Insights success the 30 most influential young entrepreneurs

The way of business solutions www.insightssuccess.com JANUARY 2017

THE

30

Center of Interest Entrepreneurship: An Expedition From Nobody to Somebody

Most In uential

YOUNG

Entrepreneurs Hardik Parekh

Make the Change or Become the Change

In Brief Known Wisdom of Every Successful Entrepreneur

Editor's Input The Most Suitable Location to Startup your Venture

Damian Crotty: A Self-disciplined Pioneer in Pursuit of Excellence

Editorial

N

owadays, it is an exciting time to be an entrepreneur. In this rapidly changing world, a single idea has the capability to change an entire industry. Entrepreneurs drive innovation, often speedily than the established competitors. Successful entrepreneurs have cracked the code for doing things better. They have gone on to challenge the status quo in the market, asked tough questions and are competing with established businesses. When an entirely new industry is born, chances are there is an entrepreneur behind it.

If you have to answer whether entrepreneurship is good for economic growth, the answer would be simply put as: Entrepreneurs create new businesses, and new businesses in turn create jobs, intensify competition, and increase productivity through technological change. This comes out as a great statement. However, the reality gives away a different picture.

Entrepreneurship impact on Global Economy

If it is informal self-employment we are considering, then high levels of entrepreneurship may either mean that there is a significant number of bureaucratic hurdles to clear to startup a business or the economy is creating too few conventional wage-earning jobs. Under these circumstances, we can say entrepreneurship correlates to economic slowdown. It is found that “necessity entrepreneurship” has no effect on economic growth, while “opportunity entrepreneurship” has a positive and significant effect.

Though, the positive effects are impossible to be ignored. The rate of job creation in startups is more than twice that of established companies. In a survey, 59% of entrepreneurs around the world were expected to increase their workforce in 2016. And the numbers are expected to grow every year.

As economies continue to integrate due to globalization, the common denominator that stands out of this is entrepreneurs. Because of the continued market trends, individuals are looking beyond the conventional methods and reaching out to newer markets. Job creation and increased productivity are two outcomes that boost up the GDP. This in turn is generating foreign revenues and ultimately, driving the economic growth of any country.

Also, social entrepreneurship initiatives are often seen as ‘green initiatives’ that take into consideration the impact on the natural environment.

It is evident that the positive impacts of entrepreneurs on an economy far outweigh the negative impacts. However, every country needs to strike a balance between Entrepreneurial Framework conditions and the General work conditions to reach a level of economic development.

Masuk Siddik

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Ariana Lawrence Managing Editor Masuk Siddik Co-Editors David Smith Sugandha Sharma Stephanie Andrews Ujal R. Nair Sagar Bhattacharjee Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Victoria Co-designer Alex Noel Picture Editor Amol Kamble Art Editor Reshma Rangrej Business Development Manager Mike Thomas Nick Adams Marketing Manager Chris Business Development Executive David, Joseph, John, Mary Research Analyst Jennifer Circulation Manager Robert Database Management Steve Technology Consultant Vishal More sales@insightssuccess.com

January, 2017 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: Visit www.insightssuccess.com 6

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CONTENTS

COVER STORY

30 Make the Change Or become the change

42

Creating a Unique Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Around Alumni to Grow Innovation and Entrepreneurship in our Institutes and Corporates

Damian Crotty: A Self-disciplined Pioneer in Pursuit of Excellence

In Brief Known Wisdom of Every Successful Entrepreneur

CXO Standpoint

10

Center of Interest

44

Entrepreneurship: An Expedition From Nobody to Somebody

36

Editor’s Input The Most Suitable Location to Startup your Venture

26

Noel Gorvett:

20

Navtej Sekhon:

22

Amrinder Arora:

24

The Constant Presence behind Building a Winning Team

Believes in Working Together to Achieve Greatness

Observant and a Will to Make a Positive Dierence

Greg Coulter:

32

Viren Shah:

34

Building a Customer centric Company

An Enterprising Global Citizen

20

22

24

34

32

Raj Kellampalli:

38 46

Making an Instinctive difference with Passion and Hard Work

Walter Paley:

Revolutionary Minded and Never Compromising on His Values

Amit Saxena:

Strong Believer of “Investing in the Right People”

48

Blaž Golob:

50

Dr. Asha Oroskar:

40

Enlightening People for a Sustainable Growth

Expert in Identifying Uncommon Approaches to Business

38

46

48

40

50

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs Entrepreneurs: Becoming the Success you always Dream

E

ntrepreneurship can be stressful, and it is more so when you are starting up on your own. The ability to manage one’s own psychology is the hardest aspect of entrepreneurship. Self-doubt creeping in, insecurity and fear are only natural. But, how you manage them is the difference between success and submission.

To acknowledge some entrepreneurs who have gone through these phases and have come out successful, we are introducing some of these intuitive and innovative stalwarts in our issue of “The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs 2017.”

Our cover story for this issue depicts a personality who is an enthusiastic, disciplined and vibrant entrepreneur in his own regard. Damian Crotty, Founder and CEO of CloudFX Group, is driven by a passion of enabling his customers to capitalize on the opportunities the 4th industrial revolution (Digital) represents - particularly in the Enterprise segment. Damian has taken up the responsibility to ensure his staff, customers and shareholders in the company, to realize their true potential. Damian has been the constant presence behind growing CloudFx to newer heights and transitioning it to unprecedented levels and generating great financial outcomes.

Damian recognizes 5 key elements to become a successful business person, that are Quality of idea, Quality of proposition, Size of the problem being solved, Personal tenacity and being Multi-skilled, being prepared to accept failure and adapt quickly. Building on his leadership and vision, CloudFx has crossed $30 million valuation in 4 years.

What showcase Damian’s entrepreneurial skills and self initiatives in becoming a true leader is that even after 8 years, he is more passionate, more committed, more engaged and more enthusiastic than ever before.

All the other shortlisted young entrepreneurs in our issue, also share similar traits of ingenuity, confidence, hardworking and a never say never attitude. Also, we have included some articles with insightful topics on “Entrepreneurship: an expedition from nobody to somebody” and “Known Wisdom of Every Successful Entrepreneur.” With a special editor’s input, providing entrepreneurs with suggestions to startup their business with “The Most Suitable Location To Startup Your Venture.”

So shuffle through the pages and enjoy knowing these creative masterminds of “The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs 2017.”

Cover Story

Damian Crotty Founder & CEO

A

n entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes. These are the people who have the skills and initiative necessary to take new ideas to market and to make the right decisions that lead to profitability. Most entrepreneurs have some traits that make them successful and that distinguishes them from others and many of these traits were developed through years of hard work and trial and error.

In this particular regard, Damian Crotty, Founder and CEO of CloudFX Group, is an energetic, manically focused, well prepared, disciplined entrepreneur, who is passionate about staying true to his life mantra which is “think arete”.

A prelude to him becoming an Entrepreneur Damian has spent 15 years on the corporate side of the industry working for leading companies and serving with good leaders. He believes that no two companies or the leaders he had worked with, were alike, but each possessed different leadership qualities that Damian has learnt to modify, operationalize and integrate into his own persona. Damian believes that all companies start out with an inherent desire to serve, although many are motivated by the monetization of their customers as opposed to serving their clients’ needs as their primary priority. This represents the cultural foundation of CloudFX business, putting the customers’ needs ahead of their own.

Starting CloudFX; Decisions and Doubts along the way The industry was changing and Damian was part of that change so the decision was ultimately an easy one for him, manage it or lead it, he chose the latter.

Though, his decision wasn’t as simple in reality.

Damian had to take some tough choices in his career, like starting a business and walking away from a lucrative corporate career. He decided to stick with it, despite the downsides and the risks. While transitioning the CloudFX business model, there were lots of non-believers. In fact, Damian believed that even his board members doubted him at times.

But he eventually crossed that bridge with some great people, and now CloudFX is well on the road to a better tomorrow, growing at an unprecedented level and generating great financial outcomes.

CloudFX: Peerless Services Propounded Launched in the Asia Pacific market in 2009, CloudFX is a strategic technology advisory firm, enabling customers that are wishing to prosper in the Digital age through the adoption of industry-leading Cloud platforms, disruptive technology innovations and proven advanced services.

I wouldn’t regard my self as successful, I see myself as someone who has started something very meaningful

What is unique about CloudFX is that, the company has evolved to such an extent that they have built two very different companies over a 7-8 year period.

The first company was services focused and went from a start-up to a $30 M valuation in less than 4 years, when they completed a Series A investments from Intel Capital and Cisco. Before the investment, the company was entirely self-funded to that point and whilst that was rewarding, CloudFX 2.0 is on an entirely different growth, with an ability to execute and valuation planar.

CloudFX have transitioned from a professional services company to a platform company. They have evolved from being regional to global, having built industry leading technology, CloudFX is changing the way their clients do business and through this they draw an immense satisfaction.

A greater Intent Towards his Customers When talking about his objectives towards his customers, this is what Damian says, “We are in an industry that is changing rapidly with technology and I am someone that pursues and distills best practice, assimilates large amounts of data quickly and harmonizes that with a strategic understanding of my industry, our customers current state challenges, yet future state opportunities, so synthesizing these elements together in an agile, innovative and yet refined way is less about my mission and more about developing capabilities which aligns with the reality of the market today.”

Damian entails his mission is rather simple, he wants to enable customers to capitalize on the opportunities the 4th

industrial revolution (Digital) represents – particularly in the Enterprise segment enabled through industry leading platform technology. He is working towards transforming his clients into better companies which are optimally aligned to the Digital tomorrow with specific focus on Cloud Computing and evolving into IoT. The Flawed Assumptions and Lessons Learnt Having completed several executive management assignments around the world, Damian can draw a line between these experiences and tell the differences in the industrial paradigm. He had always believed that there was a better way of managing the generational industrial shift. Unfortunately, the failure in his assumption was that he believed everybody would embrace it, believe it and could articulate it to their clients.

After working for 7 years for 7 days a week, 15 hours a day, Damian have realized that, there is no substitute to hard work and unless you truly believe in what you’re doing, you will run out of gas. Damian further adds, there are two fundamental lessons he has learnt with time. The first is to have a great product,

“Deliver exceptional quality of service and out do the next guy by being smarter, while never taking anything for granted; hustle every single day.” The second major learning is more subtle – be careful who you trust and realize that you’re probably going to have to go largely “all alone”.

Responsibility as a Dynamic Entrepreneur When you decide to be an entrepreneur, you inherit some responsibilities; you have the opportunity to generate a real impact on others. Similarly, Damian has a responsibility towards serving his staff, customers and shareholders by providing them with a framework that enables each employee, each business function and each client engagement to realize their greatest potential. Damian achieves this by understanding the markets his company serves, customer needs and the employee's motivational profile intimately, so that he can triangulate “potential need” with the combined energy and capability of his team to deliver aspirational outcomes for all constituents he is responsible for and accountable to.

What success means to Damian?

Every person thinks differently, and defines his success accordingly. For Damian success isn’t measured in money or assets, he measures success by his ability to fulfill his vision for the company. And today, Damian is on that path to accomplish that vision. Having seen an equal measure of success and failure, Damian tends to see himself as a very open and evolving entity and deeply committed and capable of bringing about the outcomes he sees available to the clients. Connecting the dots on his and his team’s capabilities and with the resources they have now put in place, he is ready to execute that vision. Damian has been successful in defining and operationalizing the success equation for CloudFX, but the ultimate yard stick is the success of their customers, the emotional engagement of his team and their ability to fulfill the fundamental desire to bring about positive change. For Damian, “Once these are converging and scaling, I will feel a small measure of success.”

Motivational Influences “In terms of people that influenced me, I draw inspiration from the environments I've worked in, a fundamental desire to drive positive change, people, experiences – good and bad and I’ve had my share of both, people’s love and people’s negativity. Ultimately they are simply events that shape my motivation profile.”

Damian adds, “You cannot beat the man who never quits, you can’t have a quit switch. The pain of selfdiscipline is less than the pain of regret.” To attain this level of success, Damian had to do his fair share of sacrifices as well. He had to sacrifice every tangible asset he has ever owned to pursue his goals, give up lots of “associates” and keep his life very simple but extremely disciplined.

After 8 years into this journey, what truly inspires Damian, is that he is more passionate, more committed, more engaged and more enthusiastic than he has ever been about CloudFX, despite the opportunity to turn his back on it dozens of times.

Rumi knew what he was

Guidance for Aspiring Entrepreneurs Advising someone who is just starting out, Damian says, “You must be prepared to forgo today, tomorrow, a year, perhaps even a decade to realize the fruits of your labor, delayed gratification in other words.” He further implies that, one must be passionate about what they’re doing, believe that its unique and be relentless in making it work. Damian also reveals the need to be open to new learning’s during difficult times, rather than look outwards and blame others. You need to ask yourself “what can I take from this that will make me better?”

Damian distinguishes 5 elements in order to start and run a successful business, which are, Quality of idea, Quality of proposition, Size of the problem being solved, Personal tenacity and being Multi-skilled, being prepared to accept failure and adapt quickly.

Is Entrepreneurship, Something in your Blood or Something you can Learn?

It is an almost tangible question touched by every entrepreneur through their experiences and intellect.

The unresolved question has a deeper meaning for any business to succeed.

Things like passion, work ethic, desire, a will to win, the ability to never quit, learning qualities or to inherent someones’ personality, are some very important qualities Damian acknowledges as key for a successful entrepreneur. Through his personal experiences, Damian is convinced that entrepreneurship is something that is in your blood. He says, “I’ve seen too many people say “I want it” and when challenged by the first series of hurdles, they give up or blame others and walk away.”

talking about, the question is, do you have the selfdiscipline, and what are you prepared to sacrifice?

Relinquishing the challenges The favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur for Damian is the opportunity to lead people, share his experiences with people (employees and customers). Strangely enough, he relishes the prospects of failure while constantly testing his ability to bounce back from adversity. But most of all, he enjoys in delivering on his promises made to his clients and it bring about the positive changes he planned for, which is fulfilling.

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

Company Name

Management

Brief

3GC Group 3gcgroup.com

Henry Park CEO

It is a consulting firm, value added reseller and managed services provider focused on Converged Networks Technologies, providing system design, implementation, integration and management services globally.

Afour Technologies afourtech.com

Subodh Parulekar CEO & Co-founder

AFourTech is a leader in specialized software engineering services, with a laser sharp focus on software quality and engineering.

AMOSCA Enterprise Limited amosca.co.uk

Noel Gorvett Managing Director

AMOSCA is an Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) consultancy, providing Financial and Management Reporting solutions to help businesses worldwide manage, achieve and maintain their strategic and business performance goals.

Atheer atheerair.com

Albert Torres CEO

Atheer is the pioneer of the AiR™ (Augmented interactive Reality) smart glasses platform, designed to enhance the productivity and safety of deskless professionals at Fortune 100 companies.

AxSource Global axsource.com

Navtej Sekhon President & COO

AXSource is a Management Consulting and Professional Services company with Information Technology (IT) Consulting and Regulatory Consulting services.

Bioclinica bioclinica.com

John Hubbard President & CEO

Bioclinica Financial Lifecycle Solutions manages the global automation and financial management of clinical trials.

BizMerlin bizmerlin.com

Amrinder Arora Co-founder & CEO

BizMerlin is the human resource management solution of choice for small and medium sized teams. Thousands of outstanding teams choose BizMerlin to hire, onboard, manage, allocate and retain their team members.

BlueJeans Network bluejeans.com

Mike Mansbach President

BlueJeans services extends high-quality video communications beyond the traditional boundaries of specialized conference rooms and into the mainstream of everyday business life.

Cashbook cashbook.com

Greg Coulter CEO

Cashbook has been helping to maximize the automation of transactions for large organizations around the globe through their innovative cash management solutions.

CloudFX cloudfx.com

Damian Crotty Founder & CEO

CloudFX is the world’s first Unified Cloud Management platform designed to enable your Enterprise Cloud Services and Digital Business services goals, simultaneously.

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

Company Name

Management

Brief

CloundFirst Technology Solutions cloudfirstinc.com

Dennis Gentles CEO

CloudFirst are Microsoft Cloud Experts that specialize in creating custom solutions that align closely to the unique business goals of any sized organization.

Consilio consilio.com

Todd Horst

Consilio supports multinational law firms and corporations with innovative software, managed services and solutions Executive Vice-President

CYBERBIT cyberbit.net

Adi Dar CEO

Created to protect the most high-risk organizations in the world, Cyberbit secures enterprises and critical infrastructure against advanced cyberthreats.

Fortis Healthcare fortishealthcare.com

Bhavdeep Singh CEO

Fortis Healthcare Group is a leading integrated healthcare provider operating across the Asia Pacific region.

Kabargo Technology Partners kobargo.com

Amelia Paro Director of Marketing & Customer Engagement

Kobargo Technology Partners provides end to end Managed Technology & Telecommunication Services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Komet Sales kometsales.com

Alejandro Perez CEO

They are an integrated floral software custom-made to support the needs of the entire supply chain, from floral growers, floral importers and wholesalers, to the flower retailers.

Leading2Lean leading2lean.com

Keith Barr President & CEO

Leading2Lean provides a managed software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that provides real-time visibility to abnormalities and captures resource efforts as they react.

Masco Cabinetry mascocabinetry.com

Viren Shah Vice President & CIO

One of America’s most respected manufacturers of cabinets, they offer a learning environment that will help you build an exciting career as distinctive as the products we offer.

NetScore Technologies netscoretech.com

Raj Kellampalli Founder & CTO

NetScore specializes in software consulting of NetSuite, supporting accounting/ enterprise resource planning (ERP) to customer relationship management (CRM), professional services automation (PSA) and e-commerce as a single, integrated and business management software solution.

Nuharbor Security nuharborsecurity.com

Justin Fimlaid Managing Director

As a leading national information security consulting and advisory firm, NuHarbor is dedicated to providing tactical and strategic services for programs of both private and public sector clients.

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

Company Name

Management

Brief

Open Spectrum Inc. openspectruminc.com

Sean Patrick Tario Founder & CEO

A global datacenter procurement expert specialising in IT infrastructure transition, with a trained team of technically proficient and passionate brokers and consultants, mapping the entire IT ecosystem.

Orochem Technologies orochem.com

Dr. Asha Oroskar Co-founder, President & CEO

A globally recognized organization, providing the most technologically viable solutions, tools and methodologies for proteomics and genomics markets.

Pacific Biomarkers pacbio.com

President & CSO

Pacific Biomarkers is a premier biomarker laboratory services provider in the drug development industry supporting preclinical and Phase I-IV studies.

PASI e-pasi.com

Rene Santos President & CEO

PASI is a Microsoft Dynamics-NAV partner, providing software development and customization, business review and process re-engineering, implementation, training and support.

Safelogic safelogic.com

Walter Paley Director of Marketing

SafeLogic provides strong encryption products for solutions in mobile, server, Cloud, appliance, wearable, and Internet of Things environments.

SalesChoice Inc. saleschoice.com

Dr. Cindy Gorden Founder & CEO

SalesChoice helps companies improve their sales profitability and business performance by using advanced predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Sarus sarususa.com

Amit Saxena President & CEO

Sarus Inc., with its strategic partners is the only company of its kind providing IT and tax specialization together.

Smart Strategy smartstrategyonline.com

Arturo Arrea CEO

Smart Strategy creates technology solutions and innovation and optimization of business processes and accounting solutions for enterprises of all kinds, regardless of their size or business sector.

SmartIScity smartiscity.eu

Blaz Golob CEO & Partner

Allows the SmartMayor (government) to manage urban development, socio-economic development and technological development of the city, measuring and reporting.

Uptake uptake.com

Will Hansman CIO & Vice-President

Uptake provides a singular platform that defines data-driven insights in major global industries, helping companies understand and act on their data.

Amar A. Sethi

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

NOEL GORVETT:

The Constant Presence behind Building a Winning Team

“

A

s the founder and Managing Director, Noel Gorvett provides leadership and the strategic direction for AMOSCA. He also works closely with the Operations Director with a close involvement in the core business function of the company: service delivery, and looks after the administration team. Noel subscribes to the ethos that no job is too small, if it needs doing, someone must do it. Building the brand, setting expectations with customers, vendors, competitors and the wider community and ensuring that trust and reputation are cared about, are important elements of Noel’s job. He believes this has been instrumental in the business being voted Hyperion Partner of the Year amongst other accolades by the UK Oracle User Group members and Oracle customers.

I FEEL I GET AS MUCH FROM HELPING OTHERS AS THEY DO FROM ME

Noel describes himself as a simple person, leading by example and ensuring that those around him can take something from him, so as to help them achieve more and genuinely have significant job satisfaction and work life balance. Be it a graduate who is looking to develop a career; or a seasoned Finance or IT Director, Noel feels part of his role is to provide a bridge between what they are looking for and how they can get it.

Mission to deliver the Best Services Having been a corporate employee for many years, the idea of setting up the business was borne of the fact that his team were more commonly educating the consultants and auditors who were being paid to do the job. In retrospect, the objective was to take the best ideas and simplest processes and ensure that customers would be treated as equals in a relationship, not purely as a transactional line item. The mission from the outset has been to deliver the best Services, Support, Software and Solutions that businesses could have, and change the way that businesses perceived consulting in the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) community. Also, by providing transparency, agility and creativity in an ever increasing compliance and regulatory environment; it has been a refreshing approach for customers.

It was a timely co-incidence, that at almost the same time as AMOSCA was founded in 2006, Oracle acquired a ‘small’ business called Hyperion, which has become the company’s core knowledge and service offering. As Oracle has evolved the solutions more commonly known as Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), AMOSCA has also evolved, adapted and for the community, served as a pivotal provider in sometimes complex technologies.

Learning from the Obstacles Having been a corporate employee for many years, and watching others consult made Noel aware of what could be done differently or better, but it did not provide the information on the effort and tenacity that it requires to deliver and succeed.

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

Customer Centric Services Being involved from the customer side of EPM, and working closely with Hyperion and related consultants; Noel realized there was more value to the business community by establishing a viable knowledge based team than just turning from programme delivery to support mode for the company.

What sets AMOSCA apart from others in the industry, is that they look at business solutions from the customer’s perspective. Explaining briefly on AMOSCA’s services, Noel says, “Acting as an implementer only when the customer has selected the software, and not just selling them software we would like to implement for them, offering value added software that actually minimizes the need for customers to use consultants and having a team with a vested interest in shared knowledge rather than deploying large consulting teams ensures solutions with scalability and efficiency with proven cost effectiveness.”

A willingness to Learn According to Noel, the most definitive lesson he has learned is that perseverance pays. By ensuring that the team (consultant, vendor, customer) has an open communication and trust, is paramount. It also means ensuring that every promise made is capable of being delivered. He further adds, tenacity and absolute faith in the bigger picture are imperative.

Noel Gorvett Managing Director

Predominantly, all the back-office processes, information and time required has been a key learning for Noel; ensuring that the processes, checks and control was available, served to answer questions from prospective clients and partners. Ultimately, building a solid team to ensure a sustainable and quality service has been an ongoing process, without which the business would not have managed.

Speaking about people who helped him get through tough times, Noel says, “The opportunity that my former employers provided to start the business from within their comfort zone was an enormous help.” Having worked for a few large multi-national organizations, and deployed the Hyperion software for them, had enabled Noel to get an understanding not just of the software, but also the vendor, and the simple reality of why businesses needed the solutions. This has been instrumental in helping him to contribute to AMOSCA’s growth.

Noel says, “Learning is an ongoing process, and it can only be achieved by ensuring that you never think you know all the answers.” An invaluable tool is listening to others irrespective of who they are, all inputs and feedback play an important part in Noel’s continued efforts.

Necessity is the mother of Invention According to Noel the most important qualities that constitutes an entrepreneur are, “an absolute belief in ones abilities, the honesty of the human spirit, and a never say never attitude.”

There are many entrepeneurs who have the privilege of being backed either with funding or a pre-existing business, and this is not to say they have different challenges.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and nothing beats preparation, honesty and effort. Everyone can be an entrepreneur, but people need to learn fast, the ability to take calculated risks, invest time in other people and be prepared for failure - but don’t let it put you off.

JANUARY 2017 | 21

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

NAVTEJ SEKHON: Believes in Working Together to Achieve Greatness

“

A

s the Founder & President of AXSource Group of Companies, Navtej Sekhon is a person of sheer dedication and allegiance. At the very early age of 23, he started his entrepreneurial journey with a vision to transform the business scenario of Architectural Fields, Building Construction and Design Build, so, to kick start his journey, he laid down the foundation stones for two of his ventures“SEKSON Design Build Pvt. Ltd.” and “Kuber Construction Ltd.”. After running his business successfully for few years and creating some prominent benchmarks in the construction business market, he decided to move to Canada. Bagged with inimitable entrepreneurial qualities and handsome experience in the construction industry, Navtej was one of the first budding entrepreneurs, who was able to sense the downfall of construction business and at the same time rise of the computer & software business at the very early stage. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Navtej jumped into the software business with full vigor and potential. After successfully building and rendering professional service practices for some of the famous MNCs, Navtej decided to start his own venture. After three years of various turmoils, name changes and mergers, in 2007 the business with few legal entities came under one roof and AXSource came into existence.

KEEP YOUR CLIENTS SATISFIED WHILE KEEPING YOUR EMPLOYEES HAPPY

Being a Versatile Entrepreneur Navtej’s motto is to - keep his clients satisfied while keeping his employees happy. Marching towards the company’s strategic direction, Navtej strongly believes in finding the right champions within the company and moving towards the goal together.

While versatility, being a forte of Navtej’s character, so all together at AXSource they are able to render top notch services at par with the changing scenario of technology as well as for the buyers of technology.

On a Mission to Transform the Concept of Business During his masters degree from the University of Toronto, Navtej gained a lot of knowledge about the information management and how business solutions can be configured for businesses while keeping human factor and change management as a key component for the implementation of the successful business equation. Amalgamating the knowledge from his degree and experience from his previous ventures, Navtej was able to derive a philosophy of being a strategic partner with their clients, rather than being only a service provider. Navtej’s vision towards mending the loop holes of IT service industry and building a dedicated team to value the strategic partnership with the clients, were also some of the prime reasons behind the evolution of AXSource.

Converting Obstacles into Opportunities Navtej says “For young entrepreneurs and emerging companies, it takes time to establish themselves in the market.” Being in an industry with numerous big players was a very big challenge for him, but with deep knowledge of the technology, specifically Dynamics AX, helped him to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd. In the past decade with a lot of

22 | JANUARY 2017

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

AXSource, Navtej says “The lessons that we feel we have learned while building this company are:- you can only build a company with a good legacy by being a good example yourself. A s a professional services company, our assets are our people. Building team of professionals who have customer service in their DNA is a must for us.”

Overcoming the industry slowdowns in the IT sector, Navtej, sharing his idea of being a successful business leader diligently emphasises on, considering software product as one’s own intellectual property. At AXSource, as an answer for comparison with their competitors, they came up with an innovative idea of building vertical industry solutions for Pharma/Life Sciences (AXOQCS) and Healthcare Industry (AXOMEDICAL) as well. Considering vertical industry focus as another key differentiator, Navtej focuses on being the best of the breed in the Business Solution (ERP) sector of the Life Sciences / Pharma Industry.

Attribute towards Success Navtej believes that, starting a venture in the area of ones passion is the only key to success. Being passionate about an idea, and transforming one’s passion into his/her profession is the base to learn and overcome all the hurdles, coming on the way for being an entrepreneur.

For Navtej, there are four essential traits to become a successful entrepreneur.

Navtej Sekhon Founder & President

turmoil and cut-throat competition, IT industry has witnessed a lot of small companies merging with the larger ones. So, in this challenging situation Navtej’s strategy to survive and excel has successfully converted the obstacles into opportunities, thus propelling AXSource to new heights.

Setting-up Milestones With the vision of solving client’s problem with an innovative approach, Navtej came up with a business model of developing a long-term relationship with the client, thus contradicting the obsolete business model of providing the clients with the solutions they want and then leaving them to it. Further, moving forward to create a legacy at

Being a Visionary: Entrepreneurs need to be visionary individuals, capable of seeing between as well as beyond the lines.

Value Driven: Entrepreneurship is not only about making money, but also creating and offering value to their clients.

Problem Solvers: Entrepreneurs are persons of a kind, who not only look at the problems, but also react to it and find a solution. They are the one to find innovative ways of delivering values to others.

People’s Person: Entrepreneurship is all about working with people and for the people.

JANUARY 2017 | 23

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

AMRINDER ARORA: Observant and a Will to Make a Positive Difference

“

EVERY VENTURE IS UNIQUE IN THE EYES OF ITS CREATOR. THAT UNIQUENESS COMES FROM SEEING THE PROBLEM FROM A DIFFERENT LENS, SOLVING THE PROBLEM IN A DIFFERENT WAY, OR EVEN APPROACHING THE MARKET IN A DIFFERENT WAY.

C

onsidering himself to be a conservative entrepreneur, Amrinder Arora, CEO & Co-founder of BizMerlin, believes that success ultimately is a combination of many things, but it is the simple desire to make positive changes, day in and day out, that can propel any organization to success.

Diligent Observation leading to HRM Solutions While working in a string of consulting engagements, Amrinder observed that the resource management process was inherently suboptimal and very labor intensive. He realised the potential for creating something different here. After checking with many consulting services organizations, the idea of a core resource optimization product emerged. Based on this vision, Amrinder co-founded BizMerlin in 2013, to solve the problem of resource management, forecasting and timely acquisition in a much more effective manner, which to this day remains a significant competitive edge for the company.

“For most companies people are their most valuable asset and it is surprising, if not outright shocking, that the management of these resources is either considered to be a burden, or considered ‘solved’ using some variant of an address book.

BizMerlin takes the opposite view to that, where all phases of a person’s hiring to retire cycle are given due consideration.”, explains Amrinder. For example, you can track how the person has evolved through various competencies, what trainings they took, what kind of goals they were able to undertake, what projects they worked on (and in what capacities), how the team structure evolved around them, what kind of feedback they received from their team, etc. This 360 degree view of a person is one of the main reasons the SMBs choose BizMerlin HRMS for their resource management needs.

BizMerlin’s solutions include Employee Onboarding, Goals and Performance Tracking, Hiring Automation, Skill Matrix, Resource Allocation Optimization and Retention Management which are a must have for all organizations.

A person of many talents As an adjunct faculty member at George Washington University, Amrinder teaches graduate classes, mainly in Design and Analysis of Algorithms, and has received teaching excellence awards on multiple occasions. His textbook on A nalysis and Design of A lgorithms, discussing the various algorithm design techniques and their practical applications, is currently in its third edition.

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

the willingness and the purchasing capability, to use the best people management software. Apart from that, the prevalent trend of cloud revolution has also, very exclusively, helped the company grow efficiently and steadily. “The entire software product is turn key and the process of onboarding a new customer involves no manual steps. This allows us to start a new customer at a fraction of the cost of traditional HR management systems. Power of the cloud using the industry standard AWS cloud gives us unmatched scalability for our larger customers, automated backups and zero wait startup for our new customers.”

“When we started, HR essentially meant paperwork.

Instead, at BizMerlin, we redefined HR entirely on results. Using our research published in top journals and conferences, we are at the forefront of the research of what ultimately makes people and companies successful,” asserts Amrinder.

To be Prepared for the Entrepreneurial Journey Before co-founding BizMerlin, Amrinder had served as Vice President of Product Development at one firm, VP of Solutions at another firm, and had also worked as a full time faculty member. Even though, those are all positions of great responsibility with multimillion dollar revenues and budgets, still they can only go so long in preparing one for the ultimate journey, the journey of an entrepreneur.

Amrinder Arora CEO & Co-founder

Amrinder has a doctorate in computer science, and his doctoral thesis on scheduling algorithm was the genesis of his current work at BizMerlin. He has presented his work at multiple international conferences as well as received feedback through peer reviewed journals. His patent on data anomaly detection issued by the US patent and trademark office explains how seasonality can be used in data analysis and forecasting.

A Unique Approach towards the Existing Market Amrinder credits the success of BizMerlin to the amazing team associated with the company, an honour he cherishes very much. Moreover, he recognises the shifting landscape, where even a small company with ten people, has the need,

A Brief Tip to the Starters Amrinder says, it is important for any entrepreneur to build on top of the company that you would like to eventually acquire you. Besides this, he suggests, a company should not venture out too broad, rather staying in the niche area will ultimately take you to your goals.

When asked if entrepreneurship is innate or if it can be learnt, Amrinder says, “There isn’t really anything that cannot be learnt. Rather, the question is - can you seed the desire to be an entrepreneur in anyone. To be an entrepreneur is to have the desire to work 24x7x365 for many years, to pursue your creative dream. Some people may simply not relish that idea, and may be more content with a steady pay check - nothing wrong in that choice either!”

JANUARY 2017 | 25

Editor's Input

THE MOST SUITABLE

LOCATI N

TO STARTUP YOUR VENTURE

S

tarting a startup or business venture requires long term technical, financial, functional and emotional commitment. Apart from entrusting your complete time and energy, your business will take up resources and test your commitment for a very long time. But before you start dreaming of instant success, every entrepreneur has to contemplate about the location from where they want to start up their venture. It is highly imperative for a startup to be positioned very conveniently for their clients as well as their end users. Most importantly, the geographical location of the startup will depend on the economic conditions and the ease of doing business in the region. Other important factors that will govern the successful building of your business are ready availability of workforce, a congenial environment that best suits the development of your business and an effective connecting infrastructure in place to instigate innovation throughout your business.

When you have stitched up an elaborate idea for your startup which is (at least in your mind) bound to become successful, the next step that should be taken is to find the most appropriate location to launch them. First time Entrepreneurs, who lack the experience and knowledge in this regard, will have to tick out few factors like easy access to resources, demand of the product or services exclusively in the location and the economic conditions of the list of locations they have selected.

the predominantly youth population in countries like Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. A rapidly growing middle class with disposable income and an increasingly business-friendly attitude among Asian governments anticipating huge foreign investments in their economy is a lucrative opportunity for any entrepreneur to pass away.

India, the 4th largest startup ecosystem in terms of IT and digital, is as dynamic as the economic reforms planned by Prime Minister Modi. Opportunities stands out as the strongest pillar with market size and access to funding as the single best indicators for India, as it is best shown through Bangalore city, which achieved the highest cultural score of all Asian countries.

On the other hand, China represents the biggest consumer market in the world and it has the largest number of mobile users. The government is focused on boosting the economy and they fixed a USD $6.5 billion venture capital funds for startups in the beginning of 2015. However, the process of setting up a business is still very complex and the government’s ban over some of the main websites used in the west is a major downside. The cheap market for knockout goods and an ease of locating workforce is a compelling factor that will lure many entrepreneurs to put up shop here.

In recent times there have been many selective regions that have come up, which have become favorites among entrepreneurs to start up their businesses. Among them, listed here are a few of those very prospective locations all over the globe.

Malaysia is another developing market with good market efficiency, quality of institutions and financial market development that can entice entrepreneurs. Malaysia has launched a special economic zone called Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) to create a multimedia hub for innovative producers and users of multimedia technology.

ASIA One of the most appealing aspects of Asia is the sheer size of the market opportunity due to the exponential growth in smartphone ownership and consumer buying power, led by

In Indonesia, following up on the exciting boom of the startup scene in the recent years, the Government has become more and more involved in supporting the local entrepreneurs, with the newly launched 1,000 Startups

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Editor's Input initiative. Though, it’s difficult for foreign companies to integrate into the system as the process can take up to 6 months.

With a superior geographic location and investment in venture capital second only to China, Singapore is a prospective location for startups to grow. Singapore boasts of an impressive network of VCs and founders to mentor alongside startups. But a key pushback is the high cost and shortage of skilled talent.

Pacific Region Most countries belonging to the pacific region have a wellestablished economy and are major propellers on the international market. The importance of promoting local business community is now recognized among the island nations. Among them, Australia seems to support and encourage positive attitude towards entrepreneurship. The federal government offers a wide range of programs for business startups and early stage business and growth oriented businesses under the Entrepreneur’s Infrastructure Program. In addition, each state government has its own programs. Though, despite an optimistic structure in place for entrepreneurship related growth, Australia is yet to produce a Microsoft or Google.

Furthermore, Russia also appears to be making giant efforts to boost entrepreneurial activity. The government provides grants to startups, amounting to $127 million in 2014, with 25% of it going to the IT sector. Between 2010-12 Russia’s venture capital boomed, there was a surplus of funding, but by 2013 the bubble collapsed as it became apparent that some startups had overestimated the size of the domestic market. The country’s economic performance deteriorated as funds were started to be focused on foreign markets and internationally scalable projects. One major hurdle to do business in Russia is the access to capital. Starting and running a small business in Russia requires riding through domestic turbulence and the cross winds of global markets and international diplomacy.

If there is one place with which innovation can be associated, it is with Japan. Japan has led the modern technology by pioneering in inventions across every industry. Japan’s post war recovery was driven by ambitious entrepreneurs who grew small businesses into household names. The trend hasn’t slowed down yet. And to further boost its accommodation for startups, Japan has placed policies, including removal of the minimum capital requirement for the establishment of limited liability companies, provision of education and information for entrepreneurs through the National Startup and Venture Forum, and a new startup loan program, which requires no collateral, guarantors, or personal guarantees, and the expansion of the upper limit of “free property” based on the

New Bankruptcy Law. North and South American Region It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to place their mark in the Silicon Valley. USA provides the most productive and profitable environment to showcase your entrepreneurship skills. More than 70 percent of Americans would prefer being an entrepreneur to working for someone else. Various tax policies, both active and passive, are in place across U.S. states to foster entrepreneurship such as targeted tax credits for business location, research and development, and capital requirements. Several states have also reduced or eliminated their capital gains tax and inheritance tax. There are various programs launched by U.S. government under the Sparks Programs. Other favourable policies like legal protection, property rights and moderate startup costs are in place to promote entrepreneurship.

Canada, though dwarfed by their neighbour’s success in the global market, offers distinctive advantages for entrepreneurs to raise their startups. Canada’s new Start-Up Visa is the first of its kind in the world, linking immigrant entrepreneurs with experienced private sector organizations that have expertise in working with startups. Canada has a strong fiscal position and rated as one of the best places to do business. It offers a low-cost and low-tax environment for your business to thrive. Though, financial institutions usually provide businesses, loans that totals 75% of receivables and 25% of inventory, which is a major disappointment for small businesses. There is also a lot of paperwork required to access R&D tax credits which is an inconvenience for time-challenged small-business owners.

Entrepreneurial capital in the form of micro-enterprises and self-run businesses has long been part of the economic fabric of Brazil. INOVAR, a project started by the government and partnered with MIF, is addressing concerns of capital constraints and an underdeveloped venture capital industry, though with little success. In the midst of this the local entrepreneurship is at a boom, especially into the deep favelas of Brazil. The Country has enjoyed robust growth and rose in living standards, although income inequality is still high. As such Brazilians are consuming more at all socio-economic levels. One discouragement for new entrepreneurs is the time to process tax credits. For instance, it takes 13 procedures and 119 days versus 6 procedures and 6 days in the US. Moreover, tax and labor laws are Byzantine and punitive. Though, with economical property prices and easy available labor, it’s a slow growth location for Entrepreneurs.

Middle East & Africa The UAE is a veritable shrine to business and commerce, renowned for its efficient admin, infrastructure and sleek licensing. The UAE is favored for its permissive approach

JANUARY 2017 | 27

Editor's Input to business and commerce, exemplified by its liberal standards and regulations. Dubai’s economy has remained open; and control and regulation by the government of private sector activities is minimal. Customs duties are low at 4% (with many exemptions); 100% repatriation of capital and profits is permitted; there are no foreign exchange controls, trade quotas or barriers; and a stable exchange rate remains between the British Pound and the UAE Dirham.

Foreign business is allowed ownership rights of up to 49% for limited liability companies established in Dubai, and up to 100% for professional companies. Dubai is home to over 20 Free Zones catering to various industrial and business clusters. And, with liberal labor policies, it’s at the epitome of any entrepreneur’s dream location.

Entrepreneurship in South Africa is sometimes defined as unique ideas, inventions and technologies. The DTI has various programmes and grants in place to encourage new SMEs and to create employment in the country. Under cooperative schemes with five or more black members, grant assistance of R350, 000 is provided. Under ISP, funds are capped at R8 million on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis between the government and the private sector. FIG grant covers 15% of the value of the imported machinery and equipment to a maximum of R10 million. Even though there is a lack of proper infrastructure in most places, it is a place where large population demands more basic commodities and there is a prospective of building a business here.

Europe London is a beacon to Europe’s entrepreneurs because of its position as both a financial and business hub for the EU. UK is the number one destination for foreign direct investment in the EU with the USA, India and France being the largest contributors. The British government provides several financial schemes that offer significant tax benefits not just to smart investors who can afford expensive tax advice, but also for the founders and even employees of companies. If you sell your company, you can claim up to £10 million of Entrepreneurs Relief and investors can claim up to £150,000 in tax credits on their investments each year.

A new category of visa was created to allow anyone from anywhere in the world to enter the UK and establish a company, so long as they have £50,000 of UK-based investment. With the rise of Seedcamps and government’s support, UK is a huge trading market and best suited to entrepreneurs.

Germany is the epitome of a heterogeneous nation: linguistically, racially and economically. It is easier to find qualified and talented staff across the country. With its mainline manufacturing background and position in the global automotive market, Germany provides an unprecedented advantage of launching new innovative products. Though, the downsides include lengthy

28 | JANUARY 2017

procedures for building permits and liaising with local chamber of industry and commerce, the local commercial register, the local office of business and standards and the professional association of the relevant trade. Businesses have to contend with nine tax payments a year. It takes a week on average to both import and export goods.

A rising food industry is a trademark of France’s attraction for entrepreneurs. Fashion Industry is another reason for startups to venture into France’s potential to provide entrepreneurs with a suitable location to succeed. Under a program launched “French Tech Ticket” to attract nonfrench entrepreneurs, each member of founder team receives €12,500, which is doubled when the team opts to continue the program for another 6 month. Founders enjoy special privilege when applying for a French residence permit and office space in Paris. Though, gender inequality is high at workplace and language barrier is a major disadvantage. Also, cost of starting up is high if entrepreneurs can’t secure funding.

Even though these are the most popular locations, there are always constraints placed over which you can choose to launch your business. Therefore, it is understandable for entrepreneurs to research and select a place which is best suited to their business strategy and market orientation.

CXO Standpoint

Make the Change or Become the Change O

n landing at the Bengaluru airport last week, I ferried my backpack to the shared cab stand on a pleasant 18 degree Celsius morning, and waited for Uber. In a few minutes a cheerful person in mid-forties showed up and opened up the trunk to put my cabin bag over and looked over at my backpack and said “Nice bag, sir!” Appreciating my fully stuffed overnighter ready Tumi laptop backpack. “Where are you coming from, Sir?” Being the conversationalist, I went “Thank you. I am coming from Pune. Where are you from?” He goes “I am from Assam, sir” as he turned on the car and started the ride on his uber app.

I observed him navigate through the traffic and as we rode along, I learnt a lot about how this Assamese driver with no formal education moved to Bengaluru in his early forties and learned a new language & culture (he spoke broken Kannada at the toll booth) and how to use a smartphone and this App and figured out a way he can earn livelihood. As I chatted with my new Assamese friend for a few minutes on the post demonetised economy and its impact (which BTW is my current favourite topic for cab driver conversation), I could see the change that this guy with almost no education embraced in the last 3 years - language, culture, distance migration into a new state, learnt new technology & embraced a new business model of shared cab services, battled with taxi unions and figured out a way to co-exist A mammoth change for a security guy turned entrepreneur driver. I wondered whether this super senior IT leader, I am meeting at Flipkart today might be ready for this much change? He was. As I discovered later.

At Searce, as we help businesses become ready for the future, one of the key challenges we face is “ongoing change management” - getting companies ready for the change is easy given the current trend on modernizing IT and getting future ready etc., but resisting the status quo post the change is a super interesting challenge. And driving change management after the decision & purchase, battling status quo as the new senior executives join in the finance department (with the dinosaur age experience and the mere nature of their profession, they definitely carry a lot of

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weight) and go “But, I could do this on my excel spreadsheet and this cloud version does not carry that exact button. And I don't have time for this as I need to prepare this budget that needs to go to the Chairman tomorrow.”

First thought that comes to mind is to point them to my dear new friend - “The Change Superman” - Assamese driver in Bengaluru. BTW: We have internalized a concept for this at Searce, “finding the same old buttons in the new car.” And ‘finding this buttons business’ becomes especially challenging when you just moved them into a Tesla. And when the Finance department (or for that matter Operations, Sales etc.) insists on putting petrol in the charging inlet of your Tesla S, we need strong change advocates in the top management to put their foot down and say, “get used to the buttonless car, dude! or go drive your ford on uber or ola.”

But my Assamese friend crush them there too. He’s definitely more change ready.

This is the single-most driver for success in today’s businesses - Is the CEO or leader or the board (depending on the size of the company) going to make the change or become the change? While leading the digital transformation journey through cloud, automation & analytics for 1200+ businesses, our experience has been counter intuitive Just like my friend ‘The Change Superman’ - the normal tech laggards in traditional industries like manufacturing, retail and logistics have been more “ongoing change ready” than some of the large tech/IT/ITES/e-commerce companies - given the depth of baggage they carry at times.

If you are an entrepreneur or wannabe entrepreneur starting now - It is super exciting times to help futurify businesses.

Advancements in cloud and automation technologies are changing the industry landscape for good. Conversations have shifted from ‘Why cloud?’ to ‘How can I best move to cloud?’.

Gartner predicts that by 2020 anything other than a cloudonly strategy for new IT initiatives will require justification at more than 30% of large-enterprise organizations. It is

CXO Standpoint

About The Author Hardik Parekh, Founder & CEO of Searce, is a vibrant, straight talking, tech-enthusiast. Besides his significant prowess in frontloading information, Hardik shines as a natural design thinker, who valiantly discovers new domains and achieves expertise in the same.

Being an engineer, he has worked as a management consultant in the area of Technology-led Business Process Improvement. He holds a MS degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A &M University. Entirely meticulous, spontaneous, dedicated and observant, Hardik is the energy core that powers Searce.

Digital Transformation is forcing us to plan for a radical, long term evolution in the ways we interact with our customers and employees. Visionary C-level leaders are not just riding the cloud and automation wave but are using it as an opportunity to fundamentally disrupt their own business models before someone else does. Digital transformation not only requires strong leadership to drive change, but it also requires a clear vision for what parts of the company need to transform and how soon. Helping leaders in defining and executing this vision is where Searce continues to play a strong catalytic role.

Hardik Parekh Founder & CEO Searce

a

lso highly likely that by 2025, 80% of organizations will move their processes to cloud. Rest won’t exist!

For businesses to stay relevant in such a rapidly changing environment, adaptability to new age technologies remains the key. As an entrepreneur, if you are not asking ‘How is my business being changed by digital technology and How do I adapt?’, a non-competitor might soon be emerging around the corner with a tech-led disruption. Don’t get blind-sided.

As we work with businesses and help them futurify (stay relevant for future), we constantly challenge ourselves and our partners to get out of the ‘comfort zone’ and to ‘think beyond’. While driving digital transformation, our consultants continually experiment with new age technology and help business discover what to improve, where to innovate and how to transform. Transforming Work & Operations by digitizing processes and enhancing employee collaboration, Transforming Culture & People Processes by having democratic more social way of doing things, Transforming Customer Experience using customer analytics & Transforming Business Models by digitally modifying existing businesses remain the main foundations for driving a successful Digital Transformation strategy.

Technology advancements have always been beneficial for the humankind in the long run & Industrial Revolution 2.0 is going to be no different. Let us embrace the changes and prepare better for the future, now!

JANUARY 2017 | 31

The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

GREG COULTER:

“

Building a Customer centric Company

A

s CEO of Cashbook Ltd., Greg Coulter is a hardworking, positive minded and determined businessperson who considers his responsibility towards his family, employees and the customers to be his top priority. When Greg first started out as a business owner, he thought mostly about his personal success. Over the years his thoughts have changed towards his responsibilities. He considers his number one responsibility is making sure his family is ok, for his own peace of mind. Following that comes, the people he hires who are dependent on the Cashbook business for their families. Employees fulfilling their ambitions and being successful is something Greg spends a lot of time on. Next, he considers his customers to be his key responsibility.

Cashbook sells large ticket deals where the customers are putting their trust in Cashbook’s business, to help them achieve specific quantifiable goals. Greg ensures that the processes the company puts in place for projects and software development, lead to great outcomes for their customers.

ENTREPRENEURS REMEMBER: REVENUE IS FOR YOUR VANITY, CASHFLOW IS FOR YOUR SANITY

In recent years due to business success, Greg is thinking about the wider community in Limerick, Ireland and how Cashbook can positively impact the environment.

Building a Global Fintech Business Having worked with different businesses, Greg noticed, there always seemed to be one over-riding consideration - cash. So basing a business around automating cash seemed like a good idea to him.

It started when Greg and some other employees did a Management Buyout of the Cashbook business. Since then Cashbook has expanded their offerings to financial automation. Cashbook is a cash automation solution provider for accounts payable, accounts receivable and bank reconciliations. Greg’s ultimate goal for Cashbook is cash forecasting and each year he is getting closer to achieving his aim.

From the beginning, Greg’s mission was to build a global business and take Cashbook’s services to North America. Today, 50% of Cashbook’s business happens through this region, which has been a major achievement for Greg. Having also deployed Cashbook in 25 different countries including China is another major source of pride.

Greg thinks, being a qualified accountant prepares you for all kinds of business.

A Different Approach towards Overcoming Challenges Many young software entrepreneurs are chasing massive dreams which burn cash quickly and are reliant on external funding.

Greg and his team took a simple approach to cash flow. They started balancing money in with money out. It was tough for a year or two, but once they had built up their rainy day cash reserves it became easier and the company was stable.

When Greg first started out with Cashbook, some of the larger customers were very nervous about dealing with effectively a

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scope of growth. It’s probably over ambitious, but Greg explains that many companies don’t get to see the complete vision as they focus just on one module. He believes Cashbook could become the Salesforce of cash processing.

With their 4-in1 solutions approach, Greg has helped making Cashbook essentially become, a mini-ERP for cash management and automation. The next step is to complete cash forecasting on the cloud, after which there will be no company too big or too small for their solutions.

Biggest Lesson One biggest lesson Greg learned working in this industry is to listen to the customers. Greg says, “Many of our best ideas come from sitting with customers and watching how they do their daily job.” Greg considers it to be “incremental improvement continuously.” Building these strata of up gradation into the company culture and ethos by hiring conscientious people has been key for Greg to grow Cashbook to new heights. He also considers, giving ample opportunity to the people he hires and letting them use their skills is very important.

Apart from this, Greg points out the absolute need of having a rainy day cash reserve as vital for any business to survive.

Greg Coulter CEO

start-up organization. But having built a financial business, with no funding, and keeping it growing for 15 years while competing against the top Silicon Valley competitors, Greg has come a long way. Though, after running the business for 15 years, most of these hurdles have long gone.

Making of a Salesforce in Cash Processing Most of the Cashbook’s customers are household names, not only within their home markets but across continents as well. Their software processes over €60 billion in transactions annually in more than 25 countries. Having a presence in such a wide market is a credit to their unique services, to which Greg says, “We are unique in that we automate accounts receivable and accounts payables and bank reconciliations.” Cashbook has an extremely large

Be prepared for any Situation Advising to someone starting out in the industry, Greg says, “Doing a serious scenario planning will go a long way in helping you grow your company.” It is important for any entrepreneur to carefully carve out a strategy and plan out a specific path of growth for the future, according to the industry trends and market evaluation. You have to be prepared for the possibility of anything happening, which may or may not happen. Knowing the triggers in your business plan for expansion or contraction and to your success, focuses the mind and helps you to move forward towards achieving it.

More recently, as the company has grown, Greg had to teach himself more about management, motivation and company structures and processes. Greg attributes his success to his hard work and dedication towards providing the best solutions to his clients as well as his continuous commitment to his employees and his own success.

Greg recognizes, having a good work ethic is a given for any entrepreneur. Though, a good sense of humor also helps.

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

VIREN SHAH:

“

An Enterprising Global Citizen

THE ONLY WAY ONE CAN DEVELOP THEMSELVES IS TO BE HUMBLE AS A LOT WAS ACHIEVED BEFORE WE WERE BORN, AND

BY DEVELOPING OTHERS

T

he world is becoming so small that understanding cultural diversity is very critical in every business environment.

Especially when one is trying to be successful in a cultural environment not native to them.

Having lived in 3 countries and worked with 10+ countries, Viren Shah, CIO and Vice President of Masco Cabinetry, had to go through something like that. Viren had to unlearn and re-train himself as he moved along his career. He found it the hard way that what makes you successful in one culture can be detrimental in another.

Starting Entrepreneurial Sparks Growing up in a family that was business oriented, Viren got his entrepreneurship spark from his father, a real estate business owner.

Viren’s father used to build multi-family residences in Mumbai suburbs. Viren realized early on, that if he wanted to be somebody someday he has to break out on his own. Though as Viren put it, “While it is a safe mechanism, it is always difficult for a small tree to grow much higher under a shadow of a large tree.”

Viren used to help out his father in his business, while doing his graduation in Computer Engineering. Taking cue from his father’s business, Viren decided to understand how businesses are run. So, he left India to do his MBA from USA, in order to prepare himself to be a businessman someday. Though, his mission was always to come back to India and use his skills to start on his own.

The Success Story behind Viren While doing his MBA, there was a whole aspect of survival and cost management Viren learnt, as he had decided to pay for his own education. Viren was working at a chain of clothing retail stores while doing his MBA. He also started a startup, selling clothes in the flea markets imported from India. Though, the startup did not work very well as all 3 of the partners, including Viren were doing it part time, which was a detriment in getting it off the ground.

All the business case analysis and the different papers Viren had to write for various business courses, helped him to understand what it takes to run a company as well as why his startup failed. Viren had also setup the entire computer system for the chain of retail stores in New York to make them efficient. This is when Viren realized, his career pursuit is going to be bridging the gap between technology and business operations to make organizations successful.

Hurdles and Personal Lessons Learnt over the Years Being young and inexperienced in the starting phase, Viren had the disadvantage of, not being able to get his ideas forward because of his lack of credibility. He even saw many times that his ideas went on to be implemented by others with better experience as they could understand and navigate the system much better.

Now, after having more than 20 years of innovative technology and global leadership experience, Viren has learnt few

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

Viren credits his career success primarily to all his mentors at Walmart and the company; as they taught him how to lead, how to operate and build a culture of entrepreneurial success. The experience has been the most important part of his life, as Viren was able to use his acquired skills to implement new methodologies successfully, while he was also able to gain many new skills through course corrections.

“The most important lesson was to have a sense of purpose which as part of Walmart was to help people save money so that they can live better.”, says Viren.

Finding his true Purpose in Life Explaining the reason behind him starting up in this industry, Viren says, “The industry I currently work in has a lot of opportunities to solve as it is way behind other industries in technology and the transformational initiatives we are working upon will surely help bring a positive change to the whole industry.”

Viren found his purpose in life while starting up Walmart stores from the ground up in India. He realized he wanted to make an impact by changing the paradigms in the industry and effecting positive change. Reflecting on his achievement, Viren says, “I will never forget how emotional I was when we opened up our first Walmart store in India as I understood how the people in India were going to have a better life, from the farmer to everyday consumer.”

Viren Shah CIO & Vice President

important lessons in the business. According to Viren, the biggest lesson he has learned is to have a purpose, to be open minded and recognize, accept and correct a mistake as fast as you can. He says, “Being a business minded person first and a technologist second, has helped me to be successful.”

Crediting his Success Viren is most influenced by his father, who has the ability to learn from others and have a risk taking appetite. Having seen his father succeed immensely as well as fail at many projects, Viren learned the importance of taking calculated risks. The value system from his mother and support from his wife have been the key pillars to his success in life.

Advising Startup Entrepreneurs, Viren has some Suggestions Leverage all the people you know and find people who can help you on platforms like LinkedIn. Most people are happy to help you with their knowledge.

In startups, one does not have the luxury to make lots of mistakes, hence it is critical to learn from other people’s mistakes.

Follow your dream, and never give up. Patience is a virtue, especially in case of startups and one has to make sure they have the financial capability to wait it out.

Viren always believes in “hiring for attitude and train for skills.” A person with a positive attitude and perseverance can be taught the required skills.

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In Brief

Known Wisdom of Every Successful Entrepreneur F

rom a successful businessman’s point of view, the real return on investment of a company does not appear in the balance sheet but from the entrepreneurs themselves. It has been widely observed that a successful entrepreneur does not require a huge reservoir of capital or any expertise in an area of study. However, if you have both, we have listed some take away points from entrepreneurs around the world that comes as a pre-requisite to invoke the hidden entrepreneur in any one.

Being the Jack of many trades is a good thing, but being the master of that one essential skill is an absolute necessity. Mastery over Marketing Innovations is one of them. Listening, observing and finding new opportunities even in times of crisis are the best way to stay ahead in the competition. They need to consistently evolve and tweak their business concepts in response to the market feedback. For this, being with the right people for the right advice is essential. Prior to researching over any material it is very essential that a thorough research is conducted on the source itself.

One important skill that is advocated for any business is the ability to Manage Risks. This means manipulating the amygdala in our brain to come out of the comfort zone and take the leap of faith. Our ability to take action at the right time is hampered due to our fear of failure. That is why many of the successful entrepreneurs are termed as bold revolutionaries.

Like in a marriage, commitment is essential to get through the tough times. Disciplining the functioning of the business model in order to make sure that it caters to the customer’s needs and the demands of the business, will not only ensure constant inflow of customers and revenue, but also helps to retain them. The motive of any business process is customer creation and not company creation.

However, for all the above to work, passion is the most essential factor. It leads to the ever necessary commitment towards the whole Business process. The winning formula is to entail affection, passion and discipline which would fuel the much required determination and dedication. With passion, every endeavor, failed or successful, is measured in terms of time and energy.

Where many lose hope and the entire process loses steam, passionate people keep on chugging along with the ultimate focus on the solution to the problem. Profit is the bi-product. The desired bi-product comes through discipline.

Entrepreneurs are always mobile. They have a strong sense of adaptability. They are well balanced with their conscious and unconscious thoughts. They are bold, swift and understand the fine difference between need and desire. Successful entrepreneurs move mountains and then strive to be the next unconquerable mountain themselves.

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RAJ KELLAMPALLI: Making an Instinctive difference with Passion and Hard Work

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BUSINESS IS A MARATHON AND NOT A SPRINT

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ith startups playing a larger role in the global economy than ever before, it can be easy to lose sight of a simple fact: Becoming a successful entrepreneur is both extremely difficult and rare. Even if you've got the best product or service out there, it still comes down to possessing the right traits and skill-sets as an entrepreneur.

Raj Kellampalli, Founder and CTO of NetScore Technologies, has over 15 years of IT consulting experience. He posseses expertise in Procure to Pay (P2P), self service procurement, sourcing and supplier self service with proven experience in implementing enterprise wide procurement applications using SAP SRM and Ariba buyer. He has also worked across industry verticals, including Retail, Software, Government, Telecom, Higher Education and Healthcare.

Envisioning a Future to Help Small Businesses While doing SAP consulting, Raj was looking for opportunities to build a consulting practice. SAP being a mature market with very few opportunities for upstarts, Raj was looking for new ERP technologies and stumbled upon NetSuite cloud ERP that was catering to the SMB market. This was a promising technology with a growing market. Therefore, he decided to take the plunge.

Raj started off with a mission to get experience in NetSuite and build a consulting practice in the future. He envisioned a future that will help small and medium sized companies innovate and respond quickly to changing customer needs using NetSuite cloud solutions. NetScore Tech isn’t the first venture in the market for Raj, he has prior experience starting Infoage Media and EXL Healthcare in film distribution and healthcare industry sectors, respectively.

In his own words, Raj would describe himself as a “driven and hardworking entrepreneur with a passion to make a difference and raise above the crowd.”

Responsibilities as a Young and Dynamic Entrepreneur As an energetic entrepreneur, Raj aims towards creating an entrepreneurial culture in the organization, a tolerance for failure and building the processes and systems to scale the business. He attempts to provide a solid platform to nurture and groom technical talent, while also building their careers at NetScore, so as to give them the ability to try new things. Providing diverse exposure to different technologies, working on personality/soft skills development are some of the key opportunities for the team, to which Raj looks forward to, which would prepare them to excel at serving their customers.

Having prior experience in IT and ERP supply chain was a starting point for Raj to move into the cloud ERP market space.

With NetScore Technologies, Raj is helping entrepreneur’s run their business in the cloud by providing high quality and cost effective NetSuite cloud ERP/e-commerce services and solutions.

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NetScore Recurring Billing App helps in automating the billing and payment process in NetSuite for e-commerce and ERP customers. Customers will be charged based on their subscription billing frequency and their cards will be connected to these subscriptions. It helps to manage both upgrades & downgrades, also providing an option to the customer to renew & cancel the subscription. Benefits include Flexible payment schedules and improve collections.

NetScore Loyalty App provides automation capabilities for NetSuite customers in the area of loyalty. It provides a standard loyalty solution for B2B and B2C customers. It is based on basic points-based system utilizing NetSuite transaction functions -Gift Certificate, Cash Sale and Invoice.

The NetScore Marketplaces connector is an innovative plug-in from NetScore that integrates NetSuite with online market places like Amazon, eBay, Newegg, JET, Wal-Mart and Sears. The one plugin that is scalable and can connect with multiple market places saving time, integration issues and money.

Staying Focused on his goals Raj has a long way to go forward, but whatever success he has had so far, he attributes it to, his willingness in staying focused on his goals despite setbacks, the courage to try new things and adapting to circumstances and get the most out of it. However, he doesn’t relies on his laurels and always works hard for a better tomorrow.

Raj Kellampalli Founder & CTO

NetScore Technologies: Providing Cloud ERP services NetScore is currently on a growth curve and they are expanding their technology stack on the NetSuite platform to offer cost effective and scalable ERP/e-commerce solutions for retail and wholesale distribution customers.

Some of the recent initiatives include the NetScore Mobile App, which integrates NetSuite with iPad/Smartphones, streamlines sales, purchases and inventory by scanning Barcodes/QR codes and processes data in NetSuite. This app helps retail/wholesale businesses selling products in store or for handling warehouse operations.

NetScore Product Configurator is another app developed for light manufacturing companies that helps customers to place an order for a customized product based on the attributes selected and builds the product in real time in NetSuite. This feature is enabled on the Estimate, Quote & Sales orders.

According to Raj, ambition, the need for achievement, tenacity, leadership qualities, adaptability and continuous learning, are some of the qualities that constitute a person to become an entrepreneur. He further adds, “Entrepreneurship is an inborn trait and some of the core qualities cannot be taught.”

Advice for Startups to Continuously grow their Businesses For someone who is just starting his own business, Raj has some very important insights. He says, “Have a dream, develop a passion for what you are doing, persevere through setbacks, continuously innovate your products/services with changing customer needs to make the enterprise viable and successful.”

According to Raj, “In order to survive for the long haul you need to build your business on ethical/moral values, continuous learning, and building an innovative organization culture that adapts to changing customer needs.”

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

DR. ASHA OROSKAR:

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Expert in Identifying Uncommon Approaches to Business SUCCESS COMES FROM CONTINUED LEARNING, A PASSION TO EXCEL, AND RELENTLESS PURSUIT WITH A SINGLE-HANDED VISION

Dr. Asha Oroskar, Co-founder, President and CEO of Orochem Technologies Inc., is an entrepreneur with an uncanny ability to find “technically feasible opportunities” which are not easily identified by common approaches to businesses. Identifying opportunities and then being able to technically convince the superiority, validity and marketability of such an approach to the client’s interests is a unique skill she possesses.

Additionally, her ability to “break the ice” allows her to draw out and Flesh out such needs, which always manages to bring out an End to End solution for a prospective client. Asha has never been afraid to present her “ideas”, and that too several of them in parallel, which enables her to bring in continued success for her prospective clients.

An ability to Visualize and Accomplish Success Asha gained her confidence to start her own company because she sensed, a total set of unique solutions were needed to “vetting” new ideas for their viability and success of newer endeavours. Asha believes, new business initiatives, both at larger and smaller corporations, always need blessings from experts which will reasonably buffer the initial failures of newer initiatives being considered both for launch and market entry.

Entering a Market on a Conviction But without Purchase Orders in Hand With her excellent skills in the laboratory and a very high ability to “always visualizes herself as a “benchtop analyst/biochemist”, enabling Asha to uncover unique approaches to always “breaking new ground” in transforming product development from R&D to manufacturing products, all within the same infrastructure such that growth is accommodated within stages, allowing the Client to pace their investments to math market potential!

Her Leadership at Orochem Dr. Asha Oroskar co-founded Orochem Technologies with her husband Dr. Anil Oroskar, in 1996 at her home in Oak Brook, Illinois. At Orochem, Asha is involved in developing innovative value-added, high throughput devices, to serve the Biotech and the Bio analytical industry. Her first product at Orochem was a high-throughput synthesis 96-well plate for Oligonucleotide Synthesis, which went on to become an industry-standard format and then lead on it to be implemented in the leading Oligo houses of the 384-well Oligo Synthesis format.

Asha is among the prominent names, to integrate depth prefilters into high-throughput filter plates, a concept first introduced

by Orochem into the diagnostic community, and now routinely used for DNA extraction from human tissue samples in the identification of infectious agents. A scientist by training, an innovator by experience and a business woman by nature, Asha brings together all the qualities needed to bring innovative products to market rapidly, and keep them successful by bringing continuing innovation, flexibility in manufacturing modes, and cost consciousness to enable value for their clients.

Overcoming lack of Peer Recognition The early stages of starting up brought many hurdles for Asha. Among them was the lack of precedence and “peer recognition” of her abilities, skills and performance, especially because of Asha’s passion for contributing to “the up and coming fields”, she chose to contribute her entrepreneurial skills without a demonstrable history of previous successes.

Another major challenge she faced, which every new business also faces, is to convince prospective clients of “the definitive survival of her business”; since Orochem is a 100% self-funded privately owned business.

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contribution of Asha’s parents towards Asha’s continued confidence in her ability to succeed in her goals. Asha’s husband Anil Oroskar is also the co-founder of Orochem.

Anil Oroskar is a PhD holder from the University of Wisconsin, who co-founded Orochem and joined the company on a full-time basis in early 2006. Anil is a Chemical Engineering graduate from IIT Mumbai.

Anil came on board at Orochem Technologies armed with a significant expertise in the commercial scale chromatographic separations of petrochemicals and nutraceuticals. Anil has also founded the Center for Innovation in the Chemical Industry at the University of Illinois.

Serving the needs of the Nutraceutical Industry Orochem’s products which were traditionally developed for laboratory scale sample concentration and sample detection using chromatography, with Anil joining, Orochem became the fundamental and unique skillset for Orochem to design processes and establish commercial systems, for Commercial scale Operations’ in the nutraceutical arena.

Dr. Asha A. Oroskar Co-founder, President & CEO

Despite a whole host of such challenges, Orochem went on to become a successful and extremely agile business company, able to provide clients a lower-cost approach for launching a company’s product in the initial stages, until manufacturing by automation approaches for demand and larger volumes kicks in. Orochem enables kick starting client’s efforts due to their expertise in Technology transfer through “R&D to manufacturing expertise” by absorbing their upfront costs while always getting themselves to become a part of their solutions going forward.

Anil, a Co-founder, Who Influenced Asha the Most For Asha, her parents and her husband, Anil, are the most influential people in her life. The undying persistence over academic degrees from an institution, has been a significant

On the basis of Anil and Asha’s unique expertise in the design of Simulated Moving bed Chromatography using liquid chromatographic separations, Orochem now occupies an elite niche, one which is completely vertically integrated from chemistries to separations of hardwired systems designed with process parameters customized to produce the Tons of Scale of product planned for. Orochem has worldwide recognition for being exclusively able to convert within the shortest possible time frame, a Chromatographic separation’s process from lab scale to commercial scale using their own customized chemistries. Orochem has developed significant process parameters, patented such separations processes, and installed commercial systems at client sites globally for purified Omega3Fatty acids, Krill Phospholipids, Tagatose, and Stevia amongst other important molecules in other continents.

A Strong Desire to Contribute Deliberating on “Is entrepreneurship, something that is inborn or can be learned”, Asha says,“Entrepreneurship may not be easily taught. It can however quite possibly, be gleaned by passionate learning and being closely associated with good mentors.” Asha believes, entrepreneurship comes from an inherent underlying passion, a strong belief in a desire to contribute, and to fulfill a need, and an unrelenting persistence and faith in one self, almost in the face of daily challenges.

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CXO Standpoint

Creating a Unique Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Around Alumni to Grow Innovation and Entrepreneurship in our Institutes and Corporates

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or a young entrepreneur in the initial stages of their venture, there are many elements to success validation, guidance, investment, resources, connections, to name a few. Coupled with these are challenges around compliance, regulations, and financing.

For our young promoters, trying to transform their ideas into a business is a struggle only compounded by lack of information about and access to all these different elements.

Our institutes produce the top talent around the world but we as a nation still are not able to create a cohesive ecosystem around our institutes that can support the entrepreneurs across all these elements. Adding to this, a growing need among the corporate world, where companies are now looking outside to these entrepreneurs for innovations to support and bring in-house. They face a challenge on how to not only source innovation but foster it to create a pipeline for themselves.

Interestingly, there is one common thread that ties all these together and that is completely underleveraged in our startup ecosystem. This is network, that in some countries has proven to be a very powerful foundation for startups - it is global, it spans all sectors, brings with it expertise in every field imaginable, and most importantly a bond that is irreplaceable. This is our Alumni Networks.

Lets look at a few facts taking only one of these institutions, the IIT’s.

• IITans in senior management positions in almost all fortune 500 companies

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• IITs in all senior positions of government, finance, and business • 20% of all IITans have been an entrepreneur at least once • 25000 companies globally founded by IITans • Over 500 Companies started by IITans have gone to IPO • 500,000 Alumni globally Add to these the IIMs, ISB, BITS, NIIT, and other top engineering and management institutions in the country and we have a network and resource pool that no country can match.

At IvyCamp, Alumni and Entrepreneurs are at the core of what we are doing. Leveraging the Global Alumni networks to help our young entrepreneurs be successful by providing them with the resources and connections they need, when they need them. And providing these in via one centralized platform.

An Alumni driven corporate institute partnership has natural synergies that can be systematized. There needs to be an ongoing information flow about real world challenges that corporates are facing not only today but what they anticipate over the next few years, where they are looking to innovate. This knowledge is required to feed into the institutes to direct innovation towards some specific challenges - this has obvious benefits both for the corporate and the entrepreneur. On the flip side, innovations need a home - from a development, POC and funding perspective and corporates can provide a natural home for this.

CXO Standpoint The Alumni network again provides the common connect between corporates and institutes.

Given that in India, we have the network, and the talent, it seems surprising why we have not been able to leverage this connect. The key challenge here has been the lack of a formal platform that allows Alumni to connect expressly for the purpose of innovation and entrepreneurship and a trust factor.

At IvyCamp, that is what we aim to provide.

A platform where stakeholders can leverage the Alumni network for mentoring, funding, access to incubation centers, corporate connects, services and much more.

Alumni at corporates can provide the connect from the other side in terms of ideas and resources. This creates an amazing opportunity for a unique type of talent collaboration from the existing corporate experts and the talent pool in our institutes.

Anju Gupta Co-Founder & President IvyCamp

This Alumni based entrepreneurship ecosystem is a unique and completely underleveraged powerhouse that IvyCamp has created as an end to end solution enabling alumni to come together and generate value in India’s startup ecosystem by mentoring, funding, and supporting entrepreneurs and the Educational Institutes Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystems.

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Center of Interest

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hustling, thinking out of the box, taking the path less travelled and standing tall in spite of all the beatings. Jack Ma also conceived a very interesting notion about harboring the dream of an entrepreneur for people of different ages.

It is rightly said that every single person on this planet has the same potential. They are all born with the same instincts. It is just at the advent of a ‘situation’ that different people use this potential differently. It is the application of these hidden potentials by an individual that separates the 1% from the rest of the population. Knowing one’s potential is an achievement. Harboring the same for financial independence is eternal bliss. Blessed are those who earn for what they love to do.

People at the age of 20, should focus on being intuitive students. They should be aware, curious and at the same time energetic for anything and everything that comes across them. Before the age of 30, people should follow someone who is perceived successful. Try to land a job in a small company, because that is where people actually work on innovation; that is where they will learn the importance of working with passion. In a big company, it is beneficial to learn the functioning of a company, but they end up being just a small part of the company. It is advisable to work in a small company where you end up doing a lot of things at one time and hence learn a lot of things in less time. Ultimately, it all comes down to who your boss is not which company you work for.

ur planet is filled with successful people; people who are basking in their glory, living the life that many cannot even dream of. The successful lot comprises of intellects, entertainment providers and businessmen. Actually, these successful lots comprises of entrepreneurs, which by definition means people who exercise initiative by organizing a venture to take a benefit of an opportunity. The small phrase, ‘taking benefit of an opportunity’ is all it takes, to turn a ‘nobody’ to ‘somebody.’

In an interview, Jack Ma gave a very thought provoking idea about how entrepreneurs are developed, not born.

People with no industrial backing and people born without a silver spoon have all pursued the common path of

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By the age of 40, it is time to start doing that one thing in which you are really good at. People make the mistake of hopping on to a new bandwagon just because the

Center of Interest

perspectives are promising. These people end up joining the ‘been there, done that’ club. It is very essential that before attaining the age of 40, one should be indispensible in at least one thing they have worked in. One should make all the mistakes till the age of 40. Learn all the lessons from those mistakes, because after 40, it is time to make things right for you.

By the age of 50, it is finally time to start investing. The best piece of advice would be to invest in the younger lot. It would have already dawn upon you that the youth are faster, smarter and capable of things that you might take another 50 years to learn. The younger lot should be looking for smart investors and the older lot should be looking for smart investments.

Whatever the age group one may belong to; the one important aspect to keep in mind is perseverance. It is essential to keep the belief alive that sooner or later success will arrive and when it does, your energy should shift to the next big success.

With a passionate goal and a learning attitude, entrepreneurs never lose. They either win or learn. They take action when others are procrastinating. They live a few years of their lives in a way that no one would and live the rest of their lives in a way that no one could.

Understanding, that failure is an essential part of the human nature, should come as a major ego boost. All the successful people were once scorned for their failures. They were outcast for the decisions they took. However, once the pursuit of success bears fruit, they are remembered for their achievement.

Luck hardly comes into play in success, but hard work always pays off. As Steve Jobs famously once said, “You cannot connect the dots, looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” Knowing that your hard work has paid off is the greatest satisfaction. All it takes is guts. It takes guts to be ‘somebody’ from ‘nobody.’ It takes guts to follow your heart. It takes guts to travel the path less travelled. It takes guts to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow.

Believing in God is being religious. Believing in self is the first step to being an entrepreneur. So, rephrasing my first line, our planet will be filled with successful people if they start believing in themselves.

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

WALTER PALEY:

Revolutionary Minded and Never Compromising on His Values

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AN ENTREPRENEUR MUST BE ABLE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

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n entrepreneur’s mind revolves around new ideas and opportunities for innovation. There is a continuous and conscious effort required to look for opportunities and evaluate the risks in entering them.

Entrepreneurship involves the constant examination of existing business workflows and identifying ways to carry them out in a more efficient and effective way. In simple words, entrepreneurship works toward the optimization of business.

Walter Paley, Director of Marketing at SafeLogic, believes every entrepreneur must be an innovator in himself. One must be able to identify the missing pieces of a puzzle and how to create new solutions. To use a familiar platitude, an entrepreneur must be able to think outside the box.

Creating a Brand for SafeLogic Walter came to SafeLogic by an invitation from the founder, Ray Potter. They met through a mutual contact, who introduced them to each other and they immediately established a good rapport. Being a start-up, the company didn’t have a logo, website, or even a name in the beginning. As Marketing Director, Walter’s first challenge at the outset was to create a brand for the company. The challenge was to create something that would match the personality of the founder and reflect how they planned to be seen by the industry.

SafeLogic provides strong encryption products for solutions in mobile, server, cloud, appliance, wearable, and IoT environments that are pursuing compliance to strict regulatory requirements. Their flagship product, CryptoComply, provides drop-in FIPS 140-2 compliance with a common API across platforms as well as drop-in compatibility options for OpenSSL & Bouncy Castle. Boasting a roster of leading companies as clients, including Raytheon, EMC, Oracle, Juniper Networks and Symantec Corporation, SafeLogic also provides software and services to start-ups and mid-cap companies in a variety of industries.

Reflections on His Differences In a candid discussion with a colleague, Walt reflected on how much his skills and perspective may have changed with “a different university background.” As Walter spends a great deal of time writing, as part of his marketing and corporate communications role, he contemplated what a different angle he may have had, if he studied literature or communications as his undergraduate major, as opposed to psychology. It is possible that Walter’s writing could have lacked his present personal style, had he been mentored and shaped by a college professor, and could have resembled a more classical prose. More polished in some ways, but also more mainstream, for better or worse. This is something that made Walter understand what difference it could have made in him personally. He believes that this attribute of someone “being different” than others is a clear advantage for an entrepreneur.

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and your own support system. If you don’t like the way things are being done, you must speak up. As a consultant, you are the CEO of your own company.

Address issues that way. When you meet with a client or a prospective client, you are meeting as equals, seeking a solution together. The second lesson is to keep a schedule. Don't let things fall between the cracks. Maintaining a comprehensive calendar and mastering a ‘To Do List’ keeps you accountable to yourself. Also, always have a plan. You can always deviate from the plan, but you have to start with something.”

Refusal in Compromising His True Values Walter has earned a reputation for building brands with minimal resources, including two successful acquisitions, Nukona (acquired by Symantec) and Bitzer (acquired by Oracle). Even though he has accomplished all these successes, Walter refuses to accept a work life that compromises his values. He believes that your family comes first, above your career or any other commitments you have.

Some inputs from Walter on what to do for entrepreneurs starting out. “Identify what makes your perspective unique and work from there. Prepare extensively, look at a variety of scenarios along the continuum, from absolute failure to absolute success, and be bold when opportunity is favorable.”

Walter Paley Director of Marketing

Lessons Learned While Working with Start-up Executives Walter had worked as a marketing consultant for few years before joining SafeLogic. The biggest hurdle was always to establish a trust level and deliver reassurance to a start-up executive that their company’s reputation is in good hands.

Transparency was crucial. It was essential that you could make them understand who you are, how you work, and the governing ethics that you follow.

Entrepreneurship Is About Willingness to Accept Failure Walter doesn’t classify himself as a risk-taker, but he agrees that being an entrepreneur is absolutely crucial to his personality. He believes that entrepreneurship is a calculated risk and a willingness to accept failure is a navigational beacon for your career. A belief in the entrepreneurial spirit gives you a confidence to believe in yourself even when it is difficult to do so. There are infinite ways to start a business and earn a living for yourself, so pick one and go for it. All this being said, he also accedes that not everyone has the appetite for the unknown. Many would rather remain on the same path they are already walking and not deter from it. There is a beauty to this contentedness, Walt says, but it is certainly not for everyone.

There are two major lessons that have impacted Walter’s career. “First, you are your own boss, your own advocate,

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

AMIT SAXENA:

Strong Believer of “Investing in the Right People”

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IGNORE THE SCEPTICS, IF YOU FEEL VERY STRONGLY ABOUT IT, GO FOR IT, GIVE IT YOUR BEST, LIVE THE DREAM

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ven though many people associate entrepreneurship to having “in my blood” sort of relation; it is still, a strong will and an opportunity provided, that will instigate the potential in any person to be an entrepreneur. To Amit Saxena, President & CEO of Sarus, Inc., something similar happened as well. For Amit, entrepreneurship just happened, he did not dream or plan for it, he saw an opportunity, thought it was worth taking a chance and just went with it.

One thing led to another, and he came up with Sarus, Inc. in 2006.

Starting a business is a long thought out plan, and the biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to bring his ideas to fruition; bringing it to a logical conclusion. When you start a company or any enterprise, you are not alone, there are a lot of people who come on board and put their faith in you because they share your vision, your dream, and your idea. An obligation Amit very courteously follows, as he says, “It is my topmost responsibility and priority to create opportunities for all the stakeholders, the employees, the investors, customers and more.”

Parental Influence For any entrepreneur a set of personality traits is needed to run a business successfully. These are inculcated in a person by someone or something that has most influenced their lives. For most people this influence comes from a prominent person or an event that occurred, leaving a lasting impression on their lives, but for Amit, his parents influenced him the most. Being remarkable people they are, Amit’s parent’s taught him humility, respect and patience; few desirable qualities needed not just to run any business but also to be a successful person in any field of work.

Experience Leading to become a Serial Entrepreneur In the past, Amit has worked as an employee with energy companies and financial firms, holding commanding roles and running the firm as if his own. This prepared Amit to later run his own company with confidence and experience.

Currently, Amit is associated with two companies.

Sarus, Inc. is an IT services provider founded by Amit, which provides services across the entire Information Technology spectrum. The company provides a broad portfolio of business and technology solutions to help their clients improve their business performance. Sarus, Inc. is focused on indirect tax automation. They automate the determination and calculation of transaction taxes, sales/use tax in the US and VAT in rest of the world.

Sarus also provides modified business intelligence to the industry, with particular expertise in integrating tax software like

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technology which reduces compliance, monitoring costs and effort very significantly.

Recognize and Invest in the Right People Amit had always believed that you can make anyone do anything as long as you motivate, reward and train them adequately. Rejecting the notion, he now thinks it is necessary to identify and invest in the right people to create a good team which can make you successful. This belief is the reason that Amit attributes himself very little to his own success, but rather more to the people around him and the circumstances leading to this day. According to Amit, having the right people around and being at the right place at the right time will ultimately take you to your goals.

What it is like to Starting up?

It is all about the opportunity and the conviction.

Amit saw an opportunity and was convinced that he could build something out of it, and then he stuck to it. Amit had all the right people on his side, family, prospective clients, and some exceptionally talented people, sharing his vision, to start working with him in the venture.

Giving some advice to budding startups, Amit emphasizes on conserving money. He adds that, you should be people centric, people focused and people friendly. Ultimately, it is your employees, customers and clients who will decide whether you succeed or fail.

Amit Saxena Founder, President & CEO

Sabrix, Vertex and Taxware to ERP systems like Oracle Apps, SAP and Legacy Systems.

Sarus, Inc. has carved a niche for itself in the tax automation space, while currently working with many Fortune 100 and 500 clients, and adding new ones very aggressively.

Amit’s next venture is a compliance solutions company that provides advanced technology-enabled governance, compliance and risk (GRC) solutions. Co-founded by Amit in 2013, surveilLens™ is about to revolutionize the forensic auditing, anti-corruption, anti-bribery and antifraud space. What this company has, is a cutting edge

Insights into being an Entrepreneur There are few very obvious traits that can be correlated to an entrepreneur. But according to Amit, “You need to be a risk taker, be able to take on more responsibility than might seem possible at any given point of time. You need to be an optimist, rather an eternal optimist, and most importantly have a dream, have a vision of yourself, what you want to do, where you want to be in life.”

Mentioning the importance of a person’s diverse roles in life, Amit adds, “You cannot learn entrepreneurship with the intent to learn it; you may be molded slowly, unknowingly towards it during the various roles you perform during your professional working career and suddenly you are ready, provided you have the personality traits.”

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The 30 Most Influential Young Entrepreneurs

BLAŽ GOLOB:

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Enlightening People for a Sustainable Growth I BELIEVE THAT THE FUTURE OF SOCIETY LIES IN THE ABILITY OF PEOPLE TO COMMUNICATE, CO-OPERATE, AND LIVE PEACEFULLY TOGETHER

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oday cities are the lighthouses that provide opportunities for the development of a green economy and digital entrepreneurship. Recent reports on Digital Entrepreneurship, conducted by European Commission, defines cities and regions as the launch pads for digital transformation.

Riding on this same transformation wave, Blaž Golob, CEO & Partner at SmartIScity Ltd., is delivering innovative products & services to its customers, cities that would like to become smart. A forward looking, innovative and “get-things-done” leader of the team, Blaž is responsible for the motivation behind the team and his business partners to move ahead in line with their vision of “Empowering People with SmartCityPlatform.”

In the words of Jerome C. Glenn, a futurist, who described Blaž as: “being organized like a German and having an Italian style.”

Beginning of a Smart City Platform Having worked as an event organizer in many cities, Blaž has collaborated with some of the leading cities of Europe, such as Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Budapest, and Dubrovnik. There were events organized by ICT vendors, such as IBM, Microsoft, HP, Siemens, and SAP, which in many cases offered silos based and expensive ICT solutions. Many city leaders were overloaded with different solutions, mainly ICT driven ones. As Blaž worked and empathized with them, he developed a unique smart city concept. Blaž’s mission from the beginning has been to design innovative governance platform for cocreation of smart cities.

With few partners, Blaž set up a company in order to disrupt the market with an innovative solution that will help cities better connect with people and become smart. The unique part of this adventure is the concept of the Smart City Platform, which enables cities to perform better, citizens to co-create cities and their future, and businesses to create new value out of city data in a structured, meaningful way.

A “good pass” resulting in sublime Success At the beginning of his digital entrepreneurship, Blaž faced with software development difficulties. Accelerating his business in the early stages of the company, they lacked a good technical support. A good team with diverse skills is the most important factor for success. Because of Blaž’s lack of knowledge in the field of software development and coding process, he lost a lot of time in defining and providing technical part of the platform.

Blaž’s practical experience of working with city leaders helped him to understand the challenges faced by the customers.

Characterizing the “team-spirit” ideology from his football playing days as a student, Blaž says, “In team sport you learn that many times the good pass of the ball is equally important as the resulting score.”

The Guiding Principle Blaž believes that the future of society lies in the ability of people to communicate, co-operate, and live peacefully together.

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country, Slovenia, as the inspiration behind his endeavor to create smart cities.

Blaž has been the President or Executive Officer, of Brussels based European law student’s association with members in 41 European countries. He worked with projects in Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Africa. Closing the deals with international business partners in London and advocating the foundation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at United Nations and in New York, provided values and the foundation for the skills Blaž requires in the current digital entrepreneurial work with cities around the world. The experience left a lasting impression on him and also influenced Blaž to be the success he is today.

Blaž is also the Chairman of Ljubljana Forum, a platform where city leaders, supporters and other interested parties come together to discuss important city challenges, such as energy efficiencies, mobility, water management, citizen empowerment, infrastructure and green cities.

Blaž Golob CEO & Partner

He uses this guiding principle, while working with different teams on different projects. Blaž points out that, good communication, followed by focused work bring results and success.

Blaž attributes his success to his family, friends, and to the mother nature that allows an escape for him, from the stress of daily struggles. He further specifies the beautiful environment of the Adriatic Sea, sunny side of the Alps, lakes, and rivers of Slovenia, Blaž’s home country, which offers many places for an escape.

Leaving an Imprint on Blaž’s Success “The biggest influence in my life is my family”, says Blaž.

He considers them the most important pillars of his life, a source of inner peace and a place from which Blaž draws the power to overcome the challenges of being an entrepreneur in this digital era. Next Blaž credits his home

Reach out and Ask for Your Happiness Advising to the beginners, Blaž says, “Work hard and when the opportunity arises, ask for a piece of an orange mandarin.” Having met his future wife in the library of Ljubljana University, where he was studying, Blaž emphasizes on the uncertainty of life, how one can get the happiness they deserve, simply by just “stepping up and asking for it.” Life is a gift and could be a paradise, which offers us many opportunities, you never know what and which opportunity will lead to your destiny. He further adds, “You might just meet the person of your life, either a business partner, an investor, a software developer, a friend, or a wife.”

Entrepreneurship can be Inherited Blaž regard curiosity, optimistic view of the future, problem solving, and value creation as the main qualities of a successful entrepreneur. Blaž retorts that, entrepreneurship can be inherited, but only the learning of ongoing pains and struggles of your costumers, incubating newer concept design and business solutions can bring success. It is important for any entrepreneur to understand the market trends, while also care for the client’s expectations and to fulfill them.

But most importantly, Blaž says, “Do not forget to communicate; you should always dare to ask for your piece of orange mandarin.”

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