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Technophile
CEO's Revamping the Tech
TARIQUE MUSTAFA Taking Security as a Responsibility
Tech Insight Changing Leadership With Technological Advancements Moving Towards Digital Transformation
Digital Solutions For "The New Normal”
Editor’s Desk Today’s Tech Titans
It’s no secret that being a tech CEO is not an easy role to perform. It requires create the overall vision of the organization, hiring capable people and ensuring there’s always financial stability maintained. However without certain mentioned traits, it would be tough to run businesses and lead it to success. Below are the four characteristics which have been seen in the most effective tech CEOs in the industry and should be followed by emerging business leaders. Leading with Strategy Organisations, especially start-ups, are very vulnerable and need a range and depth of knowledge and strategy to be effectively managed: this can be happened with a clear vision and analysis. Ÿ
Being a Tech leader is like fighting a war with future everyday
Ÿ Creating Friendly and Supportive Work Culture Today’s business leaders, especially during the early phases of an organization, need to help build culture from the base. It includes getting involved with employee and team members’ activities, organising office events and making sure to get to know everyone. Knowing employees at individual level will strengthen the organization culture and helping in retain and nurture talent.
Hiring the Right People In process of scaling a business, it is important to hire the people who show up with the right skill sets. Also, identify the difference between the right people and the right people for at the moment. To build a successful business that lasts, one needs to think about what type of people the company needs in five or 10 years, and not for just a short period or the next board meeting. Ÿ
Empowering the Team to make Decisions Mostly in the tech ecosystem, there are many talented Ÿ
people with different ideas and opinions. A good CEO knows how to vest team members to make the final decision. That shows establishing ownership, and trust and making sure that everyone understands their role. Insights Success understands such leaders’ journey and values their wholesome contribution to their respective sectors. In its special tech leader’s edition, “Technophile CEO's Revamping the Tech” Insights Success celebrates the success of these tech leaders and presenting their story to the world. This issue focuses on some best performing tech CEOs out there who have made a significant mark in the industry. The cover features Tarique Mustafa, Founder and CEO at GhangorCloud, Inc., a Cybersecurity expert with demonstrated extraordinary innovative abilities in the areas of information security. As an experienced Cybersecurity business leader, he believes professional integrity and excellence are the most important values. Especially in a crucial domain such as Cyber Security which is inherently fraught with known and unknown vulnerabilities, utmost vigilance and honesty are quintessential. Let’s unveil such alike, inspiring stories and interviews of many such passionate leaders in this special edition and spread a word about their contribution in making this world a better place. Also, while flipping the pages, don’t forget to go through the articles and CXOs written by our inhouse editorial team and industry experts respectively.
Tarique Mustafa Taking Security as a Responsibility
Article
Cover Story
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24 Tech Insight Changing Leadership With Technological Advancements
Digital Solutions For "The New Normal”
CXO
Moving Towards Digital Transformation
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CONENTS 16
Leticia Latino van Splunteren Leading by Example
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20
Max Gulde
Nicolas Genest
An Avid Technologist with a Profound Vision
Success through Teaching and Empowerment
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Paul Ford A Decisive Leader in Financial Service Industry
Editor-in-Chief Sumita Sarkar Managing Editor Anish Miller
Executive Editor
Assistant Editors
Rohit Chaturvedi
Jenny Fernandes
Visualizer
Art & Design Director
Associate Designer
David King
Amol Kamble
Kartik Balapurkar
Co-designer Kushagra Gupts
Senior Sales Manager
Business Development Manager
Kshitij S
Andy Mitter
Marketing Manager
Sales Executives
John Matthew
David, Martin, Avinash
Technical Head
Business Development Executives
Jacob Smile
Steve, Joe, Aidan, Anup
Technical Specialist Aditya
Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza
SME-SMO Executive Amol Wadekar
Research Analyst Frank Adams
Database Management Stella Andrew
Circulation Manager Robert Brown
Technology Consultant David Stokes
sales@insightssuccess.com October, 2020
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Technophile CEO’s Revamping the Tech
“Cyber Insecurity poses existential crisis and must be addressed holistically from the ground up – that will require a paradigm shift based on Classical AI and System Theoretic Design.”
Taking Security as a Responsibility
TARIQUE Mustafa
COVER STORY
Being the highest-ranking individual in an organization and responsible for the overall success and activity of a business is not an easy role to play. Meet Tarique Mustafa, Founder and CEO at GhangorCloud, Inc., a Cybersecurity expert with demonstrated extraordinary innovative abilities in the areas of information security. As an experienced Cybersecurity business leader, he believes professional integrity and excellence are the most important values. Especially in a crucial domain such as Cyber Security which is inherently fraught with known and unknown vulnerabilities, utmost vigilance and honesty are quintessential. He further adds partial or ineffective solutions must not be peddled as a panacea. Too many less than effective solutions have already flooded the industry and that has in turn damaged the confidence of the security practitioners. Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Insights Success and Tarique Mustafa: Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a cybersecurity expert. I started my professional career after graduating from the University of Southern California where I was a Rotary International Scholar in Engineering and Computer Science. My first job was with Symantec Corporation in the world headquarters Silicon Valley California, where I was in a lead position spearheading product lines. This experience laid down the foundation for my career in Cyber Security. Over the last 25 years, I have had the opportunity of working in leadership roles where I built Cyber Security systems and products from the ground up, several of those products have won industry recognition as the leading Cyber Security products. During the course of my career, I have invented several key patents and algorithms which are recognized as significant breakthrough technologies in Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security. GhangorCloud’s 4th Generation Data
Leak and Exfiltration Prevention (DLEP) Cyber Security Paradigm is based on my vision of the future as Cyber Warfare keeps evolving into a more and more sophisticated challenge. This is now recognized by the industry analysts as a “paradigm shift” from the way Data Security products have been traditionally built. How comprehensive is GhangorCloud’s cyber incident response plan? How often is it tested? GhangorCloud’s solution called ISE (information Security Enforcer) is the pioneering 4th Generation Cyber Security solution that provides robust defence against Data Leak and Exfiltration Attacks in real-time. It is recognized in the industry as the “Gold Standard” solution in this category. It embodies the full spectrum “Real-time Detect, Disable and Destroy” capability against the Insider and Outsider Exfiltration Attacks. It incorporates cutting edge technological breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence and System Theoretic Design Principles that enable Auto-Identification and Classification of Data/Information Objects, Auto-Access Control, Auto-Policy Synthesis and Auto-GRC enforcement with little to no human intervention. It is
built from the ground up to thwart any Evasion Attacks that may be Zero-day or Zero-second. What solutions are best to help mitigate the cybersecurity risks? Cyber Warfare is becoming increasingly more challenging for the “defenders” as the Cyber Attacks increase in sophistication, speed, and stealth. Cyber Attacks are now employing advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Military Style Stealth. In order to effectively address these Cyber Threats an overhaul of the Cyber Defence Strategy and the underlying technologies is imperative. The traditional approach of “Patch-work” (or what was the “Plugging of the Dyke”) that the Cyber Security industry has traditionally employed has caused nothing but more trouble. The Cyber Defence Systems must go through a paradigm shift from the ground up. Artificial Intelligence and System Theoretic Design principles will play crucial roles in defining and delivering the Cyber Defence Systems that can measure up to future challenges in Cyber Security.
How do you achieve work-life balance? Being the “one of a kind” epicenter for Hi-tech industry, Silicon Valley is the gravitational center for the crème de la crème of Hi-tech professionals. As such it has its own culture and life-style. Hi-tech professionals in Silicon Valley usually have the stereotype of being very workfocused. I must confess that I am the epitome of this stereotype. To me my work is my life and I enjoy every moment of it. The thrill and excitement of creating truly “cutting, bleeding-edge technology” is the aphrodisiac like none other!! I do have a couple of interesting hobbies to keep me sane – amateur competitive ballroom dancing is my favorite hobby that gives me the opportunity to keep physically active and emotionally creative. It is a great “art form” and a highly competitive sport. What is the primal challenges cybersecurity industry is facing today? The primal challenges are (1) very high calibre Cyberenemy who is determined and motivated to defeat Cyber Defences and inflict heavy losses on their target, (2) Unprepared and untrained users of Cyberspace who lack
awareness of Cyberthreat or do not take it seriously, (3) Less than effective Cyber Defence mechanisms that often create more issues than they address.
Cyber Security can be addressed holistically through an intricate interplay of Deep Artificial Intelligence and System Theoretic Design principles.
When the primordial Internet was invented the pioneers were not thinking about security. Their spirit was more focused and driven by the “principles of Democratization”. The Internet evolved into Web, and then into Cyberspace security became increasingly more serious a challenge. Unfortunately, by then the mould of Internet’s foundational architecture was already cast and innumerable services were already built and deployed on top of it at the Web layer, without adequate security provisions. This resulted in the desperate frenzy aposteriori to address the Cybersecurity issues. Consequently, a plethora of less-than-effective security solutions emerged, many of which were half-baked and retrofit at the best. This further culminated into the “Patchwork culture” where the only resort was to deploy a never-ending cycle of “Patches” to obviate newer type and mechanisms of Cyberattacks. In order to effectively address Cybersecurity some foundational corrections and improvements must be made from ground up. Anything less than such a forklift upgrade of the Internet and Web will be in futility if addressing the Cybersecurity challenge holistically is in fact the sincere objective.
At GhangorCloud, we strive to build Cyber Security solutions that address the Data Leak and Exfiltration Cyber Attacks in a holistic and conclusive fashion. Our ISE (Information Security Enforcer) product is built incorporating key technological breakthroughs (patented and patent pending) in the areas of Artificial Intelligence and System Theoretic principles. Our product is recognized in the industry as the “Best of the Breed” solution in the DLEP category. We are constantly creating newer and better enabling technologies that will be incorporated in the future versions of our products.
How necessary is to provide adequate education about the cybersecurity threats to employees nowadays? As mentioned already, educating the workforce and employees about the Cyber Security threats is one of the most crucial requirements in order to be able to mitigate the vulnerability of Cyberspace. Many of the security incidents in Cyberspace can be directly attributed to human error or negligence. Through proper training and awareness many of the Cyber Security Incidents can be averted. What are your future endeavors/objectives and where do you see yourself and the industry in the near future? My objective is to address the Cyber Security challenge effectively and create new technologies that in fact address this lingering perpetual problem. I believe that
What advice would you like to give to the emerging tech leaders? Unfortunately, like other fields, the Cyber Security industry has also suffered due to the unconscientious and less than appropriate conduct – a manifestation of brazen greed and commercialization. My foremost advice to the emerging tech leaders would be “follow your dream of delivering better technology and solutions as long as it is not led by greed … , Don’t oversell half-baked solutions and don’t peddle snake oil under the guise of panacea. Cyber Security is a hard problem and requires out-ofthe-box thinking. Search for the right solution even if it requires a paradigm shift.”
Leticia
Latino van Splunteren Leading by Example
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n an interview with Insights Success Leticia Latino van – Splunteren shares about her jouney and her contribution as a CEO through Neptuno USA, Corp. Leticia is a recipient of the 2018 Women in IoT award by ConnectedMagazine and has been featured as one of the prominent women in Telecom by TowerXchange, the Wireless Industry Association, NATE and AGL magazine. Besides, she also plays a role of an active member for the SmartCity Council TaskForce, WIA City Networks Task Force and was recently appointed to the FCC Broadband Advisory Committee. She is a mentor with the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE) where she helps young women that want to start a career in Telecom. Neptuno, her company, was also a finalist in the 2019 WeInnovate! Program promoted by WBENCCertified Women's Business Enterprises (WBEs) to showcase their company's expertise in areas of innovation that are critical to WBENC's Corporate Members. In addition, Leticia is a big advocate of nurturing “Human Connections” through her Back2Basics Podcast and through the #Time2Reconnect movement, which she created. Below are highlights of the interview between Leticia Latino-van Splunteren and Insights Success: Kindly elaborate your journey in becoming the business leader. I am a believer that Leadership comes in our DNA, we obviously grow into it during our leadership journey, but the chip has to be there somewhere. From a very young age I was usually trying to lead something, call it the student movement, a fundraiser or a group vacation. As I started my professional career, that was no exception, I was always looking for opportunities to lead an initiative and usually it involved creating something from scratch, that's what I enjoy the most. After several years in Merrill Lynch and then at Nortel Networks, I decided to join the family business which my father founded in 1972. It wasn't until the early 2000's that I felt the timing was right to capitalize
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Success is inevitable, just show up and do the work. on the experience I had gained and that I realized Neptuno was a great platform to do just that. How do you diversify your organization's offerings to appeal the target audience? We had always been very Latin America focus because our largest factory is in Venezuela. Unfortunately, the political situation that the country has been into for the past two decades, have called for a change of focus, both in terms of market and offering. They say that you can have good things as a result of a bad situation, and in our case is true. We were prompted by circumstances to re-invent ourselves as a company. We went from an engineering and steel manufacturing company, to a technology company. We made it our priority to implement technological advances in our industry, and we now have added services such as 3D Reality Capture Site Surveys, IoT Asset Tracking and Smart City related infrastructure to our portfolio. We also started to get involved in artifical intelligence. What attributes are required to sustain in the cuttingedge competition? In my opinion Curiosity to never stop exploring, humbleness to never believe that what you have is the best, genuine relationships and Integrity to ensure the Industry's trust. What are your intakes on roles of a leader with regards to achieve success? I know it sounds cliché, but I think Leading by Example is www.insightssuccess.com
Technophile CEO's Revamping the Tech
what ensures success. I believe in inspiring by actions rather than words because unfortunately among the many good things that the digital era has brought, it has also brought a lot of unverified information and companies and people portraying to be things that they are not. Social Media personas can be misleading, so I personally take what I read with a grain of salt, I am more attuned with getting to know the person, or even asking about them to get a sense of how the person is perceived by others. I think a true leader has its reputation as its greatest asset. How do you strategize your game plans to tackle the competition in the market? I usually worry more about what WE are doing than about what others are doing. I think is disrespectful to the customer to fill their heads with depositioning arguments about a competitor. I normally ask questions to address the customer's pain points and try to differentiate from competitors from that angle. I just provide all the info for thorough analysis; customers are smart enough to make the comparison themselves. As per your opinion, what roadblocks or challenges are faced by leaders in a corporate business? And what is your advice to overcome them? I believe that we are focusing too much in growth, we all want to grow so much and when I talk to sales people they usually complain that their quotas are impossible to reach, and every year it gets worse. We need to listen to the market and to the customer, and understand what's really going on, because at some point or the other bubbles burst. What will be your future endeavors and/or where do you see yourself in the near future? We are committed to become a key player in the Smart City movement, not only as an infrastructure provider but also to help create citizen and community awareness about the changes that our infrastructure has to undergo for our cities to transition into this new era. Leticia Latino van -Splunteren
CEO Neptuno USA, Corp.
www.insightssuccess.com
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An Avid Technologist with a Profound Vision An experimental physicist by training, Max Gulde is the CEO and Co-founder of ConstellR, a joint spin-off from German Fraunhofer and the German Aerospace Center that will answer the increasing need for Land Surface Temperature data as well as drastically improve humankind’s capability to timely act on emerging environmental challenges. Max has worked in different fields and converged towards a mix of particle optics, nanotechnology, and polymer physics. How it all Started? It all started with a wish to make an impact that drove Max to work as part of a great team to push the boundaries of how we can perceive the micro-cosmos. While his team has certainly been very successful in the pure scientific way in terms of high-impact publications, Max was starting to miss the societal impact. The work was surely of relevance at some point, nevertheless, it was lightyears away to make it to an application. Somewhat frustrated Max started to look for new challenges in established as well as emerging fields, including artificial intelligence, robotics, and space. He was then very lucky to be offered a position as the mission scientist for a satellite mission at Fraunhofer, as they believed in his capability of getting the job done without having a space-related background at all. He did the standard astrophysics stuff at university and took one or two lectures on cosmology, but nothing remotely needed for mission design, payload layout, or similar things he would be confronted with. Not being able to confidently know what was expected from him, he took the job. It was a very steep learning curve but so interesting that he tried to get his hands on as many tasks as possible, in particular those he had no clue on how to solve. With time, Max developed different methodologies to address the upcoming challenges.
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While he surely did re-invent the wheel a few times, some stirred excitement in the community. More importantly on the personal level, the sum of them enabled him to have a good technological understanding of different things needed for space mission design and beyond. What then happened was that without having a grasp of the significance, he solved some long-known challenges on how to increase the performance of certain applications to make them compatible to fly on small satellites. Only after colleagues pointed out the potential impact, he started to understand the scope of what was happening. This was driving him into the further development and advancement of the idea for the next few years. After trying to realize the idea within a project at a research organization, he had to come to terms with the fact that this was not the ideal growing ground for it. So, he approached a few friends and asked them, if they wanted to help him commercialize the idea in the context of a start-up. Little had he known that what he previously had considered full commitment to the idea was nothing against the learning curve his team had to master in the years to come. Today, Max is far away from being at the end of that curve but happy in striving to improve his own proficiency. Solving Challenges ConstellR aims at having a product offer that will provide with daily, global, high-resolution temperature data, which is currently not available in the market, in an easily accessible way. Most of its management team has the advantage that it has been the customer of services similar to the one it offers. So, to a certain degree, the team has felt the pain customers feel today and it draws an inspiration from this. Lot of its work is not only about the product but www.insightssuccess.com
MAX GULDE
www.insightssuccess.com
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Technophile CEO's Revamping the Tech Mark believes that there should be appointments for self as well. He states, “A meeting with a business partner should never be more important than a meeting with your loved ones. Not showing up to an appointment with a client should be not up for discussion the same way doing sports, having lunch with your family, or playing with the kids are. With work-life balance it is the same as with entrepreneurship. It is about taking opportunities. If you have the opportunity for a good deal, do it. If the deal is a business-related one or simply jumping in a lake for fun is secondary.” Imparting Wisdom Max keenly wishes to see the impact his team is hoping for with its satellite constellation, as this will surely dominate its activities in the near future. He also hopes to see him in a position, which is best suited for supporting this vision. In his advice to aspiring tech leaders, Max asserts, “Have fun in what you are doing, the rest will come. Embrace other people’s approaches and ideas as if they were yours. It is a marathon, so don’t try sprinting the whole time.” also about the delivery. It has a whole list of things which blocked it as a customer, and it will do its best to solve all those challenges for its customers. Essential Values
When asked about important values as a business leader Max emphasized on transparency, reliability, empathy, and responsibility. Appointments for Self As there are important deadlines and appointments with clients, partners, and other business-related subjects,
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It is going to be a rollercoaster ride so sit back once in a while and enjoy it.
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Max learned that there is no common recipe for leadership, entrepreneurship and mentoring others, but they in the end boil down to a mix of reasonable understanding of one’s own and other’s capabilities and trust. According to him, for leadership, one needs to trust people to not do micro-management; for entrepreneurship one needs to trust his or her idea; and for mentoring one needs trust the self.
www.insightssuccess.com
Tech Insight
CHANGING
LEADERSHIP WITH
TECHNOLOGICAL
ADVANCEMENTS
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e are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution of the “Digital Age”. Technology and Innovation are taking over in all the fields. With upcoming technological advancements, it has become an important part of our lives too. The 21st century is disrupted with technological advancements. Be it healthcare, education, or the IT sector, technology is proving to be a game-changer. In this article, we will take a look at how technology is changing leadership roles in different types of sectors. In the field of Information Technology, technology is used to connect from lower management to top management. Leaders can collect feedback from the employees, conduct surveys, demand various reports, and so on with the help of technology. It becomes useful in understanding the employee's requirements and bring the necessary changes. It also helps the leader in keeping an eye on the market and knowing what the competitors are up-to. Educational leaders use technology to improve the quality of education in schools and institutions. It helps them with online learning, notes, and with recent updates of the books. It helps students studying abroad with online lectures and students in remote areas to create a bridge of communication. Healthcare leaders are not too far away from the use of technology. Different types of machines are used to conduct X-ray, CT-Scan, or MRIs. Healthcare leaders use these machines to get an accurate detection of complicated diseases. It is due to the technological advancement in the healthcare industry that today we can save a lot of lives, work faster, and also bring employment to the technicians.
services. It helps to keep the inventory updated and solve complicated questions like returning with the help of sensors. It is a telecommunication industry leader that makes technology possible worldwide through mobile phones, internet, cable, or wirelessly. Information can be sent thousands of miles away through smartphones. The leading companies in the telecommunication industry are satellite industry, internet providers, and wireless operators. A country would not develop without manufacturing goods and services. Today, manufacturing leaders use advanced tools like machines, and robots and has many categories to manufacture like the food industry, petroleum industry, and so on. It provides employment to all the people in the world. It is clear that leaders all over the world have already started to use technology in their businesses. They rely on technology and innovation to increase productivity and boost profit. Although, we think that technology is a very important part of success, it need not be the only thing essential to carry the business with. It depends upon the leader if he wants to manage his work without the use of technology and that choice of his should be supported. The impact is big and the results are outstanding, but it still depends upon the leader, how he responds to the changes that technology brings into our lives. Technology is important but the optimal use of it will be the real challenge for the leaders.
Leaders in the aerospace industry deals with the highest technological processes such as building, designing, and testing. It is because of these flights we travel beyond the earth’s atmospheric area. Supply chain industries are another field where leaders use technology to keep track of their goods and
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Nicolas Genest Success through Teaching and Empowerment
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s technological innovation evolves at an accelerated pace, yet many are striving to attain skillful traits to function and contribute to society to their full potential. It is increasingly true with computer programing and data interpretation. Nicolas Genest, Founder and CEO of CodeBoxx, inherently understands this difficulty and went on to propose a solution to the problems posed by the changing human labor landscape. Through his venture CodeBoxx, he teaches individuals with many diverse backgrounds, the tools and practices to become first-class developers and he offers them opportunities to gain significant experience through series of projects. By collaborating with many start-ups, Nicolas and his team help aspirants with potential find the right position within their elite circle of renowned enterprises. With a keen early interest in technology, he graduated in Technology Management in 1999. His journey started in Quebec City, Canada where he embraced the early days of emerging Business Intelligence with a startup of his own. Later he added a Business and Public Administration degree in 2009 to the resume. His career so far took him to Paris, New York and San Francisco. Audiences to Target In an interview, Nicolas states that the company adapted its training programs so they become a suitable alternative for three main groups of people:
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Dropouts of traditional school system: Many college/school dropouts are not compatible with the pace and approach of the classical school system yet they undeniably possess a certain potential, which could contribute significantly to volatile technological trends. The gap in the skills of today’s workforce forces big corporations alongside small startups to show greater pragmatism in their search for valuable and capable collaborators. CodeBoxx has become a reliable alternative source for quality profiles in technology, some of them coming with a less educated background. Immigrants: Immigrants are the important contributors to local workforces and many aspire to improve their conditions. CodeBoxx is a four-month boot camp enabling such individuals to get a shot at a better job without taking on too much risk. The supportive nature of the program in the way it is delivered and the design of a truly result-oriented classroom enables focus and productivity through which immigrants learn how to fit in, how to build and leverage a network of peers but, most of all, how to stand out on the modern technology stage. CodeBoxx has already changed the lives of many immigrants in the Quebec City region. People re-orienting their career: The Fast-paced nature of the Boot Camp lowers the barrier to entry and enables experienced individuals to find modern ways to learn new skills. Some are seeking ways to grow faster in their
existing job by offering their employer new capabilities they can build on, some others have an idea in mind and lack the tools to make it a reality in a digitally native era. In all cases, CodeBoxx enabled many adults to reconnect with a continuous learning mindset and they fill their head with new valuable sources of information that will benefit them for the rest of their career. Many got new jobs right out of the program. Portraying the Role of Forerunner Nicolas claims that, at start, he lacked entrepreneurial talents but he believes that an entrepreneurial zeal emerges when one finds a calling. He also believes that responding to such callings and making them a cause moving forward is an accomplishment in itself. Looking back on this successful three-time CTO experience, he strongly feels like he needed to experience the weaknesses and opportunities of the technology landscape in order for him to understand how to reshape human capital. He is now committed to doing the hard things as he changes the course of one individual at a time. He exemplifies the above statement by quoting, “The way it is meant to be”. To tackle various situations, Nicolas advices that one needs to surround oneself with the right people. An efficient leader must promptly identify the character traits that people possess which will make them fit for a certain context or task at a given moment of the lifecycle of a business endeavor. www.insightssuccess.com
Technophile CEO's Revamping the Tech
A Walk of Self-Evolution Nicolas always tried throughout his career to remain on a constant learning process and currently, he is pursuing a Business Analytics Course with Harvard Business School. He also mentioned that he completed his Business and Public Administration degree while serving a full time job at Microsoft. Another way of staying up-to-date on trends has been through a weekly collaboration on a popular podcast where he shares his thoughts on technology. Thursdays come back often and the steady sustained rhythm forces him to stay tuned to new services, new players and new products of his landscape.
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I will never join an endeavor that doesn’t trigger passion within me because I know that passion is meant to fuel my quest for a greater impact over the world.
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Moreover, a leader needs to put him or her in a position where he/she can trust by default. In other words, clearly state the definition of success and reinforce that statement with the pillars of a culture that will empower everyone to aim for the company’s current, mid-term and longer-term goals.
“What makes you a good overall executor is a general awareness of what is going on everywhere within your company coupled with a general awareness of what the best and greatest do to solve the problems you are likely to face,” says Nicolas. This awareness puts him in a position where he can always be helpful by highlighting what matters, making relevant suggestions and save a tremendous amount of time by putting people in charge on the right path right away. A Glimpse into the Future of CodeBoxx In the near future, Nicolas states that he wants to secure the growth and footprint of CodeBoxx Technology by allowing a greater number of people to simultaneously seize the opportunity to start a career in technology and introduce the best graduates to a growing number of pragmatic partners and companies. He also suggested that CodeBoxx Ventures was also an important part of the endeavor for him because this branch of the company incubates and helps jump-start ideas, which might become the unicorns of the next decade. CodeBoxx could also contribute to bringing back some balance to a developer community that has become excessively elitist to Nicolas’ taste and too much aware of its influence. He has witnessed many times situations where, for the sake of attaining technical purity, many entrepreneurs saw their companies high jacked by technologists losing sight of what the company was in it for. Through CodeBoxx, Nicolas aspires to bring balance to such phenomenon.
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Nicolas Genest Chief Executive Officer CodeBoxx
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good leader has the right personality, the right set of skills, knowledge, and an understanding for the industry concerns. Leaders develop vision, inspires other people, and ultimately provide strategy in business success. They rise to the challenges of the global crisis with a good combination of teamwork, power, and appropriate style of leadership. The reason behind the failure of banks to meet the requirements of the global financial crisis was blamed on poor leadership. During such a situation, a visionary leader looks for the best people available for his/her team, set priorities, and start to deal with the most important crisis issues as they occur quickly. With over 25 years of experience in Operational and Financial services, Paul Ford, the Founder and CEO of Acin, is on a journey to take the company to its utmost stature. He completed his academic studies, BSc. in Business Administration at the University of Bath. Prior to creating Acin in 2016, Paul founded Anchura Partners in 2010 and grew it to be a highly successful consulting business. Previously, he was the Chief Operating Officer of the ultra-high net worth business at Barclays Wealth and held various C-level positions at Credit Suisse in Europe, Middle-East and Africa.
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Financial Crisis Leader Financial institutions operate in a dynamic environment and competitive conditions. A lot has been already been written about the causes of the global financial crisis, about the CEO’s and CFO’s ineffective supervision and control in financial institutions. The problem the company resolves can be resumed by reference to the fact that financial institutions have reached a critical point. As the financial institutions have reached a critical point post the financial crisis in 2008, the banks have spent billions in building systems and hiring staff to demonstrate that they are in control of the operational risks within their business. With over 25 years of experience in financial services, Paul’s leadership builds a culture that is honest about the company’s present situation, where everyone is encouraged to use their brains to generate the best ideas. His team addresses issues within operational risk which pose a threat to the health of banks. Lessons Learned through Experiences Finance involves many types of risks market, interest rate, credit, liquidity, financial, and operational. Keeping an eye on the ball of operational risk is the most basic of all lessons Paul has underlined. Paul says, “As an engineer by training, I was
always uncomfortable administering to the symptoms of operational risk, I have been determined to find the ’cure’ – in Acin we have that answer”. Prior to entering corporate life, he enjoyed a successful military career with the British Army; Mr. Ford was a Captain in the Royal Engineers. This engineering background has continued to shape throughout his career and how he thinks about challenges, approaches, and solutions. Organizational Management Acin’s highly advanced system of risk identification, management, and mitigation enable connected firms to achieve the highest degrees of protection at an industry level. The Networked Defence Model is a nextgeneration risk management platform. The company has developed a transformation approach and methodology for operational risk management. Paul’s core challenge for Acin is to combine technology, data standards, and content to measure, manage & mitigate operational risk – this relies on Acin’s comprehensive data standards platform. Strategizing the Market Competition Acin works and is in production with major client banks in the USA, across Europe and in Asian firms, serving a market size of £1.6bn per annum revenue opportunity. In the longerterm, Paul aims to help firms reduce www.insightssuccess.com
Technophile CEO's Revamping the Tech
the amount of operational risk capital needed, and to replicate this across the industry. Acin’s ultimate goal is to help financial institutions reduce their operational risks so that they can be held to an industry standard and demonstrate to regulators that they are in control of their business. Acin has also been recognized as one of the most innovative Regtech companies in 2019. Achieving Success through Data Standards Data is exploding, and more and more unstructured data is generated – some of it useful, some of it a distraction. Data evolves all the time, so the company is constantly engaged. As the world’s leading company in risk and control data standards, benchmarking and controls data analysis, Acin enables firms to demonstrate that they are “in control” and provide greater assurance across the industry. The comprehensive data standards platform helps firms to simplify and mitigate operational risk.
What sets Acin apart is its centralised database of control designs smart-mapped to the risks faced by the individual business or function within a financial institution. Data is standardised, available, and reliable – at an industry level. More radical still, is Acin’s ability to connect firms together to create the industry’s first risk and control defence network. With a dataset of risks and controls that is more comprehensive than that of any one institution and continuously updated via the network, this significantly strengthens each firm’s existing “three lines of defence”.
About Acin Founded in 2010, Acin is the world-leading risk and control data standards, benchmarking and controls data analysis company. With offices in London and New York, the organization’s clients include some of the world’s largest financial institutions. It is specialized in risk and controls, regulatory programs, governance, control frameworks, and data standards, etc. The industry enables financial institutions to access standardized controls data seamlessly, allowing agile data-driven risk management and decisionmaking. It relies on a centralized database of control designs smart-mapped to the risks faced by each individual business or function within the organization. Acin sets the standard for the industry, unlocking the full value of controls data for its clients.
Resilience, Decisiveness and Perseverance-the most important attributes.
Paul Ford Chief Executive Ofcer
www.insightssuccess.com
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