The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022.pdf

www.insightssuccess.com
VOL-07 | ISSUE-02 | 2022
A Highly Proﬁcient and Visionary Fintech Leader
Wayne Zwiers,
Founder
Basalt Technology
The 10
Most
Inspiring
Tech
Leaders
to Watch, 2022

A Combination
of Technology
and Great
Product Delivery
Editor’s Desk
Raunak Mhetre
Raunak

e are surrounded by technology. In the world
Wwe dwell in, we are constantly flocked by
software and products with tech as their base
ingredient. The work that goes behind putting out a product
that feels smooth and simple for the average user is huge to
fathom. Engineers and Computer Architects work around
the clock putting their ideas and technical knowledge into a
piece of technology to solve the real-world better than
anyone else. They strive to create experiences that make our
daily lives easier. While this picture forms the background,
there is a focal point to this story.
When the finest engineers around the world are at their
absolute best, putting out cutting-edge technologies, week-
in and week-out, there has to be a leader who knows to
bridge the process and people, which forms a formidable
duo. A technological leader or tech leader is a developer
and commercializer fit into a single role that brings out the
best results keeping in mind the technical as well as
relatable aspects. A leader in this position secures the
existence of a successful ecosystem driven by technology in
addition to producing products.
Looking into the process of generating tech products,
engineers form the core of each department. They build
from scratch, creating extraordinary products that we use
every day. Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, the
greatest companies in the world, are based upon the
principle of delivering value to consumers in an easy and
affordable way. For technicians, the joy of creating
problem-solving tech is what drives them to innovate and
re-innovate every day.
A wise leader lets the product creators use their imagination
to fuel the machine of creativity to produce fine products
that appeal to the users. When there is a free hand to deliver
great products, great ideas flourish.
A leader is the one who fuses the creative talent to the right
process- a setting for a blockbuster tech product.
Moving on to the second process of managing the cycle that
goes on before and after the creation of new technologies,
leaders have to keep in mind some aspects. A great leader
knows the market conditions well, has a good hold of his
knowledge, and knows the exact product-market fit.
When these conditions are explained to their teams, there is
no reason why fine tech will not be created. Great
companies know how to impress their new users as well as
their loyal customer base with their new products and
services. To maintain the standards set yet produce
something that is out of the box every time is something a
leader does effortlessly. In the era-of technological
innovation, tech leaders are playing a major part in shaping
the future of the industry.
While we were searching for the best tech leaders who form
the elite class in the technological industry, we zoomed into
ten such pioneers who are making it big. The Insights
Success edition of “The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to
Watch 2022” has these leaders who are the forward
trendsetters.
Do flip in for an enriching read accompanied by some
articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXOs
crafted by the leading industry experts.
Enjoy the read!

C o n t e n t s
Anil Kumar
A Techno-Geek Setting a Glittering
Instance of Proliﬁc Leadership 18
Adela Mehic-Dzanic
14
Playing the Inﬁnite Game
Brigitte Falk
A Doyen of Management in the IT
Industry Leading by Example
26
Benjamin Buchanan
22
The Best IoT Professional
Victoria Pelletier
Bringing Information
& Opportunity Together 36
Dr.Shimrit Tzur-David
30
Providing Passwordless Authentication
Solution to Enterprises

sales@insightssuccess.com
July, 2022
Editor-in-Chief
Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager
Marketing Manager
Technical Head
Technical Specialist Digital Marketing Manager
Research Analyst
Database Management Technology Consultant
Marry D'Souza
Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors
Visualizer
David King
Art & Design Director Associate Designer
Kshitij S Peter Collins
John Matthew
Sales Executives
David, Martin
Business Development Executives
Steve, Joe
Jacob Smile
Amar Sawant Dominique T.
SME-SMO Executive
Atul Dhoran Frank Adams
Circulation Manager
Robert Brown Stella Andrew David Stokes
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Raunak Mhetre
Revati Badkas
Jenny Fernandes Anish Miller
Sandeep Tikode

Brief
Company Name
MAVOCO is a software specialist for telco BSS with the most
advanced IoT Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) for
cellular networks.
Featured Person
Movoco AG
mavoco.com
Aimée Madden,
Head of CSP segment
Cavisson is a leading full-stack software provider of
application performance testing, monitoring and diagnostics
technology.
Cavisson Systems Inc.
cavisson.com
Anil Kumar,
Founder, Chairman
and CTO
SBT Alliance partners with small, medium, and Fortune 500
customers to design, deploy, and support IoT-enabled solutions,
systems, devices and technologies.
SBT
(Smarter Building Technologies)
Alliance
sbt-alliance.com
Benjamin Buchanan,
CEO
FORCAM supports companies with innovative digitalization
solutions to successfully master the digital transformation
towards the Smart Factory and to solve three key challenges of
today and tomorrow.
Forcam
forcam.com
Brigitte Falk,
CIO and COO
Secret Double Octopus made its mission to break the traditional
paradigm of cybersecurity that bonds better security with
higher friction and costs.
Secret Double Octopus
Dr. Shitmrit Tzur- David
Thrive Partners on-demand digital coaching, learning, and
mentoring platform
Thrive Partners
thrivepartners.co.uk
Pam Bateson,
CEO
Acin helps ﬁrms objectively manage the risk control landscape,
based on a network of the peers and serves as the foundation
for more objective decision-making.
Acin
Acin.com
Paul Ford,
CEO
Stratum emerged in 2017 from the need of growing and
internationalization of CoinBR, a company active in
cryptoeconomics since 2013 and which sought foreign
investments to expand its business and reach new markets.
Stratum Blockchain Group
stratum.bt
Rocelo Lopes,
CEO and Founder
For more than a century IBM has been dedicated to every
client's success and to creating innovations that matter for the
world.
IBM
www.ibm.com
Victoria Pelletier,
Vice President and
Senior Partner,
North American Talent and
Transformational Leader
Basalt is a global Fintech studio focusing on designing and
developing digital banking and insurance solutions for the
future.
Basalt
basalt.co
Wayne Zwiers,
CEO and Founder
The 10
Most
Inspiring
Tech
Leaders
to Watch, 2022

he only way to discover your limits is to go beyond
Tthem. “Limits are created by society. People who
surpass these limits have the potential to move
beyond the possible to achieve the impossible, but it
requires leaning into discomfort.” Throughout his career in
digital marketing and technology services, Wayne Zwiers,
CEO & Founder of Basalt Technology, realised the gap
for a bespoke software company that could provide quality
code on time and on budget. With 85% of all digital
transformation projects failing (as Forbes recently
reported), there was a huge gap for highly-skilled engineers
that deliver projects that succeed.
Zwiers saw the gap in the market and decided to start his
own technology consultancy. And today, Basalt Technology
is an award-winning software development consultancy that
brings the best engineering talent together to disrupt the
Financial Services Industry, offering a comprehensive suite
of custom software development services, ranging from
rapid MVP development to custom re-engineering, testing,
and UX design.
With over 12 years of experience in the technology space,
Wayne's long-term vision for Basalt is to bridge the gap
between the haves and have-nots through technology –
solving challenges not only within the financial space but
also within the housing, water, sanitation, and education
sectors, to name a few.
Start of the Dream
Wayne originally started off in the creative field,
specialising in fine art, until he moved to the UK. Once
there, he took on a client service and business development
role in a digital marketing agency. And just like that, he was
hooked. He loved being involved in the end-to-end
development of each website, application, or solution he
worked on.
Moving up and into an MD role in various digital marketing
agencies in South Africa and the UK, his fascination with
the development side of projects intensified. But he became
aware of inefficiencies in the IT consulting space with
unnecessary processes and blockers that slowed down
projects and caused delays. Wayne wanted to build utilities
that truly answered real-world problems for people and that
would change people's lives and behaviour, so he decided to
start his own disruptive technology company. “There was a
massive opportunity to revolutionise the financial services
industry through technology, but the IT consultancy models
out there were complicated, large, and badly structured to
deliver. By aligning skilled, small autonomous teams
around a central user goal, we were able to embed ourselves
in our clients' businesses and deliver software that answered
to the end-user needs as well as delivered commercial
success for the client,” says Zwiers.
Leaning Into Discomfort
Zwiers recognises that the road to success is often not
smooth. “Things don't happen overnight, and the
entrepreneur journey certainly has its ups and downs, but I
am lucky to have found a great team and some loyal clients
that have supported me along my journey,” says Zwiers.
This solutions-oriented mindset has served him well in life
and in business and has been the driving force behind his
success. He says that finding like-minded people with a
shared purpose is the true challenge. Finding the right
clients and team members and scaling a business effectively
(whilst maintaining a strong culture) requires constant
effort. Luckily, Wayne is surrounded by advisers and highly
skilled people that give straight and direct feedback and are
invested in growing the business and its people.
Defeating Old Ways with Tech
A guiding principle at Basalt is to identify time-
consuming/onerous tasks and then remove human
dependency through automation. The net result is improved
efficiency. Basalt hires highly skilled engineers who find
opportunities to improve how people work and build
solutions to meet these needs. This ensures that Basalt
builds intentional technology for the greater good, rather
than building projects with minimal ROI or impact.
Surprisingly, about 70% of digital transformation projects
fail to deliver on business success due to inadequate
planning, resourcing, and processes. Basalt focuses on the
30% of projects that succeed, with a proven process for
delivery, on time, every time.
Ideology of Basalt
The Financial Services industry is still contending with
legacy systems, red tape, regulations, and compliance - at
the expense of innovation. Creating software is complex,
and people often get it wrong. Due to unknowns, blockers,
inexperience, and bad decisions, projects go way over
budget and deadlines. There are a lot of software
development companies out there, but where projects fail,
it's mainly due to a lack of communication and

misalignment. Basalt hires highly specialised small teams
that work autonomously to help their client deliver and
remove blockers in the way.
Culture is What Really Matters
“Culture is like a shadow; it is dynamic and
changes with time,” says Zwiers. Since Covid,
businesses were forced to go fully remote, and
Basalt was no exception. Thankfully, the company
quickly shifted the business online with no
downtime. However, the company faced
challenges in creating a culture remotely. It is
constantly working to ensure its team members are
working seamlessly, taking mental breaks, and not
becoming overloaded.
Learnings and Wise Words
In Wayne's words, “Leadership is less about what you do at

work and more about what you do when you are not at
work. It requires constant investment in yourself to ensure
you create an environment where people can thrive, develop
and grow. No textbook can teach someone to build and run
a successful startup. It's a lot of internal strength and
resilience to know how and when to pivot.
Building a successful company is not done by one person
but by a collective of many great and talented individuals,
working together in synchronicity to deliver on a shared
vision. Business leaders of the future need to have a great
Vision and make sure that all stakeholders buy into that
vision.”
Bound to Changes
The technology landscape is constantly evolving. “We see
many trends with RegTech becoming critically important, in
terms of compliance and legalities around usage of
personal data and security. As we evolve into AI, machine
learning, open banking, and blockchain, we need to ensure
innovative technologies meet compliance regulations, and
it's a constant balancing act,” says Zwiers. Basalt is
currently building a Procure Tech solution to align
institutions and suppliers through streamlined work
processes regarding RFP and RFQ workflows, which
involves a thorough understanding of all privacy legalities
to automate the process for clients.
Another key change in the IT consultancy sector will be
hiring and retention. There has always been a shortage of
high-skilled talent around the globe, and the next
innovations will be around effective talent sourcing and
retention. Wayne and his team are seeing a multi-sourcing
approach to ensure the best engineers are allocated to the
projects, where collaborative projects with tech companies,
banks, and consultants are becoming the norm.
Earned Respect in Society
Basalt has partnered with top banks and insurance
companies in South Africa to build some of the most
innovative solutions on the market, having been awarded
accolades as African Tech company of the Year in 2020 and
Top Tech CEO of the year in 2021. But ,Wayne and his
team prefer to measure their success by the impactful
technology they have built. Recently, Basalt worked on a
project with one of the largest banks in South Africa that
changed how small 'unbanked' business owners could make
and track payments - all from their mobile phones, allowing
them to save admin time and unnecessary costs and truly
streamline their businesses. The Basalt team members fully
immerse themselves into the client's world, from
understanding the core systems that the platform had to
integrate with, to making educated decisions on the best
possible way forward with respect to those integration
patterns.
The organisation is also actively involved in NGO work. Its
recent project with Book Village, an NGO focused on
childhood education, is revolutionising how children learn
through online content and democratising education. The
online application assists learners with their reading
challenges and difficulties by allowing students to access a
large amount of digital content with the assistance of an
online tutor. Basalt built a functional MVP for Book Village
to take to market and get investors. The focus was to select
a number of key features to be able to get a workable
version out in a short period of time. Basalt is currently
building out the application further, as Book Village
successfully landed their investment.
As Zwiers says, “Technology can fundamentally change
people's lives for the better - and we are privileged to get to
work on a variety of projects from grassroots to big
investment and wealth management portals that
significantly impact the end consumer.”
What's in Store!
Taking the South African Talent learnings and successes,
the company is scaling its business to the rest of the world
and expanding further into the UK and Europe. EMEA is a
mature Fintech market and benefits from the same time
zone and language (native English) as South Africa, not to
mention the exchange rates creates a cost-effective arbitrage
model for European clients.

Adela Mehic-Dzanic
Head of CSP segment
MAVOCO AG
July 2022 | 14 | www.insightssuccess.com

Adela Mehic-Dzanic
Playing the Infinite Game
t is a characteristic of leader that he or she is motivated
Iby the spirit of contribution to the society by using
technological advancements. This is what makes him
or her an influential leader. Giving back and serving the
community are essential traits of an influential leader. Such
a leader wants to be part of something great and make the
world a better place. Adela Mehic-Dzanic genuinely
believes in giving back and serving the community. Apart
from making the impact within the industry, Adela, the
Head of CSP segment at MAVOCO AG works making
sure each customer of MAVOCO AG loves company’s
software. She is actively involved within two communities,
WU Executive Academy Female Leaders Network as well
the Businesswomen of BiH (as the Vice President), with the
mission to empower, connect and share among themselves;
under the motto “Together we are stronger.”
Apart from that, Adela has started her mission “1000
Women” to share her career story and inspire more women
to pursue the career in the Tech industry and to follow their
dreams. As we all know it, the role models, and stories we
share to lift one another are crucial and that is why Adela is
committed to working with the future leaders, be it through
her mission or serving as a mentor in the various
communities, such as the BOSNIA and Herzegovina
Futures Foundations as well the WomenTech Network.
Passionate About Technology
Adela’s journey started back in 2015 when she joined the
Tele2 M2M /IoT Global Unit as a Solution Consultant
responsible for the CEE (Central Eastern Europe) market.
This took her career to a whole new level and enabled her
to work with customers and partners looking to launch
global IoT solutions for the very first time. As for someone
who is passionate about people and technology and
committed to making the world a better place, IoT is the
place to be. Her recent move to the software company
MAVOCO AG was a strategic move to go even deeper into
the world of Data and IoT platforms and influencing the
Telecom industry while deploying the connectivity
management platform of the new generation.
Huge Market Presence
Adela says that MAVOCO AG’s core market includes
world largest telecom operators that are using the
company’s connectivity management platform &
subscription billing software to manage, analyze and bill
their subscribers. However, the very same platform and its
capabilities are perfectly suited to be deployed for the needs
of the global MVNOs as well the large Enterprises (such as
the Automotive industry sector) who have the volume and
resources to manage their own connectivity deployment. At
the end of the day, it is a matter of configuration. MAVOCO
AG is currently working with the customers and partners
that bought the private 5G license and they as well have the
needs of managing their connectivity and their customer
base.
Appreciating Culture of Experimentation
Adela believes that passion, vision, perseverance, and
generosity are the essential traits every leader should
possess. She is currently reading this book from Simon
Sinek “The Infinite Game” and she highly recommends it to
every business leader. Adela believes that the culture of
failure and experimentation and playing the infinite game is
beneficial. She asks to experiment, be open to new ideas,
collaborate with the startups and be ready to try it all over
again as well to pivot. It is a greenfield and the rules are yet
to be written. She suggests looking beyond one industry and
to be curious about the other industries and their approaches
to tackling the challenges.
Empowering Employees
There are endless ways to create new sets of data and start
or apply a new model. The data can be re-created, as it is
not a limited resource.
Adela considers it is important to empower one’s
employees, set high priorities on diversity and inclusion,
and make sure that the product reflects one’s customers.
Unfortunately, we still read about too many examples
where women are completely left out and women are the
half of population. Adela thinks that women must be at the
The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022

table discussing the products and services meant to make
their lives better.
From Adela’s experience, a healthy company culture with
strong values and a vision is way more than just profit and a
short-term game. Of course, with the opportunities to grow,
leaders do take time for their employees and create a culture
where they feel appreciated and safe to raise their voices
and have their opinions heard. It is not about the ping-pong
table, free coffee, and goodies. Quite the opposite.
Being Updated with Latest Technologies
Adela keeps herself updated with the latest technologies
using books, workshops, trainings, podcasts, magazines,
LinkedIn community and respective feeds as well as
various groups and communities focused on the specifics,
such as IoT, AI and Data science etc. She tends to mix it up
and use the best of all the options available out there.
Gratitude to Colleagues, Mentors, and Managers
Throughout her career, Adela has been the only woman and
the youngest team member, as well woman in tech and
working in the multicultural environment. It was not once
that she would get a reply to her email as “Mr.” and during
the customer meetings that they would ask her male
colleague to answer the technical question, even though he
was in sales. On the other hand, it was a major advantage,
and she feels grateful for the colleagues, mentors and
managers who believed in her from the day one and
cultivated the culture of talents, hard work and supportive
environment.
Valuing Culture, People and Values
If there is one advice Adela would like to give to her
younger self is to choose wisely your boss and the
company, you are joining. Back in 2014 when she moved to
Austria from her home country Bosnia and Herzegovina,
and when deciding the company to join, her priority was the
culture, people, and the values. Once she felt aligned with
those values, she did not think for a second and used every
single opportunity along the way, to grow, learn and
connect. Then it is true what they say, nothing is
impossible.

“Think bigger
than you can
imagine, keep
your eyes open
and push through
against all odds.
Then the
opportunities will
come!”

Engineering
is in our DNA.
“ “

Benjamin Buchanan
The Best IoT Professional
Over the years, many technological innovations
quickly rose to prominence but ended up falling off
just as fast. What happens to those systems
beyond? Odds are those systems no longer work, leaving
those businesses up a creek without a paddle! That’s why
Benjamin Buchanan, Chief Executive Officer sets out to
create something better, something smarter at SBT
(Smarter Building Technologies) Alliance.
An interview conducted between Benjamin Buchanan and
Insights Success identifies his leadership development by
fully embracing innovative thinking and building an all-star
team to help drive the SBT mission forward. Below are the
highlights of the interview:
Kindly take us through your journey to becoming a
proficient tech business leader.
From my humble beginnings in this industry as a project
designer, I saw the importance of working hard to bring the
customer more than what they expected and making their
project truly valuable. There are plenty of examples of
projects built with cheap products, and I knew the customer
had left so much on the table. So I made it my purpose to
educate myself on all the technology available to marry
them with the customer’s needs perfectly. This technology-
first approach guided me from lighting into the world of
wireless IoT systems and now is a cornerstone to SBT’s
mission, bringing true value through technology to our
customers and suppliers alike.
What business roadblocks or challenges have you faced?
And how did you overcome them?
As with any business, leadership position, or professional
role within an organization, roadblocks and challenges are
abound – there’s simply no way around it. You’re going to
hit roadblocks and confront challenges – be it cash flow,
funding, sales, employee relations, productivity, etc. The
question then becomes, will you persevere, or will you let
them defeat you and knock you down? Perseverance and
persistence is the path to success, in my opinion.
It is only through perseverance and persistence that I’ve
overcome business (and personal) roadblocks and
challenges.
How do you diversify your organization’s offerings to
entice the target audience?
SBT is committed to a business model that is product and
technology agnostic. This approach allows our product and
IoT solutions teams to engineer solutions for clients that
answer specific data-related questions about their facilities
while also solving critical business challenges. A one-size-
fits-all approach simply doesn’t work in the sphere of IoT
and technology-led solutions. It sounds nice, but proper IoT
solutions are an amalgamation of many technologies,
devices systems, and solutions that, when pulled together,
create the enticing solution offering that meets our target
audiences’ needs. That’s why we stand out with our clients;
we don’t try to sell them something they don’t need. We
partner with them to solve business and operational
challenges and design a mix of solutions to achieve that
goal.
What culture change do you suggest for companies that
want to embrace the full power of AI?
The full power of AI, machine learning, and the Internet of
Things (IoT), more broadly, honestly depends on each
customer’s needs. In B2B – which is the sphere that SBT
operates – it isn’t necessarily a question of culture change,
rather a better understanding and realization of what’s
possible when using the advanced technologies of IoT to
solve business challenges. It is more about education and
proof points.
What are the vital traits that every business leader
should possess?
Leaders in any business setting should encompass some of
the following traits/approaches, as I’ve identified in my
own leadership development and shared by many of my
leadership mentors within the business community. I chalk
these traits into five vital characteristics of successful
leaders:

Benjamin Buchanan,
Chief Executive Oﬃcer,
SBT (Smarter Building Technologies)

that allows folks to contribute and help SBT deliver on our
mission and reach our vision to transform how IoT
products, services, and technologies are delivered to the
market and optimized by customers.
Where are you focusing your energy now, and where do
you hope to make an impact next?
Right now, we are in the whirlwind that comes with scaling
a technology-focused company. I am keen to drive SBT
forward to continue making the impact we are for our
customers, industry partners, and the facility management
space as a whole. My immediate energy is focused on
continuing to build an all-star team of SBT team members
who evoke our CIVIC values as a company and as
individuals. These include:
Ÿ Commitment
Ÿ Integrity
Ÿ Value
Ÿ Innovation
Ÿ Community
“
SBT partners with
small, medium,
and Fortune 500s
to create smart
spaces that future-
proof businesses.
1. Effective leaders need the ability to streamline and clarify
the complex.
2. Passionate leaders must fully embrace new thinking –
that’s what primes innovation.
3. Confident leaders must have both self-assurance and
humility – they inspire, not belittle.
4. Compassionate leaders must set high standards but
modesty to admit when wrong.
5. Responsible leaders need to be honest, truthful, and
transparent – that’s what builds trust.
How do you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest
technology?
As a technology-forward company, SBT and our team
technicians and IoT thinkers keep me in the know, along
with our industry partners with whom I continually meet.
As I mentioned earlier, the SBT model focuses on product
and technology agnosticism, so we’re continually meeting
exciting new technology companies and learning how they
approach IoT, AI, and machine learning. To me, there’s no
better way to keep up to date than getting right in there and
being hands-on with innovators as SBT does every day.
What does it take to attract and retain tech talents?
As I mentioned earlier in this conversation, it is my firm
belief that if a leader takes to heart the five vital
characteristics that I reviewed, they will set the stage and
environment that will attract, retain, and encourage tech
(and non-tech) talents. It’s about building an atmosphere

prominent personality in the international IT
AIndustry, Brigitte Falk is setting a striking instance
of impactful leadership. Brigitte brings 25 years of
management experience in the IT industry to the table.
Currently, she is serving as CIO and COO at a IIoT
software company FORCAM, with a strong focus on the
innovation environment, digitalization, and agile working
methods.
Brigitte started her professional career in 1996 at SAP as
Product Manager Oil and Gas. During her tenure over, she
worked in corporate development, innovation management
and event management. In 2004, she took over the Business
Operations department as Marketing Director. Having
worked for several years there was a substantial learning
experience accompanied by management & leadership
techniques, innovation methodologies, product management
know-how, intercultural and interdisciplinary teams.
After graduating with Malik MZSG Executive Diploma,
Brigitte Falk founded the Simplicity Company to support
consulting firms, analysts and investment banks with
strategic consulting worldwide. In 2014, she took over
global responsibility for Marketing & Sales Applications at
Celesio AG (today McKesson Europe). In 2017, she was
appointed Division Lead Organization & Information of
CRONIMET Holding GmbH.
Brigitte's interdisciplinary studies of arts, humanities, and
natural sciences, complemented by an open spirit, are the
foundation of where she is today. She inculcates strategic
thinking through work with venture capitalist in a startup
environment, followed by taking on European ecommerce
IT assignment in a challenging environment. Her
achievements have been reflected over the last three years
as “CIO of the year 2018” (CIO Magazine Germany), “CIO
of the year 2019” (Bonhill – Women in IT Awards Europe),
and “CIO of the Decade 2020 Germany” (Confare & EY).
Customer Centric Approach
FORCAM FORCE™ is the first turnkey and manufacturer-
independent IT platform for the industrial Internet of
Things (IIoT). The company's claim that it delivers results
in productivity remains a solid foundation since its
establishment in 2001. Almost two decades ago, FORCAM
celebrated its debut and first deployment at Mercedes-Benz.
The iconic automobile company has since celebrated many
accolades, including the “Factory of the Year” award in
2007, 2008, and 2012. The most recent award in 2020 is the
Manufacturing Leadership Partner Award by the National
Association of Manufacturers.
Since then, the company has evolved into a comprehensive
IIoT solution partner with a high-performance
manufacturing 4.0 platform and a vital ecosystem. Today,
its turnkey and freely extensible cloud platform is used by
large and medium-sized companies including Lockheed
Martin Audi, BMW, BorgWarner, Daimler, KUKA, Pratt &
Whitney, Schaeffler, Swarovski and many more.

Today, more than 100,000 machines are monitored with
FORCAM technology worldwide.
Having Brigitte at the helm, the company is about to launch
two new IIoT product lines by introducing “Customer
centricity” as guiding principle. They are based on
Ÿ market gap: connecting supposedly “non-connectable”
older brownﬁeld machines to the internet (FORCAM
FORCE EDGE) and leverage their data potential and
Ÿ the need for fast, easy and low-cost connection of
production lines of SMEs or smaller subsidiaries to the
internet (FORCAM FORCE SaaS)
A Culture Change to be Adopted
According to Brigitte, to embrace full power of AI,
companies must show openness towards disruptive business
models and the respective digital transformation across all
parts of the business. They should unlock the hidden
potential of their current staﬀ, encourage them to take on
bigger tasks beyond their usual level of comfort, agile
principles (inspect and adapt), and take related
responsibility.
Brigi e Falk
COO and CIO
FORCAM

Besides, it is also important to attract and retain tech talents.
She mentions that for companies, it takes a bold vision,
creation of jobs for people from tech background based on
their ambitions and strengths, and encompassing
empowerment to attract and retain tech talents.
Thought Leadership in the IIoT Domain
Currently, Brigitte is focusing her energy to market the
FORCAM solution portfolio geared towards real-time data-
driven decision making on the shopfloor, grid connectivity
and machine data lake offerings as foundation. Now, all her
efforts are in the direction to drive vision and thought
leadership in the IIoT domain.
Besides, Brigitte keeps herself updated with the latest
technological trends by reading, meeting, talking with an
outmost heterogeneous, interdisciplinary audience and
network from all over the world. She also keeps openness
for inspirations from unusual sources beyond the
mainstream.
A Take on Sound Leadership
When asked about essential traits every business leader
should possess, Brigitte is of the opinion that every leader
should focus on empowerment. They should always put
strategic thinking and innovation into practice for every
decision they take and communicate a related vision with
everyone. A sound leader is one who leads by example,
builds on trust, integrity & transparency, and actively
listens.

Dr. Shimrit Tzur-David
CSO and Co-Founder
Secret Double Octopus

Dr.Shimrit
Tzur-David
Providing Passwordless Authentication Solution to Enterprises
Influential business leaders are those who carry good
decision-making abilities, courage, and presence of
mind to lead businesses successfully. Those who are in
technology sector possess the ability to recognize the smart
technology that solves a real problem. They identify the
market for that need, and with their shrewd business
acumen they leverage the same to build a revolutionary
solution that solves a real problem in the market. One such
influential business leader in tech is Dr. Shimrit Tzur-
David, the CSO and Co-founder of Secret Double
Octopus. The Secret Double Octopus is the passwordless
authentication solution for the enterprises. It liberates end-
users and security teams from the burden of passwords with
the simplicity and security of strong passwordless
authentication.
In an interview with Insights Success, Dr. Shimrit Tzur-
David shares about her journey and contribution through
her leadership in Secret Double Octopus.
Below are the Highlights of the interview:
Kindly take us through your journey on becoming a
proficient tech business leader.
Since I was young, I had a passion for computers. My older
brother studies computer science and I remember that I
went through my brother’s books, began to copy code and
write it on the computer, just to see what it does. Back then,
it was clear to me that this is what I want to do in my life. I
studied computers in high school and then I completed my
BSc in Computer Science. I continued my studies to MSc
and PhD right after graduated. In my MSc and PhD, my
research focused on information security, so when I finished
my PhD, I continued my research as a post-doc researcher,
first in the Hebrew University and then in Ben Gurion
University. In my research, I thought of a new approach for
data-in-motion security that use the same algorithm that is
used today to protect the nuclear weapon launch code in the
USA. I remember the moment I told this idea to the
Professor I worked with, Prof. Dolev.
I wanted to pursue an academic career and I thought it was
a great idea academically, I wasn’t interested in a career in
industry, but Prof Dolev immediately understood it is a
great idea that can have great applications. I remember him
giving me a very intense look and saying that he thinks we
should go meet Vcs.
The rest is a history. Secret Double Octopus was founded in
2015 by me, and 3 other co-founders. Secret Double
Octopus is the Leader in Passwordless authentication for
the workforce.

We delight end users and security teams alike, by replacing
passwords across the enterprise with the simplicity and
security of strong passwordless authentication. From being
named a Gartner “Cool Vendor” in 2016, our platform is
now serving mid-sized to Fortune 50 customers around the
globe and we are backed by leading global Vcs.
What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a
corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
At ﬁrst, our product was a site-to-site security solution for
VPN. After a year, we felt we had a great product in our
hands, but customers weren’t rushing to buy it. They all
agree that we have a groundbreaking product, but the
problem it solved wasn’t a high enough priority for them.
We were running out of funds and needed to show some
success stories for the next round, and we began thinking
about pivoting. We worked on the authentication solution
which is a security risk that really bothers the industry
today. Once we had a working prototype that got popularity
in the market, we made the full pivot, and the new product
is selling very well.
We oﬀer passwordless authentication to each and every
service in the organization, including web-applications,
legacy applications, and workstations login, both for online
To success, you
must have a
smart
technology
that solves a
real problem, a
market for that
need, and a
good team.
“
“

and offline modes. Our product can be installed at the
customer pace, per-user, or per-service. In addition, the
product can be installed fully on-prem, this helps many
conservative organizations install our solution without any
fear regarding leaking information.
Besides the basic installation that includes our Octopus
mobile application, our server is FIDO certified so any
FIDO authenticator can work with our solution without the
need to use the Octopus application. In addition, many of
our customers already have a password-based MFA, such as
Okta or RSA. In that case, instead of coming with the
approach of replacing the current installation, we are
integrating with the already installed MFA to provide our
full coverage of secure passwordless authentication solution
to all services, but the users continue to use their current
way to authenticate so the transition will be transparent to
rd
the users and the customer investment on the current 3
party MFA solution won’t be lost.
What, according to you, are the vital traits that every
business leader should possess?
I think that the two most traits that a business leader should
possess are the ability to make good diagnosis and courage.
The basic 3 things that a startup should have are a smart
technology, a market, and a good team.
In some cases, the technology must be replaced along the
way, and to make that change after you invest as lot on the
current product, a business leader must have courage.
another important thing is choosing the right team to walk
with you, for that, you must have a perfect diagnosis when
it comes to people, otherwise, you can waste a lot of time
and money.
These days we are focusing on making strategic
collaborations, those that, in one hand, can sell our product
in large scales but in the other hand, will not add too much
bandwidth. In my dreams, I can see every employee that
comes into the office and logs in to the many services
without passwords at all. Secret Double Octopus breaks the
long-standing security paradigm, proving that organizations
can have better security with a better user experience while
reducing costs.

Victoria Pelletier
Vice President &
Senior Partner, North
American Talent &
Transformation Leader

June 2022 | 37 | www.insightssuccess.com
indly take us through your journey on
Kbecoming a proﬁcient tech business leader.
I have been a very early adopter of technology most of my
life, and my career has centered around technology being a
business enabler. I transitioned early in my career from
being a heavy user of technology to leading technology
teams as I transitioned into the world of Business Process
Outsourcing leading very large teams of sales, customer
service, and technical help desk operations supporting many
business clients.
My success in leadership in this space, however, has not
been by selling technology – it has been about solving
challenges for clients; understanding their strategy and pain
points and then advising and co-creating with them, the
solutions with technology, that enables the people and
processes to deliver against the strategy and outcomes
desired.
The most important criteria, in my opinion, is to understand
WHO your target audience is – what challenges they are
facing – often not a singular problem, but a multi-
dimensional problem set. Once you understand your
audience and frame their pain points, then there is an
opportunity to create a diﬀerentiated solution that targets
these challenges and tells a story about how your solutions
will solve these challenges.
In today’s changing environmental landscape, business leaders recognize that sustainability is
fundamental to remain competitive. The global pandemic is accelerating the need for digital
reinvention and adoption in the organization and has become more vital than ever.
Meanwhile, Victoria Pelletier feels fortunate working for IBM - an industry leader in IT &
Services with a phenomenal learning and skills platform. An interview conducted between
Victoria Pelletier - Vice President of Talent & Transformation for North America and Insights
Success shares her experience, feedback, and opinions to drive successful outcomes.
Bringing Information
Opportunity Together
&

‘‘
How do you keep yourself up to date with the latest
technology?
I am a voracious reader and have subscriptions to many
digital news and media publications and also have alerts set
up for many of the favorite topics that I follow. This
includes news and social posts from some of the top
technology and business leaders that I follow.
What roadblocks or challenges were faced by you in a
corporate business? And how did you overcome them?
I have faced many challenges in my career – one of the
earliest was becoming an executive at aged 24 – just a few
months after giving birth to my first child. I had to balance
an extremely demanding role with long hours and
significant travel with the needs of my young family. I have
also faced being the only woman, or one of very few, at the
executive table for a vast majority of my career and have
faced discrimination, bullying, and some mudslinging, as a
result.
I have also faced the types of challenges that I thrive in –
organizational change and transformation. I have personally
been a part of 18 mergers or acquisitions and often sat at the
heart of the integration and transition – something I deeply
love as the challenge of building something new and
different is extremely motivating to me. I have overcome
significant adversity in my life that has driven me to a
philosophy whereby I believe that I am unstoppable, always
finding solutions for the challenges I face. I live a life of
#NoExcuses - I use this hashtag liberally, signing my social
media posts with it, and even had a custom phone case
made with this motto on it!
What culture change you suggest for companies that
want to embrace the full power of AI?
I believe that there are a number of key elements to creating
a culture and environment that will be successful in both
adopting and adapting to AI in the workplace. Importantly,
it’s about creating a place that fosters a growth-mind set
with continuous learning and feedback – of creating a
vision and allowing the team to work in a very agile way to
achieve the desired outcomes. New kinds of skills are
required for this moment, especially as employees are
working outside a traditional office and increasingly apply
digital tools and emerging technology to how they work.
Also, critically important is creating an open, transparent
and empathetic culture that promotes differing points of
view, and public dissent as necessary, however, all with a
Be the type of
leader who you
needed when
you were earlier
in your career.

high degree of integrity and ethically based and data-driven
decision making.
What does it take to attract and retain tech talent?
Retaining top tech talent, and quite frankly, retaining ALL
talent across an organization, is about creating both a
positive culture and a highly engaging environment that
oﬀers career development and advancement. For leading
organizations, artiﬁcial intelligence will increasingly play
an important data-driven approach to all these areas of
personalized career and skills, compensation and
performance management, and creating an environment of
engagement and belonging.
This approach is very multi-faceted and includes strong
leadership – those operating with transparency and
authenticity and modelling the values aligned to the
business they joined. It is also about individual
development opportunities with a particular focus on skill
development and/or reskilling; this is especially important
in technology given the rapid acceleration of change and
the shortened shelf-life of skills.
Retention is also linked to transparency in performance
management and pay; that is – clarity in expectations and
goals to measure performance and doing so across a multi-
dimensional set of goals, not a singular measure and
ensuring that pay is linked to performance and also tied into
the demand for the skills that one brings to and develops in
their role. One of the most critical areas is also around
creating a place where people feel comfortable bringing
their true and authentic whole selves to the workplace.
I have been spending my time and energy very focused on
culture, talent strategy, diversity, equity and inclusion, talent
and skills development, and the enabled workforce of the
future. My role at IBM is leading our Americas Talent &
Transformation business unit supporting clients, so not only
is this a space that I am passionate about, but I get to help
companies in these areas.
A very focused area, both within and outside of IBM has
been my work on DE&I given the escalation in social
unrest and the need for better cultures and outcomes in the
workplace and in our communities. I want to have an
impact and leave a legacy around my work in creating
better workplace culture and environments to live and
thrive in.

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022.pdf

The 10 Most Inspiring Tech Leaders to Watch, 2022.pdf

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