The Most Admired Companies of The Year: 2020

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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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The most fulfilling thing one can do as a leader is to inspire others around him. And that is the greatest contribution of all.

To inspire others is a quality that no one in born with. You need to work hard towards it; you need to go where no one might have dared to go. And that is when you set the example, and people admire you for your efforts and struggles.

This issue of The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020 features the stories of such leaders who with their zeal and the gusto have inspired many around them.

Featuring for the Cover Story is Appnomic led by Nitin Kumar. Appnomic is the innovation provider of HEAL, the first self-healing software for IT operations that fixes problems before they happen.

Other features include 99home, an online platform for selling, buying, renting properties, which is amongst the top 5 leading PropTech platforms in the UK. eDriving, a company that helps organizations to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership through a patented driver risk management program.

Editorial articles include ‘The Hedgehog Theory’, a concept that is an intersection of three most important circles, the three important questions for your organization.

Find out more in this article!

Also read about Munich, a city that celebrates life in all of its glory.

Read the stories of these leaders who with their hard work and dedication have proved that if you truly desire something, you can get it for sure; you just have to work towards it!

Have a good read!

Shalmali Wadadekar

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 Appnomic, led by Nitin Kumar.

Appnomic is the innovation provider of HEAL, the first selfhealing software for IT operations that fixes problems before they happen. It has an ability that present day AI-assisted APM and monitoring tools don’t have.

Appnomic is an ambitious and innovative software company that loves solving difficult business technology problems.

Co-Founded by Vijay Vashishtha, 99home, is an online platform for selling, buying, renting properties, is amongst the top 5leading PropTech platforms in the UK. The next innovation the company is intent on adding to the existing platforms is to make it more FinTech, InsureTech and Blockchain by using Artificial intelligence. eDriving is the driver risk management partner of choice for many of the world’s largest organizations, supporting over 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries.

Over the past 25 years, eDriving’s research-validated programs have been recognized with over 90 awards around the world. eDriving’s mission is to help their clients reduce collisions, injuries,

license violations and total cost of ownership, thereby ensuring that all drivers return home safely to their loved ones at the end of each day.

NIN.VC is a unique and first of its kind crowdfunded technology venture capital fund for accredited investors who can invest in the NIN Ventures Technology (QP) Fund with a minimum amount of $100,000 using multiple investment options like self-directed IRAs, Defined benefit plan, or a regular checking / savings account. NIN Ventures invests in early / growth stage 3D printing, the 4th industrial revolution, cloud computing, virtual reality, financial services, education software, and other disruptive technology companies.

SQuare Consulting was initiated as an enabler of sorts with benefits for businesses and the industry at its core, they started in 2007 with an aim to help and develop businesses scale up, expand and develop in the best possible way.

Providing expert assistance and advisory services for brands and businesses who want to excel at what they do but are limited to the means and methodology of bookbased knowledge and age-old practices. They also kept working towards building new business models and brands with the aim of giving solutions to businesses to

develop at a better pace than the industry.

Established in 2013, Ubertesters is one such organization offering comprehensive Crowd Testing services to its customers. Providing access to freelance, vetted, experienced QA testers to test any digital product with their own devices is the company’s forte.

Outshining the traditional testing patterns, it uses the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ alongside enabling companies to test their digital product under real-life conditions.

It helps customers to use a variety of devices, geographies, carriers, OSs, etc. and offer full flexibility & high speed at a competitive price.

Led by Asokan Ashok, CEO, UnfoldLabs is an Innovative Products and Services Company based in Sunny San Diego, California. The professionals at UnfoldLabs are there to help you capture these changes through innovation and reach new heights.

UnfoldLabs focuses on world/user problems then create a solution that is easy to access and user friendly.

Continuous learning keeps them updated with trends and this helps in developing innovative products/ solutions. Each of their products are project creative and innovative with an intention to give best solutions for mankind.

INTERVIEWS

20 42

NIN Ventures A wise choice for investments

Square Consulting For Credible business solutions

FROM THE EDITOR

18

Workplace and Feng Shui

24

Upshot Metros Munich- A celebration of all things good

40

Interesting Facts about Online Gaming You Can

50

The Hedgehog Theory

CONTENTS ON THE COVER

Appnomic 08 A Pioneer in Creating Self-healing Software for IT Operations

99Home Ltd Diligent Real Estate Services

eDriving The Driver Risk Management Gurus

Ubertesters A Preferred Beta Testing Partner

UnfoldLabs Inc. Think.. Create.. Innovate

14 32 36 46

Self-Healing: Dierent journeys, same destination

08 May 2020

www.theenterpriseworld.com 09

Cover Story

E

very software company has challenges like creating features that customers request and staying on an innovation trajectory to build the product of the future. Today, the challenge is the messaging in the market which is much cluttered with a lot of companies positioning themselves as AI Ops with very similar messaging techniques. Yet, many of them only address AI Ops partially. “Our complete strategic pivot to self-healing brings in clarity to our customers and partners,” says Nitin Kumar, CEO of Appnomic. “We tried to balance both, we treated every feature request as an opportunity to understand the business problems and create a solution.”

At the time, the company was founded, it was based on the observation that performance issues were not code related and finding the root cause was a cumbersome task. It involved elimination or seeking the cause and effect relationship between overall usage load and system behavior.

On the lookout for a way to quickly solve the problem and provide a lasting solution, the company found it could potentially replicate the actions and decision-making criteria into a learning system. To achieve this, it needed to work with something that could take cognitive actions thereby preventing problems from occurring. This led to the establishment of Appnomic, the industry's first AI implementation in Application Performance and self-healing abilities.

“We help our customers to achieve their objectives, we look at issues through their lens,” shares Nitin.

10 May 2020

Referrals are one of the company’s sources of new business because customers get to experience a winwin situation with the firm. The robustness and ease of using its software adds to value to their business. Appnomic’s products are quite unique, when it comes to the self-healing capabilities for the enterprise.

Appnomic has multiple patents enabling self-healing, transaction shaping, and other techniques which optimize capacity, service levels, costs and enhance performance. The Appnomic team operates with integrity and has delivered the promise of a quality product, taking it to the next level with new release every time.

Appnomically Able or Autonomously Able?

Appnomic is the innovation provider of HEAL, the first selfhealing software for IT operations

that fixes problems before they happen. It has an ability that present day AI-assisted APM and monitoring tools don’t have.

Contrary to AI-driven monitoring tools that send alerts or find the problem sources when an incident occurs, HEAL can recognize ‘signals.’ These signals are leading indicators of future incidents that can eliminate factors that can create problems. HEAL uses unsupervised AI to learn how a system works under normal circumstances and creates a dynamic baseline for the entire system and workload behavior, thereby precisely predicting and preventing problems.

HEAL is Technology software for the digital era using artificial intelligence algorithms and machine learning models to help enterprises run without a hitch. In this fast-paced digital world, it is no longer enough to simply flag up

IT issues after they have taken place.

HEAL analyzes all the aspects of a smooth-running IT system and reacts every time something abnormal happens to interrupt the normal. Thanks to its uniquely designed cognitive abilities, HEAL helps prevent IT system failures and ensures businesses can focus on doing what they do best without worrying about a potential system performance error or failure.

HEAL is a new age IT software using AI algorithms and machine learning models to help enterprises operate without a hitch. The company's self-healing solutions are capable of solving a very speciďŹ c problem - opening partnering opportunities for it.

Nitin says, “We now have pointed value propositions unbundled like HEAL Cloud, HEAL Enterprise, www.theenterpriseworld.com 11

NITIN KUMAR CEO 12 May 2020

HEAL SAP, HEAL Edge, HEAL Server-less, etc. Some are live today and deployed in customer environments while others will be launched and available in the coming few weeks and months.”

With a lot of companies positioning themselves as AI Ops with similar messaging, even though many of them only address AI Ops partially, the system gets cluttered.

Appnomic’s complete strategic pivot to self-healing brings clarity to its customers and partners and demonstrates immediate value.

An Exceptional Professional Nitin views his career in three waves. The first one was in cyber-security gaining hands-on technical expertise and growing into running large security business which included hardware, software and services. After running one of the largest security businesses in the world (at that point), he made a change into M&A with a large global consulting firm which exposed him to C-suite. Nitin got used to selling and exposure to many different functions like sales, marketing, products, pricing, customer experience and the nuts and bolts of each.

During that time, he experienced around 1000 M&A transactions ranging from due diligence, integration, separation, M&A strategy and business model pivots.

He spent time running a start-up and then went back to Management Consulting. There he was doing high end strategy and M&A work while mastering the game of working with Boards and CEOs to help them conceptualize and execute pivots, business model changes and deal with disruption.

“Now, it is about bringing all the

functional, technical, operational and consulting experience together for my second CEO role,” shares Nitin.

A good CEO or an entrepreneur should be doing things on a continuous manner, that is, raising capital or looking for the next wave of investment. According to Nitin, he should also be building and evolving the product constantly, recruiting talent, acquiring customers and selling round the clock and working on the vision and execution for the next level for the company. The entrepreneur has many stakeholders i.e., the investors, the board, the community, customers, partners, employees and at times even the regulators. Managing all of these in balance while protecting and creating value is the fine art that an entrepreneur should always keep his or her eyes open for.

Nitin tells there were three major decisions helped him in getting to where he is in his career. Given below are these pointers: • Creating the ability to reinvent my skills and pivot my career into new areas thereby adding adaptability and versatility into everything I have done.

• Creating a lasting and sustainable network of professionals, nurturing the network and believing that relationships are for life.

• Ability to do strategy, execution, value creation and execute at speed across many problems, be it M&A, Transformation, Pivots or Disruption.

“I do not think that the world is a rat race anymore. It used to be true back in the last century. Today, the world has shifted from pyramidal opportunities (i.e. more people

competing for limited opportunities) to cylindrical opportunities (i.e., the breath of opportunities has expanded to lend themselves to the talented),” adds Nitin.

According to him, it is about having the right ideas, aligning oneself with the right talent and executing it well. Having said that, the changes in business, the evolving range of disciplines and technologies moving at a speed is hard for linear learning styles to cope. One needs to adapt to new styles of learning and keeping up with all the new disruptive changes and trends impacting business.

Nitin has adapted by building a vast network and exchanging value on a continuous basis with them.

“When I wanted to learn about self-healing and autonomous IT operations, I could no longer afford to acquire this knowledge from reading many books, etc.,” describes Nitin. Hence, he took a different approach, leveraging on his network, Nitin met approximately 100 companies spread across this value chain.

“Once you have spoken to 25-30 of these talented people, you start seeing things that they have validated well and also what they have missed,” advises Nitin.

People start seeing patterns, partnerships, market opportunities, M&A deals, technologies that could benefit from each other etc., through this approach. Customers value insights from the field rather than theoretical aspects acquired from literature. One could use this approach with anything that one needs to learn, just having the right attitude, curiosity and network is all it takes.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 13

The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

99Home Ltd. Diligent Real Estate Services

W

ith FinTech, InsureTech and many other platforms making the best of technology, PropTech is a new area that is evolving among others. PropTech or property technology is a form of technology that has combined the real estate services with technology. With the use of IT in this sector people can now easily buy, sell, manage, mortgage or search properties online. PropTech has been useful in connecting all the processes for all its participants in real estate.

Co-Founded by Vijay Vashishtha, 99home, an online platform for selling, buying, renting properties, is amongst the top 5leading PropTech platforms in the UK. The next innovation the company is intent on adding to the existing platforms is to make it more FinTech, InsureTech and Blockchain by using Artificial intelligence. It is their ambition to localize their innovation to all of Europe stating with the 5 countries they target through SME Instrument project. For just £99. A property will be listed across all the main property selling and letting portals and owners will receive all the support they need from their experienced team of the property professionals.

PropTech is a new and less 14 May 2020

Vijay Vashishtha COO, CTO & Co-founder

explored space. And to start a company under the umbrella of PropTech was something different.

Unlike others, the start was not very glamorous. They did not have many funds. It was Vijay and Sachin's own investment with which the company was started. At first the company gained negative publicity in the press. The media claimed, “How on earth can it be so cheap? Online agent launches £99” and lots of other challenges. Some also claimed that this model is not sustainable but the success of the company proved everyone wrong.

Although success was not as easy, what did trigger their growth was their tech approach to the property market which was missing and pricing for the services.

• From 1 to 6000 properties listed in 36 months.

• Grown the support team from 1 to 5 and 50 local property experts (self-employed) across the UK. • Average growth rate 10-20% month on month.

• Very little spent on PR, marketing to date – growth through recommendation.

• Proprietary designed and

developed software.

• Currently among the top 5 Hybrid agents and PropTech in the UK “We believe that customer satisfaction is not merely confined to answering telephone calls, but, providing an efficient and seamless experience, round-the-clock.”

And to keep this intact, what has helped them is their • Customer service team • A good mix of technology with the system • Transparency with the clients • Transparent, fixed fees based only on the services clients are looking for • An online, 24/7 service ensuring all parties have access to current and accurate information • An improved service, ensuring all transactions are communicated immediately, reducing the stress and frustration and speeding up the complete process The Products and Services“Whether it is selling, buying, letting or renting commercial or residential property, we believe that all parties involved deserve the best

value in terms of service.”

99Home is a transparent digital solution with fixed fees based only on the services clients are looking for. They combine the automation of digital service with the on-demand assistance by licensed and specialized real estate experts.

It is a one-stop-shop with the most competitive prices. 99Home has the most flexible sell package for residential property: • Pay advance £99 (DIY) / £499 (Team Work) / £999 (Complete package) • £799 (No Sale No Fee, we do all, vendor to host the viewings. £999 for London within M25) • % (Commission only with No Sale No Fee, we to do all) 99Home has the most flexible let package for residential property: • £49 (Marketing only Pay advance) £99 (Marketing and support Pay advance) • £499/£49pcm (Part management rent collection £99 advance) • £999/£85pcm (One-time setup fees £79 for Full property management £99 advance)

Trackable Conveyancing: • Track progress online • Easy to see all movement of your property sell or purchase Tenant Reframing • £20 for fast track referencing • £40 Full comprehensive referencing Insurances • Rent Guarantee Insurance from just £180 • Contents Insurance from just £10 PCM Auction and Reserve now • % (Commission only with No Sale No Fee, we to do all) • £999 one-time fee 99Home is proud to be able to offer the most competitively online priced package for selling or letting property in the UK. For just £99 a property will be listed across all of the main property selling portals and sellers will receive all the support you need from their experienced team of property professionals.

The company’s rich, exquisite and diverse neighbourhoods provide

We believe that customer satisfaction is not merely confined to answering telephone calls, but, providing an e cient and seamless experience, round-the-clock

www.theenterpriseworld.com 15

The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

accommodation for everyone from all socioeconomic classes.

Whatever your property needs, they ascertain a premium-grade service experience to you. Their expertise, reliable resources, and strategic partnerships contribute to delivering incredible results to the clientele. With professional photography, floor plan, inventory services, and advanced software for marketing and property management services, 99Home ensures a smooth and efficient selling, letting and property management process, while keeping their clients abreast of the real estate laws and their legal obligations. The company is the UK’s 5th largest hybrid estate agency and 16th largest single branch estate agency. Where their competitors spend more than £300 to secure instructions, 99Home only spends £65.

16 May 2020

With their professional expertise and customer satisfaction 99Home has won many awards and accolades. Some of them include• The UK’s Most Innovative Online Real Estate Agent 2019 • Online Estate Agent Of the Year 2019 • Most Trusted Real Estate Professionals • Highly Commended Website of the Year 2019 • Hybrid Agency of the Year 2019 • Best Overall Agent of the Year 2019 (Wembley) The Team“Look after your team, they will look after you as well as your business. And Never give up!”

At 99Home, employees are not treated like employees. They are the team members, more like a family. Because, at the end of the

day, each person brings something unique to the table, which has taken the company, where it is now.

Employees at 99Home enjoy a lot of freedom, motivational exercises and timely training.

99home is not an estate agency. It's a PropTech platform. Are we only creating a platform for estate agencies? Not Really! A bigger picture ahead. Estate agency is just a door to get to InsurTech, FinTech, and Blockchain by using artificial intelligence.

With this said, constant vigilance is the need of the hour. It surely is a rat-race but you also have to run at your own pace. When you are in a service industry you have to follow the process and monitoring all the processes is very important for any industry. End of the day, it’s a matter of customer satisfaction.

SWITZERLAND

INDIA

USA

WORKPLACE AND FENG SHUI Bringing Refreshing Changes to Your Ofce

T

oday, office is not limited to just cubicles or big open spaces. The office spaces today are made more dynamic and to-the-go, some place we all will love. And surely, it has affected the productivity in many ways.

But what does Feng Shui has to do with it all? Well, for that, let's first understand the concept of Feng Shui!

18 May 2020

What Exactly is Feng Shui?

Feng Shui is originally a Chinese philosophy that preaches the practice of striking a balance with the natural world in our living and working environment. Feng Shui helps you align your energies with your surroundings.

Feng Shui is all about optimizing your surroundings. Its philosophy

is quite simple; You wish to change your life? You can do it simply by making some changes in your environment.

The Science Behind Feng Shui Feng Shui helps you make the best of your space by harmonizing its energy flow. There are five elements in feng shui, each of which represents the qualities of it-

• Wood- for creativity and growth • Fire- for leadership and boldness • Earth- for strength and stability • Metal- for focus and order • Water- for emotion and inspiration The feng shui masters have also devised another too called the Bagua map. The Bagua map lays out various life areas or the stations that corporate with the various parts of the building or the space. So when designing your ideal office space, you can line up the Bagua map with the floor plan and then according to it determine the optimal placement of colors, the artwork, and anything else.

Feng Shui for Office To apply the concept of feng shui in the office is just as important as applying it in your bedroom. It is because we spend a lot of time in the office. So if you have been ignoring your office space, you might want to take some time out for it now! ♦ Plants One of the best feng shui advices to keep in mind is that you should be aware of the quality of air in your office and you should always try to

improve it. A research shows that compared to the outdoor pollution, indoor pollution is much worse. So does this have a feng shui solution?

Gladly, yes! You can always decorate your office with little indoor plants.

• Material Of all the materials- wood, glass, laminate and metal, wooden desk s the best feng shui choice. It brings natural energy in your workspace and it also has a very nourishing and a very vibrant kind of energy.

♦ Office Cubicle If you are working in a cubicle type office setting, it is pretty clear that you cannot change your office settings. At such times, you need to pay even more attention to create and keep good energy in your office throughout the day. While you can't move your office according to the feng shui conditions, you can, with a lot more other ways keep your energy intact throughout the day.

• Shape Almost all of the shapes are god for feng shui, but it also depends on your goals, what you are trying to achieve with your work. But if you are not looking for anything specific, you can always go with the regular rectangular shaped table. It provides you with the grounding energy and an element of growth and expansion.

♦ Deal With a Blocking Wall in Your Office According to the principles of feng shui, the right location of walls is important, because it helps to promote the flow of energy and also enhance the feeling of positivity in a space. ♦ Create a Good Feng Shui Backing in Your Office When you create a good feng shui backing in your office, you create a strong, supportive and good feng shui energy behind your back. This applies to that area in the office where your back is.

You can also apply the feng shui principles to your desk. To feng shui your desk really matters if you spend the maximum amount of your time on the desk. So if you are able to find the right spot that has immense energy, you will also see a better quality of your own energy.

The feng shui characteristics of a good desk include these three things-

• Color Color plays an important part of the feng shui, and it is also one of the easiest ways to create good quality energy. Here are some of the colors that work best for feng shui1) Brown 2) Black 3) Gray 4) White 5) Green 6) Red Good energy at work always plays a big role in your productivity. So, you can apply these techniques of feng shui and maintain good energy around your desk and workplace, or you can also get creative with what suits you and what kind of energy you want to have!

But a good feng shui will promise you with abundance, and there will rarely be a dull moment! Because, be it at work, in the house, good energy, good vibes always have a positive impact on us.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 19

Interview with TEW

NIN Ventures A

wise

choice

Ms. Desai is the, President and CEO, at NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC). NIN.VC is a unique and first of its kind crowdfunded technology venture capital fund for accredited investors who can invest in the NIN Ventures Technology (QP) Fund with a minimum amount of $100,000 using multiple investment options like selfdirected IRAs, Defined benefit plan, or a regular checking / savings account. NIN Ventures invests in early / growth stage 3D printing, the 4th industrial revolution, cloud computing, virtual reality, financial services, education software, and other disruptive technology companies.

As of 2017, 6% of the venture capitalists were women and only 2.7% women owned businesses

20 May 2020

for

investments

received venture capital funding.

How and why did you decide to pursue a career in venture capital?

I started my professional career at Merrill Lynch with their private client group. At Merrill, we managed portfolios of high net worth individuals. While it was great to trade stocks and bonds, I was always curious about how these companies went public. Thus, after business school I joined Pacific Crest Securities. PCS is a technology focused investment bank, with a global presence focused on software, communications, semiconductors, and Internet & Digital Media. In 2005, IPO’s were at the peak and it was amazing to take number of companies public, but that lead to

Interview with TEW

Ms. Nin Desai President & CEO

another question, How do VCs know what companies to invest in and which ones to take public?

Thus I joined Alpha Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Chicago, after which is launched NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC).

Necessity is the mother of all inventions, was there a reason to crowd fund your venture fund?

The 2008 Financial Meltdown led to a liquidity crises for entrepreneurs, companies, LPs, & VCs. Fewer IPOs means no exits for VCs, no returns for LPs, and as a result venture funds were on a decline. No new funds means less startup funding, low employment, and slow economic growth. Thus on April 5, 2012 The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act) was introduced which enables crowdfunding for all Americans 22 May 2020

and that’s how NIN Ventures came into existence.

“Not only NIN.VC taps into a new investor pool, we also provides diversification, take a board seat on all our investments and lend the necessary support that an entrepreneur needs to build a business, like they would get at a traditional venture capital fund.

And the most IMPORTANT part that investors cares about is the ability to direct invest and enjoy direct returns, which is not the case with a traditional venture capital fund.”

fund would be institutions, pension funds, endowments, etc. NIN.VC is a unique and first of its kind crowdfunded technology venture capital fund for accredited investors who can invest in the NIN Ventures Technology (QP) Fund with a minimum amount of $100,000 using multiple investment options like self-directed IRAs, defined benefit plan, or a regular checking / savings account.

VCs always ask entrepreneurs what is different about your company, so what is unique about NIN.VC or how do you differentiate yourself from other Vcs?

*An accredited investor is an individual with an income of more than $200,000 per year, or a joint income of $300,000 in each of the last two years OR has a net worth exceeding $1m either individually or jointly with his or her spouse, excluding the primary residence.

For an Entity, any trust, with total assets in excess of $5 million qualifies.

A typical investor base in a venture

If you could give advice to

founders who want to raise venture capital funding, what would it be?

Every VC has a sweet spot when it comes to investing. At NIN Ventures, we like to invest in disruptive technologies. A disruptive technology is an innovation that changes an existing industry and also helps create a new market and value network, displacing an earlier technology or a way of doing business. At NIN.VC we are not afraid of investing in first time industry movers and are also founder friendly. We stand with our Entrepreneur(s) through thick or thin.

If all VCs have a sweet spot, how does one choose the right VC for their start up?

Unlike popular belief all VCs firms are the same. Find a VC that sees value in you and your product.

Read the partner bio and the industries they like to invest in.

Pick a partner you want to work with over the firm. Generally, VCs tend to take a board seat on their investments and often lend their advice in order to maintain good governance and achieve a successful exit. Thus, pick a VC you share a good rapport with and the one that is willing to back you through thick and thin over the next few years.

Do personal characteristics matter when picking a VC? Often times VCs invest in a company because it is a “hot deal.”

Avoid those investors and instead go for the one who genuinely believes in you and has a deep conviction in you, your company, your market, and your team.

Startup journey is full of ups-anddowns and a VC plays a key role in lending a steady hand during those turbulent times. While it is important that your VC is upfront and direct with you, keep a look out for yellow / red flags for VC partners who are rude, have high egos, and are disrespectful.

know the life cycle of the fund.

Will the fund be able to write them a check or back them during their next funding rounds? How many other board seats the VCs has? Will he or she be able to devote the required time and attention to your firm?, etc.

How do VCs add value to a firm?

What is NIN.VC’s competitive advantage?

What are some of the questions Entrepreneurs should ask Vcs? It is very important for an Entrepreneur to know what are some of the qualities VCs look for in an Entrepreneur or a Company.

E.g. At NIN.VC, we start with an Entrepreneur. We invest in an entrepreneur because entrepreneurs build companies and not the other way round. Being an entrepreneur is the hardest job in the world and entrepreneurs face varied challenges when it comes to taking their disruptive technologies to market. The few attributes that we look for in an entrepreneur is the ability to dream big, experience and expertise in their industry, ability to communicate with the team and outside, flexibility to adapt to a fast changing environment, and certain personality traits like being focused, dedicated, disciplined, and working hard to accomplish their goals.

As long as the company has certain ingredients like a good management team, a disruptive technology, a viable product, and a revenue-generating strategy that forms a basic foundation that leads to long-term success. We at NIN.VC like to invest in companies that are going to stand the test of time.

The market is flooded with various funding options from Angels to VCs to Crowdfunding portals.

Entrepreneurs now have a choice when it comes to picking the right investor for their firm. I come from an Entrepreneurial family so I can speak on their behalf.

Entrepreneurs are brave and courageous bunch that are determined to change the way an existing industry functions. On that journey they need lot more than just financing. They need guidance or domain expertise, help with PR/marketing, recruiting, viable exit strategy, more often follow up financing, etc., which Crowdfunding portals are not able to support. If you need someone to add value to your business, NIN.VC or Venture Capital is the way to go. However on the other extreme, if you are an experienced or serial entrepreneur looking for capital, Crowdfunding is a good alternative as long as they can avoid a messy cap table.

What is the best way to pitch you or NIN.VC? The best way to pitch us is to submit a business plan on www.nin.vc

From a technical perspective, it is important for an Entrepreneur to www.theenterpriseworld.com 23

Upshot Metros

24 May 2020

MUNICH A celebration of all things good

Oktoberfest World’s largest Beer Festival.

Nearly 6 million visitors visit the Oktoberfest every year.

The Oktoberfest is said to host 144 caterers and also employees 13,000 people.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 25

Upshot Metros

M

unich or also called as Muenchen is the capital and the most populous city of the German state of Bavaria.

Munich is the third largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. It is a home to about 6 million people.

The city sits on the banks of River

26 May 2020

Isar, a tributary of the Danube, in the north of the Bavarian Alps. It was in the year 1806, when Bavaria was established as a sovereign kingdom and Munich became a major European center of arts, culture, architecture and science. In the 1920s, Munich was a home to several political factions. The city was declared as the Capital of the

Movement after the Nazis rose to power. Following this, during the World War II, Munich was heavily bombed, but the city restored most of it later. After the end of the postwar American occupation in 1949, in the following years Munich saw an increase in population and economic power.

These years of boom are also

According to Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2018, it was rated as the most livable city.

It is also considered as the alpha-world city according to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute.

referred to as the “economic miracle”.

With a stabilized economy and developments, Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics. The city was also one of the host cities of the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. Today, with technological advancements already under the

belt, Munich is a global center for art, science, technology, finance, publishing, innovation, culture, education, business and tourism.

Munich enjoys a very high standard of living, and according to Monocle's Quality of Life Survey 2018, it was rated as the most livable city. It is also considered as

the alpha-world city according to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute.

Needless to say, Munich is one of the fastest growing and the most prosperous cities in Germany.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 27

Upshot Metros The Economy Most of the economy of Munich is based on the high-tech automobiles, the service sector and creative industries. IT, biotechnology, engineering and electronics among the other sectors are also some of the major contributors to the economy of the city. Compared to any other German city, Munich has the strongest economy, and the lowest unemployment rate.

Manufacturing Some of the multinational companies like the Siemens, BMW, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE have their offices in the city. The city also has a great share in research and houses two research universities, multiple scientific institutions and some of the worldclass technology and science museums like the Deutsches Museum and the BMW Museum.

Finance Munich is an important financial center, second to Frankfurt. The city is a home to HypoVereinsbank and the Bayerische Landesbank.

The city is known to outrank Frankfurt as the home of insurance companies like the Allianz and MunichRE. Tourism has risen as another major industry in Munich. The numerous architectural and cultural attraction of the city, sports events, exhibitions and it’s very own, the prestigious Oktoberfest attracts many tourists. The city hosts nearly 530,000 people of the foreign background, which makes up to about 37.7% of its entire population.

28 May 2020

Tourism in Munich

Marienplatz Square

BMW Museum

The New Town Hall

Viktualienmarkt Bayerische Landesbank www.theenterpriseworld.com 29

Upshot Metros

Architecture, Sports, Culture and Much More!

Munich has a unique blend of historic and modern architecture.

This was because the historic buildings were destroyed in the World War II and then were rebuilt in the later years. There are over 100 historic destinations over the world and Munich makes the 30th rank.

There are four grand royal avenues th from the 19 century with official buildings that connect the Munich’s inner city with its then suburbs.

The Brienner Straße, starts at the Odeonsplatz and opens into the Königsplatz. The area around this is a home to the Kunstareal, the gallery and museum quarter of Munich.

The Ludwigstraße also begins at the Odeonsplatz and runs from north to south around the St. Louis church, Bavarian State Library and many other state ministries and palaces.

The Maximilianstraße starts at the Maxmillan-Joseph-Platz and runs west to east. This avenue is known 30 May 2020

for the designer shops, luxury boutiques, Jewellery stores and much more.

The Prinzregentenstraße runs parallel to the Maximilianstraße.

There are many museums on this avenue like the Haus der Kunst, the Bavarian National Museum and the Shackgalerie. This avenue crosses the Villa Stuck and also Hitler's old apartment.

Apart from the architectural fascinations in the city, Munich is also a city with its interests in sports. Football, Basketball, Ice Hockey, Swimming are some of the popular sports played in the city.

The Bayern Munich, a professional football team is originally from Munich. It is Germany's most successful club and also a multiple UEFA Champions League winner.

Munich has also hosted Olympics games including the 1972 Summer Olympics games and the 2018 Winter Olympics. It has also hosted the 2006 Football World Cup. Munich is considered as a major international cultural center. The city has played host to some of the renowned composers like W.A

Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber, Richard Strauss and many more.

Music is of special importance to the city of Munich; the city hall gives permission to 10 musicians every day for performing in the streets around Marienplatz.

There are many festivals that go around the year in the city. Among them the most prominent and famous of them all is the Oktoberfest. This is the world’s largest beer festival which runs for nearly 16-18 days from the end of September through early October.

Originally, the Oktoberfest is a celebration of the wedding of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of SaxonyHildburghausen. Over the last 200 years, the Oktoberfest has grown to a span of 85 acres and nearly 6 million visitors visit every year.

The Oktoberfest is said to host 144 caterers and also employees 13,000 people.

With a mix of culture, sports, economics and much more, Munich is one of the celebrated cities in Germany!

www.emirates.com

The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

The Driver Risk Management Gurus

Ed Dubens Founder & CEO

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river risk management must become a way of life to be ultimately successful and create a crash-free operating culture. Generally speaking, even when taking the optimal route to a destination, in a well-maintained vehicle, driven by a fatigue and distraction-free driver, there will still be risks lurking in plain sight on route to manage. Precaution and prevention is always better than the continuous improvement discussion after an avoidable event!

Event outcomes for drivers can 32 May 2020

include incidents, collisions, license violations, injuries (slight to permanent disability) and in the worst case – death. We know from research that ~94% of “events” are caused by some combination of driver error(s) typically brought on by poor attitude and behavior behind the wheel further exacerbated by distraction and fatigue.

Helping drivers and their managers’ task of risk-managing these inevitable driving encounters less problematic, is the award-winning

global driver risk management company eDriving.

The Company eDriving helps organizations to reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of fleet ownership through a patented driver risk management program. eDriving is the driver risk management partner of choice for many of the world’s largest organizations, supporting over 1,000,000 drivers in 96 countries.

Over the past 25 years, eDriving’s research-validated programs have been recognized with over 90 awards around the world. “eDriving’s mission is to help our clients reduce collisions, injuries, license violations and total cost of ownership, thereby ensuring that all drivers return home safely to their loved ones at the end of each day.”

During the early days of working with two of the largest logistics providers in Europe, the company was asked to look at some of the cultural issues surrounding the safety management of their professional drivers. The work led to the creation of the world's first defensive driving CD-ROM: Interactive Defensive Driving, with the principal aim of reinforcing onroad driver training programs.

This led them into safe driving

behavioral change and risk reduction strategies, and successful micro-learning and gamification elements to provide a fully integrated driver risk management solution.

projects with the British Armed Forces (UK Land Command), Zurich Risk Engineering and the Institute of Advanced Motorists. eDriving’s commitment to road safety was further influenced by working with the UK Government in 1997 on the introduction of a CD-ROM to help learner drivers succeed with the new UK Government Driving Theory Test.

SM

eDriving’s expansion into the United States resulted directly from their partnership with Zurich Risk Engineering, and their urging the company to establish an office in the U.S. to support their growing presence in the global motor insurance marketplace.

Their Products and Services eDriving combines its patented risk management approach with the latest in-vehicle smartphone telematics technology, proven

Mentor by eDriving is a smartphone-based solution that collects and analyzes driver behaviors most predictive of crash risk and helps remediate risky behavior by providing engaging, interactive micro-training modules delivered directly to the driver in the smartphone app. As part of a broader risk management platform, Virtual Risk Manager®, eDriving provides organizations with everything they need to establish safety as a strategic imperative, and support drivers and managers as they strive to create a crash-free culture®.

Mentor uses the telematic sensors available in iOS and Android

The entire eDriving team is fundamental to the success of our company – product, eLearning, engineering, customer success and risk engineering.

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The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

smartphones to collect and analyze data on the driving behaviors most predictive of risk. These include Acceleration, Braking, Cornering, Speeding, and Phone Distraction, one of the biggest threats to road safety today.

Mentor delivers personalized insights to drivers after each trip, showing both positive and negative driving events and, for the driver's eyes only, exactly where they occurred.

With the core aim of helping organizations develop a crash-free culture, Mentor is designed to attack the “94% problem”, namely, that 94% of collisions are caused by a driver's attitude and behavior behind the wheel! Mentor helps drivers understand their risky behaviors, and ultimately make the right choices when faced with decisions behind the wheel, leading to fewer collisions, injuries and license violations.

Optional Mentor features include in-app Driver Vehicle Inspection Reporting (DVIR), which guides drivers through a checklist inspection at the beginning and end of their day, plus a First Notice of Loss (FNOL) application, that allows a driver to submit collision information and photos directly through Mentor to Fleet and Accident Management as well as Insurers to minimize “total claims cost” (25-40%).

The Mentor app uses HTTPS / SSL

34 May 2020

encryption for data transfer from app to VRM-Mentor servers.

Mentor is European GDPR- and California CCPA- compliant and incorporates additional privacy features for drivers, including no sharing of location data, no interaction with other apps and the ability for users to designate trips as Business, Passenger or Personal.

The recently launched Mentor TSP (Telematics Service Partner) enables organizations with an existing telematics solution to incorporate Mentor to provide one unique risk management approach.

This means that data collected through hard-wired telematics devices including idling, seatbelt use, MPG and reversing behaviors can be combined with Mentor’s behavioral insights to create a richer driver risk profile.

“We provide organizations with everything they need to establish safety as a strategic imperative.”

Ed and the Team A pioneer in the development of telematics-based safety solutions, Ed is leading the eDriving team in synthesizing and commercializing innovative ways to help corporations large and small take advantage of cutting-edge technology, as well as continuing to grow eDriving’s presence in global safety solutions.

As founder and CEO of eDriving, Ed led his team at the forefront of

research and innovation in the field of road safety and culture change strategies. Ultimately the company’s tireless efforts led to the creation of its flagship product, Virtual Risk Manager (VRM).

Under Ed’s leadership, VRM to date has trained over a million fleet drivers, earned over 90 awards, and enjoyed the privilege of working with some of the world’s most successful businesses.

“Client privacy and security considerations have always been built into everything we do as an organization.”

Their global Customer Success Teams supports their clients’ strategy, analytics and implementation support needs from beginning to end, effectively becoming part of their team. The company has a strong leadership team with decades of experience working with drivers across the world, including leaders in culture change, security and data privacy, scoring and risk management, behavior-based telematics, product engineering and operations.

“The entire eDriving team is fundamental to the success of our company – product, eLearning, engineering, customer success and risk engineering.”

The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

A Preferred Beta Testing Partner ith novel tech advancements joining the race, the software testing market is growing by leaps and bounds. Many organizations are now embracing Agile and DevOps methodologies and rolling out solutions that have the potential to quench the needs of the customers to the core.

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customers, the company started focusing on crowd testing services.

Holding back its early days SaaS product and making a firm decision to embrace crowd testing created a do-or-die situation. But, Ubertesters successfully transformed its sales & marketing strategy, the team &their required roles, etc. and converted this challenge into an opportunity.

Established in 2013, Ubertesters is one such organization offering comprehensive Crowd Testing services to its customers. Providing access to freelance, vetted, experienced QA testers to test any digital product with their own devices is the company’s forte.

Outshining the traditional testing patterns, it uses the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ alongside enabling companies to test their digital product under real-life conditions.

It helps customers to use a variety of devices, geographies, carriers, OSs, etc. and offer full flexibility & high speed at a competitive price.

No doubt, the consistent efforts paid off and the company has witnessed a major growth quarterly.

Today, the company stands tall in being at the forefront of innovation and aims to build long-lasting relationships with its clientele.

The Challenging Journey Creating a prominent niche in an industry that was flooded with experienced giants was not an easy task for Ubertesters.

36 May 2020

A Leader who Acknowledged the Need

Ran Rachlin Coming up with solutions showcasing a unique value proposition was the only way to stand against all odds. On the other hand, choosing what to sell and what to focus on was one of the major challenges the company had to face during its initial years of establishment.

With exhaustive global experience across various industry sectors, Ran Rachlin is the Co-founder of Ubertesters. Analyzing the market closely, he concluded that there is a need for a different type of software testing that can satisfy different devices, platforms, carriers, or geographies. And thus, Ubertesters came to the origin intending to bring in ‘Change’.

Acknowledging the market scenario and needs of the

Today, his expertise in management and business development helps

Co-founder

team Ubertesters in taking the right decisions thereby, unlocking countless milestones. Under his aegis, the company reached its first 100 clients and made a tangible profit like never before.

Apart from co-founding Ubertesters, Ran had successfully stirred various eminent management profiles in General Engineers (The Israeli distributor of

GE), Mul-T-Lock, and Silicom Inc (NASDAQ: SILC). He is proudly invited as a speaker at various industry events and is well-known for his unique view about the QA and testing world. Ran also holds an MBA degree in honors.

Meet the Cornerstones of Success Ubertesters is standing on the cornerstones of Solid Vision,

Excellent Execution, and Exceptional Service. The company started small but always had the vision to make it large and is following the same till date. It is well-equipped with a pool of talented, hard-working professionals who had the passion to execute this vision with excellence.

The no-compromise practices to

We are the Right Solution to Launch your Digital Product with Confidence.

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The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

offer superior customer services were and are one of the USP of Ubertesters that helped to engage a trustworthy customer base. In addition, with Ran Rachlin at the helm, implementing a tight set of controls and operating principles, as well as operating metrics measures to monitor progress have what made success come alive.

An Ambit of Holistic Solutions Ubertesters is a one-of-a-kind endto-end software testing solutions provider for digital products. It helps organizations to beta test their products before bringing them to the table. Its range of solutions includes: SaaS Product - A robust platform

38 May 2020

to manage the entire mobile beta testing process and teams.

Crowd Testing Service – The services emphasize on global, professional, certified testers for hire with devices for most flexible and cost-effective global testing under real-life conditions.

Offshore Outsourcing Services–Outlining QA experts’ on a full-time basis based in the company’s East European facilities.

ready. Customer perspectives help the company in connecting the dots and delivering nothing but the best.

However, delivering the best is all about having the best. This best is the result of its proficient employees. Employees for whom the company goes out of the way and ensures work satisfaction. The company has carved out a hasslefree work environment that promotes transparency and always cherishes its employees as a key differentiator.

The Bottom Line Ubertesters believe in customer feedback. It’s their subsequent needs, wants, and responses that help the company in providing seamless services and being future-

With quality at the top, Ubertesters is all about consistent efforts that strive for success and meant to succeed.

www.underarmour.com

BUILT TO BREAK THROUGH Available in Men’s, Women’s, and kid’s

Did you know?

O

nline games are pretty popular among the youth these days, and why not? For the graphics and everything, they become too hard to miss. Fun and games are on one side, but what is even more interesting is that online gaming has also established itself as a prominent growth sectors in the current and the global economy as well!

Now who would have thought about that? In fact, in the past few years its growth has been increasing widely, owing to the evolution of mobile platform in the gaming sector. This evolution has thus added a diversity and flexibility for the players across the globe.

Here are a few facts about some of your favorite online games you don't want to miss.

1. Grand Theft Auto V The Grand Theft Auto games series is probably one of the most loved games in the world. What you did not know was the fact that GTA V is the most expensive game ever made!

It cost approximately $137 million to just build the game, and about $128 million more for its marketing, making it one of the most expensive games ever made. Rockstar North, the developer of the game earned over $1 billion just in its initial 3 days!

Isn’t that baffling?

Next in line to the most expensive game is ‘Call of Duty: Modern War Far 2’ which cost around $250 million overall including the development and the marketing.

2. South Korea Had Once Banned Midnight Gaming Because of the excessive gaming of the South Korean children, the country had once passed a law popularly called as the ‘Cinderella Law’.

According to this law, children under the age of 16 were not to play online video games after midnight (from 12AM to 6AM).

Although the law did not affect mobiles and gaming consoles, the children just couldn’t resist from playing the games and thus began stealing resident registration number so that they could elude the law.

So much for the online video games!

3. VPN Making Online Games Better In the recent years, the Virtual Private Network or the VPN has been giving the players so much more benefits that it has now become a necessity.

The VPN simply allows the players to re-route their connection through a server in any country they want.

Now isn’t that amazing? It makes the gameplay smoother.

Thus VPN allows an early access to DLC and its updates with the players’ security online.

4. VR Becoming the New Trend We have all known of Virtual Reality through the sci-fi movies, but today it is not limited to just that. It has now become a part of our lives.

The newly introduced VR Gaming Console has gained a lot of popularity making it a grand success. Looking at it in such a way, it is for sure that VR Gaming will have a bright future.

5. 68% of Smartphone and Tablet Owners Enjoy Online Gaming With the evolution of gaming in the smart phones, there is no doubt that they have been a huge source for the industry’s growth.

Even though the quality of the games on mobile phones is not as great as compared to the PC or the Xbox, the developers have developed certain limits to it and have made it available to more people.

And considering its reach, mobile gaming will only get much bigger and popular.

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Interesting Facts about Online Gaming You Can’t Ignore! www.theenterpriseworld.com 41

Interview With The Enterprise World

42 May 2020

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hile the global economy is facing a major slowdown, hospitality, restaurant and franchisee businesses have guts to provide employment as well as the boost to the economy. SQuare Consulting is a name that made its unique position in the market by providing comprehensive solutions to transform businesses.

SQuare Consulting was initiated as an enabler of sorts with benefits for businesses and the industry at its core, they started in 2007 with an aim to help and develop businesses scale up, expand and develop in the best possible way. Providing expert assistance and advisory services for brands and businesses who want to excel at what they do but are limited to the means and methodology of book-based knowledge and age-old practices.

They also kept working towards building new business models and brands with the aim of giving solutions to businesses to develop at a better pace than the industry.

The key strategy for success at SQuare Consulting is to convert vision to reality by making Problems meet Solutions!

In an interview with Mr. Rohan Bhatt, Founder and CEO at SQuare Consulting, let’s get known to their cutting edge offerings and their journey since inception.

• What were the initial challenges you faced?

We had begun our journey back in 2007 in a market where business families doing their traditional businesses were primarily of dominance and it was extremely difficult in explaining the whole idea of an external consultant pointing out ways and strategies to fuel the growth and value addition to their business by doing things that were set on being done in a way. That part was a majority of the struggle in the initial days.

Beyond that, the company saw that finding our own core competency or expertise was the key to being successful in the consulting field where a lot of consultants focused on pointing out the problems and dodging the questions, we started finding

effective solutions and answering all the questions that the market posed.

• Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company?

It was the first generation of startups and the whole economic transition from manufacturing and industrial project to the rise of the middle class which gave a retail boom around 2014-2018 that fuelled the steady rise of SQuare Consulting INDIA as a Business Consulting and Solutions providing the company with a major focus on Hospitality, Franchising, and Retail.

• How have the company graphs changed since the foundation?

Can you share a few statistics?

www.theenterpriseworld.com 43

Interview With The Enterprise World

• What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success?

We wouldn’t call ourselves a success but we are surely on the path to success and the sole reason that we feel is driving this journey for us is the fact that our focus is on our customers and creating value. It is difficult to be able to define one significant achievement as greatest but the fact that in the last 12 years, we have managed to serve around 1,93,000 customers across our 60+ projects is something that we would consider a great milestone on a professional level. We have managed to help more than 50 clients across different industries ranging from small start-ups to national and international clients with large turnovers, we have managed to assist businesses to grow and realize their true potential.

• What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market?

The company basically deals in 3 major verticals; Hospitality Consulting – Setup and operations of new and existing projects in the Hospitality and Restaurant Business, Franchise Consulting – Assisting new and existing businesses and people become brands in themselves and try and convert them into sellable, sustainable franchises, Retail Consulting – Helping businesses understand the dynamics of Retailing or Sales where selling a product/service becomes a smooth and streamlined process.

• How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms

44 May 2020

of your products/services?

We also undertake start-ups under our start-up incubation packages where we do pro-bono consulting for them till the time they kick-off.

So, we kind of become their angel consultants for the time till they can sustain flight on their own. We are working for the industry and the economy at large; thinking about our company and its growth is not going to be healthy in the long run.

We are looking to empower our industry and then the industry will take care of our needs.

• Is there any new addition to the list of products/services?

Anything exciting you would like to share?

We have recently started taking existing brands or models that show potential for growth under our wing and helping them out with the best out of the right kind of business models. We are also working on developing a collaborative fund that will invest in good quality start-ups and will be funded by traditional investors' money which will grow and deliver results without the hassle of choosing the right kind of start-ups to fund and operational monitoring of the money to ensure the smooth operational usage of the same.

• What do you think are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?

In my opinion, the only responsibility of any entrepreneur is to be able to distinguish between the necessary evils and the unnecessary devils that one comes across during the journey towards excellence.

• Can you please brief us about your professional experience?

I have been sales and marketing guy for the better part of my journey, I jokingly say this a lot but once a salesman, always a salesman. I was 13 when I accidentally sold my first insurance policy when I was taken by my father who is now retired at work with him during school vacation.

So that became the turning point for me when my love for sales started showing first. I have sold many things over the years, from software, IT and ITES, Branded SMSs, Club Mahindra Memberships, Tour and Travel Packages, Wooden Flooring, Lights, Elevators, Franchise Businesses, Real Estate and a brief stint with the Outsourcing industry as well. Now we sell dreams of owning and growing a business.

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE TIMES, NOT LOOKING AT SLOWING DOWN Grabbed local brands’ attention to encompass organised Management Consulting ideas to small time businesses

SQuare Consulting founded as a Business Consulting company

Entered Hospitality Consulting and Franchise Consulting Industry and helped create Success stories

Explored Franchise Consulting scenario with National and International Brands

Launched Turn Key Solutions for Projects

Launched the Marketing Consultancy and Brand Consultancy into the bouquet of services offered

Surging ahead with Aggression while keeping the momentum to raise the bar

“ • How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique?

We do not have a fixed team to begin with, each project has a set of requirements and skill set that needs to be in place. So, we target the kind of employees we want for each of our projects by hand picking talent from various parts of the country and various sources.

We try and bring them on board with the pre joining training programmes and workshops that help them in understanding what we expect out of them and what needs they have in terms of their training programme. This creates commanding loyalty and enormous support to the system. We work for our team growth, which includes both our clients and employees.

• Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight?

A client that had worked with us in 2013 (name cannot be disclosed due to our consultant-client confidentiality clause) had a model that needed assistance from our end. We helped the brand out and even opened up 2 franchise units for them. Then for almost a period of 5 years, the brand went on its own growth trajectory and managed to open as much as 25 units on their own. A lot of these units shut down due to the common

issues between franchisees and franchisor brands. Later, the brand reproached us and made sure that the company hands over all of the control over the administration and operations to SQuare Consulting (INDIA). This confidence of the client in our capabilities as a company to help them in the worst possible time for any brand is what makes us happy about what we do.

We help people in trouble and that is who we are and shall remain.

• One person, who you admire the most?

I truly admire Bill Gates the most as in my opinion he is the perfect example of what makes a great businessman. He has to be a resourceful, shrewd, competitive, eternal learner, profit-oriented and after all of that, he has achieved he is still active with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate some of the deadliest diseases from the face of the planet.

So never losing sight of the purpose and never stopping is a virtue that makes me admire him the most.

• Whose business story do you find the most inspiring?

A business story that is most inspiring to me is the story of Ray Kroc and the Mc Donald’s brothers where a milkshake mixer salesman sees opportunity in helping a duo of brothers do something about their

amazing business model and wants to grow with them to face multiple issues of hostile behavior from the very same duo who later have to give up against the legendary man behind Mc Donald’s as we know it.

It is inspirational for 2 reasons; first, that Ray tried to help the good guys but in most of the stories it is the good guys that turn bad first and becoming the bad guy might be a better way around in the long run.

• Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views.

A strategy that has all the variables in order will remove the need for constant vigilance. But nothing can compare to awareness of what is actually right or wrong that goes on at your business. Staying oblivious to your own flaws is what will often lead to doom.

• It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that?

We have always stayed above the level of the rat race by taking the efforts to work hard enough to become the soaring eagle that oversees the rat race and swoops in to finish off the finisher who has already eliminated competition by proving it’s worth.

www.theenterpriseworld.com 45

The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

Think.. Create.. Innovate

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eeping up with the changing technology trends can sometimes be too intimidating. Owing to the technology trends, the business landscape has become even more dynamic. As technology trends are growing/changing at a tremendous rate, organizations need to re-focus and align with the new waves to keep pace with the changing trends and technology.

In this new world of ever changing market dynamics, having products or new product ideas is not suďŹƒcient to capitalize. With disruptive technologies coming out each day, it is imperative that we get ideas out there on time, with right user-experience and innovation in products to capture the imagination of the consumers.

UnfoldLabs is well equipped to partner with you and your team to identify and taking the new challenges and converting them into right opportunities for you.

Led by Asokan Ashok, CEO, 46 May 2020

Asokan Ashok CEO

UnfoldLabs is an Innovative Products and Services Company based in Sunny San Diego, California. The professionals at UnfoldLabs are there to help you capture these changes through innovation and reach new heights.

The Journey Believing that innovation is the only way to win and succeed, UnfoldLabs Inc. started its journey in 2015. Their motto has always been to ease people’s life with innovative technology products & solutions. The company is backed up by a great team that bring out creative, best ideas and work together. Over the years, the company has grown with many happy clients considering all the customer needs.

“Our team strives to bring best output that fits customers requirement.”

But building this successful company has been a tough luck.

For a team that succeeds at work, you need to start by building it right. You need to mould the mindset of the people and instil in them the values that work the best. In the initial days of UnfoldLabs, this posed as a challenge.

The initial few comments – both positive and negative boosted the work quality. Being an innovative technology products/ solution developing company, it was tough to get first few customers.

Whatever the challenges may be, giving up is never an option. After all the challenges UnfoldLabs faced, what triggered the growth was the consequent on-boarding of many happy clients for their

creative thoughts and excellent product delivery. RedGreen – the best Android optimiser was their first project which got 500k downloads in the initial years only.

“Our innovative & creative thoughts made us stand different from others and brought success.”

During the last 4 years, • Products number increased from 1 to 7 • RedGreen is our first project – reached 500K user downloads and received many awards as an innovative product • 2020Applock – Got great progress initially that boosted our progress and made us work better • MyFamily – A creative digital parenting product gave us happy users for making their life easy and better • Team size increased from 2 to 35 The Products and Services UnfoldLabs focuses on world/user

problems then create a solution that is easy to access and user friendly.

Continuous learning keeps them updated with trends and this helps in developing innovative products/ solutions. Each of their products are project creative and innovative with an intention to give best solutions for mankind. The team at UnfoldLabs has the right expertise to help the companies to take your ideas to fruition through tough marketing strategies and business plans.

Their Services include Architecture, Design and Development In this digital-era, all are moving to cloud and depend on mobile solutions for their interactions with the consumers. UnfoldLabs has a strong expertise in this area and can cover both iOS and Android solutions. Their architecture takes into account the strength and weakness of cloud-based solutions

We feel that exploration and innovation are important for an organization to grow.

As a part of our creative and innovative thinking.

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The Most Admired Companies of the Year 2020

and can optimize the solutions accordingly.

Based on the needs and financial resources of the customers, they are in a position to deliver quality products. UnfoldLabs has the flexibility of using on-site/ off-site (based in San Diego) teams & offshore teams from our offices in India.

UnfoldLabs is focused on quality – quality in their interactions, quality in the products, quality in their adherence to schedules. They assure you high quality projects and products, with customer satisfaction as one of the core values.

User Experience Design User experience plays an important role in the success of any product.

UnfoldLabs understands the importance of user-centric design.

They work with you to define the use case flows based on the consumer design paradigms. The team is well versed in UI/ UX design and information architecture that are critical in product development. This will be aptly supported by strong data driven/ analytics architecture ensuring a flexible and data-driven UI/ UX that can drive user-friendly customer interactions.

Product Management and Maintenance UnfoldLabs’ product managers are

48 May 2020

hands-on technical folks and not just managers. Their technical expertise ensures that the products that are reaching the market are of highest standards, while having the project management skills to keep the budget and schedule in check.

Efficiency and quality are their mantras. Using agile methodologies and scrum-based meetings, they partner with your teams to ensure that we deliver what customers want, and not just have a cool idea with no buyers. Their expertise on iOS and Android application stores can help you get your products certified and also have right content for delivery.

Asokan Ashok- Leading the Way Asokan Ashok, CEO of UnfoldLabs Inc. – have 25+ years of international experience in high technology sectors. He has held a variety of senior technology management positions in high-tech companies like Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Compaq (HP) and some start-ups.

Presently he is serving on the board of directors/advisors of some technology start-ups.

Recommending strategies to address technology & market trends along with strategic alliances is one of the main things to be noted.

The Road Ahead “We feel that exploration and innovation are important for an organization to grow. As a part of our creative and innovative thinking.”

The company is currently focusing on “Mood Detection” project to understand human mood and make him/her happy. Their entry into AI, ML and NLP technologies will bring a change in the human lifestyle soon. They are also all set to launch “MyFamily” – a digital parenting application that helps people to secure and monitor their family members, kids. SecureME is another innovative Android kiosk mode launcher that allows businesses to restrict users access to only allowed applications on a device.

“If you want something that you never had – you have to do something that you have never done” The Team “Employees are the greatest asset of a successful company.”

UnfoldLabs gives liberty to every employee to express his/ her views at any point of time and make them feel sense of ownership. Projecting how important their contribution in a project makes them feel that they are not doing a 9-5 job.

“We appreciate and give them a chance to grow.”

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BIGSHARE SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED ADJUDGED

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Bigshare Services Pvt. Ltd. *Prime Database: Rankings for 2016-17,2017-18 and 2018-19

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Contact 92-253820 Email: marketing@bigshareonline.com / investor@bigshareonline.com

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I

f you were given a choice to be a fox and a hedgehog, what would you choose?

Anyone in their right minds would immediately go for the fox. And why not? Foxes are sleek, beautiful and cunning! While on the other hand, hedgehogs are small animals that are prickly, slow and also at times plodding.

Now you might wonder, why does it even matter in running a business?

The Hedgehog concept was developed in the book ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. And it has everything to do with the running of your organization! If you wish to achieve great levels of success, simplicity is the key. And that is exactly what we can learn from hedgehogs.

Let us have a look at how being a hedgehog pays off better than being 50 May 2020

The Hedgehog Theory the fox!

What exactly is the Hedgehog Concept?

Even though this theory is used by the famous American business consultant and author, Jim Collins, it is originally derived from a Greek parable that says, ‘The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.’ The fox tries to catch the hedgehog, he uses all his dierent tactics, he runs towards it, and he pounces on the hedgehog and what not. But even after using every little trick of his, the fox remains defeated. The hedgehog may not know as many things as the fox, but he knows one thing that he is best at; to defend himself.

Collins in his book applied this parable to the companies. The people who have started large companies and are successful portray similar www.theenterpriseworld.com 51

behavior to that of the hedgehog. They focus on only one thing, and that is success. Unlike many other organizations, who focus on multiple things.

In this case, they can be compared to the foxes.

Looking over a number of things can reduce the chances of success as they can lose focus.

Moral being, despite being slow, if you are able to simplify the world around you and focus all your energies on the one thing that you are passionate about, you can achieve great heights.

It is important to understand the fact that, finding the right thing to do takes time, and for that you do have to try out different things. And once you find the right thing, you should channelize al your energies there. So even if the going gets tough, focusing on that one particular thing that you are good at can help you thrive and survive in the dire situations.

How Do You Apply the Hedgehog Concept in your Business?

Hedgehog Concept by Jim Collins

where the three circles overlap is the Hedgehog concept, the 'mantra' for success.

Circle 1Find what you are passionate about To start with, you have to the most basic thing, and find out what everyone in the organization is deeply passionate about. What is that thing that is truly important to your employees? What kind of work inspires them? What kind of work makes them enthusiastic?

Circle 2Find out what you are best at The next, you need to find out what your organization is the absolute best at. What is that one thing that your organization does better than the others? A distinguishing factor. You need to make sure that your emphasis and focus is on the strengths of your organization. And not just the competencies, but the competences that you have been wanting to achieve for a long time.

Weaknesses are not bad, as an organization you are allowed to have a few low score in some areas.

Circle 3-

What are you deeply passionate about?

Hedgehog Concept

What can you be the best in the world at?

What drives your economic engine?

We can understand the Hedgehog concept by understanding these three circles. And the portion 52 May 2020

Find out what drives the economic engine As an organization, you need to be aware of the economic engine of your company. Because it is the thing that is used to generate the revenue and profit for the company.

And then once you have researched over the three circles, you need to determine where your organization overlaps; which is where you can find the Hedgehog concept. One thing that you need to note is that this Hedgehog concept is not a goal or a strategy, but an insight that can be a guiding principle for your further strategies!