www.insightssuccess.com July 2018
CEO of the Month
Fred Schuster, CEO Madras Global
Editor’s Choice The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women & Leadership
10
Inspiring Minds Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk
THE
BEST
PERFORMING
TO WATCH, 2018
Alex Zwyer CEO
Alex Zwyer
A Novel Approach to Treating ADHD and Spreading Hope for Brighter Life Prospects
Editor’s Note
Authentic Leadership
T
he inevitable wave of Digitization has changed the entire model of global business. Digitization can be termed as the Catalyst of Evolution for the traditional Leadership styles. With the everchanging and ever-flourishing technological innovations, each and every aspect of business is on the verge of change. Digital disruption has been embraced by an emerging class of new businesses pertaining to its competitive advantages. This has change the entire realm of business from performance to employee recruitment to communication. In order to make this digital journey successful, a delicate shift in the leadership style is must. Embracing a digital leadership style will open up a new door of opportunity and excellence. However, if not performed with care, it might steal the authentic self of the leader. Authenticity is the proverbial Holy Grail of Leadership. A great business author Bill George has termed it as the gold standard for leadership. Preserving authenticity, in tune with their true self, by leveraging the best of what digital change has to offer and, simultaneously evolving their true self in tune with digital change itself, are two of the main challenges for digital era leadership. In order to make this style of digital leadership worthwhile, the classical Knowing-Doing-Being framework can be proved as an element of success. Knowledge is the first and foremost requirement for an authentic leader. The modern workplace needs a skilful leader with profound technical knowledge to mould its way towards success. Second, breaking the stereotypes and embracing the changes can open up millions of opportunities along the way. This stage helps the leader to plunge into new projects and interacting with his employees. Third, as a leader of an organization one gets a massive impact on their employees which demands a huge amount of self-awareness. In this issue, “The 10 Best Performing Leaders to Watch”, we’ve depicted the successful journey of some excellent leaders from diverse backgrounds that have made differences in their particular fields with their unparalleled expertise.
On the cover of this issue, we’ve portrayed the life-story of Alex Zwyer, the CEO of the globally acclaimed NLS-1 Pharma AG (NLS-1), Alex started his career as a marketing assistant in a midsize pharma company and successfully made it to the rooftop of that firm within 15 years. He held key positions such as Regional Director Latin America, Global Head Marketing & Sales, and Executive Vice President Global Markets. He was globally responsible for Marketing, Sales, Regulatory Affairs and Medical Affairs. Alex is a natural leader and strategist, who has a track record of producing extraordinary results during a career spanning more than 25 years. A creative entrepreneur, Alex is highly result-oriented, performance-focused and excellence seeker. Armored with all the leadership skills, he is a multilingual negotiator with a strong international management background. Alex earned an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany and an executive MBA from the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich. Following the Cover Story, we’ve enlisted some other personas who are trendsetters in their own respective industries. Fred Schuster, CEO of Madras Global, has a brilliant knack for marketing and delivering on cost-effective results which has made him one of the world’s most respected marketers; Grace Huang, the CEO and Founder of iPinYou, is a young, intuitive, and a highly ambitious woman entrepreneur with a never say no attitude in the world of digital advertising in China; Ran Berger, the Founder and CEO of Flat Rock Technology is a successful entrepreneur who has outshined all the challenges along the road with astonishing self-reliance and selfmotivation; Sam Visaisouk, the CEO of Tyromer, is one such frontrunner who took the lessons of experience to overcome adversity; Kelly Simpson-Angelini, the CEO and CSO of Simpson Healthcare Executives is a leader who believes in excellence and is also a disruptive follower of innovations. While flipping the pages, make it a note to read the articles penned down by our in-house editors. The articles namely, The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women and Leadership under Editor’s Choice, Role of Innovative Leadership in Innovative Businesses under Insight’s Perspective, and Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk under Inspiring Minds speaks volumes about the characteristic traits of a leader. The issue also includes articles drafted by industry experts and globally acclaimed entrepreneurs. The Importance of Purpose, under Expert Talks will enlighten the readers about why having a purpose is important to a leader. Hope this edition of ours stirs the minds of entrepreneurs all around the globe to achieve glorious success.
Upama Goswami
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COVER STORY ARTICLES
22 Inspiring Minds Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk
30 Insights’ Perspective Role of Innovative Leadership in Innovative Businesses
36 Editor’s Choice
ALEX ZWYER
The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women & Leadership
A Novel Approach to Treating ADHD and Spreading Hope for Brighter Life Prospects
CEO OF THE MONTH
Fred Schuster Pioneering Brand Commerce with Global Perspective
16
CXO STANDPOINT
24 42
Expert’s Column Things A Phone Can’t Do
24
Expert Talks The Importance of Purpose
42
20
28
20 28
34
40
34 40
Grace Huang The Brilliance in Transforming the Digital World
Kelly Simpson-Angelini A Vibrant Entrepreneur Leading the Path towards Positively Disruptive Innovation
Ran Berger An Unstoppable Brilliance Transforming Conventional Business Ethics
Sam Visaisouk Life with a Purpose
www.inď€ onic.com
Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editor Contributors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designers
Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Suhel Mashayak Upama Goswami Brain Smith Rahul Niraj David King Amol Kamble Priyanka Rajage Asha Bange, Karan
Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Karen Holland, Misty Thomas Sophie Smith Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com
July, 2018 Corporate Ofces: 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: www.insightssuccess.com
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Cover Story
Alex Zwyer CEO
Alex Zwyer A Novel Approach to Treating ADHD and Spreading Hope for Brighter Life Prospects
“We see a brighter future connecting the best and brightest �
B
alance is not something you find, it’s something you create.”
Alex Zwyer, the CEO of the globally acclaimed NLS-1 Pharma AG (NLS-1), can be portrayed as the leader who possesses this life-enriching wisdom. “The entire purpose of life can never and must never be the career or business. That is an inordinate investment with illusory Return on Investment. I always try to be a balanced and integrated person. No level of career or business success will compensate for lack of meaningful friendships, family, romantic love, spiritual enrichment, recreation and contribution,” so observes Alex. The Fascinating Journey Alex started his career as a marketing assistant in a mid-size pharma company and successfully made it to the rooftop of that firm within 15 years. He held key positions such as Regional Director Latin America, Global Head Marketing & Sales, and Executive Vice President Global Markets. He was globally responsible for Marketing, Sales, Regulatory Affairs and Medical Affairs. Alex is a natural leader and strategist, who has a track record of producing extraordinary results during a career spanning more than 25 years. A creative entrepreneur, Alex is highly result-oriented, performance-focused and excellence seeker. Armored with all the leadership skills, he is a multi-lingual negotiator with a strong international management background. Alex earned an MBA from the State University of New York at Albany and an executive MBA from the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich. This natural leader possesses expertise in developing purpose-built organizational structure while balancing cash burn, development objectives and resource allocation. Apart from that, he shows brilliance in strategic planning, alliance development and partnerships. Alex has highly developed emotional intelligence, demonstrating a strong ability to influence thinking and build lasting relationships. He describes himself as an ‘outside-the-box’ thinker who is committed to the highest levels of professional and personal excellence. Leadership and pioneering new ideas fuel Alex’s passion and drive.
‘‘NLS-1 pharma unveils an exciting new direction in
ADHD treatment
‘
““
Journey from an Entrepreneur to a Leader—‘the essentials’ According to Alex, ‘Creativity’, ‘Direction’ and ‘Delegation’ are the three main essentials to become a successful leader. Creativity: One has to be creative in the use of limited resources, and have the ability to catch a potential investor’s eye - especially if he or she is looking further than his or her circle of friends and family for funding – you need to see a future that other people can’t and you must have faith in your vision when others may not. Direction: Understanding that financial goals are extremely important, direction is not limited to money matters. It also includes having a clear idea about your value proposition and effectively articulating your vision to stakeholders in a way that is measurable, inspiring and achievable. Delegation: Hiring the right team who you trust to believe in and respect your vision is of upmost importance at this stage. Understanding your organization’s needs and hiring the most competent employees with a focus on workforce diversity (gender, experience, skills, ideas) is essential. Delegation requires accountability to deliver on mutually agreed objectives and investing in governance processes and systems to track financial and employee performance is key.
THE
BEST PERFORMING
10LEADERS TO WATCH, 2018
NLS-1 Pharma AG- Safeguarding the Brain throughout all Stages of Life Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a highly genetic, brain-based syndrome characterized by inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. According to American Journal of Psychiatry 2007, in the USA, approximately 6.4 million people under the age of 18 have been diagnosed with ADHD at some point at their lives while over 10 million adults in the USA suffer with ADHD as per a report by the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2014. NLS-1 is a Swiss-based clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing innovative and more effective, safe treatments for ADHD and other CNS disorders. Behavioural disorder like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects children and adults and impacts negatively across all aspects of their life, from schooling to work to relationships. Most treated patients in the USA currently take simulants which have a significant risk of abuse, misuse and diversion and other associated safety risks. Safer and more convenient treatment options are important and can significantly affect the quality of life for children and adults affected by this condition. This dilemma is why a company like NLS-1 matters. Disruptions Changing the Industry Scenario “It’s fascinating to witness how disruptive innovations can truly change the way healthcare is delivered and medicine is practiced. Enormous technological changes are heading our way and they will transform pharma too”, Alex focuses on the promises technology brings in.
New kinds of reality: Augmented reality and virtual reality with devices such as Google’s digital contact lenses or Oculus Rift give us a new view of the world through digital information. Home sequencing of genomes: The cost of DNA sequencing is dropping constantly. When it’s finally available to the majority the whole concept of prescribing medication will change as individualized treatment become more common. The quantified self: Body sensors, inside and out measure health parameters in a comfortable and cheap way to provide crucial data. The success of clinical trials largely depends on how medical professionals collect data about their patients. The end of human experimentation: The end of human experimentation through detailed simulation of human physiology. We live in a barbaric era where new drugs are tested directly on people. What if thousands of drug targets could be tested on billions of simulations that model the physiology of the human body in seconds with supercomputers? No more ethical dilemmas, just letting science do its work. It will be cheaper, faster and more reliable. Supercomputers: Medical decisions made with artificial intelligence using the power of supercomputers will revolutionize everyday medicine. Cognitive computers, such as IBM Watson, have been used in many ways to analyze big data, not only in genomic research but also in biotechnology. This will change the way new drugs are found.
He points out some of the key trends that have impacted the industry:
Gamifying Health: The incentives pharma companies are currently using to motivate patients and medical professionals to use a certain product are at risk of becoming obsolete. They need to turn to gamification to engage people where they are online, which can help improve both adherence and pharma’s image.
‘‘
We lead the way for a
‘
Empowered patients: Empowered patients leverage technology to become better educated as they strive to become equal partners with their caregivers. They do research, gather information and keep informed about medical advances made in the care of their conditions. In ADHD, parents and patients take an especially active role in the selection of their individual treatment.
better life
Creating a Rich Work-Culture “I’m always readily willing to listen and make decisions based on a diverse range of views”, asserts Alex. The leader with charismatic power, guides or coaches his employees himself, repudiating any dictatorship. The generous leader never hesitates to give credit to his subordinates for the success and achievements of the organization, rather than claiming it for himself. Alex empowers his employees by providing free reign on business functions. “I seek to inspire others through a level of personal belief in the business venture. I motivate people through positive reinforcement and rewards. Last but not least, I serve people, looking out for their best interest”, he concludes. Words of Advice for Future Entrepreneurs Alex is an award-winning entrepreneur and he has some brilliant advice for the to-be-entrepreneurs. Let’s have a look: Solutions: A successful start-up will focus on solving a problem and fit the technology to it, not the other way around. Context: Know your industry and build a solution for its present struggles and future challenges. Teamwork: Build a squad of driven and reliable experts. Accomplishments Single-handedly fundraising $15 Mio USD and the successful execution of - what is currently considered as the most successful phase 2 clinical trial in the ADHD space has been marked as the major achievement of NLS1 under the leadership of Alex. “The promising phase II results are very encouraging and indicative of the potential for mazindol C.R. to make a difference in the lives of millions of patients suffering from ADHD across the globe,” Alex emphasizes.
‘
aim
Our is to improve
‘
Nanorobots: Nanorobots in blood could make early diagnoses by constantly measuring any health parameter. If the technology of transporting drugs to the actual cellular targets in nanocages becomes viable, the pharma industry will have to start producing different end products to make sure they are compatible with nanotechnology.
quality of life and longevity
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THE
BEST PERFORMING
10LEADERS TO WATCH, 2018
Company Name
Management
Brief
Best Version Media bestversionmedia.com
Dave Durand CEO & Co-founder
Best Version Media (BVM) is a publishing company that produces private, family-oriented, neighborhood-specific magazines that serve residents, homeowners associations, villages and local businesses.
Catalyst UX catalystux.com
Paul Giurata CEO
Catalyst UX is a global firm that designs and builds user experiences (UX) for Medical, Life Sciences, Digital Health, Financial Services, Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) software.
CDP Group Ltd cdpgroupltd.com
Wei Lu COO & Co-founder
CDP Group provides local and international companies with best-in-class HR technology and services, aiming to improve employees’ well-being, and maximizing companies’ efficiency with sustainable gains.
Flat Rock Technology flatrocktech.com
Ran Berger CEO
Flat Rock develops highly effective, easy to use web-hosted application.
iPinYou ipinyou.com.cn
Grace Huang CEO & Founder
iPinYou is the largest programmatic buying DSP provider in China and is one of the first companies bringing audiencetargeted programmatic buying to brands in Asia.
Madras Global madrasglobal.com
Fred Schuster CEO
Madras Global weaves together story and delivery to create continuous and cost-effective content so marketers can respond quickly to the demands companies face today.
NLS-1 Pharma nls-pharma.com
Alexander Zwyer CEO
NLS-1 designs affordable, safe and effective drugs to empower the brain throughout all stages of life.
Grupo Sid gruposid.com.do
Ligia Bonetti Du-Breil Executive President & CEO
Grupo Sid is a group of Dominican companies of great business relevance, engaged in the manufacturing and commercialization of mass consumption products.
Simpson Healthcare Executives simpsonhealthcare.com
Kelly Simpson-Angelini CEO & CSO
Simpson Healthcare Executives is a global biopharmaceutical communications company, delivering stories of services of therapeutic brands for patients and how they will improve their lives.
Sam Visaisouk CEO
Tyromer provides an environmentally sustainable rubber devulcanization technology that offers a socially responsible and financially advantageous option for global scrap tire management whereby scrap tire rubber is reused for the manufacture of new tires.
Tyromer, Inc. tyromer.com
CEO of the Month
FRED SCHUSTER Pioneering Brand Commerce with Global Perspective “
F
or a brand to compete today, it needs to constantly inspire, engage, and reach its customers.” -Fred Schuster
The incredible pace at which the advertising and marketing world evolves has always ensured that only the very best can keep up. Today, as rapid technological advances accelerate that rate of change, slimmer marketing budgets make keeping up an even greater challenge. Exceptional foresight and outstanding creativity are crucial to success and to thrive in this arena. That is why Fred Schuster, CEO of Madras Global, is so successful. Fred’s brilliant knack for marketing and delivering on costeffective results has made him one of the world’s most respected marketers. It is a reputation built on hard work and an irrepressible can-do attitude. The Entrepreneurial Journey Fred is an inspiring creative and technology-driven business leader with over 20 years of experience pioneering unique approaches to agency network operations, creative and content development and international production delivery. Over the course of his career, Fred has launched and led four successful global, digital, creative companies: RedWorks Worldwide, Craft Worldwide, Fred&Co, and Madras Global, with over $400 million in combined billing. Fred started his career in 1995 as a Creative Director at Ogilvy where he worked on several major accounts including IBM, American Express, and GlaxoSmithKline.
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Ten years later, Ogilvy launched RedWorks Worldwide, their standalone global integrated creative and production company and chose Fred to lead it as the first CEO. Being selected to head an international company at the age of 35 was a momentous achievement and a sign of great things to come. Under Fred’s leadership, RedWorks delivered top-tier turnkey creative content to over 50 international markets. The company combined this vast reach with creative, low-cost production hubs to develop versatile global execution models for its clients. In 2011, Fred was approached by McCann Worldgroup to help build and lead a similar content and production business unit which he launched as Craft Worldwide. After that he founded Fred&Co., a global creative operations consultancy where he collaborated with Ad2pro Media Solutions on the operating model that lead to their expanded brand new business. Fred is currently the CEO of Madras Global, a division of Ad2pro. Madras seamlessly weaves emotional brand building and the application of data to drive business performance through automation. A Wonderful Philosophy for Success Fred attributes the successes he has enjoyed on his professional journey to the philosophy of 18th-century English poet, Alexander Pope, who said, “Amaze the unlearned and make the learned smile.” Fred believes that creativity is the most powerful competitive tool an individual can possess in any business, and that the experience he gained as a creative thinker early
July 2018
Fred Schuster CEO
July 2018
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Fred’s innovative viewpoint has been vindicated more than once but he reveals that the most satisfying instance was when he met a former colleague from Ogilvy several years after he left the company:
We seamlessly weave emotional brand building and the application of data to drive business performance
“He gave me one of the best compliments I have ever received when he said, now I understand what you were trying to do. It’s too bad we didn’t help you enough back then. It’s the curse of the entrepreneur.” About the Company Madras Global is the first and only Brand Commerce agency of its kind. It operates under a unique new business model that provides creative solutions in near-shore hubs of New York and London that are cost-effectively executed via its off-shore creative and production teams in Bangalore and Chennai. “We build continuous content engines for our clients that enable them to remain relevant and provide value,” explains Fred.
in his career has been the driving force behind his business leadership and entrepreneurial acumen. Fred is also inspired by risk takers, both large and small. He has found that the combination of confidence and intuition is what drives a person to believe in themselves and being bold enough to take action is what gives them an edge. That edge is the same, whether it is on a large scale, like Elon Musk and Richard Branson launching commercial rockets, or on a smaller scale, like starting a small business. Always Challenge the Status Quo Fred strives to instil in his team the same commitment to out-of-the-box thinking that he employs himself. He has seen how stereotypical mindsets can stifle progress, an especially fatal flaw in the advertising industry. His advice to individuals who experience the almostinevitable resistance to change is to remain steadfast in their belief and to persist with the end-goal in mind: “When someone tries to do something different, not just creatively but operationally, it makes people uncomfortable. Steadfastness is the only answer in this scenario. Sooner or later, people come around.”
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As part of its Brand Commerce strategy, Madras Global assists clients with Brand Transformation, Media Amplification, and optimization through Content Automation. To start, Madras develops strategic and creative ‘bundles’. Each bundle cost-effectively packages strategy, creative, planning, and execution across various media channels that best suit each client’s needs. The individual tactics might include anything from traditional TV and print to customer engagement and OOH to social and digital optimization. The agency then leverages its proprietary Ad Ops technology platform, JDX, and its resources in India to develop optimization models and deploys the content automation system with close monitoring of their in-market effectiveness. Under Fred’s leadership, Madras Global has quickly become known for its flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solutions, combined with business performance. It has grown from one to over 1,000 employees in under a year with a portfolio of clients that include Macy’s, Shark/Ninja, Kork-Ease, Salt Financial, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and many more.
July 2018
GRACE HUANG The Brilliance in Transforming the Digital World
CEO & Founder of iPinYou
D
igital Marketing Industry is constantly evolving and Programmatic Advertising is one of the latest trends to look for within the industry. Programmatic marketing is a way to target what types of audience one wish to show advertising to. Basically, programmatic media buying, marketing and advertising consist of algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising space in real time. Let’s meet Grace Huang, a young, intuitive, and a highly ambitious woman entrepreneur with a never say no attitude in the world of digital advertising in China. She is the CEO and Founder of iPinYou. With advance knowledge in big data technology and artificial intelligence, iPinYou has come to be known as the largest programmatic buying DSP provider in China and is one of the first companies bringing audience-targeted programmatic buying to brands in Asia. iPinYou also launched a Marketing Intelligence Platform (MIP) in 2017, an artificial intelligence decision platform, contributing its artificial intelligence knowledge to all brands. Journey fostering Creativity and Innovation Grace is a management graduate from UCLA Anderson School of Management, USA. She has had her stints with various industry giants like P&G as Marketer and at McKinsey as a Strategic Consultant. With her passion and dedication, Grace always sought to create her own mark and pursue something significant in life which would make a difference in the industry and society at large. Eventually, in the pursuit of her dreams and the quest for discovering the right path embarked her on the journey of entrepreneurship in 2006 with the inception of iPinYou. With her exceptional passion and astounding entrepreneurial skills Grace has positively handled all the
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challenges in the path, she says, “I encountered a lot of hurdles when I began with my startup, but I used to take up one challenge a day, think upon it and try and figure out the appropriate solution, this way, it always worked for me. However, the biggest challenge we faced as a company was educating the market, as we are the largest shareholder in the market (almost 60%).” She since childhood has developed a never give up attitude; and leaves no stone unturned to overcome any challenge, she comes across. Grace and her team spared no efforts in educating the clients with the most meaningful and professional knowledge, also they closely involved them in innovative product development; which helped them a lot in winning the trust and praise of their clients and maintain the peak position in the market. While describing her in a word, Grace believes she is a very logic-oriented person. Ever since childhood, she participated in a lot of math competitions and quizzes. She also loves playing Bridge, which helped her develop a mindset to put things in a logical framework and solve problems quickly. Passion what Drives Grace Grace is deeply influenced by the culture and literature she studied in her junior high school days. Along with that, there is a profound impact of old business leadership, its values and ethics on her. She says, “I am passionate about giving the best in whatever I do, which would create an enduring effect and carry long-lasting constructive values to the society.” Grace is not a copy-paste person who follows other people; she rather has her own beliefs and likes to follow them. To try new things and nurture into an effective problem solving and critical thinking person has always been her passion.
July 2018
THE
BEST PERFORMING
10LEADERS TO WATCH, 2018
My biggest advice to budding entrepreneurs is, always do something you really believe in from the heart
Grace Huang CEO & Founder of iPinYou
Things that Shaped Her Life Grace attributes her incredible success at iPinYou to the stints she has had in former organizations. She states, “Before embarking on the journey to entrepreneurship, my marketing role in P&G imparted a great deal of business sense in me. And later on, life at Mckinsey gave me a muchrequired CEO perspective. Here I got a chance to closely experience a very much different view of the business. For instance, it taught me how to identify the problem, how to define and solve it.” She feels privileged to have such professional spells, which helped foster her career at iPinYou. If you can dream it, you can do it! “Every morning brings new hopes and opportunities to do something fruitful, to shine better than yesterday,” believes Grace. There are primarily two things that drive her to toil around 14-15 hours a day. Firstly, the passion of becoming successful and generating value to people. And, second, most importantly, delivering trust to the employees, stakeholders and investors, who believed in her vision and dreams all along the journey. While speaking on maintaining healthy work culture, Grace and her early teammates since the very beginning started to put down their words on culture and values for the
July 2018
company. They encourage and motivate their team not only monetarily but help them understand the importance of what they do is for this organization and ultimately clients. Words of Wisdom for the Budding Entrepreneurs Grace says, “My biggest advice to budding entrepreneurs is, always do something you really believe in from the heart.” She states that the trail to entrepreneurship is full of temptations which can off-track from your goals and muddled with a lot of pitfalls which can drive you crazy at times. So doing something really one believes in can off go the pains and the challenges. And another most important things is finding the right teammates while building the company, it’s similar to finding the right spouse! Thus, one has to be very careful about this. The last advice Grace speaks, “Stay close to the market and customers. It’s very important to pick up the changes in the market to sustain in the competition.” While talking about the future footsteps, Grace expressed, “Our AI based Marketing Intelligence Platform (MIP) is creating a stir in the market. I look forward that most of the big organizations in China in coming future will associate or adapt our platform for better business decisions and outcomes.”
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Successful Personality Traits
to Learn from
Elon Musk egends never need an introduction. They tend to be victorious despite of their uneventful histories. They stick to captivating traits such as Discipline, determination and self-belief which help them accomplish wonders in the long run. One such example of an extraordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business Magnate, Investor and an engineer.
L
Strong Risk Tolerance Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty and risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in business, 96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the statistics, Musk must have faced the same odds against him, when he had decided to leave an otherwise comfortable life to start a risky and uncertain business venture.
Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX; co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of Greece taken into consideration.
For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother in the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million. Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by investing millions of dollars to found a company called X.com, one of the world’s first online banks.
While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits that makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few traits much different from any other ordinary CEO, which has allowed him to build some of the world’s most respected and innovative organizations. Musk once quoted, “When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is that he is self-taught in programming and in many advanced level subjects. He read and understood a variety of books, which helped him gain endless and persistent knowledge and understand diverse concepts.
Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and characteristics that make him a contender for the most innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive.
The best piece of advice on learning and implementation is to constantly think about how things could be done in a better manner and question self to seek the answers.
Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about 100 hours a week, and has been productive since many years. He may even be considered as the hardest working employee of the company, setting standards for his colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.
Feedback Loop It is of prime importance to recognize the present symbol or otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an organization and re-position accordingly. Musk solicits constant feedback of the companies and executes ‘self-analysis.’ He induces efforts and divergent strategies to improve customer feedbacks and strives towards perfectionism.
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July 2018
Inspiring Minds
For example, he seeks out his critics and tries to converse with them. This habit of self-reflection at regular and considerable periods is pivotal for any entrepreneur or organization to succeed in the long run. Tendency for Vertical Integration Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or a firm acquires business operations within the same product vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this concept. For example, Tesla not only produces electric cars; they also generate public awareness about their cars via Tesla showrooms across various countries. And SpaceX does not only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions; they develop their own rocket architecture as well. Faith in Self and the Founding Team Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own capabilities
July 2018
as well as the potential-seeking factor of its founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected end-results. It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any large scale organization. Under his supervision, Musk encourages in creating a positive and comprehensive environment across his firms. Preferring to Stand Out From the Crowd Musk elects to bring up innovation at every level of his understanding. He tends to impart theoretical knowledge at the base level, applying changes and executing the same on the practical level. He relies more on transitional aspects such as research and development, thereby increasing the probability of ground-breaking inventions.
Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed by Elon Musk, is anti-ordinary. Its compelling marketplace has become a one-stop destination for potential buyers where they can interact about product specifications. They also have video testimonials that far outperform in the sales-dominated industry. There is no ambiguity that Musk, by far, has been a pillar of inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and investors because of his prolific and optimistic approach towards life All these traits possessed by Musk, in some manner or the other, coincide with most of your habits. The only thing that stands as a potential barrier between these two is identifying your strengths and working on them on a continual basis. Go on, apply these traits into your daily life, and you may become the next big CEO the world is in need of today!
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THINGS A PHONE CAN’T DO I
n the past few years, almost every manager at every level has discovered some mobile phone application that has proven truly useful to increase productivity.
Perhaps for data gathering, or production status monitoring, or remote communication… there are literally thousands of ways that small devices are changing the ways that we do things… for the better. And yet… Have you ever noticed that when you give a child a hammer, suddenly everything needs hammering? In your own workplace, you have probably (more than once) observed a co-worker trying to use a phone for some purpose that really wasn’t a good fit. A few examples… Yamazumi Workload Balancing A Yamazumi Board is the right tool to rearrange workloads between operators, perhaps for different staffing levels to meet different scenarios of customer demand.
And it is also an excellent tool to visually see and eliminate the 7 deadly types of waste. Keyword = “see”. Yamazumi is intended to be a group exercise. What is your team going to do? Gather around an iPhone? Standard Work Analysis Similarly, a phone might be useful for time observation, process observation, muda waste walk observation… but process analysis? The purpose of gathering all of that observation data is that (at some point) someone needs to Analyze and Improve the process. A Standard Work Analysis Excel template performs 7 simultaneous types of analyses, to answer common (and important) questions like:. “How long will this take?” “How much does this cost?” “How many can we make?” “How many could we make if we did a SMED quick changeover kaizen event with the goal to reduce setup times by a target amount?” “What should be the target for that kaizen event?” Try answering THOSE questions using only your Samsung. Value Stream Mapping The primary purpose of a value stream map is to make process flow visible. The title of the book that introduced value stream mapping is Learning to See. Learning to see process flow. Learning to see process wastes. Learning to see opportunities for how to do things better. There’s that word again: “See”.
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July 2018
Expert’s Column
Dean Ziegler founder How is your team going to ‘see’ the overall flow of your entire process on a 3-inch screen? That’s not enough screen space for even the top third of a value stream map, that has all those symbols that show the flow of the information needed to control the flow of ‘the thing being processed’, (which might be a product, or a patient, or a packet of information). The bottom third has charts and graphs to make some of the most important data more visual (and actionable). Charts showing total lead time split into segments for value add time vs. wait time. Showing how costs accumulate through the steps of the process. Showing the cycle times for each step in relation to your target takt time. And the middle third has rows and rows of data (each row optionally hidden or revealed), to answer mission-critical questions like: “Can capacity meet demand?” “Where is our bottleneck?” “What is our Guaranteed Turnaround Time?” (the longest that it will ever take to delivery any product or service in this family) Mystery Solved Why is Microsoft Excel still so popular? Those are just a few examples to explain why Excel is still so popular. (Visit the systems2win.com web site for a hundred more.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dean Ziegler is the Founder of Systems2win (systems2win.com). They develop and support an Excel add-in with 150+ templates for Continuous Process Improvement, each with training, videos, and systems for popular lean methodologies like process flow optimization, standardized work, visual management, FMEA risk reduction, quality improvement, OEE preventive maintenance, and lean management systems
Especially when extended with the power of add-ins, Excel does things well that a phone simply isn’t designed to do.
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Kelly Simpson-Angelini A Vibrant Entrepreneur Leading the Path towards Positively Disruptive Innovation
C
hallenging the traditional ways and bringing the fundamental changes are the ingredients to innovatively and successfully revolutionize an industry. Similarly, in healthcare industry too, there have been many scientific, diagnostic, and therapeutic innovations over the past two decades leading healthcare groups to achieve great outcomes for their patients. The therapeutic advancements will continue to improve management of diseases in the future, at a rapid pace. A follower of disruptive innovations and a believer of excellence, Kelly Simpson-Angelini, CEO and CSO of Simpson Healthcare Executives, is contributing extraordinarily to enhance the future of healthcare. Kelly believes that providing branded and disease-awareness education to physicians is highly essential for the improvement of the care industry today. With an ultimate goal of “helping people live better”, her company has revolutionized the industry and ensured better and earlier diagnosis, efficient management of disease with physician education, and increased the level of connectivity; this has made the treatment procedure more personalized and precise. She acknowledges the great opportunities the future has to offer that could
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improve the quality of life for the patients significantly. Looking into the future, her aim is to support the brands of tomorrow and to tap the innovative potential of the company’s clients to have greatest, most positive impact for the patients.
impact of the company over the years inspires her, roots her in her purpose, and drives her forward as she thinks of new ways to unlock her clients potential to connect with patients who can benefit most from their therapies. Awards and Accomplishments
Kelly’s Story Along with being a science and healthcare enthusiast, Kelly developed her marketing and communication skills from her previous experiences, ones before Simpson Healthcare. Her passion for improving the healthcare industry and medical communication led her to formulate her vision of transforming the scenario of healthcare for the betterment of the patients into Simpson Healthcare Executives. She started it with the goal of delivering precision into the medicine world: connecting the right patient with the right therapy at the right time. Started in 1998, Kelly has been leading her agency for 20 years, building brands and impacting the lives of patients all along the way. Under her guidance, the company has impacted roughly onethird of both national and global population in this year alone. She believes that Simpson Healthcare will continue to contribute to the healthcare industry. The positive
Through her transformational leadership, Kelly has earned many prestigious awards and gained a great level of recognition for the impact her agency has had on the industry over the years. She has been awarded “Healthcare Industry CEO of the YearUSA”, “Most Innovative CEO of the Year-USA”, by various renowned media organization and was named among the “Most Prominent Women in Business, 2017”. She also won three Stevie Awards for “Women in Business for entrepreneurship and innovation”. Last spring, she was honored as a “Top 10 Innovation Catalyst for Healthcare Transformation, 2017” by a prominent agency, Medical Marketing and Media (MM&M). About the Company Located in Old Lyme, Connecticut, Simpson Healthcare Executives is a global, innovative biopharmaceutical communications company. The team of Simpson Healthcare moves forward in July 2018
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I help people live better Kelly Simpson-Angelini CEO & CSO
a collaborative path, pulling through the stories of why their clients’ therapeutic brands matter and delivers it to the patients who could benefit most from their services. The company creates and delivers branded and disease education solutions to physicians and provides a path to the clients to grow their brands to be most impactful for their patient communities. To expand its commitment to the healthcare and scientific innovation for the clients, the firm has brought in the FUTURING service. FUTURING: it is the process of envisioning the potential best and the worst futures without any reference to present day and provide the results to the drivers of those futures. This helps to identify the opportunities which will shape a “Desirable Future” or avoid an “Undesirable Future”. Simpson Healthcare has launched this work with many of its biopharmaceutical clients and is looking forward to continuing to broaden the impact of its therapeutic brands. July 2018
Mentoring Employees with Purposeful Values Few years ago, Kelly guided her leadership team to revisit the mission and vision of Simpson Healthcare and transformed it into a purpose statement. Inherent in their core belief system, the purpose of supporting the clients to share the scientific story of the disease they touch and therapies they discover for all in need, guides Simpson Healthcare’s teams in every moment and inspires them to work for better, every day. Motivated by this, they challenge key healthcare stakeholders to think disruptively about healthcare, beyond just the coming year and into the next decade, as they work to develop and deliver the therapies of the future.
losing sight of the larger context and bigger opportunity; being dedicated to collaborative teamwork to ensure the highest quality work product; bringing their best selves to work every day. Enacting Multiple Roles Gracefully Additional to being a phenomenal entrepreneur and an incredible leader, Kelly is a great mother and an amazing wife. She has been a life-coach and mentor for many people, along with every member of her company. She thrives to help every person to find their purpose in life.
The core values of Simpson Healthcare that all the team members believe in are: keeping it real by developing strong, authentic relationships internally and externally with the clients; looking into the future by never
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Role of
Innovative
LEADERSHIP in Innovative Businesses I
nnovation in business acts like fuel for the vehicle, business simply cannot run without it. Innovation and research done by scientists do not always depend on the requirements and expectations of consumers. They are free for invention of new technologies depending on their goals and targets. While in business, new research and innovation is always customer oriented. Necessity of Innovation Conventional way of doing business with the same technologies and products is not favorable for long time running businesses. In all types of business, companies need to add some new useful technologies and products with the emerging inventions, to run business successfully. There are a number of examples of Companies sticking to their old technologies and specifications for their products and services getting vanished in this competitive market. The vision of the future has not only touched the makers, but also the customers, hence customers’ needs and expectations are growing with every passing moment. Customers are adapting to new products and technologies while leaving the old rapidly. This is a reason behind reconstruction of all business models that we are observing today. This is a condition of ‘INNOVATE OR DIE’ to survive in this competition for all business. Business Nowadays In all the sectors of business (like Automobile, IT, Telecom, Service and Hospitality), we have seen rapid changes in their technology used in that products and services. All big companies are implementing R&D centers for new research and innovation to make their products special and different from their competitors, in and to deliver more user-friendly products to their customers.
To cultivate new innovation and technology in institutes ‘Innovative Leaders,’ are necessary, who can implement their ideas not only in their products, but also in the infrastructure and strategy of the company. Innovative leaders not only ‘think creatively’ but also motivates people around them to turn those ideas into reality. As, “Successful business is not an effect of lonely efforts, but is a result of mutual efforts done by all the elements of the organization,” organizations are searching for capable leaders for their team. Some of the Innovative Businesses Apple is one of the best examples of Innovative business under the Innovative leadership of ‘Steve Jobs.’ Apple is continually implementing new research, ideas and technologies in their products and always made to the top of customer satisfaction, by adding new specifications and services Apple makes their products more attractive and more convenient to
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July 2018
Insights’ Perspective
Environmental Talk
July 2018
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use and became the top brand. Even after Steve Job stepped down from the responsibility of CEO, current CEO, Tim Cook, too turns out to be an Innovative leader. In reference to innovation in Apple’s products, Tim once said, “You kind of want to manage it like you’re in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem.” Google’s Android operating system, is another example of innovative business. Google is continuously adding new versions of software to their operating system depending on customer’s requirement, new technologies and ease to use. It can be said that innovation played major role in putting Android OS as the world’s top mobile OS today. Implementation Techniques Arrival of new innovations and ideas is being a continuous process and it has no end. On account of this anybody can’t add everything in their products. This needs proper realization and planning. For this, the necessity of some checks and planning should be done before any modification in product done or for a new product is launched. Application of new technology Some aspects have to be checked before implementation of new technology and ideas for the better outcome. Is this technology really going to be useful to the customer? Is this technology really in demand? Is this belonging to the considerable long time span? Is this financially correct? If not, then no need of modification. If yes, then it needs to go for the next check. Realization of resources New product or modification in the product means changes in the production process, resources and finance depending on the type of industry. There is a need of examining all types of resources available. Can the resources withstand for modification? With changes in product all staff really flexible for it? Can our vendors also easily adapt this? Are we having leaders who can make this possible? By checking all aspects we can go for planning. Planning of product Planning of product includes the financial arrangements (like opening of the IPO), designing of the product, development of product, production process, inventory management, supply chain management (vendor selection), testing of product, sales and operations. Advertisement Without advertisements, the audience will not be aware about the new products. It needs the proper advertisement of products. The advertisements should be effective by using all means like print media, digital media, etc. Proper advertisement makes the product more attractive and user-friendly to the customer. Innovative Leaders As discussed earlier, Innovative Business does not only depends on new technologies and ideas, but also on the vision of the leader. ‘The leaders who grab future opportunities by their vision and research in addition to effective utilization of their resources can be called Innovative Leaders.’ These leaders having long term vision for their products and services. Only by implementing new ideas and technologies in their products do not help any firm to be always successful, in addition to that strategies like acquisition of other similar or supporting firms (companies) for increased resources and to reduce future competition are needed. Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook acquires Whatsapp messenger which adds more resources to his firm and reduces competition, is one of the examples of doing business innovatively. He is an innovative leader who made Facebook a top social sites by continuously improving the services and facilities. It can be hence summed up that today, Successful business is the product of innovation and a strong vision of the leader with the combined efforts made by the whole organization.
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July 2018
Ran Berger An Unstoppable Brilliance Transforming Conventional Business Ethics
A “
smooth sea never made a skilful sailor,” there goes the proverb.
Hardships and challenges are indispensable for successful entrepreneurship. Ran Berger, the Founder and CEO of Flat Rock Technology is a successful entrepreneur who has outshined all the challenges along the road with astonishing self-reliance and self-motivation. The Massive Beginning In early 1999, the technologies were utterly different and the cloud of ‘Bug Y2K’ was putting a shadow on all businesses. Ran Berger was appointed as MIS Manager of a mid-size hardware distributor straight to lead an ERP/CRM/ BI project. After a journey full of hardships, Ran made the project a great success. This was Ran’s one of the first achievements in his professional career. The project delivery environment brought the best out of Ran as he is a mission-oriented person. It was, undoubtedly, a significant career blast for Ran. After this initial achievement, Ran felt very fortunate to lead other system development and implementation in seven countries (Israel, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, England, Scotland, and Switzerland) and gained experience in global business and a good understanding of cultures. This was the period that shaped his management skills and approach to distributing business models. Exploring and Harnessing the ‘New’—the success mantra
with the trends and the best practices of the industry. He believes that the current rapid growth and changes in the industry can be beneficial for stepping ahead in the success ladder. The IT industry, and specifically the web and mobile development is going through a fast pace change and new mobility trends. Leading companies are adopting the cloud approach and realizing the value of the multichannel distribution of apps. The trend of mobility and constant intention to create apps also has on the verge of development, and it will definitely help in remote interactions. “Together with other trends such as ChatBots, IoT, Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, VR/AR we are experiencing a true revolution in the workplace environment and as consumers. Exciting times for all of us”, Ran asserts. Source of Inspiration through ‘thick and thin’ “I have an endless amount of energy to challenge myself every day”, the self-reliant Ran states. He derives inspiration and motivation from the talented and amazingly creative people around him. Being an ardent leader, Ran also takes pride in mentioning his team of amazing and passionate employees who bring in a positive impact on himself. “As humans, we are easily hooked into doing more and building more and the major challenge that we’re facing is being patient”, Ran says. He has learned to be more patient and more tolerant while achieving the goals and projects. Flat Rock: A Brief Introduction of the Company
Ran is a passionate leader, in love with emerging technologies. It’s his personal goal to constantly evolve
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Headquartered in London, England, Flat Rock Technology
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We push the boundaries of conventional thinking to build signicant products
Ran Berger CEO
was established in 2008 from the desire to find ways to create solutions that will push the boundaries of conventional thinking. It is an innovative web and software development company that operates from two locations London, UK and Varna, Bulgaria.
roles. Employees need to know that their creativity, efforts, and dedication are valued and appreciated. Ran believes that there isn’t a set formula to help in the overall process, but encouraging new ideas, working as a team and giving freedom of speech, are the right ways to achieve it.
The company provides businesses with professional services, a range of IT outsourcing solutions, web design, mobile applications development, as well as bespoke solutions to match every business specific needs.
Accomplishments as a Leader
Apart from the main business as a software development company, Flat Rock has recently started a new business line, which focuses on business process outsourcing. The structure of the company allows the team to respond thoroughly and quickly to their clients, and to utilize the best outsourcing location in Europe while at the same time being close to the customer base. Stirring up Creativity at Work
Flat Rock has developed a variety of big projects and different solutions under the excellent leadership of Ran. However, the most significant achievement is that they have managed to build an excellent corporate culture. Over the years, Flat Rock has stayed closely aligned with their core values and ways of working, with the right foundations. Through constant dedication, they are able to accommodate continued growth and change. Ran mentions one of the most remarkable work events was acquiring Purify Digital. For a small and young company like Flat Rock, it was a major risk to make such a bold move, but it all turned out to be the positive side and paid off.
It’s a proven fact that creativity is the heart of any business and every action that we take. Without new ideas and innovative products, the team at Flat Rock would never get the opportunity to grow and develop. In order to keep the creative flow intact, Ran takes any measure possible. The organization itself should be a place where the employees can come motivated and feel more passionate about their
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July 2018
Editor’s Choice
The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women and Leadership “
T
he glass ceiling is a barrier so subtle that it is transparent; yet so strong that it prevents women from moving up the corporate hierarch ---Ann Morrison, American Author The term “Glass ceiling” can be defined as an unacknowledged upper limit in corporations and other organizations, above which it is difficult or even impossible for women to reach out to the highest ranks.“Glass ceiling” is a popular metaphor widely used for the hard-to-see informal barriers that prevents women from getting promoted or achieving further opportunities in leadership positions. The metaphor of “glass ceiling” has also been used to describe the limits and obstacles faced by racial minority groups.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s 1991 definition of glass ceiling is “those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or organizational bias that prevents qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organization into managementlevel positions.” (Report on the Glass Ceiling Initiative.) Famous American actress cum author Ann Morrison defines the concept of the Glass Ceiling as: “The glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual, based on the person’s inability to handle a higher-level job.
July 2018
Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who are kept from advancing higher because they are women.” The Elements behind the Glass Ceiling: It is pretty obvious that women are facing a lot of hurdles to break through the glass ceiling and reach to the highest leadership position throughout the ages. Preventing both women and organizations from reaching their full potential, the invisible “Glass Ceiling” denies us all of the maximal benefits of gender diversity in leadership. Some of the most common barriers are highlighted below: Job isolation: Women are offered the same kinds of job roles like staff, public relations or occasionally finance specialties that rarely lead to the more powerful management positions. Over time, women are eventually excluded from jobs in the mainstream of business, the route taken by CEOs and presidents. Old-boy Network: There are many instances when men gets the managerial powers in an organization who manages greater numbers of people, enjoys more freedom of hiring and firing, and controls the company’s assets directly while women are deprived of such authorities and powers.
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It is the “Old-boys” of the organization that makes all the policy; where the women are kept virtually absent. Sex Discrimination: In a recent survey, working women were asked about the greatest obstacle they had to overcome to achieve success; “simply being a woman” was the most frequent response. In another survey by the Wall Street Journal, women leaders quoted their most serious obstacle in their business careers to be “male chauvinism, attitudes toward a female boss, slow advancement for women, and the simple fact of being a woman.” These instances are enough to prove the prevalence of sex discrimination in the workplace. Sexual Harassment: Sexual harassment remains one of the biggest barriers for women in managerial roles. A corporate environment that tolerates sexual harassment intimidates and demoralizes women executives. Even after the adoption and enforcement of numerous laws against sexual harassment, women do not feel sufficiently encouraged and empowered to speak out for fear of compromising their work. Benefits of Women in Leadership: Studies found that inclusion of women in business leadership has significantly improved such factors as firm value, financial performance, economic growth, innovation and social responsiveness and philanthropy. The additional benefits of women in corporate leadership include stricter monitoring and supervision and fewer legal infractions such as fraud and embezzlement. A better balance among women in leadership positions can create a more diverse team of leaders with different perspectives and a greater ability to contribute new ideas and thus enhancing the profitability. The transformational leadership style often used by women tends to be a good option for contemporary organizations, as it encourages employee morale, motivation and performance. Overcoming the Barriers: Strategies Women’s progress up the corporate ladder is still limited by the “glass ceiling” despite the myriad of Government policies and programs which have been introduced to ensure that their talents and skills are recognized and accepted. Women can help themselves to overcome this career hurdle by: Ø Acquiring appropriate business skills and know how; Ø Taking up line-management positions rather than management service roles; Ø Gaining the necessary experience through “apprenticeship” and “acting positions”; Ø Seeking career counseling; Ø Volunteering for leadership and executive positions; Ø And lastly, acquiring the ability to measure their operating effectiveness in the workplace. An awareness of the emergence of new barriers to their progress is also worth considering. The current socio-economic situation is creating different “glass ceilings” in the form of the downsizing of organizations, new differentiated and self-directed career paths, the advent of the contractual worker, and the care of aged parents. Conclusion: Since the latter half of the 20th century, women have made great paces in increasing their representation in the work force. However, a considerable gap remains in achievement of leadership positions across different fields. Renowned feminist Gloria Steinem stated it best: “Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered in women.” It is far past time we strive to find out and finally shatter the glass ceiling.
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July 2018
SAM VISAISOUK Life with a Purpose
W
hile the iGeneration was introduced late to the technology, the Generation Alpha will be living amongst the machines by birth. Although the world is still debating over whether machines are making the lives of humans easier or more complicated, the fact is that there are certain qualities of humans that machines are now trying to learn from - learning from experience. Unlike machines, humans live through experience directly to know it first hand and profoundly with personal context. Sam Visaisouk, the CEO of Tyromer, is one such frontrunner who took the lessons of experience to overcome adversity. Shaped by the Environment The charisma of Sam is indeed exemplary. Coming a long way from smiling his way out of troubles and gathering strength from distress, Sam has not only grown to be resilient but also to be an unapologetic leader. “We are the product of our experiences”, says Sam. Sam’s journey was shaped by his childhood days. Not being sheltered by structure, he grew up in a constantly changing environment. Unlike others Sam took this as an opportunity to learn and to adapt to changes. “This upbringing influenced me to become an entrepreneur and to cherish the chaotic environment of start-ups”, asserts Sam. However, Sam yearned for a stable “home” after living in turbulent Southeast Asia in the 60’s. He recalls how happy he was when he received his Canadian citizenship. Sam grew up with little formal education attending barebone Vietnamese, Chinese and Lao schools. Once he was given the opportunity to pursue a university education, he chose to study mathematics and the physical sciences because he lacked a traditional foundation in North American culture, social issues and humanities. Apart from
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life experiences, Sam acknowledges his technical educational background prepared him for entrepreneurship and the innovation economy. Taking What Life Deals You Sam had his share of hardships and challenges too. Being judged on the basis of his ethnicity and race throughout his early life prepared him for bigger obstacles in his later life. Remembering his old days he comments, “I worked hard to get a Stanford Graduate Fellowship for my Ph.D. but became collateral damage as a result of the Vietnam War when my student visa was not renewed. My Ph.D. was from a small lesser-known university in Canada and the lack of pedigree closed many doors on me. I taught grade 9-12 math and science in a small private school and learned to communicate complex concepts to young students.” “That ability gave me my competitive advantage throughout my career in innovation development as I was able to communicate complex technical concepts to government and business leaders who typically do not have advanced technical background”, he adds further. Revitalized Catalyst of Tyromer Sam believes that there is a purpose that every human must serve. That purpose came to him late in his career. He learned about an environmentally sustainable rubber devulcanization technology invented by Professor Costas Tzoganakis of the University of Waterloo and saw it as a socially responsible solution for the global scrap tire problem. As a society, we generate over one billion scrap tires a year, and because tire rubber is vulcanized and cannot be reused easily, we burned half of them for their fuel value! With devulcanization, we could recover a large
July 2018
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Tyromer’s rubber devulcanization technology enables the circular economy in the tire and rubber industry
Sam Visaisouk CEO
part of this “renewable” resource (or waste). Tyromer Inc. was created with the vision to return scrap tire rubber to new tires. “Many of my start-ups were based on my ideas or inventions and I suffered from being in love with them against better business judgement. I could not let go when I should have”, Sam said. Serving as the CEO of Tyromer has helped Sam in adopting a new dimension towards work. “With Tyromer, I am the business person behind another person’s invention”. Unlike earlier times, Sam no longer gets emotionally attached to the idea. He is more focused on the impact of the idea. “As a result, I make better decisions and have more patience to do things right. I want to nurture the next generation to grow that impact and give them purpose and pride in their careers. Beyond building a business, I can build future leaders.” Under his guidance Tyromer has established strong and trusted collaborations with leaders in the tire and rubber industry. “To bring innovation from a startup to an established industry that is traditionally risk adverse requires more than a good product. To shorten the time for product development and implementation, an open innovation business model was necessary. With trusted collaborations, we can together bring about the circular economy to the tire and rubber industry”, comments Sam.
July 2018
Circular Economy and the Tire Industry Tyromer’s technology converts scrap tire rubber in a twinscrew extruder into Tire-Derived Polymer, or TDP, using only carbon dioxide as a “catalyst” and no chemical solvents or devulcanization chemicals. This is the only known cost effective and environmentally sustainable technology that can return scrap tire rubber into new tires on a commercial scale. To date, TDP has been used in excess of 20% in new tire rubber compound, compared to the typical 5% without devulcanization. “There is still stigma on recycled material. It is our job to engage with industry leaders and experts to educate, inform, learn and collaborate to find solutions that enable companies to recycle old tires back into new tires. The technology now exists and can be implemented on a commercial scale to positively impact the way we manage our scrap tires. For sustainability, we are proud that we do our share”, he adds further.
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The Importance of
Purpose n addition to running Kenja as CEO, I have the fortune of teaching MBA students part time on Leadership, Marketing, and Strategy. For my classes and as a CEO, I think the most important place to start is with the “Why” - what is your Purpose as an Leader and as a Company.
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that Purpose is something that can be discovered in a day - often it will take time to think about this and reflect on it. The point of the exercise is simply to begin the very important self-dialogue to get to your Life Purpose. It does not matter how fast you go if you have not figured out what direction you want to run first.
Purpose as a Leader As a leader, the first place to start is with yourself. If you cannot lead yourself then how can you lead others? The first thing to know about a leader is their Passion and the Values that led them to put importance on those passions. With an understanding of Passion, people can develop their Life’s Purpose. Purpose is your North Star, it is your unwavering unchanging goal which your daily actions will lead you to. Upon setting your own Purpose, you will need a Plan to take concrete steps towards the Purpose, Partners to benefit and to help you achieve your Purpose, and finally Persistence to help you with the very difficult task of staying focused on your Purpose.
In Kenja, every person in our company knows that although I had C level experience in companies like Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, and Fidelity Investments, I have always had a dream to found a different kind of company - one that valued Innovation and Ideas over Politics and the primary focus on Quarterly Profits. My passion is for solving problems in innovative ways and for implementing very difficult projects.
Passion, Purpose, Plan, Partners, and Persistence are the “5Ps of Life” - a workshop that I do with students to help them figure out their Life’s Purpose. 95% of people do not have a concrete Purpose in life - they let events and daily to-dos determine their activities. I do not think
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I was fortunate that I started with good co-founders, people that shared my vision and could contribute complementary skills. The plan is usually a natural outcome of a strong purpose and Persistence is usually achieved by knowing what works for you on a daily basis. For me Persistence is reinforced by refusing to consider a return to large company executive jobs and by daily use of the “Pomodoro” technique. (using 30 minutes interval of focused effort followed by a short break)
July 2018
Expert Talks
Ted Katagi CEO Kenja
Purpose as a Company Just as with Individual Leaders, a company will need to develop its own clear Purpose. A Clear Purpose gives motivation to people, clarity to strategy, and a clear branding for Marketing. If we are honest with most companies, the Purpose easily devolves into meeting the Monthly or Yearly Targets. The Purpose is not merely the result of your actions - the Purpose describes WHY you are pursuing your goals. The Clear Purpose is lived by company members so it becomes a reflection of why people join and stay with your company. Company Strategy is strongly guided by Purpose. Things that lead you off the Strategic Path are rejected and you can find further value and differentiation in the area of your chosen competition. Small changes in your Purpose drives big results in the marketplace. Although Facebook and MySpace are both Social Networks, Facebook’s focus on connecting your friends resulted in many small innovations that MySpace with their focus on creating cool personal spaces did not.
felt by your customers. It is far more enduring than any single campaign message or even a business plan for a year. Kenja’s purpose is to Revolutionize the way that mid to large companies collaborate to get work done through software. In the beginning it was difficult since larger companies tend to buy from other larger companies but we have now achieved something not easily copied. After 7 years in Business, we now have larger organizations like Mitsui and Company, Randstad, and JICA (the Japanese Peace Corp) and many mid sized companies using us. If we had started with consumers and small companies only, then the functionality, security, and ease to use (for older employees as well) would be far different. Starting with Purpose is not always the easy or obvious choice. There are many obstacles in the way and it is too easy just to focus on Profit or KPIs of the company. However, a focus on Purpose will automatically keep Employee Engagement, Strategy, and your Branding on track.
If you are clear on your Purpose, then the Brand is not a just a slogan on a TV Commercial. It is lived by employees, reflected in your products and services, and July 2018
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