e New
ERA of BUSINESS
Leaders
Gagan Arora
2020 Vol.-08 Issue-03
Editor’s Note
Anmol Preet Singh
RE-IMAGINING OUR POTENTIAL TOGETHER
W
hile organizations have been able to adapt to the threats of the pandemic in a variety of areas, a particular subject tends to be for those who are handling the storm better than most. The traits which empower people to do the extraordinary in such situations are faith, positive intent, collective cooperation, creativity, endurance, empathy, joy, and transformative practices. These qualities unleash the potential of people, communities, and organizations in tandem. In the coronavirus pandemic, we've hit the reset button as individuals. Our emphasis is renewed on fitness, basic criteria, and critical treatment. We now remember the champions among us — first responders, healthcare professionals, pharmaceutical suppliers, supply chain employees, frontline critical pharma and grocery staff, and countless volunteers who supported their families, neighbors, and seniors through these tough times. We now admire human relationships — family, friendship, and co-workers who, in extraordinary times, sustain
each other. We seek strategies for creativity and acceptance. We must hold onto these human values, that allow human productivity, innovation, and agility, that allow us to find satisfaction, even during uncomfortable times, and that helps us to be available to support each other. When businesses will restart after this pandemic, they must realize that they have a chance to continue their incremental progress. The strategic goals which businesses assumed would take months and years to achieve occurred in weeks. Hence, not only do businesses need to change, but they need to change their direction. How do businesses hold momentum? How can they decide correctly? As part of the decision-making process, how can you understand the human element? All these questions must be answered for us to bring a positive change regardless of the circumstances. At Insight Success, we believe this change lies in leaders' ability to anchor their and the company's decisions to enable humans to do the extraordinary. Hence, we present this exciting edition, The
New Era of Business Leaders. On the Cover we have Gagan Arora, a self-made entrepreneur, serving as the EVP and Strategic Growth Leader at Vertex Global Services. With an instinct of being solution-oriented and thinking out of the box, Gagan was recently acknowledged as CEO of the year 2020. Be inspired through the stories of Pankaj Karna, Founder & Managing Director, Maple Capital Advisors ;Sapna Rani Patel, COO, and CoFounder of Gray Routes Technology, Saubhagya Tripathi, CEO of Blue9 Technologies; and Vikas Mandawewala, Co-founder, TYA Suite Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd.. Entrepreneur Ms.Nidhi Yadav, Creative Head & Founder AKS Clothings, shares her thoughts in her article Indian Fashion Retail Industry Post Covid-19. We also present articles curated by our inhouse editors. Our special section In Focus features the Yenta App. Read On!
08
Cover Story
Gagan Arora Reinventing the Benchmarks of Corporate Leadership
16 A Leader's Foresight Indian Fashion Retail Industry Post Covid-19
CXO In Focus Yenta App Bridging the Talent Gap
26
Engaging to Create Value
30 Pankaj Karna Amplifying your Business through Thoughtful Investment Guidance
Article
20 Leadership Matters Business Leaders Striving to Bring Home Success
CONTENTS Saubhagya Tripathi A Young and Dynamic Leader Inspiring Millions
Sapna Rani Patel
34
Vikas Mandawewala
Channeling the Power of Experience and Persistence
A Business Leader Focused on Growth and Innovation
24
38
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Anmol Singh
sales@insightssuccess.com
Quality Assurance Team Sneha
August, 2020
Contributing Editor Abhishaj
Corporate OfďŹ ces: Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Asha Bange Art & Picture Editor Deepanjali Jena Co-designer Mayur Koli Sr. Business Development Manager Megha Mishra Business Development Manager Nandan Deshpande Business Development Lead Ashwini Pahurkar Sr. Business Development Executive Kajol Karale Technical Head Pratiksha Patil Technical Specialist Amar Sawant
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GAGAN ARORA
COVER STORY
Executive Vice President Vertex Global Services
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I have always known the importance of becoming a self-made entrepreneur and I like imparting my knowledge to people.
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You have to be kind, inspiring, and selfless.
Gagan Arora
Reinventing the Benchmarks of Corporate Leadership
THE NEW ERA OF
BUS NESS L E A D E R S
A
s a kid, the one question we were always asked was “what do we want to be when we grow up?” Depending on our mood and the most recent person we were in awe of, we all wanted to become a teacher, rock star, scientist, explorer, police officer, actor, and every other known professional. What we ultimately shape into is a matter of choice, opportunities, events that sometimes go beyond our control, luck, and a lot of hard work. As we go higher up in the formal educational structure, prioritizing our career trajectory becomes important, especially at the university phase of our lives. At this stage, one not only thinks about his job but also tries to visualize his future journey. Career choices that we make at this stage are a resultant of what captivates us and at times choosing just one line of interest isn’t enough. Years ago, Gagan Arora found himself always glued to new technologies and was determined to be an IT professional. However, he also found the traits of a great motivational speaker in him as he is also an excellent storyteller who use to leave his audience glued and asking for more. Today, Gagan is a self-made entrepreneur, and his role at Vertex Global Services as the EVP and Strategic Growth Leader, sees him interacting and inspiring his colleagues, employees, and even competitors with not just words but actions as well.
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As a leader, I know risks are the unavoidable factors to the growing business and we always be prepared
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with the contingency plans.
The road that led him here was full of ups and downs that had short-lived successes and fleeting failures along-with two failed start-ups, and a never-dying hope. He left a secure job, sacrificed monthly salary and perks, and even worked out of a garage with minimal liquidity, to achieve his dream. What kept him going through all this was his firm belief that every failure and setback has a lesson to teach and is a step to glory. Gagan has recently expanded operations of his organization in the USA, India, Philippines & UK. With an instinct of being solution-oriented and thinking out of the box, he was even acknowledged as CEO of the year 2020. At Vertex, everyone in the team plays an equal role, and his role is to create the wave and everyone in the team keeps the wave going. Change – The Only Constant The IT Industry’s contribution to India’s GDP stood at 7.7% in 2017. Banking & Finance, Insurance, Manufacturing, Retail/FMCG, e-commerce, Aviation, Government, and Telecom continue to lead in the adoption of technology. The current pandemic has suddenly pushed technology from being good to an absolute necessity. Companies have picked up the technological shift quickly and intrinsically altering the way they work, think, and communicate. Gagan predicts, the near future will see a surge in the tech industry because tech is at the forefront of businesses’ agendas in the age of the corona virus. Companies must switch to digital now as artificial intelligence is growing at a rapid rate and we’re not going to lose that momentum and opportunity. Tech has never been more relevant, jobs will be created in the field and the new remote, flexible ways of working could benefit working women. Vertex has made a very deep, thoughtful analysis of its portfolio and compatibility with the current trends of the environment and evolved into something very professional to provide leading-edge solutions to businesses. Gagan adds, “We are sailing well through these times with the support of our innovative potentialities and look forward to seeing much fortuity into the tech world and carry out our goals in a more streamlined and functional way.” Challenges around the Corner Gagan believes that in a technology-rich world, we really shouldn’t be wasting time on low-value tasks. Many global
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We have heavily invested in our employees and firmly believe our employees are the lifeblood carrying our culture.
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In the final analysis of every entrepreneur lies a simple truth-perfect people do not exist; what does exist are human beings who have the determination to achieve despite their imperfections.
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leaders will often suggest that you focus on being effective rather than being efficient. The way technology has enabled the fight against the pandemic showcases the same. Some major innovations and upgraded thinking like drones for surveillance, delivering food and healthcare, AI-powered content moderation to beat COVID-19 misinformation have made the fight effective. But a highly competitive unorganized market with lowquality services at a lower price is the biggest challenge and Vertex reckons to give out its prime services intertwined with technology. Adhering to standards and industry guidelines by NASSCOM and DUN & Bradstreet, the company believes in laying out the finest values to customers for which it is valued. “We strive constantly to innovate new solutions and adapt the technology for our client and their customers. We believe in delivering the best standard and delivery for
operational excellence through our various services,” adds Gagan. A Positive Team makes Everything Possible “Maintaining an effective culture is so important that it, in fact, trumps even strategy,” rightly said by Steven. A company’s work culture determines its persona and it is very important to align culture with innovation and growth. Morals, principles, companion-ability, feed backs, and recognition are epoch-making factors for a positive work environment, they sound cool but not convincing. At Vertex, the objective is to create outstanding customer experiences by focusing on employee experience and organizational culture. It has built a work culture that is defined more than a workplace where everyone communicates honestly and openly, enhances their performances, and encourages collaboration.
A Leader Speaks: One Necessary Change
Staying Competitive Vertex is ever braced up to transcend in the ever-growing capacity and encouragement and summarizing everything of the technology from its passion for innovation. It has recently been acknowledged by DUNS and will continue to mutate its innovation capabilities whether it is in AI, Performance marketing, staff augmentation, and more. Vertex’s commitment to innovation and its adherence to disruptive quotient has been rewarded with its NASSCOM membership. And with the skills of human potentials and knowledge of technology, it endeavours to create a sustainable environment for partners, employees and clients through its unparallel business goals work ethics. “We are already ranked 19th among the 50 most innovative companies across the globe and in the top 10 innovative tech start-ups of India. We are getting future-ready to excel at every bit of our services and remove the 9 from the 19th and be the 1st to proffer everything as service. We have stopped compromising the ‘best’ with a ‘fine’ and getting superior to the competition,” says Gagan. Foreseeing a Progressive Future The global crisis has shown new ways of operating businesses and lives. Vertex, since inception, has maintained a strong marquee with some widely acknowledged services like staffing, artificial intelligence, outsourcing and machine learning. With two remarkable acquisitions this year the company is fixating on collaboration in the coming years. However, to be preparing for future adaptability, change is important. Vertex is scaled up with some new plan of actions and strengths to defend our business values by centralizing efforts more on its quality and ingenious technologies. “We have implemented a growth strategy and bought footprints into the e-learning with Vertex Academy and BPO-RPO to increase our market share to 20 percent. Further, we are planning on working on other portfolios and be the leadingedge multinational conglomerate,” concludes Gagan.
The biggest change I would like to bring is to eliminate favoritism from the ecosystem to set up equal chances for everyone and to bring about a change to be a little more encouraging towards the rightest talent. India has an enormous lively population of about 135 crore people, however, there are people with skills that corporate do not require but hire and then there are people who are competent with required skills but are seeking and applying for the jobs online sounds unfair to me. Advice to Aspirants It is very easy to kick off a business but becoming a promise able entrepreneur is very onerous, requires patience, and is exhausting at the same time. The key to success is “passion” and I think the golden ticket in the process is “values”. Success speaks to have peace within yourself and whatever you do with determination. It is also very important to have a solid business plan which must inspire you daily and makes you happy to be at work.
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A Leader's Foresight
Nidhi Yadav
Creative Head & Founder AKS Clothings
16 | August 2020
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Nidhi ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yadav
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Indian
Fashion Retail
Industry Post Covid-19 Authored by Entrepreneur
Ms.Nidhi Yadav,
Creative Head & Founder AKS Clothings
T
o say that Covid-19 has completely thrown our lives out of order and turned the economy upside down would be an understatement. Even before the pandemic hit us, we were witnessing the impact of the new omnichannel approach on retail – where the people were becoming more and more reliant on shopping on the online portals instead of physically visiting the retail stores. And now that people are more scared than ever of social contact, courtesy of the Coronavirus, While pursuing her fashion designing a complete rethinking might be course in Italy, Nidhi Yadav thoroughly required on part of the retailers that studied the business model of the iconic would allow them to continue the brand, Zara. Inspired by their success, she business. decided to replicate it in AKS, a brand of Yuvdhi Apparels, founded by Nidhi on Once the COVID-19 pandemic May 14 with small seed capital of INR 3.5 started ravaging the economy, all lac and a small warehouse of less than a business trends and forecasts were thousand units. derailed. In fact, with the nationwide
Today, AKS has its headquarter in the Millennium City of India, Gurgaon, and an integrated network of printing, dyeing, stitching and manufacturing units in the Pink City, Jaipur. Un der Nidhi’s unwavering grit and leadership, the Brand has grown to 100cr revenue without any external funding and they are serving more than a lakh customers in a month and aiming to reach 200cr.
lockdown in India, the retail industry was essentially put on pause mode for almost two to three months. Now that lockdown has been lifted in most parts of the country, the fashion retail segment is restoring its elements. To keep the business alive and customers engaged, retailers cannot just wait and watch and hope for things to get better; they have to make some strategic decisions. They need to step out of their comfort zone
August 2020 | 17
and do what they must to survive these difficult times. Being rigid isn’t the way to go right now. According to the US-based data research firm, Mercatus, in the last month alone, the world has witnessed 1500% more online shopping account registrations and three times more mobile app downloads due to social distancing. And while these figures look pretty promising for online retailers, they are a bad omen for those who are in the business of offline retail. In the new normal, most urban dwellers would prefer to shop whatever they can via the online channel as nobody wants to put their health by visiting retail stores where they could come in contact with people who might be carrying the dreaded Coronavirus. There’s an old saying that trees that do not bend when the strong winds blow, end up falling, and it is pretty accurate and applicable in the current scenario. While entrepreneurs have their reasons for choosing the platform they like to trade on – whether it’s online or offline – the most important thing to remember is to be adaptable to change. E-commerce is the need of the hour, and those retailers who do not want their brand to sink, need to create channels in the virtual market as well to retain their customers. The first rule of business is to set up shop where the people are, and nowadays, they are on the virtual platform; so that is where you need to be as well. Even if the lockdown is in place, there are certain supplies that the customers will continue purchasing. Among
18 | August 2020
these, FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and food items have seen quite a spike in their online sales. Many FMCG companies have even ventured into new areas and have adapted themselves towards manufacturing goods that are seeing a surge in demand. Hand sanitizers, vegetable washes, immunity boosters, and other health supplements have been in high demand ever since the lockdown was imposed, and experts are predicting that their demand would remain high for the next 4 to 5 years at least. People have become much more healthconscious because of the pandemic, and they would continue to gravitate towards products that promote a healthy lifestyle. As social gatherings, parties, and events are prohibited in the lockdown period, people will prefer to postpone apparel, jewelry, and other lifestyle products, but some essential goods would still be bought. That’s why many offline retail businesses have decided to pursue customers through online platforms and most of them succeed in this time shift. As the consumers are likely to stay at home for a certain time with work and social interactions, categories such as women’s ethnic wear and nightwear, which were already accelerating (5% incremental growth over other categories pre-Covid) are bound to increase their pace of growth even more. Also, professional workwear variety and styles might take a hit and shift towards everyday comfort wear. Needless to say, comfortable home clothing and demand for fashionable cotton masks that are reusable and reversible is expected to rise.
From an online channel perspective (apparel constitutes 35% of ecommerce in India), items that have not been worn by multiple customers are likely to see continued robust demand, while other categories are likely to see a muted demand as the consumers would fear that other people would have tried on those products. This is one of the major problems with offline retail stores and malls, as people can never be sure that whether or not the dress they like has been already been tried on by someone else. Although you don’t get the option to try dresses online either, within a foreseeable future, we might see the intervention of AR technology in online retail, which would allow you to see what a certain dress would look like on you. Whether or not that technology would be scalable and how soon would it be available is a whole another discussion though. Given that consumers are turning conservative, price-conscious consumers are likely to down-trade (e.g. preference for Arrow rather than Arrow New York) and are less likely to focus on values like sustainability. Emerging go-to-market models like rental, subscription, and re-commerce are likely to take a substantial hit as well in the interim due to concerns over safety and hygiene. Overall, many retailers would have to struggle for a while to sustain their business, but with the right strategy, dedication, and a spoonful of optimism, the storm could be weathered.
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Business LEADERS Striving to Bring Home Success 20 | August 2020
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Leadership Matters
W
ithout good leadership, it is said that all other business elements die dormant. A good leader leads the business to success. Strong leaders help an organization achieve business goals while keeping in mind the business objectives. However, a weak leader can hamper the productivity and health of the business. It is known that there are numerous reasons for a business to succeed. One of the major factors to business growth is a good leader. There are various leadership styles that people follow. Some prove better than others depending on the business. There are a few things that only a leader can bring into order. To bring order to a business, strong leadership is required. The importance of business leaders needs to be understood. Here are some points that explain the same: Guidance Meaningful guidance and advice to employees are very important. Managers are the ones that complete this responsibility. If needed, managers can show employees how a particular work is
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August 2020 | 21
done. They can help employees achieve efficient ways of working by providing guidance and support to them. This helps improve the efficiency and productivity of the employees. Coordination The most important and key factor to good leadership is good coordination. Every manager works in the alignment of organizational goals and employee needs. A manager recognizes employee talents, interests, work methods, key features, etc. All these skills of the employees are kept in mind while assigning tasks and getting things done. This also allows the company to understand its employees better. The best managers always find a way to align employee talents with organizational needs. Delegation Some leaders delegate too much and the others may delegate too little. Both these cases are unhealthy practices. As it is said, for everything to go right, it should all be in the right amount. Adequate delegation is required to maintain employee satisfaction. Employees may take benefit of managers who delegate too little and may resent those who delegate too much. Good business leaders master the task of delegation with time. Motivation Motivating employees to work hard from time to time is quite fruitful. They tend to meet organizational goals by one means or another. Leaders or managers inspire employees to work hard. Some managers may cause employees to fear the consequences of not working hard. The result from both ways is the employees getting motivated to finish their goals. Depending on the style of management, the result may vary a bit.
22 | August 2020
Builds Morale Without the staff, business is merely a blank space. The process of recruiting is time-consuming and expensive. Boosting the morale of the current staff is important for the success of any business. The managers or the authorities are the ones who make sure the workforce is satisfied and content. This allows the business to have loyal and long term employees. Initiating Action Planning and initiating action according to the plan is one of the long lists of tasks that managers do. Critical analysis of tasks completed by employees, deadlines, targets, etc. is done by the managers. Without a clearly defined plan, it is impossible to complete business goals and tasks on time. Good communication between the managers and the relevant parties makes this possible. Ensures Effective Communication In the case of big business decisions being made, these must be communicated correctly to all the employees. Ensuring all the employees are informed of the decision reduces the risk of miscommunication. A strong leader ensures the effective and smart way of communication that reaches everyone in less amount of time. Hearing such decisions from managers or team leaders diffuses any doubt of the genuineness of the news for all the employees. Without the completion of the above-mentioned tasks by managers, a business can’t succeed speedily. All these chores completed by the managers or authorities help the business to grow. -Shreevarshita Gupta
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Sapna Rani Patel Channeling the Power of Experience and Persistence
I
n the year 2016, The ‘Nature’ magazine announced that a computer designed by google’s DeepMind defeated a human master in a Chinese game, ‘Go’. Now, this impressive achievement of technology has once again raised the expectations of a predicted future; which would be led by technology. First, we had the computers, then ‘www’, then the IoT, and AI, and more technologies are invading our lives in every way possible. As a result, there exists a persisting debate, whether machines will rule the human world? However, we cannot rule out the contradicting fact that it was humans who created these technologies and hence, as humans upgrade technologies, they will also upgrade themselves to say abreast of the changes. Hence, it is safe to say that both humans and machines will be ruling the world at par. Yet, in midst of this, there are certain people who manage to lead, irrespective of the advancements in technologies and competitions. This is because of their willingness to learn. While every aspect of machines is programmed, humans learn as they go. They learn from experience. This calls to mind the words of Albert Einstein, “the only source of knowledge is experience.” Featured in this edition is the story of Sapna Rani Patel, COO, and Co-Founder of Gray Routes Technology, a leader and influencer of the millennial age. She took the lessons of experience to grow wise.
Ms. Patel is at the forefront of a new age. Starting from working in some of the best companies to an NGO, Ms. Patel has smiled her way out of every challenge and has evolved a leader with indepth knowledge and experience. “My experiences have been varied. I have worked for one of the best companies in the world and also with an NGO where I got the opportunity to work very closely with the underprivileged section of the society. Right from working for a startup to cofounding one, I have come across numerous challenges and hardships in scaling the company to a global level,” she recalls. Today, Ms. Patel stands at one such a podium that is untouched and this is the result of her effort. The journey began with
24 | August 2020
COO, & Co-founder
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Empowering Brands to reach the Epitome of Success
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Shaped by Experience
Sapna Rani Patel
www.insightssuccess.in
THE NEW ERA OF
BUS NESS
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orking with Google, Teach for India and an education startup based out of IIT Bombay. Her undying zest has helped Ms. Patel to focus on a single purpose and to strenuously get involved in her business. “Today, I am the COO and Co-Founder of Gray Routes Technology. I handle Marketing/Business Development, people, investor and customer relations at Gray Routes,” she shares. Taking What Life Gives You Time and again, it has been recorded that success only comes after hardships, failures and endless challenges. Ms. Patel too had her share of hardships. “I would like to believe that entrepreneurs are blessed with two very unique qualities. One is the ability to take a humongous amount of risks even in the direst situation and the other one is perseverance which keeps them going when things become tough. As a women entrepreneur the challenges become more profound because their contributions are very often dismissed,” she recalls about her initial days. However, that did not stop Ms. Patel from achieving the desired result. Starting from securing funding for the company at the right time to acquiring global customers as clients, Ms. Patel had to work hard even while she had to face the uncertainty of her actions at every point. What helped her to achieve superlative success was her driven problem-solving skills. As entrepreneurs, the details of the problems they face and maybe even skill sets differ, but at the core, the spirit is the same. So is the case with Ms. Patel. “As entrepreneurs, you have to be consistently working towards building a brand for your company by building the trust of stakeholders, employees, clients and all the parties that are a part of your journey. The biggest challenge is to be able to maintain balance and professionalism in the face of numerous expectations with maturity,” shares Ms. Patel. She believes that challenges have helped her grow and become the person she is today. “I love taking on challenges, especially the ones that are difficult to achieve. This helps me set bigger goals for myself and the company,” she adds. Pioneering AI-driven Marketing Ms. Patel 's contribution in Gray Routes has helped it earn
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L E A D E R S
titles including, Best AI & Cognitive Technology Provider of the Year 2018 in CSI's IT Innovation & Excellence Awards, Only B2B Software Tech firm invited to work with NTRO, intelligence agency of Govt. of India in the year 2018 and Top 5 companies chosen for Next Big Idea by Govt. of Canada and DST for the year 2018. So, what makes Gray Routes unique or why has it evolved as a leader in the market? Founded in 2013, Gray Routes is a profitable, angel-funded and institutional financing backed from Private banks, Private Equity as well as Product engineering sectors. It is also advised by North-America based UC Berkeley, SFU Professors, Canadian Retail Consultants, and MNC CXOs. It is a market leader in GPSbased location intelligence, Distribution planning apps and data solutions that automate critical sales, supply chain logistics & distribution processes intelligently, bringing Sales, Delivery & Retail iQ at the fingertips of its clients such as Proctor & Gamble, GSK, Shalimar, Bluebird, Safari and several thousand retailers, pharma, courier and transport associations among others. “Gray Routes has evolved into a profitable and highly scalable company over the past few years. We have worked very closely with our clients and build products that are sensitive to customer needs and evolve with their requirements and new-age technology. We hope to be the pioneers in Artificial Intelligence technology globally helping clients take quick and accurate decisions about their marketing and distribution strategies,” asserts Ms. Patel. Turning The Tide Well-positioned to become a global leader and a true champion of AI-automation in Sales & Distribution, Gray Routes is scaled to shake the business world. To date, it had the opportunity to work with the most elite clients helping them streamline their marketing and distribution tasks. The success that Gray Route enjoys today is the result of Ms. Patel and her team’s unfathomable persistence. Hence, it is evident that the company’s continued endeavor will bring a revolution. “With the use of AI and very sophisticated technology, our products disrupt the way the industry functions by leveraging the power of data and demography to enable decision making. All the major enterprises will make use of AI industry by industry in the future to improve their productivity and we are confident that Gray Routes will play a vital role in leading the revolution from the forefront,” she concludes.
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Yenta App Bridging the Talent Gap J
apan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae just rolled out a professional ‘matching’ app in India offering jobs in India after Japan
Japan’s tech startups bitgrit and Atrae brings their professional job ‘matching’ app in India • The Yenta app will allow professionals and employers to ‘swipe right’ to the profiles of their interest. • Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data scientists from around the world for an online competition — ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their optimization models for the app. • Starting today, the competition will be accepting the optimisation algorithms for the next 69 days — until October 31, 2020. • The top five submissions will be rewarded with cash prizes totalling US$10,000 ( nearly ₹7.4 lakh). Global data science platform bitgrit has collaborated with Atrae, a Japanese internet company, to launch their professional job ‘matching’ and networking application — Yenta app — to bridge the talent gap in India. The joint initiative will allow professionals to connect and engage with hiring managers for jobs in India as well as Japan.
About Atrae - Atrae is a Tokyobased People Tech Company that was formulated in 2003 with a vision to create businesses that expand people's possibilities through technology.
26 | August 2020
Under the initiative, the company is also inviting data scientists from around the world for an online competition — ‘SwipeToSuccess’ — to submit their optimization models for the app. The idea is to build a model to predict the level of compatibility of a pair of users based on their profiles — and ensure that the app recommends the most linked and suitable profiles to the users. “We are pleased to announce the launch of yenta in India as our first base for global expansion in collaboration with bitgrit. India’s data science community is inevitably going to grow in the future. With this competition, we aim to tap
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In Focus the potential of data scientists and expand the services provided by the Yenta app across India,” said the CTO of Atrae Corporation, Toshiyuki Oka. The competition will kickstart on Monday (August 24) and will be accepting optimisation algorithms for the next 69 days (till October 31, 2020). The top five submissions will be rewarded with cash prizes totalling USD10,000 (nearly ₹7.4 lakh). Commenting on the launch, Tetsuro Masunaga, Cofounder & CEO of bitgrit said “We are pleased to partner with Atrae for the expansion of their yenta app to India and this online AI competition to improve the app’s profile-matching algorithm. This partnership will strengthen bitgrit’s data science community and provide a platform to showcase their domain skills in emerging technologies.” The mobile application, which was first launched in Japan in 2016, aims to connect professionals in the IT space. It currently has users from over 20,000 companies where professionals can network, get a job, engage with industry experts and founders for partnerships. The cross -industry platform will enable employers to spot and hire skilled talent and also interact with other business owners. The professionals and employers registered on the Yenta app can ‘swipe right’ on a suitable match and chat with them, if the other user also likes the profile. “You swipe right on profiles you're interested in, and if the other person is also interested and swipes right on your profile, you can message, meet up, and submit a review for each other,” Oka explained. The ongoing pandemic has created a massive job loss as businesses came to a grinding halt. As per the data by the Centre for Monitoring indian Economy (CMIE), the urban unemployment rate in India stood at 9.15% in June — higher than rural unemployment. “This initiative is even more relevant now with the coronavirus-induced economic crisis that has severely impacted businesses, thereby triggering unemployment on a large scale,” Masunaga added. The application is available for both iOS and Android users. The details of the competition can be viewed here.
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About bitgrit - Founded in 2017, bitgrit is a global data science community based in Tokyo with over 29,000 data scientists. The AIdriven platform aims to develop data driven solutions across industries like hospitality, tech and financial services. The startup has campus ambassadors and partnerships with over 30 universities in India including the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
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nvestments are a vital process in any business. However, there are very few people who have gained expertise in this niche. Advising people to invest in the right business is indeed a challenging task and Maple Capital Advisors has aced it. Pankaj Karna, Founder & Managing Director is an experienced investment banker with over 22 year’s experience. He has worked in institutions like BNP Paribas, Rabobank and Grant Thornton prior to establishing Maple Capital Advisors. He has advised over 100 M&A, private equity and structured finance transactions in his career. Maple Capital Advisors completes 10 years in 2020 with a successful track record and has engaged with some of the best names in the industry. With an interview with Insights Success, Pankaj and his team provide us with an overview of the challenges and success story of Maple Capital Advisors. 1. Being a successful business leader, what difficulties and challenges do you face? What keeps you motivated? In our journey, we have faced challenges ranging from
Pankaj Karna Amplifying your Business through Thoughtful Investment Guidance
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Founder & Managing Director
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ENGAGING TO CREATE VALUE
Pankaj Karna
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business slowdown and consequent stretch/delay on our deal outcomes to having faced stiff competition from a potential acquirer to significant staff churn at one point. We kept our heads down, continued to persevere and eventually recovered successfully and mitigated these risks today in terms of client diversity, market presence, staff mix and overall standing. Our Highest motivation is proven success in our engagements and adding value to our clients. 2. Brief about Maple Capital Advisors and its services and your vision for your company Our vision is to establish as a premier pan India mid-market investment bank and early-stage investment firm highly focused non-new age entrepreneurs and new-age businesses especially in the consumer, financial services and technology domain. Maple Capital Advisors is a premier mid-market investment bank focused on mergers & acquisitions, private equityadvising on mid-market private equity capital raise, accelerator-backing promising early-stage startups and leverage capital-advising on structured debt and corporate finance. 3. How do you motivate your team to be innovative and productive at work? Our business is very goal and performance-orientated and hence outcomes define motivation very directly. This is the case in investment banking, successful mandate closures are directly related to motivation as all in team benefit from such outcomes, careerwise and monetarily. 4. What is your opinion regarding the current landscape of the market your company caters to? In the current landscape, we are well-positioned as the go-to investment bank in mid-market in North India and we mostly compete with much larger players especially the Big 5 Nationally there are similar players as us in Mumbai Bangalore and Chennai. So we think we are regionally strong and emerging at the national level. 5. Please tell us about your achievements and accomplishments
the last 10 years and with our focus of engaging to create value we have had numerous repeat relationships that attest our ethos and track record. From the largest consolidation in the ceramic tiles industry(Bell Ceramics) in India to the largest M&A in Fitness(Fitness First) to the largest capital raise in coworking business(Awfis) in India are testimony to our track record and ability to deliver beyond our size. We have featured multiple times in the league tables of top investment bankers in India by VC Circle. Was profiled by IBEF in its book ‘Ordinary Indians and Extraordinary Enterprise’, a book profiling 25 - 1st generation entrepreneurs in India. 6. Where do you envision yourself and your company in the near future? We see us emerging at the national level across multiple cities as a leading mid-market investment bank. We also plan to develop the early-stage investment thesis through a larger portfolio of proprietary investments and potentially managing a larger fund pool in this space in years to come. 7. What is your advice to the budding and aspiring entrepreneurs? High perseverance and conviction coupled with pragmatism and being grounded pay well in the long term and success of the business. Working with the brightest and most motivated talent is important for successful scale-up. Being open to change and criticism is equally important.
We have consistently delivered successful mandates over
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Saubhagya Tripathi A Young and Dynamic Leader Inspiring Millions
With similar thoughts, Saubhagya Tripathi is impacting businesses as well as lives positively. Saubhagya is the CEO of Blue9 Technologies. He believes in providing a helping hand not only through his business but also through charity and community work. Saubhagya is always on a mission to help businesses grow, scale-up and take their performances to the next level. He emphasizes on creating a difference in other’s lives by providing inspiration for constantly working towards their goals. Supporting others to overcome the obstacles has always been Saubhagya’s key quality. There are many instances when people get distracted which is when Saubhagya motivates them. The Initial Journey
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eing a business leader means playing multiple roles and at the same time leading others on the path of success. Such leaders are not confined to bringing change through their own businesses, rather they work towards the overall growth of the society in whatever ways possible. Though the journey of a successful business leader might seem sugar-coated with success stories, there is always lots of effort, dedication and constant sacrifice.
It is not hidden that a successful person has to go through a lot of ups and downs throughout the journey. Saubhagya stepped into the startup ecosystem when he was just 19 years old. It was difficult to believe that a 19-year-old is leading a company with a handful of people in the team. As a very young and dynamic personality, Saubhagya led his team to glory. Soon, Blue9 Technologies was awarded and recognized as Company of the Year, in Application Development from Silicon. There were times when Saubhagya had to face criticism. But, he took all these criticism positively and worked on it to better himself. He adds, “Constructive criticism is what will help you challenge yourself, your ideas and eventually lead to better processes. I have thought about giving up many times but that lasts for a few hours and then I am back on my bull riding through the corporate ring. Whatever highs and lows it brings, I am loving it.” Leading Blue9 Technologies
The challenges and obstacles indeed transform a person into a successful leader who encourages others to do the same.
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According to the research consultancy IDC, the global
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work to “ I always create a supportive team environment that in turn leads to more diversity in thinking and innovation, differentiation and business growth. It is a virtuous cycle of leadership and creates a win-win situation for all.
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information technology industry is on pace to reach $6 trillion in 2020. Economies, jobs, and personal lives are becoming more digital, connected, and automated. At Blue9 Technologies, there is a clear vision to navigate into the future. Innovation and creativity have always been Blue9’s strategy in numerous challenging situations. Blue9 constantly strives to support a culture of performance that is matched with integrity. Blue9 focuses on providing transparency with respect to its services. Hence, it has 5 CLEAR values that help it be at the top of the industry. C - Client Focused L - Leadership E - Execution Excellence A - Aspiration R - Results Each company has its own set of procedures to succeed and Blue 9 Technologies understands this and helps its
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customers by providing customized solutions. It helps customers across the entire enterprise technology stack with differentiated industry solutions. The company basically modernizes IT, optimizes data architectures, and makes everything secure, scalable and orchestrated across public, private and hybrid clouds. Through the combination of years of experience with the latest digital innovations, Blue9 Technologies delivers excellent services. This enables the company to deliver better business outcomes as well as focus on high levels of performance, competitiveness and experiences for its customers. To date, Blue9 Technologies has been successful to serve more than 800 private and public sector clients around 5 nations. Blue9 Technologies’ extensive partner network helps drive collaboration and leverage technology independence. Currently, the company has established 8 strategic partners: Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, HCL, IBM, Micro Focus, Microsoft, Oracle, and VMware. Awards and Recognition At a very young age, Saubhagya has been able to achieve great heights in his career. Along with his personal growth, he has led Blue9 Technologies to become one of the pioneering companies in the global information technology industry. The company has received a few prestigious awards such as Company Of The Year 2017 by Silicon and 30 Most Trusted Brands to Watch. The company has also been DIPP Recognized by The Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Apart from that, due to Saubhagya’s exceptional leadership quality, he has been nominated by the ZEE Business Leaders & Summit Award. He is the keynote speaker at IIT Roorkee and IIM Rohtak. He was also the Chief Judge at a startup event at IIT Roorkee. Along with this, he has been nominated by FORBES 30 under 30, 2020 for Enterprise Technology. He currently is a mentor with Startup India. Future Roadmap Blue9 Technologies is currently in process to create an extensive partner network with other industry leaders. Saubhagya concludes with the note, “We will soon launch our in-house digital solution, in collaboration with IBM Watson. We are also looking to extend our operations to Canada and Finland by the end of 2020.”
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Vikas Mandawewala A Business Leader Focused on Growth and Innovation
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here’s a swift global transformation of companies advancing from old-world on-premise solutions to cloud-based applications. Today, the technology in India is as advanced as in any other part of the world. At the current times, where even a small business needs to mark its presence in the virtual world, the SaaS providers are high on demand. One such company helping various SMEs expand their digital footprint is TYASuite Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd. The company was founded by Vikas Mandawewala and Praveen Dokania in 2018. TYASuite platform is equipped with the latest technology and solutions to the real-life business problems across sectors. Vikas Mandawewala is the Co-Founder of TYASuite Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd who is also the CEO of TYA Business Solutions. Vikas is a commerce graduate from Calcutta University (CU). He is a rank holder Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA), a rank holder company secretary, a certified public accountant [US CPA (CO and NY)], a certified internal auditor (US) and a certified information system auditor. He has also gained experience in dealing with company law matters, income tax, and GST matters. Currently, he is managing multiple start-ups as virtual CFO along with being a founder member of the New York Chapter of The Institute of Chartered Accountant of India. Taking Ahead his Career with TYASuite Being a brilliant student throughout his academic years, Vikas had a passion-driven attitude towards his career. Currently, Vikas has 18+ years of global experience from SMEs to MNCs across multiple functions spreading over accounting, auditing, taxation and consulting. He has worked approximately 8 years with one of the largest global auditing and advisory firms, KPMG, in India and the United States of America. Later, Vikas founded a small financial start-up consulting venture with just 1 person and scaled it to more than 120
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employees with pan-India presence. Being the embodiment of commitment and professionalism, Vikas envisions enhancement of the accounting and finance process through the use of technology. In 2018, Vikas decided to focus more on his goals as an entrepreneurial investor and co-founded TYASuite along with Praveen Dokania. Praveen has contributed to the company through his 10 plus years of tech expertise into software development and project management. TYASuite’s Product at a Glance Talking about the company and its products, Vikas says, “TYASuite is the result of the passion and desire of a finance veteran to transform the way companies run their business process and improve the lives of business professionals across the globe. Most employees are plagued by duplicity of data, redundant and boring tasks that hamper their productivity.” As the companies today require to be present online, there are various factors that form an obstacle in the process. One major problem companies are struggling is to find a suitable cloud ERP which is affordable. TYASuite cloud-ERP solution is built on decades of knowledge and experience of its founders across industry type, geography and company size that can be used by aspiring companies as plug and play Cloud ERP Platform. TYASuite is an Integrated Cloud ERP platform with below key modules among others which can be subscribed individually or together as a package Products : • Procurement to Pay Tool • Inventory Management Tool • Asset Management Tool • Warranty Management Tool • Project Management Tool • Compliance Management Tool • Finance and other Modules
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The TYASuite is a multi-industry cloud ERP platform where clients can work perfectly with the business process of their clients while providing the flexibility of auto-scaling as the business grows. Who can be benefitted? • Businesses that want scalability in their operation • Businesses that have or expect to have a very large workforce • Businesses that want a very simple solution at a very low cost • Businesses that want automation for non-value added process The areas of the key focus of TYASuite relies on the most affordable cloud-ERP solution in the market. This can be implemented in the client’s organization within just a few days with tons of plug and play feature.
Vikas started scaling a consulting business from 1 person to 120 people in a short span. This was indeed a huge challenge while at the same time it made him adept enough to tackle all the problems on his own. Today, he envisions himself and his company to become the World’s 1st Plug and Play Cloud ERP platform. He is working towards becoming recognized as one of the most desired Cloud ERP solutions in the market which is dominated by Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle NetSuite and SAP Business. As a startup, TYASuite is looking for options to raise capital through external funding to expand its technical and marketing capabilities. Vikas believes this will drive the investors who can see the potential of the market with a profitable and scalable business model.
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Vikas Mandawewala Co-founder
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TYASuite works towards an objective that can bring ‘Affordable Cloud ERP solutions for everyone’ with easy customization and a user-friendly platform
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Growing Through Positivity Being from a middle-class family from Bihar, Vikas has faced difficulties throughout his journey. Yet, he had a positive outlook and believed that difficulties and challenges make one stronger and more capable. Talking about his career, he was in the USA for almost 5 years where he was expected to work only 35 hours a week. After returning to India, he had to adjust to working for 60-70 hours a week. This transition has actually made him capable of handling the worst.
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