In this issue, “The 10 Best Performing Leaders to Watch”, we’ve depicted the successful journey of some excellent leaders from diverse backgrounds that have made differences in their particular fields with their unparalleled expertise.

1. Alex Zwyer
A Novel Approach to Treating ADHD
and Spreading Hope for Brighter
Life Prospects
BEST
PERFORMING
TOWATCH,2018
10THE
July 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
CEO of the Month
Fred Schuster, CEO
Madras Global
Inspiring Minds
Successful Personality
Traits to Learn from
Elon Musk
Editor’s Choice
The Glass Ceiling Effect:
Another Perspective on
Women & Leadership
Alex Zwyer
CEO

4. Authentic
Leadership
he inevitable wave of Digitization has changed the entire model of global business. Digitization
Tcan be termed as the Catalyst of Evolution for the traditional Leadership styles. With the ever-
changing and ever-flourishing technological innovations, each and every aspect of business is on
the verge of change. Digital disruption has been embraced by an emerging class of new businesses
pertaining to its competitive advantages. This has change the entire realm of business from performance to
employee recruitment to communication. In order to make this digital journey successful, a delicate shift
in the leadership style is must.
Embracing a digital leadership style will open up a new door of opportunity and excellence. However, if
not performed with care, it might steal the authentic self of the leader. Authenticity is the proverbial Holy
Grail of Leadership. A great business author Bill George has termed it as the gold standard for leadership.
Preserving authenticity, in tune with their true self, by leveraging the best of what digital change has to
offer and, simultaneously evolving their true self in tune with digital change itself, are two of the main
challenges for digital era leadership.
In order to make this style of digital leadership worthwhile, the classical Knowing-Doing-Being
framework can be proved as an element of success. Knowledge is the first and foremost requirement for an
authentic leader. The modern workplace needs a skilful leader with profound technical knowledge to
mould its way towards success. Second, breaking the stereotypes and embracing the changes can open up
millions of opportunities along the way. This stage helps the leader to plunge into new projects and
interacting with his employees. Third, as a leader of an organization one gets a massive impact on their
employees which demands a huge amount of self-awareness.
In this issue, “The 10 Best Performing Leaders to Watch”, we’ve depicted the successful journey of
some excellent leaders from diverse backgrounds that have made differences in their particular fields with
their unparalleled expertise.
Editor’s Note

5. On the cover of this issue, we’ve portrayed the life-story of Alex Zwyer, the CEO of the globally
acclaimed NLS-1 Pharma AG (NLS-1), Alex started his career as a marketing assistant in a mid-
size pharma company and successfully made it to the rooftop of that firm within 15 years. He held
key positions such as Regional Director Latin America, Global Head Marketing & Sales, and
Executive Vice President Global Markets. He was globally responsible for Marketing, Sales,
Regulatory Affairs and Medical Affairs.
Alex is a natural leader and strategist, who has a track record of producing extraordinary results
during a career spanning more than 25 years. A creative entrepreneur, Alex is highly result-oriented,
performance-focused and excellence seeker. Armored with all the leadership skills, he is a multi-
lingual negotiator with a strong international management background. Alex earned an MBA from
the State University of New York at Albany and an executive MBA from the Lorange Institute of
Business Zurich.
Following the Cover Story, we’ve enlisted some other personas who are trendsetters in their own
respective industries. Fred Schuster, CEO of Madras Global, has a brilliant knack for marketing
and delivering on cost-effective results which has made him one of the world’s most respected
marketers; Grace Huang, the CEO and Founder of iPinYou, is a young, intuitive, and a highly
ambitious woman entrepreneur with a never say no attitude in the world of digital advertising in
China; Ran Berger, the Founder and CEO of Flat Rock Technology is a successful entrepreneur
who has outshined all the challenges along the road with astonishing self-reliance and self-
motivation; Sam Visaisouk, the CEO of Tyromer, is one such frontrunner who took the lessons of
experience to overcome adversity; Kelly Simpson-Angelini, the CEO and CSO of Simpson
Healthcare Executives is a leader who believes in excellence and is also a disruptive follower of
innovations.
While flipping the pages, make it a note to read the articles penned down by our in-house editors.
The articles namely, The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another Perspective on Women and Leadership
under Editor’s Choice, Role of Innovative Leadership in Innovative Businesses under Insight’s
Perspective, and Successful Personality Traits to Learn from Elon Musk under Inspiring Minds
speaks volumes about the characteristic traits of a leader. The issue also includes articles drafted by
industry experts and globally acclaimed entrepreneurs. The Importance of Purpose, under Expert
Talks will enlighten the readers about why having a purpose is important to a leader.
Hope this edition of ours stirs the minds of entrepreneurs all around the globe to achieve glorious
success.
Upama Goswami

6. ARTICLES
Inspiring Minds
Successful Personality
Traits to Learn from Elon Musk
22
Insights’ Perspective
Role of Innovative Leadership
in Innovative Businesses
30
Editor’s Choice
The Glass Ceiling Effect: Another
Perspective on Women & Leadership
36
ALEX ZWYER
A Novel Approach to Treating
ADHD and Spreading Hope for
Brighter Life Prospects
Fred Schuster
Pioneering Brand Commerce
with Global Perspective
CEO OF THE MONTH
08 COVER STORY
16

7. CXO STANDPOINT
Expert’s Column
Things A Phone
Can’t Do
Grace Huang
The Brilliance in Transforming
the Digital World
Kelly Simpson-Angelini
A Vibrant Entrepreneur Leading the Path
towards Positively Disruptive Innovation
Ran Berger
An Unstoppable Brilliance Transforming
Conventional Business Ethics
Sam Visaisouk
Life with a Purpose
20
28
34
40
Expert Talks
The Importance
of Purpose
24
42
24
42
20
34
28
40

8. www.inonic.com

9. sales@insightssuccess.com
Corporate Ofces:
July, 2018
Database Management Stella Andrew
Technology Consultant David Stokes
Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji
Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses
Karen Holland, Misty Thomas
Sophie Smith
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal
Anish MillerSenior Editor
Executive Editor Upama Goswami
Art & Design Director Amol Kamble
Associate Designer
Visualiser David King
Senior Sales Manager Passi D.
Business Development Executives
Marketing Manager John Matthew
Managing Editor Suhel Mashayak
Contributors Brain Smith
Rahul Niraj
Art & Picture Editor BelinPaul
Co-designers
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KhannaJayant
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Sales Executives
David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay
SME-SMO Executives
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Online Marketing Strategist
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10. Cover Story
Alex Zwyer
CEO

11. Alex ZwyerA Novel Approach to Treating ADHD
and Spreading Hope for Brighter
Life Prospects
“We see
a brighter future
connecting the
best and
brightest ”

12. Journey from an Entrepreneur to a Leader—‘the
essentials’
According to Alex, ‘Creativity’, ‘Direction’ and
‘Delegation’ are the three main essentials to become a
successful leader.
Creativity: One has to be creative in the use of limited
resources, and have the ability to catch a potential
investor’s eye - especially if he or she is looking further
than his or her circle of friends and family for funding –
you need to see a future that other people can’t and you
must have faith in your vision when others may not.
Direction: Understanding that financial goals are extremely
important, direction is not limited to money matters. It also
includes having a clear idea about your value proposition
and effectively articulating your vision to stakeholders in a
way that is measurable, inspiring and achievable.
Delegation: Hiring the right team who you trust to believe
in and respect your vision is of upmost importance at this
stage. Understanding your organization’s needs and hiring
the most competent employees with a focus on workforce
diversity (gender, experience, skills, ideas) is essential.
Delegation requires accountability to deliver on mutually
agreed objectives and investing in governance processes
and systems to track financial and employee performance is
key.
““
Balance is not something you find, it’s something
you create.”
Alex Zwyer CEO NLS-1, the of the globally acclaimed
Pharma AG (NLS-1), can be portrayed as the leader who
possesses this life-enriching wisdom.
“The entire purpose of life can never and must never be the
career or business. That is an inordinate investment with
illusory Return on Investment. I always try to be a balanced
and integrated person. No level of career or business
success will compensate for lack of meaningful friendships,
family, romantic love, spiritual enrichment, recreation and
contribution,” so observes Alex.
The Fascinating Journey
Alex started his career as a marketing assistant in a mid-size
pharma company and successfully made it to the rooftop of
that firm within 15 years. He held key positions such as
Regional Director Latin America, Global Head Marketing
& Sales, and Executive Vice President Global Markets. He
was globally responsible for Marketing, Sales, Regulatory
Affairs and Medical Affairs.
Alex is a natural leader and strategist, who has a track
record of producing extraordinary results during a career
spanning more than 25 years. A creative entrepreneur, Alex
is highly result-oriented, performance-focused and
excellence seeker. Armored with all the leadership skills, he
is a multi-lingual negotiator with a strong international
management background. Alex earned an MBA from the
State University of New York at Albany and an executive
MBA from the Lorange Institute of Business Zurich.
This natural leader possesses expertise in developing
purpose-built organizational structure while balancing cash
burn, development objectives and resource allocation. Apart
from that, he shows brilliance in strategic planning, alliance
development and partnerships. Alex has highly developed
emotional intelligence, demonstrating a strong ability to
influence thinking and build lasting relationships. He
describes himself as an ‘outside-the-box’ thinker who is
committed to the highest levels of professional and personal
excellence. Leadership and pioneering new ideas fuel
Alex’s passion and drive.
“
NLS-1 pharma
unveils an exciting
new direction in
ADHD
treatment
‘‘
‘‘

13. NLS-1 Pharma AG- Safeguarding the Brain throughout
all Stages of Life
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD is a
highly genetic, brain-based syndrome characterized by
inattentiveness, hyperactivity and impulsiveness. According
to American Journal of Psychiatry 2007, in the USA,
approximately 6.4 million people under the age of 18 have
been diagnosed with ADHD at some point at their lives
while over 10 million adults in the USA suffer with ADHD
as per a report by the Journal of the American Academy of
Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2014.
NLS-1 is a Swiss-based clinical-stage biotechnology
company focused on developing innovative and more
effective, safe treatments for ADHD and other CNS
disorders. Behavioural disorder like Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects children and adults
and impacts negatively across all aspects of their life, from
schooling to work to relationships. Most treated patients in
the USA currently take simulants which have a significant
risk of abuse, misuse and diversion and other associated
safety risks. Safer and more convenient treatment options
are important and can significantly affect the quality of life
for children and adults affected by this condition. This
dilemma is why a company like NLS-1 matters.
Disruptions Changing the Industry Scenario
“It’s fascinating to witness how disruptive innovations can
truly change the way healthcare is delivered and medicine
is practiced. Enormous technological changes are heading
our way and they will transform pharma too”, Alex
focuses on the promises technology brings in.
He points out some of the key trends that have impacted the
industry:
Empowered patients: Empowered patients leverage
technology to become better educated as they strive to
become equal partners with their caregivers. They do
research, gather information and keep informed about
medical advances made in the care of their conditions. In
ADHD, parents and patients take an especially active role
in the selection of their individual treatment.
Gamifying Health: The incentives pharma companies are
currently using to motivate patients and medical
professionals to use a certain product are at risk of
becoming obsolete. They need to turn to gamification to
engage people where they are online, which can help
improve both adherence and pharma’s image.
New kinds of reality: Augmented reality and virtual reality
with devices such as Google’s digital contact lenses or
Oculus Rift give us a new view of the world through digital
information.
Home sequencing of genomes: The cost of DNA
sequencing is dropping constantly. When it’s finally
available to the majority the whole concept of prescribing
medication will change as individualized treatment become
more common.
The quantified self: Body sensors, inside and out measure
health parameters in a comfortable and cheap way to
provide crucial data. The success of clinical trials largely
depends on how medical professionals collect data about
their patients.
The end of human experimentation: The end of human
experimentation through detailed simulation of human
physiology. We live in a barbaric era where new drugs are
tested directly on people. What if thousands of drug targets
could be tested on billions of simulations that model the
physiology of the human body in seconds with
supercomputers? No more ethical dilemmas, just letting
science do its work. It will be cheaper, faster and more
reliable.
Supercomputers: Medical decisions made with artificial
intelligence using the power of supercomputers will
revolutionize everyday medicine. Cognitive computers,
such as IBM Watson, have been used in many ways to
analyze big data, not only in genomic research but also in
biotechnology. This will change the way new drugs are
found.
We lead
the way for a
better life
‘‘ ‘‘
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE

14. Nanorobots: Nanorobots in blood could make early
diagnoses by constantly measuring any health parameter.
If the technology of transporting drugs to the actual
cellular targets in nanocages becomes viable, the pharma
industry will have to start producing different end
products to make sure they are compatible with
nanotechnology.
Creating a Rich Work-Culture
“I’m always readily willing to listen and make decisions
based on a diverse range of views”, asserts Alex. The
leader with charismatic power, guides or coaches his
employees himself, repudiating any dictatorship. The
generous leader never hesitates to give credit to his
subordinates for the success and achievements of the
organization, rather than claiming it for himself.
Alex empowers his employees by providing free reign on
business functions. “I seek to inspire others through a
level of personal belief in the business venture. I motivate
people through positive reinforcement and rewards. Last
but not least, I serve people, looking out for their best
interest”, he concludes.
Words of Advice for Future Entrepreneurs
Alex is an award-winning entrepreneur and he has some
brilliant advice for the to-be-entrepreneurs. Let’s have a
look:
Solutions: A successful start-up will focus on solving a
problem and fit the technology to it, not the other way
around.
Context: Know your industry and build a solution for its
present struggles and future challenges.
Teamwork: Build a squad of driven and reliable experts.
Accomplishments
Single-handedly fundraising $15 Mio USD and the
successful execution of - what is currently considered as
the most successful phase 2 clinical trial in the ADHD
space has been marked as the major achievement of NLS-
1 under the leadership of Alex.
“The promising phase II results are very encouraging and
indicative of the potential for mazindol C.R. to make a
difference in the lives of millions of patients suffering from
ADHD across the globe,” Alex emphasizes.
Our aim
is to improve
quality of life
and longevity
‘‘‘‘

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CORPORATE OFFICE

17. Management BriefCompany Name
Grupo Sid
gruposid.com.do
Ligia Bonetti Du-Breil
Executive President
& CEO
Grupo Sid is a group of Dominican companies of great business
relevance, engaged in the manufacturing and commercialization
of mass consumption products.
Madras Global
madrasglobal.com
Fred Schuster
CEO
Madras Global weaves together story and delivery to create
continuous and cost-effective content so marketers can respond
quickly to the demands companies face today.
Simpson Healthcare
Executives
simpsonhealthcare.com
Kelly
Simpson-Angelini
CEO & CSO
Simpson Healthcare Executives is a global biopharmaceutical
communications company, delivering stories of services of
therapeutic brands for patients and how they will improve their
lives.
Flat Rock Technology
flatrocktech.com
Ran Berger
CEO
Flat Rock develops highly effective, easy to use web-hosted
application.
Tyromer, Inc.
tyromer.com
Sam Visaisouk
CEO
Tyromer provides an environmentally sustainable rubber
devulcanization technology that offers a socially responsible and
financially advantageous option for global scrap tire
management whereby scrap tire rubber is reused for the
manufacture of new tires.
CDP Group Ltd
cdpgroupltd.com
Wei Lu
COO & Co-founder
CDP Group provides local and international companies with
best-in-class HR technology and services, aiming to improve
employees’ well-being, and maximizing companies’ efficiency
with sustainable gains.
iPinYou
ipinyou.com.cn
Grace Huang
CEO & Founder
iPinYou is the largest programmatic buying DSP provider in
China and is one of the first companies bringing audience-
targeted programmatic buying to brands in Asia.
Catalyst UX
catalystux.com
Paul Giurata
CEO
Catalyst UX is a global firm that designs and builds user
experiences (UX) for Medical, Life Sciences, Digital Health,
Financial Services, Cloud and Internet of Things (IoT) software.
NLS-1 Pharma
nls-pharma.com
Alexander Zwyer
CEO
NLS-1 designs affordable, safe and effective drugs to empower
the brain throughout all stages of life.
Best Version
Media
bestversionmedia.com
Dave Durand
CEO & Co-founder
Best Version Media (BVM) is a publishing company that
produces private, family-oriented, neighborhood-specific
magazines that serve residents, homeowners associations,
villages and local businesses.
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE

18. FRED SCHUSTER
Pioneering Brand Commerce
with Global Perspective
For a brand to compete today, it needs to constantly
inspire, engage, and reach its customers.”
-Fred Schuster
The incredible pace at which the advertising and marketing
world evolves has always ensured that only the very best
can keep up. Today, as rapid technological advances
accelerate that rate of change, slimmer marketing budgets
make keeping up an even greater challenge. Exceptional
foresight and outstanding creativity are crucial to success
and to thrive in this arena.
That is why Fred Schuster, CEO of Madras Global, is so
successful.
Fred’s brilliant knack for marketing and delivering on cost-
effective results has made him one of the world’s most
respected marketers. It is a reputation built on hard work
and an irrepressible can-do attitude.
The Entrepreneurial Journey
Fred is an inspiring creative and technology-driven business
leader with over 20 years of experience pioneering unique
approaches to agency network operations, creative and
content development and international production delivery.
Over the course of his career, Fred has launched and led
four successful global, digital, creative companies:
RedWorks Worldwide, Craft Worldwide, Fred&Co, and
Madras Global, with over $400 million in combined billing.
Fred started his career in 1995 as a Creative Director at
Ogilvy where he worked on several major accounts
including IBM, American Express, and GlaxoSmithKline.
Ten years later, Ogilvy launched RedWorks Worldwide,
their standalone global integrated creative and production
company and chose Fred to lead it as the first CEO. Being
selected to head an international company at the age of 35
was a momentous achievement and a sign of great things to
come.
Under Fred’s leadership, RedWorks delivered top-tier turn-
key creative content to over 50 international markets. The
company combined this vast reach with creative, low-cost
production hubs to develop versatile global execution
models for its clients.
In 2011, Fred was approached by McCann Worldgroup to
help build and lead a similar content and production
business unit which he launched as Craft Worldwide. After
that he founded Fred&Co., a global creative operations
consultancy where he collaborated with Ad2pro Media
Solutions on the operating model that lead to their
expanded brand new business.
Fred is currently the CEO of Madras Global, a division of
Ad2pro. Madras seamlessly weaves emotional brand
building and the application of data to drive business
performance through automation.
A Wonderful Philosophy for Success
Fred attributes the successes he has enjoyed on his
professional journey to the philosophy of 18th-century
English poet, Alexander Pope, who said, “Amaze the
unlearned and make the learned smile.”
Fred believes that creativity is the most powerful
competitive tool an individual can possess in any business,
and that the experience he gained as a creative thinker early
“
CEO of the Month
July 201816

19. Fred Schuster
CEO
July 2018 17

20. in his career has been the driving force behind his business
leadership and entrepreneurial acumen.
Fred is also inspired by risk takers, both large and small. He
has found that the combination of confidence and intuition
is what drives a person to believe in themselves and being
bold enough to take action is what gives them an edge. That
edge is the same, whether it is on a large scale, like Elon
Musk and Richard Branson launching commercial rockets,
or on a smaller scale, like starting a small business.
Always Challenge the Status Quo
Fred strives to instil in his team the same commitment to
out-of-the-box thinking that he employs himself. He has
seen how stereotypical mindsets can stifle progress, an
especially fatal flaw in the advertising industry.
His advice to individuals who experience the almost-
inevitable resistance to change is to remain steadfast in their
belief and to persist with the end-goal in mind:
“When someone tries to do something different, not just
creatively but operationally, it makes people uncomfortable.
Steadfastness is the only answer in this scenario. Sooner or
later, people come around.”
Fred’s innovative viewpoint has been vindicated more than
once but he reveals that the most satisfying instance was
when he met a former colleague from Ogilvy several years
after he left the company:
“He gave me one of the best compliments I have ever
received when he said, now I understand what you were
trying to do. It’s too bad we didn’t help you enough back
then. It’s the curse of the entrepreneur.”
About the Company
Madras Global is the first and only Brand Commerce
agency of its kind. It operates under a unique new business
model that provides creative solutions in near-shore hubs of
New York and London that are cost-effectively executed via
its off-shore creative and production teams in Bangalore
and Chennai.
“We build continuous content engines for our clients that
enable them to remain relevant and provide value,”
explains Fred.
As part of its Brand Commerce strategy, Madras Global
assists clients with Brand Transformation, Media
Amplification, and optimization through Content
Automation.
To start, Madras develops strategic and creative ‘bundles’.
Each bundle cost-effectively packages strategy, creative,
planning, and execution across various media channels that
best suit each client’s needs. The individual tactics might
include anything from traditional TV and print to customer
engagement and OOH to social and digital optimization.
The agency then leverages its proprietary Ad Ops
technology platform, JDX, and its resources in India to
develop optimization models and deploys the content
automation system with close monitoring of their in-market
effectiveness.
Under Fred’s leadership, Madras Global has quickly
become known for its flexible, scalable, and cost-effective
solutions, combined with business performance. It has
grown from one to over 1,000 employees in under a year
with a portfolio of clients that include Macy’s, Shark/Ninja,
Kork-Ease, Salt Financial, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and
many more.
We seamlessly weave
emotional brand building
and the application
of data to drive
business performance
July 201818

22. GRACE HUANG
The Brilliance in Transforming
the Digital World
Digital Marketing Industry is constantly evolving
and Programmatic Advertising is one of the latest
trends to look for within the industry.
Programmatic marketing is a way to target what types of
audience one wish to show advertising to. Basically,
programmatic media buying, marketing and advertising
consist of algorithmic purchase and sale of advertising
space in real time.
Let’s meet Grace Huang, a young, intuitive, and a highly
ambitious woman entrepreneur with a never say no attitude
in the world of digital advertising in China. She is the CEO
and Founder of iPinYou. With advance knowledge in big
data technology and artificial intelligence, iPinYou has
come to be known as the largest programmatic buying DSP
provider in China and is one of the first companies bringing
audience-targeted programmatic buying to brands in Asia.
iPinYou also launched a Marketing Intelligence Platform
(MIP) in 2017, an artificial intelligence decision platform,
contributing its artificial intelligence knowledge to all
brands.
Journey fostering Creativity and Innovation
Grace is a management graduate from UCLA Anderson
School of Management, USA. She has had her stints with
various industry giants like P&G as Marketer and at
McKinsey as a Strategic Consultant.
With her passion and dedication, Grace always sought to
create her own mark and pursue something significant in
life which would make a difference in the industry and
society at large. Eventually, in the pursuit of her dreams and
the quest for discovering the right path embarked her on the
journey of entrepreneurship in 2006 with the inception of
iPinYou.
With her exceptional passion and astounding
entrepreneurial skills Grace has positively handled all the
challenges in the path, she says, “I encountered a lot of
hurdles when I began with my startup, but I used to take up
one challenge a day, think upon it and try and figure out the
appropriate solution, this way, it always worked for me.
However, the biggest challenge we faced as a company was
educating the market, as we are the largest shareholder in
the market (almost 60%).”
She since childhood has developed a never give up attitude;
and leaves no stone unturned to overcome any challenge,
she comes across. Grace and her team spared no efforts in
educating the clients with the most meaningful and
professional knowledge, also they closely involved them in
innovative product development; which helped them a lot in
winning the trust and praise of their clients and maintain the
peak position in the market.
While describing her in a word, Grace believes she is a very
logic-oriented person. Ever since childhood, she
participated in a lot of math competitions and quizzes. She
also loves playing Bridge, which helped her develop a
mindset to put things in a logical framework and solve
problems quickly.
Passion what Drives Grace
Grace is deeply influenced by the culture and literature she
studied in her junior high school days. Along with that,
there is a profound impact of old business leadership, its
values and ethics on her. She says, “I am passionate about
giving the best in whatever I do, which would create an
enduring effect and carry long-lasting constructive values
to the society.”
Grace is not a copy-paste person who follows other people;
she rather has her own beliefs and likes to follow them. To
try new things and nurture into an effective problem solving
and critical thinking person has always been her passion.
CEO & Founder of iPinYou
July 201820

23. Grace Huang
CEO & Founder of iPinYou
My biggest advice
to budding entrepreneurs is,
always do something you
really believe in from
the heart
Things that Shaped Her Life
Grace attributes her incredible success at iPinYou to the
stints she has had in former organizations. She states,
“Before embarking on the journey to entrepreneurship, my
marketing role in P&G imparted a great deal of business
sense in me. And later on, life at Mckinsey gave me a much-
required CEO perspective. Here I got a chance to closely
experience a very much different view of the business. For
instance, it taught me how to identify the problem, how to
define and solve it.”
She feels privileged to have such professional spells, which
helped foster her career at iPinYou.
If you can dream it, you can do it!
“Every morning brings new hopes and opportunities to do
something fruitful, to shine better than yesterday,” believes
Grace. There are primarily two things that drive her to toil
around 14-15 hours a day.
Firstly, the passion of becoming successful and generating
value to people. And, second, most importantly, delivering
trust to the employees, stakeholders and investors, who
believed in her vision and dreams all along the journey.
While speaking on maintaining healthy work culture, Grace
and her early teammates since the very beginning started to
put down their words on culture and values for the
company. They encourage and motivate their team not only
monetarily but help them understand the importance of
what they do is for this organization and ultimately clients.
Words of Wisdom for the Budding Entrepreneurs
Grace says, “My biggest advice to budding entrepreneurs
is, always do something you really believe in from the
heart.” She states that the trail to entrepreneurship is full of
temptations which can off-track from your goals and
muddled with a lot of pitfalls which can drive you crazy at
times. So doing something really one believes in can off go
the pains and the challenges. And another most important
things is finding the right teammates while building the
company, it’s similar to finding the right spouse! Thus, one
has to be very careful about this.
The last advice Grace speaks, “Stay close to the market and
customers. It’s very important to pick up the changes in the
market to sustain in the competition.”
While talking about the future footsteps, Grace expressed,
“Our AI based Marketing Intelligence Platform (MIP) is
creating a stir in the market. I look forward that most of the
big organizations in China in coming future will associate
or adapt our platform for better business decisions and
outcomes.”
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE
July 2018 21

24. egends never need an introduction. They tend to be
Lvictorious despite of their uneventful histories. They
stick to captivating traits such as Discipline,
determination and self-belief which help them accomplish
wonders in the long run. One such example of an extra-
ordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business
Magnate, Investor and an engineer.
Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX;
co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and
co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he
is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth
of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of
Greece taken into consideration.
While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits that
makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few traits
much different from any other ordinary CEO, which has
allowed him to build some of the world’s most respected
and innovative organizations. Musk once quoted, “When
something is important enough, you do it even if the odds
are not in your favor.”
Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and
characteristics that make him a contender for the most
innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive.
Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics
Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about
100 hours a week, and has been productive since many
years. He may even be considered as the hardest working
employee of the company, setting standards for his
colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work
lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every
moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.
Strong Risk Tolerance
Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty and
risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in business,
96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the statistics,
Musk must have faced the same odds against him, when he
had decided to leave an otherwise comfortable life to start a
risky and uncertain business venture.
For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford
University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother in
the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq
computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million.
Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by
investing millions of dollars to found a company called
X.com, one of the world’s first online banks.
‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude
An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is that
he is self-taught in programming and in many advanced
level subjects. He read and understood a variety of books,
which helped him gain endless and persistent knowledge
and understand diverse concepts.
The best piece of advice on learning and implementation is
to constantly think about how things could be done in a
better manner and question self to seek the answers.
Feedback Loop
It is of prime importance to recognize the present symbol or
otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an organization and
re-position accordingly. Musk solicits constant feedback of
the companies and executes ‘self-analysis.’ He induces
efforts and divergent strategies to improve customer
feedbacks and strives towards perfectionism.
SuccessfulPersonality Traits
to Learn from
ElonMusk
July 201822

25. For example, he seeks out his critics
and tries to converse with them. This
habit of self-reflection at regular and
considerable periods is pivotal for any
entrepreneur or organization to succeed
in the long run.
Tendency for Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy where
an organization or a firm acquires
business operations within the same
product vertical. Both Tesla and
SpaceX embrace this concept. For
example, Tesla not only produces
electric cars; they also generate public
awareness about their cars via Tesla
showrooms across various countries.
And SpaceX does not only have the
primary goal of rocket propulsions;
they develop their own rocket
architecture as well.
Faith in Self and the Founding Team
Musk undoubtedly possesses a
profound belief in his own capabilities
Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed
by Elon Musk, is anti-ordinary. Its
compelling marketplace has become a
one-stop destination for potential
buyers where they can interact about
product specifications. They also have
video testimonials that far outperform
in the sales-dominated industry.
There is no ambiguity that Musk, by
far, has been a pillar of inspiration for
budding entrepreneurs and investors
because of his prolific and optimistic
approach towards life
All these traits possessed by Musk, in
some manner or the other, coincide
with most of your habits. The only
thing that stands as a potential barrier
between these two is identifying your
strengths and working on them on a
continual basis. Go on, apply these
traits into your daily life, and you may
become the next big CEO the world is
in need of today!
as well as the potential-seeking factor
of its founding team. He does not
hesitate to gamble on large scale unless
he is genuinely aware of the expected
end-results.
It is equally essential to maintain
clarity of doubt in any large scale
organization. Under his supervision,
Musk encourages in creating a positive
and comprehensive environment across
his firms.
Preferring to Stand Out From the
Crowd
Musk elects to bring up innovation at
every level of his understanding. He
tends to impart theoretical knowledge
at the base level, applying changes and
executing the same on the practical
level. He relies more on transitional
aspects such as research and
development, thereby increasing the
probability of ground-breaking
inventions.
Inspiring Minds
July 2018 23

26. THINGS A PHONE
CAN’T DO
In the past few years, almost every manager at every
level has discovered some mobile phone application
that has proven truly useful to increase productivity.
Perhaps for data gathering, or production status monitoring,
or remote communication… there are literally thousands of
ways that small devices are changing the ways that we do
things… for the better.
And yet…
Have you ever noticed that when you give a child a
hammer, suddenly everything needs hammering?
In your own workplace, you have probably (more than
once) observed a co-worker trying to use a phone for some
purpose that really wasn’t a good fit.
A few examples…
Yamazumi Workload Balancing
A Yamazumi Board is the right tool to rearrange workloads
between operators, perhaps for different staffing levels to
meet different scenarios of customer demand.
And it is also an excellent tool to visually see and eliminate
the 7 deadly types of waste.
Keyword = “see”. Yamazumi is intended to be a group
exercise. What is your team going to do? Gather around an
iPhone?
Standard Work Analysis
Similarly, a phone might be useful for time observation,
process observation, muda waste walk observation… but
process analysis?
The purpose of gathering all of that observation data is that
(at some point) someone needs to Analyze and Improve the
process.
A Standard Work Analysis Excel template performs 7
simultaneous types of analyses, to answer common (and
important) questions like:.
“How long will this take?” “How much does this cost?”
“How many can we make?” “How many could we make if
we did a SMED quick changeover kaizen event with the
goal to reduce setup times by a target amount?” “What
should be the target for that kaizen event?”
Try answering THOSE questions using only your Samsung.
Value Stream Mapping
The primary purpose of a value stream map is to make
process flow visible.
The title of the book that introduced value stream mapping
is Learning to See. Learning to see process flow. Learning
to see process wastes. Learning to see opportunities for how
to do things better. There’s that word again: “See”.
July 201824

27. Dean Ziegler is the Founder
of Systems2win
(systems2win.com). They
develop and support an Excel
add-in with 150+ templates for
Continuous Process
Improvement, each with
training, videos, and systems
for popular lean
methodologies like process
flow optimization,
standardized work, visual
management, FMEA risk
reduction, quality
improvement, OEE preventive
maintenance, and lean
management systems
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
How is your team going to ‘see’ the overall flow of your
entire process on a 3-inch screen?
That’s not enough screen space for even the top third of a
value stream map, that has all those symbols that show the
flow of the information needed to control the flow of ‘the
thing being processed’, (which might be a product, or a
patient, or a packet of information).
The bottom third has charts and graphs to make some of the
most important data more visual (and actionable). Charts
showing total lead time split into segments for value add
time vs. wait time. Showing how costs accumulate through
the steps of the process. Showing the cycle times for each
step in relation to your target takt time.
And the middle third has rows and rows of data (each row
optionally hidden or revealed), to answer mission-critical
questions like: “Can capacity meet demand?” “Where is our
bottleneck?” “What is our Guaranteed Turnaround Time?”
(the longest that it will ever take to delivery any product or
service in this family)
Mystery Solved
Why is Microsoft Excel still so popular?
Those are just a few examples to explain why Excel is still
so popular. (Visit the systems2win.com web site for a
hundred more.)
Especially when extended with the power of add-ins, Excel
does things well that a phone simply isn’t designed to do.
Dean Ziegler
founder
Expert’s Column
July 2018 25

30. Kelly Simpson-Angelini
A Vibrant Entrepreneur Leading the Path
towards Positively Disruptive Innovation
C
hallenging the traditional ways
and bringing the fundamental
changes are the ingredients to
innovatively and successfully
revolutionize an industry. Similarly, in
healthcare industry too, there have
been many scientific, diagnostic, and
therapeutic innovations over the past
two decades leading healthcare groups
to achieve great outcomes for their
patients. The therapeutic advancements
will continue to improve management
of diseases in the future, at a rapid
pace. A follower of disruptive
innovations and a believer of
excellence, Kelly Simpson-Angelini,
CEO and CSO of Simpson
Healthcare Executives, is contributing
extraordinarily to enhance the future of
healthcare.
Kelly believes that providing branded
and disease-awareness education to
physicians is highly essential for the
improvement of the care industry
today. With an ultimate goal of
“helping people live better”, her
company has revolutionized the
industry and ensured better and earlier
diagnosis, efficient management of
disease with physician education, and
increased the level of connectivity; this
has made the treatment procedure more
personalized and precise. She
acknowledges the great opportunities
the future has to offer that could
improve the quality of life for the
patients significantly. Looking into the
future, her aim is to support the brands
of tomorrow and to tap the innovative
potential of the company’s clients to
have greatest, most positive impact for
the patients.
Kelly’s Story
Along with being a science and
healthcare enthusiast, Kelly developed
her marketing and communication
skills from her previous experiences,
ones before Simpson Healthcare. Her
passion for improving the healthcare
industry and medical communication
led her to formulate her vision of
transforming the scenario of healthcare
for the betterment of the patients into
Simpson Healthcare Executives. She
started it with the goal of delivering
precision into the medicine world:
connecting the right patient with the
right therapy at the right time. Started
in 1998, Kelly has been leading her
agency for 20 years, building brands
and impacting the lives of patients all
along the way. Under her guidance, the
company has impacted roughly one-
third of both national and global
population in this year alone.
She believes that Simpson Healthcare
will continue to contribute to the
healthcare industry. The positive
impact of the company over the years
inspires her, roots her in her purpose,
and drives her forward as she thinks of
new ways to unlock her clients
potential to connect with patients who
can benefit most from their therapies.
Awards and Accomplishments
Through her transformational
leadership, Kelly has earned many
prestigious awards and gained a great
level of recognition for the impact her
agency has had on the industry over
the years. She has been awarded
“Healthcare Industry CEO of the Year-
USA”, “Most Innovative CEO of the
Year-USA”, by various renowned
media organization and was named
among the “Most Prominent Women in
Business, 2017”. She also won three
Stevie Awards for “Women in Business
for entrepreneurship and innovation”.
Last spring, she was honored as a “Top
10 Innovation Catalyst for Healthcare
Transformation, 2017” by a prominent
agency, Medical Marketing and Media
(MM&M).
About the Company
Located in Old Lyme, Connecticut,
Simpson Healthcare Executives is a
global, innovative biopharmaceutical
communications company. The team of
Simpson Healthcare moves forward in
July 201828

31. Kelly Simpson-Angelini
CEO & CSO
I
help
people
live
better
a collaborative path, pulling through
the stories of why their clients’
therapeutic brands matter and delivers
it to the patients who could benefit
most from their services. The company
creates and delivers branded and
disease education solutions to
physicians and provides a path to the
clients to grow their brands to be most
impactful for their patient
communities.
To expand its commitment to the
healthcare and scientific innovation for
the clients, the firm has brought in the
FUTURING service. FUTURING: it is
the process of envisioning the potential
best and the worst futures without any
reference to present day and provide
the results to the drivers of those
futures. This helps to identify the
opportunities which will shape a
“Desirable Future” or avoid an
“Undesirable Future”. Simpson
Healthcare has launched this work with
many of its biopharmaceutical clients
and is looking forward to continuing to
broaden the impact of its therapeutic
brands.
Mentoring Employees with
Purposeful Values
Few years ago, Kelly guided her
leadership team to revisit the mission
and vision of Simpson Healthcare and
transformed it into a purpose
statement. Inherent in their core belief
system, the purpose of supporting the
clients to share the scientific story of
the disease they touch and therapies
they discover for all in need, guides
Simpson Healthcare’s teams in every
moment and inspires them to work for
better, every day. Motivated by this,
they challenge key healthcare
stakeholders to think disruptively about
healthcare, beyond just the coming
year and into the next decade, as they
work to develop and deliver the
therapies of the future.
The core values of Simpson Healthcare
that all the team members believe in
are: keeping it real by developing
strong, authentic relationships
internally and externally with the
clients; looking into the future by never
losing sight of the larger context and
bigger opportunity; being dedicated to
collaborative teamwork to ensure the
highest quality work product; bringing
their best selves to work every day.
Enacting Multiple Roles Gracefully
Additional to being a phenomenal
entrepreneur and an incredible leader,
Kelly is a great mother and an amazing
wife. She has been a life-coach and
mentor for many people, along with
every member of her company. She
thrives to help every person to find
their purpose in life.
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE
July 2018 29

32. Role of Innovative
LEADERSHIPin Innovative Businesses
nnovation in business acts like fuel for the vehicle, business simply cannot run without it. Innovation and research done
Iby scientists do not always depend on the requirements and expectations of consumers. They are free for invention of
new technologies depending on their goals and targets. While in business, new research and innovation is always
customer oriented.
Necessity of Innovation
Conventional way of doing business with the same technologies and products is not favorable for long time running
businesses. In all types of business, companies need to add some new useful technologies and products with the emerging
inventions, to run business successfully. There are a number of examples of Companies sticking to their old technologies
and specifications for their products and services getting vanished in this competitive market.
The vision of the future has not only touched the makers, but also the customers, hence customers’ needs and expectations are
growing with every passing moment. Customers are adapting to new products and technologies while leaving the old rapidly.
This is a reason behind reconstruction of all business models that we are observing today. This is a condition of ‘INNOVATE
OR DIE’ to survive in this competition for all business.
Business Nowadays
In all the sectors of business (like Automobile, IT, Telecom, Service and Hospitality), we have seen rapid changes in their
technology used in that products and services. All big companies are implementing R&D centers for new research and
innovation to make their products special and different from their competitors, in and to deliver more user-friendly products
to their customers.
To cultivate new innovation and technology in institutes ‘Innovative Leaders,’ are necessary, who can implement their ideas
not only in their products, but also in the infrastructure and strategy of the company. Innovative leaders not only ‘think
creatively’ but also motivates people around them to turn those ideas into reality. As, “Successful business is not an effect of
lonely efforts, but is a result of mutual efforts done by all the elements of the organization,” organizations are searching for
capable leaders for their team.
Some of the Innovative Businesses
Apple is one of the best examples of Innovative business under the Innovative leadership of ‘Steve Jobs.’Apple is
continually implementing new research, ideas and technologies in their products and always made to the top of customer
satisfaction, by adding new specifications and services Apple makes their products more attractive and more convenient to
July 201830

33. Environmental Talk
Insights’ Perspective
July 2018 31

34. use and became the top brand. Even after Steve Job stepped down from the responsibility of CEO, current CEO, Tim Cook,
too turns out to be an Innovative leader. In reference to innovation in Apple’s products, Tim once said, “You kind of want to
manage it like you’re in the dairy business. If it gets past its freshness date, you have a problem.”
Google’s Android operating system, is another example of innovative business. Google is continuously adding new versions
of software to their operating system depending on customer’s requirement, new technologies and ease to use. It can be said
that innovation played major role in putting Android OS as the world’s top mobile OS today.
Implementation Techniques
Arrival of new innovations and ideas is being a continuous process and it has no end. On account of this anybody can’t add
everything in their products. This needs proper realization and planning. For this, the necessity of some checks and planning
should be done before any modification in product done or for a new product is launched.
Application of new technology
Some aspects have to be checked before implementation of new technology and ideas for the better outcome. Is this
technology really going to be useful to the customer? Is this technology really in demand? Is this belonging to the
considerable long time span? Is this financially correct? If not, then no need of modification. If yes, then it needs to go for the
next check.
Realization of resources
New product or modification in the product means changes in the production process, resources and finance depending on the
type of industry. There is a need of examining all types of resources available. Can the resources withstand for modification?
With changes in product all staff really flexible for it? Can our vendors also easily adapt this? Are we having leaders who can
make this possible? By checking all aspects we can go for planning.
Planning of product
Planning of product includes the financial arrangements (like opening of the IPO), designing of the product, development of
product, production process, inventory management, supply chain management (vendor selection), testing of product, sales
and operations.
Advertisement
Without advertisements, the audience will not be aware about the new products. It needs the proper advertisement of
products. The advertisements should be effective by using all means like print media, digital media, etc. Proper advertisement
makes the product more attractive and user-friendly to the customer.
Innovative Leaders
As discussed earlier, Innovative Business does not only depends on new technologies and ideas, but also on the vision of the
leader. ‘The leaders who grab future opportunities by their vision and research in addition to effective utilization of their
resources can be called Innovative Leaders.’
These leaders having long term vision for their products and services. Only by implementing new ideas and technologies in
their products do not help any firm to be always successful, in addition to that strategies like acquisition of other similar or
supporting firms (companies) for increased resources and to reduce future competition are needed.
Mark Zuckerberg the CEO of Facebook acquires Whatsapp messenger which adds more resources to his firm and reduces
competition, is one of the examples of doing business innovatively. He is an innovative leader who made Facebook a top
social sites by continuously improving the services and facilities.
It can be hence summed up that today, Successful business is the product of innovation and a strong vision of the leader with
the combined efforts made by the whole organization.
July 201832

36. Ran Berger
An Unstoppable Brilliance Transforming
Conventional Business Ethics
Asmooth sea never made a skilful sailor,” there goes
the proverb.
Hardships and challenges are indispensable for successful
entrepreneurship. Ran Berger, the Founder and CEO of
Flat Rock Technology is a successful entrepreneur who
has outshined all the challenges along the road with
astonishing self-reliance and self-motivation.
The Massive Beginning
In early 1999, the technologies were utterly different and
the cloud of ‘Bug Y2K’ was putting a shadow on all
businesses. Ran Berger was appointed as MIS Manager of a
mid-size hardware distributor straight to lead an ERP/CRM/
BI project. After a journey full of hardships, Ran made the
project a great success. This was Ran’s one of the first
achievements in his professional career. The project
delivery environment brought the best out of Ran as he is a
mission-oriented person. It was, undoubtedly, a significant
career blast for Ran.
After this initial achievement, Ran felt very fortunate to
lead other system development and implementation in
seven countries (Israel, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine,
England, Scotland, and Switzerland) and gained experience
in global business and a good understanding of cultures.
This was the period that shaped his management skills and
approach to distributing business models.
Exploring and Harnessing the ‘New’—the success
mantra
Ran is a passionate leader, in love with emerging
technologies. It’s his personal goal to constantly evolve
with the trends and the best practices of the industry. He
believes that the current rapid growth and changes in the
industry can be beneficial for stepping ahead in the success
ladder.
The IT industry, and specifically the web and mobile
development is going through a fast pace change and new
mobility trends. Leading companies are adopting the cloud
approach and realizing the value of the multichannel
distribution of apps. The trend of mobility and constant
intention to create apps also has on the verge of
development, and it will definitely help in remote
interactions. “Together with other trends such as ChatBots,
IoT, Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning, AI, VR/AR we
are experiencing a true revolution in the workplace
environment and as consumers. Exciting times for all of
us”, Ran asserts.
Source of Inspiration through ‘thick and thin’
“I have an endless amount of energy to challenge myself
every day”, the self-reliant Ran states. He derives
inspiration and motivation from the talented and amazingly
creative people around him. Being an ardent leader, Ran
also takes pride in mentioning his team of amazing and
passionate employees who bring in a positive impact on
himself.
“As humans, we are easily hooked into doing more and
building more and the major challenge that we’re facing is
being patient”, Ran says. He has learned to be more patient
and more tolerant while achieving the goals and projects.
Flat Rock: A Brief Introduction of the Company
Headquartered in London, England, Flat Rock Technology
“
July 201834

37. Ran Berger
CEO
We push the
boundaries of conventional
thinking to build
signicant products
was established in 2008 from the desire to find ways to
create solutions that will push the boundaries of
conventional thinking. It is an innovative web and software
development company that operates from two locations -
London, UK and Varna, Bulgaria.
The company provides businesses with professional
services, a range of IT outsourcing solutions, web design,
mobile applications development, as well as bespoke
solutions to match every business specific needs.
Apart from the main business as a software development
company, Flat Rock has recently started a new business
line, which focuses on business process outsourcing. The
structure of the company allows the team to respond
thoroughly and quickly to their clients, and to utilize the
best outsourcing location in Europe while at the same time
being close to the customer base.
Stirring up Creativity at Work
It’s a proven fact that creativity is the heart of any business
and every action that we take. Without new ideas and
innovative products, the team at Flat Rock would never get
the opportunity to grow and develop. In order to keep the
creative flow intact, Ran takes any measure possible. The
organization itself should be a place where the employees
can come motivated and feel more passionate about their
roles. Employees need to know that their creativity, efforts,
and dedication are valued and appreciated. Ran believes
that there isn’t a set formula to help in the overall process,
but encouraging new ideas, working as a team and giving
freedom of speech, are the right ways to achieve it.
Accomplishments as a Leader
Flat Rock has developed a variety of big projects and
different solutions under the excellent leadership of Ran.
However, the most significant achievement is that they have
managed to build an excellent corporate culture. Over the
years, Flat Rock has stayed closely aligned with their core
values and ways of working, with the right foundations.
Through constant dedication, they are able to accommodate
continued growth and change. Ran mentions one of the
most remarkable work events was acquiring Purify Digital.
For a small and young company like Flat Rock, it was a
major risk to make such a bold move, but it all turned out to
be the positive side and paid off.
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE
July 2018 35

38. July 201836

39. TheGlassCeilingEffect:TheGlassCeilingEffect:
Another Perspective on
Women and Leadership
The glass ceiling is a barrier so subtle that it is
transparent; yet so strong that it prevents women
from moving up the corporate hierarch
---Ann Morrison, American Author
The term “Glass ceiling” can be defined as an
unacknowledged upper limit in corporations and other
organizations, above which it is difficult or even impossible
for women to reach out to the highest ranks.“Glass ceiling”
is a popular metaphor widely used for the hard-to-see
informal barriers that prevents women from getting
promoted or achieving further opportunities in leadership
positions. The metaphor of “glass ceiling” has also been
used to describe the limits and obstacles faced by racial
minority groups.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s 1991 definition of glass
ceiling is “those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or
organizational bias that prevents qualified individuals from
advancing upward in their organization into management-
level positions.” (Report on the Glass Ceiling Initiative.)
Famous American actress cum author Ann Morrison defines
the concept of the Glass Ceiling as:
“The glass ceiling is not simply a barrier for an individual,
based on the person’s inability to handle a higher-level job.
Rather, the glass ceiling applies to women as a group who
are kept from advancing higher because they are women.”
The Elements behind the Glass Ceiling:
It is pretty obvious that women are facing a lot of hurdles to
break through the glass ceiling and reach to the highest
leadership position throughout the ages. Preventing both
women and organizations from reaching their full potential,
the invisible “Glass Ceiling” denies us all of the maximal
benefits of gender diversity in leadership. Some of the most
common barriers are highlighted below:
Job isolation:
Women are offered the same kinds of job roles like staff,
public relations or occasionally finance specialties that
rarely lead to the more powerful management positions.
Over time, women are eventually excluded from jobs in the
mainstream of business, the route taken by CEOs and
presidents.
Old-boy Network:
There are many instances when men gets the managerial
powers in an organization who manages greater numbers of
people, enjoys more freedom of hiring and firing, and
controls the company’s assets directly while women are
deprived of such authorities and powers.
“
Editor’s Choice
July 2018 37

40. It is the “Old-boys” of the organization that makes all the policy; where the women are kept virtually absent.
Sex Discrimination:
In a recent survey, working women were asked about the greatest obstacle they had to overcome to achieve
success; “simply being a woman” was the most frequent response. In another survey by the Wall Street Journal,
women leaders quoted their most serious obstacle in their business careers to be “male chauvinism, attitudes
toward a female boss, slow advancement for women, and the simple fact of being a woman.” These instances
are enough to prove the prevalence of sex discrimination in the workplace.
Sexual Harassment:
Sexual harassment remains one of the biggest barriers for women in managerial roles. A corporate environment
that tolerates sexual harassment intimidates and demoralizes women executives. Even after the adoption and
enforcement of numerous laws against sexual harassment, women do not feel sufficiently encouraged and
empowered to speak out for fear of compromising their work.
Benefits of Women in Leadership:
Studies found that inclusion of women in business leadership has significantly improved such factors as firm
value, financial performance, economic growth, innovation and social responsiveness and philanthropy.
The additional benefits of women in corporate leadership include stricter monitoring and supervision and fewer
legal infractions such as fraud and embezzlement. A better balance among women in leadership positions can
create a more diverse team of leaders with different perspectives and a greater ability to contribute new ideas
and thus enhancing the profitability. The transformational leadership style often used by women tends to be a
good option for contemporary organizations, as it encourages employee morale, motivation and performance.
Overcoming the Barriers: Strategies
Women’s progress up the corporate ladder is still limited by the “glass ceiling” despite the myriad of
Government policies and programs which have been introduced to ensure that their talents and skills are
recognized and accepted.
Women can help themselves to overcome this career hurdle by:
Ø Acquiring appropriate business skills and know how;
Ø Taking up line-management positions rather than management service roles;
Ø Gaining the necessary experience through “apprenticeship” and “acting positions”;
Ø Seeking career counseling;
Ø Volunteering for leadership and executive positions;
Ø And lastly, acquiring the ability to measure their operating effectiveness in the workplace.
An awareness of the emergence of new barriers to their progress is also worth considering. The current
socio-economic situation is creating different “glass ceilings” in the form of the downsizing of organizations,
new differentiated and self-directed career paths, the advent of the contractual worker, and the care of aged
parents.
Conclusion:
th
Since the latter half of the 20 century, women have made great paces in increasing their representation in the
work force. However, a considerable gap remains in achievement of leadership positions across different fields.
Renowned feminist Gloria Steinem stated it best: “Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered
in women.” It is far past time we strive to find out and finally shatter the glass ceiling.
July 201838

42. SAM VISAISOUK
Life with a Purpose
While the iGeneration was introduced late to the
technology, the Generation Alpha will be living
amongst the machines by birth. Although the
world is still debating over whether machines are making
the lives of humans easier or more complicated, the fact is
that there are certain qualities of humans that machines are
now trying to learn from - learning from experience. Unlike
machines, humans live through experience directly to know
it first hand and profoundly with personal context. Sam
Visaisouk, the CEO of Tyromer, is one such frontrunner
who took the lessons of experience to overcome adversity.
Shaped by the Environment
The charisma of Sam is indeed exemplary. Coming a long
way from smiling his way out of troubles and gathering
strength from distress, Sam has not only grown to be
resilient but also to be an unapologetic leader. “We are the
product of our experiences”, says Sam.
Sam’s journey was shaped by his childhood days. Not being
sheltered by structure, he grew up in a constantly changing
environment. Unlike others Sam took this as an opportunity
to learn and to adapt to changes. “This upbringing
influenced me to become an entrepreneur and to cherish the
chaotic environment of start-ups”, asserts Sam. However,
Sam yearned for a stable “home” after living in turbulent
Southeast Asia in the 60’s. He recalls how happy he was
when he received his Canadian citizenship.
Sam grew up with little formal education attending
barebone Vietnamese, Chinese and Lao schools. Once he
was given the opportunity to pursue a university education,
he chose to study mathematics and the physical sciences
because he lacked a traditional foundation in North
American culture, social issues and humanities. Apart from
life experiences, Sam acknowledges his technical
educational background prepared him for entrepreneurship
and the innovation economy.
Taking What Life Deals You
Sam had his share of hardships and challenges too. Being
judged on the basis of his ethnicity and race throughout his
early life prepared him for bigger obstacles in his later life.
Remembering his old days he comments, “I worked hard to
get a Stanford Graduate Fellowship for my Ph.D. but
became collateral damage as a result of the Vietnam War
when my student visa was not renewed. My Ph.D. was from
a small lesser-known university in Canada and the lack of
pedigree closed many doors on me. I taught grade 9-12
math and science in a small private school and learned to
communicate complex concepts to young students.”
“That ability gave me my competitive advantage throughout
my career in innovation development as I was able to
communicate complex technical concepts to government
and business leaders who typically do not have advanced
technical background”, he adds further.
Revitalized Catalyst of Tyromer
Sam believes that there is a purpose that every human must
serve. That purpose came to him late in his career. He
learned about an environmentally sustainable rubber
devulcanization technology invented by Professor Costas
Tzoganakis of the University of Waterloo and saw it as a
socially responsible solution for the global scrap tire
problem. As a society, we generate over one billion scrap
tires a year, and because tire rubber is vulcanized and
cannot be reused easily, we burned half of them for their
fuel value! With devulcanization, we could recover a large
July 201840

43. Sam Visaisouk
CEO
Tyromer’s rubber
devulcanization technology
enables the circular
economy in the tire
and
rubber industry
part of this “renewable” resource (or waste). Tyromer Inc.
was created with the vision to return scrap tire rubber to
new tires.
“Many of my start-ups were based on my ideas or
inventions and I suffered from being in love with them
against better business judgement. I could not let go when I
should have”, Sam said. Serving as the CEO of Tyromer
has helped Sam in adopting a new dimension towards work.
“With Tyromer, I am the business person behind another
person’s invention”. Unlike earlier times, Sam no longer
gets emotionally attached to the idea. He is more focused
on the impact of the idea. “As a result, I make better
decisions and have more patience to do things right. I want
to nurture the next generation to grow that impact and give
them purpose and pride in their careers. Beyond building a
business, I can build future leaders.”
Under his guidance Tyromer has established strong and
trusted collaborations with leaders in the tire and rubber
industry. “To bring innovation from a startup to an
established industry that is traditionally risk adverse
requires more than a good product. To shorten the time for
product development and implementation, an open
innovation business model was necessary. With trusted
collaborations, we can together bring about the circular
economy to the tire and rubber industry”, comments Sam.
Circular Economy and the Tire Industry
Tyromer’s technology converts scrap tire rubber in a twin-
screw extruder into Tire-Derived Polymer, or TDP, using
only carbon dioxide as a “catalyst” and no chemical
solvents or devulcanization chemicals. This is the only
known cost effective and environmentally sustainable
technology that can return scrap tire rubber into new tires
on a commercial scale. To date, TDP has been used in
excess of 20% in new tire rubber compound, compared to
the typical 5% without devulcanization.
“There is still stigma on recycled material. It is our job to
engage with industry leaders and experts to educate,
inform, learn and collaborate to find solutions that enable
companies to recycle old tires back into new tires. The
technology now exists and can be implemented on a
commercial scale to positively impact the way we manage
our scrap tires. For sustainability, we are proud that we do
our share”, he adds further.
10
BEST PERFORMING
LEADERS
TO WATCH, 2018
THE
July 2018 41

44. In addition to running Kenja as CEO, I have the
fortune of teaching MBA students part time on
Leadership, Marketing, and Strategy. For my classes
and as a CEO, I think the most important place to start is
with the “Why” - what is your Purpose as an Leader and
as a Company.
Purpose as a Leader
As a leader, the first place to start is with yourself. If
you cannot lead yourself then how can you lead others?
The first thing to know about a leader is their Passion
and the Values that led them to put importance on those
passions. With an understanding of Passion, people can
develop their Life’s Purpose. Purpose is your North Star,
it is your unwavering unchanging goal which your daily
actions will lead you to. Upon setting your own Purpose,
you will need a Plan to take concrete steps towards the
Purpose, Partners to benefit and to help you achieve
your Purpose, and finally Persistence to help you with
the very difficult task of staying focused on your
Purpose.
Passion, Purpose, Plan, Partners, and Persistence are
the “5Ps of Life” - a workshop that I do with students to
help them figure out their Life’s Purpose. 95% of people
do not have a concrete Purpose in life - they let events
and daily to-dos determine their activities. I do not think
that Purpose is something that can be discovered in a day
- often it will take time to think about this and reflect on
it. The point of the exercise is simply to begin the very
important self-dialogue to get to your Life Purpose. It
does not matter how fast you go if you have not figured
out what direction you want to run first.
In Kenja, every person in our company knows that
although I had C level experience in companies like
Vodafone, Verizon Wireless, and Fidelity Investments, I
have always had a dream to found a different kind of
company - one that valued Innovation and Ideas over
Politics and the primary focus on Quarterly Profits. My
passion is for solving problems in innovative ways and
for implementing very difficult projects.
I was fortunate that I started with good co-founders,
people that shared my vision and could contribute
complementary skills. The plan is usually a natural
outcome of a strong purpose and Persistence is usually
achieved by knowing what works for you on a daily
basis. For me Persistence is reinforced by refusing to
consider a return to large company executive jobs and by
daily use of the “Pomodoro” technique. (using 30
minutes interval of focused effort followed by a short
break)
The Importance of
Purpose
July 201842

45. Purpose as a Company
Just as with Individual Leaders, a company will need to
develop its own clear Purpose. A Clear Purpose gives
motivation to people, clarity to strategy, and a clear
branding for Marketing.
If we are honest with most companies, the Purpose easily
devolves into meeting the Monthly or Yearly Targets.
The Purpose is not merely the result of your actions - the
Purpose describes WHY you are pursuing your goals.
The Clear Purpose is lived by company members so it
becomes a reflection of why people join and stay with
your company.
Company Strategy is strongly guided by Purpose.
Things that lead you off the Strategic Path are rejected
and you can find further value and differentiation in the
area of your chosen competition. Small changes in your
Purpose drives big results in the marketplace. Although
Facebook and MySpace are both Social Networks,
Facebook’s focus on connecting your friends resulted in
many small innovations that MySpace with their focus
on creating cool personal spaces did not.
If you are clear on your Purpose, then the Brand is not a
just a slogan on a TV Commercial. It is lived by
employees, reflected in your products and services, and
felt by your customers. It is far more enduring than any
single campaign message or even a business plan for a
year.
Kenja’s purpose is to Revolutionize the way that mid to
large companies collaborate to get work done through
software. In the beginning it was difficult since larger
companies tend to buy from other larger companies but
we have now achieved something not easily copied.
After 7 years in Business, we now have larger
organizations like Mitsui and Company, Randstad, and
JICA (the Japanese Peace Corp) and many mid sized
companies using us. If we had started with consumers
and small companies only, then the functionality,
security, and ease to use (for older employees as well)
would be far different.
Starting with Purpose is not always the easy or obvious
choice. There are many obstacles in the way and it is too
easy just to focus on Profit or KPIs of the company.
However, a focus on Purpose will automatically keep
Employee Engagement, Strategy, and your Branding on
track.
Expert Talks
Ted Katagi
CEO
Kenja
July 2018 43