www.theenterpriseworld.com | America Edition | July 2020
Upshot Metros MIAMI The
From the
Editor Schrodinger’s
Cat
Magic
and
City
Marketing Strategy
RECOMMENDED
Robert Clark President and CEO
Insurance Tech SOLUTION PROVIDERS FOR 2020
C loverleaf A nalytics HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR DATA
info@theenterpriseworld.com
THE 10 MOST RECOMMENDED
Best of 5
Recommended
Pharma &
Life Science Solution Providers
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
in 2020
HALOCORE
PROTECT SENSITIVE & CONFIDENTIAL DATA THAT IS NEEDED OUTSIDE OF SAP. SWITZERLAND
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INDIA
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USA
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We are always so interested in knowing the one factor that differentiates the company from the others, and generally expect an answer that will blow our minds. But the fact is, it never is something so big that stands out, those are indeed the small things, which when habituated make the organization different than others! This issue of The Enterprise World of Recommended Insurance Tech Solution Providers in 2020 features the stories of some of such companies that have proved to us that doing something different is for sure a game changer, but what is more important is being better at doing that. Featuring for the cover story of this issue is Cloverleaf Analytics led by CEO Robert Clark. Cloverleaf Analytics is a provider of a content rich Business Intelligence and Analytics solution specifically for the Property and Casualty Insurance market. Cloverleaf’s cutting edge analysis and visualizations direct your business with pre-built and ad hoc reports, dashboards and scenario modeling using standard insurance methodologies and calculations. Other features include Pentation Analytics, an Insurtech and BigData analytics company. One Two One Advisor, a company that is catering to both the industries, FinTech and Insurtech. 121Advisor’s products & services are integrated into their ‘Customer First Connected Enterprise Digital Framework’. Editorial Articles include the Schrodinger’s Cat theory. A famous theory penned down by a notable physicist, Erwin Schrodinger. Read and find out how it can be applied to your business! In the Editorial Section of Upshot Metros, read about Miami, the city of magic! Have a good read!
Shalmali Wadadekar
www.peninsula.com
The Enterprise World, 1985, Henderson Rd, PMB 18262, Columbus, OH, 43220
+1 614 385 1709 Follow Us On:
For Editorial Concerns: editor@theentetpriseworld.com For Sales & Branding Enquiries: sales@theenterpriseworld.com For Subscription: info@theenterpriseworld.com Publisher The Enterprise World Creative Content Editor Susanne J. Asst. Editor Shalmali W. Marketing Coordinator(USA) Peter J. PR & Marketing Coordinator James H. Business Development Executive Ben Clarke Creative Design Head: V. Mittal Social Media Manager Avinash G. Digital Circulation Manager Amanda V. This list is NOT a ranking. The companies on listed in magazine serve different aspects of the market, making ranking them in any order except revenue impossible and unfair. We try to bring a perfect platform for business organization to showcase their valued products/ services. Copyrights Š The Enterprise World | 2019. All Rights Reserved. The images and content included in this magazine should not be copied, transferred or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording, otherwise, without proper permission from The Enterprise World. The Enterprise World solely owns all the reprint rights.
Leaders in Spotlight Featuring for the Cover Story is Cloverleaf Analytics. Cloverleaf Analytics (Cloverleaf) delivers a comprehensive business intelligence (BI) solution which reduces risk and improves profitability and performance for P&C insurance companies. Cloverleaf consolidates enterprise data for real-time analytics and visualizations which drive underwriting efficiency, claims optimization, and better enterprise performance management through machine learning with pre-built and ad hoc reporting capabilities. Pentation Analytics is an InsurTech and Big Data Analytics company with offices at Hartford, CT, US, Mumbai, India and the UAE. The Company was founded in Aug 2015, with a vision to – ‘measure and address risk using advanced analytics for the insurance value chain’.
The company was founded by seasoned professionals from the Insurance & Financial Services industry. Pentation was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Hartford InsurTech Hub accelerator. As an InsurTech, Pentation Analytics enables insurers and intermediaries maximize value of and for their customers via proprietary insurance-specific platform – Insurance Analytics Suite™. Catering to both the industries, One Two One Advisor was formed in 2010. Over the past 10 years the company has implemented online solutions for Referral Management with Marketing Automation, Mobile Point of Sales, Online Direct Selling, Online Claims, Agency Distribution, Online Customer Service Portals, Corporate Websites, Multi-lingual Chatbots & Robo Advisors and AI based Predictive Analytics for New Products, Lapsation & Fraudulent
Claims. In Interview with The Enterprise World, read aboutAmodo Amodo helps insurance companies address new market trends and opportunities by enabling innovative and quick to market smartphone-based insurance products. The platform gathers behavioural data from different data sources, consolidates and analyses them; presents them in a very user friendly and actionable way. Insurance Technology Services Founded in 1988, ITS (Insurance Technology Services) is a Dallasbased insurance consulting and services firm specializing in the design, implementation, and utilization of technology to optimize critical business processes and achieve exceptional results.
Content
16 Pentation Analytics Measure & Address Risk across Insurance Value Chain
www.theenterpriseworld.com | America Edition | July 2020
Upshot Metros MIAMI
From the
Editor Schrodinger’s
The
Cat
Magic
and
City
Marketing Strategy
RECOMMENDED
Robert Clark
Insurance Tech
President and CEO
SOLUTION PROVIDERS FOR 2020
C loverleaf A nalytics HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR DATA
On the Cover Cloverleaf Analytics Harness the Power of Your Data
08
28
Insurance Technology Services Your Partner in System Implementation Success
20
22
Elon Musk’s ‘5 Minute Rule’
Miami The Magic City
The key to utilize your day fully!
32
36
One Two One Advisor
The Rothschild
Catering to All Your Digital Needs
38
Amodo Insurance Telematics Applied
42 Schrodinger’s Cat and Marketing Strategy
Cover Story
C loverleaf A nalytics HARNESS THE POWER OF YOUR
08 July 2020
www.theenterpriseworld.com 09
Cover story
B
usiness Intelligence (BI) is widely used by the organizations today, mostly because with the help of BI, they can support a number of business decisions that range from operational to strategic. Business Intelligence has empowered several companies as it gives the organizations a clear view of the market. It also helps in the assessment of demand and suitability of the products and services for the different segments of market.
Among the other sectors, Business Intelligence has been most effective in the banking sector. The banking sector plays onto large amounts of data produced almost every day, and making sense of all of it manually would be tedious and not to forget, time-consuming. Using the software tools in such situations helps to quickly understand, analyze, and find value in big data. Led by President and CEO Robert Clark, Cloverleaf Analytics gives an end-to-end insurance BI solution, which gives access to real-time analytics to discover trends and insights across the entire enterprise, enabling proactive business decisions that would not otherwise be possible. The customers can jump start their BI solution and realize an immediate ROI using Cloverleaf’s intuitive interface to access up-tothe-minute trend analysis, 100+ pre-built reports, dashboards, alerts and much more. The Company Cloverleaf Analytics (Cloverleaf) delivers a comprehensive business intelligence (BI) solution which reduces risk and improves 10 July 2020
profitability and performance for P&C insurance companies. Cloverleaf consolidates enterprise data for real-time analytics and visualizations which drive underwriting efficiency, claims optimization, and better enterprise performance management through machine learning with pre-built and ad hoc reporting capabilities. Being a new vendor to the insurance industry, it took some time for the company to get the people to trust the organization. However, with their management team having decades of experience in the insurance industry it was easier to get in the door, but it was still a challenge and took tremendous effort and negotiating to get an insurance company to sign up with them. After completing their initial project and having the first client go live showed the industry that Cloverleaf’s product wasn’t just a viable product, but one of the best available on the market. This gave the company the growth trigger they were hoping for and the company started showing
consistent double digit growth for a new business. “Our quality product is backed by some of the best industry talent and customer service professionals.” The Products and Services Cloverleaf Analytics is a provider of a content rich Business Intelligence and Analytics solution specifically for the Property and Casualty Insurance market. Their customers are insurance carriers, Managing General Agents and Managing General Underwriters. The company provides a complete solution that once installed and loaded with the core system data that the client already has, immediately comes to life. Many operational and strategic analysis capabilities are built in that are specific to insurance and drive out of the box value to our clients. They have over 100 insurance specific dashboards and reports utilizing over 900 insurance metrics that have been built to provide analytical insights immediately once the solution is live. Their competitors start with standard BI
tools and attempt to build something custom for each of their clients. “Our approach reduces the time, effort and risk to get an extremely effective solution in place as compared to custom tool build efforts.” Cloverleaf’s cutting edge analysis and visualizations direct your business with pre-built and ad hoc reports, dashboards and scenario modeling using standard insurance methodologies and calculations. Dashboards allow users to view aggregated information from across the enterprise and explore data to gain new insights through multi-dimensional visual charting. Simple point-and- click manipulation enables discovery of hidden patterns and relationships. BUILT FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES- Every aspect of Cloverleaf Analytics is built specifically for your business.
Using standard insurance formulas, terminology and definitions as well as the Acord Reference Framework, you can trust the 500+ insurance KPI's built into the solution. Cloverleaf knows that not all relevant data is within your four walls, so end-users can define data mashups using internal and external data to provide more context and deeper analysis.
‘‘
‘‘
We know Insurance
upper hand in the market. It is• POWERFUL DATA MASHUP ENGINE End-user defined data mashup enables fast and flexible transformation of data from disparate sources • INTUITIVE USER INTERFACES Empowers users with simple pointand-click or touch interaction, data exploration and visual analysis, as well as drag-and-drop customization and design
Cloverleaf’s real-time operational data store (ODS) and customizable alerts keep you in the know on the state of your business and allow you to perform real time analysis without bogging down your operational systems and staff. Whether it’s being alerted to and analyzing catastrophe claims as they happen or reviewing policies issued to hit quarterly projections, Cloverleaf Analytics gives you the ability to see your business in real time and never be caught off guard again.
• HIGH SPEED DATA INTEGRATION Their blazing fast data loading capability is powered by our compiled binary ETL process, instead of a typical runtime interpreter ETL tool, allowing you to load data in real time and bulk load data even faster than conventional ETLs.
Their technology has given them an
• ODS & DATA WAREHOUSE
www.theenterpriseworld.com 11
Cover story
Robert Clark LEADING THE WAY Leading corporate strategy and product design, Rob has over 20 years of insurance-speciďŹ c BI exper se. Rob has co-founded 2 successful insurance so ware companies and held various domes c and interna onal roles at AXA. In his spare me, Rob runs ultramarathons, prac ces soccer drills with his kids, and is a true family man. 12 July 2020
Their operational data store (ODS) and data warehouse allow your end users to run both operational reporting on the ODS and high speed analysis on the data warehouse at the same time. Get reports when you want them and when you need them. • COLLABORATION With the ability to annotate and email visualizations and dashboards you can collaborate, ask questions and resolve issues with others in your organization faster than ever before. • MOBILE BI Users can access and create interactive dashboards and reports right from their Android, Windows or Apple iOS mobile device, putting the power of data in the palm of their hand. • DATA BLOCK TECHNOLOGY With their Data Block technology and grid caching we provide high speed big data performance out of the box and support deployments on most big data databases such as Hadoop, SAP Hana, etc. • HIGHLY SCALABLE Their server was developed on the open J2EE architecture with built in clustering and can readily be deployed with different Java application servers, giving you scalability and flexibility. • GRANULAR SECURITY Virtual private models allow you to secure down to what fields users have access to and to what data can be queried. Use Cloverleaf Analytics built in authentication and authorization or connect to existing LDAP or ADS servers.
“Business is changing rapidly and we must have a solution that is flexible, adaptive and comprehensive in nature.” Cloverleaf Analytics has designed their solution to evolve as the business environment has. The Covid-19 pandemic will lead to many changes in how business is done in the future. This will create new risks, losses and opportunities. Their solution is designed to quickly pivot and analyze new information from multiple data providers in concert with an insurers existing data to help identify the reality of these opportunities or risks and not rely on gut feel as the data to support responsive actions is not available from most insurers’ current solutions. “We like to refer to this as providing a 360-degree view of the insurance company’s environment and the business they have written and what they are looking to write.” The latest release of the Cloverleaf Analytics solution offers significant enhancements in machine learning and analytics. They have built in many new capabilities to quickly create clusters and other models
that are designed specifically for insurance to examine, risk and loss patterns and compare them to past time to monitor the dynamic changes that occur naturally in the insurance operation. The visual front end of the solution has been re-done and is much crisper and offers many new features and more insurance content that builds on our 900 insurance metrics and 100+ reports and dashboards that come with the solution. The Team “Our end-to-end insurance BI solution was built by a team of experts who have prided themselves in architecting and building some of the best BI solutions in the insurance industry, giving customers decades of in-depth knowledge and best practices.” Cloverleaf Analytics prides itself on a team that is unique in every way. The members are encouraged to be independent thinkers and to be open about ideas and to contribute to the growth of the company as well as their own growth. All team members have extensive insurance carrier operations and data analysis backgrounds.
www.theenterpriseworld.com 13
Cover story
Our Difference WE KNOW YOUR CHALLENGES
LICENSING THAT SUITS YOUR BUSINESS
We know the challenges that an insurance company faces in managing its business because we come from the insurance industry. We have built Cloverleaf Analy cs with decades of knowledge and first-hand experiences, bringing you hundreds of insurance industry best prac ces.
You have flexibility in how you implement our subscrip on based BI. With our hosted offerings, you have the power to choose the right model for your business and your budget. Built to be the best from the ground up, Cloverleaf Analy cs gives you the best of BI technology and insurance exper se to help you drive your business.
FASTER IMPLEMENTATIONS
CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY
Time is money and faster implementa ons allow you to reach ROI goals quickly. Leveraging our prebuilt integra ons into industryleading policy admin applica ons, our blazing fast ETL process, and our pla orm’s readiness to integrate into your exis ng big data solu ons such as Hadoop, Apache Spark and SAP Hana….you can be up and running in as li le as a few weeks in some cases which is unheard of in the insurance BI space.
Our cu ng-edge technology is the only insurance BI solu on that lets you analyze data from internal and external sources in a single report, elimina ng the me and errors that come with manual manipula ons. Our pla orm is built on a modern, open architecture with bestof-breed technologies, providing maximum flexibility and faster innova on so you can manage your business in real me.
14 July 2020
www.atempo.com
preserving data ecosystems
Recommended Insurance Tech Solution Providers for 2020
Kamal Kishore Das | Founder, Director & COO Pentation Analytics Pvt Ltd
P
entation Analytics is an InsurTech and Big Data Analytics company with offices at Hartford, CT, US, Mumbai, India and the UAE. The Company was founded in Aug 2015, with a vision to – ‘measure and address risk using advanced analytics for the insurance value chain’.
Suite™.
based databases.
Insurance Analytics Suite is a Selfservice Analytics Product powered by Machine Learning, for Motor, Health, P&C, and Life insurance.
Using structured policy transaction data and unstructured customer interaction data, the Automated Machine Learning Models generate policy-level scores that indicate the level of renewal and cross-sell propensity they possess. Ensemble scoring models enable insurers to get real-time insights about different policies.
Pentation was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Hartford InsurTech Hub accelerator.
Designed to shift the onus of analytics processes from Data Analysts to Business Owners, Insurance Analytics Suite targets Ease of Use as a priority by offering a sequential workflow via a three-layered structure - Insurance Data Model, Machine Learning and Application - to cover all from data management to risk insights, planning and monitoring execution, all at one place.
As an InsurTech, Pentation Analytics enables insurers and intermediaries maximize value of and for their customers via proprietary insurance-specific platform - Insurance Analytics
Insurance Analytics Suite has the ability to use data from multiple data sources, formats, volumes, varieties and types (Numeric, Text and Image), and is also equipped to handle ACORD AL3 Standard
The company was founded by seasoned professionals from the Insurance & Financial Services industry.
16 July 2020
The Applications layer utilizes these risk scores to enable targeted actions such as Retention, Crosssell, Scenario Analysis, Contact Centre Optimization, Price Elasticity, and Profitability among more. Insurance Analytics Suite, hence, offers a unique combination of insights for decision-making and interventions for process efficiency, ensuring higher conversions - a first across the global InsurTech
Pentation Analytics Measure & Address Risk across Insurance Value Chain landscape! Pentation Analytics also offers cutting edge analytics to Banking, Financial Services, Capital Markets, Payments and Electric Utility sectors. Established in 2015, decades of domain experience of the founders and their drive for innovation in analytics has given the company an opportunity to work with some of the best players in the BFSI space. The Journey Since the founding team was from the Insurance industry, they understood the insurance space very well. There were many business cases initially identified to build upon. It took the team almost a year to narrow down on ideas that would get maximum bang for the buck.
The acquisition of clients started happening once the value proposition became sharp – the decision to focus on customer life time value generation via superior customer retention and cross sell programs using machine learning techniques. Pentation Analytics started the company with 2 employees and won their first project. Today they are a team of 35. The company has been able to acquire clients across Insurance & Banking as well as deliver projects in data intensive industries owing to core focus on data science.
“We have come a long way but we still have a lot of ground to cover. We have had some setbacks in our journey of growth and all of it has made us better prepared for the years to come.” Pentation has stayed the course on customer analytics. They have built a unique product for the Insurance industry. Consistent focus on adding value, using data as a main lever, has helped partner with clients and strike long term contracts. Here is a graph that shows their growth over the years.
www.theenterpriseworld.com 17
Recommended Insurance Tech Solution Providers for 2020
“Our dedicate team and our easy to use data science products have helped us stay relevant over the years.”
The Products and Services Pentation offers proprietary and award winning insurance industryspecific platform - Insurance Analytics Suite™. The product has business process management workflows powered by machine learning - for personal lines of insurance. The platform’s easy-to-use design enables the shift of analytics processes from Data Analysts to the Business Owners. This year the company has launched online editions of the platform in software-as-a-service mode. The Enterprise Edition of the Insurance Analytics Suite™ is equipped with business workflows that are powered by machine learning algorithms. This year they have established their presence in the MENA region by incorporate Pentation Analytics Middle East. They had a launch event in Dubai in March 2020. The off take has been slow due to the pandemic related lockdown. But going forward the company anticipates a large segment of their business revenues being generated from that market. They have already done a few projects in the UAE. Geographical expansion and 18 July 2020
activation of go-to-market partnerships are the key strategies. A New Venture Pentation Analytics is launching the online version of their proprietary platform - Insurance Analytics Suite™ this month. Through these editions, the objective is to reach out to multiple categories of users – from independent users to multinational organizations. The online product editions are ideal for flexible data scenarios wherein data is being generated on laptops, mobile and desktops – while people work from home and have limited access to central systems inside an enterprise. Accordingly, the product has three editions – Single User, Multi User and Enterprise edition. The Single User Edition is being offered free of cost. The Team Kamal Kishore Das is the COO of the company. Major part of his professional experience has been around the insurance value chain from building new products/services, developing relationships oriented to digital businesses – with data being a core part of the journey. He has worked with a leading and innovative P&C insurance carrier in India in multiple roles and worked with an insurance industry focused start-up before co-founding the current venture. Over 20 years
of experience now. As an entrepreneur, his key achievements are a subset of what Pentation has experienced. They have won multiple awards & recognitions. However the core that keeps them going is sustained client engagements. As any other startup surviving over a period of years, Pentation Analytics has relied heavily on the whole hearted involvement of the team members beyond defined job roles. As an entrepreneur, Kamal's focus has been on creating opportunities for the team to deliver. Over the past year, the company has rolled out employee engagement initiatives such as town halls with industry professionals and skill development programs. Particularly during the pandemic, they have communicated that the Company would sustain all job roles even if that means taking salary cuts. “Given our nature of work, where you really need to have an eye for detail, the ability of every team member to focus on client problem areas and come together as a team to address the same, is what makes us unique.”
From the Editor
Elon Musk's '5 Minute Rule' The key to utilize your day fully!
20 July 2020
E
lon Musk, one of the most famous industrialists of today, uses the method of ‘time blocking’ to plan time in his daily life. In addition, many successful businessmen in the world (Bill Gates, Cal Newport, etc.) follow this rule. The ‘time blocking’ method has certainly played a big role in the success of these individuals. The name Elon Musk is known to many and he is a massive source of motivation for many. He is one of the smartest and busiest businessmen of today. His dream is to send a common man to Mars and he is working day and night for that. He is the CEO of Tesla, a leading electric car company, and SpaceX, a private company in the space technology sector. In these self-founded companies, he works as a technician and often writes code for Tesla or SpaceX products.
Elon Musk, who works 11 to 14 hours a day, sleeps only 6 hours. He also has children. He also saves time for his family. In addition, he exercises a few days a week. It makes a difference when you make time for your hobbies! The secret behind Elon Musk’s success is the 5-minute rule. From waking up in the morning to going to bed at night, the whole day’s musk is already planned. He divides the whole day into 5 minutes blocks (parts) of 5 minutes. It is already decided which 5-minute block to use for which work. In one 5 minute block, he replies to an e-mail, in the other block, he packs a meal (in just 5 minutes!). In fact, he tries to get business meetings done in less time. Also, he avoids picking up the phone even if it comes in the middle of work. Although Elon Musk’s ‘5 Minute Rule’ seems very simple, it is very difficult to implement. The main reason for this is that you have to plan the next day for the tasks you want to do, but by sitting in 5-5 minute blocks. If you have very little time to do something, you put all your energy into it. In short, your productivity increases, and that work is more likely to be completed. Also, since you have already decided what to do, your mind becomes engrossed in the things at hand and stops thinking about other things. In short, your concentration increases. In the current industry scenario, everyone needs to increase his or her productivity to remain in the race. It may be the year for survival but if the business survives then only you can. So, plan your schedule well to avoid the need for extra working hours.
“What’s the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?"
www.theenterpriseworld.com 21
Upshot Metros
Miami T h e
22 July 2020
M a g i c
C i t y
www.theenterpriseworld.com 23
Upshot Metros
M
iami City is the cultural, economic and financial centre of Florida in the United States. A 2019 estimate of the population of the city makes it the sixth most densely populated city in the United States. Miami’s metro area has the largest urban economy in Florida with a GDP of $344.9 billion as of 2017. In terms of human capital, information exchange, business activity, cultural experience and political engagement, Miami ranks 31st among the global cities. In a 2018 UBS Study of 77 global cities, Miami was the third-richest city in terms of the purchasing power. Before we know more about the culture of the city, let us find out more about the geography, topography and demography of the city. The Cityscape The city of Miami is roughly divided into four parts, the north, south, west and the Downtown Area. Downtown Miami forms the heart of the city and is on the eastern side with neighborhoods such as Brickell, Virginia Key, Watson Island and Port Miami. Downtown Miami counts for Florida’s largest and the most influential central business districts. It houses many major banks, courthouses, financial headquarters, cultural and tourist attractions, schools, parks etc. Northwest of the Downtown is Miami’s Health District. It is the city’s center of hospitals, research centers and biotechnology. Some of the famous hospitals like the Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami’s Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine are located here.
The southern side of the city has neighborhoods like the Coral Way, The Roads and Coconut Grove. Built in the year 1922, Coral Way is a historic residential neighborhood. Coconut Grove, established in the year 1825, is another historic neighborhood with narrow, winding roads and a heavy tree canopy. Apart from that, it also has many nightclubs, bars, restaurants, bohemian shops etc. Economy of Miami Being a centre of commerce and ďŹ nance, the city of Miami boasts a strong international business community. Considering the level of presence of global corporate service organizations, Miami is considered as an Alpha World City. Its Gross Metropolitan Product is $257 billion, which ranks it 11th th in the States and 20 in the world. Many of the large companies are headquartered in Miami. Akerman LLP, Alienware, Arquitectonica, Brightstar Corporation, Celebrity Cruises, Carnival Corporation, Duany Plater-Zyberk, Element Solutions, Greenberg Traurig, Inktel Direct, Lennar Corporation, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, OPKO Health, Parkjockey, RCTV International, Royal Caribbean International, Sitel, Southern Wine & Spirits, TelefĂłnica USA, Telemundo, Vector Group, Watsco and World Fuel Services count to just the some of them. Since Miami is close to Latin America, it also serves as the headquarters of Latin American operations for as much as 1400 multinational corporations. These include AIG, American Airlines, Cisco Systems, Disney, ExxonMobil, FedEx, Kraft Foods, LEO Pharma Americas, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Oracle, Sony, Symantec, Visa, and Walmart.
Upshot Metros
Culture Miami is well-known for its vibrant culture. Because of its young age and massive growth, Miami is also called as the Magic City. The city of Miami houses many entertainment venues, theatres, museums, parks and performing arts centers. The newest addition to Miami’s many entertainment venues is the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Florida Grand Opera. Miami International Film Festival is a celebrated event, which is held in the first week of March for 10 days. Independent international and American films are screened across the city and celebrated for the artiste. The city also attracts a number of musicians, singers, actors, dancers and also orchestral players for which the city has orchestras, symphonies and performing arts conservatories. The city is also a fashion enthusiast, and a home to several models and some top modeling agencies of the world. It hosts a number of fashion shows including the Miami Fashion Week and the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Miami. The diverse population of Miami reflects in the cuisine of the city; although it has a heavy influence from the Caribbean and Latin American cuisines. By combining these two cuisines with the American cuisine, the city has formed its own style of cooking popularly known as Floribbean cuisine. The people of Miami are quite fond of sports. The city has five main teams that include, Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association, the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball, the Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League, and Inter Miami CF of Major League Soccer. One of the major bowl games in the College Football Playoff of the NCAA is the Orange Bowl. It is played at the Hard Rock Stadium every year, which also hosted the Super Bowl. When you talk about Miami, how can you not talk about the beautiful beaches and tropical weather? The weather allows for year-round outdoor activities. Boating, sailing and fishing are among the famous outdoor activities because of the marinas, rivers, bays, canals and the Atlantic Ocean. Biscayne Bay is a hot spot for snorkeling and scuba diving because of the presence of coral reefs. The largest and most popular parks are Bayfront Park and Museum Park (located in the heart of Downtown and the location of the American Airlines Arena and Bayside Marketplace), Tropical Park, Peacock Park, Virginia Key, and Watson Island. Other popular cultural destinations in or near Miami include Zoo Miami, Jungle Island, the Miami Seaquarium, Monkey Jungle, Coral Castle, Charles Deering Estate, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and Key Biscayne. With beautiful beaches, a rocking nightlife and also a few historic buildings, Miami sure can be your next travel destination!
26 July 2020
www.theenterpriseworld.com 27
Chris Belle President
Insurance Technology Services Your Partner in System Implementation Success
I
t is the age of digitization. And looking at how advantageous it has turned out to be, it is only evitable for everyone to comply. Owing to the many digital trends, there have emerged many new kinds of insurance organizations. And what is important is they have kept a close watch on the customer needs and crafted their services accordingly. Led by President Chris Belle, Insurance Technology Services is one such organization. In this interview with Mr. Chris, let’s find out more about Insurance Technology Services (ITS). Tell us about the company. Founded in 1988, ITS (Insurance Technology Services) is a Dallas28 July 2020
based insurance consulting and services firm specializing in the design, implementation, and utilization of technology to optimize critical business processes and achieve exceptional results. Which was the point that triggered the growth of the company? Our initial growth was triggered by the need for system consultants with deep insurance experience. This service standard continues to be the hallmark of ITS. Our current growth is a result of expanding our business model to include strategic partnerships and managed services. Early on, ITS focused on providing expert resources to help our carrier clients
with their technology projects. The insurance software vendors we worked with on those projects recognized our expertise and sought our services as well. We began partnering with select vendors which led us to develop managed services that combine our people with proprietary tools and methodologies that deliver turnkey solutions. What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success? ITS is known for our integrity and people-first approach. Instead of maximizing output and profitability, ITS focuses on quality and customer service. One of our founding principles is that by
taking the best possible care of our people, they will serve our clients well which has led to our growth and long-term success. The Products/Services What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? Our primary focus is helping insurance companies implement core insurance systems. Our service areas include project management, business analysis, testing, data migration, and end-user training with a 100% onshore delivery model. We are constantly innovating our tools and methodologies to accelerate these services including our two flagship products: ITAP (ITS Test Automation Platform) and IDMP (ITS Data Migration Platform). These platforms are delivered under a cloud-based, subscription model and designed specifically for the insurance industry. What sets ITS apart starts with our people - they really know insurance. Our consultants come from insurance software, consulting, and carrier companies, which provides ITS with a wide and deep pool of insurance knowledge and experience that is critical to successfully delivering our services and products. How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services? Before ITS considers a new opportunity, we look for one fundamental characteristic: will our deep understanding of the insurance industry make a
difference in how well we can deliver the service? The second criterion is that we must first be excellent at what we currently do before we expand our service portfolio in a specific area. Only after ensuring this will we initiate a new product or service. Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share? The latest release of our test automation platform (ITAP) includes a new front-end configuration tool called ITAP Studio that makes development and maintenance of automated test suites even easier. Similarly, v2 of our data migration platform (IDMP) employs an architectural concept we call Object Oriented Configuration, resulting in a fourfold decrease in development times on our data migration projects. Leadership What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
degree from the University of Texas at Austin, I started my career with Andersen Consulting (NKA Accenture). This job fast-tracked my technical and supervisory experience while teaching me the value of standardized methodologies. My entrepreneurial spirit was sparked when I first joined ITS. After successfully managing a large system implementation project, I moved into a role as the company’s first dedicated salesperson where I worked for several years helping develop new markets. I left consulting to work for a couple of insurance companies including as CIO for a regional insurance group. This period in my career provided me valuable insight into the carrier perspective making me much more effective upon my return to ITS. After leading our service teams for several years, I became president in 2016. I also served as a volunteer for 20+ years with the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association (IASA) including as president of the Texas chapter in 2008. What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
Can you please brief us about your professional experience?
I'm most proud of the achievements accomplished by the teams I’ve worked with and the people whom I’ve mentored and whose careers I’ve helped. Personal development and growth are important to both me and ITS. I started as a programmer and, today, I continually challenge myself to excel at all aspects of our business including marketing, sales, human resources, as well as financial and strategic planning. Along the way, I’ve also become a certified insurance geek!
After receiving my engineering
How do you look after your
An entrepreneur has to be able to recognize the need for a particular product or service, anticipate the changing dynamics of the industry they’re serving, and be willing and able to take calculated risks. Then they must bring together and lead an expert team that can successfully deliver that new product or service, all while making a reasonable profit.
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Interview with TEW employees? What makes your team unique? ITS practices a servant leadership style - as president, I work for everyone else in the company. We seek input from our small, laserfocused teams where everyone contributes equally in order to achieve continuous improvement in our services and methodologies. Instead of micromanaging our consultants, we focus on their results. Leaving it to the individual to focus on the how and when is one way we accommodate the needs of our employees and practice the concept of work-life balance. As a services company, our people are our product, and recruiting is the lifeblood of our organization. One testament to our community of satisfied employees is that much of our recruiting is accomplished through referrals from our employees who tell their business associates to come work for us. Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight? One of my favorite things is to hear from our clients about how much they appreciate and enjoy working with us. Our website’s testimonial page highlights many of our great client experiences. Achieving positive client feedback is more than just a marketing concept; it is the culmination of great service and an important component of our job satisfaction. Personal Questions Can you tell us which your favorite book is? And your favorite part of the book? My favorite novel is the Lord of the 30 July 2020
Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve heard it’s a story one should read as a young adult, during middle age, and again after retirement because it offers new insights at each stage in life. The recurring themes I enjoy are camaraderie, friendship, and loyalty. One favorite scene is at the beginning of the second book when Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn decide to go after Marry and Pippen who have been taken captive by orcs. At this point the Fellowship is broken and they can no longer help destroy the ring. In the midst of all the peril, hopelessness, and doom they decide the best thing they can do is to save their friends. One person who you admire the most? I owe much to my parents and the opportunities they provided me in life. During a recent Father’s Day celebration with my own family, I decided to watch a recorded interview that my, now deceased, father gave where he talked about his early life. My father, Frits Belle, was a quiet, unassuming man who took care of his family by providing us all the basics according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For many of us, it’s easy to take those for granted as we focus on the top layer, the need for selfactualization, development, and creativity. However, as the oldest child born and raised in the Dutch East Indies (NKA Indonesia), my father experienced the horrors of WWII as a civilian POW. Separated from their father, he and his mother led his siblings through a harrowing experience where every basic need was stripped away with starvation a constant companion. After losing several years of his childhood he survived,
went on to earn an engineering degree, and immigrated to the US to start a family. Watching that old recording reminded me how much I admire who he was, what he endured and accomplished, and how he helped me become who I am today. Whose business story do you find the most inspiring? The founder of our company, John Vana, is one of the most influential mentors in my career. He started ITS over 30 years ago based on a set of values that has never wavered. He continues to lead our parent company and, together with his son, Mike, they serve as the bedrock of the company. 30 years is a long time in this industry and it’s my hope that 30 years from now, my legacy leaves behind a company that will continue to serve the needs our people and clients for many years to come. Which is the most inspiring quote you have read? “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” ― Thomas Edison Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views. In my view, if you start with the right fundamentals, things have the best chance of working out without the need for constant vigilance. It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? Take care of your family and yourself and serve society the best way you can.
INNOVATION, BEYOND IMAGINATION
We focus to provide solutions that offer a unique user experience and a unique way of using the different videoconferencing and meeting applications while maximizing interaction and collaboration.
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Recommended Insurance Tech Solution Providers for 2020
Kevin Steer | CEO | One Two One Advisor
T
he difference between FinTech and InsurTech is one of the most frequently asked question. The emergence of modern technology in the insurance sector is now commonly called as the InsurTech. InsurTech is the sector that encompasses the companies that are bringing technological advancements in the insurance industry as well as the insurance companies that are embracing these changes. On the other hand, FinTech is something similar to the InsurTech but has a broader scope of financial institutions. Catering to both the industries, One Two One Advisor was formed in 2010. Over the past 10 years the company has implemented online solutions for Referral Management with Marketing Automation, Mobile Point of Sales, Online Direct Selling, Online Claims, 32 July 2020
Agency Distribution, Online Customer Service Portals, Corporate Websites, Multi-lingual Chatbots & Robo Advisors and AI based Predictive Analytics for New Products, Lapsation & Fraudulent Claims. “Our product is called ‘Customer First Connected Enterprise Digital Framework’ that integrates all of the above solutions.” In 2010, ‘FinTech’ & ‘InsurTech’ words were not available, so it took a while to convince customers of the digital skills & capabilities. In 2011 the team started implementing various solutions, and by 2014 they started growing, providing solutions both for banks,
insurers & takaful companies. Our Motto is “We Don’t Follow Trend, We Pioneer Them” By 2014 the company was profitable and using the profits for R&D on new solutions. Here is a graph that shows the company’s growth over the past decade.
One Two One Advisor Catering to All Your Digital Needs As a CEO and a ‘technology person’, Kevin has always strived to look at new solutions to continue evolving the business. What was interesting was that he worked for an Artificial Intelligence Company in 1986, and that piqued his interest in AI. When we started seeing the evolution of Chatbots, Robo Advisors, Predictive Analytics, Behavioral Intelligence & Robotic Process Automation. 121Advisor started researching on AI solutions and the team implemented 24x7 multi-lingual Chatbots, Robo Advisors for lifestyle financial planning, as well as implementing Predictive Analytics solutions for predicting new products to buy, lapsation of policies & fraudulent claims; which are integrated with RPA solutions to trigger workflows to notify the relevant people. The Products and Services 121Advisor’s products & services
are integrated into their ‘Customer First Connected Enterprise Digital Framework’. This enables them to create personas for targeted marketing, they can setup Persona rules to auto match and trigger RPA processes for marketing automation to reduce costs. In addition, they can create blogs that are used in targeted marketing with associated product recommendations. Some of their services include• Multi-lingual Chatbot for Financial, Insurance & Takaful (FITbot) Multi-lingual Robo Advisor and chatbot that utilizes hybrid trees and natural language processing (NLP) to engage with customers to offer a more personalized customer experience and generate more referrals. • Web Portal Solution for Sales &
Servicing (WebPoS) Multi-lingual mobile responsive website and portal solution to enable clients to experience a unified personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing and work management are consolidated instead of siloed. • Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA) Effectively and efficiently autoassigns, tracks and manages lead refferals and conversions based on user defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery, targeted campaigns and engagement. • Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA) Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospects are addressed. Managers can monitor
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Recommended Insurance Tech Solution Providers for 2020
real time to render assistance where necessary. • Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD) Community portal solution allows organisations to engage with members of their community to nurture trust and create advocates thereby improving customer retention. • Enterprise Product Configurator (EPC) Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly setup product rates, illustrations, validation engine as well as automated testing module allows quick product deployment. • Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS) For general agencies, IFAs, brokers to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built in performance management and compensation computation our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs. With the recent pandemic there is a need for more digital services for Banks, Insurers and Takaful. 34 July 2020
121Advisor will soon be launching a Lifestyle Community Knowledge Portal that helps consumers understand the lifestyle goals (e.g. lifestyles for single, married, family, retired and my own business). The community knowledge portal will include chatbots & robo advisor to help consumers understand their lifestyle goals and recommend products, forums and are stored in a secure CRM. Consumers can opt to choose a company product (based on recommendations) and buy products online (e.g. Loans, Investment, Life Cover, General Cover) via e-payment. The Team As a ‘techie’ Kevin works with his team to help them understand the Banking & Insurance processes, and help them is the design of data models. The team has a great understanding on financial services & insurance processes so that they can implement new solutions. Among the countless interactions with their clients here is a special one Kevin highlights“A bank in Malaysia, wanted us to deliver a Referral Management solution in 3 months, this included
defining KPIs for each product, interfacing with back-end sales, and synchronizing status of agents daily, then auto assigning to the relevant sales agents based on the referral product required. 121Advisor delivered the solution and went live in 3 months. One of our insurance customers wanted an agent mobile sales solution delivered in 4 months, this includes product setup, quotation, and proposal, auto-underwriting and online submission to the insurer. 121Advisor delivered the solution and went live in 4 months. With our agent distribution solution, a number of Agent Leader Corporations (ALC) wanted us to compute their commissions and bonus, based on n-tier hierarchy, manage the performance and track KPIs for agent promotion / demotion (depending on whether they met their targets), including integration with their insurance/takaful companies. Once the ALC managers approved the payments, we make online payment direct to the agents. 121Advisor delivered these solutions in 2 – 4 months, based on the integration requirements with the insurance/takaful company.”
www.royalenď€ eld.com
Did you know?
The Rothschild T
he Rothschild is one of the leading families in Europe in the 10th century to establish banking and finance houses. Rothschild today established banking and finance houses in Europe to finance infrastructure projects such as the Pioneer, Railways and Suez Canal. They have created an international world of high finance. The Rothschild Empire originated during the 1760s when Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) established a banking business in his native Frankfurt, with Hesse’s Duchy time in German and with the help of Mayer Rothschild’s five sons. The family business spread to many European countries. During 1815 and 1914, the Rothschild’s controlled the world’s largest bank. Mayer Rothschild Rothschild’s story began with the humble beginnings of its founder, Mayer Rothschild. Born in 1744, Mayer Rothschild was raised in the German Duchy of Hesse in a ghetto in Frankfurt. During that era, Jews were legally required to live in small communities that were far from Christian. They were not allowed to leave their villages on Christian holidays, Sundays or nights. As a child, Rothschild lived in a 36 July 2020
full house with about 30 other family members. Rothschild learned about the business world at an early age - his father, Amsel Musa Rothschild ran a business of coins, silk and other items to survive. One of the clients of Amschel Rothschild was Crown Prince Wilhelm of Hess. Mayer Rothschild became an orphan at the age of 12 after the death of his mother. His father had died before. Before his passing, Rothschild's parents wanted their son to study Jewish education in order to become a Jew. However, he decided to take an internship with a banking firm in Hanover, Germany. During his time, Rothschild learned the ins and outs of banking and foreign trade. The inception of a banking empire Rothschild returned to his hometown, Frankfurt, when he was 19 years old. Along with his brothers, he continued the commodities and wealth trade in his father’s early days - the rare coin to Prince Wilhelm Coin, which became Wilhelm IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Castle in 1785 and eventually the richest man on the European continent. Soon he was providing other banking services to Wilhelm and
several aristocrats, and by 1796 Rothschild was crowned Crown Agent. In 1770, Rothschild married and had ten children five sons and five daughters. Expansion and control of the Rothschild footprint The Rothbright banking empire benefited greatly from the French Revolution. During the war, the Austrian army contracted to supply Rothschild with a number of items, including wheat, uniforms, horses and equipment; He also facilitated monetary transactions for Hessian mercenaries. Around that time, Rothschild sent his five sons to live in the capital cities of various European countries. His goal was to set up a banking business in Frankfurt, Naples, Vienna, Paris and London for each of his children and in the 1800s, he did. Spread across Europe with Mayer Rothschild’s children, Rothschild’s became the first bank to cross the border.
Nathan Rothschild Of the four Rothschild’s that went abroad, it was the third son Nathan (1777-1838) who became the greatest success. With Mayer Rothschild’s children spread across Europe, Rothschild’s’ enterprises became the first banks to effectively cross borders. Nathan played a leading role in leading international finance. Using a network of carrier pigeons to communicate with his brothers, Nathan acted as a central bank for Europe - funding infrastructure such as brokerage purchases for kings, protection of national banks and railings, which industrialized will help start the revolution. Nathan moved to England in 1798. There he set up a textile job business with a working capital of 20,000, equivalent to 1.9 million in today’s context. He also traded on the London Stock Exchange, and eventually founded a bank called NM Rothschild & Sons Limited. The firm is the seventh
oldest bank in the country in continuous operations. Although privately held and controlled by the Rothschild family, N. M. Rothschild & amp; Sun Ltd reported a net profit of £ 34 million at the end of 2014. Like other Rothschild banks, which were later established throughout Europe, NM Rothschild & amp; Suns lent to the government during the war and crisis. The Rothschild family in the 21st century Family property has been divided into several descendants and heirs over the years. Today, their holdings are spread across a wide variety of industries, including financial services, real estate, mining, energy and even charitable work. Some Rothschild-owned financial institutions still operate in Europe, Including N. M. Rothschild & amp; Sons Limited in the United Kingdom, and the Edmund de Rothschild Group in
Switzerland. He also owns more than a dozen wineries in North America, Europe, South America, South Africa and Australia. In the 21st century, Rothschild corporations continue to see success. Annual revenue for Rothschild & Co. was € 1,589 million in fiscal year 2016. Most family members are employed directly by these corporations or Investments are made in works that generate family wealth. The remarkable success of the family is mainly due to the strong interest in collaboration, entrepreneurs and the practice of smart business principles. Nathan Rothschild’s estate was linked to the other fortunes of the family and each Rothschild pass became part of the collective wealth of the next generation. The Rothschild dynasty continues to finance the conduct of global trade and contributes to scholarly, humanitarian and business endeavors.
www.theenterpriseworld.com 37
Interview with TEW
Amodo A
INSURANCE TELEMATICS APPLIED
38 July 2020
modo helps insurance companies address new market trends and opportunities by enabling innovative and quick to market smartphone-based insurance products. The platform gathers behavioural data from different data sources, consolidates and analyses them; presents them in a very user friendly and actionable way. The platform itself is created so that different behavioural aspects tied to risk are considered while setting up
the risk pricing.
Let’s dig in more about the company in an interview with Marijan Mumdziev / CEO-Amodo. Tell us about the company.
The company was founded in 2013 in Zagreb. Amodo raised 5M USD investment from Investors such as Speed Invest, Lead Ventures, SGH Capital and Bee Next. The investment supported us in building
the product and consequently acquire great customer base, among others AIG, Porsche and BNP Paribas. Amodo clients are on 5 continents, and more than 20 countries, with the majority being in Europe and Asia. What were the initial challenges you faced? The biggest challenge the industry was facing at the beginning was educating the market on the value and need for this type of solution. In the 7 years that Amodo has been around, this changed radically so now insurance companies are more educated and are increasingly looking for specific features and customized solutions to their specific use cases. At the beginning we were one of the pioneers of the smartphonebased telematics propositions. Like in any industry, so in ours as well, through time comes maturity. More companies such as ours emerged, Insurance companies got more educated on different options technology could offer, and started developing their own preferences. It is increasingly a game of which provider focused more on which part of the technology and how much of a fit their focus is for specific insurance companies. The main motivation to build the Amodo Connected Insurance Platform was the obvious gap between customer expectations and what Insurance Product and Services deliver. While customer expectations are changing quickly and are shaped by influences coming from other industries, Insurance industry had difficulty catching up in number of transformational activities. As a
consequence, we see ever increasing number of InsurTech companies in the past 5 years addressing different parts of the value chain.
• To enable successful product distribution through digital channels. efficiently sell exciting and new products through the new digital channel • To reduce customer risk through risk prevention mechanics
What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? Amodo has been named among top five most innovative InsurTech companies worldwide by Financial Times, thanks to successful projects with its Clients. The single most important success factor of our company, is relentless focus on the Customer pain points. The connected insurance platform is used for 4 distinct areas in the process: • To better understand the customers through behaviour data and analysis, serve them better and in turn get the loyal customer base • To create personalized products, services and UBI pricing models
Different data sources are used to build a comprehensive understanding of the customer behaviour, including smartphone data collected through Mobile SDK, connected car data collected directly from the car or aftermarket telematics devices, various IoT devices, 3rd party platforms and social media. Each data source has a special data processing protocol, and data is presented in a unified and actionable way to the insurance company. Typically, insurance companies can expect a 15%-25% reduction in claims, depending on the value proposition and technology-based Risk Prevention and Engagement mechanics used. Amodo project in
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Interview with TEW
AMODO-desktop-insurer-interface
Latin America had dangerous parts of the city mapped out, and by encouraging people to avoid parking in these areas, Amodo Client managed to reduce the claims for bodily injuries among users of the app by 60%. Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share? A product we are excited about is our first smartphone-based pay per mile insurance project. This project will be out in the market by the end of the year and the idea is that this product is perfectly adapted to needs of end users. The idea is that users can purchase comprehensive insurance through the app anytime, use it to cover a certain distance or time and stop using it once they feel there is no need for this type of coverage. Parts of Europe have predominantly older vehicles in their car fleet and purchasing comprehensive coverage for this type of vehicle is perceived as expensive and inefficient. Since there is limited purchasing power due to a lower standard of living, these vehicles represent a significant value for their owners. In cases of longer travel or a more dangerous trip (bad weather conditions for example) there can be a will for a purchase of additional coverage. This is where our technology will come in, as it will allow drivers of these types of vehicles to purchase additional coverage only for length of trip they are expecting to cover and they will have the possibility of using this distance at their own choice. It does not have to be in consecutive journeys either.
40 July 2020
I am active in Internet of Things technologies for more than 15 years with a special focus on the impact it brings to the Insurance Industry. I continually work on raising the market awareness of the oncoming disruptive trends in the Insurance Industry. Prior to Amodo, I was advising the Executive Board of several telecom companies in Europe on their Go To Market Strategies for Internet of Things offering.
Every new customer we work with and every investment we get is a key achievement for the whole team. It clearly shows us that the vision for the product is in line with market expectations and insurers are seeing the real value of our product and the potential for future growth in the telematics area.
capability to monetize it is a truly modern 21st Century American dream. Indeed you have to be in an environment that enables you to realize your vision while you must have the capability to articulate it properly to all the stakeholders – which clearly is the case for Elon Musk.
How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?
Which is the most inspiring quote you have read?
What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
There are 3 pillars that make Amodo unique. First and most important one is the people that work in the company. We have a strong organization of very focused individuals that are passionate about the technology we are building. Second pillar is the cultural values and why we do what we do. Third pillar are our Clients, whom we are here to help and make everything we do possible. It’s the Amodo trinity as we like to call it.
As an entrepreneur the responsibilities are very wide. Apart from being responsible for my own wellbeing and the wellbeing of my family, I feel a sense of responsibility toward all my employees and people immediately connected to them. These days we spend most of our time at work. The office environment and possibility to feel comfortable, speak up and have a collaborative environment are pillars of Culture Values for Amodo. With the current environment of social distancing and an earthquake we recently had in Zagreb the sense of ownership and belonging to a team are more important than ever. Employees we are looking for are people with a strong sense of responsibility for their work, that are not afraid to speak up if they have a good idea and from the company side we do our best to ensure everybody is happy and looking forward to coming to work every day. What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey?
Can you tell us which your favourite book is? And your favourite part of the book (if any)? Indeed, the book I enjoyed the most is Sun Tzu Art of War. If you think of your life as a fight, you will find very valuable philosophies in the book. It helped me personally to resolve many dilemmas I had in my past. This is what I look to get from any book I read. One person who you admire the most? I think we live in amazing times when so many things are possible. One of the persons of our time I truly admire is Elon Musk. Combination of his Vision and
As we move through our individual journeys called life – it is important to move “lightly”. We need to let go of our luggage from the past that holds us down. We need to “Get” good things Future holds for us, and “Let” go of the things preventing us to do it. “Let it go” is the second-best quote I like to adhere in my life choices. Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views. Vigilance is a very important trait of any entrepreneur. It is often confused with Paranoia, but should not be as those two things are different. Vigilance is a useful mindset that makes people proactive and risk aware. It goes without saying, it was one of the things that helped me to mitigate huge risks in my private and business life. Life is nothing more than a journey. What do we expect to get from it, if not the experience and wisdom? We hand it over to next generation, so we make our species better continually. There is nothing more to it essentially.
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From the Editor
Schrodinger’s Cat and Marketing Strategy
I
n the year 1935, an Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger proposed a thought experiment that would discuss the paradox of the Copenhagen interpretation of the quantum mechanics.
Schrodinger designed this thought experiment to see what the Copenhagen interpretations of the quantum mechanics would look like id that microscopic world was replaced with macroscopic world, something that people will be able to visualize. In the experiment, the observer does not know, that whether or not the atom of the substance has decayed, and consequently whether or not the vial is broken releasing the poison, that will kill the cat. The theoretical experiment of the Schrodinger is that he places a cat in a steel box which contains a radioactive trigger and a vial of poison. The experiment was designed as, when the radioactive substance will decay; it will trigger and break open the vial of poison, which will kill the cat inside. On the contrary, if this radioactive 42 July 2020
substance will not decay, the cat shall remain alive.
open the box at the right time. Open the Box
The paradox here is unknown. Since the chances of the cat dying are 50-50, we would not know if the cat is alive or dead until we open the box. So, since we don't know if the cat is alive or dead until we open the box, the cat inside is said to be both, dead and alive. According to the quantum mechanics, this state is that of superstition. Now what does Schrodinger’s Cat has to do anything with Marketing Strategy? Let us consider the marketing strategy here as the cat. When the planning is done and the budget is decided, someone has to open the box that is someone has to see if the strategy succeeds or fails. You can poke the strategy; you can analyze it so much to consider it as dead, but these assumptions will land you nowhere. You have to apply it to know if it works. And this is exactly what most of the small businesses; the decision to
If you hesitate to open the box, there won't be much harm. Only that your business will thrive on just a theoretical bliss. It is as simple as that. Your marketing strategy will not be a success or even a failure if you don't open the box. This is a paradox some of the small businesses find daunting. A start-up lives in multiple states of uncertainty. You can’t solve your problems with a step-by-step approach. You cannot go like, first we will do the product, then the test, then we will study the market, and if it is all OK, we will set to monetize the product. A start-up simply cannot strive on such conditions. You have to do everything at once; added value/product/market research/monetization/customers segmentation. In quantum physics, this is called as the intricacy.
The point being, even if you think that it is a strategy not worthy of applying, you never know, it may actually work. So you can't base your business on your assumptions, you need to get out and take risks. You need to identify some specific strategies that will best promote the brand. Simultaneously you also have to measure the success of it to make changes in that strategy. But even then, at the end of the day, you won't know if it is successful unless you apply it and get the results. And once you get the results you can tailor it accordingly. Fear is what holds us back most of the times. And in it, we are bound to do a few stupid things, like in this case, make assumptions without any proof. Stop and think for a while, won’t this kill your business? So just try new things, it won’t hurt. After all, you have to get the cat out of the box. And unless you do that you will not know if the cat is dead or alive! You have got to open the box!
www.theenterpriseworld.com 43
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