Ambitious Women In Business

VOL 01 | ISSUE 07 | 2022

The way of business solutions

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CREATOR'S QUEST

WHY CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL IN LEADERSHIP?

FUTURE QUEST

THE FUTURE OF E-COMMERCE POST PANDEMIC

Driving a Creative Change to the World

Editor’s Note T

FOR THE AMBITIOUS WOMEN IN BUSINESS

he dictionary definition of ambition is "an ardent desire for rank, fame, or power." Ambition is a fundamental quality trait in all people, whether male or female. However, for women, ambition can take on a different meaning and be seen as a quality that is viewed differently as opposed to society's typical perception of ambition in men.

The term ambitious women in business might make you think about the hard-working executive or career-seeking young professional. However, it has nothing to do with occupation; ambition is a mindset.

Ambition can be an attribute that anyone desires in order to achieve their desired level of success. However, women are constantly redefining what it means to be genuinely motivated and successful as opposed to men, who typically define these terms based on their personal values, beliefs, and circumstances, effectively allowing them to reach professional and social goals more easily.

Sayali Sangewar Managing editor

sayali.sangewar@insightssuccess.in

Striving to break through the barriers of self-imposed limitations and thinking outside of the box, ambitious women are wired to become 'great' in whatever current field of work or endeavor they choose. Whether through diversity and inclusion, nurturing a personal brand, creation and implementation of strategic alliances and partnerships, women play many roles and responsibilities that drive us always to stay relevant and find ways to improve in every aspect of life. While some of the women may have what appears to be the perfect blend of perpetual motivation and opportunity – truth be told, all women have ingrained qualities that can help pave the way to our individual definitions of success if we choose to nurture them.

Ambitious women in business are not new. We've had influential, successful women entrepreneurs and professionals throughout time, such as Elizabeth Arden, Sara Blakely, and Martha Stewart, to name just a few.

Countless role models like them have overcome adversity to achieve business success with great dedication and perseverance.

Insights Success praises these Ambitious Women in Business through this exciting edition that celebrates high-energy professional women driven to succeed in their own way. We are privileged to have featured a community of professionals who support, share and mentor each other so that together they can have it all—family, personal needs, and making a difference in the community.

Let's dive into the meaning of ambition and success, the common characteristics ambitious women share, and the tried-and-true daily habits these individuals implement to cultivate success.

COVER STORY

08

Geeta L

Driving a Creative Change to the World

18

CREATOR'S QUEST

Articles

WHY CREATIVITY IS ESSENTIAL IN LEADERSHIP?

32

FUTURE QUEST

THE FUTURE OF E-COMMERCE POST PANDEMIC

CONTENT 22

Basudha Shrivastav Narula

The Smart Technopreneur

28

Nano Vox

Leveraging Nanotechnology for Innovative Solutions

Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Deputy Editor Abhishaj Sajeev Managing Editor Sayali Sangewar

sales@insightssuccess.com

Assisting Editor Aditya Umale

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Ambitious

In Business Company Name

Management

Brief

AscentHR

Geeta. L, Co-founder and COO

AscentHR’s vision is to deliver an exceptional user experience to its clients by constantly innovating products and services that are built on cutting-edge technology.

ExpressEarth Digital Services

Basudha Shrivastav Narula, Founder and Managing Director

Express Earth is a bespoke and young technology-driven company that customizes everyday solutions.

ImpactGuru

Khushboo Jain, Co-founder and COO

ImpactGuru strives to empower people and help them raise funds for their causes.

Nano Vox

Gayatri Thakur, Founder and Director

NanoVox's vision is to launch several game-changing products that can provide novel and innovative solutions to complex business problems.

Thrillophilia

Chitra Gurnani Daga, Co-founder and CEO

Thrillophilia’s journey is rooted in a passion for travel, exploration, and adventure. It began back in 2011 when the global market was still too young for online travel transactions.

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ho do you imagine when you think of a leader? Is it the gender of the person or the person who influenced your life for good? Does being man or woman affect any of their qualities as leaders?

Having said that, it does not affect who is leading the way. All that matters is how they are leading the way.

"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others." – Bill Gates.

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality" – Warren Bennis

No definition states that any specific individual should be a leader. All it states are the qualities that make one an influential and inspiring leader.

Having said that, leadership is the quest to help many people grow and learn. In this edition of Insights Success, we focus on women leaders who brought change with their dynamic way of thinking and bold decision-making quality. Geeta L, Cofounder and COO of AscentHR is no less than that perfect example of solid leadership qualities. Geeta is a woman who chased her dreams and endeavoured to realise them. With her exceptional qualities, she creates an aura full of confidence.

Towards a Brave Goal Geeta always preferred being an entrepreneur to working in a 9 -5 job.

Her father's business initiatives influenced her to dream of running her own business and creating employment opportunities in the community.

Building an enterprise requires capital, and most importantly unwavering courage and self-belief. Fortunately, that was all Geeta had as an asset to begin her entrepreneurial journey.

While there were many options and opportunities, she went about shortlisting those that clearly complemented her knowledge, skills, and competencies, drawing on her prior professional experience and her academic qualifications in cost accounting.

Geeta's discovery of a niche area of supporting organisations with their payroll and compliance operations took shape. This set the ball rolling in following her dreams and passion.

Innovation and Belief Geeta says that AscentHR's vision is to deliver an exceptional user experience to its clients by constantly innovating products and services that are built on cutting-edge technology. AscentHR was founded in 2002 and headquartered in Bengaluru. The company started as a payroll processing and compliance management company. It entered the payroll services market in 2003 when it launched its proprietary PowerPay platform.

Now, AscentHR has stepped into its 20th year, with a larger team and a stronger presence in India and SouthEast Asia, catering to clients across various industry segments. Today, AscentHR is a leading global HR, Payroll, and Compliance solutions and services company delivering one million transactions per month for over 550 customers, with a substantial gross processing value.

The company has operating capability across 74 countries, giving it a partnering prowess that is unique and unmatched. It delivers value across industries by engaging in business support, automation, consulting services, staffing, and corporate compliance. The team at AscentHR

enthuses Adaptability, Accountability, and Accuracy and lives by these traits.

Rising from the Pandemic "The COVID-19 pandemic's disruption tore the world apart, but crises often bring out the best in humankind,"says Geeta. The pandemic has redefined the ways companies operate, and the ways employees work.

HR departments are tasked with developing and implementing an array of dynamic organisational changes.

Managements look to HR to maintain a sense of order in a world that is increasingly anything but normal. HR professionals have a tough job of building a positive impact from the pandemic's negative consequences. To build such a positive impact, the HR industry in the coming days will be more inclined to take an employeecentric approach in anything and everything they do.

Upfront in Maintaining Employee Safety "We, at AscentHR, put our might behind our customers. Not only did we enable our customers to comply with a web of statutory requirements, but our teams also worked around the clock to tailor our services to the specific needs of our customers. For instance, several businesses introduced staggered pay cuts and other cost-control measures," says Geeta.

AscentHR's experts swiftly decoded new government directives and enabled customers to comply with these directives without delays. Armed with special passes, the employees were physically present at the workplace. The company delivered uninterrupted services and fulfilled the obligations to their customers through their innovative payroll platform with

Ambitious

In Business

inbuilt checks and balances to process confidential customer data.

As part of the company's safe 'Return to Work' (AHR-RtW) plan, the company administered various measures. To begin with, it established an RtW Policy and mandated its employees to get themselves vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to work. The company facilitated a free-of-cost vaccination drive for its employees and their immediate family members, intending to prioritise employees' health and make the workplace safer.

The company began the vaccination drive a few months ago as part of its employee wellness and business continuity plan and its ongoing efforts to support and enable employees to return to work safely. The company formed a special team to support its employees during the drive, roping in staff from the Admin and Facilities team to carry out the vaccination drive.

The team successfully got hundreds of its employees, and their family members vaccinated. "Many of the employees have shared positive feedback on their experience as well," Geeta said. The company continues to adhere to standard safety measures mandated by the government agencies, such as compulsory masks, physical distancing, hygiene protocols, and selfreporting of COVID-19 symptoms before and after vaccination.

Redefining Digitalisation As AscentHR charges ahead with investment in technology-led innovation, "we are committed not to lose the human touch," says Geeta. The company's various touchpoints and interfaces 'speak' to the humans it hopes to benefit – i.e. all the

employees, customers, and other stakeholders associated with AscentHR. "Our cognitive platforms and KM libraries are accumulating authority and wide-ranging competency focussing on 'Untapped Customer Values.' All our offerings stand to gain in the value they offer as a result," Geeta said.

The elves in AscentHR's innovation lab are working to infuse AI into solutions and explore innovative uses of emerging technologies. "We constantly endeavor to address HR and payroll challenges and enable transformation," says Geeta. AscentHR's researchers have their heads deep in the alchemy of the future of AI, key research in deep learning algorithms, dialog and conversation enablement, cognitive platforms, knowledge libraries, blockchain, data security, and automation of compliance controls.

They collaborate with institutions and domain experts to develop analytic models for a new generation of intelligent applications.

They are exploiting the strengths of automation and robotic processes for tangible advantages from the start of the process – data collecting. This is critical because inputs can come in at disparate stages. The company prepares for those eventualities so that inaccuracies or unvetted numbers do not enter the system. At the same time, visibility of data to the authorised users guarded by approver-layers is essential to nearly all its clients. The company has found ways to make reportage accurate, accessible, and protected at the same time. Its formats are userfriendly as the company house 300+ journal voucher formats, and its reporting systems flow seamlessly.

She further explains how their HCM roadmap emphasises digitising the

emerging global HR models.

AscentHR's next-gen HCM solutions leverage the capabilities of the cloud to enable HR digital transformation and support the 'future of work' - catering to the evolving remote and mobile work environments.

Their roadmap for multi-country payroll focuses on enhancing the flexibility to easily configure unique requirements and scalability to meet current and future needs. She says "specific emphasis will be on global consolidation, reliability of payroll accuracy, timeliness, and consistent results, improved compliance functionalities to control and manage the risk of payroll operations globally."

The company's 'future-proof operating model' is to build on the existing Payroll-HR technology integration, including third-party solutions, to deliver increased efficiency. The deployment of smart bots eliminates error-prone manual processing. The final touchstone for the company will be compliance monitoring and updates, leading to fully autonomous payroll processing – 'touchless payroll.'

A Precious Advice "Young entrepreneurs need to remind themselves every now and then – why they're doing what they're doing. This is not so much a piece of advice as it a compelling truth that I've discovered through my journey," expresses Geeta.

"Being mindful of experiences of the past, documenting findings and performances minutely will be a great reference as they embark on the journey," adds Geeta.

Geeta further adds, "Originality is a class of its own. Going beyond expectations means that one has to

deliver on every point of the promise.

A job done well will always speak volumes in many forms, and the younger generation should keep that as a reference."

Bold Future AscentHR will continue to power people practices with a clear plan to enter new geographies. Its growth ambition in terms of delivering value to its customers will be fuelled by: • Continuous leveraging of technology (Deep learning algorithms, dialog, and conversation enablement) • Investment and research into cognitive platforms • Strengthening of knowledge repository AscentHR's constant endeavour is to expand its overall offering to provide buyers with a wide range of integrated HR and payroll solutions that cater to core HR functions and address broader HCM requirements.

The company will seek to enhance its technology offering to include deeper AI/ML and NLP infusion to address additional use cases, drive deeper user personalisation, and enable a predictive analytic insight capability.

AscentHR's future releases are aimed at addressing much broader HCM requirements, including launching a contingent labor management offering (including support for back-office HR and payroll for contingent/gig workers), gamified e-learning, sentiment analysis, and culture assessment offering, travel and expense management support with insightful analytics capabilities.

AscentHR will also continue to meet the needs of a broader range of diverse

buyers up and down market by enabling and launching new cloudbased offerings including, a DIY offering targeted at SMB buyers (with less than 100 employees), providing a prebuilt/bundled solution to include core HR technology, and managed HR, and payroll services.

A Box Full of Rewards AscentHR has been recognised by the industry's top independent analysts such as NelsonHall and Everest Group.

Recently, the company was recognised as a Major Player in NelsonHall's HCM Technology vendor assessment.

The company was also positioned in the Everest Group's latest PEAK Matrix® assessment in the MultiCountry Payroll (MCP) Solution for 2021.

The company was also highlighted in Forbes India, January 2021 edition

prominently. The article titled, "The Unstoppable Amidst A Pandemic," highlights the crucial and responsible role that AscentHR played in ensuring payroll and compliance services delivery even during the peak COVID19 times.

Geeta's opinion on Adopting Gender Egalitarianism from a Business Leadership Outlook Geeta opinioned that the need of the hour is to rethink and shift our focus on establishing a more effective, inclusive culture that is supported by a flexible and well-thought-out system. A system that not only removes obstacles while integrating women into the workforce but also engages them and enables them to realise their full potential. The term 'system' here refers to the workforce and workplace strategies, policies, and standards that organisations deploy to run their

businesses. The system plays a key role in fostering women's participation and representation. If the system is flawed, it significantly hampers women's career trajectory and progression.

She explained like this: "The system will be considered ill-conceived if the hiring criteria favour only those with uninterrupted careers or accepts only those career gaps that are taken in pursuit of academic endeavours. These kinds of hiring policies make it difficult for women to re-enter the workforce.

Again, the system is flawed if the flexible work arrangements are insufficient or does not exist altogether." She says "No amount of meritocracy will be useful if the system is not well-designed with well-thoughtout policies. In fact, it would be a waste of company's resources, time, and money if inclusivity is absent."

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Why is Creativity Essential in

Leadership ?

M

any aspects come together to make a successful leader, including skills in different areas and a great vision for the organization's future. One trait that a leader needs is creativity. Creativity is an essential component of leaders who are changing our world.

Thinking outside of the box and looking at problems or situations in different ways allows creative leaders to come up with creative solutions. Creativity helps with problemsolving, which is something every business requires today.

Creativity also encourages innovation and growth in business, which can help organizations survive changing economies and cultural climates. More importantly, being creative helps leaders of organizations motivate other team members to do what it takes to move forward with new initiatives and ideas.

In this article, we will look at the ways in which creative leadership can not only encourage constructive problemsolving but also help partners achieve growth.

The Most Important Leadership Quality Creative leadership is an essential quality for business management. A study conducted by a prominent technology company found that creative leadership was ranked the

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CREATOR'S QUEST

19 | January 2022 | www.insightssuccess.in

most important leadership quality for business success, outweighing integrity and global thinking.

This creativity allows them to find solutions to problems, think outside of the box, reach new heights, and develop strategies that help their business to grow. Many business leaders understand the advantages of creative leadership, even if they don't genuinely consider themselves to be a leader in this manner.

Implementing a Positive Workplace Mentality Fostering a positive workplace mentality is one of the most important things a company can do towards its long-term success. Yet, even companies that appear to be doing well at fostering camaraderie often fail to consider the voices of the workers themselves.

While some might choose leadership by example and others opt for more formal management styles, one thing is clear: leaders who are also creative benefit from a strong team culture and a continued sense of transparency with their employees.

Workplace culture is notoriously hard to grow and maintain in a business. As companies grow and processes change over time, lower-level staff can often feel ostracized or forgotten. Creative leadership presents a number of opportunities to remedy this mindset by implementing nontraditional techniques and ideas to include people and teams in the company's success.

Novel Ways to Problem Solving

Find Unique Perspectives

Creative leadership helps companies by opening up new opportunities for problem solving and growth that more conventional methods would not allow for. New perspectives on problems from a creative approach can lead to new and perhaps previously unheard-of solutions.

Creative leadership at the company level arises from an employee-driven effort where employees are given greater freedom and resources to pursue new ideas.

Company's need to grow. This is critical for their continued success and the health of the business. A key tool in growing a company is to find new and creative ways to improve the business. This can include new products and services, new ways of consuming existing products, or even just different ways to look at old problems.

The results of this initiative can be very positive. However, it can also leave junior employees with little guidance in navigating these newfound freedoms and the potential challenges they create. When approached strategically, creative leadership allows for more efficient attainment of business objectives than traditional management models.

Achieving Goals and Growth When you work with a growing business, there will always be new goals that arise. These goals can be to increase profit or expand product offerings. The creative leader has the ability to come up with new paths and strategies that other leaders within the company can't see. This gives them more significant potential to succeed in their goal setting because they have the ability to see new paths others can't see.

These creative paths can be applied to a wide variety of goals and are not limited solely to business goals. Creativity can be applied to personal development, general life goals, and many other areas of life.

Creative leaders must be able to embrace unlikely (and sometimes unpopular) viewpoints; otherwise, any creative endeavor will surely fail. In order to find novel approaches, we must be able to attempt to look at accepted ideas from other angles.

Self-Growth Continued learning is one of the most effective steps to take toward becoming a creative leader. While leadership development efforts continue to grow in popularity, organizations are still challenged when it comes to helping employees reach their full potential as productive leaders.

This is where continued learning comes in. Through creative leadership training programs and programs focused on continuous education and development, leaders can turn out at their best.

Throughout history, many art forms were revolutionized by specific individuals who came to be known as innovators.

Creativity has always had a leadership role, even though it goes deeper than just leading an organization but leading itself.

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Ambitious Women In Business

Basudha Shrivastav The Smart Technopreneur

W

omen are the epitome of emotional intelligence.

They are the creator, nourisher, nurturer, and the pallbearer of mankind and Humane-Kind.

They are the true philosophers. Whatever they touch becomes full of life and magic.

For example – technology. Before women's entry into it, it was completely lifeless. And now, with their coming, even artificial intelligence feels like a smart being. That is women's smartness.

You constantly get this feeling when you speak with Basudha Shrivastav Narula, one such smart technopreneur.

She is the co-founder of ExpressEarth Digital Services and Founder and Managing Director of Empfly Services Pvt Ltd, a bespoke SaaS company that provides customized business solutions. Before that, she has worked with Serco for their IT Projects and team leads.

She is a software engineering Diploma holder from GNIIT, 2006. Post it, she received her B.A. honours in English.

Later she did her Executive Entrepreneurship program in Entrepreneurial and Small Business operations, from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management Bengaluru (IIMB).

In a conversation with Insights Success, she spoke about her achievements, her plans and her future strategies to be successful in today's digitally automated world.

She also told us more about her unique venture, Empfly.

Below are the highlights of the interview.

Give us a brief overview of your professional journey at EmpFly Services Pvt Ltd. The journey so far is very interesting and challenging. But, as the saying goes, "where there is a will, there is a way".

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EmpFly is a bespoke and young technology-driven company that customizes everyday solutions

“

Narula

We are moving forward in the positive direction, checking our product at each stage and taking customers' feedback to make it even better.

Tell us more about EmpFly Services Pvt Ltd, its vision, and the key aspects of its stronghold in the global enterprise service and automation space.

EmpFly is a bespoke and young technology-driven company that customizes everyday solutions.

Our business solutions are specialized by industry and constructed for the cloud to enable a specialized problemsolving solution, networked analytics, structured workflow and an artificial intelligence-led user experience.

People are the single biggest influence on the success of any business, yet over 75% of companies do not use a digital solution to manage them. Our ambition is to become the category-leading work experience platform for companies in India and South Asia– getting people engaged and working as efficiently as possible.

Basudha Shrivastav Narula

With hundreds of companies using our platform in India already, we are excited to offer our solution across the South Asia region in the coming months.

Our flagship products – Attendance Manager App and Field-Force Monitor App – are solving the real problems in a company, not only in automating attendance through AI but also in increasing the productivity of employees.

For more info visit- https://www.empfly.com From a business leadership perspective, what is your opinion on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the SaaS industry?

SaaS (Software as a Service) flourished during Covid-19, unlike other businesses. Lots of start-ups and companies gained customers and increased their revenue by 10X. SaaS is taking over the cloud computing market. Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022 — a level of growth that will shape SaaS trends in 2021.

Technology always played/continues to play a major role in post covid scenario? Could you please share how nontechnology domains managed to adapt?

Digital adoption has taken a quantum leap, at both the organizational and industry levels. In a recent survey by Mckinsey, in just a few months, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. And this change is good without a doubt.

To stay competitive in this new business and economic environment requires new strategies and practices and the 23 | January 2022 | www.insightssuccess.in

Looking at the gap in the market and remaining innovative in our products, we designed successful touchless environments for corporates in Access and Attendance Management system with advanced roster system for gettagging, which requires taking a human-centric approach, ensuring reliability, security, privacy and choice.

Our team worked from home in the entire COVID time, and we too used our own in-house technology to remain focused and productive in this entire phase.

Why is the team uniquely capable of executing the company's business plan?

We have assembled a management team that can execute our business idea and create value in the company. This includes building out a minimum viable product, acquiring and retaining customers and creating a business that is sustainable long enough for the investor to get their money out.

We have a team experienced in building a business, experienced in the industry (or with the product) and strong character to withhold the pain, gain, passion and perseverance.

As an established industry leader, what would be your advice to the budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts aspiring to venture into the SaaS industry?

Innovation is the main driver of productivity growth. With the changing environment and people's mindset, it is even more important that we as business leaders should encourage creative thinkers and fresh ideas to come out of every phase of life.

sooner you adopt, the easier it becomes to remain profitable in your business. We have seen how new departments are created in the business hierarchy to address the market, asset and fund allocation.

What efforts did you take during the pandemic to sustain operations and ensure the safety of your team at the same time?

The COVID-19 pandemic is propelling demand for touchless interfaces, accelerating the shift towards sensory interfaces and AI-ML technology. Every customer and employee touchpoints are likely to be revolutionized in a hands-free, screenless world of ambient intelligent interfaces.

The second is disruptive strategy. Through disruptive innovation, even a smaller company or a start-up with fewer resources is able to successfully challenge well-established organizations.

How do you envision further strengthening EmpFly Services stronghold in 2022 and beyond?

We will focus on penetrating the Tier-B cities and be available to them in the same space. We will also open our branch offices in five cities in 2022-23. We will keep on focusing on our innovative products and will add more features to make it more favourable for our clients to opt for our solutions.

What is your opinion on adopting gender egalitarianism from a business leadership outlook?

It is very important that we address gender bias now and

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not only say it but instead implement it either willingly or forcefully. We have women who have crossed their borders and evolved like an albatross and hence it is important that we give that due respect to them.

'Women', a very hot topic for every company, country, and individual. We women have been the subject of discussion for ages and there is no harm in the discussion, but all these questions we pose to raise, do actually being addressed even by women themselves? We talk a lot but do a little.

We never understand our priority and what we should focus on when family and work collide together- a very famous say. Work-Life Balance is the biggest challenge for women in business/Tech, no doubt 32% of women said that they don't know whether Work-Life balance actually even exists?

Whosoever is eligible to apply for a job, or business must be given an opportunity regardless of gender, age and gap (break) year, especially in the case of women who sometimes leave their job because of marriage, settlement, abortion, pregnancy or child-rearing. If she is eligible to perform any task or role, then she should be given that chance.

We are proud to say that we have implemented this policy in our office and that's why we are a 70% women-run company. Adopting egalitarian gender norms could benefit women's educational and occupational opportunities and will also oppose the notion that men and women have innately different roles (i.e., women would essentially be more suited for homemaking, whereas men's natural role is that of the breadwinner).

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Ambitious Women In Business

Nano Vox Leveraging Nanotechnology for Innovative Solutions

I

n the last few years, scientists have been exploring the possibility of using artificial intelligence in Nanotechnology research. The convergence between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Nanotechnology can pave the way as interdisciplinary sciences for advancements across many fields. For instance, nanotechnology can create small yet highly efficient computer hardware devices. These advanced components can provide more computational power, which can sustain complex ML algorithms.

On the other hand, machine-learning methods can also greatly benefit nanotechnology as nanomaterial properties are much harder to predict than other materials because of quantum effects at such small scales.

"In the future, I can imagine ML and AI supporting nanotechnology by creating nano-robots that can go inside your body and perform operations, deliver medicines to a specific organ, improve the accuracy of medical imaging, or power space shuttles. We cannot fully imagine the marvels of this combination of technologies at this point. It is definitely a futuristic world we see in the superhero movies of the likes of Marvel and DC," says Gayatri Thakur, Founder, and Director of Ceyone Consultants LLP. The Initial Steps It was in 2017 that Gayatri started the venture, Ceyone Consultants LLP. Ceyone has become a key player today in consulting and technology development, helping businesses thrive in today's fast-evolving, research-driven world. The company has built a strong portfolio of clients across healthcare, education, sanitary ware, orthopaedics, information technology, NGOs, and more.

In 2020, Gayatri collaborated with her spouse, Mr. Rahul Thakur, an ardent researcher and scientist to launch Ceyone's technology vertical under the brand name NANOVOX. Through this vertical they launched innovative Nano technology based products that can solve deep consumer problems. While she brings in the strategic and business

expertise for the venture through her consulting and marketing experience, Rahul comes from a strong background in technology (gold medalist in nanotechnology and pursuing PhD in Chemistry). Together, they lead NanoVox's journey of success along with a strong team of scientists and scholars.

Sheer Knowledge With NanoVox, their vision is to launch several gamechanging products that can provide novel and innovative solutions to complex business problems. Nanotechnology 'the manipulation of matter at the nanoscale (1-100 nm) for diverse industrial applications' can help increase the efficiency of energy consumption, reduce manufacturing costs, cleans the environment, and improve productivity.

Through extensive research and a team of capable scientists, Ceyone has launched revolutionary products in the anti-microbial coatings, disinfectants and sanitization, animal hygiene, skincare, thermal conductivity, and medical products. Given the promise of nanotechnology in the future, Ceyone marked its forte in this exciting and novel domain. Some of its products have been innovations in the category. For instance, in 2020, it launched an advanced anti-microbial nano-coating disinfectant called VOX-4 with a powerful formula that helps inactivate 99.1% virus, bactera and fungi from any kind of surface and its single application continuously remain in action without reapplication for upto three months. Another nano-coating that was launched in the same year was to minimize the spread of harmful diseases in poultry farms and hatcheries.

Since bird flu is a recurrent challenge affecting poultry farmers, the team wanted to explore the wonders of nanotechnology to improve their condition. Being a bird and animal lover, Gayatri's personal endeavour was to curb the spread of bird flu as it results in the loss of many birds' lives every year.

In the same year the company also launched anti-odour nano-coating spray – VOX-10 that eliminates toilet odour

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Gayatri Thakur Founder, and Director of Ceyone Consultants LLP

The

“

Key to Succeed

Domain is to keep Innovating Continuay in this

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and works for upto seven days and VOX-22, that eliminates pet's urine and stool odour for upto thirty days without reapplication. The product became a success as the country was in serious need of disinfectants and sanitization products. The team also launched another interesting product called. The coating forms an invisible non-toxic layer that inactivates bacteria and germs.

Blessing in Disguise When COVID-19 struck lives, it brought along a serious public health concern. Nanotechnology presented itself as a powerful tool in the prevention and risk minimization of COVID transmission. As the pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of the existing healthcare system, there was an unexplored potential in nanotechnology to advance healthcare products. The fact that this was untapped provided the team with a unique opportunity.

In 2020, Nano Vox started its research, and one of the first products it launched was anti-microbial nano-coatings. This coating minimized the risk of viruses, bacteria, and fungi and stayed intact for three months. The team partenered for this product with one of the leading pharmaceutical companies. It even sold its coating for disinfection in hospitals, especially in COVID wards.

Bringing in Good Energy with Sustainability The pandemic presented a challenging time for everyone in the business. Despite the setbacks, companies started adapting to the challenges and striking back. It was no longer about recovering lost revenues but about creating newer streams of revenue flow. Hence, Nano Vox set out to launch products that solved the challenges posed by the pandemic.

While the team saw great value in its nano-coating products in the pandemic times, there was no demand in the market as customers were not aware of this technology. Therefore, it created its own demand by making the customers, especially hospitals, schools aware of this technology through a strong sales team. These products required limited advertising and hence helped it in cost-cutting.

As far as employee health and safety were concerned, the team wanted to leave no stone unturned. It allowed the team members to work remotely until they were comfortable to resume working from the office. Regular safety protocols like temperature checks, ensuring masks, PPE kits, and effective social distancing norms helped Nano Vox keep its

workforce safe. All the office surfaces that are more prone to germs like doorknobs, handrails, tables, etc were coated with VOX-4 which helped heighten the safety in the office premises.

Advice to do the Best "More and more startups are now venturing into the domain of nanotechnology. However, these startups face several challenges in their initial phases. Entrepreneurs in this domain must realize that the right approach is to solve business problems by finding the right technology for it, rather than the other way around," says Gayatri.

"Most of the nanotechnology innovations happen in academic labs and institutes, but most of these pioneering technologies developed in labs by research students, scientists, and scholars often fail to reach the market. So as an entrepreneur, keep a tab on the innovations stemming from these labs. You can collaborate with such labs and help them commercialize the technology for business," adds Gayatri.

"Also, try and build a team that brings the right blend of scientific expertise and business knowledge. Overall, the focus on nanotechnology is fairly low in the country as compared to other technologies. Hence it is also the responsibility of entrepreneurs and business leaders in this domain to create awareness. One must be patient and consistent with their efforts, even though the pace of growth is slow. Even from a talent point of view, businesses face challenges as only a few good colleges offer specialization in this domain," expresses Gayatri.

Innovative Future Apart from its antimicrobial coatings, which have helped it foray into animal health, disinfectants, and sanitization, the company also innovated in thermal conductivity.

"Our nano-coating minimizes the loss of heat during a conduction process to almost half the time. In 2022, our focus will be on the use of nanotechnology in drug delivery.

To this end, we have collaborated with Mint Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd. a healthcare company. Nanotechnology offers potential solutions to many life-threatening diseases like cancer, heart, and nerve diseases.

Our team is focused on research in this field, and we are sure of a breakthrough soon," concludes Gayatri.

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Future Quest

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The Future of

E-COMMERCE POST PANDEMIC U

ndoubtedly, the world has changed a lot since ecommerce has introduced. It has radically transformed the way businesses work and the way customers shop. However, the fast-spreading pandemic virus changed consumers' behavior completely and forced companies to speed up digital transformation.

One of the reasons behind the significant growth of ecommerce was the radically changing consumer behavior during and after the pandemic. Disrupting companies didn't waste a moment to transform their businesses and, along with consumers, swiftly jumped onto the digital transformation bandwagon.

Analysts and futurologists have long tried to predict the future of e-commerce, but it's been challenging to make accurate predictions with so many variables in play. The rapid growth of online retail is an explosively exciting sign that e-commerce will be a big part of the future. But what lies beyond COVID-19? This article will try to answer the same question and shed some light on the future of ecommerce post-pandemic.

A Hybrid Approach With the high penetration of smartphones and the Internet and new online shoppers coming online at the rate of three million new shoppers every month, e-commerce is expected to create thousands of new targeting opportunities. For this, e-retailers will need to focus on a lot more than just the

transactional side of the business – which involves merely accepting payments and delivering goods.

With a shift in marketing strategies with an increased focus on customer retention and loyalty, companies will also be forced to ensure packaging & delivery speed are as good as possible. Product demonstrations, easy returns, and shipping policies will have to be designed in such a way that customers will find it convenient to shop from these websites.

This is itself will be a major challenge as there will be groups who will have online access that they never had earlier. Both brands and sellers need to find ways and means to attract and educate these newer groups into buying products from them.

More Convenient Implementation Erstwhile, e-commerce websites were developed with sophisticated interfaces and impressive designs that were mainly focused on the needs of the niche market. In this ever-changing market scenario, e-commerce websites are expected to have more inclusive designs, making it easy for people to get information regardless of their understanding of technology.

Today's consumers interact with e-commerce websites in a variety of ways. The future looks like we will see a shift towards more convenient implementations applying usercentric design, simple interface, and accessibility.

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The Mobile Way Mobile traffic is on the rise, and this has increased the need for e-commerce companies to create mobile commerce portals. Developing a smart mobile platform for businesses will reduce the dependency of their customers on computers. Any e-commerce company having a responsive website design and experience in mobile commerce development will be able to improve sales, conversion rate, and brand loyalty.

Due to this trend, we can expect more businesses to target the purchase of goods through mobile phones. This will only be possible if the businesses are flexible enough to design their website format into mobile-friendly channels that allow customers to shop products across multiple online stores.

Change in the Looks of e-Stores With the way retail and attraction-based design has been shaping up, it won't be surprising if, in a few years, each estore becomes a unique environment built around their customer's needs. These storefronts will also have a consistent structure with a vital element of attention towards every customer who enters it beyond customer service.

This promise is backed by creative strategies that have already become popular by some of the top brands around the world. There already has been an established trend on how e-commerce stores are looking more and more alike in terms of consistent colors, fonts, and presentation than ever before.

More TechSavvy Portals The digital commerce market has already gone through the first wave of innovations and looking forward to the second one, which will be more refined, secure, and comfortable.

Business owners are setting up e-commerce stores with an aim to meet their customers' demands in a knowledgeable fashion.

Large companies dominate the retail sector in almost every country. Over the years, we have seen it evolved versions of traditional methods, persistence technology, and AI emerging in the retail sector. Such methods have led to a revolutionary change in both customer experience and as well as retailer revenues. However, adopting technology to earn billions is still a work in progress for retailers.

Businesses should be flexible enough to adapt to this change so that they can thrive and grow more.

With online shopping evolving as one of the leading forms of business transactions, 38 percent of consumers prefer to visit e-stores that can offer a great experience. Affinity with the brand and relationships built with users form a crucial headway in this regard. The future is e-commerce, and here it is where businesses will be rooted on a much deeper level due to the manner in which e-commerce firms are engaging their customers directly.

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