Insights Success has curated a list of “The 20 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch, 2018,” who are excelling their roles and responsibilities of leading organizations that have ceaselessly advocated the ingenuity in technological innovation and in providing best-in-class services globally.

1. June 2018
www.insightssuccess.com
To Watch 2018
Most
INSPIRING
The
Matthew
Telesca:
An Industry Pioneer
Driven by Determination
Matthew Telesca
Founder & CEO
MGN Logistics
Imparting Wisdom
Successful Personality
Traits to Learn from
Elon Musk
The Art of Leading
Attributes of a
Good Leader

4. eadership in its pure form is the act of leading a set of followers for a collective purpose. Instances
Lof leadership can be observed in the ways how Alexander, Napoleon, George Washington,
Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and many others, led their followers. Initially, a leader was
perceived of an authoritative image. However, through the course of time, the term leadership has been
branched into different styles but pertains to the pure form of the processes and outcomes involved within
it.
th
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34 United States President says, “The supreme quality of leadership is
unquestionable integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang,
a football field, in an army, or in an office.” The verity of these lines is evident in the contemporary era of
ingenious technologies and business models across the globe.
Be it, an authoritarian or free-reigning style of leadership, one can safely assert that without leadership, an
organization would be directionless, the workforce would be powerless, and goals and ambitions would be
pointless. The nature of a leader is a subtle blend of ethics, integrity, ambition, determination and
persistence. These traits build up a leader’s influence and reputation within the organization as well as the
watching world.
Funneling down the vitality of leadership into an organization, the role of a leader is played by a CEO.
Right from the lifting of curtains to the climax of the play, a CEO avidly performs the parts of a
protagonist, leading the organization to glorious heights. Initiating ventures, delegating tasks and their
Leadership:
The Unison of
Guidance and
Compassion

5. appropriate execution, interactive participation, delivering quality outcomes, relentlessly recognizing
and appreciating collective and/or individual efforts, are some of the prime duties of a CEO.
Hence, herein, Insights Success has curated a list of “The 20 Most Inspiring CEOs to Watch,
2018,” who are excelling their roles and responsibilities of leading organizations that have
ceaselessly advocated the ingenuity in technological innovation and in providing best-in-class
services globally.
Our Cover Story features Matthew Telesca, who has spearheaded MGN Logistics, Inc. to be one of
the USA’s fastest-growing logistics and transportation companies. The company has ventured several
prolific and novel transportation modules which include, predictive pricing, extensive KPI charting,
and intelligent transportation routing, all under Matthew’s transformational leadership.
Matthew comprehends that the path wherein one is metamorphosed from a follower into a leader is
largely aided by grit, discipline and the ability to continually grind through good and bad times to
succeed. He elaborates, “You need to be the first one in the office, the last one to leave, and you need
to be willing to do what everyone else only talks about doing. If you are willing to do this, then and
only then, you will have one of the necessary building blocks to creating a successful business.”
Asserting upon his role as a CEO and the essence of any organization’s success, Matthew states,
“The ability to delegate is one the biggest challenge for any Founder and CEO. The business is like
your baby, you’ve committed absolutely everything to it, and once it starts to grow, if you’re not able
to let go and delegate, you will end up with stifling growth.”
Also, make sure to scroll through the articles written by our in-house editorial team and CXO
standpoints of some of the leading industry experts to have a brief taste of the sector.
Let’s start reading!
Abhishaj Sajeev

11. sales@insightssuccess.com
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June, 2018
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Abhishaj Sajeev

12. Matthew Telesca
Founder & CEO
MGN Logistics

13. Matthew
Telesca:An Industry Pioneer Driven by Determination
It was curiosity that always
pushed me beyond what
most other kids my age
were interested in.
Cover Story

14. S
uccess stories are always inspiring. Why? Because
everyone wants to live a similar story; everyone
wants to succeed. But when an individual achieves
success starting from the bottom, that is when an inspiring
story, becomes an awe-inspiring story. Those who build
their own success out of nothing, are those that successfully
navigate their way around life’s challenges, without
stopping. They fall, sometimes or may be often, very hard,
but they get up to stubbornly move on. It’s that self-belief,
passion and determination that keeps the ball rolling. A
perfect example of an individual starting from little and
creating their own success is Matthew Telesca, Founder
and CEO of one of the country’s fastest-growing logistics
and transportation companies in the United States, MGN
Logistics, Inc.
Matthew, the youngest of five children, was born to a very
modest low-income family, in a small farming community
in Pennsylvania. His parents were first generation
immigrants from Europe. Matthew’s mother was a home
maker and his father owned a small upholstery business. As
a child growing up, he was often given his older brother’s
hand-me-down clothes for the new school year. And while
the family never struggled to eat, small conveniences or
luxuries were few and far in-between, and never taken for
granted. All his siblings, including himself, would work in
his father’s small family run shop, taking turns to assist
their father.
He recalls, “In middle school, my class had around 800
students and the vast majority were pretty well-off
financially. In fact, out of the entire class only a handful of
us received free lunches because our families couldn’t
afford to pay for them. I remember being so embarrassed
and self-conscience about it. I was always attempting to
hide my free lunch card,” Telesca chuckles. “It was
something that impacted me very early on and created an
incredible desire and unstoppable determination to find a
way to succeed. I ended up being the kid with a lemonade
stand, the kid who sold trading cards, the kid who was
always looking to make a few dollars, whenever and
wherever I could. I would come up with the craziest ideas,
but nothing would stop me from trying.”

15. A Determined Kid and Avid Reader
According to Telesca, it was his unending determination
and self-belief, along with curiosity that always kept him
ahead of the curve. One incident that perfectly illustrates
this as a child is his experience of investing in stocks. At
just 12 years of age, and having saved $500 from working
with his father, Matthew convinced his father to open a
brokerage account in his name, so he could trade stocks and
commodities. Imagine a 12-year-old making real
investments in the stock market. Using the school’s pay
phone, he would call his stockbroker to check on his
investments and get live market updates between classes.
He reflects, “I was always curious and always interested in
learning new things; how something worked, how it was
made. I loved the idea of using my intelligence to create
opportunity.” Telesca remembers being an avid reader.
“Even today, I am constantly reading industry related
articles and magazines and always attempting to keep my
creative juices flowing.” He would enjoy reading books
with topics like business, investing or computers.
The ‘Aha’ Moment
After finishing high school, to pay for his continuing
academic studies and assist with family bills, Matthew took
a job at a local door manufacturer loading and unloading
trucks. The company’s management team immediately
noticed his work ethic and responsible attitude; and decided
to train him directly under the warehouse manager. With
this training, he learned the basics of inventory control and
supply chain management. Intrigued by what he was
learning on the job, and recognizing numerous
inefficiencies in the shipping process, he switched his
academic focus to concentrate on logistics. Matthew started
taking courses, reading and studying at night, while
working at the warehouse during the day.
Telesca would frequently fill in for the warehouse manager
while out on vacation. During one of these routine times, he
was asked to arrange and dispatch the company’s daily
shipments. The company’s shipping process entailed
contacting one of three carriers. The first, was a preferred
carrier and the least expensive, the second and third were
progressively costlier and only used when necessary. On the
very first day of his new responsibility, Telesca found
himself in a situation for which he wasn’t prepared - none
of the three carriers were available. “The year was 1998,
Google didn’t exist, and in fact the whole idea of online
search at that time was, not just extremely novice, but
exceptionally limited. The entire internet was relatively new
and very few companies had meaningful websites. So, I did
One of the things I
learned very early
on was that if I
wanted to make any
money, I would need
to work for it.

16. rapid growth and success, the site was sold to a private
equity group in 2004. Three years later, after his non-
compete clause had expired, Telesca started, what would
end up being numerous acquisitions of brick-and-mortar
freight brokerages he could efficiently modernize and
integrate on-line with his newly developed Freight
Transportation Management System (TMS). The first of
these acquisitions occurred in 2007 and was a freight
management company based outside of Boston,
Massachusetts. This would be the start of a never-ending
quest for excellence and the constant pursuit of newly
reimagined technology that would again end up disrupting
the transportation space.
MGN Logistics: A Technology-Driven Logistics
Solutions Provider
As an early adopter of web-based technology, MGN
continued to focus on cutting edge technology and
developed several industry-first creative transportation
modules which include projects like predictive pricing,
extensive KPI charting and intelligent transportation routing
that has outpaced all major players in the space.
I believe one of the
most important
characteristics of a
successful CEO is to be
an effective
communicator.
what everyone did back then, I started looking through the
yellow pages or the phonebook for trucking companies.”,
recalls Telesca. After several hours of “smiling and dialing”
phone numbers, he ultimately found a local carrier that
would perform the deliveries and, actually, ended up being
substantially cheaper. That was Telesca’s ‘Aha’ moment.
Having firsthand experience with the inefficiency of not
only finding trucks, but then also getting price quotes, he
envisioned a way to improve this process and decided to
jump in both feet first.
Armed with a little knowledge of programming and an
intriguing idea, Telesca contacted a friend from college who
was working at America Online (AOL) as a programmer.
Ten months, countless sleepless nights, and two hundred
and fifty thousand lines of code later, Telesca’s newly
formed company, MGN Logistics, Inc., launched a
revolutionary new website called logisticsquote.com in the
spring of 2000. It was one of the first online transportation
brokerage websites, and allowed customers to easily set up
accounts, search carriers, rate shipments, create shipping
documents and track their freight online. After extremely

17. By 2013, the company had opened an office in Orlando and
another in the Dominican Republic to handle it’s growing
international business. In 2014, having been heavily
concentrated on freight management and LTL, the company
expanded its expertise and acquired a truckload brokerage
in New Jersey. The following year, it made another strategic
acquisition of a tech-savvy Midwest-based brokerage with a
unique proprietary truckload pricing app. Today, the
company has 6 locations spanning Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Michigan and the
Dominican Republic. While the company provides services
as a traditional freight broker, its focus and specialization is
as a full-service freight management partner. It’s cloud-
based proprietary TMS can efficiently integrate an entire
supply chain ranging from that of a large multi-national
corporation to small home-run business. The software can
be utilized as a fully independent stand-alone program or a
well-integrated bolt-on apparatus.
At MGN, we have created
a corporate environment
where employees are
empowered to think
about innovation and
make suggestions.
MGN’s suite of services include price and service
optimization, contract negotiation, carrier routing and e-
dispatching, along with fully automated documentation
creation, pre- and post-audit, freight payment, and an
extensive suite of interactive business intelligence reports,
just to mention a few highlights. The platform not only
provides sophisticated transportation technology but also
connects each customer to a dedicated group of seasoned
logistics managers who assist in coordinating, executing
and tracking all shipments. The process is enhanced with
integrated eGPS monitoring of truckload shipments, in
addition to live LTL, rail, ocean, air and parcel updates. For
those companies looking for a standalone or fully integrated
solution to either replace or support their existing logistics
department, MGN’s proprietary TMS is hard to beat. Their
dedicated technology staff makes integration simple and
incredibly affordable.

18. Innovation and Implementation
Telesca notes that the transportation
space, like so many other industries,
continues to be disrupted by new and
compelling technologies, something he
is intimately familiar with. In addition,
new entrants to the industry such as
Uber Freight and Amazon push the
envelope of an already crowded space.
Telesca is convinced the race to the top
will be won by smaller, more adaptive
and specialized companies rather than
industry giants that he believes are too
bloated to implement genuine
disruptive change. “At times, it’s a
little funny reading or listening to folks
outside my space talk about the new
entrants like Uber Freight or Amazon,
as if they are introducing something
genuinely disruptive or new. I guess for
those not intimately familiar with
logistics and the technology in the
space already, those ideas seem
innovative, but rest assured, there are
dozens of companies that have been
doing the same thing or similar for
quite some time. Sure, just for their
sheer size, financial fortitude and
name-sake they will gain market share,
but I often chuckle at all the hype.
Trust me, I’m one of the first to be
excited when I see or hear something
truly innovative. It’s been a life’s
passion to try to be one of those
industry innovators, so I applaud when
I see something worthwhile.”
“My belief is that the market players
who are able to efficiently deploy
continuous technological
improvements, while at the same time
effectively execute their strategy, will
have the best chances of real success,”
Telesca exclaims. MGN Logistics has a
focused, crafted strategy designed to
look ahead and be innovative. It
doesn’t rely solely on its CEO to lead
innovation, but rather empowers each
and every employee to participate and
revel in creativity and innovative
thinking. It is for these reasons that
Telesca feels that the company has a
greater chance to continue dominating
its niche market.
Ability to Delegate
When asked, “The ability to delegate
is one the biggest challenge for any
Founder and CEO,” says Telesca.
“The business is like your baby, you’ve
committed absolutely everything to it,
and once it starts to grow, if you’re not
able to let go and delegate, you will
end up stifling growth.”
Telesca started his company in the
bedroom of his parent’s home and
single-handedly wrangled every role
from idea, to development to
programming and vendor relationships,
to sales and invoicing and billing,
tracking and tracing; literally
everything! So, when the business
started to grow, it was very difficult to
let go and delegate responsibilities. It
required, not only trust, but even more
importantly, acceptance of the idea that
a task could be accomplished
effectively in more than just one way.
“My way” was not the only way,
Telesca recalls. As he learned this
lesson, he focused more on managing
As the CEO and visionary of
the company, I am excited to
see not only the changes in
the transportation space,
but even more excited to be
an integral part of those
changes.

19. the desired results and less on micro-
managing his people. This allowed his
employees to take ownership and spark
a never-ending process of
improvement.
The Mantra of Success
Everyone wants to be successful and
yet, for the majority, success is very
elusive. Telesca feels an entrepreneur
needs grit, discipline and the ability to
keep grinding through good and bad
times to succeed. He advises budding
entrepreneurs to be prepared to work
above and beyond everyone else. He
elaborates, “You need to be the first
one in the office, the last one to leave,
and you need to be willing to do what
everyone else only talks about doing. If
you are willing to do this, then and
only then, you will have one of the
necessary building blocks to creating a
successful business.”
Catalyzing the Trust Factor, MGN’s
Future
A major challenge facing the
transportation industry is the need for
trust in so many supply chain
transactions. Brokers must trust that a
carrier is who they say they are,
carriers must trust they will get paid,
shippers must trust that a carrier will
not double-broker a load, and the list
goes on. Telesca, once again, is
pushing his innovative vision for the
future of logistics. He believes the
application of block-chain technology
in the logistics space could prove to be
transformational. From its inception as
an early internet solution, to its real-
time truckload pricing app, to the
sector’s first block-chain enhanced
TMS, MGN Logistics has always been
on the cutting edge of these types of
transformational changes. As the
visionary and primary advocate of the
platform, Matthew Telesca envisions
himself helping to catalyze these
changes. He successfully built and sold
his first logistics company by the age
of 32. He now leads the growth of his
current company, MGN Logistics,
which has been named one of
America’s Fastest Growing Private
Companies by INC Magazine, four
years in row, most recently in 2017.
Telesca believes MGN will reach $100
million in annual revenue within a few
years, and all without any outside
investors. “At this point, I feel we are
really just hitting our prime. I’m past
the point of foolish startup mistakes as
a CEO, I’ve learned hard lessons from
the past and I’ve surrounded myself
with a knowledgeable and experienced
executive team that has my complete
and full confidence. I believe we are
ready to see growth accelerate even
faster. The ultimate demonstration of
this belief is the fact I’ve turned down
numerous offers from outside investors
and companies to acquire MGN. Some
of those offers were quite tempting to
be honest, but I think it’s just a little
too early. I still want to see this growth
thru.”
I was always curious and
always interested in learning
new things; how something
worked, how it was made. I
loved the idea of using my
intelligence to create
opportunity.

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CORPORATE OFFICE

21. Management BriefCompany Name
EngiLifeSciences
engilifesciences.com
Gregory W. Pierce
CEO
Derek A. Pickell
CEO
Exusia
exusia.com
inet-logistics
inet-logistics.com
Kavi Global
kaviglobal.com
KlickEx
klickex.co
Media 33
media33.com.au
Oswald Werle
CEO
Vijitha Kaduwela
CEO & Founder
Michael Lambert
Managing Director
MGN Logistics
mgnlogistics.com
Matthew Telesca
President & CEO
Trevor Silver
CEO
Cetrom Information
Technology Inc.
cetrom.net
eMDs
e-mds.com
Christopher Stark
Founder & CEO
Gary B. Smith
CEO
Ciena
ciena.com
Ciena a network strategy and technology company -
Network Solutions for Optical Transport and Switching,
Carrier Ethernet, Data and Broadband Networks.
eMDs is a leading provider of healthy solutions for healthy
patients and healthy providers.
EngiLifeSciences is a consulting firm and provides services
across the healthcare value chain.
Exusia is a global technology consulting company that
empowers its clients to gain a competitive edge by accelerating
business objectives and providing solutions in data
management and analytics.
inet-logistics develops cloud-based Transportation
Management Systems for managing, controlling, and optimizing
transportation processes in real-time for customers worldwide.
Kavi Global is a pure-play data analytics company offering
consulting, software and solutions. It partners with clients to
accelerate and scale analytics.
KlickEx is a payments infrastructure platform focused on
reducing settlement risks for Central Banks and providing
cross-border transfer services dedicated to financial inclusion.
Media 33 is a full service, innovative media
communications firm.
Cetrom Information Technology, Inc. provides cloud computing
solutions and information technology (IT) services for
managing networks and IT resources.
Robert bell
CEO & Founder
INSPIRING20MOST
THE
TO WATCH 2018
MGN Logistics is one of the first companies in the
transportation space to provide IT solutions for the freight
management and transportation industry.

22. Management BriefCompany Name
Switchfly
switchfly.com
Daniel Farrar
CEO
Karsten Boehrs
CEO & Co-inventor
Techsol Corporation
techsolcorp.com
TeligentIP
teligentip.com
The Rinaldi Group
rinaldinyc.com
Urban Crop Solutions
urbancropsolutions.com
VerseOne Group
verseone.com
Greg Nielsen
CEO & Founder
Anthony Rinaldi
President & CEO
Alan Neilson
Founder & CEO
VILIKE
vilike.fi
Kirsi Ekberg
Founder & CEO
Satya S S Sagi
CEO & Founder
Nectar Services Corp
nectarcorp.com
simpleshow
mysimpleshow.com
David Giangano
CEO
Keith Norris
CEO
PlanPlus Online
(Complete XRM)
planplusonline.com
Complete XRM, Inc. provides a myriad of productivity
software for individuals and for businesses.
simpleshow is the leading professional explainer video
production creating good effective explanations perfectly
tailored to the target audience.
Switchfly, Inc. develops and provides a Software-as-a-
Service platform for travel e-commerce, loyalty, and
ancillary experiences for airlines, hotels, online travel
agencies, and financial service companies.
Techsol Corporation is a niche Information Technology
solutions and services provider for global pharmaceutical and
life sciences companies.
TeligentIP is leading communication service provider. It offers
wide range of communication services spanning from enhanced
Call Centers, hosted IP PBX, IP Trunking, to Skype for business.
Rinaldi Group licensed general contractor is a is a full-
service construction management firm.
Urban Crop Solutions designs, builds and engineers turnkey
solutions to allow its customers to grow their crops indoors,
independent of the outdoor climate and seasons.
VerseOne offers web technology platforms, digital, and creative
services to the social housing, healthcare, local government, and
broader commercial sectors.
VILIKE is Finland based Startup Company. It develops digital
tools for physical exercise (PE) education, gamification, scientific
research, and solutions to activate preschool children’s growth.
Nectar is a software company specializing in monitoring and
diagnostic software solutions for the Unified
Communications market.
Maarten Vandecruys
CEO & Co-founder
INSPIRING20MOST
THE
TO WATCH 2018

24. The Importance of an
Undying Passion
in Budding Entrepreneurs
Iwas at an event in San Francisco in 2014, when I
heard a piece of advice that stuck in my mind ever
since. At the time, when I considered the advice, I
really wasn’t sure whether I was actually following it.
However, since then, I have come to understand the
significance of it. The speaker said, in relation to
choosing what you work on:
“If you’re going to climb a mountain, make sure it’s the
right one”
You spend much of the best part of your early life trying
to understand yourself well enough to find the right
mountain for you. You look for indicators; subjects you
like at school, mentors whose advice particularly
resonates, which exams you do well in, the clubs you
join at university, the career paths of those more senior
than you in our first job. But it’s hard – I rarely come
across people who really have the conviction to
absolutely know their mountain to climb through
forward looking indicators alone.
I started my career as an engineer. I joined a world
leading Engineering and Project Management company
which took me to projects in London, the US and the
Middle East. I worked on some of the largest and most
cutting edge mega-projects in the world. I quickly
became a chartered civil engineer and project manager
and it seemed like I was destined for a long and
successful career in the industry. However, I wasn’t
happy. Despite all the indicators pointing in a positive
direction, I knew something wasn’t right.
It was then that I got a call from my brother, to ask for
help on a little project he was working on with some
teacher friends of his. Fast forward a couple of years and
I had left the Middle East, left my career, and founded a
company called Pobble that would go on to change the
lives of thousands of children all over the world.
Now, every indicator would have told me that this was a
risky, even crazy thing to do! In fact, the next 6 years
that bought me to now, have been the most wonderful,
painful, challenging, and rewarding years of my life.
Entrepreneurship is truly a rollercoaster ride! When I
reflect on that decision point 6 years ago though, it
would have been impossible to have rationally decided
to leave everything and start on a new path – I just knew
in my gut that I had to do it!
4 years on I look back on that piece of advice and realise
that I did pick the right mountain to climb. And there’s
one indicator that I see above all else that convinces me
that this is the case. The fact that I didn’t give up. When
you are working on something that truly aligns with your
passion, every challenge is just the next one to overcome
as you progress along your journey to achieving your
mission, giving up just isn’t an option!
I’m often asked about the secret to successful
entrepreneurship and I say two things; focus and
resilience. When you are doing something that you love
and that you believe in, no matter what the challenge,
you keep going and make it happen. You keep going,
when others would just give up. Also, despite all the
chaos and challenge, you find the way to focus on taking
the next best step forward in a sea of uncertainty. When
you have the clarity of knowing where you are going on
your journey you are able to focus on the right things.
When I meet with new ideas and startups, it’s relatively
June 201822

25. easy to verify the market, the need and the solution – but
much more important in my opinion is the reason for the
founding team to be doing what they are doing. If this
project aligns with their life’s mission, their “mountain”,
then no matter how hard the challenge is, they will find a
way to create the best path forward. Maybe they’ll fail
for the many other reasons that startups fail, but they
have the best chance if they have that personal
commitment and passion to achieve success.
Pobble has won many awards, gained significant
investment, and continues to attract fantastic partners.
However, at the end of the day all these things are by-
products of one thing; every member of our amazing
team has an incredibly strong belief in our mission and is
passionate about giving teachers tools that will make
their life easier and inspire and engage their children to
make writing ridiculously exciting for them in school!
Without this passion and our commitment to climb our
mountain, none of this impact or achievement would be
possible.
Jon Smith is Founder and CEO of
award winning edtech venture
Pobble. Pobble is used by tens of
thousands of teachers each day to
nd the best teaching resources, give
pupils a global audience for their
work, and to assess writing.
Pobble has global acclaim, gaining
endorsements from famous authors
such as Michael Morpurgo,
partnerships with organisations like
the BBC, OUP and Microsoft, and
investment from some the world’s
most prolic education focussed
angel investors.
After graduating with a Masters in
Engineering Science from Trinity
College, Oxford, Jon because a
chartered Civil Engineer and Project
Manager. Jon started Pobble with his
brother and two other teachers in
their spare time. They then went on
to incubate Pobble whilst Jon studied
for his MBA at London Business
School. The fth co-founder
(technical) joined Pobble from Jon’s
stream at London Business School.
About Jon Smith
Jon Smith
Founder & CEO
June 2018 23
Leader’s Insight

26. Alan Neilson:
Bridging the Gap between Vision and Execution
Vision without
effective execution
is merely
hallucination.
“
“
ACEO is someone who is considered the motor
behind the success of a company. The pioneering
individual also shoulders responsibilities during
unexpected downturns. Hence the role of a CEO in any
organization is much more complicated than anyone might
imagine. He or she must have an unwavering belief in their
vision, an ability to hire the right talent, and bring-forward a
positive and inspiring approach that enables an admirable
environment in the organization. Gaining these qualities
and creating a team that shares the same vision is not a cake
walk. Very few individuals have been able to rightfully
claim these qualities. Their astonishing leadership has
allowed organizations to taste success at a global level. One
prime example of such leadership is Founder and CEO of
VerseOne Group, Alan Neilson.
VerseOne is a leading company that offers web technology
platforms, digital, and creative services to the social
housing, healthcare, local government, and broader
commercial sectors. VerseOne believes that effective and
intelligent managing and sharing of business content creates
unique competitive advantages and real return on
investment. Thus, it emphasizes providing highly-
personalized, functional, and beautifully-crafted digital
transformation solutions. VerseOne’s digital portfolio of
services and technology platforms power more than 200
websites, intranets, secure portals, and stakeholder
management solutions. The prime reason behind its
admirable success is the customer centric strategy and
visionary approach of its CEO, Alan Neilson. As the
Executive Chairman of VerseOne, Alan formulates and
executes a wide range of innovative strategies. Alan’s
leadership has allowed VerseOne to deliver customer-
centric and value for money solutions since its inception in
2004.
Inspiring, Aspiring, and Achieving
Alan originally aspired to become a medic, but he was
fascinated by the influence of computing. He recalls that,
during his college years, very few people had an access to
computer, including Fortune 500 company employees. Due
to the lack of access, Alan had to timeshare a large IBM
mainframe computer during his studies. He also read an
article at the time about Bill Gates’s Microsoft and its
endeavors to bring computing power to the mass market.
These two things enticed Alan to read more about computer
power and explore its capabilities. With a BSc in Computer
Studies, Alan has broad experience in the IT industry
spanning a 30-year career. During this time Alan has held
technical, support, sales, marketing, and general
management roles.
Today, Alan is the founder of VerseOne Group. In addition
to his involvement with VerseOne, Alan acts a director,
adviser and investor for a number of other early-stage IT
and technology companies.
Prior to that Alan was the CEO and one of the founding
directors of royalblue technologies plc, a wholly owned
subsidiary of royalblue group plc. He grew the company
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27. from a small start-up to a globally recognized
successful software service provider. During his 15
years at royalblue he gained experience of corporate
finance, due diligence, and acquisitions as part of the
company’s growth.
Notable Challenging Tasks Executed with
Excellence
Almost every start-up faces some challenges in
generating revenue and creating a brand name, and
VerseOne and royalblue are no different. Although
royalblue and its embryonic business providing software
were relatively new in the market, Alan managed to bid
alongside the much more established players of the largest
blue chip organizations in the sector. It was tough for
collaborators to trust solutions provided by a newly
established small start-up. This prompted the company to
make a minimum twelve month binding agreement with a
key collaborating organization, offering them a share of the
IP and the dedicated services of key developers. This
approach to implementation enabled royalblue to provide
extremely reliable software solutions that revolutionized the
in-house systems of its customers. Alan mentions, “We did
a great job of convincing them that we had the talent, the
knowledge, and the desire to deliver the solution they were
looking for and at a more commercially attractive rate than
our larger competitors.”
Key Entrepreneurial Traits
Alan also advises budding entrepreneurs to develop key
entrepreneurial traits like a vision to understand their
product and its future capabilities, good listening and
communication skills, and a charismatic character. These
characteristics helped Alan to thrive within the competitive
IT sector. He asserts, “If you really believe in your vision
and feel it would make a significant difference to the market
sector you have in mind, don’t give up and keep searching
and pushing forward.” In addition to this, Alan also
emphasizes employing the right processes and talent in
order to quickly adapt to customer needs and execute
strategic plans.
Committed to the Customer Experience
VerseOne provides one of the best digital transformation
solutions across the UK. The empowering aspect behind
this commendable success is VerseOne’s commitment to the
customer experience. Explaining his disruptive approach,
Alan says, “a business idea looking for a solution is much
less likely to succeed than a business idea that is either
addressing an existing need or improving on how it’s being
addressed.” Since its inception, VerseOne has focused on
providing easily adaptable and completely reliable web
solutions. The company evaluates latest products, best
practice methods, and design trends to ensure its offerings
remain cutting-edge. VerseOne understands the importance
of organizational content and invests heavily to provide
secure software solutions to its clients. Its abilities to
transform business content have been acknowledged by
various global leaders, and the prime catalyst, Alan Neilson,
envisions more extensible and future-proofed product and
service offerings.
Alan Neilson
Founder & CEO
VerseOne Group Ltd
June 2018 25

28. Daniel Farrar:Transforming the World of Travel
INSPIRING20MOST
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TO WATCH 2018
Travel is an experience that etches new chapters in
our lives. Studies reveal that in 2017, global air
traffic passenger numbers increased by 7.5
percent over the preceding year. In 2018, it is projected to
grow by another 6 percent. The jeopardy is that only
seasoned investors can understand and explore the true
market potential.
That’s one of the reasons the travel tech Switchfly is so
impressive and why Switchfly’s CEO, Daniel Farrar is
excited to be at the helm of a company addressing a
market segment estimated to be valued at $1.5 trillion and
growing between 5 and 6 percent every year.
Daniel holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and a
Master’s in Business Administration. Over the last 20-odd
years, his career has been focused on manufacturing,
technology, financial services, and high-tech start-ups.
“My primary goals have evolved over time, developing
building blocks that marry the connection between
business technologies and finance. This has allowed me
the privilege of leading various businesses throughout my
career,” reveals Daniel.
About Switchfly
Switchfly is a B2B enterprise software company that is
redefining the search and booking segment in air travel,
hotels, ground, packages, loyalty programs and other
travel-related areas. With more than 350,000 connections
in 120 countries and content in every language and every
currency, Switchfly is driving results for customers
ranging from American Airlines to American Express to
Groupon and is redefining the entire travel tech stack
along the way.
The company is on the podium as one of the most
successful and valuable private travel technology
companies on the planet. More than that, with 2 of the 3
world hotel groups, 5 of the 10 world airlines and 3 of the
Success is not the
result of spontaneous
combustion; you
must set yourself
on fire!
“
Daniel Farrar
CEO
Switchfly
June 201826

29. 3 global credit card payment networks, Switchfly is
leading the next great advance in travel tech that promises
to leapfrog today’s global travel search and booking
infrastructure.
A Turning Point
In Daniel’s opinion, careers are managed and developed
with a longer-term plan in mind. Throughout his own
career, he has closely considered every next step and role
with respect to the challenges, the potential to learn new
things, and personal or professional opportunities
available to him. All of that against a backdrop of
everchanging technologies emerging in business.
He says, “The pivotal moment in my career was my first
large-scale global P&L with General Electric. It was my
first P&L, it was a turnaround situation, and we had a
very successful outcome.”
A True Leader
When asked what qualities a good CEO must possess,
Daniel reveals that he doesn’t believe that there is one
most important characteristic.
He believes that every CEO must have many arrows in his
or her quiver to address the various aspects of business,
organizational challenges, marketplace dynamics, and
overall professional development for themselves and their
employees.
Some of those characteristics, in no particular order,
should include excellent communication skills, integrity,
analytical and structuring abilities, metrics orientation,
thoughtful coaching, and mentoring at all levels of the
company.
“CEOs and business leaders must have a firm grasp not
only on their own business but also on emerging
technologies, and strike a fine balance of the application
of resources, organizational agility, and serving the ever-
changing demands of customers,” explains Daniel.
Learn from Failures
Daniel Farrar is a result-oriented, courageous trailblazer
who acts with speed for impact and is always challenging
the status quo. To him, leadership is not always about
successes; it is about failures and what one learns from
them. He believes that understanding the lesson in the
failure will allow one to succeed more times than fail.
He adds, “There are many stories I can tell about my
failures, including one that is relatively recent. After
raising substantial funds for a very specific product, we
determined through further analysis that the product
would not fit the market requirements. This was not only
disappointing to investors but also required a
recalibration of the product line’s business trajectory.
That setback allowed me to refocus our product efforts to
a new and larger market, which drove significantly more
business growth for the company in a new sector.”
A Piece of Advice
Through his life and business experiences, Daniel has
learned to make the best moves to win the game. He
suggests that budding entrepreneurs “sit down, write out
all the things that you love to do and want to do and want
to be involved in.”
Daniel encourages them to first determine what their ideal
business looks like and chase that dream relentlessly and
rebelliously.
“As a budding entrepreneur, you don’t have far to fall;
there are no big, padded IRAs and stock options that must
be preserved, no house, no car payments, the list goes
on… Chase your dream, do what you love and it’s no
longer “work”, it’s fun,” he adds.
Future Outlook
The vertical industries are becoming enabled by
technology and new economic models such as the sharing
economy, cloud-based information, and crypto
blockchain. People are becoming less materialistic, more
focused on experiences, and the desire to share, connect,
and participate in communities.
“My job as a CEO providing technology is to foresee how
it can enable the changing requirements of our society
and the consumers who are using that technology to
enrich their lives,” Daniel says.
June 2018 27

32. 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
June 201830

33. 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.
Purpose Driven
Ted Katagi
CEO
Kenja
June 2018 31

34. A Passionate Leadership Redefining the Boundaries of Success
David Giangano:
More than a designation,
leadership is a moral
responsibility that makes
things happen. A noteworthy
example of such a leadership is
David Giangano, CEO at Nectar,
who transformed his dream into
reality.
David believes that his life is similar
to the movie, ‘Brooklyn’. He was
raised along with his sister in a
working class family which believed
you provided for your family by
working hard and taking
responsibility for your own actions.
His family values also taught him to
pursue his dreams with passion and
achieving them through
perseverance.
David always maintained a keen
interest in studying math, science and
music. His original plan was to make
a career in music and he even won a
music scholarship to a prestigious
college. Then came a turning point in
his life. After he won the scholarship,
his father sat him down and said
“David, you need a steady career
which pays the bills and takes care of
your family. Remember no one can
ever take away your love for music.”
Thereafter, he decided to pursue a
major in electrical engineering and
paid his way through college playing
music at weddings, bar mitzvahs,
parties and clubs. David ultimately
set his sights on becoming an
entrepreneur. Today, he has achieved
his entrepreneurial dream, but also
takes the time to cherish his love of
music by playing jazz on the piano.
Nectar- Innovating Software
Solutions
David Co-founded Nectar in 2006 to
bring “straight talk” to the world of
Unified Communications by
simplifying the management and
monitoring of an otherwise complex
process. Nectar is a software
company specializing in monitoring
and diagnostic solutions for the
Unified Communications market. It
serves a wide range of customers
including managed service providers,
system integrators, and enterprises
that span all vertical markets
globally.
Unified Communications is the
integration of real-time
communication and collaboration
services such as instant messaging,
presence information, telephony,
video conferencing, desktop sharing,
data sharing, call control and speech
recognition. Nectar’s flagship
product, the Unified
Communications Management
Platform (UCMP) has revolutionized
the way in which contact centers,
enterprise businesses and service
providers manage their UC voice,
video and collaboration applications,
systems and networks. Unique in its
vendor-agnostic approach, Nectar
offers a comprehensive, multi-
platform UC solution supporting
Cisco, Skype for Business, and
Avaya UC environments.
A Moment of Revelation
After completing his education in
electrical engineering, David started
working in the Aerospace industry.
Never give up,
never let pride
cloud your
decisions and
surround yourself
with the best talent
you can afford.
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35. However, the job only tempered his ambition of owning a business
of his own someday.
He did quite well with the aerospace firm, rising through the
engineering ranks in his 10 years there until which time the firm was
acquired. As with many acquisitions, the new organization can, in
the end, look much different. It was in that moment that David
decided that he had devoted enough of his early career to corporate
life and it was time to pursue his dream of being an entrepreneur.
The dream began when David created his own consulting practice.
An Approach Infused with Self-belief
David has always maintained a positive approach to life and
business, even in the face of adversity. One example, is a time when
David elected to walk away from a large opportunity with a top
global organization because it was a poor deal financially for Nectar.
Many on David’s team, including his board, questioned his decision.
However, David had a positive belief in his company and the
superior technology they could deliver and truly believed the client
would also come to understand that and return to the negotiation
table. It was a big gamble and carried the risk
of ending his career. Fortunately, the client
came back and on terms that suited everyone in
the room. That decision instilled a positive self-
belief in the entire organization.
Based on such numerous experiences, David
has a few words of advice for upcoming
entrepreneurs. He says, “Be positive and never
give up on hitting the targets. Do not waffle,
but check the ego at the door and be nimble. If
you made the wrong decision then admit it,
deal with it and course correct swiftly and
always inspect what you expect.” He adds,
“Never give up, never let pride cloud your
decisions and surround yourself with the best
talent you can afford.”
Hiring Challenges
As a leader of a fast-growing company, hiring
and attracting the best talent available in the
market has been a great challenge for David.
David also believes, for CEOs, involving that
talent to work as a cohesive team, with
everyone rowing in the same direction, is even
more challenging. To cope with it,
compensation packages must be highly
attractive to hire top talent even at a small
company. According to David, managing that
talent without destroying the egos of strong
minded successful executives is a careful
balancing art that also requires excellent people
skills.
A Horizon of Opportunities
According to David, the upcoming future will
be dynamic for IT companies. He sees an
opportunity on the horizon of robust growth
and fulfilling opportunities. He said, “As we
continue to grow as an organization, I see
myself as the captain of a fast-moving ship
that’s heading in the right direction. Always
staying mindful of the climate and keeping a
close eye on any approaching storms that may
require course corrections along the way, so we
reach our ultimate destination.”
David Giangano
CEO
Nectar
June 2018 33

36. innovation at the company by
emphasizing the creation of a corporate
environment where everyone from the
smallest team member up to
management wins.
Stepping into the Shoes of Great
Legacy
Greg was fortunate to have been born
into a family that spent their lives and
sweat to be successful entrepreneurs.
He mentions, “My dad was an
entrepreneur, and I always remembered
watching him as he carefully managed
his business.” It was Greg’s father Ron
who taught him and his brothers about
some of the essential values to follow
as an entrepreneur. Irrespective of
whether they listened to his words or
not, his father used to convey his
thoughts while driving and watching
TV. His father always encouraged Greg
and his brothers to help him work on
some of his projects. These memories
instilled in Greg an intense need to try
to live up to some of the values his
father possessed.
Advancements that Nurtured the
Interest
During his college days Greg was
fascinated by telecommunications. He
foresaw the sector to be relevant to
almost every aspect of business. When
the Telecom Act of 1996 was passed
and opened up a booming industry of
competitive communications
companies. This further peaked Greg’s
interest, and enticed him to try his hand
in the emerging telecom arena.
Consequently, he decided to dig in and
learn as much as he could, and he
started working with some of the best
companies during that era.
Afamous French aviator and
author, Antoine de Saint
Exupéry once wrote “If you
want to build a ship, don’t drum up the
men to gather wood, divide the work
and give orders. Instead, teach them to
yearn for the vast and endless sea.” As
the quote depicts, it’s not just enough
for a captain to be an idealizer, it is
equally important to build a committed
team which shares the same
aspirations.
Business leaders are no different than
the ship captain. They must have an
ability to inspire a great team of
individuals who can relentlessly work
to transform a leader’s vision into
reality. One such example of an
astonishing business persona and team
leader is the Founder and CEO of
TeligentIP, Greg Nielsen.
Headquartered in Texas, TeligentIP is
one of the leading communication
service providers around the world.
The company has recently innovated
some unique messaging and
collaboration products. It offers a wide-
range of communication services,
including enhanced Call Centers,
hosted IP PBX, IP Trunking, and
Skype for Businesses. As a trailblazer
at TeligentIP, Greg Nielsen leads the
Greg Nielsen:
A Telecom Trailblazer Making a Difference with
Collaborative Communication Services
If you want to build a
ship, don’t drum up
the men to gather
wood, divide the work
and give orders.
Instead, teach them
to yearn for the vast
and endless sea.
“
“
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June 201834

37. Empowering Traits: Dedication and
Resiliency
There is always some unforeseen
obstacle that challenges an
entrepreneur or CEO to the core.
Sometimes an individual might feel
lonely after making an
uncompromising decision. It can feel
as if while trailblazing, you’re
chopping away the branches of an
undiscovered jungle, and questions of
self-doubt can emerge regarding the
value of your existence and if you are
even moving in the right direction. But
according to Greg, commitment
coupled with mental and emotional
toughness is one of the essential
qualities that help a leader to conquer
these obstacles.
Perception of Innovation
Greg asserts, “I don’t think the
challenge is as much about being
innovative. You either are or you
aren’t. The real challenge is in the
perception of innovation because of all
the noise in the marketplace.” By noise
Greg means overuse of digital
advertising and other marketing
methods. According to him, such
methods quickly make a splash and
confuse the market with a flashy
product that doesn’t really have much
depth or scalability. The
“instageneration” is easily fooled into
believing in such products at times.
Thus, Greg mentions, the biggest
challenge for true innovators is in
piercing through all the digital and
marketing noise to demonstrate and
show the relevance of your innovation.
Focus on the Small Wins: Advice for
Emerging Entrepreneurs
Greg is more than just an entrepreneur,
he is an influential one. He advises
other budding entrepreneurs to first
focus on building small products or
companies instead of chasing after an
extensive development and
engineering project, which can quickly
consume significant amount of time
and money. Building a big company or
project is a tiring process. It takes way
too much time, always more than
expected. It can lead to investor and
employee exhaustion and ultimately
starts to affect product quality or it
even becomes irrelevant by the time its
completed. Hence, Greg recommends
building a basic usable product first
then building upon it step by step so
that you can easily ensure that you are
getting real-time feedback from the
market and that it has the potential to
sell.
According to Greg, the biggest key to
success that will get you through
roadblocks and challenges of running a
company is who you work with.
Throughout his time as an
entrepreneur, he has worked with team
members across the spectrum at
various companies. Poor quality,
incompatibility and lack of loyalty
from team members will always lead to
failure. His current co-founders and
team members are like a strong family
that challenges each other, but still love
and respect one another despite
differences. Thus, his advice for
emerging entrepreneurs is to surround
themselves with people who share
common goals and will stick with each
other through thick and thin.
Innovating Tools and Products to
Stay Ahead of the Curve
There is a substantial change in the
way millennials and our current
generation communicates and
collaborates. Greg’s company
envisions cashing-in the opportunity
and has already started innovating
tools and products to continue staying
ahead of the curve. Its new message
and collaboration service is just the
beginning.
Greg Nielsen
Founder & CEO
TeligentIP
June 2018 35

38. Leadership is about using the
power of a position to
empower a group of people
in order to attain a common goal. A
leader’s task is to implement the
plans that usually look good on
paper, through a delegated team, in a
specific time with an ongoing
motion. She/he may use the
traditional method or may think out
of the box. It depends on the leader
as how to do it; the ultimate motive
is to get the job done. Although, each
and every individual has a different
approach on leadership, some might
say it is about setting examples,
some might say it is about sharing
the authority; what matters is, taking
the right decision when it is most
needed.
Leadership varies from one
organization to another. An
organization is a dynamic body and
The Transformational Leader
A transformational leader inspires
the team through effective
communication and an intellectual
environment. However, these
individuals require more detail
oriented managers to successfully
implement their strategies.
Transformational Leadership is
considered among the most effective
employees of the organization. One
of the examples of this type of
leadership is when a leader is
assigned on a higher level for
effective environment.
The Transactional leader
The transactional leadership, as the
name suggests, enables the leader to
incentivize the team corresponding
to their performance. The team gets
rewarded when it attains the goals
and the Leader has the power to
review the results and act
creates new probabilities every now
and then. And with new
probabilities, come new challenges.
Although, it is impossible to
overcome every challenge, the
business environment has adopted
certain leadership styles for the
efficiency of business:
The Participative Leader
Participative Leadership is the
process of sharing authority with the
work force in order to get optimum
efficiency. The team, after getting
access to certain powers, works
responsibly to accomplish the goals
set by its leader. The shared
leadership also helps in case of any
requirement of change, as the
employees adapt quickly in such
environment. Incidentally, this style
of leadership fits best in a scenario
when there is a limitation of time.
Good
Attributes
of a
June 201836

39. accordingly when the team fails to
do the same. The goals and the
strategy to attain them are decided
by the leader and the team itself.
The Situational leader
Situational leadership is a theory that
the best leader will adapt to the
required leadership style according
to need of the hour. A Situational
leader may adopt democratic style
while discussion business with
senior executive, but may switch to
transactional at the time of team
review. However every individual
has a natural style of leadership and
it may be difficult to switch roles at a
certain point of time.
Qualities of a good leader
There is an old proverb that says,
“Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed
Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish,
and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.”
So is the case with leadership. One
of the basic qualities of a Leader is
to pass on the leadership skills.
Following are some of the qualities
of a good leader:
Ÿ Communication Skills
Communication is the basic
requirement for efficiency in a
business. As the level of hierarchy
elevates, the requirement of
communication grows. Especially,
when it comes to leadership, there is
no scope for lack of communication.
A Leader who fails to develop this
skill is looked up as incompetent,
because it is his job to send the
message loud and clear. Although, it
is also important to listen as it is an
integral part of communication.
Ÿ Decision making
There is risk in decision to making.
Great leaders take great decisions
when the stake is high and it is the
success of those decisions that make
them great. To add up, a good leader
takes right decision at the right time.
In conclusion, a good leader can be
defined by the dynamics of his style
in leadership, the values that he
brings to the organization, the
methods he uses to make the best of
the resources, and the kind of
decision he makes in the given
situations. At the end it is about the
attitude of an individual to bring the
change for good.
Ÿ Integrity
C.S. Lewis said, “Integrity is doing
the right thing, even when no one is
watching.” Be it giving credit to one
of the team members or be it
admitting a mistake, a leader wears
integrity as a badge of honor. They
do what is right, no matter what.
Ÿ Empowerment
As mentioned earlier, Leadership is
about using the power of one’s
position to empower a group of
people in order to attain a common
goal. A good leader shares his
authority with the team in order to
get the job done. By doing this, he
shows confidence in the team and
obliged by the gesture, the team
works with full enthusiasm to
accomplish the goal.
June 2018
The Art of Leading
37

42. n individual who realizes
Aopportunities and crafts
pioneering works of art out of
them is the definition of a CEO. A
beacon of inspiration, an amicable
coworker, and the enthusiasm to be the
torch-bearer of an organization’s
vision, are the evident traits of a
complete leader. Similarly, Gregory
W. Pierce, the CEO of
EngiLifeSciences, has been a
frontrunner in developing solutions
that allow Medical Device,
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology
Manufacturers to efficiently bring
compliant and high-quality products to
market.
During his 28 years of experience, he
has worked across the Healthcare
Value Chain with high profile
companies such as Ethicon Endo-
Surgery, Abbott Laboratories, Cardinal
Health, and the United States Air
Force. He continually innovates and
customizes value added solutions for
Product Development, Supplier
Management, Manufacturing, Quality
Systems, Regulatory Compliance, and
Information Technology.
He avidly participates on industry
initiatives collaborating with FDA,
Industry Representatives and
Universities on Artificial Intelligence,
and Product Quality Metrics within the
Healthcare Industry. His extensive and
comprehensive educational
background includes an M.S. in
Computer Science/Distributed Systems
as well as an MBA in Computer
Resources/Information Management.
He also holds a B.A. in Organizational
Management and an A.S. in Medical
Lab Technology.
An Industry Pioneer
EngiLifeSciences is a consulting firm
and provides services across the
healthcare value chain. The company’s
consulting solutions are funneled
towards Quality Systems, Product
Development, Manufacturing,
Information Technology, Regulatory
Compliance, Software Compliance,
Software Technology, Computer
Systems Validation, and Quality &
Business Performance. It offers an
array of services that are targeted at
increasing the bottom line for an
organization.
One of the visions of EngiLifeSciences
is to be a transformational agent in the
life sciences industry, bringing more
innovative approaches to organizations
and impacting the internal processes. It
helps organizations in keep pace with
the rapidly changing regulatory
ecosystem and become more agile so
as to attune faster to the external
conditions in the market.
The company’s mission is to transform
the Healthcare Value chain by creating
end-to-end visibility, driving the
highest-level product quality and
improving business performance to
stimulate innovation, ultimately
helping save more patient lives.
In the quality systems area,
EngiLifeSciences helps with process
improvement including compliance.
Addressing the regulatory concerns
and issues, we assist our clients in
transforming their processes to a
compliant state and also help in
remediation of various areas of the
quality systems.
When it comes to quality and business
performance, the organization focuses
on manufacturing, product
development, information technology,
quality systems, and how these
processes can integrate to offer end-to-
end visibility, helping organizations
identify opportunities.
Drawing Inspiration
Gregory’s Career started in the United
States Air Force working within the
military hospitals as a Medical
Laboratory Technologist and then
transitioned to working in Research
and Development for a major Medical
Device Manufacturer; in the
development of technology which falls
in the category of Digital Health, and
later in working for corporate America
in the development of new technology
medical products.
“The pivotal point for me was when I
decided to start my own company
helping companies in the medical
device, pharmaceutical and
Biotechnology industry,” states
Gregory.
A Challenge-Driven Position
Over the last 28 years, Gregory has
observed that corporate culture is the
greatest barrier for innovation. He
asserts “Corporate Culture has
become one of those buzz words that is
apparently very difficult to attain, yet
of primary importance to succeed. I
believe that cultural change starts by
changing current behaviors.”
He also adds that for any CEO,
breaking the paradigm, ‘that’s the way
we have always done it,’ which reveals
that traditional work methods which
add up to the challenges involved in
the designation. According to him,
taking an open and honest view about
operational processes and involving
everyone in eliminating all non-value-
added steps in those processes while
Gregory W. Pierce:
Revolu onizing the
Healthcare Industry
INSPIRING20MOST
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TO WATCH 2018
June 201840

43. “
reinforcing and creating value-added activities, can aid
CEOs in working efficiently.
Gregory comments, “Allowing ‘common sense’ practices to
drive our behavior and involving the organization in that
change, develops a culture of ownership and accountability
which opens the door to innovation and increased
visibility.”
Overcoming Adversities
For Gregory, striving to provide highest quality of service
for his clients has been the biggest challenge. He recalls a
significant project which involved helping a client in
remediating Quality system for Software Validation from
Product Development, Manufacturing and IT Enterprise in
addition to remediating all the software systems which had
regulatory implications. The program had aggressive
timelines with a tremendous effort required in a short
amount of time. “This program was one of those when
looking at it appears to be impossible to meet the time
commitments,” states Gregory.
“However, working with the team and watching them grind
through all the challenges one by one, and when we all met
the time lines and quality required to pass the horizontal
and vertical audits first time really, drove positive feeling in
accomplishing something that almost looked impossible
within the constraints we had,” he adds while expressing
his contentment towards the efforts of his team.
Beholding a Triumphant Future
According to Gregory, technology and digital health is
expanding at an accelerated rate, including the use of
artificial intelligence and other technology solutions to
bring value to the healthcare. With EngiLifeSciences’
relevance to this expansion, he asserts, “For us to be an
accelerator in the healthcare value chain, bringing more
innovative approaches to organizations, and impacting
internal processes resulting in agility and innovation is
necessary.”
Gregory’s advices the aspiring CEOs by stating, “The keys
are Focus and Persistence, never give up, no matter how
difficult it becomes to pursue your dreams.”
How we see success
depends on how one
defines it. It is about
how we can make a
difference to humanity
in a posi ve way. It is
about making a
difference and the
value that we
can add.
— Gregory W. Pierce
CEO
EngiLifeSciences
June 2018 41

44. Technological innovations take time to enter the
growing market. For an entrepreneur, monitoring
and providing the best user experience is a quest
that can’t be achieved over night. Open conservations about
setting goals and defining timelines for the product
development, paves a creative way towards success.
Besides, learning, adapting, and improving are the keys for
becoming a successful CEO of an organization.
One such agile personality, having a focused vision to
achieve his goals is Karsten Boehrs. While helping his
children in studies, Karsten realized that education and
learning processes are continually witnessing changes. His
son’s passion for gaining knowledge through online videos
inspired Karsten tremendously. This advent of technology
in the education sector and its rapid digital transformation
motivated him to become a Co-investor and CEO of
simpleshow.
Karsten started his career working in the logistics and sales
industry. He has an excellent experience of working at
management positions with various multinationals
including Axel Springer and Otto Group for over two
decades. Now, in his role at simpleshow his focus is on the
strategic expansion of the company’s market position
through internationalization and focused technology
development.
About simpleshow
simpleshow is the leading professional explainer video
production with several thousands of videos produced in the
global market. The company with its production team
delivers services essential in creating videos and interactive
eLearning courses for corporate customers in a variety of
different styles and formats. With the mission to provide
simple and effective explanations for everyone and anytime,
the company is developing intelligent solutions for wide
target groups, such as the online DIY video maker
mysimpleshow.com
mysimpleshow.com offers business and enterprise plans
with premium features directed across all small-scale and
large-scale companies. The intelligence behind the
application includes text inputs running through a semantic
analysis, a natural language processing stack, and an
integrated world knowledge database to produce iconic
Revolutionizing Education and
Communication through Simple
Accessible Resources
Karsten Boehrs
simpleshow
INSPIRING20MOST
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TO WATCH 2018
Revolutionizing Education and
Communication through Simple
Accessible Resources
June 201842

45. visuals. These are then arranged and animated by an
intelligent layout algorithm resulting in a video, which the
user can individualize, download, and share.
With offices in ten countries, the company builds on a
universal and scientifically proven methodology that blends
simple messages with visuals that stay in mind. Under
Karsten’s guidance all of the company’s offerings follow
this approach, focusing on five fundamental elements:
Context— An effective explanation, looks at the topic from
the target group’s perspective, providing a context the
audience can refer to.
Simplification— An effective explanation focuses on the
essentials. This entails reducing the topic to its core
messages and simplifying the language.
Storytelling— An effective explanation is embedded in a
story, as stories help to create identification and are easy to
remember.
Visualization— An effective explanation uses the power of
visuals.
Multisensory— An effective explanation stimulated several
senses.
A Visionary Leader
Karsten’s love for the sports made him an enthusiastic
cyclist as it combines all the qualities and values mandatory
for understanding the roles of a CEO. He believes, the key
enablers for his achievements are passion, perseverance,
strategic thinking, smartly adapting with changes, constant
learning and improvement. With the vision that the people
are the most valuable resources of a company he states “I
always try and develop my corporate family to be the best
they can be.”
An example of his leadership style that focuses on
empowering others, Karsten recalled a meeting in New
York, where he was really impressed meeting a young
freelance creative writer. He kept supporting him
throughout the years that made the writer a confident and a
trusted decision-maker. Today the former concept writer
co-leads the company’s 50 people operations in the US.
Besides, leading and nurturing a smart and loyal team, he
states “We have so much potential to seize opportunities,
tackle challenges, and grow our business.”
Under the leadership of Karsten, his team has created an
online browser-based tool ‘mysimpleshow’. This tool allows
its users to create their own simple explainer videos,
transforming the way people communicate. The company
has integrated AI into this tool, which is referred to as its
‘Explainer Engine’.
Karsten’s entrepreneurial vision is to change the world for
the better. With simpleshow his idea is to revolutionize
communication and learning through simple and accessible
resources.
Catalyzing the Market Change
Karsten’s idea of creating learning and communication
resources is changing day-by-day with the growing
digitalization. simpleshow is investing time and resources
into creating amazing tools, products, and content resources
to catalyze to this evolving change. They are constantly
improving mysimpleshow.com as a software product and
establishing brand awareness to be the go-to DIY explainer
video creation tool.
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
Karsten’s advice to new-age entrepreneurs is to stay
focused. Defining the goals with agility will help them to
achieve milestones. In addition to produce a business
model, he adds, “Decide how your product and
methodology will stand out from your competitors and
make those distinctions your unique selling points.”
As simple as
possible, but
as complex
as necessary.
June 2018 43

46. June 2018
Rob Leslie
Founder & CEO
Sedicii
44

47. innovative start-up attempting to lead
transformation activities in the digital
world?
Thinking about how far the world has
progressed in recent years with respect
to the digitisation of every facet of our
lives - in financial services,
manufacturing, travel, security -
change has been extremely rapid and
profound. Thirty years ago there were
no mobile phones, no drones, no
autonomous vehicles or complex
robotic manufacturing equipment. Yet,
requires changes to key enablers or the
istallation of new ones – big data and
analytics, IT systems, operating
models, people, and organisational
culture. While digital transformations
are obviously about technology and
processes, technology often turns out
to be relatively easy to get right. The
changes to how people work are more
difficult to get right. How can industry
incumbents and disruptors work
together to leverage digital enablers to
become more innovative and
adaptable? How does this affect an
he pace and scale of
Ttechnological change is
fundamentally altering how
value is created and distributed in the
world. Executives in established
companies across all industries are
under increasing pressure to reinvent
their businesses to stay relevant in the
face of stiff competition from digital
natives. While the relationship between
incumbents and insurgents is often
portrayed in adversarial terms, there is
enormous scope for mutually beneficial
partnerships. Digital Transformation
DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION:
SEDICII’S CALL TO ACTION
About the Author
Rob Leslie, Founder and CEO, Sedicii. He is a successful entrepreneur, a true visionary who
delivers business results by taking opportunities, chances and risks when required. He has a
solid track record of building and leading teams to positive results. An engineer by
background Rob has a serious interest in identity, trust and security. Rob lived and worked for
almost twenty years in Japan where he held senior management / director level positions
with Datacraft Japan, PTS Ltd., eSafe Japan and Dell Japan where he was part of the initial
management team that launched Dell into the Japanese market. Rob is also co-founder of
Global Business Register which specializes in identity and compliance solutions for
companies with AML & KYC regulatory needs.
June 2018
45
Mentor’s Opinion

48. we have embraced
them enthusiastically
in our personal lives. So
why then do we find it hard
to accept these changes when
it affects our business lives?
Organisations tend toward a status
quo; inertia provides a capacity to resist
change. Staffs are so busy with their
regular daily grind that experimentation and
“thinking outside the box” becomes the
exception rather than the norm. Of course there
will be pockets of innovation but it is generally
localised rather than being culturally pervasive across
the organisation. Actively looking at ways to improve
and move to the next level across the enterprise tends to be
driven by a top-down initiated focus.
It is when small pockets of experimentation lead to more
formalised experimentation that activity becomes
intentional and the initiatives become more audacious. The
excitement of possibility becoming reality then takes hold.
Formalisation leads to strategy and quickly, or not so
quickly, the idea formalises into a strategic goal. This
evolution then becomes the norm. The adoption of change
can become systemic.
Sedicii is a pioneer in the space of identity verification
systems where it uses a patented zero knowledge proof
(ZKP), cryptographic protocol, to help people and
businesses prove their identities in a fully privacy
preserving fashion. So where does Sedicii fit into the new
world order that is our new digital reality and even more
importantly why does it matter?
“90% of CEO’s believe the digital economy will impact
their industry, but less than 15% are executing on a digital
strategy” according to M.I.T.’s Sloan School and Cap
Gemini. For me, this is fundamental and it drives my
thinking on how to make the digital world work for both
business and the consumer. Having an ethical business that
provides a service in which all parties in the transaction
chain benefit is the objective; the business becomes
compliant, more efficient, ethical and profitable and the
consumer has confidence that they are being treated fairly,
that they are being appropriately rewarded for their loyalty
and that their assets and personal data are secure.
Considering digital transformation is at the heart of
everything Sedicii does, it means we are on a constant
journey to define a pathway to the next point in our
development journey. We are constantly thinking hard about
how we can leverage new technologies, like blockchain and
cryptocurrency, to apply them to our work with digital
identity. From this work Kriptan was born.
So, what is Kriptan? The Kriptan Network is a global
identity network which enables real-time identity
verifications from trusted identity providers (governments,
banks, telco’s, utilities) ensuring that businesses can react
quickly to new information about their customers while at
the same time providing the highest possible levels of
privacy. Data is never exchanged or copied over the Kriptan
network unless the customer expressly consents. Payment
for these transactions is made through the use of a new
digital asset that is recorded on a new style of blockchain.
This makes the transaction fast because it is executed via
smart contracts; it is low cost because there are no
middlemen, it is highly secure because of its
implementation using distributed ledger technology and it
complies with existing regulatory standards for KYC and
AML.
With the new General Data Protection Regulation coming
th
into force on the 25 May 2018, this kind of lateral thinking
provided a way for us to create a service that businesses are
going to need to overcome many of the inherent challenges
that they are shortly going to face.
We are moving into a post-truth world where the truth will
be hard to discern; where either trust or distrust will be the
basis of how we interact with each other and where
everything we once believed to be correct will be
challenged on a daily basis. Given this is where our world is
going we have made the Kriptan network so it will deliver
more than just a service. We want our customers to see it as
an arbiter of trust and a source of truth which becomes an
intrinsic part of their daily lives. We want Kriptan to
become indispensable as it responds to the challenges that
will occur over the months and years ahead.
So, in the words of Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, former
Chairman & CEO, Apple Inc. “Let’s go invent tomorrow
instead of worrying about what happened yesterday.”
That’s how we see the world.
June 201846

50. Call it a quirk of behavior or call it an obsession,
Keith Norris is a “measurer”—he strives to define
the current reality, and then find a way to improve
on it. This drive to continuously improve has helped him
compete as a triathlete, hockey player, as an entrepreneur.
Keith is an advocate of continuous improvement,
progressive goal planning, a leader in the Culture of
Productivity tribe, an author, a lifelong entrepreneur, and a
proud husband and father.
He has over two decades of entrepreneurial, sales,
operations, and managerial experience in the startup
environment—extending to software, recruiting, event
production, sales, marketing, real estate, business
development, and project management.
Keith is the CEO of Complete XRM, which owns and
operates several CRM, ERP, strategic planning, and
productivity software and SaaS offerings, including:
PlanPlus Online, Pocket Informant, KPI Fire, EBSuite, and
CRMRealEstate—helping organizations and individuals
align their purpose and activities.
“When you can connect what you do all day with why you
do it, you generate positive energy, focus, and
determination in your personal life and in your
organization,” said Keith.
This alignment of purpose and work results in a “culture of
productivity.” Culture evolves when a group of people
gather together—so it makes sense that a culture would
develop in the workplace.
A positive company culture supports work-life integration
and motivates and empowers employees. A negative
company culture, often result in high-turnover, low-quality
work, and increased stress. Company culture shouldn’t
evolve on its own—smart companies invest in building a
culture of productivity.
Complete XRM helps organizations thrive by increasing
alignment between the three core expressions of culture:
what we think, what we say, and what we do.
“You can’t generate and sustain a culture of growth and
productivity without developing leaders and leadership,”
Keith said.
“For example, every new employee is the most important
employees. Each person adds to the culture in their own
way. It’s not important that everyone’s the same, but the
recipe and combination of people is critical to success.”
“At Complete XRM, we spend our time envisioning and
creating productivity tools and subscription software for
individual leaders and their entire organizations. But
without the foundation of low tech personal-management
and productivity skills, these high-tech tools seem
burdensome. As a result, we not only offer advanced
productivity tools we also work to instill the low-tech
principles of leadership, time- and self-management,
business processes, and continuous improvement. That’s
where to find your real culture.”
It’s the drive to help create cultures of productivity that has
motivated Complete XRM to acquire companies such as
PlanPlus Online, Pocket Informant, and KPI Fire.
Keith received a Bachelor’s from Weber State in Business
Administration with Marketing emphasis, and also an MBA
from Weber State University where he was awarded the
Goddard Scholar designation. Keith was awarded the
Honors at Entrance Scholarship out of high school for
exceptional GPA and ACT test scores. He also was awarded
with the Goddard Scholar designation in the MBA program,
a designation reserved for the top 10% of the Graduating
MBA class.
Academically Keith graduated high school with a near
perfect grade point average, and was in the 99% percentile
for the ACT a national test administered to all high school
seniors. This academic achievement earned him the Honors
at Entrance Scholarship at the University of Utah. Keith
transferred to Weber State University in his 2nd year to
pursue another love of his, Hockey where he graduated with
a BS in Business Administration/Marketing. After 10 years
in professional fields, Keith went back to school and once
again excelled academically. First earning a score on the
Graduate School entrance exam that earned him a
scholarship to Weber State University, and upon graduating
he was named as a Goddard Scholar, a designation reserved
for the top 10% of the graduating class.
In the real estate industry, Keith won numerous annual
awards from Coldwell Banker, including the prestigious
Presidential Elite and Top 1% Producer awards.
PlanPlus Online
PlanPlus originally started as a digital version of the
FranklinCovey Planner in 1995 when it replaced what was
Keith Norris:Connecting Productivity
with Purpose
INSPIRING20MOST
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June 201848

51. then known as Ascend Software. PlanPlus evolved
through various platforms including PlanPlus for
Windows, PlanPlus for Outlook, and PlanPlus
Online.
Over the years, hundreds of thousands of people
have used various versions of PlanPlus planning
software to increase their individual levels of effectiveness.
In 2007, FranklinCovey and Complete XRM partnered to
create PlanPlus Online, the first version of PlanPlus to be
available on the cloud. Later, Complete XRM acquired the
exclusive rights to the PlanPlus Online software business
from FranklinCovey and currently operates PlanPlus Online
as a separate company.
PlanPlus Online (planplusonline.com), which is based on
FranklinCovey methodology, allows you to set and track
goals, prioritize, and manage projects in a proactive
environment in order to help you achieve success—and had
been used successfully by over 15 million people.
PlanPlus Online offers Essentials—a productivity system
for individual leaders, and Professional and Business for
sales professionals and small to medium-sized
businesses—including the only CRM that’s Culture-
Centric, meaning it’s the only CRM for companies who’re
determined to make company culture a priority as they
grow.
Pocket Informant
In 2016 Keith brought Fanatic Software—creators of
Pocket Informant—into the Complete XRM fold.
Later that year, Pocket Informant what chosen as the Best
Business & Productivity App. Previously, Mac World chose
Informant 2.0 as “Best of Show” in 2011, and in 2015 as
the Best Calendar App for iPhone and iPad.
Pocket Informant (pocketinformant.com) has been a leader
and innovator in the mobile Calendar/Task/ Personal
organizer space for almost 20 years. It has been a leading
app on numerous platforms from windows mobile, android,
and IOS.
Since its creation in 1997, Pocket Informant has been one
of the all-time best-selling iTunes productivity apps.
KPI Fire
Newest to the Complete XRM stable is KPI Fire
(kpifire.com). While both PlanPlus Online and Pocket
Informant offer an emphasis on planning excellence, KPI
Fire focuses on the measurement and execution of planned
strategies by engaging and aligning workers around
organizational goals and continuous improvement.
KPI Fire offers organizations a visual way to plan and
monitor their progress on the path of continuous
improvement and is rooted in the principles of Lean Six-
Sigma.
Helping to make personal and organizational intentional
choices
Whether you’re an individual leader or an organizational
leader, the tools offered by Complete XRM help you
identify and intentionally choose how you will spend your
time, energy, and focus. Because the tools help you first
identify your mission and values, then your choices are a
powerful reflection of who you truly are and what you truly
believe.
While goals can be a tremendous asset to any person or
organization, poorly defined goals have the potential to
destroy progress, kill motivation, and create attitudes and
culture that are worse than they would be if the goal had
never been set.
When goals are poorly defined or ambiguous, they are often
viewed as irrelevant, and there is frequently a general
feeling of apathy about them. Accordingly, the goal
planning process can come to an abrupt end before it really
even begins.
Companies with good strategy execution can accomplish
virtually any objective they set a plan toward and can lead
their industries in financial performance, customer
satisfaction, product quality, and employee engagement.
Striving to ensure
a culture of productivity.
June 2018
49
Keith Norris
Complete XRM

52. Kirsi Ekberg:
Redening the Meaning of Learning
INSPIRING20MOST
THE
TO WATCH 2018
You can be creative in anything - in math,
science, engineering, and philosophy - as much
as you can in music or in painting or in dance.”
- Sir Kenneth Robinson, author, speaker and
educationalist.
Creativity is an essential part in all areas of human life.
Science, Arts, Math, Technology, Cuisine, Education,
Family life, Politics, Business.... You name it. In many
fields, that role is undervalued yet very, very important; a
balanced combination of creativity and academics or
entrepreneurial tasks enables us to be innovative and
encourages to learn and do new things. Many companies
are providing web-based services, applications, solutions
and games to boost the learner’s or customers interest.
Only imagination is the limit of how we can harness the
possibilities of technology by remaining true to our
nature. Technology is a good servant yet a bad master.
In education, teachers are keen to add new technologies
along pedagogical methods to learning process. And yes,
Children as most adults as well, have more interest in
game based learning than traditional classroom studies in
school. In modern classrooms, gamification and
technology can be used to enhance student engagement,
participation and skyrocket the research to dimensions.
Even definition of classroom can reach totally new
spaces that aren’t limited to school buildings anymore.
For that VILIKE was founded by Kirsi Ekberg.
Company has been developing digital tool for preschool
education to support children’s kinetic learning skills
growth and elevate evolution of education with
technology and gamification. Solution is for parents,
schools and educational institutes.
Kirsi is also working for Dutch Explect.com which was
founded in 2015 by Bart and Martijn de Ruiter. Explect
is a forwarding company that provides digital platform
for international trade to help SME’s to export and
import their products globally. Apart from this, she is
working with Moiko.fi, a Finnish design company
producing reflective accessories. Kirsi is also part of
Mymeeko.com, a company designing and producing
electric kickbikes.
Kirsi Ekberg is a mother, an entrepreneur, and passionate
towards sports and arts. She studied physical education
and art management and played various sports including
soccer for more than a decade. Sport education studies
was the starting point which lead her to the path of
startup entrepreneur.
She played the role of single mother beautifully and
witnessed the growth of children in her life and with her
work. She also studied ICT and software development
that give her better understanding on technologies and
software which can be used in new-age education.
The Light Bulb Moment
It all started out from her interest to have digital tool to
support work with children’s physical exercise (P.E.)
education. She believes that physical activity and art are
as important as academics for children. Kirsi was
inspired by Arja Sääkslahti, Ph.D. in Physical Education
from Faculty of Sport and Health Science in University
of Jyväskylä: In her lecture she told about APM
inventory, a method to assess pre-school children’s
perceptual and basic motor skills. Arja also told her
“
June 201850

53. Follow your heart and
never give up on
your dreams, real
success can only be
achieved by
following your heart.
about the impact of physical activities i.e., the more children move,
the better they can perceive their bodies. This was the time Kirsi
decided to figure out how to digitalise this tool.
Problems Faced During Early Phase
Initially, she learned about algorithms, how the analysis needs to be
coded and ways software development along gamification can be
utilized. Along the way, another challenge along big mistake at the
backend of the first version, was and is the money. She ran out of
savings to finalise to product and is walking in so called “valley of
death”. But still after the obstacles, she is being encouraged by the
people around and that faith keeps her trusting on intuition. With that
support, the strong determination stays alive and keeps her thriving
forward to accomplish the desired goals. Also grit to learn new things
and seeing the golden lining in very storm cloud helps Kirsi to
overcome the hussles and hurdles, every day.
Kirsi’s Definitions of Success
“Be the change you wish to see in the world “ quotation by
Mahatma Gandhi is something that keeps her motivated to
achieve her goals. According to Kirsi, it is vital to keep your
feet on the ground, heart with the people and head creatively
open to the future. To go forward in business by generating
growth with the pace of people are even more important than
money. True success is made by and with the people. Always
give priority to well-being of one making the vision happen
and take care of yourself along others. If you wish to make your
vision come true, you need to be hands on part of the
change and truly work for it.
Her Next Move for Future
For VILIKE.fi, she is raising seed capital for further
developments, she is helping Explect with Growth
Hacking. For Moiko.fi and Mymeeko.com, she will
start international sales and Marketing to grow the
companies globally. She has dreams for more
innovative products for global markets. Kirsi will
continue doing what she has been doing with the
addition of getting back to development side and
finalising the products for launch.
Kirsi Ekberg
Founder & CEO
Vilike
about the impact of physical activities i.e., the more children move,
the better they can perceive their bodies. This was the time Kirsi
decided to figure out how to digitalise this tool.
Problems Faced During Early Phase
Initially, she learned about algorithms, how the analysis needs to be
coded and ways software development along gamification can be
utilized. Along the way, another challenge along big mistake at the
backend of the first version, was and is the money. She ran out of
savings to finalise to product and is walking in so called “valley of
death”. But still after the obstacles, she is being encouraged by the
people around and that faith keeps her trusting on intuition. With that
support, the strong determination stays alive and keeps her thriving
forward to accomplish the desired goals. Also grit to learn new things
and seeing the golden lining in very storm cloud helps Kirsi to
overcome the hussles and hurdles, every day.
Kirsi’s Definitions of Success
“Be the change you wish to see in the world “ quotation by
Mahatma Gandhi is something that keeps her motivated to
achieve her goals. According to Kirsi, it is vital to keep your
feet on the ground, heart with the people and head creatively
open to the future. To go forward in business by generating
growth with the pace of people are even more important than
money. True success is made by and with the people. Always
give priority to well-being of one making the vision happen
and take care of yourself along others. If you wish to make your
vision come true, you need to be hands on part of the
change and truly work for it.”
Her Next Move for Future
For VILIKE.fi, she is raising seed capital for further
developments, she is helping Explect with Growth
Hacking. For Moiko.fi and Mymeeko.com, she will
start international sales and Marketing to grow the
companies globally. She has dreams for more
innovative products for global markets. Kirsi will
continue doing what she has been doing with the
addition of getting back to development side and
finalising the products for launch.
June 2018
51