CV February 2017

February 2017

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Farzaneh Law Firm, and in particular the firm founder, Amir Farzaneh, have reputation for their expertise in all areas of immigration law. We spoke with Mr. Farzaneh (Attorney of the Year 2017, Oklahoma) to find out more about his firm and their work done in the field.

Below, L to R: / Empowering Your Message - Engine Group / Working Harder and Smarter For Longer - IT Governance / The Relationship Edge - Delta Point Inc. / Ticket to Success - Ticketmaster / Skincare Solutions - The Laser Treatment Clinic / A Stable Business - Farris Law Firm LLC / Fuelling The Economy - Gulf Oil Ltd. / From the Ground Up - Ayoki Fabricon Pvt. Ltd.

A More Sustainable Future

The Long Arm of the Law – Bradshaw and Associates, P.C. Information . . . Managed – Thermocopy Whole Earth. Whole Person.

Whole Enterprise. – Cobblestone Garden Centre Gorno Zinc Project – Energia Minerals Ltd. A Revolutionary Treatment of Psychotic Conditions – Zysis National Strength. Local Service – Nationwide Hygiene Group.

One Stop Shop for Your IT Needs – GT Global Solutions

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The U.S. Immigration Specialists

Editor’s Note

, Welcome to the February edition of Corporate Vision Magazine, giving readers the usual content of news, comment and features on the most innovative and award winning companies.

In corporate news, ThreatQuotient has announced a new partnership with Sopra Steria, a European leader in digital transformation and well-known in the cybersecurity space. Businesses are currently facing major challenges to combat cybersecurity so organisations are aware that is vital that they tackle the growing number of cyber threats.

Elsewhere in this issue, we feature Amir Farzaneh from Farzaneh Law Firm, P.C., winner of ‘Attorney of the Year 2017 – Oklahoma’. He has over 20 years of immigration casework experience which has helped the firm’s growth and success.

Another success story is Clean Energy Enterprises who have installed more solar panels and generated more solar power than any other company in Australia’s history. Daniel Cobb, CEO has helped to transform the company into a brand.

I hope you enjoy this issue.

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Matt Lewis, Editor Phone: +44 (0) 203 725 6842 Email: matthew.lewis@ai-globalmedia.com Website: www.corp-vis.com

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Contents

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4. News 8. The US Immigration Specialists* 12. A More Sustainable Future 14. National Strength. Local Service 16. Working Harder and Smarter For Longer 18. Empowering your Message 20. The Long Arm of the Law 22. Information . . . Managed 24. The Relationship Edge 26. A Stable Business 28. Ticket to Success 30. Skincare Solutions 32. Centium Software: Successful Software Solutions 34. From the Ground Up 36. A Revolutionary Treatment of Psychotic Conditions 37. Video Marketing Solutions For You 38. Whole Earth. Whole Person. Whole Enterprise.

39. A Woman’s World 40. Committed to Client Satisfaction 42. Power to the People 43. Bringing the Personal to Injury Claims 44. Cleaning Up 45. Tailor-made Fashion Advisory 46. Tailoring Recruitment Solutions 47. NewVoiceMedia: The Future of the Contact Centre Industry 48. A Reason to Place Your Bets 49. Helping Brands To Become More Successful 50. Not Just A Retailer 51. Small and Mighty 53. Italian Flavour, Home Convenience 54. Vouching for Internal Innovation 56. The Road to Success 58. Changing the Game 60. Improving Lives Through Education 62. Support for Social Enterprises 64. Empowering People to Save Lives 65. Sustainable Solutions 66. The Tireless Fight Against Cancer 68. One Stop Shop for Your IT Needs 70. Fuelling The Economy 72. Solving Critical Business Problems with Information Systems 74. Looking Forward 75. Flying High 76. Winner’s Directory

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The US Immigration Specialists @Farzaneh Law Firm

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Recycling Technologies Appoints New Chairman and Investor Director K

Howard Lack and Geoffrey Phillips both have extensive experience in their respective fields.

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, Recycling Technologies has announced new changes to its leadership board following a recent shareholder meeting. Howard Lack joins as the new Chairman bringing leadership experience within the commercial and finance sectors. Also joining the board is Geoffrey Phillips as Investor Director. Geoffrey has extensive experience in the oil, gas and marine sectors and has previously held a number of executive board appointments.

Howard spent thirty-five years in the commercial and finance industry holding prominent roles including Morgan Grenfell Bank as Director of the International Finance group before becoming the Director of Investment Banking for the Chase Manhattan Investment Bank. More recently Howard has focussed on funding technology start-up companies and is a senior consultant with Turquoise, a London based merchant bank specialising in energy efficiency and the environment.

Geoffrey has forty years of experience at senior level in both finance and commerce sectors.

He has also held a number of board appointments as executive and non-executive director in public companies such as FastShip Atlantic, Abbot Group and Henry Ansbacher and Co Ltd. Geoffrey also has relevant board experience in the waste industry through appointments in Ledwood Mechanical Engineering Ltd and D.V. Howells Ltd. Howard and Geoffrey’s invaluable commercial and finance experience, along with their knowledge of industry markets, will prove extremely beneficial to Recycling Technologies as it further develops the business and the RT7000, a machine incorporating a recycling chemical process which will be assembled on production lines then installed at Material Recovery Facilities [MRFs] around the world.

Adrian Griffiths, CEO, Recycling Technologies comments: “We are thrilled that such high calibre executives are joining the board.

Geoffrey has a wealth of experience both in senior level public companies and in the waste industry. It is also a real honour to announce the appointment of Howard Lack as our new Chairman. Howard’s extensive expe-

rience in commercial finance will bring insight that will undoubtedly help the business as we forge ahead with our plans for 2017 and beyond.”

Howard Lack, Chairman, Recycling Technologies comments: “This is an important time for the company as we go forward into 2017. I am very excited to be part of this innovative organisation that is fast gaining recognition around the world. There is a tremendous opportunity to set our mark on the issues facing plastic waste and plastic in the ocean.”

Geoffrey Phillips, Investor Director, Recycling Technologies comments: “I am delighted to be joining the board here at Recycling Technologies. This is a pivotal time in the company’s evolution as we seek to secure interest and further funding for the commercial RT7000 machine. Recycling Technologies’ objective is to contribute to the creation of a circular economy for plastics, which ultimately could dramatically reduce the negative impacts of plastic waste.”

The potential for Recycling Technologies’ to contribute towards tackling the problem of plastic waste is being recognised across the industry. Recycling Technologies has been shortlisted for a number of awards and recently was specially selected to exhibit at leading trade show Innovate 2016. Recycling Technologies has also been included in an initiative called Unreasonable Impact – the first international network of accelerators focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions to pressing societal and environmental problems.

Recycling Technologies is also involved in the New Plastic Economy, an ambitious three-year initiative driven by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to tackle global plastics issues, and together with partners is working to create a more effective global system for plastics. This month Recycling Technologies supported the action plan, laid out in a new report, The New Plastics Economy: Catalysing Action, which was launched by the World Economic Forum and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation at Davos. The report presents a pathway to increasing global recycling rates for plastic packaging from just 14% today to 70%.

Uncertainty in Market Impacts Confidence Amongst Thames Valley Businesses Profitability and turnover growth in the Thames Valley slowed in the second half of 2016, according to the latest Thames Valley Business Barometer published today by accountancy and business advisory firm BDO and PR and marketing agency C8 Consulting.

Almost two thirds (67%) of companies surveyed stated that profitability had either improved or stayed the same compared to 82% in the spring.

A similar pattern was also observed in regard to turnover, with 71% reporting that it had either increased or remained the same compared to 85% earlier in the year.

The survey, which was conducted during a six-week period from September to October 2016, revealed that just 48% of business leaders felt that general levels of economic confidence had either improved or remained the same in the last six months versus 70% earlier in the year (and 92% in autumn 2015), suggesting a drastic reduction in confidence which is now impacting on business performance with a drop in turnover, profit and pipeline.

In this latest survey, headcount remained relatively stable although increases in headcount had slowed.

83% percent of respondents reported numbers either having increased or remained the same compared with 85% in June. Looking ahead to the next six months, the region’s business leaders expect this stability to continue.

On the question of staff attrition, 70% of respondents said that their level of staff turnover had not changed. However, 22% of businesses surveyed saw an increase in staff turnover in the second half of 2016.

The latest Business Barometer also looked at the impact of the EU referendum results among businesses in the Thames Valley. Of more than 150 businesses surveyed, only 2% said that nothing concerned them as a result of Brexit. The need for clarity about the rules of trading with EU countries (58%) and the investment by government in local infrastructure (52%) came out as the two top concerns. Other matters of concern included: the impact of protracted uncertainty caused by the delay in leaving, the impact of clients cancelling or delaying their projects, the impact of changes to the exchange rate, and the impact on the ability to recruit and retain the best talent.

Despite the concerns, however, three key opportunities were identified as having arisen as a result of Brexit: the fall in the value of the pound leading to a boost for exporters, tourism and for inward investment, especially from non EU countries; the ability for the UK to agree its own trade deals with countries outside the EU and, the ability to set our own rules and make the UK more attractive for business.

More than 150 businesses across the Thames Valley took part in the Barometer survey. ActiveOps, BtL JSP, Magal Engineering and Teneo are also profiled in the report, sharing their perspectives on their own performance and the key challenges they face in the year ahead. The Local Enterprise Partnerships of Oxfordshire and Berkshire used the survey to find out what businesses in the region think about the decision to leave the EU. The results of the survey have been analysed by the LEPs and are being fed back to various key government units.

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UK200Group Tax Advisers React to HMRC Digitalisation Plans

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The UK200Group is the UK’s leading membership association of independent chartered accountancy and law firms across the UK, whose firms act for a total of around 150,000 SME clients.

In response to a consultation with the business community throughout 2016, HMRC has issued further information about its plans for Making Tax Digital. It comes just weeks after a report by the Treasury Committee recommended that the timeframe for digitalisation be pushed back and the threshold for digital reporting be raised in line with that of VAT reporting.

Richard McNeilly, Managing Partner at Dains Accountants and Chair of the UK200Group Digitalisation Taskforce, said, “Whilst the direction of travel to a digitised environment is welcome, it is important to consider the impact to SMEs. HMRC will no doubt point out that processes will be simplified and therefore that the transition will be timely and ordered.

But at what cost to the SME? The more the information is ‘dumbed down’, the more likely it is that SMEs will miss out on available tax reliefs.

“Of course, SMEs can choose to use accounting software but it has yet to developed to deal with Making Tax Digital and so my question remains: why the hurry? Cynically, you could argue that ‘the hurry’ will lead to a big increase in the overall tax take, but more realistically the insistence in working to a 2018 start date will cause confusion, anxiety and pain for SMEs, already grappling with a myriad of business issues.

“A leading economy must be productive, so let’s help SMEs rather than hindering them. I encourage HMRC to take a look again at the overwhelming feedback from the SME community and defer the rollout of Making Tax Digital.”

Andrew Jackson, Head of Tax at UK200Group member Fiander Tovell and Chair of the UK200Group Tax Panel, said, “It is very disappointing that HMRC have not taken much account of the responses to its original proposals. Despite the accountancy and tax professions – and SMEs themselves – expressing grave concerns over the practicality of the proposals, almost no changes

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, have been made. In almost every case, HMRC’s approach has been to acknowledge that there are concerns, but to confirm that the original proposals will be followed anyway.

“What is particularly worrying is that HMRC have shied away from committing themselves on the major issues. The key questions for small businesses are what the threshold for inclusion will be and whether there will be a year of grace, but HMRC have simply said they are still considering these points. The key issue for tax professionals is to have a look at the long-awaited draft legislation, but the seven pages of legislation simply provide for regulations to be made at some point. It almost looks as though HMRC have handed in some halfdone homework to avoid missing the deadline, hoping that they can fill in the blanks later.

“MTD is an exciting prospect that could deliver enormous value for the UK, but only if it’s done correctly. However, although the start date for MTD is now just over a year away, we still don’t have any clarity over these proposals.

HMRC are rapidly running out of time if they’re going to do things well, rather than quickly. They should acknowledge that more time is needed, defer the start date by at least one year if not two, and use the additional time to develop their approach and test their systems before they are imposed on taxpayers.”

Francis Whitbread, Tax Partner at UK200Group member firm Edmund Carr, said, “Given the fact that the implementation date for MTD for many UK businesses is 6 April 2018, it is disappointing to see HMRC have not been able to provide details of compliant software for MTD. Do they have any idea how long it takes to successfully introduce a client to a new accounting system? What we need now is some substantive information on software providers, the form the quarterly summary will take and other issues.

“Another question: the purpose of MTD, we are told, is to remove the scope for taxpayer errors and the

consequent underpayment of tax, remove the worry and uncertainty that comes with an HMRC enquiry, and give businesses a better record of how they are faring.

How will requiring businesses to submit data on a quarterly basis achieve those objectives? Presumably, HMRC will be reviewing the data for anomalies and investigating accordingly. The problem is, if adjustments for items such as stock and amounts owing to and by the business are only dealt with on a once a year basis, as HMRC anticipate, the quarterly data will be of limited use for analytical review purposes.

“Finally, where does the accountancy profession fit into MTD? Although the largest number of responses to the consultation came from accountants, limited notice seems to have been taken of their views. Whatever HMRC may think, it is taxpayers’ agents who are currently the main reason why their clients pay the correct amount of tax, by ensuring their tax returns are a correct and complete record of the business’s activities in the accounting period in question.

“MTD will not work unless accountants and tax advisors continue that role, something which the government replies do not really acknowledge. The possibility of agents having direct access to their clients’ digital tax records has again been ignored. As accountants, our primary concern is our clients. We do not want MTD to place another administrative burden on them and have the skills to prevent that happening, but only if we are allowed to play a full part in the process.”

The UK200Group views Making Tax Digital as the key issue for SMEs in the next few years, and views it as imposing a burden on smaller firms. As such, it has set up a Digitalisation Taskforce to ensure that it can assist business owners with the transition to digital tax accounts and reporting, provide a dialogue between the SME community and HMRC and the Office for Tax Simplification, and campaign for clarity on Making Tax Digital.

ThreatQuotient Announces New Partnership with Sopra Steria ThreatQ enables Sopra Steria to anticipate threats through a new SOC based on intelligence management ThreatQuotient™, a trusted threat intelligence platform innovator is pleased to announce its partnership with Sopra Steria, a European leader in digital transformation and wellknown in the cybersecurity space.

Sopra Steria’s rationale behind the partnership is to bring a global solution with advanced services focused on intelligence and threat management to its customers so that they can move away from a reactive response to threat to a more move a more predictive way of operating. Sopra Steria has equipped its SOC (Security Operations Centre) with the ThreatQ platform which will become the cornerstone of it security operations.

Organisations continue to be targets or victims of cyber threats. Attacks tripled in 2016 from one every two minutes to one every 40 seconds. Confronted with growing cybercrime and the reality of regulatory pressure, cybersecurity has become a requirement for organisations. To stay competitive, companies must speed up their digital transformation, while guaranteeing that their information assets are protected, in particular via an efficient security incidents detection system. This means the new generation of SOC must be: - adaptive, cognitive and predictive.

Partnership for Threat Intelligence management Sopra Steria has chosen ThreatQuotient™, for its real-time intelligence organisation and management strategy, which will be one of the keys for running a successful SOC. The continuous growth and complexity of threats require fast action and, more importantly, a switch to a new era of anticipation by combining technological, economic and geopolitical infor-

mation. This new approach will benefit external sources of threat intelligences and feeds and share anonymised information with customers.

Antonin Hily, MSSP Director at Sopra Steria comments on the announcement, “The ThreatQ platform is the driving force behind of our threat operations. Its Threat Library and workbench are key capabilities our SOC analysts and other security tools used to identify what adversaries are involved on a given detected attack. Our day to day SOC activities are heavily focused on enriching the Intelligence attached to our customer’s adversaries to provide our customers with a full understanding of the risk mitigated by our service.”

“A Threat Intelligence Platform helps C-Level executives to integrate Security Operations feedback into their risk analysis and strategic planning activities.” comments Anthony Perridge, Regional Director for ThreatQuotient™.

“Companies need more and more Intelligence driven services like the Threat Intelligence Platform. I strongly believe that classical Managed SOC offers will disappear in the near future and will be replaced by Intelligence Driven SOC offers focused on threat defence and fighting adversaries.”

The new generation of SOC shall be adaptive, cognitive and predictive Sopra Steria is recognised as a trusted provider for its managed SOC services, combining the best of technology and human intelligence to evolve its offer towards the orchestration of intelligence services in a “security intelligence” global approach.

Sopra Steria’s SOC is provided as a scalable offer depending on the client’s requirements. This offer provides a new state-of-the-art capability, including all the value added services from Sopra Steria, including cognitive intelligence and obviously Threat intelligence based on the ThreatQuotient platform.

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The US Immigration Specialists

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Company: Farzaneh Law Firm Name: Amir Farzaneh Email: amf@farzaneh.com Web Address: www.farzaneh.com Address: 8524 S. Western Ave Suite 111, Oklahoma City OK 73139 Telephone: 405-528-2222

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The US Immigration Specialists Farzaneh Law Firm, and in particular the firm founder, Amir Farzaneh, have reputation for their expertise in all areas of immigration law. We spoke with Mr. Farzaneh (Attorney of the Year 2017, Oklahoma) to find out more about his firm and their work done in the field.

Farzaneh Law Firm was founded in 1996

by Amir Farzaneh.

Mr. Farzaneh immigrated to the U.S. in the early ‘80’s. In his 20+ years practicing immigration law, Amir has established a reputation as an expert in all areas of immigration law. Together with his partner Tyler Christians, the firm is known to handle difficult, complex cases.

“Working with us, you can count on the very best representation”, we were commented.

“We are committed to do the very best for you and your case.

“At Farzaneh Law, we believe in utilizing a traditional approach to our clients to keep our services at the best they can possibly be.

We value our clients very highly and provide them services above and beyond what is commonly seen in this industry. We are extraordinarily patient with our clients and take great care to ensure that each case be handle with the utmost care.”

“Working with us, you can count on the very best representation”, we were commented. “We are committed to do the very best for you and your case.

“We think it is very important for the client to know what’s happening with their cases.

We think it is very important that our clients know all the options available to them. At the Farzaneh Law Firm, we understand that we work for our clients.”

“Our firm treats its clients like family. Mr. Farzaneh in particular treats each of his clients with deep respect and patience.

Our attorneys pay the closest attention to their clients and truly

take time to listen to their needs and their unique situation.”

Farzaneh Law Firm specializes in immigration casework, specifically those cases which can be more difficult to work with. Mr. Farzaneh has over 20 years of immigration casework experience and currently teaches Immigration Law at the Oklahoma City University Law School as an adjunct professor.

Mr. Farzaneh is also a frequent speaker on Immigration Law issues and is also fluent in Farsi.

His partner, Tyler Christians, is also a skilled immigration attorney with over seven years of immigration law experience. Mr. Christians focuses his practice in the area of immigration law, business immigration law, and criminal defense. Before joining the Farzaneh Law Firm, Mr. Christians practiced in Northern Virginia for over two years, where he practiced primarily in the area of criminal defense. Mr. Christians has trial experience in felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, as well as traffic cases and personal injury cases.

The US Immigration Specialists

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When we asked how the practice of immigration law differed from other areas of practice in the legal field, the weight of consequence for clients was highlighted. “Immigration law is much different than other areas of law. Generally speaking, in the immigration field, we are handling cases that have a direct impact on whether someone gets to enter the US or remain in the US. In other words, the consequences of our clients’ representation have a direct impact on the course of our clients’ lives.”

And with the many complications found in US immigrations, the specialist council provided by Farzaneh Law is invaluable.

“When the government indicates that a specific case has a specific timeline, this can often times be unrealistic with regards to the complexity of the case. Immigration work is unpredictable at times and our firm compensates this by being extra patient with our clients and to strive for 100% satisfaction.

“Our firm is known for taking the most difficult immigration cases that are turned down by other attorneys and receive fantastic results. We receive many referrals because of our history with such cases.”

“Our firm is known for taking the most difficult immigration cases that are turned down by other attorneys and receive fantastic results. We receive many referrals because of our history with such cases.”

“We value each and every one of our clients and recognize that without them, we would not be.

We take the utmost care to return all client phone calls in a prompt manner and research each case thoroughly to provide the best solution to their immigration needs. Our clients understand that by hiring our firm, they are hiring the best in the industry and that each case will handled on its own schedule to ensure that no steps are missed.”

“Our clients share the most intimate and closely-held information in their lives, which is why confidentiality is not only the cornerstone of the practice of law, it is of vital importance to our practice.

“Clients generally don’t hire us to be neutral parties—they hire us to represent them in their interests. However, we do believe it’s important to discuss the possible ‘flaws’ or ‘problems’ with a client’s case. To maintain neutrality, it’s important that we are honest with our clients and have a thorough discussion about their case and all its elements.

“We feel it’s important to make sure our clients are treated fairly by any adversary in their case, whether it be the federal or state government or opposing

private parties. We think that communication with the client will ultimately lead to a client feeling like the outcome was fair.”

When we spoke on matters relating to the current state of the immigration field, it became apparent that members of the firm must constantly remain up to date on matters of personal and commercial immigration to remain in any way competitive.

“As the world becomes more mobile and interconnected every year, the needs and desires of our clients change. From a business-immigration standpoint, companies try to remain competitive and expand their markets. Our legal services must reflect this reality. From a familybased immigration standpoint, we have seen a shift to promote the unity of families, despite legal status, which creates more options for individuals in the US. Furthermore, as national security and immigration become more intertwined from a policy standpoint, we must make sure that clients are preparing and responding accordingly. Our services must reflect these realities as well.”

The firm’s plans for the future are set upon the potential in a future expansion. “Our firm is on the brink of expanding and will be moving into a brand new office space this coming spring. We are immensely excited to begin further establishing ourselves as the go-to-source for assistance when it comes to immigration case work and feel strongly that this expansion will only allow us to further best serve our clients.”

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A More Sustainable Future Clean Energy Enterprises Pty Ltd is the parent company that owns and operates the Solar Shop, Commsolar, Commercial Power Solutions and Premier Solar Project’s brands. We profile the firm to see how the positive impact they made on the energy sector.

Clean Energy’s mission is to put an end to dependence on fossil fuels, by offering clients the latest innovations in energy efficiency and solar technologies.

With an impressive portfolio of projects delivered and a truly national presence, CEE has the assets, expertise and capacity to assist clients in achieving sustainability goals.

These iconic brands have pioneered and dominated the roll out of Clean Energy Solar Power systems across Australia since 1999. Clean Energy Enterprises, through its iconic brands, has installed more Solar Panels and generated more Solar Power than any other business or company in Australia’s history.

The firm’s vision is for the widespread availability and affordability of renewable energy to become a reality. As such CEE is investing extensive capital and resources to be the market leader in the energy sector.

The firm’s products are sourced from leading manufacturers and suppliers in Australia and internationally, and build trust with those relationships by exploiting their capabilities of industry knowledge and technical expertise.

The team at Clean Energy is one of the most experienced in

delivering commercial and large scale solar and energy projects in Australia. Staff are dedicated to providing the best solutions to fit customers and clients needs, without compromise on value or quality.

Clean Energy’s partners are the best in their respective fields. They only use electrical contractors and installers that have passed all relevant training and are fully certified, thereby ensuring the highest quality product installations.

The core purpose of the business is to advocate and commercialize clean energy and clean technologies in a highly ethical and socially responsible way that is good for the community and the environment.

In order to fulfil this, Clean energy has three core values which they adhere to. They always strive to be the most innovative and trusted company in the clean energy sector, in any given situation, they will always treat people in the same way that they would like to be treated in the same situation and they will always act in customers’ best interests.

Clean Energy believes in making energy independence possible through their main values. These values are: - customer focus, quality products, teamwork,

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communication, dedication and a passion for the environment.

That means that they take the time to listen to clients, understanding their needs and providing them with the optimum solution. That means making sure clients are getting the best returns on their investment.

One innovative and pioneering service has been the Solarshop, which was established with a strong belief in solar power – not just the environmental case but also having the benefits of free power generation. Growing from a humble beginning of three people distributing panels from Adelaide, Solarshop have come a long way in 12 years with offices now in five states.

Solarshops’ vision for the future drives everything they do at Solarshop with their main goal to be Australia’s leading and most trusted provider of integrated solar energy solutions.

As well as Solarshop, Clean Energy operates Commsolar.

They specialise in PV solar projects ranging from 10kW to 10MW. We are dedicated to projects that implement world’s best practice in design and delivery, earned not only in terms of installed solar capacity, but also through the success of projects that are delivered on time and within budget.

Commsolar’s experienced project managers and engineers are involved from the feasibility stage through to project execution and completion. They focus on planning down to the smallest level of detail, with particular attention paid to the interface between head contractor and management of the project schedule. This ensures that every commitment is realised on time, often exceeding client expectations.

Commsolar’s team members have a diverse range of experience, from delivering multi-megawatt solar projects in Europe to designing remote power stations in rural Australia.

Large-scale projects require a wide range of expertise, and Commsolar’s team often manages the recruitment and development of specialised partnerships for a project.

This has previously included construction and engineering firms, property groups, architects and finance advisors. These partnerships are often formed in the concept or pre-tender stages, with a thorough understanding of end-user needs always driving the approach. Excellence in managing projects from concept to completion, with the input of multiple stakeholders and project partners, is one of Commsolar’s hallmarks. We also recognise the need for flexibility, and do

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not commit to any one particular supplier or technology. In the last calendar year alone, the group has deployed more than nine photovoltaic module technologies (from seven of the world’s leading manufacturers) to rooftops and ground-based ‘free-field’ sites around Australia.

Nevertheless, Commsolar’s established connections with domestic and international suppliers is one of their greatest strengths. Their long-term research and development programs have resulted in strong relationships, and have reduced the cost of cutting-edge systems for clients without compromising quality.

Energy efficiency is important to us all but in the commercial environment any improvements must be financially sustainable. If people are investing money into energy efficiency, businesses need to know how long it will take for the investment to pay for itself or the Return on Investment (ROI). Many companies will advise clients to invest substantial sums of money into energy efficiency with an ROI of six to ten years. CPS specialises in solutions that have an ROI of three years or under.

Into the future, Clean Energy Enterprises hopes to be Australia’s most prominent developer and owner of Solar Power Parks (100kw – 10mw size) and to always have the best brands in the Clean Energy Industry Sectors that they participate in. Also, by 2020, the firm want to be rightfully recognized as the company that did more to help Australia achieve its 20% Renewable Energy Target than any other company.

Company: Clean Energy Enterprises Name: Daniel Cobb Web Address: cleanenergyenterprises.com.au

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National Strength.

Local Service David Scholes CEO of the Nationwide Hygiene Group UK & Ireland and Joint CEO of INPACS Gmbh Europe, Middle East & Australasia, spoke to us about the secrets of the firm’s success.

The Nationwide Hygiene Group began life in 1986 when a number of Janitorial SME businesses formed a company, with the specific aim of combating an increasing threat to their local customers from much larger national corporate businesses. The simple idea was to offer the same central supply arrangements as the major corporates through a network of independent entrepreneurial companies. The decision to make sales the focal point of the new venture set the business apart from other independent groups that saw collective purchasing as their main operating premise. A central operation was established in South London and some regional contracts were gradually won with a series of big name businesses such as Mothercare, Virgin Records, The Co-op and several medium sized hotel groups.

The major market breakthrough into a full national supply group, came in late 1999 and early 2000 when a tender was won to supply all 1,643 Boots stores throughout the UK, Ireland and the Channel Islands, on a two day supply commitment.

At this point, Nationwide had 20 shareholder companies operating 25 branches from Aberdeen to Exeter plus Jersey, Guernsey and Newtonards in NI. In theory it could be done, but it would entail a significant investment in central operations, EDI expansion and above all else a commitment from all 20 shareholder companies to take the rough with the smooth.

It was at this point that Nationwide decided to appoint a CEO for the first time and I joined the group

exactly one month before the Boots contract commenced. The message I gave to the shareholder companies was a simple one, ‘make this work and much more is possible as nothing for us will be harder to do than this’. Internally, there was a considerable amount of consternation at some of the challenges before us and none more so than melding all 25 branches into a single service level capability. This was doubly difficult when the profit on the new national account business was much lower than that of other locally serviced business, requiring therefore, a commitment beyond a simple economic one and into a collective support approach by all businesses.

end of 2016 £170m and the branch network numbers 35 branches and 19 owner companies.

Externally, the customer was extremely satisfied and could not have been more supportive in their praise for the service provided.

This watershed event allowed me to take the groups high profile service capability and secure within the next two years the accounts of Carillion Plc, British Telecom, the John Lewis Partnership and Johnson Controls FM. All of these businesses are still with Nationwide some 15 years later and have since been joined by G4S, Bilfinger, CBRE, Compass, Sodexo and others within the FM sector. Nationwide is also now a major supplier to the healthcare, education and government sectors.

The Boots contract will always be remembered within Nationwide as a turning point that proved to the market that service mattered more to local independent businesses than to employee run corporate branch networks. The combined shareholder group turnover in 2000 was £68m; it is now at the

At its inception in 2004, the new group consisted of Igefa Germany, Nationwide UK, Groupo Helio Spain and Eurocom Italy. Its headquarters were established in Berlin, where it remains today and it had, at inception, a combined turnover of €800m. At the end of 2016, the JVC now has seven shareholder groups and operates businesses in 33 European countries, eight Middle Eastern countries plus Australia and New Zealand and the combined group turnover of the 43 countries is over €2.5billion.

Upon formation of the new JVC, I was asked to become Joint CEO of the new group alongside Jose del Pino, who is based at the company’s head office in Berlin and who manages all the day to day operations. The group has continued to develop and evolve, not only geographically but also in response to the ever increasing requirements of customers and the on-going threats of new entrants into the market.

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Following the early successes in the domestic market, it became clear that the new customers were not just national but international companies, which quickly led to an evaluation of any potential distribution partners in Europe. Already known to us was a long established group of businesses in Germany called Igefa and lines of communication and a visit to Berlin to discuss support arrangements, ultimately led in 2004, to the formation of a Joint Venture Pan European group of companies called INPACS GmbH. (INternational PArtners for Cleaning Supplies).

International customers have been added to the portfolio over the years and are serviced wherever there is a location requirement within the group and currently represents close to €200 million of the group’s turnover. Among the key international corporations being serviced are; IKEA, Siemens, Mercedes, Bosch, Compass, Sodexho, Carnival Cruises, Ford, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Hilton Hotels, Marriott, NH Hotels, Movenpick, ISS, Lidl, Johnson Controls, Bilfinger and many more.

With many of the new Pan European customers operating on a global scale the need to offer a fully focused offering in the Americas was an obvious next step and in 2005 we held talks with the Network Services Corporation in Chicago. Network operates in exactly the same way as both Nationwide and INPACS with independent businesses linked by one common umbrella organisation. With the same operational culture existing throughout all of the separate businesses it was not difficult for a common understanding to be reached and at the end of 2005 INPACS became a formal member of Network and its $10.8 billion group turnover. Since that initial coming together, Network have expanded their operations from the USA and Canada to include Mexico, Central America and Brazil. The central premise, however, throughout the whole organisation is to offer a constant ‘high value local service on a global level’ At the Interclean exhibition in Amsterdam in May 2016, INPACS

g National Strength. Local Service

launched a new logo and the new corporate message of INPACS the ‘Global Supply Solution’ The personal challenges that have arisen during this exciting journey have always been to keep a firm focus on local entrepreneurial principles, while looking at how to supply the same service standards wherever the customer requires it. The biggest problems that most corporations encounter with acquisitions are varied and complex from the selection of companies to acquire, the due diligence, the price negotiation and finally and most importantly, the integration of the new business into the corporate culture of their existing group. Other than a stringent selection process, none of these other issues arise for INPACS and as the business ethics and ownership principles remain unchanged the integration is both natural and automatic. The bond between all of the new additions to INPACS is the common benefits and gains that automatically accrue. The process can also be concluded in a much shorter time and allows international expansion to take place more quickly and efficiently. On the reverse side, it is also much easier to make changes to a new company which does not fully adopt the operating principles contained in the INPACS bye laws.

The geographical expansion is continuing and will eventually include the sub-continent and other parts of Australasia, but the main focus, has for now, switched to data management and advanced Management Information (MI) reporting. Our multinational customers are desperate to know what their costs are for all services provided alongside the need to measure minimum product quality standards around the world. We are now able to do this in conjunction with the major global product manufacturers in both paper tissue and chemicals and we now have several global supply arrangements in these areas.

As a strategic imperative, we have recognised that there is a need to offer a wider range of business solutions to our customer base and have now expanded the INPACS product supply portfolio from Janitorial supplies and equipment to include catering supplies, office supplies, personal protective equipment, healthcare medical supplies and hotel amenities.

The group’s intention is to be the ‘global supply solution’ for our global customers with the one major added ingredient over our logistics based competitors which is that of ‘added value services’.

These added value services in the past have tended to be focused mainly on equipment installations and servicing, product training and after sales management.

However, this has now advanced to include operational management information and budget control of user locations on behalf of central customer operations, product sustainability programmes, product innovation and operational efficiency management. Our largest corporate clients are now engaging with us to help them secure tender business by working alongside them to recommend ‘winning differentials’ specific to the target account. These partnership arrangements now go well beyond just product supply.

For my part, I will soon be taking a step back into an advisory capacity within INPACS and looking to assist in the transition to a new CEO at Nationwide. This remarkable development journey still has a long way to go but is an exciting prospect for those who follow. At the end of 2016, The Network, INPACS global business consisted of over 800 independent companies with a combined turnover of €15 billion with a shared philosophy on how to serve the customer wherever they may be.

Company: Nationwide Hygiene Group Name: David Scholes Email: d.scholes@nationwide-hygiene.com Web Address: www.nationwide-hygiene.com Address: Nationwide House, Peak Business Park, Foxwood Road, Chesterfield, S41 9RF Telephone: 01246 458060

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In recent times, there have been several new entrants into the market place traditionally occupied by INPACS and Network companies, led by Amazon and the major office supply companies such as Staples, Office Depot and Lyraco. The proposition from the office supply companies has for several years been based

on fast and efficient logistics as well as competitive pricing on the high volume items such as paper.

These companies and in particular Amazon have been expanding their product portfolio’s combined with an ease of access web based market place ordering, to try and consolidate their target customers into a single supply solution.

Amazon in particular has launched a relatively new B2B platform and has opened new service warehouses in five European countries.

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Working Harder and Smarter For Longer IT Governance is a leading global provider of IT governance, risk management and compliance solutions, with a special focus on cyber resilience, data protection, the PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and cyber security. We spoke to their CEO, Alan Calder to find out more about the firm.

IT Governance helps firms of all sizes achieve their information security objectives through a mixture of tools, training, consultancy and penetration testing, with affordable bespoke and packaged solutions. The company has the knowledge and insight to provide unparalleled support and advice, tailored to meet any organisation’s specific needs or budget. Alan Calder speaks to us about what the firm provides to clients.

“IT Governance is committed to helping businesses protect themselves and their customers from current and evolving threats to their information assets.

Using our industry expertise and pragmatic approach to information security, we help organisations worldwide implement information security standards such as ISO 27001 to improve their defences, and provide comprehensive training and staff awareness programmes to employees. IT Governance supports a wide range of organisations across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, from major banks, telecommunications providers and healthcare organisations right down to SMEs and microorganisations.

“We pride ourselves on our ability to deliver a broad range of integrated cyber security solutions to an international customer base, meeting the needs of organisations, directors and practitioners worldwide. Our ongoing strategy is to maintain expertise across the entire IT

GRC landscape so that we can respond in an agile, effective and efficient manner to the security issues affecting our clients.”

When first approaching a client, Alan explains how the firm ensure they have an effective process whereby clients’ needs are.

“We have put in place a mature and comprehensive quality management programme that ensures our solutions and services consistently meet our high standards, which has helped us develop and grow exponentially as a company in the past two years. Our solutions are informed and directed by our subject matter experts – from documentation toolkits that help organisations streamline implementation projects, to books and pocket guides, training courses, web applications, software, staff awareness and embedded consultancy services.

“IT Governance encourages client feedback both through our website and through direct interaction with our staff and consultants, and many of our products are improved on the basis of their feedback. We are also represented on a number of committees and forums that develop best practice in our industry. This is an investment that enables us to stay ahead of the curve and develop solutions that meet the current market needs.”

Security is an issue which IT Governance has noticed has become more prevalent in the

16 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

industry today. Alan outlines how the industry has changed since the firms’ inception.

“We have been advocates of information security and ISO 27001 for more than ten years, and it’s only been in the last two years that we have seen an increase in press and media reports on organisations facing financial and reputational damage as a result of a data breach or cyber-attack. The key change is the surge in the number of threats, along with the growing understanding of the risks and threats we are exposed to, and now the market has started to accommodate the resulting demands.

“The large number of data breaches that have occurred in the past year have increased demand for competent and qualified information security professionals. We’ve seen a growing number of organisations adopt information security and appropriate security controls, and seek certification to information security standards or schemes such as ISO 27001 (the international best-practice standard for information security), Cyber Essentials (the UK government-backed cyber security scheme), and the PCI DSS (the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

“As the competence shortfall has pushed the cost of expertise higher, we have focused on and invested across the board in keeping hold of our staff at all levels, and our consultants in particular. This resulted in our agenda now being increasingly that of all our customers.”

Alan describes what the current state of the industry and what changes are affecting it.

“The recently approved General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will change the way businesses collect and process data on EU residents. From May 2018, organisations will be required to have adopted and implemented the requirements of the Regulation, placing data protection (and the GDPR) at the top of every board’s agenda.

“Organisations that suffer a data breach under the GDPR can face massive fines of up to 4% of annual global revenue or €20 million – whichever is greater. We have seen an increased interest in GDPR compliance solutions – more specifically, training courses and consultancy services. We applied our expertise and knowledge to deliver the support, and were the first provider of GDPR Foundation and Practitioner training courses and accredited qualifications, which will help organisations implement their GDPR compliance projects.”

At IT Governance, technology is evidently a vital component of their day to day business. Alan describes the importance of technology for the firm.

“New technologies and Internetconnected smart devices play an essential role in ensuring we run our everyday business activities effectively and efficiently. It is critical that organisations understand their reliance on the security of these technologies in order to avoid being exploited and the control measures they

g Working Harder and Smarter For Longer

need to implement to achieve cyber resilience. We encourage businesses to look at the security measures taken and highlight that it’s in their best interests to reduce risk and improve their cyber security posture.

“Our expert-developed solutions are designed to equip organisations with the tools, resources and skills to address security on an organisational, administrative and technical level by providing a streamlined approach suitable for companies of all sizes.”

Turning to himself, Alan talks about the challenging nature of the role of CEO and how he has overcome challenges in order to be successful.

“I’ve long believed that that board and senior management have the key role in protecting their organisation and managing its diverse range of risks.

Over the last few years, that’s become an increasingly widely acted-upon concept – not least because of the enormous press exposure given to inadequate cyber security risk management and the ongoing increase in compliance requirements around data protection and cyber risk.

That’s all tremendously exciting!

“I think that all CEOs have to work through failure and uncertainty; this is particularly true if you’re an innovator and, by nature, more interested in finding new and better ways of tackling issues than simply accepting the status quo. One has to have a solid self-belief, and a deep-seated determination to see every experience simply as an opportunity to do better next time, in order to succeed.”

Alan’s passion and hard work, along with a dedicated team of staff, are the reasons why IT Governance is performing so well in the industry as Alan explains.

Looking to the future, IT Governance plan on building on their current client base by continuing to exceed client needs in an economical manner. Alan explains more about the current economic uncertainty and how this may affect the business.

“Brexit brings challenges to our ability to be efficient and effective in providing our solutions to the market, so we’ll establish a business outside the UK in order to ensure we can continue to serve the fast-growing pan-EU business while we continue our expansion in the UK and the US.”

Alan Calder is the founder and executive chairman of the single-source provider of products and services in the IT governance, risk management and compliance sector: IT Governance. Alan is an acknowledged international cyber security guru and a leading author on information security and IT governance issues.

Company: IT Governance Name: Alan Calder Email: acalder@itgovernance.co.uk Web Address: www.itgovernance.co.uk Address: Unit 3, Clive Court, Cambridgeshire Business Park, Ely CB7 4EA Telephone: 0845 070 1750

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“Sector understanding and domain expertise are important, as are self-belief and determination. In a fastmoving technology marketplace, agility and communication skills are probably even more important. Above all, I think that CEOs have to provide leadership – and leadership is about more than smart suits and fancy cars – it’s about working harder and smarter for longer,

it’s about solving problems for customers and staff, it’s about communication and it’s about continual improvement.”

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Empowering your Message Engine Group is a privately owned marketing services network, based out of four strategic hubs in New York, Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong, with other offices across the globe.

Their clients range across the categories of retail, fashion, entertainment, food and beverage, technology, financial services, healthcare and more. Chief Executive of Engine Group USA, Rick Eiserman, chatted with us about the company and his position within it.

Engine Group’s marketing network is comprehensive, comprised of fifteen best-inclass specialist agencies: Art Machine, Calling Brands, Deep Focus, Engine Media, Fuel, MHP Communications, Mischief, Moment Studio, ORC International, Partners Andrews Aldridge, Slice, Synergy, Trailer Park, Transform and WCRS. Through seamless collaboration among the network’s agencies, Engine provides clients with endto-end solutions, encompassing strategic and creative services, content production, business intelligence and distribution.

“We have continued to strategically grow our business by acquiring new companies, recruiting top talent and enhancing our digital, data, content and media capabilities.”

Mr. Eiserman informed us, when talking about the current approach of the business. “With our collaborative network model of complementary businesses, we are able to be more flexible and nimble, staying in front of trends and building solutions ahead of time – an advantage few of our competitors have.

include more business analysis, consultation and planning. We have become business partners to our clients, rather than just branding partners. We go above and beyond the marketing plan to help clients transform their businesses. We provide them with metrics-based counsel on how they might change the way they work operationally, the way they go to market, to even reimagine the business they’re in through new product lines or new ways of thinking about their offering.”

“Addressing shifts in the marketing landscape and clients’ needs, our role has evolved to

Mr. Eiserman is clearly very proud to lead the teams producing such great work on behalf of their clients. “I’m motivated every day to do our part to lead and inspire, while bringing positive change to the world.

“I’m continually impressed with the work our talented people are doing, from awe-inspiring content to ground breaking research and consumer insights. Add to that advances in technology and the creative possibilities are endless.”

Taking advantage of new technology plays a huge role in the marketing business. “What will ensure our progress and success in the future is being able to navigate the opportunities and obstacles it presents. While creativity and innovation will

18 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

always be the backbone of the marketing industry, in order to survive, you have to constantly evolve your strategic thinking to determine what will work for clients and resonate with consumers as technology forges ahead.”

And it isn’t just the technology itself that the firm must adapt to, but also the way audiences react to and consume media through new channels. “The marketplace looks nothing like it did years ago, and the way people consume and demand media has changed drastically.

Because of this, we have had to be very nimble in how we address and anticipate our clients’ needs. We’ve built a network in the digital age that allows us to quickly respond to the opportunities and challenges that arise through this rapid evolution.

“One of the biggest changes in the industry today is the blurring of lines. Many agencies now claim they can do everything.

While on the outset this may seem like a positive, it actually creates confusion in the marketplace, missed opportunities for clients and, in extreme cases, corruption in terms of bidding and how things are charged. If we can’t as an industry package our services in a way that clients can buy it, we’re out of business.

g Empowering your Message

We must create clarity and measurability around the mix of services clients really need. Our ultimate, collective goal should be to create value and growth for clients’ businesses rather than serving solely our own interests.”

Speaking about his role as CEO, he told us that the key to his leadership style is encouragement. “I believe in empowering our people to create and innovate. I encourage the entrepreneurial mind set and I feel it’s important to support – both professionally and financially – ideas that our people are passionate about and that have the potential to lead to positive change.”

And what has he found most challenging about the role?

“I’ve had to get comfortable with what’s often uncomfortable. With how quickly the world moves today, you have to be prepared to be constantly changing and, importantly, to motivate your leaders and your teams to embrace this culture of change.

In our business, we never stop innovating – making, doing, trying, building. That’s what makes this such an exciting industry to be in and, in my opinion, the most exciting time to be in it.”

When looking to the future of the group, Rick is committed to raising the profile of the company and its broad range of services on its home soil. “Engine has spent the last two years acquiring companies, expanding businesses and launching new offerings. In 2017, we are making a stronger push to go to market in the U.S. Engine has considerable brand equity abroad, particularly in Europe. In the next 12 months, we’ll make significant efforts to further raise our profile and market relevancy stateside.”

Company: Engine Group Name: Rick Eiserman Email: rick.eiserman@enginegroup.com Web Address: www.enginegroup.com Address: 6922 Hollywood Blvd., 12th Floor, Hollywood, CA 90028, USA Telephone: +1 310-845-3000

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And where does Mr. Eiserman see himself, looking forward?

“While it’s difficult to predict where the market and technology will be five years from now, I see myself continuing to lead, breaking new ground with the great talent and companies within the Engine Group. While we’ve made great progress, there is still so much opportunity ahead of us – new companies, geographies, ideas and innovation.”

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The Long Arm of the Law Drexel Bradshaw is Managing Partner at Bradshaw and Associates.

He shares with us his secrets to success, what motivates him, and several of his ‘Drexelisms’!

Bradshaw and Associates P.C. is a boutique litigation firm that focuses primarily on business and real estate law. Over the years the company has grown with the Bay Area, which is both the technology centre of the world, and has some of the most sought after real estate in the country.

As the Managing Partner, Drexel oversees four associates. Robert Crownover Esq. focuses on intellectual property and patent law and Drexel also tries patent cases with Robert, a practice area which they have grown over the last seven years as patents has now become a fertile area for litigation.

Drexel’s associate Thomas O’Brien Esq. focuses on real estate, business and employment law.

He and Drexel work together on some of our biggest cases, and Drexel states that he often relies on Thomas for his insights and litigation strategy execution.

Elsa Berry was educated in Paris and brings an international perspective to the firm, as well as core expertise in tax law. She is also well-versed in IP litigation, business and real estate law, trusts and estates, employment law, and has served as General Counsel for technology start-ups.

“My associates are great legal talents, and through our collective creativity and acumen, 100% of our trials were victorious in 2016,” enthuses Drexel. “In addition to damages (when we are plaintiff or getting a dismissal when we represent the defendant) our clients received an additional award of attorney’s fees with the 2016 average of $429,500 to our clients!”

Drexel provides his clients with aggressive representation in all of the firm’s litigation practice areas.

He has extensive trial experience, having successfully tried a large number of cases to both the bench and juries. In addition, Drexel has proven himself a skilful negotiator, helping clients to avoid trial and further litigation when appropriate.

A graduate of St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami Drexel led the Trial Advocacy team to several victories. He volunteered to be a Guardian ad Litem, an advocate protecting the best interests of abused and neglected children in court proceedings.

Prior to law school, Drexel gained valuable business experience in the areas of corporate transactions, real estate, and securities, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida with a B.A in Political Science.

“I came to the law with experience in business,” he states. “Before going to law school, I worked in securities, sales, and even broadcasting. To pay my way through law school, I did voiceovers for a defence contractor. In fact, if you want to know anything about the hydraulic system of the F- 14, a US military jet, I’m your man!”

“In building a practice, I have basically followed what I love to do which stems from my pre-law school experiences, and when I’ve identified growth areas here in San Francisco.

I’ve been fortunate to recruit attorneys and staff with stellar skills.

“We don’t shy away from challenging litigation, which has been my style since I passed the bar. Fresh out of law school I brought my first case against the San Francisco Unified School District, so in effect I was suing

20 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

an entire building of lawyers who worked for the city and county of San Francisco.

“Fearlessness is our mark and trade.”

One of the toughest aspects of the law sector is maintaining neutrality, confidentiality and, above all, fairness in cases. Drexel’s strong ethics play a huge part as he tells us how he maintains these three key attributes.

“We represent both plaintiffs and defendants, but are very selective about who we represent, taking only 3.4% of the cases that were brought to us last year. I listen for the truth of a case, and if the client does not have a meritorious position, I will pass. I adhere closely to the Canons of Ethics, which asks lawyers to advance cases on their merits.

“As far as confidentiality goes, I am a professional secret keeper.

I never talk about my work. I have several friends who are clients, and when we get together with our spouses, they will frequently ask, “Did Drexel tell you what happened last week in our case?” They are often incredulous when she responds “He never talks about his cases with me.” This has always been my mode of operation.

“As for fairness, I don’t make a habit of asking for things I don’t deserve, or which my clients don’t deserve. Credibility matters. This goes back to my unwillingness to take cases that fail my merits test. However, if I sign on to be your advocate, and the facts are supported by the case documents, I will ask for the moon and the stars, and do my best to get them. This seems to be working.”

Client satisfaction is key in ensuring success of a firm and Drexel’s

attention to detail ensures his business is second-to-none when it comes to his customers.

“One of the privileges of running my own firm is that I have my hands in everything. I read everything that comes in and goes out the door, and I make sure it’s consistent with our plan. If a client calls without notice, I will know the latest on their case, and that’s true for every case we handle. My name is on the door, so my neck is on the block.

“If one of my associates is trying a case, I don’t charge for my time spent in a supervisory role. Last year we calculated that our ratio of billing to actual hours of work went as low as 42% for some clients, and up to 58% for others. That is quite unusual for a law practice, where most attorneys bill their clients for every minute spent on their case. As I tell our clients, when you hire an attorney at Bradshaw and Associates P.C. you get two attorneys for the price of one - they like that. It boosts our client satisfaction, as does our high rates of favourable verdicts and large awards.

“That being said, if I am given the opportunity to recover attorney fees on a case I am merciless. After a recent trial victory, I submitted a demand for reimbursed fees and my client got nearly every dollar they had spent. Let’s not forget: my client did not sue anyone; she was sued. Bringing a weak, illadvised case against my clients has consequences.”

The firm’s huge success is due, in part, to Drexel’s approach to ensuring innovation in its products and services.

“Bradshaw and Associates is a tightly run ship. A benefit of running a small firm is that we have a coherent mission, and I make sure that everything we produce, as a firm, is consistent with our goals.

“The secret sauce to our firm’s success is unrelenting effort. We have mottos around here known as “Drexelisms.”, quotes which help remind all of us of the principles we live by. Perhaps the best known is: ‘There may be lawyers with better facts, there may be lawyers who are smarter, but there must never be a lawyer who outworks you.’

“Another Drexelism is: ‘I don’t care if it’s King, Country, or newlyminted billion-dollar tech company, if you’re infringing my clients’ rights, I’m your worst nightmare.’

“When we get to court, I take off the gloves and all of the hard work shows. We specialise in no-holdsbarred litigation.”

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The Long Arm of the Law

“As I mentioned above, we have great discernment when it comes to selecting cases, but sometimes our machinery fails and we end up with unrealistic clients. I try to mitigate large swings of client emotions by managing expectations from the start, and I blunt tendencies to fictionalize outcomes.

“I’ve also discovered that no matter how hard you work, and how successful you are at delivering positive results, there is a bell curve of client satisfaction. Some clients shift from wild enthusiasm during the heat of the trial, to abject rudeness when the bill arrives. My wife likens this phenomenon to the patron who dined enthusiastically on a fine meal, even compliments the chef profusely, but does not want to pay the bill.

I have learned to anticipate these clients, and I let them go early when it’s clear they can never be pleased.”

It’s fair to say that over the 17 years Drexel has served as a trial attorney he has seen many changes within the industry.

“I have noticed a decrease in collegiality among lawyers,” he comments. “I was raised to believe that lawyers are learned professionals. It’s clients who have disputes, not the lawyers. I am an optimist, so I expect basic civility between attorneys and abhor shouting matches, ad hominem attacks, or loss of personal control.

After all, it is just business.

“But while lamenting a disintegration of civility among lawyers, I foster warm relationships with attorneys who share my values. I remember one case that had stalled in discovery because opposing counsel simply would not hand over a set of key documents. I was certain there was critical evidence contained within those pages, and refused to give up. When the adversarial attorney was replaced, I got a call from the new one. He was blunt.

He said ‘The docs say what you think they do.’ We stopped wasting peoples’ time and money post haste and wrapped up the case. And we have stayed in touch since.”

Drexel’s parting words reflect exactly what sets the firm apart from the competition in its region and sector.

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“We are passionate about what we do, in part because as a small firm we aren’t hogtied by politics over billable hours. We are the masters of our own fate. If you walk around our office on a typical busy day you will hear conversations that are fuelled by an ineluctable passion for the law, and for winning large judgments.

We have creativity, drive and an abundantly competitive spirit.”

Company: Bradshaw and Associates, P.C. Name: Drexel Bradshaw, Esq. Email: drexel@bradshawassociates.com Web Address: www.bradshawassociates.com Address: One Sansome Street, 34th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104 Telephone: (415) 433-4800

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Information . . . Managed

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Information...

Managed J Mark DeNicola, of Thermocopy, has recently received the title of CFO of the Year 2017 – USA. He shares his success story with Corporate Vision.

Thermocopy is the oldest and largest business technology company located in East Tennessee.

The Knoxville, Tennessee-based company was founded in the early 1960s as an office equipment dealer, later supplying information technology support, document management consultation, and printer fleet management services. The company’s core office products are multifunctional copiers, printers and fax machines made by Ricoh, and Kyocera.

J Mark DeNicola gives us a more in-depth overview of the firm, the work it does and the type of clientele is attracts.

“Thermocopy’s focus is providing our clients the infrastructure, whether hardware or software, to manage all the information flow in their business,” he begins. “Included in this focus is assessing the customer’s operational requirements, providing the infrastructure they need based on the assessment, assisting with the implementation and training required to fully utilize the solutions provided, and then providing outstanding service for the solutions.

“This focus has evolved over the years due to evolving technology and has required strategy changes to continue to be a successful, profitable business.

The company is in its sixth decade of life. When I joined the company in 1993 and was asked what we did I had an easy answer that everyone could understand, we sold and serviced copiers. It was a relatively simple business.

“Then, as technology evolved (the analogue copiers became

digital, then multi-functional with scan beds that became the hub of information flow in organizations), we had to revise our business plans, company IQ, and business strategies to stay relevant in our market-place and take advantage of the multi-functional device capabilities. We have added products/services such as Managed IT, Document Onboarding and Management, and IT hardware. This transition was at times painful, but in the end successful.

“As evidence of that success, since I joined the company in 1993 through organic growth we have tripled our revenues in a constrained territory, and we are nationally recognised as one of the premier providers of business technology in our industry segment. Our clients range anywhere in size and type from “Mom and Pop” commercial businesses to large health care operations concerned with HIPPA compliancy to ultra-secure government labs and nuclear weapons facilities.”

DeNicola explains that the industry has evolved over the years due to the result of technological changes and the needs of customers.

“Until 1987, the copier was a stand-alone, analog device, only capable of producing a copy and providing certain finishing options. Thus, service expertise was limited to just how to repair the copier. Account executives basically needed to know how fast the equipment would produce a copy and how it would be finished (stapled, hole-punched, etc.).

22 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

Company: Thermocopy Name: J. Mark DeNicola Web Address: www.thermocopy.com Address: 3505 Sutherland Avenue, Knoxville, Tennessee 37919 Telephone: 865.524.1124

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“In 1987 the first digital equipment was introduced. Now the copier is a multi-functional device. With the right options it is capable of copying, scanning, printing and faxing. These additional capabilities have radically changed the service and sales knowledge requirements.

For instance, all our service technicians now not only need to know how to repair the copier, but also how to connect the device to the computer or network environment. To handle the additional training requirements we have added a training facility to our main campus with a full time trainer. All our technicians are required to work through not only equipment specific training courses but also add certifications such as A+, Net+ and Microsoft certifications that are specific to computers, networks and their associated environments.

“The sales group is expected to know how the right digital device will fit into the client’s workflow environment and the myriad capabilities of the device itself.

Since the scanning function of the digital copier puts the device right in the middle of a company’s workflow we developed an independent division (Centriworks) staffed with employees that are certified in workflow management that assist the account executive with evaluating the workflow environment.

“Our services also have evolved concerning the level of education provided to our clients and the business community. We hold regular ‘Thermocopy University’ classes for our clients, educating them on the many capabilities of their purchased equipment.

Also, Centriworks staff conducts ‘Productivity Possibilities’ sessions for the business community at large. These sessions discuss technology products/services that are available to enhance office efficiencies and that may or may not be Thermocopy product offerings.”

“Having said that the use of technology to manage our business is very important in our industry. Margin percentages in some of our larger contracts are in the single digits. Reporting systems that can snapshot the profitability of a contract in real time help spot problems months earlier than before. This allows us to take care of any issues earlier in the process, assist with making the contract more profitable and fix the client earlier

if required. This can mean the difference between a cash strapped company and one which has the cash resources to finance expansion projects and new business development. We make sure systems are used effectively by making the reports from these systems an integral part of our contract and operational metric review processes.”

DeNicola strives to keep himself motivated and, ultimately, successful by setting himself personal and business goals, as well as identifying what he needs to do to achieve said goals.

A significant percentage of Thermocopy’s revenue is derived from the sales and service of office equipment. With regards to future trends he believes that the multi-functional device will continue to be a requirement in the office setting for the foreseeable future, however, he also envisions the prints and copies made on that device will dwindle as the Baby Boomer generation leaves the work force.

“I enjoy creating opportunities to help the community. It is great to be able to create these opportunities as part of what our business is.

“The Millennials, and to some extent the GenXer’s are accustomed to almost no paper use. Almost all their collaboration tools are digital and the mere fact that they collaborate in the cloud precludes paper usage, as it is not up-to-the-second information.

A large part of revenue and profits in our industry depend on the annuities provided by charging a cost per print/copy for documents produced on the multi-functional devices. Thus, lower or no prints/copies translate into lower revenues/profits from this segment of our business.

While Thermocopy is not currently experiencing this downward trend, it is not a matter of if, but when, we will see a reduction in billable copies/prints. We have already identified the additional products/ services required to replace these revenue streams and profits, developed the business plans to take these products/services to market and are in the process of implementing the business plans.”

I believe I have been pretty good at building those teams. So team building might be considered a key attribute of mine.

“It keeps me constantly looking for better ways and resources to meet my goals and keeps me forward thinking,” he says.

“On one of my business trips to a client in Miami I was introduced to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. Impressed by the mission of the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, I founded “Game-Set-Match,” a charity that advanced the cause of the disabled and raised funds for the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center here in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In the years 1999 and 2000 we brought the top wheelchair tennis athletes in the world to Knoxville and put them on the court with able bodied tennis greats such as Martina Navratilova, Zina Garrison, Chris Woodruff and the Jenson brothers. This event was the winner of the Southern Tennis Association’s “Special Event of the Year” in 1999.

“I have also turned my efforts to educating business leaders about the real bottom line benefits of adopting sustainable environmental business practices. To assist, with this endeavor I created the concept of GoGreenET.com, a resource to help East Tennessee businesses “Go Green”, and worked to obtain the support and participation of the founding and media partners.

This site is now used by the “Knoxville News-Sentinel”, a part of the USA Today Network, as their environmental sustainability resource site for businesses in East Tennessee.”

Being a successful CFO is not without its challenges, and DeNicola is no stranger to coming up against adversity in the workplace.

“I believe a successful CFO is one who has the trust and respect of the leaders of every segment of the business. In the past, this has been a challenge when I have moved into a new position due to the history of the prior head financial person and a finance department that was viewed as a

hindrance rather than a resource.

I worked to overcome that history and build relationships with the company leadership by learning the operational metrics of their business segments, volunteering resources to help them meet their goals, regularly communicate with them and including them in the plan development for the company.

“I recognized early in my career that there are skills in which I am deficient. For me to be successful I needed to surround myself with a strong management team that included the strengths that make up for those deficiencies. I believe I have been pretty good at building those teams. So team building might be considered a key attribute of mine.

I am on top of our industry’s trends. This helps me to develop our company’s business strategies to take advantage of those trends and staying ahead of the trends.

I am involved in Thermocopy’s sales process. In fact, I am also our company’s Executive Director of Sales and Marketing. This gives me insight into what our customers want and need and their business goals thus helping us how to tailor our sales efforts to meet those challenges.

I am a macro-manager. I trust my team to make the right day-to-day decisions based on our plan and support those decisions.”

With regards to the future, DeNicola has huge aspirations for Thermocopy.

“We are in the process of implementing a business plan that will increase our market share in the office equipment space from 18% to 23%. This required a reorganization in the sales department with plans to increase the sales force by 25% and implementing ways to make sales in a more efficient manner. Also, we will be building an additional revenue stream with managed services.

“In five years’ time, I hope to still be working with Thermocopy and helping drive the company’s ongoing success.”

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The Relationship Edge Delta Point - a consulting company assisting companies of all sizes achieve excellence in sales, marketing and training - have worked alongside the largest pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the world. CEO of the Year, Arizona, Jerry Acuff, spoke with us to discuss the ongoing successes of the business.

The consultants at Delta Point have worked primarily in the coaching of life science and pharmaceutical companies, large and small. In helping clients to improve their sales, marketing and in house training teams, they bring increased excellence to the industry as a whole.

“Our strategy is built on improving the effectiveness of any customer facing employee that interacts with customers.

Our business is focused on working with companies that are launching products and they cannot afford to fail, or who have products that are not performing.

We utilize our proprietary processes and methodology to help them succeed at launch or significantly improve their performance.

“Much of our work is rooted in two key concepts: think like

a customer and that building valuable business relationships is crucial to success. I have written a best-selling book called ‘The Relationship Edge in Business’, and another one called ‘Stop Acting Like a Seller, Start Thinking Like a Buyer’ and much of our work is based on the approaches outlined in those two books. We believe that thinking like a customer dramatically changes an organizations ability to succeed, however very few companies are truly customer focused. We also believe that solid business relationships (not personal relationships) are everything and most people build them reactively not proactively.

Most people in business have not been taught how to build a valuable business relationship with someone whom they do not connect with yet more than 6070% of the people we connect with are in that category.”

When speaking to Jerry about the challenges of being the CEO

of Delta Point, he returned to the mater of forming relationships.

“The biggest challenges I have faced is simply finding really excellent people. It takes a special person to be truly devoted to excellence and to want to work in a small firm. I have been so fortunate to be able to find great people and most of them (about 80%) were former customers who loved what we do and wanted to be a part of it.

“What has made our company successful is that we have business ideas that make our clients lots of money by changing their trajectory and we have incredible people that know how to do that for our clients. The three attributes I have that make us successful are: Once I learn a product or service, it seems I can usually develop a vision about how to get others to buy into those ideas (IF and only IF it is in their best interest). Secondly, I have been smart enough and lucky enough to know a great hire when I see one. And lastly, I manage our financial resources well so that we can be consistently profitable - as any good CEO must do.”

When questioned about the current state of the pharma industry, he highlighted how much a lack of deeper understanding, from both without and within, produce many of the challenges it faces.

“Our industry is constantly under attack and is largely unappreciated by most who do not know much in detail about it (general public, politicians, etc.). The biggest challenge is access to medicines and access to the health care provider. The challenge that

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affects us most are possible mergers that impact the people in our client companies who hire us. The other challenge we face most often is inertia our client’s belief that they can solve their problems without external help. Most cannot solve the big problems of significant underperformance by themselves, but many think they can.

“Our industry is and has undergone much change. There are 40,000 fewer sales people in our major industry today than there was 15 years ago, there are fewer people supporting them in HQ and access to products keeps getting harder and harder. This has actually helped our business because when there are fewer interactions the “quality” of that interaction becomes more important. Our ability to show organizations how to have far more impactful interactions with customers has helped us with clients and prospects.”

Mentioning the role that new technologies are playing in their ability to assist clients in their endeavours, Jerry was positive about its implementation.

“Technology is a crucial part of our industry and we are constantly seeking ways to utilize technology to help our clients be more efficient, collaborative and effective. The two best ways we have found to ensure it is used are: to be up to date on technology uses and trends affecting our industry and then get users involved in whatever new uses of technology we are contemplating.”

Speaking about Delta Point’s future plans, he told us how keen he is for the business to continue

g The Relationship Edge

expanding, to provide further options to assist their clients.

“I stay positive and motivated for three reasons: I am goal oriented, I love what we do for companies and I love our employees and want us to succeed and grow for them and their families” “Our plans are to continue to grow our business by adding offerings that help clients excel and also to expand the awareness and utilization of our content to industries and business people outside of life sciences. We have recently launched three new offerings that we are very excited about: Sales Force Effective Evaluation is a proprietary process we built, with an analytics expert, to analyse and benchmark organization’s selling effectiveness. We also launched, in the 3rd quarter of 2016, a program called Coaching Catalyst that teaches sales leaders how to teach and coach selling, in the field, in real time.

Most ‘coaching’ programs and training on coaching are general.

Teaching and coaching selling is a very specific skill that can be improved and we focus only on that aspect of coaching. Lastly we are about to introduce an offering to help our customers with Co-Pay Cards. This tool is a huge benefit to patients, physician and companies and they are underutilized. Our offering will be to help our clients plan for them, budget for them and use them for the maximum benefit for patients.”

He sees himself as remaining a central part of Delta Point for many years to come, but also hopes to turn his passion for coaching towards another of his interests – working with a number of college basketball coaches and their teams as a mentor.

He ends his thoughts with thanks to those who are the backbone of the company, his team.

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“I am so grateful to the 30 employees of my company, for enabling our company to get this kind of recognition. It is their hard work and dedication to our culture, our values and our business belief that ensures our continued success. I know that.

I honour that and I will always remember that.”

Company: Delta Point Inc. Name: Jerry Acuff Email: jacuff@deltapoint.com Web Address: www.deltapoint.com Address: 12196 East Sand Hills Road Scottsdale, AZ 85255 United States Telephone: 480-296-9972

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A Stable Business Denise E. Farris is the Owner and Managing Member of Farris Law Firm, recently awarded American Law Firm of the Year - Kansas. She tells us how she stumbled upon a niche area of law which has since become one of her areas of expertise.

The Farris Law Firm LLC was formed in 1996 and operated until 2001. At that time it provided primarily commercial construction, business and equine law services. In 2001 the firm merged with Husch & Eppenberger until 2003, then split out and has operated as the Farris Law Firm LLC from January 2004 through the current date. With regards to the services it provides, Farris Law focuses on commercial construction/government contracts/business services, and on equine/veterinary law and pharmaceutical regulations.

Denise’s unique talent is combining litigation practice with contract practice. “In most larger firms, attorneys are required to focus primarily in one area of the other,” she explains. “Thus litigators are quite good at picking out holes in a contract from a litigating challenge or ambiguity perspective, but aren’t the greatest at drafting risk management clauses. Contract attorneys are good at drafting contracts but are not always the best at picking out their own ambiguities or finding their own ‘weak spots’ for challenge.

My combined practice areas expanded my perspective in providing both of these services.”

Denise has another talent and this is thinking outside of the box in terms of finding, creating, educating potential clients on, and then developing new practice niches. “When I began practice in 1991, there were very few ‘affirmative action’ practice attorneys outside the employment law arena, even though there were billions of dollars of contracts at play with MBE/WBE/

DBE goal requirements. My background in constitutional law in general, and the affirmative action cases following the 1986 City of Richmond vs J A Croson decision quickly helped me realize there was a niche in this area. I was one of the first attorneys in the KS/MO area to develop a reputation on the constitutional parameters of affirmative action compliance from many perspectives – that of governmental entities attempting to draft programs that would withstand legal challenge, or from companies seeking to better understand the program policies and how to legitimately certify as Minority Business Enterprise / Woman Business Enterprise or how to better mobilize grass roots campaigns to create such programs, or from non-minority small businesses who wanted to better understand race and gender neutral contracting programs, or from majority players who wished to review program parameters to ensure they passed constitutional muster.”

in the late 1980’s due to sky rocketing costs of frivolous lawsuits related to horse injuries.

The statutes developed with assumption of risk policies similar to ski resorts – acknowledging that people choosing to participate in “inherently risky sports” must accept some level of assumption of risk of injury or even death. The statutes essentially state that horseback riding is an inherently dangerous activity, that people assume the risk of injury or death UNLESS certain limited exceptions apply, but that professionals wishing to avail themselves of those statutory protections must give some forms of warning to their participants. As a life-long horse enthusiast, I realized that most of my stable-owning friends did not know about the statutes and/ or were not in compliance with them, so I published a newsletter giving a brief summary of the new laws. Overnight I became an ‘equine law expert’, and quickly realised there was a practice niche in this area at a time when very few firms had expertise.

Denise has always been a passionate horse lover and has owned horses on and off for most of her life. It was this passion which led her into equine law.

“My equine law practice was very rewarding as most people able to afford large stables have other successful businesses which became firm clients as well, with a significant number in commercial construction.

“In 1994, I noticed a number of states were beginning to pass special ‘immunity protection’ statutes aimed at equine activities. In essence, the passage of these statutes recognized the HUGE economic impact of the horse industry – an almost $110 billion/year industry equal to the motion picture industry in size, and one generating almost $12 billion in taxes annually. Like doctors, horse professionals began dropping out of the industry

26 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

“My equine law visibility was largely risk management through contract drafting; my commercial construction was largely litigation related. Thus the marriage of litigation/contract drafting in my practice. Both practices are both large and small business related, both deal heavily with contract law in drafting and enforcement, and both types of law are heavily regulatory, and also contain lots of administrative law elements.

“The equine law practice in 2004 lead to various public speaking and writing engagements which in turn introduced me to the animal health market, veterinary law, and soon into the complex and developing world of FDA regulations towards pharmaceutical compounding.

National veterinary risk management and education of various players in the industry on the rapidly developing law on pharmaceutical compounding is now a large part of my firm’s practice.”

Maintaining neutrality, confidentiality and fairness in cases can often prove challenging, however Denise explains that, since its inception, the firm has viewed conflicts of interest in a much more narrow perspective than even required by prevailing rules of ethics and court cases.

“Where our rules indicate a conflict exists where a lawyer has represented a party and gained confidential information negative to that party’s position in a new case, my firm has always approached it from a ‘Does it feel right?’ perspective. In most cases, we feel it doesn’t pass this case if we took on a client engagement at one time, and then turned around and sued that same client at a later time on totally different facts and the law. We view a client as typically a client for all time, and in most instances, have been very happy to see our clients look at us the same way for the services we provide.”

Client satisfaction is obviously key when it comes to running a law firm. “As a small business owner, I’ve personally felt the pain of an unexpectedly large

g A Stable Business

bill for professional services from accounting firms or other lawyers that have rendered legal assistance to my firms, or to my clients on a co-counsel basis,” states Denise.

discussion with a client who is concerned about the legal costs billed. This permits us to look at each cost, and determine if it was a fair cost for the work done or the value received.

As a result of this she adheres to the following principals: keeping her hourly billable rate considerably lower than attorneys in a similar position and keeping her rates static for the past three years.

“I am also proud of the fact that from time to time, I’ve had clients that have left me for various reasons. We have not only remained civil and friends, but in most cases those clients eventually come back. I try very hard not to take business decisions personally.”

“I focus tremendous attention on the most expeditious and cost efficient way to do preliminary, low hanging fruit discovery on disputes,” she embellishes. “After being in practice since 1991, I’ve very good at it. I then push the parties to participate in very early mediation. This allows us to either resolve the case at significantly reduced fees to my client, or alternatively allows us a chance to “test out” our theories and doing a similar testing of the opponent’s case. This permits us a second round of self-analysis of the strengths and weakness of our case and grounds for either settling it, or pushing it through all phases of litigation. At that point, I prepare an estimated litigation budget versus best, medium and worst case recovery scenarios, so my client can constantly review same when making settlement decisions through the rest of the case. This includes as detailed as possible an estimate for trial litigation, and a generalised estimate for appeal and remand costs, or third level appeal costs if warranted.”

Keeping her business fresh, with an innovative approach to services, is key for Denise and the success of Farris Law. She tells us how she achieves this.

“Not every lawyer is in this business to become rich – I certainly wasn’t,” she comments.

“Most attorneys I know do countless hours of pro bono legal work and volunteer hours and most of us don’t publish it. I hope that people recognize ‘law’ stands for the proposition that any two people are not going to wholly agree on every decision needed to be made every day of their lives. When you have two or more people involved, it becomes even more contentious particularly where the stakes, issues, geographic, religious, and philosophical ranges vary.

“Law is recognizing that disputes MUST be resolved listening to, and honouring, the different perspectives of the dispute.

‘Truth’ can vary depending on the perspective from which you are viewing an issue – like the story of the seven blind men describing the elephant.

Were any of their descriptions a lie? Or just a viewpoint from a limited perspective? Law is trained professionals either attempting persons to recognize this fundamental aspect and then working through that to a resolution, or alternatively, advocating for one perspective with an advocate for the other perspective to reach that resolution , in a fair and deliberate way, without resorting to violence or anarchy.”

Company: Farris Law Firm LLC Name: Denise E. Farris, Owner and Managing Member Email: dfarris@farrislawfirm.com Web Address: www.farrislawfirm.com Address: 20355 Nall Avenue Stilwell KS 66085 Telephone: 913-766-1262

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“I genuinely like my clients and value their professional and in many instances, developing personal friendships. While not required to do so, I use incremental billing where I list each service and the time spent on each service each day, for each billing period.

While demanded by insurance companies, most lawyers do not use this type of billing detail for regular engagements where it’s much more time consuming for the recording lawyer. I use it where it makes it much easier to engage in a meaningful

With regards to future aspirations, Denise would like her law firm, Farris Law, to stand for the proposition that ‘law’ or ‘lawyer’ doesn’t have to be a bad word.

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Ticket to Success Maria O’Connor, Managing Director of Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand, tells us more about the company, what motivates her and shares her secrets to success.

Ticketmaster has been operating in its current form in Australia since 1995 and is a recognised market leader in the ticketing and entertainment industry.

“As a business, we’re constantly investing in technology and market-leading innovations that enhance the capabilities of both our clients and customers,” explains Maria. “With that, we commit ourselves to delivering world class service to thousands of clients every day. Ticketmaster sells thousands of tickets for sports, music, performing arts, theatre, comedy and attractions, while offering our clients the very best in retail ticketing services and box office systems solutions.”

As the largest global event ticketing organisation serving more than 10,000 clients in 20 global markets, Ticketmaster has a clear ongoing strategy to ensure operations run smoothly and successfully.

“Our business requires a 24-hour day,” Maria embellishes. “Our customers are motivated by passion, so we have to match that same level of passion to service them. I’m very proud to work with a team that display that same, integral passion day in and day out; they are passionate about Ticketmaster and the events that they’re selling. We’ve made massive technological advancements, which I think will only become more and more crucial to our business. Customers have endless technology at their fingertips and it’s changed the way retailers operate. Ticketless operations will become more and more important as the whole ticket-buying process becomes more seamless and digital. We

talk to thousands of customers online each day via social media, which I believe only strengthens the importance of retailer transparency.”

In order to ensure customer satisfaction on such a grand scale, a watertight approach must be taken and adhered to in order to develop the company effectively. Maria tells us more about the key principles that she, and the Ticketmaster team, adhere to.

“Above everything else, it’s vital to tell the truth and always do the right thing. That is the core of my personal principles; to do the right thing by both our customers, our clients and, of course, our staff. Across Ticketmaster, and in today’s marketplace generally, I believe it’s important to give the customer the benefit of the doubt. Whether on stage, in the field or in an office, our industry is based on the strength of relationships. Being in this business for such a long time means I have developed these key relationships both with our staff internally and externally with clients that we work so closely with on a day to day basis.”

Whilst it’s true that women in power face challenges on a daily basis, and Maria’s rise to the top certainly hasn’t come without other road blocks, she shares some of the attributes she possesses which she believes have helped shape her career and her success.

“I can honestly say that I have been fortunate enough not to have faced any challenges that come from being a woman working in the corporate environment. I am proud to be part of an industry that is extremely accepting and respectful of diversity. After

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all, these are the things that make people different and that’s something this industry acknowledges in a positive way.

Throughout my career I have been helped and mentored by great women and men, which continues to be the case even to this day. I’m also fortunate to work in an industry which includes lots of women in various sectors.

“I believe tenacity and honesty are vital, along with the strength to be innovative, make decisions and see things through.

Something that has perhaps been helped by my upbringing in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I also pride myself on being a very good judge of character which I think has always served me well in business.

With regards to giving advice to like-minded women wanting to suceed in this sector, I would say to just do it. There is no benefit to be gained from making excuses and the best thing you can do is to get stuck in. Work out what you what to do and where your strengths lie, then work extremely hard and get going. Once you have the skills and knowledge to succeed in your chosen industry, I believe the most important attributes are to be smart, have stamina, maintain integrity, and possess great people skills, leadership skills and to not walk away from adversity. You must believe in what you are doing and have the skills to convey your ideas to others effectively.”

Industry in general is everevolving, and Maria has witnessed significant change, mainly regarding the huge advancements in technology we have experienced over the last few decades. It is fair to say that the internet is king, especially in

Ticketmaster’s sector.

“The industry has changed dramatically but most notably is the shift in power from selling to buying, which has undoubtedly been caused by the growth in information technology. Power in the ticketing marketplace has gone to the consumer as they have all the latest information at their fingertips thanks to technology. Where the development in technology has devastated other media businesses, Ticketmaster has blossomed and grown with it. We have integrity and are transparent with both customers and clients; something technology has only helped us to be. This brings me back to the importance of honesty; with consumers having so much access to information, honesty is the only way to approach successful business.

“Technology is absolutely key. Today’s consumers are extremely smart and have the power to make or break any live event. The power of social media for instance means the job of publicists is even more important to help ensure we are translating information clearly online. Security at venues is also vital; an operation you could compare to airport security. The advancements in technology mean knowing who is in a venue at any given time. Our clients have access to a great amount of technology through Ticketmaster; including access to mobile e-Tickets, brand new analytics tools and advance reporting tools. In 2017, we’ll move towards the first ever paperless ticketing events, among many other industry-first advancements.”

The entertainment and ticketing industry as a whole is currently at a crossroads as it moves through

g Ticket to Success

a transition stage. Maria tells us more about what she envisions for the future of this sector.

“There are less producers and promoters in the live entertainment industry here in Australia, which increases the presence of International influence and inevitably makes it tougher to make deals. With less people to facilitate the products, the cost of touring events and putting on big productions only increases.

The cost of today’s big theatre shows and contemporary music also leads to the increase in ticket prices. The Australian government do great work to invest in amazing theatres and live venues but now we need investment in the events that go into those venues. We are also seeing a rebuild of the festival sector here, which will no doubt lead to extremely exciting times ahead.”

Maria’s final words are those of praise for her fellow colleagues and, of course, the people who keep the company thriving, the clients.

Company: Ticketmaster Name: Maria O’Connor, Managing Director of Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand Web Address: www.ticketmaster.com.au

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“Every company is made up of people and behind Ticketmaster are its brilliant people. Whether you buy a ticket, are one of our clients or work with us in another way, you will see that our best asset is our people. This great example if set at the top – by the heads of our company, Michael Rapino, President and CEO, Live Nation and Mark Yovich, President, Ticketmaster International. I have always worked with people who want to invest in people and that continues to be the priority at Ticketmaster across the globe.

Ultimately, however good your technology is, it doesn’t matter if you haven’t got good people. At Ticketmaster, our people set us apart.”

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Skincare Solutions Zaheda Hafez is founder of The Laser Treatment Clinic in Harley Street, London. She started her career in the Aesthetic field in 1996 as Senior Consultant to a renowned cosmetic surgeon at a private clinic in Harley Street. We speak to her to find out more about Laser Skin Care.

Zaheda Hafez has always had an interest in skincare, but she was drawn to the scientific advancements in cosmetics, and what this could mean for the future of skincare. In 2000, her passion led her to open The Laser Treatment Clinic at 1 Harley Street, London.

Here, a team of highly skilled professionals have provided advanced solutions to skin concerns for nearly two decades.

During this time, Zaheda observed that her clients’ skin concerns had either been initiated or aggravated by their daily skincare routine, and in particular by the superficial ingredients contained in most high-street skincare brands.

In response to this, working closely with Cosmetic Chemist’s, and using her experience and practice know-how alongside research and testing, Zaheda developed a natural marine based skin care range, The Laser Treatment Clinic Marine Skincare range was launched in 2013. She wanted her clients to

continue the same high standard of skincare at home.

“I work with a team of highly skilled professionals to provide advanced skin care solutions with care and compassion at our clinic in Harley Street, London. Our clientele ranges from the local to the national and international. We work with a wide range of clients; students to MP’s, famous actors and singers, as well as others of a high profile.

People not just from England but from all around the world; France, Germany, Switzerland, New York, Singapore and Dubai to name just a few places.

“Our focus now is, and always has been, to offer our clients the best treatments and products available today. All our clients, women and men, come to us for the same one thing, to achieve Healthy Clear Skin and the confidence that come with that.

“Our full range of treatments include, but are not exclusive of; acne treatment, acne scar treatment, pigmentation treatment, scar treatment, stretch

marks treatment, laser hair removal, birth mark removal, thread veins treatment, rosacea treatment, sun damage treatment & skin rejuvenation treatment”.

“Integrity - adhere to the highest standards of professionalism, ethics and personal responsibility, worthy of the trust our patients place in us.

When asked about the mission statement for her firm, Zaheda replied that The Laser Treatment Clinic is dedicated to making their clients feel more beautiful; “It’s never too late to rejuvenate, restore and protect the natural beauty of your skin.

“Healing - inspire hope and nurture the well-being of the whole person, respecting physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

She went on to speak about the values that govern the running of The Laser Treatment Clinic.

“These six core values, which guide The Laser Treatment Clinic’s mission to this day, are an expression of the vision and intent of our founder.

“Respect – we treat everyone in our diverse community, including patients, their families and colleagues, with dignity.

“Compassion - provide the best care, treating patients and their family members with sensitivity and empathy at all times.

“Teamwork - value the contributions of all, blending the skills of individual staff members in unsurpassed collaboration.

“Excellence - deliver the best outcomes and the highest quality service through the unique skills, experience and dedicated effort of every team member.

Finally, we asked Zaheda how she ensures that her firm stays at the forefront of industry developments.

“We continue to strive for excellence in the ever evolving world of aesthetics, through constant retraining and implementing improved techniques, advanced systems and innovative products”.

K Company: The Laser Treatment Clinic Name: Zaheda Hafez Email: enquiries@thelasertreatmentclinic.com Web Address: www.thelasertreatmentclinic.com Address: 1 Harley Street, London, W1G 9QD Telephone: 0207 307 8712

30 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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At the VERSFELD & HUGO, LLC immigration law firm, we help both individuals and corporations across the world with all matters that relate to Immigration, Naturalization, Visa and Consular Law. Our attorneys provide world-class immigration assistance.

mail@versfeldlaw.com

www.versfeldlaw.com

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Centium Software: Successful Software Solutions Centium Software has been producing state-of-the-art meeting technology for almost 30 years, with their technology being used by meeting planners and organizers in all event industries, including corporation events, incentive events, association events, world government events, and global sporting events, including three different Olympic games. We spoke to Alec Sonenthal to find out more his firm’s work within the industry.

Centium Software’s flagship product, EventsAIR, is the culmination of almost 30 years of industry leadership and provides organizers with a comprehensive, cloud-based platform for managing all aspects of events and meetings. This includes the management of travel, accommodation, registration, functions, exhibitions, speakers, onsite check-in, mobile apps, accounting, budgeting and much more. Alec explains that events are complex, dynamic and everchanging, which necessitates consistent updates to the technology that manages them in order to keep pace with the industry.

“Our clients include professional conference organizers (PCOs), corporate planners, non-profit planners, government planners and travel organizations.

Everyone involved at Centium Software is committed to the success of our clients, evidenced by the hundreds of clients that have utilised our service for over a dozen years and continue to do so to this day. As an employee owned company, we focus on providing leading edge technology, designed for the needs and requirements of today’s meeting planners.

Our team consists of meeting experts who walk-the-walk and fully understand the challenges and needs of today’s rapidly changing meetings industry.”

“As the event lead-up moves into the actual event, the time pressures, constraints and workloads increase exponentially; we understand this, and have created powerful, easy-to-use, real-time solutions with redundancy and support 24/7. We don’t outsource our support. We maintain offices around the globe and deliver support in person, by telephone and online. We are proud to specialize in event management, and we’re pleased that our products are proven and trusted all over the world.

For more than 25 years, the team at Centium Software have developed some of the biggest innovations in the event management industry. What got them to this stage? The same thing that Alec believes makes them different: their point of view.

“Our background is in event management, so we think like event organizers. We design and develop according to what will make life easier for them and for attendees, and what will benefit the host organization.

The meetings industry has

32 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

been dramatically affected by changes in the software and technology industry, with the shift to cloud-based design leading these changes. Other providers of event management solutions rely on web-based designs that are more than ten years old and are not nearly as secure or robust as current, cloud-based technology. This shift to the cloud has opened up numerous new approaches to how we can design technology and deploy it to our clients.

“Cloud-based technology has allowed Centium Software to completely re-think and reengineer how event planners can manage their events. Our technology is app-based, providing a far superior level of security and ease of installation. By deploying cloud-based technology and cutting-edge architecture, we are able to constantly innovate new technology and push this out to our clients every 30 to 60 days. This new architecture has allowed Centium Software to create a new paradigm in how meetings technology is deployed and licensed. For the first time, meeting planners can license a comprehensive and powerful technology for a flat monthly fee, as opposed to the overpriced approach of charging per-person registration fees.

“In order to stay ahead of the curve, our entire development team, including our Innovation Lab group, is constantly evaluating trends and technology in the meetings industry. We are constantly holding innovation lab sessions with our clients, we speak to industry groups around the globe to gather further information and are focused on providing cutting-edge solutions to our clients. Our company size and structure allows us to constantly innovate new solutions and bring them to our clients in months, rather than years.”

Another ground-breaking approach that Centium Software is taking to new technology is the EventsAIR App Store. This collection of advanced services and tools allows clients of the firm to provide specialized and powerful tools to expand more traditional event tools, as Alec explains.

“Our app store includes dozens of apps, including tools for selfcheck in, onsite management, exhibitor appointments, audience live polling, exhibitor management, group management, speaker/abstract management and much more.

Most of these advanced apps are included at no additional charge

g Centium Software: Successful Software Solutions Company: Centium Software Name: Alec Sonenthal Email: info@centiumsoftware.com Web Address: www.eventsair.com Telephone: 61 7 3341 8320

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to our clients, including our native mobile attendee and organizer apps. As you would expect, our commitment is resolute to continue innovating and leading the industry well into the future.

We are continually releasing new technology within the EventsAIR platform, and focus on offering these enhancements without nickel and diming our clients for additional fees and charges. “We support our future event organizers by sponsoring thousands of students studying event management at over 50 universities and institutions around the globe the with Rising Star education program. This real-world education program allows students to learn how realworld event technology works, and we extend certification to all students who complete the Rising Star program, and also provide 10, $1,000 scholarships each year to students across the globe.�

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From the Ground Up For over 25 years, Ayoki Fabricon Pvt. Ltd. offer their clients genuinely innovative solutions in the timely execution of projects, without compromising on quality and safety. During that time they have grown from a small team to a large professional set up with many expert engineers and technicians. We reached out to Ganesh Kumar (CEO of the Year 2016, India) for a deeper look into the methodologies behind their successes.

Established in 1984, having its registered office in Pune, just 100 miles from Mumbai, the commercial hub of India, Ayoki Fabricon has grown from its humble beginnings as subcontractors to main contractors for mechanical erection in heavy industrial plant construction.

However, in the following 10 years the company rose to the status of principle contractors, independently taking erection activity orders for cement, power and sugar plants for companies across India, Africa, and beyond.

“Presently we are doing a global business of USD 172 million with a sales turnover of USD 60 million for year 2015-16.

We have evolved into group of 6 companies and established separate entities/subsidiaries in Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, Nigeria,

Nepal, Bhutan, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia. Besides having a team of professionally qualified engineers, managers and administrators, we are globally accepted brand in the industry of heavy engineering construction. By acquiring a reputed 40-year civil construction company Buildmet India, we are geared to offer total construction solutions to the industry anywhere in the world.

“Last year, we have ventured into taking EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) orders and are on the verge of successfully completing 2 projects for Heidelberg cements for their units in Togo and Benin in West Africa. We have similar business tie-up with Dangote Industries of Africa for over USD 100 million for 3 clinker (raw material for cement) grinding units at Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire and Liberia.”

Having grown a business from a small segment contractor to a leader in the sector with a global presence has, of course, proved a huge challenge. However, it is apparent that Ganesh meets, and exceeds, these challenges with relish. “Endurance, patience, determination and risk to explore the unexploited areas of remote corners of the globe are the key attributes I possess. Personally I like to take up challenges, explore unexplored geographical areas and motivate with the positivity of my fellow directors.

My motivation doubles to see the smiling faces of my staff from the lowest rung to the top.

I had a dream to own at least one crane, which is the major and expensive equipment in our industry. Today I stand head high on my shoulders of owning more than 200 cranes and working in 19 of the 54 African countries, 3 of the 7 United Arab Emirates, 25 of the 31 Indian states, and the neighbouring countries Nepal and Bhutan and Indonesia in South East Asia.

“Emerging from a mere subcontractor to an independent construction company offering total construction solution with a global branding is a huge development. Engaging professionally qualified and experienced team with importance to precision, safety and timely delivery has been our key principle.

“The key approach is towards the holistic welfare of our 5,000 employees, of whom over 200 have worked with us for the

34 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

last 30 years and a 1,000+ for more than a decade. We have reposed a sense of belonging among the employees and ensure growth of the employees along with the growth of the organization. We have trained over 1,000 unskilled/ illiterate and semi-skilled labour force in the under-developed African countries, who would permanently be employed in the industry.

When asked about his thoughts on the construction industry, both at present and looking forward Ganesh had this to say.

“The construction industry is going through challenges along with the manufacturing sector. In India, infrastructure and industrial development has taken a back seat on account of various factors. Construction has a direct link with both these sectors.

“The service industry has gone through a lot of changes over the years. Attrition level of manpower is on the increase.

Unlike 2 decades back, when people emotionally attached to the organization. With growth of technology, modernization and value engineering, service sector has been affected and competition to get business is stiff.”

But these changes do not perturb him. Speaking about the future of the business, Ganesh looked forward to not only expanding development to new locations, but to educating the people there to bring about lasting changes.

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“My aspiration is to provide a single window world class solution in the industrial projects and work in undeveloped countries, impart skills and creating job opportunities to the youth.

“Having stabilized our international presence, as CEO and Managing Director, I have brought in the next generation of the family into the business to carry forward the mantle.

The aim is to reach to the top position in the sector, with higher standards of quality and safety.

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“In the next five years, I would like to see the company to be system dependent, doing a business of USD 200 million in a year and support generation next to carry on the operations in the same spirit and vigour. I would like to impart knowledge and training to the young engineers in the industry.”

Company: Ayoki Fabricon Pvt. Ltd. Name: Ganesh Kumar Email: corporate@ayokifabricon.com Web Address: www.ayokifabricon.com Address: 137 & 139 Akshay Complex, Dhole Patil Road, Pune – 411001, India

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A Revolutionary Treatment of Psychotic Conditions Zysis is a pharmaceutical development company looking to create a new treatment for psychotic, schizophrenic, bipolar and depressed patients. They are currently reaching out for partners to see their product all the way through to use in clinics and patient treatment.

We contacted Vice President, Russ Pendleton, for more information.

Zysis is a privately-owned pharmaceutical company optimizing therapies for disorders of the Central Nervous System to improve sufferers’ lives. They are currently developing a new treatment in an area of unmet need; a once-weekly, oral tablet for the treatment of Psychotic conditions.

The improvements their product makes in dosing convenience could make a very real difference to many patients’ lives.

The overall mission of Zysis is to create medicines that make it as easy as possible for patients to remember to take their medication. Any treatment that helps patients comply with therapy and therefore remain symptom-free is attractive to clinicians, carers and sufferers.

The company itself is made up of its board members, who are all committed to the company through their investment in it. “We are all old, extremely experienced, and hope to be knowledgeable in the therapy area. Our culture is to use modern technology to communicate with each other

“Our inventiveness is unique”, Russ informed us. “We have created the first of a new type of treatment for these patients”. Those suffering with Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder and Bipolar Disorders.

“It is patent protected.”

whilst we are far apart. We do not have an office, just monthly meetings.

“We work independently and at home as individuals. This allows us time to think instead of constantly feeling like you should be doing something in the office, we sit back, read scientific articles, stop, look at the sky, go for a walk…and think.”

And this freedom to think has led to the production of a potentially revolutionary product. “There are other slow release products but these are injectable, ours is the only once weekly oral tablet.”

“We have already sold the product to a partner for China, we would now like to find a partner for North and South America.

The market is unlikely to support

this product in Europe. We are in the controlled release section of the pharmaceutical market.

“Our clients are our potential partners, to give them the best possible product, we work hard to ensure the best professional standards are achieved throughout the development and patent process.”

The project itself will generate enough work for the company, and its partners, to last through to 2028.

Russ signed off with a statement of confidence in his and his team’s product. “New products are constantly being launched in our field, however it is very unlikely that another oral once weekly therapy will be created as the properties of the active molecule are unique.”

K Company: Zysis Name: Russ Pendleton Email: rp@zysis.com Web Address: www.zysis.com Address: 58 Kingsway, London, SW14 7HW Telephone: 07878201416

36 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Video Marketing Solutions For You Talk Fusion is home of the world’s first all-in-one Video Marketing Solution, which includes Video Chat, Live Meetings, Video Email, Video Newsletters, and Sign-up Forms. We profile the firm to learn more about their innovative products.

Their cutting-edge products run on both PC and Mac operating systems. Additionally, the marketing solution’s video features can be viewed by users on any internet-capable device, and video emails can also be created on iPhone, iPad and Android devices using their Fusion on the Go mobile app.

Over 90% of people, no matter their current occupation, are dissatisfied with their job, their boss, their income, or their current lifestyle. With TalkFusion, their aim is to help break records and change lives with their award-winning video products and income opportunity. They are the first and only company in the world to pay commissions instantly; just three minutes after the sale.

That’s why people from 140 countries join the company daily, to help them reach their dreams.

Talk Fusion is an unmatched global business opportunity powered by ground-breaking video marketing products but the firm is also so much more. Talk Fusion is about people. Proudly changing lives and growing businesses in over 140 countries (and counting), Talk Fusion is all about making people’s lives better and empowering them to pursue their dreams.

The term ‘Giving Back’ is ingrained in their corporate culture. It stems from Founder & CEO Bob Reina’s enthusiasm for life, charity, and the dream of helping people live on their own terms. As a company, Talk Fusion supports numerous charities and animal causes.

As individuals, their associates make meaningful contributions to countless organizations in their home countries across the world.

Talk Fusion’s products are always innovative and make a big impact in the industry. Firstly, the firm makes it fun, fast, and easy to create eye-catching Video Emails for personal, business, or charity. Clients can choose from thousands of professionally designed templates in many languages, record or upload their video, then click send.

In addition to this, clients can design high-impact Video Newsletters with TalkFusion’s drag-and-drop interface. Users can easily add text and photos, put in their logo and use their favourite collars and fonts.

Increase open rates, clickthroughs, replies and forwards faster than you can say, “Just press play.”

Live meetings and video chat are ways clients can use communication to improve their business prospects with the help of TalkFusion. Clients can organize and host a full-featured global presentation within minutes, stream video; upload PowerPoint slides; participate in the live chat; share files and your desktop with up to 500 guests.

Even record your presentations for future use.

Move over, Skype and FaceTime: TalkFusion’s award-winning Video Chat connects any device to every device! Chat face-toface with friends, family, and customers no matter which smartphone, PC, or tablet they’re on.

Finally, clients can engage new contacts and customers in a whole new way—automatically.

Building your email list has never been easier! Choose from hundreds of unique Sign-up Form designs or customize your own in seconds. Video auto responders do the follow-up for you.

With these innovative solutions on offer, TalkFusion can look forward to a bright and prosperous future.

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TalkFusion is a leading US company in video communication and offers professionals and individuals with a vast array of innovative products. The flagship product is TalkFusion’s all-in-one video marketing solution. Cost-effective and easy to use, the firm’s Video Marketing Solution helps businesses, charities, and people across the globe get real results when they connect with clients, customers, vendors, friends, family and more.

Company: Talk Fusion Email: support@talkfusion.com Web Address: www.talkfusion.com Address: 1319 Kingsway Road Brandon, Florida, 33510 United States Telephone: +1 813.651.4030

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Whole Earth.

Whole Person.

Whole Enterprise Located in Calgary, Canada, Cobblestone Garden Centre have proudly served their community for over 15 years under the leadership of Senior Director, Tricia Ingram. We took a closer look at this award winning, eco-minded company.

Honesty & Integrity - Down-home and country, we do what we say.

We don’t believe in cutting corners or settling for mediocrity; our clientele and business associates know that we are sincere and that we deliver on our promises.

Product Quality & Development - The best selection of the best plants for our climate, the most unique and inspiring giftware, captivating home décor, practical and eco-friendly garden solutions: these are all product lines you can discover at Cobblestone. We work hard to bring you innovation and performance.

Customer Care - We are here to help you have fun and enjoy success in your indoor and outdoor home projects.

From creative designing tips to practical garden care how to’s, depend on us for informed answers to your questions!

Environmental Stewardship Long before it was popular to

be environmentally friendly, we began supporting earthloving business practices in our garden centre and production greenhouses such as utilizing low/no-impact chemical alternatives, integrated pest management (IPM), xeriscaping, and recycling/ re-usage of materials. Involved and committed to a greener future, you can count on us for products that represent the healthiest choices on the market, both in plant material and yard care.

Community Involvement - We care and we contribute. From helping developing economies through fair trade organizations to local school fundraising to work with Non-Profit Organizations such as the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, we believe that the best way to create a vibrant and strong global neighborhood is through active community involvement.

The company utilizes a strategy of sustained growth and development through these core values, following the mandate ‘Whole Earth - Whole Person - Whole Enterprise’. They are committed to an environmentally friendly future in all that they do, providing customers with the

38 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

greenest range of choices on the market.

Even beyond their own business, Cobblestone is involved in supporting, developing and promoting markets through fair trade initiatives and eco-friendly, bio-available urban farming at regional, provincial, national, and international levels.

They also look for staff that they can nurture, by ‘hiring attitude’ over experience. By taking this approach they look to bring aboard staff who are willing to learn, expanding themselves as they expand the business and come together as a hardworking member of the team.

Tricia herself has over 18 years’ experience as head grower in the

production greenhouse facilities linked to the company, growing crops ranging from woody ornamentals to floriculture to edibles; and winning numerous recognitions and awards while in that role, including ‘Grower of the Year’.

On top of that, she has gained thirteen years’ experience as business lead within the retail garden centre, adding further recognitions for her work, including ‘Retailer of the Year’.

Committed to environmental issues before it became considered ‘fashionable’, Cobblestone Garden Centre is a true success story for a business of its kind, proving that you can remain environmentally minded without compromise.

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Proudly beautifying Albertan homes, Cobblestone Garden Centre was founded on, and still operates by, five core values, explained in their own words, below:

Company: Cobblestone Garden Centre Name: Tricia Ingram Email: tricia@cobblestonegarden.ca Web Address: www.cobblestonegarden.ca Address: 10300 17th Ave SE, Calgary AB T1X 0L4, Canada Telephone: +403 273-4760

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A Woman’s World Business Woman of the Year UK, Samantha Essenhigh of Essenhigh Farrington Law, tells us what makes her tick and shares with us the secrets to her success.

The Firm’s mission state is ‘Modern thinking – Traditional Values’ and its goals include promoting and actively encouraging business owners to look at the benefits and assistance that The Legal Concierge can afford them.

Samantha divulges more about her role within the Firm, and her career to date which led her to such a prestigious position.

“I have worked in law since I was 17/18 years of age so as I have said the experience that I have gained has carried me through.

I also truly believe however that having a different mind-set is important to achieving all that we set out to. Back then I could only ever have dreamed of owning a law firm which I have built from the ground up whilst not a solicitor or a barrister.

“My road to CEO of an ABS has certainly not been a conventional one though and it has been challenging to say the least. I started in law many years ago as a junior secretary and have effectively worked my way up within the profession studying and learning from those around me as I have done so. I am a true believer that experience is what can make you great at what you do rather than just good if, you are prepared to do what it takes to achieve your dreams.

“I founded the Firm in 2008 with a colleague and have driven it forward from the start, though I am very aware that I could not have achieved that which I have without the love and support of family, friends and above all colleagues. I have had the privilege of working with individuals who have given a great deal to both me and the Firm in terms of commitment and, above all, loyalty. It is important to remember that business in any form is not always plain sailing and having people you can trust close at hand is something to count as a blessing.”

Regarding women in business, Samantha is committed to ensuring that Essenhigh Farrington attracts the best female talent from within the industry. She ensures this by promoting strong family values and ensuring her staff enjoy a good work-life balance.

“Eighty percent of the staff in our Firm are women,” she states proudly. “I think our success in attracting talent comes down to the message that we send out. We are each dedicated to the work that we do and are committed to ensuring that the standard of that work is exceptional. That said we are

also a firm with family values and we support our female as well as male staff ensuring that they take quality family time. Life is all about balance and by giving staff members things like unlimited annual leave, flexible working hours, Christmas and New Year off and appreciating that they add to the value of the firm, evidencing this and encouraging their growth and development stands us apart from other law firms as does the variety of work that we do.”

Despite Samantha’s strong ethics, there are still a lot of challenges for women working in the corporate environment. She embellishes on how she has overcome some of the difficulties she has encountered along the way.

“Whilst the industry has changed I am sad to say that there is still a great deal of elitism and sexism within it. As a woman and a “nonqualified” fee earner it is easy for people to assume that you know little or have little of value to contribute to the profession.

All I can say is that not everyone shares the same views and that the proof of what I, or someone like me can accomplish is there for all to see. Having respect for peers and appreciating the position that I am in, that no one

is infallible nor can anyone know everything is what keeps me grounded, focus and determined.

As do the hardships that I have encountered along the way.

Patience also is often key a virtue which, admittedly, I can often struggle with.”

Samantha’s success is inspiring to say the least and she shares her advice for other women looking to succeed in the law industry.

“Work hard, be open-minded, be respectful, find a mentor or coach who is prepared to guide you and help you see things through different eyes, dare to be different, don’t be ashamed of taking a modern and fresh approach to what is considered the norm, remember that whilst the law is there before us in black and white changes are often needed, don’t be scared of doing things differently, remember that our job is to help others, that whether you are legally qualified or not you are no better than the client you serve, be prepared to accept that you cannot always be right.

“Women are just strong and able as men. Above all as a business owner remember that you need to be able to improvise, adapt and overcome.”

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“The work that we do is extensive,” begins Samantha, speaking of Essenhigh Farrington Law where she serves as CEO. “The Firm works in multiple specialised areas and has won several awards over the course of the last 12 months for our quality of representation and success in Clinical Negligence, Cosmetic Negligence and Civil Litigation. We have also won an award for our Customer Service but I am particularly proud of the restructuring that has taken place and the work that we now do for, and on behalf of, business owners, ensuring that they are legally protected whilst also promoting their growth so that they can achieve their desired goals. We do this now through ‘The Legal Concierge.’”

Company: Essenhigh Farrington Law Name: Samantha Essenhigh Email: se@essenhighfarringtonlaw.com Web Address: www.essenhighfarringtonlaw.com Address: 19 Anchor Street, Southport, Merseyside PR9 0UT Telephone: 01704 514780

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Committed to Client Satisfaction With offices in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, Goldberg, Miller & Rubin focuses their defense litigation practice on general and premises liability; construction accidents; automobile accidents; insurance and healthcare fraud litigation; and toxic tort and asbestos litigation while providing effective, and fiscally-sound litigation management on behalf of clients. We spoke with Eamon Merrigan (Attorney of the Year 2017, Pennsylvania) to learn more about the firm and his own personal expertise.

When asked what set his firm apart from its peers, Partner Eamon Merrigan was proud to inform us that, “Goldberg, Miller & Rubin is distinguished from other civil litigation firms by its established long-held reputation as experienced, ethical and honest attorneys who champion their clients’ cases from the pleading stage to resolution or trial - knowing when to advise settlement and not being afraid to advise against it.”

With such a commitment to excellence, efficiency and innovation, Goldberg, Miller & Rubin stands ready to represent its clients. “Our strength lies within our trial expertise which

has earned us recognition for our tenacity in the courtroom.

While the dynamics of each case may be different, each and every one receives personal attention.

The frequency with which we try cases has given us many opportunities to exhibit innovative tactics during trials. We are a talented and smart team of trial attorneys who exercise the highest ethics and bring over three decades of knowledge and expertise to a diverse and growing caseload.

“Our trial experience and breadth of legal knowledge have established us as a valuable legal resource for manufacturers, trucking companies, health systems, self-insureds, apartment and housing complexes, insurance companies, retail stores, restaurants, grocers, property management companies, hotels, rental car companies, distributors, and many other private firms.”

When we asked Eamon for more about his own involvement and expertise within the firm, he told us, “I practice law throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern and Middle Districts of Pennsylvania.

I currently concentrate my practice in general and premises liability, construction accidents, automotive negligence, products

40 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

liability, medical malpractice, and complex subrogation claims. I also regularly defend uninsured and underinsured motorist claims and advise insurance companies on coverage issues.

“With extensive experience in civil litigation, I am recognized for my common sense approach to efficiently and successfully defend clients. I have obtained defense verdicts in over 60 jury trials, several of which involved pre-trial settlement demands of over seven figures. My vast trial experience has given me valuable insight into jurors’ minds and behaviors which greatly contributes to my overall success at all stages of litigation. Over the years, I have also obtained numerous defense verdicts at arbitration hearings and favorable rulings at the appellate level. I am a sought-after speaker and often lecture on civil litigation topics including strategy and evidentiary issues. I joined Goldberg, Miller & Rubin in 2002 and was named a partner in 2011.”

In talking with Eamon, it is clear that neutrality and fairness remain keystones of everything which Goldberg, Miller & Rubin does and that everything the firm does is with the client highest in mind. “We uphold strict codes of conduct and adhere to the highest ethical standards to maintain neutrality, confidentiality, and fairness. Goldberg, Miller

& Rubin prides itself on superb client satisfaction. We regularly exceed client expectations and provide true value for our clients’ money by focusing on the best outcomes for our clients. Our standards of practice stem from a philosophy of treating our clients’ money as if it were our own and that translates into true value and excellent client satisfaction. This is evidenced by our excellent track record of client retention.”

As well as making use of advancements in technology for themselves to more efficiently serve clients, Eamon noted that the pace of change in applied technology provided yet more areas that will require legal oversight moving forward.

To remain relevant, the firm’s attorneys need to keep abridged of current and upcoming trends.

“Information is now consumed in different formats and technology has afforded us the opportunity to present our cases in more compelling ways in the courtroom. Particular client industries have also experienced tremendous business expansion which sometimes requires increased legal representation.

We project that new technology and other innovations– such as self-driving automobiles for example – will tremendously impact the insurance industry and civil litigation.

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“The firm’s leadership is well versed in the hot topics and industry trends that concern our corporate clients, both large and small. We regularly hold strategy sessions on these topics and trends in order to devise new models to efficiently deliver services. We are currently adapting new technologies to be less dependent on cumbersome and costly files and exhibits to expeditiously deliver legal services while effectively demonstrating our clients’ positions at trials, hearings, arguments and court conferences.”

Future plans for the firm’s growth are based heavily on continued investment in its attorneys.

“Because of the increased demand for cost effective litigation, we continually recruit new attorneys and staff with an eye towards anticipating our clients’ and potential clients’ diverse needs.

Company: Goldberg, Miller & Rubin Name: Eamon Merrigan Email: emerrigan@gmrlawfirm.com Web Address: www.gmrlawfirm.com Address: 121 South Broad Street, Suite 1600, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Telephone: 215-735-3994

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“Goldberg, Miller & Rubin has experienced tremendous growth in the last five years with the expansion of our New York office and the addition of a Wilmington, Delaware office. Our future plans are to provide professional development and legal education to our attorneys to enhance their leadership and expertise, with the expectation that continued service excellence will result in the Firm’s growth.”

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Power to the People David A. Burkhalter II of the American law firm Burkhalter, Rayson, & Associates, P.C., talks to Corporate Vision magazine following his firm being awarded the prestigious title of American Law Firm of the Year. David tells us a little more about the firm, its work and its clientele.

“With over 70 years of combined legal experience, we represent individuals in nearly every type of employment matter, including wrongful termination, retaliation, contractual disputes, severance negotiation, discrimination, etc. This also includes those brave whistleblowers who choose to speak out against government fraud, in cases such as government contract and procurement fraud, healthcare Medicare/Medicaid fraud, illegal kickbacks, SEC securities fraud, and IRS tax fraud. We also have an extensive personal injury and wrongful death practice, and we represent a wide range of seriously injured persons and their family members.”

The practice of law and the business of running a law practice are two very different aspects, and David embellishes.

“The business of running a law practice requires us to always be up-to-date on the most recent innovations and technologies that will help make our business more efficient and effective,

and in turn, allow us to offer the best possible service to each individual client.”

There are several key attributes which David believes sets Burkhalter, Rayson & Associates apart from the competition.

“The most obvious is that other law firms do not have the wonderful staff that this law firm does,” he laughs. “Also, we welcome the opportunity to fight for the people of this country, and find justice for those who have truly been wronged or injured. That is what this law firm is all about.

We make a point to understand our clients and empathize with their problems. We embrace the fact that we are a family of trial lawyers, and we apply that type of mindset to each client. Every case is personal. Every client is important. Finally, it is our ability to creatively find the right solution to every problem, no matter how small or complex.”

First and foremost, the client’s best interest is always the firm’s number one priority.

“Making this the top priority in every case results in the type of client satisfaction that is critical to obtaining the results that matter, as well as maintaining our reputation,” says David. “Nearly all of our cases are taken on a contingency fee basis, which means the client does not owe any attorney fee if there is no monetary recovery. Therefore, when our client is satisfied with the results, then we are also

42 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

satisfied. We have a personal stake invested into every single case just like our clients. We stand or fall together.”

David explains how the firm deals with maintaining neutrality, confidentiality, and fairness in each case, and what this all means when representing others.

“With every case, there are a number of factors that you must always take into consideration. As an attorney, we are obligated to maintain the utmost confidentiality with every client and potential client. As a counselor, we advise our client on every conceivable option and outcome. As an advocate, we zealously fight to obtain justice for our client. And finally, as a human, it can be very difficult to remain neutral when you empathize with a client who you know was truly wronged.

However, in order to ensure the best possible outcome, we have to objectively view cases from all sides, as we strive to put all necessary time, energy, and talent into each case.”

“We embrace all challenges at this firm. The ability to overcome challenges and adversity is certainly a measure of success.

With that being said, you cannot always predict the future. You must learn from your mistakes.

You must surround yourself with good people who share the same vision and believe in the process, and importantly, are the type of people who will tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you want to hear.”

Industry in America is everevolving and David comments on how the legal field is no different and how the firm works hard to stay ahead of the game. “Laws and regulations change and/ or are created every day. We stay abreast of the most recent legal innovations in many ways but, as a boutique law firm, we also have to be practical in making cost-effective decisions.

This firm focuses on innovative approaches to client acquisition, client satisfaction, and successful representation.”

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“Our law firm prides itself on representing only the hardworking people of this country, and not corporations or insurance companies,” he begins. “Whether they are the top executives, like the CEO or VP, blue collar, white collar, or a doctor, we represent people from all walks of life. We treat our clients like family because each case is truly personal to us.”

Company: Burkhalter, Rayson & Associates, P.C. Name: David A. Burkhalter II Email: david@burkhalterrayson.com Web Address: www.burkhalterrayson.com Address: 111 South Central Street, Knoxville, TN 37902 Telephone: (865) 524-4974

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Bringing the Personal to Injury Claims The Steven Dhillon Law Firm (American Law Firm of the Year, California) specializes in personal injury representation. The firm provides representation for individuals who have suffered injuries from auto accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, dog bites, and slip/trip and fall accidents. We spoke with them to learn more about the firm and its specialist expertise.

From the moment of the firms founding, commitment to the client has remained the highest priority. “The number one duty of any attorney is to zealously represent his/her client. As such, neutrality is never provided between our clients and the at-fault party, adverse insurance agency and opposing counsel.

We have the experience to know when a settlement offer is fair and when an insurance company is trying to take advantage of our clients.

“A great benefit to our personal injury clientele is that our clients never put up any money up-front for our representation. We work on a contingency basis. This means that we only receive legal fees if we successfully obtain compensation for our clients. This structure provides

the highest quality of legal representation to individuals who otherwise would be unable to afford going through what may potentially be a lengthy and expensive legal process.”

When asked about the current state of personal injury law, we learned that, in the California region, the field currently remained stable. “Fortunately, there have not been many changes in the personal injury field over the last few years. While certain insurance companies may have tightened their own reins on the amount of money they are willing to shell out for certain cases, at the end of the day if the value of one’s case requires a larger settlement, we are able to overcome any disagreements of valuation and resolve our client’s case for a fair and reasonable value.”

“The Steven Dhillon Law Firm is always staying up to date on the latest law firm technology and software that is designed to help streamline representation.

Electronic files and remote representation are keys in ensuring client needs are met, no matter the circumstances.

Having quick access to files also provides peace of mind to our clientele that delays will not occur when responding to inquiries or filing paperwork with the appropriate parties. This helps

us obtain settlements faster and put money in our clients’ pockets without any undue delay.”

When asked to highlight the main factor which set them apart from their competition, it was the personal approach the firm delivered which most stood out.

“The Steven Dhillon Law Firm is always staying up to date on the latest law firm technology and software that is designed to help streamline representation.”

“The Steven Dhillon Law Firm is the only law firm that directly communicates with each of its clients without the client having to go through a secretary or paralegal. Any and all calls, emails or text messages are routed directly to Mr. Dhillon and Mr. Dhillon personally responds to every question or concern, 24/7.”

As this approach remains a successful one, the firm plans to open new offices across California in the future, taking on the best of the best personal injury attorneys to provide the whole state with excellent client service.

“We always offer free consultations to anyone who is interested in pursuing a personal injury claim and there is no obligation required to speak with Mr. Dhillon.”

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The Steven Dhillon Law Firm was established in 2010 and since its inception it has focused solely on personal injury representation. Steven Dhillon, Esq., obtained his Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law and was a visiting student at Pepperdine University School of Law. Mr. Dhillon also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Iowa Tippie School of Management.

Company: The Steven Dhillon Law Firm, APLC Name: Steven Dhillon, Esq., MBA Email: SDhillon@StevenDhillonLaw.com Web Address: www.StevenDhillonLaw.com Address: 30961 W. Agoura Rd., Suite 103, Westlake Village CA 91361 Telephone: (818) 874-9485 Fax: (818) 874-9784

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Cleaning Up Autoclenz is the UK market leader in supplying vehicle preparation and dealership support services. Following the firm’s win of Automotive Service Provider of the Year 2016 - UK & Best for Prestige Valeting - UK, Grahame Rummery talks us through the firm and the range of services it offers to its nationwide clientele.

Founded in 1969, Autoclenz has grown into the leading vehicle preparation company in the UK, and the firm now offers a wide range of services to retailers of new and used vehicles and to the daily rental and vehicle remarketing industries. The firm now counts six of the top 10 UK automotive dealer groups and the UK’s largest auction company as clients, providing a range of services including vehicle valeting, cosmetic smart repairs, imaging, vehicle delivery and collection as well as premises cleaning.

“Autoclenz is focussed on delivering the highest levels of customer service in a highly competitive marketplace”, Grahame proudly states. “This is achieved by our national network of Divisional and Regional

Managers supporting the Client Account Managers.”

“What sets us apart from our competitors is the fact that our standards of vehicle valeting are better than our competitors because of the level of detail we go to. Our quality auditing and reporting are also second to none. We understand that the better a vehicle is presented, the easier it will be to sell and the more value it will achieve for our customer.

“In addition, we have a unique reporting system which allows dealer groups to monitor our performance across multiple sites enabling cross comparison for continuous improvement.”

Operating in such a highly competitive market with many local independent operators, firms such as Autoclenz have

to work hard to remain at the forefront of the market, as Grahame explains.

“Here at Autoclenz, we have a very successful track record delivering year on year company growth. Our constant challenge is to maintain adequate availability of labour to deliver on the promises to our clients.

It is not always easy to find vehicle valeters. It is a tough job but, for the right people, it can be very rewarding in terms of job satisfaction and financial returns.”

Strong competition and the safety issues surrounding cars mean that the market has a number of regulations which the firm has to comply with, but Grahame’s positive attitude makes these an opportunity rather than a challenge.

“Regulations and legislation actually create an opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves.

An example would be in the field of Corporate and Social Responsibility. We work for

many plcs who are very proud of their brand reputation and need to mitigate any risks that may threaten the company. Because we carry out immigration checks on all the operators, we can assure our clients that the valeters on their premises are legal workers. Because they are being paid at least the minimum wage - or more - our clients need have no worries about the Modern Slavery Act as they know we are in complete compliance. These are very real worries for modern businesses and the reassurance we can give provides our clients with great peace of mind.”

Moving forward, Grahame is confident that the firm will continue to build upon its current success as it seeks to provide its award winning services to an even wider client base.

“Looking to the future we are keen to continue our sustainable, organic growth and achieve our ambition of working with all the top 10 automotive companies in the UK.”

K Company: Autoclenz Name: Mr Grahame Rummery Email: grahame.rummery@autoclenz.co.uk Web Address: www.autoclenz.co.uk Address: Stanhope Road, Swadlincote, Derbyshire, DE11 9BE Telephone: 01283 550033

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Tailor-made Fashion Advisory Hand Baldachin & Amburgey is one of the preeminent law firms for fashion and lifestyle companies, mainly located in New York City and Los Angeles. From start-ups to multinational brands they represent clients with an understanding of the industry and its changing landscape. We spoke with Partner of the Year 2016, USA, Douglas Hand, to discover more about the keen understanding of the creative process that sets them apart from others working in the field.

“Our goal is to find innovative, practical solutions to our client’s complex business problems”, Douglas stated, “And with a sense of immediacy and priority that may surprise when compared to relationships with outside firms of the past.

HBA Partner Douglas Hand is a professor of fashion law at NYU School of Law and Cardozo School of Law and a respected thought leader of fashion law issues. Hand Baldachin & Amburgey works with the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the Fragrance Foundation as

their general counsel and sees industry trends well before they are trends, which allows them to advise their clients from a position of great clarity.

When asked about the overall mission of the firm, the message was clear. “Excellence in work product and legal counsel for fashion and lifestyle brands. We ensure this result in our attention to detail and ability to attract motivated top notch talent from ‘big law’ firms which make up our associate ranks.

“We know fashion. It is our primary focus and we provide thorough leadership on matters of fashion law. We apply a deep expertise in corporate and commercial law for fashion and lifestyle brands inside a fundamental mindset of business and corporate strategy. While our corporate and commercial work is second to none, it is this larger role of

strategic counsel for brands that we believe sets HBA apart, and is seen to be most valuable by our clients. Through the crucible of their business growth and decision-making, we often become part of our clients’ inner circles, listening and advising respectfully and candidly on issues they consider to be critical to their futures.”

The firm plans to grow conservatively, through employing only the best and most engaged attorneys to ensure its focus and quality is maintained. “Being a smaller firm we have the ability to attract talent because of the variety of projects and clients our staff has the opportunity to work with. The fashion industry is appealing to many young lawyers and we are able to engage talented associates who are motivated by our unique culture, expertise and ability to deliver to clients in the fashion industry.”

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A boutique firm with the experience and expertise of a much larger ‘Wall Street’ firm, HBA are nimble and knowledgeable enough to move with the macro changes that the retail industry brings. They can then turn these challenges for clients into opportunities thanks to advice from the firm’s advisors who all operate with ears very close to the ground and balanced business mind-set.

Company: Hand Baldachin & Amburgey LLP Name: Douglas Hand Email: info@hballp.com Web Address: www.hballp.com Address: 8 West 40th Street, 12th Floor New York, NY 10018 Telephone: 212-956-9500

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Tailoring Recruitment Solutions Delisle-Barrow Recruitment (winner of Finest in HR and Training 2016, UK) is a consultancy company which specialises in recruitment and training within specialist sectors: Banking & finance, energy and natural resources and professional services. Natasha Delisle-Barrow talked us through the successes that boutique consultancies can have within the human resources industry.

“I attribute our success to the strength of our relationships with our clients - typically within the top 20 of their respective industries - by cultivating their individual attraction and selection processes and developing and delivering effective training programmes and strategies for their internal recruitment teams. Knowledge is essential and the commitment to understanding what drives and affects the sectors of our clients’ organisations is fundamental in developing the training courses, which address their specific recruitment needs.

“We have always worked as advisors to our clients. The aim of our business is to further develop networks with industry thought leaders and influencers to create programmes that streamline our clients’ attraction and selection processes. By working closer with organisations such as CIPD, APSCo, IOR ARC and REC, we will develop programmes that can be used as an industry standard. We are also interested in working with trainers to develop programmes based on Belbin techniques and therefore creating a wider range of training.”

The firm is proud to stand out from other recruitment consultancies in its approach to client tailored interview programmes. “Generalist recruitment training is aimed at developing interview techniques, such as competency-based or strength-based interviews.

The training provided by Delisle-Barrow Recruitment is aimed at internal recruiters and focuses on developing an interview strategy which is tailored to the organisation’s long term aims. It takes everything into account from employer branding to behavioural science within interview techniques. In addition, we support recruiters to understand the motivations of the candidates they hope to attract based on demographics and social recruitment trends.”

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Regarding the current state of the recruitment industry as a whole, she was quick to point out that the biggest challenges affecting the course of future growth is, as always, people.

“The movement of people will always be the biggest factor and future events will impact our accessibility to talent. It’s the number one question for every internal and agency recruiter: how do we engage with people in a candidate short market?

I don’t see that changing but the ways in which we engage with candidates will continue to develop.”

It is very apparent that, based in London, Delisle-Barrow Recruitment is well placed to branch out beyond its home countries borders. “Our clients are predominately based in London, although they tend to be European or internationally focussed in their activities.

London is very much the centre of activity for Europe and is looked at as a leader and an innovator for business. Foreign companies will always look to invest or have a presence in the capital and London-based companies will always want to grow internationally. As multilingual consultants who have lived and worked abroad, we are well placed to support our clients.”

When looking to the future, Natasha was keen to see the business continue to expand into these international markets.

“We have strong aspirations to develop training programmes for clients across Europe. The clients we work with are of international or European focus and that gives us a different dynamic. Primarily we hope to do this by developing partnerships with accredited, specialist and respected trainers across Europe.”

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“It is always incredibly gratifying to see that our hard work has been recognised, especially as we are a boutique consultancy company”, Natasha told us upon news of DelisleBarrow Recruitment’s place within Corporate Visions ‘Finest in HR and Training, 2016’ awards.

Company: Delisle-Barrow Recruitment Ltd Name: Natasha Delisle-Barrow Email: natasha@delisle-barrow.co.uk Web Address: www.delisle-barrow.co.uk

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NewVoiceMedia:

The Future of the Contact Centre Industry We spoke to Tim Pickard, SVP Marketing at NewVoiceMedia, about how the firm has excelled in the industry. NewVoiceMedia’s cloud-based software joins up communication channels to uncover the facts that can solve a problem or help make a sale. The system integrates seamlessly with Salesforce giving clients full access to their hard-won CRM data, without expensive, disruptive hardware changes.

“Our clients want to give them a great customer/user experience when they email or text or use social media for support and help. We do that through intelligent routing so we connect to CRM technology, intelligently routing their calls. We can often know enough about a company to establish the type of customer they are and the reason for their call, so can route them through to a particular agent with the most appropriate skills. We have menu systems as well which a lot of our customers use, making it a more personal experience by knowing who’s calling.”

There are many aspects which have helped NewVoiceMedia to differentiate itself in the industry, as Tim explains.

“I think our CRM integration in particular is extremely tight and it allows customers to drive that customer experience very easily.

That is quite a difficult thing to do but we enable that ‘out of the

box’ for sales clients. We have a global reach so for businesses that are international and have multiple sales offices and call centres, we provide the ability to manage those around the globe, with a global infrastructure that supports that, and nobody has that. Also, the way we have implemented our technology so that customers can start relatively simple but grow into their technology. We are also the only company offering a sales and service solution in a single platform.

“As a true cloud platform, ContactWorld doesn’t require any hardware, plug-ins or expensive system integrations to work for clients. It offers innovations in terms of ease of use for the contact centre advisors and sales reps, reporting for managers and lower costs for financial managers. The technology can be managed by end-users rather than IT departments, is browser and phone agnostic and integrates seamlessly with Salesforce.”

The contact centre sector is a very large industry. Tim discusses the industry as a whole and gives us an insight into the challenges that are present in the market at the moment.

“There are 18 million contact

centre seats globally and about 16 million inside sales seats, so that’s a billion-dollar marketplace. The challenge that the marketplace has today is that 90% is on-premise, i.e. technology that the company had to build themselves and then maintain and manage.

There is a transition taking place into the cloud over the next five to seven years, so it’s a very hot space. The challenges are highly complex. Providing global infrastructure is very complicated and costly and providing voice quality across an infrastructure is very difficult. Those are barriers to entry for companies.

“We have built the technology that allows us to guarantee a global infrastructure but also to provide very good voice quality effectively.

Another challenge is that most organisations want to keep the technology that they already use.”

In the future, Tim explains what NewVoiceMedia expects to see from the industry.

“We have some very exciting technologies, that we are bringing to market this year.

Longer term, there are exciting developments, such as artificial intelligence, which is a very interesting development in the contact centre space. There are also some very interesting developments in workforce management, recognising that the next generation of workers have a different outlook, working patterns, and looking at how we can accommodate those from a social perspective. There are really interesting challenges and opportunities that technology will bring us. Scaling and global infrastructure underlies all of what we do. Without that, it’s difficult to bring customers a high level of service.”

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NewVoiceMedia’s ContactWorld solution is a cloud contact centre and inside sales platform serving businesses that want to treat their customers differently.

Tim, SVP Marketing, talks us through what the firm does to help its clients use a more efficient service.

Company: NewVoiceMedia Name: Tim Pickard, SVP Marketing Email: press@newvoicemedia Web Address: www.newvoicemedia.com

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A Reason to Place Your Bets Bettorlogic licence their innovative, proprietary software to sportsbooks around the world.

We contacted Andrew Dagnall, CEO winner in 2017, to tell us more about the product and the company behind it.

“For example, ‘When Man Utd have been drawing after 60 mins at Old Trafford, they have gone on to win five of their last seven such matches against teams like Liverpool.’ We generate over 7,500 reasons to have a bet during a typical weekend for sportsbooks around the world.

Our aim is to increase client turnover, manage customer expectations and ensure that a customer is entertained during their betting experience.”

Having taken note of the sheer amount of data available to those in the betting industry, Bettorlogic made the most of an opportunity that its competitors had long missed. As Andrew explains, “The betting industry, potentially, knows more about their customers than any other industry. A typical bettor will transact with a sportsbook between twenty and a hundred times a week and the data reveals what their behaviour is and how they react to success and failure. The industry does little with this data. Bettorlogic has developed software to profile customers based on their transactional data so that a sportsbook can communicate with personalised messaging and ultimately offer a fully personalised solution.

“As bettors ourselves, we understand betting and the emotions of a bettor. It is surprising how many in the business, including our competitors, do not bet and therefore often fail to understand what is an interesting reason why somebody should bet. If Man Utd are leading 3-0 with ten minutes remaining there is little point in telling a bettor that they have won every game when in this position. Far more interesting to point out the likelihood of another goal, who might score it or the margin of victory. Our other main advantage is speed of delivery, particularly in the live environment. We update in less than a second of a goal notification or the conclusion of a game in a tennis match.”

Operating in betting markets globally, the minds behind Bettorlogic keep themselves up to date with the latest betting trends in all regions.

This specialised knowledge marks them out ahead of the competition. “Challenges differ depending on the region.

Someone who bets in Africa is very different to a bettor in Asia. But, specifically in the UK, sportsbook profits have been affected by point of consumption tax and will be by the proposed new levy on horseracing. This may lead to an increase in their margin which is dictated by the odds offered, so value will diminish for those who bet in terms of their returns on winnings. That said, most bettors in the UK are not so consumed by the amount they

48 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

win as opposed to their Asian counterpart. This is why in Asia; sportsbooks operate at a margin of 2-3% compared to 6-8% in the UK.” Operating at the leading edge of new technologies, Andrew revealed just how key it is to stay ahead of emerging developments and the investments that must be made to stay ahead of the curve.

“15 months ago, we decided to invest in our own offshore IT development company. This means that that through education, our developers understand the industry in which we operate and therefore are able to implement from a technical perspective the most up to date solutions as applicable to our products.

Staying ahead of the game also requires a dedicated, engaged workforce. “Our staff have to enjoy and be interested in what they do.

So far, we have been very fortunate that the majority of our staff, have been with us for several years and have grown in knowledge just as our company has.

And how do they go about finding the right people for the job? “We use social media as working in sport is an attractive proposition, especially amongst graduates. We have used some agencies in the past. As a progressive company, we attract talent because they are aware of the opportunities we offer for their own development and experience.”

Looking to the future of the company, Andrew is positive about new applications their software can be tailored toward even as the industry remains set to undergo fundamental changes. “From a customer perspective, there is no reason why the sportsbook that I interact with shouldn’t be completely responsive to my preferences and behaviour. From a technical perspective, there is no reason why a sportsbook with 100,000 customers shouldn’t have a 100,000 different displays with whatever device – mobile, tablet, desktop – that is used by the customer.”

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The software licenced by Bettorlogic was created to provide reasons for bookmakers as to why their customers should place a bet, whether it’s before an event starts or when it goes live.

Company: Bettorlogic Name: Andrew Dagnall Email: adagnall@bettorlogic.com Web Address: www.bettorlogic.com Address: Riverbank House 1 Putney Bridge Approach London SW6 3JD

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Helping Brands To Become More Successful Jane Sunley is the CEO of Purple Cubed. Here, she talks to Corporate Vision about what makes her tick and led to her being awarded CEO of the Year 2017 in the Software and Technology Awards.

“We grow leadership traits in everyone, leader or not, so that teams become (mostly) selfmanaging and collaborative. Then we stand back and let them get on with it, this is, of course, always a work in progress. The key is to make sure there’s always support and guidance available and people are confident enough to ask for it.”

Jane tells us more about the business, its ongoing strategy and the processes taken to develop the company successfully.

“I started my business the day before 9/11 so all my well-laid plans (and advance orders) went by the wayside - it was a case of head down and get on with it. Getting through that certainly helped us to deal with anything that’s been thrown at us since.

“We’ve been awarded both CIPD HR Consultancy of the Year and Personnel Today Supplier of the Year, although our approach is different from others because we come from diverse operational and leadership backgrounds.

We’re pragmatic, contemporary and bottom-line focused.

“Our tech is practical, cool and user-friendly, plus we work with our clients on an on-going basis to cement in sustainable results.

One‘s been with us for over 14 years so we must be doing something right!”

“Our culture is distinctive and strong - on day one we wrote our values and they drive everything we do.

“Communication is key – asking the right questions, listening and taking action are very important for us.

Despite her overwhelming success today, it wasn’t always plain sailing for Jane, She describes some of the challenges she has faced and how they have been overcome.

“There’s always the challenge of making sure there’s cash in the bank – in the early days I used to add and subtract all the incoming and outgoings every day on paper stuck to my desk – what’s visual cannot be ignored!

“Preserving one’s culture as the company grows is a challenge for all SMEs – we get round that by making sure our values live in everything we do and also have values champions. We’ve successfully passed on our techniques to many clients over the years – it’s a case of ‘practice what you preach’.”

With a great track record behind her it’s clear that Jane possesses certain key attributes that make her successful and an awardwinning CEO.

“I’m good at getting to the bottom of things, seeing the big picture and noticing things that others don’t – very useful for a CEO and it’s made me a good NED and charity trustee too,” she says modestly. “Being able to communicate with all types of people is very useful.

It’s important to be fair and kind though tough when needed. I like numbers, which helps. People tell me I’m persuasive and a good salesperson though I don’t think of myself as such. I am ever positive, focused, organised, nothing phases me really. Oh and I never take myself too seriously!”

And what is it exactly that motivates Jane?

“Massive belief in what we do keeps me up there as does seeing a client’s business improve - one went from bottom performing in group to top within a year! I’m also a very positive person and set myself a nonwork challenge every year – as a result I’ve written three business books (one a best-seller) and co-authored another. Last year I opened a pop-up retail concept, which was fun and a great learning curve.

“I’m super-organised and believe everything in life presents choices. Once you realise you’re in control of your own destiny it’s hard to become demotivated – if you don’t like it, change it.”

For Jane and Purple Cubed, the future is looking very bright indeed. Here, she shares with us her plans for the next five years and where she sees herself in that time.

“This year is all about realising the investment we’ve made in our products over the past three-five years. We’re also doing more consultancy because people realise that employee engagement is a business priority and they need a downto-earth approach that delivers without a drama.

With regards to myself in five years’ time - I think it’s impossible for anyone to look that far ahead.

Although I’m a goal-focused person I’m pretty flexible about where I end up as long as health, wealth and happiness are up there I don’t mind how it comes.

I’d like to think the company will be ten times as profitable!”

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Employee Engagement experts, Purple Cubed, was founded in 2001 in response to chronic skills shortages and labour turnover within service industries. The firm helps brands become more successful by putting people firmly at the heart of their business through a mix of consultancy, delivery and award-winning HR technology.

It works internationally from a Central London base with service organisations in hospitality, retail and professional services.

Company: Purple Cubed Name: Jane Sunley Email: jane@purplecubed.com Web Address: www.purplecubed.com Telephone: 0044 (0)7836 6999

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Not Just A Retailer Furniture in Fashion is an online retailer which provides high quality products at affordable prices. We invited CEO, Asad Shamim to chat to us about what makes the company different from their competitors.

“We also started producing in the Far East, notably China and Malaysia, and have good relationships with manufacturers in France and Italy. As a business, we are not just a retailer, we are a manufacturer as well.”

“We have our major warehouse and showroom based in Farnworth near Bolton in 3.25 acres. With such a huge warehousing space, we were able to initiate our importing services across various countries and right now we are one of the largest online furniture stores in the UK possessing a strong online presence. We were one of the first companies to start bringing in high quality products from German-manufacturers and produce a variety of items such as TV stands, coffee tables, living room sets and sideboards that come directly from our 500,000 square foot warehouse in Germany. This has been the major reason behind years of our successful business.

“The main distinction between us and our competitors is that we are a large stockholder, unlike our other competitors who have a dropshipping model, whereby people assume that the goods are coming directly from the company they have placed their order, when that’s not the case.

What our competitors do is to provide a colourful website and their products are sent directly from the importer/wholesaler, not from themselves. As a producer, we have an edge on pricing, production any design of furniture.

We look at the market trends, and produce furniture that is tasteful and attractive to various lifestyles.

In order to stay ahead of the competition, Asad outlines the main difference between themselves and other companies in the market, whilst also explaining how Furniture in Fashion has succeeded in a competitive market.

“There are large players in the industry, who have got large store groups with a long established client base. In terms of competition, it’s very fierce.

Competitors have large buying power. Companies such as Tesco are known as a world brand, therefore people want to do business with them because of the volume and traffic that they have. That makes our life difficult, as we are trying to compete against larger store groups.

For that reason, the decision to manufacture our own products was important because that’s the only way we could produce

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attractive products at affordable prices and keep ahead of competitors. From this, we’ve had a lot of enquiries recently from companies such as Amazon.”

The industry is always changing.

Furniture In Fashion ensures it always stays on top of any emerging developments in the industry in order to compete in the market as Asad explains.

“We look at the market trends across the region, what trends there are in Europe and across the globe. What we tend to find is that the UK market follows the European market 6-12 months later, so it’s a great indicator to discover what products are likely to come in. We are quite aggressive in our investigations into what products are selling, and we manufacture some small test products which gives us a great indication on what is going to sell in volume in the near future.”

Furniture in Fashion has managed to save costs by expanding their team of staff abroad. Asad outlines what is being done to create a more efficient service.

“We opened a call centre in India almost two years ago because

of the costs that were involved in having staff here in the UK. The staff at this centre manage customer services, sales and administration tasks etc. This has been a big saving for us as a company, whereby we can utilise the savings for marketing purposes. In the UK, we have a team of quality control staff in our warehouse so that each and every product is checked and repacked before being dispatched to our customers.

This is something that our competitors can’t offer.”

Finally, Asad shares his thoughts on his future plans to expand the Furniture In Fashion brand beyond the UK and Europe.

“Our plans are to be one of the largest online retailers and producers of furniture in the UK. Secondly, we are aiming to look at other markets such as UAE and USA and build a brand.

There have been conversations from other companies who are looking to collaborate with us.

People in other countries don’t have some of our products, and if they do have them, the price is very high so we do get a lot of interest. Our plans are to look at these markets to see if we can establish ourselves there.”

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Established in 2007, Furniture in Fashion has grown from strength to strength, providing high quality of furniture and services at very reasonable prices fitting almost every budget and lifestyle.

Prior to this, the firm was a retail business, saw the market changing from general retail to online shopping, and moved online. Asad Shamim, CEO, chats to us about how Furniture in Fashion differs from their competitors in the market.

Company: Furniture In Fashion Name: Asad Shamim, CEO Web Address: www.furnitureinfashion.net Address: Furniture In Fashion House, 14 Stone Hill Road, Express Trading Estate, Farnworth, BL4 9TP Telephone: 01204 792700

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Small and Mighty Kara Martin, a founding partner at The Franchise & Business Law Group LLC, talks about her role following being awarded Attorney of the Year 2017 – Utah.

“We strive to look at the application of the law through the eyes of the businessperson we represent. We take pride in developing a level of trust and I know that only through providing quality and trustworthy legal help, while keeping fees reasonable, can we maintain healthy, ongoing client relationships. Most of our clients look to our law firm as part of their team in helping them grow and succeed in their businesses.”

“What makes us different?” she asked. “We truly understand the complexities of franchise law, commercial transactions and business law. This is our expertise. We assist in business formation, structure and expansion, and in negotiating all types of contracts.” She continued, “We represent about 40 franchise clients and although we are a small boutique law firm, we are recognized by US News and World Report as one of the ‘Best Franchise Law Firms in the United States.’”

Kara went on to explain that franchise law differs from other fields in the legal industry due to it being highly-regulated, which requires Kara to stay abreast of all current developments, not only in Utah, but throughout the US and on a federal level.

She further noted that, “Franchising is regulated in the United States by the FTC, and there are 14 states with additional franchise laws and regulations,” she explains.

“These laws require full disclosure of the proposed franchise relationship through the Franchise Disclosure Document.

We have found that if every regulation is not fully understood and carefully explained, it can cause stumbling blocks down the road that can be detrimental for business owners.

“When most people consider franchising, few understand that franchising is incredibly complex.

It is directly impacted by wage and employment laws, tax laws, securities laws, health laws and other laws that vary from industry to industry. It is a truly allencompassing area of law and the dynamic nature of it requires attention to detail and the ability to sort through the various laws and regulations and pinpoint what is applicable to our clients and what is not.”

“I am continually looking at new technologies and trying to partner with groups that can provide cutting edge services to our firm and our clients in a more efficient and less expensive way. It is important to stay abreast of changes primarily with technology so that we can take advantage of those changes that will best meet our needs and the needs of our clients.”

Kara began practising franchise and business law following her graduation from law school.

“I have been able to fine-tune my skills in drafting complex franchise and business documents through years of

experience in franchise law and business law.

Ensuring client satisfaction is second nature to Kara and the team at the firm, and being a small firm allows for far more flexibility with costs and payment structures. “We have over 80 years of collective franchise law and business law experience and we are a highly collaborative team of attorneys. By utilizing the other attorneys to collaborate on difficult client issues, we can narrow down and pinpoint answers to complex issues more quickly and efficiently.”

The firm has key attributes which set it aside from the competition.

“We have an exceptional team of attorneys and are the largest franchise-dedicated team of attorneys in Utah and the surrounding states. We have a comprehensive range of experience which allows us to have a broader perspective when helping our clients. We are unique in that we are so focused and tailored in what we do -franchise law and business law.”

The industry has certainly changed over the years, and Kara further expands on the impact

this has had on the firm. “The recent recession impacted the practice of law in so many ways from lowered billing rates to less work being requested. In addition, during that time, many people were afraid to start or expand their businesses. To counter this, we have spent more time going out, making contacts, and trying to bring in clients so that they can see the real benefits from hiring an attorney to assist with their business needs. As a result, the law firm’s business greatly expanded during the recession. ” Kara has aspirations for the firm and she shares with us what she would like to see with regards to the future.

“I hope that The Franchise & Business Law Group becomes known as a preeminent law firm in the area of franchise law in Utah and the surrounding states.

We practice in Utah and Kansas and both states are dynamic and full of seasoned business people and entrepreneurs.”

“Our attorneys understand the entrepreneurial spirit and want small and established business owners and entrepreneurs alike to know they can trust us to help with all their business needs.”

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“Small business and entrepreneurship is at the heart of the American economy.

I look at my role as one to help our clients as they take risks with new ideas, growth and development, to avoid unnecessary pitfalls, said Kara Martin, founding partner of The Franchise & Business Law Group.”

Company: The Franchise & Business Law Group Name: Kara K. Martin Email: kmartin@fblglaw.com Web Address: www.franchisebusinesslawgroup.com Address: 57 West 200 South, Ste 350, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101 Telephone: 801-575-5001

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1702CV26

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Italian Flavour, Home Convenience Food Valley is a young company, producing one of the mainstays of the Italian and parmesan cuisine: Fresh pasta. The company is a winner of the CEO of the Year - Foodstuff Production and Supply, Italy award.

We love fresh pasta, like homemade, and we chose to make it so that everyone can get only the best from our products, from the quality of raw materials, mostly produced locally, and work according to the procedures that have made famous parmesan fresh pasta, such as porous pasta and the well calibrated filling.

We took the local cooking traditions of the Parma area,

and we added our passion, experimenting with new formats, new fillings, irreverent matchings that soon become new classics of taste, even in “special editions”.

Once we have made our products, we freeze and pack them immediately in order to hold the quality of fresh pasta at its peak, which reveals its perfection as soon as the packages are opened, at the restaurants where they serve Food Valley or even at your home. Bon Appetite!!

Our Products Food Valley is different, because we are specialized in fresh pasta, immediately frozen, inspired from the traditional process, but open to innovation. We propose different types of format and filling, from the most classic to the most original ones.

We use only natural ingredients, such as wheat flour type OO,

durum wheat, fresh pasteurized eggs, water and salt. We give our best with the fillings, like classical combinations of ricotta cheese and aromatic herb, pumpkin, mushrooms and braised meat, and unexpected and tasty matchings, as cheese and nuts, provolone cheese, apples, spicy salami and many others.

And we can always create new products, also on the advice of our customers.

Us and the Environment We give extraordinary attention at every stage of the creation of our pasta, from the choice of natural raw materials to the use of clean energy in our laboratories.

All the choices we make, and we will make, will always consider the best ways to lower our impact on the environment.

But our efforts does not stop: we choose vehicles with

low emissions, we manage intelligently recycling, save water and opt for low-power equipment, from machinery to computers.

For this reason, our laboratory and our warehouses are designed to have the minimal energy consumption, with maximum acoustic and thermal insulation, so important for a company that operates in the field of freezing; we adopted low energy equipment, as the trigeneration boiler that powers both the air conditioning system, both the domestic hot water, and we self-produce energy with a photovoltaic system that is fully integrated into the production process of energy consumed by the company. …and our Hospitality We can accommodate at the guesthouse of the Filagni’s cottage, right in front of our laboratory, all those who wish to visit our factory.

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Food Valley is a new way to appreciate the Italian fresh pasta: we choose only the best ingredients, we prepare following recipes of the gastronomic tradition of Parma, and then we freeze them immediately, in order to bring to the table, intact, all the pleasure of the first courses.

No preservatives, the maximum quality, as good as freshly prepared.

Company: Food Valley S.r.l.

Address: Via G. D’Annunzio, 21 - 50135 Firenze, Italy Email: info@foodvalley.com Web Address: www.foodvalley.com Telephone: +39 055 5057060 Fax: +39 055 5532581

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Vouching for Internal Innovation

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Company: Day Ristoservice Name: Marc Buisson Email: mbuisson@day.it Web Address: www.day.it Address: DAY SpA, Via trattati Comunitari Europei 11, Bologna 40127

54 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Vouching for Internal Innovation Day, Italian subsidiary of Up Group and a leader in its market with a turnover of about 500 Million euros, operates in areas such as employee benefits, public and social programs, incentive, loyalty and reward, business expenses management and services for retailers. We spoke with CEO of the Year 2016 - Professional Service and Management, Italy, Marc Buisson, to discover more about the businesses operation.

Day’s main products are meal and other reward vouchers, both paper based and digital, which they provide to more than 500,000 people on a daily basis. They act as a part of the larger Up Group, which itself has a presence in 17 countries designing products and services that facilitate the daily life of 21.3 million people around the world.

“Our mission is to facilitate the daily life of our clients, both companies and individuals by offering simple and tailor made solutions”, Marc explained to us. “As a leader in our markets, it is our duty to always reinvent our models and solutions. For example, we were there at the introduction of the luncheon voucher nearly 50 years ago in France. Now, thanks to the use of new technologies we continue to evolve the concept, both on its form (from paper to electronic) and use.

“Co-development and coconstruction are our new approach. Last year we implemented our open innovation process aimed at transforming our offers, using a new model of project management involving both internal and external customers. It goes without saying that this allows us to be more focused on customer satisfaction, and adapting our offers throughout project creation.

Customer survey are made by our dedicated services inside the company.”

When asked about the methodology behind the businesses success, Marc informed us of the company’s founding tenets. “We base our difference on five pillars.

Innovation, engagement (for both clients and employees), equity, solidarity and entrepreneurship.

We always encourage and incentivise ideas and projects, and we are not afraid of testing them on our markets. As an example, we were the first in Italy to launch the use of meal vouchers on mobile phones, using technologies such as NFC or PNR codes. Our goal is to give everybody access to our solutions, no matter the infrastructure. We would like to render our solutions universally.”

“Inside our open innovation process, scouting and relations with those in the start-up ecosystem are rather important.

Last year we followed two emerging projects and we plan to follow at least three this year.

Having daily contact with new technologies, fast organizations and universities is key to face the issues and changes in our markets and take on challenging opportunities. As an international group, we also scout outside of Italy in emerging or more structured markets.”

And the flexibility to change

is just as welcomed within the business as without.

“Innovation, passion for change and engagement are the key features of our internal culture.

We have a rather flat hierarchy and everybody is encouraged to challenge our projects and ideas. Continuous training of our staff and relations with our stakeholders allow us to open our mind to our markets and client needs.”

“I like to speak rather transparently, in order to make my staff an active part of the overall strategy of the company. We are pleased to be part of a solid, international company, owned by employee (cooperative) investing, and one still developing into new markets. This helps us to attract new, skilled staff, but once here we have to motivate them. We are investing a lot in training, but communication is also essential for us. Making ideas and projects the general interest of the company helps us in creating our identity. It‘s not always easy to explain to people entering our company that we are different…

Easier when they live it and see it by their own. After that, it is down to them to transfer that knowledge to their colleagues.”

Speaking about the local markets in Italy, Marc is hopeful that it can overcome troubled times. “Italy is a very stimulating market, despite innovation and time to market

here being some big issues.

Although Italy suffered from the, let’s call it, structural crisis, our ecosystem is based on many, many small companies, leaving a big part of this particular Italian know how. This ‘Made in Italy’ factor is a big advantage. Thing is, that we are not always able to use this advantage in the best way. Maybe, we are not even fully conscious of our possibilities and it is often people from the outside that remind us that.

Diversifying our specific market activities is crucial, as it is the only way to look for margins and new areas of development. The stagnation of many competitors is a signal that leaders have to extend their range of actions into other areas.”

Looking to the future of the business, Marc would like to see the outward perception of the company evolve. “We would definitely like to change our image in the market. No more being considered as a food voucher company, but really as a company providing solutions to organizations and individuals. On top of that, we have the ambition to promote our model in the social economy.

“Our market will always be more digital. We are investing a lot on tools and solutions that we can provide our stakeholders around our core activities using the most modern technologies.”

1612CV33

The Road to Success

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Company: AdEPT Telecom plc Name: Ian Fishwick Email: ian.fishwick@adept-telecom.co.uk Web Address: www.adept-telecom.co.uk Address: 77 Mount Ephraim, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 8BS Telephone: +44 7720 555050

56 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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The Road to Success AdEPT Telecom plc unite communication and innovation through the use of technology, creating unique solutions to help their clients on the road to success. We caught up with European CEO of the Year 2016 Ian Fishwick to learn about the firm and how he has helped drive it to excellence through his dedication and the application of his vast industry experience.

As one of one of only a handful of Telecoms companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, AdEPT is an innovative and dynamic firm supplying services to nearly 20,000 customers across the UK including many wellknown national companies, 40 Councils and some Central Government departments. Ian discusses the unique nature of his company and how this helps it to differentiate itself and highlight its excellence to potential clients.

“Different Telecom networks are available in different parts of the UK and not every technology is available in every town. What sets AdEPT apart is that we are completely carrier independent and use the best supplier and technology at your post codes to create the optimum data networks combining best speeds and best prices. In simple terms: why deal with one Telecom network, when you could deal with them all?

“Our Unified Communication solutions utilise the worldleading Avaya Aura technology integrated with a range of Contact Management systems.

We specialise in specific vertical markets: health, public sector and business centres. Around 70% of Private Hospitals in London and over 200 Business Centre’s use our services.”

Every CEO needs something personal that drives them on, and for Ian this is his vast industry experience, which constantly spurs him on to constantly build upon his current success and do better for both himself and his company.

“Personally, what drives me is I have reported increased EBITDA every year for 25 consecutive years. That record stretches across several businesses and through several economic recessions. All CEO’s will have dark days but the thought of finally losing that unbroken record forces me to get up and try again.

“As part of this drive I have a very clear plan. I explain it to my team and ensure they understand their role in implementing it. Given a choice of good implementation or a good strategy I will always choose good implementation because an idea is just an idea until you actually do it.

“I also understand that 10 very good people will always achieve more than 100 not so good people. For some reason people want to work for me; often for many years, so I must be doing something right. I am very proud of my staff and feel that it is an absolute privilege to be their leader.”

Within the wider telecoms market, the UK Government has set a target that 33% of

public sector spend will be with SME’s (small and medium sized enterprises with sales revenue of less than £40 million and 250 employees) by the end of this parliament in 2020. AdEPT (with sales of £33 million) is leading the charge into the public sector and has won 40 Council customers in the last 40 months.

Central to this success is the firm’s dedication to technology.

Ian is dedicated to remaining at the forefront of the latest developments, as he is eager to emphasise.

“As a Telecoms company our job here at Adept is to ensure that all industries understand the benefits from the latest technology. We live in a world where work is something that you do rather than a place that you go to. People want to have access to everything they need wherever they are. All businesses are seeing a huge increase in the amount of bandwidth they need as applications are based in the ‘cloud’ and accessed via the internet.”

Overall Ian is optimistic about the future, both for himself and his company, as he concludes by discussing the future and the exciting plans he has to continue to develop and adapt in order to continue to offer the very best solutions to his clients.

“AdEPT has just reported its’ 13th consecutive year of

increased EBITDA and we are constantly making plans to ensure that run continues. We have completed the acquisition of 22 companies to date and expect to do more in the future.

On average, we buy one out of every 10 businesses we look at, as we are highly selective and understand the importance of knowing what you are buying prior to making a deal.

“Personally, I chose to work in the technology industry so you must accept that change is the only constant. That means you need to concentrate on planning for the future. You also must accept that not all new products will succeed and you have to be brutal in quickly closing down failures before they cost you too much money. We constantly test new ideas and I am looking forward to integrating these into the business moving forward.”

“As part of this drive I have a very clear plan.

I explain it to my team and ensure they understand their role in implementing it.

1702CV48

Changing the Game

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Company: Rebellion Email: info@rebellion.co.uk Web Address: www.rebellion.co.uk

58 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Changing the Game Rebellion® is one of the top independent video game developer-publishers in Europe and has been producing hit games in the console and PC markets for over 20 years. Corporate Vision reached out to them to discuss the company’s successful transition from contractor to independent publisher.

Based in Oxford in the UK, Rebellion was founded in 1992 by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley.

Over 24 years Rebellion has made a string of worldwide number one hits including Aliens Vs Predator, Rainbow Six, The Simpsons Game, Star Wars Battlefront Renegade Squadron and more.

While Rebellion were originally known for working with bigname licenses for multi-national publishers, the company has successfully transitioned to a self-publishing model where it only develops its own games and IP, most notably the Sniper Elite series of World War 2 games.

In late 2016 Rebellion released its first VR game, Battlezone, on PlayStation VR. While Rebellion still makes games that sell on store shelves, digital distribution has allowed the company to reach tens of millions gamers throughout the globe.

“Rebellion’s philosophy is fairly simple – Jason and Chris help set the direction of game development teams, but they empower staff to be creative and run their own projects autonomously.

past few years we have made a transition from work-for-hire to being completely independent, so only working on own IP means we’ve reached a crucial milestone already – like reaching Everest basecamp, if you will.

and there have never been more games released than before. And there’s always new technology coming through all the time – such as VR – that stand to shake up the industry in ways nobody can predict.

“Our aim is to make great games, films, TV, comics and books to entertain people throughout the world. We work hard to find the best people in the world to create our products, and we’re always looking to see how we can improve everything we do.

Almost as soon as we finish something, we start looking at how we can do things better.

It’s a never-ending quest for perfection, that as we crest the peak of one hill of achievement we know there’s another, higher hill in front of us to climb.

“I think Rebellion has thrived because we have tried to avoid using third-party technology wherever possible. It might need more investment in the short term, but it reduces your risk in the long run and allows you to react much more quickly to new opportunities, gets you to the front of the priority queue, and your technology can be made to fit exactly what you want to do.

“The keys to succeeding in this environment are ever-constant vigilance, always pushing creativity and technology as far as we can, and using our own technology base for agile and rapid development.

Rebellion doesn’t just make games either – the company owns and publishes famous British sci-fi comic 2000 AD, a slew of genre book imprints, and Jason and Chris were Executive Producers on the recent Dredd film.

“Developing video games requires a unique blend of technology, creativity and interactivity, and it is essential, during what sometimes can be a multi-year process, to maintain the right balance between all these elements. Our games are made by often large teams of people, and we mix science and art to get an almost magic result, but it requires focus, constant course correction and persistence.”

“We aim to explore and talk to others as much as much as we can.

But in recent times, the business of Rebellion has been on more than the production of entertainments. The company has undergone a massive shift to becoming an independent studio, no longer reliant on contract work from outside sources or tied to outsourced tech. “Over the

“From here it’s about developing the best multi-platform technology so that in five years’ time we can safely say we’re making the most ambitious games and creative projects of our careers, and making them available to as many people on as many devices as possible.”

And now they have gained their independence, they plan to capitalise on it. But, how do they plan to navigate the fresh challenges that their newfound status will no doubt provide?

“The video games industry is a massively competitive, worldwide industry. Digital distribution and freely-available game engines have blown open the market to anyone who has the skill, aptitude and perseverance to make and release games.

Competition has never been fiercer, the number and of game developers is increasing fast,

“We aim to explore and talk to others as much as much as we can. There are disruptions and disruptors everywhere.

Relationships with other industry leaders to share knowledge are obviously hugely important for us, and we’re lucky in video games that most developers see each other as colleagues, not rivals.

However it’s important to look outside your own industry as well – to peek outside your own bubble.”

Looking towards the future, Rebellion sees the great – potentially medium altering - opportunity that the release of virtual reality headsets into consumer’s homes could bring.

“This technology has the potential to revolutionize not only the video games industry, but a lot of other industries too. It’s an amazing technology that’s still really in its infancy, but you simply have to experience it to understand what it is capable of. We’ve already taken our first steps into VR with the release of Battlezone on PlayStation VR, which is doing incredibly well for us, but we’ve got big plans for VR in the future.”

1702CV49

Improving Lives Through Education

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Company: AAMC Training Group Pty Ltd Name: Jeff Mazzini Email: jmazzini@aamctraining.edu.au Web Address: www.aamctraining.edu.au Address: Head office, Unit 5, 17 Foley Street, Balacatta, WA 6021, Australia Telephone: + 61893444088 Mobile: + 61418646078 Skype: jeff.mazzini

60 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Improving Lives Through Education Delivering an extensive range of courses addressing the needs of global clients, via AAMC Training Group offers its clients access to continual professional development for their employees. We contacted Jeff Mazzini, Managing Director of the group, to learn more.

AAMC Training Group has been operational since 2001 and has local representation in India, Indonesia, Philippines and also delivering nationally across Australia. Its clients are varied as they offer training across an extensive range of sectors, including banking, financial services, insurance, I.T., accounting, bookkeeping, hospitality, retail, credit, and even training for fellow trainers.

“AAMC Training has very skilled, long serving and committed team members across our points of representation. Hence, it is the drive, passion and forward thinking that separates us from our competitors.

When offering such a broad range of training solutions, it becomes particularly important that the correct courses are selected to meet client needs.

“Firstly we meet with the clients and undertake a full client training needs analysis and truly understand the issues that clients are experiencing, then we map/ align course contents to ensure it will address the training needs of the clients, which in turn will produce the required skilled workers.

The company’s commitment to bettering others through continual education is made clear through their mottos. “We have trademarked the words ‘Improving Lives Through Education’ and it’s what we aim to do as we fully understand that providing good quality education, training and taking the time to understand the needs and building materials to meet those needs and this enables many to be able to place food on their tables, ongoing.

“We then meet with the clients again to demonstrate how each unit of the course is aligned to provide the necessary skills for their employees or new recruits. We also supply a fully comprehensive Learning Management System so that clients are able to follow the students’ progress across all the companies’ points of representation.

“We have also trademarked ‘Education without Borders’ as we have a strong belief that the world’s skills shortages can be overcome if great quality education is delivered and its skills are transportable across borders.

“We take the time to truly understand the client’s needs and provide solutions in discussion with the clients to meet their needs and then deliver with our skilled trainers and assessors.”

“We also think to the future and we constantly write and update via social media platforms on the need for everyone to understand that the digital age

has well and truly arrived and that each and every person now must increase their skills and knowledge within the technology areas. Also, technology is not going to go away, but continue to replace more jobs and hence learning about it now is a life time commitment, not just a once off.”

When asked about the current state of the industries in which AAMC operates, Jeff pointed out that the same common problems occur no matter where in the world you looked. “Across each region we operating in, they all have their different challenges.

However, the common themes at both employer and employee levels are the slowness to adapt to the new environment we have entered. The speed at which technology has advanced and become essential to business life has caught many unaware along with the false belief that their borders will protect their business models and jobs for life.

“Skills shortages are common across all regions and a lot has to do with the slowness of the changes within the employer groups, employees and education systems as some materials have been around for a long time now and have not adapted to the current environment to meet skills requirements for today.

“To survive into the future three main skills sets are required, IT skills beyond Facebook

and emails, having a basic understanding of code would assist. Secondly, relationship skills are most important and thirdly being smarter than your clients, as many clients these days undertake research before they buy.”

So how do AAMC keep on top of emerging developments, to keep themselves, and the training they offer, ahead of the competition? “Constant reading of social media, articles, new papers, magazines, attending online webinars and seminars.

We stay close to clients across a wide area of regions, countries, professions, institutions and so gain an understanding of their issues to be ready to address and solve them as they arise.

Many issues are common across many areas, it’s just many sell different products or services and that’s what separates them.”

In regards to the future of the business, Jeff remain committed to continued growth, globally. With new projects in development the company is set to see a return in results, capital, and better trained workforces the world over.

He ended with an open invitation to all of our readers. “If you are sitting there reading this and feel that you have some issues within your business model and would like to have a one on one discussion with myself or one of my team please contact us for a free confidential chat.”

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Support for Social Enterprises

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Company: The Euclid Society Name: David Oliphant Email: david@tes.org.za Web Address: www.tes.org.za Address: 13 Norden Street, Parow, South Africa Telephone: +2771 304 3720

62 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Support for Social Enterprises David Oliphant of The Euclid Society talks to Corporate Vision magazine about the firm and its areas of specialism.

“We have been in operation since April 2014 here in the Western Cape of South Africa,” he begins. “We provide capacity building platforms for vulnerable groups with a focus on business support services to social enterprises, improving the access of employment opportunities to low-income earning people and basic sports training for the youth. We have so far helped non-profit organisations such as the Haven Night Shelter (a progressing night shelter assisting with the reintegration of homeless people into society) with capacity building programmes in terms of assisting their clients with financial planning and goal setting techniques.

“The programme assisting the Haven Night Shelter’s clients is called StreetWise aiming to reintroduce homeless people to job opportunities. The learning is also underpinned by a strong social work component as well platforms to assist budgeting and learning the basic skills necessary to keep a basic skills job such as interview etiquette and anger management. We have also been lucky enough to work with some entrepreneurs in the Western Cape through our programme called Financial Literacy. The entrepreneurs include RAW Construction (a plastering subcontractor), NK Security (a security contractor) and District Six Recycling. All these entrepreneurs have a few

things in common: they come from low-income backgrounds and use their business to feed their families and provide employment to other low-income individuals.”

David goes into a little more detail about the firm’s overall mission statement and the steps that are taken to ensure it is achieved.

“Our mission is to provide capacity building platforms for vulnerable groups with a focus on business support services to social enterprises, improving the access of employment opportunities to low-income earning people and basic sports training for the youth. We achieve this through: • Providing researchbacked, solution driven, business support services to entrepreneurial ventures and existing enterprises who provide social value to their communities • Improving the network of social enterprises, we assist and thereby garnering work opportunities for vulnerable groups.

• Gaining the support of established sporting clubs who are able to provide future development opportunities for the youths of our sporting academy.”

David believes that The Euclid Society stands out from the competition due to its fresh, professional approach to the social development sector. “We

have vowed to give the people we help the best value for money service but also include very structured and professional methods of project management in terms of initiation, monitoring and reporting,” he states. “Many social development organisations in South Africa struggle with these demands in the modern business environment. It causes many businesses to close simply because their reporting is not what it should be.”

Within the African corporate landscape the government is taking a much firmer stance on bigger companies training smaller enterprises. David tells us more about this and about how it affects business.

“Through the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Policy many organisations are being mandated to ensure that smaller firms are being developed in the market. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it has the potential to develop the industry but it also puts strain on bigger organisations to circumvent their monitoring and reporting ability to training. In a slight way, it assists us as our business model is skills development and it therefore becomes a gap in the market that we can fill as a service provider.

“The lack of quality infrastructure is affecting the positive growth of the country and region as a whole. It hampers adequate transport and movability of the population. It also is rooted in problems of skills – it requires a good amount of skills within the

population to have an effective infrastructure system.

“We have a good base in the social networking spheres in terms of a Facebook account and a Bizcommunity account.

We are however moving towards creating a mobile app where our members can keep track of the latest and greatest concerning our events.”

With regards to the future, David sees big things ahead for The Euclid Society.

“Our future seems quite bright as we have started having conversations with a few funders who starting to believe in us and what we are trying to achieve in communities. With their funding, we are able to increase our resource base and the number of people we help. Our partnerships with the Department of Social Development also will enable us to reach around 30 non-profit organisations per year and one by one we are able to improve the skills base on the social development sector.

“Through a trusted and wellguided direction in our current jurisdictions we aim to be able to access more people over time.

We also revel in uncertainty and complex environments due to our variety in skills held within our labour force. Luckily for us, almost each staff member is from a different locality in South Africa, or a neighbouring country of South Africa which allows for improved relations with new people and cultures.”

HR160004

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Empowering People to Save Lives Emma Hammett is a respected expert, author and spokesperson on first aid and accident prevention, she regularly appears in mainstream press, TV and radio. She explains her feelings on First Aid for Life winning ‘Best First Aid Training – UK’.

“First Aid for Life was started ten years ago, and we have continued to grow 30% year on year. We are extremely proud of our reputation and superb feedback from our customers; the majority of our work comes from recommendations and

repeat bookings. Last year alone, we trained 10,000 people through our practical and online courses. We always aim to go the extra mile and show how engaging and fun first aid training can be.

“We are first aid experts; our trainers are highly experienced medical, health and emergency services professionals and our courses are tailored to the needs of our attendees. We are uniquely able to offer practical, online and blended first aid training to make it as easy and convenient as possible to learn these vital skills.

“The customer is at the heart of everything we do at First Aid for Life and we always ensure we understand their motivation and desired outcomes when booking their course. Consequently, we can tailor their course to ensure it is totally relevant to their requirements and exceeds their expectations.”

First Aid for Life is based in Greater London and they teach bespoke courses nationwide throughout the UK and abroad.

Emma explains where both firms fit in the wider HR and training market and what this has enabled them to achieve, whilst also looking at the challenges in the wider industry.

“Onlinefirstaid.com courses enable us to offer fully regulated First Aid at Work courses, with one-day e-learning and just two days instead of three in the classroom. Thereby offering a

64 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

unique, convenient, cost-effective first aid training solution for employers and employees.

“First Aid for Life training is an integral part of HR and training as our fully regulated courses enable businesses to comply with HSE legislation. It is so important that the training is an enjoyable experience for all the attendees. We always look to add value and are delighted to augment the work courses with topics such as baby and child first aid to make first aid at work training even more valuable and serve as an employee benefit, providing a transferrable skill for family life.

“Last year, the HSE announced their support of blended practical and e-learning training for first aid and we were first to offer fully accredited blended learning. Our award-winning online courses also exist as superb standalone interactive first aid training for refreshers, corporate and social responsibility and general upskilling.

“E-learning is now a mainstream training solution in most industries. Onlinefirstaid. com provides state-of-the-art, interactive first aid training that has been widely acclaimed and means people can now benefit from our training anywhere in the world.”

Emma concludes the interview by outlining what the firm is doing presently in the industry and what they aim to build upon in the future.

“We are continually recruiting outstanding trainers of the very highest calibre to enable us to offer our acclaimed training to even more people. Onlinefirstaid. com facilitates our global presence. Our websites are packed with free resources, we write for numerous high profile publications and Emma has just published her second book.

Ultimately, we aim to make it incredibly easy for as many people as possible to gain these vital skills and consequently save lives.”

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First Aid for Life and Onlinefirstaid.com provide multi awardwinning practical and online first aid training, empowering you with the skills and knowledge to help in an emergency. First Aid for Life is the leading independent provider of fully regulated first aid courses, offering outstanding training for groups and individuals at your venue or theirs. Their team of highly experienced medical and emergency services professionals tailor the training to the needs of the client and empower them with the knowledge to help with an accident at work or home. Emma Hammett explains what the main aims of the business are:

Company: First Aid for Life Name: Emma Hammett Email: emma@firstaidforlife.org.uk Web Address: www.firstaidforlife.org.uk www.onlinefirstaid.com Address: 74 Ramsden Road, Balham SW12 8QZ Telephone: 02086754036

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Sustainable Solutions Winner of the award for ‘Best Mining Project Management & Engineering Company - South Africa.’ Sarel Blaauw is a senior partner, executive director and board level director for Tacmin Madini and Tacmin Rafiki, who draws on over 30 years of experience specializing in technical, management and sustainable solutions for open-pit mines as part of the owners team with the specific emphasis to work together with all open-pit mining customers, raising awareness, encouraging action, and to design, develop and maintain safe, optimized, productive and profitable open-pit mines with a view to minimising the environmental impact of operations.

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Unique experience gained through operations improvement assignments over a period of 20 years.

Backed by the aforesaid values and capabilities enable Tacmin, with limited resources to lead open-pit mining projects of any size or nature through a process of Integrated Project Management during which we obtain buy-in from all team members involved.

Where, in 99% of the projects we have been assigned, the Owner had no need to make any changes to their management

structure. Aforesaid which can mainly be contributed to Tacmin filling the gaps through talent management where shortage of skills exists.

Sarel founded and grew Tacmin Madini from a start-up consulting firm into a multinational, multidisciplinary company specialising in open pit mining, project management, mine engineering, EPCM contracting, reconciliation and business improvement.

Assisting over 30 mines with mine optimisation, reducing costs and training of Clients personnel to develop sustainable optimal mining practices, totalling to aggregated savings of $300 million during operations improvement assignments since 1996.

Moving forward, Sarel is keen to build on his company’s sound track record and on future projects incorporate sustainability in project management that takes into consideration the product’s life cycle from a social, environmental, and economic perspective. Aforesaid, which through its partner Tacmin Rafiki, equip over all the necessary skills to analyse the impact that is conducted during project initiation with incremental updates throughout the project life cycle to define and prioritize sustainability risks and opportunities in order to improve a project’s value; the impact to the environment, society and economy as well as the project’s alignment organizational strategy.

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To have been nominated for a second award in the same year by CV Magazine is truly an honour, which we at Tacmin can only contribute to: • Maintaining our company’s business strategies to achieve our objectives.

• Our vast open-pit mining & engineering experience gained from multi-commodity mines located across Africa.

• Our project management capability and ability to work with all levels of mine & executive management, contractors and consultants.

Company: Tacmin Madini Name: Sarel Blaauw Email: sblaauw@tacmingroup.com & sarel@tacminrafiki.com Web Address: www.tacmingroup.com & www.tacminrafiki.com Address: Regent Hill Office Park, Cnr Turley & Lesley Rd, Block B, 1st Floor, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Bus: +27 11 465 4464 Mob: +27 82 671 6627

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The Tireless Fight Against Cancer Dr. Veronica James has worked in science for nearly half a century. As a professor, mentor and researcher, she has contributed to scientific discoveries and prepared scores of students for the field. We spoke to her about her work at the Australian National University to assist in the early diagnosis of cancers.

Dr. James knew she could make a difference in the lives of others when she graduated from the University of Queensland, Brisbane with a Bachelor of Arts.

She continued at the university to earn a Bachelor of Science. In 1969, Dr. James earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of New South Wales.

Throughout the course of her career, she has worked in many different roles. She started out as a teacher and tutor, and moved into lecturing in the early 1970s. The end of the 1970s also marked her involvement in research, where she worked at the head of the rex vowels low angle diffraction laboratory for the University of New South Wales. Throughout the next few

decades, she worked as a fellow and an associate professor. She came to the Australian National University in 2003 and retains an honorary Professorship there to this day.

Some of her biggest accomplishments revolve around her involvement with breast cancer research, which she began in the 1980s. Dr. James invented changes in the diffraction pattern of hair in breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancer and Type 1 diabetes. She has several patents pending in the diffraction pattern of skin in melanoma, prostate cancer, breast cancer and colon cancer.

Even now, while approaching the age of 82 and operating only on the funding her pension can

provide, Dr. James and her team of unpaid assistants continue her tireless research in the battle against cancer.

No stranger to battling against the odds, Dr. James told us that, as a woman working her way through the academic climate of decades past, she faced constant disadvantages.

“Throughout my 30 years as a university academic at UNSW, I was treated very badly by many of my colleagues. I ignored those who treated me so and achieved my goals despite them.”

Her current work makes use of synchrotrons (A type of circular particle accelerator), which she has access to through the Australian National University.

Samples collected from patients by doctors are passed along to Dr. James and her team to be exposed to the synchrotrons

particle beam. The data collected via this method then goes through rigorous analysis before the results are handed back to the test patients.

This analysis has led to some remarkable discoveries. “My tests can diagnose cancers at a much earlier stage than any other e.g. breast cancer is diagnosed from the start at least 2 years ahead of mammography. It can also tell if total removal is achieved.”

Moving forward, she is currently working with business partners to see that this research continues without her direct influence. She would like to be able to apply her testing methods to as many cancers as possible, hoping to aid in advanced diagnosis for cancer patients everywhere.

We all wish Dr. James all the best with her continued research.

K Company: Veronica James Consulting PTY LTD Name: Dr. Veronica Jean James, Hon Professor ANU Email: veronica.james@anu.edu.au Address: 4 Mountain Ash Cct, Robina, QLD 4226, Australia Telephone: 61755622643

66 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Recruitment

Every business has intellectual property (IP).

To gain commercial success through IP, is another matter.

Griffith Hack’s awardwinning IP Economics team helps businesses do this.

Whether you are an innovator, startup or established business, we can help your business with: • IP protection, creation and enforcement; • commercial opportunities for your business using the IP landscape; • planning your next steps to commercialise your innovation; and • understanding your competitors through the lens of IP.

It is what we do.

Contact our IP Economics team to find out how to maximise your IP for practical commercial success. www.griffithhack.com | +61 2 9925 5919 | +61 405 121 820 31 l Corporate Vision November 2016

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One Stop Shop for Your IT Needs GT Global Services has offices in both Toronto, Canada and Chicago, USA. We profiled the firm and gained an insight into the services which they offer to clients.

GT Global Services is a technology solutions provider, giving businesses a single source for technology infrastructure. The firm’s main goal is to help clients focus on what’s important to their business by clarifying the everchanging and often confusing world of technology. Their partners include RSA Security, Microsoft Office 365, Cisco, Avaya, Motorola and HP. The GT Global Services team will assess, recommend, and procure the communications services of clients’ business needs, and introduce them to industry leading possibilities of which they may not have been aware.

From wireless to computer equipment, the firm promises to help resolve the complexity of sourcing various technologies and then trying to make them work together. This assists businesses in many ways including creating cost efficiencies in technology purchases, improved communication with customers, single source for IT and network solutions, compliance with such regulations as PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act).

The firm aims to deliver these services quickly with unparalleled Service Level Agreements.

Their team of highly trained engineers is ready to discuss with you every detail of service requirements. GT Global

Services has a main goal to offer clients the best possible solution: The solution that exactly fits their needs and budget, right now.

One of the many services which GT Global Services offers is infrastructure and cloud services.

They provide unrivalled secure facilities, customer support and flexible data protection.

The Enterprise Cloud gives customers precise, dynamic allocation of computing resources with the scale, performance and security to handle enterprise-wide applications. Next-generation utility computing platform eliminates the problem of underutilized, over-engineered, and rapidly aging dedicated servers. The firm’s IT Professional Services have helped some of Canada’s leading enterprises conquer the everpresent challenges associated with managing dispersed technologies and evolving business processes. Applications are the lifeblood of any business, enabling companies to integrate global operations, easily interact with customers, and efficiently manage company data.

Another service which the company provides is the offer of diversified networks. Diversified networks allow customers to create a high-performance network using connections from two or more different ISPs or Carriers. GT Global’s customers can now take advantage of all of the competitors in their area

68 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

in the making of their network.

Using Cable, DSL, Fiber, and/ or Fixed Wireless connections, our customers get the bandwidth they need, and limit their reliance on the uptime of one supplier.

• Increased Reliability • Increased Bandwidth • Quality of Service/Application Assurance • Ease of Scalability Ana technology enables multiple connections of various types, technologies and speeds to create a single, highly valuable network suitable for: • Cloud Computing • Hosted Infrastructure/ Application Access • Network Convergence (voice/data) • Business Continuity • Controlling Network Costs GT Global’s services do not stop there. In addition to the two highlighted, the firm offers cloud storage to manage and protect information securely. Security is a prominent issue in an ever changing digital world. GT Global Services provides secure protection of data.

Today’s enterprises are faced with complex security and privacy requirements, including a growing number of regulatory and compliance standards such as SOX, ISO17799/27001, COBIT, NI 31-103, BCP, PIPEDA, HIPAA, PCI, and others. Cybercrime is a growing problem, and companies are making headlines for failing to secure customer information.

A perfect solution for clients is to protect their enterprise with Security Professional Services from GT. The firm focuses on the strategies, processes and technologies that help clients meet security requirements and become compliant with applicable laws.

By examining security systems and critical business assets, the firm identifies the risks and vulnerabilities, and develop recommendations to keep enterprises secure. Also, they have certified professionals capable of designing and deploying the technology safeguards identified in the proposed solutions. Their Security Professional Services experts are certified in numerous best in class technologies and methodologies, so GT solutions always adhere to industry best practices.

Security services offer risk management - mitigating security and privacy risks, and ensuring compliance with regulations; identity and access management – protecting systems from unauthorized access with solutions for centralized and automated digital identity management; infrastructure protection – securing networks and content against malicious attacks and PCI compliance - any organization that handles credit card data is required to meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Failure to address PCI compliance, or lacking an understanding of how the Standard applies to clients, can be costly

g One Stop Shop for Your IT Needs Company: GT Global Solutions Name: Paul Quenneville Web Adress: www.gtglobal.ca

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Fuelling The Economy Gulf has been a pioneer in fuel retail, with an ever expanding network of service stations providing high quality service and fuel under the Gulf brand. We profile the company to see what they have provided in their long and rich history.

The Gulf brand has a strong association with fuel retail that stretches back over a hundred years. In 1913, Gulf created the world’s first drive through service station in Pittsburgh USA with the aim of creating a value addition service for the growing number of motorists on the road. This pioneering spirit then continued for the Gulf brand and soon moved to the concept of branding sites with the distinctive orange disc that forms part of the Gulf logo today. In the 1960’s this innovative approach to the industry continued in the form of high profile marketing campaigns and associations that centred on popular culture. These included sponsorships of NBC News, Walt Disney’s ‘Wonderful World of Color’ programme and most notably the Apollo moon landings.

Gulf Oil International Group’s service station network today has grown to over 1100 sites in 25 countries, spreading across Europe, the Middle East and South America. All Gulf sites are independently owned and managed but licensed by Gulf and thus united under the distinctive orange disc logo. The licensing process is on the basis of becoming an official Gulf retail distributor for a geographical territory, with the right to use the Gulf brand for networks and retail related activity.

Unlike many of the other major oil brands, Gulf includes a degree of local flexibility in their

proposition by offering licensees the opportunity to run their business the best way that they see fit. Visual brand guidelines have to be respected and the fuels must be of a suitable quality but other than that, distributors are free to manage and market their sites in the best way that they see fit (including setting their own pricing).

Official licensees are also free to expand their operations on their site to cover a convenience store, where profit margins are often bigger than the sale of fuel and help to increase footfall to the sites. In the UK, Certas (the official Gulf fuel retail licensees), has entered into a preferred supplier agreement with the well-known convenience brand Londis and in Luxembourg many of the Gulf retail sites include Cactus Shoppi stores, considered to be one of the premium food brands in the country.

Several Gulf fuel retailers also use Gulf customer fuel cards to promote sales and customer loyalty via discounts and rewards.

Another opportunity, that has been taken up by some of the current licensees is to combine the retail site with a service workshop. Partnering with a workshop provider forms a natural link with Gulf’s other core lubricants products and ads to the value creation concept of the site. As such many licensees stock Gulf branded lubricants in their convenience stores further

70 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

enhancing the Gulf products available on site.

Marketing & Sponsorships In addition to the use of the Gulf brand, licensees also often use the global sponsorships that come with it. Gulf distributors have used the assets of these sponsorships for their local promotions to great effect.

Historical examples of this include the official distributors in Georgia raffling an Aston Martin road car in combination with the sale of fuel and the Slovakian licensees using Aston Martin Racing imagery on sites for banners, posters and POS materials in shops.

However, such is the flexibility of the agreement with Gulf that many distributors carry out local marketing activity that is more applicable in that specific market. Examples of this include a promotional campaign based around the film Mr Peabody & Sherman in UK sites and the ‘scratch and win’ promotion running in Georgia sites and in Turkey with a local telecoms provider.

Gulf Oil has over 1100 service stations in 25 countries, spreading across Europe, Middle East, Asia, North and South America. All Gulf sites are independently owned and managed but licensed by Gulf – united under the distinctive orange disc logo.

As an international brand, the future looks strong for the company in 2017 and beyond.

g Company: Gulf Oil Ltd. Name: Frank Rutten, VP Web Address: www.gulfoilltd.com

Fuelling The Economy

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Solving Critical Business Problems with Technology and Information Systems Juanita Poelvoorde is an accomplished, software consultant who is currently working with Vancouver Coastal Health to implement software and technology to help them solve their business problems. In this interview, she speaks about her work and how she has successfully dealt with being a woman in a male dominated industry.

After having been in software consultancy for over 30 years, Juanita Poelvoorde has substantial experience in helping firms to develop and successfully implement new technology in order for them to solve critical business problems.

Juanita discusses her previous experience in the sector.

“Most recently, I have been in a project management role. In the first ten years, I was helping the rich get richer; I worked in banks, stock brokerage firms and in statistical analysis around the globe from Manhattan, New York, Los Angeles to Johannesburg, South Africa to Melbourne, Australia.

In my second decade, I focused on building and implementing utility billing software as the Vice President of a software company.

I decided in my third decade to go back to being a consultant, and working with health authorities including Vancouver Coastal Health in 2005. I mainly focused on developing an emergency services IT strategy, for the Emergency Departments, across 13 sites and implementing the resultant “State of the Art” information technology projects.

Juanita explains more about this IT strategy and how she is helping Vancouver Coastal Health to run a more efficient and cost effective service for clients.

“At Vancouver Coastal Health, I collected all the business problems across the Emergency Services, developed an IT strategy to support critical business problems and implemented state of the art technology. This involved voice activated communication, wireless computing and online charting. Also, I assisted physicians to develop technology solutions through special funding proposals, for example; built a website for the public to view the live waiting times to see doctors at the Emergency Departments, which was shared with the BC Ambulance Services and also enabled MD TeleHealth services on a BC Nurse Call Line, where patients can call in and get advice from both Nurses and Physicians.

“Another implementation project, was upgrading a patient tracking and bed placement software. This was implemented to transport items and patients in the hospital and find the right bed for a patient, at the right location at the right time. I implemented a hardware

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infrastructure upgrade as well as a software upgrade for 3 hospital sites at VCH and also spoke at a software user’s conference about this successful project.”

In a corporate sector which is predominately men, Juanita explains what the challenges are being in a working environment as a woman.

“30 years ago, there weren’t a lot of females in the industry. The Canadian education system had stereotypes of women not being successful in math and science, even applying to go to computer science was not really common for women, so there were a lot of the challenges that I’ve faced over the years overcoming some of these pre-conceived ideas. It is very difficult in the technology sector for women to break through. It’s been getting better as the years go on, but it was particularly difficult at the time.”

Juanita shares some advice she has for women who are looking to succeed in a competitive industry such as the software and technology sector.

“Have a constant learning mode.

I don’t think I’ve ever stopped educating myself in terms of researching new technologies, and developing ways of solving

critical business problems through information technology solutions. It’s important to have the ability to translate the technical jargon especially in the world of clinicians.

“Being able to convert the technology and understanding the benefits of implementing it is important. I have found there is a significant advantage if you can translate technology for people and to get them to understand what the benefits are. Also, partnering with people with vision that support translating those ideas in to practical deployment is key.

“There is a lot of fear around implementing new technologies.

My advice would to not be intimidated by the technology, choose a lane and apply knowledge to different business problems. The technology landscape is vast, concentration on a specific field and becoming an expert in a certain area will keep opportunities open. There are worldwide opportunities in technology, opportunity to travel round the globe. Another piece of advice would be to try to encourage young girls to enter the industry. Maths and science are not encouraged for girls in school.”

g Solving Critical Business Problems with Technology and Information Systems

Looking to the future, Juanita explains what is being done to improve patient care.

Company: Vancouver Coastal Health Name: Juanita Poelvoorde Email: Juanita.Poelvoorde@phsa.ca

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“Currently, I am working with Vancouver Coastal Health, helping them to solve their surgical wait list problems.

Similar to the UK, Canada has government funded healthcare.

There’s a long waiting list for different surgeries, limited number of surgeons, nurses, operating rooms etc. It’s a giant puzzle to try and figure out what the capacity opportunities are, of which an electronic solution will support minimizing the surgical waitlists for the patients of British Columbia

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Looking Forward 4ward Communications offers bespoke communications solutions, for example they provide phone systems, advise on technology developments, install and maintain the systems and supply etc. Samuel K Charles from the firm explains how they best serve clients.

4ward Communications provides clients with the best telecommunications solutions, at very competitive rates for all national, international calls and calls to mobile networks with their simple Carrier PreSelection service. The firm audits telecommunications usage profiles and SLA’s (landlines, calls, broadband, and mobiles) at the most cost effective prices.

Sam Charles talks us through the firm’s business strategy and the type of clients they work with.

“Our ongoing strategy is to make sure we help our customers to the best of our ability. We help businesses improve efficiency without increasing cost, optimizing and enhancing productivity. This is achieved by analysing your current situation, with a view to cutting costs and increasing efficiency. We target further growth and profitability for your business, not only to save money but also to grow your business.

“We work in a business to business market. We aim to provide our customers with the

best and effective solutions and approach them with great communication systems and the best possible deals. Our aim is always to increase customer loyalty and educate them along the way.”

The software and technology is always constantly changing. In order to stay on top of current and emerging trends in the industry, 4ward Communications ensures it attends exhibitions and conferences, as well as continuing to receive newsletters from company partners. Sam explains these changes and what sets the firm apart in the market.

“The technology industry has increased dramatically over the years as there is much more of a variety. This gives us an opportunity to access many more channels to engage with our customers and give us more access to create new solutions.

“At 4ward, we provide cost effective solutions in comparison to other telecommunication companies. We provide great customer service solutions and we like to help and educate our

customers through the use of our marketing strategies. Other maximize their profits, 4ward maximize yours!”

Finally, Sam ends our brief discussion by highlighting what he believes is the most important thing he has learnt as a business so far and how this has helped the firm to achieve success.

“Having a good customer relationship is a key point in your business and to always make sure we help our customers to the best of our ability. This has helped us gain more customer loyalty and better communication with our customers.”

Looking into their plans for 2017 and beyond, 4ward Communications aims to increase their existing client base, create new solutions to benefit our end users and make the company more efficient. With this in mind, the future looks bright for 4ward Communications.

“Upgrading an existing Systems/ PBX or looking for new? Talk to us we don’t charge for advice!”

K Company: 4ward Communications Name: Samuel K Charles Email: sam.charles@4ward-comms.co.uk Web Address: www.4ward-communications.co.uk Address: Octagon Point, St Paul’s, London EC2V 6AA Telephone: 03443916400

74 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Flying High Jakub Hoda talks to Corporate Vision about Bell Helicopter, it’s vision, and what it means to be recognised in the Eastern European Business Elite Awards 2016.

With forward thinking in advanced concepts, Bell Helicopter invented tiltrotor aircraft. These unique aircraft lift like a helicopter, then fly like an airplane with twice the speed, three times the payload and five times the range of traditional helicopters. Aerospace and aircraft will never be the same.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Bell Helicopter has additional plants in Amarillo, Texas and Mirabel, Canada. We maintain key logistics supply and service centres in Amsterdam, Prague, Canada and Singapore as well as in the United States.

“We have things in the pipeline that will change the landscape we see today in aerospace.”

As the world’s premier provider of vertical lift aircraft, Bell Helicopter continues to deliver superior customer support and services.

Jakub Hoda tells us how it feels to have been awarded the prestigious accolade of Best Helicopter Manufacturer 2016.

“I feel very honoured to be recognised. My success wouldn’t be possible without my hardworking team that gets the job and more done every day.

We are focused on providing superior, safe aircraft for our customers and our team goes out to produce that every day. I believe the focus of our company lends to the success of leaders like me.”

Jakub tells us more about the firm, its mission statement and what differentiates it from the competition.

“Bell Helicopter’s mission is ‘changing the way the world flies with safe and superior vertical lift that saves lives, preserves freedom and provides customers exceptional value.’

“Over our more than 80 years, we have introduced aircraft that changes the way missions can be conducted and achieved efficiently and safely. In addition, for military forces around the world, we’ve produced aircraft that assists in the preservation of freedom.

“The value proposition on our aircraft is unmatched. Our teams work with the customer to find the right aircraft with the right configuration to complete

their mission(s) efficiently and safely. We’re also known for our industry-leading customer support. Bell Helicopter provides its customers with local support in virtually every corner of the world and has the largest support network in the industry with more than 100 Authorized Customer Service Facilities in 34 countries. Bell Helicopter is committed to having resources where customers operate to speed up delivery of service and support, and gives customers access to service professionals that are easy to reach, know the operating environment and understand their needs.”

As with every industry there are key trends emerging, and Jakub tells us specifically what he has noticed with regards to the Eastern European region.

“Customers in Europe have shown great interest in the Bell 429 for law enforcement, emergency medical, and search and rescue operations. Over a quarter of the Bell 429s in service across Europe today are flying parapublic missions, demonstrating the superior performance of the Bell 429.”

“Our location allows us to better serve our customers abroad.

We’re right in the middle of the continent and have full service capabilities with Prague delivery, customization, after market services location.

“Our philosophy is “One Bell.” No matter what department, building or location each individual plays a role in the success of our company. This is the mind-set of our employees who come in every day to be prompt, provide superior customer service in all areas, and produce world-class products and materials.”

The future is looking good for Bell Helicopter.

“Being Bell Helicopter, we are innovators, “says Jakub.” We have things in the pipeline that will change the landscape we see today in aerospace. I can’t talk to you about them today, but I can say you have things to look forward to from Bell Helicopter.

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Founded in 1935 as Bell Aircraft Corporation, Bell Helicopter continues to set the pace for the industry and expand the scope of vertical lift. An industry leader with unmatched name recognition, Bell Helicopter was the first to obtain commercial certification for a helicopter.

Over our rich 80-year history, Bell Helicopter has delivered more than 35,000 aircraft to our customers around the world. Customers include both commercial and military customers around-the-world.

Company: Bell Helicopter Name: Jakub Hoda Email: For any questions, please direct to agerards@bh.com Web Address: www.bellhelicopter.com Address: 3255 Bell Helicopter Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas 76118 Telephone: 1 817-280-3100

Winner’s Directory

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The Award Winners are... ## 76 CORPORATE VISION / February 2017

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Attorney of the Year 2017 – Massachusetts Company: Sheff Law Offices Name: Frank J. Federico, Jr. Email: ffederico@shefflaw.com Web Address: www.Shefflaw.com Address: 10 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108 Telephone: 617-227-7000 Leading Advisor of the Year 2017 - Nigeria Company: ACAS-Law (Adepetun, Caxton-Martins, Agbor & Segun) Name: Chisa Uba Email: cuba@acas-law.com; acas@acas-law.com Web Address: www.acas-law.com Address: 9th Floor, St. Nicholas House, Catholic Mission Street, Lagos Telephone: + 234 8023115469 Attorney of the Year 2017 - Florida Company: Brickell Law Group P.A. Name: Alvaro A. Acevedo, Esq, CPA Email: al@lawyercpa.com Web Address: www.lawyercpa.com Address: 1395 Brickell Avenue, Suite 823, Miami, FL 33131 Telephone: (305) 204-9545 Pharma Exec Awards 2017 - HR Director of the Year - Florida Company: Novartis Latin America & Canada Name: Marcelo Fumasoni Email: marcelo.fumasoni@novartis.com Web Address: www.novartis.com Address: 5200 Blue Lagoon Drive, Suite 650 (Miami, Florida) zip code 33126 Telephone: +1 305 341 4800

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