The 10 Most Successful Businesswomen to Watch 2019 by Insights Success Media

VOL 09 | ISSUE 10 | 2019

The

Successful

Businesswomen to Watch 2019

Safeguarding Small Businesses through Comprehensive Risk Management

KIrSTEN BAY

E There’s Nowhere to go but Up

ave you watched Mulan, a 1998 American animated movie where a girl fights for her identity and ended up saving whole china? This movie perfectly exemplifies how strong, determinant, courageous, and smart, women are, and there is no any such feat that can’t be achieved by them. Well if you are saying it was just a movie and anything is possible in a movie than what would you say about the women who helped America to win space race. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson; these are the names who were part of NASA’s team of human computers and calculated by hands the complex equations that allowed many space heroes to travel safely to space. Secondly, we can also consider the statement of Margaret Thatcher, a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,“If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman”. This saying is proven true with the rise of influential business women, who are playing pivotal role in variety segment of business such as food and beverage, technology, fashion, broadcasting, automotive and beauty. Few other names in the list are Indra Nooyi, CEO of pepcico, Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, Ginni Rometty CEO of IBM, and Yang Lan a Chinese media mogul, and Co-founder of Sun Media Group. These are the few C- suit business women who are leading their respective field and proving that with right amount of hard work, dedication and passion, anyone can achieve anything. Be it a work of leading a team or a country or name any designation women are knocking hard at every door. In order to celebrate the success of the other such business women and their inspiring approaches, Insights Success has curated a list of “The 10 Most Successful Businesswomen to Watch 2019”, who are bringing innovation with their exceptional ideas and have became an inspiration for others.

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With passion and resilience every feat is achievable.

Rohit Chaturvedi

Over Cover story features Kirsten Bay, CEO and Co-Founder of Cysurance, who is transforming the Cyber security industry and exemplifying leadership with her innovative ideas. She has more than 25 years of experience in risk intelligence, information management, and policy expertise across a variety of sectors. She leveraged her experience in financial services and cyber security in order to negotiate a best-in-class policy in partnership with Chubb. Chubb is one of the leading insurance carriers in the world which creates a volume driven risk model that is completely new to the market. In her school time Kirsten developed a Renaissance Faire as a fundraiser for her Shakespeare Club, which was her first entrepreneurial venture. The idea originated from the need to help fundraise for an annual trip to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and she also wanted to do something different than the usual way high school students raised money for projects. The initiative became successful and from that point on she started to find innovative and inclusive ways of solving problems. Delve in to more such inspiring stories and lessons from many such significant business leaders in this issue and reap the fruits of motivation. Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector. Happy Reading

Cover Story

Kirsten Bay Safeguarding Small Businesses through Comprehensive Risk Management

08 UNBIASED FUTURE: ESTABLISHING GENDER EQUILIBRIUM

16 STELLARâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S VISION:

Rishika Lulla Singh:

SUCCESS IN THE VENTURE WORLD

Bringing Shift in Digital Entertainment Media

Businesswoman of the Month

C O N T E N T S Kendall Stafford : A Compassionate Leader with Exceptional Management Traits

24 Lindsey Myers: Personifying the TrueEssence of Passion

28 Rose Bentley: Combining Excellence with ProďŹ ciency to Achieve Success

Article

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IMPARTING Wisdom:

Women Empower:

Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

Dynamics of WomenParticipation in the Ever-changing Modern Workforce

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Executive Editor Rohit Chaturvedi

Managing Editor Anish Miller

Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Hitesh Dhamani

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Iresh Mathapati

Co-designer Mayur

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Mark, Jai

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Binay

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Calvin Jones

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Kirsten Bay CEO & Co-Founder

Kirsten Bay Safeguarding Small Businesses through Comprehensive Risk Management

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One needs aspiration, vision, grit, and hard work to attain full potential

he current business world is deﬁned by complexity, disruption, and change and desperately needs leaders with holistic approaches and diverse skill + perspectives and experiences. Women are taking sets, charge to change the world to be a better place for human kind and the corporate world. One such female leader is Kirsten Bay, CEO and Co-Founder of Cysurance, who is transforming the Cyber security industry and exemplifying leadership + with her innovative ideas. She created Cysurance with the concept to change how small businesses think about and mitigate against cyber threats. Since the inception of her company, Kirsten and her team took its concept from pitch deck to launch in 7 months, and signed distribution partners who will begin co-marketing to over 200k customers.

Kirsten brings more than 25 years of experience in risk intelligence, information management, and policy expertise across a variety of sectors. She leveraged her experience in financial services and cyber security in order to negotiate a best-in-class policy in partnership with Chubb. Chubb is one of the leading insurance carriers in the world which creates a volume driven risk model that is completely new to the market. In her career, Kirsten has been appointed to congressional committees developing cyber policies, initiatives and recommendations for the intelligence community. She has developed recommendations in partnership with the Center for North American Studies (CNAS) and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) for The White House energy policy, and collaborated on information studies for MIT-Harvard and several federal agencies. She has also spoken on applied economics and its relationship to both cyber and national security around the world. First Initiative Kirsten developed a Renaissance Faire as a fundraiser for her Shakespeare Club in high school, which was her first entrepreneurial venture. The idea originated from the need to help fundraise for an annual trip to the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, and she also wanted to do something different than the usual way high school students raised money for projects. It was also an opportunity to include the student community in the endeavor in a more engaging way while showing them that the Shakespearian era could be interesting and fun. The initiative became successful and from that point on she started to find innovative and inclusive ways of solving problems.

Self Confidence is Requisite for Success Kirsten’s biggest challenge as a businesswoman came when she first transitioned to being a CEO in 2012, as she had to find her footing with the board of directors in establishing herself as the company visionary and leader. This transition was not without conflict, as she often experienced unconscious bias. She worked to overcome these issues by being confident in her expertise, which was the reason for being in this leadership role. Additionally, Kirsten led with proper knowledge of the marketplace, operational proficiency, and vision for the future which helped her to act with the authority that she needed to be successful. Attaining Balance The key to being an entrepreneur and finding a balance is accepting that one can’t do everything, and that there will be times when a specific work or life event must take precedence. That said, understanding how to prioritize is an essential factor, especially when it comes to achieving some semblance of equilibrium, which includes the ability to say no. Entrepreneurs often believe they need to be everywhere at all times evangelizing for their company, but the fact is not every event or meeting is equally important to the success of a business. According to Kirsten “Taking time to engage in life also helps me be better in my role, as it gives me time to reflect on the work I am doing. My passion for my work and vision is what gets me up every morning to do more despite the inevitable obstacles.”

Cover Story Creating a Balance between Vision, Execution, and Leadership Kirsten believes her biggest learning experience is understanding the intersection between vision, execution, and leadership. It is about having the ability to clearly deﬁne direction and ideas to a team so that they develop ownership and passion for the journey. Kirsten’s role as an entrepreneur is to create a balance of these three points so that the team understands their role in creating success. Kirsten’s experience with many entrepreneurs is that they believe vision alone will carry them, and do not provide their team with the process and tools to execute on the business plan.

A Break is Needed According to Kirsten, “My life is as busy outside of work as it is during the week with family and other endeavors, but I

do try to make a concerted eﬀort to decompress and focus on other things in order to clear my mind.” She thinks taking time out is very important to perform at her best. One of her hobbies is golf, which challenges her to work on constant improvement by giving her a place where she can quiet her mind. Beyond that, she enjoys traveling and reading.

Continuing to Improve Innovations In this challenging technological era, one of the beneﬁts of rapid technological change is the opportunity to improve on what has been created. The use of technology is incorporated into products and services so quickly that the user experience and beneﬁt is often less than optimal, which presents the opening for new companies to improve these innovations. Kirsten opines, “Naturally, however, as an entrepreneur it means that I must be constantly engaged in

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understanding how the world around us is changing both inside and outside my industry so that I can continue to learn about the intersections of products and technology.” Being Open Minded Kirsten believes that being calm and flexible in hearing feedback and ideas while remaining focused on the vision is the core to a business concept. She undertakes this exercise every day in terms of temperament. These concepts can be quite challenging when interfacing with investors, customers, and colleagues, but remaining open-minded is the key given that running a start-up company is a fluid process. A Culture of Clear Communication and Collaboration Kirsten’s primary strategy in keeping employees resourceful is creating a culture of clear communication and collaboration. She believes “It is not my role to have all of the answers but, rather, to know the right questions and to have the right people to answer them.” She has found that people most often will go the extra mile if they clearly understand how their role creates success for a company, as well as understanding how their collaboration with their team can benefit their own growth. In short, the team is the greatest resource if they believe that they can trust each other in supporting the growth of the business. Remaining consistent and clear in communicating the goals and path of an organization is critical to maintaining cohesion, as she has seen team bonds begin to fail when there is ambiguity of role or expectation. As teams grow, it is essential that senior management is in sync with that philosophy so that new hires can benefit from consistency in culture.

Patience is Vital For Kirsten “Patience is the most vital attribute – patience with oneself, patience with the process, patience when people don’t understand your vision.” Patience is what enables the calmness that helps one remain focused on the most important tasks that will move a company forward.

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Rishika Lulla Singh Bringing Shift in Digital Entertainment Media

n 2012, a young budding entrepreneur identified the need of a digital platform which would combine entertainment with modern consumer’s interest. This young talent was Rishika Lulla Singh, who founded Eros Now, a digital platform where consumers can online watch 12,000 plus Movie titles, original series, Music Videos, Television Programming and others in Hindi and 9 other Indian regional languages. Rishika has always been quite a free spirit. Having an inquisitive nature, she always enjoyed taking up challenges. As she realized the evolving dynamics of entertainment consumption, it was a challenge for the company to also evolve and serve its customers with their evolving needs. As the Chairman & CEO of Eros Digital, which is one of the first OTT platforms in India, Rishika could foresee a steep learning curve here and that motivated her to launch this platform. As an individual, she has never believed in doing things half-heartedly and wanted her platform to be smooth in its user interface and its offerings. With all the ups and downs faced, today she is proud to say that, Eros Now successfully set up the business ground up and achieved the first milestone of 10k paid subscribers. All of this wouldn’t have been possible without her team, who have contributed to build this platform. She believes in celebrating people’s dynamicity and she personally feels that it lets everyone think out of the box, present unique suggestions and helps in striving for the best.

An On-Demand Digital Platform Much ahead of its time, Eros Now began its exhilarating journey in 2012 to create a unique mark in the Indian film & digital entertainment Industry. It has been a pioneer in the entertainment space in India and the company realized the changing dynamics of the entertainment consumption, leading it to proudly launch India’s first ondemand digital platform Eros Now. The relations built over the years with leading talent, production companies, exhibitors and other key participants played an important role in the growth of the company. Eros Now users watch content on the platform for more than 21 hours in a week- highest amongst all major OTT platforms in India. The platform has the highest percentage of users consuming content on Smart TVs. A total of 27% of Eros Now users watch content on Smart TVs. This can be attributed to its applications UI and in-app content discovery experience. Today, the company caters to more than 154.7 million registered users and 18.8 million paying subscribers worldwide, offering them 12,000 plus Movie titles, Music Videos, Originals and Short format content like Quickie to choose from.

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September 2019

Rishika Lulla Singh Chairman & CEO

Eros Digital insightssuccess.com

September 2019

Businesswoman of the month

Embracing Challenges One of the biggest challenges that Rishika faced was creating awareness and educating the customers to manoeuvre their way between screens and still maintain the same ROI with the change in consumption habits. However, with the help of the talented skilled team of Eros and backed by knowledgeable leaderships, the company has embraced the challenge together, as an organization citing it as an opportunity to grow and cater to a global audience that loves consuming Indian content. Getting Ahead with Passion Rishika is a firm believer of maintaining a personal life after work. As a kid she had laid down a strong foundation in terms of discipline, outlook and approach and this helps her in maintaining work-life balance. Also, she was intrigued with technology and always knew she needs fast paced evolutionary environment. Rishika’s passion for tech and entertainment helps her in passing on the same zeal and enthusiasm to the entire team to always aim for the best. Sharing knowledge and passion helps her in boosting confidence and she ensures a combined effort leads the company to greater heights of success. The Indian entertainment eco-system is at the cusp of evolution and everyone is learning, innovating, educating and spreading awareness amongst each other on a daily basis. It is therefore extremely important to be patient in order to achieve visions and goals, be it technology advancement or reach. Rishika believes in learning from each other and from those around her and creates an environment of growth on both personal and professional fronts. A Leader ‘Must’ Rishika believes every leader must embody a few characteristics like self-belief, discipline, dedication, hard work, confidence and willingness to inspire others. It helps in building confidence amongst the team to act now and not later, think creatively, have confidence, and never give up. She asserts “Inspiring your team and colleagues with your actions is the best possible way to create a positive environment to overcome any current or future challenges.” A Thoughtful Advice According to Rishika, many successful Indian women have inspired others with their phenomenal achievement in varied business domains and have emerged successful not only in domestic but also on international sphere. So, she advises them to set a very high goal, be unafraid of roadblocks, and be persistent towards achieving success.

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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

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September 2019

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. 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.

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.” 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. 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

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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. 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. 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. ‘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. 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.

September 2019

Imparting Wisdom

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. 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 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 endresults.

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!

It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any

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Kendall Staﬀord A Compassionate Leader with Exceptional Management Traits

endall Stafford, Managing Partner at Benchmark International is one of the businesswomen who is shepherding business with her visionary ideas and crucial leadership traits. Kendall was born and raised in North Carolina, where her family owned and operated a manufacturing company. She grew up in a businessdriven environment. In high school, she spent her free time helping the family business. Kendall is a managing partner for Benchmark International and heads operations in the company’s Southwest Region. She began as a director at Benchmark International’s US headquarters in Tampa, Florida. As a director at Benchmark International, Kendall managed a portfolio of client companies while leading a team of analysts and deal negotiators. The staff at Tampa grew threefold under her management and has evolved into the present-day transaction team. After a successful term as a director, she was promoted to managing director, responsible for overseeing three teams of analysts, negotiators, and support staff. Along with managing each team and their portfolios, she continued mentoring future analysts and deal makers. As a Leader In 2016, Kendall was chosen to partner with Benchmark International insightssuccess.com

to lead its US expansion plan and develop the Southwest region. Kendall’s office is charged with leading merger and acquisition activity in the lower-middle-market in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. She and her family made the move from Tampa to Austin where she began the exciting journey of establishing the operations for the region and building the business. This included finding a location in Austin suitable to Benchmark International’s standards, building a book of business, and hiring, as well as mentoring, a team of marketing, sales, and financial professionals. Kendall’s current role is to lead Benchmark International’s Southwest operations. She is responsible for motivating and mentoring the team in Austin, ensuring customer service standards are consistently met, and effectively transacting duties the team was hired to perform. She says “If I do these three things successfully, everything else falls inline. My effective communication, organization and negotiation skills serve me well in this role.” Balancing Work with Life The biggest challenge Kendall faces as a businesswoman is the same challenge that many parents face- finding the balance between work and home life. She said, “I am

fortunate to have a career that I love as well as young children, so I have to be conscious to balance the two, so both are well nourished and healthy.” While this is a challenge for women and moms, Kendall sees men and fathers face this same challenge as well. She considers herself fortunate to have a great team both at home and at work that supports working families. Kendall enjoys the satisfaction of a job being done well and the ability to help others achieve their goals whether it be her team members or clients. Also, the ability to provide a better future for her family and her team’s families. Both of these keep her highly motivated. Leading with Compassion, Empathy, and Transparency Kendall continues to learn daily. She has discovered that treating people with compassion, empathy, and transparency helps leaders to build a strong team. She wants her team members to be happy at the oﬃce and thus, tries every day to create a welcoming environment. She cares about her team members’ professional and personal lives. She notes “We are in the people business and without our team members, we will not be able to service our clients. If I take care of the team, they will take care of our clients. And it’s a win-win.” September 2019

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With a positive attitude, anything is possible.

Kendall Staﬀord Managing Partner Benchmark International

Patience and Perseverance A critical part of Kendall’s job is the ability to bring buyers and sellers together and consummate the deal. For Kendall, listening, finding common ground, maintaining a level head, and keeping both sides satisfied are crucial to her business’ success. The best result occurs when both sides believe their goals have been met equally. Selling a business can be a lengthy process, so patience and perseverance are necessary, since a deal can die a thousand times before it closes. An Efficient Employee Kendall’s work ethic, understanding of the Benchmark model and unwavering support of the company’s vision for growth, has placed her in the perfect position for

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leadership. She has led some of the largest deals Benchmark International has undertaken, and she is a valued member of the Major Transaction Team. These deals are typically over $100 million in transaction value. To close deals like these require complex transaction knowledge, creative structures, and strong relationship management skills; Kendall is naturally curious and always willing to look for new ideas and novel ways of getting things done. She always encourages her team to use whatever resource is available to them to achieve a goal, even if it is something that has not been done before.

Today is the Day For the budding women leaders, Kendall advises “young women who would like to start their own business should just go for it! There’s no time like the present and you must believe in yourself. Don’t listen to anyone that says you can’t do something and never let fear stop you from trying. You will learn a lot about yourself and your business during the journey and, ultimately, you will be surprised at what you accomplished along the way.”

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Unbiased Future

t the top “It’s all about finding someone’s strengths. Women don’t outperform men and vice versa. But I won’t deny that it takes a lot of discipline to stay at the top as a woman,” Ineke expresses. Just like men, women have a lot of qualities that match perfectly with a leadership role. It’s important that leadership comes from the heart. And you need to have the intention to help others grow and make them better through your role. I call it Servant Leadership. If you want to make your company a success, you need to be of service to the company and its people. This has nothing to do with gender or background. That’s why a quota for women at the top is completely nonsense, according to me. All women who really want to reach the top, will find a way to break through that glass ceiling. No bias in the world will stop a woman on a mission to reach that top position. But it’s wrong to think that anyone with the right capabilities – man or woman – can work anywhere they want. There should be a match between your personality, the company’s values and its culture. And sometimes it’s just a case of pure luck. Being at the right place at the right time. If this match doesn’t come naturally, it’s just not meant to be. But if there is a perfect match between you as a leader and a company, it’s the first positive step, in my opinion. It’s still a lot of work. Having all that responsibility takes a lot out of you. You shouldn’t be afraid to make choices, and that also means saying no to certain activities in your personal life. I am a mother of two and am not home every day. My husband and I have been able to make it work. I notice that a lot of women still find it difficult. But you can’t run a company part time. You need to dare to go full in. Those doubts often appear during the initial job interview. Women insightssuccess.com

say “I want to be a director, but I still have children that I need to bring to school. Is that possible?” As if there are no male CEOs that bring their kids to school. The big diﬀerence is that men don’t ask these kinds of questions. They just do it! Balance It’s all about balance. Recently, I attended a forum on female leadership, where I talked about my role as a CEO. In the audience, were female students who were just about to graduate. When the moderator asked which of them wanted the same job as me, only three of the four hundred students raised their hands. The moderator was shocked, and asked the audience what was going on. “She works too much”, was the answer. “And we also want to be able to go to parties, exercise and have a social life.” That shocked me a little. It’s not that I don’t do anything else besides work. My downtime, social life and work activities are just one big mix. It’s true that I’m constantly thinking about work. But I also allow myself to go for a run in the morning or see my hairdresser during the week. To me, it’s just one full week in which I can do a lot. Did I have this go-getter mentality as a child, since I already knew I wanted to one day reach the top? I think so. But, at the same time, all the things I hoped for as a child didn’t come true. What I got is a lot better. I deﬁnitely don’t regret the choices that I’ve made. I started a family, got married, and am the CEO of a young and ambitious company. I should therefore be the last person to decide whether or not one should have a leadership position based on a ‘home situation’. How you combine the two is up to you. And yes, that takes a lot of discipline. But if you have natural leadership qualities, I believe everything is going to be alright. The key to achieving this? As a female – or male – leader, you need to learn to let go and prioritise. Just do your best and focus on making things better for other people.

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Lindsey Myers Personifying the True Essence of Passion

t is certainly a passion that fuels an individual to make things happen. In fact, passion defines the true essence of entrepreneurship. An avid leader, Lindsey Myers is exemplifying how a passion for something can lead to a successful venture. Lindsey founded Concrete Blonde Consulting in November 2016 to pursue her passion for building reputations and revenues through business development marketing strategies. The company has since been named one of the "Top 15 PR Agencies in New York" by The Manifest and one of the "Top 10 Best PR Agencies" by Web Surf Media. This aptly describes how passion can help everyone to climb the ladder of success. Exemplifying Strategic Leadership Lindsey provides profit and growth solutions and thrives as a consultant. A communications expert and entrepreneur, she has over twelveyears of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and non-profit companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market. She graduated from Boston University with a BS in insightssuccess.com

Communications and concentration in PR. She began her career at Word Hampton Public Relations, a firm headquartered in East Hampton, NY and ranked by Jack O’Dwyer’s as one of the country’s "Top 100 Independent PR firms". In 2013, she was made partner and was chosen to launch the company’s NYC division. Then, in 2016, she went out on her own and founded Concrete Blonde Consulting. Being recognized a strategic leader, she has earned a track record for counseling clients, including Fortune 500 companies such as NAPCO Security, Inc., to increase profits, manage brand reputations and gain market share. She is continually driven by her enterprising spirit and innate understanding of consumer influence. In addition, she has also been a guest lecturer at several universities including Hofstra University and Saint Joseph’s University. Her influential leadership and expertise have earned her numerous accolades throughout her career including; PRSA Big Apple award, PRSA Bronze Anvil award, eight MarCom

awards, nine Fair Media Council Folio awards, Communicator award, SABRE award and an Excellence in Communications award. Calmness is the Key Having patience during negotiations was always the biggest challenge for Lindsey. It doesn’t matter to her how much revenue the company is bringing in or how many leads she has coming in; she is always anxious and eager to close the sale. She finds that running really helps her get centered and she has also started a meditation practice to promote calm. Lindsey believes that a sound temperament is extremely important to success in business. She struggled with this a lot. She is of opinion that if you want to have more, first you have to become more. She highly recommends leaders investing in any tools to help them reach their goals. Even, in order to make her employees resourceful, she gives them the relevant tools they need to find the answers themselves and let them know that she values this skill. Words of Wisdom Lindsey advises entrepreneurs to September 2019

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I’m striving to bring a little more compassion and humanity back into the business world.

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Lindsey Myers, Founder Concrete Blonde Consulting

know what they want and expect they can have it. She mentions, “In terms of leadership, remember you might be in charge, but make logic the boss and make sure the talent knows you hired them for their strategic thinking skills and not to “yes” people.” According to her, there are three essential attributes every leader must possess. The ﬁrst is having a clear vision. If you are going to lead people, then you need to know where you are going. The second is eﬀective communication skills, so insightssuccess.com

you can eﬀectively communicate with your team, because you aren’t going to get there alone. And, other is empathy, so that you can connect with you team and nurture their talent. Enlightening Upcoming Entrepreneurs In her advice to enlighten upcoming entrepreneurs, she asserts, “Do it!! The most important thing you need to start a business is a belief you can succeed. If you know that in your heart then all you have to do is keep talking to people about your vision.

Will a lot of people say no? Absolutely. Will some laugh at you? Possibly. Will there be those who warn you that you are going to fail? Make a list of those people and remember that anyone who thinks this is more than you can handle is less than the kind of person you need in your life.” “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other everyday. A lot of people will say no, but sometimes all you need is one person to say yes,” she adds.

September 2019

Dynamics of

Participation in the Ever-changing Modern Workforce

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September 2019

Women Empower

one are the days when women were stereotyped to a certain set of skills and professions, restricting them from exploring the world of endless opportunities. Today, women have announced their arrival in many fields of the business world. Therefore, it seems more important than ever before to recognize female contributions in every profession. Fighting through biased work culture in favour of male dominance, women have conquered the unconquered on the account of their distinct calibre and predilections. In the times when the world female participation rate is to the dispiriting levels of around 67% and pay-off rate of about 63%, achievements by women go-getters are praiseworthy. Listening capabilities is one of the distinguishing aspects of feminine species as compared to their male counterparts. Instilling and pursuing ones thoughts is undoubtedly important for effective working. But being a better listener is something that can make a difference as studies show that the customer values and trusts the firms if they perceive that they are being listened to by the firms. With inherent caring and affectionate traits, women outclass men when it comes to understanding critical demands of the customers. Emotional Intelligence (EI) - the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions as well as the emotions of others - is an essential skill when it comes to dealing with a diverse class of consumers. Women are naturally gifted with higher EI making them better suited for pressure situations and avoiding counter-productive decisions while keeping emotions in check. Emotional Intelligence encompasses two major dimensions – awareness of one’s self and awareness of others. Both the attributes are very much significant for the survival and success of any organisation. Self-awareness involves being familiar with trigger points and behavioural traits when put to the test. This, in turn, helps to modulate impulses avoiding conclusions which are harmful for the welfare of business. In addition to self-awareness, an awareness of others is equally critical in business. Analysing and decoding non-verbal communication – that amounts to 93% of the message – eventually benefits in convincing and converting a lead into a client. Collaboration, and not the cutthroat competition, is the modern era’s principle virtue to achieve success. Many endeavours which seem to be beyond the bounds of

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possibility can be attained by combining efforts from different resources, channels and departments. Further, collaborating products with consumer experience are enormously important. It leads to crafting the best solutions for customer’s pain points and compelling value propositions that reflect their overall business objectives. Multiple studies have found that women prefer to work in teams, while men prefer to work alone. An unfaltering affinity towards collaboration primes women to garner success in different fields of business which gives them an edge over others. Increased profitability can be a motivating factor for many firms to hire more pool of female talents as many studies support the fact. Statistical research shows that Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women on boards financially outperform companies with the lowest representation of women on boards. Moreover, genderdiverse teams have higher sales and profits compared to male-dominated teams, and a recent Gallup study found that gender-diverse business units have higher average revenue than less diverse business units. Trust over female leaders is an attribute which needs to be reciprocated while making the choice. More American workers perceive female executives as honest and ethical than male executives. Pew’s “Women and Leadership” surveyed Americans in 2015 and found that 34% say women are better at this, while only 3% say men are better at it (64% say there’s no difference). While it’s unclear whether this means women are actually more honest, it’s a subtle reminder of how tangled some business decisions can be. Leaders are often tasked with choosing between options that aren’t black and white, ethically speaking, and the capacity to lead honestly is important to the entire company’s success and job satisfaction. Not to mention, increased job satisfaction and organizational dedication to cite positive and meaningful business culture are the added advantages feminine employees carry to the organisation. However, the journey is not all merry go round every time. Hindrances – seen, unseen – are there to check the unrelenting zeal of women aspirants to thrive in the industry. These obstructions need to be pointed out and rectified to create an environment that fuels women empowerment.

September 2019

Lack of confidence, according to many experts, is one prime reason women tend to question themselves and doubt their worthiness. In order to advance, they must coach their inner critics. Out-speak and define what women want professionally if they want to get succeeded. Too often they don’t know or rely upon others to define it for them. “Building relationships with those in positions of leadership is critical,” Susan Brady, executive vice president of Linkage Inc. says. “Put down the to-do list long enough to connect with decision makers across the organization, and help them understand who you are and what you bring to the table.”

Women are generally uneasy about asking for what they want. They must stop thinking about what they need as a self-serving request. They must develop the courage and fortitude to stand up and ask for what they want.

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While proving value, women tend to overcompensate in order to demonstrate that they are adding value. Instead of doing it all alone, change the paradigm and track to encourage others to take on more responsibility, thus enabling them to scale and multiply their own impact. Not to forget, biased work culture and regional barriers are the crucial obstacles in the road of women work participation. But, today women are breaking these shackles and coming out boldly to be a part of economic processes shouldering their male counterparts. There has been obvious progress in achieving gender equality around the world over the past two decades: more girls are attending school, more women are working and are being elected to public oﬃces, more women hold management positions, and the situation involving women’s legal as well as social rights have also improved. However, a great deal still remains to be done to achieve equal outcomes for women and men. Recognizing women’s abilities, the values they bring to the organisation, the transformation they achieve as far as work environment is concerned, and considering monetary beneﬁts associated with the female work participation, corporate sector need to welcome their emergence with open arms. No future is far where maledominated workplaces will be a tale of extinct, we believe.

September 2019

1 The

Most

Successful

BusinessWomen

To Watch 2019

Rose Bentley Combining Excellence with Proﬁciency to Achieve Success

omen are making their marks in every business sector. Their commitment and dedication have helped them to overcome great odds and make beacon for all those to follow. Their success stories are exemplifying varying degrees of hardship and success. One such example of leadership is presented by Rose Bentley, Chief of Staff at Teradata Corporation. Rose leverages her field and cross functional experience to help drive strategic planning, superior customer experience, organizational growth, and sales optimization. In an interview with Insights Success, Rose unveils the keys insights of her inspiring entrepreneurial journey. Below are the highlights of the interview: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in Teradata. Throughout my career, I have been turned to by companies and non-profits to initiate best practices and processes that strengthen operational performance, solve complex organizational challenges, catapult sales growth, and improve customer success. Currently within Teradata, as America’s Chief of Staff I leverage my field and cross functional experience to help drive strategic planning, superior customer experience, organizational growth, and sales optimization. Prior to Teradata, I provided strategic leadership for CloudCherry, a global SaaS company’s, North America brand where I spearheaded operations, sales insightssuccess.com

and go-to-market strategy, driving 3X company growth within 18 months positioning CloudCherry to be acquired by Cisco. Before that, I led the direct global sales team and created a customer success organization at Satmetrix, increasing revenue growth and customer commitment for a successful exit with NICE. Describe Teradata’s cutting-edge services which address all the needs of its customers. With all the investments made in analytics, it’s time to stop buying into partial solutions that over promise and under deliver. It’s time to invest in answers. Only Teradata leverages all of the data, all of the time, so you can analyze anything, deploy anywhere, and deliver analytics that matter most to your business. And we do it on-premises, in the cloud, or anywhere in between. We call this pervasive data intelligence. It’s the answer to the complexity, cost and inadequacy of today’s analytics. What was your life changing event/ incident that changed your life? Moving to Silicon Valley put me on a new and rewarding course. Not only did I get to work with and meet the man of my dreams, I suddenly found myself in a place that took no prisoners. Growing up in Montana and through school in Utah I was always seeking the best and brightest minds to learn from and when I landed in San Francisco I realized I was a small ﬁsh in a big pond – and it thrilled me!

Never did I think my childhood of playing in creeks, floating rivers, watching breakfast club over and over on snow days and arguing with my adoring brother regarding what camping games we were going to play over the Summer– would ever leave me with the desire to live in a big city and swing for the fences but it did and I am a better person because of it. How necessary is it to align business with technology and what are its outcomes? Business and technology alignment are vital for market impact and growth. Aligning the two means as business goals pivot, technology can more readily respond with necessary solutions to support and maintain enterprise momentum. In turn, technological advances and improvements are hardwired into existing and future strategies and initiatives. I will say though “Technology is designed to accelerate a business outcome. Don’t expect technology to fix a business problem – expect technology to help you drive the process forward and enable best practices you need within your business to be successful.” What strategies do you undertake to make your employees resourceful? They say everything you need to know about life you learn by age 5 – well, with a mother as bold and beautiful as mine she instilled in me the curiosity, I needed to always find a way forward, she use to say “where there is a will there is a way.”

September 2019

“

Teradata transforms how businesses work and people live through the power of data.

Rose Bentley Chief of Staﬀ

When I recently ran into an issue of how to help an employee become resourceful I leaned on a few of the truths I was taught – First, if you want someone to believe they can do it you have to give them the tools to be successful, whether that is structure to work within, a playbook, or even basic training. From there you need to empower the person to be resourceful. Let them know it is ok to fail, and that you expect it and can’t wait to hear about it! And last you need to create the environment for them to be resourceful – guide them into the questions that help them solve the problem without you. When someone presents you with a problem ask them “what have you done so far to solve for this?” “Or what would you recommend we do?” Then give them the space to bounce ideas oﬀ you but help them realize they are on the hook for ﬁnding a solution.

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What are some of the vital attributes, in your opinion, that every leader should possess? Everybody defines leadership differently, but I really like the way John C Maxwell defines leadership, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Regardless of how you define a leader, he or she can prove to be a difference maker between success and failure. A good leader has a futuristic vision and knows how to turn her ideas into real-world success stories. To become a good leader, you will have to set a good example for others to follow. That is where your commitment to the business, passion for learning, and empathy come into play. I also believe good

communication skills and decisionmaking capabilities play a vital role in the success and failure of a leader. You need to be able communicated eﬀectively and call the jump balls. If you don’t like carrying the weight of the hard decisions it can be very hard to lead. Every leader needs to feel comfortable making decisions with what data they have in front of them, because you don’t always have the complete picture. Lastly, leaders need to be able to know when to set aside time for innovation and creative thinking, as well as the futuristic vision – having a North Star gives you the ability to set the right roadmap for success and then support your teams to get there.

September 2019

s of 2017, 6% of the venture capitalists were women and only 2.7% women owned businesses received venture capital funding. Being a VC in this startup economy, where 90% of startups fail, is a tough job. However, it has noting to do with gender. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hi. I am Nin Desai. I head a crowdfunded technology venture capital ďŹ rm, NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC). We invest in Series A & B rounds of disruptive technology companies.â&#x20AC;? insightssuccess.com

While there are number of factors responsible for success in the venture capital industry including timing and luck, top of that list is a disruptive technology. A disruptive technology is an innovation that changes the way an existing industry functions and also helps create a new market and value network, displacing an earlier technology or a way of doing business. E.g. 3D printing has been used for rapid prototyping and is being applied in a number of industries today, including

September 2019

Stellar’s Vision manufacturing, automotive, consumer, aerospace, defense, and especially healthcare. As the accuracy and materials market have improved, the medical space shows great potential for this technology. There are about 114,000 people currently on the organ recipient list in United States; and only 34,770 transplants were performed in 2017. Every 10 minutes a new person is added to the waiting list and 20 people die every day because they cannot find a right organ. What if 3D printing tissues can help save some of those lives? Every sector at some point is up for disruption. E.g. Ad Tech. Over time as consumer behavior patterns changed, Digital has now replaced Traditional Television. People are now spending more time on their personal devices like phone, tablets, & PCs. An average American spends about 3 hours everyday on their personal devices, and this is the first time, the time spend on personal devices have surpassed time spent watching Television, which is a big change and opportunity for the Ad Tech Industry. E.g. 4th Industrial Revolution. We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Now a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the 3D, 4D, digital, other smart and biological spheres. However, great ideas and technology needs to be backed by a solid revenue model in order to attract customers as well as attain profitability for the company to be an attractive investment opportunity for a VC. E.g. our new initiative, Total Capitalism. A startup needs an ecosystem to thrive upon, thus it is very important for a company to understand the market dynamics, its impact on their industry, product, and also have a good understanding of the competitive landscape in order to achieve long term success. A disruptive technology needs to scale and a through analysis helps gage those risk and rewards. A CEO is the captain of the ship; and at NIN.VC we start with an entrepreneur because entrepreneurs build companies and not the other way around. Some of the qualities VCs look for in an entrepreneur are ability to dream big with ideas that scale, certain personality traits and work ethics like being focused, disciplined, and hard working. It’s important to have industry expertise and knowledge or surround yourself with people that insightssuccess.com

compliment. However, ﬂexibility and choices an entrepreneur / the team makes determines the future of the company. An amazing entrepreneur with a disruptive technology, a solid revenue model, and good understanding of the competitive landscape goes to vain, if the company does not communicate eﬀectively or has a good execution strategy. Venture Capitalists are known to invest in unicorns that prove to be home run for their LPs and while there is no secret recipe for success, hope this helps in understanding the art and science behind each of that investment.

September 2019