Inspirational Business Leaders To Watch 2020

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VOL. 102 | OCTOBER 2020

Special Feature Eduard Shaepman Founder & CEO Tribes Inspiring Workplaces

Exclusive Interview With Sandeep Kochhar Founder - Blewminds Consulting

Lisa

Sohanpal Resilience Personified.

INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS LEADERS TO WATCH

2020

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Message from

EDITOR

to 4 months the engines of major economies came to halt and the world found itself in lockdown.

According to the latest report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy is expected to shrink by over 3 percent in 2020 – the steepest slowdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s. This Lead to rampant unemployment, loss of wages, shutting down of a business, Steep fall of share markets across the world, etc. But as Brian Tracy said The true test of leadership is how well you function in times of crisis.

Through this special edition of the Tycoon Magazine, we are presenting to you the story such exemplary leaders who not only managed to weather this storm successfully but showed the world That with meticulous planning, courage, resilience, and tenacity one can win over any crisis situation.

Featuring on the cover of this special issue is Lisa Sohanpal CEO of The Nom Noms world food. Lisa is on the mission to eradicate malnutrition and change the way our younger generations eat. Nom Noms World Food, the new brand of healthy world cuisine has launched its multi-award-winning two-course meals for kids and grown-ups on 7th August 2015 into SELFRIDGES Food Hall and online with OCADO, inspired from exotic locations and authentic dishes from around the world. Just heat and serve in 2 minutes!

In Special Feature section featuring – Eduard Shaepman - the founder of Tribes Inspiring Workplaces.

Tribes Inspiring Workplaces offers inspiring offices, meeting, and conference rooms, and flexible workplaces, anywhere you go, equipped with the high-tech material you need, and providing all amenities which simplify your business life.

This issue contains a special interview of Sandeep Kochhar the founder of Blewminds consulting.

A

n Inspirational Leader is someone who inspires ordinary people to achieve extraordinary feats. who enthuse a sense of purpose in his team and helps team members to manifest their best selves at play.

One of the key qualities of the business leadership is resilience in the face of adversity.

The leader sometimes should take a back step, analyze the risk, create a long term planning enthuse his vision in his followers, and guide them through the path The year 2020 proved as a testing time for the business leaders across the world. Covid -19 virus which first found in Wuhan rapidly engulfed the world like wildfire and within 3

October 2020

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BlewMinds works on blowing minds out through transformation, self-reflection, opening oneself to incredible arenas of change adaptability, & inner mastery. They are committed to enabling businesses & individuals to harness the power within & dance the delicate balance of retaining one’s own authenticity for better impact whilst managing others' perceptions by making oneself more aware of deepest strengths & unconquered fears.

Besides this, we have cherry-picked the stories of inspiring leaders across the world who are making a positive impact on the business world with their revolutionary ideas.

Happy Reading !!!

am s i l l i W

n Kevi Kevin Williams

Contents Gavin Crump

20

A Crearious entrepreneur

30

38 Marc Cirera

Brad Burton

Building teams for a better world

Changing the face of business networking, and bringing it into a more appropriate and modern way for modern businesses and owners.

Gunter Fischer A cucurious entrepreneur changing world with swarm AI

Cover Story

32

Lisa Sohanpal

Mark Myers

CEO - Nom Noms World Food

Eduard Schaepman

22

Dimas Gimeno A man of action and a true believer in teamwork and the value of work and merit

A Chief Entertainment Officer

26

40

Gary Chipman Founder / Managing Member | GLC Energy Consulting LLC

28

Regrowing all the Fallen Trees

Jonaed Iqbal Empowering youth with real education

34

42 Dr. Mukesh Aghi Transparent, passionate, and humble leader

The

Paolo Rizzi A passionate and pragmatic Leader Revolutionizing earned wage access in Mexico

44

TYCOON

Magazine

Robert Ancill Always creating and always learning

48

Robert Knop Helping companies avoid becoming the next Sears

50

Team Chief Editor - Kevin Williams Assistant Editor - Abigail Brown Sales Head - James Collins

Tony Malz Helping billions of people achieving their dreams

56

Sales Manager - Alan Smith Digital Marketing Head - John Miller Distribution Head - Stacy Davis Art&Design - Pamela Taylor

Sandeep Kochhar

Assistant Designer - Tony Moor

A failure ant who never gives up

54

Contact us Vincent Champain An entrepreneur who leads large organisations in Transformations

58

admin@thetycoonmedia.com +1 614 467 0981 www.thetycoonmedia.com www.facebook.com/thetycoonmedia www.linkedin.com/company/the-tycoon-media www.twitter.com/TheTycoonMag

Cover Story

Lisa

Sohanpal Resilience Personified

M

assive supermarket launches, sensational collaborations and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete and win at the 2020 Global Startup World Cup. These were just some of the grand plans Lisa Sohanpal, co-founder and CEO of Nom Noms World Food, and her team had on their quest to revolutionize the world of fast & convenient food.

Yet, like an uncontainable blaze, COVID-19 set fire to those plans whilst torching through all major industries and the livelihoods of businesses & the people who depend on them. For Lisa, it symbolized a critical inflexion point in her entrepreneurial career – should she take a much-needed break to see what unfolded in the world whilst spending time at home with her husband and 3 children? Or should she bring out the white board, devise a new strategy, commit to ensuring her supply chain was protected and be launch- some-day-ready with limited funds to spendin uncertain, unprecedented future?

INSPIRATIONAL BUSINESS LEADERS TO WATCH 2020 If you picked the last one, you are correct. Except add to the mix: launching a brand new protective fashion brand, a social-impact-focused investment group, and an umbrella company as the parenthesis encompassing all brands, named after her Father.

The Genesis Prior to founding Nom Noms World Food, Lisa was in the Medical Devices industry where she spent 18 years as an International Director of Medical Devices, managing 47 countries, and traveling around the world all the time – at the oddest of hours.

Lisa states that she was fortunate to travel to many destinations through her work in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During her experience, she saw many children suffer malnutrition and were constantly fighting for their lives. They would only go to school because they were guaranteed a meal and would walk miles to do so. With 3 young children of her own, it was heart-breaking to see.

Coming back to North America and seeing the opposite – that kids were consuming junk food by the second –which motivated her further to transform the way our younger generations eat, so that they can live longer, healthier lives, whilst helping to change the lives of those in need. Working with dieticians and food experts, alongside her husband, Dr. Imrat Sohanpal, Lisa devised recipes for real food, made free from harmful properties with the invaluable bonus of not requiring preparation, cooking or washing up whatsoever. With an ambition to diversify the palate of consumers around the world, her products strive to re-create the authentic flavors from their global culinary experiences and thus, Nom Noms World Food was born.

About Nom Noms World Food Nom Noms World Food crafts mouth-watering world cuisine that is ready to heat and eat in seconds. Think delicious, exotic meals, and high protein hot wraps, fully cooked and full of flavor - no grocery shopping, no preparation, and no cooking necessary. All 100% locally

made without any nasties or processing, pre-packaged to cut human interaction and deliver convenience at its best.

Nom Noms believes that solving world hunger should be as easy as eating. So for every purchase, they feed hungry children in need to keep them off the streets and in school to gain an education.

Using advanced technology innovations, Nom Noms is disrupting the convenience economy with unprecedented shelf-life in fresh and frozen, whilst enabling people to measure their impact end to end. Finally, visual creators from around the world will design and deliver unique localized experiences to your mobile device, through their world-first Experience-Sharing platform.

Challenges faced and Achievements Nom Noms World Food has received over 42 awards spanning across product innovation, packaging, concept, and entrepreneurship. More recently, these include the prestigious 2019 Telus Pitch Multicultural Business of the Year award and Winning the Startup World Cup 2020 New York Regional, putting them in position to now win the Start-Up World Cup in 2021.

Also, Nom Noms World Food was hand-picked by the British Royal Family, as a notable brand to be included in the “Our Royal Baby” commemorative book, to celebrate the birth of Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

But the journey was not easy. One of the biggest hurdles Lisa faced was getting funded, as it is near impossible for women to break through the unchanged history of funding challenges. Currently, only 3% of women-owned businesses get investment – it's mind-boggling and cannot be ignored.

Breaking this barrier was something that she always held close to her chest, and she wants to educate and inspire fellow female entrepreneurs to do the same.

Resilient is the word Lisa believes best describes her. With the number of bizarre things that she had faced has taken her resilience to a level she didn't even know existed. She simply doesn't think there is anything she cannot bounce back from. For those starting up, she recommends working out contingency plans ahead of time. Always have several back up options for all areas of your business, always!

To those seeking funding, she says “never give up on your dreams and continue to work hard to bring your vision to reality. Keep persevering especially when others doubt you.

No one will Gght for your business more than you and when the timing is right, doors will not only open, they will have an elevator to take you straight to your dreams.”.

Source of Motivation Growing up as the eldest of 4 children in an Indian family new to pre-multicultural Australia had instilled an undying sense of responsibility, to challenge cultural norms and to help the family succeed in an environment seemingly working against them. Her Father's inspiring story, one relatable to many immigrant parents, drove Lisa to empowerment, breaking through glass ceilings throughout male-dominated working environments, and rising to the top of her field.

“No one would want to do business with Dad because of his ethnicity, so he got creative and changed his name to Bob Berkly to get through to them over the phone. Once they met him, they were 'rudely' surprised that he was a sensational businessman, and when he got through the door, it was a done deal. Most would say he changed for the environment, but we (his children) saw it as a masterclass in adapting to your environment to succeed. And well, 'adapt or die, as they say!”, described Lisa.

and dining habits. Consumers are cooking more, and more often with more mouths to feed, which is taking up more time. Plans to travel and experience different cultures have halted indefinitely. People cannot go out to eat an authentic meal and instead must try to make it at home. Grocery store visits should only happen if essential and ingredient availability has become a game of chance.

The desire to enjoy world cuisine remains high yet caution prevails when ordering through limited restaurants available. That too has become more of a luxury in today's economic climate, and consumers are choosing not to take that chance, due to the element of human interaction on made-to-order food.

Fast-forwarding to 2020, this tenacity to do whatever it takes, stood with her after years of external doubt. She draws on years in resilience and finding solutions to some of the most unfathomable of problems, and adapted to the environment as her Dad would, finding creative ways to fund her business whilst being driven to create brands that would change the fortunes and the future of the world's most impoverished.

The birth of the Berkly Group is a testament to the values she holds true to this day, which now has two brands under its belt – Nom Noms and miix technologies (a wellnessfocused protective fashion brand) – to further her vision in make serious, long-lasting change.

Future perspective As for Nom Noms; the biggest goal right now is to give access to their food for millions of people around the world, and they are excited to be launching and partnering with the likes of Walmart, Emirates Flight Catering, Costco and more. They are ambitious and with all these products sold, they hope to donate 10,000,000 meals to children in need.

More products sold means more mouths fed, and that motivates her to grow the business to astronomical heights.

They have a vision for technology to disrupt the future of food, and are in the process of enabling consumers to measure and track their impact to the children in need, be rewarded for it, and create content connecting them to local experiences from global curators.

Comments on the current industry scenario When The Tycoon Magazine contacted and asked Lisa about her perspective on the current scenario and Impact of COVID 19 on ready food industry she said, “The current Economic and COVID-19 health situation globally has led people to drastically change their grocery

What remains true from before all of this happened is that food brands need to cater to what we call, the convenience economy. So to succeed in today's Food & FMCG landscape, brands need to fine-tune their empathy skills and deliver experiences that bring the lost joys of good food, social interaction and travel, back home.

Traditional methods of distribution cannot cater to consumer's needs fast enough, so brands need to be agile and be accessible in more ways than one. Ultimately, new lifestyles are here to stay, and brands need to be more creative and forward-thinking with regards to how to leverage the current landscape of food.”

Advice to budding entrepreneurs Lisa advises those who are entering into the world of entrepreneurship to learn not only how to stay the course but create their own along the way, whilst being guided by a blend of logic and gut feel.

“Mind matters, but your gut knows you better, trust it.

There's nothing worse than having regrets of giving up on your vision too early. It will take time, the days will seem extra-long and there will be many sleepless nights. Believe that the answers are out there waiting, believe in that life will surprise you again and again. Believe that the journey is the destination, believe you are the greatest project you will ever work on, believe that you can and will make it happen.”

Her story is truly an inspirational one, as with her sheer aspiration to destroy malnutrition, hunger and transform the way our younger generations eat, she is creating a positive impact on the world and revolutionizing convenience food, one Nom Noms at a time.

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Listing

Brad Burton

Dimas Gimeno Eduard Schaepman

Gary Chipman

Gavin Crump

Organization

4Networking

Skintelligence Tribes Inspiring Workplaces

GLC Energy Consulting LLC

BIM Guru

Description

Listing

4Networking is the only truly joined-up national business network in the UK bringing people from the world together! - www.4nonline.biz SKT is a Companies Ecosystem, pursuing to disrupt the Retail Business, through technology innovation. www.sktretailtech.com

Mukesh Aghi

Tribes Inspiring Workplaces offers inspiring offices, meeting and conference rooms and flexible workplaces. www.tribes.world

Paolo Rizi

A Petroleum Consulting Firm

Robert Ancill

Organization US-India Strategic Partnership Forum

minu

The Next Idea is one of America’s leading restaurant and leisure management and consulting group.

The Next Idea

Jonaed Iqbal

Marc Cirera

Mark Myers 18

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NoDegree

Robert Knop

www.bimguru.com.au

Helps businesses organise successful team-building activities, support their communities, protect the planet and make their organisations more Companies for Good sustainable - www. companiesforgood.ae Provide comprehensive mental health and substance abuse services for Myers Counseling individuals, families, and couples.

Group

Sandeep Kochhar

Assist You Today

BlewMinds

www.AssistYouToday.com

Storytelling Firm working in areas of Marketing (branding, digital) Human Resources (leadership, exec search) & Tech www.blewminds.com

Tony Malz

Join Sizigi

Sizigi offers a richer interview experience, higher employer branding, and smarter hiring decisions. www.joinsizigi.com

Vincent Champain

www.myerscounseling.com www.thetycoonmedia.com

www.thenextidea.net

Assist You Today, helps organisations gain + retain clients in the new digital age.

Leading edge BIM Consulting for the Australian AEC industry -

The NoDegree Podcast helps those without degrees figure out the opportunities that are available to them. - NoDegree.com

minu offeris Mexican employees,access to their already worked salary when they need it, instead of having to wait for payroll. www.minu.mx

www.glcenergyconsulting.com

Brainalyzed

Committed to creating the most powerful strategic partnership between the U.S. and India. www.usispf.org

Enterprise AI platform that makes artificial swarm intelligence accessible for everyone. - www.brainalyzed.com Gunter Fischer

Description

Framatome

Framatome is a major international player in the nuclear energy market recognized for its innovative solutions and value-added technologies for designing, building, maintaining, and advancing the global nuclear fleet. www.framatome.com

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Brad Burton “Changing the face of business networking, and bringing it into a more appropriate and modern way for modern businesses and owners”

B

rad Burton, a man transforming the industry, narrated his story in the most intriguing way ever — “1973, born, Sanford, Dad left, primary school, BMX bikes, role playing games, computer games, class clown, no qualifications, shop boy, girls, chalet cleaner, nightclubbing, pothead, more girls, games journalist, became a Dad, shot at, moved to Somerset, depressed, dole, more weed, shop manager, blagged CV head of marketing, dole, Director, Oxford sucked, dole, 3 days away from bankruptcy, Dad again, depressed, maisonette above a chippy, married, employed, shove job up arse, self-employed, depression, skint, skint, skint, whinging wife, Dad again, 4Networking, stopped smoking weed, bluffing, struggling, speaking, author, still skint, skint, skint, Dad yet again, 5,000+ events a year, uh oh, UK's #1 motivational business speaker, bought dream Range Rover, still waiting to be found out, sold dream Range Rover, author again, people are buying them, scratches head, stabbed in the back. Twice. Burned out, near divorce, crisis averted, just, snapped up by top publisher for 3rd book, still waiting to be found out, Dad again, a daughter this time - uh oh, Audi driver, buzzing, blue tick, blue tick, more 5 stars on Amazon, still UK's #1 motivational business speaker. Time to quit? Now What? 4th book, no longer skint, no longer depressed, actually now quite balanced and happy. Wife still whinging.” www.4Nonline.biz is the UK’s largest online business network. Well, it was, prior to lockdown, the UK’s largest joined up business 20

October 2020

networking organization, running over 5000 meetings across the UK each year. Then Covid came along at which point they had to change the whole business model overnight, converting the real world network to an online one. They're glad to say if they hadn’t pulled this off, the business would have been kaput!

Struggles and successes Lock down changed everything, while other real life networking organizations made the decision to “wait to see what happens” they made the decision to change what happens…

Immediately they got a plan in place that allowed them to move fast and transition into a workable online solution to allow their thousands of members to continue to grow their network and business.

They changed the face of business networking, they innovated their format, technology and more importantly instilled a culture which endures 14 years on, 50% social, 50% business and it still works. Back in 2006 when they started the organization this was considered ‘off key’ by many. As he said at the time, you’ll never be the market leader copying the market leader.

From his personal perspective, he has written 4 best selling books, and became the UK’s #1 Motivational Business Speaker, headlining for global brands and organizations like Bentley, Xero, JCB, Snap On tools, given where he started off this is a massive personal achievement.

“Doing it my way,” perfectly describes his going against all odds.

Future goals and advice to the budding entrepreneurs When asked about his future goals, he said. “I’ve got an amazing and trusted management team who handle the day to day, and for the first time In the companies history we have our first ever female MD, who has a wonderful and more rounded approach which is exactly what is needed as we head into the next 14 years. I’ll go as far as believing 4Networking Online will become the Netflix of Networking, you heard it first.”

To the emerging entrepreneurs, he said “That you can’t skip the steps,it’s going to take you 4x longer than what your business plan for the bank states.”

Describing himself in one sentence www.thetycoonmedia.com

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Dimas Gimeno “A man of action and a true believer in teamwork and the value of work and merit”

D

imas Gimeno, a passionate and focused advocate of retail transformation. Founder and Chairman of Skintelligence Investments; a retail & tech business platform built to help retailers harness disruptive innovation, adapt, and grow in a rapidly changing economic and social landscape. From 2014 to 2018, he served as President and CEO of El Corte Ingles, a leading department store group headquartered in Spain. Drawing from his experience as a retail practitioner and the knowledge he has acquired in the last 2 years, he has identified what he believes is the more pressing needs and requirements for the retail industry to the gather the storm and grow stronger, better and more human-centred. They detected that there was an opportunity to fuel positive energy through generating smart investment, building bridges, feeding hungry companies and the big, stagnating incumbents and fostering knowledge, innovation and applied research. In that vein he is creating an ecosystem at the intersection of tech and retail where diverse and complementary elements will cooperate in mutually beneficial ventures.

Struggles and successes Retail is by definition a complex business, as in essence it boils down to people interacting with people in a marketplace, thus involving economic, social, psychological and cultural elements. As to the challenges he has faced he would stress resistance to change, fragmentation of the industry and a somehow understandable mistrust among peers who do not see the opportunities offered by cooperation and silo themselves in a shortsighted competition mindset.

towards swift, deep and momentous retail transformation without losing sight of the need to place the human being ever more at the center of retail.The retail landscape is in full swing. Although retail transformation has been ongoing for a while, the Covid19 pandemic has accelerated the process exponentially. Changing industry trends, new consumer habits and innovation will be more visible and consequential than ever. Change is happening and they need to seize the opportunity to surf the wave. Those who opt for idly waiting for the storm to pass are unlikely to survive.

He learnt from experience and he feels very proud about his work at El Corte Ingles, where he was able to put into practice some of the initiatives and innovative badly needed.

However, he doesn’t like to dwell in the past.

He’s today fully focused on his new ventures and plans for the future with Skintelligence. He hopes that, sooner than later, he would be able to make progress and achieve some of the ambitious goals he has set for himself.

His will to make things happen and curiosity have also been driving forces throughout his life and learning process.

Future goals and advice to the youth When asked about their future goals, they told the Tycoon Media, that they want to “be a proactive player and shape the conversation about retail.”

They “expect their retail ecosystem to be a global reference tool for retailers of all sizes and levels of development and become a leading force in retail transformation in the next decade.”

They “aim to be ready and willing to jump to the next level, approach the challenge with a focus on the solution, not just on the problem to solve. Identify the obstacles and never fear innovation.”

His advice to the emerging entrepreneurs is “ I would encourage them to listen carefully to seasoned professionals. Innovative solutions cannot be implemented in a lab, they should be efficient in the real world and for that practitioners are a unique source of information and valuable knowledge.”

Source of motivation : The time spent with his uncle, predecessor and mentor, Isidoro Alvarez, one of the most prominent entrepreneurs in Spain during the last century, left behind an indelible impression and shaped his career. He also draws inspiration and motivation from the intelligence and determination he sees in people in all walks of life as they cope with life challenges.

The Covid19 pandemic offers a unique, albeit unwanted, opportunity to remove at least some of those stumbling blocks and move decisively 22

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How

Does

ENTREPRENEURSHIP Actually Feel ?

O

can remember to do in order to power through?

ften times we write about the entrepreneurial journey based on the systematic approaches to entrepreneurship, i.e. figuring out your client base, process flow, your marketing plan and how to scale. However, less often we talk about how entrepreneurship feels, aside from the common notion held by many, that entrepreneurship is not for the weak. So, how does entrepreneurship actually feel?

Entrepreneurship has its ebbs and flows of emotions (Sokol, 2020). One day you will feel on top of the world after landing a contract with a contentious bidding process. For just a moment, you may truly believe you are King Midas with a golden touch and maybe even dance a happy dance in front of the mirror. Within just a days’ time, you’ll start thinking about whether or not you should be using the same time and effort you use towards your entrepreneurial ventures, towards finding a traditional, 95, full-time job. Sometimes you can become overwhelmed with the level of responsibility required for not only owning a business but also managing it. Even when you hire staff, as the owner, you will forever have management responsibilities. Owning a small business may seem overwhelming as you try to juggle between balancing your client load or customers while handling the administrative day to day functions of the business, such as financial management, legal requirements, buying and purchasing and keeping things organized. These things add additional stressors for many entrepreneurs. Another feeling, guilt. We may not say this to our families, but, if your business is not a family owned business, you may feel guilt ridden by having to borrow from family time in order to build your enterprise. When a family owned business, you may feel burdened by not allowing your family enough reprieve, down time or family time (Davis, 2020). At last the worst emotion yet, the feeling of wanting to just throw the towel in and give up. This feeling normally comes from both frustration and fear. Your feelings of frustration and fear may arise from things not always going as planned and having to mitigate loss of time and resources as well as the extraordinary amount of pressure of having your entire livelihood be based solely on your business and maintaining its success.

If you’ve felt any of the above. You are not alone. This is what entrepreneurship feels like, especially within the first few years. However, if you stay the course, the majority of your negative feelings will soon begin to wane and be replaced by positive feelings such as proud, successful, accomplished, strong, able, capable, and to your family, maybe even heroic. So, what are a few things entrepreneurs 24

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Remember the Pareto principal and the 80/20 rule. 20% of your output is related to 80% of your input. If you feel like you are working very hard to see results, you are, be gentle with yourself.

Self-care, schedule some time to take care of yourself. Not just your physical well-being, but your emotional well being as well.

Know who is in your support system and lean on them. Your support system should include at least one mentor or coach, you may also consider an advisory board (Davis, 2020). Choose someone who you have a good relationship with, who can be empathetic and actively listen.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither are successful business. Be as patient as can be, this is hard, I know. However, the more patient you are the less frustrated you will be.

Whatever you do, don’t give up, see it through until the end. What is the end? In my book, retirement.

However, this may not be everyone’s end goal. Whatever the goal is that you have set for yourself as an entrepreneur, make it there. What if you are taking a giant loss and the business doesn’t seem viable? Know that at least 90% of businesses fail (Norton, 2020). Consider the three -year rule. Year one is foundation (you lose money), year two (you break even), year three you should begin to see a livable profit. If at year three your business does not break a profit, only then should you consider changing course. This decision being based solely on risk verse gain through strategic and logical evaluation verse emotions.

To reiterate a shared common expression of many entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship is not for the weak, but with a relentless drive and will to succeed, in time your emotional investment will be rewarded.

Authour - Dr. Niama T. Malachi 25

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Eduard Schaepman A Chief Entertainment Officer

E

duard Schaepman, a Dutch real estate entrepreneur and the founder of Tribes Inspiring Workplaces. started his career as a marketing manager at Mees & Hope and Robeco. Between 1997 and 2013, he held various management and board positions at large multinationals such as Fortis Group and euroShell. In 2013, he became the CEO of the Chalet Group, which under his leadership grew into one of the largest private real estate investors in the Netherlands. In 2015 he launched his own innovative office concept: Tribes Inspiring Workplaces. Tribes now offers flexible and inspiring workplaces, offices, meeting rooms and business addresses at locations in the Netherlands, Brussels and Germany. Within a short period of time, this concept will be global, offering a large network of inspiring meeting places.

Tribes is more than just a great place to work.

It’s a modern fireplace, where you can meet likeminded professionals who come from all places over the world. You can also boost your creativity, by all the stories, hidden treasures and amazing design in the locations. All the Tribes locations have a different design, based on one of the nomadic tribes from all over the world. So everywhere you go, you’ll find different colours, materials and most of all, stories from which they – the business nomads who just need a laptop, WiFi and mobile phone to work - all can learn. For example, the Kazakh (in the location in Rotterdam), have invented ‘drones’ ages ago. With their Golden Eagles they could scan the entire area for intruders and prey. They knew the importance of an ‘eagle-eye’ view to do their business - hunting, which you need as an entrepreneur just as much.

much more value you can add to a building as an office operator. They don’t see the opportunities for substantial value creation and are not open to the less traditional business – in their eyes.

Only now, when the consumer ‘pushes’ for short term contracts instead of the traditional longterm ones, the building owner seems to realize that he/she needs to move with the times to survive. They are used to work with a property/ building manager, who is system oriented, instead of client-oriented, which can result in much more value. As an operator, they always are looking for ways to satisfy the client, and thus generate more value.

Future goals and advice He says that his and the Tribes’ goal is the same which being the most unique and exclusive operator in the world. In the last years, he said he’s realized it’s not about quantity but about quality, and that’s what they want to realize. The number of locations will not be the most like global networkers, but they’ll offer the best services and quality.

His words of wisdom for the emerging entrepreneurs are “ Always stay close to yourself and be passionate about what you do. And I always follow these rules: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Trust yourself Break the rules, not the law Don’t be afraid for failure Stay away from naysayers Work like hell Give something back!

His own major achievement is creating the Tribes concept. He said “ Who would have thought that such a – crazy – idea would be such a success. I mean, all those nomadic tribes are amazing, but a CEO modelling in its own commercial prints?! But the Dutch newspapers went crazy and headlines all over it. Our members also really love it, so it’s quite a personal accomplishment. Tribes’ major achievement is getting one of the biggest American private equity firms as a shareholder on board. “

Struggles and successes The biggest challenge they have to face in this industry is to explain to the building owner how 26

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Source of motivation

Gary L. Chipman Founder / Managing Member | GLC Energy Consulting LLC

G

ary L. Chipman, started his career back in 1987. At that time, he was a Marketing Manager for a group out of Dallas Texas. He had been moved to Midland Texas to open an office there and set up. Weeks had passed and he met up with a guy named Robert Wingfield who had asked him to come to work for a Wireline Company that did Logging and Perforating. He made the leap and continued in the Wireline Business till 2013. Continuing in the Service industry he 1became an Independent Completions Consultant and opened his own Completion Firm in 2013. To date they have opened their own Composite Frac Plug Division and provide a premium service and product.

Founded in 2013, GLC Energy Consulting LLC. has been providing oil and gas companies with professional consulting services. With a handson approach, GLC Energy Consulting has been successful in complete on-site well organization services including daily tracking and reporting, major well repair services, and on-site hydraulic fracturing processes.

GLC Energy Consulting LLC provides highly skilled Completions Consultants, Flow Back Operators, Drilling Consultants and Engineers.

Just here this month April 2020, they have entered the Composite Frac/Bridge Plug market.

They conduct their own R&D on several projects to bring Upstream Customers the best-on-themarket Frac Plugs.

Energy. They stay on top of technology trends and keep their fingers on the R&D pulse in the industry to anticipate and stay ahead of major trends. The priorities of the industry around profitability and safety have remained top of mind for us, and allowed us to forge connections, anticipate issues and provide valuable foresight to their customers.

Growing their business is his mission and he will be at that helm to steer it in the best direction with the help of great employees and great customers. Their Frac Plug Division had a vision to design Frac Plugs with proprietary composite materials. This allows for higher performance and consistent quality over typical filament wound composites which most frac plugs use. In addition, the material properties are designed to be easily drilled out and into manageable pieces.

They are also working on a proprietary lower slip design, and combined with the higher performance composite we envision being able to produce composite FracPlugs that go well beyond the standard pressure ratings!

Forward thinking sets the bar when it comes to tractability and quality control. They pride themselves on developing products that leave no room for questions or chances.

Struggles and successes The Upstream and Downstream in the oil business has always been a challenge. They must change with the market time after time to keep up with those challenges. Adaptability and flexibility are skills that they value at GLC 28

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Family has always been his motivation and the customers they serve. As a business, they take full responsibility for the service and our products. They are uniquely positioned to provide operationally tested service and products that save our customers headaches, knowing that they are bringing a field-tested, expertise-fueled solution to a particular problem.

Future goals and advice GLC Energy Consulting is committed to contributing to the oil & gas industry in operationally meaningful ways. They are operators building proprietary tools for operators. They know the field, they understand the pain points and they see the opportunities for better ways of working with better products, more efficiently and safely. They will continue to research, design and bring to market products that address the concerns that operators have in the field, issues that are keeping managers up at night. There are decades of experience behind GLC Energy that will continue to power this company and its vision for decades to come. Their industry needs innvative solutions that are custom-built for current and emerging problems. At GLC, operational experience intersects with cuttingedge science and development to provide pinpointed solutions that work.

Gary’s advice for the younger generation is “Keep up a steady pace, never give up on your dreams, failure is a big part of learning. Ignore all the negativity and noise and always be proud of yourself even if nobody else will.�

Gavin Crump A Crearious entrepreneur

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avin Crump, the Founder and Consultant of BIM (building information modelling) Guru, is an inspiration to many in his field. He began working as an as an architectural graduate in 2012 and whilst many years have passed since then his perseverance remains constant. He initially began his career by working on a $2 billion hospital project in Adelaide, Australia and received great initial exposure to architecture, construction, and BIM. His inclination towards BIM software accelerated him through technical, coordinator and middle management roles and in 2015, to continue his journey, he went to Sydney to a BIM management role where he managed training, content, systems, and projects in the context of BIM. He moved through various medium to large scale firms in Sydney and got some great exposure to various projects and company types.

Ultimately, he opened his own BIM consulting business at the start of 2020, and while most people would expect it to be an unfavorable time to initiate a business, he made most of this time and in hindsight, believe that was a prime time since Market lag gave him time to market and get the business up to speed, whereas this time may have become redundant and unproductive in performing a corporate type role at this time.

About the company BIM Guru offers five key services: strategy, modelling/systems, coordination, coding, and training. Most of its services center themselves around the Autodesk product collection which is dominating the BIM landscape in Australia currently.

relatability and suitability in his offer and delivery of solutions.

Gavin has begun releasing templates and contents via the BIM Guru website shop which aims to provide a better benchmark for firms without access to these due to industry silos, as well as varying rates of BIM adoption.

Struggles and Successes The journey climbing to the top is never an easy one, and every entrepreneur must face a plethora of obstacles along their way to stabilize their foothold.

The AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) industry is surprisingly quite slow to change - they only really embraced digital workflows on a mainstream scale over the last 15-20 years. For every disruptor out there, there is at least 100 people working in the opposite direction, whether for the pursuit nostalgia or fear of change.

Silos of information and workflows are also a serious problem that stifle this industry’s potential. Large scale firms create proprietary ideas and practices and keep them closed off from their competition so one ends up with a lot of redundancy when we look at the bigger picture.

BIM Guru has only been active for about 3 months now, but in this small period they’ve delivered solutions for more than 30 unique clients across the globe – most of them becoming repeat clients.

BIM Guru draws upon experience at all levels of BIM - from the trenches up to the boardroom, which causes his clients to always find a level of 30

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In April, BIM Guru released a project template for the program Autodesk Revit, which generated over 100 sales in less than a week. In future, they have more than 20 packs of support content queued up to expand the potential of this product. They also aim to release some online courses in a few months’ time that will train people in industry relevant software from a real-world context – something which many other courses do not emulate.

Future goals and Words of wisdom to the budding entrepreneurs When asked about future business prospects, he replied that currently his business is a fulltime focus. Ultimately, his goal is to develop the business into a platform which he can take and ‘attach’ to companies in a management/ joint venture capacity in order to reintroduce his services at a deeper level than which external consultants are usually offered.

When he was asked to give advice to the young mind, he said : “Ultimately I recommend three things…

1. Have the financial backup personally available before you begin 2. Have a strong network of potential clients and industry peers ready 3. Have the will and dedication to work

Gunter Fischer A curious entrepreneur changing world with swarm AI

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unter Fischer, the CEO and cofounder of Brainalyzed, worked for more than 10 years in the renewable energy sector developing self-learning controllers for wind turbines. The goal of this project was to use the time-series data of the wind turbine sensors to make the turbines adapt to local site conditions and improve the energy production within a given load envelope. They had the choice of over 300 technical sensors within the wind turbine and didn't know how to combine them to solve the task.

Around that time artificial intelligence leapfrogged from being merely an academic exercise to offering real business value.

Since his Ph.D. in technical optimization, he found it intriguing to pose the

problem of combining sensors to an optimizer.

That is when the idea of automated evolutionary AI design occurred to him, and he created Brainalyzed along with his co-founder Thomas Kopetsch.

Brainalyzed is the creator of Brainalyzed Insight, the world's first artificial swarm intelligence platform, tailored for people without a background in machine learning, artificial intelligence, or programming. It enables industry experts with data and data hypothesis to build, deploy, and maintain powerful AI swarms, without the need for coding.

Struggles and Successes Brainalyzed Insight is a market creator in terms of the technology that they use. Artificial swarm intelligence is a modern AI technology that has a lot of potentials. However, they need to educate people about this technology in terms of costs and the value one can derive from it. Though traditional AI is still popular among the crowds, he believes that swarm AI is slowly garnering attention.

Their first important achievement this year was the release of their prototype in. It was the culmination of a long process — from the initial idea via the first project customers, closing their seed round in summer 2019, building a dedicated team, solving a pile of technical challenges to deliver a powerful SaaS-based Enterprise AI system. He’s proud of what they have achieved in such a short time, but he also knows that this is just the first steppingstone towards an exciting and interesting journey ahead.

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Future goals The COVID-19 pandemic has landed the team in one of the most challenging economic times after the Second World War. The situation has been a huge obstacle for the team. However, they are confident that the technology of artificial swarm intelligence is far superior to what is available in the market at the moment.

Right now, they are focused on converting PoCs to subscriptions in order to demonstrate growth, despite the pandemic.

In the long run, Gunter wants to use the training data of the hundreds of thousands of training they conduct to improve the process with an AI model itself. For this, they plan to use the statistical properties of each input and the prediction targets to suggest a good model initial configuration and then further optimize it using their custom-built genetic algorithm.

Advice for the emerging entrepreneurs His piece of advice for young entrepreneurs who want to make it big is “Entrepreneurship is not a science; it is an attitude that you need to have to survive the lowest lows and enjoy the highest highs in the marathon of building a company from scratch. You should not be afraid to step in the dark and to fail sometimes. That is only a natural process.”

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Jonaed Iqbal Empowering youth with real education

optimization, on the go. He then officially established it with his savings and three partners.

From a small initiative, NoDegree has evolved to a trusted platform for career advice and counselling on LinkedIn. The most recent resource is the NoDegree podcast, which involves interviewing people without college degrees who have achieved huge success in their careers.

About the Company

“I am fighting against people who feel paying $100k plus for an education is justified.”

In a world of Ivies and top-notch universities, where students are in a constant rat race to take underwhelming classes and pay hefty fees for what is supposed to be a basic human right, Jonaed Iqbal made his mark.

Ironically, he founded NoDegree while pursuing his graduate studies at Columbia University.

Starting a project like NoDegree wasn't a walk in the park for Jonaed, though. He knew that to help those without college degrees find meaningful jobs that pay well and remove the stigma attached to them, he’d have to work and save to invest in his idea. He worked tirelessly for four years and saved up enough to accomplish this goal. Then in 2018, he cashed out all his years of hard work and, as they say, there was no looking back.

Jonaed managed the founding stage of NoDegree as a one-man army.

He learned everything, from marketing his project on social media to search engine 34

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NoDegree helps those who do not possess degrees but have the perseverance and determination to find meaningful lives and race towards a better future. They provide career guidance resources like resume writing and interview coaching. The goal is to help people level up their careers. NoDegree also streams content, writes blogs, and hosts podcasts on various platforms that people can listen to, free of cost.

NoDegree is also a recruiting company, but they do it much differently than others. They take time to know their candidates first and allow employers to post jobs on their website.

Overcoming the Obstacles Jonaed's leadership is commendable. He believes in always creating, and always learning.

When asked about his source of motivation, he said “I hate it when qualified people are denied opportunity or looked down upon because they don’t have a piece of paper that probably couldn’t accurately represent them in the first place.” This speaks a lot about his aim for the greater good, and that he believes the job must go to the most deserving candidate, which isn’t always the one with the degree.

Jonaed has faced many challenges throughout his journey. He is trying to challenge large institutions with years of expertise and a name attached to them. He is shaking not just rigid beliefs but mindsets, ways of life, and all who feel that it is necessary to spend large amounts of money on a degree. He is fighting employers who have an exhaustive list of degree requirements in their job postings. He is fighting the difference between those whose education stopped at a degree and those who are determined life-long learners. NoDegree advocates for the latter.

The academic industry is ever-changing. A lot of tech companies now do not require college degrees to get recruited. However, there is a lot that they still have to combat, because at the end of the day, companies and organizations are overflowed with people from top-ranked universities. So those without degrees are definitely at a disadvantage. Most companies do not even conduct interviews if the candidate doesn’t meet their academic qualification.

Achievements and Future Goals NoDegree has held a plethora of workshops to help those without college degrees understand how they can set themselves apart from others.

They have successfully helped more than 100 people land interviews at several well-known companies. Even amidst COVID-19, there’s no stopping NoDegree’s momentum. They have held virtual career fairs with speakers from companies like Tesla, Microsoft, Google, Etsy, just to name a few.

But it doesn’t end there, Jonaed's bigger plan for the future is to compete with institutions of higher learning. He wants NoDegree to become so successful that colleges actually have to lower their tuition fees or increase what they have to offer.

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs “Read, learn as much as you can, network, and get a mentor. I am where I am today because of the things I have learned from other people. So many people have connected me with the right people and that has allowed me to grow.

I make sure to help those around me as much as I can and as a result, people help me. I will get to where I want to in the future because of the information and help I get from people I probably have not met yet.”

Jonaed Iqbal is a true inspiration. His story shows that if you have a goal, with perseverance, nothing can stop you.

Changes in the Industry 35

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The world is in crisis.

Billionslive in poverty, climate change is happening and pollution is trashing the planet.

Solving these issues requires people and money.

Businesseshave plenty of both.

But,until now, there’s been no easy way for companies to contribute.

Working with charities has been hard to organise.

Doing your own activities is timeconsuming and difficult.

Team activities for a better world

And there’s a lot of bureaucracy.

You could just donate money, but you’d miss out on a valuable team building opportunity…

We set up Companies for Good to make it easy for businesses and their people to do good how, when and where they want to.

Whether you want to help society or the planet,land or sea,local or global communities,we make it happen and we make it fun.

We call this ‘good – on demand’.

And over 200 of the world’s biggest brands have already taken part.

Join the good movement: companiesforgood.ae

Marc Cirera Building teams for a better world

I

n this world of profit-making, capitalism and rising industrialization, where companies are working day and night to take their number graphs to greater heights, Marc Cirera, CEO and founder of Companies for good is running a social enterprise to help companies make their mark by not just growing economically but by taking responsible actions towards the greater good.

Cirera is a business ethics and sustainability specialist with a clear vision, and a world where companies operate in a more sustainable and responsible way. They essentially help businesses and their employees do good, for the planet and the communities, ‘good-on demand’ as they call it.

Companies for Good works in an unconventional manner since May 2017 by organising team activities like tree planting, making toys for refugees, beach clean-ups, women empowerment seminars, etc. which focus on the corporate social responsibility that is more often than not forgotten in this fast paced world. All these activities are run in collaboration with various non-government organisations and other community organisations that also have the same goal as them. They have till now provided a fun hassle free way to great brands worldwide like Airbnb, Amazon, Unilever, Pfizer, Standard Chartered, Gucci, Philips, BCG, DHL, Mubadala, Sanofi, Henkel, Kellogg’s, Ford, and many more to give back to the society.

Inception A born entrepreneur, he was introduced into the business world by his grandfather who was a selfmade businessman. He set up his first business in hospitality while studying Economics and Business Administration in Barcelona. After running it for four years, he sold it and used the profits to pursue Master’s in Business Ethics in Sydney. He didn’t sacrifice his education for 38

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business, after graduating, he moved to London to work at a communications consultancy.

During his time there, he helped multinational companies, such as Rolls-Royce, ABB, Nivea and Cargill become stronger by putting ethics, values and sustainability at the heart of their organisations.

He then landed in Dubai in 2015 to work as a sustainability specialist at Chalhoub Group until October 2018. While working there, he donut Companies for good in May 2017 and has been fully dedicated to it since November 2018. He told in an interview “I founded Companies for Good because I believe businesses have the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. And I wanted to help them do good.”

Overcoming the obstacles It is not easy as it seems, and ever since the onset of Covid 19 worldwide, the pandemic has caused various obstacles in the industry, the scenario has changed so much due to lack of gatherings globally, they’re now witnessing a demand for virtual events, and that’s the way to go according to them in the time to come. They are now coming up with digital solutions (such as the online escape room named Escape Climate Change) as their commitment to doing good doesn’t stop at all, covid or no covid.

Other than that, they face two types of challenges, one being more conceptual and behavioural, and other being rather more pragmatic. As Cirera puts it: “Regarding the former, a recurring challenge we face is the concept of responsibility dilution. When we lose sight of who is responsible for what, it can be

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dangerous – most of us are worried about global warming, yet we drive my cars on a daily basis. This makes us rely on others to be the change we want to see, which will never work as each of us should be playing our part.

The other challenge is that many people think that corporate volunteering initiatives should be free of charge. They want to do good, which is a great thing, and they’re already giving away their time – why should they have to give their money away too? We wrote an article to answer this point – https:// companiesforgood.ae/thegood-blog/why-should-i-pay."

Advice to the entrepreneurs

budding

“It’s a cliché, but ensuring your idea solves a real problem is key to success. I cannot stress that enough. I talk to many people that want to begin their venture with an idea they love, but they aren’t sure if others will find useful. You can build the best product ever, but it will be worthless if people aren’t willing to pay for it.

Joining forces with the right people to form a strong team is also very important.

And finally, and most importantly, you’d better feel passion for what you’re trying to set up. It will be tough and bumpy journey. Unless you’re fully committed to making it work, you won’t."

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Mark Myers Regrowing all the Fallen Trees

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ark Myers, founder of The Myers Counseling Group and the man behind transformation of many deteriorating lives into healthy, fulfilling ones through over twenty years of handwork, consistency, empathy or as he believes sums it up in a word ‘focused.’

His focused approach towards creating problem solving strategies centered around behavior and thought, along with the power of communication and coping mechanisms has paved the way for many substance abused, illhealth, or just regular individuals with mental health issues become better living men.

Since time immemorial mental health has always been overlooked, considered as a mere mood swing, but with time, it has been paid attention and because of consistent effort by people like Myers, a drastic change is conspicuous and as he says “the industry has seen tremendous changes over the years.

Therapy is more goal-directed now. Empirical data, science, and utilization of medical interventions are more widely accepted and used currently. I see the health industry understanding the importance of collaboration of services. Society is more accepting of individuals seeking out professional help.”

The Myers Counseling group combines varied backgrounds, giving you access to an unparalleled depth of knowledge about healthcare and therapy, a perspective that you won't find in other groups, comprised of a bestin-class team of experts in search and consulting, as well as those that have built and led healthcare organizations, providing healthcare at the patient level, working in global health, have experience in multiple functions in 40

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other industries, and devote their free time to not-for-profit healthcare initiatives.

The Inception Myers Counseling Group started in August 1999.

The shifting of office to Crystal Lake, which was closer to their home allowed the team, greater flexibility and time commitment to their work.

Their staunch philosophy has not changed since they started helping the humans around and they manage to work remotely, provide them emotional, moral and all the resources in their capacity and as he said “We support them through their journey in recovery.”

Individuals from all geographical areas seek out services at Myers Counseling Group, the telehealth services are one of their most used, for the clients in the state of Illinois, they take immense pride in being community based and simultaneously maintaining family values too.

He strongly puts faith in maintaining these standards while sustaining the individual focus of the client. He believes in “investing time, energy, and commitment to improving the quality of life.” Mark brings his commitment to serving clients not only from his community but other communities as well which talks a lot about his character as a counsellor.

The Journey and Major Achievements The journey of Myers counseling group to one of the leading counseling groups wasn’t a regular one, Myers like most of young adults ended up in field, doing the job which wasn’t exactly satisfying but his zeal for social work led him to Private practice with the help of unconditional support from his wife, Janet Myers, who also coauthored with him in his latest publication: Falling Trees, Color Blind Scientists, and www.thetycoonmedia.com

Addiction: A Complete Guide to Addiction for Substance Abusers and Their Families, a book meant to delve deeper into the how’s, why’s, and what’s of addiction, the devastation it brings to the families of the abused, and how to deal with it in a sustained manner. Myers believes this initiative helped him contribute in the greater good of the society and he also considers it an achievement to cherish. Moreover, he also wishes to write further books and is also hoping to expand podcasts and videos to offer additional support and guidance to those who could benefit from it.

Obstacles Quite unusual is his source of motivation, which isn’t a person or a thing, or an experience from the repressed childhood, but his value system which enables him to take informed decisions, endure through this difficult, ever changing business. He told The Tycoon Magazine That most of his revenue comes from insurance, and insurance industry is dynamic, which prevents him from creating long term therapeutic marks in the counseling industry.

Advice to the budding Entrepreneurs When asked for his advice, and insight for the budding entrepreneurs, he said “It is not easy being in your own business. Not everyone will have the temperament and patience to have your own business. It is essential to have a sound support system. My family’s support (which was huge) has been helpful. I have also received advice from many different professionals, both in and outside of my profession. This advice has been tremendously useful to me. Do not be afraid of reaching out for help and direction.”

Hence it is imperative to reach out for help and direction, whether it is an issue pertaining to your life, career or your mental health.

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Dr. Mukesh Aghi Transparent, passionate, and humble leader

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r. Mukesh Aghi has over 30 years’ experience leading complex operations at large global corporations, from enterprise software maker JD Edwards to IT giants IBM and Steria, across geographies as diverse as Japan, Singapore, India, the US, and Europe. He founded the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum to cast sight on matters beyond trade between the two countries— the ties between the two nations can and should extend to sustainability, security, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

As the only independent not-for-profit institution dedicated to strengthening the U.S.-India partnership in Washington, D.C. and in New Delhi, USISPF is the trusted partner for businesses, non-profit organizations, the diaspora, and the government of India and the United States. USISPF builds, enables, advocates, facilitates, and guides partnerships between the two countries by providing a platform for all stakeholders to come together in new ways that will create meaningful opportunities with the power to change the lives of citizens in both countries.

USISPF has six areas of work: Business Policy Advocacy USISPF assists its member companies in engaging with federal and state governments on policy advocacy to strengthen the economic and commercial partnership between the two countries.

Connecting businesses and governments USISPF provides its member companies a platform to work together and to track opportunities at the state and federal level.

USISPF also drives deeper collaboration by facilitating introductions between government entities and businesses.

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Strategic Engagement USISPF helps business, government, and other stakeholders engage in public-private partnerships that strengthen the U.S.-India strategic partnership such as that in the allimportant Indo-Pacific region. It works to deepen the role of both nations in tackling global and regional challenges through themebased research and knowledge sharing.

Legislative Affairs USISPF facilitates engagement between its member companies and the legislative branches in both countries through frequent structured dialogues with U.S. Members of Congress and with Members of Parliament in India.

Inclusive Development USISPF helps all stakeholders work collaboratively towards inclusive development.

It helps companies identify opportunities to aggregate their CSR investment with government, non-profit, and private sector partners, to bridge the gap between corporate initiatives and government priorities.

Education, Innovation & Entrepreneurship USISPF believes education, innovation, and entrepreneurship are key to fuelling job creation in both India and the US With this in mind, USISPF works with its members and partners to create an environment with a robust IP framework, to support cutting-edge innovation.

Additionally, its Startup Connect Program provides an institutional support system for Indian entrepreneurs who are exploring opportunities in the US market.

500 companies that works with a laser focus on deepening partnership between the United States and India. USISPF explores market opportunities for its member companies in India to highlight the immense potential that India has for investors as well as for Indian companies that are eyeing the US market.

USISPF covers every aspect of US-India relationship on a daily basis— from energy, defense, Pharma, and digital economy. They have connections at the highest levels of governments in India and the United States— their annual thought leadership summits have brought together Democrats and Republicans – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jared Kushner, Wilbur Ross, India Caucus members to name a few.

Future goals and advice to emerging entrepreneurs USISPF forges solid partnerships with non-profits, start-ups, and education institutions. USISPF estimates that U.S.-India bilateral trade is likely to grow from $143 billion to $238 billion by 2025.

This growth will occur if trade grows by 7.5% each year, as has been the trend for the last 7 years. The estimate also projects that, by 2025, bilateral trade could range between $283 billion to $327 billion, at an annual average growth rate of 10%-12.5% (as witnessed in 2017 and 2018). The assessment underscores pathways for growth and economic opportunity in our bilateral ties by highlighting current trends. Sectors such as defense trade, commercial aircrafts, oil and LNG, coal, machinery and electronics are areas of potential growth in U.S. investments and commerce into India. Similarly, Indian industry has an opportunity to promote the automotive, pharmaceuticals, seafood, IT and travel services to the U.S. market.

Dr. Aghi’s advice for emerging entrepreneurs is pretty straightforward, “Stay focused and be nimble.”

Struggles and successes USISPF is a niche organization, backed by a powerful board comprising of CEOs of Fortune www.thetycoonmedia.com

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Paolo Rizzi A passionate and pragmatic Leader Revolutionizing earned wage access in Mexico

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aolo Rizzi Cofounder and the CTO of an amazing project called minu. Has over 20 years of professional experience in software engineering, product development combined with entrepreneurial spirit that led him to create successful start-ups in 7 countries between Europe and America, including business failures, which gave him great lessons about how to take today better organizational decisions.

He is a pioneer in the eCommerce industry began his journey at the age of mere 19 years when he Co-founded his first company which at its peak came to be listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.

Additionally, in 1999 he introduced the world’s first mobile auction platform for feature phones and his ecommerce technology was successfully implemented by such clients as A.C. Milan and the Vatican. He was invited to Mexico in 2012 to develop a fraud prevention system for banks using ML for prediction models. In 2013 he was a cofounder of a social 44

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entrepreneurship whose mission was to provide key potential solutions for millions of Mexicans who commute to and from work daily, this platform was the first worldwide in geolocates the supply and demand of employment opportunities throughout Mexico. After few years of working in the corporate environment, he decided to join the minu venture with the vision of becoming a key component in the solution of a new challenge of great social impact that ultimately will improve the financial health of millions of Mexicans.

About Minu minu is an employee financial wellness company. It solves employee’s lack of liquidity between paychecks and reduces the level of indebtedness by offering them instant and 24/7 access to their earned wages when the employees need them, without having to wait for payday. As a business model, they apply fixed commission of 39 pesos per withdrawal (it is neither credit nor loan), providing employees the peace of mind that the money will be available 24/7 and instantly deposited to their payroll account or card. minu was born as in Mexico the 75 percent of workers live from paycheck to paycheck and have no savings, and 71 percent are stressed about their financial climate waiting anxiously for their payday.

33 percent regularly get a loan to cover their recurring expenses, 73 percent have requested a loan from banks or relatives, which involves uncertainty in response time and deficiencies, creating a vicious circle due to an eternal debt with high bank rates.

lives, the huge amount of data generated and exchanged on a daily basis, has allowed entrepreneurs to create extraordinary companies that in conjunction with the Internet generates interesting challenges, He mentioned three of them.

I Data security According to Paolo as a company minu need to take care and protect the data of their users, which contains personal and transactional information, making all this very attractive for cyber attackers.

Maintaining the highest standards in terms of cyber security is a great challenge for all technology companies, especially when like minu, the services you offer are Fintech related.

II Scalability With the Internet, the possibility of being able to reach millions of users brings with it the great challenge of being able to scale the computing and storage power of their systems. From the early days of minu, this problem was very clear to him, it allowed today to have a very elegant solution, which is evolving continuously, where the exponential growth of users does not represent a major concern for their tech architecture.

III Talent

Challenges

Paolo always likes to say that companies are made of people, as last but not least, another very important challenge is to find the best talent in order to plan, execute and bring to life a product with an excellent quality and prove its market fit.

Paolo states that nowadays the software created for all the devices that surround us impact radically our

In general, it has been very difficult to find very talented team members, the search and selection

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process can take weeks of work and dedication that does not ensure the expected result, developing an attractive compensation package is complex and expensive, but today after a year and half of activities minu is team of 40+ people, very talented, who have managed to create a unique product in its market niche in Mexico. They keep looking for the best talent and this will probably always be one of their biggest challenges.

Major achievements “Being able to do what I really love and I`m passionate about, is one of my major achievements, I had the opportunity of creating startups over 7 different countries and today being with minu contributing improving the financial health of millions of Mexicans it's simply amazing!” Said Paolo In minu his experience helped in building one of the best tech teams in a matter of weeks, having a beautiful and scalable product in less than a month and half, which allowed them to prove their market fit and still maintain the flag of first movers in offer this service of salary on demand.

Future Perspective Paolo loves sharing experience with others through mentorships, he try to help young entrepreneurs in understanding how to shape their ideas in order to go to market. One of his goals is being able to focus his career in helping companies and individuals succeed.

As a company, he sees minu as one of the first movements that made it possible to see what today is known as salary day, everyday! (Salary on demand)

financing, performance and market reach converted CDMX in an ideal place to host startup ecosystems with high potential. During 2019 the Fintech sector has already overcome the barrier of 400 startups, Mexicans are great early adopters of those innovative platforms as fintechs are seen as an opportunity to reduce operating costs and maximize efficiency over traditional banking. The Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI), which is the payment infrastructure of Banco de México has been incredibly helpful as bank transfers are performed within 30 seconds after the operation is confirmed.

Due to the Covid-19 the first semester of 2020 has slowed down most of the economy, we know that the impact of the pandemic will vary from country to country and it will most likely increase poverty and inequalities at a global scale, with minu we have the mission of improving the financial health of millions of Mexicans with the hope that employees can benefit of our services in those difficult moments.”

Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs Paolo Said that Being an entrepreneur and having the opportunity to be actively involved in the startups ecosystem, sharing stories, meeting incredible people with bizarre ideas that will probably turn into great ventures, represents a journey full of learning, sacrifices, failures and great joys, it is a journey where there will always be something to do! finding the correct balance is the greatest recommendation I can give, we must learn to live the journey and not only think about the final destination, learn to listen to people, motivate them and cultivate your passions.

Comments on current industry scenario.

When The Tycoon Magazine contacted and asked him about his opinion on current industy scenario Paolo States that.

“Fintechs and all the startup world in México in those last 5 years has been growing a lot, if we only think that just 15 years ago in Mexico the entrepreneurial ecosystem had no much visibility from foreigner VC's, Angel Investors, Incubators, etc. which made it very hard to raise moneys! Today things changed a lot. minu achieved to close in its first Q of activities a seed round of 6M USD from VC's and Angels, many of our close friends of the industry have been closing serie A, B and C of bigger amounts that catalyzed an immediate interest from VC's on a global scale which thanks to human talent, 46

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Robert Ancill Always creating and always learning

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obert Ancill, the CEO of the Next Idea group is a leading figure in the hospitality and interior design industries. An authority of emerging food trends, food service and design, Robert is well known as one of America’s leading Global Food and Restaurant Consultants. His principles stand staunch as pillars of creativity, first class client service, and integrity. Robert built the Next Idea from a one client agency to well-known international boutique consulting group with a broad range of small, medium and large clients and an enviable project portfolio. The company split in 2016 and operates consulting services under The Next Idea, www.thenextidea.net and interior design TNI Design, www.tnidesign.com.

Since 2002 The Next Idea Group has grown into a well-known consulting and design brand with multiple service companies covering design, consulting and business services.

It is essentially a consulting agency specializing in high energy, innovative international restaurant concept development, interior design and architecture, re-positioning, food trend research forecasting, marketing and restaurant franchising.

Leadership Robert’s leadership has done a commendable job, he believes in the strength of creativity and always learning. When asked about his source of motivation, he said “I think its just about the enjoyment in seeing a customer enjoy something I had a hand in creating – there is really nothing more gratifying”. Robert has faced many challenges through his journey. He believes that Creative services is a business that is open to interpretation, and subjected to multiple opinions, therefore by presenting projects that are often subjective in nature, provides the unenviable challenge of engaging most, if not all, at the same time.

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Business Model The Next Idea Group [TNI] is based in Los Angeles and works across the world, specializing in concept creation, development and management everything from research, strategy, brand and product development, franchising, design, systems, operations, and communication.

TNI has developed restaurant concepts in: USA, Dubai & Abu Dhabi (UAE), Kuwait, Australia, Philippines, Pakistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Taiwan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Mexico, China, Qatar, Oman, UK, Bangladesh, and India.

TNI believes in distinguishing themselves from their competitors by always beginning with the end user. The Customer Experience, The Employee Training Experience, and the Brand Experience are given the upmost priority when they approach the project. This has also led them to open over 750 restaurants across the US, Middle East, Asia and Europe, and develop 84 concepts.

The TNI team has consulted with some of the world’s most eminent Chefs, and upscale restaurant groups, in addition to working with clients in: entertainment, casual dining, fast casual dining, hotels, resorts, family entertainment, and travel. In each project they have been involved in all areas of the business, and have delivered programs and plans that have targeted the elevation of concept positioning, product and menu, operating standards, infrastructure, and overall quality.

Impact of Covid-19 The Covid-19 pandemic of course represented an expansive impediment for most of us, and has produced extraordinary challenges for many businesses around the world. Robert wasn’t holding back about the challenging impact on The Next Idea Group which forms one of the concentric circles around the Hospitality and Restaurant Industry. www.thetycoonmedia.com

Robert states: “The US restaurant industry reacted extremely supportively to the government’s requested / mandated closures. This is because the industry is inherently an industry of servants who believe in the collective effort to serve the community at any cost. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant and food service industry has been one of hardest hit from the shutdown with layoffs and furloughs expected to reach 5-7 million, a little shy of half the industry workforce. Even when the shelter-in-place period concludes, there can be no expectation that there will be a miraculous comeback. “ The virus is here to stay, consequently the hospitality industry will struggle and face adversarial conditions in the short term. However this is an industry of innovation and persistence, therefore in time, as it re-aligns itself to the new markets, it will again thrive.

Robert has also written a book ‘Post Covid 19 Reboot’ https://www.postcovid19reboot.com/ to assist business and the industry in the new precautionary measures required to keep employees and customers safe, as well as adapt to the new consumer mindset formed by the unique events of 202 cauldron0.

Words of Wisdom When we asked for his advice for entrepreneurs, his words of wisdom were different than most, he replied “I am regularly asked this question and I always struggle to answer given every entrepreneur has their own story, and set of values. I think, from my perspective I would advise to listen to Charles Darwin who said; ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change’ “From my own experience I have learned from my mistakes and adapted to new environments and conditions. I think we are always learning, therefore my advice is to always be open minded, and it really is OK to be wrong!”

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Robert Knop Helping companies avoid becoming the next Sears

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obert Knop, Chief Executive Officer of Assist you today ( http://assistyoutoday.com/) brings sales and marketing programs into the 21st century. What does that mean? Well, think less cold calling, blast emailing and gut-based decision-making, and more data driven decisionmaking and usage of modern tools like digital, mobile, and social media.

Assist You Today focuses on sales, marketing, and social media consulting with their four main areas of focus being strategy, sales enablement/ training, content, and fractional resources.

They've had the “great blessing” as Robert says of working for Fortune 100s, startups and mom and pop shops, B2B and B2C companies,agencies and corporations. In addition,they’ve helped build marketing and social programs from scratch, made good programs great and setup great programs for long-term success, and that unique background and experience for differentiating them from peers.

Struggles and successes Their journey to excellence was not immediate; Robert’s first big challenge was finding clients when he started out with his current business.

He had been hearing for years that peers wished he worked for his own company (so they could hire him!). So, when he opened his own shop, he thought leads would just roll in, but he forgot that it takes time to build a business case internally, get on the roadmap and find budget— his fault he says for not building a pipeline ahead of time.

achieve in business — helping as many people as possible.”

Future goals “The world is going to change so much in the next 10 years.” Robert states. He believes most of the US, for example, will spend 90% of their day at home — working remotely, online learning, and with delivery of everything. As per Robert, the key to be successful in this future world is to keep an open mind, constantly be learning and stay on top of the latest innovations, and test, learn and optimize to grow both as a person and as a business.

His future goal is to simply be happy (“I know it sounds corny, but it’s true!” he says), and what makes him happy is doing what he loves: helping people and spending time with his family (And the occasional beer while watching a soccer game on TV). He is doing all of that now, so you could say he has already accomplished his career goals!

Long-term, he wants to get more involved with philanthropy. He has worked with many non profits over the years, wants to work with more, and be an executive director of a large charity at some point.

Advice to the budding entrepreneurs His words of wisdom for the emerging entrepreneurs are, “Before you start your business, establish a large network.

Yet every year since launch, Assist You Today has dramatically grown their business, “which means we can help more people,” Robert says “and that’s the biggest achievement I feel I can 50

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This network is the foundation that you will utilize to get most of your business, especially early on.

Also, building a strong personal brand is so important to success today. A big part of that is social media, and your profile looks like on channels like LinkedIn (as looking you up there or on Google is one of the first things prospects will do when you reach out).

Thus, you need to write your LinkedIn profile from the perspective of your target audience –what would they want to see that would make them accept your invitation to connect or meeting invite – include THAT. Also, well in advance of starting your company, distribute value-adding content to both build a following and be known as an expert in your industry.

As you get close to launching your new company, talk to people in your industry that you trust about your business model, products/services, and pricing.

When I launched, I reached out to someone who did what I did and two senior marketing leaders in roles that I would be targeting. I walked them through front-to-back what I was offering, how it worked, the deliverables and how much it would cost.

All three offered great advice on all fronts and really set me up for success (and two even ended up being clients!) So, take the time to reach out to your trusted network and target audience ahead of time!”

Sandeep Kochhar A failure ant who never gives up

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y strongest belief in life is that, I can be better tomorrow than I am today. The stories I write, the opportunity to be able to impact lives, my inner drive that inspires me to write & my feelings for wanting to help as many people as I can in this world, is clearly based on the premise that I can aid the journey of individuals to be better versions every single day" in Sandeep’s words.

Sandeep Kochhar, Destiny’s favourite child was a young bright student, caught in the compliance of life, decided to take up Science, then pursued Engineering & joined a Software Company. He kept running this logic Vs heart racket for over 15 years till one day something changed within him.

It was like an Aha moment of his inner compass changing itself. He realized he had had enough, he understood he had become a sheer money making machine & was not enjoying what he was doing. One sunshine fine day, this heartless running came to a heartening end & he hung his boots.

A passionate Rumi (a famous philosopher & poet) fan, Sandeep believes in this Rumi saying that ‘as you start to walk out on the way, the way appears’. This adage opened his eyes to a new perspective which lead him to his current amazing precious life & he continues to learn, evolve & discover himself. For the first time in his life, he decided to follow his heart & move away from thinking to doing. His initial years of selfdiscovery once he hung his boots & bid his byes to the Corporate world, were very hard, he was yet to find his Mojo & his hardships continued to plague him. It was as though the universe was urging him to look within & continue chipping away.

He tried his hand at a couple of start-ups, which failed miserably; in the bargain he lost tender 1.5 years & some money. Yet another deep thinking day, while he was sitting in the Drawing room of 52

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his home, reflecting on the recent events, a beautiful positive story of his life began to take shape in his heart. He learnt the art of manifestation & willing his dreams.

He says ‘As a kid I always dreamt of being a Story Teller. Stories fascinated me, enticed me, drew me to a beautiful world of my own; they took me to another dimension where everything seemed possible’. He adds ‘I was at that stage then, when for once in my life I was simply trying to be myself, not trying to be anyone else. I think this realization birthed a new me, a real me. I refused to be in the rat race anymore’.

He followed DOTS - DO ONE THING SURELY. Here are 5 simple steps he ardently followed: 1. Do One Thing for an Hour 2. Do One Thing for a Day 3. Do One Thing for a Week 4. Do One Thing for a Month 5. Do One Thing for a Year He then focused on writing for the next 2.5 years with all his heart, passion, authenticity & complete openness. He started with writing stories on his experiences, banishing all his fears, his needs for validation & acceptance from the world. He just wrote for the life of it. He just wrote his heart out. After writing around 100 stories, he never looked back. He succeeded immensely as he simply continued to do what he enjoyed most, writing. He has now crossed 150Million views & is recognised by LinkedIn as Top Voices 2019: India. He has over 387,000 followers for more than 1500 stories that he has accomplished now. He is moving on to writing his very own book now. His dream come true is BlewMinds Consulting (www.blewminds.com), which he is living right now.

Sandeep often remembers that magical decisive moment where, after 15 years of the corporate rat race, he walked out of a certain abusive meeting www.thetycoonmedia.com

deciding that this is it, he is resigning. Years after that, he continued to hustle. He just kept going like the deaf frog trying to climb the tree with everyone yelling; ‘You will fail, you will fall, don’t do this’. Through his adversities, breaking myths, learning not to rest on his past laurels, he learnt the beautiful belief ‘Think Big but Act Small’.

His dream came true when he started BlewMinds Consulting along with his CoFounder, Vishwapriya Kochhar. BlewMinds was simply born out of a compelling revolutionary need to enable Organizations & Individuals towards sustainable growth & progress, by creating content, weaving heartfelt passionate stories. His 53

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own career struggles, being written off as a loser, wanting to aid people to break out of their baggage, were the main premise on which BlewMinds’ powerful framework of aiding individuals & organizations towards transformation, was rested.

BlewMinds is a full services unique StoryTelling organization that constantly aims to focus on learning & experimenting. While this meant growth, it also meant hardships as they faced a lot of challenges across the life cycle. Luckily, they have a great culture, philosophy, learning agility & a wonderful bunch of people in their www.thetycoonmedia.com

BlewMinds, StoryTelling is a powerful tool for change, growth & evolution.

Their services include: Corporate StoryTelling, Executive & Diversity Hiring, Business Coaching, Human Resource Consulting, Influencer Marketing, Brand Communications, Leadership Consulting, Management Consulting, Public Relations & Thought Leadership. Their clients range from established global conglomerates to Start-ups all over the world. They work in the B2B, B2C & also the B2E space with close to 100 colleges & universities across India to transform more than Million lives. Their B2C segment facilitates individuals towards becoming their next best versions. They have won several contracts where leading Consulting companies were competing.

They strongly give back to the community & indulge in giving freely to all needy individuals.

team, all wanting to move towards transformation, positivity at work & passion to make it better than the best. They have never run away from any roadblocks, difficulties or struggles. They have surged together every single moment & waded through trying situations.

He says, ‘As a team of multidisciplinary, intelligent, passionate & good human beings working together, we aspire to fulfill our purpose towards transforming people & businesses, helping others, enabling their progress & creating equal opportunities. We wish to change the paradigm that – nice guys finish last’. He adds, ‘I strongly believe businesses can be profitable the right way, the humane way & the fair way too.’ Average age for his organization is around 24 years today & is more than 50% women. From hiring in the Diversity space 54

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enabling LGBTQ+ communities, Sensitivity Training in areas of unconscious bias, to Coaching & enabling ‘diverse Individuals’, Human Resources & Business Consulting, Sandeep’s enthusiastic Squad breathes it all.

BlewMinds works with their Global & Domestic clients in creating endless possibilities of growth by overcoming setbacks & using adversities as stepping up challenges to rise like the proverbial phoenix. They strongly believe in the theme of ‘Believe, Be & Beyond’. Started in the year 2016, today BlewMinds is engaging with over 150 clients, across industries & geographies, with a spread of intelligent much required services at different levels & domains. StoryTelling is being used as a means rather than an end, to provide solutions to business & individual problems. For www.thetycoonmedia.com

Like they say ‘We do not grow, when things are easy’, BlewMinds grew when they looked at their fears in the face & embraced approaching challenges with all gusto. Sandeep Kochhar is also the recipient of World’s Best Story Teller Award & has also been a TEDx speaker. He humbly says ‘The highest achievement in my life has been my spiritual transformational journey; awakening from a Techie, numeric/logiccentered bore to a more Emotionally Intelligent, spiritually connected Coach, Mentor & avid Learner; this has helped me in Touching & Transforming over 1Million lives directly & over 50Million lives indirectly & I hope to continue counting. BlewMinds is like a butterfly which has grown out of its cocoon & has started its journey 3.5 years ago. We birth a new self every single day & die a bit every single day. This ability to flow, adapt & be easy about ourselves while being serious about our work, keeps us going’.

STICK: Once I picked something, I was unable to STICK to it, I would give up soon. There was also FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. Greed played out.

Sticking to one thing was boring for an indisciplined me. Progress was slow, I wanted instant results. A common reason, why most entrepreneurs give up after failing once.

In the last 4.5 years, he says he learnt his lessons the hard way. He advocates: 1. PICK what interests you. PICK where your Strength lies. Start from anywhere & move forward. We all need a starting point. Drop your baggage, move an inch every single day, keep moving, keep going.

2. But then STICK to it even if you fail. DOTS (Do One Thing Surely), keep learning from every failure, build your growth path, persevere, what others think of you does not matter, trust, keep working on yourself, small baby steps.

Sometimes success may come in disguises you cannot imagine. Also, the so called wrong choices, may at times, lead us to our right choices. It is all about persistence, our desire & willingness to adapt to the changes around us.

His mantra, Keep at it, let the world say what it wants to.

Keep at it, let your failures not determine your course.

Keep at it, let yourself experiment, falter & rise again.

Keep at it. Let sunshine arrive after sunset.

Keep at it. Let yourself flow, meander, lose & find your path again.

Keep at it.

When asked what his advice would be to emerging entrepreneurs, Sandeep narrated his ’PICK & STICK’ Story. In his own words: PICK: I was confused what to PICK in life, choices & confusions. There was no clarity. My mind wanted me to pick all, there was greed.

There was also fear, as to which one to pick. What if I fail? What if I lose? I wanted to pick the best of all given choices. It was only later, that I learnt there is no best choice. It is all meant to be, it is all contextual.

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Tony Malz Sizigi was founded at the end of 2019 and has already accomplished so much

ony Malz Founder and CEO of Sizigi was born and raised in San Diego.

In 2000 He became a first-generation college graduate ready to conquer the world.

But the journey was not easy. His first job was working in the stock market during its heyday.

Suddenly, the dotcom bubble burst with so many people losing everything. Needing a change, Tony went back to San Diego State University and received MBA. After receiving his MBA He was very optimistic that it would be much easier to find a better job for him this time around. But, somehow, it took him longer and he was making the same salary as before.

After that, he was fortunate to have a pretty successful career at a couple of large software companies. But then in 2019, he unexpectedly found himself having to look for a job.

Frustrated with the resume, job application and interview process, He launched Sizigi to help billions of people.

While the demand for digital transformation is ever increasing, changing consumer behavior takes time. For example, listening to music (cassettes >iTunes), watching movies (VHS>Netflix) and sharing pictures (film>Instagram).

The good news is that the resume is a pain point for many. Though Millennials brought changes to the work environment and marketplace, Gen Z brings an era of disruption! Since they are anything but strangers to technology, Gen Z views it as a necessity for their career. And Sizigi is quickly becoming their number one tool in the job application process.

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Sizigi is helping thousands of people create ePortfolios to stand out from the crowd so they can get hired

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It was recognized as one of the Best Companies to Watch in San Diego. Named alongside so many notable companies including Sendlane, Measurabl and Cardea.

About Sizigi Sizigi is a FREE ePortfolio platform innovating the hiring process. Professionals and students are creating digital content, configuring and streaming custom ePortfolios, and receiving intelligence on user engagement.

Sizing is offering Companies a richer interview experience, making smarter hiring decisions, and executing on their diversity and inclusion strategies.

Sizigi’s Journey “It has always been the task of the next generation to provoke change” - Ludwig Von Mises 56

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He said, “We have much bigger aspirations than just replacing the antiquated resume.

Helping billions of people achieving their dreams

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When The Tycoon Magazine contacted Tony Malz and asked him about Current industry scenario, his future goals and aspirations.

Sizigi platform had great success in the college circuit including with the University of California, San Diego. This partnership has led to the development of Project Emerge, a program powered by Sizigi, the UCSD Career Center, and local businesses.

This framework is being replicated with other universities and businesses across the U.S. Sizigi has also partnered with many businesses in which their feedback has been tremendous.

My daughter recently expressed a lot of curiosity about my college and professional experiences.

Unfortunately, I could only show her my resume and LinkedIn profile.

The wonderful thing is that Sizigi provides a platform for everyone to capture, share and reflect on their educational and professional moments. Ultimately, a place where one can reflect and be proud of how much they have accomplished over their lifetime” 2020 has been transformative; COVID19, social injustices, record unemployment and millions of internships cancelled. These hardships have driven students, professionals, universities and companies to seek change in the traditional paper resume.

As a result, we are seeing tremendous traction in our platform as it empowers people and promotes diversity.

His Advice to Budding Entrepreneurs.

I have learned more over the last year as an entrepreneur compared to my two decades as an employee.

1. Listen to your customer’s pain points, it is fine to pivot.

2. Determine a repeatable sales motion that can quickly scale.

3. Surround yourself with the best and most passionate team. And empower them.

4. It is extremely valuable to have a wonderful support system of family and friends.

5. Enjoy the journey With these five things, unprecedented greatness can be achieved. .

Future Goals www.thetycoonmedia.com

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Vincent Champain An entrepreneur who leads large organisations in Transformations address quality and performance challenges offers the greatest impact to the companies he serves. He brought these skills to General Electric (GE) in his role leading GE Digital Services Europe, and now in his role as Chief Digital Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Framatome.

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incent Champain, SEVP, Chief Digital Officer and member of the Executive Committee, at Framatome which is an international leader in nuclear energy. As a company, they are recognised for their innovative solutions and valueadded technologies for the global nuclear fleet.

With worldwide expertise and a proven track record for reliability and performance, their team designs, services and installs components, fuel and instrumentation and control systems for nuclear power plants. They have more than 14,000 employees working every day to help their customers supply cleaner, safer and more economical low-carbon energy.

Inception He is an engineer at heart – a problem solver who loves to fix things and resolve technical challenges. He graduated from École Polytechnique, France, with a degree in computer science and statistics. His career began in the public sector holding various Ministry positions that led to supporting the Ministry of Secretary of State in digital, foresight and public policy. His passion for technology and data analytics is the foundation of his career.

He finds that his skill to apply data analytics to www.thetycoonmedia.com

Early in his career, he observed great lean manufacturing experts as they sought to minimise waste, maximise productivity and improve quality. They adopted a “paper-andpencil” approach, preferring non-technological solutions to adapt their manufacturing and operational processes. They thought that traditional digital technologies were too complex and rigid, and that they were implemented in a way that limited the teams’ flexibility to be more efficient.

Today’s technologies are much more agile and user centric. There are many opportunities where digital technologies can be leveraged to improve performance and make “digital lean” possible.

This requires implementing digital solutions with a lean mindset and keeping all this in mind, they aim to continue to grow and reach greater heights.

Struggles and source of motivation The nuclear energy industry has incredibly high quality and technical standards, and it takes great pride in the safety and security of its people and operations. As a highly regulated industry, technological advancements and modernisations require rigour with no room for error. So when it comes to digital transformation, there are opportunities for continuous improvements, but vigilance in execution and reliability is absolutely critical.

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you can for your customers – even if the technology itself requires a lot of expertise. They believe their work should be executed flawlessly and subsequently ensure added value for their customers and unparalleled quality in everything they do.

His motivation stems from his desire to build an organization that makes a difference.

Transforming operational processes and integrating digital solutions requires personal drive, and more importantly, a strong and dedicated team to make the transformation a reality.

Future goals and advice to the youth At Framatome, they maintain a long-term outlook for every aspect of their business, weighing the risks and benefits of every decision.

They place safety and customer relationships first, knowing that their success depends on their ability to help their customers succeed – both today and in the future. They prepare for the future each day by developing the innovations of tomorrow and encouraging their colleagues to grow and prosper.

Addressing the demand for digital solutions is one of their key priorities. Digital solutions are critical components in their goal to provide highperforming technologies that support the safe and competitive operation of nuclear power plants worldwide.

When asked for his advice, and insight for the budding entrepreneurs, he said “The word entrepreneur is a French word derived from “entre” and “prendre,” which mean “between” and “catching.” This is what entrepreneurship is all about. First, seeing opportunities that are hidden “between” the lines, and then “catching” those opportunities for continued growth and development. www.thetycoonmedia.com

Framatome is an international leader in nuclear energy recognized for its innovative solutions and value added technologies for the global nuclear fleet.

With worldwide expertise and a proven track record for reliability andperformance,thecompanydesigns,services and installs components, fuel, and instrumentation and control systems for nuclear power plants.

Its more than 14,000 employees work every day to help Framatome’s customers supply ever cleaner, safer and more economical low-carbon energy.

www.framatome.com