the country through CSR Strategy, it has also ventured into other thematic areas of CSR, which again is changing the Societal face through strategizing for Education, Infrastructure Development, Health Hygiene & Awareness programs for a various new lifestyle in financial & digital know-how, especially the unorganized workforce. The organization is also supporting the corporates with their Capacity Building beyond the CSR Perspective.
For Development Sector professionals, having the vision to spot a development opportunity isn't enough; they also need to come up with innovative solutions to social issues. This 22 | APRIL 2022
10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
WHAT MAKES A BRAND AUTHENTIC AND SUCCESSFUL? 26 | APRIL 2022
E
ntrepreneurs in every field face the same dilemma in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing marketplace: how to establish an enduring, relevant brand that stands out from the crowd. When you have a well-known brand, it sets your company for success by being synonymous with the product or service you provide: Have you ever requested a Kleenex when you needed a tissue? Without a strong brand, your firm may be doomed to mediocrity. So, how can you create a brand that has a long shelf life? What you should do is as follows: Tell Your Story Brand storytelling is a brand marketing method used to promote brand recognition. Brand storytelling, as the name indicates, is the process of telling a narrative using multiple mediums (e.g., videos, posts, social media, and so on) in order to catch the attention of your intended audience. By establishing an emotional connection with your audience, brand storytelling may help to build and expand your audience. Today’s audience is motivated by the personal relationships they have with businesses. Engaging in brand storytelling may help you reach a larger audience. The capacity to skillfully arouse emotions in your audience in order to develop a relationship is the importance of brand storytelling. Implementing a great brand storytelling approach will assist your audience in learning more about your brand, hence assisting you in growing your audience. Focus on the Social Good Companies are expanding their emphasis on social responsibility, whether it is advocating women’s rights, safeguarding the environment, or working to eradicate poverty on a local, national, or global scale. From an aesthetics standpoint, socially responsible organisations portray more appealing images to both consumers and shareholders, which benefits their bottom lines. When building products or services that aim to promote change, putting social or environmental impact at the centre of a brand is frequently an instinctive choice. However, it is not a foolproof technique. Before developing a brand, businesses must evaluate their consumers, market, and positioning. If the objective is to make a significant difference, firms may be able to accomplish it sooner if they play it down. Pursuing social good will help you position yourself as a values-driven brand, and you’ll feel good doing it. Balance Timeless and Trendy Trends enable organisations to push the market’s
boundaries while introducing new ideas and possibilities. Furthermore, trends enable companies to convey their beliefs in a variety of ways. Despite this, many firms regard trends as ‘this too shall pass.’ While this may be true, it does not imply that it is not worthwhile to capitalise on the momentum generated by relevant trends in order to increase brand visibility and trust. You also get to maintain a strong and relevant brand presence in the eyes of your target audience while you’re at it. All trends signal changes and developments in the marketplace. So, let’s look at why trends are crucial for a brand and learn from other companies that have incorporated trends into their branding efforts. Create Communities People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves right now. This indicates that community is vital to corporate success. However, building a community involves far more than merely assembling individuals in the same location or amassing a particular number of users on an app or website. Successful businesses, particularly digital firms, use the power of community to raise brand recognition, better understand consumers, enhance outcomes, and generate brand loyalty. Communities, whether through in-person events or online forums, are critical to brand loyalty, recognition, and overall success. A vibrant and active community will result in better goods, learning and innovation, and corporate success. However, in order to have an effect, businesses must create communities that go beyond simply selling a product and instead give value and support to members. Be a Trailblazer If you truly want to create an impactful brand, attempt to influence the culture and modify the perception of what it means to be a leading brand. Even five years ago, most people would have described huge corporations like Ford and IBM as iconic brands. Today, smaller, more agile, and impact-focused businesses like Toms and Patagonia are becoming well-known and well-established because of their dedication to social effect, rather than in spite of it. Brands that care about making a difference are changing the culture of what it takes to be an enduring brand. and yours has the potential to pave the way.
10 OF THE MOST TRUSTED BRANDS FOR 2022
OF THE MOST
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BRANDS FOR 2022
SEEM
Creating an ecosystem that nurtures businesses to thrive, grow and become sustainable for the future
SEEM believes that the Financial system has the responsibility and power to steer the economy in a direction that is environment friendly, inclusive and sustainable for the long term. While doing so, they will solve not only the climate issues but also many other bigger challenges the world faces today. The sustainable development goals are achievable when the investor community, the investee and the entire supply chain transforms and becomes long-term focused. They have a purpose beyond just making a profit. The business entities disclose meaningful and comparable data on ESG aspects and the Financial Institutes capture data accurately and authentically, use that data in meaningful and transparent ways to measure businesses creditworthiness includingboth ESG and financial aspects of their performance, comply with all regulations and respond to their business needs with agility. “SEEM is transforming Financial system as well as large businesses independent of their industry and making them sustainable for the long-term.” What led to founding of SEEM? As an internal process consultant with larger IT systems integrators, Seema observed that people resisted processes. Although when explained to them the risk, they were happy to come up with a solution on their own that met the intent.
“I realised that people knew best how to solve a problem. They disliked being told how to solve it.” It was common sense, and the same is true with kids too. This was the core to her discovery of “Change through Movement”. Later on, there were different issues, like difficulty aligning with certain objectives. It was not about the quality of deliverables but somewhere a disjoint on intent. This made Seema think harder - how could we be in alignment more happily? A situation where everyone gives their best, feels motivated and is willing to go the extra mile. She discovered that it happens in moments where people are doing things for others. A service that has an impact on others and where they are truly engaged in it. “I realised this was the bigger purpose, beyond making a profit and has some impact on real people.” Such a purpose unites people, and there are no disjoint intents, and people participate enthusiastically, wholeheartedly. Finally, having worked in software application development and at the forefront with users, Seema had experience solving problems through computer applications. She observed how computers could bring transparency, simplicity, thoughtful control, and of course efficiency. “There is enormous power in computing that can be harnessed to our benefit. This desire to use computing
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Seema Sutradhar Co-Founder & Co-CEO SEEM
powers and technological advancements to solve bigger problems persuaded me to include cloud computing, CRM / BPM & AI as part of the application ideation.”
The Products and Services -
She aimed to solve the big problem of enabling corporate and investments banks to deliver towards their purpose by simplifying their challenges in complying with regulations. Such an application would enable quantification of credit and compliance risk at a discrete level using AI, thereby bringing more transparency and consistency in risk measurement for any decision-making process.
Transformation Methodology “Change thru Movement”
The application will solve all data silo challenges and incorporate ESG metrics in measuring the creditworthiness of businesses. It will bring agility in addressing business requirements and also create an MIS system for the whole bank.
There are three products of SEEM :
The organisation transformation methodology is for the Financial System and Large businesses in any sector. It underpins the organisation has a purpose beyond just making a profit. It results in innovation, culture shift, digital transformation and projects that deliver towards the Sustainable Developments Goals SDGs. The other businesses offering this service could be from Management Consulting firms like Accenture, Deloitte, Bain & Co, IBM etc.
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Although they all recognise the power of Purpose in organisations yet they do not have a repeatable transformation methodology that is anywhere comparable to what SEEM has. The uniqueness of Change thru Movement is that it becomes a beautiful change, and people are driving it by choice. It becomes a movement within the organisation, demonstrates high employee engagement, and delivers outstanding results towards the organisation's Purpose and SDGs. The self-initiated projects simply change the culture within the organisation, and people start taking risks showing all the entrepreneurial skill sets. Innovation becomes the way of life. It solves problems and steers the business toward a win-win proposition across all stakeholders of the companies, including employees, suppliers, customers, society, planet and, of course, shareholders. Profit is not impacted by Purpose. The organisation not only makes a profit at the same or improved levels but also becomes sustainable over a very long period of time, thereby attaining sustainability in true form. This also means sustainability of the fine balance in nature that is so badly impacted by human activity today. Universal ESG Metrics: This is the second offering from SEEM. ESG metrics are the measurements towards the Environmental, Social and Governance aspects of an organisation's performance. These are the non-financial measurements. While the current ESG metrics standards from different bodies focus on quantitative measures, SEEM has a different outlook. “We knew it is not possible to deliver ESG metrics unless the organisation undergoes a transformation journey.” This is because no one was talking of ESG measurements as late as, say, at the start of Covid 19. All disclosures and standards were only focused on financial numbers. So to bring the focus to ESG aspects of a business's performance, they needed to transform and shift their outlook towards organisational Purpose first. Only which will result in appreciable and authentic ESG numbers that the businesses could disclose.
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SEEM's Change thru Movement (CTM) transformation methodology is doing exactly that. It takes the organisation through a journey of transformation that underpins the organisation has a purpose beyond just making a profit. It results in innovation, culture shift, digital transformation and projects that deliver towards the purpose of the organisation which also means towards one or more of the 17 SDGs. Hence measuring the quality of transformation is a great assessment of the organisation's progress towards ESG aspects. The added advantage is that it becomes universal in nature as it measures the quality of the process and not a quantitative value alone that always differ from industry to industry. These universal ESG metrics have the quantitative measurements normalised and then wrapped inside them. The new standard-setting board International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) appointed by the IFRS Foundation Trustees on 3 November 2021, is working to deliver a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies' sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions. The board was formed as a result of a calling by International investors with global investment portfolios for high quality, transparent, reliable and comparable reporting by companies on climate and other environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. Currently reporting entities define their own governance model around sustainability-related risks and opportunities. They come up with a strategy for the management of those risks and opportunities. They develop the definition and targets of the metrics being reported. At the centre of the entire process is the identification of sustainability related risks and opportunities and their management. This makes the system non-standard as these risks and opportunities will differ across businesses and industries. An open and non-standard methodology and set of metrics defeat the option for their comparability. To solve this problem SEEM's Change thru Movement (CTM) transformation methodology focuses on the ESG aspects more meaningfully, effectively and allows comparability.The methodology has a governance model embedded inside it. The difference is the management philosophy which is not of Command and Control. The philosophy in CTM is of
believing in people, giving them purpose and letting them innovate - Engage, Empower & Mobilise. Some of the requirements in the model used by different standards are meaningful only in Command and Control type of management processes where the goal is already known for each task. But it is not possible in case of something new that is to be created. Innovation requires space and that space cannot be already defined by specific goals, risks and tasks. Yet the journey of innovation would have processes and controls but somewhat different. Without a governance model no methodology is meaningful. CTM is able to bring forth the needed governance within a management philosophy that promotes entrepreneurial culture. Thus a standard methodology across businesses and across sectors is available that can be measured for the quality of its deployment. Further to this the outcome metrics can be easily normalised for comparability. For the investment community to make informed decisions on ESG aspects, they are using the sustainability ratings of organisations awarded by the various rating agencies like Moody's, S&P Global, Fitch Ratings etc. Keeping aside how these ratings are arrived at, the universal ESG metrics generated by CTM would empower the community to make informed decisions using these universal metrics directly. Currently at multiple fronts including the G7 & G20 level, task-force led focused work is in progress in the same area. regTech product “Compliance by Design”: It is the third offering from SEEM. It focuses on the corporate and investment banks and enables them to deliver towards their purpose more powerfully by solving their challenges in complying with regulations. It measures credit risk and compliance risk at a discrete level using AI. It embeds it into a cloud-based CRM BPM application making compliance considerations a default way of doing business. Accurate and transparent measurements of risk shift the bank's culture and make it much more risk-focused in an authentic way. It also acts as an MIS system for the bank, enables agile response to business requirements and incorporates universal ESG metrics in evaluating the creditworthiness of businesses, among many other benefits. At the core, it
solves the challenges of data silos so prevalent in such banks that restrict their performance and growth in the right direction. When looking for a comparable product in the market, there are products offered by Avanade, WolterKluwer, LSEG etc. Still, they serve only a part of the compliance universe, whereas “Compliance by Design” encompasses every aspect of the compliance world the bank needs to respond to. The universal ESG metrics are part of this application and use them to measure businesses' creditworthiness at a uniform scale. The application uses a proprietary methodology for AI models development resulting in high standards of predictions made by these models. The application is integrated across the bank and all geographies. With these three products, SEEM is transforming the financial system and large businesses independent of their industry and making them sustainable for the long term. SEEM's mission is to create an ecosystem that nurtures businesses to thrive, grow and become sustainable for the future.
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