Digital First Magazine – April 2023 – 10 Must-Watch Tech Companies in 2023

Must-Watch Tech Companies in 2023

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Shaping the Future

finance to transportation and logistics. AI, for example, has the potential to transform the way we live and work, enabling us to automate mundane tasks, make better decisions, and even develop new products and services.

In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, staying up-to-date with the latest developments and innovations is becoming increasingly important. Technology is changing how we live, work, and communicate, and the companies that are driving these changes are some of the most important players in the industry.

Some of the most important technologies and sectors that are driving these companies include artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, blockchain, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. These technologies are poised to significantly impact a wide range of industries, from healthcare and

“The field of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen significant advancements in recent years, particularly in the area of generative AI and large language models (LLMs). These models, powered by deep learning techniques, are designed to generate new content based on patterns found in large datasets,” writes Eve Psalti, Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence Engineering at Microsoft. Written by Eve Psalt, who has spent over 20 years as a tech and business leader, this issue cover story explores the history of generative AI and LLMs, their typical use cases, and best practices and recommendations for businesses as they adopt LLMs.

In this issue, we have also identified 10 Must-Watch Tech Companies in 2023 to provide valuable insight into the cutting-edge technologies and sectors that are shaping the future. These companies are at the forefront of their respective fields, pushing boundaries and creating new possibilities. By keeping up with these companies and the technologies they’re developing, individuals and businesses can stay ahead of the curve and position themselves for success.

Enjoy Reading

Eve Psalti

Senior Director,, Artificial Intelligence Engineering,

Microsoft

Psalti Eve

Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence Engineering , Microsoft

Eve Psalti is 20-year year tech and business leader, currently the Senior Director at Microsoft’s Azure AI engineering organization responsible for scaling & commercializing artificial intelligence solutions. She was previously the Head of Strategic Platforms at Google Cloud where she worked with F500 companies helping them grow their businesses through digital transformation initiatives. Prior to Google, Eve held business development, sales and marketing leadership positions at Microsoft and startups across the US and Europe leading 200-people teams and $600M businesses. A native of Greece, she holds a Master’s degree and several technology and business certifications from London Business School and the University of Washington. Eve currently serves on the board of WE Global Studios, a full-stack startup innovation studio supporting female entrepreneurs.

THE RISE OF GENERATIVE AI AND LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS AND HOW YOU CAN USE THEM IN YOUR BUSINESS

The field of artificial intelligence (AI) has seen significant advancements in recent years, particularly in the area of generative AI and large language models (LLMs). These models, powered by deep learning techniques, are designed to generate new content based on patterns found in large datasets.

In this article, we will explore the history of generative AI and LLMs, their typical use cases, and best practices and recommendations for businesses as they adopt LLMs.

History of Generative AI and LLMs

Generative AI has been an active research area for several decades, with early work focused on rulebased systems and expert systems. In the 1990s, statistical language models emerged as a popular approach, using probabilistic models to generate text. These models were limited by their ability to generate only short, coherent sentences.

Large language models (LLMs) are a type of artificial intelligence (AI) model designed to generate human-like text. These models are trained on vast amounts of text data, such as

books, articles, and web pages, using deep learning techniques. By analyzing patterns and relationships in the data, LLMs learn to generate new text that is similar in style and tone to the input data.

One of the most well-known LLMs is OpenAI’s GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) series, which has been trained on large datasets such as Wikipedia, news articles, and books. GPT models can generate highquality text in a variety of formats, including articles, summaries, and dialogue.

Some typical Use Cases of LLMs

LLMs have a broad range of applications across many industries, including healthcare, finance, and entertainment. Some typical use cases for LLMs include:

● Natural Language Processing (NLP): LLMs can be used to improve NLP applications, such as chatbots, sentiment analysis, and speech recognition.

● Content Creation: LLMs can be used to generate new content, such as articles, product descriptions, and social media posts.

● Fraud Detection: LLMs can be used to detect fraudulent activities, such as credit card fraud or identity theft, by analyzing patterns in large datasets.

● Predictive Analytics: LLMs can be used to make predictions based on large amounts of data, such as predicting stock prices or customer behavior.

How Businesses are Adopting AI and LLMs

There are many customer stories that showcase the power and potential of LLMs in various industries.

Here are a few examples:

● Content Creation: One customer story comes from a marketing agency that used LLMs to generate product descriptions for an e-commerce website. With the help of LLMs, the agency was able to create unique and compelling descriptions for thousands of

Generative AI has been an active research area for several decades, with early work focused on rulebased systems and expert systems

products in a short amount of time, resulting in increased sales and improved SEO.

● Fraud Detection: A bank used LLMs to analyze large amounts of customer data to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. By training an LLM on historical data, the bank was able to identify patterns and anomalies in real-time, leading to improved fraud detection and prevention.

● Customer Service: A telecommunications company used LLMs to improve their chatbot’s ability to understand and respond to customer inquiries. By training an LLM on large amounts of customer data and chat logs, the chatbot was able to provide more accurate and personalized responses, leading to higher customer satisfaction.

● Medical Research: A medical research institute used LLMs to analyze large amounts of clinical data to identify potential drug interactions and adverse effects. By training an LLM on medical literature and patient data, the institute was able to identify previously unknown interactions and improve patient safety.

These customer stories illustrate the diverse applications and benefits of LLMs, from improving content creation to detecting fraud and improving customer service. As LLM technology continues to advance, we can expect to see even more innovative use cases and success stories in the future.

Benefits of using LLMs in your Business

There are several reasons to adopt LLMs in your business like improving efficiencies,

As businesses adopt LLMs, they should follow best practices and recommendations to ensure they are using the right model, understanding their data, monitoring, and evaluating performance, and ensuring transparency and accountability

automate repetitive tasks while improving accuracy and saving costs overall.

● Efficiency: LLMs are designed to process large amounts of text data quickly and accurately. This makes them an efficient tool for various tasks such as content creation, sentiment analysis, and language translation.

● Improved Accuracy: LLMs can generate more accurate results than traditional rulebased systems or statistical language models. This is because they are trained on large amounts of data, allowing them to identify patterns and relationships that might not be apparent to humans.

● Cost Savings: Using LLMs can help businesses save money by automating tasks that would otherwise require human labor. For example, chatbots powered by LLMs can handle customer service inquiries, reducing the need for human customer support agents.

● Improved Customer Experience: LLMs can be used to create personalized content for customers, improving their experience with a brand. This can lead to increased customer loyalty and sales.

Best Practices and Recommendations for Businesses

As businesses adopt LLMs, there are several best practices and recommendations they should consider:

should choose the model that best fits their needs and datasets.

● Understand the Data: LLMs require large amounts of high-quality data to generate accurate results. Businesses should ensure they have a good understanding of their data and any biases that may exist.

● Regularly Monitor and Evaluate: LLMs are not perfect and can make mistakes. Businesses should regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of their LLMs to identify and correct any errors.

● Ensure Transparency and Accountability: LLMs can generate content that is difficult to distinguish from human-generated content. Businesses should ensure they are transparent about the use of LLMs and take responsibility for any content they generate. They should also establish governance around responsible AI practices to ensure traceability and accountability.

In summary, generative AI and LLMs have come a long way since the early days of rulebased systems and statistical language models. With their ability to generate human-like content, LLMs have many practical applications across various industries.

● Choose the Right Model: There are many LLMs available, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Businesses

As businesses adopt LLMs, they should follow best practices and recommendations to ensure they are using the right model, understanding their data, monitoring, and evaluating performance, and ensuring transparency and accountability. With these considerations in mind, LLMs can be a powerful tool for businesses to generate new content, improve NLP applications, detect fraud, and make predictive analytics.

The Present and Future of Payments

Panagiotis Kriaris, Commercial Director - Head of Business Development, Unzer, Austria

During the past two decades, payments have changed like no other business in financial services. And yet the most disruptive part is still ahead of us.

To understand the magnitude of change, consider the following: 20 years ago, a 3-yearold company named Confinity had just changed its name to PayPal, Alipay and WeChat would launch 3 and 10 years later respectively, mobile payments did not even exist (the iPhone was first released in 2007) and Amazon had finally turned

its first profit in Q4 - $0.01 on revenues of more than $1 billion.

Fast forward to today and technology has drastically transformed how payments are conducted with strong regional flavours: mobile payments in Europe, SuperApps in Asia and QR codes in Latin America. What’s more, an outbreak of a rare coronavirus in 2019 has led to a global pandemic that has, in effect, accelerated major behavioural shifts: adoption of instant payments, contactless payments becoming a norm, drastic decline of cash and a huge boom of e-commerce.

Technological advancements like biometrics, the Internet-of-Things, tokenization and cloud computing have been at the forefront of this transformation, affecting not only the consumer interaction but also the underlying set-up

Panagiotis Kriaris has spent his career in the borderline between business and technology with a leadership background at an international level. He brings senior expertise across Financial Services, Banking, Payments, FinTech, Retail andE-Commerce.Innovation,strategy, business development, strategic partnerships and building businesses and products from scratch have been at the center of his work and attention throughout his career. Being a recognized voice in the financial services industry, he has contributed to various publications and podcasts and is often invited as a public speaker at events around the globe.

Payments have evolved from a traditional, static model with limited, pre-defined payment options, i.e. cash, card or cheque, to a dynamic, all-digital environment. Cashless, mobile-first, omni-channel payments powered by multiple inter-connected devices are the new norm.

Technological advancements like biometrics, the Internet-of-Things, tokenization and cloud computing have been at the forefront of this transformation, affecting not only the consumer interaction but also the underlying set-up, for example biometrics gradually replacing traditional credentials as an authentication and authorization tool.

In terms of impact and reach two things stand out in particular: the emergence of real-time and the transition to an open approach. Changes brought about as a result, include on the retail side concepts such as digital payments, peer-topeer (P2P), account-to-account (A2A), bill pay, scheduled payments or deposit capture, whereas on the corporate side topics like payroll, sweeps, positive pay, treasury, cash forecasting, liquidity and integrated payables dominate the agenda.

All these have had profound repercussions on the competitive landscape: as incumbents struggle to adjust to the new reality, FinTechs, BigTechs and other market disruptors have found the opportunity to challenge the status quo by introducing novel payment methods on the basis of convenience, speed and flexibility, powered often by a platform approach.

Ever-changing customer requirements, new service offerings, innovative propositions, new entrants, consolidation, novel business models and shifting dynamics create a mix that makes it especially challenging to predict what’s coming next. However, if I would have to bet

Ever-changing customer requirements, new service offerings, innovative propositions, new entrants, consolidation, novel business models and shifting dynamics create a mix that makes it especially challenging to predict what’s coming next

on a number of future plays, most of my money would be placed on the following trends and developments:

The platform-based, ecosystem model will be further dominating the new reality by means of offering solid competitive advantages - network effects, control of the customer experience, reduced disintermediation and new revenue streams.

The more payments take an increasingly central-stage role in diverse offerings by means of embedded financial services – and here is the great paradox in the next phase of the evolutionary journey – the more they will be moving in the background and become invisible. In this set-up the most promising revenue pools will evolve around holistic, end-to-end offerings.

Future payments will look much more versatile, open and seamless and will be dominated by specialized players that rely on economies of scale but at the same time are agile enough to swiftly adapt their business model to evolving customer requirements.

The rise of alternative payments will continue from virtual mobile wallets to PayLater (BNPL) schemes to P2P money transfers and to cash payment models, there will be an increasingly diverse number of payment methods beyond cards and cash, boosted by the ascend of e-commerce, technologies like 5G and IoT, more mature open banking use cases and the emergence of new payment platforms.

Digital wallets have already become the world’s leading payment method for both ecommerce and POS transactions and their ascent will undoubtedly continue: the number of unique digital wallet users will exceed 4.4 bn globally by 2025 (Juniper Research) and will reach 5.6 bn or 65% of the global population

by 2030 (ARK). It is not by accident that digital wallets are today core to the strategy of most major tech and payment players across the globe, influencing the re-bundling of financial services, which has been playing out under the catchy term «the SuperApp race». In a less obvious side of their impact, the evolution of digital wallets will be playing a crucial role in the mechanics behind connecting buyer and seller ecosystems.

As the global payments landscape becomes increasingly complicated and cluttered, the appeal of account-to-account (A2A) payments as a means of circumventing intermediaries and achieving efficiency and transparency gains will increase. Regardless of whether this will be facilitated by Open Banking or via existing (A2A) schemes around the globe, A2A payments will claim an ever-growing stake of the global pie.

The quest for the next wave of payment infrastructure will intensify but the outcome is likely to consist of a mix of new and old capabilities in a multi-rail set-up where cards will co-exist with real-time, account-to-account payments (as per the previous point). In such an environment, traditional incumbents like Visa and Mastercard will be fighting to re-define their role in the industry alongside an increasingly versatile array of players (FinTechs, new payment champions, BigTechs and e-commerce giants).

The B2B segment will be one of the main growth drivers going forward, with the current challenging macroeconomic environment having only added to their potential. Estimates converge that B2B payments constitute on a global scale a $120 trillion market and have significantly more connected opportunity compared with B2C.

Software is not only becoming much more entangled with payments, but it is developing into a powerful and undisputable (payments) delivery channel on its own right, creating new business models and impacting the entire industry value chain along the way.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) will redefine disruption in the industry. From watches to light bulbs, to thermostats, to cars and to trains, the number of connected devices is projected to reach 41.6 billion globally by 2025 (source: IDC). Payments triggered from such devices are expected to reach USD 5.4 trillion by 2028 from an estimated USD 155 billion in

2021, growing at a CAGR of 66% (source: Introspective Market Research).

Notwithstanding all the above, what stands out in the evolution of payments is the fact that what was once seen as a complementary, boring, and low-potential business has transformed into the most fascinating and attractive part of financial services, dictating, to a large extend, how the entire industry is evolving. Technology will not only continue to be the main driver behind this continuing transformation but will also significantly (further) shorten and condense the innovation cycle(s).

The B2B segment will be one of the main growth drivers going forward, with the current challenging macroeconomic environment having only added to their potential

CP Lee

Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Mola

REVOLUTIONISING THE OTT MARKET THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL EXPERTISE & VISION

CP Lee is a technically sophisticated and awardwinning executive leader with an impressive 20+ years of dynamic experience leading engagements with potential and existing partners to source new business, inspire customer loyalty, and positively affect the top and bottom lines. He is the Chief Technology & Operations Officer at Mola, an upstart Indonesian TV streaming company.

Over the years, Lee’s leadership journey has been focused on digging deep and self-discovering not just the how but the whys of things being done, technically and emotionally. Being true, authentic, and believing that nothing is impossible are the secret mantras behind Lee’s successful career trajectory.

Humble Beginnings

Coming from a humble background, Lee studied in a simple school. He was,

Lee, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, Mola

CP

however, an academically bright student with a keen interest in science and technology. In college, Lee pursued a bachelor’s degree in Computer Technology and a master’s degree in Applied Sciences from Nanyang Technological University Singapore. He embodied all the key attributes necessary for a leadership role: honesty, focus, empathy, courage, and good listening skill. With encouragement from his lecturers, mentors, and companions, he transitioned from an introvert to an extrovert and began participating in various student leadership programs. For Lee, this was just the beginning. The tech world was his oyster, waiting to be shucked.

In 1997, Lee began his career as a research scholar at his alma mater, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, one of Asia’s top

universities. Afterwards, he worked with worldrenowned companies such as Apple, Motorola Solutions, HBO Asia, and WarnerMedia. The diverse industry exposure presented itself as a unique opportunity for Lee to become widely acquainted with the different worlds, but a common underlying theme existed, i.e., change and transformation. In each professional role, he proved to have a keen aptitude for taking ownership of highly critical and visible projects and delivering optimal results in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment.

Leading Mola to Greater Heights of Success

In early 2021, Mola approached Lee to transform the development of its technology strategy and product roadmap. Recalling that time,

Lee says, “Mola came as a unique opportunity to do something different and exciting, with the chance to help a domestic player trying to break into the international market.” He further states, “For a CTO, it’s not just about technology – it’s about operational efficiency and performance. The will to make changes, juggling with risks while prodding on the way, is a fine act of balancing between innovation, stability, and efficiency.”

Never being afraid to take on new challenges, Lee confidently took on the role of Chief Technology Officer and soon became an integral member in driving the company’s success. As the CTO at Mola, Lee enabled the swift and successful expansion of the company’s global footprint by creating and fostering a borderless workforce. He also spearheaded the launch of go-to-market strategies that yielded a 50% increase in consumer traffic across four distinct markets. He propelled the Mola app for the first time into the ‘Top 10 OTT (Entertainment) Apps by Average MAU’ chart in Q3 2021 by data.ai.

A year later, Lee assumed the role of Chief Technology & Operations Officer at Mola after leading the 3 divisions in the organisation - Technology, Content Management & Distribution and Operations Support. His responsibility now extends to optimising and developing media operations strategy, customer service, and compliance.

Mola: Indonesia’s Fastest-Growing Entertainment Network

Incepted in 2019, Mola is an Indonesian subscription video-on-demand and over-the-top streaming service headquartered in Jakarta. The platform provides live sports content via mobile apps and set-top boxes to deliver live EPL matches

As the CTO at Mola, Lee enabled the swift and successful expansion of the company’s global footprint by creating and fostering a borderless workforce. He also spearheaded the launch of go-tomarket strategies that yielded a 50% increase in consumer traffic across four distinct markets

on every screen, guaranteeing a superior viewing experience for fans. In a short period, Mola has become one of the fastest-growing entertainment networks in Indonesia and holds live and on-demand broadcasting rights for major sports competitions, including Premier League in Indonesia and Timor Leste.

What truly sets Mola apart from other market competitors is that it is far more than just an OTT platform. It is a finely curated blend of offline and online contributions and engagement with its users. Coupled with online outreach of shows, concerts, and live events, Mola is also heavily invested in offline sports involvement, music concerts, and physically bringing the best of Indonesia to the world stage through grooming new football players and/or MMA fighters.

While commenting on Mola’s performance, Lee asserts, “Technically, the platform had achieved unparalleled stability compared to when we first started the revamp.” He further adds, “Features enhancement such as 4K and Dolby has been progressively added to the platform to delight our users.” Likewise, many unseen improvements have continuously been added to the platform to provide users with a seamless and pleasant experience, keeping them more engaged on the platform than ever before. Owing to this, viewership has been consistently improving since the multitude of UI/UX enhancements has been deployed under the charter of the new team.

Leadership Perspective

At Mola, Lee prefers to be a guide and teacher to his team members. As the saying goes,

the teacher appears when the student is ready. Similarly, Lee’s key role is to provide the correct guidance and offer the correct teachings to those who are willing to listen and learn. He strongly feels that leadership is not a given but a path not lightly taken and moulded.

When motivating his team members, Lee feels that different things encourage everyone differently.

“The key is to be true and authentic in our dealings with the team so that there is full understanding and trust to be built into a cohesive team,” explains Lee.

Stimulating Innovation Among Team Members

According to Lee, giving team members the freedom to speak, discuss, and be authentic are the keys to keeping innovative ideas flowing. He also feels that there are no stupid ideas, just bad implementations.

As Mola traversed through many adversities, from the instability of the original platform

to the sub-standard planning of distribution, its technology and operations team regularly connected and collaborated despite the challenges of the pandemic, where physical meetups became impossible. They displayed the spirit of defying all odds.

A Day in the Life of a Tech Leader

Lee’s day at work is anything but typical or boring. When one milestone has been successfully achieved, or a disaster averted, some new challenge or target appears before him. However, this has made his daily life very challenging and exciting – never a dull momentand also helps keep the adrenaline pumping constantly.

Pearls of Wisdom

“Be true, be fair and be kind – a mandate I follow since, regardless of whether in a leadership position or otherwise,” shares Lee.

Leading in the Metaverse

Melanie Tschugmall, Global Business Strategy Expert & Strategic Program Lead

Let us assume that the metaverse will prevail on the same scale and with the same disruptive force as the Internet. How must individual managers position themselves to lead in a multidimensional world, to empower employees, and to foster cognitive diversity?

In the metaverse, three dimensions have greater relevance and should be considered more strongly than ever: the war for talent and skillset; diversity, inclusion, and equity; and digital ethics.

The war for talent and skillset

The war for talent has intensified in recent years, especially in specialist and technical professions. With the expansion of a new technological dimension from 2D to 3D, employees who can not only program the former but also operate and interact with the latter are in demand. In addition to finding these experts on the market, managers must ensure that their existing employees are digitally upskilled.

Leaders must play an exemplary role on the one hand, and on the other, they must navigate the metaverse, think ahead, and move forward with an open mind

Melanie Tschugmall, of Zurich Switzerland, has been energetically and perseveringly pursuing three basicpillarsofbusiness:Digitalization Enthusiast. Entrepreneurial leader. Diversity enabler. These principles allow her to repeatedly leave her comfort zone, evaluate emerging trends, and engage in lifelong learning. She currently works as a Global Business Strategy Expert and Strategic Program Lead at a big tech company, operating at the intersection of technology, people, and strategy. Previously, she has held various managerial positions in service companies and holds a degree in tourism management and aMaster’sinstrategicmarketingwith a focus on behavioural economics. She is currently pursuing her EMBA in corporate strategy.The metaverse and leadership are passions of hers – an interesting combination that led to this article.

Manager becoming part of the ‘fringe benefit package’

Leaders must play an exemplary role on the one hand, and on the other, they must navigate the metaverse, think ahead, and move forward with an open mind. Overall, companies and leaders need a plan to become even more appealing as employers for early talents among

Generations Y and Z. In the new war-for-talent environment, managers must increasingly see themselves as talent scouts and behave as such while also acting as ‘salespeople’ on their own behalf. This means working on their personal digital branding and creating a clear USP for themselves as managers. Managers are increasingly part of the work-attractiveness

package, so to speak, and must see themselves as a ‘fringe benefit’.

Managing in a digital ecosystem thinking beyond existing team structures

Since universities may not be able to meet the demand for new qualifications swiftly enough, companies and managers will have to resort to

alternative paths. Especially in the first years of transformation and experimentation, companies will need significant innovation power from tech experts to take on Web 3.0 and build the skills themselves. There will also be new forms of freelancing and people moving into lateral jobs, similar to when Web 2.0 arose. For managers, this means that on the one hand, they will no longer equate their team with direct reports; they must think increasingly in terms of an extended ecosystem and even virtual digital teams. This evolution requires a different organizational setup, a stronger intellectual agility, and an acceptance of pragmatic workarounds.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity

The rapid development of technology and the resulting increase in complexity also apply to the development of the metaverse. This means, if not proactively managed, millions of people without the capacity or enough opportunities to adapt will be left out. At the same time, it is vital that the effective users feel heard and included, meaning a psychological safe space must be created. Centring diversity and inclusion in the metaverse is relevant – not only because it is the right thing to do, but especially because it simply makes sense from a business perspective to have the lowest possible barriers right from the start, which allows for dynamic innovations later on. Looking ahead, two dimensions must be distinguished from a manager’s perspective: firstly, how a manager can create a diverse and, above all, inclusive metaverse within the scope of possibilities, and secondly, how a manager can act inclusively in such an environment. Companies should have a diversity guiding principle for the whole staff to avoid the same mistakes that led to today’s current inequalities

The rapid development of technology and the resulting increase in complexity also apply to the development of the metaverse

(e.g., most AI is programmed by men, leading to one-sided output and cognitive aspects).

How to create an inclusive team interaction

To be an inclusive manager, it is crucial to manage and interact with the team in a hybrid way to prevent letting anyone from falling behind and to equalise the playing field. A manager must ensure that the virtual team working zone lacks barriers to entry to perform and challenge the status quo. The joint virtual environment should be acceptable to all team members and should contain a mutual agreement on relevant issues such as information sharing. It also helps to have guiding principles on how to work together and maybe even a common ‘playbook’.

How to work inclusively in a virtual world

Inclusivity is not only related to the metaverse but is also a necessary goal for a modern manager with a focus on a high-performing team. First, a manager must assess the team’s skillsets, backgrounds, and aspirations. From this starting point, an effective manager should design a strategy, ask the right questions, and, at the same time, appropriately use these respective superpowers to reach the team goal in a hybrid world.

Digital Ethics

This article concludes with a point that is fortunately gaining increasing visibility and awareness. Digital ethics are not specific to the metaverse –in fact, they should already be an integral part of all AI and blockchain projects, from a business, social, and technical perspective – but they are not emphasised enough. For example, there is the question of to what extent relevant, intimate biometric, physical, and behavioural data can be collected at all. The extension of the workplace to an immersive environment makes this issue more complex and sensitive. So does how the user is affected by the involuntary sharing of that data, because a lot of data is also shared unconsciously. Another issue is ensuring the integrity of the manager as well as that of the individual team members and to being able to make decisions that are as unbiased as possible. Finally, a crucial consideration is the aspect of digital crime in the metaverse, such as sexual harassment or racism in the working environment. The new level of immersive experience has introduced a need for the next level of laws in the corporate world. For the respective manager, this means addressing digital ethics and the war for talent, as well as inclusion and its effects on their team and aspirations. Leaders – be ready to lead in a new, fully fledged hybrid world!

To be an inclusive manager, it is crucial to manage and interact with the team in a hybrid way to prevent letting anyone from falling behind and to equalise the playing field

10MUSTWATCH TECH COMPANIES IN 2023

Website:

https://www.babylonhealth.com/

Headquarters: London, United Kingdom

Keyperson: Ali Parsa, CEO

About the Company: Babylon Health is a digital health startup that provides a mobile app with an AI-powered chatbot, video consultations with doctors, and healthtracking tools.

DRZ Corporation

Website:

https://drz.global/en/

Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil

Keyperson: Delmar Assis, Founder and CEO

About the Company: DRZ Corporation provides solutions for data management and governance, transforming data into business assets, democratizing the use of data, and promoting digital transformation for the company to be Business Data Driven.

Babylon

Website:

https://about.gitlab.com/

Headquarters: California, United States

Keyperson: Sid Sijbrandij, CEO

About the Company: GitLab is a web-based platform for managing software development projects that offers a suite of tools for version control, continuous integration, and continuous delivery.

Website:

https://www.luminartech.com/

Headquarters: California, United States

Keyperson: Damilola Eniolorunda

Ogunniyi, Founder and CEO

About the Company: Luminar is a LiDAR technology company that produces sensors and software for self-driving cars, drones, and other applications that require accurate 3D mapping.

Website:

https://www.nuro.ai/

Location: California, United States

Keyperson: Jiajun Zhu, Co-Founder and CEO

About the Company: Nuro is a selfdriving delivery vehicle company that aims to revolutionize how goods are delivered using autonomous vehicles.

Website:

Location: Dubai, UAE

Keyperson: Zaid Kamhawi, CEO

About the Company: Qarar is a leading Decision Analytics company specialized in offering consulting, decision analytics and software technology to deliver tailormade customer management and process automation solutions.

Website:

https://www.skygrid.com/

Location: Texas, United States

Keyperson: Zehra Akbar, Chief Strategy Officer

About the Company: SkyGrid is a joint venture between Boeing and SparkCognition that develops AI-powered software for managing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in commercial airspace.

Website:

https://stripe.com/

Location: Dublin, Ireland

Keyperson: Patrick Collison, CEO

About the Company: Stripe is a payments processing company that allows businesses to accept payments online and in mobile apps, with a focus on user-friendly and developerfriendly interfaces.

Website:

https://www.uipath.com/

Headquarters: New York, United States

Keyperson: Daniel Dines, Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer

About the Company: UiPath is a robotic process automation software company that helps automate repetitive tasks and streamline business processes.

Website:

Headquarters: California, United States

Keyperson: Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, CEO

About the Company: Zipline is a drone delivery company that uses autonomous drones to deliver medical supplies and other goods to remote areas in developing countries.

DRZ Corporation Transforming Data into Actionable Business Assets

Data is everything today. That is why traditional software may not be enough to handle it effectively, which is where professionals come in to unravel it all. Headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil’s vibrant financial center, DRZ Corporation provides solutions for data management and governance, transforms data into business assets, democratizes the use of data, and promotes digital transformation for the company to be a data-driven business. “Demand has grown rapidly, with a huge need for intelligence to extract insights from data, which is the new oil. Since our foundation,

we have been committed to transforming data into relevant business assets. We have teams with deep knowledge of data and how to transform and govern them. We also have a great ecosystem with partners to provide a fully holistic solution,” says Delmar Assis, Founder and CEO of DRZ Corporation.

Delmar’s entire career has been focused on the data area. Graduated in Computer Science with several specializations in data science and an MBA, Delmar has worked in technology for over 25 years, always in large multinationals in the enterprise sector. His team has been delivering

Assis, Founder and CEO

Delmar

consistent and valuable results for those customers. He says, “The most important factor is understanding that the business needs to provide an agile and correct data solution to real business problems. Our journey has been great. We are expanding every year, which motivates us to move forwards.”

DRZ offers solutions to transform data into business assets with the best global solutions. The company understands the business needs to provide an agile and correct data solution to solve real business problems. It provides the most innovative solution with the help of a highly specialized data solutions team committed to making results in solving business problems with cost and risk reductions. “DRZ was a project designed and structured to be long-lasting and innovative, providing relevant solutions and placing customers at the center of the action. We have grown in revenue, customers, and territory. We have a strong presence in the Latin American region, serving more than 9 countries, with year after year growth in the number of customers,” Delmar says.

Ensuring Clients’ Satisfaction

Effective data governance brings value to all team members across the organization. “It is increasingly urgent to govern one of the main business assets: data. However, many companies are still trying to understand how to do it. We offer the implementation with methodology and the solution,” shares Delmar. Transforming large amounts of raw data to facilitate quick access to the right people with appropriate permissions and implementing a self-service data harmonizing with data mesh are challenging for companies. DRZ supports these challenges from solution design to

Partnering with DRZ,

would

implementation and maintenance, creating metrics for data usage and allowing data monetization.

Companies must start managing this data based on business initiatives so that results are consistent and the business can be part of the solution, from conception to the first quick wins. DRZ offers a solution for the complete roadmap, from acquisition, transformation, unification, enrichment, and governance. “Effective communication and interaction are essential when you are dealing with data. We have seen a great demand from companies to communicate and understand their customers correctly, generating increased satisfaction, personification, retention, and increased consumption of their products, as well as reducing risks and costs. We have a complete

CCM-CXM (customer experience) solution for an effective omnichannel,” shares Delmar.

Committed to Solve Business Problems

Partnering with DRZ, companies would get the most innovative solutions, teams very specialized in data solutions, best practices, and commitment to solving business problems with cost and risk reductions. For instance, DRZ worked with a large restaurant chain to help them transform how they manage their products and items by reducing losses and stocks. DRZ did a complete optimization for company buyers to negotiate better with their providers. Delmar explains, “We have transformed their campaigns that used to be for files into an entire workflow to reduce time, costs, and governance.

companies

get the most innovative solutions, teams very specialized in data solutions, best practices, and commitment to solving business problems with cost and risk reductions

We optimized the entire tax chain to reduce tax rates and values, simplified complex calculations, and enormously reduced numerous processes with a high risk of errors and problems.”

Working with a retail chain, DRZ optimized the entire chain of the process of creating new products. “We optimized the process of creating new products, reducing time, costs, risks, and people involved,” shares Delmar. With cuttingedge data solutions, DRZ improved the entire supplier registration process chain, from initial data, certifications, and verification to final approval. The company also implemented the adequacy of complaints allowing the complete management of the adequacy of the laws involved.

Finding Innovation Within the Team

Delmar’s way of managing people at DRZ is multidisciplinary. He is highly attentive to different points with a human eye and simultaneously delivers high-quality results and value to customers. “I have always been attentive and supported by teams and members

DRZ has highperformance teams that are attentive and connected to the needs and priorities of customers

with more horizontal management. The pandemic brought challenges. However, we managed it well since we had been doing our work in a hybrid way. The non-coexistence was problematic, but we intensified conversations through virtual cafes and found time for individualized attention more frequently,” shares Delmar.

DRZ has high-performance teams that are attentive and connected to the needs and priorities of customers. Delmar says, “Our goal is to transform raw data into business assets because we now have a critical mission for the success of our customers where we provide a fully holistic solution. Most important is understanding the business needs to provide an agile and correct data solution to real business problems. This has helped us create recurrent customers; through them, we reach out to new clients and expand our network.” Delmar’s advice to startups in this domain is simple: make a clear business plan focusing on customer needs, listen to them, interact, and join a group to discuss market tendencies. He adds, “Remember that consistency and execution are the keys to success.”

Today, companies look forward to extracting insights from data and using it efficiently and intelligently without forgetting governance. This opens up a plethora of opportunities for companies like DRZ that can deliver quick, innovative solutions. However, they must be aligned with the most diverse constant innovations, as solutions can quickly become obsolete. “We plan to continue investing in innovative solutions to keep our customers satisfied,” says Delmar. In the coming years, DRZ’s customers can expect many cuttingedge insights and solutions for managing and transforming their data into business assets. “Soon, we will have a new version with amazing AI/ML features,” concludes Delmar.

Web 3.0 Risk Management

Web 3.0, the next generation of the internet, is set to revolutionize the way we interact, transact and access information. With decentralized systems, blockchain technology and new economic models, Web 3.0 aims to bring a more open, secure, and transparent web experience. However, this new era of the internet also brings new risks and challenges, making

it crucial to have a solid risk management framework in place.

Risks in Web 3.0

One of the main risks in Web 3.0 is related to security. The decentralization of systems means that there is no central authority to manage and secure data, making it more vulnerable to hacking, data breaches and other malicious attacks. Additionally, smart contracts, which are self-executing codes

Andeed Ma, President, Risk, and Insurance Management Association of Singapore (RIMAS)

The decentralization of systems means that there is no central authority to manage and secure data, making it more vulnerable to hacking, data breaches and other malicious attacks

Andeed Ma is an AI cloud business and risk management leader for more than 15 years. He has worked for major technology companies such as ServiceNow, Ivanti, ByteDance and CyberArk. He is currently leading a non-profit enterprise risk management association known as RIMAS (Risk and Insurance Management Association of Singapore) as their President. He lectures, speaks, and mentors at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) on Hyperautomation, Introduction to AI; and at the Singapore Management University (SMU) on the Essential of Cloud Computing, Regulatory Technology (RegTech) and SustainableAI.HeistheCo-authorof“AI for Humanity: Building A Sustainable AI for the Future” (ISBN: 9781394180301), to be published by Wiley.

that enforce the terms of a contract, can be vulnerable to bugs and exploits, potentially leading to unintended consequences and financial losses.

Another risk in Web 3.0 is related to the economic models, which are often based on decentralized networks of peers and incentivized systems. This new economic landscape brings new opportunities and challenges, such as the risk of market manipulation, liquidity issues and the risk of not being able to effectively enforce agreements.

Finally, there is also a risk associated with regulation, as the legal framework for Web 3.0 is still developing and evolving. This lack of clarity on the regulatory front can lead to uncertainty and potential legal challenges.

Risk Management in Web 3.0

To effectively manage risks in Web 3.0, it is essential to have a robust risk management framework in place. The following are some key components of a risk management framework for Web 3.0:

Insurance can play a critical role in managing risks in Web 3.0, providing a safety net in the event of unexpected events or losses

1. Security: It is crucial to ensure that the systems and infrastructure used in Web 3.0 are secure, especially given the decentralized nature of the technology. This can be achieved through the use of secure coding practices, secure storage of private keys, and the use of robust encryption algorithms.

2. Economic Models: To manage the risks associated with the economic models of Web 3.0, it is important to have a deep understanding of the underlying mechanisms and incentives. This includes understanding the mechanisms for price discovery, the supply and demand dynamics, and the potential for market manipulation.

3. Regulation: Given the lack of clarity on the regulatory front for Web 3.0, it is important to stay up to date with the latest developments and to engage with regulators and other stakeholders to ensure a clear and predictable regulatory framework.

4. Insurance: Insurance can play a critical role in managing risks in Web 3.0, providing a safety net in the event of unexpected events or losses. This can include insurance for data breaches, smart contract failures and market manipulation.

5. Risk Assessments: Regular risk assessments can help identify and mitigate potential risks, allowing organizations to take proactive steps to minimize exposure to these risks. This can include the use of risk assessments to evaluate smart contract code, the security of systems and infrastructure, and the potential impact of regulation.

Security Risk in Web 3.0

Security is one of the biggest risks in Web 3.0, given its decentralized nature. In a

centralized system, security is managed by a central authority, such as a corporation or government. However, in Web 3.0, security is managed by a network of peers, which can make it more difficult to secure and protect data. This is especially true when it comes to sensitive information, such as financial transactions and personal data.

To mitigate the security risks in Web 3.0, it is important to implement strong encryption algorithms and secure storage methods for private keys. This can help ensure that the data is protected from unauthorized access, even if the system is hacked. In addition, the use of secure coding practices is essential, as smart contracts are self-executing code that enforce the terms of a contract. Any vulnerabilities or exploits in the code can result in unintended consequences and financial losses.

Economic Model Risk in Web 3.0

Web 3.0 introduces new economic models that are based on decentralized networks of peers and incentivized systems. These new economic models can bring new opportunities and challenges, such as market manipulation, liquidity issues and the risk of not being able to effectively enforce agreements.

To manage the risks associated with the economic models of Web 3.0, it is important to have a deep understanding of the underlying mechanisms and incentives. This includes understanding the mechanisms for price discovery, the supply and demand dynamics, and the potential for market manipulation. Additionally, it is important to have a clear understanding of the potential impact of

regulatory changes and to stay up-to-date with the latest developments on the regulatory front.

Regulatory Risk in Web 3.0

The legal framework for Web 3.0 is still developing and evolving, which can lead to uncertainty and potential legal challenges. Given the lack of clarity on the regulatory front for Web 3.0, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest developments and to engage with regulators and other stakeholders to ensure a clear and predictable regulatory framework.

In addition, it is important to have a clear understanding of the legal implications of smart contracts and other Web 3.0 technologies. This includes understanding the potential impact of regulation on the enforceability of smart contracts, as well as the potential impact on data privacy and security.

Insurance Risk in Web 3.0

Insurance can play a critical role in managing risks in Web 3.0, providing a safety net in the event of unexpected events or losses. This can include insurance for data breaches, smart contract failures and market manipulation. Additionally, insurance can help mitigate the impact of regulatory changes, providing a layer of protection against potential legal challenges.

To effectively manage insurance risk in Web 3.0, it is important to have a clear understanding of the types of insurance coverage available, as well as the potential impact of regulatory changes on insurance coverage. This includes understanding

the impact of regulation on the cost and availability of insurance coverage, as well as the potential impact on the scope of coverage.

Risk Assessment in Web 3.0

Regular risk assessments can help identify and mitigate potential risks in Web 3.0, allowing organizations to take proactive steps to minimize exposure to these risks. This can include the use of risk assessments to evaluate smart contract code, the security of systems and infrastructure, and the potential impact of regulation.

In addition, risk assessments can help organizations identify potential vulnerabilities and exploits in the code, as well as potential weaknesses in the security of systems and infrastructure. Organisation can also reference ISO 31010, which covers various risk assessment methods that can be used to help them better identify potential risks occurring in the pursuit of a Web 3.0 initiative. By taking a proactive approach to risk management, organizations can ensure that they are wellprepared for the challenges and opportunities of the next generation of the internet.

Conclusion

Web 3.0 has the potential to bring significant benefits to the internet and to society as a whole. However, to fully realize these benefits, it is essential to have a robust risk management framework in place. By understanding the risks associated with Web 3.0 and taking steps to mitigate them, organizations can ensure that they are well-prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the next generation of the internet.

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SkyGrid

Powering the Next Generation of Autonomous Aviation

Based in Austin, Texas, SkyGrid, a Boeing, SparkCognition company, is powering the next generation of unmanned aviation. As the only airspace management system built on AI and blockchain, SkyGrid is solving the industry’s biggest challenges by integrating unmanned aircraft in the global airspace and executing autonomous operations at scale. It enables a wide variety of commercial drone operations, from package delivery to emergency assistance.

“At SkyGrid, our vision is to become the world’s most trusted airspace management system that integrates all unmanned aircraft in the global airspace safely and intelligently,” shares Zehra Akbar, Chief Strategy Officer, SkyGrid.

The Inception Story

It all began in 2018 when the advancements in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were underway. Looking towards a future where

Zehra Akbar, Chief Strategy Officer, SkyGrid

there are not just hundreds or thousands of aircraft occupying the skies but billions of UAVs of all sizes fulfilling commercial and personal transport missions, two companies recognized a gap in the industry. SparkCognition and Boeing knew that a comprehensive system to safely integrate and manage unmanned aircraft in the global airspace would be essential for urban aerial mobility.

To address this gap, Boeing and SparkCognition joined forces to form SkyGrid, an airspace management system focusing on innovation, agility, and, most importantly – safety. By combining Boeing’s deeply rooted experience in the aerospace industry with SparkCognition’s advancements in artificial intelligence, SkyGrid was born to build the digital infrastructure that accelerates the next generation of autonomous aviation.

Service Offerings

SkyGrid’s AerialOSTM is an airspace management system for drones, air taxis, and other unmanned aircraft. This system combines airspace awareness, flight planning, and fleet management in one integrated solution to execute autonomous operations at scale. The AI-powered map provides 2D and 3D visualizations of rich data layers, including airspace traffic, flight restrictions, weather forecasts, obstacle data, and much more. The AI-powered routing and deconfliction technology also autonomously adapts unmanned flights to avoid hazardous conditions and other aircraft.

By combining Boeing’s deeply rooted experience in the aerospace industry with SparkCognition’s advancements in artificial intelligence, SkyGrid was born to build the digital infrastructure that accelerates the next generation of autonomous aviation

Next comes the SkyGrid Flight Control™ application, which was launched globally in 2022. The all-in-one drone application makes it easy for operators and enterprises to explore the airspace, automate flights, and get real-time insights as one integrated solution, enabling safe, secure, and efficient operations. The SkyGrid Flight Control app features and functionality include airspace intelligence, weather layers, automated flight planning, realtime airspace authorization, and autonomous flight execution. What makes SkyGrid Flight Control app unique is being the only free (on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users), all-in-one solution that is highly automated and powered by AI and blockchain.

What makes SkyGrid Flight Control app unique is being the only free (on the Apple App Store for iPhone and iPad users), all-in-one solution that is highly automated and powered by AI and blockchain

Filling the Unaccounted Gaps with AerialOS™:

The All-In-One Unified Platform

Even today, systems remain largely disconnected and rely on humans to manually plan their flights, comply with regulations, and adapt to changing conditions. Built on AI and blockchain, SkyGrid offers a smarter airspace management system to

fill the gaps unaccounted for in traditional UTM solutions. SkyGrid’s AerialOSTM monitors, predicts, and adapts to changing conditions to intelligently route, synchronize, and maintain unmanned aircraft.

For instance, in automated flights, AI algorithms can be trained to calculate the optimal route for one or more drones based on

the mission parameters, such as the start and end point, desired cruise altitude, timeframe, and payload details. The AI models will monitor, predict, and adapt to changing conditions during the flight. Similarly, regarding regulatory compliance, blockchain augmented with smart contracts can encode the airspace rules, such as flying 400 feet below during daylight hours, as mandatory parameters in a flight planning system. Organizations can also use this technology to set additional company-wide safety standards for their commercial drone operations. Likewise, predictive AI technology can remove the burden on operators by analyzing sensor data across the client’s fleet and flagging suboptimal operations. The blockchain

technology, augmented with smart contracts, can also ensure the maintenance request is resolved and signed off by a technician’s private key before the drone can operate again.

How Does SkyGrid Make the Airspace Safer?

SkyGrid incorporates and displays data layers from population density, weather, traffic patterns, flight tracking, and many others. This allows an operator to select a combination of data sources to create a custom situational awareness picture that suits their needs to operate most effectively and safely in the national airspace. Moreover, its unique AerialOS helps maintain the safety and security of airspace. AI algorithms can analyze

crucial data required to make a safe flight, such as airspace traffic, weather forecasts, roadway traffic, and vehicle performance, among many others, to automatically generate optimal flight plans and autonomously route and reroute flight paths as conditions change.

At the core of SkyGrid lies digital ledger technology (DLT) that ensures the immutability and audit ability of the system. Blockchain technologies allow the platform to have an immutable log of all operations. Besides, smart contracts ensure that only mission-safe drones take flight. User-specific private keys ensure that the system is guarded against the unauthorized use of drones. Concisely, DLT provides regulators and organizations with the level of trust, safeguards, and traceability that aerial operations must maintain.

Key Partner Benefits

SkyGrid Flight Control provides value for both drone operators and enterprises. For drone operators who need to gain access to airspace and automate flights in the field, SkyGrid Flight Control automates flight authorization, planning, and execution in one end-to-end workflow. And for enterprises looking to deploy, manage, scale, or remotely manage their drone operations, SkyGrid Flight Control enables complete operational oversight, mission planning and rerouting, multi-drone missions, custom object detection and counting, micro-weather, geofencing and alerts, remote automation from the office, and more. SkyGrid uses AI and blockchain to provide a more intelligent, complete drone operating system, unlike existing UTM and fleet management solutions.

Apart from this, SkyGrid Flight Control is disrupting a wide variety of industries. It allows health officials to monitor social distancing in public places during the pandemic. It enables emergency teams to quickly assess damage following a natural disaster and inform a more effective response. It also allows wildlife managers to monitor endangered animals and protect them from poachers. And it enables security teams to survey critical infrastructure and identify intruders that may pose a security threat.

Keeping Customers Happy & Loyal

SkyGrid employs various strategies to ensure clients are delighted with its airspace management system, including providing excellent customer support and actively gathering customer feedback to improve the customer experience. The company prioritizes prompt and effective customer support through

multiple channels, such as a customer support portal and emails. SkyGrid also actively seeks customer feedback through surveys and other forms of feedback collection to better understand the client’s needs and expectations. This allows the company to improve the customer experience and address any issues resulting from which clients continue to bestow their trust on SkyGrid time after time.

Following are some of the client testimonials. RaySharp said, “SkyGrid Flight Control is a great app that will prove useful when preparing for work or fun. I love the available map layers, and the UI works great. SkyGrid has done a great job of recognizing and improving issues.” Likewise, SmartSpice 3 shared, “I’ve been a part 107 pilot for a few years and have used several other apps in the market. But SkyGrid Flight Control is the best functionality free of cost app. I really like the flight planning capability.”

SkyGrid focuses on employee empowerment and provides team members the freedom and resources to make decisions and take ownership of their work

Creating a Dynamic, Innovative, & Engaged Workforce

“At SkyGrid, we understand and respect the importance of work-life balance and the benefits of having the flexibility to work from home a couple of days a week,” shares Zehra. “That is why we have adopted a Hybrid schedule so that employees can still enjoy the camaraderie that in-office coffee talk brings while also taking advantage of skipped commute days and quiet days at home to focus.”

Moreover, SkyGrid places a strong emphasis on transparency and open communication. There are all-hand meetings where SkyGrid’s leadership team shares information about the company’s performance, strategy, and upcoming initiatives. Similarly, SkyGrid focuses on employee empowerment and provides team members the freedom and resources to make decisions and take ownership of their work.

Another management idea that SkyGrid practices is fostering innovation. The management sets a clear vision for innovation by emphasizing the importance of experimentation,

encourages employees to think outside the box, and rewards those who come up with innovative solutions. These management ideas help SkyGrid create a more dynamic, innovative, and engaged workforce and better serve its customers and achieve business goals.

Effective Marketing Strategies

One of SkyGrid’s key tactics is digital marketing, which involves utilizing search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), social media marketing, and email marketing to drive traffic to the company’s website or landing page. In addition to digital marketing, SkyGrid also utilizes content marketing, event marketing, and influencer marketing. By implementing all these strategies, SkyGrid has effectively reached potential clients and promoted its airspace management system that integrates all unmanned aircraft in the global airspace.

Furthermore, the team of SkyGrid recommends tech startups experiment with different marketing tactics and measure their effectiveness to determine which ones work best for their companies.

Something Exciting is Coming Soon

The team of SkyGrid is working towards enabling its long-term mission to help passenger-carrying flights and better enhance its current small UAS operations. “We are currently working on something exciting and, more importantly, something crucial that the industry requires to move forward, so stay tuned with SkyGrid,” concludes Zehra.

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Preparing for the Unexpected: The Foundation Needed to Make Quick Decisions

Helen Yu, Founder & CEO, Tigon Advisory Corp

Your business constantly faces the possibility of unexpected events. In these cases, you may not have the facts or abilities you need to move forward, and you might not have the time to undergo a lengthy decision process to find a solution. But what if you have laid a good foundation by understanding your product, exploring, and solidifying your brand, and building a minimal viable product that hits its target spot-on? The outcome is a

game-changer. You will have the flexibility to sidestep many potential issues as well as weather unexpected challenges.

What Problems Does Your Product Solve?

Your brand’s goals and vision will guide you on your journey. What solution does your product provide? Is your product marketable or in the right market? What is the message behind your company and product? What are the values that

The people you surround yourself with are integral to identifying disconnects and finding effective strategy solutions at critical moments

Helen Yu is the founder and CEO of Tigon Advisory Corp, Host of CXO Spice and a wall-street journal bestselling author. As a Board Director, Helen brings a unique perspective to the board room, combining deep technology thought leadership, cybersecurity risk management, go-to-market strategy, customer experience to deliver thoughtful questions and insights that help drive informed decisions. She helps CEOs achieve multibillion-dollar revenue growth and record profitability from start-ups to global titans like Oracle and Adobe. She’s a board advisor to fast-growth SaaS companies and is on the board of the Global Cybersecurity Association. She’s spoken at SXSW, TiECon, DMS, Money20/20 and NAMIC.

drive your brand and what does your company aim to accomplish? How is your product enhancing people’s lives?

The answers give you solid ground to stand on when problems arise.

Recognize Disconnects

The next step in creating a strong, resilient foundation is to step away from your to-do list and recognize your business’ disconnects. A disconnect is the distance between where you are and where you want to be. Such an analysis can also help you pinpoint the areas where you might fail. There are five disconnects to watch out for.

As a business owner, you are constantly creating, sourcing, exploring, dreaming and pitching. But this is the point where those pesky disconnects rear their heads. Your chief nemesis is the Product/Market Fit Disconnect, where a product must prove itself to be marketable to be minimally valuable. As you let go of your product and share it with the public, you will face the Minimum Viable Repeatability Disconnect, which must be conquered in order to set the stage for repeatable success. At this point, you face the insanely challenging shift from market to scale. First, however, you must triumph over the Customer Voice Disconnect, Process Disconnect, and Measurement Disconnect.

Understanding why and when these disconnects happen is the secret sauce of preparing for the unexpected. It gives companies the confidence to move forward and the ability to handle any curve balls that are thrown their way. Exploring your start-up’s potential disconnects gives you added strength and the capacity to scale faster and more fearlessly as you navigate critical crossroads.

As you let go of your product and share it with the public, you will face the Minimum Viable Repeatability Disconnect, which must be conquered in order to set the stage for repeatable success

Take Experienced People with You

As a founder or executive, you often don’t see failure until you crash. Many companies get caught in the momentum of rapid growth, and founders are sometimes tempted to stop listening to their most experienced staff. As a result, the business will keep running but will be unable to scale at the speed it could be capable of.

Sometimes we are unable to make quick decisions without an experienced group to guide us, assist us and challenge us. The people you surround yourself with are integral to identifying disconnects and finding effective strategy solutions at critical moments. While you might not have all the answers, your company as a whole may have the resources and experience to solve even the most challenging problems.

As a tech founder without any experience building a company, this type of collective tactical powerhouse may seem a lofty goal. The key is surrounding yourself with experienced people. Your support team will act as a Sherpa guide on your climb up the start-up mountain, helping you explore potential disconnects before they happen and preparing you as you face the difficult process of raising funds.

Acclimate to the Voice of the Customer

Getting the contract signed is only the beginning of your customer journey. Real success comes when you understand why your customer is investing in you in the first place — and what their expectations are along the way.

But every customer is different. What does success look like to your customer? How do they measure success? These insights will help you prioritize your engagement and focus on what matters to your customer.

For founders, acclimating to the voice of customers means solving the Customer Voice Disconnect. Customers will often tell you what they want, but sometimes they’ll simply tell you what you want to hear. Your ability to listen and dig deeper to understand what their words really mean will set you apart from your competition and prepare you for unexpected problems down the road.

Many companies start feeling overwhelmed as they reach beyond 100 customers, and teams end up spending more time on tactical support ticket resolution and renewal discussions than proactive outreach to understand what really matters to their customers. To scale, companies should be obsessed with their customer’s lifetime value and have a dedicated customer success team focusing on driving customer adoption.

Rapid growth also demands that you be realistic about what you can deliver. It’s better to turn down the business if your solution is not the right fit than to promise what you can’t deliver and create an angry ex-customer.

Customer concerns always need to be addressed in a timely manner. For example, if your customer is concerned with certain product features and threatens to leave you, listen to them and work with the product team to develop a short-term and long-term solution as quickly as possible. Take time to understand the business impact on your customer and take proactive action. Never take your customers for granted — especially customers who can vouch for you, as they are the ones who can make a significant impact on your growth. Create advocates, not just customers. They go out of their way to be your champion and expand the footprint of your solution. The reason this is so important

in terms of preparation is because failure will happen. Things will go wrong. There will be a time when your company will make mistakes or miss a deadline. When that happens, advocates will stick with you and weather the storms. Customers who are not believers in your brand and the relationship may not.

Gaining trust from your customers will not only earn you their loyalty but also will accelerate your growth through word of mouth. Losing one influential customer may have a domino effect— others will eventually follow suit. Customer loyalty is earned through consistent and holistic strategies. A customer may leave for a better

offering unless you make them believe that they can’t build a future without your thought leadership and guidance.

Your company is built from the ground up — not just your product, but your values, mission, vision and team as well. If your business goals are well integrated into your operations and employee culture, if you have cultivated an environment of trustworthy people, and if you have anticipated any possible disconnects, then you have developed the resilience to navigate difficult situations and the ability to make effective, thoughtful strategic decisions even when the unexpected happens.

Gaining trust from your customers will not only earn you their loyalty but also will accelerate your growth through word of mouth

Data Breach: Overcoming a Critical Cyber Threat as it Becomes More Common

Filip Cotfas, Channel Manager, CoSoSys

In today’s internet economy, businesses collect a vast amount of data, and data is becoming both a more valuable and a more vulnerable resource. It has become critical to business growth, differentiation, and competitiveness. With the increasing importance of data, information security is becoming an increasingly important aspect for organizations, too, as the risk of a data breach - whether accidental or not - rises at an alarming rate.

Protecting sensitive data is required not only for moral or legal reasons but also to maintain privacy and the company’s image. Preventive

controls must include policies for safeguarding it and infringement mitigation tools and techniques. Businesses must protect sensitive data to avoid loss or theft, as several security breaches have made headlines in recent weeks.

Let’s look at some of the practices that enterprises can use to start preparing for a security breach:

Security Awareness Training for Employees:

Employees are critical to ensuring the security of their organization’s security. They can be

With the rise of cloud storage tools, IoT devices, and BYOD trends, compromising sensitive information is now easier than ever

Filip Cotfas has an impressive background in sales and project management. As a Channel Manager atCoSoSys,heisutilizinghisextensive skills for daily operating efficiency with a focus on the South Asia, Middle East and Northern Europe markets.

Filip`s main responsibility is handling the existing Customer portfolio, as well as acquiring additional revenue streams, mainly by coordinating with the existing partners or enabling new partnerships, in order to help more customers benefit from its award-winning Data Loss Prevention solution. In the past years, he has been developing sales strategies for his markets and built successful relationships with channel partners.

the weakest link in the data security chain, presenting a significant risk. With the rise of cloud storage tools, IoT devices, and BYOD trends, compromising sensitive information is now easier than ever. Effective data breach prevention requires practical training. It ensures employees understand the importance of data security, can detect threats and prevent leaks, and has the authority to report potential privacy violations.

To improve cyber security, access to sensitive information should be restricted to those with a “need to know” basis. Reallife examples of reviewable incidents should be included in staff training. They must be aware of their responsibilities and personal responsibility when using a computer on a business network. Organizations should update their security policies regularly.

Conduct vulnerability assessments regularly:

Vulnerability assessment identifies, categorizes, and prioritizes security threats to determine the risks they pose to organizations. Businesses should consider all aspects of vulnerability assessment, such as data storage, remote access for employees, BYOD strategy, and ensuring adequate policies and procedures. Regular security audits provide a clear picture of data and serve as a checklist for data protection.

Create a plan for dealing with data breaches.

Even though many businesses have yet to develop a breach response plan, such a framework is essential for dealing with

cybersecurity incidents, limiting damages, and rebuilding public and employee trust. The first main goal is to define who will manage a breach and their roles and responsibilities. A draught notification and a summary of the investigation process are also required.

As technology advances, it also makes businesses more vulnerable to cybercrime. Every organization should prioritize cyber security to avoid being added to the evergrowing list of breach victims.

Invest in the right cybersecurity software:

Irrespective of the industry, cybersecurity measures are a must. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus systems are essential perimeter and network security measures. On the other hand, businesses should take a multi-tiered approach that includes security threat protection, identifying and monitoring security risks, and responding to safety threats and incidents. Minimizing network vulnerabilities by using encryption standards and a backup policy and regularly updating and patching software is critical.

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions can aid in the protection of data both in transit and at rest. DLP solutions can help businesses prevent data breaches by implementing security policies and preventing unauthorized data access. It can also prevent end users from sharing or transferring confidential information.

As digital security issues threaten businesses of all sizes, deploying such a solution is now a requirement for large corporations and small and medium-sized enterprises.