Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders 2020 by The Enterprise World

www.theenterpriseworld.com | America Edition | December 2019

REMARKABLE

STORIES of Determined Business Leaders

UPSHOT METROS

MILAN Comune di Milano

Ray Potter CEO & Co-founder

AT A GLANCE

SafeLogic The Trusted Cryptocomply

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From Editor's Desk The one who inspires and motivates All the great organizations start with a single idea. A single idea of a single person, a dream to catch on, a dream that keeps you awake for nights! Leaders are not just born. Being a leader is going through a journey, a journey that is quite like the complex differential equations, you just need to go on simplifying it at each step you take! Determined are such people who are ready to give in their everything for one idea and are the ones leading others through it. And then what is success after that? It just comes along easily. This issue of The Enterprise World, Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders features the stories of such entrepreneurs who with their strong determination have led their companies through many ups and downs and stand strong today as remarkable business leaders. Featuring for the Cover Story is Mr. Ray Potter, who is CEO and co-founder of SafeLogic and is also among the experts in the crucial niche SafeLogic deals with. SafeLogic was established in 2012 as a spin-out from Apex Assurance Group. CryptoComply is the flagship product, developed by SafeLogic experts to leverage Apex Assurance Group’s knowledge and experience of the typical customer journey and real-world vendor problems encountered on the path to FIPS 140 validation. Leading Concrete Blonde Consulting is Lindsey Myers. She is a communications expert and entrepreneur and has over twelve-years of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and non-profit companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market. Concrete Blonde Consulting identifies new areas for growth, while also creating strategies to amplify current opportunities. With experienced boosters, Nicole Martin, the Founder of HRBoost provides custom human resource solutions to develop and optimize your investment in people. Featuring for the interview with The Enterprise World is Shahid Kazi, the CEO of ValuStrat. He talks about how ValuStrat is focusing on leadership, integrity and innovation in their consulting business. Also have a go at the history of The Wall Street and read about the fashion capital Milan, the editorial desk’s exclusive features. Such leaders with their inspiring stories have proved to us that yes, nothing succeeds like success! Have a good read!

Shalmali Wadadekar

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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. Technical Lead V. Kate Copyrights ÂŠ 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 Cover Story FeatureMr. Ray Potter, who is CEO and co-founder of SafeLogic and is also among the experts in the crucial niche SafeLogic deals with. SafeLogic was established in 2012 as a spin-out from Apex Assurance Group. CryptoComply is the flagship product, developed by SafeLogic experts to leverage Apex Assurance Group’s knowledge and experience of the typical customer journey and real-world vendor problems encountered on the path to FIPS 140 validation. FIPS 140 is probably the most well-known among these standards, designed to detail the requirements for, and procedures for testing and certifying, cryptographic modules. This validation process is necessary to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of the module for use in the most sensitive of deployments. LeadershipIf you want to build an HR Department that is efficient in all its way, it takes a lot of patience, time and most importantly planning. HRBoost LLC is one such Shared Services HR firm specializing in building HR from scratch and implementing practices that add value. Nicole Martin founded

HRBoost in July 2010. As the Founder and CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer), she has the privilege of leading a highperformance team of HR leaders to partner with businesses and meet them wherever they are on their journey to being a best place to work. They have experienced tremendous growth and proudly nearly ever client has been sourced via word of mouth. Lindsey is a communications expert and entrepreneur; she has over twelve-years of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprofit companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market. Lindsey Myers founded Concrete Blonde Consulting in November 2016 to pursue her passion for building reputations and revenues through business development marketing strategies. Concrete Blonde Consulting is a full-service consulting and marketing firm in NYC. The firm specializes in providing custom profit and growth solutions. In an interview with The Enterprise World is Shahid Kazi, the CEO of ValuStrat. He talks about how ValuStrat is focusing on leadership, integrity and innovation in their

consulting business. Company ProﬁleFaception, an Israeli start-up led by repeated entrepreneurs, who have developed real-time Facial Personality Analytics solution by patented AI technologies. Their single-source system use video/still from any source enables to identify features of anonymous people while maintaining their privacy. Their breakthrough computervision and machine learning technology analyses facial images and automatically reveals personalities in real-time. Big Bang ERP is a boutique consulting ﬁrm that helps businesses optimize and streamline their operations with NetSuite, Rootstock, Salesforce, FinancialForce, Mavenlink & ServiceNow systems as well as custom cloud-based software applications. Woods Kovalova Group helps clients unlock the power to answer the pressing challenges that many businesses face. People-centered solutions can help the clients innovate better, ensure change programs deliver, even give customer service programs the best chance of success.

SAFELOGIC

The Trusted CryptoComply

CONT Cover Story

NICOLE MARTIN Empowering HR Systems

WOODS KOVALOVA GROUP

SHAHID KAZI

Interview

Insightful Leadership in Consulting

Rise above everything that stops you

BIG BANG ERP

Trusted Business Advisors Propelling Your Growth

TENT 18

FACEPTION

Facial Personality Analytics

LINDSEY MYERS Building Business Reputation

From the Editor

UPSHOT METROS

AT A GLANCE

MilanComune di Milano

Situational Leadership and How Flexibility Leads to Success

The Wall Street

Ways to Evaluate a Market

December 2019

Cover Story

Ray Potter CEO & Co-founder

SafeLogic THE TRUSTED CRYPTOCOMPLY

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ederal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) can be described as a set of standards that describe the document processing, encryption algorithms, and other information technology standards. These are generally for the use within the non-military government agencies and also by the government contractors and vendors.

FIPS 140-2 is a US government computer security standard which is used to approve the cryptographic modules. Now why is this important? It is necessary to maintain the conﬁdentiality and integrity of the module. As the CEO and co-founder of SafeLogic, Mr. Ray Potter brings over 15 years of security and compliance experience to lead the strategy and direction of SafeLogic. Previously he ran Apex Assurance Group, providing security and compliance consulting, and grew top-line revenue at 47% CAGR with 75% net proﬁt margin. He established SafeLogic to solve the challenges of FIPS validated encryption. SafeLogic provides strong encryption products for solutions in mobile, server, Cloud, appliance, wearable, and IoT environments that are pursuing compliance to strict regulatory requirements.

The CompanySafeLogic was established in 2012 as a spin-out from Apex Assurance Group, which provided seed funding to bootstrap operations and NRE costs. Apex Assurance Group provided FIPS 140 and Common Criteria consulting services to toptier companies for years, conducting consulting and advisory, certification management and knowledge transfer services. CryptoComply was developed by SafeLogic experts, leveraging Apex Assurance Group’s knowledge and experience of the typical customer journey and real-world vendor problems encountered on the path to FIPS 140-2 validation. As a mandated requirement for the U.S. Public Sector and other regulated industries, the esoteric standard for the technical aspects and testing protocols for cryptography poses a significant roadblock for tech vendors. SafeLogic reinvented the delivery, packaging crypto modules to make them compatible and easily dropped into popular open source architectures and bundling them with certification services. This allowed clients to completely offload their encryption dependencies to SafeLogic, a classic example of specialization yielding time and cost savings. Nothing though is as easy as it

seems to be. As a start-up in a heavily regulated space, the single biggest initial challenge was establishing the reputation of SafeLogic. There are many hoops to jump through and many hurdles to jump over when you are providing sensitive and mission critical capabilities to Fortune 100 companies and the U.S. Federal Government. “We grew our business in what is now the old fashioned way” The company launched with a solution they knew the market needed, and then grew organically from their own work and from selling to hungry customers. There were no typical “throw something out there and see what sticks” and burning through a bunch of venture capital trying to ﬁnd productmarket ﬁt that’s so common with companies today.

Their Products and ServicesSafeLogic provides CryptoComply, a family of encryption modules available for a variety of use cases and architectures, and RapidCert, their push-to-start validation program for NIST’s FIPS 140-2 certification program. There are companies that sell crypto, and there are companies that do consulting work on the certification side, but SafeLogic bundles them together to maximize the effect. By December 2019

Cover Story building their modules with FIPS in mind, and tailoring the validation services to the modules, the company is able to save client’s significant time and money – sometimes as much as a full year and hundreds of thousands of dollars! Their flagship product, CryptoComply, provides drop-in FIPS 140-2 compliance with a common API across platforms as well as drop-in compatibility options for OpenSSL, BoringSSL, and Bouncy Castle. CryptoComply has been FIPS 140-2 validated on iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other platforms, and delivers accelerated validation for customers with the RapidCert service. CryptoComply is a family of standards-based “Drop-in Compliance” cryptographic engines designed for use in servers, workstations, Cloud, appliances, and mobile devices. SafeLogic’s modules deliver core cryptographic functions to these platforms and feature robust algorithm support, including Suite B algorithms. CryptoComply modules offload secure key management, data integrity, data at rest encryption, and secure communications to a trusted implementation. As a FIPS 140-2 validated module, CryptoComply can be deployed quickly to meet various needs and requirements.

Beneﬁts and Strategy of CryptoComplyCross-Platform API CryptoComply delivers a single code library to support crossoperating system platforms. The www.theenterpriseworld.com

same library can be used in applications across a variety of operating system platforms with the same programmatic interface while maintaining the FIPS 140-2 certiﬁcation. CryptoComply accomplishes this by maintaining the same code base across multiple FIPS 140-2 validations.

Open Source Compatibility CryptoComply is now also available as a direct, drop-in replacement for OpenSSL, BoringSSL/BoringCrypto, and JCE (Java Cryptographic Extension) providers such as Bouncy Castle, SunJCE, and RSA J-SAFE.

RapidCert Validation SafeLogic reduces the time required for FIPS 140 validation by as much as 90% when the CryptoComply module is deployed as a replacement for non-validated software. FIPS 140-2 validations can take over 12 months, but with CryptoComply and the RapidCert process, time-to-compliance can be dramatically reduced. Our target is 8 weeks from start to

ﬁnish with zero additional eﬀort required from the customer.

Extended Compliance CryptoComply provides meets the algorithm and key length mandates to support the latest guidance for FIPS 140-2, CNSA and Suite B compliance. Contact us with speciﬁc requirements.

Meet Compliance Requirements Instantly CryptoComply modules are drop-in replacements for the low-level cryptographic libraries underlying TLS/SSL functions. Developers merely have to build their code to point to the CryptoComply APIs, so that the calls made by the TLS/SSL stack code are handled by CryptoComply. Because CryptoComply has already completed FIPS 140-2 validation, products that deploy CryptoComply can accurately claim FIPS 140-2 compliance immediately.

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SAFELOGIC IS CONSTANTLY BUILDING AND EVALUATING NEW VERSIONS OF CRYPTOCOMPLY FOR FEASIBILITY AND OPPORTUNITY, SO IF YOU HAVE A PARTICULAR USE CASE, DEFINITELY REACH OUT. WE MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING IN TESTING THAT FITS PERFECTLY FOR YOU!

Manage Costs and Time FIPS 140-2 validations can take well over a year to complete and costs have escalated dramatically, especially as the number of supported platforms increases. In the dynamic IT security business, these delays and costs can magnify competitive and customer demand pressures. CryptoComply provides instant FIPS 140-2 compliance because the modules have already undergone the validation process. Licensing other third-party modules can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and don’t even include validation. With SafeLogic, customers will enjoy greatly reduced licensing and maintenance costs.

Eliminate Wasted Effort Validations on a per product basis wastes time, money and effort. Save valuable resources by incorporating CryptoComply into multiple products or multiple product lines. Moreover, because CryptoComply is centrally maintained by SafeLogic, on-going support costs are greatly reduced and duplication of effort is eliminated. CryptoComply validations support a wide variety of operating system platforms and SafeLogic’s aggressive certification roadmap ensures that as new operating system versions are made available, CryptoComply FIPS 140-2 validations will be kept up-to-date.

Maintain Validation Status With FIPS 140-2 validations, any changes to a traditional module may force re-validation. Additional 12

platform support may also require a re-validation. Discovered vulnerabilities in the module code could force a re-validation. CryptoComply contains only the core cryptographic functions, ensuring that only the most critical, security-relevant changes will necessitate re-validation. While CryptoComply has been designed to isolate the validation to only the key functions, SafeLogic will continue to stringently maintain validations to support technology changes and new security threats. CryptoComply for Java oﬀers FIPS 140-2 encryption for the following platforms, with others available by request: • Microsoft Windows • Linux • Apple Mac OS X • Android – in testing

Chaos Control-

making sure that that output from the DRBG is as unpredictable and strong as possible. The only real way to do that is to have a true, very good, very high level of entropy going into it. SafeLogic developed Chaos Control to bring statistically random entropy to software environments. Further, this patented solution: • Complies with NIST SP800-90 • Includes test suite from NIST SP800-22 • Is available cross-platform • Conforms to draft FIPS 140 Implementation Guidance for entropy • Meets Common Criteria guidelines for entropy requirements

Ray Potter- The LeaderMr. Ray Potter is a very result oriented leader. He has a successful track record in building start-ups and bringing product to market.

Entropy is an amount of information contained within a data stream, and strong entropy (i.e., a high degree of unpredictability) is a core need for strength of systemgenerated cryptographic keys. Since software and computing systems are designed to be predictable, it’s quite diﬃcult to achieve statistically random values for use in seeds for key generation.

His experience is based on identifying problems and developing solutions to ﬁx them. As a management consultant, as a program manager, and now as an entrepreneur, the essence of “problem solving” encapsulates his career.

To comply with FIPS 140, keys should be generated with a deterministic random bit generator (DRBG), which is seeded with a value derived from the OS (i.e., via dev/random). The value here is unpredictable input. The stronger the entropy, the stronger the output from the DRBG, and the stronger the key is. That’s what is important-

He says that there are no particular key achievements in the entrepreneual journey; in fact, the complete journey is itself an achievement. As the company develops and matures, it means hiring the right people and fostering a ﬂexible but driven work environment where everyone has what they need to be successful.

“Making things happen and solving painful problems. I love this stuﬀ.”

December 2019

Cover Story

It has taken me a long time to learn the value of balancing health, wealth, loved ones, and fun, and Ray tries to tune into if someone on the team seems anxious or overwhelmed or distracted by issues outside of work. He encourages them to take a day off, or several, or brings more resources to a stressful project. Burn-out is both real and avoidable. “We have a very open culture here. Everyone speaks their mind, and dissenting opinions are embraced.” Nobody is immune from alternative points of view. The people hired are the best in the business and their ability to see problems from a variety of positions is second to none. As a CEO and a result oriented leader, Ray says he would take this team over any exGooFaceUber team out there. So when they disagree with him, he listens. When they agree with me, he feels more confident, and frankly a little flattered. “We pride ourselves on working quickly to solve problems, and that sense of urgency really resonates with our customers.”

Ray’s Word on Competitive DiﬀerentiationDon’t think about it, just do it. We need to be keenly aware of what’s happening around us, and be ready, either reactively or proactively. I’ve seen too many people get so immersed in strategy that stuﬀ hits the fan when an action or event doesn’t go as planned.

anyone else” and I did just that. However, I really think that “balance” is the key to being successful in the long-term. Work hard, deﬁnitely, but balance that with hobbies, relaxation, or family time. Find a creative outlet, like music or art or whatever interests you as a person. It’s too easy to be deﬁned by one’s job, and we simply cannot let that happen.

With hard work, dedication, focus, time, and a little bit of luck, the impossible can become possible.

‘‘

The Team-

CryptoComply is the only cryptographic library built for use in a range of operating environments, such as in mobile apps and appliance/server solutions. Other cryptographic library vendors oﬀer one or the other; CryptoComply is designed for universal use and has a common API between platforms. Our FIPS 140 validation service, RapidCert, features strategy and execution that is the strongest in the industry, guided by top experts in the government and compliance space. By providing both the software and the service in tandem, SafeLogic is able to exceed even the highest expectations in total cost of ownership and time to market, as well as incredible accelerations in validation.

I used to adopt the philosophy of “work harder and more hours than www.theenterpriseworld.com

Big Bang ERP Trusted Business Advisors Propelling Your Growth

nterprise Resource Planning or what generally called as the ERP allows the organizations to optimize, streamline and automate processes. With the help of ERP, the organizations can carry out more accurate and eﬃcient operations. Gabriel Tupula, the CEO of Big Bang ERP recognized this need and raised a team of experts who work in hands with the organizations to achieve exceptional business improvements by implementing, customizing and supporting the 14

world’s leading cloud-based business solutions. Gabriel’s cumulative experience is in information systems, software development and internet marketing allowing him to be a creative problem solver and a results-oriented project manager. As an analytical thinker, Gab is uniquely able to see the big picture and create a roadmap to tangible results – plus he has the drive and ability to cross the ﬁnish line.

“Experience is a torch that can only enlighten the one holding it” Big Bang ERP is a boutique consulting ﬁrm that helps businesses optimize and streamline their operations with NetSuite, Rootstock, Salesforce, FinancialForce, Mavenlink & ServiceNow systems as well as custom cloud-based software applications. Big Bang ERP is a boutique consulting ﬁrm that helps businesses optimize and streamline their processes by implementing cloud solutions for the following processes: Financial (ERP Systems), Production (PSA, MRP and SCM systems), Relations (CRM and HCM systems) and Promotion (MAS systems). Their Approach- Design Your Business Today December 2019

Gabriel Tupula CEO

Services include: implementation, integration, migration, customization, support, training and even business systems advisory (BSA). The company analyzes its clients’; business needs and recommends the best solution from its vast portfolio of cloud solutions and provide the necessary services related to the products. Our leading core products include: NetSuite ERP, Salesforce CRM, Mavenlink, Rootstock ERP, ServiceNow, FinancialForce… and more! “We are diﬀerent in the portfolio we oﬀer and by being customerfocused rather than a VAR (Value Added Reseller), we are a service provider and a partner to our customers to accompany them in their digital transformation and to support their growth - as a partner.” The Big Bang Experience™ At Big Bang ERP, they use the proprietary 7-step methodology to maximize the success of your cloud business transformation.

Big Bang ERP has worked with many clients and saw a recurring theme time and time again: there seemed to be a lack of understanding of how systems within a company work together. We approach your business holistically - meaning we don’t just look at the problem you are facing today, but also at trends, expected growth, check gates and the business systems roadmap to optimize your plan. “If you are able to leverage the capabilities of each of your systems www.theenterpriseworld.com

together, you will ﬁnd your organization streamlined with less manual processes.” Their ServicesBig Bang oﬀers professional services and enterprise advice (BPR – Business Process Review) related to several cloud systems including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Information Technology System Management (ITSM) systems and other applications.

It ensures that the project team ramps up eﬀectively, needs are documented, solutions are proposed and reviewed, development work is validated and your system is deployed smoothly. The Big Bang Experience™ is the standard delivery methodology for any Cloud Solution and the steps outline the main activities involved in the delivery of each phase. Even though the 7-steps are structured, they are ﬂexible to remain within your budget and timeline. It is important to approach every cloud transformation with an agile mindset and a dynamic scope. • KICK OFF During The Big Bang 15

Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders Experience™, expert consultants work with you to define your goals, scope, and objectives with a Project Statement. This phase starts with a Kick-Off Meeting between stakeholders to identify the roles and contributions and to address the risks and issues involved. • ANALYZE Create a game plan for your business. Big Bang ERP starts each engagement with an on-site review of your business. This ensures our team of Certified Consultants has a clear understanding of how your business is operating. • DESIGN During this phase, the project team determines how to implement the reengineered business processes, which processes are “out of the box” and which ones will require customization by one of the team experts. • BUILD This is where the Experts at Big Bang ERP dig in and create magic for our customers. This is when they Build & Configure the Cloud Solution to meet your business’ financial, language, shipping, and customer-facing needs. • VALIDATE “Measure twice, cut once”. One of the most critical factors in any Cloud Solution implementation is testing. The Big Bang Experience™ includes a variety of testing processes to ensure that the cloud solution conforms to specifications and meets requirements. • DEPLOY After all the preparation, planning and developing, we’re ready to deploy your solution. This is when 16

your Cloud Solution goes from concept to reality.

box thinkers who are the best at what they do!

• OPTIMIZE After deployment, we get a Project Sign Oﬀ and gather any feedback from you. Like your organization, all cloud solutions continue to evolve. Big Bang ERP ensures you always have the support you need to grow.

Big Bang ERP also focuses on career growth including training, practical experience and soft skills including biweekly coaching, quarterly reviews and mentorship. The employees also get a hands-on experience with customers - even as an intern with deep industry learning so that every team member is vested in the success of our customers.

The Business System Advisory is tailored to your company's unique needs - ranging from a quick conversation to a full-scale Enterprise Architecture. Investing early in your business saves you time, resources and unpleasant surprises down the road, something we can all agree is worth it. Your key stakeholders will work with company’s team of experts to validate, reﬁne or create a strategic plan for your organization. Based on the information the company will collect, Big Bang will document your processes, requirements, pain points and objectives. This deliverable serves as the blueprint of the solutions that you require and will be supporting you every step of this journey, from identifying and selecting a solution to validating its proper implementation. The TeamAll of the employees of Big Bang ERP have been handpicked and are subjected to rigorous physiological testing at the hands of various experts. They are expected to not only deliver stellar consulting and technological services to all of the customers, but also participate in weekly happy-hours. Even with these high standards, they have been able to put together a group of fun, quirky, intelligent, out-of-the-

“We ensure to oﬀer perks that simplify the life of our team members.”

Big Bang ERP is here to guide you through more than your cloud implementation - we are your business advisors.

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technologies. Their single-source system use video/still from any source enables to identify features of anonymous people while maintaining their privacy. This is the holy grail of many market domains, like retail, smart services, FinTech, InsureTech, HR, Dating, and Security. Located in Tel-Aviv, Israel, Faception conducted successful PoC’s with OEMs, agencies and Service Providers in various markets. The solution is superior on Facial Recognition which is database limited. They have conducted successful POC’s, and in $25M pre-sales projects. The CompanyFounded in 2014, Faception is a private company, located in Tel Aviv Israel. The team includes world-class experts in the areas of computer vision, face analysis, machine learning, psychology, technology and marketing.

Faception is a Facial Personality Analytics company. Their breakthrough computer-vision and machine learning technology analyses facial images and automatically reveals personalities in real-time. This technology allows predictive screening solutions and enables Preventive Actions in the public safety, smart cities and homeland security. Backed by Social and Life Science research and proven results, Faception’s ground-breaking technology enables security companies and agencies to be more eﬀective in detecting anonymous persons of interest.

Faception, an Israeli start-up led by repeated entrepreneurs, who have developed real-time Facial Personality Analytics solution by patented AI

Their Services1. Provide ﬁnancial valuable intelligence to support credit / loans and insurance premium decisions, to perform Predictive Underwriting

FACEPTION Facial Personality Analytics

he face can be used to read a person, know his personality and behaviour. Scientiﬁcally, this analysis is known as physiognomy. This term can also refer to the general appearance of a person and its implied characteristics. According to Social and Life Science research personalities are aﬀected by genes. In fact genes play a greater role in determining key personality traits like social skills and learning ability than the way we are brought up by our parents, researchers claimed.

December 2019

2. Provide objective intelligence which can be easily merged/part of other signals 3. Turn “anonymous” into “known”, while making video calls/interviews and Can be part of People authentication process 4. Reduce costs associated with interrogations and interviews 5. Predict risk assessment on people with no credit history/online info “The ability to successfully compete the lead giants, based on new novel approach and the privacy protection is what beneﬁts Faception.” The verticals where Faception works are• Public Safety and Safe CityWe live in a dangerous world, where harm doers and criminals easily mingle with the general population; the vast majority of them are unknown to the authorities. Faception oﬀers a breakthrough computer-vision and AI technology that analyses a www.theenterpriseworld.com

person’s facial image and automatically develops a personality profile, enabling security companies and agencies to more efficiently detect and apprehend potential offenders or criminals before they have the opportunity to do harm. • PERSONAL ROBOTS and AI for Personalized SERVICESAI and Robots are rapidly entering our day-to-day lives. In the not so far future, they will become humanoid day-today companions, ones that can perceive our emotions and adapt their behavior accordingly. Faception offers a breakthrough AI technology that analyzes a person’s facial image and automatically reveals his personality, enabling robots to instantly learn about their owner and others personality, and take human-robot interaction to the next level. Faception can analyze facial images captured by the smart camera/robot’s camera, encode the faces in proprietary image descriptors and match an individual with various personality types with a high level of accuracy. • FinTechPeople everywhere need insurance and need a line of credit. Credit companies, Banks and Insurance companies need to evaluate the risk of providing these services to people and they have developed sophisticated systems and algorithms to do just that. Faception offers a breakthrough AI technology that analyzes a person’s facial image and automatically reveals his personality, enabling financial services company to get valuable intelligence to support

of Fuson Clients/Agents; like: • Creditability [by specific Classifier] and make better pricing • Risk Modeling and reduced noise [better understanding potential exposure] • Reinsurance [less agent dependency, personalized clients] • Underwritings [speedup and reduce premium leakage by predict missing/verify info] • Criminality Potential [by specific Classifier] • Reliability [by specific Classifier] • Trustworthiness [by specific Classifier] • Expand market reach [used personalization and access the “good clients”

At Faception, we have successfully addressed a challenge that is as old as humanity: knowing the personality of individuals

their credit and insurance premium decisions. For example, our technology can indicate whether a person has a high potential of being a risk taker or not being a good loaner person. • Retail and Events IndustryAn online retailer typically has a wealth of information on his website visitors, allowing him to customize his website and personalize his messaging down to the individual level. In the offline world [like retailers, events, etc.] it is much more difficult to create a personalized experience for a shopper. Faception offers a breakthrough computer-vision and AI technologies that analyzes a person’s facial image and automatically reveals his personality, enabling retailers to get valuable intelligence allowing them to personalize their communication with their customers. Equipped with this type of information, the retail attendant can offer customers products they really care about and communicate in a manner that 19

Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders motivates them to buy. The Vision is to teach computers to understand humans through a single piece of personal information: an image of a face. They believe that knowing and understanding people is key to improving communications and making the right decisions about the person right in front of you, or on the video screen. Yet, technology development and deployment in areas such as HLS, AI, and Fintech etc. is focused on identifying who is the person in the image. Being able to utilize facial images to also answer the questions “What is this person? What are his personality traits? What motivates him?” could revolutionize how companies, organizations and even robots understand people, and dramatically improve public safety, communications, decision-making, and experiences. About Faception Privacy and Fairness advantage: 1. It’s anonymous – no need for ID or social profile of people 2. It’s objective like blood testing, no discrimination by race, class, gender, age or personal information. 3. No use of Big Data on people. Also, images we analyzed are encoded anonymously and not shared - not locally and not in the cloud. We do not store nor share people, our revenue model is based on service only. The technology is the opposite of “racism by algorithm”. Therefore, we fit with the GDPR and might be better solution for any smart services. Their TechnologyFaception is first-to-technology and 20

first-to-market with proprietary computer vision and machine learning technology for profiling people and revealing their personality based only on their facial image. It can analyze faces from video streams (recorded and live), cameras, or online/offline databases, encode the faces in proprietary image descriptors and match an individual with various personality traits and types with a high level of accuracy. It can develop proprietary classifiers, each describing a certain personality type or trait such as an Extrovert, a person with High IQ, Professional Poker Player or a Terrorist. Ultimately, it can score facial images on a set of classifiers and provide their clients with a better understanding of their customers, the people in front of them or in front of their cameras. The Process and its AdvantagesFaception offers an API to enable companies in various industries embed the technology in their applications. The application runs in the cloud, on a local machine, or a video camera, is flexible, scalable and real time, and can integrate with other solutions such as Facial Recognition technology to provide a full spectrum solution that covers known and anonymous individuals. Faception has no access to the stored/processed images/videos and privacy is well kept. CAPABILITIES • Proprietary computer vision and machine learning algorithms • Analyzes facial images from any source • Conduct Image quality analysis and filtering • Provides scores and confidence

levels for various personality traits and types • Scalable and real-time • Available as a SaaS solution, on a local machine, on camera, • Accessible via API • Can integrate with complementary solutions such as facial recognition systems Its Advantages are♦ CUSTOMIZABLE Not limited to a predefined set of personality traits. If the desired trait or behavior originates from a person’s DNA there is a high probability we could develop a relevant classifier. ♦ REAL TIME Classification of a person according to his facial image takes fraction of a second. ♦ OBJECTIVITY Our technology leverages machine learning, is data driven and does not require any assumptions or rule setting. ♦ NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE NEEDED Faception requires only the facial image of a user and as such the technology could be used in retail, casinos and other locations where the user is anonymous and no data is associated with him. ♦ ACCURATE • Faception’s approach is designed to be more reliable and accurate than pattern analysis. With a powerful descriptor, our machine learning algorithm will learn directly from the stimulus (full face images) in a manner that is scalable and robust.

December 2019

We provide a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base

www.goldmansachs.com

Situational Leadership and How Flexibility Leads t

December 2019

to Success

o simplify, situational leadership is the kind of a leadership style which is adaptive in its nature. Let’s all face it; there isn’t a single leadership style that can suit all situations. The situational leadership style is the one which adapts to the employees’ range of developmental behaviour. To be a successful leader, one must have the ability to look at a situation with diﬀerent perspectives.

Here are some ways how situational leaders work: • They act as coaching leadersCoaching leaders work on the individual’s personal development and also his job-related skills. • They act as progressive leadersSuch leaders set very high expectations from their followers while also leading with example. • They are authoritative leadersAuthoritative leaders are good at analyzing problems and identifying the challenges at work. If you look closely, great leaders are the ones who assess the situation and the behaviour of employees, and then decide the leadership approach to get the best out of that situation. So why does situational leadership ensure business success in today’s complex work environments? Let us have a look at its characteristics and the theory behind it. First things ﬁrst, situational leadership is more of a ﬂexible leadership approach. It is a relationship-oriented leadership and bases the directives of the leader on the ability and readiness of the followers. In order to get through www.theenterpriseworld.com

the situation, the leader must have developed a good relationship or rapport with the team members so that he can understand their state of mind when receiving directions for the tasks they need to complete. This is the reason why it is also called as a flexible leadership. Situational leadership also evaluates the maturity levels of the people within the organization. So a leader must be able to manage bot, being supportive and directive towards the team members. They should be able to read the body language and the state of mind of their employees. They should be good communicators who should be able to connect to the emotions of the team members. This is where good leaders stand apart, by analyzing the situation at hand and acting on it the way it needs to be done. This kind of a leadership also increases the awareness of the current organizational situations. When change is on the way in any organization, it is often unsettling for the employees and they can get uncertain about their positions in the company. Some may take it positively, while some react to it negatively. With situational leadership, the leaders can make the best use of their communication skills. Being honest with the employees and providing the right information to the employees for them to understand the goals and vision of the organization is the first thing a leader can do in this situation. Concluding, situational leadership brings flexibility to the traditional leadership styles and can shape the organization into a better, efficient and productive one. 23

December 2019

Upshot Metros

Milan

Comune di Milano www.theenterpriseworld.com

ilan, the capital of Lombardy is a city in northern Italy. It is the second most populous city in Italy after Rome. Milan is considered as a leading alpha global city and has its strengths in all the fields including art, commerce, design, entertainment, fashion, healthcare, finance, media services and tourism. During the medieval period and the early modern age, Milan served as the capital city of the Western Roman Empire. The business districts of Milan host Italy’s stock exchange, called as the Borsa Italiana in Italian. It is also the headquarters of many national and international banks and companies. Milan has the thirdlargest economy in the EU cities after London and Paris in terms of GDP. Milan is one of the wealthiest cities among the EU’s non-capital cities. Milan is also considered a part of the ‘Blue Banana’ and one of the cities of the ‘Four Motors of Europe’. Rome being Italy’s political capital, Milan is the industrial and financial heart. The province of Milan generates as much as 10% of the national GDP with 2014's GDP ranging to €158.9 billion. Milan hosts about 45% of businesses in the Lombardy region and more than 8% of businesses in all of Italy, which includes three of the Fortune 500 companies. Via Monte Napoleone, Europe’s most expensive street is in Milan. It also has the highest GDP per capita and is close to the top 20% of the 327 OECD metropolitan areas. Since the late 1800s, Milan has been an important industrial and manufacturing centre. This goes especially for the automation 26

industry and is a host to companies such as Alfa Romeo, Pirelli and Techint. Other important manufacturing sectors include machinery, pharmaceuticals and plastic, health, chemicals and biotechnologies, food and beverage. Milan is also characterised by the presence of many media and advertising agencies, national newspapers and telecommunication companies. The city is a host to the headquarters of some of the largest Italian publishing companies like Feltrinelli, Mondadori, RCS Media Group and many more. Recently, there also has been a rapid increase in the internet companies, both domestic and international. These include AltaVista, Google, Lycos, Virgilio and Yahoo. As Milan is Italy’s financial hub, it is a home to the headquarters of many insurance companies and banking groups with a total of around 198 companies. Also most of the asset management companies like Azimut Holding, ARCA SGR, and Eurizon Capital. Milan- The Cultural Capital Milan is among the world’s major fashion capitals. It is said that the Italian fashion was born in Milan. The fashion history of Milan has evolved dramatically throughout the ages. It has established a long history within the fields of fashion, textiles and design. There are over 12,000 companies, 800 showrooms and 6,000 sales outlets of different fashion brands. These include the world’s most famous Prada, Versace, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Valentino and Luxottica. Milan is the perfect place for fashionistas and industry specialists as it showcases a perfect blend of luxury, art, and culture. Milan is a

host to The Milan Fashion Week since 1958. It was the year the first fashion week was held in Milan, and since then it follows the tradition with the ones held in New York and London. The Milan Fashion Week is held twice a year for the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter collections. Apart from fashion, Milan also has a rich food culture. Like most of the cities in Italy, Milan too has developed a local culinary tradition. North Indian cuisine is a typical cuisine one can find in Milan, which uses rice more frequently than pasta, butter than vegetable oil. Traditional Milanese dishes include cotoletta alla milanese, a breaded veal (pork and turkey can be used) cutlet pan-fried in butter. Some other typical dishes are cassoeula, ossobuco, busecca, and brasato. Milan also is a national and international hub for performing arts among which opera is the most famous. Milan is the home to La Scala opera house, which is considered as one of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. It has witnessed premieres of numerous operas such as Nabucco by Giuseppe Verdi in 1842, La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini in 1904, and Turandot by Puccini in 1926. It is also a symphony orchestra and musical conservatory.

December 2019

Upshot Metros

LA SCALA OPERA HOUSE

BRASATO

DOLCE & GABBANA

BUSECCA

www.theenterpriseworld.com

ARMANI

CONCRETE

M Y E R S

BLONDE

CONSULTING

F O U N D E R

L I N D S E Y

‘‘

December 2019

‘

Lindsey Myers Building Business Reputation

ommunication plays a very important role in building the brand. Most organizations understand the importance of public relations to frame marketing strategies and improve the company reputation. Public relations are all about sending the right messages to the right places and right people. Public Relations help to increase the brand credibility, which is the most important factor for the growth of a company.

Lindsey is a communications expert and entrepreneur; she has over twelve-years of experience serving various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprofit companies in NYC and the Hamptons luxury market. After graduating from Boston University with a BS in Communications and concentration in PR, she began her career at WordHampton Public Relations, a firm headquartered in East Hampton, NY and ranked by Jack O’Dwyer’s as one of the country’s “Top 100 Independent PR firms”. In 2013, she made partner and was chosen to launch the company’s NYC division.

We believe every client is unique. We partner with them to unearth their core business goals. Then we create bespoke strategic marketing plans with benchmarks to chart our progress and target our methods. We feel a sense of responsibility to our clients and we are responsive not only to their needs, but also The Foundationto the ever changing world in which they operate. Lindsey Myers founded www.theenterpriseworld.com

Concrete Blonde Consulting in November 2016 to pursue her passion for building reputations and revenues through business development marketing strategies. Concrete Blonde Consulting is a full-service consulting and marketing firm in NYC. The firm specializes in providing custom profit and growth solutions. By examining the business development pipeline, Concrete Blonde is able to identify new areas for growth, while also creating strategies to amplify current opportunities. In addition, they provide a competitive media analysis, streamline marketing campaigns and build additional sources of revenue. They service various industries including consumer products and services, tech, lifestyle, hospitality and nonprofit companies Communications is a rapidly changing field and the firm is continually transforming to harnesses the powers of both influence and interaction. Concrete Blonde Consulting offers clients a variety of tools from third-party PR endorsements to social influencer campaigns to reach consumers and drive business. Starting out from zero, building 29

Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders everything from ground up was a pretty challenging task. Also a lack of funds and the need to bring clients immediately posed as a challenge. But once the clients were on-board, what really helped was getting to know their vision and helping them determine their goals before we get started. This allows us to benchmark tangible goals for success and hit KPIs. The ServicesConcrete Blonde Consulting offers their services in the following sectors• Media Relations • Strategic Visioning • Media Training • Social Media Management • Crisis Communications • Content Development • Social Influencer Campaigns The biggest differential is the Concrete Blonde Consulting’s team. “We’re fortunate enough to have amazing talent – they’re creative, resourceful and highly responsive.” The company is currently working on dinner series which they will launch next quarter – that idea was really driven by the desire to add value for their clients. The Concrete Blonde Consulting FamilyThe vision the team works with that the door is always open. No one is punished or made to feel ashamed of the mistakes they commit. As it is said, ‘To err is human’. Lindsey says, “I might be in charge, but I made logic the boss – I welcome people disagreeing with me and/or being resourceful and finding a 30

better way to do something. I don’t micro-manage.” Getting past your fears is important in the journey of life. And if you are an entrepreneur, it is a must. As an entrepreneur, leading the team is crucial. The leadership speaks in the company graphs. The recognition Concrete Blonde Consulting has received lately is one of the many achievements the company has seen. Some of these include• Top 15 PR Agencies in New York - The Manifest, 2018 • 10 Best PR Agencies - Web Surf Media, 2018 • 10 Business Megacorps - CIO Views, 2019 • Revolutionary CEOs - Aspioneer, 2019 • Top 10 Digital Marketing Firms The Leaders Globe, 2019 Her special experience in terms of her clients has always been the same- getting that “one thing” that gets the client really excited!! That they know is going to be a game changer for their business. That “thing” is diﬀerent for every client, but discovering it and grabbing it with both hands is what drives the enterprise forward.

common – they love what they do, it’s always on the forefront of their mind, they are constantly looking for ways to do it better and they put in consistent eﬀort. There is no such thing as an overnight success and with how fast the world is changing, if you don’t change with it and adapt, your company will die very quickly. “It’s a rat-race out there. I try to stay out of it entirely. Just do my thing and take advantage of the opportunities that come my way. And I surround myself with people who have a positive attitude and see win-win solutions to every problem. People get trapped in the “rat-race” by buying to the false belief that in order for one person to succeed another person has to fail.” Her leadership and expertise have earned her numerous accolades throughout her career including; PRSA Big Apple award, PRSA Bronze Anvil award, eight MarCom awards, nine Fair Media Council Folio awards, Communicator award, SABRE award and an Excellence in Communications award.

“Success is the ability to move from failure to failure without the loss of enthusiasm” -Winston Churchill. “It always reminds me that it’s ok to fail – that’s how we learn.” As an entrepreneur, it is always necessary to have a look out, in all terms. Or what we can call, the constant vigilance, and it is deﬁnitely a need! The best entrepreneurs all have one thing in December 2019

www.citizenwatch.com

P RO M A S T E R AQ UA L A N D The Iconic 200M dive watch reinvented

Interview with The Enterprise World

Shahid Kazi

Insightful Leadership in Consulting

lmost all the businesses need to have a professional advisory relationship to make their growth graphs sustainable. They help the enterprises in making strategic decisions to take it to a diﬀerent level. ValuStrat is Middle East’s leading consulting group providing Advisory, Valuations, Research, Due Diligence and Industrial Consulting services.

Shahid Kazi in an interview with The Enterprise World magazine talks about how ValuStrat is focusing on leadership, integrity and innovation in their consulting business. 1. Tell us about the company. ValuStrat is a consulting group headquartered in Dubai with offices in UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Qatar, providing various financial and strategic advisory services such as strategy & management consulting, business & asset valuations, market research, feasibility studies, due diligence and industrial consulting. ValuStrat currently employs over 100 people and serves over 1000 corporate clients in a wide variety of sectors. All the way from startups and SMEs to large corporations, financial institutions and government organizations, we successfully provide our consulting services in sectors as diverse as real estate, education, hospitality, healthcare, retail, energy, transport, industrial manufacturing, infrastructure and FMCG. 32

2. What were the initial challenges you faced? One of the key objectives of ValuStrat was to provide corporate clients with a very good alternative to the large and established multinational consulting firms. Competing with these companies was naturally not easy; however, we did our best to overcome this challenge by providing the ideal combination of quality work and reasonable fees and thus fill this large gap between the large multinational consulting firms and small local advisory boutiques. To provide quality work, hiring top quality professionals was imperative, and that was challenge in itself given such candidates generally prefer to work for the typical large firms. However, we discovered there were many professionals working in large organizations who were frustrated in their current jobs and were open to working in firms of our size and scale, as long as they had a positive working environment, were empowered in their work, given exciting professional opportunities and faced little bureaucracy in moving up the ladder if they performed well. Thankfully we have been very successful in developing a great team. Most of our consultants have significant past experience in top multinationals and this international expertise combined with our local presence and reasonable fees makes it a great combination for our ever increasing

client base. 3. Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company? The real growth for ValuStrat has come over the last decade or so, during which the firm moved from being a small UAE company offering just a few services to becoming a multi-service multisector international firm. The first milestone in this growth story was when our current Chairman acquired the firm from its previous shareholders back in 2002 and brought about some service enhancements soon thereafter. I partnered with the firm in early 2009, initially to establish the Saudi business, followed by leading further expansion into Qatar, as well as addition of new service offerings. Subsequently, we undertook a major organizational restructuring in 2013 which propelled a significant expansion in the team with the addition of a large number of top notch consultants across the various geographies. Since then our business has continued to grow, despite the challenging economic environment, and we have also managed to add new offices in Pakistan and United Kingdom, including our recent acquisition of a London based real estate advisory firm Capital Chartered. 4. How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics? During the last 10 years: December 2019

• Staff increased from 15 people to over 100 people • Offices increased from 1 office in UAE to 10 offices in 5 countries • Revenue increased by almost 200% 5. What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success? The essential nature of our business is to provide independent advice, analysis and information that is utilized by our clients or other third parties to take important decisions. Our business therefore rests on reputation, based on intellect and integrity. We work very hard to develop and retain

Shahid Kazi CEO

www.theenterpriseworld.com

Interview with The Enterprise World

Overall, ValuStrat has two key competitive advantages: 1) Reputable advisory and consulting services at reasonable cost, and 2) offering a unique combination of services which no other company in the region is providing under one umbrella. There is no single firm in the Middle East region which provides the exact set of services that ValuStrat does i.e. strategy & management consulting, real estate valuations, plant & machinery valuations, business valuations, industrial consulting, research and due diligence (technical, commercial & financial) across diverse sectors. Banks and financial institutions are one of our largest client base, which is a great testimony to our reputation as they make important and sizeable lending and investment decisions based on our analysis. We also place a lot of emphasis on innovation and being ahead of the game, especially through technology. An example of this was our innovation relating to use of iPads and bespoke software developed in-house for our surveying, residential valuations and due diligence services, resulting in unmatched turnaround times and significantly enhanced product offering. 6. Can you please brief us about your professional experience? After completing my Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, I worked for over 4 years with the German multinational SIEMENS in their Industrial Project 34

Management Division. I then won the Britannia Chevening Scholarship by the British Government and pursued an MBA degree with a specialization in Finance at the Imperial College, London. Subsequently, I spent over 10 years in Citibank in various management positions in their Corporate & Investment Banking Division in the Middle East. The combination of engineering, project management, ﬁnance and banking provided me with invaluable multifaceted experience, which has been incredibly useful for me in the consulting world, and in making ValuStrat a success. 7. What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey? Gaining the trust of many of the top corporate clients in the region in both the private and public sector, while competing with large multinationals has been the biggest achievement of my journey at ValuStrat. The core reason for this achievement has been the ability to hire some of the best people, keeping them together and making it a success for them too. 8. How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? We do our best to make ValuStrat a fun place to work where employees get a lot of empowerment, and where career progression is only dependent on competence, integrity and results, without undue bureaucracy or politics. It is a simple combination of team consultation and empowerment to experts. I am a strong believer in the ‘Give it to who does it best’ philosophy and that true leaders are those that create more leaders than followers. At ValuStrat, subject matter experts are leading their

divisions and they have maximum authority regarding their business. All of this enables us to hire and retain some top talent. We are blessed to have over 20 different nationalities working in ValuStrat and the diversity they bring in terms of culture, thought process and best-practices is one of our biggest assets. 9. It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? I try, to the best of my ability, that the purpose of achieving my personal and professional vision and goals i.e. ‘winning the race’ should be value addition and benefit for a wide variety of stakeholders, and not just myself; and to never let go of core ethical values for any short-term gains. I believe that the combination of competence & integrity enables you to compete in the race effectively, without being a rat in the race. 10. Which is the most inspiring quote you have read?

‘‘

LEADERS DON’T CREATE FOLLOWERS, THEY CREATE MORE LEADERS -Tom Peters

‘‘

this reputation and this ethos is constantly emphasized within our ﬁrm – resulting in our longstanding success.

December 2019

www.atempo.com

preserving data ecosystems

PROVIDING SOLUTIONS TO PROTECT, STORE, SHARE AND RECOVER DATA. • Incremental and automatic ﬁle migration between heterogeneous storage • Operational storage during the migration with reduced impact on production • Automatic control of the integrity of migrated ﬁles • Performance tuning by simply adding or removing Data Movers • Single platform for securing new storage

The Wall Street In case you don't know, the Wall Street was first built by the Dutch to stave off the English. Later on, it evolved to represent much more than just a Manhattan address. The Wall Street runs at a stretch of eight blocks in the lower Manhattan area. And we can all safely say that the Wall Street is more than just a location, the term has been adopted to describe all the US' financial institutions and economic power. Let us have a look at the timeline of the Wall Street-

the New York Stock and Exchange Board.

York Stock Exchange building opened at the 18 Broad Street.

1835- The great ﬁre of 1835

1920- There was an explosion at

destroyed about 700 buildings in the lower Manhattan wherein the Wall Street suﬀered numerous losses.

1837- Samuel Morse started a

J.P Morgan. There was a wagon parked in front of Assay Office that exploded. The explosion was so strong that it echoed through the streets and also sent a car flying into the 34th floor of the Equitable Building. Thirty people were killed in the explosion and many were left injured. Investigations claimed that the attack was aimed at the J.P Morgan's bank.

Birth of the Stock Ticker-

The Crash of 1929-

wars, when England planned to attack and thus constructed a wooden wall as a defence. The wall featured cannons and extended between two gates.

1867- The stock ticker was introduced on the Wall Street. It was the invention of Edward A Calahan of the American Telegraph Company.

1929- The Stock market had

1711- The Wall Street was named as the main site for governmentsanctioned slave market in the New York City.

1870- The ﬁrst Wall Street stock brokerage owned by women was opened.

Wall Street as a Wooden Wall1652- During the Anglo-Dutch

1732- An attempt was made for the

creation of the ﬁrst public library by Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts which is located in City Hall on Wall Street.

1817- The Buttonwood traders used the Philadelphia Merchants Exchange as a model and created their own version and named it as 36

telegraph demonstration oﬃce on the Wall Street. The Brokers welcomed the telegraph and the area soon started ﬁlling with telegraph wires that allowed brokerages to communicate.

surged as much as 50% starting in the year 1928. But it came to an end shortly. The day is now called as the Black Friday and was the day when the market dropped by 11%. Almost 16 million shares were traded away and the market lost $30 million.

1882- The ﬁrst electricity plant was launched on the Pearl Street by Thomas Edison that powered 7,200 lamps on the Wall Street.

1987- The Wall Street again

1889- The Wall Street Journal

2001- This year the ﬁnancial

debuted that had a two-cent cover price. The most popular feature was the 'Dow-Jones Industrial Average'.

1903- NYSE opens. After almost

two years of construction, the New

experienced one of the largest single-day crashes and faced $500 billion losses. district faced terror attacks. This resulted in over 2996 deaths and 6000 injuries; it also destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center. December 2019

At a Glance

www.theenterpriseworld.com

NI OLE Nicole Martin

Chief Empowerment Oﬃcer & Founder

HRBoost

“

The greatest enemy of success is fear 38

December 2019

MARTIN I

E M P OW E R I N G H R SYST E M S

f you want to build an HR Department that is efficient in all its way, it takes a lot of patience, time and most importantly planning. For most business owners, hiring a full time HR representative may seem like an easy job and an immediate solution for most of their work problems. But for the practitioners, organizing HR and making it work effectively requires time and careful consideration. With this, to organize an HR department also requires a neat plan to identify the flaws and correct them when necessary. HRBoost LLC is one such Shared Services HR firm specializing in building HR from scratch and implementing practices that add value. Nicole Martin founded HRBoost in July 2010. As the Founder and CEO (Chief Empowerment Officer), she has the privilege of leading a highperformance team of HR leaders to partner with businesses and meet them wherever they are on their journey to being a best place to work. They have experienced tremendous growth and proudly nearly ever client has been sourced via word of mouth. “Our Boosters are experienced and provide custom human resource www.theenterpriseworld.com

solutions, systems, training and support to develop and optimize your investment in people.” The CompanyHRBoost has served businesses spanning various industry sectors. Their clients have included Professional Services, Non-Profit, High Tech, Manufacturing, Staffing firms, Hospitality and Healthcare environments to name a few. Their clients are typically high growth businesses with 50 to 250 employees, though they have served smaller (10 to 20 employee) and (20-40 employee) Small Business Bundle clients and larger businesses with up to 500 employees on a project basis. HRBoost specializes in building HR departments from scratch and is proudly recognized as a 2017 Annual Awardee for Business Excellence (AABE) by the Daily Herald Business Ledger. When she started it, Nicole’s business had high growth and with high growth comes challenge. She had to get access to financing, attract skilled talent that believed in the brand promise, and the most difficult challenge was overcoming fear. Being a disruptor in the industry, you can get attention from big competition and calls can come in for acquisition before you even

realize you are profitable. Staying true to the vision, personal values and keeping the faith led to a solid team, and together they were able to bring joy and purpose to people through their work. But what triggered the growth of the company was in 2012, when Nicole learned what HR outsourcing was through many of her introductions and engagements. Having always been in-house HR, her perspective on HR was nearly 11 HR strategic areas and through discussions with prospective executives, she came across others that were selling “HR” but it was not “HR” as she knew it. Their ServicesHRBoost has diversified their offerings by allowing clients to engage them on an ala carte, project, or retainer basis. This provides multiple ways in which clients can choose to contract with HRBoost. Whether they are a small, growing business or a large, corporate employer, we can address their specific needs at a price point and service level that is customized for them to maximize their investment. Tools are only as good as the people behind them. With the future of work ahead of us, the 39

Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders external influences do enough to keep you innovating. By pulsing in conversation with their clients, the customer centric approach keeps them focused on delivering services the clients need to embrace change in the workplace at a pace that is necessary today. What the future holdsHRBoost has a new product launch coming in 2020. It is the Facilitator's license program and materials for Facilitators, Trainers and the HR and/or business community to license HRBoost’s complete program for an Organizational Leadership System program offering they call Character-Based Capitalism. The program will feature the training presentations, tools, exercises, and materials to create organizational leadership in businesses today. The complete Facilitators program will be offered nationally. Organizational Leadership builds upon the premise of capitalism with intention to build great companies by driving profitability and sustainability through tenets and practices of shared leadership and Character-Based Capitalism. Breaking the mould from the simple definition of capitalism, the Character-Based Capitalism is built to engage leaders at all levels, build organizational knowledge, align the workforce with organizational purpose, and establish a characterbased culture of performance excellence. At its core, organizational leadership is rooted in the term “Character-Based Capitalism” to describe the beliefs, principles, and practices unique to the framework of four pillars of high performance companies embracing Character-Based Capitalism. The system itself has 40

been built over the course of a decade and has been tested and proven within the middle market and municipal business environments where leaders were dedicated to building high performing organizations. With this new offering, the company will enable the training and facilitators across our great country partnering with businesses to build aligned workforces for the conscious businesses of tomorrow. “I think we have endless tools, resources, and relationships that keep us constantly innovating.” Nicole Martin- More than an Entrepreneur “I like to believe we are all leaders from wherever we stand.” Nicole entered the job market right after high school and was more interested in being self-sufficient. She was promoted right into an HR role at 18. That hands-on experience led to her first role in management at the age of 23. She learned that early experience is priceless, and education was the ticket to play the game. When she was promoted to the role of a Director, she thought nothing of being the sole woman on what had been a purely male management team. With no intentions of growing a business, she turned her former CEO into her first client postrecession. Her vision was to find another CEO that wanted to be an employer of choice and build it from scratch all over again. She feels that “It’s exciting and you can feel the difference when you walk in the door of a high growth business.” “Looking back, I now consider

myself an accidental entrepreneur.” As diverse as she is, Nicole’s entrepreneurial journey is just the same. It was 2 years after she founded HRBoost. “I remember feeling delighted when I proved the concept and the business model had proven value in the clients’ eyes.” Her ﬁrst client wanted to invest in her business, when she still perceived herself as a Consultant. It took a year to see in the mirror what he saw in me. About the same time, she was aiming to pay herself what she had earned in Corporate when she was approached for acquisition. The Team and the Race“I trust my team and I further trust my clients.” The team is extremely unique. Every Dedicated Team brings a minimum of 40 years of experience to a client. Furthermore, collaboration is a cornerstone to our success. We are not just responsive rather we are proactive. We all understand transactional tactical HR work is essential, but it must meet strategic and transformational work to add value. “I play fair and I don’t keep pace with the rat race.” If “constant vigilance” means continually being on watch or guard against threat, then that is not the need as Nicole never perceives threat. She remains open and honest and seeks feedback from peers in her ﬁeld and C-Suite community. Everyone and everything are interdependent. So, she prefers to think critical evaluation is a strategy and allowing collaboration to mean shared creation. December 2019

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uman Resources plays a vital role, forming the core of any organization. It has always played a supportive role in the growth of any organization. The Human Resources department should be able to effectively maximize the performance of the employees and also play a critical role for the benefit of the company’s aims and objectives. To help companies grow and help them rise above the hurdles that might stop them, Jim Woods started the Woods Kovalova Group. Legend has it that Woods Kovalova Group was first started in 1998 with a hike in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. The journey thus stated in 1998. Their first customer on the first day was a Fortune 500 company. The company didn’t have a business card or name. Having started from the ground up by focusing on principles and mission literally, Woods Kovalova Group now works with clients from the US government to major corporations merged with KLC Group from Europe, giving them access to more opportunities. Today, they have customers from every continent. Woods Kovalova Group helps people improve the quality of their lives and organizations drive business outcomes and help people achieve their potential. Woods Kovalova Group helps clients unlock the

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Remarkable Stories of Determined Business Leaders power to answer the pressing challenges that many businesses face. People-centered solutions can help the clients innovate better, ensure change programs deliver, even give customer service programs the best chance of success. Overall, Woods Kovalova Group makes your organization more competitive at every point in the economic cycle. They take on your most pressing leadership challenges to solve what matters most. The company has grown faster than they had anticipated. This required the team to focus on hiring consultants who had experience from some of the top names in consulting but at the same times those who shared their unique vision. Determined to help the companies grow to its full potential, Woods Kovalova Group goes below the surface of the problem that clients experience. They explored the issues of trust, accountability, honesty, and engagement. This led to the growth of not just their business, but of their clients as well. Woods Kovalova Group’s major oﬀerings are leadership and employee engagement training. However, since the merger, what has separated their company from others is their ability to uncover the root cause of a problem. The company has it all to help their clients – strategy development and execution, teams hiring, training and development, organizational change and optimization, etc. All and more, every case is unique to the organization and complexity of service is aimed to help clients to exceed their expectations, improve operations and increase the bottom line. 44

“If your life or businesses do not match what you believe they should speak with us.” The Woods Kovalova Group’s customized services allow organizations to develop the leadership competencies and culture needed to meet specific challenges and business realities. For each client, their approach is consistent but the outcome is one of a kind. Whether developing talent, culture or the leadership strategy that delivers on your business strategy, Woods Kovalova Group can meet you where you are and help take you where you want to go. Woods Kovalova Group is the trusted advisors to Fortune 1000 clients to improve their competitive advantage, affirmative action plans, and improve the leadership capabilities of their people with the ability to out-innovate competitors. Woods Kovalova Group has successfully enabled business leaders and career-focused individuals to improve the quality of their lives and their business. They use video conferencing to raise the awareness of their career coaching clients with unique tools to stay focused, driven and fulfilled in their relationships. The company provides empowerment to overcome limitations, fear, and self-doubt. Located in the Denver Tech Building in Denver, Colorado, Woods Kovalova Group is a family-run, minority and womanowned company applying the best tools and methodologies of larger consultancies in the nimble environment—and with the

personalized attention—of a smaller ﬁrm. A simple mantra that has worked for the company to keep its services on par is, see the need, get to know the problem and create a solution accordingly. From the USA to Kenya, the UK to Saudi Arabia, Canada to Brazil, they have worked with each of them to understand their needs, build trust with their stakeholders, solve their most urgent problems and create the value they need to be successful. AN ENTREPRENEURIAL PASSION WITH A LEARNER'S MINDSET The team members push towards achieving the collective purpose. They recognize that their eﬀorts must fundamentally connect throughout the organization to achieve a greater impact. They are adept at working cross-functionally and acknowledge the contributions. You can expect team members to always thrive to achieve beer results. They are passionate, resourceful and resilient to setbacks. They believe in positively transforming people’s lives and careers through continuous learning. They inspire others to grow outside of their comfort zone. Woods Kovalova Group team members never compromise integrity to achieve results. They support the customer and each other and are constantly mindful of creating a positive customer experience both internally and externally.

December 2019

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Ways to Evaluate a Market

December 2019

hen one thinks of starting a new business, or just expanding the current one, the market plays an important role. So before you take any leap, you must study the market thoroughly. Here are some ways you can evaluate the market. With a thorough market evaluation, one can appropriately determine the opportunity, value, risks, the consumer purchasing behaviour, the competition in the market and other important factors that might aﬀect the growth of the business. Now why is market analysis important? It is necessary as a market analysis will put your customer ﬁrst. Thus a market analysis will allow you to optimize the service or the product you are

selling. As it is, the market analysis is not just extrinsic, but even intrinsic. So it will help you to look at your product closely and how it makes your customers feel. Here are a few points you can consider when evaluating a market• A thorough research on the customers and the competitionWhen evaluating a market, you need to closely look at the customers and the competition. When you think of expanding in a market, you need to understand the potential of the market and decide whether such a market is worthwhile for the product and the company in an overview. And for this, you will have to identify your customers, while also considering the urgency of the product in the market. You also need to keep in mind the customer motivation, i.e. what is the job the customer wants to get done? And what could be the possible barriers that are curbing the consumption?

• A high-level view of the marketWhen evaluating a market, taking a close look at the customers and the competition is not enough. You also need to have an understanding of the market as a whole. This is necessary as you will get the idea and potential of success in the market. This way you won't be trapped into thinking that a few points increase is enough, when there is a much more potential to the market. You can consider the following high-level questions when analyzing the market. • What is the size of the market? • How quickly is the market changing? • What is the bargaining power of the suppliers? • How intense is the competition? • Exploring Other OpportunitiesFor a winning opportunity in business, you can also pursue other opportunities. Such opportunities can help you achieve a sustainable and profitable growth. So if you keep your finger on the pulse of the market, it will help you keep a dynamic approach and you can profitably outgrow your rivals by expanding outside your core business. • Understanding Business Environment FactorsFor a good company performance, you also need to understand all the other business environment factors. These include• Technological advancements • Regulations by the Government • Economic scenario • Trade and other policies. Thus, a thorough market research and evaluation will help you set your niche in the market and also keep you up with the strategies to grow and expand your business.

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