The 50 Best Companies to Watch 2018 by Insights Success Media

www.insightssuccess.com MAY 2018

THE

50 BEST COMPANIES TO WATCH 2018

Raymond C. Dabney CEO, Co-founder & President

CANNABIS SCIENCE: Providing Innovative Therapeutics For Unmet Medical Needs

Editor’s Note

Understanding the Demands and Leading the World of Business

owadays, emerging technologies and advancements in innovation are increasing consumer expectations with varying demands that result in cutting-edge products and needs attractive pricing to overcome competition. It is important to be compatible with the current trends, requirements, and technologies that can satisfy the customer in an innovative, credible, and ethical way. Understanding the consumer’s real needs and problems is not so easy and fulfilling that demand in the actual product is another challenge. Even in the times of change when companies are offering extraordinary solutions to the society, people are not noticing them to that extent as they deserve. The main reason behind this is that they are not just serving as a highlighted brand, but to earn more traction, they are quickly making efforts to understand the changing consumer demands through substantial market research and utilization of new generation technologies such as big data. This gives birth to highly suitable products and services, which win the customers’ hearts. This makes them an extraordinary company that outshines them from the crowd. It apparently seems that most of the successful companies are highly flexible, innovative; customer oriented and most importantly, they value their employees as well. A success graph of any company is directly related to investments, talent acquisition, resource planning for flexibility with changing demands and technologies. The best companies are always providing the best working environment for their employees. So they can innovate and implement new ideas that can take their products and services on the top of the consumers’ list. Today, it has been observed that many organizations are following mergers and acquisitions as a route of success as it is playing a vital role to become a market leader. M&A results in broader customer base with additional resources, which leads to increased penetration of brand to a broader audience and increases the popularity and range of offerings of the company.

We can observe that current leading business organizations are following such unique strategies that put them apart from the crowd. In this issue of The 50 Best Companies to Watch 2018, we have listed the best companies who are praised worldwide for transforming the entire business network to the next level. On the Cover of the issue, we have Cannabis Science: Providing Innovative Therapeutics for Unmet Medical Needs. Cannabis Science, Inc. is a public U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines targeting critical ailments such as various cancers, HIV/AIDS, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), neurological disorders, chronic pain, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and arthritis. Cannabis Science’s objective is to create a vertically integrated organization, through investing in the organic growth and development of the Company’s operational capabilities, as well as through strategic acquisitions. Cannabis Science aims to control the development of its medicines from farm-to-bedside, and ﬁrmly establishes the Company as a leader and recognized innovator in the market for cannabinoid-based medicines. Along with such interesting Cover Story, we have also enlisted various other business entities including E.M.M.A. International Consulting Group; a global leader in management consulting services, FINTECH Circle; focused on FinTech investing, education and enterprise innovation and Immersive Rehab; for the VR enabled Rehab Platform that improves the strength of patients suffering from neurological upper limb mobility limitations. We have also included NLS Pharma, Seceon, Pure Canadian Gaming, Ink Link Marketing, Nijhawan Group, Blinkware Technology, MaxMD, Startup Canada, Styledotme, RoomAR, InXite Health Systems, Khora VR, Leaf Healthcare, and Wizdish ROVR for the innovatory services offered. While going through our magazine you must not miss out the masterly written articles by our in-house editors such as; How to Become Best of the Best, from the Editor’s Pick , Virtual Reality: Providing A New Outlook to Business, from Virtualizing Business and Deciding factors while investing into new technologies from Investor’s Desk. While turning pages take a note to look into the articles including, The Shift that broke the pendulum, Is Globalization Killing or Helping Start-ups? Hunting New Opportunities Taking the Business to the Next Level, and Is Automation Really Helping Humans?, which are authored by the industry experts. These articles will help you understand the current business scenario. Hope this edition of ours will create a mark on your mind.

Suhel Mashayak

COVER STORY

CANNABIS SCIENCE: PROVIDING INNOVATIVE THERAPEUTICS FOR UNMET MEDICAL NEEDS

TECH TALK Hunting New Opportunities Taking the Business to the Next Level

FUTURE INSIGHT Is Globalisation Killing Or Helping Start-ups?

MOBILE COMPUTING The Shift that broke the pendulum

AUTOMATING BUSINESS Is Automation Really Helping Humans? Weighing the Costs and Beneî&#x17D;&#x152;ts of Automation in Our Digital World

ROBO TALK Is the Automation Really Helping Humans?

ARTICLE’S

34 48 56

MACHINE TALK Are humans on the verge to drop their jobs?

VENDOR’S DAIRY How to Become Best of the Best

VIRTUALIZING BUSINESS Virtual Reality: Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses

INVESTOR’S DESK

72 82

Deciding Factors While Investing Into New Technologies

CONNECTING WORLD The Universality of IoT Technology

E.M.M.A. International Global Compliance at Your Fingertips

Evoweb Global Leader of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Digital Marketing Solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

FINTECH Circle Connecting People in the FinTech Ecosystem

Immersive Rehab Transforming Physical Rehabilitation using Virtual Reality

ImmunogenX Improving the Lives of Celiac Patients with Passion and Science

Ink Link Marketing A Marketing and Public Relations Expert

Khora VR Merging Virtual and Physical World by Providing Innovative VR/AR Solutions

Leaf Healthcare Innovating Pressure Injury Prevention

MaxMD A Global Trailblazer in HIT and Interoperability Solutions

Nijhawan Group Successfully Adding New Business Every Five Years To The Core Business Of Travel

NLS-1 PHARMA AG (NLS) New Era in the ADHD Space

PURE Canadian Gaming Making GOOD Things Happen for Other People

RoomAR Empowering the AR-commerce with Vision and Innovation

Seceon Empowering Enterprises & MSSPs to Proactively Detect and Stop Known and Unknown Threats in Real-Time

Startup Canada Building an Environment for Entrepreneurial Momentum and Success in Canada

StyleDotMe Adorning Fashion World with Wonders of AR Tech

Wizdish Delivering the Treadmill (the ROVR) that lets you Walk in Virtual Reality

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Anish Miller Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak Executive Editor Crescent CU Contributors Sayli, Bhushan Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Mayur Koli Co-designer Vanshika, Savita, Karan Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Misty Thomas Marketing Manager Sophie Smith Business Development Executives Mary D’Souza, Misty Thomas Sales Executives Sophie Smith, Judy Kent, Karen Holland Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

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The

50 Best Companies

COVER STORY

To Watch 2018

CANNABIS SCIENCE: Providing Innovative Therapeutics for Unmet Medical Needs

We have the technology, licensing, and facilities to develop different modules and delivery systems for medical cannabis targeting different critical ailments

Raymond C. Dabney CEO, Co-founder & President

annabis Science, Inc. is a public U.S. company specializing in the research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines targeting critical ailments, such as various cancers, HIV/AIDS, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), neurological disorders, chronic pain, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and arthritis. A Vertically Integrated Company Cannabis Science’s objective is to create a vertically integrated organization, through investing in the organic growth and development of the Company’s operational capabilities, as well as through strategic acquisitions. Cannabis Science aims to control the development of its medicines from farm-to-bedside, and ﬁrmly establish the Company as a leader and recognized innovator in the market for cannabinoid-based medicines.

Cannabis Science is aggressively expanding the Company’s network of research centers. Negotiations are ongoing with several academic institutions in the United States and internationally to establish new, collaborative research agreements. These contracts will focus on several indications, and are expected to expand the research funded and directed by the Company. In addition, Cannabis Science will develop multi-center, clinical trial networks with cannabinoid drug development. “Cannabis Science currently has several research programs underway that have produced promising, initial results that are critical in the Company’s early phase cancer drug development plan,” stated Mr. Raymond C. Dabney, Cannabis Science’s President, Chief Executive Ofﬁcer (CEO), and Co-founder. Based on the Company’s progress to date, Cannabis Science expects to conclude pre-clinical work on a few cannabinoids over the next several months, and begin clinical trials in 2018.

A Leader in Research and Product Development Cannabis Science’s primary objective is to research and develop U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved, cannabinoid-based medicine to ﬁght a number of targeted critical ailments. To help accomplish this, Cannabis Science recently launched the Cannabis Science Global Consortium as a framework and platform to cooperate and collaborate with stakeholders worldwide. The Cannabis Science Global Consortium links universities, foundations, corporations, and individuals to share research, ideas, and other relevant information, as well as to implement a cutting-edge research program to develop medicines and delivery mechanisms from bench-to-bedside. The Global Consortium also enables the Company to more strategically coordinate its initiatives, including those focused on education, job creation, and skills training.

There are three primary elements in Cannabis Science’s drug development program:

· Deﬁning the effectiveness and speciﬁcity of cannabinoids being tested; · Identifying and testing drug delivery mechanisms; and · Testing and evaluating the impact of co-interventions, and the application of additional diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures to participants in randomized controlled trials. The Company’s initial results point to the importance of drug delivery systems and the impact of co-interventions.

The initial results of Cannabis Science’s research were published in September 2017. The Company’s peer-reviewed article in Frontiers in Oncology, “Nanoparticle Drones to Target Lung Cancer with Radiosensitizers and Cannabinoids”, has been viewed more than 11,000 times, and has more views than 96% of all Frontiers’ articles. “This strong – and increasing – level of interest by our colleagues validates the importance of our research,” stated Mr. Dabney. “We believe that our Company, along with our collaborators, are helping to better understand the science as it pertains to the use of cannabinoids in cancer therapeutics and novel ways of drug delivery and targeting. In so doing, we expect to develop medicines that can positively impact so many patients in the U.S. and worldwide.” Cannabis Science’s second article, “Enhancing the Therapeutic Efﬁcacy of Cancer Treatment with Cannabinoids”, was published in Frontiers in Oncology on April 24, 2017. Engaging Patients and Stakeholders Cannabis Science recognizes that the success of its business is fully-dependent on the Company meeting the needs of its customers through the development of high-quality and cost-effective cannabinoid-based medicines. In order to engage with the Company’s customers, as well as all stakeholders, Cannabis Science has launched a new online platform, iCannabinoid, and has plans to open a number of pharmacies and medical centers in California, initially, and ultimately throughout the United States. This approach will enable the Company to engage and interact with its customers and stakeholders, in a variety of manners, to ensure Cannabis Science understands the needs of its customers and provides platforms for the exchange of ideas related to the medical marijuana industry.

seeking alternative cannabinoid treatments including patients, advocates, doctors, researchers, parents, lawyers, growers, journalists, government, private-sector leaders, community organizers, and others. iCannabinoid Members can educate and inspire each other 24/7 with the ability to track and share their personal experiences of cannabinoid treatments through action groups, chats, blogs, photos, and videos. iCannabinoid provides opportunities for medical practitioners to directly interact with and help patients. Personal My Health Modules are also available for Members to track and set health goals. iCannabinoid involves the community through the Ambassador Program which allows passionate, qualified volunteers to help spread the word and assist individuals in their areas of expertise. iCannabinoid also provides overall support information such as the science of cannabinoids, critical ailment definitions, supplementary treatments available, marijuana laws and regulations, and relevant research studies. This platform empowers patients to educate themselves through sharing information about the potential benefits of using cannabinoids as a complementary therapy. For more information on iCannabinoid, please visit http://icannabinoid.com/. Cannabis Science Medical Centers As an important component of Cannabis Science’s strategy to engage patients and stakeholders directly, the Company has plans to open a number of medical centers initially in California. Cannabis Science successfully completed the soft opening of its first CBIS Medical Center on 4/20. The CBIS Medical Center is located at 14006 Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, California 91423, and is the first of several locations that Cannabis Science plans to open throughout California in the coming months and years.

Cannabis Science’s Online Platform – iCannabinoid Cannabis Science has completed a successful beta launch of iCannabinoid, the Company’s state-of-the-art, social media and educational website. iCannabinoid is designed to serve as an information center, resource hub, and support group for all The new CBIS Medical Center location in Sherman Oaks, CA

The opening of the first CBIS Medical Center location is an important part of Cannabis Science’s growth strategy. CBIS Medical Center locations will showcase Cannabis Science brands of high-quality cannabinoid and cannabis-based products and accessories for patients, doctors, and the consuming public. These products will range from pills, creams, extracts, sprays, tinctures, edibles, balms, patches, oils, raw products, and merchandise. The locations will also showcase other brands as well, in order to provide the widest possible selection of products for the Company’s patient community. The Cannabis Science Medical Centers, will include full laboratory facilities, patient intake, and doctor and nurse clinics. Cannabis Science will explore opportunities to provide U.S. federal government-approved Emergency Medical Services, leveraging the Company’s eligibility to receive federal government contracts and grants. Cannabis Science is one of the few companies in its industry to be registered in the federal government’s System for Award Management (SAM), and to have received a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code from the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) CAGE Program Office. Cannabis Science is registered in SAM to provide services primarily in three areas – Research and Development in Biotechnology, Medical Laboratories, and Emergency and Other Relief Services. “Cannabis Science is currently exploring a number of Federal government contracts and grant opportunities, individually and with its collaborators, with institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), institutes within NIH, such as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and others,” stated Mr. Dabney. “I believe we have a significant role to play, as a private-sector stakeholder, as well as a company that can support federally-funded contracts and grant opportunities as an experienced contractor.” Corporate Social Responsibility Cannabis Science believes in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and that companies should have an obligation to positively impact the communities in which they operate – this includes investment in infrastructure, job creation, and skills training. In the area of CSR, the Company leads by example. Cannabis Science has launched its Economic Development Initiative (EDI) to provide general structure for how the Company operates in the communities where it has established business activities. Through its EDI, Cannabis Science develops and implements specific initiatives to meet the needs of each community, as identified through consultation with members of the community. For example, in partnership with Free Spirit Organics Native American Corporation (FSO NAC), Cannabis Science has developed an economic development plan in San Joaquin County, California, where the aim is to provide education and skills training for community residents in science, agriculture, and pharmaceutics that will help create jobs and improve overall economic conditions in Stockton County. Part of this joint development plan includes the planting and harvesting of 250 acres of industrial hemp, and establishing the American States University (ASU) to provide students with a unique hybrid of online, in class, and field education. Through its educational partners – ASU, American Heritage University School of Law (AHUSOL), and Raymond C. Dabney University (RCDU) – Cannabis Science creates opportunities for students for experiential learning of cannabinoids, focusing on the research and development of all-natural pharmaceutical drugs for target ailments.

Drone shot of the land for the American States University 2017, 250-Acre Native American CBIS & FSO NAC Eceonomic Development Plan

American States University American States University offers thirty-seven state-approved post secondary educational programs in the Departments of Agriculture, Arts, Business, Certified Professional, and Technology in a unique hybrid structure of online, in class, and in field education. Its primary purpose is to provide professional training in agricultural hemp research and development for pharmaceutical drugs targeting critical ailments such as Cancer, Epilepsy, Chronic Pain, Parkinson’s Disease, Arthritis, PTSD, HIV/AIDs and other industries such as Alternate Biofuels, Construction, Clothing and Automobile Materials, business administration, and other numerous certifications. The University aims to provide affordable quality education to its students so as to achieve their career goals and excel in their chosen professions. A sample curriculum for the Alternative Medicine Hemp 101 Program includes; Regulatory Compliance, Company Creation, Company Structure, Department Management, Team, Management, Planting and Harvest, Formulation Creation, Manufacturing, Wholesale, Distribution, Observational Studies, Retail, Sales, and Marketing. Documentary Cannabis Science is also filming a three-part documentary on the agricultural farm where the industrial hemp is grown. The docu-series will shed a light on the science, technology, and research that the company utilizes to develop novel cannabinoid-based medications to offer a better understanding of what Cannabis Science means, what the

Company does, and the driving forces behind the Company. Cannabis Science hopes to raise public awareness about the medical beneﬁts of medical marijuana and ultimately shape current governmental legislation to better reﬂect the needs and demands of modern society. Additionally, the Company is producing 30-60 second advertisements to be broadcasted on television. African Initiative As part of the Company’s global CSR initiative, Cannabis Science has created an African Initiative with the goal of helping to accelerate economic development throughout Africa, with a focus on educational and job-creation initiatives. In implementing its work in Africa, Cannabis Science collaborates closely with the Constituency for Africa (CFA). For over 26 years, CFA has established itself as one of the leading, non-partisan organizations focused on educating and mobilizing the American public and the African Diaspora in the U.S. on U.S.-Africa policy. As a result, CFA has helped to increase the level of cooperation and coordination among a broad-based coalition of individuals and organizations committed to the progress, development, and empowerment of Africa and African people worldwide. Mr. Dabney is a Member of CFA’s Board of Directors, and a Co-chair of CFA’s African Healthcare Infrastructure Committee. Key objectives of Cannabis Science’s African Initiative include: Agriculture & Drug Development: Cannabis Science plans to establish viable operations throughout Africa inclusive of growing operations, research and drug development, multi-center clinical trials, manufacturing and sales. Cannabis Science intends to supply the African market with cannabinoid-based medicines to treat a number of indications, as well as to export medicines from Africa to other markets worldwide.

Cannabis Science’s Team, led by Mr. Raymond C. Dabney (3rd from right) visits Windhoek, Namibia in 2016.

Healthcare Infrastructure: The Company will help establish hospitals, health centers, and related educational facilities, to also include drug development. Food Safety: Cannabis Science operates from the farm to the table. In that light, food security begins with sound agricultural practices that produce sufﬁcient food for consumption and that are designed to reduce poverty. Water management and safety, food preservation and safety are additional core components of sound agriculture and food policy. Environmental factors are important risk factors for infectious disease epidemics. Cannabis Science also believes that rigorous waste management and sanitation are vital epidemic control mechanisms. Political Environment: The Company recognizes the need to impact policy, regulatory, and jurisdictional contexts that outline public healthcare; as well as agricultural, educational and training contexts that in turn deﬁne the health and economic well-being of all communities. Education and Job Creation: At the heart of job creation is education and training. Sustainable models of education and training are associated with important areas of development, including industrial sectors such as drug development/treatments, agriculture/food safety, communications, investments, and engaging political environments. Technology and Communication: Satellite, Internet, mechanical device development, and cellphone

infrastructure are all important components of healthcare, educational, and economic development. In addition, dynamic media exposure defines how communities perceive themselves and respond to their problems. Architect Behind Cannabis Science Raymond C. Dabney is the President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Cannabis Science. With more than 25 years of experience in corporate finance, sales, and management under his belt, Mr. Dabney is equipped with a niche market experience that is crucial in realizing the company’s full potential. He has formed extensive international relationships with several leaders in science and public service that contributes to company growth and prosperity. His insight to public and private venture capital, early stage equity, debt financing and regulatory compliance is crucial for growing companies in the U.S., Canada, Europe and South Africa. Mr. Dabney has received the 2018 Harvard GHC Industry Leader award in recognition of his impactful efforts, bold vision, and ground-breaking collaborations with African country institutions. As a member of the Constituency for Africa’s (CFA) Board of Directors, Mr. Raymond is passionate about improving the healthcare infrastructure throughout Africa. Having visited South Africa and Namibia in 2016 for the first time, he sees the opportunity for Cannabis Science to engage with key African stakeholders in government, academia, and civil society to accelerate the company’s African drug-development initiative, EDI, and build on research collaborations.

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The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

apceth apceth.com

Christine Günther CEO & Medical Ofﬁcer

apceth is a biotechnology company dedicated to gene therapeutics and the development and clinical implementation of innovative cell.

AsiaPay asiapay.com

Jasmine Zhu Senior Marketing Manager

AsiaPay offers electronic payment, technology and service solution.

Attached B.V. attachedlanguage.com

Eveline van Sandick CEO & Founder

Attached B.V is a language intelligence agency. It makes sure that any message needed to be communicated is transmitted in reeal time and cost-effectively.

Batavia Biosciences bataviabiosciences.com

Menzo Havenga President & CEO

Batavia Biosciences is a company focused on accselerating the transition of biopharmaceutical products.

betahaus betahaus.com

Madeleine Gummer v. Mohl

Blinkware Technology blinkwaretechnology.com

Alvin Koh Founder & CEO

Blinkware Technology is a technology company that aids degital media, optical quality control, and facial biometrics platforms.

BlueSnap bluesnap.com

Ralph Dangelmaier CEO

An e-commerce payment service provider, BlueSnap is specialized in offering secure payemnts.

Cannabis Science cannabisscience.com

Raymond C. Dabney President & CEO, Co-founder

Cannabis Science, Inc. is a public U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines targeting critical ailments such as various cancers, HIV/AIDS, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), neurological disorders, chronic pain, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and arthritis.

C&H Financial Services chfs.us

Karen Whiteley CPP, VP Sales & Marketing

C&H Financial Services is a company specialized in offering credit and debit card processing sevices.

coG-studio cog-studio.com

Chandra Moore Founder

coG-studio is a modern interior design ﬁrm active in most of the US cities, popular for an unconventional thoughtful designs for both public and private spaces.

Co-founder & CEO

betahaus offers a latest concept of coworking space and community for people in Berlin, and other 16 locations worldwide, who wants to work on their own projects while exchanging knowledge, ideas, and inspiration with others.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Crush Fine Wines crushﬁnewines.com.au

Matt Schmidt Managing Director

A company based out of Melbourne, Australia, Crush Fine Wines is the globally renowned suppliers of wine.

daniellelaporte daniellelaporte.com

Danielle La Porte Founder

Daniellelaporte is an online portal offering wide range of essentials required in one’s life.

E.M.M.A emmainternational.com

Carmine Jabri Co-founder, President & CEO

E.M.M.A. International is a global leader in management consulting services, with a focus on quality, regulatory, and compliance services for the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Device industries.

Everledger Ltd everledger.io

Leanne Kemp Founder & CEO

Everledger is a start up company which assists in reduction of all types of risks in banks.

FINAO ﬁnaonation.com

Wallace Greene President & CEO

FINAO is a company which produces unique, hand-crafted high quality albums & products for the professional photographers market.

FINTECH Circle ﬁntechcircle.com

Susanne Chishti Founder & CEO

FINTECH Circle is a global community of over 100,000 FinTech entrepreneurs, angel and VC investors, ﬁnancial services professionals and FinTech thought leaders focused on FinTech investing, education and enterprise innovation.

Forerunner Ventures forerunnerventures.com

Kirsten Green Co-founder

Forerunner Ventures is a venture capital ﬁrm dedicated to investing in ambitious entrepreneurs to deﬁne and dominate a new generation of commerce.

Immersive Rehab immersiverehab.com

Dr. ir Isabel Van De Keere Founder & CEO

Immersive Rehab has created a VR Rehab Platform that allows patients suffering from neurological upper limb mobility limitations to improve their strength and ﬁne motor skills through immersive & interactive physiotherapy programmes.

Immunocore immunocore.com

Eva-Lotta Allan Director

Immunocore is a globally leading T Cell Receptor (TCR) company. It is an expert in developing biological drugs to treat cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, through its pioneering soluble TCR technology platform.

ImmunogenX immunogenx.com

Dr. Jack Syage Co-founder & CEO, Dr. Jennifer Sealey-Voyksner Co-founder & CSO

ImmunogenX is a clinical-stage therapeutic and diagnostic company focused on Celiac Disease (CD).

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Ink Link Marketing inklinkmarketing.com

Kim Miller Founder & President

Ink Link Marketing is a full-service marketing and PR agency that specializes in the hospitality and franchising space.

Innovus Pharmaceuticals innovuspharma.com

Randy Berholtz, Executive Vice President

Innovus Pharma offers over-the-counter consumer goods and speciality pharmaceutical company that deals in the commercialization, licensing, and development of safe, effective non-prescription medicine and consumer care products.

InXite Health Systems inxitehealth.com

James Paat CEO

InXite Health Systems is focused on providing services to improve health.

Juno Biomedical junobiomedical.com

Trisha Pﬂuger CEO & President

Juno Biomedical Inc. is a biomedical company which is into developing latest technology devices for patients with neurological damages as an in-home treatment option.

KD Diamonds kd-diamonds.com

Kirsten Drew Woolf CEO

K&D is a leading and highly reputed manufacturer and supplier of diamonds located in New York City in the heart of the Diamond District.

Khora VR khora-vr.com

Simon Lajboschitz Co-founder & CEO, Peter Fisher Co-founder & CTO

Khora is the world’s ﬁrst virtual reality shop, a leading virtual reality and augmented reality service provider. They are one of the most experienced VR/AR content producers in Northern Europe and are pioneers of introducing VR/AR technology to Danish people and businesses.

KLJ Solutions kljeng.com

Emily Johnson Vice President of Corporate Communication & Branding

KLJ Solutions is an innovative engineering company which specializes in sectors such as aviation, environmental, funding resources, land development, oil & gas, power and public works. It is working with an aim to build sustainable communities across the nation.

Leaf Healthcare leafhealthcare.com

Barrett Larson Co-founder & CEO

Leaf Healthcare designs and develops wireless patient monitoring solutions for healthcare providers to improve patient safety and clinical outcomes.

Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers massleague.org

Kathryn Magnoli Chief of Staff

A non-proﬁt organization focused on promoting population health equity.

MaxMD max.md

Scott Finlay Founder & CEO

MaxMD is a company which provides secure healthcare information technology and interoperability solutions.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Mumsnet mumsnet.com

Justine Roberts Founder & CEO

Mumsnet is a UK based website especially for parents. It is one of the biggest discussion forums where people from different strata share advice and information on parenting and many other topics.

Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Company orchidislandjuice.com

Marygrace Sexton Founder & CEO

Natalie’s Orchid Island is an American fruit juice brand and the chief marque of the Orchid Island Juice Company. The company’s produces, fresh and natural juices which can be found in 30 states and 24 countries.

Nijhawan Group nijhawangroup.com

Arjun Nijhawan Executive Director

Nijhawan Group is one of the leading travel conglomerates with over 45 years of experience in India and has vastly diversiﬁed entities within the Travel Industry.

NLS Pharma nls-pharma.com

Alex Zwyer Co-founder & CEO

NLS Pharma is a privately owned, Swiss-based clinical-stage drug development company.

PIZA Industrial Supplies Co piza-is.com

Ghada Darwish Managing Director

A globaly renowed company, PIZA Industrial Supplies offers its advocay to other companies in improving their business.

Proceed Innovative proceedinnovative.com

Jasmine Panayotov Managing Partner

Proceed Innovative is a Internet marketing agency that offers expert SEM and SEO services to a wide range of businesses to extend the brand awareness and drive higher sales.

Pure Canadian Gaming purecanadiangaming.com

George Goldhoff President & CEO

Pure Canadian Gaming is the largest and longest operating casino organization in the province of Alberta, Canada.

Responsible Cyber responsible-cyber.com

Magda Chelly Founder & Managing Director

Responsible Cyber is a gloabally leading Cyber Security advisory, training, and awareness company.

RoomAR roomar.de

Naimah Schütter CEO

The RoomAR mobile app makes it possible to increase online sales through an innovative and contemporary touchpoint for the end customer.

Salt Recruitment welovesalt.com

Shaun Barratt Director

Salt Recruitment is a global, award-winning digital recruitment agency specialising in the Creative, Marketing, Sales and Technology sectors.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

Seceon seceon.com

Chandra Pandey Founder & CEO

Seceon is a cybersecurity solution company that designs and develops data center and cloud security platform to stop cyber attacks and breaches.

Seedstars World seedstarsworld.com

Alisée de Tonnac CEO & Co-founder

Seedstars World promotes, connects and invests in emerging market startups through its exclusive startup competition in over 60+ countries.

Skai Blue Media skaibluemedia.com

Rakia Reynolds Founder & CEO

Skai Blue Media is a public relations agency based in New York and Philadelphia which specializes in businesses grow their clientele base across various domains.

Soul Tree Wine ignisis.co.uk

Alok Mathur Co-founder & Director

Soul Tree is a rapidly growing award winning international wine brand based in UK with a growing global footprint.

Sprint sprint.com

Ismat Aziz Chief Human Resource Ofﬁcer

An US based telecommunication company providing inertent and wireless services.

Startup Canada startupcan.ca

Victoria Lennox Co-founder

Startup Canada connects entrepreneurs to the support they need to start and scale companies to build communities and to grow the economy.

StyleDotMe styledotme.com

Meghna Saraogi CEO & Founder

StyleDotMe is a personalized fashion community that offers virtual try-on facility and instant fashion advice.

Swedish Algae Factory swedishalgaefactory.com

Soﬁe Co-founder & CEO

Swedish Algae Factory is company specilized in developing waste water treatment systems based out of algae.

Verseone verseone.com

Alan Neilson Founder

VerseOne Group is a technology integrated digital service provider which provides digital solutions to healthcare, housing and other business sectors.

Wizdish ROVR wizdish.com

Julian Williams Founder & CTO

Wizdish makes a walking/running simulation platform (the ROVR) allowing a person to move freely and intuitively in virtual reality (VR) presented to them by head-mounted displays.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

E.M.M.A. INTERNATIONAL Global Compliance at Your Fingertips

.M.M.A. International Consulting Group, Inc. is a global leader in management consulting services, with headquarters in Farmington Hills, MI, as well as ofﬁces in FL & PA. The company focuses on quality, regulatory, and compliance services for the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Device industries. The life sciences industry is journeying toward innovative technologies like 3D printing. What was once

contributes to improvement by remaining involved with organizations on the national front such as MDMA (Medical Device Manufacturers Association). E.M.M.A. International Consulting Group provides a wide array of specialized services, backed by extensive knowledge and industry experience. E.M.M.A. International Associates are innovative and focused on addressing your needs. They do not merely render advice, outsource their talent, or provide “cookie cutter” solutions, as many consulting firms tend to practice. They do not “leave you hanging” with a process or system that is foreign to your organization and ultimately becomes unworkable. Their mission is to provide significant value to your operations and leave you completely satisfied that your expectations were fulfilled. E.M.M.A. International Associates work within your corporate culture and alongside your employees to do the “heavy lifting” required to make improvements meaningful and permanent. The Driving Force of E.M.M.A. International

Carmine Jabri, Co-founder, President & CEO

science ﬁction, isn’t ﬁction anymore. There are now more efforts made in preparedness. The patient-centric culture is also evolving. E.M.M.A. International

As Co-founder of E.M.M.A. International, Dr. Carmine Jabri, serves as E.M.M.A. International’s President and CEO. Dr. Jabri is an experienced Healthcare and Quality Assurance professional with more than twenty years of experience implementing, improving and directing Quality Management Systems and Healthcare Operations. His career includes expertise in the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Device industries. Dr. Jabri’s extensive knowledge of regulations and guidelines, coupled with his training and facilitation skills, help him lead the team

| MAY 2018

The team of E.M.M.A. International wanted to create a company that provided a true management consulting experience for the Life Sciences industry. E.M.M.A. International’s Services FDA Compliance: Keeping up with the constantly changing regulatory world is a daunting task. As the nation’s leading ﬁrm in FDA compliance matters, E.M.M.A. International helps Life Science companies with 483 responses, Warning Letter responses, Remediation strategies, Labelling and website reviews, Audits and gap analyses, Mock FDA inspections, and Regulatory submissions. Quality Systems: E.M.M.A. International specializes in designing, building and implementing quality systems for organizations of all sizes across the Life Sciences industry. They have expertise with U.S. & international regulatory requirements, as well as a multitude of ISO standards. Regulatory Affairs: E.M.M.A. International’s focus is to accelerate the regulatory approval process for

MAY 2018 |

‘‘

Our Motto is to Provide a True Management Consulting Experience for the Life Sciences industry

‘‘

of E.M.M.A. International to help organizations improve their quality management systems, reduce costs, reduce errors, and comply with federal, state, and international standards and regulations. Dr. Jabri is an internationally sought-after quality systems expert.

firms in the Life Sciences industry. Their regulatory affairs services include both pre-approval and post-approval activities. ISO Certifications: E.M.M.A. International provides the consulting support needed to implement the desired QMS and to attain certifications through 3rd party registrars. They have the in-house expertise in ISO 9001, ISO 17025, ISO 13485, ISO 14971, OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001, IATF 16949, ISO 15189, and ISO 22000.

Enterprise Quality Management through ‘QualiPro’ In North America, E.M.M.A. International is the exclusive provider of QualiPro, an enterprise quality management software that is an end-to-end system that ensures compliance with global standards and regulations. QualiPro is offered by E.M.M.A. International through a partnership with Saphir Consult. Future Roadmap for E.M.M.A. International It can be expected that in the near future E.M.M.A. International will become an innovative pioneer in the Life Sciences industry. E.M.M.A. International wants to become a think tank in the Life Sciences’ innovative technology space, and further nurture their strategic partnerships and alliances toward shared goals. Ultimately, affecting change on a global level is a goal.

Regulatory Reviews: E.M.M.A. International offers a unique service to clients who would like an expert to review their regulatory needs and provide a foundational roadmap for their next steps.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

EVOWEB Global Leader of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Digital Marketing Solutionsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

he world is witnessing a new break in technology with every passing second. This world, which is now mainly dominated by technology, has changed drastically since last decade making the virtual world smarter than ever. AR and VR is no longer the future. The current world lives by it. These technologies have disrupted every aspect of human life. However, a major turn of things happened when these technologies entered the world of business. Resulting in a huge transformation in every phase of the

Leveraging the pervasive power of the cutting-edge technologies like AR and VR, Evoweb, a company based out in Malaysia is reforming the world of digital marketing solutions and aiding bigger corporates with their marketing strategies. Seeking global visibility for its innovatory ideas, Evoweb is a group of designers galvanized by technologies like AR, VR, MR (Mixed Reality) and other technologies that are being introduced in market.

Jesslyn Goh, Managing & Marketing Director

Kenny Lim, Technical Director

business, many companies are already ahead in the race. However, one thing to be noted is the one who adapts to these changes will always lead.

The tech-savvy Brand Designer Entrepreneurs are those set of people who have very less time to waste. While they are busy running a business,

| MAY 2018

Primarily focused to globalize clients’ business, Evoweb always keeps itself updated with the trends in market and the new developments in technology in order to help its clients with the best it can provide. The creative minds at Evoweb are led by a two dynamic leaders, Kenny Lim, Jesslyn Goh, Jesslyn Goh, the Managing and Marketing Director brings with her a vast experience in the ﬁeld of marketing and leadership. Kenny Lim, who serves as the Technical Director has been playing a major role in the success of the company. The Immersive Services Offered

‘‘

Globalize your business with Evoweb

‘‘

leave it on the group of marketers at Evoweb to imprint your business in the market. The expert team of Evoweb offers ranging services to help its clients with their business. Evoweb, a leading multimedia company acts as an extension to the business and aids its clients in contents development powered by the cutting-edge technologies like AR and VR. The company also offers its brilliant advocacy in creating AR/VR content for corporates events or CSR or more activities. Customerization websites, app developments are also one of the services Evoweb provides.

unique and creative multimedia solutions. Marketing is the trickiest part in any business. There is no denying to the fact that marketing is the heart of any business. With the advent of digital marketing, marketing has taken a big turn. The developers at Evoweb being best at this take advantage of technologies such as AR, VR, and other technologies and have mastered in delivering interactive contents for any corporates’. The ultimate success for any service provider is the satisﬁced clients. Evoweb, proud of its services has few happy clients in its roster. One of its successful implementation was with, Energizer Malaysia. Evoweb had taken it on itself to brand its client’s road show. Powered with VR the contents for this event were great success.

Evoweb was also a part of a campaign, spreading awareness on safe driving and avoiding drunk driving. Carlsberg Malaysia, a brewer company based out of Malaysia had organized a campaign titled as Oktoberfest. Envisioned to spread awareness among people about the disadvantages of drunk driving, Evoweb and its team had created the interactive Kinect content which was one of the reasons for the success of this campaign. The multimedia content is designed in such a manner that it attracts clients’ customers and helps in achieving a bigger goal; the global visibility of the brand name. These multimedia content also has added advantages values which includes greater user experience with more fun, brand awareness of corporates, interactive with corporate to gain more data and etc. Having over a decade of experience in this realm, Evoweb is one of the trusted partners in marketing. The other extended advantages that the company offers include the customization of websites and mobile apps services. However, the prime goal of the company is to develop applications that are targeted to generate more revenue and to attract the right customers in right time.

Evoweb proudly presents its team of creative designers. With an experience of more than eight years the team solely aims to elevate its clients’ business marketing abilities. The team of experts works to deliver

MAY 2018 |

About the Author Fatima Al Shirawi, Founder of The Gracious F is the leading Color Consultant in the Middle East who has been collaborating with International luxury brands through the years. As an educator, she works with Government and Corporate Entities and Educational Institutes on delivering the Science of Colour to learners in their î&#x17D;&#x152;elds of expertise.

Fatima Al Shirawi Founder

| MAY 2018

New

TECH TALK

Hunting

Business

OPPORTUNITIES Taking The

ToThe Next

LEVEL

aunching a niche business concept in a competitive environment requires a mindset that constantly looks for new challenges to explore new ventures and set precedents. I launched a fully-ďŹ&#x201A;edged color consultancy business in the Middle East a decade ago at a time when the region was just establishing itself as an international hub for arts and creativity. Many perceive color consultancy as a business that assesses individualsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; color proďŹ les hence its association with fashion and styling. In an age where knowledge is the core driver of creativity and versatility, I have transformed the perception of this individual-centric business to a business that services key sectors that involve human interaction. The science of color psychology is accurate to the extent that it can be used to achieve sales targets for any business. International brands have always been ahead of the game in using innovative methods to

MAY 2018 |

drive their sales. With the Middle East being a key market for growth, I worked with these brands by utilizing the science and psychology of color to enhance the shopping experience for their target clients. From engineering the store interiors and visual merchandise to the actual selection of goods that appeal to the sophisticated buyer meanwhile standing out in a competitive landscape. Time after time the science of color did not fail our expectations. Another important element of success is collaborating with businesses operating in different sectors. Social Media channels have made it simpler to keep up with trends which paves the way for successful collaborations to tap into new markets and challenge business’s creativity. The collaboration of businesses from different sectors has become increasingly common in this day and age, as they all aim to innovate a new experience for their customers. Local and regional businesses are challenged to outperform as they are constantly compared to their international counterparts on social media channels and online media platforms. The key benefit of research and keeping up with trends is understanding the challenges that businesses face, which creates the opportunity to collaborate successfully. A good example of a cross-sector collaboration would be aligning my color consultancy business with the F&B sector, which has witnessed growth in recent years, where customers are always on the lookout for the next new dining experience. Utilizing color psychology of human behavior and people’s perception of colors was the core success factor behind such collaboration. Where the fine dining restaurant set a precedent in designing a customized menu incorporating the flavors and colors that best suit Middle Eastern diners meanwhile maintaining its French cuisine offering. Diners enjoyed the experiences that activated their senses whilst they were briefed on the psychology of color and flavors behind every course of their dinner. Thanks to the Color Affects theory, they left with satisfied taste buds and inquisitive thoughts of the color groups they belonged to.

decade of know-how and expertise in the evolving landscape in the Middle East and having worked alongside regional and international entities, it was time to share the know-how with young minds. The Academic sector is one of the key sectors that interacts with young minds and exports knowledge. It is therefore extremely important to me to work with academic institutions by training young students from both arts and business realms on understanding the impact of color psychology and the importance of implementing it in their areas of specialization, with the aim of growing their skill sets and improving their career prospects. Taking the business to the next level means exploring new sectors that you can work alongside with and understanding the challenges of the ever-evolving business landscape. Conﬁdence in your business and its offering makes that possible. It is important to highlight that deep knowledge of the new sector you plan on working with, creates a better opportunity and transforms collaborations to partnerships. Creativity remains the core challenge to businesses across sectors. It is important to understand the psychology of the consumer and color psychology is one of the methods used to decipher consumer behavior. Commitment to your business and business counterparts is the key to sustainable success. It is important to bear in mind that along with the high risk comes rewards which is what sets your business apart from its competitors, by emerging as a key player in the market. Color consultancy remains a niche business, yet it was eminent to hunt for opportunities that capitalize on such a science in an age where our eyes are busy with our portable devices and our minds are constantly distracted. Versatility, adaptability and venturing into new business areas has transformed the perception of my business from one that is associated with fashion and arts to a business consultancy that comprehends customer psychology, visual merchandize, and engineers interior designs of homes and stores.

Sharing knowledge is the key to growth. With over a

| MAY 2018

HUMANS

ARE

he coming years will spectate a time when the entire work place would look different. Half of the world has already been infused by Artificial Intelligence. In this technology driven life, people seldom have time to waste. Today there is an alternate to every problem that linger humans. Let it be about automated or smart cars being used to move around, or taking help of “Siri” ‒ the personal assistant to help with directions, make a call or for any kind of service. The auto generated texts that is received from banks, Facebook wishing birthdays, reminders or events set in calendars, email filtering spam messages are all performed through automation. Thus, AI has its influence in every aspect of one’s life.

ON THE

VERGE TO DROP THEIR JOBS?

The world today is moving in a swift manner and there is a shift at how we live, move and communicate. Time seems to be barrier here as everyone is in rush to adapt to the changes. As humans, communicating to another being is very important. There are automatic secretaries that help in arranging such gatherings with all the necessary information. Everything out in the world is just at finger tips away. Scheduling meetings, ordering grocery, making dinner plans, ordering food at work or at home anything is possible. Technology has opened up infinite opportunities and the growth of technology in such a small span of time is commendable. How much easier can life be with the help of these technologies? The answer lies in future. Considering the changes that have occurred in past few years, it can be assured that AI is growing and the scopes are infinite. Robots to live midst us The alluring thing about humans is that they are always looking for something new and they strive

| MAY 2018

MACHINE TALK

to make their lives easier. It doesn’t need a genius to know that the drastic change in every ones lives and the implementation of AI is the outcome of human thinking and hence it won’t be startling if robots would actually live amongst humans. If such a thing happens then the work load on humans would be reduced to minimal. Is that a good thing or bad? However from the outside this new world that would emerge seems like effortless. Most of the hazardous tasks like defusing a bomb, working at coal mine, using heavy and dangerous machines and even at war ﬁeld would become less of a nightmare. Among other things AI is playing a major role in business and other work

ﬁelds which give a possibility of robots replacing workers in the market. As a coin has two sides, this initiation could have drawbacks, but there is brighter side too. If workers are being replaced with robots then there would be higher productivity and lesser time consumption. There would be a change in the graph of economic growth too. For example automated surveillance can be a boon to the entire mankind. Improved machine tools like 360 degree video cameras, sensors that can cover all kinds of images that pass by will bring a massive change. It might even put the jobs of security guards at question but this change will

MAY 2018 |

be a turning point. It can reduce the risks of thefts and other incidents. There is another masterpiece of AI that can be called as the game changer. AI robots are replacing receptionists. Handing multiple clients can be tiring and can at times even create confusions and thus replacing humans with robots is both impressive and time saving. Imagine how it would feel like when you are entering a museum and you are welcomed by a robot who gives you a quick, precise and clear tour of all the things in that museum. How wonderful is that? Robots can even be replaced by workers at factory. This brilliant step has lots of advantages. Workers at coal mine sites or any such mineral sites are always prone to danger, the replacement of humans by robots can reduce this risk and also it will be helpful in increasing productivity. Similarly AI robots can take over works of a driver, data analyst, delivery boys, advertising salesperson, telemarketer, bookkeeping clerks and many other such strenuous and boring jobs. That is not all they can be also be useful in other high intelligent jobs like that of an accountant. A robot will never go wrong with calculations and numbers. Are humans ready for this change? The biggest fear that lingered humans since years was what will happen to humans if robot takes over? Seems like humans are about to get their answers. AI robot is not a dream anymore rather it is the hard truth that the coming generation has to face. According the reports released by McKinsey & Company, 800 million workers would be replaced by robots worldwide by the year 2030. The report also stated that the countries with advanced economies like U.S and Germany up to one-third of work force might be replaced by robots by the year 2030. Does this suggest that the workers would have to learn other skills and ﬁnd other jobs? The future looks both scary and impressive and what does it has in store can only be unfolded with time.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

FINTECH CIRCLE: Connecting People in the FinTech Ecosystem

INTECH Circle, established in 2014, is a global community of over 100,000 FinTech entrepreneurs, angel and VC investors, ﬁnancial services professionals and FinTech thought leaders. It is focused on FinTech investing, education and enterprise innovation. To be part of FINTECH Circle, members can join events and online newsletters, follow news on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to get daily FinTech, WealthTECH, InsurTECH and RegTECH updates and purchase the FinTech books as hardcopy, e-books or audio-books. FINTECH Circle Institute was launched in 2017 to facilitate learning via online courses. It is a peer-to-peer learning platform designed to empower ﬁnance professionals with the necessary digital skills to adapt to the

Susanne Chishti, CEO & Founder

rapidly changing ﬁnance industry. With board members ranging from traditional banks and FinTech experts, through to academics from leading universities, the

platform offers practical bite-size courses on topics including WealthTECH/Robo-banking, InsurTECH, RegTECH, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise Innovation and Start-ups. Every quarter, new classes are released online to ensure that members and industry experts working on the most cutting-edge FinTech innovations globally have access to the latest FinTech insights. FINTECH Circle’s CEO, Susanne Chishti, co-edited “The FINTECH Book” published by WILEY, which is the first globally crowd-sourced book on financial technology and a global bestseller across 107 countries in 5 languages. FINTECH Circle also launched the “WealthTECH” and “InsurTECH” Books, which have been published by WILEY in May 2018, sharing global insights about the future of wealth/investment management and insurance. The FINTECH Book has been selected among the ‘Top 10 Finance Books’ in China in January 2018.

Leader Holding the Reins Susanne Chishti is the CEO and Founder of FINTECH Circle and the FINTECH Circle Institute. Susanne is recognised in the European Digital Financial Services ‘Power 50 2015’— an independent ranking of the most influential people in digital financial services in Europe. She has been selected as Top 15 FINTECH UK Twitter Influencers and as a City Innovator-Inspirational Woman in 2016. During 2017, she has also been a FinTech TV Commentator on CNBC and is a guest lecturer on financial technology at the University of Cambridge. Susanne has been selected as a Leader in the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Power List since 2015. In

| MAY 2018

After completing her MBA, Susanne started her career working for a FinTech company (before the term “FinTech” was being invented) in the Silicon Valley 20 years ago. She then worked for over 15 years in senior positions across Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, Morgan Stanley and Accenture in London and Hong Kong, China before founding FINTECH Circle in London, UK. The Will to Win When Susanne Chishti left her banking job in 2014 to set up FINTECH Circle, she was told that FinTech is “too niche” and it would be a bad idea to focus so narrowly. She stuck to her gut feeling, which said, FinTech will be huge—in fact, Fintech will be the future of finance. Susanne launched the first angel network bringing together private investors who wanted to find the next Googles, Amazons, and Facebooks in the finance world with those entrepreneurs who were looking to raise outside funding after their family and friends round was completed. When The FINTECH Book was launched in 2016, it was also the 1st crowd-sourced and crowd-voted book in finance sharing the insights of more than 70 FinTech entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders globally. FINTECH Circle believes in the wisdom and power of the crowd and

MAY 2018 |

‘‘

We are often pioneers in what we are doing

‘‘

2017, the US Magazine Inc. selected her as one of the Top 7 Global Bitcoin Experts who “help you to understand cryptocurrency” and in the same year itself, Onalytica selected Susanne as the 13th Most Important FinTech Thought Leader globally, as part of their Women in Tech–Hot topics & Top Inﬂuencer Study.

giving everybody a chance to participate in designing the financial world. Empower People FINTECH Circle respects its entrepreneurs, investors, readers, lecturers and students, course participants and its innovation leaders in larger companies and treats each person with honesty and integrity. “We follow a “no jerks” policy! We also fully encourage diversity and Susanne Chishti, our founder, often speaks about the empowerment of women and how our society needs to encourage more women to take on tech roles and leadership positions in finance and technology sectors”, asserts the team FINTECH Circle. FinTech can be a force for good, especially when considering the 2.5 billion people worldwide living in poverty without bank accounts, many of them have a mobile phone and with FinTech solutions they can get access to safer and cheaper ways of spending, saving and transferring money. Helping People Prosper The key challenge is that most people still rely on conventional practices rather than adapting to the technological changes in the financial sector. Considering the present scenario, everyone in an organization

ought to change significantly to stay competitive. Also, the increased automation via AI will undoubtedly impact all financial firms, each person needs to take their future and career literally in their own hand and learn as much as possible about new FinTech skills & insights. The FINTECH Circle Institute helps to give individuals the power to invest in themselves so that they don’t become victims of technological disruption but quite the opposite, get access to more exciting and meaningful opportunities which will shape the future of finance. Future Proceedings FINTECH Circle is committed to stay at the cutting edge of FinTech innovation worldwide and collaborate with FinTech stakeholders and FinTech nations. In 2018, the company has added three key initiatives to its service offering, Blockchain focused CryptoValley Tours —a 2-day Blockchain bootcamp to help investors and financial services professionals truly understand the power of blockchain, smart contracts, crypto finance, digital IDs, tokenomics, and ICOs, a partnership with Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to bring FinTech Education to the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East and a partnership with China’s Global Fintech Lab to enable international business and investment deals and fintech education with courses from the FINTECH Circle Institute. FinTech connects the world and FINTECH Circle is all set to play its part in improving financial services for both developed and emerging markets globally. fintechcircle.com

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Immersive Rehab: Transforming Physical Rehabilitation using Virtual Reality

hysical rehabilitation is often not an accessible, engaging and motivating activity to embark upon and engagement with and long term compliance can be a limiting factor in relation to treatment success. Stroke patients and people with limited mobility in upper limbs often cannot engage with physical objects during physical rehab due to lack of strength which slows down their recovery process, as well as being very demoralizing. It is important to offer people access to effective physical rehabilitation exercises and to keep people engaged into

very limited upper limb mobility. Immersive Rehab’s Virtual Reality Platform provides an engaging and motivating solution to the current limitations of physical rehab, in particular for people with signiﬁcant neurological upper limb mobility limitations. Story of Establishment Headquartered in London, Immersive Rehab was one of the 12 startups in the autumn 2016 cohort of the 12-week Bethnal Green Ventures Tech for Good accelerator programme. Immersive Rehab creates physical rehabilitation exercises in virtual reality that improve patient recovery. By combining neuro- & physical rehab, it is possible to obtain important gains in mobility and function. Immersive Rehab is all about empowering patients going through physical and neuro-rehabilitation and giving them more of their independence back, thereby also reducing referral times into physical therapy facilities. Inspiration behind Immersive Rehab

Dr. ir. Isabel Van De Keere, CEO & Founder

their physical rehabilitation programm as this is key process in their recovery. They also have limited access to follow-up rehab once up and walking while still having

What makes Immersive Rehab’s approach to the rehab problem unique is the personal connection of Dr. ir. Isabel Van De Keere, CEO & Founder to the creation of the company. Eight years ago Isabel had a severe work accident herself resulting in a reduced mobility, loss of independence, isolation and a long rehab period. As such, Isabel knows the physical rehab space and ﬁeld of work very well. Aside from that, she has strong technical and strategic skills as a Mechanical Engineer, Doctor in Biomedical Engineering and strategist. This resulted already in numerous important connections and key collaborations with healthcare professionals and individuals suffering from neurological disorders. Isabel has 12 years of professional experience and is an experienced manager, engineer & strategist, healthcare technology scientist &

| MAY 2018

The Services Rendered by Immersive Rehab Immersive Rehab’s unique selling point is that they are providing a solution to current limitations of physical rehab, in particular for people with important neurological upper limb mobility limitations. A key focus is on improving the motor skills and on reducing referral times into physical rehab facilities. Currently, stroke patients for example gain on average only about 15% of their upper-limb mobility back post stroke. By combining neuro- & physical rehab, it is possible to obtain important gains in mobility. When people enter the virtual world, they perform rehab exercises by interacting with virtual objects, something often not achievable in the real world. By engaging a person’s brain into thinking that they are actually moving objects around, it is possible to tap into the neuroplasticity of their brain, i.e. ability to change and adapt, which can lead to important improvements of motor function. Target Market Immersive Rehab is all about empowering patients going through

MAY 2018 |

‘‘

The goal is to increase the effectiveness of physical rehabilitation, and make it fun and engaging!

virtual reality is still an emerging technology that needs validation in sectors like healthcare and in clinical environments. Immersive Rehab is all about giving patients options as there is nothing worse than having no options at all.

‘‘

academic, product designer, experimentalist, and collaborator across disciplines. She has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering (2004) and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering (2009), thereby combining her two passions: engineering and healthcare. Isabel has extensive experience in product design & development, user & scientiﬁc research, prototyping, physical & neuro-rehabilitation techniques, biomechanics, Virtual Reality and digital health technologies.

physical and neurorehabilitation and giving them more of their independence back. Current target groups are people with upper limb mobility limitations and poor ﬁne motor function, in particular as a result of stroke, spinal cord injury, MS and other neurodegenerative conditions. Key connections have been made with specialised physical and neuro-rehabilitation centres around the world. The MVP has been trialed so far by physiotherapists and occupational therapists in various hospitals and rehab clinics around the UK, all specialized in stroke, spinal cord injury rehabilitation & MS. A number of individuals with the latter conditions have tested the prototypes as well on a voluntary basis with impressive results regarding engagement, balance and mobility. Future Ahead Working in a highly regulated space as healthcare and therapeutic treatments brings a number of regulatory, ethical and validation challenges along. Also,

Is Globalisation

Killing

Helping Start-ups?

Mike Rosenbaum CEO & Founder Spacer.com.au

| MAY 2018

FUTURE INSIGHT

About the Author Mike Rosenbaum is the CEO and a Founder of Spacer.com.au - The Place for Space. He is also CEO of Parkhound. Mike previously co-founded DealsDirect, a pioneering online Dept store in Australia and is an angel investor & advisor to a number of startups in the Sharing economy. Mike also co-founded The Sharing Hub, aiming to accelerate Sharing Economy startups in Australia & contribute to the ecosystem.

ften denounced as the harbinger of inequality, the term ‘globalisation’ has been making waves since the 1960’s. With the move away from traditional enterprises and the rise of entrepreneurs, questions surrounding the impacts of globalisation on start-ups have increased. Is it more of a hindrance to developing businesses or a help? To try and settle this matter, Mike Rosenbaum, the co-founder and CEO of the Australian start-up, Spacer, and the Sharing Hub, shares his insights into the impacts of globalisation on start-ups. The Sharing Economy has taken the business world by storm with its innovative outlook on what consumers want today and using underutilized assets to meet these demands. Whilst the industry is still relatively new, with some of the most well-known businesses just approaching their 10 year anniversary, the Sharing Economy is drawing a lot of attention. Most of the businesses in the Sharing Economy operate in a peer-to-peer or business-to-consumer business model, providing the average person with the

MAY 2018 |

opportunity to derive additional income. Companies are empowering the general public to use their idle assets, such as their own vehicles and properties, to supplement their income. These businesses have become increasingly popular in cities with a high cost of living, for example Sydney, Paris, Amsterdam, London,San Francisco and New York, where residents are struggling to afford the expected lifestyle. When examining some of the correlations between successful businesses in the Sharing Economy, it becomes clear that these companies tap into a universal need. Whether this be affordable transport, accommodation or parking. The beneﬁts for consumers is clear, with consumers offered a wider variety of goods and services. Start-ups, in return, are best placed to address these global demands and to respond to different cultures. They are ﬂexible, adaptive, at the forefront of technology and are comfortable with the world of digitalisation and the dependence on the internet. They can respond far quicker than traditional multi-nationals

and as such, globalisation appears to be less of a threat to them. The eventual entry into international markets becomes the obvious next step for businesses, once it has been successful in its opening country. Consequently, in considering the typical trajectory of Sharing Economy businesses, the reasons for and beneﬁts of globalisation starts to become clear. With the prominence of globalisation, entrepreneurs are now considering international scale during the conception stage of their business. Startups that haven’t adopted to a global mindset have been left behind and out-competed by the businesses that have integrated these ideologies into their culture. In regard to the importance of having this global perspective, Mike shares that “it’s not exactly a choice, it’s more of a necessity”. As the world shrinks and entrepreneurs are increasing in numbers, there is more competition to stand out and produce something new and different. Having a global perspective, the respect for cultural differences and willingness to communicate and engage with a wider

audience greatly beneﬁts the business as well as the start-up and Sharing Economy as a whole. Despite this, it is important for start-ups, as well as established organisations, to recognise the differences between marketplaces. The details of a business offering are rarely interchangeable between cities, whereby a successful company in London may not function as smoothly in Sydney. A slight difference in the country’s culture or logistics can have a detrimental impact in the future. Reﬂecting on the past few years, there have been many examples of hasty, failed market entry. Perhaps these examples have fueled the doubts and negativity surrounding globalisation for start-up’s. Scholars have argued that this climate is forcing smaller companies either out of business or to compete on a global level, highlighting a divide between multinational corporations and smaller companies. Rosenbaum disagrees, “it’s more fear of the unknown”, he says when talking about the limitations and negative thoughts surrounding globalisation. Small businesses are now more familiar with operating on a global scale then ever before. The increased competition leads to more startups using a plethora of skills and ingenuity to challenge the market. Startups have no option but to compete or watch as their competition passes by and beyond.

Rather than fight the tide, the Sharing Economy is turning globalisation into a benefit for all startups. Businesses are utilising the tools of digitalisation to connect with audiences from all over the world and to source new talent. This movement is reflected in the common flat organisational structure of startups, a consequence of the need to accommodate for workers spread across the world. International teams are then encouraged to learn about the different cultures and customs in order to communicate effectively and respectfully within their international marketplaces. “You’re able to extend your reach into other markets, which ultimately gives your business a much bigger advantage.” says Rosenbaum. There has been a rise in the number of digital platforms supporting startups and the Sharing Economy. This includes mobile phone applications that act as aggregators for retailers, placing startups on the same playing field as some the more established corporations. Additionally, accelerators, such as the Sharing Hub, facilitate relationship building between startups from across the world, whether it be for marketing, manufacturing or technology purposes. Returning to the original question, of whether globalisation is more of a hindrance or a help, the perception of the changes is critical. It seems it is more about how startups leverage and respond to globalisation, that defines it as an opportunity or a threat to success.

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The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

IMMUNOGENX: Improving the Lives of Celiac Patients with Passion and Science

eliac Disease (CD) is an incurable autoimmune disease of the intestine triggered by ingestion of gluten which can cause debilitating gastrointestinal pain, suffering and potential severe life-long health issues. CD is one of the most common autoimmune diseases and afﬂicts about 1% of the world’s population. Currently, there are no FDA approved treatments other than following a strict gluten-free diet (GFD), which is nearly impossible to achieve. Gluten (a family of proteins found in wheat, barley and rye) is an ingredient that is used extensively in food

published study conducted by ImmunogenX and collaborators (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2018) showed that on average, typical CD patients on a GFD often consume hundreds of milligrams of gluten per day, where less than 50 mg per day is generally considered to be a safe level. The US FDA stipulates that products containing less than 20 ppm of gluten may be labeled as gluten-free. Unfortunately, this small amount of gluten is still sufﬁcient to aggravate very sensitive CD patients. ImmunogenX is a clinical-stage therapeutic and diagnostic company focused on Celiac Disease (CD). Both therapeutic and diagnostic treatments represent unmet needs for this disease and as developers of leading technologies, the company is positioned to be the market leader in the CD space. ImmunogenX’s lead development is the therapeutic drug Latiglutenase, which has Fast Track status with FDA and has undergone several successful clinical trials through Phase 2b. Latiglutenase is the only therapy in development to have clinically demonstrated histologic protection of the small intestine and symptomatic improvement. Latiglutenase is a mixture of two recombinant digestive enzymes that degrades gluten proteins in the stomach, rendering them non-immunogenic, thus not able to trigger the autoimmune reaction. Latiglutenase is conveniently taken orally with meals to protect against unintended gluten ingestion.

Dr. Jack Syage Co-founder & CEO

Dr. Jennifer Sealey-Voyksner Co-founder & CSO

manufacturing. Cross-contamination with gluten, even for reputed gluten-free preparations, is difﬁcult to avoid, particularly in a restaurant environment. A recently

ImmunogenX is also developing a minimally-invasive drug biomarker in-vitro device (IVD), CypCel, as a diagnostic tool for monitoring the intestinal health of diagnosed CD patients. CypCel will be able to assess how well patients are healing on a GFD and used as an alternative to an intrusive and expensive endoscopic biopsy.

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The primary Co-founder Dr. Jennifer Sealey-Voyksner is the CSO at ImmunogenX. She is a diagnosed CD patient who has dedicated her professional scientific career to bettering the quality of life of CD patients. She specializes in the study of allergenic food proteins using proteomics, and brings varied experience in the pharmaceutical industry and as an entrepreneur, having co-founded and directed a successful analytical laboratory. Dr. Jack Syage is Co-founder and CEO of ImmunogenX. He has had a stellar research career starting in chemical physics and evolving into analytical instrumentation and pharmaceutical research and is a serial entrepreneur whose last venture was acquired by a $20B/year multinational company. Jennifer oversees the chemistry, manufacturing and control operations for the development of Latiglutenase and CypCel, and manages the analytical activities in the company’s research center. Jack, who handles all aspects of the company’s operations, continues to maintain a strong technical presence, taking a lead role with clinical data analysis and trial design. “Our success is based on our mission and our firm belief in the demonstrated efficacy and safety of Latiglutenase for the treatment of CD and CypCel for the management of CD and other GI diseases. We further cite Professor Chaitan Khosla of Stanford University, a true visionary and the inventor of

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We are ‘‘dedicated to improving the health of individuals suffering from celiac disease

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Motivations behind the Success of ImmunogenX

both of these technologies, as a motivating figure who also has a family history of CD that has shaped his scientific aspirations,” asserts Jennifer. Innovative Drugs and Therapies for Histologic Healing from CD Latiglutenase is a best-in-class therapy on track to be first to market. CypCel is the only drug biomarker diagnostic tool that can monitor the villous health of the small intestine non-intrusively.

Distinctive Approach to Innovations “We are a uniquely qualified company that understands the market. We have the requisite business and technical acumen, we are passionate about the societal benefits we can offer to the celiac community, and have the relationships and connections to partner with financial and strategic partners to execute on the entire regulatory and commercial roadmap,” says Jack. Developing Latiglutenase and CypCel addresses unmet needs in the market for which there are no predicates. This requires a unique approach on the clinical and regulatory pathways. “We are very fortunate that the Division of Gastroenterology of the FDA clearly understands the needs of the CD patient,” says team ImmunogenX. Future Prospects ImmunogenX has been successfully raising the capital required to achieve the significant progress to date and is confident of completing the funding required to conduct the next Phase 2/3 clinical trial that will then position ImmunogenX for a final Phase 3 registration trial for the therapeutic Latiglutenase and the pivotal in-vitro device trial for CypCel.

ImmunogenX has strong patent protection covering any emerging competing therapy based on enzyme treatment. Latiglutenase is protected by over 50 U.S. and foreign patents issued or pending around 13 patent families with expirations ranging from 2025 to 2038. CypCel has a smaller, but broad and long-term patent portfolio.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

INK LINK MARKETING: A Marketing and Public Relations Expert

nk Link Marketing is a full-service marketing and PR agency that specializes in the hospitality and franchising space. The company provides traditional services paired with a broad network of specialists across the country, which enable them to be a one-stop shop for clients. The company makes services scalable based on clients’ needs and budgets. Today, brands are seeking agency partners who can scale up or down quickly. Furthermore, smaller and midsize brands are returning more to one-stop agency support.

Designer of Ink Link Marketing Kim Miller is the Founder and President of Ink Link Marketing. Miller has more than 30 years of experience, primarily on the client side, and used it to her advantage on the agency side. She’s able to put herself in clients’ shoes and leads with “why” before embarking on the what. Miller is hands-on with clients and leads by example for her team with her out-of-the-box thinking, hard work, staying current on trends and industry news, as well as her drive for developing ways to support current clients and ﬁnding new ones. It’s the “what more can we do” mentality that has helped her and her team not only be an agency partner, but also feel like part of clients’ internal teams. Successfully Creating Global Footsteps The Ink Link team embraces the challenge of delivering big ideas with small budgets. Big budgets are fun (and can make life easier), but with limited funds, there’s a sense of scrappiness that has to be triggered and Ink Link is able to come through for clients.

Kim Miller, Founder & President

Ink Link delivers on both counts, offering top-tier service with a reduced overhead for clients.

The company, like many, started with humble beginnings. Miller kick-started everything on her own and by the end of Year One, had a handful of part-time support. The company was already making a name for itself with a New Agency Of the Year award under its belt and building its client roster. Although many companies use the ﬁrst year, and sometimes into the second year, as a learning period, Miller disregarded the learning curve and jumped in head ﬁrst. Since its inception in 2012, Ink Link has now grown to nearly 15 core team members and a broad network of support professionals spanning around the globe.

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“With today’s technology and people becoming less connected, Ink Link has held steadfast to the fact that we’re working with humans and when we take the time to build a solid relationship with them that we can all be successful together, as a team. We take the time to develop the client relations and know that during successful or hard times, we should remain ﬂexible and able to shift and change as needed. As much as we enjoy the fun-loving projects, we also brave the problematic situations (crisis communication is one of our specialties) head on and guide our clients through the rough times. It’s about being with clients through the good and the bad,” says Kim about their work culture. Beneﬁts for Ink Link Clients Team Ink Link sees the potential in clients and helps them achieve, as well as sometimes surpass it. The team understands that clients can be more than a restaurant or more than a tech company or more than a charitable organization. They can be more and do more for their businesses, for their customers, for their communities and for themselves as individual team members. It’s a matter of encouraging clients to cross into new zones or areas of opportunities as part of growth. Sometimes there’s success and sometimes not, but opening their eyes to what’s available is what matters.

MAY 2018 |

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We are able to provide a 360° marketing integration by bringing together all professionals to work with us to meet your needs

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Exclusive Operational Strategies

Team Ink Link also understand at the end of the day that there’s a bottom line to meet and part of their mission is to help clients reach that marker to the best of their abilities. Ink Link strategies focus on getting the most eyeballs on a brand and the most bodies into a place of business while creating a noise that helps them stand apart from others in their industry.

Incorporating Advanced Technologies for Better Outcomes New technologies are exciting and provide added platforms for clients to engage with their customers and for Ink Link teams to engage with the media and the public. Team Ink Link welcome new technologies. The challenge is staying current and properly using these new tools; discerning what’s going to last and reach a large audience versus what’s here today and gone tomorrow. Positioned for the Future Ink Link is serving more and more as an outsourced marketing solution for their clients so expect them to grow in that space. And blogging and inﬂuencing marketer is also playing a bigger role in the ﬁrm.

ith the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, a keen step was taken to mend evolution in industries with time. Nowadays, the race to be the best is stretching day by day and so does the competition between industries. To be at the top various factors must be taken into consideration. Firstly, considering the most crucial thing of the company—Profit. Without profit, there cannot be a business. A good company knows how to generate profit and act prudently for it. Looking at some great industry giants, we may find some same criterion to become the ‘best of the best’. As per the various reports, a country above 100K GDP has about 120 million companies are actively functioning in the world, well that’s a huge amount. To stand on the top, an organization should be well organized enough to face the drawbacks only if there is a downfall situation. No day is similar,

Howto Become

Best Best

of the

it’s like a wave, if there are up’s there will also be a glimpse of the downside. To overcome certain obstacles and creating desired milestones, a company should be following various factors responsible for the constant growth in the future. Having a clear vision ‘The purpose is all that matters’ Every organization establishment is

based on its purpose, and it has to justify its purpose accordingly. A company must have a clear and vivid vision so that the employees should know where the company is headed. Vision is not just a statement hung below the company name, which is more often absent in the mind of the employees. It’s the awareness among the individuals working for the organization, to create better innovative products and substantially offer their hard work for the beneﬁts of the company. A team with a vision will work enthusiastically for the growth of the sector. Thus, it’s very necessary to let know employees for what they are working for, and how it will look by achieving certain goals. In order to cut the slack of monotony, a company must motivate their employee’s period. Proper discussions through meetings on the vision of the product will create awareness among the employees about that product. A vision of a company varies from time to time depending on the product, whereas, the motto of a company

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VENDOR'S DAIRY

elaborates the importance of the existence of the company. Probably, an increase in growth and productivity can be seen, if the vision is cleared to every mind resulting in more revenue generation. All you need to know about strategic planning In hand to the clear vision, a company must follow a proper strategic planning. This will ensure the proper growth of the company to achieve certain goals. There’s always a need of plan followed by its proper execution. Planning makes it much easier for the functioning of the tasks and other project-oriented work on time. Pre-planning is an essential thing and can be considered as a boon to the success. Strategic planning is designed just like a blueprint which guides a company to carry out the work. In large companies, strategic plans vary for different sectors whereas small companies focus on the overall measurable plan. Every plan is just an idea if it’s not implemented properly. So, cooperative planning and its simultaneous execution are mandatory. Enlighten yourself with knowledge management ‘How to run a successful business?’ this question always emerges into the brains of industrial vendors irrespective to big or small. Knowledge implementation has always been a key for the proper functioning of any organization; there should be a proper comprehensibility about the monetary issues to the shareholders and owners to provide solutions which will benefit them financially. On the other hand, working knowledge should be implemented to every possible individual, so that employees may work more efficiently. As it is a struggling job to enlighten newly hire employees, the corporate should smoothly engage in educating them. Every company provides training to newly hired, giving more priority to learning. This will literally increase the workability of the employees for greater good Hence, it will be an approach towards success. Provide the best environment for potential employees Any entity doesn’t work with an individual, but by the gradual cooperation of a group of people working as a team. Employee’s satisfaction matters, believe it or not, it does. Hired personnel can work at its best, only when the working atmosphere is good. Yes, it does have an impact on the profits indirectly. Consider, an individual doesn’t feel comfortable working at the office due to improper management and lack of appreciation then he/she may feel unmotivated. A company can be open-cultured if it believes

MAY 2018 |

in the implementation of new knowledge as well as spreading it freely and smoothly to every personnel, through collaboration between each other. In accordance to that, appreciation of new ideas of newly hired will help one to be motivated and work enthusiastically. This kind of factors will help an organization grow internally and will maintain the relationship between employees. So, a company must maintain a proper environment at offices for future growth. Satisfying the needs of the Customer expectations Last but not the least, customer satisfaction; it is the most important aspect to be taken care of. Customer satisfaction is diverted into certain sections, one of them calibrates with the productivity and other deals with the customer service. Let’s have an outlook on both respectively. Dealing with product demand For example, a vendor can only taste success once they match up the needs of the customers. If the customer is not satisfied enough with the bought product then, there won’t be any further purchase. So, it’s really important to supply the product on demand as per required by the buying entity. Considering the fact, there are numerous companies around the globe producing same goods and supplying them to the market. To surpass these other companies, one should be provided an astonishing product which will hold the buyers heed. To stand subtle at the top, there should be a consistency in providing a better product to the people; this will increase the profit. Services provided to the customers Many customers experience certain issues related to the bought product or services, in order to provide proper solutions, assistance is provided to the customers to resolve their issues. Generally, the large companies appoint other outsourcing companies to assist by offering solutions to these kinds of issues and some companies arrange an in-house department to look into such concerns. This helps to acknowledge the drawbacks creating an immense room for improvement. Success never comes overnight; it needs a constant focus and consistent hard-work. These factors will help your organization to be a better company if and only if it chooses to be persistent over it.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

KHORA VR: Merging Virtual and Physical World by Providing Innovative VR/AR Solutions

he global virtual and augmented reality market is growing with its increasing demand in various sectors. These technologies are revolutionary and new platform for various business solutions. Khora is the first virtual reality shop in Denmark and a leading virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) content production studio. Khora started the world’s first VR store in 2016 and produced the first Danish virtual reality game. With the goal to expand VR/AR potential with each solution they provide; the company has introduced VR to more than 20,000 people, organized 500 workshops, and produced more than 100 VR/AR solutions for different businesses. It is one of the most

is to explore VR/AR technology and ﬁnd its true value by working together with other companies and sharing the knowledge along the way. The Inspiring Journey of the Founders Khora was founded by an innovative entrepreneur Simon Max Bloch Lajboschitz and VR producer Peter Fisher. The idea of diving into this business came after Simon watched a mini-documentary, ‘Clouds over Sidra 360’ video in New York. It was an intense and fully engaging experience that really impressed him. So he came back to Denmark, talked to his co-partner Peter, who had been working with VR productions for a few years, and they decided to start Khora together. The major challenge faced during the inception was to understand the technological capabilities and the limits of VR/AR. Being constantly up-to-date on the tech side helped them along the way. So, the key attribute was to keep close communication with experts coming from a technological background and being an active member in the VR/AR community. Providing Diverse and Innovative Solutions

Simon Lajboschitz, Co-founder & CEO Peter Fisher, Co-founder & CTO

experienced VR/AR content producers in Northern Europe and a pioneer of introducing this technology to Danish people and businesses. The core of the business

Khora provides services to various industries, by creating stunning VR solutions for business applications like visualizations, physical experiences, simulations, e-commerce, or digital entertainment. They also produce content for education, healthcare, art, marketing, and other ﬁelds. The company has also invented some innovative VR projects for dementia patients, long-term sick children, physics education, and contemporary art. Khora is the only commercial partner involved in a research project run by the scientists from the Capital Region of Denmark, who is presently conducting the world’s largest clinical trial for VR as an exposure therapy treatment tool.

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The main aim of Khora is to involve clients in the production process and close communication throughout the entire project development. Most of the solutions provided to the clients fall within commercial purposes. Brands; which are heavily rely on storytelling, VR technology empowers the client to tell the story in a more effective manner and get the prompt reaction and let consumers to be in places and they can feel the real world virtually. It is also common to use virtual reality in onboarding and training staff, which again, decreases the time and resources used compared to the traditional training process. VR/AR solutions offer higher user engagement and can help the client to improve their business in better way. Dynamic and Open Culture at Workplace that Leads to Innovation Khora is a curious company, which focuses a lot on creating and

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We offer the best virtual and augmented reality solutions for various Industries

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Helping Clients in the Growth of Their Business

maintaining transparent work culture. It has an open co-sharing ofﬁce space, which is located in one of the most creative and charming environments in Copenhagen - Meat Packing District. They maintain strong team spirit and everyone’s efforts are acknowledged by celebrating the accomplishments together. Open and positive work culture at Khora helps the employee to bring in clear thinking, a long-term view, innovation, and empathy for each other.

Company’s Next Move for More Progress Khora has been rapidly growing throughout the last years since its establishment, and at the moment the company is looking for further expansion in other industries as well, especially within healthcare, psychiatry, and markets abroad. Khora works with the art projects closely and according to them, there is more potentiality in art because they see the dramatic increase of interest in VR as a medium for Art. In general, VR/AR technology has technically matured and at this point, there are countless opportunities for VR/AR implementation basically in any industry. However, there is one big obstacle to reaching the mass consumer market. But the whole industry will change when VR headsets become as common as cell phones, TVs, and computers.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

LEAF HEALTHCARE: Innovating Pressure Injury Prevention

eaf Healthcare offers the only comprehensive, wireless mobility monitoring system to prevent costly and life-threatening complications of patient immobility, such as pressure injuries, pneumonia and DVT. The Leaf Patient Monitoring System tracks all patient movement — in bed, in a chair and as they walk. The Leaf System monitors how well patients are moving in bed, as well as the distance a patient walks, the number of steps taken, and the length of time ambulated to determine whether the movements meet patient-speciﬁc mobility goals. Leaf was honored as one of the “10 Most Promising Patient Monitoring Solution Providers of 2017” by Healthcare Tech Outlook.

The Leaf System is the ﬁrst wireless technology that continuously and precisely monitors patient movement and determines whether the patient has moved sufﬁciently Barrett Larson, Co-founder & CEO to prevent pressure injuries. A large, randomized-controlled study involving the technology was recently published which demonstrated that that patients using the Leaf system are 73% less likely to develop a pressure injury.

How does it Work? The small, lightweight, and waterproof Leaf sensor is applied to the patient’s chest, where it is virtually unnoticed. The sensor automatically monitors patient movement through all stages of the mobility continuum: · In Bed: The system monitors and records patient position (including upright angle) and notifies staff when interventions are needed to optimize a patient’s position in order to prevent pressure-induced tissue ischemia. · Sitting: The system tracks time spent seated, monitors pressure distribution, and notifies staff when repositioning is necessary to ensure optimal pressure offloading while seated. · Standing: The system recognizes, records, and optionally alerts staff when patients get out of bed and begins to ambulate. Leaf automatically suspends prescribed turn protocols until the patient is back in a bed or chair. · Walking: The system monitors and documents the improvements in a patient’s mobility level over the course of a hospitalization to help track functional improvements and suitability for discharge. Architect behind Leaf Healthcare Barrett Larson (MD) is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leaf Healthcare. A physician-entrepreneur, he is passionate about developing new technologies that improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. Larson earned his medical degree from Stanford University, where he also did his residency training in anesthesiology. Dr. Larson is an Assistant Professor in Anesthesiology at Stanford University, the Director of the Stanford Anesthesia

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Effectively Reducing the Pressure Injuries Pressure injuries are among the nation’s most common facility-acquired conditions, affecting more than 2.5 million patients a year and adding $11 billion to annual U.S. healthcare costs. Studies have found that patients using the Leaf System are almost 4x less likely to develop pressure injuries than patients who don’t have Leaf. The standard of care to prevent pressure injuries requires nurses to turn patients every two hours, a routine that is challenging in hospitals dealing with nationwide nursing shortages. The Leaf System offers the first effective technological solution to the problem by monitoring patient movements, assessing whether those movements are adequate to allow the skin to reperfuse sufficiently to prevent a pressure injury, and notifying nurses about patients who need turning assistance. Distinctive Offerings from Leaf Healthcare The Leaf Patient Monitoring System is unique in the market. Some companies attempt to monitor bedridden patients but cannot determine if their movements have effectively offloaded pressure, or if the patient has remained in a new position long enough to allow for

MAY 2018 |

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We are advancing the standard of care for patient mobility monitoring

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Innovation Lab (SAIL), and the recipient of several medical technology innovation awards. He launched Leaf Healthcare after discovering an enormous opportunity for wearables to transform the care of hospitalized patients.

proper reperfusion of compromised tissue. Other products work like egg timers and notify nurses when a pre-set time period elapses. The Leaf System monitors and tracks actual patient movement, determines its effectiveness and records the total patient movement history – which can be useful in assessing workforce productivity and conducting a root cause analysis if an immobility related patient incident occurs. Leaf’s technology protects patients and helps to optimize staff workflow. Benefits for Clients Beyond the unique monitoring technology, Leaf has developed the Integrated Positioning Index™, a new, accurate way to assess and manage pressure injury prevention efforts. The index is the first tool that precisely measures the effectiveness

of patient turning (turn frequency, turn magnitude, and time off a previously compressed area) and enables providers to intervene before problems occur. This is incredibly important since reimbursement is tied to patient outcomes. Automated reports at the patient, unit, and facility level provide managers actionable data to identify gaps in care and sustain higher levels of adherence to prescribed mobility programs. Daily Leaf reports help nursing leaders drive adherence to mobility protocols, identify training opportunities, track performance, and have even been used to optimize stafﬁng levels. Future Prospects Leaf Healthcare will continue to introduce innovations to its Leaf Patient Monitoring System. What began as a solution to the pressure injury problem that plagues the healthcare industry is quickly evolving into a system that can monitor patients throughout the full patient mobility continuum – from bed-ridden to fully ambulating patients. Leaf’s technology makes it possible to electronically monitor and automatically document a patient’s mobility progression to help avoid the many serious complications associated with immobility. By maximizing patient mobility, patients can leave the hospital faster, healthier, and far less likely to require readmission.

www.leafhealthcare.com

Providing a New Outlook to Traditional Businesses

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VIRTUALIZING BUSINESS

â&#x20AC;&#x153;VR is a way to escape the real world into something more fantastic. It has the potential to be the most social technology of all time.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Palmer Luckey Virtual reality (VR) has been around for many years now, in spite of this it is a very underdeveloped technology. It holds a vast potential outside of entertainment, it has taken over various aspects of our lives right from the way we shop, experience, converse and even ways to conduct business. With time this technology has gained popularity with many powerhouses, which has encouraged them to invest profoundly in VR technology. It has become more and more accessible for users, with manufacturers having already released household sets and are continuing to do so. The recent advancement in the VR technology has made it more accessible for the general public. Due to this, it has had a remarkable impact on the business world also. The sole aim of the technology is to change human perception using virtual systems. The adoption of VR by users is still in its nascent stages and has gained popularity, and more and more businesses are coming up with VR based solutions. The reducing prices of VR headsets have also posed to be an advantage for the consumers as well. It has also posed to be an advantage for the consumers as well, with the reducing prices of VR headsets. This has proved that VR is a tough and emergent market, with great scope for platforms which can allow businesses to leverage VR for process development and advanced marketing.

MAY 2018 |

Businesses are Using VR to their Beneﬁt VR has the potential to become the most important tool that businesses can leverage to add on to their success. Established businesses are taking the help of VR to train their new employees in a more cost-effective and efﬁcient way. With the help of VR, one can have an employee in Los Angeles meeting with the one in London as if they were/ are in the same room. VR offers an added advantage when it comes to the outward focus of the businesses; it allows a novel way to connect with customers. The company can build up a more story driven way of marketing which draws people into the company’s brand, in a tangible and relational way. Virtual reality has potentially transformed the world of media. It has opened doors for businesses; to advertise in a way they had never imagined before. Consumers are now equipped with the ability to test out and experience products, that they intend to purchase, in an entirely new way. It allows you to precisely visualize how a piece of furniture or painting would look in a particular room, or even test different makeup styles without leaving the room. A structured assessment, planning of the future of businesses, and with the right data VR can even give a valuable insight into the success of the business. VR is now being used to simplify and reduce the cost of the process of product prototyping. Since VR has made it very cost-effective for businesses to design a product or an intricate component of an outsized machine virtually than actually build

the prototype, the use of VR in this sector is likely to develop quickly. VR and AR have also advanced the area of Computer-Aided Design (CAD). Prototypes can now be shaped within the virtual space, allowing designers to accurately pin down its working way before the resources to build the product are acquired. This has eased the process of testing the product while saving both money and time. The major setback that the e-commerce industry faces is the sales; customers are reluctant to buy products that they haven’t tried. With the help of VR, the consumers can potentially try out and visualize demonstrations for various product categories. Allowing a more clear vision of how their post-purchase experience will look like. Novel business opportunities “There are as many applications for VR as you can think of; it’s restricted by your imagination.” — John Goddard. Virtual Reality has numerous businesses perspective; not just by providing innovative features to the business products, but also in helping innovators create novel businesses with these technologies at the core. Just like old-fashioned cafes, VR cafes would soon be a hit. These places will be a social gateway for people looking for augmented and virtually enhanced experiences. VR cafes would offer choices on diverse virtual reality equipment, comprising of games, videotapes, team-building exercises, social media practices, 3D books and content experiences, and virtually enriched meditation.

In real estate markets, VR platforms permit house tours to people from anyplace around the globe. People can design and even paint their homes with this technology as they would in real life setting, to provide an outlook into the future look of their homes. Cars like Audi R8 offers a VR-powered “test drive” experience. Similarly, even Airbus has introduced aircraft tours for its airline executives, which allows them an enriched experience and tour of the aircraft without actually visiting it. The Future Looks Promising As VR and AR carry on development, more and more knowledge about how it can be efﬁciently incorporated into the businesses has come to light, this amalgamation of new with the old will potentially have a huge positive impact on every sector. New entrepreneurs, startups, and businesses should surely keep an eye out for this technology, as it has become an integral part of marketing and businesses processes in the near future. Bearing in mind how several industries and businesses are quickly validating and accepting virtual reality, the estimate is that it will take over the business scenario almost completely, isn’t bloated by any means.

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The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

A Global Trailblazer in HIT and Interoperability Solutions

ealth Information Technology applications are proliferating at a rapid pace with new applications, devices and constituencies emerging seemingly every day. However exchanging healthcare information between legacy applications and new systems still seems to rely on Point-to-Point persistent interface which is an expensive and dogmatic approach to interoperability. Interoperability is a fancy word for allowing data created by one vendors system to be securely exchanged with and consumed by another. In healthcare, unlike “unregulated” industries, security and Trust-in-Identity are crucial factors that must be accounted for to ensure patient privacy is preserved and data cannot be intercepted or stolen.

(DTAAP) developed by DirectTrust.org and the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC), MaxMD operates as a Health Information Service Provider (HISP), Certiﬁcate Authority (CA) and Registration Authority (RA). DTAAP recognizes excellence in healthcare data processing and transactions, and ensures compliance with industry-established standards, HIPAA regulations, the Applicability Statement for Secure Health Transport, and the Direct Secure Messaging Protocol. MaxMD is committed to providing secure exchange solutions that enable superior coordinated care for healthcare practices, organizations, hospital systems and HIT application service providers. Through leveraging the Direct Protocol, the company offers a modular suite of secure health information exchange solutions that enhance the interoperability and scalability of the Direct Protocol across the broadest array of applications, systems and devices. By utilizing the Direct Protocol in unique ways MaxMD can help clients automate information exchange and improve business operations. Unique Services and Products MaxMD has developed a lightweight, scalable and sustainable approach to health information exchange by leveraging a unique combination of tools to transform data while in transit between disparate systems. The inclusion of a sophisticated Rules Engine, a Data Transformation Engine, plus natural language processing enhances Direct Exchange and results in unprecedented data liquidity at a fraction of the cost associated with other forms of HIE.

Scott Finlay, Founder & CEO

MaxMD helps to exchange structured and unstructured data easily. The company’s enhanced Direct services suite supports patients, provider organizations, and myriad HIT platforms.

MaxMD is a leader in secure healthcare information technology and interoperability solutions. As one of the ﬁrst companies in the United States to achieve full accreditation through the Direct Trusted Agent Accreditation Program

Its enhanced Direct services include a dynamic event notiﬁcation system. Automated, machine-driven ADT feeds and outgoing CCDs trigger real time clinical data to predeﬁned endpoints without manual intervention. The rules engine eases interoperability across the care

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The MaxMD HISP also utilizes a highly customized data integration engine to programmatically transform payloads while in transit. DirectOnFHIR™ is a unique service that leverages two different technical protocols to increase interoperability and scale the exchange of ePHI. DirectOnFHIR is a federated solution which enables a patient or provider to query and pull medical records simply by sending a Direct Message. MaxMD leverages the trust-in-identity assured by a Direct Address to provide authentication and authorization of an HL7 request to a FHIR API. This process can be fulﬁlled from a desktop or from the MaxMD App on mobile devices. The enhanced Direct services suite of the company also facilitates transmission of DICOM images via a fragmentation process to allow large payloads to be moved between independent entities and disparate systems while leveraging the trust-in-identity feature of the Direct Protocol. Lowering operating costs by improving health information exchange and data liquidity will improve care coordination and align providers more closely with the evolving MACRA and MIPS reimbursement models. The Veteran Leadership With more than 30 years of business

MAY 2018 |

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At the root of all our products and services are strict adherence to security based practices and the technical standards and policy requirements of the direct protocol

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ecosystem delivering critical information to the right caregiver at the right time. This automated delivery of information empowers proactive engagement which minimizes preventable re-admissions and ﬁnancial penalties.

management experience, Scott Finlay, President and CEO of MaxMD, fosters an environment of intellectual honesty and open dialog between all team members and his clients. As the founders did not come from the healthcare industry, different approaches were taken to deal with the challenges so there was some skepticism about what the team knew about healthcare. That initial skepticism has evolved years later into a positive attribute as they continued to listen to customers, respond quickly to them and provide solutions to their challenges. The Inspiration behind the Successful Journey Customer referrals and client challenges are indeed the main inspiration that any industry or organization look out for. MaxMD also been involved with Industry Standards Organizations which help them stay abreast of all government requirements and helps the team to ensure the

products are compliant with and consistent with the direction of key industry work groups that are shaping the regulatory requirements for the industry. Many clients in healthcare have similar challenges and the company offer tools that can be configured to work with both legacy systems and new applications or HIT systems broadly. Any organization that collects data or has a need to share data for care coordination or to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes can benefit from a scalable and sustainable approach to interoperability services. Creating Value for Clients The team of MaxMD believes that its deep involvement with DirectTrust.org creates significant value to the clients. The expertise, vision and knowledge of the policy and technology specifics of the Direct Protocol ensures that the products are built to mature with and expand the use cases of the Direct Protocol and ensure the clients will not outgrow the team’s capabilities or find themselves with technology that is not staying abreast of an evolving healthcare technology market. Future Prospect The new MaxMD mobile app is available today on Android devices and will be released shortly on the iOS platform as well. Designed for patients and providers, the MaxMD app enables users to securely coordinate care with healthcare professionals and gives the ability to query medical records wherever they may reside simply by sending a Direct Message. By combining the Direct Protocol with FHIR APIs, the MaxMD app leverages the scalability plus trust-in-identity of Direct to authenticate and authorize HL7 requests.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

NIJHAWAN GROUP: Successfully Adding New Business Every Five Years To The Core Business Of Travel ith over 45 years of experience in India, Nijhawan Group is one of the leading travel conglomerates and has vastly diversiﬁed entities within the Travel Industry.

the world. With a workforce of 1200 employees and 47 fully automated and well-located ofﬁces across India, Far East, Middle East, Africa and Europe the group continues to grow and strengthen its network of services.

Nijhawan Group has a history of successful business partnerships with leading airlines and hotels. In fact, the company has successfully represented British Airways and

Nijhawan Group diversiﬁed into travel technology, hotel representations, outbound & inbound tourism, retail, e-commerce, angel investments to many start-ups in the digital world, mobile app developing services (e.g, Dineout, InShorts) and food industry. Understanding the responsibility of the corporate organization towards the society, CSR vertical was introduced under the name of CKRDT Foundation. Designer of Nijhawan Group Arjun Nijhawan is Executive Director of Nijhawan Group. He has completed his BBA from Temple University, U.S.A. specializing in Economics and International business. He graduated from the American Embassy School. He is responsible for the retail vertical of the Nijhawan Group. In just three years he has expanded the retail business to 24 stores. He is involved in planning, executing and ensuring smooth operations for the stores which are today franchisee of top consumer brands in the world (Adidas, Levis, and Benetton).

Arjun Nijhawan, Executive Director

American Airlines for 35 years and has decades of experience with an array of major international airlines. Nijhawan Group also represents a top hotels chain across

Food Sector doesn’t face the challenge of digitalization and henceforth, Nijhawan Group has diversiﬁed into the food sector, under the name of Fork ‘n’ Spoon. Having handled more than 1000 events, it represents a new style of catering services that transcends a life event into a surreal experience of a lifetime. In a short span of three years, Fork ‘n’ Spoon has become a brand in itself. The innovative and

| MAY 2018

Inspiration behind the Success of Nijhawan Group Nijhawan Group has a common set of traits that foster excellence, productivity, and camaraderie. Every five years the group has been able to come up with a long-term vision for their business. The excellence that the group achieved in the corporate world is because of the distinct vision of sustainable progress, innovation, competitiveness, quality, and sustenance. After being distributors for British Airways and American Airlines in India, Nijhawan Group decided to start an office to take care of all the needs of passengers, starting from small towns to metropolitan cities across India - under one roof, which was a unique and unheard-of concept in India in the 90’s. The group’s aim was to make travel a less daunting task for passengers. Then, when technology began taking rapid strides, the group had the vision of the company making its own online portal. The group today is India’s biggest B2B portal in travel. In the desire to diversify in different businesses beyond travel, the group decided to enter retail sector. The group realized the growing dominance of technology in travel and retail business and thought of food industry which would remain untouched by digitalization, so the group diversified

MAY 2018 |

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We believe that every five years one has to change the style of business by keeping in mind the societal changes for longer sustainability of any business

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enthusiastic culinary artists are conscientiously engaged in serving up to 5000 people for one event. Fork ‘n’ Spoon founder, Arjun Nijhawan, believes in building strong professional teams that work smartly, with excellence in delivery mechanisms.

into the food industry. The group believes that it is important to have foresight vision and work accordingly in trending direction. Present Scenario At present, the group has ofﬁces in 45 cities across 19 countries. The group has 24 retail outlets of Adidas, Levi’s, and United Colors of Benetton in India. The group also makes angel investments in many startups in the digital world, mobile app developing services (e.g. Dineout, InShorts). Fork ‘n’ Spoon is now a brand in itself and can cater up to 5000 people for one event.

tourism and hotel stay all over the world. At Fork ‘n’ Spoon, Group aims to bring excellent quality and exquisite culinary delicacies to all events. Fork ‘n’ Spoon is Delhi-NCR’s premium catering service company. The Group’s state of the art kitchen and experienced team of Chefs and Food Designers work to create a standout experience for all parties and occasions. Challenges Nijhawan Group continues to work with challenges by updating technology and having their reach in 45 cities. Further, the Group is investing in innovation and up-gradation in the use of technology and responding to the market demands by diversifying in the retail and food industry. Future Action Plan After adding a new business in every ﬁve years the group may expand food industry into different countries with their own brand. Group values societal development and plans to invest in social projects affecting the global environment in their corporate social responsibilities and skill development in the rural areas.

Beneﬁts for the Clients Nijhawan Group takes care of the holistic needs of passengers, starting from ticketing, inbound & outbound

TShift that

broke the pendulum

Murray Oles President

About the Author Murray Oles is the President of CHALEX Corp. The company is specialized in Workow Management for Marketing Communications Projects through the use of SmartFlo and integrated third party tools.

orporations are shifting their marketing services in-house and re-deﬁning relationships with their suppliers. This is a strategic shift brought about by a conﬂuence of technical, social and political change on a global scale. At the core of this movement is the corporation’s need to control global brand messaging quickly in an increasingly regulated world. Is this a temporary shift or is there more to it, and how far might it go?

| MAY 2018

MOBILE COMPUTING

The rise of mobile computing combined with an explosion in SaaS software development has led to more intuitive purpose-built applications with built in learning tools. The net effect is that corporations can do much more with less. Hence, the rapidly accelerating move to take internal control of the corporate global supply chain. More speciﬁcally, control of process, digital assets, resources, and the brand message. Evidence of the shift can be seen in global corporations like P&G who in recent years consolidated their packaging prepress supply chain from hundreds of companies to only three. The ANA (Association of National Advertisers) committee for in-house agencies includes members from hundreds of the Fortune 1000. A Google search reveals many recent articles detailing the rise of in-house ad agencies.

that can be analyzed as a service in real-time. The ability to analyze any combination of process and behavioral data yields valuable predictive insights. Standards such as BPMN notation and the XPDL file format have allowed developers to simplify the user experience for defining, managing, and sharing process maps across BPM platforms. A virtual task can automatically serve up the tools the user will need. SaaS tools have one thing in common. They can be called through a RESTful API without the need for a software developer. The workflow can be configured to invoke access to tools based on the nature of the task. For healthcare workflows a digital radiology file format (DICOM Web) enables secure cross-platform viewing and collaboration over a patient’s scanned images and medical history.

The drivers of this shift are affordable and effective new technology and the need for speed to market. The value of a middleman controlling portions of the marcom workﬂow has diminished. This does not mean that everything is being produced in-house, just internally controlled and managed by in-house staff who are deﬁning new best practices for their agile enterprise. Many companies go back and forth between insourcing and outsourcing, but this time it is different. Companies are focused on process, and it is not just marketing, legal and business analytics, recruiting, employee services and even providing in-house healthcare.

Business agile companies adjust to market conditions faster by adopting a culture of managed change. It is no longer acceptable to be so disconnected from your projects that you can’t even access your own brand packaging and promotion ﬁles. The same is true for legal, regulatory and compliance work. The agile company controls all of these processes. Their DAM enabled BPM system interacts with a SaaS reporting service like EZBI that concatenates and reports on data across distributed systems. Lean manufacturing and Six Sigma programs are used to conﬁgure these systems to monitor compliance to regulated processes.

With change comes opportunity. Demand for business process management tools is growing rapidly. Many new companies are developing SaaS products to further enable the agile business. Online workﬂow modeling and business process management tools are becoming main stream. File sharing and digital asset management services are widely accepted. Integrating these services to meet the requirements of a project has never been easier now that RESTful APIs have become widely available. Artiﬁcial intelligence applied to big data analytics will provide the agile business with insights previously inconceivable. Best of all, the enterprise can securely access most SaaS services without making any upfront investments or long term commitments.

These changes are far more profound than may appear on the surface. The gig economy is fueling a virtual cottage industry that circles the globe. Project managers are increasingly in demand. This is not just an IT thing, every business runs on projects. The certiﬁed project management professional PMP is a new college certiﬁcation. Rachel Burger in a Capterra article explained The 5 Biggest Project Management Trends Shaping 2018. In brief, “business agile” is the new way of doing business. A visit to the Fiverr.com web site will show how one SaaS service is bringing buyers and sellers of creative services together. This in-house trend is not just another swing of the pendulum.

At the core of the agile business is an integrated business process management platform. This is the tool that enables distributed process control. In-house is only practical when the technology enables the staff to do an order of magnitude more with less. BPM systems capture huge amounts of data

MAY 2018 |

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

NLS-1 PHARMA AG (NLS) New Era in the ADHD Space

stablished in 2015, NLS is a Swiss based clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing novel and innovative treatments for Attention-eﬁcit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), providing superior treatment alternatives to existing treatments. ADHD is one of the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in children and adults worldwide. First-line pharmacological management is with psychostimulants,

recreationally with both diversion and abuse being common problems. Furthermore, not all individuals respond optimally to or tolerate C2 stimulants because of adverse events. Non-stimulants (e.g., atomoxetine and alpha-2 agonists such as long-acting clonidine and guanfacine) are Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved for ADHD, but efﬁcacy, overall, is not as robust as with C2 stimulants. Moreover, the tolerability proﬁle is not necessarily superior to stimulants. The “holy grail” in ADHD is yet to be developed: a therapeutic agent as effective as a stimulant and at the same time as safe as a non-stimulant.

Alex Zwyer, Co-founder & CEO

such as methylphenidate and amphetamine, which are Schedule II controlled substances (C2, per the US Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA]). While C2 stimulants are highly effective for ADHD, stimulants are misused

Mazindol CR (MoA: dual pan-monoamine reuptake inhibitor / Orexin receptor type 2 partial agonist) is a novel, proprietary, controlled-release formulation of a medication that was initially developed for the short-term treatment of obesity in 1973, and withdrawn from United States (US)/ European markets by 2002 due to commercial reasons (not due to safety or efficacy). When marketed, mazindol immediate release (IR) was a Schedule IV controlled substance (C4, per the US Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA]). A recent phase 2 study provided the first evidence that mazindol CR is efficacious and well tolerated in adults with ADHD. Mazindol CR had a robust effect on ADHD symptoms, with a large placebo-adjusted effect size of 1.09. The magnitude of this effect was comparable to what is typically seen with existing C2 stimulants, such as methylphenidate CR, lisdexamfetamine, d-amphetamine extended release (XR), and mixed amphetamine salts, and much higher than for atomoxetine. The least square means (LS) mean difference between mazindol CR and placebo on Day 42 was found to be consistent across all sensitivity analyses, establishing that the large effect size was not

| MAY 2018

Although the exact mechanism of action (MoA) is uncertain, the pharmacologic proﬁle of mazindol suggests that it might be useful for treating ADHD. Mazindol CR is unique from other available medications for ADHD because none of the currently approved pharmacological treatments are considered SNDRIs, nor do they promote a regulatory effect on 5-HT1A, 5-HT7, or the hypothalamic orexin system. Orexin ﬁbers are dense in brain regions crucial for wakefulness and arousal particularly the locus coeruleus that contains adrenergic, noradrenergic, histaminergic, and serotonergic neurons. Orexin neuropeptides are known to play important modulatory roles in sleep/wake regulation, motivation, reward, as well as emotional and attentional regulation.

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We serve our patients through designing affordable, safe and effective the rapeutics to safeguard and empower the brain throughout all stages of life

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biased by any of the statistical methods used. In addition, onset of action was rapid; separation from placebo was seen at the first post-treatment data point, after 1 week of treatment. Further, there was a significantly higher proportion of excellent responders and responders on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI-I) (much or very much improved) by Day 14; this finding stands in contrast to the time of onset of effect for FDA-approved nonstimulant agents (e.g., atomoxetine, guanfacine, and clonidine), which can take up to 4 weeks to achieve efficacy.

personality has driven NLS to success in growing the company with world-class personnel in drug formulation and clinical trial design. As the company progresses toward execution of the phase III clinical trials they plan to prioritize engaging regulatory authorities, adding top-tier talent that enables vertical integration and building on already strong relationships with Key Opinion Leaders. “Our multidisciplinary Team, led by professionals with a long track record in drug development and management, relies on highly skilled personnel with unique competence in developing integrated solutions,” says Alex.

Pioneer of NLS Alex Zwyer is the Co-founder and CEO of NLS. He is a natural leader and strategist with a track record of producing extraordinary results for more than 20 years. His creative, entrepreneurial and results oriented

MoA and clinical results with mazindol CR are very exciting and could potentially pave the way for a game-changer in the ADHD space.

MAY 2018 |

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

PURE Canadian Gaming: Making GOOD Things Happen for Other People

URE Canadian Gaming is the largest and longest running casino operator in Alberta, Canada. Additionally, PURE Canadian Gaming continues to be at the forefront of the Alberta province’s gaming industry with implementation of its guest loyalty and rewards program, superior service standards, and exciting entertainment experience. The Alberta gaming industry, which parallels the local economic trends, encountered tough times over the past few years during the economic downturn. Consequently, with the current positive shift in the economy, Alberta casinos are enjoying a renewed surge and the promise of increased growth and revenues. As the standard setter within the province, PURE Canadian Gaming has maintained its competitive edge via property

world-renowned chef designed menus, a posh and innovative state-of-the-art entertainment facility at CasinoYellowhead, the province’s newest poker room at Casino Calgary and the city’s best banquet services at Casino Lethbridge. Casino Edmonton, currently the highest slot grossing charity casino in the province, is slated next for a complete upgrade. PURE’s patrons enthusiastically welcomed the recent opening of Casino Yellowhead’s new Pearl Showroom, a room truly unique to the market with its sophisticated yet relaxed ambience bringing to the city a higher level of entertainment acts. The PURE team takes obvious pride in their upgraded casinos, and that pride is reﬂected in the outstanding service they provide to the casino patrons. Maestro of Pure Canadian Gaming George Goldhoff is President and CEO of PURE Canadian Gaming based in Edmonton, Alberta. He brings a wide range of experience, leadership, and expertise to the casino and hospitality industry. George was recruited to assist in the opening of Steve Wynn’s, Bellagio, Las Vegas’ ﬁrst Five Diamond casino resort. He continued to work with MGM Corporation at the Four Diamond Mississippi property, the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, later becoming General Manager of Gold Strike Hotel and Casino in Tunica, Mississippi.

George Goldhoff, President & CEO

upgrades and renovations, thereby encouraging repeat visitation and enhanced customer experience. The company has invested in improved dining options with

Throughout his career, George has been privileged to lead teams at some of the most iconic hospitality venues, such as The Rainbow Room and The Plaza Hotel in New York. George is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and holds an MBA from Columbia University in New York. George is the visionary and the driving force behind PURE’s success. His enthusiasm and energy is not only inspiring but also infectious leading the PURE team to strive ever higher daily. “Since joining PURE Canadian Gaming, I’ve been creating a new culture from the ground up that gives our guests more than just a fresh coat of paint, but a feeling that they are truly valued and appreciated. We can build ornately

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Excellent Service Begins with Building an Extraordinary Team PURE Canadian Gaming believes that team development is the key to success. In a time when many employers are reducing hours as wages and costs rise, PURE offers more internal training for all levels of employees to help them reach their potential and provide opportunities for advancement. Whether the training is developed in-house or provided by their excellent external resources, the company knows employee development leads to increased employee engagement and retention.

MAY 2018 |

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We pride ourselves on our service standards always looking for ways to do things more efficiently and more effectively. We hold ourselves accountable and guard ourselves from becoming complacent or satisfied with the status quo.

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appointed luxury casinos, but if people come in and our employees don’t make a connection with the players and patrons, then all of that investment is for naught. Building that connection begins with recruiting and training the right people. One of our main areas of focus for the company over the last few years has been creating an internal culture that encourages employee engagement and rewards those who go out of their way to enhance the guest experience. Communicating effectively and being good at listening and responding to our teams is very important to us, and we focus on these things daily. I know we have done a great job in building and instilling this culture of service as our guests have shown us their appreciation through their repeat visits and positive comments. We may be in the casino industry; however, in reality, we are ﬁrst and foremost in the business of entertainment. It’s all about entertaining the guests, and as such, we need to consistently deliver that exceptional service experience every time,” says George about his journey of improvements over the years at PURE Canadian Gaming.

PURE believes that in order for the staff to make good things happen for others, the company ﬁrst makes good things happen for its 1000 employees. With employee recognition programs such as their Employees of the Month, and Leaders of the Quarter, these programs culminate with huge year-end celebrations at every property. Happy employees who feel acknowledged and valued inevitably leads to satisﬁed customers, which then leads to increased business.

members and guests’ feedback. Alberta is the last jurisdiction in the world without the support of the carded/tracked play. All casinos outside of Alberta utilize the carded/tracked play as the standard for data collection and for determining player worth. As such, PURE developed its exclusive CRM platform, to better target and establish player worth/value in a data-less environment, thereby allowing the company to better reward and recognize guest loyalty. Mission and Vision As a service-oriented company, PURE Canadian Gaming’s mission exists as a guiding principle for its properties every single day, in every interaction with its teams and their guests. “Making GOOD things happen for other people” is not so much a mission as it is a way of life for PURE Canadian Gaming. PURE Canadian Gaming continues to evolve and continues to be employee and customer focused. The company capitalizes on its strengths, ever alert to fresh opportunities for expansion and improvement. PURE’s leadership team is highly engaged and endeavors to be the best within the industry. They have an entrepreneurial approach to their business, like to think outside the box, and continually look for ways to improve.

Customer Satisfaction is the Motto PURE Canadian Gaming is proud of introducing PURE Rewards, Alberta’s best casino loyalty program, and has recently re-launched the program to address and supplement additional beneﬁts and rewards, in response to

DECIDING

Factors Investing Technologies WHILE

INTO

new NEW R

eaching out to new opportunities and investing in them, is more likely to be considered as an art. With each day passing, advanced technologies are often tightening the hold on business markets. It has sort of become mandatory for the enterprises to adapt with such new advancements in order to attain continuous growing culture. Implementation of upgraded technologies brings out numerous beneﬁts to an enterprise which mainly are interrelated with

revenue-generation. As a matter of fact, working along with today’s technology are more beneﬁcial and tranquil as compare to early traditional methodologies.

Where once there was one, or two, fundamental technological change on the horizon, now there are several; making investment more difﬁcult for the enterprises. A commonly used phrase states that winning doesn’t occur on betting what has happened, or what is happening, but on what will

happen. Thus, enterprises go through a series of analysis which helps them to predict future beneﬁts as well as the consequences. The market is ﬁlled with various technical solution providers which provide enterprises with various technical implications, if needed. But, it’s more important for an enterprise to choose the technology as per their needs. Mostly enterprises adapt advancements depending on their compatibility ratio with respect to their products and services. But, there are various other parameters which act as a

| MAY 2018

INVESTOR'S DESK

deciding element in order to determine the suitable technology for one’s growth. Depending on the retrospective persona, such factors allow an enterprise to analysis the real-time structure with available technology to put forth the investment strategies. Outlook on essential factors before investing Reaching Out To the Successful Early Adapters Idea spread faster than air; but it depends how intensified the idea is. Every technology must be tested before its implementation, either the company can itself be the first one to acclimatize or it can just wait for else to do so. The decision of being the first adapter brings up maximum amount of

MAY 2018 |

risk but, if the company succeeds in achieving their desired goals then, that company is considerably known to be ground floor or bench mark for others. Apart from being a first one to adapt, a company can take reviews of other entities who had have used or being using the same technology. A little research can dig out all the information requires to determine whether the technology is capable enough to process the work more efficiently. Undeniably Efficient Under Fewer Resources None can predict the future, but can be prepare for it. While implicating a new technology, an enterprise focuses mainly on the big context rather the little stuffs. Success does happen by creating a larger picture, but it do needs those understated amenities to

drive it further. Whether the new technology is huge or triﬂing, it should be compatible with existing system as well as should require few resources to match-up the needs. In most of the cases, the adapted technology completes the task by utilizing more resources than it should have. This issue does get resolved after uncertain time; as disruption occurs into that technology leaving enterprises to re-implement the upgraded version, resulting into more loss rather than the estimated proﬁt. In order to overcome such matters, it’s better to study and then choose the technology which satisfy the current situations and cover up the processes under existing means. Technologies to invest into: There is range of varied technologies available in the market, which is

single-handedly driving the digital world. Follow up with such technologies to uplift an enterprise to the desired heights. Blockchains—everything is getting digitalized, and so is money. Blockchain technology was created to easy up the money transaction process in a more secure way. As per its name, blockchain is chain of an encrypted block-like structure which holds the data of users more precisely. This technology is very much hard to crack through external sources as it entails a series of complex programs for encryption. So implementing such technology in an enterprise transaction process will allow the use of digital currency. One of many, Bitcoin is stated to be the best example of digital currency which uses blockchain technology. Fog Computing—also known as cloud computing, are been diversiﬁed to

various fields and sectors of the enterprises. Its enormous data computing capacity helps enterprises in saving substantial amount of money which was often spend on big data storages. This open-source operating software provides enterprises with a secure and better way to store company data. This cloud is utilized for commercial as well as personal purposes. Artificial Intelligence—technology was introduced in late 90’s, due to less knowledge or technological gratification it never did came into lime-light. But, IT intellectuals were sure enough that one day the technology will witness the rise. And now, AI has achieved a place in enterprises as well as in individual’s lives. Establishing of a perfect AI system might take some more time, as it includes advance and complex programming structure. This AI with the help of Machine Learning can

autonomously generate solutions to any kind problems which will save a lot of time of an enterprise. In future, there are possibilities of the utilization of fully-operated AI by many enterprises. These are the focused technologies which are not only helping an individual to visualize the future but also, bringing it into reality. Hopefully, such advance technologies will be seen everywhere soon. Anyhow, like others these advancements may also face technological disruption by upgraded innovations. Hence, it is obligatory for the enterprises to determine suitable technology by considering above factors. These technologies will act as a backbone to enterprises in order to achieve great success.

| MAY 2018

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

ROOMAR: Empowering the AR-commerce with Vision and Innovation

urniture is an integral part of a house. In other words we can say that it is like the meat and potatoes of a meal. A home without furniture doesn’t have much charm. It makes your home warm, welcoming and complete. When buying furniture, it is important that you pick up functional and timeless pieces that will ﬁt your space and budget in just the right way. Is it possible to try out and see how each and every furniture piece that you plan to buy would look in your house? Your answer might be a big NO, but hello you are

Enriching User Experience via Image Recognition Algorithms Founded in November 2017, RoomAR is a tech startup that is originally based in Berlin. This company aids revenue increase of its clients by providing solutions that involve the latest technology. The technology used in this app is based on augmented reality and artiﬁcial intelligence. The company participated in the popular Axel Springer Plug and Play Accelerator program in Berlin (now Axel Springer Porsche Accelerator), and they were so successful that they got funded even before the program came to an end. Along with a team of exceptionally skilled professionals, the company is about to launch its ﬁrst product, i.e. RoomAR. RoomAR is modular software that is targeting the manufacturers and the retailers of the home furnishing industry. This app helps the manufacturers to increase their online sales and also gets data-based business insights. The app “uses state-of-the-art technology” and the best part about it is that its user friendly. The Room AR core visualizes the virtual furniture product in the real world using an augmented reality mobile app. The app also recommends personalized products according to the style and taste of every individual using this app. This app can be highly useful at showrooms and trade fairs and also for the end users. About the Visionary and Entrepreneurial Leader

Naimah Schütter, CEO

wrong. Thanks to advancements in Artiﬁcial Intelligence, you can now visualize furniture in any part of your house with the help of Augmented Reality (AR) and see if it ﬁts perfectly in your living space and style or not.

Mrs. Naimah Schütter, CEO of RoomAR, has tremendous understanding for data driven business. She has a knack for strong sales and is a contemporary art and design enthusiast. Her innovative and creative ideas have helped her achieve whatever she has worked on till date. Her experience working across varied industries, like Oracle and The unbelievable Machine Company, has brushed up her sales and key account management skills. She also owned an art gallery at Berlin’s famous

| MAY 2018

Naimah asserts, “AR is a technology that scales imagination and brings products to life. A sheer fascination for AR and the potential of a market with an estimated annual growth rate of 40%, led to the establishment of RoomAR.” Envisioning Incredible Experiences with AR Technological advancements have always been extraordinary and left us in awe. Using this technology RoomAR, can bring products to life in a visual way. We have all had to experience this tough decision making phase where we had to decide on the furniture without being sure of how it would look in your house. With RoomAR, this problem is solved forever. You can now not just see how a product will look in your house but can actually see it being kept in a particular room. This app is not just fascinating but super useful too. The team developing RoomAR plans plan to set very high standards both in design and Technology. This app has a very deep understanding of the user’s preferences and these preferences are given back to the interior industry in the form of aggregated data analytics to B2B. Facing Challenges Head On Openness for new ideas and aspirations without any fear has lead to the success of RoomAR. The talented team of RoomAR plans to shun off the fear so that they can reach the epitome of

MAY 2018 |

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Future of the company

We believe that creativity can flow, when you feel comfortable and are free to do what you are best at

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Auguststrasse and this is the reason she thinks on the lines of digitization combined with a sense of ﬁne arts and aesthetics.

success. They believe that with the help of AR they will be able to change the way everyone perceives the world. A good balance is what keeps this company going. The applications that are being developed are bringing value to different industries. To bring these applications in the market some courageous ﬁrst movers are required. Just as RoomAR’s creativity is fostered by their ability to stand up against the consensus.

RoomAR positions itself as one of the key tech companies empowering AR-Commerce to accelerate sale and increase efficiency. The current focus of this company is on the interior market and slowly and steadily they plan to expand further. There is a huge scope of growth in the Industries that are selling consumer goods. They consider that the combined use of augmented reality and artificial intelligence brings lots of value to both B2B and B2C. With a multidimensional business model and a huge potential to position different industry-specific solutions for visualization, recommendation and data analytics, RoomAR is on their way to tremendous growth and success. They aim to become an attractive, cool employer and a leading tech corporation or to say it in own words: The next dimension of retail.

RoomAR is a very new and impressive way of shopping. Imagine that you can picture a coffee table from a furniture website standing right in front of you, you can walk around it and with just one swipe you can change its color and its position. This experience is so much fun that it can take the sales of a manufacturer or retailer to just another level.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

SECEON: Empowering Enterprises and MSSPs to Proactively Detect and Stop Known and Unknown Threats in Real-Time

oday’s organizations are too slow to identify and stop cyber threats from inﬂicting damage once the organization is breached. The demand to detect and respond to breaches in real-time spurred development of Seceon’s innovative Open Threat Management (OTM) platform and the company’s mission to empower enterprises to detect, respond to and eliminate all known and new cyber-threats.

behavioral threat detection modeling and machine learning.

Seceon developed an automated approach that deploys analysis of all trafﬁc, ﬂows and processes in and out of the network and correlates them near-simultaneously with behavioral analytics, recognized and zero-day exploits and policies to identify threats and proposed responses in near real-time. Moreover, this approach can easily be deployed within a few short hours in any size organization with little to no cybersecurity expertise required of an enterprise or service provider staff.

· Comprehensive visibility of all the assets (applications, services, users and hosts) · Proactive threat detections (driven by dynamic threat models, machine learning and AI with actionable intelligence) · Automated containment/elimination of threats in real-time · Continuous Compliance and Reporting

Introducing Highly Reliable Safety Solutions Seceon is focused on enabling organizations to see cyber threats clearly and quickly, stop threats from inﬂicting extensive damage through surgical containment and elimination and to predict insider attacks through

Seceon’s OTM Platform empowers Managed Security Services Providers (MSSPs) and enterprises to detect and eliminate or contain all known and unknown threats in real-time. The platform consumes raw data (packets, logs, ﬂows and identities etc.) and extracts features from it all to provide;

Innovator of Seceon Chandra Pandey is the Founder and CEO of Seceon. He is an expert in data center architecture and highly scalable network solutions, and a proven business leader with more than 20 years of experience developing and marketing innovative technology solutions. Before founding Seceon, Chandra was General Manager and Vice President of Platform Solutions at BTI Systems. He led a global team through the creation, development and launch of the Intelligent Secure Cloud Connect platform to more than 20 Web 2.0-focused customer deployments in less than 18 months. Chandra has also held senior leadership roles at Juniper Networks, Internet Photonics (Ciena), Lucent and 3Com (HP).

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Source of Motivation to become Cybersecurity Expert Personally affected in 2015 by a data breach and the loss of private identity and credit card information, Seceon’s founders were quick to realize that conventional perimeter and half-measure behavioral cybersecurity approaches were incapable of protecting the enterprise from inevitable attack. A new approach was needed to help organizations see and stop threats the moment they happen instead of hours, days or months later. Unmatched Offerings that Put Seceon Apart Seceon’s OTM Platform provides the industry’s ﬁrst and only fully-automated threat detection and remediation software system. Its subscription-based, environment-agnostic solution detects all forms of threats as they happen, without the need of human intervention, and automatically stops them in minutes. Seceon’s solutions are unique in the following ways: · It can detect known, as well as never seen zero-day threats leveraging an advanced data collection and analysis, machine

MAY 2018 |

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We are laser focused on Comprehensive Visualizing all assets, Proactively Detecting all known and unknown threats and Containing and Eliminating then in real-time with continuous monitoring, Policy Management and Compliance Reporting

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Chandra is an inspirational leader, empowering his team to take on the continually evolving cybersecurity challenges facing businesses today, creating a new market category in the process. Chandra has recruited some of the best talent in the industry with the passion and drive to build “Cybersecurity Done RIGHT,” assembling experts in machine leaning, AI, big data, networking, security modeling and user experience.

learning, patent-pending predictive and behavioral analytics. · Its architecture can process billions of inputs and generate correlated outputs of all related threat behavior in seconds. Allows for improved threat detection while minimizing false positives, it also reduces the number of threat activities that have to be analyzed. · It’s fully automated, utilizing dynamic rule sets, meaning it never needs new rules to be added, never needs tuning, and never needs to be monitored – it does the analysis and reports the findings automatically in emails, texts. · It stops the threat. Dynamically writes rules to firewalls and switches to stop connectivity of compromised devices. Disables compromised or malicious insider’s credentials, as well as isolate the device with exfiltrated data.

Benefits for Seceon Clients Gaining notoriety as an affordable, comprehensive solution that detects, responds to and eliminates threats in real-time, Seceon is suitable for organizations of any size or security expertise, providing: · A single application that identifies both known and zero-day threats. · Automated detection and response – automatically detects and stops threats as they appear, while filtering out non-critical issues. · Human-independent operation –automatically notifies staff of critical alerts, directs actions, or automates actions to contain the threat. · Immediate-ROI – by stopping attackers the same day they begin their active attack, Seceon can save companies tens of millions spent annually addressing data loss while dramatically reducing the number of cybersecurity tools required. Future Roadmap of Seceon Seceon will continue to provide the ability for a company of any size or technical talent, to have access to its technology to better protect critical data from loss or damage. As Seceon evolves as a company, it will continue to develop as a leader in cybersecurity, while empowering its customer base to detect and stop all known and new cyber threats. The company will continue to innovate and expand its solution, investing in an approach that involves a combination of machine learning and SaaS model, to stay one step ahead of the challenges in the security industry’s future.

The Universality of IoT Technology T

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he gratifying tool for companies to lead ahead - IoT Technology” The Internet of things (IoT) is a revolutionary change for many sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, retail, electronic, energy and healthcare which are progressing towards the IoT phenomenon to connect digitally. It has placed an opportunity to build unusual results which increases a company’s compatibility. Enterprises seeking development are focusing on the use of real-time data management and IoT analysis. Many of the companies are adopting this technology to heighten their power of consumption. Companies are mainly concentrating on IoT application from “sensing” instead of “doing” to grow its competitive advantages. This element empowers organizations by allowing them to take the IoT advantage and adopt a more ‘innovative connected approach’. Infrastructure Management – Optimization of Technology New applications are now enhancing their level of consumption. Likewise, manufacturing sector is also

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CONNECTING WORLD

getting engrossed and achieving excellence through IoT Techniques. Applications are liable for monitoring and controlling operations for urban and rural manufactures like bridges, farms, and railway tracks. It is the key features of the applications were IoT infrastructure is also used for monitoring the construction safety and risk management system and operations. This major feature represents the mechanism of IoT application which works under infrastructure management. Beneﬁts of IoT Technology are cost reducing, time reducing, better in quality, and increase productivity. It helps to make fast decisions and save money with real-time analysis. IoT devices help to give prominent results by monitoring and controlling operations used in all infrastructure related area. Manufacturing Techniques are Growing with IoT Technology In the manufacturing sector, networking and controlling have been used with IoT devices. It provides information about data and operation stability. Network status and the information is collected in the system by tracking IoT device. Manufacturing control process deliver information about industry application and smart manufacturing details receiving form IoT device. IoT intelligent system enables sharing information about product demands, service management, supply chain networks, sensors and control systems together. Small industries can also be integrated with IoT technology that enables real-time optimization, measurements, production compatibility and safety management. However, intelligent systems are determined as the signiﬁcant technique that implies user experience and system security which ultimately saves costs.

which land is fertile or which one is dry and predict future fields. IoT Technology Helps to Optimize Energy Consumption Integrated Sensing and Control system helps to optimize energy consumption. IoT devices are integrated with energy consumption systems in order to maintain balance between power generation and energy usage. IoT devices offer the opportunity to remotely gather information. It enables advance functions like remote controlling and changing light conditions. IoT Technology work for home-based energy system which provide power related information, energy consumption and energy usage at homes. IoT devices set goals to improve efficiency, reliability and sustainability of the energy system. Monitoring Environment through IoT Technology Environment monitoring application has been involved with sensors to assist information about environment changes by identifying water quantity, atmosphere, air pressure etc. It also has focus on monitoring movements of wildlife and their habitats. Devices connected to the internet also provide statistics about earthquake or tsunami - early warning systems, and also used as an emergency system. IoT device application is used to collect geographic information and majorly instructive information. This device also uses standardized approach to bring wireless sensing technique and gather finest information. IoT Technology Helps to Sustain Building and Home Automation

IoT Technology brings Innovative Farming Methods The Agriculture sector is one of the industry to implement IoT technology for stability and better performance. IoT technology has become a significant method of farming. It also offers durability and functionality to the whole process. The combination of wireless sensors with agricultural apps and cloud platforms benefits in gathering definite information relating to environmental conditions like, rainfall, temperature, humidity, wind speed etc. Farmers are getting competent results out of it, and are able to find real-time information easily. Linked with farmland, it improves and automates farming techniques like weather information, taking decision on quality and quantity, and minimizes risk and waste. With IoT Tech farmers can find out detailed information of farm and similarly know MAY 2018 |

With certainty, IoT devices are used to monitor and control the mechanical, electrical and electronic systems. IoT devices are used in various types of home automation and building automation systems. Control and sensory applications offer unified information. The integration of the internet with building creates an energy management system which will allow prominent energy efficiency. There have been many ways for IoT technology to expand compatibility in the digital world, and it will be implemented in each sector to work as an important tool, to enhance its affinity. After all, the IoT network makes technology more unified and satisfying, with its tools and applications and IoT will be a step ahead towards numerous opportunities.

cultural changes such as the use of email to communicate and the declining use of traditional media due to moves toward more online content, as a society, we began engaging with one another in new ways, exchanging real-world facetime for, well… FaceTime.

ecently, I opened up a sales email that was intended speciﬁcally for me. The author had even gone so far as to include my own name in the subject line, which is typically a nice touch.

But, when I opened it, I was disappointed to find that there were numerous inaccuracies. The sender had identified me as working with a company I hadn’t worked with in years. That aside, it reflected a job title I’d never held. One line of text was completely garbled with code, a clear sign of automation gone awry. Ironically, this came from a company purporting to specialize in sales and marketing automation software. I can guarantee you I now have no intention of working with them. While I don’t have an issue with the fact that it was a sales email, I found myself frustrated with the company’s thinly veiled attempt to pretend it was written and sent by a real person when it was so obviously automated and sent to every person the business’s database. That experience, when aligned with everything I do in my role as a strategy consultant, left me to wonder whether automating tasks that used to be handled by humans is actually helping our businesses in the way we’re led to believe it does. The Evolution of Automation as an Advertising Solution Ever since the internet revolutionized the way humans interact with one another, it’s been lauded as the greatest invention of our era, and perhaps of all time. The invention and widespread adoption of the internet brought with it a shift in social norms. Beyond obvious

In the earliest days, the internet was heralded as a channel that provided opportunities for truly free speech and expression. But quickly, it became dominated by distributors selling us ads at every opportunity. When one ad strategy stopped delivering ROI, companies found new ones. At their core, giants such as Google and Facebook are nothing more than extremely successful advertising platforms. In some ways, sophisticated advertising methodologies — the types that use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to try to understand why we prefer, for instance, Tide detergent to Arm and Hammer — exist to benefit us, the consumers. The reasoning is simple: If companies can personalize their campaigns to our individual preferences, then you’re only seeing the types of things you want to see and therefore, they stand a higher chance of you making a purchase from them. For decades, marketers have touted the benefits of data collection. By getting insight about who you are based on your internet activities, a company can target you and service your needs. But, in reality, a company that knows so much about you that it’s automatically marketing to you at every corner is at best, slightly creepy and, at worst, manipulating what could otherwise be otherwise autonomous purchasing habits. In fact, ad retargeting exists solely to offer a mental “reminder” that you’d been interested in something but didn’t buy. Some companies claim that the conversion rate for an ad retargeted to a unique user is ten times as high as a typical display ad. Is this a good thing or a bad thing for humanity? You can argue that the person who purchases via a highly targeted ad was simply the result of matching a product to an audience. Or, you could argue that the person seeing the ad was being manipulated and driven to impulsively make a decision to commit to a purchase. But, in all honesty, marketers have been doing this for years with things as

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AUTOMATING BUSINESS

About the Author Lindsey Myers founded Concrete Blonde Consulting in November 2016 to pursue her passion for building reputations and revenues through business development marketing strategies.She provides prot and growth solutions and thrives as an in-house consultant. A communications expert and entrepreneur, she has over twelve-years of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprot companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market.

simple as strategically placing their candy bars at the register of your local convenience store. Automation in Workplace Contexts: Marketing, Sales, Business Development and the FOS Framework From a broad perspective, the beneﬁts of automation are crystal clear: if you can automate speciﬁc digital tasks that used to take quite a long time, this frees up time to work on higher-priority projects. This, in turns, leads to higher productivity. It seems logical that this, in turn, would lead to higher revenue. But, the question to consider then becomes, does automation always truly net the best result? Certainly, you can get more done by automating some tasks. Anyone who’s ever worked with marketing automation software recognizes how painful and time-consuming it can otherwise be to try to develop content for multiple different channels and platforms without it. Anyone who’s ever had to print and sign contracts will gladly evangelize the use of products like DocuSign. However, it’s worth noting that reliance on automation can also lead to less-than-ideal outcomes, too. There’s always the case of the buyer who would really like to speak to a customer service representative but is instead

MAY 2018 |

stuck with an online chatbot. Who knows whether that person would have had a better experience had they spoken to a company rep? But the fact that the company decided to provide a barrier to entry to get in contact with the sales team may have cost the business a lucrative sale. When analyzing whether a company can benefit from automation and identifying the best tools for any given purpose, Charles Solomon, a Human Capital Management Consultant in ADP’s Private Equity Group and expert in this space, encourages companies look to the FOS framework: financial value, operational value, and strategic value. Financial value, or a focus on the bottom line, will always be a concern with regard to automation. Operational isn’t always as obvious, but appears in things like freeing up bandwidth and mental energy to focus on other projects. Finally, there’s strategic value, in which he addresses whether a specific automation project serves some larger benefit, such as nurturing potential strategic partnership. While Solomon created the FOS method to help one particular company diligence multiple vendors, he realized the company’s struggles and concerns around automation weren’t unique to the company or even the industry. Reaching out to Solomon over email, I asked him if he would be interested in sharing his own opinions on the state of automation. “Limiting overhead and maximizing efficiency is what automation affords, and it frees up resources to invest in what creates value – sales and product,” Solomon told me. “The debate around automation often involves the risk of human job loss, which is a valid concern. While I’m less worried than most, I am concerned about certain industries, like trucking.

However, for many middle market ﬁrms around the country, they face risk from not automating.” His point is valid. Historically, companies that have refused to embrace new practices and trends in technology have suffered severe consequences, including once-major brands like Polaroid and Blockbuster. “From a long-term perspective, the new generation coming into the workforce doesn’t want to do work that can be automated,” he adds. “Hiring someone for a job that can be automated is both expensive and, at best, kicks the can down the proverbial road. Millenials and Gen Zs want to tackle more strategic projects and not position themselves for potential job loss, and I don’t blame them. Businesses need to be proactive in automating work and automation should be part of every company’s strategic plan.” In spite of our biggest fears around eliminating the need for labor pools, he’s correct to point out that people aren’t interested in working in jobs that will ultimately be eliminated anyway. Solomon notes that business owners should respect the challenges of automating human-to-human interaction and recognize that humans will always want to interface with one another at various levels. Additionally, he suggests that professional job functions strategic to an organization that rely on complex brain activities will by design always be very difﬁcult to automate. However, the question remains whether that’s truly a positive or a negative. Challenges in Automation: Retaining Our Humanity in a Digital Landscap When we look back at the question of whether automation is truly helping humans, the answer is the same as it is for so many other things — it depends on the situation. It would be

unfathomable to ignore the many benefits of automation: time saved, the lack of labor wasted on menial tasks (often leading to greater employee happiness), and a company’s greater internal organization due to the automation of these activities. The challenge in identifying whether automation truly is a benefit to humanity is in identifying the metrics against which to measure these benefits. Is it a positive benefit to automate tasks so a person can leave the office at a reasonable time to go spend time with family? Probably. Is it a positive benefit to automate those same tasks so the employee is now required to do more difficult, frustrating work without an increase in pay? That situation is more of a gray area, and presents yet another symptom of a widening wealth gap in an already stressed out workforce. I propose that when identifying whether automation creates more problems for humanity than it solves, we look to Solomon’s framework at both a micro and macro level. Will automation support the bottom line in both the short term as well as sustainably over the long term? Will it have operational benefits for both the company and our individual team members? Will being strategically aligned with a given automation product or service offer additional intangible benefits that will help both the company grow and our partners to thrive in compelling ways? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” how should we address this? The truth is that even if the data show otherwise, reliance on automation will continue to grow as the internet — and the world — becomes increasingly complex and challenging. Therefore, I suggest keeping in mind that, like anything in life, the only true benefit to having a valuable tool comes from knowing how to use it wisely.

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The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

STARTUP CANADA: Building an Environment for Entrepreneurial Momentum and Success in Canada

tartup Canada is Canada’s leading entrepreneurship organization supporting the success of entrepreneurs across Canada. The organization’s goal is to connect entrepreneurs to the support they need to start and scale companies to build communities and to grow the economy. Startup Canada was launched in 2012. Since then, it has grown tremendously through the vibrant network of Grassroots Startup Communities and through its popular and trending digital events such as the Startup Canada Podcast and #StartupChats.

mentors, investors, and service providers who can provide expert business tips and assistance. Besides that, Startup Canada also organizes the Startup Canada Awards. The awards are created not only to celebrate the outstanding achievements made in Canadian entrepreneurship, but also to celebrate the diversity of Canada’s entrepreneurs who are women, indigenous people, and the disabled. Startup Canada gives voice to Canada’s 2.3 million entrepreneurs through its policy and advocacy efforts. Entrepreneurs and government leaders convene together from time to time to discuss business policies at the Startup Canada Day on the Hill event. By joining Startup Canada, entrepreneurs tap into a national network offering them countless global opportunities. They gain access to inspiration Kama training, get exposure, and make their voices heard by decision-makers in Ottawa. About the Trailblazer Victoria Lennox, the Co-founder of Startup Canada, is a serial entrepreneur who founded several successful nonproﬁts in Canada and in the United Kingdom. Witnessing the growth of the global startup movement, Victoria saw Canada’s opportunity to play a leading role in fostering the expansion of local entrepreneurship. Hence, in 2012, Victoria helped launch Startup Canada—Canada’s most prominent initiative for entrepreneurship.

Victoria Lennox, Co-founder

Grassroots Startup Communities are entrepreneur-led networks where entrepreneurs help one another start and scale ambitious companies. Community events are scheduled regularly to connect local entrepreneurs with

Victoria has always been passionate about the effects of entrepreneurs on the economy. She enjoys developing creative solutions that advance overall sustainability and humanity. As such, she was inspired to create Startup Canada because she saw how entrepreneurship could empower individuals to be their best selves and create something that could foster opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. She is inspired every day by the cumulative and exponential impact of entrepreneurs in building Canada.

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The country’s entrepreneurship community is also excelling in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Manufacturing, Ocean Technology, Agritech, and Clean Technology. These industries have had historical records of achievement and entrepreneurs are progressively scaling important companies that are now creating significant opportunities for Canada. Victoria opines, “Canada understands the need to invest in the skills and the economy of the future while ensuring that the rising tide does, in fact, lift all ships. This is where Startup Canada plays a crucial role in establishing the narrative and the environment for this growth to take place.” Solely for Canada Startup Canada is unique in the sense that it is a national organization that represents Canada’s 2.3 million entrepreneurs. It also produces cutting-edge weekly digital programs catered specifically for Canada’s entrepreneurship community and actively supports local entrepreneurs

MAY 2018 |

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We cannot wait to see what Startup Canada will achieve in the next five years

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Industry Scenario “Canada’s entrepreneurial landscape is on ﬁre. Through building a national narrative of inclusivity and diversity, we are seeing more and more entrepreneurs from different backgrounds take the spotlight,” asserts Victoria. From indigenous entrepreneurs like Heather Abbey—a Canadian Cree entrepreneur who shone in Chicago at the Canadian Technology Accelerator to newcomer entrepreneurs like Tareq Hadhad—a Syrian refugee who set up Charlottetown Company called Peace by Chocolate, Canada is fostering entrepreneurship in its own way.

through Grassroots Startup Communities. Because of its size and participation, Startup Canada convenes powerhouse constituency of nation builders to gain a competitive advantage for small businesses by working alongside the government leaders. As the startup of startups, the company originated as a volunteer-run movement. The evolution of Startup Canada’s ﬁrst chapter is one of true inspiration. Flourishing Ecosystem Through Startup Canada, entrepreneurs have gained immense proﬁle and have been able to build a community around their companies. The organization made a difference on proposed tax changes by the federal government, championing the development of super-clusters and greater investment in marginalized entrepreneurs. In addition to that, Startup Canada expanded its reach to some of the smallest communities in Canada, ensuring that every entrepreneur gets the full support from their community with national ties. It has further built

relationships with big industry players such as Amazon Web Service, Rogers, and UPS Canada, which helped increase industry investment into Canada’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Overcoming the Roadblocks Technology is evolving at a faster rate than ever before. Entrepreneurs and big companies alike are grappling with challenges related to technology adoption to improve their productivity and competitiveness. Yet, entrepreneurs today are much more nimble and ﬂexible at adapting to technology, so much so that they can compete alongside the big players. Entrepreneurial and digital skills are imperative for the future economy across all industries. Future Endeavors Startup Canada Day on the Hill is approaching on October 18, 2018, at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa. Entrepreneurs and business leaders across Canada can register to contribute to policy hack-a-thons and hearings with government leaders to advocate for improvements in government support for entrepreneurs. Attendees can expect inspiring keynotes, informative workshops, action-packed trade show, and pitch competitions. Entrepreneurs can register now at StartupDay.ca. In the future, Canadians will continue to see Startup Canada rising to be the primary voice of the entrepreneurship community. Check out the company website startupcan.ca to register for events, subscribe to the podcast, and tap into everything that Canada’s vibrant entrepreneurship community has to offer.

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

StyleDotMe: Adorning Fashion World with Wonders of AR Tech

F “

ashion is a reﬂection of an era”, the famous Tunisian couturier and fashion designer, Azzedine Alaïa once quoted. It’s so true that fashion has always deﬁned the way of the universe. It is the way we present ourselves to the world. Fashion has become the instant language for the world today. Recently, fashion has made its way into the enchanting world of Virtual and Augmented Reality. With an aim to transform the industry of precious and sophisticated jewelry and iconic apparels into a more fascinating and alluring one, many fashion companies have unleashed their creative best. StyleDotMe is a fashion tech company that lets its users

in products without actually wearing it through Augmented Reality technology (starting with jewelry, earrings) and get instant fashion advice from industry experts. The experience is quick and in real time for instant advice. StyleDotMe is world’s ﬁrst real-time AR tech platform for jewelry and working towards expanding in other domains like makeup, eyewear and apparels. The Graceful Founder Meghna Saraogi is the Founder & CEO of StyleDotMe. A graphic designer by profession, Meghna had come up with the idea, built the ﬁrst version of the product, demonstrated traction and even raised a small ticket funding. It is Meghna’s love and desire for great design that inspires the team to craft their timeless products and ornaments. “Every time I go shopping, I spend a lot of time in trying out different options and asking my friends over WhatsApp on what looks best on me. I realized there is an immense potential for AR/VR, fashion advice and personal styling services aiding an average person through frequent fashion dilemmas. I envision a platform that forms a layer over current e-commerce platforms enabling customers to have a great experience leading to quicker checkouts.” says Meghna. Overcoming Challenges in the Initial Phase

Meghna Saraogi, CEO & Founder

virtually try-on products along with getting instant fashion advice from experts around the world. Through the platform of this company, users can see themselves

Being a newbie in the realm of technology, Meghna had to confront many initial challenges. Her well-planned vision and plan for the company could not be executed without technological expertise as her strength lies only in design and planning. It was only after outsourcing the ﬁrst version of the product; she realized how indispensable the role of a strong team in the growth of a business. Meghna realized the fact that it’s important to

| MAY 2018

The Unique Features that Made the Spark Unlike other platforms in the market where one has to put a credit card on the face for measurement or manually position the jewelry themselves, StyleDotMe’s AR tech works automatically in real-time. This typical instruction based experience is very non-intuitive and cumbersome to use. The company has done an extensive study with customers to make the experience seamless and enjoyable. The enhanced customer experience is what differentiates the company from its competitors. Moreover, the users are able to try products on themselves in real time using augmented reality and then decide with the help of inputs from fashion experts about how the product looks on them. This enables customers to try out products quickly and make more real-time and well-informed decisions about the product that they are purchasing. Opportunities and Challenges

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We are world’s first real-time AR tech platform for jewelry and are working towards expanding in other domains like makeup, eyewear and apparels

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have people who believe in the same vision and will be willing to go to any length to make it work. So rather than looking for people who will work for just money she started looking for people who will work for passion, who will work for making a difference in the world. This is how she made a great team.

to facilitate online as well as brick and mortar shopping experiences. As the space continues to grow, there will be more and more AR and VR applications for different industries. Everything from real estate and healthcare to even non-profits organizations can benefit from this technology. However, the industry is facing many challenges in its way of growing. The first and foremost challenge is its higher cost.

Second, Augmented reality tech An amazing aspect about VR/AR is cannot be compressed enough to be that it impacts many different sectors. ﬁt in ordinary glasses and virtual VR and AR technology has become reality setups are very bulky to use incredibly popular in retail as a way

MAY 2018 |

along with requiring a lot of setup from the user side. Third, AR/VR applications are heavily scrutinized about collecting data. AR/VR applications contain user’s face data or information about their location, usage behavior, etc. Attracting Clients One of the major bottlenecks of growth in the retail industry (especially in fine jewelry) is inventory. For reference, one of the company’s clients - PC Jeweller - has over a billion dollars in revenue and about half a billion dollars’ worth of inventory sitting across their stores. StyleDotMe’s AR solution allows retailers to digitally showcase their entire collection of products at each store without worrying about the capital and operational cost associated with holding inventory. Besides optimizing inventory, retailers can aggressively expand geographically by opening zero inventory stores to significantly increase offline customer experience touch points. Peering into the Future It can be presumed that the augmented reality is going to enhance the shopping experience in near future. The team of StyleDotMe aspires to leverage augmented reality technology and behavioral analytics to build a one-stop fashion platform to discover, try and shop.

| MAY 2018

ROBO TALK

ABOUT THE AUTHOR As the Founder and CEO of one of New York’s premier SEO agency, Seun Ajanwachuku is a leading New York digital marketing consultant. Some of his innovations include the creation of conversion marketing software for Wix Market Place, and establishing & cementing his rm as a leading, reputable and award winning marketing company in NYC. Seun’s expertise has created one of the most dynamic and youngest SEO companies in New York City. In addition to Seun’s marketing background, he also holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an airplane power plant license. This rare combination of background makes Seun an ideal and indispensable resource for engineering and technical startups.

MAY 2018 |

History of Automation Automation goes back many centuries to the time when the Greeks and Arab needed a way to keep track of time. One of the human ﬁrst practical inventions that mimics some form of automation was the invention of a mechanical calculator by Wilhelm Schickard. The creation of devices like calculators allowed people to accomplish task fast with higher accuracy. Similarly, some other inventions were developed across a wide range of industries to enhance further the speed and efﬁciency that comes with accomplishing daily tasks.

highly accessed. Since manufacturing requires many steps and processes, the creation of the automated machinery has improved a lot in terms of efﬁciency and quality control. There are different types of automation available in the ground, and some of them are mentioned below. Numerical automation – Machines programmed to perform repetitive tasks such as 3D printing and embroidery machines Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) – This automation accessed computer software to control machinery. Example: CAD

Automation in the Digital Age Currently, people are living in the era where everything is moving towards automation. You can see news related to automation every day in the newspaper, on Tv and online. Sometimes, it makes people say “Wow, things are moving fast” or “I pray that the day that a machine will replace me at work will never come”! Automation is permeating every corner of our lives from the apps that exist on your phone to machine powered self-driving cars. It was projected that 70 million US jobs would be lost to automation by 2030. This is a staggering number, and it plainly explains why automation is considered by some to be a curse more than a blessing. Overview of the automation and its types These days, automation can be discovered in nearly every industry, which ranges from transportation to defense and medical operations. Manufacturing is one of the most common areas in which automation is

Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) – It combines robots, numerical control system and other industrial automation tools into a single system. Case: metal cutting and forming Industrial robot – It can be programmed and manipulated in two or more axes. It may also operate in mobile or ﬁxed applications. Example: Palletizing Automation and Productivity In speciﬁc industries, automation has increased employment opportunity highly unlike before. For example, with the introduction of ATM in the banking industry, it developed more employment for staff in every branch. According to a recent report, about 43% of human tellers have been added in the past thirty years after the establishment of ATMs. Most importantly, bear in mind that over 90% of jobs will not be able to undergo complete automation. In fact, automation will help you become smarter and do things much better than before.

Automation and Job Security Automation has indeed increased the jobs in so many industries. E-commerce is one of these industries; which is still in its developing stages. As the retail sector faces multiple disruptions over the convenience and shopping comfort, which e-commerce industry (automated) offers, job reports have highly focused on the job losses, which this industry has faced. On the other hand, e-commerce sector is growing at an alarming rate that is three times faster than the retail industry. This eventually adds more 40,000 jobs along with high salary package. When compared to the retail sector, online e-commerce job renders more pay. This is 31% more than the average salary of the person who works in the retail store. How Automation is Helping us Discover Our Origin At present, many debates are going on whether automation is detrimental to the livelihood of the human. Some of the people remain convinced that massive adoption of automation will potentially lead to the demise of many jobs. As mentioned already, in reality, people should be resistant and fearful of automation. Because contrary to this belief, this incredible technology is not meant to replace humans; instead, it is intended to improve and extend human life. Finally, it is safe to say that automation is here to stay. On both ends of the spectrum, automation will work to amplify job loss and creation of higher quality and paying jobs.

| MAY 2018

The

50 Best Companies To Watch 2018

Wizdish: Delivering the Treadmill (the ROVR) that lets you Walk in Virtual Reality

oday we live in a world where technology is evolving at an amazingly rapid pace. Imagine if we can take the visions and ideas from our mind and make them real. Not only in our imagination, but also in virtual reality, and it is possible with the help of the AR and VR industry which will completely alter the way we see things. This technology is changing the way we exercise, buy clothes, interact on social media and visualize the world. These new realities are evolving and will make a signiﬁcant impact in people’s everyday life.

various processes in industry and in our work life, and also disrupt a large number of consumer markets. VR/AR is not only being implemented in games but also in day-to-day life. It is interesting to imagine what engineers are capable of doing with this technology as there are no boundaries, and just such a group of engineers and innovative designers at Wizdish are transforming the virtual world and taking it to an entirely new level with their ROVR product. The ROVR Can Transform VR Experiences What if your PC/laptop had no mouse or trackpad? You’d find it difficult, wouldn’t you? Navigating VR worlds has a similar problem, but you (your whole body) are the navigation tool for VR; you are the “mouse roller-ball” and whereas a roller-ball on a Formica table or leg of jeans (mouse specifications – Steve Jobs) is great for computer mice, it’s a different proposition for real presence VR. Wizdish has gained a substantial international reputation in delivering VR locomotion technology and it is the Wizdish ROVR which acts as “the mouse” for a virtual navigation system. ROVR is a walking/running simulation platform allowing a person to move freely and intuitively in virtual reality.

Charles King, CEO | Julian Williams, Founder & CTO | David Bridgland, CFO | Paul Howes NED Bus Dev

Augmented and virtual realities are emerging technologies that have the potential to ease and improve

Wizdish’s ﬂagship product is the ROVR2 consisting of platform and kick-on overshoes shoes with support provided by a stainless steel frame that stops you from bumping into things or falling over. It is ideal for all ages and abilities and perfect for public shows, businesses, and homes. The ROVR Bluetooth modules enable wireless virtual reality and pairs with; Gear VR, Google Pixel, and the several VR ready Daydream spec phones.

| MAY 2018

Wizdish was formed as the ﬁrst locomotion company for a new age of Virtual Reality under the leadership of Julian Williams, Founder, and CTO of the company. In 2001, Julian came up with an idea of simulated walking for a TV labyrinth game show and later he realized that virtual reality is coming and walking in VR would be essential for it to feel real. After granting of a US patent in 2008, Wizdish was formed in 2009 and in early 2010 Charles King, CEO joined the team. Charles is a polymath technologist experienced in building startups, and leading teams with diverse skill sets to technical and ﬁnancial success. Concentrating on early-stage business with innovative technologies David Bridgland, CFO, is a long-standing colleague of Charles in tech startups and in 2014 he joined Wizdish to develop the technologies to make ROVRs. Opportunities and Challenges in the Process of Implementing VR The ROVR2 is the smallest, lightest, easiest to use and most comfortable, omnidirectional treadmill, used by major Brands including; Nissan, Samsung, Wells Fargo, British Army, Dominator Yachts, Ove Arup and dozens of others in 30+ countries. Wizdish’s work with prominent Brand leaders has shown there are numerous opportunities in VR. The company continues to develop its applications responding to calls from healthcare rehabilitation and welfare,

MAY 2018 |

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We developed a deep understanding of brain cues required to satisfy people’s expectations and focused on the best, most consumer-friendly means to deliver these cues for VR

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Group of Engineers who made a Dream Come True

training and education and works with others in the ﬁeld to deliver consumer and business-friendly VR solutions. One of the challenges to building real presence VR experience is people’s often poor self-intuition. For this reason, Wizdish needed to develop a deep understanding of brain cues required for satisfying expectations in VR. The company focused on the best, most consumer-friendly means to deliver these cues for movement.

in user experience in experiential marketing, architectural visualizations, a motivation for exercise, serious and fun gaming, physical and mental healthcare, in fact, most VR ﬁelds of use. “Why such interest? Because yes we drive, and yes we ﬂy, but predominantly we explore our world and understand space, location, and orientation by walking” asserts Julian. A Look into the Future Wizdish’s goal is to have ROVRs in every street of every country. Already compatible with many VR games, Wizdish is working on interfacing ROVRs for further integration. The Wizdish ROVR requires no SDK, but just the inclusion of a few lines of code to integrate ROVRs in game content and the company is happy to work with developers to support the integration of ROVR code. Wizdish were well ahead of the times with their ROVR VR locomotion platform and are ahead again with their Bluetooth module enabling freedom of movement with wireless virtual reality. Wizdish is continuing to innovate with patented solutions that distinguish the company from the crowded VR market.

Standing Out In a High Tech World The ROVR allows a person to move freely and intuitively without fear of collision in the real world and with this comes kinesthetic memory adding massively to the richness and strength of memory recall. Easily used by all ages and abilities ROVR VR has provided considerable improvements