Insights Success present you the special issue highlighting “The 10 Most Admired CEOs To Watch in 2018” In this issue we will help you to walk through a list of outstanding leaders who have benchmarked their existence with innovative services.
4. Exponential Leaders:
Redening Business
as a Catalyst
he pace of technological change is accelerating at an exponential rate. On the other hand, the
Tglobal economy is more inter-connected and more competitive than ever before. Complex,
volatile, and far-reaching threats are associated with the security of populations and peaceful
nations across the earth. In such an environment, there are robust leaders – one who are committed to
convert the business challenges into exceptional opportunities and disrupt the mankind at every level.
The leader of any organization should not single-handedly set the direction of the company, the workforce
also matters when it comes to decision-making. The world has entered into a new epoch, where the
employees don’t leave the jobs, they leave their bosses. Leaders who are dedicated to create a framework
which encourages the employees to meet the daunting challenges of the 21st century can successfully fill
the gaps of employee-boss relationship. A relationship that can reshape the various aspects of the business
world and craft a pathway for civilization.
Passion is sending humans to orbit and beyond the horizons, to Mars and even the stars. The passionate
players and CEOs are setting high expectations for themselves – not just in terms of visualization and
skills, but in how they express appreciation and represent civility. They have the spark which can ignite the
fire of motivation in the aspiring tech-enthusiasts and path seekers, and uphold their company's core values
in every facet of their lives.
The planet is witnessing the advent of frontrunners who understand how their words and actions influence
not just the culture inside their companies, but the public's broader trust in complexities of the markets,
shared progress, and opportunities for all. They are embracing changes and going an extra mile with a
philosophy to transform the environment for better. They are introducing a whole new chapter of
revolution which would create a one-of-its-kind history.
5. While 2017 was an enthusiastic year for the established as well as the emerging CEOs, 2018 is a year
where they will take the globe beyond the success horizons. Looking towards a bright and innovative
future, we present you our special issue highlighting “The 10 Most Admired CEOs To Watch in
2018” In this issue we will help you to walk through a list of outstanding leaders who have
benchmarked their existence with innovative services. Keeping up the sheer pace with the
developments in technology, they have paved a creative pathway in their domain as well as the
marketplace.
On the Cover of the issue, we have featured Bill Conner: A Vanguard of Transformational
Technology Shifts. He is a success-driven persona, with a career spanning more than 30 years across
high-tech industries. Bill has been instrumental in executing an aggressive strategy to achieve market
leadership across a variety of measures and takes great pleasure in working with the industry's most
talented cybersecurity experts.
Along with such an insightful cover story, we have covered up other fascinating stories of remarkable
business personalities like Cindy Jutras: Technocrat with Curated Business Acumen, Doug Bartek:
A Technology Pioneer Revolutionizing Enterprise Communications, Meir Givon: A Creative and
Intuitive Business Expert, Raj Vattikuti: A Technology Visionary and Acclaimed Business Leader,
Vaios Vaitsis: The Clairvoyant, Fabricating the Vital Needs of the Customer Experience
Optimization, and Venkata Narayanan: Connecting Dots of the Analytics Ecosystem.
While flipping the pages, take a note not to miss out articles masterly crafted by our in-house editors.
The article Female Entrepreneurs Contributing to Future Economic Growth from Futuristic
Approach puts the limelight on the contribution of the women in global economic revolution.
Turning some more pages will help you find AI Impacting the New-Age Business Leadership and
Workforce from Tech Talk and The Journey to Self-Discovery from Editor’s Desk. More
interestingly, this edition also comes up with an extraordinary article Develop Your Innovation
Culture for a Future-ready Organization crafted by a well-known industry expert.
Looking at the emerging opportunities and the growing possibilities, this issue of ours will help you
understand the role of CEOs in this industry and their contribution in transforming the world for
better.
Let’s start reading!
Rahul Niraj
6. CONTENTS
Cover Story
Bill Conner
A Vanguard of
Transformational
Technology Shifts
8
CXO
Articles
Futuristic Approach
Female Entrepreneurs
Contributing to Future
Economic Growth
38
Tech Talk
AI Impacting the
New-Age Business
Leadership
and Workforce
30
From Editor's Desk
The Journey to
Self-Discovery 22
16
Develop Your
Innovation
Culture for a
Future-ready
Organisation
7. Cindy Jutras:
A Technocrat with Curated Business Acumen
20
Doug Bartek
A Technology Pioneer Revolutionizing
Enterprise Communications
26
Meir Givon
A Creative and Intuitive Business Expert
28
Raj Vattikuti
A Technology Visionary and Acclaimed
Business Leader
34
Vaios Vaitsis
The Clairvoyant, Fabricating the Vital Needs
of the Customer Experience Optimisation
36
Venkata Narayanan
Connecting Dots of the Analytics Ecosystem
42
12. same time in 2017. Further, SonicWall’s patent-pending
TM
Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI )
technology stopped more than 12,300 never-seen-before
cyberattacks and malware variants such as those found in
PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and chip-based attacks
such as Meltdown, Spectre and Foreshadow.
Steered by Bill, SonicWall's automated, real-time breach
detection and prevention platform protects customers and
mitigates advanced attacks, including ransomware, zero-
day attacks and other unknown threats.
About SonicWall
SonicWall has been fighting the cybercriminal industry for
over 26 years defending small, medium-size businesses and
enterprises worldwide. Backed by research from SonicWall
Capture Labs and the formidable resources of over 26,000
loyal channel partners around the globe, SonicWall’s
award-winning, real-time breach detection and prevention
solutions secure more than a million business and mobile
networks and their emails, applications and data. This
combination of products and partners has enabled an
automated real-time breach detection and prevention
solution tuned to the specific needs of more than 500,000
organizations in over 200 countries and territories.
Bill leads SonicWall to deliver best-in-class solutions,
including:
Capture Cloud Platform – Delivers SonicWall's complete
portfolio with intelligence including Capture Labs Threat
Network, reporting, analytics, visibility from the Capture
Security Center and advanced threat prevention by Capture
ATP sandbox.
Capture Security Center — Helps form the foundation for a
unified security governance, compliance and risk
management strategy. By establishing a holistic, connected
Innovate more, Fear less
“
In life, a thread is a fragile dream and the opening of
the needle is the window of opportunity. One who has
the flair to set the thread in the needle will successfully
stitch the attire of success. Creating a wardrobe of
milestones in a tech-enabled world isn’t something that can
be achieved overnight.
One such success-driven persona, with a career spanning
more than 30 years across high-tech industries, is Bill
Conner. With a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from
Princeton University and MBA from the Wharton School of
the University of Pennsylvania, Bill is a corporate turn-
around expert and global leader in security, data and
infrastructure. Some of Bill’s notable milestones include
taking Nortel into enterprise data networking with the $9
billion (USD) acquisition of Bay Networks and later
spinning out Entrust, a leader in identity-based security
technology.
Bill positioned Entrust to be acquired by private equity
leader Thoma Bravo in 2009. After being the president and
CEO of Entrust for almost 13 years, the team strived hard to
sell the company for 6.5 times Thoma Bravo’s original
investment. In 2016, Bill joined SonicWall as the
President and CEO.
CEO’s Take on Current Scenario
“In a constantly evolving cybersecurity landscape, it is
critical for SonicWall to deliver cutting-edge solutions to
combat the growing number of attacks,” states Bill. In the
first six months of 2018, SonicWall Capture Labs threat
researchers recorded 5.99 billion malware attacks.
Ransomware attacks also surged to 181.5 million in 2018,
marking a 229 percent increase over the same time period
in 2017. Also, 69.7 percent of web sessions were encrypted
by SSL/TLS standards, leading cybercriminals to hide
malicious payloads in encrypted traffic. This trend led to
encrypted attacks increasing 275 percent compared to the
“
13. approach to security orchestration, Capture Security Center
can federate all operational aspects of the SonicWall
security ecosystem.
Next-Generation Firewalls – Available as hardware or
virtual appliances, SonicWall firewalls deliver network
security, control and visibility for small- to medium-sized
businesses, mid-tier enterprises, data centers and service
providers.
Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) – This cloud
sandbox service is designed to discover and stop unknown,
zero-day attacks. Capture ATP includes Real-Time Deep
Memory Inspection (RTDMI) to help customers identify
and mitigate insidious memory-based threats, future
Meltdown, Spectre and Foreshadow exploits, as well as
malicious PDFs and Office files.
Capture Client – An endpoint protection solution that
applies advanced threat protection techniques, such as
machine learning and system rollback.
Web Application Firewall (WAF) – Designed with advanced
web security tools and services to keep data unexposed and
web properties safe and undisrupted in peak performance.
Secure Mobile Access (SMA) Appliances - A unified secure
access gateway that enables organization to provide
anytime, anywhere and any device access to any
application. SMA delivers a granular access control policy
engine, context-aware device authorization, application-
level VPN and advanced authentication with single sign-on
to enable organizations to move to the cloud with ease, and
embrace BYOD and mobility in a hybrid IT environment.
Email Security - To better protect communications,
SonicWall Email Security scans a wide range of email
attachment types and analyzes them in the cloud-based,
multi-engine Capture ATP sandbox to block suspicious
attachments until they are reviewed by an authorized
administrator.
Meet the Supportive Leader
Bill takes great pleasure in working with the industry’s
most talented cybersecurity experts. This empowers him to
design and build real-world solutions that protect users
from today’s most advanced cyberattacks. This inspires Bill
to push standards and empower organizations in the cyber
arms race.
Driving SonicWall in an ever-evolving threat landscape,
Bill consistently faces a myriad of complexities from every
angle, particularly as the organization positions itself ahead
of modern cybercriminals. “This is a daunting task, but it’s
the name of our game. And we’re good at it,” says Bill.
Bill has been instrumental in executing an aggressive
strategy to achieve market leadership across a variety of
measures. His impetuses on the following key factors that
made SonicWall an independent company and a leader in
the market include:
Channel Development - This helped SonicWall to distribute
its solutions exclusively through channel partners,
launching the successful SecureFirst Partner Program,
which has grown to in excess of 26,000 committed partners
worldwide.
Partner Enablement - To support the success of the channel
partners, the company introduced SonicWall University in
April 2017. It offers free on-demand training to make
onboarding easier and help partners quickly capitalize on
customer opportunities and increase revenue.
Product Innovation - Over the last nine months SonicWall
has delivered 24 new and updated products along with 160
million lines of code.
We deliver superior real-time network
protection for today and tomorrow“
“
14. Having a word with Bill regarding the success of SonicWall, he said “Our leadership team works hard to
ensure that vision becomes reality. We’re committed to stretching goals and providing the support, innovation
and enablement our customers and partners deserve and expect.”
Illuminating the Young Minds
For the young generation desiring to be a successful entrepreneur, Bill asserts, “Discover what you’re truly
passionate about and — what’s equally important — learn what you don’t like and why. Build a foundation of
knowledge that starts at the very base of the industry you're interested, no matter what it may be.”
Future Visualizations
Bill believes cybersecurity’s value proposition will depend upon the organization’s way of protecting its assets,
not by a vendor solving it thoroughly. Once companies properly segment networks and begin protecting them
differently, there will be a significant change seen within the market. He adds, “I also believe cloud and mobile
technology will play a significant role in how business and security will evolve. While their benefits are game-
changing, from a security perspective it introduces an entirely new set of risks.”
To tackle these advanced risks, both traditional and emerging security technologies need to withstand market
complexities. Technology is driving new architectures that bring unforeseen security and privacy issues.
Acknowledging that security and privacy issues are finally being exposed and talked about by governments,
businesses and individuals, Bill emphasizes that the world will witness more powerful cybersecurity solutions
in the future.
We’re committed
to delivering
cost-effective
solutions
that help you
stay one step ahead
of cybercriminals“
“
15.
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CORPORATE OFFICE
17. Management BriefCompany Name
Altimerik
altimerik.com
Raj Vattikuti
Founder & Chairman
Altimetrik catalyzes technology transformation for global
enterprises, while driving agility, velocity and precision.
BigTapp Analytics
bigtappanalytics.com
Venkata Narayanan, L
Founder & CEO
BigTapp focuses on providing Big Data & Analytics solutions
to the companies.
GIV Solutions
giv-solutions.com
Meir Givon
Founder & CEO
GIV Solutions provides world-class cutting-edge enterprise
management software solutions and services.
MediaSmack
mediasmack.com
Zach Thompso
CEO
MediaSmack specialize in creating beautiful, compelling
websites and marketing strategies for businesses that range from
start-ups to large companies.
NTT i3 is the Silicon Valley-based innovation center for NTT
Group, one of the world’s largest ICT companies.
PEI Brewing Company brew and distribute the Gahan line of
handcrafted ales along with Beach Chair Lager, the first beer to
be canned in Atlantic Canada.
SonicWall cyber security products protect organizations from
today’s most insidious threats including ransomware, encrypted
malware, mobile threats and email-borne attacks.
Tango Networks delivers innovative enterprise mobile
communications solutions.
Validata Group is a leader in the Enterprise Software market for
DevOps and Continuous Testing for Temenos Core Banking.
Mint Jutras
mintjutras.com
Cindy Jutras
President
Mint Jutras is an independent research and advisory firm that
specializes in analyzing the business impact of enterprise
applications.
NTT i3
ntti3.com
Nina Simosko
CEO
PEI Brewing Company
peibrewingcompany.com
Jeff Squiress
President
SonicWall
sonicwall.com
Bill Conner
President & CEO
Tango Networks
tango-networks.com
Douglas Bartek
Co-founder,
President & CEO
Validata Group
validata-software.com
Vaios Vaitsis
Founder & CEO
CE s
MOST ADMIRED
10T
h
e
TO WATCH 2018
,
18. s the digital landscape continues to change at a rapid pace,
Adismantling and disrupting the way that we do business, how can
we ensure that our leadership and organisational thinking evolves
at the same rate? The CEO is ultimately responsible for the success or
failure of the company that they lead, which, in today’s world, means
ensuring an organisation can adapt to this fast rate of change. To do this,
leaders need to know how to innovate with agility and speed. This means,
on the ground during day-to-day work, that each employee has a clear
understanding of how they contribute to creating value out of new ideas
and a common language to enable them to work together. As a CEO, part
of your role is to foster a culture of innovation that can harness the often
disparate skills and mindsets required to successfully innovate. The key is
to understand that innovation is a journey, which includes spotting trends
and discontinuities and generating new ideas, through to investing and
implementing those ideas that can potentially have the most impact. The
skill is to know how to match people’s strengths to the right part.
How do employees currently react to innovation conversations?
Often, the first people to embrace innovation tend to love ideas and can
identify trends, patterns and opportunities. They are curious and fit the
classic stereotype of creativity – playful, open-minded and attracted to
Natalie Turner is a Keynote
speaker and Author of the book
Yes, You
Can Innovate. Discover your
innovation strengths and
develop your
creative potential which was
selected as book of the month
in both the
UK and Singapore earlier this
year. She is the Founder and
CEO of
The Entheo Network, a global
innovation company and has
exemplary
expertise in the eld of
marketing, business strategy,
and leadership
development. Under her
leadership, the company
provides a suite of
innovative products and
services to help individuals and
organizations
create new sources of value
whilst building innovation skills,
capabilities and culture. She is
also the inventor of the 6 ‘I’s®
Innovation which measures
innovation strengths of
individuals and
teams to unlock the innovation
culture in an organization.
www.6-i-innovation.com.
About the Author
Develop Your
INNOVATION
CULTURE
for
a
FUTURE-READY
Organisation
August 2018|16
20. novelty. Innovation, truly deep and sustainable innovation,
combines both creativity and discipline, which are curious
bedfellows. It is a considered process that requires a raft of
different skills and ways of thinking, combined towards
creating a common outcome. In fact, the innovation journey
is more like a cycle that can start at any point, not just in the
playful and curious spaces.
There are probably many employees in your organisation
who do not identify with this sense of curiosity, or think
that they have light bulb moments, but who are nonetheless
crucial to the success of innovation as an outcome. You will
not embed an agile innovation culture without showing
employees of all stripes and skillsets where they fit in. The
innovation culture needs a common framework and
language. Within this shared understanding, different styles
are more likely to interact with, and appreciate, the
contribution of others. Creating the best environment for
each stage of the journey, so that people are empowered to
contribute their strengths will improve the likelihood of
success.
Understanding the innovation journey
Start with aligning teams around PURPOSE, what are they
trying to achieve and why? Then move to how they can
identify opportunities through understanding trends and
patterns, often related to changes in human behaviour. Then
move to the creative space where people ignite ideas,
through practices such as brainstorming and value
proposition design. After you have an array of ideas, submit
them to analysis and experimentation, separating the good
ones from the bad, investigating whether they are useful,
not just novel. The interrelationship between these three
spaces is often where you see design thinking processes in
action. Now, if you have a few really good ideas that have a
high chance of working, start to think through how to best
make them work. If not, revisit the original-identified
opportunity or generate alternative ideas and solutions.
When ready for investment, innovation leadership is really
critical. This is often the graveyard of ideas. Here
demonstrate courage; assign resources, whether it is people,
time or money. Once ideas are funded, find people who are
great at implementation and getting things done. Once the
idea is starting to get traction and have an impact, harness
the skills of improvement and optimisation to scale and
leverage the ideas into other areas of opportunity.
There are no straight roads. This is why innovating is often
so difficult. Not only are you trying to do something new,
you have to harness diversity towards an often unknown
outcome. Creating the best environment for each stage of
the journey, so that people are empowered to contribute
their strengths, will help to create a successful outcome.
This means teaching people when to contribute and when to
pass the baton on to someone else. This is true
collaboration, anchored in a clear purpose that is focused on
the success of the idea.
Give each of your employees a proactive role in the
innovation journey
Culture could be termed “how we do things around here”
and part of what contributes towards this is how leaders act
and behave towards the people that they manage and lead.
Even more so when it comes to innovating. If people
understand their contribution, they will have the confidence
and courage to start thinking of themselves as innovators.
They will also understand when they will have the most
impact. The innovation journey needs a different culture at
different points; a culture that allows for ideas to be
generated is not the same as one needed to investigate those
ideas.
Innovation and the CEO
Lead by example. Understand the part of the innovation
journey that you are best at, and be aware of the bias that
you will have because of that. Increase the awareness of
yourself and others,so that you can empower everyone to
cultivate environments that allow their strengths to flourish.
Ensure that every skillset and its contribution to innovation
is respected and rewarded. This can only be done by
understanding the whole of the innovation journey, end-to-
end. Diversity is key, if you have a lot of people who are
good at generating ideas, you may end up with very little
that actually gets done. If you have a lot of people who are
good at implementation, you may end up dealing with
today’s work very well, but not have the culture of a
future-ready organisation that can adapt to fast-paced
change tomorrow. In empowering your leaders and
employees to develop their creative potential, in the
broadest sense of the word, innovation will start to seep
through the whole of your organisation, embedding a
culture that will increase the likelihood of you creating
impactful value out of new ideas.
August 2018|18
22. Women have come a long
way in overcoming
barriers and transforming
the world for better. They are creating
a hallmark of their persona in all
aspects of mind, thoughts, rights and
decisions by tramping beyond the
limitations of social and family life.
Such females are making strong moves
in all business sectors including the
most intricate and challenging world of
entrepreneurship.
One such epitome of women
empowerment is Cindy Jutras, who is
an acclaimed expert in analyzing the
impact of enterprise applications on
business performance.
After completing her Masters in
Applied Science from Boston
University and BA from Merrimack
College in mathematics, Cindy started
her career as a programmer/analyst in
1975. After working in a midsize
manufacturing company for over two
years, she decided to work with the
software companies themselves.
Spending a brief stint of almost thirty
years, at companies that produced and
sold enterprise applications, Cindy
explored everything from designing
and writing code, product
management, marketing, pre-sales and
consulting, to pricing, licensing and
alliance management. She then
reinvented herself as an industry
analyst, covering the software she once
CINDYJUTRAS
A TECHNOCRAT WITH CURATED BUSINESS ACUMEN
designed, wrote, marketed and
managed. Being a seasoned software
and business professional with over
forty years of corporate experience,
Cindy founded the technology research
and advisory firm- Mint Jutras in
2011.
About the Vibrant Veteran
Having deep domain experience in
manufacturing, supply chain,
enterprise performance and financial
management, Cindy is the President at
Mint Jutras. She has been instrumental
in creating a niche by enhancing the
business outcomes 3x and driving the
company beyond success horizons.
Under her leadership, Mint Jutras
specializes in analyzing the business
impact of enterprise applications.
Having years of technology experience
and fresh primary research, Cindy
states, “We offer actionable insights on
how to make software investments pay
dividends. We deliver this insight
through content such as published
reports, blog posts, speaking
engagements and advisory services.”
Further she added, “We write and
speak to business decision-makers, but
our customers are the solution
providers of enterprise applications.”
Cindy's support has assisted the
company in developing signature
products which have unlocked the
doors to its success. She is the driving
force in continuously evolving these
products and services, acknowledging
the growth and changes in its clients’
businesses.
Being the backbone of the company,
Cindy believes her prime achievement
is in building a reputation as an expert
in her field, a trusted advisor, and
source of positive influence. She is an
articulate and compelling speaker with
an ability to convey potentially
complex concepts with brevity and
clarity. She has also authored
numerous magazine articles, hundreds
of research documents, and a book on
ERP Optimization.
President’s Take on the Changing
Industry Scenario
Driven by her passion to produce
something tangible, Cindy asserts, “I
live in the world of technology, and
that world is experiencing change at a
pace we never could have imagined
when I first started out. Keeping
abreast of that change is a challenge,
but it is also exciting.” She believes
that technology impacts every business
leader. Currently, there is a
fundamental need for educating
business leaders about the developing
technology in order to encourage their
aptitude and inclination to leverage it
to improve their businesses.
The Framework of Inspiration
Cindy’s source of inspiration and role
model was her father. Acknowledging
him as the fuel for igniting the flames
of motivation in her, Cindy states, “He
August 2018|20
23. infused in me the belief that I could be anything I wanted to
be.” She adds “He was, and I am, what most people today
would call a maker.” Watching her father planting a garden,
building their home, some of the furniture in it, stirred
Cindy with enthusiasm and inspired in her the desire to
produce something tangible, as a gardener, a crafter, a writer
or an artist. This philosophy perfectly highlights her
professional life, whether she is developing her surveys,
writings, and communications or mentoring the emerging
professionals.
Some Speedbreakers on the Way
Every analyst and analyst firm operates under a different
business model. Cindy faced several challenges on her way
to achieve milestones. While serving the vendor community,
her biggest challenge was to meet the changing needs of the
community and withstand the complexities of the industry.
Cindy is on a mission to establish Mint Jutras as a unique
brand with her sheer determination, unique writing and
speaking style, and the insights derived from quantifiable
data.
Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs
Cindy’s advice to young entrepreneurs: look to start a
business you are going to enjoy building. Don’t sentence
yourself to a life of drudgery. Be clear in defining the
business, developing a business model. Hold true to that
foundation, but also evolve with it. “Be willing and able to
take risks and be willing to have a new idea or product
offering fail. Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” she
emphasized.
Aiming for a Much Brighter Future
Currently, being the President at Mint Jutras, Cindy believes
that she is in the twilight of her career. She is evolving with
the changing times with a mission to continuously learn,
grow, and transform the world into a better place in the near
future. Cindy assures that the company has a bright future
and is consistently growing its influence in the market
through products and services that continue to improve and
advance.
“
“
Cindy Jutras
President
We aim to add value
for our clients.
This is the key to
our sustainable
success, rather
than concentrating
on generating revenues
August 2018| 21
CE s
MOST ADMIRED
10T
h
e
TO WATCH 2018
,
24. The JourneyThe Journey
Self-DiscoverySelf-Discovery
toto
Entrepreneurs set up their new ventures with a new and unique vision, goal,
and its future. These entrepreneurs face many challenges over the course
of their journey. However, financial challenge is the most painful ones they
have to face. Making a list of all the financial challenges can aid a business and a
new starting player in attaining sustainability and economic stability.
The Small Business Association estimates that around forty-four percent of
startups and small business survive at least for four years only. Others cite that
poor capital management, overspending, and the lack of reserve funds are some of
the common reasons behind a business closure. All these three terms come under
the finances of a company.
August 2018|22
26. One way to address the financial problems is to use the 4R formula i.e. Review, Revamp, Research, and Rewrite the
company’s business plans. By using this formula, they can take action against the things that are not working out.
Working Capital Issue
Startups have to wait for their big clients to pay up so that they can manage their expenses. Entrepreneurs must save at
least the expenses of six months as its working capital, which can help them in engaging new customers and create a
productive business pipeline. Players can also avoid inadequate working capital by cutting-costs up to twenty percent
and set the cut out as the working capital. For the startups that are yet to make profits, should make sure that they are
adequately financed before taking any harsh decision, which can affect their survival in the industry.
Non-consistent Cash Flow Issue
Most of the project-based business relies on their cash flow, which further relies on the flow of the project and the
services rendered. It is therefore important for the company to have a good business team ready to connect new and
reliable clients and projects. For the company that does not rely on the cash flow, must construct a flow of consistent
cash flow at the proper time. If the client is unavailable to pay on-time, the businesses should think newer methods of
client engagement. They should be patient and make decisions that would help them while dealing with the clients in
the future.
Another way of improving the cash flow is to get a down payment for the product and the services provided. This down
payment will aid the companies in covering the expenses associated with the project sales and profit margins. Firms can
also set a day in the week to go through the accounts, payables, and checks.
Bookkeeping Issue
Corporations can hire organized bookkeepers, which can save a lot of time. If they cannot find one, they can give this
responsibility to one of its team member. The firm can improve by distinguishing the discretion and non-discretion
spending. These include rent, office overhead, inventory purchases, and wages. The companies can even save further by
polishing their overall marketing plans. Identifying and creating a larger clientele that can develop marketing strategies
can help in promoting the service and products. Firms must set goals and expectations for marketing initiatives and
develop the tools to improve the revenue outcomes.
Wrong Predictions and Revenue Issue
Businesses on a day-to-day basis have to predict the company’s revenues. This is even truer for the businesses that are
dynamic in nature. Most of the predictions can be measured on a month-to-month basis. Although a lot of factors that
are dependent upon the revenue prediction, but mostly it rely on the relevancy of the business. By foreseeing accurately,
the firms can generate good revenue that is crucial for the cash flow statements. By paying attention to the seasoned
fluctuations and affected timelines, they can predict the revenues accurately.
Hiring Issue
Hiring a good staff is not an easy task. A decision like over-hiring can create additional costs for the company in
contracts and long-term employee liabilities. The employer is responsible for its employees and they have to provide
them with the employee benefits that increase the costs. The key solution lies in hiring the term-based employees,
freelancers, and independent contractors as they will provide services only for the time worked and employer do not
have to add payroll costs in paying them. These independent contractors are paid only for their time spent on the work.
Depending upon the job, firms can easily find out that whether these are perfect for the job or not. In return, these can
absorb the work-related wages and can add the benefit of costs.
In eliminating the conundrums, the mind-power and descision-making of the entrepreneurs is important. They can seek
loans and grants which are specifically tailored towards boosting the company's finances. Even some of the vendors
allow the company to offer their assistance and can refine the business debts. The players should not haste in making a
decision. They should be thoughtful and intellectual for deciding the expenses. It is important for them to think
strategically. They should be aware of their decisions and should seek guidance in decision-making and in expenses.
August 2018|24
27.
28. Starting a successful company is a
major business accomplishment,
a mark of a distinguished career.
Starting multiple successful companies
and leading the vanguard of disruptive
technical innovation is an even rarer
track record of achievement.
That’s the track record that serial
entrepreneur Doug Bartek continues to
build on. He’s distinguished himself in
a range of technology markets leading
multiple startups and breakthrough
ventures, including shepherding a
company through a successful Initial
Public Offering.
Throughout his four decades as a
business executive, Doug built his
reputation as a recognized leader by
spearheading more than 20 successful
company sales, acquisitions, mergers,
and financings of high-tech firms.
In the early 1990s, Doug served as
president and CEO of a startup called
Acumos, which made innovative
computer graphic chips. In 1992,
Acumos was acquired by Cirrus Logic
and Doug became president of a
division at the company. He multiplied
the division’s revenue by a factor of
ten over five years to make it the
company’s most profitable group.
Doug returned to the start-up world in
1996 by establishing communications
semiconductor maker Microtune,
which he eventually led to a successful
IPO.
Doug’s current venture is built on his
vision of enabling companies to take
advantage of evolving mobile
technologies. In 2005, he and Andrew
DOUG BARTEK
A TECHNOLOGY PIONEER REVOLUTIONIZING
ENTERPRISE COMMUNICATIONS
Silver co-founded Tango Networks, the
firm Doug leads today as president and
CEO.
Hallmarks of Leadership
Supplementing and fostering his
business world achievements, Doug's
education further illustrates his focus
on success. He completed his
Electrical Engineering undergraduate
degree at the University of Texas,
Austin, summa cum laude. He earned a
Master of Engineering & Computer
Science degree and a Master of
Business Administration degree from
Arizona State University.
Over the years, Doug has been
recognized by the business community
with a host of awards and designations
spotlighting his business success and
entrepreneurial focus, including Tech
Titans CEO of the Year, NRCC
BusinessMan of the Year, and E&Y
Entrepreneur of the Year.
About Tango Networks
Doug's current company, Tango
Networks, empowers enterprises to
maximize the reach, impact, and value
of their communications systems by
extending and integrating them with
any mobile device. The company
excels at offering products and services
for mobile unified communications,
enterprise text messaging, compliant
mobile communications, mobile
integration with CRM, and phone
usage restrictions for company drivers.
Tango Networks recently launched its
Kinetic Cloud service in Europe and
the Americas, enabling these solutions
to be easily adopted by customers via
the cloud.
Under Doug’s leadership, Tango
Networks has won numerous industry
awards for innovation and landed
major contracts with Tier 1 mobile
service providers and enterprises.
Doug’s passion for innovation has led
the company to deliver dozens of
groundbreaking technical
advancements, with the company
recently receiving its 60th issued
patent on the technology underlying its
mobility solutions.
Sparking a Revolution
Mobile technology is transforming the
world of communications. But most
enterprises have not been able to take
full advantage of this technology for
their employees.
The problem is that mobile
communications services available to
enterprises are essentially the same
ones designed for and sold to
consumers. The features are very basic
and not business standard. The
communications themselves cannot be
directly controlled by enterprise
Information Technology staff.
But enterprises are demanding change.
They want to control the features and
costs of mobile communications just as
they do today with landline
communications, ensuring quality and
complying with regulatory
requirements.
Doug’s passion for innovation is
sparking a revolution in enterprise
mobile communications to meet these
needs.
“Our Kinetic Communications
technology turns mobile phones into
August 2018|26
29. extensions of a company’s communications systems,” he
explains. With Tango Networks’ solutions, IT departments
can control employees’ communications on mobiles just like
they were using traditional desk phones. They can record calls
with the same recording tools used for landlines. The result is
that an enterprise can harness mobile technology to make
employees highly efficient, responsive and productive without
sacrificing control. In this way, Doug’s company is
fundamentally changing how enterprises operate, a trend that
some industry observers have described as the new generation
of communications or the “Second Wave” of mobility.
The Challenge of Innovation
“Innovation drives me, but innovation is hard,” says Doug.
Anybody can see a problem and dream of potential solutions.
But Doug recognized that turning such dreams into reality
requires a practical understanding of how technology is
actually adopted and used by customers. A good example is
how Doug’s company has transformed the use of another
company’s product called “Jabber.” A product from
networking giant Cisco Networks, Jabber is an internal
enterprise communications tool used by employees for
sending messages to one another and collaborating on
projects.
But Doug and his Tango Networks team recognized that the
tool could be even more useful if it could enable employees to
communicate with people outside the company who are not
using Jabber.
In investigating this opportunity, Doug and his team learned
that customers were excited to use Jabber in this new way.
The Tango Networks’ technology team invented a way for
Jabber’s internal messages to be turned into mobile network
messages. Now a Jabber user could send and receive text
messages from their business number and communicate with
anyone on a mobile phone.
The result is a revolutionary new way for companies to
communicate, using text messaging from business numbers to
interact with customers, partners and others in the outside
world.
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
“Embrace innovation and follow your vision,” Doug says.
“But don’t overlook the opportunities that can appear right
under your nose.”
Future Outlook
Doug believes that the world is ushering in a new era of
mobility that puts an enterprise’s IT managers directly in
control of employees’ mobile business communications. “I
expect that this will be the norm industry-wide in the next five
years.”
“
“
Douglas J. Bartek
Co-founder, President & CEO
Tango Networks
optimizes mobile
communications for
the modern enterprise
August 2018| 27
CE s
MOST ADMIRED
10T
h
e
TO WATCH 2018
,
30. O
ne has to create his own
innovative pathways in order
to shine and imprint the
success on the globe. Bringing-in
something simultaneously intelligent
and endearing by surpassing the
portrayal of challenges is what makes a
leader extraordinary.
One such admired persona
empowering teams and professionals to
storm forward with his leadership and
futuristic vision is Meir Givon. Since
childhood, he has been passionate
about creating value and innovation.
“Challenges motivated me from the
start, through my youth and as a grown
up person by growing my own family
and professional teams, up to
becoming a mature leader” says Meir.
The Entrepreneurial Voyage
Meir has completed his graduation and
masters in Information Systems at the
Technon -Technology Institute of
Israel. He has also acquired an
additional master’s degree in
Entrepreneurship & Innovation (MEI).
His passion for delivering solutions to
complex problems helped him to fuel
distinctive portfolios at various
renowned organizations. Meir has left
a clear trail of innovation, leading the
R & D in the field of IT, Organizational
and Engineering software solutions for
more than thirty years, twelve years in
the Israeli Navy ITC organization.
With his constant efforts and
dedication for seven years, he also
became a partner and leading senior
VP at Endan- an IT Solutions software
house.
Throughout this journey, Meir was
MEIR GIVON
A CREATIVE AND INTUITIVE BUSINESS EXPERT
successful in educating hundreds of
fine experts, made some exit
opportunities while creating great
value and helped these organizations to
attain profitable outcomes. Meir
idolizes his brother Dan and one of his
commanders as the prime role models
for overcoming the hurdles of his
entrepreneurial journey. He believes in
taking inspiration from every person
around him and cherishes every
moment in his own professional way.
Identifying and innovating cutting-
edge required solutions to globally
spread challenges and requirements
encouraged Meir to become the
Founder & CEO at GIV Solutions in
2001.
He was invited by the Tel Aviv
University for two years as an external
lecturer in the topic of ERP systems
and acted for several years as a
Member of the judges of Israel IT
AWARDS national competition. He
also got the honor of being a lecturer at
international forums in EAM, SMART
CITY, China, Europe, the US, and
Israel. Apart from this, Meir was also a
member of the Steering Committees,
Host and Facilitator of professional
conferences.
About GIV
“It is not by chance that the hidden
meaning of the company’s name is - to
GIVe. We strive to innovate all the
time. We are an Innovative
organization creating Solutions.” says
Meir.
With Israel as its HQ and a center of
R&D, GIV provides excellent
organizational leadership, consulting
and technological solutions to
enterprises keeping par at the latest IT
technology. It has offices in North
America, China, and South America, as
well as strategic partnerships abroad.
Quoting “win-win win between the
Company entity, the Team, and the
Customer” Meir asserts, “For long
term sustainable company, all the three
sides must exist order to have
everlasting and prospering Business
High-Tech organization.”
The company consistently strives hard
to create and deliver a unique
experience to the customer through its
value-added services. Under the
leadership of Meir, GIV offers
organizations a platform to progress,
achieve milestones and also manage
the in-house changes. It specializes in
managing Organizational business
processes, project management,
strategic consulting methodologies,
change management in organizations
while introducing disruptive
technologies and business processes
change, Implementing and assimilating
IT-based management solutions on a
variety of topics.
Additionally, the company also offers
smart city management systems (GIV-
CITY™), Smart solution for education,
training organizations (GIV-
CAMPUS™), roads (GIV-RMS™)
bridges and structures (GIV-BMS™) -
a system that meets the rigorous
standards in Israel and worldwide,
Railway and metro infrastructure
lifecycle management (GIV-RAIL™) .
Also, GIV is a prestigiously awarded
gold partner of Infor, chosen as partner
of the year for three years of the last
six.
August 2018|28
31. With seventeen years of sheer determination, Meir has been
instrumental in encouraging his team of professionals and
assisting GIV to reach a multi-annual average of two digits
growth per annum. His experience, patience and vision to go
an extra mile for the customers have made him and the
company exceptional.
Meir’s extraordinary skills have helped the company to
establish prospering lines of consulting and solutions. He
helped GIV to achieve several milestones including:
• Strategic Consulting and Project Management - Computer
Management and EAM.
• Launch of PLM Pharma
• The Infor Representation Agreement in Israel on the
INFOR EAM system and implementation was signed
• Development of “Intelligent Road & Bridge” R & D
programs
• Signing an agreement with the largest water corporation in
the country, with a 19 years horizon.
A Colleague’s Voice
Addressing Meir his colleague asserts, “GIV is led by a man
who redefines the concept of innovation every day. He has
the ability to see people in depth and breadth, to find
inspiration in them and to apply it in all of his actions. His
life is divided into innumerable fractions and parts, each of
them fills a different need for him, and they all combine in
order to create, initiate, innovate, invent and dream.”
Enlightening the Young Entrepreneurs
Meir believes that right processes along with smart decision-
making will surely take the youngsters to newer success
heights. He suggests the aspiring and young minds to create
a highground which will help them to withstand the market
complexities. “Do not be afraid to aim high in your vision
and dreams - it is the main thing about being an
Entrepreneur, but make sure that the implementation of the
dream should be done always with one foot on the ground
giving the chance to the other reach far on your right track”
he added.
Futuristic Vision
With a vision to engrave a global footprint in the near
future, Meir asserts, “We will keep giving the best solutions
and services, leading the company to new goals while
sustaining innovation, recruiting new, talented, passionate,
and motivated employees to join GIV family, creating new
generations of high level experts, consultants, and service
providers.”
“ “
Meir Givon
Founder & CEO
Since 2001 -
We GIVe more
than IT
August 2018| 29
CE s
MOST ADMIRED
10T
h
e
TO WATCH 2018
,
32. oday, AI is on a creative
Tpathway with its applications
going beyond the horizons.
Independent research has stated that it
is taking its footsteps to the business
world and influencing the workforce. It
is impacting the new-age business
leaders and unlocking discoveries that
businesses haven’t yet conceived. Its
successful help to automate processes
such as administrative tasks suggests
that it won’t be long before AI will
August 2018|30
33. play a proactive role in the business operations. This
integration of artificial intelligence in business operations is
generating a platform for human empowerment. This
platform is providing the business leaders with tools
necessary to automate redundant tasks, spot patterns within
new and existing data and uncover important insights that
have the potential to make lives better.
Strategic Advantages across Industries
In the face of AI, business leadership is undergoing a
gigantic shift and adopting cocktail of skills. According to
an independent global survey on artificial intelligence,
majority of the organizations and business leaders are
deploying AI technology to automate and make the business
processes more efficient. Leveraging artificial intelligence
technologies chiefly for business process automation, is
often viewed as a good starting point as it can deliver rapid
improvements. The chief executives have monitored and
reported tangible benefits from the artificial intelligence
applications in their companies.
The industries and the emerging leaders are obtaining
advantages to security and privacy, deploying AI
technologies in organization’s data. As a result, continued
investment in the data management is seen across different
industrial sectors. The introduction of artificial intelligence
in the businesses is providing the new-age entrepreneurs
with improved process performance, productivity gains due
to IT time spent on higher value, improved security,
compliance and risk management, and increased market
share. It also powers the enterprises with improved
employee retention.
Integration of AI into Workforce
The deployment of AI technology in the organizations is
significantly going beyond the accuracy and productivity of
comparable human activity which undoubtedly states that
the AI is already matching human capabilities in certain
areas. Business leaders are getting well aware of AI’s
potential and are monitoring operations to support their
personnel. They are leveraging artificial intelligence to
augment existing human skills and make employees better
in their work. They are also focusing on employee training
to help them develop adaptable skills for the future.
Besides, smart algorithms are decisive, unwavering, and
informed which would in many ways create very effective
workforce and leaders.
AI is blurring the dividing line between employers and
machines, thereby supporting the new-age entrepreneurs.
These entrepreneurs are building training data that
demonstrates the machines to be smarter and in turn,
machines are progressively able to support elements of
workforce intelligence and learn more about the workforce
experience. Significantly, AI is about enabling machines to
augment and complement personnel functions. The business
leaders are moving towards the symbiosis of the two. With
the implementation of artificial intelligence, the employers
can design business processes that make the best use of
resources. This will help empower the business leaders and
their organization’s employees to work smarter and more
productively. AI creates a way of operational excellence for
the workforce and makes them agiler. It develops
responsive skills in the business leaders making them firm
for the complexities of the business market.
Embracing Greater Presence of AI Technology
AI is integrating into more operations within enterprises,
which is redefining the fundamental concepts of leadership
across several levels. These levels include the overall
strategy, customer experience, leveraging technology and
human capital. Recognizing this revolutionary shift in the
leadership, four out of five chief-level officials identified
that their future business strategies will be informed
through opportunities offered by artificial intelligence
technology.
Significantly, these officials are confident that the
organizations’ executive personnel have the ability to adapt
the leadership skills as AI technologies are adopted within
the businesses. Along with a strong belief in leadership
strength, they surveyed strongly and agreed that artificial
intelligence will benefit the organizations at all levels. They
have approved to the idea that AI technology will improve
the leadership skills and boost the investment areas in
employee training, recruitment, building new solutions
based on data, modernizing technology and new digital
services and solutions. These investment areas will develop
a positive vision in the leaders and upsurge transparency
into the business operations.
Looking into the Future
Many enterprises across all the sectors will witness the
benefits of artificial intelligence in the coming future. It
would become the mainstream amongst the new-age
business entrepreneurs and more companies are planning to
invest in the AI technology. This increase in the scale of AI
will be the driving force of future business revolution and
tangibly benefit the business leaders. It would help the
business leaders to uncover new opportunities and head off
potential risks. The artificial intelligence technology is
changing the idea of training – as one-time-initiative. The
future with AI will motivate the organizations to adopt a
culture of lifelong learning and facilitate opportunities for
staff to continuously develop new skills. Also, business
leaders have to evolve their skills to gain a deeper
understanding of the technologies that have the ability to
drive their business forward in the years to come.
Tech Talk
August 2018| 31
34.
35.
36. echnological changes are the
Tbiggest, most disruptive forces
that have been challenging
mankind for decades. Bringing an
intelligent and endearing
entrepreneurship into this portrayal of
a tech-enabled world is not an easy
task. One has to be remarkably
resilient in order to paint the success
canvas in an inspiring way.
Raj B. Vattikuti is one such
committed philanthropist and serial
entrepreneur, aiming to create
organizations that can steer the world
towards a sustainable future where the
end-user is more empowered.
Raj’s entrepreneurial journey began in
1985 with the founding of Covansys
Corp. - initially named as Complete
Business Solutions Inc. He led
Covansys to become one of the leading
software services provider globally. It
was acquired by Computer Science
Corporation in 2007. Meantime, Raj
also founded the Vattikuti Foundation,
Synova, Inc., Davinta Technologies,
Vattikuti Technologies, and Vattikuti
Ventures.
After seeding a string of successful
enterprises, Raj Vattikuti founded
Altimetrik in 2012, with a vision to
create a global organization that
catalyses digital and technological
transformation by continuously
RAJ VATTIKUTI
A TECHNOLOGY VISIONARY AND ACCLAIMED
BUSINESS LEADER
investing in talent, platforms, and
capabilities.
About Altimetrik
“We fundamentally believe that our
customers know their business and
their customers the best, so we act as
the catalyst to them to deliver solutions
and functionality at a speed they didn't
think was possible,”, says Raj.
Raj founded Altimetrik with a vision to
challenge the conventional IT industry.
Unlike the traditional players that sell
projects, outsourcing, and time and
material resources, Altimetrik works
on New Thinking that drives
innovation with its clients by building
Digital Products that lead to new
revenue creation opportunities, and
also enable superior margin generation.
These products are reliable, scalable
and come with accountability-led, risk-
based engagement models. This
increases Altimetrik’s stake in the
customer’s business success. Raj
propounded an ecosystem comprising
people, unified teams, pathways and
platforms that, when combined, helps
customers see and feel a new, more
productive (and energized) way of
working.
Headquartered in Southfield,
Michigan, Altimetrik has offices in the
USA (Southfield, Princeton & San
Francisco), India (Bengaluru, Chennai,
Pune & Mumbai), Uruguay
(Montevideo), and Singapore.
Currently, his sheer determination has
allied Altimetrik with the biggest
players in the financial, manufacturing,
healthcare, and automobile domains to
engage in transformational programs in
their organizations.
The Ardent Leadership
Raj is the key driver, aiding Altimetrik
to successfully propound an ecosystem
that addresses the three main facets of
transformation – talent, culture and
technology. This ecosystem named
Playground creates an influx of
superior talent that embodies Digital
Culture, and works as unified teams
with shared outcomes. The Playground
methodology combines people,
pathways and platforms, making the
perfect use of technology through
DevOps, Agile, SCRUM and other
advanced processes to deliver solutions
to customers with speed, precision and
agility.
With a philosophy to transform the
way organizations approach IT, Raj
stated, “We want to create an IT
environment that is highly
collaborative, innovative and effective.
This will not only help the businesses
to focus on what they do best but also
constantly advance their customer
experience.”
01 August 2018|34
37. A Comprehensive Vision
Raj has set the foundation of Altimetrik with a vision to
enhance the role of technology vendors to strategic partners
who can envision the roadmap for organizations to achieve
their transformation objectives. As a part of this
synthesizing end-user centricity into their DNA is an
imperative. He is consistently striving hard to make business
models and processes more simplified and straightforward.
By contextualizing this approach in every aspect, Raj
proclaims that “People will be able to live better lives, do
better work, and achieve more value in everything they do.”
Being the founder of Altimetrik, Raj dedicates his success to
his employees. He believes that profitable business
outcomes emerge from the inspiration he gets from his
employees. He encourages every engineer in the company to
develop and apply a product mindset in whatever role they
are into. He further adds, “The most inspiring moment, the
greatest motivation happens when I see my employees
achieve a solution that is truly transforming and future-
ready.”
Illuminating the Young Minds
Raj suggests budding entrepreneurs to focus on building
effective business models and innovating pathways to uplift
its scale. Rather than focusing on making money, he
encourages new entrepreneurs to prioritize employee
engagements that bring in a culture of collaboration and lead
to bigger outcomes. His advice to the young minds is to
build a work-culture, where the employees can seek
opportunities to transform themselves. “This will also
develop a consultative strategy not just in technology
transformation but in the area of transformation that will be
truly seminal including talent and people,” added Raj.
Plans for the Future
Addressing his employees, Raj states, “I want to see
Altimetrik helping at least 50 organizations go through their
transformation journeys in the near future. That to me will
be the greatest achievement.”
He aims to achieve this by honing and nurturing millennial
talent to achieve their full potential. With Altimetrik, he is
planning to help organizations evolve to a truly digital
culture and cultivate pathways and platforms for the
organizations that can match with the speed, freedom, and
intelligence of the next generation.
“
“
Raj Vattikuti
Founder & CEO, Altimetrik
We accelerate digital
missions through
technology platforms
August 2018| 35
CE s
MOST ADMIRED
10T
h
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TO WATCH 2018
,
38. When one studies great
entrepreneurs, there are
individual traits that will
stand out; however, there are few traits
that are common amongst most. These
traits sometimes are a gift and
sometimes attained, but in both the
cases, observing the need of industry is
mandatory to succeed in
entrepreneurship. Vaios Vaitsis, the
Founder and CEO, of Validata
observed such industry needs and
established a platform that caters one
of a kind and unique services.
The Commencement of the Platform
Vaios possesses profound knowledge
in data life cycle management, project
intelligence, and test analytics
software. He acquired these skills by
developing software for companies
through the development of global
partnerships and channel sales. Prior to
Validata, he was the Founder,
President, and CEO of two successful
startups, where he was responsible for
developing channel sales & franchising
alongside with talent acquisition and
team building.
Strength of Vaios lies in his ability to
observe the needs of clients and the
industry. He has the ability to adapt to
unpredictable circumstances and a
unique understanding of market
accelerators. Leveraging extensive
knowledge and experience of the
application lifecycle management
(ALM) over three decades, he saw the
need for the model-driven, integrated
ALM solution coupled with the
automated testing capabilities. Based
on his understanding and vision, he
VAIOS VAITSIS
THE CLAIRVOYANT, FABRICATING THE VITAL NEEDS OF
THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OPTIMISATION
established Validata in 2004. With
thirty years of experience in the two
startup software industries, and unique
expertise in the field of software test
automation, he is a progressive
entrepreneur in the software industry.
Validata- Platform for the Open
Enterprise
Vaios’s vision was to make the most
mature, easy-to-use platform for the
software industry. Envisioning this
vision, Validata, a script-less, no-code
platform, radically accelerates the
delivery of digital testing. It is powered
by the industry-leading model-based
test automation, agile test data
management, provisioning, service
virtualization, and many more services.
The platform offers a unique approach,
focused only on the thing that matters:
The End User. It validates, predicts and
monitors the user experience both
before and after each release, across
the multiple channels of engagement
focusing on testing the true, end-to-end
user journey.
It is a platform that provides unified
DevOps and Continuous Testing. This
platform is capable of integrating itself
with both open source and commercial
software such as HP QC, CA clarity,
Atlassian Jira etc. while delivering a
‘single version of the truth’ across all
the projects. It enhances DevOps
pipelines, linking business,
development, and operations enabling
faster product delivery with visibility
ensuring optimal digital experience and
delighting customers by meeting their
goals. After observing the software
future, Vaios made sure to integrate AI,
machine learning with Validata to
make it more intelligent, and be able to
automatically search for bugs which
further increase the user experience
with better quality alongside with the
increased productivity and lower costs.
“Packaged applica ons like core
banking systems are the core of cri cal
business processes and intelligent test
automa on is now a cri cal business
requirement to unlock and accelerate
digital transforma on,” says Vaios
“We have reached a cri cal point
where everything that companies did
before is no longer enough. The rise of
Digital Technologies, web and mobile
apps is changing the behaviour of
banks with a drama c change
iden fied in end customer experiences,
opera onal processes, and business
models for engagement.”
In this digital applica on economy
where most of the tes ng today s ll
being manual or semi-automated,
Validata’s breakthrough technology
enables QA and DevOps teams deliver
quality at speed and increase test
coverage and scalability in a way that
manual tes ng or tradi onal scrip ng
could never have done before.
Embracing Challenges as an
Opportunity
Vaios started his journey in the market
that had less knowledge about
automation. The initial establishment
of his business did not go hand-in-hand
with investors. Industry’s sceptical
nature about the venture of world of
robotics and automation kept these
August 2018|36
39. investors on hold. Banks were reluctant in initiating a
cultural shift and embracing a change. They were also
reluctant in adopting new technologies and ways of
providing services, especially to the new companies. At the
same time, Vaios also had to compete with the established
technology giants. However, he embraced these challenges
and his success and the company’s growth successfully
proves company’s early critics wrong.
Observing the Industry Needs
The software testing industry was lacking innovation in the
last decade. Organizations were adopting immature
solutions which were limited in integration capabilities,
end-to-end testing coverage, and preventing fast ROI. This
situation resulted in an increase in the overall cost of
ownership. Consequently, test automation was failing
because it was expensive to maintain and withstand the
manufacturing process.
Vaios perceived that, if a software vendor could produce
repeatable testing assets, it would eliminate the additional
costs of the automation script maintenance which are a
resource-intensive and expensive every time an application
undergoes a change. Clients will be able to adopt test
automation as a strategic long-term solution and benefit
from lower costs and faster ROI.
A Unique Philosophy
Validata and Vaios, both are all about customer satisfaction
and try to get themselves in the customer’s shoes to gain
competitive edge. Vaios says ‘“how we have always done
it’mentality will only hold you back ”.
While describing Validata’s vision, Vaios says “We drive
innovation. We hire smart, innovative people with a track
record of doing smart work. There is no room for
primadonnas. We all strive to remain humble and deliver
great work that makes us proud”.
Self-Motivation is the Real Key towards Success
Vaios always tries to lead company with his enthusiasm and
passion. He thinks that “the real motivation comes from
inside and feeling passionate about what you do”.
According to him this is the most prominent way to hold
the roots of success.
Priming the Company for the Future
The company looks further to invest in recruiting new
people and opening new offices across Asia and the US to
support their rapidly evolving client base. Vaios sees
Validata even further on its current way to consolidate its
position as a global leader. He knows, to stay on top, he
needs to stay ahead of all technological trends and
continuously turn ideas into innovations.
“
“
Vaios Vaitsis
Founder & CEO
Our mission is to become
the trusted leading
provider for DevOps
and Continuous Testing
for the banking and
finance sector
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42. Entrepreneurship is vastly growing and is a
transforming trend of the 21st century. Female
entrepreneurs are being the helping hand of this
arising alteration. Currently, they are working in almost all
sectors of the world. They are now running independent
occupations and enterprises with their leadership
capabilities and are introducing a global economic
revolution. They are discovering more and more ideas to
generate self-employment and income. They have started
recognizing the business opportunities around them by
crossing each and every obstacle and hurdle to attain
stability and give rise to the future economic growth.
Motivation Plays an Essential Role
Proper guidance and inspiration is needed for casting a
female into a successful entrepreneur. Economic
development can be easily attained by engaging them in the
startup landscape. Prominent measures should be taken to
motivate them about the growing enterprise opportunities.
Financial independence and workplace flexibility with
proper assistance vitally helps them to nurture in all aspects
to become successful entrepreneur and run an enterprise.
They need to be encouraged in each and every manner to
choose their field of interest and profession. Economic
development can be achieved when they start to recognize
their weaknesses and remain firm in the dynamic business
environment.
Challenges to Overcome
It is not easy for a woman to be a successful entrepreneur.
She has to pass several tests and overcome a diverse range
of challenges including lack of education, limited mobility,
and balancing work-life etc. They can come up with flying
colors if provided with the opportunities that can turn them
into a dynamic leader with expert skills and capabilities
influencing them to a successful business entrepreneur.
Also, the government should vigorously promote their
education settings and networking opportunities to create a
secure environment for them. They can be the catalyst by
dictating plans, actions, and the decisions that lead to
economic development.
Eliminating Gender Discrimination
Women are categorized to be more inferior to men. This
inequality is the barrier for most of the women who want to
be independent and seek their goals and profession.
Shoulder-to-shoulder operations between the females and
the males will help the economy to develop prudentially.
Gender inequality should be removed to attain the stable
economic practices. Women should be seen equal to men in
all the sectors to develop globally. More women engaged in
businesses will benefit the decision-making capabilities of
the businesses and the enterprises. Gender inequality
removal will build a transparent socio-economic
environment which will change the face of the economic
development.
Technology Reshaping Businesses Led by Women
The growth in economy is the edge where technological
influence arises. This technology helps a female
entrepreneur to connect to the prospective markets with
their respective services and products thereby leading to the
economic growth. They can acquire new and innovative
skill sets and implement them in their firm. Technology
enables a businesswoman to attain much better customer
connect and satisfaction. The workplace and enterprise can
be more secure for a woman entrepreneur by this use of
technology. The integration of, ideas led by female
entrepreneurs and the involvement of technology can lead
to the growth of economy. Technology is bridging the gap
between the businesses and the females.
Necessity of Working Capital
Access to finance is the biggest barrier for a woman to start
a business or enterprise and is also necessary for the
economic development of the enterprise and the world.
Proper finance can surely provide them with stable capital
operations and functions. The government should take
necessary measures to fund the businesses led by them.
This can help them to develop their sense of trust in the
monetary and make them steady in the field of finance and
managing capital. Economic development can be
empowered by this financial help provided to the females.
They can seek their goals and successfully support the
economy through this funding. Finance will help them to
raise their earnings, manage the money and help them to
build a stable income plan respectively.
Women entrepreneurs will surely be the pillar of the
economic growth and long-term development of nations in
the coming future. Besides, their contribution in the
different sectors in terms of the growing agricultural and
other global labor force in the coming years will be major.
They would make better decisions and plan a course of
action for economic growth and global development by
working in the private as well as the government sectors.
They will majorly serve their share in the future economic
growth and motivate the future generations. Women
employment rates will certainly benefit the global GDP to
grow in the emerging decade. They would surely be the
catalyst for the economic growth and development thereby
helping the roots of different sectors of the socio-economic
environment to develop in the upcoming future.
August 2018|40
43.
44. In this fast paced tech-world,
innovative thinking and swift
moves are the traits to self-
discovery. Success comes to those who
create their own benchmark in
presence of the established market
players. One such trailblazer focusing
on generating measurable business
value from data is Venkata
Narayanan. He is a seasoned
entrepreneur having innovative
prowess and broad experience in
delivering Business Intelligence &
Analytics solutions for strategic and
tactical applications.
Apart from seminar circuits, Venkata
has dedicated the initial days of his
career to preaching and building
systems that leverage data and provide
competitive advantage to the
organizations. A vital start to his
journey includes a long stint at Institute
of Systems Sciences, National
University of Singapore (NUS) where
he was an adjunct faculty. He continues
his teaching activities as Adjunct
Faculty in Singapore Management
University (SMU) since 2012.
Acknowledging his teaching
experience, Venkata asserts, “I find
these teaching experiences a two-way
street – interacting with students is
rewarding with different perspectives
brought by them. I probably learn as
much, if not more, than what I am able
to share my experiences with them!”
In India, after having an experience at
Wipro from 1984 to 1991, Venkata
moved to Middle East (Muscat in
Oman) in order to work with a private
airline. With a passion to do something
on his own, he came to Singapore and
launched his first startup Knowledge
VENKATA NARAYANAN
CONNECTING DOTS OF THE ANALYTICS ECOSYSTEM
Dynamics in 1997. Wherein, he
worked with a vision to provide
‘Business Class’ experience at ‘Club
Class’ pricing in the context of
leveraging data for competitive
advantage.
Knowledge Dynamics acquisition by
an NYSE listed Global IT major in
2005 brought him back to corporate
life where he held various portfolios in
the domain of Business Intelligence
and Analytics. His last role involved
incubating emerging technologies like
Cloud and Mobility. Witnessing an
inflection point in enterprise adoption
of Cloud led Venkata to be the
Founder and CEO of BigTapp Pte
Ltd in 2013 with a vision to provide
global-best-in-class analytics solution
at affordable price points leveraging
Cloud. Today, his thirty years of
phenomenal experience in the field of
management and consulting helped the
company to establish itself as a
trustworthy brand amongst the existing
players.
About BigTapp
BigTapp is a technology company
generating value through Big InFo
ActiV platform and providing
affordable Big Data & Analytics
solutions to companies irrespective of
the scale and size. This AI-based
platform identifies customer intent by
processing transactions & interactions.
Adding more insights to the intent,
BigTapp enumerates customer profiles
by determining personal attributes,
relationships, life events, sentiments
and buzz. As such, the company
leverages the customer insights
through a Knowledge Graph and
delivers effective marketing solutions
to the digital enterprises. The platform
is also used to customize the customer
experience based on data driven
insights.
The company’s business model
comprises license sale of its products
and associated services using
Analytics. He has been instrumental in
embracing every single opportunity
and helping BigTapp to grow at a
steady rate of more than twenty percent
year-over-year in terms of revenue.
Also, his determination and constant
efforts has assisted the company in
achieving several milestones including
the recognition of its IP and business
model amongst the world’s 50 most
innovative tech startups by TieCon
Silicon Valley in 2017.
The Dynamic Techie
In the initial years of entrepreneurship,
Venkata was inspired by Richard
Branson, the business magnate and
founder of Virgin group which helped
him to deliver value at affordable price.
On the other hand, he also discovered
the efficient use of capital by
idealizing- renowned e-commerce
baron- Jeff Bezos, CEO at Amazon.
Vastly experienced by age but young at
his thoughts is the best way to describe
Venkata. His leadership skills helped
him in supporting various management
roles including the Senior Vice
President & Head of Strategic
Initiatives in Tech Mahindra. He
consistently works hard with an aim to
democratize analytics and make it
available to large corporates as well as
the SMEs.
August 2018|42
45. Over the years, Venkata has helped BigTapp in overcoming
various challenges and deliver best-in-class products and
services. He played a vital role in catching the waves of
business analytics and crossing the hurdles of secured cloud
and data. Being the driving force behind company’s success,
he states, “Mitigating these challenges often involves
education and consulting on best practices. Some examples
of knowledge & skills we need to pick outside our core
competency are: Contract Law, PDPA Act and Customer
Communication Management.”
Exploring the Philosophy
Venkata considers analytics industry as fast approaching
peak of overinflated expectations. He believes that while
machine learning and AI are playing an active role in
developing innovative solutions, unrealistic expectations on
the outcomes are frequent. He expects a ‘correction’ soon
followed by more realistic expectations on what can be
achieved using Analytics.
Igniting the Flames of Entrepreneurship
Venkata believes that the youngsters should focus on
keeping the costs low while providing a scalable solution to
a real problem in order to withstand the market complexities
and attain profitable outcomes. He also believes that
pivoting based on market reaction rather than holding on to
initial vision is necessary for an individual to navigate the
cornerstones of the entrepreneurial voyage and the startup
enterprise. He proclaims “Entrepreneurship is a rocket
science – similar to a rocket that needs an engine to move it
from one orbit to another, you need an engine to move the
startup from one orbit to another higher orbit! That engine
could be new market, new product, new people or new
investor etc.” He further added, “Often the engine that
propels a rocket to the next orbit is jettisoned once the
rocket moves to the next orbit. Similar thing can happen in
your entrepreneurship journey. At one point in time – even
you (the founder) may no longer be relevant. The venture
may require someone with a different set of skills to take it to
the next level – that’s the time for you to cut the umbilical
cord and exit.”
Growth Plans
Focusing proactively in ASEAN and India, Venkata is all set
to expand its horizons in the US. These US engagements
would grow efficiently in the future due to the focused sales
& marketing efforts of Venkata and his team of
professionals. His further plan is to continue investing in
building more capabilities to the products and increase
support for more non-english languages.
“
“
Venkata Narayanan
Founder & CEO
We believe that
Customer Knowledge
should encompass
stated and unstated
needs and made
available and
actionable to all
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