www.ciolook.

com

Elite League
of
Innovative
Entrepreneurs
2019

If your dreams don’t

scare and excite you, they
aren’t big enough.

Brad Sugars
A Gem in Business Coaching

JULY 2019
EDITOR’S NOTE
Connecting Entrepreneurs
with Innovation

I
n today's dynamic economy, where change is slow, sudden
or extensive — businesses operate, survive, and progress.
One of the crucial forces of change is the change in
innovation and technology. These changes are often used in
order to enhance entrepreneurial capabilities in achieving the
desired goal. An Entrepreneur works to forecast these future
changes and creates an innovative environment in the
organization.

Innovative technological advancements do occur, and it takes

nerve for an entrepreneur to accept the change and its
implication. This is an ongoing process in which the
entrepreneur sets his/her goals and strategies to pose several
alternatives when it comes to manufacturing these products.
Entrepreneur encourages employees to use these innovations
as it helps to build a strong trust amongst the internal
management of the company. Breakthroughs like AI,
Blockchain, Cloud Computing, IoT, 3D printing, have
encouraged entrepreneurs to use in every field to grow their
businesses.

So let's take a clear look at the connection between

Entrepreneurship and Innovation:

Retail- Innovation allows entrepreneurs to be available,

interacting with customers how, where, and when they are
ready to shop. Entrepreneurs depend on innovation to manage
inventory, track customer-purchasing habits, visualize trends,
and deliver goods & services. Wireless communication, QR
codes, and Augmented Reality are some of the innovative
changes to the retail industry.

Communication- In virtual workplaces, employees interact

and develop by connecting through video conferencing. This
includes training and important meetings from distant places
to employees. Innovative technologies are also used to get
 Elite League
of
Innovative
Entrepreneurs
2019

“Innovation is helping us solve problems where human

power is not enough”.
real-time feedback from the employees, which eventually allow the entrepreneur to improve the needs
of the employees.

Cloud Computing- Cloud Computing is very cost-effective and convenient to the company
management, and employees can access data from anywhere by just using a device that has access to
the internet. It helps entrepreneurs to store business information and has been accepted by many in the
world of business.

Cyber-Security- It becomes crucial to protect the online business from cyber-criminals who could steal
data or lead to website downtime. Encryption and decryption protect information from being accessed
by any third party or cyber-criminals.

Automation- CAD/CAM innovative technologies have been applied in many industries, even banking
and financial institutions have embraced automation in financial transactions.

Hence, entrepreneurship and innovation go hand in hand by creating a connection with all the stages of
management that brings the desired output. So, with great enthusiasm, CIO Look has shortlisted, "Elite
League of Innovative Entrepreneurs, 2019" that encourages the entrepreneurs keeping their spirit
alive.

Featuring our Cover Story is Brad Sugars, the Founder and CEO of ActionCOACH®, pioneered the
industry of business coaching through hard work, determination, and a well-organized and systemized
approach that generates profits for the businesses his team works with. Through his book, 'Pulling
Profits Out of a Hat,' he has created a handbook for adding zeroes to anyone's bottom line.

Also while flipping the pages, don't forget to go through the articles and CXOs written by our in-house
editorial team and industry experts respectively.

Sourabh More
COVER STORY

08
BRAD
SUGARS
A Gem in Business Coaching

ARTICLE

17 The Art of Leading

Attributes of a Good
CXO’s
Leader

22 Incentives Solutions 32 Imparting Wisdom

Rethinking the Products of Successful Personality Traits
Today for a Better Tomorrow to Learn from Elon Musk

40 Expert's Outlook 46 Innovating Space

The Fuss about AI Innovative Companies
in the Space Industry
 CONTENTS

ChristopherDeck 18
A Strategic Leader in
Innovative Solutions

Fatima Al Shirawi 26
A Memorandum of an
Emerging Gem

Gary Olson 30
Accentuating Leadership With
Discipline Skill And Knowledge

Jim Finnerty 36
Delivering Marketing
Automation Platforms

Joseph Chan 42
Balancing Effectiveness
and Eficiency
 K. Roy
Editor in Chief

CONTENT FOLLOW US ON

Senior Editor Alan Swann www.facebook.com/ciolook

Managing Editor Bhushan Ghate www.twitter.com/ciolook

Executive Editors Sourabh More WE ARE ALSO AVAILABLE ON

Alex Spellman

DESIGN

Visualizer Dave Bates CONTACT US ON

Art & Design Director Tejas Kulkarni Email

Associate Designer Kushagra Gupta
SALES
Senior Sales Manager Kshitij S.
Customer Success Manager Jack Ryan
Sales Executives John, Kane, Prashant
TECHNICAL
Technical Head Aditya K.
Technical Consultant Victor Collins
info@ciolook.com
For Subscription
www.ciolook.com
Copyright © 2019 CIOLOOK, All
rights reserved. The content
and images used in this
magazine should not be
reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without prior
permission from CIOLOOK.
Reprint rights remain solely
with CIOLOOK.

editor@ciolook.com

July, 2019
Brad Sugars
A Gem in Business Coaching

Our '14-Points of Culture' is the heart of our

company. It defines the core values of the
Global ActionCOACH® brand and community.
 Cover Story

Brad Sugars
Founder & CEO
ActionCOACH®
I
n this era, where new technologies, business
trends, and fierce competition are rapidly
evolving, many business leaders look to reinvent
their businesses in an effort to keep up. New business
owners may find it difficult to grow without direction,
and the result can be stagnation. Such business
owners and entrepreneurs often require assistance
from the experts who are proficient and have
accumulated years of enriching experience. These
entrepreneurs need a business coach.
Brad Sugars, the Founder and CEO of
ActionCOACH®, pioneered the industry of business
coaching through hard work, determination, and a
well-organized and systemized approach that
generates profits for the businesses his team works
with. Through his book, ‘Pulling Profits Out of a Hat,’
he has created a handbook for adding zeroes to
anyone’s bottom line.
CIO LOOK appreciates such leaders and their
contributions. We are proud to feature Brad Sugars in
this edition.
Leading the Way-The Story Behind ActionCOACH®
From a very early age, Sugars had an entrepreneurial
spirit. He was inclined to work smarter, not harder
and determined to get measurable results. In college,
he managed a number of small businesses. But with
incredible success at such a young age, a talent for
making companies in a variety of industries flourish,
people in the business community began referring to
him as “The Turnaround Kid.” Business owners began
to approach Sugars to work as a consultant but he
soon realized such work was not his calling. He
realized that coaching offered the missing component
that made consultant so ineffective, and thus
ActionCOACH® was established.
ActionCOACH® has served thousands of businesses
and their owners around the world and in every
industry imaginable since 1993, and specializes in
showing business owners how to find more time,
create better teams within their companies and more
money on their bottom-line. Its approach utilizes
fundamental business principles that can be applied
to any business in any industry. Because its approach
works with every industry, ActionCOACH® has been
able to expand into more than +60 countries, and they
are proud to say that they have coached more clients,
won more awards, gained more recognition and
produced more profits than any other coaching
company in the world.
ActionCOACH® has a lot of offerings designed to
appeal to a wide swath of its target audiences,
including executive coaching, group coaching, one-to-
one coaching, workshops, webinars, and seminars.
The company also offers its Product Ladder, which
includes ActionCLUB, Assessments Online,
SeminarCLUB, Business Valuation, BusinessRICH,
GrowthCLUB, BookCLUB, and ProfitCLUB. Each of
these offerings provides levels of investment
designed to meet any organization at its current
financial needs.
What’s ‘Pulling Profits Out of a Hat’ about?
“Pulling Profits Out of a Hat” is a quintessential
modern business handbook that breaks down the
strategies and disciplines that will help people grow
any business exponentially. It’s a book that truly
works if one follows the principles outlined in it. In
more than 370-pages, the book outlines five
disciplines designed to help CEO’s and business
leaders expand the business exponentially year after
year. The first is Strategy, which is defined by a
business model that sets the business up for massive
growth. The second is Business Development. Too
many people believe that this means just marketing
and sales. That’s false. Business development is about
getting and KEEPING your customers. Third, it’s the
discipline of People. You have to grow people in your
business. If you build the people, they will build the
business. Fourth, is Execution. You can have the best
of everything but in this day and age proper execution
sets you up for success. The final discipline is Mission,
which means connectivity between people and the
company. You have to build an emotional connection.
“Leadership is key, and that’s really about two things:
passion and focus. We believe in staying grounded and
focused, and allowing your passion for the work becomes
The biggest risk
you can take is to
do nothing.
contagious. These are philosophies that have shaped
our organization,” Sugars said.

It’s these types of sentiments which makes Sugars World Abundance Through
an exemplary CEO. Business Re-Education.
Technology Integration

In the future, Sugars believes that a great portion

of how business is done will be taken into online
formats. Social media has and is changing things,
and business owners need to embrace it or suffer.
Additionally, the ability to coach remotely and in a
virtual environment provides coaches with
limitless opportunities, and erases the physical
boundaries based upon a client’s location.

In the future, every successful professional will

have a business coach. It’s a little-known fact that
approximately 40% of Fortune 500 companies
make use of business coaching to train and develop
their executives. According to Sugars, small and
medium-sized businesses also know the value of
coaching. Coaching is something that all business
owners and executives can benefit from. That
being said, the era of exclusive in-person
coaching has died. One can host
meetings online, have weekly calls.
There are tons of strategies that
can be employed to make physical
distance a non-issue. Webinars,
online training, and digital
coaching are becoming the
norm, and ActionCOACH®
utilizes all of these tools.
 CHOOSE OUR SUBSCRIPTION

1 Year 6 Months 3 Months 1 Month

12 Issues 6 Issues 3 Issues 1 Issue
$250 $130 $70 $25

Stay in the known.

Subscribe to CIOLOOK
Get CIOLOOK Magazine in print, and
digital on www.ciolook.com
Attributes
of a Good
Leader

16
| July 2019 |

L eadership 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
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.
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 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
17
The Art of Leading
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 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.
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.
| July 2019 |
Christopher Deck
CEO
Deck Commerce
18
| July 2019 |
 Deck Commerce

Christopher
Deck
A Strategic Leader in Innovative Solutions

T
echnology helps us to explore the universe, develop solutions to complicated
problems, and to change the world for the better good. Nowadays leaders have a
world of opportunities to evolve in the sphere of eCommerce with these innovative
technological solutions. One such impeccable leader is Christopher Deck, CEO of Deck
Commerce.

In an interview with CIO LOOK, Christopher emphasizes on his 15 plus years of experience
in helping companies maximize their eCommerce potential.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Christopher Deck and CIO LOOK:

Take us through your journey on becoming a proficient leader.

For me, developing as a leader is a process. As you grow from an individual innovator to a
leader, it's critical to understand your core values and live them daily. For me, my core values
are rooted in integrity, respect, teamwork, and attitude. Layered on top of core values is the
need to build a team that is focused on innovation that provides meaningful value to
customers. This can be best achieved by allowing the team the opportunity to grow and
develop into the best versions of themselves.

How do you diversify your organization's offerings to appeal to the target audience?

Three components drive our roadmap of offerings: focus, understanding, and vision. By
taking the time to truly understand the problems and needs of our customers and overlaying
that against our unique perspective of changing trends in the industry, we can continue to
innovate and provide meaningful value, which is the key to appealing to any target audience.

19
| July 2019 |
 What are the basic but crucial traits that every
innovative entrepreneur must possess?

I've been called a thoughtful contrarian, which seems

like the ideal description of an innovative entrepreneur.
As an innovative entrepreneur, you must be able to
gather insights in a thoughtful manner, see
opportunities, and have the conviction to blaze new
traits based on those insights.

What are your intakes on the roles of an entrepreneur

Focus on building a on product innovation performance?
great team and Entrepreneurial organizations accede at being fast and
providing adaptive, which drives product innovation
meaningful value. performance. It's like the difference between a
speedboat and an ocean liner. An ocean liner is
effective at long pre-determined journeys but can't
manage dynamically changing conditions, which is the
hallmark of entrepreneurial innovation.

In your opinion what roadblocks or challenges are

faced by an entrepreneur to ignite the business? And
what is your advice to overcome them?

I think the biggest challenge is finding a healthy balance

between growth and efficiency. As an entrepreneur,

20
| July 2019 |

growth is like oxygen, but even too much oxygen can be
dangerous. My advice to dealing with this challenge is
to find good partners that are invested in your success
and bring experience from helping other entrepreneurs
going through the same process.
How do you cope up with volatile technological trends
to boost your personal growth?
Read, read, and network. We're living within the digital
age, which means information is omnipresent. The
ability to gain insights and develop relationships with
thought leaders is critical to grow and develop as an
entrepreneur, which includes managing changes within
the industry.
What are your future endeavors/objectives and where
do you see yourself in the near future?
Our vision is to help modernize retail by changing how
orders are processed for consumers across channels.
With that in mind, we will focus our efforts on our
mission of developing and supporting the best direct-
to-consumer order management system on the market.
As a leading technology architect in eCommerce and
retail sectors, what is your contribution to its
evolution?
Our contribution is based on our passion for leveraging
technology to solve essential problems in retail. We
come to work every day, thinking about the most
effective ways to help our customers deliver better
results and experiences for their consumers, and by
doing so, we help the overall industry adapt and grow.
What would you like to advise to the budding
entrepreneurs in various organizations?
When you see opportunities to provide meaningful
value through innovation, pursue that vision with
conviction and an unwavering sense of purpose. It will
21
Deck Commerce
feel like swimming against the current, but that's the
sign that validates you're onto something innovative.
Provide a one-line quote that best describes your
approach to business and your vision?
Focus on building a great team and providing
meaningful value.
A Brief on Chris
Our story began in 1998 when founder, Chris Deck,
started the eCommerce consulting company Deck
Internet Solutions. Chris had one goal in mind: to help
businesses become eCommerce leaders within their
industries.
This focus put Deck Commerce in the unique position
of seeing challenges with direct-to-consumer selling
strategies, and one of the biggest challenges related to
the growing complexities of fulfilling orders. Chris knew
that a cloud-based approach to order management
could help transform retail, which was the founding
vision of Deck Commerce.
Chris and his engineering team conceived a multi-
tenant platform that would serve as the hub for
managing orders across shopping channels and
distribution networks. It would feature an integration
framework and configuration controls, which would
enable customers to quickly connect systems and
support unique shopping experiences.
Today that vision is a reality. Deck Commerce is the
leading Order Management System (OMS) for
omni-channel commerce. We help brands get to market
quickly, provide better service to their customers, and
operate more efficiently. We are leaders in retail
transformation and power many of the most innovative
brands, such as New Balance, Build-A-Bear, Rawlings &
more.
| July 2019 |
Rethinking
the Products of Today
for a Better Tomorrow

Celia Pool
Co-founder
DAME

22
| July 2019 |

T
he world is finally waking up to
the single-use plastic crisis.
Over the last 10 years we have
created more plastic than the whole of
the last century combined. Half of the
plastic we create is used just once, and
then thrown away, taking 500 years to
decompose. By 2050, the oceans are
predicted to contain more plastic than
fish. The plastic crisis is now too big for
recycling alone to fix.
Global governments, businesses and
consumers need to collaborate quickly
to make impactful change before it’s
too late. However, change is difficult
when environmentally damaging
habits have become so entrenched and
often appear more financially
appealing.
Technology is helping in this fight.
Reusable water bottles are now
widespread, and apps that help you
locate drinking water refill stations are
now emerging. At the same time,
reusable coffee cup technology is
addressing the half a trillion
disposable coffee cups discarded
every year. Such items are gaining
increasing social currency with
consumers, who are keen to display
them as markers of their
environmental conscience. This
revolution is encouraging, but what
about the products that people aren’t
so willing to talk about?
100 billion menstrual products are
thrown away globally every year.
These are single-use, mostly made of
plastic and cannot be recycled. You can
choose not to have a coffee, you
cannot choose not to have a period.
Reusable options (e.g. menstrual cups,
cloth pads) have been on the market
for decades, yet the adoption rate has
been slow. The primary barrier to
entry is the fear of habit change.
So how do we bring about a
revolution? The answer is keep it
simple. And take time to consider
consumer psychology. As humans, we
abhor change. We are creatures drawn
towards the comfort of the known. By
keeping habit change to a minimum,
consumers are much more likely to
adopt a new idea.
This was our philosophy at DAME
when we created the world’s first
reusable tampon applicator. We
ensured the design was familiar and
intuitive, so women did not have to
compromise on their convenient,
established rituals. We knew that
hygiene could be a significant barrier
to entry, so we worked with leading
micro-biologists and medical
engineers and used the best medical
grade, anti-microbial materials on the
market. As a result, the consumer only
must rinse the applicator in cold water
after use to keep it clean. Simple steps,
minimal habit change.
However, it is challenging to tackle an
issue that has such little awareness.
Menstruation has historically been
shrouded in shame, fear and
discretion. It is not a topic openly
talked about. This is a problem with
feminine care as a whole: it is
frequently dismissed and the women
trying to address it are critically
underfunded. In 2017 female founders
got 2% of the $85 billion VC
investment pot. About 8% of partners
at the top British VC firms are women.
According to Harvard Business
Review, stereotypes about female
entrepreneurs persist: women are
overly cautious, shy away from
growth, have insufficient resources
and consequently their ventures
underperform. Yet there is no
performance data to support these
stereotypes.
How are products used by women
supposed to change in line with human
and environmental needs, when they
aren’t given appropriate recognition or
have women involved in all stages of
the process? Women need to be given
more of a voice if we are to create
meaningful change. The world of AI is
23
Incentives Solutions
already highlighting the need to
diverse away from male, white,
Western coders if we are to avoid
unconscious bias in the robots of
tomorrow. Amazon had to abandon an
AI recruitment tool that was
discriminating against women, instead
favoring prospects who mirrored
Amazon’s existing male engineer
workforce. At DAME women have
been involved in every stage of the
journey, not as a token gesture but as
an absolute necessity.
However, our overarching business
strategy goes beyond issues of
inclusivity to incorporate a wider
mission. DAME was founded on the
belief that business can be used as a
force for good. We use this core value
to guide every decision we make in the
business, bringing great clarity to our
route forward. By communicating our
genuine and authentic commitment to
this mission, we hope that our
message will quickly be picked up by
those eager to join a movement for
change. To date, we have seen this
happen not only with our consumers
and the press, but with employees.
People are increasingly drawn to
companies doing good. 75% of
millennials would take a pay cut to
work at a socially responsible
company.
All this strengthens our resolve at
DAME to continue to tackle critical
problems that are not openly
acknowledged, that are significantly
underfunded, and that have
historically been controlled by giant
monopolies. Today we are focusing on
menstrual products, but our vision is
to revolutionize the entire bathroom.
These are big mountains, but having
strong guiding principles makes the
navigation much easier.”
-Words by Celia Pool
Co-founder of DAME
For more information visit
wearedame.co
| July 2019 |
Fatima Al Shirawi
Founder
The Gracious F

26
| July 2019 |

Fatima Al Shirawi
A Memorandum of an Emerging Gem
B eing fierce in bringing out a change is rarely
portrayed by any individual. Those with unique
ideologies and clear vision, address the need of
innovations and make it happen. One such leader is
Fatima Al Shirawi. Meet the Founder of The Gracious
F, who led her company in achieving many milestone en
route to success. Her mission on giving back to the
community set her apart from the rest of competition.
CIO LOOK admire such leaders and appreciates their
contribution in the evolution of color consultancy
sector. And feels pride to feature Fatima in its special
edition “Elite League of Innovative Entrepreneurs, 2019.”
Here is her story:
Her passion to coach, teach and spread knowledge is
what made her a leader, in the field as niche as color
consultancy, one of its kind, especially in the middle
east, her journey started off as a one man show where
she started her career by visiting clients offices,
residences and working from shared office pursing her
degrees abroad. This experience and hardship have
kept her grounded with one main goal, share and teach
her team same knowledge and support them by
mentoring them in their growth.
Even though color consultancy is a niche, it is applicable
to all industries and sectors, currently two main poles
of the business are Individual Color Solutions and
Corporate Colour Solutions. Individual Solutions cover
“ It’s the journey that matters, its not the
destination, so leave the legacy and
make a difference
27
The Gracious F
personal sessions and Feng Shui and Corporate cover
from Branding, Interior, Public Relations & Events,
Luxury Retail, government entities and training. Every
client that walks into The Gracious F office, usually
comes with unique requests even within the same
industry, example a Luxury Brand will request re
branding project through Colour psychology and
another luxury brand will require Training for their
teams through in house program – COLOUR MATRIX,
applicable to all Luxury Retail & E-commerce Industry.
She states that crucial traits every innovative
entrepreneur should possess are the following, passion,
eagerness to learn something new every day, a lot of
research, and keep in mind that one should always be
humble.
She advices every individual to always adapt your
services to the market demand, and always try to
create an unique customer experience by upgrading
your services constantly, in her case the gracious of
maintains one on one colour sessions. However, its
booked online but for workshops or training a lot of the
sessions are via webinars to cater to larger audience.
Always work in a segment that is your passion and your
devoted towards it, as you will excel, and remember, no
matter how niche or out the box, if you believe your
service or product is good and makes difference to
society never give up on it and use the immense amount
of information and research available to come up with
the best success strategy.
“
| July 2019 |
\While addressing her challenges, Fatima states that
the first block is usually understanding your product or
service and thus creating the brand loyalty.
Competition these days is very high but if you maintain
the quality of your product or service and as mentioned
before innovative and upgrade to the follow the target
trends your business will easily set off towards success.
Unfortunately, in these days the businesses lose their
credibility due to not paying to quality innovation and
only focusing on design and pricing strategies.
Through investing in quality innovation one can easily
boost his/her growth. And, this can obtained by
following the digital trend of online courses, readings,
coaching and constantly developing her skills not only
in her industry but by learning other skill sets such as
business, leadership, self-development and many more.
In her future prospects she says, recently she has
created a program for Retail and E/commerce firms the
COLOUR MATRIX and future goal is to have this
implemented in all Retail and E/commerce
organizations globally. The colour matrix is a cheat
cheat in understanding human behavior and
preferences through colour psychology.
28
About the Company
The Gracious F is the leading colour solutions
consultancy in GCC, dedicated to assist people and
organizations benefiting through the power of Colour
Science and Psychology. Established in 2008, based in
Dubai, The Gracious F has assisted a variety of
individuals and businesses and holds a Portfolio of
national and international organizations. Its vision is to
help both individuals and organisations achieve their
ambitions, dreams and goals, through the support of
colour psychology. For individuals, it helps in reducing
stress and anxiety meanwhile for organizations, it
increases commercial awareness, enhance motivation,
increase productivity, and becoming a brand.
The company is successfully combining colour
psychology in all spectrums of individual re-branding
and self-development, to businesses that are looking to
enhance their awareness and strategy through colour
solutions in branding & marketing, Luxury Retail
training, PR, Workshops or residential and corporate
interior design.
| July 2019 |
Gary Olson
ACCENTUATING
LEADERSHIP WITH
DISCIPLINE SKILL
AND KNOWLEDGE

A
n entrepreneur means having a vision,
the inspiration to start a new business
and the willingness to take that risk.
Many entrepreneurs believe that having the
skills to convert an idea into disruptive
innovation is a must to turn a startup into a
successful business, well it's not. It requires
effective communication skills, the capability
to manage multiple responsibilities, and high
level of competencies so that whichever role
the entrepreneur has to play, incompetency
does not emerges as an issue.

Gary Olson, CEO of GHO Group LLC, is a

proficient business executive, who is casting
light on some of the significant traits of
entrepreneurship a defective leadership. Gary
believes that the "Peter Principal" is an
understated reality. Leadership is its own
discipline of skills, expertise and knowledge
that is separate from other disciplines of skill
and knowledge. Being good or expert at
something does not necessarily make a good
leader, neither does ownership. Just owning
the company doesn't make someone a good
leader.

— Gary Olson
CEO, GHO Group LLC
30
| July 2019 |

Gary's journey started with his father, who owned a small
business. As the business grew, he learned how to delegate
authority and responsibility to others. His father led his
teams in positive and supportive way where "If you
succeeded, you were given more, if you struggled, first he helped,
if it was not in your skill set, you were not forced or put in
uncomfortable situations." That's leadership.
A strong leader builds a strong team and always keeps the
goal in mind. As a leader, Gary recognizes the strengths in
people; and encourages and empowers their development,
creating a strong team to solve problems. He says, "One of
my responsibilities on many of my projects is to help the new
senior management with change. I explain that a large
organization is like a pyramid, if you are at the top you can see
what's happening across the organizations and manage." He
continues, "If the pyramid is upside down because the manager
is also doing everything they are crushed by the weight of the
organization. This visual concept was easily understood and
embraced and they became successful change managers."
When it comes to managing a business, change is the only
constant, considering this fact, Gary is consistently re-
inventing himself and his organization. Exploring new
technologies, management styles and workflows for his
organization, to meet the needs of his clientele. As new
technologies are introduced that require new workflows,
different skills and knowledge, it's often hard to keep up
with. The challenge is staying abreast of the trends and
changes across many domains. However, coping with
advanced technology, and staying current with volatile
trends is a never ending exercise of research with podcasts,
webinars, trade shows and professional development
across numerous domains and industries.
According to Gary, being an innovative entrepreneur does
not make you a good leader, it means you are an innovative
thinker. Entrepreneurship and starting a business means
doing everything that needs to be done to be successful.
The CEO leads by example, putting in the time and work
effort to build the business. Further he states, the
entrepreneur is the visionary; this could be the business
visionary or the product visionary. Product innovation
means guiding the features and functionality design
development in a practical way that meets the market or
client needs. If the market doesn't exist that's one issue, the
question is should it? If the market is super saturated, what
is the differentiator that justifies the products existence?
From Gary's perspective for an entrepreneur, the issue of
roadblocks and challenges is a multi-faceted question. The
fi r s t o bv i o u s r o a d b l o c k i s g e t t i n g t h e c o m p a ny
substantially funded sufficiently enough to sustain the
team during the development and early stages of market
penetration. Igniting the business is all about the
entrepreneur inspiring the entire team, business
31
GHO Group LLC
operations, technical and marketing. The entrepreneur
needs to be the champion and cheerleader at all times and
stay fully engaged showing participation.
Looking towards the future, Gary and GHO is going
through a changing phase now, moving into artificial
intelligence and a new industry sector of Public Safety and
National Security. It is applying it's extensive media
knowledge to an industry overwhelmed by video and
struggling to analyze it for useable information in the
prevention of incidents and attacks. The company is
looking forward at the role artificial intelligence will play in
the industry, and how other industry sectors are using
media, that requires broadcast knowledge and expertise to
assist them as they produce more and more media.
“ALWAYS SAY YES,
FIGURE IT OUT AND GET
IT DONE.”
Gary advices "As a budding entrepreneur, it's important to
realize that not all entrepreneurs make good CEO's. It's more
important to understand your own strengths and that the right
thing to succeed may be to hire someone who is a better CEO
than you are to help lead the new enterprise.”
About the leader
Gary has always been interested in new technologies with
an innate curiosity on understanding how things work. He
never thought his engineering degree in computer design
would lead to his career in the media industry and become
the basis for his interest in bridging the gap between
broadcast and computer technologies. He is considered as
one of the Thought Leaders in the media technology
industry, and provides consulting services as an IP
Broadcast & Media Technology Designer.
Gary is one of the few people who never worked for anyone
else in his professional career. Currently, he is the Principal
of GHO Group and leading the company as strategist,
designer and project manager for a variety of
communication and information technology projects. He is
a successful author with his book 'Planning and Designing
the IP Broadcast Facility - A New Puzzle to Solve' an
industry standard. He regularly publishes articles
providing knowledge and education to the media industry
with a considerable following reading his articles on 'The
Broadcast Bridge' and LinkedIn, including webinars and
online courses.
| July 2019 |
 Successful
Personality
Traits to Learn
Elon Musk
L
egends never need an introduction. They tend to be
victorious despite of their uneventful histories. They
stick to captivating traits such as Discipline,
determination and self-belief which help them accomplish
wonders in the long run. One such example of an extra-
ordinary person is Elon Musk, a South African Business
Magnate, Investor and an engineer.
Musk is the founder, CEO, and chief architect of SpaceX;
co-founder, CEO, and product designer of Tesla Inc.; and
co-founder and CEO of Neuralink. As of February 2018, he
is the 53rd-richest person in the world and has a net worth
of $20.8 billion, which is far more than the net GDP of
Greece taken into consideration.
While each entrepreneur possesses a unique set of traits
that makes him/her successful, this Tech founder has a few
traits much different from any other ordinary CEO, which
has allowed him to build some of the world’s most
respected and innovative organizations. Musk once
quoted, “When something is important enough, you do it even
if the odds are not in your favor.”
Let’s have a look on these personality attributes and
characteristics that make him a contender for the most
innovative intellectual entrepreneur of the century alive.
Hard-work and Characteristic Work Ethics
Elon Musk is a hard-working innovator, working for about
100 hours a week, and has been productive since many
years. He may even be considered as the hardest working
employee of the company, setting standards for his
32
from
colleagues to follow and implement. Since the field of work
lies inside his radius of interests, he enjoys it to every
moment and bit when it comes to learning and execution.
Strong Risk Tolerance
Founding a start-up involves a great deal of uncertainty
and risk. A study found that after 10 years of being in
business, 96 percent of the start-ups fail. Going by the
statistics, Musk must have faced the same odds against
him, when he had decided to leave an otherwise
comfortable life to start a risky and uncertain business
venture.
For instance, Musk left his PhD program at Stanford
University to find a company called Zip2 with his brother
in the year 1995. Later, the company was sold to Compaq
computers, profiting Musk a bit over $20 million.
Following this, Musk once again took a great risk by
investing millions of dollars to found a company called
X.com, one of the world’s first online banks.
‘Always Be Learning’ Attitude
An astounding and less-known fact about Elon Musk is
that he is self-taught in programming and in many
advanced level subjects. He read and understood a variety
of books, which helped him gain endless and persistent
knowledge and understand diverse concepts.
The best piece of advice on learning and implementation is
to constantly think about how things could be done in a
better manner and question self to seek the answers.
| July 2019 |

Feedback Loop
It is of prime importance to recognize the present symbol
or otherwise ‘status quo’ in the market as an organization
and re-position accordingly. Musk solicits constant
feedback of the companies and executes ‘self-analysis’. He
induces efforts and divergent strategies to improve
customer feedbacks and strives towards perfectionism.
For example, he seeks out his critics and tries to converse
with them. This habit of self-reflection at regular and
considerable periods is pivotal for any entrepreneur or
organization to succeed in the long run.
Tendency for Vertical Integration
Vertical integration is a strategy where an organization or
a firm acquires business operations within the same
product vertical. Both Tesla and SpaceX embrace this
concept. For example, Tesla not only produces electric
cars; they also generate public awareness about their cars
via Tesla showrooms across various countries. And SpaceX
does not only have the primary goal of rocket propulsions;
they develop their own rocket architecture as well.
Faith in Self and the Founding Team
Musk undoubtedly possesses a profound belief in his own
capabilities as well as the potential-seeking factor of its
founding team. He does not hesitate to gamble on large
scale unless he is genuinely aware of the expected end-
results.
33
Imparting Wisdom
It is equally essential to maintain clarity of doubt in any
large scale organization. Under his supervision, Musk
encourages in creating a positive and comprehensive
environment across his firms.
Preferring to Stand Out From the Crowd
Musk elects to bring up innovation at every level of his
understanding. He tends to impart theoretical knowledge
at the base level, applying changes and executing the same
on the practical level. He relies more on transitional
aspects such as research and development, thereby
increasing the probability of ground-breaking inventions.
Tesla Motors, a far headed firm headed by Elon Musk, is
anti-ordinary. Its compelling marketplace has become a
one-stop destination for potential buyers where they can
interact about product specifications. They also have video
testimonials that far outperform in the sales-dominated
industry.
There is no ambiguity that Musk, by far, has been a pillar of
inspiration for budding entrepreneurs and investors
because of his prolific and optimistic approach towards life
All these traits possessed by Musk, in some manner or the
other, coincide with most of your habits. The only thing
that stands as a potential barrier between these two is
identifying your strengths and working on them on a
continual basis. Go on, apply these traits into your daily
life, and you may become the next big CEO the world is in
need of today!
| July 2019 |
 Jim Finnerty
Chief Operating Ofcer

36
| July 2019 |

Jim Finnerty
Delivering Marketing Automation Platforms
I
nnovating with an eye on
business goals is the mark of a
successful entrepreneur. CIO
Look recognizes innovative
entrepreneurs who make an
impact in their field, and Jim
Finnerty is a pacesetter when it
comes to marketing automation
platforms. He is the Chief
Operating Officer and a founding
partner of 4Cite Marketing, which
continually innovates to help
retailers compete with behemoths
like Amazon in today's increasingly
data-driven retail landscape. 4Cite
empowers retailers to acquire,
retain and reactivate customers
through its industry-leading web
visitor identification technology
and delivery of real-time
personalized marketing across
multiple channels.
Highlights of the interview between
Jim Finnerty and CIO Look:
Kindly take us through your
journey on becoming a proficient
leader.
I’ve loved playing around with new
technologies since I was a kid, but
to be a proficient leader in the tech
space, I’ve learned that you need
to be able to understand and
digest technology in the broader
context of business goals. I still
love the technology, but it’s
important not to let the tech steer
the business – the business goals
should do that.
At the same time, it’s important to
lead with an appreciation of new
ideas and develop a culture where
a mistake is not the end of the
world. You need to give yourself,
and the people who work for you,
the freedom to fail. You can’t
innovate if you can’t explore, and
you can’t explore if you’re afraid of
the dead-ends – and there will
be many.
37
4Cite Marketing
Probably more than anything, I’ve
learned to surround myself with
the best people I can and take the
time to communicate with them
regularly to understand their
strengths, as well as help them see
how our tech fits into the broader
context of our business goals. This
helps them succeed and maximizes
the contributions they bring to
the table.
How do you diversify your
organization’s offerings to appeal
to your target audience?
As your target audience evolves,
you can quickly develop new
products that appeal to them if
you clearly understand your core
value proposition. When you
understand the strengths and
weaknesses of your own
technology, know your people’s
capabilities, and build a company
culture that embraces change, you
can be aggressive when new
opportunities arise.
| July 2019 |
 “
It’s not the strongest that survive,
but the most responsive to change.
What are the basic but crucial traits that every
innovative entrepreneur must possess?
Be fearless in trying new things and don’t be afraid
of failure. Know it’s okay to be wrong, and when you
are wrong, acknowledge it and change direction.
Think critically about the broader picture of where
your technology lies and think laterally to see
connections others might not see that lead to
opportunities. Love the technology, but don’t
let it take over so you’re just doing things for
technology’s sake.
What is your take on roles of the entrepreneur on
product innovation performance?
In most cases to truly innovate, you must think
outside the box, take risks and move quickly. You
also need to understand the inner workings of your
own technology well enough so that when others see
roadblocks to innovation, you can help them
navigate around them.
In your opinion, what roadblocks or challenges are
faced by an entrepreneur? And what is your advice
to overcome them?
Many people tend to be averse to change, but
without change, no innovation can take place. Every
day, you need to work to build a team and culture
that accepts change and embraces constant
improvement. It helps to align incentives with
improvement.
38
“
– Charles Darwin
How do you cope with volatile technological trends
to boost your personal growth?
Keeping informed of top-level industry trends and
patterns is important, but it can be distracting noise
if you try to keep up with everything. You also need
to stay wary of the latest and greatest. It’s best to
build a team that can help you understand the
trends and determine what’s truly impactful,
creating an environment that supports everyone’s
personal growth.
What are your future endeavors/objectives and
where do you see yourself in the near future?
As a technology-focused business navigating volatile
technological trends, it’s increasingly critical that
company leadership make nimble decisions with a
full understanding of the technology components
involved. As such, I see myself expanding into more
responsibilities in overall business leadership.
As a leading technology architect in the media
information and communication sector, what is
your contribution in its evolution?
My primary contribution has been to deliver
marketing automation platforms that empower
personalization at scale and reasonable cost.
What advice would you like to give to the budding
entrepreneurs in various organizations?
Never rest or settle. Continue to focus on
improvement. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t accept
roadblocks.
| July 2019 |
I
have been a strong advocate of conversational
technology (VoiceTech/NLP) and AI and have pitched
for it in various conferences, Guest Lectures at leading
business institutes and to corporates and I am often being
asked what will happen to our jobs? So this is true that
Artificial intelligence seems like a big untameable
monsters to most, and everyone is little anxious about
future.
And that could be true sitting in 2010, but past few years
new old research and young progressive companies and
devision of enterprises are willing to make it their sole
purpose that the infuse digital transformation in their
company and provide assistance to others. But, with the
prevailing reputation that comes at a cost of educating
everyone, really everyone.
They see it as a risk and any have burnt their hands trying
to tame novice early stage AI models. But thats fine, thats
how we grow. I believe that we are intellectual beings with
curious minds, why would we want to do repeatable jobs
which machines can do with greater efficiency. We can
delegate these chores and teach the machines to help us
better and imitate human decision making, innovate at
personal level and “Democratise Artificial Intelligence”.
Democratising AI through platforms for like voice
technology - Natural Language processing so the technical
algorithms can stay with specific user base while use of the
AI algorithms can be made as simple as conversing with
machines. Thats a sure shot way to upskilling resources for
example: Team of Analysts can train dashboards and
Business Intelligence tools to map business KPIs and
generate Compelling Business Stories and Insights in
natural language for everyone in the organisation to
benefit from, and then keep building the training over it
through machine learning. We are personally running
trials with Fortune 50 companies on this, so when I say you
need to start looking at ways to incorporate new
technologies I mean it.
40
For enterprises there are certain imminent crisis that
demand that they change rapidly and market is not at all as
forgiving as it was a few decades back, someone is
constantly rooting for you to make a mistake.This is
leading enterprise to transform under the integrated
environment of Digital Transformation.
Voice Technology has lately become a stable AI process
and would completely change the way we interact with
technology in the future. Visualization will remain at the
heart of it however with conversational technology, we
can expect a shift to more verbal ads, like radio, but more
personalized and actionable, but still to make a decision on
which product to buy you would want to see it visually.
Also search will become more specific and hyperlocal,
where we will be prompted to give verbal feedbacks, that
would amount to popularity of products and places, how it
happens with mobile applications today.
Siri, Cortana, Alexa have brought conversation technology
to people for some time now. They come bundled up with
smart phones and can be used to do basic searches, to look
up certain things, cue up songs etc. Speech technology has
come much further than that. With its advancement we
can now control our oven, tv and other house hold devices,
can search complex data from cloud or can make phone
calls for ourselves. It can change the way we function in
our daily lives, our time with our family, services we
receive and the jobs we do. It can eliminate learning curve
of devices, repeatable chores, and compiling excel sheets.
And it will not happen eventually, it’s happening now.
Developers will innovate to create more audio centric user
interface, there will be discovery period for them to find
out how to minimally prompt user to give inputs and
implement voice modulated visual commands. We can see
speech approaching a point where it would become so
reliable that we can just use it, like how we do it with other
humans, and not even think about it.
| July 2019 |
 Expert's Outlook

About the Author

Preksha Kaparwan is the Co-founder, CMO, V.UX Designer of Realbox.AI.
The versatile IHM Pusa graduate initially served as the chef but got inclined
towards technology and business analytics and founded RealBox in 2015.
Within three years of its inception, they have raised $300k for Realbox and,
their customers include fortune 50 and big 4 enterprises. As a thought leader
she has been part of TEDTalk talk shows. She was awarded 'The sparks 2018'
by your story for tech services for her exceptional contribution
as a Tech Evangelist.

I am personally inspired to bring acceptance

for conversational technology globally and I
believe that the real success for this would
Preksha Kaparwan
Co-founder & CMO
not be when big corporations and industries RealBox Data
would be using it but when every small and Analytics Private Limited
medium business and every household
would be using it and help us to get a hold of
our receding grip on reality from visually
attractive and distracting screens on our tv,
on out laptops and our smart phones.

We have seen this kind of a shift with

automated technologies and processes
which has led to reduced laborious work,
efficiency increased and averted accidents.
Smart phones brought technologies closer
to the end user. So, I took side with Artificial
Intelligence and Machine Learning
technologies, that will aid seamlessly while
co-existing in our realities. And impact is not
just on us in our personal capacity but for
businesses too and professionals who spend
endless nights collating data and make
pretty ppts to show to the bosses.

I believe that spreading the word on

changing technological demography is not
our responsibility or our burden. But you
know why I make it my purpose??

Because it is a major step in evolution of

technology and I know we need to harness
it, shape it now, before someone else does it
for you.

41
| July 2019 |
 Joseph Chan
CEO
AsiaPay

42
| July 2019 |

Joseph Chan
Balancing Effectiveness and Efciency
I
nnovative Entrepreneurship is about being ready to
go beyond one's comfort zone. It is also about
thinking outside the box or thinking like there is no
box. One such entrepreneur with innovative mindset is
Joseph Chan. As the Founder and CEO of AsiaPay
Group, Joseph started up first high-quality third-party
ePayment and mPayment solution and technology firm
in 2000 in Hong Kong. He spearheaded the company
business strategies and product development together
with his management team, and led AsiaPay becoming
one of the most successful world-class electronic
payment service and technology companies in Asia.
In regard to business growth and market recognition,
Joseph presents his long-term vision that is to operate
a successful and socially responsible company which
continually provides individuals and corporate entities
with newest payment product values, readily enhance
one's quality of life and maximize business
opportunities, efficiency and productivity.
Below are highlights of the interview between Joseph Chan
and CIO Look:
CIO: What according to you are the basic but crucial
traits that every innovative entrepreneur must
possess?
JO:
Ÿ Clear vision of what you want to achieve and what
pain points you aim to address and if it comes to be a
viable business model that can sustain and scale up;
Ÿ Be aggressive and stay agile;
43
AsiaPay
Ÿ Embrace chances and technological evolution.
Effectively implement the vision with a like-minded
professional team;
CIO: What are your intakes on the roles of an
entrepreneur on product innovation performance?
JO:
Ÿ Cultivate an open supportive environment and
culture that encourage and recognise innovation in
the organisation not only in product but in all
business areas including accounting process,
operation, service provision;
Ÿ Act a role model to drive and rigorously exchange
innovative processes and product ideas in the
organisation;
Ÿ Active listen and be receptive to the innovative
models and needs from clients and partners;
Ÿ Walk the steps to implement innovative products
and processes with team such that the team sees
the values and benefits and enrich job satisfaction
and beef up all the related knowhow;
CIO: As per your opinion, what roadblocks or
challenges are faced by an entrepreneur to ignite the
business? And what is your advice to overcome them?
JO:
Ÿ On technical front, how to effective validate the
viability of the business and solution model and
effective assessment of all related technological and
security risks;
Ÿ How to effectively build the right team / acquire the
| July 2019 |
 right talents with the right know how and passion;
Ÿ Being a fintech player, some of the major challenges
is gaining trust and support from banks and partners
in new markets, and how to fend off risks due to
compliance and regulatory changes;
Advice to overcome:
Ÿ No magic formula. Need to engage a like-minded
team to timely assess and evaluate necessary
strategies, technologies and processes over time;
Ÿ Effective empowerment and delegation to the
team;
Ÿ Demonstrates perseverance in the face of adversity
and overcoming obstacles. Be prepared always. The
Expected and the Unexpected. Be an independent
thinker and to take on and manage risks in the face
of uncertainty;
Ÿ Keep learning;
CIO: How do you upgrade yourself with volatile
technological trends to boost your personal growth?
JO: To stay competitive in a highly volatile and fast-
growing market, it is imperative to constantly boost my
personal growth by:
Ÿ Life-time learning and exchange with team and
industry and technology players. Whenever
appropriate, consider to appoint and work with
professional expertise in the necessary areas such
as security;
Ÿ Be open to mistakes and take effective corrective
measures timely;
CIO: How do you cope up with volatile technological
trends to boost your personal growth?
JO: Proactively assess and evaluate in advance the
impact and implication of changes in technological as
well as business world, and learn from the processes, to
best avoid making wrong decision.
CIO: What are your future endeavors/objectives and
where do you see yourself in the near future?
JO:
Ÿ Continue to pursue the vision and dream to be the
predominant leading digital payment service and
technology player in Asia.
Ÿ Continue driving digital payment innovation to well
serve the needs in the market;
44
Ÿ Help our business and bank clients to grow and
succeed, and enhance competitive edge in this fast-
changing technological world with the effective use
of innovative products and services in digital
payment; Ÿ Build and lead the team to embrace
changes and achieve the business goals and face
continued business and technological challenges.
CIO: As a leading technology architect in digital
payment sector, what is your contribution to its
evolution?
JO: If in our digital payment sector, we facilitate the
provision of integrated, advanced, secure digital
payment services and technologies to our clients who
readily capitalise on the effective use of these to
enhance sales, services, and productivity and stay
ahead in this fast-changing digital age, while minimizing
potential risks on fraudulent payment, technology,
security and privacy.
CIO: What advice would you like to give to the
budding entrepreneurs in various organizations?
JO: B.E.S.T.
Be Prepared. For both opportunities and risks.
Entrepreneurship is always inspirational. All dreamers
will encounter endless hard work, frustration, constant
challenges and difficulties. One will risk time, capital
and life fate to struggle, sustain and survive. Prepare
the expected and unexpected.
Embrace changes. There are more unknown than
knowns along the journey, from consumer behavior to
regulatory and technological changes.
Stay Positive and Agile. Building strategic alliances and
surrounding oneself with positive and talented
people—sharing knowledge and empowering
individuals, teams, the Board to make sound decision
and changes timely and effectively.
Teamwork. Even oneself is an entrepreneur, one cannot
be an expert in every part of the organization. Effective
teamwork can help an organisation to speed up
renovation, optimise opportunities, and withstand any
risks and uncertainties.
| July 2019 |
Dance in the
digital storm.

45
| July 2019 |
 Innovative
Companies
in the Space Industry
W
hat do we call an area that is not limited to a
single planet and has no physical boundaries?
We call it the era of the emerging space
resource industry. As humans, we became a spacefaring
species 60 years ago when Russia launched Sputnik, the
world’s first artificial satellite. We are the only species to
achieve this milestone in the 4.5 billion year history of the
earth. Later, the space industry began to develop after
World War II, as rockets and satellites later found civilian
purpose.
Today, companies around the world are in transportation,
energy sector, construction, hospitality, real estate, etc.
and they are looking for their next growth opportunity.
Space is quickly becoming a place where the industries
that power our global economy have started conducting
business. Future developments in the space industries
include space tourism, satellite manufacturing, and the
launch industry. In recent years, however, private
spaceflight is becoming reality in the space industry.
Of course, these private companies also compete against
each other and it could be argued that a new space race
has begun. But while with an element of competition, the
success of the past decades shows that is possible to
collaborate in space. For example, NASA a major
government agency has relied on privately operated
launch services like SpaxeX for its satellite launches. The
46
original space race began from the ideas and skills of
visionary theoretical engineers like Robert. H. Goddard,
Wernher von Braun, and Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, etc.
Today, space endeavors are propelled by a new generation
of entrepreneurs including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and
Robert Branson. There are some more major players and
innovative companies with the vision of space exploration
and are as follows:
SpaceX- SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has reached
worldwide popularity with their historic milestones in
space exploration. It is already the world’s most high-
profile commercial spacecraft company. The aim of SpaceX
is to revolutionize the space technology, with the goal of
enabling people to live on other planets. Its success has
been worth appreciating. Falcon 9 launch vehicle and
Dragon Spacecraft are some of its milestones. Dragon
Spacecraft has helped with regular resupply missions for
NASA space stations.
Blue Origin- It was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the
technological retail entrepreneur and CEO of Amazon,
aims to launch people in space. It is fully reusable, vertical
takeoff vertical landing (VVTL) space vehicle. Though its
goal is different from that of SpaceX, it targets the Space
tourism industry. It is focusing on commercially available,
suborbital human spaceflight and has developed a vertical
launch vehicle (new shepherd) for it. New shepherd is
| July 2019 |

named after the Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd, the
first American Astronaut to go in Space. It is designed to
take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman
line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.
Boeing- Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company
and leading manufacturer in space and security systems.
Throughout the last 50 years, Boeing has been integral in
every major endeavor to escape earth’s gravity. The
satellite industry has made the headlines since the launch
of its first Mercury capsule to the current ISS
(International Space Station).
NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the most powerful
rocket ever built. Boeing is the prime contractor for the
SLS design development, test, and production of the
launch vehicle. SLS is the world’s only super heavy rocket
capable of transporting astronauts to deep space. NASA is
setting its eyes on the exploration of Mars with the help of
Boeing technology. Boeing has successfully launched all of
NASA’s Mars probes and rovers aboard Delta 11 launch
vehicles. Recently Boeing engineer designed a spacesuit to
protect astronauts from dust, radiation and other hazards
when exploring the surface of moon and mars.
Sierra Nevada Corporation- Selected by NASA, SNC’s
Dream Chaser spacecraft is a multi-mission space utility
vehicle. It used for transporting crew and cargo to LEO
(Low Earth Orbit) destinations such as ISS (International
Space Station). The system is designed to deliver up to
5,500 kg of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the
space station under the CRS (Commercial Resupply
Service)-2 contract. It will carry supplies like food, water, &
science experiments and returns to earth with a gentle
runway landing. The spacecraft is selected by NASA to
provide a minimum of 6 cargo missions to and from the
space station by 2021. Sierra Nevada Corporation is
making solid progress and likely to stay a key player in the
private space company.
Northrop Grumman Corporation- NGC is a leader in
science and exploration in space for more than 60 years.
Thiokol Chemical Company, now part of NGC developed
the world’s first reusable space shuttle program in the late
1970s.
Contribution to NASA: July 20, 1969, was a historic day
when the world watched, astronaut Neil Armstrong took
mankind’s first steps on the moon. The success of NASA’s
Apollo 11 mission is still remembered and celebrated.
Several heritage companies of NGC are recognized for the
vital role they played in the achievement of the Apollo 11
mission. NGC designed, assembled, integrated and tested
the Lunar Module (LM) of the Apollo program.
NASA’s Northrop Grumman built Chandra X-ray
47
Innovating Space
Observatory and it continues to produce data that enables
astronomers to make extraordinary discoveries. Launched
in 1999, Chandra has found evidence for a significant new
class of supernova. It has also uncovered evidence of a
powerful outburst from the giant black hole at the Milky
Way’s center.
NASA has a long tradition of utilizing Northrop
Grumman’s spacecraft, including the Spirit and
Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars in 2004. The
rovers will help guide the Mars as it investigates the
viability of microbial life on the planet now or in the past.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will play an
important role in studying planetary systems. NGC is the
prime contractor for building the dreams of Webb
technology. The telescope will be sensitive to infrared light
which will enable it to understand an era of the universe
just a few million years after the Big Bang.
Made in Space- MIS is the space-based manufacturing
company, dedicated to making of reliable Additive
manufacturing equipment and fiber optics (MIS Fiber) for
Space. Additive manufacturing is also known as 3D
Printing and is transforming the industry. It can
manufacture larger and more complex objects faster, with
finer precision and with multiple aerospace grade
materials. MIS Fiber Optics, on the other hand, is
produced without crystals that affect signal loss. Later,
these crystals provide superior data transmission
capabilities, high-speed internet as well as enhancing
technologies in space.
Virgin Galactic- Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company
founded in 2004 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard
Branson. It is developing commercial space crafts and aims
to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. VG
uses a larger, four-engine jet plane that carries passengers
into space. It is similar in design to a private plane. These
private space firms seem to have different interests in the
space race, but actually, these companies share the same
goals.
Looking at the future, there will be a need for laws,
regulation, and controlling authority to govern space
exploration. It will be necessary to have firm and well-
understood protocols in the event space crashing, while
there are serious issues around the safety of astronauts as
well. At the moment, the UN’s Outer Space Affairs is
responsible for promoting international cooperation in the
peaceful uses of outer space. Perhaps, the entry of the
private sector into space exploration will contribute to the
growth of the economy as valuable targets for investment.
However, it will be interesting to see how healthy
competition opens up in the development of the Space Era
for Citizens.
| July 2019 |