The 20 Best Performing CEOs to Watch in 2019

VOL 10 | ISSUE 06 | 2019

20 CEO s

Dr. Bassam Damaj Proven Track Record of Doing Commercial and Partnership Deals, Building a Rich Pipeline and Turning Around Biotech and Pharma Companies

Editor’s Desk E Empowering People to Deliver Exceptional Results

Great leader has Happiness in his smile, gravity in his voice, grace in his walk, and command over his words. He is happy and cheerful to empower people.

xemplary leader of the organization know the way, goes the way and shows the way. CEOs play a pivotal role in shaping the direction of the organization. Having an exemplary leader is the crucial need of every organization. Such leader believes in leading from the front and by setting right example for everyone else to follow so as to benefit the organization and its clients. Person who is leading the organization should possess the great competence and character. He should be able to empower the employees and give them direction and his precious guidance to deliver exceptional results for the cause of the organization.

CEOs of the organization should constructively engage their employees so as to tap the power of human resource of the organization. Competent CEOs perceive that all employees watch and imitate to all communications and behavior of their leader and this will essentially establish the culture of the organization. Additionally, a CEO should realize that they are helping to develop future leaders and potentially future CEOs within the organization and that the leadership skills that he/she exudes will dictate how these employees manage in the future.

CEO should also ensure that all employees clearly understand their roles, routines, and responsibilities, are challenged on a daily basis and are able to tap their strengths and skills for accomplishing higher purposes of the organization. The organization must have a clear vision of what the future of the company will be and the direction that it is headed which helps to motivate all employees. The CEOs of the organization should welcome the positive suggestions from their employees and should try to implement them. CEOs of the organization should respect the free will of their employees. Additionally, maintaining a trustworthy, honest, happy and cheerful personality provides an essential framework that provides employees with confidence in the direction of the company. Exemplary CEOs should have great communication practice and effective communication skills to convey the most vital inputs effectively for the welfare of the organization.

CEOs of the organization should come up with brilliant ideas to empower their employees so as to contribute to the larger progression of the organization.

CEOs should keep in mind to tap the potential of technology for the betterment of the organization and to deliver effective services to customers. CEOs should have innovative mindset and should always be thoughtful of delivering innovative solutions to the problems. CEOs of the organization should promote the unity in their employees. United we stand; divided we fall. Unity is strength to achieve greater goals.

Healthy relationships among employees help flourish the organization. CEOs of the organization should have happiness in their smile, gravity in their voice, grace in their walk and command over their words to lead the organization very effectively. People naturally gravitate to such kind of leader and are willing to follow and learn from such person and work under their direction for higher purposes.

Recognizing Best performing CEOs, Insights Success has shortlisted “The 20 Best Performing CEOs to Watch in 2019” Featuring as our Cover Story is a notable CEO named Dr. Bassam Damaj. He understands the importance of all roles and responsibilities that come up with the power to lead the organization. As the CEO, Dr. Damaj continues to bring innovation to Innovus Pharma. He is the lead “formulator” of innovative and effective products bringing over 30 products to market over his tenure with the Company.

Also, make sure to go through the articles, written by our in-house editorial team as well as CXO standpoints of notable industry personalities to have brief insights of the sector.

Sharad Chitalkar

Cover Story

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22 Tech-Know Insights What a tech CEO can teach your business about digital?

50

Dr. Bassam Damaj

Expert’s Outlook Leading by Example

Proven Track Record of Doing Commercial and Partnership Deals, Building a Rich Pipeline and Turning Around Biotech and Pharma Companies

Articles 32

Imparting Wisdom Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk

40

Bio Tech

Graphene: A Material Marvel of the Century

58 Empowering Workplaces Constituents of a Productive Work Culture

Con ten ts

26 Cate Luzio Putting Collaboration and Professional Growth First

28 Darren Roos A Results-Driven Market Challenger

18 Benedikt Brueckle Synchronizing Healthcare

34 Garrett Gafke Fighting Risk through Digital Identities

20 Berry Hendriks RedeďŹ ning the Construction Industry

48 Richard Waryn Empowering People to Be the Best They Can Be

36 Garry Drummond A Veteran Enthusiast of Information Security

54 Simon Lajboschitz A Virtual Explorer

42 Josef Bruckschloegl Bringing Better Business Solutions to Organization

56 Walter Perdigao Delivering More than Expected

46 Michael Greene Being Genuine and Leading with Passion

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Executive Editor Hitesh Dhamani

Managing Editor Anish Miller

Assistant Editors Jenny Fernandes Kaustav Roy

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Iresh Mathapati

Co-designer Karan Gaikwad

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Sagar, Vishnu Business Development Executives

Technical Head Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Binay

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Calvin Jones

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Database Management Stella Andrew

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com October, 2019

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Cover Story

Dr. Bassam Damaj Proven Track Record of Doing Commercial and Partnership Deals, Building a Rich Pipeline and Turning Around Biotech and Pharma Companies

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

– President John Quincy Adams, former U.S. President

The

20CEO s Best Performing

to Watch in 2019

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True leadership stems from individuality that is honestly and sometimes imperfectly expressed…

Leaders should strive for authenticity over perfection.

– Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

To lead an organization effectively, the CEO of the organization should have certain skills, talents, and abilities to utilize available resources optimally for the successful growth of the organization. Every best performing CEO should have strong communication skills, be able to build healthy relationships, and learn from the past. Confidence in communication is key in any setting and as someone in charge. A CEO must learn how to communicate effectively to boost morale when necessary. A confident communicator is trustworthy, and able to rally those they are managing, and complete tasks and projects more efficiently. A CEO must have the ability to build relationships with employees and both current and future investors to be successful. These strong relationships often create loyalty and a positive image for the CEO and the company. A CEO must have the ability to learn from past experiences and instill lessons for the future. As mistakes happen, it is imperative that the CEO is able to understand how they occurred and how those mistakes can be used as steps to building success.

Dr. Bassam Damaj, CEO of Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Dr. Damaj is an award-winning scientist and experienced drug developer. He created a breakthrough test for anthrax and helped bring drugs to market at such major companies as Pfizer, Genentech, Pharmacopeia, Tanabe Seiyaku (now Mitsubishi-Tanabe) and Apricus Biosciences. But Damaj is much more than just a technical expert. He’s also proven to be an adept biotech and pharma chief executive, with the talent and connections needed to spot the potential for products and growth where others can’t. In a recent stint as CEO of Apricus Biosciences, for instance, Damaj pulled the company from the brink of bankruptcy and transformed it into a thriving full-fledged pharmaceutical company with a full pipeline of products and a number of important deals with major drugmakers such as Takeda, Abbott and Novartis-Sandoz. “We were able to turn the company around,” says Damaj. Investors also know that Damaj invested his own money in Innovus and did not take salary for three years, he has long been familiar with Innovus, even though he became the CEO in 2013. That’s because Innovus started as a spin-off of Bio-Quant. When Damaj was running Bio-Quant, making millions of dollars as a contract research organization for drug companies, he also had a small drug discovery operation called FastTrack. At the time, Damaj wanted to focus Bio-Quant on contract research, so he spun off FastTrack in 2009 and then it merged with another small company to form Innovus. Now he’s picking up the reins again. A final reason why investors are enthusiastic is that Innovus is a fast and nimble company. It can get products to market quickly without needing to build a sales force first because of Damaj’s network of partners. And when sales do rise, the company can meet market demand quickly simply by contracting out the manufacturing.

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Extensive Scientific and Clinical Research Competitors of Innovus Pharma, in the over the counter and consumer health products industry, typically formulate products using combinations of ingredients already on the market with the intention of spending significantly on marketing to differentiate from others. Innovus Pharma takes a drastically different approach leveraging the expertise of Dr. Damaj to use his extensive scientific and clinical research and conduct pre- and post- market clinical trials to develop safe and more effective products for its’ consumer base. This leads to maintaining a target audience who can trust that Innovus Pharma will provide the best possible product on the over-the-counter market.

Valuing Trustworthiness Dr. Damaj feels that it is critical to ensure that all employees clearly understand their roles and responsibilities, that they are

challenged on a daily basis and are able to develop their strengths and skills to the best of their ability. He believes that the organization must have a clear vision of what the future of the company will be and the direction that it is headed which helps motivate all employees. The environment at Innovus Pharma is one in which all employees feel comfortable raising issues or discussing more effective or efficient processes. This helps the organization to continuously improve.

Additionally, maintaining a trustworthy and honest personality provides a necessary framework that provides employees with confidence in the direction of the company.

Challenging the Status-Quo Through his significant and diverse experiences, Dr. Damaj has learned that failure is a part of any organization, but he believes that it is critical to learn from those challenges to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Additionally, he has recognized that

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Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

– Michael Jordan, Hall of Fame basketball superstar

surrounding himself with talented, motivated individuals who will challenge the status quo is critical for the development of a company as it goes through the various stages of the life cycle of an organization. He is aware that it is important for any leader to be able to trust his employees as it is impossible for a CEO to be involved in all aspects of an organization as it grows to a substantial size.

Being Genuinely Exemplary A strong CEO recognizes that all employees watch and react to all communications and behaviors of their leader and this will essentially establish the culture of the organization.

Additionally, a CEO should realize that they are helping to develop future leaders and potentially future CEOs within the organization and that the leadership skills that he/she exudes will dictate how these employees manage in the future.

Dr. Damaj encourages employees to

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participate in difficult conversations or situations so that they may learn firsthand the appropriate manner to operate.

When the leader is a generator and enthusiastic, those around them are inspired to put forth like efforts. A person, who sees their leader working diligently and efficaciously, seeks approval of that leader by mirroring their actions. That effect trickles down, as everyone seeks approval of those in authoritative positions. Typically, the leader is perceived as possessing the knowledge necessary to be successful and further the company objective. An employee who feels confident behind their leader desires approval, and feeds off of their energy, applying it to their work.

Reflective Approach Each month there is a company-wide meeting to discuss the progress of the company, explain how certain product or marketing ideas are now being implemented, and allow individuals to ask questions or voice their opinions on certain activities or the organization.

During the meeting the group reflects on where the company was in the past

and how far it has come in make progress and growth.

Reaching out to Maximum Consumers Innovus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is in the rare position of having a proprietary sales and marketing platform backed with the right mix of pharmaceutical and clinical expertise combined with strong marketing skills and individuals who have a great vision for the future of the company which sets itself apart from its competition. The company plans to continue its expansion to markets outside of the United States and identify products which are in high demand by the general population but for which effective solutions have not been identified while continuing to explore niche channels to reach as many consumers as possible.

Inspiring Words for Young People Dr. Damaj advises young people to find a mentor or a group of holistic and reliable individuals that one can learn from and receive constructive criticism.

He says that to be successful, one needs to be willing to change, and work for

that change. A successful entrepreneur is always learning and consuming as much information as possible. With the intake of mass information, new ideas and innovation develop when you surround yourself with a strong and knowledgeable team who compliments your own weaknesses. He says that success is not always private and is often measured with social status. He points out to make one’s name known in the community, one must contribute philanthropic services.

Dr. Damaj believes that a genuine entrepreneur has no difficulty building relationships which is a key step in becoming successful. The last bit of advice he gives to young people is to never give up. Not only does failure humble you, failure is often the foundation to success. It’s not always because you did something wrong, or your product/service was subpar, that you fail. There are a whole host of forces both within and outside of your control that will affect whether you have success in your business.

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SUCCESS MEDIA TECH LLC

Benedikt Brueckle Synchronizing Healthcare

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n an Interview with Insights Success, Benedikt Brueckle, CEO of CompuGroup Medical, Inc. (CGM Inc.) shares his journey and about his contribution in the healthcare industry through CompuGroup Medical, Inc. (CGM Inc.). Benedikt is a top performing management executive in e-Health and digital healthcare with expertise in building and optimizing organizational processes, measurement systems, and infrastructure to maximize business results. He is expert in running software operations throughout the United States and Europe, including restructuring, opening new markets and expanding market share. His focus is on developing strategic plans into workable solutions and bench-marking performance against key operational targets and goals. He is a strategic leader, driven to grow and expand business organically and inorganically (acquisitions) and to explore new markets and drive efficiency.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Benedikt Brueckle and Insights Success: As best known as a strategic leader, what are some of your key leadership traits that drive both your personal and organizational success?

First of all it is about our vision and mission, that no one should suffer or even die just because medical information is missing somewhere at some point. That is what drives me and our whole team.

18 |October 2019

Then it’s about honesty, integrity paired with passion and enthusiasm to get us where our mission needs us.

Large parts of the healthcare sector rely on us doing our job and drive synchronization and digitalization in healthcare.

What does your typical day look like?

Usually I start the day very early at around 5 AM with about 30 minutes of swimming and then taking care of our animals.

Most of the time I take an Uber to work, so I can already use the commute to read the latest Blogs and articles to get me up to speed.

The first hour in the office is reserved for emails and notes, whereas the rest of the day usually is taken by phone calls and meetings with employees, customers and stakeholders.

What according to you are some of the challenges that exist in the current healthcare technology sector?

The biggest challenge in healthcare technology currently is interoperability.

There are more than 1,000 vendors that could each have a small piece of someone’s medical history and the challenge is to bring this all together to one Personal Health Record.

That is what we are currently working on.

As an eHealth provider with a comprehensive portfolio of cuttingedge healthcare IT solutions, how does CGM Inc. stay ahead of the competition curve?

Our differentiator is our staff. We try to employ the brightest and most innovative minds in the industry; to be sure we develop cutting edge solutions for our customers and the benefit of their patients.

This lead to a series of unique and patented technologies, like one of the most secure data encryption algorithms on the market, that make our offerings so unique and outstanding.

Share with us the key benefits of CGM Inc. portfolio.

CompuGroup Medical delivers important software and services to improve health and the quality of life.

We encourage communication in the healthcare sector and ensure that costs are kept low. We build bridges between physicians, pharmacies, health insurances, laboratories, rehab & care facilities and hospitals and help them to optimally treat people.

Our goal is to introduce our tele-heath solution to immobilized patients and those in rural areas so they get access to the best possible healthcare available. We will work with the providers to get patients involved and provide them with their personal medical data electronically, both in a holistic and secure manner. The future of healthcare is a patient that is aware www.insightssuccess.com

The

20CEO s Best Performing

to Watch in 2019

and takes care of himself before getting ill – so preventive care using predictive technology will be the buzzword in the future. A person’s health is their most valuable possession. With intelligent IT, we help preserve it.

Could you share with us one of your memorable moments of success?

My most memorable moments of success in my professional life are any and each interaction with our customers that ends with them being happy.

Benedikt Brueckle CEO

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There is no success without failure. Failing is a substantial ingredient on the pathway to success.

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www.insightssuccess.com

From your experience, how do you think leaders can overcome the fear of failure?

I mentor my young managers always with the saying, “there is no success without failure”. Failing is a substantial ingredient on the pathway to success. I only see a manager as complete, if on his path to the top he also made the experience of failure and then excelled in finding a way out of it.

As a visionary leader, what advice would you like to give to start-ups and booming entrepreneurs?

Know your customer and be persistent. I cannot remember a single company that was not successful when living by those two principles.

About the Company CompuGroup Medical is a global eHealth provider with a comprehensive portfolio of cutting-edge IT solutions for the healthcare industry. It connects doctors, hospitals, community health facilities, dentists, pharmacists, health insurers and other service providers to create an integrated network of all healthcare stakeholders. As a result, CompuGroup Medical is able to help these organizations improve efficiency, optimize care and increase patient satisfaction while also improving profitability.

October 2019| 19

Berry Hendriks Redefining the Construction Industry

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aised as the fourth generation in a large construction company, Berry Hendriks, the Founder & CEO of CyBe, grew up at the construction site. Fascinated by building, he has worked in various segments of the industry. Responsible for his own construction projects at the family-owned company Hendriks Bouw en Ontwikkeling – existing since 1922 -, he started experimenting changing processes from design to the way projects are built. Every day he was more curious why the construction industry didn’t change to automated processes while other industries had changed decades ago.

He decided to not only dream about it and started CyBe to redefine the construction industry.

Berry states, what started as an ambition to simplify the complex conventional processes in the construction industry has grown to an independent company. CyBe develops technology and creates solutions to enable 3D concrete printing accessible to all clients throughout the industry: solutions to simplify the complex processes and to work together more efficiently. “In construction, ‘we’ work together,” he adds.

In an interview with Insights Success, Berry unveils his fascination for the construction industry. He also shares his key insights on how he is solving social and economic problems using less raw material and transportation for a more sustainable planet through CyBe.

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Have fun, Be Amazing, “Stay happy, and Live Long

Berry Hendriks Founder & CEO

20 |October 2019

www.insightssuccess.com

The

20CEO s Best Performing

to Watch in 2019

When creating solutions, CyBe always keeps the future in mind. It automates heavy labor to cover the increasing shortage of co-workers around the world. The team at CyBe works hard with a lot of creativity and fun, as its slogan says it all: Have fun, Be amazing, Stay happy and Live long!

challenges. There is always a way - just think and plan before you act. Ÿ Take care of your team, the team will take care of the organization. At CyBe, we took this into practice by monthly 1 on 1 meetings with all team members. The goal of this meeting is to learn and improve the individual and the organization. Ÿ

Below are the highlights of the interview: How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

Within our team, we ensure that we can do all elements of construction and manufacturing the 3Dprinters with related software. One team one task - in the fragmented and regional construction industry most companies specialize.

We believe in a holistic view about projects - it’s design and structural principle we make and how we make them.

What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively?

I’m aware of my exemplary role as CEO - I’m trying to behave in a way which I would like my team to act similar.

We create common goals - a common mission. We gain new experiences in weekly loops in which communication is key. Development is running fast while learning by doing next to the procedures which are simple and clear, and the trainings we provide. Furthermore, we’ve created a divers and balanced team in which each person uses their strengths. By using their qualities and being responsible the team stays motivated and is eager to develop themselves and the products they deliver. That’s why we search for the passion of each employee so they can excel and bring added value to the organization growth.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess. Ÿ Listen to your organization/team - empower people Ÿ Carry out a clear vision. Ÿ Be able to switch fast between operational, tactical and strategic level within company processes and activities.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

Within every project, we push to improve the way of working and technology itself. This way we grow step by step with the aim to the long-term mission - building faster cheaper and more sustainable - within every project we push the boundaries and gain new knowledge and experiences, weekly loops, learning by doing Where does CyBe Construction sees itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

Currently, the fundament is laid out and credibility gained regarding the technology and what can be built with it. By entering new geographical markets, we need to push to reduce cost and time even further. By solving this economic puzzle, we keep ahead of the competition. Also, since we build ourselves using the technology. Based on these experiences we can support our partners even better and create a learning community around our technology with these international partners focusing on building faster, cheaper and more sustainable.

At this moment we started CyBe Academy and focus on continuous learning and education- a lifelong continuous learning!

What advice would you like to give to the young minds?

Start thinking about your ambition at a young age - involve coaches and surround yourself with a team that supports you and the organization its ambition.

What are the experiences and lessons that you’ve learned across your journey? Ÿ Together with a motivated team you will be able to overcome even the hardest

www.insightssuccess.com

October 2019| 21

What a tech CEO can teach your business about digital?

About the Author Pam Bateson is an expert coach and mentor in business, training others to Masters level qualiďŹ cations and supervising coaches. She has worked within the healthcare, retail, hotels, construction, media, agencies, education and public sector. She specialises in Coaching, Mentoring, Employee Engagement, Change Management, Learning and Development and Organisational Design. She has worked with all levels in organisations from graduates to the CEO. She has designed change programmes that connect projects, outcomes, training and coaching. The performance outcomes have been outstanding. She is the CEO and Co-founder at Thrive Partners.

22 |October 2019

www.insightssuccess.com

Tech-Know Insights

Pam Bateson CEO and Co-founder

Thrive Partners

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am Bateson set up Thrive Partners, an on-demand coaching company, three years ago. In this article, she shares her point of view on how important humans are in a more digital world, what she’s learned as a tech CEO, and what this means when you’re looking to use tech in a way that’s both disruptive and works for customers.

www.insightssuccess.com

October 2019| 23

In October 2015, I gave up a successful career as a management consultant and coach to set up Thrive Partners. Lots of people thought I was crazy. I was approaching 50, with two children still at home. But for the decade running up to that decision, I’d been thinking about a better way to deliver coaching – supported by digital, to share more widely the coaching tools I’d used to help clients for many years.

This was the business I set out to build three years ago. Today, we’re working with 25 clients on five continents – delivering our own brand of ondemand coaching, backed with insights for the whole business. The learning curve has been steep – particularly for someone who, by their own confession, didn’t have a lot of experience in learning technology. So here, I wanted to share some of the things we’ve learned – and what it might mean for your business.

Dream big I didn’t really set out to build a business that would be considered disruptive, but my background as a lean engineer and coach did mean that we ripped up the rulebook when it came to the coaching industry. We scrapped the idea that you needed to meet face to face, and that sessions had to last an hour, or even two hours. And we made it a lot easier for people to access a coach to answer the questions they had there and then – increasing access so people could chat to an expert within an hour.

Working with my co-founder, we then rebuilt the industry by asking the biggest questions we could imaging.

What if we could make coaching available to whole organisations? What if we could get listening as valued as speaking? And what if we could help organisations learn as quickly as individuals?

I found these questions irresistible: I wanted to do for coaching what Uber had done for getting a taxi, Netflix had done for home entertainment, and

24 |October 2019

Tinder had done for dating. It’s these big dreams that have galvanised our success in the last few years – and which has set us in the right direction for the future.

The whole-system insights we produced has helped to make sales processes smoother, improved communications and created more opportunities for people to learn.

Build for modern users Despite big dreams, we’ve also made our fair share of mistakes! A lot of them mistakes happened when we took our attention away from our end customers. It sounds obvious to see it there on the page. But it can be easy to lose sight of the customers that matter most, especially when, as a tech CEO, sometime we get preoccupied with a shiny piece of new technology.

Keep it human With suicide being the biggest killer of men under 45, loneliness sweeping through developed economies in epidemic proportions and a third of all young people suffering from anxiety, I strongly believe that we have a duty to keep talking to each other as a society.

So, what to consider first when it comes to users? The main thing to bear in mind is that they expect experiences that are easy and fast to access – a shift brought about by what we call the ‘Amazon Prime Mindset.’ In this era, clunky user experiences reduce the chances of uptake of services. In short, if your technology can’t match or exceed the quality of digital experience people get in their everyday lives, then you’ll need to go back to the drawing board.

Create wins for the many So, if users come first – who else can we harness the power of technology for?

Our answer? Everyone else in the system.

Early on in the development of our MyThrive platform, we realised that delivering digitally would enable us to do more than just scale and facilitate coaching in global organisations; it would also mean we could spot trends and patterns within communities of users, in organisations or society at large. Just as carefully listening has a powerful and transformative role in one-to-one coaching conversations, carefully listening to and analysing anonymised version of the conversations we host has a powerful and transformative role within whole organisations.

We believe that keeping the art of conversation alive in this digital age is essential; only humans can master creativity, empathy, humour and imagination in a way that’s compelling.

Information is everywhere, so we’re using technology differently – to offer real human experiences at scale, at any time of the day, whenever our clients need a conversation, for everything you can’t Google.

And what of the future? Curiously, even the structures of artificial intelligence and machine learning look set to mimic human patterns. It’s still early days, but leaders in this space talk of ‘deep learning’ with AI – by layering up different tools that connect in the same way as our brain’s neural networks.

And so, the next three years?

My recent experiences have led us to ask even bigger questions than we did to begin with – which I suspect will lead to our next irresistible set of adventures! What if we could transform learning management systems into learning ecosystems?

What if any community of learners could connect with any community of teachers? And what if a better understanding of outcomes from learning could help both individuals, organisations and society to thrive?

I for one believe there are exciting times ahead.

www.insightssuccess.com

Cate Luzio

Putting Collaboration and Professional Growth First

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I

f you fall down, get up and dust yourself off,” believes Cate Luzio, the Founder and CEO of Luminary. It takes immense courage, perseverance, and competence to set an example of noteworthy leadership.

Cate has done it with her exemplary leadership skills. In an interview with Insights Success, Cate unveils some key insights on her undulating entrepreneurial journey.

Below are the highlights of the interview: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in Luminary.

After a 20-year career in financial services, I left my global leadership role in banking to become an entrepreneur. I’m the founder and CEO of Luminary, a collaboration hub and meeting space for professional women in New York City. Luminary is an inclusive community, not an exclusive club. We don’t have an application process because diversity and inclusion are paramount to our mission. From launch, we included men in our programming and in our space. Men are welcome to join too. Unlike any other community, we bring together our individual members and corporate and nonprofit members in one space so that they can connect and learn from one another. Our programs rooted in expert content. Since opening our doors this year, we have led over 150 programs and experiences for members and a thousand more and counting have come to Luminary to navigate their personal and professional futures.

26 |October 2019

How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

It’s all about our programming and community at Luminary. Over 60 percent of our programs are memberled and inspired, responding directly to the issues and opportunities that women encounter in the workplace and their personal lives. Members receive unmatched development experiences and access to connections, conversations, and opportunities that you can’t find anywhere. All of our programs are focused on four key areas and there’s something here for everyone.

1) Professional Development - We all benefit from skilling-up. Luminary’s Illumination Sessions provide members with critical skills like understanding leadership strengths, negotiation, and building your personal brand in intentionally small sessions.

As part of our commitment to mobilizing the middle, the Sustainable Connections Series brings companies from across industries together to connect early and mid-career women together for an evening of networking and peer mentorship. Our Luminous Speaker Series brings top leaders to have inspiring and intimate conversations with our members about their career journeys and lessons learned. We have welcomed mega-watt headliners like Sallie Krawcheck, Carla Harris, Bobbi Brown, Ruth Zuckerman, Gary Vee, Sarah LaFleur, Michelle Cordeiro Grant, as part of our Luminous Speaker series.

2 ) Small Business and Entrepreneurship - We create and convene programs that address the growing number of women entrepreneurs and small business owners starting and running businesses. We presented gamechanging events like Female Founders Day with the Female Founder Collective for a full day of panels, workshops, and advice for women entrepreneurs who are launching their business. Our public-private partnership with WE.NYC kicked off with the WE Master Leadership Conference, bringing together members of Luminary with other women entrepreneurs in New York City for a full-day of relevant content.

3) Career Changers and Pivoters Luminary curates opportunities to get to your next career goal. Whether you want to climb to the c-suite, successfully pivot your career, return to work after time off, or make your next career jump Luminary is your career advocate. With tactical workshops like design thinking for your career, crafting your professional story, leveraging LinkedIn, and understanding how recruiters and companies hire, Luminary members have numerous opportunities to prepare for their next professional step.

4) Personal + Wellness - We have comprehensive programming that focuses on the whole woman. Personal development programming addresses topics that represent how we manage our time, stress, resources, and energy.

Luminary brings together experts who can give members information and resources on managing and investing your finances, loving your body, shifting your mindset to abundance, styling for your brand and skills to be braver. From Barre to yoga we are helping you prioritize your wellness with express classes and bringing in industry experts to share insights and help you achieve your goals.

What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively? www.insightssuccess.com

The

20CEO s Best Performing

to Watch in 2019

In my opinion, it’s important to lead with values. Luminary prides itself on being an inclusive community, and we want to support all of our members and employees and ensure that they can invest in themselves. I’m extremely fortunate to have such an amazing team working with me, and we work hard to create a space that didn’t exist before.

For our staff, it’s critical to have a north star to focus on, and for us, that’s our members. Each week, we have a team meeting to check in with the entire team and reflect on our favorite member moments from the previous week. The membership experience is the center of it all for our team, and it’s important that they also feel a part of the community.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.

I think hard work and determination are key attributes of inspiring leaders. My personal mantra is if you fall down, get up and dust yourself off. My father always said that to me growing up playing with my brothers and it sticks with me to this day.

corporate memberships. It’s important to create content that supports all women from entrepreneurs and small business owners to executive women. We are also looking at new collaboration opportunities that will bring members more unique experiences and exclusive access.

What advice would you like to give to the young minds?

My advice would be to remember that there isn’t always a blueprint for what you want to do. You might not be the typical job candidate but you might still be the best one for the job. For example, I didn’t have a background in finance and I was able to leave my mark in banking. I think it’s important to look for people with different experiences to complement the team. I never considered entrepreneurship and never even considered opening, let alone self-funding, a collaboration hub, but I did. Sometimes you have to listen to your gut, analyze all of the opportunities in front of you, raise your hand, and never be afraid to take a risk.

What are the experiences and lessons that you’ve learned across your journey?

It was a radical change going from a 20-year career in banking to entrepreneurship. Every day is different and there are always new challenges. It is a rollercoaster of emotions of highs and lows in the business. Nothing can prepare you for it - take it one day at a time. I learn more about collaborating and partnerships each day, our members teach me something new all the time.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

We opened Luminary with a commitment to lead extraordinary programming. With over 150 programs so far, we are taking that next level to see how those experiences resonate. We are committed to making them even better.

Measuring the programming impact is key, and our Chief Impact Officer Surabhi Lal would agree. Vision and teamwork can help get you from strategy to execution, but it doesn’t stop there. By looking at the impact we’re having and listening to what members are saying we can continue to improve and learn from their feedback.

Where does Luminary see itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

Luminary just opened a few months ago and with over 500 members to date, we are laser-focused on building out our New York community. We are welcoming new members every day and building our brand through word of mouth.

We want our members and visitors to feel at home and to walk away feeling a piece of our magic. We have had tremendous success during this first year in business, and we aim to maintain this momentum by staying committed to producing quality programming and onboarding www.insightssuccess.com

“

I emphasize collaboration over competition because we can get more done together, and lift each other up at the same time.

Cate Luzio Founder & CEO Luminary

October 2019| 27

I

n today’s business environment, macroeconomic forces, such as trade disputes, political tensions and regulatory changes can cause both disruption and uncertainty. To navigate this often unpredictable climate, companies need ready access to and accurate visibility of their operations so they can quickly adapt. A lack of clear insight into these operations can cost businesses millions of dollars, especially if decisions are driven from incomplete or outdated information.

Since joining IFS as CEO in 2018, Darren Roos has oriented the entire company around a set of priorities focused on offering customers solutions that deliver value and that ultimately empower them to navigate the inevitable changes in the marketplace. IFS is focused on enterprise software solutions for customers in five industries, including aerospace & defense, engineering, construction & infrastructure, energy, utilities & resources, manufacturing and service organizations.

Darren Roos

A Results-Driven Market Challenger

Focusing on where the business can deliver the most value and the most impact, this mid-sized IT company competes and wins against multibillion-dollar industry heavyweights. Since his appointment in 2018, Roos has implemented an ambitious growth strategy that has led to successive quarters of double-digit growth. The analyst community and his global team are confident he is on track to organically grow the business to $1 billion in revenue in 2021.

Building a Solid Career

While Roos was less career-oriented when he initially entered the enterprise software industry, that quickly changed, and he shares that his

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www.insightssuccess.com

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career prospects opened up when he saw the promise of what role he could play. This can be seen in his performance at a Fortune 500 firm prior to joining IFS, where grit and determination took him from being an individual contributor to joining the most senior executive ranks within 9 years. Not rushing his career progression has been key, he said.

Global Market Leader Roos has taken a similarly steady and strategic approach in his mission to profitably grow IFS over the past 18 months. Early on, he recruited top talent from the fiercest competitors in the market to add to an already strong executive roster. He also focused on transitioning the fragmented global business into an integrated organization with a common operating model. Now the company has an even greater capacity to service midmarket and large enterprises who need a vendor that can scale globally alongside them.

As IFS is consistently outpacing wider industry growth by a factor of three, the strategy has been validated many times over.

Customers are also feeling the tangible gains. Market intelligence firm IDC recently produced a white paper, sponsored by IFS, to calculate the business value derived from its enterprise software. The study found IFS users benefitted from an 18% productivity gain through IFS’s software solutions, as they enabled them to work faster, as well as more seamlessly and efficiently. This independent evaluation was based on www.insightssuccess.com

an in-depth qualitative analysis with customers from across geographies and all of IFS’s focus industries.

Effective Communication Roos believes that his primary role is to ensure that the entire organization has a clear view of where it is headed, how it will get there, and, most importantly, why it exists in the first place. As he shares, a CEO needs to be decisive, a strong communicator and ensure all employees understand the company’s purpose. He adds that, ultimately, the success of any organization comes down to the efficacy of the strategy and the quality of execution. Darren has also created an environment where everyone can contribute according to their capacity.

He believes that his ability to build a diverse team--whether that is based on age, gender or ethnicity--and then getting the most out of them, is a key attribute. He values employees who have a positive attitude, strong work ethic and are authentic.

“

Remain focused on what the customer wants, what they need, and ensure you deliver.

Darren Roos CEO

One such effort to empower employees to contribute according to their capacity is the IFS Incubator program, which is a Shark Tank-like internal program intended to nurture innovations from all ranks of the IFS employee community. The focus of Incubator ideas must be to help customers uncover the potential of their businesses more rapidly. The employee-driven ideas are expected to complement and augment the solutions in IFS’s current offering. The submissions the company has been receiving have been impressive and speak to Roos’s focus on shaking up what it means to be an employee of a thriving tech company.

Advice: Here are some key pieces of advice from Roos on building a career: Remain passionate: “If you can’t find a way to love what you do, then try something else. Motivating yourself to work hard when you hate your job is impossible. Find a leader and a company that inspires you.”

Master One’s Craft: “Instead of thinking about the next promotion, focus on mastering your craft, proving yourself in your current role and then overperforming. By doing so, you can build a career instead of constantly looking for the next shiny new thing.”

Remain Focused: “Obstacles and challenges are inevitable, but you should choose to be resilient in tough times and remain focused. Also, do not be afraid to ask for help from more experienced colleagues throughout your network.”

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Successful Personality Traits to Learn

from

Elon Musk L

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.

www.insightssuccess.com

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.

www.insightssuccess.com

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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Garrett Gafke Fighting Risk through Digital Identities

I

Garrett Gafke CEO

n an interview with Insights Success, Garrett Gafke, CEO of IdentityMind shares his journey and discusses his contribution, through IdentityMind, to the market using innovative digital identity technology. IdentityMind helps companies win the fight against fraud, money laundering, human trafficking, and terrorist financing.

Garrett shares his thought process behind leading the organization effectively. He explains essential traits that exemplary CEOs should possess. He shares experiences and various lessons he learned in his journey. He discusses the strategies that help employees bridging the gap between idea and execution.

He gives some insights into the future of IdentityMind, and he gives his advice to the young minds.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Garrett Gafke and Insights Success:

“ WHAT CAN I DO TO SERVE YOU “

TODAY.

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Give a brief overview of your background and your role in IdentityMind.

I have been an entrepreneur, business leader for and investor for some time. I was President and CEO of Paymate and SteelEye; a senior executive for CyberSource (CYBS), Trintech (TTPA) and VeriFone; and Group Vice President and General Manager for Cardinal (CAH). Through my career, I have founded companies, taken companies public and executed M&A transactions.

At IdentityMind, I am the company’s CEO. My role is to take our innovative digital identity technology to market and grow the business to grab the tremendous opportunity in front of us.

How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

IdentityMind is a SaaS platform that enables companies to reduce their transaction risk and www.insightssuccess.com

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fight financial crime, while lowering the cost of doing business and creating the best possible customer experience.

We’ve built our platform centered on digital identities, a technology that enables companies to meet their risk and compliance needs far more effectively than any other method on the market. It’s also a technology for which we own many patents. In building out our platform, we stay focused on the market needs and in particular the key use cases and the segments to which they appeal. Use cases around KYC, Sanction Screening, Transaction Monitoring, Transaction Fraud and more. For each of these, we build the platform out so that we are addressing these use cases as our customers and prospects expect.

solved, why is it important to the user/ buyer/ etc., and what is needed to make it work. That leader then needs to be able to take that story and tell it to all his/ her constituents from funders, to product leaders, to sales, and ultimately the market. Communicate that story so that people inside and outside their company feel the excitement of that solution. Ultimately, the below are important to me:

What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively?

Ultimately, I believe organizational effectiveness is based on selecting the right team, picking the right problem to solve and pointing the team at the right targets. I keep the company aligned by detailing the vision to reach those targets (product user and market targets) and tracking the team’s progress towards reaching them. I help my direct reports stay focused on their targets by progress against metrics.

Ÿ

Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.

Every leader is different. Different from a style perspective and different from a skills perspective. But, if I were to distill a few things, first off, a leader needs to be able to envision the solution that he/ she is trying to build.

That is, what is the problem being www.insightssuccess.com

Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ

Ÿ

Obsessive drive to win=passion and commitment Empathy & Humility (these come with time & experience) Ability to Listen and communicate (this is a basic but missing from many) Be decisive with the information they have at that time Resiliency & Grit—Critical

What are the experiences and lessons that you’ve learned across your journey?

If you are not consistently working on learning, then you are not improving and if you are not improving you are ensuring failure.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

This gap usually exists when an idea is not widely understood, when skills applied may not be the right ones, and when the team is not fully motivated to get there. I don’t know that these are necessarily strategies, but the solutions to all of these things are: communication, team and incentives.

Communication is about making sure that everyone understands the job at hand and what is at stake. Team is

about bringing the right skillset to the project. And, incentives are about motivating the team to put in their best effort.

Where does IdentityMind sees itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

Our overall vision of bringing integrity and trust to the digital world continues to guide us. The centerpiece of that will remain digital identities and deeper than this are trusted digital identities. In between, we will continue to drive towards great accuracy. We are already the leader in this regard with the highest accuracy for identifying good and bad users ultimately trust.

Having higher rates in these areas has a measurable effect on your revenue (more good customers) and expense (less fraud, and less cost to find it).

Improving here is key. We also look to make the system even easier to use.

This means a variety of things including integrating it a customer’s key systems, workflow that is configurable to match their process, and a UI that allows our users to more quickly use the systems. We will continue to lead the world in building trusted digital identities.

What advice would you like to give to the young minds?

Learn, be humble, work hard, ask lots of questions, and have a sense of urgency.

October 2019| 35

Garry Drummond A Veteran Enthusiast of Information Security

I

n an interview with Insights Success, Garry Drummond, Founder and CEO, 802 Secure, shares valuable insights from the experiences he gained in his entrepreneurial journey.

Moreover, he broadly discusses on the services offered by the company.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Garry and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in 802 Secure, Inc. Originally from Scotland, I arrived in the Bay Area in 1998. I am a 20-year veteran in the Information Security industry. An active member of the CISSP organization, Certified Information System Security Professionals. I am also a Certified Wireless Networking and Security Professional. Before founding 802 Secure, I spent seven years at nCircle Network Security (pioneers of vulnerability management) and nine years at AirDefense, (wireless intrusion detection company). Both companies had successful exits. I have always enjoyed leading-edge technology evangelism. The experience gained in sales management leadership, product development, product marketing has proven to be invaluable, the wins, and the loses. As Founder-CEO at 802 Secure, my vision for the company is simple: to be the market leader in Wireless IoT Threat Management. With 80% of IoT devices being wirelessly connected, wireless is the new network and now the new attack surface.

How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

What makes our solution unique: We address IoT risks stemming from unmanaged, unsecured, and misconfigured IoT devices and networks. These risks stem from the explosion in IoT devices ranging from building automation (50% of new building construction includes a wireless IoT network), deployments of IoT across OT networks, and Shadow IoT. 802 Secure protects the wireless and IoT mobile edge by providing visibility into the IoT

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security blind-spot combining edge security with centralized cloud threat intelligence.

The Problem that we solve - 80% of edge computing is wirelessly enabled today across devices, networks, and IoT. This evolution requires a new level of visibility across not only the IT network but the surrounding physical environment (off-network systems).

Gartner and NIST refer to this cyber Physical Security.

The lack of Physical visibility, management, and security exposes organizations to risks including unmanaged, Shadow IoT, and adversarial devices such as wireless thermostats, Smart TVs, spy cameras, drones, rogue cell towers, wireless storage devices, and much more.

What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively?

Successful organizations share two characteristics: they are smart, and they are healthy. An organization demonstrates that it smart by developing intelligent strategies, marketing plans, product features, and financial models that lead to an upper hand over its competitors. The company demonstrates that is it healthy by eliminating politics and confusion, which prompts higher confidence, lower turnover, and higher efficiency.

Culture fit is likewise essential. The characteristics that I search for are: Ÿ They need to be humble and practical. Ÿ Are they hungry to do well, and do they have strong work ethics. Ÿ They need to be smart and eager to learn the business, roll-upthe-sleeves, and be a problem solver, think outside the box.

Invest wholeheartedly in taking care of business.

Let your determination, be your ability! www.insightssuccess.com

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Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.

I believe that confident leaders hire people better than themselves; they give credit to others, they are not hesitant to assume the fault, admit when they don’t know something, enable the group, hire people who don’t check off all the boxes, yet center around the potential. They give others a chance they deserve, and they don’t see good people as a threat to their position.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

Implementing and reinforcing organization clarity is vital to executing the business

well. I have a few rules that help me accomplish this: Rule # 1. Building and maintaining a united leadership team.

Rule #2. Create organizational lucidity by eliminating any confusion within the company.

Rule #3. Lead from the font — over-communicate the goals and direction of the company.

Where does 802 Secure see itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

Achieving a product-market fit (PMF) is a real accomplishment. Figuring out Go-ToMarket Fit and driving growth through our business partners will hopefully fulfill the mission. I see global markets opening up, as IoT enablement grows worldwide. To sustain competitive advantage, we need to continue to work hard as a leadership team on building a zero-touch and straightforward GTM model, a repeatable GTM deals playbook that lines up on the right use cases to create urgency.

What advice would you like to give to the young minds Begin with an issue or disruption. Enterprise organizations get funding based on tackling a critical client issue or addressing a potentially significant disruption. Enterprise clients don’t purchase technology for technology’s sake. They are buying to take care of problems, shield against interruption.

Garry Drummond Founder & CEO

www.insightssuccess.com

October 2019| 37

A Material Marvel of the Century

T

he simplest observations are sometimes the greatest discoveries. Watching an apple falling from its branch, Isaac Newton discovered the famous law of universal gravitation. Almost three centuries later, science could take another leap forward with... a roll of tape.

There is a new wonder material in town that might change our future.

Imagine a coffee cup that streams the day’s headlines in real time. Or a cooking pot that can detect the presence of E. coli bacteria that could make you sick. Or a television screen that is as flexible and thin as a piece of paper. All of these applications could be a reality if the wonder material, named Graphene, lives up to its hype.

A Complicated Narrative The story begins in 2004 in the laboratories of the University of Manchester. Fascination with this material stems from its remarkable physical properties and the potential applications they offer. Although scientists knew one atom thick, twodimensional crystal graphene existed, no-one had worked out how to extract it from graphite.

feat achieved while peeling layers of graphite using adhesive tapes, and why Andre-Kostya duo won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their pioneering work. This is the beginning of a scientific and engineering renaissance.

Unboxing Graphene Graphene is a material that can be perceived as a form of graphite, and therefore a carbon allotrope that is distinguished by its crystalline organization. In simple terms graphene is a sheet of a single layer (monolayer) of carbon atoms, tightly bound in a hexagonal honeycomb lattice. It is the building-block of Graphite but graphene is a remarkable substance on its own - with a multitude of astonishing properties proving the title of ‘wonder material’.

Graphene is the thinnest compound known to man having size equal to one atom thick, the lightest material known, the strongest compound discovered surpassing diamond, the best conductor of heat at room temperature and also the best conductor of electricity known to exist.

The Material of the Future

That was until it was isolated in 2004 by two researchers at The University of Manchester: Prof. Andre Geim and Prof. Kostya Novoselov. This is the story of how that stunning scientific 40 |October 2019

Graphene is a disruptive phenomenon; one which could open up new markets and even replace existing technologies or materials. It is when graphene is

used both to improve an existing material and in a transformational capacity its true potential can be realised. The vast number of products, processes and industries for which graphene could create a significant impact, all stems from its amazing properties. Ÿ Biomedical Graphene’s unique properties allow for ground-breaking biomedical applications; Targeted drug delivery, improved brain penetration, DIY health-testing kits and ‘smart’ implants can be mentioned out of many possibilities. Ÿ Composite Materials One of the simplest and most effective ways of harnessing the potential of graphene is to combine it with existing products - so called composite materials. By combining with paints, a unique graphene coating can be formed which could signal the end of the deterioration of ships and cars through rust. Additionally, it can do wonders in the field of weather-proofing, packaging, sports equipment and creating lightest, strongest, safest structures. Ÿ Electronics Graphene has the potential to create the next-generation of electronics exploring spheres of Sci-Fi technology, faster transistors, semiconductors, bendable phones, wearable gadgets and other electronics.

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Bio Tech

Energy With its influential properties and capabilities, graphene is surely an innovation with distinct future prospects. Bearing this in mind, one might be surprised to know that carbon is the second most abundant mass within the human body and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass, after hydrogen, helium and oxygen. This makes carbon the chemical basis for all known life on earth, so therefore graphene could well be an ecologically friendly, sustainable solution for astronomical energy demands. Imagine fully charging a smartphone in seconds or an electric car in minutes. That’s the power of graphene batteries and supercapacitors. Ÿ Filtration Membranes Imagine clean drinking water for millions in developing countries. A global toll of 3.4 million deaths each year is a serious concern which underlines the gravity of clean water requirement. The development of graphene-based membranes has brought that possibility closer like never before. Ÿ Sensors Ultra-sensitive sensors made from graphene could detect minute dangerous particles helping to protect potentially dangerous environments. Its inherently micro-sized structure allows for the creation of hair thin like sensors which can be incorporated to detect biological agents like drugs in our body, stresses and strain levels, atmospheric changes caused by decaying food, and many more. Ÿ

However, studies in 2012 found that by analysing its interfacial adhesive energy, it is possible to effectually separate graphene from the metallic board on which it is grown. As the techniques continue to evolve in nearby future, on the account of its high productivity, a sharp decline in price is expected to be achieved.

The range of industries where graphene research is making an impact is substantial. And this is only the beginning.

These are only the baby steps. Although, it’s important to consider the span within which it is likely to exist in customary life, one simply cannot overlook the inconceivable and endless potential of this supernatural material. With continuously growing necessities and depleting resources of the contemporary world, graphene will certainly turn out to be a panacea of all remedies.

Future It must be a wondering question that despite of graphene’s prodigious abilities why it has not hit the ground reality.

The problem that prevented it from initially being unavailable for commercial uses was that the creation of high quality graphene was a very expensive and complex process. “Its industrial production is not yet based on reliable methods to obtain large quantities,” claims Alberto Bianco, a researcher at the CNRS and the University of Strasbourg. It was estimated in 2008 that the production of a square meter of this miracle material cost a whopping amount of 600 billion euros.

www.insightssuccess.com

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“Success is a marathon and not a sprint! It’s all about continuity and improving constantly along the way.

Further you better develop an understanding that management and leadership is a team-sport.

Nobody ever accomplished to be successful without the support of great colleagues and the trust of partners and clients,” believes the CEO of KWAK Telecom Ltd., Josef Bruckschloegl.

“

Strategy is the art of achieving superior performance in a dynamic environment.

Josef Bruckschloegl Bringing Better Business Solutions to Organization 42 |October 2019

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J

osef is an educated engineer and graduated in telecommunications and media-economics at University of applied science in St. Poelten, Austria, in the year 2000. A year later at the age of 22, he became director of E-Commerce at Telekom Austria Group where he was incharge of building the online sales channels of the Austrian telecommunication incumbent. After that, he served several huge firms like Deutsche Post or Deutsche Telekom as a consultant. He started his assignment with KWAK Telecom in September 2009 as Vice President Carrier Relations. One year later, he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the group and Managing Director of KWAK’s German subsidiary. Since end of 2012, he is leading the firm as its Chief Executive. In 2014, he was accepted for the Advanced Management and Leadership Programme at Said Business School, University of Oxford and was awarded “Outstanding Alumnus” of the business school two years later. The same year KWAK Telecom was awarded “National Champion" in the Category "Business of the Year” at European Business Awards, the biggest business award in Europe.

Enabling Businesses to Bill & Monetize Josef mentions that KWAK is at the interface of telecommunications and media markets and facilitate micropayment for media channels, content providers and service hotlines. The company realized very soon that these markets are becoming rapidly more international and many of them serve a global audience. For KWAK, that means that its portfolio of premium rate services has to reflect and cover this trend. Its main goal is to enable its clients from all over the world to bill and monetize on their services. Furthermore, it has identified that there’s a major shift in media markets going on. Classic channels like TV or radio stagnate and there’s a huge rise of online channels such as Youtube and applications.

This of course impacts the company’s offer and the way it implements its solutions into the billing needs of its customers.

Achieving Superior Performance Josef constantly strives to achieve superior performance in an extremely dynamic and global environment. In order to lead effectively, he continuously thinks about what does the company has to do to set itself apart from its competitors?

What can it do to attract the best talent? And what is necessary to serve its client’s needs the best way possible? The company figured out some essential virtues mandatory to achieve those goals: It’s about building sustaining relationships with clients and suppliers, working as a team to identify the best solutions for tasks and problems, creating internal and external alignment to act agile, having a clear strategic direction what the company is heading for and most importantly deliver results that keep its customers and partners happy.

www.insightssuccess.com

Threats to Any Successful Organizations In his entrepreneurial journey, Josef has learnt one important lesson that “Don’t stop learning and stay humble!” He opines that there are two major threats to any successful organization. It’s ego and hybris. Especially after being highly successful for a long period of time with great results and multiple awards won, one has to be careful of not becoming too self-confident and staying aware that people make mistakes and disruptors and competitors are just waiting to eat your lunch.

It Involves as many Contributors as Possible When asked about strategies that are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution, Josef asserts, “First of all it’s not my strategy but the strategy of the firm created by as many contributors within our organization as possible. Strategy is nothing that’s implied top-down but it’s about a process involving as many thoughts and thinkers as possible. My role as CEO is like the one of a conductor of an orchestra. Once we have achieved a mutual understanding what ideas might lead us to performing superior within our markets we start implementing and executing. Therefore, alignment and the respect and understanding of everybody’s contribution is essential.”

Filling White Areas on the Map In the near future, KWAK is striving to improve its marketleadership in the segment of Premium Rate Services steadily and to further expand out markets around the globe.

Currently, it is serving clients in more than one hundred countries, so it still has some white areas on the map. One of its major initiatives currently is how to serve developers of applications and online media channels with micropayment services, especially in areas like Africa, South America and parts of Asia where still the penetration of credit cards is low.

Further, the company is highly active to build call center resources all over the world to support its clientele going global and being able to cover a bigger part of the value creation process of Premium Rate Services.

Every Member Counts In the opinion of Josef, a key attribute to perform as a CEO is the ability not to forget that it’s not you who creates the success of the firm, but each member of the team has to contribute to make superior performance happen. The understanding that a great leader is always a great enabler of talent is mandatory to create a vibrant and agile organization and to establish sustaining success. And of course, you need the capacity to cope with pressure when things are going not that well. As a CEO, you are the prime person who carries the culture of the firm. You are the one who represents the company and its values on the market as well as internally.

October 2019| 43

Michael Greene Being Genuine and Leading with Passion

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n an interview with Insights Success, Michael Greene, CEO of Enzoic, shares his journey and experiences in leading multiple organizations as a CEO. He reveals the essential traits of being a great leader and leading the organization with collaboration. He is a firm believer in the thought, “Leadership is not about always being right, leadership is about being genuine when you are wrong.”

Below are the highlights of the interview between Michael Greene and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of your background and your role in Enzoic: I am a growth-oriented CEO and General Manager with extensive experience across the organization from product and operations to sales and marketing, in a variety of international high growth companies. I am currently the CEO of Enzoic (formerly PasswordPing), a cyber-security company that helps organizations detect compromised credentials. Prior to joining Enzoic in 2018, I was the CEO of ID Watchdog, an identity theft protection company that was sold to Equifax in 2017. Before IDWatchdog, I held senior management positions at Symantec, Webroot, Thompson Micromedix, Raindance and Baxter. I graduated with an MBA from the University of Colorado in 2000 and I have a BA in Biology. I live in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with my wife and 2 sons.

How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

Michael Greene CEO Enzoic

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Enzoic has certain core capabilities around dark web research, compromised credentials, and high transaction architecture while maintaining high levels of security. When clients come to us expressing a need for our services and we see a common set of needs forming around a certain group of clients, we work hard to define, differentiate, and produce a unique product offering. One key example of that process is our active directory product.

We heard our customer’s challenges with employee account vulnerability and their struggles complying with the new

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The

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to Watch in 2019

NIST 800-63b password guidelines.

Then, we worked with them to craft a solution and then we built it. Now it is the only fully compliant NIST 800-63b Active Directory plugin on the market.

What is your thought process behind leading the organization effectively?

The key to effective leadership is to define common goals, inspire open communication, and create an environment for mutual success. You cannot play the game for yourself alone; you have to be in the game with the whole team- which includes your employees, partners and customers. Their success is the company’s success.

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Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.

Passion- If you are not passionate about what you do, how can you expect others to be “all-in?” Ÿ Market Knowledge- If you don’t already know it, you learn it fast and then work to help define the market Ÿ Emotional intelligence- This is key for leadership. You have to listen, have empathy and create understanding. Without it, you will Ÿ

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

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– John Quincy Adams

www.insightssuccess.com

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not have the trust of your team.

Adaptability- Sometimes you head the wrong direction or the market changes, you need to be flexible and adaptable. Companies that don’t respond well to change will lose.

Grit and resilience- Mental toughness, grit and resilience gives you the courage and resolve to not only recover, but thrive in the face of adversity. The ability to overcome doubts and circumstances that prevent you from reaching your objective is one of the largest challenges a leader can face.

Decisiveness – This is the ability to make firm decision with full commitment. At the speed in which markets evolve, especially the fastpaced cybersecurity market, leaders who are indecisive will inhibit their organization from keeping up with the market and hinder growth.

Ability to align key stakeholders to achieve business success – Alignment and consensus among the leadership team is one of the highest priorities of a CEO. Successful companies do not have stakeholders moving in opposite directions.

Focus on Execution and delivering results – This one seems like a “nobrainer” but if you just strategize without having defined plans to execute, you have nothing to deliver customer value. And if you keep investing in things that are not delivering results, there is a high opportunity cost that will hurt your business in the long run. Ÿ Being Genuine – Being genuine and authentic builds trust. Genuine people can admit their faults. Don’t try to be someone else at work, everyone in the organization will see through that. No one likes to work with someone who is fake.

What are the experiences and lessons that you’ve learned across your journey?

The lessons are numerous and the key is to be open minded. Recognize that challenges and obstacles are just another way to label opportunities.

Embrace people and their different backgrounds, skills, and styles. Be genuine. Embrace your passion.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

When our organization is mapping out our business strategy, we meet as a team to outline all of the factors that must be weighed and together we outline the steps to put our strategy into action. We all commit we all execute. This collaborative approach also ensures everyone is “bought-in” and keeps us all aligned on the objective.

Where does Enzoic sees itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

Enzoic will continue to be a growing leader in the cybersecurity arena. We start by attracting and retaining outstanding talent. Then we place our trust in them, we listen to their perspectives, and we partner as a team, which provides them with a great environment to pursue their passion. With this approach, we will continue to grow the product, service our customers and be a leader in our market.

What advice would you like to give to the young minds?

Embrace the world, enjoy your life, and welcome the boundless opportunities around you. You are in one of the best market expansion periods the world has ever seen. You are in one of the most innovative business environments in history. Embrace it!

October 2019| 47

Richard Waryn Empowering People to Be the Best They Can Be

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Richard Waryn CEO

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We can all achieve more together than any one of us could alone.

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t is not the title that reflects leadership of any individual, leadership is known by the personal attributes of leaders such as charisma, eloquence, perseverance, and vision accompanied by the skills of communication, connection, and collaboration. Richard Waryn is a noteworthy instance of these attributes. Richard is the Owner and CEO of a 3PL Logistics Management company, LDK Logistics.

Richard is responsible for all high-level decisions, financial structuring, and providing strategic vision for the company. Previously, he spent over 20 years in international private equity managing a series of funds that invested in a wide variety of companies throughout Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle East. He was based in Washington DC, London, Moscow and Dubai. Prior to acquiring LDK, he ran part of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Dubai and worked directly with Sheikh Mohamed and his team. According to Richard, “it was in interesting ride”! Richard did his graduate studies in Finance and Economics at Harvard University and completed his B.SC in Geoscience at the University www.insightssuccess.com

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of Toronto. Among the deals that he did in his private equity career were a turnaround on ESCADA, the woman’s global fashion brand, building the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Prague, and many infrastructure projects throughout Asia including power plants, telecoms networks, toll roads and cement projects. Currently, Richard is focusing on growing the logistics business and creating outstanding customer service and a positive work environment for all employees.

Providing Exceptional Services LDK logistics was founded on the principle that exceptional service must be innovative, flexible, flawless and exceed expectations. The company is Inside Delivery Agent of choice for the most discerning customers, be it high tech computer servers , specialized medical equipment, telecommunications gear, retail racking, kiosks/ATMs, electronic displays, trade show or other high value/high visibility items and situations. Its skills in planning and execution of complex white glove, non-dock deliveries are regularly trusted and tested by those who know best. To reflect the exceptionally high level of service LDK provides the company trademarked the phrase “Velvet Glove”.

Rather than using national agreements, agents are individually evaluated and selected to provide the “best of the best” in terms of complete and deep national coverage.

This approach has led LDK to be uniquely positioned to apply the right tools for each specific service.

LDK has developed its own in-house enterprise software system that manages the full life cycle of its projects. This includes a vender rating database that ensures that LDK’s project managers consistently select the right teams for the right jobs.

Stepping out of the Way Richard mentions that LDK logistics is a customer service focused company. As such, its people are its main strength and resource. Richard firmly believes in avoiding micromanagement and letting his team do their work to the best of their abilities. He is always available to support them in any way he can. He also believes that a positive working environment is critical to mission success.

In his opinion, vision, stability, self-confidence, empathy, reasonable risk-tolerance, and the ability to step out of the way and let people and processes do what they need to do are some of the essential attributes every CEO should possess.

Creating A Healthy Environment In his tenure of being a private equity fund manager, Richard invested in many companies across the globe. One thing he learned is that people’s motivations and business needs are pretty much the same across geographies and sectors. People generally want to do a good job, feel appreciated, and ultimately be rewarded for their efforts.

According to Richard, leaders that understand this and can create the right environments end up winning big.

Words of Wisdom In his advice to enlighten upcoming leaders, Richard states, “Be open to experiences beyond your comfort zone. You might discover new passions you never knew you had.

Work hard, don’t complain too much and have a vision for how you want to live and do what you can to help others reach their potentials. Helping others is a reward in itself and bringing good people together who are motivated to do their best is when the magic happens!”

Serving Customers Better Currently, the company is in the process of acquiring specialized trucking companies around the US that will broaden its capabilities to service its customers’ needs better. It also pays a lot of attention to its customers’ expectations. LDK recently also diversified its vendor base and is constantly building out its custom software platform to better integrate with its customers’ systems. LDK’s proprietary, in-house IT platform enables its team to focus less on the tedious details and more on servicing its customers to the best of their abilities.

Richard is constantly striving to continue to expand in terms of the company’s customer mix, service offerings, and technological leadership. www.insightssuccess.com

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Leading by Example E

verything starts and stops with you, the founder or CEO of the business, the person who everyone looks to when it comes to setting an example. As the leader of your company, your job is to inspire the people around you to push themselves and, in turn the company, to excel in everything they do. To do this, the leader must show the way by doing it themselves, by walking the walk and talking the talk.

Warren Bennis was an American scholar and organizational consultant. He is widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies and is known to have created the famous quote “Managers are people who do things right; leaders are people who do the right thing.”

As the leader, you know that keeping your team together, working towards a common goal, getting them to support and help each other is your job. If you succeed, they will succeed; morale will rise and more success will follow.

There’s almost nothing worse for company morale than leaders who follow the “Do as I say, not as I do” philosophy. When this happens, the loss of enthusiasm, energy and goodwill among staff is like watching a tyre deflate with frustration, cynicism and mistrust replacing any positivity that previously existed.

No matter what the situation, double standards, where people do one thing, and then say another is always a recipe for a disaster. It can be very destructive. If this has ever happened to you, I am certain the feelings that you remember are of deep frustration, a sense of disappointment and total let-down. It can be energy sapping and very hard to break out of once it has happened.

As a leader you know that you have a responsibility to your team. They look to you for guidance and strength; it is the essence of what being a leader is. And a big part of your responsibility is to lead them with and by your own actions.

So, why is it so important and what happens when you fail to do this? When you lead by example, it is the creation of the art of the possible. People can look at you and say, 50 |October 2019

“Well, if he is willing to do it, then so can I.” When you set the tone of any activity, you become a source of inspiration and you make it easy for others to follow you.

This brings me on to Trust. It is the inevitable by-product of having done your job as a leader well. Trust takes time to nurture and build. But, when you stay true to your beliefs, to your core principles and when you keep your word your staff will know. Consequently, your team will follow your lead. They will put their trust in you, even when things are tough in a business. By opening yourself up to your team and showing them the way, the odds are that they will follow you anywhere.

Good leaders drive their people forward with energy, excitement, vision, inspiration and trust. A team without trust in their leader will see poor productivity, higher absenteeism and greater staff turnover. Enthusiasm may disappear and the team may fall apart. The vision you’re trying so hard to make happen will lose its appeal, all because your team doesn’t trust you anymore.

Good leadership takes real strength of character and a firm commitment to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason …..even if it is hard. This means doing what you say, when you say it. If your team can’t trust you, you’ll never be great and you wont succeed. It’s like running a race with your shoelaces tied together. If your team knows that you’ll also do whatever you expect from them, they’ll likely work hard to help you achieve your collective goal.

Great leaders have changed the world because they lived by their own example. They made accomplishing great things the norm and not the exception. So, if you ask a colleague to do something, make sure you are willing to do it yourself. Make sure you set the example. Look closely at your own behaviour. Show respect to others and that respect will be returned. If you want people to listen to all opinions and points of view, make sure you listen yourself. We were given two ears and just one mouth for a reason!

www.insightssuccess.com

Expert’s Outlook

About the Leader Rob Leslie is the Founder and CEO of Sedicii. Rob is a serial entrepreneur has a successful track record of establishing and growing businesses to considerable scale.

Sedicii was founded in 2013 and has won over 15 technology and innovations awards to date including, most recently, the BBVA Open Innovation “Fintech for Future” Award. BBVA is the oldest and largest Fintech Innovation Program in the world and has highlighted Sedicii as “the start-up with the greatest potential to transform the financial sector in the next 10 years!” Sedicii has developed a patented zero knowledge proof protocol to help people and businesses prove their identities in real-time without compromising their right to privacy.

Rob is a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for his work on the zero-knowledge proof protocol and has spoken at Davos on cybersecurity, digital identity and other technology issues affecting the world’s economies.

Prior to Sedicii he co-founded Kyckr (ASX:KYK) which is now listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and provides organisational identity services for KYC & AML services to banks and other regulated financial institutions across the globe. Rob was also part of the original management team in Dell Japan that established and grew the business to almost 300 employees and $300M turnover in its first 4 years.

Rob Leslie Founder & CEO

Sedicii

www.insightssuccess.com

October 2019| 51

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Simon Lajboschitz A Virtual Explorer

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he exponential technologies such as AI, machine learning, Augmented Realities, Virtual Realities, etc. are creating endless opportunities for the businesses as well as human mankind. The only need is to recognize the potential of these technologies and put it into practice. Many leaders have been successful in doing the same. Amongst those, one is Simon Lajboschitz, the Cofounder and CEO of Khora.

After 7 years of experience as a Brand and Concept Leader in the retail industry, Simon Lajboschitz decided to join forces with Peter Fisher, who had been producing Virtual Reality content on his spare time for a few years in Copenhagen, and together founded Khora. The company was founded under the mission of exploring the possibilities of immersive technologies and how they can add value to society.

As the CEO, Simon finds himself planning and managing the team’s daily business development efforts, securing strong collaborations with partners in multiple fields, and inspiring everyone to see the future of VR & AR as Khora sees it.

In an interview with Insights Success, Simon shares his valuable insights on how the company is pushing to expand this technology’s potential and integrating people of all ages and walks of life who share a common interest in this emerging technology.

Below are the highlights of an interview: How do you diversify your organization’s solutions that appeal to your target audience?

The versatility of the technology enables Khora to work with multiple industries. This does not mean that we end up being experts within all of the industries that we work with, but we rely on collaborations with our clients. We are experts in the medium, by knowing its language and having a strong grasp of what the technology can do, while being backed by a strong technical team Khora is able to find flexibility in answering multiple clients’ challenges. For example, our Pain Distraction project with the Central Hospital in Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet) was only possible due to the strong collaboration that we had with the Center for Pediatric Pain Knowledge at the hospital. They were aware of the challenges that nurses often encountered when performing routine medical procedures (e.g.: inserting an IV), and we were aware of the technical possibilities of the medium. Together, we developed a VR Pain Distraction tool for nurses to use with children aged 6-12 and is currently being used in 6 hospitals in Scandinavia.

Describe some of the vital attributes that every best performing CEO should possess.

I believe that it is important that a CEO is capable of jumping between macro and micro levels with ease. Being able to look at the organization from a bird’s eye view to make sure that the company is steering towards its vision while remaining true to its mission. And at the same time being able to cover small detail aspects of the business, which provide vital support to the daily operations.

Explain how your strategies are helping employees to bridge the gap between idea and execution.

Being in a creative & tech industry, it is important that we facilitate internal exchange of inspiration and knowledge on

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the latest updates of the tech so that everyone in the company is feeling confident in finding executable ideas for our clients. At the same time it is important that we give our employees the creative freedom and autonomy that they need to excel and provide that extra value to our clients.

This is transversally seen in our collaboration with renowned contemporary artists on Virtual Reality art pieces, and also in our commercial collaborations, such as a project we did with HK – one of the largest labor unions in Denmark – where we developed a VR simulation of an exam to help students cope with exam anxiety and the autonomy that the team had to work closely with the client paid off with a great production and a happy client.

Where does Khora sees itself in the near future and how do you plan to sustain its competency?

We see a lot of potential in the healthcare market, where we are pushing towards working together with specialists in the mental illnesses field and create scalable solutions. We have recently been working closely with psychotherapists in the creation of an exposure therapy tool for people with fear of flying and other phobias, which are now in clinical trials.

These projects are helping us become trusted partners within the healthcare field due to our experience and way of working in the area. In the near future we will be working on larger scale projects for other mental illnesses.

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A captain is the last man on the boat.

What advice would you like to give to the young minds?

“If you have an idea, figure out a way to test it with the tools and resources you have available and go from there.

Don’t intellectualize it. It belongs to the world.”

Simon Lajboschitz Co-founder & CEO www.insightssuccess.com

October 2019| 55

Walter Perdigao Delivering More than Expected

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EO’s needs the ability to learn from previous experiences and improve their processes from the lessons learned. Constant and continual improvement is key to effective growth. They also need the ability to build relationships with clients and their teams in order to be successful. That creates loyalty and builds reputation of an organization.

It’s important for a CEO to be confident. They should be the biggest cheer leaders which sets the tone for the company. And understanding is a key attribute. Your employees are people with lives outside the workplace. They need a healthy life balance and giving them the trust and freedom to effectively deal with any family situations that come up is vital.

Walter Perdigao is a Co-founder and Vice President of Services at CrossConcept. CrossConcept’s team of Delivery Managers and Technical Consultants oversee the implementation and support of Continuum using best practice processes and recommendations derived from decades of experience.

The team has been successfully rolling out PSA and PPM solutions clients of all sizes from a wide range of market segments. Walter is a main contributor to driving the functionality of the product taking recommendations from existing customers as a key driver.

Decades of Experience CrossConcept started as a service company first implementing and supporting enterprise PSA and PPM solutions into the SMB market as well 56 |October 2019

as providing consulting on best practice approaches on the effective use of these solutions to efficiently run an organization and get the best return on investment. CrossConcept did that successfully for the first seven years of its existence. But the consistent feedback was that while the functionality of these enterprise solutions was needed, the systems were too expensive and generally overly complex for the SMB space. So the company decided two years ago to embark on designing and creating its own enterprise class SaaS PSA solution geared and priced for the SMB market.

CrossConcept used its decades of experience and feedback implementing these solutions focusing primarily on the root functionality that clients used as well as usability. It took feedback directly from its clients and still value their input to this day. Clients appreciate that the organization really listens to their needs and see delivering on their requirements as its top definition of success. While it has transitioned to be a software company it will always see itself as a service company first that happens to implement its own world class PSA solution.

Empowering People Walter Perdigao believes the measure of a managers success isn’t how many people they’ve managed but rather how many of their team go on to be managers themselves. Empowering people to grow to be autonomous and effective in their role is important.

Walter doesn’t micro manage. He believes in the skills and talent of each of the company’s consultants. He strives to focus on the end deliverable and lets each team member use their unique approach and talent to arrive at the outcome. He believes in making one’s team successful and that team in turn makes making the client and the company successful.

Playing win-win Game An important lesson Walter has learned over his 26 year career of career is that success in business is a team sport of mutual respect. A service companies key job is to strive to make their customer successful. That starts with empowering your team which extends to delivering for the customer. It becomes a win for the client, a win for the team and a win for the company.

And Walter has learned the key to success is to always strive to deliver more than expected.

Focus on the End Goal As Walter mentioned previously, empowering your team to be self reliant and autonomous is a core belief.

Whenever a deliverable is needed, Walter likes to focus on the end goal and give his initial thoughts but then opens it up to the team to give their equal input and leave it in their capable hands to execute. He trusts them enough to allow them to make mistakes and learn, grow and continually improve.

Fuelling the Growth CrossConcept has successfully transitioned from a consulting www.insightssuccess.com

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20CEOs Best Performing

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to Watch in 2019

Vision is the art of seeing the unseen.

It’s not enough to see the top of the mountain. It needs venture. One step at a time.

company to a software company and now the focus is to continually build and improve the functionality of Continuum. It will continue to take the feedback from its diverse clientele and build on that functionality. A PPM version of the tool will be released shortly which will open the company to be able to work with clients primarily focused on internal projects.

CrossConcept is also looking at a round of investment to help fuel its growth over the next 5 years.

A Precious Advice from the Leader Don’t let anyone define your potential.

Only you know what you are capable of. Your only limit is the limit you self impose. Set your goals high and believe in yourself. That gives you the spice of life to wake up excited each morning. From the power of that belief you will be challenged along your journey. Expect that it’s a needed step in the process of growth. Simply learn from those challenges and keep your eye on your goal and never lose faith in yourself or the process. Do that and you can achieve anything you set your mind on. www.crossconceptinc.ca

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Walter Perdigao Co-founder

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Empowering Workplaces

Constituents of a Productive

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ou cannot mandate productivity; you must provide tools to let people become their best.” –Steve Jobs

When it comes to work culture, it is a tedious task for organizations to assume as to what kind of an environment, will the employees be most productive in. However, there are traditional methods of setting up the work culture, but with the consideration of all generations of employees, the process becomes even more complex. Moreover, there is always a dilemma of whether the employees create a productive culture or the culture makes the employees productive. But what consists of a work culture?

Apparently, it includes everything from an office space with good lighting to the organizational structure and the way communication flows. Ÿ In recent studies it was found that: Ÿ 58% of employees became managers because they were good at work and not because they were good at managing the force. Ÿ 79% of employees quit their jobs because of lack of appreciation from the management. Ÿ 50% of the paid leaves were left unused by the employees in America, reason being having the fear of being left behind in the work place, Ÿ 53% Americans are unhappy at work. Ÿ 58% employees admitted that they don’t trust their bosses and would rather trust a stranger than the former.

Evidently, the facts reflect a huge scope of improvement pertaining to work culture. The initial change towards the same is associated with the vision of the company. The employees must be well versed with the notion that drives the organization and the whole culture must have this essence imbibed within the vision. The next most vital part 58 |October 2019

is values. The values that the company believes in must align with the value of its employees. However these are the key points which will direct the employees towards making the environment productive.

Following are the steps that will help the management create a productive place: Enabling Self-exploration Acknowledge individuals and their performances. Make them understand what they are doing rather than explaining what is to be done. This will maintain a track on their performance, growth and scope of improvement allowing them to understand the difference between their belief and the organization’s culture. These changes must be in context of the business needs.

Enhancing Perspectives Every employee has an outlook on his/her position in the organization. These outlooks, when combined, create the work environment. These beliefs may have generated before the employees were in the organizational ecosystem, but they do impact the overall approach of employees towards their work. Every little detail of how the reviews are given and how the task is operated, conditions the employees to behave accordingly. Organizations must pick the flow and reframe the perspective by formulating a routine that best describes the culture.

Devising Examples How employees perceive the organization depends on the knowledge they receive from their leaders. The values www.insightssuccess.com

inculcated by the leaders decide how the employees will approach towards their roles, which will ultimately design work culture. There should be a role model to make the employees grasp the mindset and values of the organization which promotes a culture that is best for the business.

Embracing Change Change is inevitable and in order to sustain, organizations need to change every now and then. However, while some employees are always ready to come on board, some are reluctant to change. In which case, the management must get into the skins of employees by knowing their zones and pushing them gently towards the change they require, keeping in mind certain limits.

What is your Story?

productivity if the workers are suffocated by the restrictions, then they will not be able to perform and there will be no productivity.

Long story short, the culture that runs through the organization plays an important role in the productivity of the same. The organization must make efforts in creating an environment that promotes efficiency and it must update its processes consistently in order to sustain growth. These strategies will work both ways, for the employer and employees, making everyone satisfied. But like Steve Jobs said, “It’s not the company and the tools that we should believe, it’s the people who we should have faith in.”

Every tribe has a story. These stories are a hardbound copy of the values, beliefs and culture a tribe believes in.

Similarly, an organization must have a success story which precisely defines its culture. It will keep the values right in the minds of people who work there. Moreover, the story enables a dialogue for the workers to communicate easily, which leads to productivity.

Making it Employee Driven One important thing to note is that it’s the employees that form a company. It is the people of an organization that decide its fate. So whatever the strategy is, make sure it is people friendly.

Because in the process of

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