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SATYA NAN DELLAIS THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL CEO

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EDITOR’S NOTE

EDITOR’S NOTECEO and Editorial DirectorProf. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj

CEOWORLD magazine Copyright 2022

Circulation details can be found athttps://ceoworld.biz/

Writers and columnists:

Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj, Prince Georges IV 11th - Duke of Royan, Dr. William Putsis, Dr. Bartosz Marcinkowski, Lisa Vene-ziano, Lance Mortlock, Leo Bottary, Pooja Duggal Batra, Sophie Ireland, Ryan Miller, Anna Papadopoulos, Alexandra Dimitropou-lou, Maria Gourtsilidou, Gavin Finn, Marty Groover, Gabe Nelson, Donna McGeorge, Dean Lindsay, Russell Haworth, Steve Quick, Daniel Lamarre, Kevin Alansky, Dylan Taylor, Dena Jalbert, Gayle Smerdon, Akshay Ma-hajan, Michael Kolk, Helle Bank Jorgensen, Hemant Taneja, Sebastien Breteau, Bob Schlegel, Hazem Mulhim, Dave Gerhard, Dr. Rohini Anand, Rajeev Kapur, Christine Alemany, Salvatore D. Fazzolari, MaryBeth Hyland, Dr. Jim White

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Published by CEOWORLD magazine.ISSN: 2771-7216

Hello and welcome to the APRIL 2022 issue of CEOWORLD magazine!

Confidence and Charismatic – they’re two words that quickly come to mind when thinking about the defining traits of an effective business leader. That brings me to our cover star this month, the affable Satya Nadella. Satya is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft. Microsoft’s valuation was less than $311 billion when Satya became CEO in 2014. Microsoft is now worth more than $2.26 trillion.

When you read the story, my hope is that it will open your eyes to the quiet achievers in your business – those you might be quick to dismiss because they err on the side of introversion. Enjoy the read and I’ll see you next issue.

Here are some of our favourite stories from CEOWORLD magazine’s APRIL 2022 edition:

At CEOWORLD magazine, we will continue to keep tabs on those in power – who is gaining it, who is losing it, how they are flexing it – and offer insight into how you can get it too.

Thanks, as always for reading, we’re committed to arming you will all the tools you need to lead and succeed.

We hope you find this issue illuminating, interesting, informative, engaging, and enlightening. As always, we welcome your feedback.

Best wishes,

Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj

CEO and Editorial Director

6

9 11 13

Content

2 EDITOR’S NOTEWritten by Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj

7 Microsoft CEO Written by Satya Nadella

9 What does it mean to be “metaverse-ready”?Written by David Liddle

11 Confront Siloed Thinking Among Teams and Establish a Supported Team Mindset by Refocusing on the Overall MissionWritten by Marty Groover

13 If You’re a Solopreneur Who Wants to Live Life On Your Own Terms, You Must Get These 4 Things in OrderWritten by Gabe Nelson

16 Forgotten revolution which may impact transatlantic relationsWritten by Dr. Bartosz Marcinkowski

18 Wanted: Board Chairs and CEOs with political leadership capabilitiesWritten by Dr. Joe Zammit-Lucia

21 Mind the margin: How to give yourself a 15 percent time refund to avoid burnout and care for yourselfWritten by Donna McGeorge

23 Stop Stressing And Start ProgressingWritten by Dean Lindsay

25 Leave Failing to the ExpertsWritten by Leo Bottary

27 Culture, purpose and pay will stem The Great ResignationWritten by Russell Haworth

30 Less Talk, More Workplace Change Needed to Keep Top EmployeesWritten by Steve Quick

32 Stand Up for What You BelieveWritten by Daniel Lamarre

36 How to Implement Strategic Sales PlanningWritten by Kevin Alansky

38 Why the Future of Humanity Relies on Space ExplorationWritten by Dylan Taylor

CEOWORLD Magazine · April 2022 3

Content

40 Top 10 Reasons to Hire an M&A AdvisorWritten by Dena Jalbert

44 Shelving a project? Here’s how to avoid the hidden costsWritten by Gayle Smerdon

47 Why Your Company Could Be at a Major CRM Crossroads Written by Akshay Mahajan

50 Unlocking the benefits of AI by augmenting your peopleWritten by Michael Kolk

54 Make stakeholder concerns your concerns. All of them.Written by Helle Bank Jorgensen

56 AI Needs to be CheckedWritten by Hemant Taneja

58 CEOs must prioritize supply chain swings in 2022 and beyondWritten by Sebastien Breteau

61 Create a Business that Matters By Defining Your Principles and Values at the Start of Your Entrepreneurial PursuitWritten by Bob Schlegel

63 8 Secrets for Bouncing Back From FailureWritten by Hazem Mulhim

66 If You’re a Founder, You Need to Put Your Social Media Focus on Twitter and LinkedInWritten by Dave Gerhard

68 Initial Steps to Making Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Purpose and Passion Written by Dr. Rohini Anand

70 The Biggest Leadership Mistake You Can MakeWritten by Rajeev Kapur

4 April 2022 · CEOWORLD Magazine

Content

72 Are Marketers Responsible for Protecting Customer Data?Written by Christine Alemany

74 Create Your Future and Ascend to GreatnessWritten by Salvatore D. Fazzolari

78 Eliminate Leadership Burnout: 4 ways to balance your everyday work lifeWritten by MaryBeth Hyland,

81 Critical thinking, schema, and the action planWritten by Dr. Jim White

83 Best Business Schools in The World For 202292 Best Fashion in The World For 2022

97 Best Hospitality and Hotel Management Schools In The World For 2022

101 Global Passport Ranking, 2022

107 Best CEOs In the World Of 2022

113 The World’s Richest People (Top Billionaires, 2022)

117 Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

120 Best Practice Toolkit by the CEOWORLD magazine


Written by Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj,

is CEO and editorial director of the CEOWORLD

magazine. Under Dr. Amarendra’s leadership,

The CEOWORLD magazine has become the world’s

most iconic news organization, whose rigorous

reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect

with millions of business leaders every day.

Dr. Amarendra holds a Ph.D. in Finance and Bank-

ing from the European Global School in France; a

Doctoral Degree in Chartered Accountancy from

the European International University Paris; a

Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) from

Kyiv National University of Technologies and De-

sign (KNUTD), Ukraine; and a Doctor of Business

Administration (DBA) Degree from California

Metropolitan University, United States.

He earned his Master of Business Administra-

tion degree in Finance and his master’s degree

In Chartered Accountancy (CA) from European

Global School Paris. Dr. Amarendra also holds

a Master of Business Administration degree in

International Relations and Affairs from the

American University of Athens, Alabama, United

States. Prof. Dr. Amarendra Bhushan Dhiraj is a

macro-economist and visiting professor at Kyiv

National University of Technologies and Design

(KNUTD), Ukraine.

LEAD STORY


Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is the most successful CEO of the Tech industry

Satya Narayana Nadella became Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in 2014. At that time, the corporation’s market capitalization was around $311 billion. Microsoft is now worth

more than $2.26 trillion. Microsoft was among the first companies to exceed a $1 trillion valuation when it hit that milestone in April 2019. Another noteworthy aspect is that at that time, the cloud was not a key element of the company’s strategy as the primary focus was on “consumer and devices” segments. Microsoft was viewed as a company whose best days were in the past. Within 7 seven years of his leadership, Nadella’s firm leadership transformed Microsoft into a dominant cloud services provider and the second most-valuable corporation globally, only behind Apple Incorporated. Overall, Nadella has hugely transformed the corporation using his leadership approach characterized by a clear vision, open and clear communication, courage, humility, empathy, and capacity to generate energy among teams.

In the years immediately before Nadella assumed the office as the CEO,

Microsoft’s commercial cloud business was not part of its key business. It was classified under “other” sources of revenue. Today, the enterprise’s cloud business has become the key element in its quarterly revenue reports and the key highlight for the same press release. The company’s cloud business accounted for as much as 42% of its total revenue as of 2021. In the 2021 financial year, quarter 3, the company’s total revenue was 41.7 billion, whereby, out of this, commercial cloud generated $17.7 billion. Without a doubt, Nadella’s leadership skills and approach made the company transform from having cloud business from the category of “other” revenue sources to making it the keystream of revenue for the corporation. The key leadership skills and approaches that have made Nadella such a successful CEO in the technology industry and across the world are as discussed below.

Nadella has a clear vision as a leader. While always expressing due respect to the CEO he replaced, Nadella immediately resorted to getting the corporation out of its mobile phones business into a new category of cloud business. He promoted this clear vision to all employees at Microsoft on regular bases. He did not keep this vision

into a small group or team within the organization; he shared it with everyone to keep them informed, motivated and part of the mission. Nadella regularly communicates with all Microsoft employees worldwide to share his vision or plans for the corporation and invite feedback. He routinely sends company-wide emails explaining his ideas for the company’s future, not only corporate issues. Communicating the vision to all employees ensures clarity at all levels. At the time of chaos, crisis, or change, employees look up to those in leadership to offer clarity and guide their actions, and realizing this, Nadella resorted to utilizing his amazing capability of bringing order and clarity into this new company direction. This trait was part of his reasons why he managed to bring success to the corporation, and it demonstrates the need for a leader to have a clear vision and get everyone in the organization to buy the vision and strategy.

Nadella has also shown his ability to generate energy throughout the organization. Offering clarity and precision is extremely helpful, but it was not enough to bring the success that Nadella envisioned for the company. In addition, Nadella wanted to generate energy throughout the organization by

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ensuring that the employees, especially top leaders, had genuine enthusiasm and passion for what the company was about to do. Upon assuming office as the CEO, Nadella initiated notable sweeping reorganizations that set the company on the pathway for success in the cloud business. Initially, the company’s marketing and development teams used to compete against each other, creating a sluggish attitude and complacency within the company. Such a move was meant to create energy by bringing teams and people together and ensuring that everybody was passionate and united to pursue the new direction. Without good chemistry between leaders and collaboration between departments, the company’s revenue would have continued to dwindle. Nadella employed his team leadership and people skills to create energy and unite these departments into customer-focused and collaborative ones.

Nadella has also changed the company culture from that characterized frequent high-intensity rants and ravings to one focused on customers. Instead of continuing with the precision questioning approach employed by his predecessors, Nadella created a new culture focused on consumers’ challenges, opportunities, problems, aspirations, dreams, and needs. To attain this intense focus on the consumers, Nadella relentlessly changed the organizational structures to encourage other leaders to focus on consumer engagements and use innovative language to express the company’s priorities and values. An example is whereby he encouraged consumers to be tech-intensive, meaning that they not only purchase Microsoft’s services and software but also build their software. The company established beneficial partnerships with the customers and other external stakeholders, which increased its global sales.

Nadella is a courageous leader who is not afraid to take risks. Such a character is evident in the fearless

acquisitions he engineered as the CEO. Such acquisitions included LinkedIn in 2016 and GitHub in 2018. Each of the many acquisitions was a fearless one from the CEO’s point of view. They signaled a pivotal direction for the corporation as the acquired companies were at the forefront of new technologies. For instance, the LinkedIn acquisition enabled Microsoft to exploit the social-media aspects of professional networks, while the GitHub one enabled the company to supercharge its developer community. Such kinds of acquisitions depict Nadella as a bold decision-maker and a prompt executor who understands what he wants to do for the company, and this makes him recognize what would propel the company towards its mission quickly.

Nadella also employs empathy and embodies the growth mindset. This mindset encompasses the conviction that challenges are opportunities for people to grow, change, and learn new skills. As the CEO, Nadella encourages all Microsoft employees to embrace the “learn-it-all” approach and experience innovative ideas and passion projects. In case of employee mistakes, Nadella employs a gentle and empathetic approach meant to encourage the employees to re-think their designs and approach the challenge from a different dimension. Overall, Nadella has been known to utilize employees’ mistakes as opportunities to grant them a second chance to learn, grow, and re-think their ideas.

In addition to empathy, Nadella is a humble person and a people-oriented leader. He uses his humility to the success of Microsoft. Nadella begins by encouraging employees to showcase their success in senior leadership meetings. Employees join the leadership team’s meetings via video to showcase their developments, which acts as an inspiration for the senior leaders. Instead of focusing on himself or the top leaders, Nadella shares his employees’ success, demonstrating leadership humility. Such

a practice can inspire top leaders while motivating employees to work harder to become part of the senior leadership team or gain recognition. Such practice implies that leading a top corporation should not come with an inflated ego. A big ego could be detrimental to the company’s success as other people may feel that their leader is authoritative, not approachable, their efforts are not recognized, or their ideas are not valued or needed. Instead of having a big ego, a leader of such a big corporation should put people first to ensure that diverse ideas are encouraged, and people at any level of the organization feel included and part of the big picture. Such a humble approach of valuing each employee’s ideas and encouraging them to do their best has helped Nadella create a culture of collaboration and innovation at Microsoft. This culture has been a key reason for the corporation’s turnaround since he took the helm.

In conclusion, key leadership skills such as empathy, humility, thinking big, caring for people, prompt execution, courage, and a growth mindset have been instrumental to Nadella as Microsoft’s CEO. Such leadership capabilities have helped Nadella turn around the company from one thought to be on a downward spiral to an industry leader in technology in terms of market capitalization. The vision and the huge bet on cloud-computing that Nadella made for the company are expected to generate more and more revenue for the corporation and continue being the mainstream business even after his retirement. Other leaders can learn from Nadella that having a great vision, explaining it to all employees, and creating harmony and collaboration among teams is crucial to a company’s success. In addition, skills such as empathy, humility, employee engagement, promoting diversity of ideas, and employing a growth mindset are invaluable skills for leaders in this age when employees face many challenges at the workplace.

LEAD STORY


What does it mean to be “metaverse-ready”?

For B2B companies, being metaverse-ready means building the capability to digitally engage with customers in a multi-person immersive environment. Imagine getting ten customers from their

offices (or homes) all over the world to engage simultaneously in a digital workspace where they participate actively to discover the value of your solutions in the context of their business and technical needs.

While much of the initial hype about the multiverse has been about virtual reality (VR) and putting many people inside a fully immersive VR world, that vision is most realistic for consumers. For B2B sales the benefits of the multiverse can be achieved without requiring the VR headsets. Immersion comes in many forms, and in the context of a PC or a tablet, it involves the collaboration of several people in the same 3D digital

workspace, with or without the VR goggles.

So, how does a company prepare for this impending reality? By deploying platforms that not only deliver applications that engage customers in their own non-linear journeys of interactive exploration, but also facilitate the sharing and collaboration of these digital interactive environments with

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customers do not end up as the dreaded unfocused observer, distracted by email and Facebook.

Rather than simply digitizing physical experiences, Kaon’s platform supercharges experiences with personalized interactive elements to which anyone in the group has individualized access. Unlike screen sharing presentations, this paradigm ensures that each participant has the freedom to control their own journey, and everyone stays engaged throughout the duration of the discussion. Participants may be in a hybrid collaboration, where some people are using VR headsets (if they have them) and others may be exploring the space using AR, while others may be using a PC and a browser, and some people may be physically together in a conference room using a large touch-screen.

Why is this important? Twenty-five years of experience with B2B digital interactive technology has proved that each person has their own way of exploring and understanding digital applications - and yet there are three common threads to creating value in these B2B sales and marketing digital interactive experiences:

1. The experience must be useful and provide relevant information that resonates with the user (what we call the “knowledge transfer” part of the experience);

2. The experience must connect with the user in a “multi-sensory” manner (that is to say, the user can’t just sit back and watch. They must be actively involved, using their sense of sight, touch, and often auditory experience as well);

3. The experience has to deliver an emotional connection - it must go well beyond a simple set of data entry or mouse-click tasks, often providing a fun and even exciting experience;

These three dimensions of value offer

the best opportunity for B2B companies to engage prospects and customers in a digital journey of discovery - revealing why the company’s solutions offer competitively differentiated value. When prospects and customers engage directly with this kind of hybrid interactive experience, they learn more deeply, remember longer and with a greater degree of confidence, and the result is that they make better buying decisions.

The metaverse can be much more than a marketing gimmick, or a consumer-only technology. It yields significant benefits for B2B sales - delivering memorable shared experiences that transform customer interactions from passive encounters to interactive knowledge sharing collaborations. The Kaon High Velocity Marketing PlatformⓇ with LiveShareⓇ multi-user collaboration brings your stories into the metaverse for your prospects and customers….today!.

multiple people simultaneously. In this manner, the metaverse becomes accessible as a means to build a collaboration and partnership amongst customers, and between the company and their customers.

Kaon Interactive builds interactive customer engagement applications that are powered by the world’s only metaverse-ready platform. Yes, customers can engage with these applications using VR headsets, and they can also engage with these applications in an Augmented Reality (AR) environment. The most remarkable aspect of the platform, however, is that it enables these interactive applications to be experienced on all device types, not just VR and AR headsets. What this means is that B2B enterprises can now future-proof their customer engagement strategies because the customer chooses what specific experience venue they prefer, rather than imposing the same one-size-fits-all technology on all users.

Not only are these customer engagement experiences available to individuals to explore at their own pace and in their own level of detail, but they are also shared, collaborative experiences when multiple people engage at the same time - seeing the same immersive experiences, but also from their own individual perspectives. Recall visiting museums on school field trips: sometimes you were guided and sometimes you wandered off and explored on your own when something particularly captured your interest. This is the best way to let your customers digitally explore your solution stories in the metaverse. Your salespeople or experts are there to guide the conversations virtually, but customers also have the freedom to deep-dive into an area of special resonance when you spark their interest and imagination. And just as importantly, customers can also guide the conversation and exploration for others. All this ensures that your

Written by David Liddle is President & CEO of Kaon Interactive, Inc. He is responsible for the company’s strategic, financial, product, and custom-er relationship strategies. In this capaci-ty, he has led the successful transforma-tion of the company’s business model and marketing strategies. Gavin has instituted Kaon’s continuous innovation process, resulting in the introduction of several award-winning solutions which have delivered significant improve-ments in customers’ sales effectiveness and marketing efficiency.

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Confront Siloed Thinking Among Teams and Establish a Supported Team Mindset

by Refocusing on the Overall Mission

One of the greatest lessons I learned in the military was that everyone is in it together. If the U.S. military goes to war and wins, we all win. The teams that fight directly win, and the teams

that never come close to the battlefield win. If we lose, we all lose. Every team has a symbiotic relationship, even if we

never stand in the same room together. There are no siloes!

When I left the military, I was not prepared for just how different the mindset is in the civilian world, even at a great company like Caterpillar. At my factory in East Peoria, we built both small and medium-sized tractors, and we were struggling to meet changing

emission controls for our diesel engines. To simplify the issue, we had to find new ways to get more sulfur out of the engine exhaust.

The company decided to focus on the D6 bulldozer first because it had the most demand. There were six different versions of the D6, and we

Written by Marty Groover is a partner in the Industry 4.0 practice of C5MI, a firm that optimizes opera-tional execution through the creation of live supply chains. Marty leads functional and technical teams to solve manufacturing challenges by merging people, process, and technology. With more than two decades as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy, Marty is a recognized thought leader in the SAP partner base and is known for his exten-sive insight in production planning, lean manufacturing, and ERP systems.

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could keep our gear comfortable up in the weapon control station.

Even if the engineers were down in the belly of the ship and never saw us during their shifts, we depended on them to do our job—and our job was the central purpose of the ship.

The Aegis cruiser existed to put, as we used to say, “warheads on foreheads.” Every single man and woman on that ship was part of either the supported team or one of many supporting teams, but we were all contributing to the mission, even if we never directly interacted while working.

Remember Roles Can Shift

Sometimes, who is the supported team and who is the supporting team shifts. For example, when I was on the Aegis, we had periodic Operational Propulsion Plant Examinations (OPPE). There had been so many fires on board ships in the past that the Navy developed a propulsion examining board to make sure everything was running safely.

If we didn’t pass the test, we would lose our certification and have to retrain and get recertified. The test was intense, involving main space fire drills, where we had to stop and start every system on the ship. Then we had to do controlled drills on all of our engineering equipment, which played hell on combat systems.

It was the perfect time for the engineers to get their revenge on all of us “topsiders” sitting in our air-conditioned workstation. They would call our station and say, “We can’t possibly get everything ready in all of our spaces. We need some help from the rest of the ship’s crew. Send some of your men down to the pump room.”

We were the supporting team, so we knew our role as shipmates. We needed to pass that test at all costs. However, when some of the combat crew went down to help, the engineers would make sure to assign them the filthiest pump room, which involved pumping sewage out of the ship. It was no fun, but I always took pride in my work, no matter how filthy.

We would go into these disgusting places and give 100 percent. We had that Navy mindset that we were all in this together. Even if we picked on each other from time to time, we knew we were working together to accomplish the mission, whether we were on a supported or supporting team.

Establish a Supported Team Mindset

With the rise of automation and smart technology, it’s more important than ever for teams to understand how they are supporting or being supported by other teams. When I was a factory manager in Kentucky, I was careful to confront siloed thinking among teams and redirect people to think about the overall mission.

I made sure that the maintenance team, the operations team, and the logistics team understood the interrelation of their work. I confronted the tendency for teams to fight against each other, protect their turf or isolate. Supporting teams knew who they were supporting, and the supported team understood the contributions of each supporting team.

It can’t be a competition. Ultimately, every team is working together to serve the customer. This must be constantly reinforced. In the end, it comes down to this: we all win the war together, or we lose the war together. And if we win, the real victory belongs to the customer.

had to gradually get each of them to meet emission percentages. The plan was to complete four models the first year. To begin the process, we needed our design engineers to come up with 3D models for the new engines, so we could build them.

This is where the symbiotic relationship always broke down. The design engineers worked in their own little silo, with little awareness of the deadlines that other teams down the line were facing. Consequently, they were always late in delivering their 3D models, assuming that we could make up for the lost time.

One of my biggest challenges as an operations manager was getting all of my teams to understand the symbiotic relationship of supported and supporting teams, so they saw their work as part of the overall effort to achieve the mission of serving customers. When you instill that mindset throughout our organization, you get better work between teams, which leads to greater efficiency and a better outcome.

Focus on the Overall Mission

The Navy—actually, the entire military—understands this. When I was an enlisted sailor, I worked as a Fire Controlman (FC) for various weapon systems, and we were considered the elite of the fleet (or so they told us). Because of the nature of our role, we worked in air-conditioned spaces most of the time, except when we had to go on deck to do maintenance on the gun system.

Meanwhile, the engineers that provided us with air-conditioning, power, and running water spent all of their time down in the belly of the ship, working in cramped, miserable spaces where it was steaming hot, just so they

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If You’re a Solopreneur Who Wants to Live Life On Your Own Terms, You Must Get

These 4 Things in Order

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great job. We got to know each other as he worked, and at one point he asked what I did for a living. After the work was done he came in with his wife and his tax returns, bank statements, and other documents I needed to assess his situation, and we all sat down together. He was embarrassed to share them, sure that I’d tell him he needed to shut his business down.

The problem? His cash flow. He didn’t bill on time, so he couldn’t pay his bills on time either, and wholesalers stopped extending credit. He didn’t need to shut down his business, but he did need to take control of his cash flow.

My point in telling you this story is to drive home the fundamental importance of managing your cash flow. For a solopreneur, whose business income and personal income feel like the same thing, success can only start there. That’s why it’s first on my list.

#2: Identify Your Significant Purchases

Lloyd and Elaine came to me with a successful business in a small town that generated between $500,000 and a million dollars a year—but they liked to spend their money. They had only $40,000 in retirement savings, a half a million in debt, and lots of expenses.

They were in their late fifties and had reached the point in life where they wanted to begin thinking about winding things down, eventually turning the business over to their son. There was this too: Lloyd wanted nothing more than to take Elaine to Fiji for the vacation she’d always dreamed of.

Could they do it? My answer was yes, and so we set to work on the financial plan that would get them there. We had a lot to do—but this was about achieving the life they wanted to live. So we put that trip to Fiji under their purchases.

By purchases, I don’t mean the groceries or the electric bill. I don’t mean a new pair of corduroys or high-heel shoes, either. These are ongoing or routine expenses, and they’re covered in your monthly cash flow.

Instead I’m talking about significant, one-time expenses. Your dream vacation. The used cars you need to buy for each of your kids as they reach driving age. A hot tub for your deck, an addition for the in-laws, and other home improvements. In other words, expenses that are big enough that you need to plan for them.

#3: Liquidate Your DebtsManaging your cash flow and

identifying your purchasing goals are both crucial to living life on your own terms, but they aren’t the only steps you have to take. You also need to get rid of your debts.

Liquidating your debts equals freedom. It’s a simple, universal truth. You want to be on a path to reducing your debt so that you have the freedom you want when you need it. If your goal is to be out of debt by retirement, how are you going to get there?

Debt is not inherently bad. I’m a big fan of debt with a purpose. If you’re a medical student going deeper into

Αs a solopreneur, my guess is that your goal isn’t to make more money. At least, that’s not the real goal. Instead, your goal is to live life on your terms. Right? Money is just a tool to

help you do that.

Of course, getting yourself set up to live life on your terms has many steps. But of all the steps involved, four of the most critical are addressing your cash flow, figuring out your purchases, handling your debts, and creating emergency savings.

Bottom line: if your goal is to have the freedom to live the life of your dreams, then getting these four things in order will help you get from here to there.

#1: Manage Your Cash Flow

Simply stated, your cash flow is the amount of money that comes in every month versus the amount that goes out the door. If you’ve got $10,000 coming in every month and $15,000 going out, you’ve got a cash flow of negative $5,000 (and a problem you need to address right away!)

I’ve seen situations that were nearly that grim. I once hired a plumber to replace our water heater. He was a great plumber—and he was a beaten man, because he didn’t know how to run the financial side of his business. “I’m sorry to tell you this,” he began, “but I need to have $1,000 to start this job. The wholesaler needs a down payment so I can get your water heater.”

I wrote him the check, and he did a

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debt with each passing year, that’s one of the greatest investments you’ll ever make—because you’ll earn a lot of money coming out the other side of your education.

We happen to be in a time when interest rates are historically low. That means it’s wise to consider taking advantage of it. I have seen many clients take years off their mortgages by refinancing. Some of them have done it twice, because rates are so low.

All that said, the fundamental rule applies. Paying down debt and ultimately avoiding it altogether equals freedom.

#4: Create Emergency Savings

There’s one more piece to this puzzle: emergency savings. As a solopreneur, your business income and your personal income feel like the same thing. If you don’t have adequate savings in place, both your business and your household are at the mercy of events beyond your control—a pandemic, say.

You’ll be thrown into a debt spiral, charging your car repairs, the new furnace, and any other expenses you can’t avoid to your credit cards. You need to avoid that. I urge my clients to set aside enough savings to cover 12 months of living expenses, or six months at the very least. Remember, that’s the goal; it may take time to get there.

One of my clients was a consultant back at the time of the Great Recession in 2008, and he told me how he watched in horror as the housing market

went down, the stock market went down, and his investments went down.

He survived by the grace of God. And every year after as the economy recovered he added a little extra to his emergency savings in preparation for the next jolt. He knew one was coming; they always do. It was just a matter of what and when. “I’m at peace,” he told me when I checked in. “I know I’m going to be okay.” That’s the beauty of emergency savings.

Cover Your RealitiesWith your cash flow, purchases,

debts, and emergency savings accounted for, you’ve covered what I call your realities. You are setting yourself up to live a life of freedom—one that’s completely on your terms.

Remember, all of these goals may take a while to achieve. Creating an emergency savings fund that has 12 months of living expenses, for example, isn’t necessarily easy! But, it’s well worth it, because it will give you peace of mind and help protect you in case of unforeseen disaster.

So, figure out where you are in each of these areas. If any of them need attention, start taking steps today to address them. Trust me: when you’re living the life you love, you’ll be glad you did.

Written by Gabe Nelson is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional and founder of Gabe Nelson Financial, Inc., a registered investment advisory firm that offers fee-based financial planning and investment advisory services to solo-preneurs and self-employed profes-sionals throughout the United States. After earning a bachelor of science in economics from South Dakota State University, Gabe immediately entered the financial services industry. He has been featured in a Forbes article and hosts the podcast Solopreneur Mon-ey. Gabe lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, with his wife, Melissa, and their three daughters, Lauren, Avery, and Lydia.

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Forgotten revolution which may impact transatlantic relations

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Written by Dr. Bartosz Marcinkowski is a certified legal counsel, DZP Partner (the largest independent law firm in Poland), head of DZP Data Protection Team. He is a member of International Bar Association (IBA) and European Leadership Group at Meritas Law Firms Worldwide, as well as head of Meritas Data Protec-tion Practice Group.

Αccording to the famous EU data protection regulation (GDPR), the transfer of personal data from the UE to third countries (such as the USA, Russia, India or China – nice bunch, isn’t it?)

is subject to additional safeguards to ensure that the our (“European”) data are secure abroad at a level acceptable under GDPR.

Usually, such additional safeguards are proved by contractual instrument, namely by signing set of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) drafted by the EU Commission. The idea was simple: once the appropriate set of the SCC was signed, data transfer from the UE to the third country was deemed legal. Looks simple and brilliant.

But, in June 2021, the EU Commission set out brand new set of Standard Contractual Clauses. These are gradually replacing the “old” (i.e. existing) SCC.

What has changed? The modular structure of the SCC has been retained (the parties select the relevant provisions by customising the content of the contract) as has the principle of warranty liability (the SCC include Reps & Warranties well-known from M&A transactions). A new feature is the introduction of a docking clause (allowing flexible accession to the SCC) and particularly the widening of the range of situations in which the new SCC apply. From now on the new SCC cover variety of situations, which is great. Still, not all situations are covered, which bad.

To make things even worse, in order to comply with new regulations, there is now a requirement to carry out a documented Transfer Impact Assessment (TIA). A TIA involves a multi-faceted assessment of the circumstances of the data transfer, data protection law and practice applicable

in the third country, etc. If doubts arise as to the level of data security in a third country, additional measures (IT, organizational, legal, you name it) have to be taken.

All these quite vague procedures are to be followed by the entities transferring data. These entities – usually private entrepreneurs and their directors – will bear negative consequences in case of negligence or a mere mistake, including responsibility for illegal data transfers.

But it is not all. According to the new law, all existing SCC must be replaced by the new ones (after the TIA procedure and application of the relevant additional measures) by 27 december 2022.

In many cases steps should be taken right now, as the organisational challenges of carrying out a significant number of TIAs and implementing (meaning: negotiating) new SCC could be a task comparable to the implementation of the GDPR in 2018.

Being the EU data protection lawyer I already learned, that many multinational organizations are bound by dozens of thousands (yes, thousands!) of the “old” SCC. And they all must be replaced by the new ones in less than a year. Considering legal risks, potential negotiations and contracts customization, replacing this number of contracts is an ambitious task. Simultaneously, many (majority!) of international organizations operating both in the EU and the USA, China, Russia or India will have to face this challenge really soon.

Interestingly, not many international entrepreneurs seem to be aware of this challenge. If they want to stay compliant, they have to act now and contact their European legal advisor.

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Written by Dr. Joe Zammit-Luciais an author commentator and advisor to business leaders. He is the author of “The New Political Capitalism: How businesses and societies can thrive in a deeply politicised world”. Bloomsbury, 2022Protection Practice Group.

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Wanted: Board Chairs and CEOs with political leadership capabilities

when questioned by the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee about the bank’s position on China - ‘It’s not my position to make moral or political judgements on these matters’ - are understandable but increasingly ineffective if not counterproductive.

Abstention is no longer an option.

A Different Culture

Business and politics operate to different thought processes, a different culture and different perspectives. It’s a different way of being. And some business leaders understandably wrestle with a framework so fundamentally different to that which they are used to.

The world is changing – fast. The shape and nature of that change has the characteristics of politics, not business. Volatile, emotional, complex, multi-directional and multi-dimensional, not comfortably linear. Full of the unexpected. As in politics, businesses must now look at their addressable audiences as disparate coalitions of values and political outlooks. Outlooks that change more rapidly over time making the market fluid and only

manageable and somewhat predictable if looked at through a political lens.

It is a world where there are no ‘right answers’ that emerge from numerate analyses. Where whatever position a corporation takes will please some and infuriate others. As Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian put it: ‘The visible role of the CEO…as an advocate for who their brand is, what their employees think, what we believe in – has taken a greater resonance and responsibility…We’ve been trained in the business world to not upset anyone. We want everyone to love us. But unfortunately, in society today, that’s not always possible.’

As the belief grows that our current system of political economy is failing too many, a new era is emerging – what I call The New Political Capitalism. It is rapidly replacing the dying era of financialized capitalism. The days when business leaders could see their role primarily, or solely, as one of delivering shareholder value are over. Businesses are political actors, and their role is much larger and more important. They are increasingly expected to contribute to the creation of a better society. What constitutes ‘a better society’ is a purely political question putting corporations at the centre of political debate.

Expectations of business leaders are changing at lightning (maybe even frightening) speed. The days when their role was to a large extent operational, focused almost exclusively on delivering

financial results, are well and truly over. Today’s top executives are expected also to fit the mode of political leaders. And they will be judged on that basis.

A survey by PwC, a consultancy firm, found that, in 2018, involuntary CEO exits for ‘ethical lapses’ for the first time overtook exits for financial performance. Ethical lapses apart, senior leaders are increasingly being judged on the public face they present on all sorts of political issues – from the geopolitics of China relationships to their stances on environmental, social and other highly political questions, and how these are reflected in what their companies stand for and how they behave.

In what has been called a ‘politicised brandscape’ brands, too, be they product brands or corporate brands, are increasingly being judged on the political meanings attached to them.

While some companies are more obviously in the eye of that storm, no corporation is immune. Responses like those given by Noel Quinn, HSBC CEO

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Successful business leaders can and will adapt. For some, it will involve the development of new skills. But it also involves looking at one’s business through a different lens and acting accordingly.

Looking from the outside in

Many of us are used to looking at the world from the inside out. What we see is filtered and interpreted through the operational lens of our own organisations. In the age of financialized capitalism it is also tempting to see investors and financial analysts on Wall Street and the City of London as the primary audience.

Political capitalism requires us to look from the outside in (Figure). To see ourselves and our organizations as embedded in a socio-political ecosystem that is organic, fluid,

dynamic, unpredictable, driven by political rather than commercial logic. Led by a culture that is changing at an astounding rate and populated by human beings who in no way fit the economist’s fantasy of ‘rational actors’. In other words, a system that is primarily human, not financial. Gaining these different perspectives requires building socio-cultural-political antennae into the DNA of any organization.

While, when presented in such simplified graphics, the change may seem minor, the net effect of adopting this different perspective is immense. Business leaders and their organisations will find themselves in fundamentally different places depending on which approach they choose.

Leaders for the new age

When my banker read what I had to say in ‘The New Political Capitalism’ book, he came back with

a question. He wondered whether the current generation of senior business leaders, brought up in the neoliberal, financialized heydays of the 1980s and 90s would make the transformation. Or whether one would have to wait for a new generation of leaders.

The reality is that some boards and senior leaders are already showing their capabilities to lead in the emerging era of political capitalism. Other organisations will lack the skills to do so, maybe even close their eyes to change, and will likely falter.

Change is inevitable and the direction of travel is clear. Developing the political way of thinking and political leadership skills will be in increasingly high demand and probably much sooner than one may think. As Rudi Dornbusch put it ‘things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then they happen faster than you thought they could’.

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Written by Donna McGeorge is a speaker, author and mentor who helps people work smarter. Using a creative, practical approach, she improves workplace effectiveness while challenging thinking on leadership, productivity and virtual work. She is the author of 3 books, ‘The 25-Minute Meeting: Half the Time, Double the Impact’ and ‘The First 2 Hours: Making Better Use of Your Most Valuable Time’, and more recently, The 1 Day Refund: Take Back Time, Spend It Wisely published by John Wiley.

Mind the margin: How to give yourself a 15 percent time refund to avoid burnout and care for yourself

Resources and energy are needed for growth; this applies to pretty much any area of our world where we want to grow or get better. It is true for communities, for individuals

and for the natural environment.

And it’s not just about to physical growth. It’s also about emotional and intellectual growth.

In science, this is referred to as a finite-time singularity. In a nutshell,

unbounded growth demands either infinite resources and energy or a major paradigm shift. Without either, collapse is inevitable.

The question for leaders is, “how

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If we are to keep our own performance levels high and to optimise our resources and systems, we should be aiming for a maximum energy expenditure of 85 per cent.

This 15 per cent margin might seem arbitrary, or too little, and in many ways it’s more about what happens in our heads than about watching the clock. It’s about performing at a steady pace, always with this tiny bit of room to breathe, not as though you are constantly catching up or struggling. You will feel in control instead of overwhelmed and exhausted from pushing yourself (or those around you) too far.

Of course, there will always be things outside your control: traffic jams, flight delays and other unexpected obstacles. Having that buffer means you have the time, space and energy to responds positively to changing circumstances, and often have the capacity to take advantage of them.

We are all living in an epidemic of urgency and busyness. Unless we are flat out, working ridiculous hours, we are judged, and we often judge ourselves, as lazy or unproductive.

Urgency is the new black. ‘Busy’ is the natural response to ‘How’s work?’ The effect is cultures that pride themselves on ‘fast-moving’ or ‘adaptive’ workplaces. But they are often white-collar sweat shops, pushing people beyond their limits, and the result is burnout.

Matthew Bidwell, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, says of managers that when they can’t measure outputs easily, they will

measure inputs, such as how long you are spending at work.

The industrial revolution specifically linked time to money as the advent of artificial lighting enabled 10-to 16-hour workdays. It wasn’t until Henry Ford introduced the eight-hour workday, and profits increased exponentially, that people started to think differently about productivity by the hour. His profitable methods, in effect, refunded two to eight hours to his workers every day.

In a culture that values hard work and productivity, we feel we are ‘winning’ when we are going hard all the time. Because being busy increases our level of (self-) importance and can become addictive, we may feel guilty or ashamed when we aren’t busy doing stuff. So we have a bit of conditioning to undo!

Instead of trading time for money, we need to trade energy for impact. For example, we are all familiar with the model that says I give you x hours of my time in exchange for y dollars. But what if we instead focused on the idea that I give you energy, value and impact in return for dollars?

Instead of thinking about how many hours I need to put in, I think about exchanging the most valuable and impactful work each day.

Being less busy isn’t the issue. The real opportunity here is to take time out. To stop and take stock of where you are at and make some decisions about how you want to work.

Without some level of mastery and control over your time, at best you will lose opportunities and at worst you will become ill.

much longer can you go on before you exhaust your resources and energy, or that of your teams?”

You need a paradigm shift. And not even a major one.

Simply think about where you can refund yourself only 15 per cent of your time and resources across a range of aspects of your life to create some space that will allow you to be the truly adaptive organism you have evolved to be.

There are a number of real-world examples where a 15 per cent buffer or margin is considered optimal operating capacity.

• Capacity utilisation (mostly used in manufacturing) measures the difference between production and production capability. Accounting for the fact that it is unlikely that an economy or company will function at 100 per cent capacity, 85 per cent is considered optimal. This provides a 15 per cent buffer against setbacks like equipment malfunction or resource shortages.

• Olympians and professional sportspeople, too, know they will perform better at 85 per cent because they are more relaxed and can optimise muscle strength.

• Hugh Jackman, in his preparation for and performance in the role of Wolverine, aimed to expend no more than 85 per cent of his energy, in the knowledge this would enable him to function optimally over extended production periods.

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Written by Dean Lindsay is the author of Progress Leadership: Say No To Change Management. He is an award-winning business book author, skilled business culture consultant, and a powerful keynote speaker.

Stop Stressing And Start Progressing

Over these last couple of challenging years I’ve become increasingly concerned by the growing number of professionals in my Progress Leadership boot camps and

in one-on-one coaching sessions who have shared with me their sense of being overwhelmed, underappreciated,

and underpaid. Workplace stress is rarely part of anyone’s job description, but it is unfortunately part of most jobs. It is tough to progress when we are stressed. In fact, we feel stress when we feel we are being hindered from leading progress.

Finding healthy and productive ways for leaders to deal with or relate

to the stressful stimuli in this high-tech, low-touch world of speed-of-light change is a vital and important topic that desperately needs discussion. Check this: Stress not only limits your progress; stress can and will kill you (if you don’t take action)!

— The American Medical Association

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internalize too much outside pressure, which causes inside pressures. No matter what the circumstance, we still have power over the attitude we take toward it. When we feel stress, we become focused on the pain and not the opportunities to take positive steps. Often, we invest so much time dealing with stress that we don’t take time to progress.

We all relate to stimuli differently. What really freaks out one person may excite another, or only mildly irritate a third. The key is to know in advance positive ways to respond to stressful stimuli.

When our negative reactions to the little stuff build up, it undermines our ability to progress. We become irritable and worn out, which leads to more stress. This is an inappropriate triggering of a very useful survival mechanism. When we’re in fight-or-flight mode, we NEED to focus on negatives (no time to smell the flowers when we’re running from a burning building). But when the same physiological reaction is in response to social situations, we only see the negatives, and lose sight of our strengths, resources and possible action steps.

We often think of stressful stimuli as the big life stuff – like a challenging relationship or a scary economic climate. But a great deal of our anxiety comes from the little day-to-day pressures commonly faced in today’s workplace. This dear old world is full of possible “stressors”:

• Dissatisfied customers and indecisive prospects

• Our kids, our coworkers, our coworkers’ kids

• Technology challenges and industry shifts

• Unrealistic workloads and deadlines

• Office gossip and competition• Long unorganized meetings• Dictatorial leadership

These are but a few of the world’s never-ending supply of stimuli that we may choose to freak out over, or calmly face.

Our power lies in never losing sight of the fact that it’s our choice to get stressed by something or not get stressed by something. We have the choice to be happy, to be mad, to be stressed, to be giddy. I like giddy. Nothing can MAKE us stressed, just like, despite the suggestion of many a love song, we can’t MAKE someone happy, or vice versa.

We can do things we think will encourage others to choose to be happy, but we can not MAKE someone happy. It is their choice. To be stressed is ours. When we are stressed, we are choosing to respond to stimuli in a stressful way. Stress may be normal, but is not necessary.

It feels great to give 110% at work, but it’s important to always remember that taking good care of ourselves pays off professionally as well as emotionally. Develop stress immunity and resilience. Invest time in doing what helps you renew your energy. If we are going to put ourselves in the best possible position to lead progress in this ever-changing world, it is vital that we take back control of our lives and careers by choosing to gain control of our thought processes.

Pretending that the stress stimuli are not all around us only increases the problem. The way to lead progress in an ever-changing world is through recognition and action.

says that stress is now the basic cause of over 60% of all diseases and illnesses (cancer, heart problems, etc.).

— Stress-related problems, according to the American Institute for Stress, are responsible for 75% to 90% of doctor visits.

— A study conducted by the University of London found that unmanaged reactions to stress were more likely to lead to cancer and heart disease than either smoking cigarettes or eating foods high in the bad kind of cholesterol.

Virtually no part of the body escapes the ravages of prolonged negative stress. Unfortunately, many of us make up our minds to “get serious” about our physical and mental health only when we become ill, suffer a heart attack, or experience some other form of breakdown.

Stress is very dangerous, not to mention expensive. Businesses across the U.S. lose $200-$300 billion dollars annually to stress, resulting in loss in productivity (i.e., less progress) and treatment costs. Effects of stress in the workplace include absenteeism, disruptive outbursts, and the tendency to do as little as possible to get by. All reduce productivity and damage an organization’s bottom line. Plus, many of us do not have a well-defined boundary between work and home, and end up taking work problems home with us and letting them affect our personal life.

I don’t mean to stress you out about stress, but the crazy thing to consider is that WE are truly the ultimate cause of our own stress. It is our reaction to stressful stimuli that “makes us sick,” not the stimuli themselves. We

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Leave Failing to the Experts

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a CEO, for example, you’ve probably read dozens of books/articles and heard countless presentations on the topic of leadership. So, it’s easy to turn off your brain, thinking to yourself, “I’ve got this. Nothing new here. I’ve heard it all before.” Once you do that, though, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will be correct. You won’t learn anything new, but in most cases that won’t be the presenter’s fault, that’s on you.

The next time you attend a live presentation, particularly on a topic with which you have general familiarity, think about what it would be like if the speaker stood beside you rather than across from you. Or imagine taking a walk, where you are exploring the subject matter together. During this walk, let your curiosity reign supreme, and consider it your mission to leave your time together with a nugget or two or three that you didn’t have with you before you started. It’s there; you just need to be open to receiving it. And for you speakers out there, there is plenty to learn from your audiences as well.

August Rush

In the 2007 feature film August Rush, we learned that the music is all around us; we just have to listen for it. In the 1930s, John Dewey talked about accidental learning. Many of us can relate to life lessons that came from the most unlikely of places. For example, my most important leadership communication lesson came from an incident at a junior high school track meet. As I passed the baton to the anchor leg in a relay race, the baton hit the ground. The coach was crystal clear about it being my fault, stating that the sender should NEVER let go of the baton until it’s in the receiver’s grasp. Later in college, I learned invaluable lessons about organizational culture in business – not from a business course – but a humanities course. During the semester, I encountered this fantastic

article about outsiders trying to drive change in an African village without first understanding the culture. As you might have guessed, it failed miserably. I don’t offer these personal examples to suggest I am any better at this than anyone else, only to point out that the more open we are, the more receptive we can be.

The two examples I offered from junior high school and college showcase how even learning in an accidental fashion can take place if we’re open to life’s lessons. Imagine what can happen when we are intentional about it with the right mindset. Whether you are reading a book, listening to a keynote speaker, or leading a strategy meeting in your company. Pretend you don’t know everything. Let curiosity rule. The more you adopt a beginner’s mindset, the more likely you will equip yourself with the ideas, tools, and framing that will help you embrace and thrive in this world of what’s next. Leave failing to the experts.

The concept of a beginner’s mindset comes from Zen Buddhism and the word Shoshin, translated as looking at every situation as if you are seeing it for the first time. With

the world changing as rapidly as it is, we’re seeing things for the first time almost every day. Yet it can be our nature to connect what’s next with our experiences in a way that makes us less open to new possibilities.

In the book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki, the Prologue opens with the line, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” This elegant sentiment is why I have strong feelings about people referring to themselves as experts.

In my book Peernovation: What Peer Advisory Groups Can Teach Us About Building High-Performing Teams, I wrote, “For those who know me well, they will tell you that I bristle when people refer to themselves as experts. If someone else wants to confer that designation on you, feel free to let them, but any real expert I’ve ever met remains a student of their discipline first and never confers the expert moniker on themselves. It’s how they develop their ever-evolving expertise and maintain their edge.”

Presenters and their Audiences

The more we see ourselves as students – as always trying to learn – the more likely we will be open to all the world has to offer us. I see this up close and personal every time I deliver a keynote address, in-person workshop, or virtual presentation of any kind.

It’s easy to pick out those with the beginner’s mindset and those who take the “I am the expert” approach. The facial expressions and body language are dead giveaways. In fairness, I get it. If you’re

Written by Leo Bottary is the founder and managing partner of Peernovation. He is a sought-after thought leader on Peer Advantage and Peernovation, emerging disciplines dedicated to strategically engaging peers to achieve personal and organizational excellence. Leo Bottary is a member of the External Advisory Board (EAB) for the CEOWORLD magazine.

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Culture, purpose and pay will stem The Great Resignation

Written by Russell Haworthis CEO of NBS, a construction technology platform. He’s a technology focused leader, with a proven track record of growing businesses with new products in new markets. His specialism is optimizing the intersect of data, cloud and machine learning for SaaS products.

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choose us over another technology company, because they understood our aim of helping the construction industry modernise, adapt and become more sustainable.

In the job market, the rush to facilitate remote working has exacerbated the problem of feeling under-valued in the last 18 months, I believe. Nurturing a sense of belonging and adhering to shared goals is hugely challenging when teams are working far apart from each other. Undoubtedly, silo mentality has been unavoidable in many workplaces. While continued lockdowns have stalled our plans for fun social events and collaborative working, which is frustrating. We know that returning to our wonderful office space in Newcastle in the north of England will help people re-connect and understand the true culture of the place. With a third of people having joined during lockdown times, so many individuals have yet to fully live their best NBS life.

Keeping in touch Hybrid working is here to stay. When

dealing with a ‘dispersed workforce’, even in a reduced form, leaders need a view on what’s working, and what isn’t for their teams. Regular ‘pulse’ surveys give management a valuable temperature check of employee attitudes, and over time you can gather both quantitative and qualitative feedback. Because these are

Leaders might feel superhuman powers are needed to retain their employees in 2022, as The Great Resignation rages on. However, my view is that stemming the tide of talent defections is within

relatively easy reach for we mere mortal CEOs, so long as our organisations’ values, HR policies and management styles are calibrated in the right ways.

Time and again research shows workplaces need a strong, inclusive culture at their heart, so that people feel part of a community that genuinely cares for them, their family, the local area and the planet. There needs to be a sense of real purpose and meaning in people’s daily work, with teams working towards a shared goal that ideally achieves something worthwhile and positive in the great scheme of things. Combine this with attractive salaries and workplace flexibility that meets your employees’ needs and expectations, and you’ll very likely maintain ‘employer of choice’ status and weather the storm, without any call for shapeshifting or X-ray vision whatsoever.

In a world where, post-COVID, many employees have begun to reimagine the world of work, what’s the best way to make tangible progress, and tackle the root causes of disaffection within an organisation?

Resignations are set to continue

Firstly, lets recap on the problem. Last spring Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index revealed that 41% of the workforce were considering leaving their employer. Meanwhile the US Labor Department recorded that 4 million people left their jobs in April 2021, and Jobsite found that 73% of US workers are considering quitting their jobs in 2022. In the UK, vacancies last autumn hit record highs with three in four saying they would look for new work in 2022. No wonder businesses are scratching their heads for ways to retain their talent.

Commit fully to your culture

Clearly the pandemic has awakened a hunger for meaning and purpose, and this must be addressed today in company culture. Recent research from McKinsey found the top two reasons employees cited for leaving were that they didn’t feel their work was valued by the organisation (54%) or that they lacked a sense of belonging at work (51%).

In the current market, skilled individuals have the luxury of being able to choose where to work, and it’s clear they gravitate to organisations with a strong purpose, beyond making money. I know we’ve seen candidates

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be allowed to disappear no matter how the workplace evolves. Creativity, learning and shared experiences are hard to simulate via a screen.

That said, lockdowns allowed us all to take up new leisure activities from running to singing to campervan weekends, and we’ve adapted our lives accordingly. Few would want to give them up now, so if we can ‘stretch the day’ and still be productive, this is to be welcomed and employers should trust that work will be completed within the hybrid model. Certainly, sensible discussions taking place now about parental responsibilities were long overdue in the workplace. Openness to flexibility around childcare is thankfully becoming the norm.

Play and pay fairThe coming years will see incredibly

tough competition for top talent and skimping on salaries and incentives should not be an option if you want people with the right skills, experience and attitude.

And I’d warn against hiring people who don’t have the right personality and values to fit your organisation. Psychometric testing can help, but the whole recruitment and retention process should be geared to attracting, selecting and nurturing people who care about the same things the company cares about.

anonymous, they are revealingly truthful and therefore very useful.

Focused team meetings and one-to-one also give leaders the chance to see first-hand how employees are coping with workloads, to check whether individuals are enjoying tasks, utilising technology correctly and where the stress points are being felt. Senior leaders must be excellent listeners, with the nous to separate the ‘noise’ from the real issues. They must also be able to read situations beyond spoken or written words – so recognising body language and sensing fraught relationships and brewing toxic situations before damage is done.

I’d remind leaders to be conscious that feedback is futile unless demonstrable actions come out of it. Make sure the desired changes are made and everyone hears about them – whether that’s better-quality coffee being introduced, or top-level strategy being more efficiently communicated across teams.

Hybrid working should be handled with care

Technology is enabling a great deal of remote, autonomous working, but the dark side of autonomy is that you’re not fully engaging with others across the business. Leaders need to be wary of this. At NBS we’re conscious that mentoring, collaboration and team work should not

Wellbeing is a hot topic, but by now it’s a hygiene factor and shouldn’t be seen as a differentiator in the job market. Organisations have to make their wellbeing programmes more than a tick box exercise. So, for instance offering real value that will impact people’s and physical health. For example we have talks and initiatives around nutrition and sleep for example, as well as access to fitness services, including onsite Peletons.

Build their skills and your talent pipeline

People expect us to help them build transferrable skills so they can further their careers. This is where the Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is absolutely essential – employers must do all the legwork to make themselves stand out, to attract the most sought-after employees. This will pay off if the right people are hired, and retention rates stay high.

Finally, don’t neglect your talent pipeline. That means getting more people into the business and giving them great jobs and real skills that will benefit them for life. Once they’re with you, don’t blow it by failing to listen or care. It doesn’t take a superhuman ability to see how important these things can be.

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Less Talk, More Workplace Change Needed to Keep Top Employees

Business leaders have touted a welcoming return to the office and new diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Now, they need to convert words to action with a better workplace

experience – or risk losing their best employees. The reality of many of today’s workplaces is not cutting it

for the modern worker: they’re finding a lack of flexibility, demotivating policies and workplace environments shaped by the need to separate rather than collaborate. And in this job market, employees have leverage. No wonder we are experiencing a Great Resignation.

While leaders weigh how to offer more flexibility, hybrid options and much-needed changes to workplace culture, management and physical spaces, delaying decisions about their physical workspaces is contributing to employees’ discontent. Trying to get it right, most office environments are changing at a pace that is best

Written by Steve Quick, Global CEO, Unispace

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stress and boundaries, creating connections with colleagues and mentors, and feeling present with family members and friends in your personal space.

It’s also worth emphasizing that there is no place for gender or racial bias in today’s offices. When professionals enter their company’s space for the first time—or for the first time since the pandemic began—they expect to feel welcome and included without an asterisk. Employers who seek the voices and value the contributions of employees of different races, cultures, genders and physical abilities are more successful – and even more profitable.

Rome wasn’t built in a day—but that was then, and this is now

To avoid employee cynicism, leaders must combat the perception that management is all talk and no walk. Show your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion through real hiring change and retention work. Back up your desire to offer an inclusive, supportive workplace by transforming your office space into a commute-worthy setting (it’s not as expensive or time-consuming as you think). Workplaces that have natural and inviting spaces to gather, activities and areas that promote wellness, and the latest connective technology help employees look forward to sharing time and space with their colleagues and make collaboration natural and easy.

Most of all, don’t just talk—demonstrate that your flowery words are backed by real action. Reshape your culture, workplaces and technology stack to support the people who support your success. When you do, the results will blossom in your hallways, and on your bottom line.

described as: too little, too late. Fortunately, it is possible to be thoughtful, strategic—and to also accelerate the needle of cultural change and retain your top performers.

Delayed decision-making: culture’s greatest risk

The events of 2020 and 2021 have forever changed employee expectations. They want more than platitudes about inclusive management and offices that are worth the commute. They want to walk into welcoming spaces that enhance productivity with areas for both privacy and interaction, as well as technology that meets the global, hybrid moment. And they want it now —not next year or the next. The power dynamic has shifted, you can’t entice employees back to an unchanged environment.

The current tight labor market gives high performers plenty of options. If their current employer can’t or won’t deliver a culture that supports them with flexibility, options of where to work, and empathy about their needs, they can find employers that will. According to the Microsoft’s Work Trends Index 41 percent of global employees say they’re likely to consider leaving their current employers within the next year.

CEOs must change their fundamental approach to creating an inclusive work experience—or risk losing their best and brightest. To do so, they must look closely at what professional workers want and design a human, authentic workplace where workers can express their natural personas.

A workplace immersed in purpose

When a leader listens with an honest

intention to take action and make immediate change (even when hearing uncomfortable criticism), it’s amazing the insights that rise up. While every company has its quirks, some themes are universal.

More than anything, employees want to be part of something bigger than themselves, and they expect to be acknowledged as they contribute to that larger whole. A company’s culture and workplace—whether hybrid, remote or in-person—can enhance or detract from that mutually beneficial good feeling. Designing spaces that align with your mission shapes a workday immersed in purpose; making it easy to collaborate across locations and schedules eliminates frustration that can detract from that sense of purpose.

Most successful companies acknowledge the uncertainty in the world head-on, and provide culture, locations and technologies that support the ability for teams to get together in whatever manner makes sense on a given day.

Employee needs are different—and offices should meet multiple needs in the interest of top performance from each individual. Policies, culture and spaces must come together to help employees feel supported in their moments of need, whether that’s gathering a disparate team for urgent problem-solving in a tech-enabled conference room, or the need to work from an office when they can’t concentrate in home spaces that weren’t designed to be permanent offices.

Today’s high performers will not tolerate having to choose between their personal and professional obligations. The erosion of the line between home and business over the past 18 months has created challenges with managing

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Stand Up for What You Believe

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The first would be in London. The plan was to redevelop the Battersea Power Station, a massive historic landmark on the banks of the Thames. With its distinctive four white chimneys, it was Europe’s largest brick building (and famous for appearing on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals). For years, many developers had tried and failed to bring the old structure back to life. Guy felt now was the time. On December 15, 2000, a week after my hiring, Cirque and property owner Parkview International announced the new project: a £500 million entertainment complex with two hotels and a 2,000-seat auditorium.

I was not at all convinced of the premise behind Guy’s strategy—there still seemed plenty of demand for new shows—but if he wanted me to work on this deal, that’s what I would do. My first hint that something was awry came at a meeting with Parkview executives in London. In Guy’s hotel suite, all kinds of wild ideas for the complex were tossed around – an interactive museum devoted to Formula One racing (one of Guy’s great passions), a Beatles-themed attraction (since Guy had recently become friendly with George Harrison), and more. While everybody talked excitedly about all the amazing possibilities, I was met with blank stares every time I asked some basic questions about the business model.

After our meeting, Cirque had scheduled a staging of our popular touring show Quidam, in a big top next to the old power station, to whet the public’s appetite. At this glitzy affair, with celebrity guests, I noticed an enormous line of taxicabs. That’s when I realized Battersea had no parking or

W hen I transitioned recently from CEO of Cirque du Soleil to Executive Vice-Chairman of the Board, it gave me the chance to

reflect on my two decades at a company that changed my whole approach to business and life. At Cirque, I learned that creativity is essential in business – in every industry, not just entertainment firms like ours. But generating brilliant ideas is only part of the battle. Just as important is carefully analyzing each idea to figure out which ones make the most financial and strategic sense, then standing up for what you believe – even when it jeopardizes your standing at the company.

I learned this lesson soon after being hired in early 2001 as Cirque’s President and Chief Operating Officer of new ventures. Guy Laliberté, the CEO and founder, had created my position to achieve his longtime dream of diversifying from the spectacular shows that made us famous into other sectors, like real estate. If I were successful, Guy told me, I might one day succeed him as chief executive.

At the time, Cirque had only seven shows running—two resident productions in Las Vegas, one in Orlando, and four on tour—but some at the company felt we had already saturated the market (that makes me chuckle now; by 2020, we had 44 shows playing around the world). The only way to grow, this faction insisted, was to branch out into areas like themed resorts and nightclubs. That led to an idea we called Complex Cirque, a series of branded entertainment complexes in various cities around the world, each anchored by a dazzling resident show.

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public transportation. “How on earth are people supposed to affordably get to Complex Cirque?” I wondered. The whole project seemed thrown together with minimal thought and planning. And our day in London had such a loose, improvised feel that Josette, my then-wife, said, “What kind of zoo are you joining?”

Back in Montreal, as I looked closely at the details of this venture, a sick feeling grew in the pit of my stomach. Just then, a financial analyst working on the project rushed into my office and said, “Daniel, do you understand this Battersea project won’t work?” As we went over the numbers, it became clear that the developers needed us a lot more than we needed them. Cirque’s brand name would satisfy government authorities who required cultural attractions before granting the necessary incentives and permits. As far as Parkview was concerned, our shows could be a loss leader because their main function was to lure customers to the hotels, shops, and restaurants. While the developers stood to profit substantially as owners of the property, Cirque as the anchor tenant would assume tremendous risk: there was no evidence that such a remote site with lousy transportation could support an elaborate resident show.

When I told Guy my misgivings, he said, “You know you are running yourself out of a job, don’t you?”

“Yes, I know, but I will find another job,” I replied. “I just don’t want to be known as the guy who put Cirque du Soleil into bankruptcy.”

“Tell you what,” Guy said. “Let’s go to London and meet with the developers. If you’re right, we’ll walk away. If I’m right, we’ll do the deal.”

We flew back to London. At the meeting, Guy took control, asking the Parkview executives three main questions: Would Cirque participate in any of the real-estate profits? No. What about intellectual property? Another bad deal for Cirque. His last question, about financing, also produced a bad answer. Guy jumped out of his chair and said, “Strike three, we’re out.”

In the end, Guy was disappointed but also grateful that we had avoided a disaster. And I was learning something important—not only about my boss, but about the creative process in general. When Guy proposed something, the correct answer was never “No.” It was always, “Yes, I will explore it.” That’s the right way to deal with any new idea, no matter who comes up with it. Managers should push everyone to explore every avenue that might turn a proposal—even a crazy one—into reality. If the project still does not make sense, it deserves to die. That’s what happened with Battersea. Guy pushed it hard, but once he understood that it was based on smoke and mirrors, he turned on a dime and said, “Okay, let’s move on.”

That turn of events only created another problem for me. The project Guy had hired me to lead had just gone up in smoke. Having worked on Battersea exclusively, I knew nothing about how the rest of the business operated. Therefore, I had no job.

When our meeting was over, we left the building and Guy lit up a cigarette. “So now let’s talk about what you are going to do next for Cirque—”

“Hold on,” I said. “Don’t feel obligated to offer me a new position. As I told you before, I’m ready to leave. Battersea didn’t work out, so there’s really nothing left for me to—”

“No, you are not leaving,” Guy said firmly. “I like the way you approach things, your ideas for growing the company. I know it’s a difficult environment right now, with lots of people jockeying for position, but I want to promote you to chief operating officer of the whole company.”

I was stunned. In a flash, I went from the unemployment line to one of the top positions at the company, overseeing everything except the development of new shows. This was a huge lesson for me: when the stakes are high, tell the truth—even when it seems to contradict what the boss wants.

Even a creative company like Cirque must be tremendously practical as well. One exercise I use, when deciding on a new proposal, is to start with the assumption that I am wrong. It’s much too easy to say, “I’m right” and then list all the reasons why. It’s harder to make the case against your own position, then see if you can disprove it. That makes it easier to convince people on the other side because now you fully understand their position.

You must pick your battles, of course. There’s no need to put your job on the line over a trivial matter. And your research must be rock-solid (your arguments based on fact, not opinion). But if the project is important, and your position well documented, you are not doing your bosses any favors by telling them what you think they want to hear. And you certainly don’t want to be known as the villain who damaged the company by pushing a flawed project.

What I am advocating certainly carries some risk—your job may hang in the balance—but the alternative can be worse. Before my arrival, some at Cirque had been trying to convince Guy not

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only that Battersea could work, but that revenues from a chain of Cirque du Soleil Complexes all over the world would eventually dwarf those of our live shows. They had pumped Guy up so much that it was hard for me to bring him back down to focus on the core business.

Fortunately, Guy was open-minded enough to hear me out. A few years later, he promoted me to CEO.

Written by Daniel Lamarre,

Executive Vice-Chairman of Cirque du Soleil Board of Directors and author of Balancing Acts: Unleashing the Power of Creativity in Your Life and Work (HarperCollins, 2022).

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How to Implement Strategic Sales Planning

Written by Kevin Alansky,

CMO at Jedox. Kevin Alansky is a seasoned marketing leader with over 20 years of experience in driving demand and building brands for leading enterprise SaaS companies. Joining Jedox as CMO in 2021, he drives global marketing strategy and continues developing the brand worldwide through his expertise in demand generation, product marketing, and customer retention.

P lanning and forecasting became virtually untenable and often downright unreliable for sales professionals in the last two years, dramatically increasing the reliance and importance

of planning that provides real-time insights. According to a recent BARC survey, 89% of respondents claimed that the predictability of events impacting business was low to zero while 80% agreed that it was important to rely more on more frequent forecasts versus only annual. Agility has never been more crucial than it is today.

Historically, strategic planning has been done by the Office of Finance.

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collaboration is an integral part of strategic sales planning. Whether in sales, marketing, HR or operations, all areas collect data. The ability to access and evaluate it across teams is where real-time value is derived. This collective knowledge also creates the basis for decision-making by the C-suite. If your capacity and segmentation planning is off because source systems don’t talk to each other, the right resources don’t get allocated to help ensure you hit your forecast.

Third, invest in forecasting abilities. Depending on CRM tools for forecasting is no longer enough. High frequency forecasting requires investing in tools such as AI and predictive analytics that enable modern scenario planning and break down business complexity. AI-supported sales forecasts increase accuracy, decrease complexity, and provide a level of granularity that once-a-year forecasts typically cannot. Of course, it is important to rely on your sales team, but that’s not enough on its own. Predictive analytics gives you that ‘second set of eyes’ and the confidence to know whether or not you’re hitting targets.

The Case of Sanofi

The pharmaceutical industry is a very timely example of the importance of strategic sales planning. Producing life-saving medicine and coordinating global distribution efforts for essential vaccines have proven to have a significant impact on global health. With the right tools, global pharmaceutical company Sanofi has been able to improve its planning process and save time in the process.

Now, sales leaders can have the tools available to independently do their own planning to implement strategy, manage compensation models, and create territory and quota plans. While sales can certainly do this themselves, we must link sales and finance to enable deeper, more strategic planning that provides long-term benefits to the organization. Finance holds a broader view, which is important for long-term viability. Sales can ensure greater short-term success with increased visibility and better forecasting. Each organization’s planning approach depends on its own unique parameters, but generally there are three stages.

First, define the plan. Sustained business performance depends on internal and external factors such as management, customer expectations, strategy changes and market volatility. These interrelationships influence the organization’s approach to planning and defining the level of complexity. Globalized markets, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, changing customer demands and “The Great Resignation” are making the business environment more complex than ever before. The global chip shortage is a vivid supply and demand example that has impacted everything from cars to smart phones. And there are many more examples of why usage of faster and more frequent forecasting is growing in usage. Higher frequency forecasting requires a carefully defined plan.

Second, identify capacity and segmentation. As companies continue their digital transformation journey, rigid data silos have become a thing of the past. In fact, cross-departmental

Sanofi is a global leader in its field with yearly sales surpassing 34 billion dollars and with over 110,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Over the past 85 years, the company has been treating diabetes patients with its innovative insulin therapy. In addition, Sanofi annually produces more than a billion vaccine doses to protect half a billion people worldwide. The company required an updated, more unified planning and reporting solution for more transparency in their payroll, sales, and cost-center planning. It needed independent, cross-departmental Web-based access to plans along with more data consistency of all detailed planning models, which included costs, sales and gross margin, product-cost planning, and P&L. Furthermore, the required solution needed to be flexible, scalable, and simple to use. The company opted for an independent self-service plan entry over the Web, which allowed for multi-dimensional unified data with real-time drivers and assumptions. The result was faster corporate forecasting, budgeting, and long-range planning along with more flexible, self-service reporting. The solution’s seamless mobile access made it easier for all departments across multiple countries to access the data they needed when they needed it.

Having the ability to respond quickly to ever-changing conditions is a sign of the times and only increasing in importance for businesses in all industries. With the right sales plan and strategy in place, along with the appropriate tools to support executing the strategy, businesses will be prepared with better agility and increased resilience.

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Why the Future of Humanity Relies on Space Exploration

Written by Dylan Taylor, Chairman and CEO of Voyager Space Holdings, a privately held global holding company acquiring and operating compa-nies in the space exploration industry. He is also the former Global President of Colliers International. He was also on the latest space flight with Blue Origin.

As climate change warms the planet, sea levels rise, and wildfires become commonplace, humans edge more precariously onto the precipice of a much harsher landscape. According to experts, humanity’s environmental woes are so severe that a global-scale ecological catastrophe is already underway.

During such dire times, questions remain about the issues we are focusing our money and energy into. Among them, whether the current pursuit of space exploration and its cost

is foolish or a cynical bet against planet Earth’s survival.

Spaceflight isn’t just a master-minded escape plan for the richest among us, though. The key to saving our planet, and humanity, partly relies on

the innovations from space exploration. The commercial sector has already adopted inventions that were funded or designed by space agencies. These include several ecology-based projects like one that uses LED light color that triggers growth for indoor agriculture or satellites used to predict the weather and document climate change. Space technologies are evolving and can help us harness a more sustainable world.

Frontier Technologies

Innovations like artificial intelligence, The Internet of Things (IoT), 5G networks and other robotic mechanics are paving the way for sustainability initiatives on Earth and in space. Incorporating these innovations into frontier technologies, or Space 2.0 technologies, can actively help to fight climate change. AI tools, in particular, can help reduce air

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and protect wildlife. Scientists use this to track migratory patterns of birds and other animals from space with the help of small transmitters attached to their backs. This data is then processed back to the ISS, where it is transmitted to Earth’s facilities and offers a synopsis of animal life on Earth that is later synthesized into environmental data.

What’s more, space sensors also give Earth the benefit of reducing emissions from heating systems. Miniaturized ceramic gas sensor technology, originally developed for measuring oxygen levels aboard spacecraft reentry, is now used for systems that control heater combustion, a major source of pollutants. The system reduces exhaust gases that harm the environment and helps heating systems work at an optimum level, reducing fuel use by 15 to 20 percent.

While space technologies aren’t the end-all-be-all answer to improve climate change on Earth, they play a significant role in supporting how we manage life at home. According to the UN, over half of essential climate change variables can only be measured from space. In the future, investments in these tools will only increase and the need to advance other life-sustaining technologies on extraterrestrial planets will be needed too.

Consider how one day, we will build outposts on the moon and Mars that must replicate and sustain all of our planet’s life-giving essentials off-world. As such, we will need technologies capable of recycling essential resources like water, food, air to make these planets renewable and self-sustaining for current and future space exploration missions. It’s the progress we make in developing these innovations that we will continue to harness as models to preserve Earth’s wellbeing. It’s safe to say, the way to sustainability is up.

pollution, hydrological risk, while also environmentally managing e-waste. For example, AI’s predictive analytics fostered by space monitoring can forecast metrics on air quality, solar/clouds, temperature and more regarding its ability to help decrease air pollution.

Additionally, 5G supported by new-age communication satellites can manage smart water supplies and help reduce water loss inefficiencies. As water is one primary medium through which we’ll experience climate change’s effects, 5G can be instilled into smart water management systems. In doing so, it offers real-time remote sensing that ensures faster response times, minimizes disruption flows, and reduces unaccounted water loss. At the same time, it can also support planning and operations via accurate demand predictions and cost savings via energy optimization for cities and states. Singapore uses a system called WaterWise in conjunction with the Public Utilities Board of Singapore (PUB). It achieves its sustainability goals by utilizing hundreds of sensors that feed insights into data-analytic tools, installed island-wide to detect pipe leaks and monitor water pressure, flow and quality.

Additionally, IoT networks, also supported by communication satellites, could manage smart infrastructure to help reduce carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

Communication technologies, in particular, could be key in meeting sustainability targets outlined by the Paris Agreement, which limit global warming to 1.5 celsius. Among these innovations, Space 2.0 technologies, the second generation of space systems.

Satellites to Track Weather and Climate Data

Satellite technology is one of the

most crucial space tools to help curb the climate change crisis. Satellite data, communications, and its applications provide high-resolution, real-time global monitoring of the planet. Today, over 160 satellites measure various climate change indicators.

They also continue to provide data so scientists can track changes to geological features like ice sheets. Launched in 2018, NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite spacecraft (ICESat-2) monitors the thinning of sea ice and indicates how ice cover had disappeared from coastal parts of Greenland and Antarctica. Their latest satellite was developed to provide extra information on how ice cover decreases or changes over a year. Scientists use the data from these next-generation satellites – which take measurements every 85 centimeters along the ground path – to hopefully improve forecasts for rising sea levels and global weather and climate patterns.

Satellite imagery and climate data also supports sectors like agriculture, offering benefits to the communities they serve. Amazon Web Services and Digital Earth Africa use Open Data Cube to make global satellite data more accessible and can be used to help farmers improve food production to reduce hunger, tackle unregulated mining and its knock-on effects, and identify new opportunities for economic growth.

Space Sensors

Today, more than 600 remote sensing satellites monitor borders to make the world more transparent. Within the context of climate change, it also helps protect ecological systems and wildlife on Earth. The International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space (Icarus) Initiative is one initiative that incorporates ISS satellite to monitor

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Top 10 Reasons to Hire an M&A AdvisorWritten by Dena Jalbert , is the founder and CEO of Align Business Advisory Services.

Going through a transaction alone is fraught with costly pitfalls and risks.

In today’s hot mergers and acquisitions (“M&A”) market, business owners are being approached directly with offers to sell their business. With a buyer in-hand, many owners charge

ahead on their own without seeking the advice of experts. A common misconception is that M&A advisors simply exist to bring a buyer to the

table. However, there are myriad pitfalls and unexpected costly hurdles during the selling process that could derail a successful exit without the counsel of an experienced advisor by your side.

To the surprise of many business owners, the M&A transaction process is lengthy and often takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months to successfully complete a sale. The process is also far

more complex than expected where the old adage of “you don’t know what you don’t know” often causes many sellers to stumble. Unforeseen mistakes and mishaps during the process can quickly eat into the profits an owner expects to reap from their sale. This is why having an M&A advisor who has navigated the process many times already can pay for itself many times over thanks to cost

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quality of life that is below your needs and expectations. This is no different with your business. With investors and acquirers calling on businesses every day with exit opportunities, it is just like someone knocking on your door with that bag of cash. But the same logic applies – you have put no thought into what you need from a transaction, so how do you know this is the right one? An M&A advisor has seen every possible outcome before. They work with you to determine what you want and need from a transaction. They evaluate what you need personally, both economically and in quality of life, and compare that to what the market can provide. Also importantly an M&A advisor works with you to determine the growth potential and opportunities for the business. Investors and acquirers pay for future potential, so understanding where the business can go is paramount to maximizing price. When an acquirer calls on you, they are evaluating where you fit into their criteria. When you approach the market proactively, you are telling the market how you fit and why you are valuable – it changes the dialogue completely. You are in the driver’s seat and inviting acquirers to participate in the process, rather than reacting to their individual needs. This is how you drive up the overall price and get better terms – you are in the driver’s seat because you know what you want and need and why the business supports the exit outcome you desire.

4. It’s an Emotional Process Selling your life’s work is a very emotional process. You have spent many years building the business

and time savings on mistakes avoided. Here are the top ten reasons why it is highly recommended not to navigate the complex process of a merger or acquisition without professional advice.

1. Private Markets Mean No Transparency The market for privately-held, middle-market businesses is muddy. There is no centralized marketplace or stock exchange for mid-sized companies which means that any merger or acquisition is done “off-market”. The problem with that is a lack of market transparency for both the buyer and the seller when navigating a transaction. Very little public information is available to help you accurately determine the value of a business. Data that large companies use during the M&A process such as looking at comparable transactions concerning other companies in your industry does not exist. Purchase prices are rarely disclosed. Also, the lack of access that business owners have to a pool of qualified buyers is significant, making it difficult for an owner to get the highest possible price for their company. Selling your business isn’t like real estate – you can’t throw a sign in the yard and let people know it is for sale. An M&A advisor has access to vast amounts of market data and a large competitive pool of buyers. This is how you maximize your exit price.

2. Law of Supply and Demand Owners who engage with an investor or acquirer that has contacted them directly are potentially leaving significant money on the table when selling. Market competition is what increases the value of an asset.

When a buyer knows they are the only one at the table, they are going to try to pay the absolute least amount they can– and without access to data, business owners often fall into the trap of accepting that amount. However, when there are several buyers at the table all competing for your attention, they know they must sharpen their pencil to win out in the end. It’s the age-old law of supply and demand – when demand is high and supply is low, prices go up. Also, remember that there is more to a deal than just the price. It’s about finding the right buyer. What if the only buyer at the table is someone you don’t particularly like? This may not seem important, but M&A is like a marriage: you want it to last for the long-term even after you may leave. Your employees will thank you as well. Having more than one potential buyer in the process allows you to ensure it is the right fit. An M&A advisor brings multiple buyers to the table, and they will help you vet the options to ensure you find the right partner at the highest possible price and at the best terms.

3. Proactive vs Reactive We all dream of a world where someone knocks on the front door of our personal home and offers us a huge bag of cash on the spot to buy the house. But, how often does that really happen? And if it did, what plans do you have to move? Where will you go? What will you do with that money? You’re reacting to a potentially too-good-to-be-true opportunity, but you’ve put no thought into what you do once you sell and must move out. This lack of preparedness will likely cause you to lose money in transition and wind up with a

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to where it is today, and an M&A transaction is a significant life change. There is a lot of emotion to manage with a change like this, and owners who try and negotiate for themselves are blinded by emotion far too often. As the owner of the business, you rarely can take an objective look at the business and its value to others in the market. You also become far more fatigued of the transaction process when all of the pressure is solely on your shoulders to get it done. The sheer volume of the meetings, administration, due diligence and legal issues fall to the feet of the owner when they are trying to do it themselves. It becomes too much and the deal falls apart. An M&A advisor is your fierce advocate who brings the objectivity and support needed to successfully get a deal closed. They will negotiate on your behalf drawing on their vast experience to get the best deal possible. They also will support the functional closing of the transaction, relieving the pressure on the owner to do it all. This allows the owner to be more objective and drastically increases the certainty of closing.

5. They have seen it all As we have noted, there is far more to an M&A transaction than just the price. Many business owners are laser-focused on the sale price, but that is just the WHAT. The HOW is equally, if not more, important. How the deal will be closed, how the money gets paid out to you, how the business is run post-close, how liable you are for claims post-close, and so much more. The pitfalls during negotiation can be endless. M&A advisors have seen many, many deals, and they can provide

guidance on best practices and areas of negotiation to ensure the terms of the deal are in alignment with the price. There are very few owners who are well-versed in M&A terms and complexities, so going it alone means you are likely to make missteps along the way that could cost a lot just by virtue of inexperience. If you wouldn’t represent yourself in court, don’t do it at the M&A table either.

6. Bandwidth It takes an average of 1,000 hours to successfully close an M&A transaction. Can you walk away from your business for 1,000 hours? As previously stated, the M&A process takes many months to complete, filled with countless hours of meetings, conference calls, and data gathering. Owners who try and do it alone find themselves overwhelmed by the amount of effort it takes to do it well. The day-to-day business often suffers due to this distraction, which negatively impacts the value of the business. There is no worse time to have the business perform poorly than in the months leading up to a sale. There is also an art to managing the timeline of the process and the information that is shared throughout to ensure the valuation is preserved. Inadvertently saying something incorrectly or providing the wrong information can create a perception that there is an issue with the business, which means the buyer will decrease the value due to this perceived risk. An M&A advisor will manage the entire process and take a significant burden off the owner by facilitating all the key activities of the transaction. This allows the owner to stay focused on running

the business, and it mitigates risk of devaluation in diligence. This is where M&A advisors provide value beyond “just finding a buyer.“ Yes, the marketing of the business to buyers is an important component, but it is only about 50% of the overall effort. It’s one thing to find a buyer, it’s another to get the deal closed. M&A advisors provide leadership and support throughout all the key areas of a transaction from marketing, to negotiating, to due diligence, and contracting/closing.

7. Network Business owners are often well-networked within their industry, knowing many of the competitors and vendors in the sector. They, however, do not have a wide network of buyers ready to make acquisitions. So, if you did want to create a competitive process to sell your company on your own, who would you call? M&A advisors have deep networks of many types of buyers that they can bring to the table for your business. These are pre-qualified buyers who are the most likely to deliver the outcome you need and want. M&A advisors invest significant time in cultivating these relationships and tracking their investment criteria, so they know exactly who is interested in what types of investments and which ones are good partners for a seller.

8. Credibility and Information Imbalance When a business owner who lacks the experience of an M&A professional sits down across the negotiating table from investors and acquirers who have vast knowledge and experience in executing deals, it creates an immediate disadvantage for the

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seller. It’s like a game of poker: you sit down at the table to play, you may have some base knowledge and experience with the game, but you are playing against someone who has won the world series of poker. You’re mismatched and will likely be outplayed simply due to lack of experience, and it will cost you. To exacerbate the imbalance, lower-middle-market companies often do not have sophisticated financial and operational reporting, which makes it difficult for buyers to fully understand the business and assign value. This lack of transparency creates a credibility issue, as buyers cannot fully validate results without this information. Hiring an M&A advisor clears up the ambiguity and levels the playing field. Sellers have an advocate negotiating on their behalf who is as experienced in deal-making, and they will package your information and ensure transparency to mitigate any credibility issues. Better negotiating and stronger information will drastically improve the overall valuation, as well as certainty of the deal closing.

9. Due Diligence The due diligence process is traditionally broken up into four key areas: quality-of-earnings (“QofE”), legal, Insurance/Risk, and Human Resources. Volumes of detailed information is required for buyers to evaluate to ensure that the asset they are purchasing is as they believe it to be. This process requires a tremendous amount of time and attention to detail, and it is nearly impossible for a business owner to facilitate it on their own. There is also an art in

how information is presented, in addition to the science of the data being accurate and complete. Remember that while you may be trying to go it alone during the sale process, your buyer is often utilizing top-tier firms to perform due diligence. This is another area of information and experience imbalance, so it is critical to have an advisor to help manage this process. M&A advisors will facilitate the entire due diligence process and know how to deal with the diligence vendors. They will organize the data, provide the information, and answer questions that arise along the way. Issues found during due diligence are the number one reason deals are re-traded. You may receive a $20 million dollar offer, but if due diligence uncovers an issue in your financials, the buyer will ask to reduce the price down from $20 million to accommodate for the change that was discovered. Nobody likes to see their deal re-traded, so having someone manage the diligence process will mitigate the risk of re-trading.

10. Timing Time kills all deals. M&A transactions that are solely managed by the owner take significantly longer to close than those managed through an advisor. That extra time introduces additional risk – a risk of re-trade or a risk that the deal will not close. It is important to manage the timing and cadence throughout the entire process. When trying to lock in an offer, it is nearly impossible to manage the timing when there is only one buyer at the table. The buyer knows they can take their time, and they may even slow the process

if they find other deals that take priority. When there are multiple buyers at the table, they all must adhere to a defined timeline to ensure they are competitive. The overall valuation is significantly impacted by the time it takes to generate an offer, and an M&A advisor is adept at managing this properly.

In due diligence, it is critical to manage the timeline as it is the last hurdle to jump to get the deal closed. When owners manage due diligence themselves, it traditionally takes them twice as long to complete as they aren’t prepared, and everything has to go through them, all while still running the day-to-day business. It’s not physically possible to handle due diligence and run the daily operations – there just aren’t enough hours in the days. This delay introduces the potential of the deal not closing because information wasn’t produced or wasn’t accurate. An M&A advisor will manage the data, provide responses quickly, and ensure that there are no issues preventing a close.

While these are the ten most common areas that we see sellers run into issues with when trying to navigate a merger or acquisition on their own, there are additional intricacies and nuances of any deal making process that are far too numerous to count. Transitioning your life’s work is not something you want to try and take on by yourself. It is long, complex, and emotionally taxing. Having an experienced team behind you ensures that you maximize value and achieve the outcome you desire. Think of it this way: you COULD do your own dental work, but you really should NOT. It is worth every penny to have an expert advise you and partner with you to ensure that you achieve everything you want out of a transaction.

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Shelving a project? Here’s how to avoid the hidden costs

It was two weeks before go-live. A small, dedicated team had worked for six months on the project’s many aspects. The software was ready to go. Publicity for this initiative had been happening

for a good while. Training sessions explained the ins and outs of the new system and staff were learning the soft skills required. There was some resistance in these sessions, typical with any change. Still, it was fading as people expressed their fears and concerns and grew to understand how the new system might help.

So when the Acting Director announced the project would be shelved, it was not what the team members expected to hear – especially as a side comment in an unrelated meeting. And it was why the woman I was coaching was sitting in front of me.

Lauren described the immediate shock – sickness in her stomach, tightness in her throat, an inability to speak. In the days and weeks that followed, her surprise gave way to despair.

Clearly, what Lauren and the team had toiled diligently on, often working late and on weekends to meet the next deadline, didn’t matter or wasn’t good enough. The project was stopped at the last moment without consultation or explanation. Understandably, despite her vast experience and expertise, Lauren lost confidence in her ability to lead projects. She didn’t feel seen or valued; she questioned her worth, and her commitment to her employer began to wane.

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And while those reasons stay hidden, the organisation will continue failing to deliver its projects. The cycle of investing resources in project after project, only to be written off, is wasteful and unsustainable. Ultimately it becomes evident in lost opportunities and wasted effort.

So before you shelve that project or initiative, consider this: there is a better way.

Know your ‘why’

Get clear on your rationale for not proceeding. I have experienced situations where decisions were based on random feedback from a

There are some good reasons for stopping projects. In fact, the opposite problem, where you continue with a failing project because you have already invested so much in it, is a common cognitive bias called the sunk-cost fallacy. But when there is no explanation for pulling a program or projects are repeatedly put on hold, it’s not only costly to the business but demoralising for the people involved.

While Lauren described quite an extreme situation, the failure to launch a project is not uncommon. In some organisations, the waste from unimplemented projects is significant. The business may be buzzing with planning and meetings and proposals

and engagement, yet something stands in the way of pushing the go button. I call these no-thing organisations because they find it hard to make even one thing happen.

Few senior leaders will talk about this: from their perspective, there is always a reason for the project’s failure – even if it’s not made clear to employees. When things go wrong, humans tend to make up explanatory stories that satisfy our emotional reactions, sometimes at the expense of fact and logic.

It is hard for decision-makers to admit failure, so the underlying reasons often remain unaddressed.

Written by Gayle Smerdon, PhD , is a writer, speaker and coach who consults with difference-making organisations in government, Not For Profits, education and health sectors. Her work focuses on the im-portance of building cultures that achieve what matters, which is also the topic of her latest book, Do ONE THING and do it deep: how to focus and energise your workplace.

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single person. Do not be tempted into a knee-jerk reaction: instead, seek evidence and sound advice from trusted colleagues.

Is it vital to halt the project, or might there be another approach? Who will be hurt, and who will benefit? What are the implications for the business, the stakeholders, the clients and the project team?

Having a robust way of thinking through the risks, issues and options is critical. Is there a trusted advisor or mentor who can ask a few challenging questions to clarify your thoughts?

Share your thinking with those involved

Be transparent about your concerns before you come to a decision. Share your thinking with those on the ground wherever you can.

A good change process meaningfully involves the people who will be affected. Get them involved in the decision-making process as early and as often as possible. Often the most-affected people will see things you miss. Hear their objections and solutions, and keep an open mind. It’s respectful to work through this together, even if the outcome doesn’t change.

Candid and regular two-way communication means there are no nasty surprises when it becomes clear the project will not be completed as envisaged.

Do you come here often?

Does your organisation frequently cancel projects or initiatives before they are fully delivered?

What’s going on? The business will lose good people if they believe their hard work is worthless. The organisation’s reputation will be diminished. If your workplace becomes known for stalled projects, you will find it challenging to recruit the innovative implementers who can change that situation.

The cost to the individuals who work on abandoned projects is devastating. In these difficult and uncertain times, any additional stress is unwarranted. Even though Lauren found it hard to rally her confidence, she eventually took her talents to another organisation where she felt valued. This is what the Great Resignation looks like for an organisation with a record of failed projects.

Reflecting on an incident that happened several years ago, Lauren told me,

“It still makes me a little emotional to think about the personal damage caused as a result of the abrupt halt to the rollout and what followed. I feel I sold my soul during those Q&As and training sessions, standing up and saying, ‘This is important to the organisation, and we will do whatever it takes to support you’, just to have that crumpled up and thrown away.

“If it had only been that one project, I could have put it down to bad management at the time and poor communication, but in reality, it was the beginning of a change in culture that ruined what had been such a positive and encouraging environment. It turned into a place where I felt invisible, with no credibility.”

Better results from doing less

Projects of all sizes require an investment of time and resources beyond the organisation’s normal operating parameters. There are many legitimate reasons for cancelling a project before its launch date.

If you must cancel a project, make sure it’s for the right reasons. Communicate openly, so that project teams and stakeholders understand why the decision is necessary. This reduces the waste of time and resources and lessens the stress on your employees. It leaves you free to focus and energise the people in your workplace around a few well-targeted interventions.

Getting clear on what matters in the organisation, focusing on fewer things and doing them deeply will lessen the number of projects you undertake but increase their chances of successful and sustainable delivery.

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Why Your Company Could Be at a Major CRM Crossroads

For better and sometimes for worse, the pandemic has provided companies across the business landscape with a technology reality check, followed in many cases by a

realization that the generic, one-size-fits-all software on which they had been depending not only is outdated, it

is stifling their ability to compete.

What many companies have realized is that it takes more than rigid, off-the-shelf software to do business in a world that turns on immediacy, responsiveness and seamless digital experiences. Under the duress of pandemic-related disruption, they

learned that technology which claims to solve every problem for everybody really is no solution at all. This proved particularly true for businesses and their customer relationship management (CRM) software. Over the past 18+ months, those that were relying on basic, standard-issue CRM

For many organizations, it’s worth considering shelving that prepackaged CRM product in favor of a purpose-built solution.

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with the shift to remote work because their CRM systems were not well-integrated and accessible. A lack of mobile, real-time access to CRM tools and data is indeed a big reason people avoid using a CRM system. Overall efficiency and effectiveness suffer as a result. A mobile-enabled, purpose-built CRM can help overcome these challenges. People are more inclined to engage with and use a CRM system that meets them wherever they are working and wherever they are in their pursuits. Sales and

systems saw their ability to cultivate and connect with customers suffer, while their competitors found ways to stay relevant and connected with theirs. In many cases, the difference came to down software. Companies using a CRM purpose-built for their type of business, whether it revolves around products, services or outcomes, found ways to keep their customers engaged and their pipelines full, while those relying on a generic, one-size-fits-all CRM struggled to keep up.

Here’s a closer look at how a purpose-built CRM solution can benefit a company, its business development/sales/marketing teams and ultimately,

the customers/clients they serve:

1. People actually use the CRM and the tools embedded within it. In a research report issued by Unanet in Fall 2021, we found that firms in the architecture, engineering and construction industries we serve are challenged by both a lack of adoption of business development tools (50%) and siloed, disparate business development information (41%). Meanwhile, in a separate CRM study, Forrester reported that 57% of executives say they struggle to maintain good CX

Written by Akshay Mahajan , is General Manager of CRM for Unanet, which provides project-based digital ERP and CRM solutions for architecture, engineering and construction firms, and government contractors.

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BD teams gain real-time access to vital business information, from any location and device, so they can make better-informed decisions, respond to requests in the moment, nurture relationships and close deals, all of which tend to boost and sustain user adoption.

2. Seamless business pursuits. In the Forrester study, less than half of the business execs who responded said their CRM system supports the entire customer lifecycle, from discovery to engagement and retention. Nearly 80% said they believe a CRM should do so. Having a full 360° view of specific prospects and customers is particularly important for companies whose BD and sales teams spend much of their time in the field, as well as for those with multiple offices, for which knowledge-sharing between offices (about common clients, etc.) can be critical to winning business. With one-size-fits-all CRM products, this level of accessibility, information flow and knowledge-share is virtually non-existent, resulting in disjointed, often fruitless business pursuits.

3. A superior customer experience from the CRM provider. By definition, purpose-built software is designed to help users fulfill specific purposes, with features and functionalities that often are directly shaped by input from users themselves. As part of your investment in a purpose-built CRM system, you should expect a provider that

gives its customers plenty of opportunity to offer feedback and ideas, then actually acts on that input by investing in the continued improvement and refinement of its solution. This is all feeds into the elevated customer experience that should come with a purpose-built CRM — and that companies with generic, prepackaged software often miss out on. A CRM system should deliver value on an ongoing basis, and some of that value lies in the support, resources and partnership that a CRM provider offers. The expectation with purpose-built software is that the provider has people across their organization who know your industry and your business. That insider knowledge should manifest in a richer overall customer experience that includes robust, hands-on support, access to subject-matter experts, an on-demand library of education and training resources, and even, perhaps, a community where users convene to share ideas, best practices, etc. In short, a CRM provider should treat its customers like a true partner, not an anonymous consumer. These deeper relationships and resources should shorten the time-to-value on your CRM investment.

4. Maximizing resources instead of wasting them. More than 30% of sales-related activities can be automated, according to the consulting firm McKinsey. A purpose-built CRM system

should enable automations throughout the customer engagement process, enabling business development teams to engage with customers and prospects more efficiently and more effectively. Too often, however, they end up spending an inordinate amount of time and resources on manual processes, distracting them from the higher-value work of relationship-building and enriching the customer experience. Organizations with automation embedded in their sales processes “report increases in customer-facing time, higher customer satisfaction, efficiency improvements of 10 to 15 percent, and sales uplift potential of up to 10 percent,” McKinsey noted.

5. A single source of truth. In the Forrester CRM study, less than one-third (32%) of respondents said their current CRM provides a complete single source of truth about their customers, and 90% believe having that single source of truth would be of value. A purpose-built CRM system should afford users access to a single, trusted source of data to gain a full, 360° view of customers, prospects, pursuits, the new business pipeline and more.

Ultimately, a purpose-built CRM solution enables a company and its business development and sales teams to consistently deliver the kind of superior customer experiences that drive sales and revenue, but that might otherwise elude them with a prepackaged CRM product.

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Unlocking the benefits of AI by augmenting your people

Written by Michael Kolk, Managing Partner, Technology & Innovation Management Practice; Michael Eiden, Associate Director, Technology & Innovation Manage-ment Practice; Nicholas Johnson, Partner, Technology & Innovation Management Practice; and Oliver Turnbull, Principal, Technology & Innovation Management Practice at Arthur D. Little.

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However, despite the hype AI applications have not yet become as common as many had predicted. A recent Arthur D. Little survey found that only 16% of AI users believe

they are gaining full potential from their use of it. In many organizations, AI applications remain stuck at the pilot stage, or else are limited to specific applications such as customer interaction and intelligence. More widespread adoption of AI for key management decision making is often hindered by the lack of an adequate strategy, as well as concerns regarding loss of control, lack of transparency, and the perceived threat of job losses.

Overcoming the challenges

Organizations need to adopt a more holistic approach if they are to maximize the benefits of AI, bringing together governance, skills, frameworks and technology platforms in a single strategy.

A crucial starting point on the road to success is that AI should be used primarily to augment, rather than replace, human decision making. The human remains at the center of the process, retaining control while benefiting from superior insight based on faster analysis of a wider range of larger, more varied data sources. This allows managers to make smarter, more informed decisions faster and with greater confidence, leading to better impacts. Employing AI in this way also overcomes many of the concerns

regarding its adoption. For example, ensuring there is a human in the loop minimizes fears of a loss of control, and a lack of transparency or understanding over how decisions are made.

Demonstrating the benefits of AI to augment human

Using AI to support your people delivers transformational benefits in three key areas – augmented decision making, augmented innovation and augmented innovation.

Augmented decision making enables companies to leverage good data (internal and external) and make better data-driven decisions, leading to improved outcomes. It is relevant in business contexts where human decisions involve multiple data dimensions (e.g., space, time, money, resources) and/or are very time-critical, carry intrinsic uncertainty, or are very costly.

A good example of this is predicting future commodity prices, an area where volatility and uncertainty is increasing. Companies traditionally use simple linear models for forecasting, relying solely on historical data. This often leads to failure when the market is affected by new or sudden political or economic changes, such as an unforeseen emergence of trade wars or pandemic outbreaks. By building a context-aware, continuously learning forecasting approach that consumes both structured and unstructured data (e.g., trade press articles, commodity discussion forums, and social media), a context-aware model was created for a petrochemical company that could more accurately forecast commodity prices. This allowed the company to make better decisions on hedging and adjusting production, leading to an estimated upside of over $20 million per annum.

For many years Artificial intelligence (AI) has been highlighted as a technology that can transform business by allowing companies to analyze much larger and more variable unstructured data sets and

information, and use the results to take faster, better actions.

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Augmented innovation, using AI to enhance and improve innovation processes with the goal of producing novel concepts and approaches. This can both deliver breakthrough new innovations and accelerate existing work.

Take the example of a food company, creating new flavorings for customers to incorporate into their products. It aims to provide a range of options that span both low-innovation, staple products with a high potential for market success with more innovative novelty products that may have a limited sales time frame to attract consumers. New flavor creation was previously a manual process, with product developers combining elements and choosing potential options. Given the multiple elements involved in each flavoring, the range of combinations is enormous, making the selection process extremely complex. By using AI to explore all options the food company can now provide customers with a range of flavors that cover “high” market success and “high” novelty opportunities much faster. In this use case, AI augments human product developers, providing them with a narrower range of viable options to choose from.

Augmented productivity deploys AI to optimize the efficiency of assets and people. This includes using AI to suggest improvements to industrial processes to meet objectives such as reducing energy consumption, lowering waste material, improving quality, or cutting machinery downtime.

For example, producing ammonia industrially is complex, with multiple variables involved. The largest cost in the process is the electricity used. However, given the complexity of the process, optimizing energy use manually is difficult without impacting yield, resulting in cost variations of +/-15% per ton during production. By using

AI modeling one chemical company was able to analyze large volumes of process data to identify optimal energy consumption. This model was then validated with fresh, unknown data before being deployed as an optimizer to support decision making within ammonia production. This provides the ability to monitor energy consumption in real time, reduced production costs by 7% thanks to lower electricity spend and maximized yield per kWh through optimized production.

Building a holistic strategy

Successfully building capabilities to augment business impacts through AI, and creating a foundation for future AI deployments, requires a holistic strategy and process. It goes far beyond simply employing data scientists and beginning a few pilot projects.

To achieve scale, companies need an approach that encompasses four key components:

All-in-one, multidisciplinary teams

The resources required to develop augmented insight capabilities span sector and technical expertise, requiring:

• Business consultants – to identify opportunities where AI will deliver tangible value.

• Solution architects – to determine how to integrate AI models into existing technology, enabling internal data to be provided systematically in the best format and in a timely manner to enable near-real-time decision making.

• Data scientists – with the ability to develop and refine the AI models and algorithms required for specific applications.

• Software engineers – to create and integrate the right

technologies to build robust, business-focused applications.

These skills can sometimes be spread across an organization, hampering collaboration and slowing progress. Bridging these silos, for example by creating centers of excellence or working with relevant third-party providers, accelerates AI’s impact.

A platform approach to deliver industrialization of AI

One-off AI projects may display promising results, but often learnings are not shared, slowing momentum and meaning new projects are forced to begin from nothing. While pilot projects are a useful method of proving the business value of AI, they need to be structured so that all original IP is captured, ready to be reused in future scenarios.

Businesses should therefore adopt a project-product-platform approach:

• Project. Often an individual use case with disparate information that is not structured and not systematically available. It therefore may show value, but it is a one-time run scenario. However, success helps gain business buy-in leading to additional investment to enable productization.

• Product. Once value is seen in the pilot project, then investment should be made to productionize the approach. Often, this does not impact the AI model but strengthens the underlying technology, such as ensuring that all data sources are automatically available in near real time, enabling faster, more informed decision making.

• By ensuring that subsequent pilots/products are developed

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on the same platform it enables consistency and reuse of a library of existing models and data sources, and that this is embedded into the organization, underpinning all activities.

Understanding and integration of right data sources

Focusing solely on a subset of data means that decision making will not be based on the fullest possible understanding, leading to potentially inaccurate results. Augmented approaches therefore need to encompass unstructured as well as structured data, along with tacit knowledge. They should bring in relevant external data feeds, such as weather forecasts, independent economic insights, or social media, as required. Ensure that you have the right tools in place to both identify these sources and integrate them with your AI models quickly and seamlessly.

Investment in the right technologies and platform

Clearly, AI success requires a strong technology framework that uses the right components to support and deliver repeatable results. This cloud-based core technology platform should provide the capabilities that underpin all activities, from processing to data sources and models

Product-specific elements, such as algorithms, data feeds, and dashboards can then be built on top of these underlying capabilities, while still following set guidelines and formats. This speeds development and enables reuse of data science models by the entire team, avoiding any overlaps and duplication of effort.

Unlocking the power of AI in your business

Delivering AI success requires a strategic, holistic approach that retains the human at the heart of the process. Augmenting your people delivers clear

benefits when it comes to decision making, innovation and productivity, while overcoming many of the concerns about AI adoption.

Thirty years ago, making use of the internet felt like a business choice, whereas now it is just as much a part of the business as the people, the product, and the general ledger. Similarly, AI will soon be a fundamental part of every successful organization, and businesses hoping to thrive need to be ready.

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Make stakeholder concerns your concerns. All of them.

“Stakeholder concerns are shareholder concerns. The increasing focus by investors, consumers and other stakeholders on

sustainability is directly influencing value creation.” — Jane Diplock,

chair Abu Dhabi Global Market Regulatory Committee; director, Value Reporting Foundation.

Written by Helle Bank Jorgensen, is an internationally recognized expert on sustainable business practices. She is the founder and chief executive of Competent Boards, which offers online climate and ESG programs from a faculty of over 150 renowned board members, executives, investors and experts. Helle is also the author of the recently published Amazon bestseller Stewards of the Future: A Guide for Competent Boards.

Not so long ago, boards engaged with shareholders and stakeholders on a need-to-know basis. In other words, disclosing as little as possible, usually as a precautionary

or statutory measure, or when they

wanted to gain support for a shiny new corporate initiative. For forward-thinking companies, those days have been consigned to the boardroom archives alongside the smoking jackets and cigar cutters.

Nowadays, a company’s stakeholders

come from many walks of life, and bring with them differing opinions and influences. It’s not just the shareholders anymore; you can add customers, suppliers, employees, politicians, activists and social-media influencers to the list.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has added extra urgency to the need for engagement and transparency, with companies and their leaders having to show tangibly that they care about their stakeholders. Flexible working hours, improved health-care benefits, remote work and childcare sit alongside recycling, carpooling and carbon offsets as issues being brought to the leadership table by employees, an important stakeholder group for all companies.

Companies have realized that the Great Resignation is more than a term. More than 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September 2021. Companies — and their supply chains — are reeling. Today’s employees want more than just a monthly paycheck from their employer. What they want is a bigger purpose than making money, that their workplace is part of the environmental and social solutions to the world’s problems; not part of the problem. What they don’t want is to leave their values and dreams of broader impact on the doorstep of their workplace, especially when that workplace is their living room or kitchen table, as it has been for many of us.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities surround companies. Climate change, supply chain disruptions, human-rights issues, corruption, executive pay, diversity, equity and inclusion, water footprint, use of AI and cybersecurity are some of the topics being brought to companies’ attention, first by young, vocal activists such as Greta Thunberg and lately by mainstream asset-managers, customers, employees/talent and other stakeholders.

Not listening to your stakeholders can spell disaster. Just look at what happened to Exxon last year. It is in fact

a wasted opportunity for free advice. You should cherish the stakeholders that care so much about your company that they are willing to communicate their opinions and expectations to you. Listen carefully to their comments before the dispute/fight/discussion goes public on social media into the media.

Many boardrooms would be delighted if negative comments melted away on social media platforms. Some executives think that stakeholders simply don’t understand and it is not worth arguing. They might think that “if they don’t love us they hate us”. This is the response of the past. Instead, leaders should actively invite critics in, listen to them, be willing to learn from mistakes, and then find the best solution, as well as ensuring that stakeholder communications are continuously improved. Board members should learn to think like an activist.

This is not easy, but it is worth it and, therefore stakeholder engagement should be a key tool in management and the board’s toolbox. Boards should ask for insight from stakeholder groups that the company finds are most material to its strategic success, as well as from those that believe that the company is falling short, even if senior management doesn’t see the groups as material. To do that successfully, boards must be lock-step with management on every stakeholder group and every topic so that all questions about short- and long-term impact are addressed.

Stakeholders and their concerns can come from anywhere. Last year, a Netherlands court ruled that oil behemoth Shell must reduce its emissions by 45% based on 2019 levels by 2030. This landmark case came about after pressure brought by Friends of the Earth, six other bodies and thousands of Dutch citizens. This

was the first time a company had been legally obliged to make its policies align with the 2016 Paris Agreement. Rest assured, this is the first domino of many.

Today, companies have access to sophisticated listening and monitoring tools to listen to stakeholders on many different platforms. Using AI to make sense of that big data, they can gauge their concerns, appreciate their plaudits and understand the direction their company should take next.

Political stakeholders have forced themselves to the forefront for many companies. Social and racial justice issues, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, are hot buttons for the younger generation outside the boardroom. Many of the members of Congress who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 US presidential election now find themselves shunned by many businesses, who are in turn under pressure to do so from their stakeholders. The list goes on.

Your investors are watching, too. In January, Aviva Investors joined a stellar cast list of firms led by BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors that warned companies will suffer consequences (including getting directors kicked out) if they fail to make good on their sustainability pledges.

Companies cannot afford to fall into the same trap on sustainability as Kodak did with innovation. That once-market-leading company stopped listening, and soon we all stopped paying attention to them.

To paraphrase (if I may) former US President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your stakeholders can do for you – ask what you can do for your stakeholders.”

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AI Needs to be Checked

Written by Hemant Taneja,

is an investor, founder, and author of Intended Con-

sequences: How to Build Market-Leading Companies

with Responsible Innovation. He is the managing partner

of the venture capital firm General Catalyst.

For most of the twentieth century, the path to business success was economies of scale. Technologies of that era, such as cars and trucks, television, electricity, the telephone and those IBM

tabulating machines, made it possible to scale an enormous company, and gave rise to mass media, mass markets and

mass production. The best businesses were those that could scale up to make the most of the same thing for the most people.

But around the mid-2000s, we started creating technologies that could turn that trend on its head: the smartphone, cloud computing,

internet-of-things devices, big data, artificial intelligence. It became increasingly possible to use technology to understand, find and serve small niches of consumers or even individual consumers, and deliver products and services that seem to be built specifically for them. Most people would prefer a bespoke, customized product to

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a mass-produced product, so unscaled products tend to win vs. old mass-market products if the price is right. What’s unfolding now is the opposite of mass markets and mass production and the opposite of economies of scale. It’s economies of unscale.

This dynamic has been tearing down older, scaled industries and reinventing them. Look at media: network TV aimed at the masses is getting replaced by streaming services that serve you what you want to watch based on your viewing habits. Or education: factory-like schools are being challenged by smart online courses like those from Khan Academy. In healthcare, mass-market medicine is being supplemented by cloud-based services that get to know your health and tailor care to you.

As I’ve watched unscaling cascade through industries, I’ve become concerned. Unscaling’s disruption of the economy, when done crudely, can cost people their jobs and hurt communities. The technologies we are developing are so transformative they could make divisions in society much worse than they already are.

Medical technologies driven by AI, robotics, genomics and gene editing have the potential to open up a biological divide in which the rich get healthier, stronger and smarter while the poor get left further and further behind. Such potential unintended consequences loom large. They could yield a society we don’t want to live in.

AI in particular needs to be checked. When humans build an AI, they can’t help but inject their biases. Then, when the AI is unleashed on the world, it exponentially exacerbates those biases. One example: We’ve seen plenty

of stories about how the AI behind facial recognition technology often misidentifies Black people. Such biases can have terrible consequences, as seen in one 2019 shoplifting case in Woodbridge, N.J. A store called police, and the suspect fled, clipping a police car as he sped away. This was caught on camera, and facial-recognition technology identified the man as Nijeer Parks – who had never even been to Woodbridge. Parks was arrested and spent 10 days in jail before the charges were dismissed. As facial recognition spreads, dangerous mistakes like that will multiply.

There’s also widespread concern about AI eating jobs. It’s accepted now that AI will lead to autonomous cars and trucks, leaving millions of truck drivers, limo drivers and bus drivers out of work. That alone will be a monumental challenge for society. But then add to it all the research being done around human longevity. It’s likely that some company will come up with an affordable gene therapy that lets everyone live 20 years longer. That will give us millions of people living longer with no work. That’s a recipe for revolution.

The potential for trouble just keeps growing. We’re already seeing how AI can be used to create “deep fakes” – videos that look real but aren’t. As a warning, a British broadcaster in 2020 made a deep fake of Queen Elizabeth delivering a holiday message. Few could tell it wasn’t the Queen. I have no doubt that deep fakes will be made of politicians or other leaders making them seem to say things that could move people to dangerous acts. We’re also seeing stories of police and military using armed robots and drones to track and even kill criminals and enemies.

Add AI to such weaponry, and biases could lead deadly attacks on the wrong people.

If all that worries you, consider that we’re only in the beginnings of the “AI- maker generation.” Tools to create AI will soon become so simple to use that people will build AIs as easily as they now make YouTube videos. The potential for chaos when the world gets filled with amateur AI could be nightmarish.

Finally, I’m concerned about monopoly power. The tech industry has always had superpower companies, like IBM and Microsoft in earlier eras. But we’ve never seen anything like the power and wealth concentrated in Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. The trend is toward greater concentration of power in fewer companies, and those companies can stifle innovative startups to preserve their power and impose rules and practices that benefit them, even if they cause harm. Today’s antitrust laws are mostly concerned with protecting consumers from price gouging, which makes little sense at a time when companies like Google and Facebook offer most of their services for free. Antitrust now must protect innovation and business ecosystems.

I will regret it if I help founders build companies that unscale industries and create advanced technologies, and then make the world worse.

Instead, I want to help create conditions so that impact investing and investing for returns are, in fact, the same, investing in climate-change companies, education and healthcare. There are huge opportunities in tackling society’s big problems.

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CEOs must prioritize supply chain swings in 2022 and beyond

Of the many calamities sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the toughest lessons CEOs and business leaders have learned centers around the shakiness of modern supply

chains. By mid-2021, just when many businesses were putting pandemic woes behind them, the promising trends toward recovery were squashed. Supply

chains quickly collapsed amid roving COVID-19 outbreaks, China’s energy crisis, logistics delays, labor issues and record supply shortages.

At the same time, consumer demand – albeit volatile and grappling with inflation – remains relatively strong and economic growth abounds. Even against record shortages, consumers in the U.S. are spending more than

ever and splurged in record numbers this past holiday season, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). However, as consumer demand grows and supply remains short, businesses that source products from abroad could be missing out on budding market opportunities.

While media headlines from

Written by Sebastien Breteau, is the founder and CEO of QIMA, a quality control and compliance service provider that partners with brands, retailers and importers to secure and manage their global supply chain. Breteau has more than 20 years of experience in supply chain management, founding his first sourcing company in 1997.

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late-2021 positioned shortages as a “nightmare before Christmas”, recent data from supply chain inspector QIMA signals the disruption will linger for the time being. Subsequently, CEOs must keep a strong pulse on the following supply chain trends, as they are projected to shape the business landscape in 2022 and beyond.

Proceed with caution in China

Mirroring a recovery pattern observed in 2021 throughout Asia, China touted a major rebound in the first half of the year. As China outpaced most other countries in containing the virus, buyers from the West shifted production and sourcing activity back to ‘the world’s factory.’

While the rebound stumbled in Q3 onwards in Asia at large, China continues to demonstrate resilience when compared to its neighbors. In fact, according to QIMA data, inspection and audit demand in China exploded +21.5% in 2021 over 2020. Significantly, this growth even outpaced the levels observed in pre-pandemic 2019 by a solid double digit +13%.

But CEOs must still heed caution when it comes to buying from China. The second half of 2021 proved disappointing for China’s colossal manufacturing industry, with widespread power outages shutting down factories, stymying orders and leaving buyers in a scramble. Adding salt to the wound, the September blackouts occurred at a particularly inopportune time, just as factories were looking to fill holiday orders from their buyers.

However, according to QIMA data, demand for inspection and audits in China rebounded relatively quickly in most major consumer goods categories,

including textile/apparel, toys and homeware. A significant outlier was the electronics and electricals industry, which has seen inspection and audit demand greatly diminish since May 2021 due to the global semiconductor chip shortage.

QIMA data on inspections and audits indicates caution from Western buyers, with buyers still hesitant to expand sourcing to China. Rather than shift activity back to China en masse, it appears many businesses simply maintained their existing relationships with Chinese manufacturers. As a result, China’s popularity among both US- and EU-based buyers in 2021 remained at a three-year low throughout 2021.

China’s sourcing patterns in 2021 foreshadow a timid post-pandemic recovery that, while not being entirely derailed, has steered Western buyers in the wrong direction at times. Furthermore, power outrages may remain a threat in upcoming months. Accompanying this threat, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, and its aftermath, could impose further business restrictions in northern China. While CEOs should rightfully consider China for production and sourcing in 2022, they must nonetheless proceed with caution and be ready for further disruptions.

There are no ‘safe havens’

During the spars of the US-China trade war and the initial stages of the pandemic, Vietnam had been enjoying an increase in manufacturing activity and was widely regarded as a ‘safe haven’ by buyers. But the fast collapse of manufacturing in Vietnam in mid-2021 shines a bright spotlight on just how volatile the modern global supply chain landscape is, telling a cautionary tale about the compounding effects of pandemic-related disruptions.

During the first half of 2021, Vietnam flaunted a remarkable growth spurt as buyers from the West enthusiastically made their way back to a familiar manufacturing market that had been enjoying much attention pre-pandemic. In January through June 2021 – when Vietnam was conquering the spread of the virus – QIMA recorded sky-high +67% growth compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.

Vietnam’s success story was overtaken in late July by the arrival of a new antagonist: the delta variant. The country then entered a stifling quarantine period, which shut some factories down. Even though the strictest of virus containment measures were lifted in October, the latest data from QIMA shows Vietnam’s manufacturing industry remained sluggish through the end 2021.

Sharp labor shortages are likely a factor in Vietnam’s slow path to recovery, as factory staff fled the densely-populated cities. This left a mammoth shortage of over 100,000 workers in the south of Vietnam. In late November, over a third of factories in Vietnam were reported to be operating at less than 80% capacity. In some cases, buyers’ orders were posting delays of more than eight weeks.

The footwear and apparel sector in Vietnam, a heavyweight industry in the country, has been among the hardest hit. Inspection and audit demand plummeted -29% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, according to QIMA data. Following this nightmarish twist of fate, Vietnam inspections and audits grew by a paltry 3% in the first half of 2021 – paling in comparison to the double digit booms it recorded during the pre-pandemic period.

Thanks to this lethargic rebound, Vietnam’s recovery is expected to be

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gradual and should last well into 2022. And judging by the quick reversal of fortune that Vietnam suffered, CEOs must remain wary of diversifying manufacturing too quickly into any one market. In today’s constantly manufacturing landscape, there are unfortunately no safe havens.

New horizons are expanding, particularly in South Asia

Even though India notoriously withdrew from the recently launched Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free-trade agreement, CEOs should note the world’s second largest country (by population) is nevertheless experiencing exciting new surges in manufacturing activity. Praised by experts as an increasingly attractive manufacturing market in many product categories, recent QIMA data shows buyers from the West are turning their attention from China and embracing India as their preferred alternative market.

When evaluating 2021 against pre-pandemic period, the South Asia region at large paraded double-digit growth in inspection and audit demand. But, specifically, India has emerged as the eminent winner – outpacing its neighbors and the region as a whole in three out of four quarters 2021. India’s newfound popularity is marked by surging interest from US-based brands: QIMA survey data shows the proportion of US buyers naming India among their top five sourcing regions nearly doubled in 2021 compared to 2019.

In wrapping up 2021, demand for inspection and audit demand soared by an impressive 60% compared to pre-pandemic 2019. In looking just at US-based buyers, this figure is up by an extraordinary +129%.

Now, the next obstacle for CEOs to pay attention to is whether India can combat the threat of omicron and keep the momentum going in 2022.

Don’t allow ethics to fall by the wayside

Against the turbulent headwinds blown in by the pandemic, workers around the world faced rising poverty and mass job losses around four times that experienced during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, according to a report released by the UN International Labour Organization.

While supplier diversification allowed many businesses to navigate disruptions in the short term, 2021 also saw ethical compliance in global supply chains fall apart at an appalling rate. Factory scores registered a four-year low and nearly one-third (29%) of the factories QIMA audited were identified as being critically non-compliant and requiring immediate intervention. This accounts for the highest share since 2017.

Owing to the pandemic’s specific hygiene challenges, violations were unsurprisingly widespread in health and safety measures. In this area, 2021 scores dropped -7.5% compared to 2020. QIMA also recorded rife violations in the area of working hours and wages, with scores falling -8% in 2021 compared to 2020.

CEOs should be particularly mindful that, in terms of geography, QIMA audit data shows deteriorating ethical scores in many key sourcing markets – especially in the fast-growing markets of Southeast Asia. For instance, ethical scores in Myanmar plunged -18% in 2021 compared to 2020.

These disturbing trends in human rights and worker safety are

unfortunately all too familiar and predictable. Data from recent years consistently shows human rights and ethical compliance increasingly falling by the wayside, as businesses are forced to operate in survival mode, cut costs and diversify production to less established geographies. First, QIMA saw ethical compliance crumble during the early throes of the US-China trade war. Unfortunately, the disregard for ethical compliance continues to rear its ugly head during the pandemic and the ongoing supply chain crunch.

Looking ahead

After a disastrous 2020, CEOs were placing big bets on 2021 being a year of recovery and a return to a pre-pandemic normal. Despite early signs of optimistic, the year failed to live up to these expectations. Moreover, CEOs must now be mindful of some metrics becoming even more bleak as supply shortages sully the mood, particularly in ethical compliance.

Against a backdrop of COVID-19 variants, disparate vaccination rates and varying regional approaches to containing the virus, the pandemic continues to hamper global supply chains. When you combine this with the specters of raw material shortages, logistics hurdles, labor issues and rapidly escalating ethical risks, CEOs are sure to be mired in supply chain woes throughout 2022 and beyond.

The challenges businesses have faced thus far cannot be all for naught, as there have been many teaching moments throughout the pandemic. If CEOs keep emerging supply chain trends top of mind, businesses will be able to assert greater agility and resilience – and find their way in a continuously evolving marketplace.

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Create a Business that Matters By Defining Your Principles and Values at the Start of Your Entrepreneurial Pursuit

Written by Bob Schlegel and his wife and business partner, Myrna, came from humble roots in

a small Ontario, Canada, farming community. Together, they launched

their first family business, PeopleCare Heritage Centers, that grew to include

15 facilities in both the U.S. and Canada. Later, Schlegel and a partner launched Pavestone Company, which became the nation’s leading supplier

of concrete landscaping products. The Schlegels sold both businesses and today are involved in a myriad

of new enterprises and philanthropic endeavors. Bob’s new book, Angels

and Entrepreneurs: A Lifestyle Formula for Starting Your Own

Business and Riding the Rollercoaster of Entrepreneurship (SAVIO Republic,

Feb. 22, 2022), shares the lessons learned from navigating the life of an

entrepreneur.

I t is the goal of every business owner to make a profit and expand the business but defining how you plan to do that is crucial for you and employees, suppliers, and customers. Creating a

purpose statement for your business clarifies to all involved that you want to serve others, not exploit them or squeeze every penny out of them. Your goal is to gain their loyalty and respect. In addition to this benefit,

when your business aligns with your values, principles, and purpose, you will feel a sense of pride in the products and services that you offer to your customers.

I also recommend that you sit down

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and think about your values before buying a business or starting one. Your values are what you live by or strive to follow in your daily life. Some excellent examples are honesty and perseverance. Principles are the rules and beliefs that govern your actions, and they are based on your values. Bringing your business in line with your principles and values is essential, and it will fail if you fail to serve your customers’ needs. At the end of your run, be proud of your accomplishments and the relationships you have built by operating your business based on the highest values and principles you can identify. The choices you make about your life and your association are entirely up to you, but will impact those around you in many different ways, including your business. Your values must be present in everything you do.

So, what does a value-driven company look like? Troy, my son-in-law, is a partner in a company that I believe is an excellent example of one. They have established three cornerstones posted on their website and in their marketing materials: Consistent Quality, Superior Service, and Integrity. As part of maintaining its exceptional reputation, the company has developed 5 Core Values, which are the foundation for its daily conduct and performance: “Our Core Values clarify who we are and what we stand for. They guide our business relationships and practices, decision-making, training, coaching, and counseling. They represent what drives our organization and apply to our interaction with fellow employees, customers, suppliers, and the general public. Our entire team works hard with the direction of our management framework to learn and grow every day.”

Those Core Values are:

1. We build TRUST—Trust combines our team’s ability to demonstrate integrity and reliability in everything we do.

2. We work hard to be the BEST—Our team’s commitment and dedication come from highly motivated individuals who take their jobs seriously.

3. We find SOLUTIONS—Our team is empowered to see opportunity in every challenge—we find a way to get YES!

4. We RESPECT each other—We listen and offer encouragement to help achieve common goals.

5. And most importantly—We have FUN!

These ideals have served as a touchstone for the business, allowing them to meet and exceed the expectations of their clients, their suppliers, and their employees.

Values and purpose statements are easy to create but much harder to live by, especially when the economy is tanking, your market is shrinking, and the competition threatens to crush you. There will inevitably be times when you are tempted to stray from your values or mission. Still, by taking the time at the outset to decide what matters most to you, the correct path should be clear to you. In creating your guiding values and purpose statements, it is also essential to take the long view. Typically, entrepreneurs start businesses that they intend to run for many years before selling or handing them over to family members or trusted partners.

Consider these questions as you start any business:

• What do I want to achieve as my end goal? Open or closed, this will always be there for you to change as opportunities and circumstances change. Alternatively, you might ask: Is this a business I want to grow and pass on to my children and grandchildren? Would this be a business I would like to grow and then sell after some time? When would I like to sell it? At the end of the day, how do I want my customers and employees to feel about this company?

• How do I want this business to impact the community over the long term? How do I create that?

• How do I want my spouse and our children to feel about this business over time? Will they see it as a burden, or will it be a source of support and joy for them? How do I need to structure the business and its values to reflect that?

You can create a business that meets your ideals and prevents burnout by knowing your values and the impact you wish to make through them. Take a moment today to think about what you want to see in your business so that you can create a space where you feel satisfied and fulfilled. If you make your values and principles the cornerstone of your business, I promise you will enjoy going to work.

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8 Secrets for Bouncing Back From Failure

Written by Hazem Mulhim is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and

speaker. A Palestinian whose family hails from Halhul in the West Bank,

he was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Jordan, Kuwait and England. He studied medical electronics in

Bulgaria and business management at INSEAD. In 1984, after working in Orlando, Florida, he founded a

high-street computer store in Jordan modeled on Radio Shack. Since then,

he has transformed this business, now called Eastnets, into a global

software solutions company. Hazem also runs Rewell, a charity supporting women-run entrepreneurial projects

in the Jordan valley. Hazem holds dual Jordanian-Belgian citizenship

and divides his time between Dubai, Amman and Brussels.

Failure is typically very difficult for people to accept. Our human nature strives to thrive, to succeed, to

achieve. When people fail, they’re not their best selves.

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I n fact, they are typically at their lowest point—they feel incompetent, inadequate, and consider abandoning their goals. Because of this, very few people like to talk about their experiences

with or brag about their failure. However, acknowledging failure is the only way to assess what went wrong, what can improve, and how to do better.

Over the years I have had to reflect on my own failures and mistakes, and I have made plenty of them. As a result, I have gathered eight ways to bounce back from failure that I use as a guide, and I encourage others to use them as well.

1. Join the Dots Being an entrepreneur is about bridging things together, making connections between ideas, people, and places. But connecting the dots is only possible through observation. You must observe the existing problem, understand how to make the best of the environment, and bring ideas together that work to provide a solution. I have always known that I wanted to be an entrepreneur because, since the beginning, I wanted to make connections, build bridges between things, and provide results. The first business I started was selling computers. I was connecting people to technology, giving them the opportunity to purchase computers. Then, as I grew in my business, I began working in the banking industry. I managed to help countries in the Middle East have financial inclusion, connecting them to the rest of the world.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Make Mistakes Failure is not an option, but mistakes are very important. If you don’t make mistakes, then you are not taking any risk at all; you aren’t pushing the boundaries or being ingenious. You won’t achieve or be a great success if you are avoiding making mistakes. Being unafraid of making mistakes shows that you’re a risk taker, that you are willing to imagine the unimaginable. You are willing to get something new or to get a new result out of this experience. There is a delicacy necessary when making mistakes, however. The distinction between mistakes making you a failure versus a great success is in never making the same mistake twice. Those who never repeat the same mistakes are able to bounce back from failure in a way that demonstrates understanding and determination.

3. Be Positive If you are constantly looking at things negatively, then you are only considering what did not work, what went wrong, and where you fell short. Negative thinking fools you into believing that you are incapable of succeeding. You are missing the possibilities that positivity brings. When you are a positive person and have motivation, when you believe that you can achieve, you are capable of rebuilding yourself after failure. Keeping

your thoughts positive allows you to consider your failings, while looking ahead to what else is possible. People fail all the time, but the ones who are persistent, persevere, and remain positive are the ones who will succeed.

4. Seek Advice from Trusted Advisors Parents are naturally the first advisors in our lives. Eventually, however, our thoughts and beliefs begin to differ from them, because, as children, we are put in a different environment from what they experienced, giving us a disparate world-view and life experiences. But we continue to carry their values with us. Then, as life proceeds, there are certain advisors that either you connect with through work or particular relationships. At work, a senior advisor may become your mentor because they take care of you—they take you by hand and help you grow in your field. They become your lighthouse, something like a cornerstone. At the end of the day, regardless of how smart you are or how competent you think you are, you need somebody to bounce your ideas off of. You need a sounding board. You need to pick somebody’s brain.

5. Be Dynamic When I was younger, I was put into a metaphorical corner. I had moved to a new country with hardly a dollar to my name, I didn’t speak the language, and

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I had no one I could lean on for support. I had to make a choice in that moment: do I become dynamic and evolve, or do I die in that corner? I decided to be dynamic, and I now have a multi-billion dollar company. Being dynamic means being on the move, all the time. I’m constantly on wheels, traveling from one place to the other, geographically and metaphorically. Because I embraced dynamism early in my life, I learned new languages and grew my network across countries, I accepted bankruptcy in the beginning of my life, and my company has expanded from selling computers to selling software in hundreds of banks across the world. I could have been just another number or any ordinary person, but I chose to be dynamic and continued moving, always looking for opportunities, and always leaving room to grow.

6. Develop a Panoptic View The word “panoptic” means being able to see everything, the entire view, from a stationary perspective. While it’s important to be laser focused, for you to have a particular area of expertise in which you are proficient, it’s also very important to maintain a panoptic view. When you adopt this perspective, you are able to see the changes that are taking place around you, what things are happening outside of your direct focus, and prevent unexpected failures or roadblocks. It’s like driving a car. If you only

ever look straight ahead, never looking in your side mirrors, you may get into an accident because you are not aware of what is happening around you. But with a panoptic vision, you can see straight, you can see right, you can see left. You are prepared to avoid potential risks and problems.

7. Be Diverse The desire to achieve the highest result should not have a high cost—it should have a certain cost. This is where the balance between efficiency and effectiveness in diversity in business is very important. Achieving this balance requires you to understand what’s going on: # Is there a problem your customers have that there is currently no solution for? # Is your company capable of diversifying its product or service to provide that solution without diluting its expertise or scope? Being diverse in what your business offers allows you to adapt to what is needed, to be the solution your customers are in search of, and to rise up from the metaphorical ashes of failure with a new plan to adapt and expand.

8. Believe in Yourself It’s extraordinarily important to believe in your capabilities—you have learned so much, you have earned so much, you have worked so hard. If you want to bounce back from failure, you must believe that you can, and

you will. When you believe in yourself, when you know that you can achieve your goals, there is no other possible outcome but for you to do just that. You can increase your belief in yourself by giving yourself opportunities for you to succeed. Have small, attainable targets that gradually move you toward your ultimate goal. Not only will this build your belief in yourself, but it will encourage you to keep your positive attitude.

We Will Fail

Learning from failures should be the top priority for anybody who wants to succeed in life. When you learn from your mistakes, if you know how to improve yourself and enhance your possibilities, you can move your business and opportunities forward.

Failing is the only way we can fully understand what it takes to be successful, how to proceed, and how to progress. The people who think from a holistic view, that failing is integral to our growth process, find themselves not only working through failures, but welcoming them as opportunities for improved success. We will continue to make mistakes; we will fail. Therefore it is imperative for us to learn from them, better ourselves, and avoid making the same errors twice.

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If You’re a Founder, You Need to Put Your Social Media Focus

on Twitter and LinkedIn

Written by Dave Gerhard One of the top marketing minds in

the country, Dave Gerhardt helps businesses with brand building

and marketing strategy. Dave is the founder of DGMG, his marketing

consulting firm, and was Chief Marketing Officer at Privy and Chief

Brand Officer at Drift. A guest lecturer at Harvard Business School, Dave

has traveled the world speaking and coaching marketing teams and startup

founders. He lives with his family in Burlington, Vermont.

As a marketer and a founder, I know that social media is one of the best tools I have to reach dream customers. But, all social media is not created equal. That’s why I focus on Twitter

and LinkedIn.

I can hear you asking, “There are so many channels, why these two?” Well, as a founder, Twitter and LinkedIn will give you the best opportunity to succeed with the least resources. They

are two places where you can build an audience solely based on the clarity of your thoughts, and it can be done by typing on the keyboard of your phone or laptop.

I strongly believe that no matter what industry you are in as a founder, you should start with Twitter and LinkedIn, and do it well. I think most founders can win on those two platforms.

Shorten Your Feedback Loop

Both platforms make it easy to follow and connect with other people in your network. Your messages can easily “catch on” simply from a retweet or comment. They make it easy to follow and “listen” to others much bigger than you, so you can learn what great looks like as a model, and you can also follow the conversation and stay relevant.

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These platforms provide you with instant feedback. You get unfiltered direct replies from your connections and customers. These also are platforms where you can see if your targeting of your niche is working, because you will see if your posts are getting responses or not. Remember, the shorter the feedback loop is, the faster you learn.

These platforms, Twitter specifically, also are where the “sneezers” (as Seth Godin calls them) are in any industry. Sneezers are the early adopters: the ones who have authority and influence in your niche and are most likely to spread the message. Twitter is the place for sneezers. It is where the early adopters (in nearly every industry) hang out.

Twitter is a much more transactional platform, meaning that you have more immediate reactions to your words and can get almost instant feedback. Plus, given the nature of the Twitter feed, it’s an ephemeral channel. Things don’t last long. You can post once or 10 times a day, and because of the way the Twitter feed works, people don’t get “tired” of seeing your stuff over and over.

LinkedIn is the Business Twitter

LinkedIn has changed a lot over the last few years. The thought with LinkedIn used to be that it was for job searching and “professional networking” only. You only accept connections from people you know, and you definitely don’t post about what’s going on in your day like you would on Twitter.

But like all social media channels today, LinkedIn has grown to become a content platform. Now, I think about

LinkedIn as the business Twitter. Instead of potentially anonymous users on Twitter, on LinkedIn, you’re reaching people under the company profile and usually with a business context.

Career advice, personal development, industry-specific knowledge and observations, leadership lessons, management mantras, work/life balance are all examples of the content that works well on LinkedIn. What does this mean for you? Especially if you’re a B2B, LinkedIn is the single most important platform you need to be spending your time on.

LinkedIn provides an incredible opportunity to reach your dream customers with relevant content. I’ve consistently had LinkedIn posts get 500,000+ views with people I care about inside of sales and marketing (my niche), and I haven’t seen that on Twitter. Of course, it will take time to build up your audience, but I can promise you that in most cases, business content on LinkedIn will reach more people that you care about than it will on Twitter.

How You Post Matters

There are some key differences between how to write on LinkedIn versus Twitter. For example, my posts are more planned on LinkedIn. I don’t post random funny things there, as my followers don’t seem to want that.

Also, I post on LinkedIn once a day, maybe twice, but not more than that. On Twitter, I may post 10 times in a day. However, I spend more time replying to people on LinkedIn, strategically, as I can see what company they come from, and therefore, I can target my responses.

When it comes to LinkedIn, you should focus on posts, not articles. Why? Because posts will appear in the newsfeed. Overall, though, when it comes to content, my advice is to take content that is popular for you on Twitter (or in other places) and tailor it for LinkedIn.

Twitter gives you speed. Things happen fast on Twitter, and you can quickly “test” an idea. Look at the newsfeed, look at posts that are popular, and adapt your writing and start getting your thoughts and ideas in rotation on LinkedIn.

Take Advantage of Commenting

Remember, the goal and the power of these social media platforms is to connect with people and reach your dream customers. So, be strategic. Twitter performs better with more broad marketing topics for me, but LinkedIn performs better with very specific B2B marketing niches. Target your posts to the platform and to the niche.

Remember, too, that commenting is a great way to connect with your audience. If they comment on your post or tweet, respond. Respond to every single meaningful engagement you have, especially in the early days of focusing on building out your presence on Twitter and LinkedIn.

People want to know that’s really you there. It’s called social media, after all. Social equals a two-way conversation, so don’t be afraid to get in there and start engaging!

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Initial Steps to Making Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Purpose and Passion

Written by Dr. Rohini Anand Senior Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisor, Rohini Anand LLC

Too often leaders see diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a series of incremental initiatives that are dispensable when faced with competing business priorities or in times

of crisis. Such was the case when the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn hit–quickly slashing DEI budgets. It took a spotlight on the disparate impact of the pandemic on women and marginalized groups, and even more intense scrutiny of systemic racism following the murder of George Floyd, before leaders once more turned attention back to DEI.

But how can CEOs move DEI beyond situationally driven efforts to something more permanent and sustainable?

The first step for leaders is reflecting on their ecosystem of beliefs at the heart of DEI. Beliefs contribute to a person’s world view, predispose them to take certain actions, and ultimately influence outcomes.

Leaders can fall on a continuum of belief systems. They need to do the difficult work of introspection to understand their belief systems, and to acknowledge that they have unconscious biases.

These belief systems can range from:

1. Denying Systemic Barriers - to Acknowledge Systemic Barriers Leaders who dismiss systemic barriers believe that we have a level playing field for all and that the “cream rises to the top.” Such leaders might think, believe, or say, “I don’t see color as we are all equal with equal chances of succeeding if we just work hard.” They make excuses such as “We cannot find any qualified . . .” or “Women are leaving because they have little children.” Those who acknowledge barriers that impede advancement of underrepresented populations look

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for ways to address it in the systems, policies, and behaviors within their organizations. They address gaps by unpacking underlying root causes and harnessing the best of what a diverse workforce can offer.

2. Operating with a Diminishing Returns Mindset - to an Expansive Mindset Leaders with a diminishing returns mindset see a zero-sum game: “They are just hiring women; my career is over because I am a man.” Or “We cannot invest in DEI as we have other business priorities.” Those with an expansive mindset can envision how DEI will help grow the business by targeting specific consumer groups or leveraging diverse talent for innovation. They see the benefit to their employees resulting in innovation and higher productivity for the organization. Typically, a diminishing returns mindset shows up toward the beginning of an organization’s or individual’s DEI journey. If organizations are truly committed to DEI, movement on this scale has to occur early in the process.

3. Solving just for Today - Envisioning the Future Leaders who want to “solve for today” see DEI as an immediate, short-term problem—perhaps a lawsuit or a performative response to the Black Lives Matter movement—that can be solved by hiring a few women or members of other underrepresented groups or by giving isolated charitable contributions. These reactive responses can result in “diversity-washing” without furthering their commitment by addressing inequities more systemically. Leaders with a vision for the future

see beyond the burning platform du jour. They strategically endeavor to become an industry benchmark for DEI rather than level off at compliance standards.

4. Functioning with a closed Mindset - to functioning with a receptive Mindset Leaders with a closed mindset dismiss experiences of others. This might manifest as “I don’t believe that racial profiling occurs,” or “I am not sure what you mean by privilege. I grew up in a poor Caucasian family and made it by pulling myself up by my bootstraps.” Inclusive leaders approach DEI with a sense of humility and a genuine desire to learn—a receptive mindset. They admit to what they don’t know and are open to listening deeply without denying other’s experiences.

5. Seeing diverse Talent is a Risk - to seeing diverse Talent is an Asset All too often leaders hire people like themselves, where there is an immediate bond, comfort level, and trust. They see talent different from themselves as a “risk” they would rather not take. An inclusive leader sees value in diverse talent, fostering candidates’ potential contributions to innovation, future growth, and ability to reduce group think.

With an awareness of their belief systems, leaders can seek out experiences to shift their mindsets and internalize the benefit of DEI to themselves and to the organization. John Kotter and Dan Cohen, in their work on successful change efforts, refer to the “head-heart strategy.” While engaging intellectually through rational arguments and data is important, this processing must be supplemented with experiences to see, feel, and react in a noncognitive manner.

Behavioral economists have shown us that humans are emotional beings, and that behavior and decisions are largely influenced by emotions—whether a person is aware of it or not.

To lead with purpose and passion, to influence underlying assumptions at the deepest level, leaders need experiences that tug at the heart. The public outcry over the fast succession of killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery in the US in 2020 was a jolt to some White male executives who still comprise 90 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs in the US. These deaths were tragic and tide-turning, but a leader’s catalyst for change need not rely on such disturbing events.

How else can leaders expose themselves to different experiences in a way that is powerful enough to generate self-reflection and allows them to recognize their privilege and to work towards becoming inclusive leaders? And with that recognition, how can leaders learn to spend that social capital on the inclusion of others?

Leaders can expand their world view through:

• Mentoring or sponsoring those different from themselves

• Putting themselves out of their comfort zone by seeking experiences where they might be the minority

• Listening without judgement to lived experiences of those different from themselves without judgement

• Having conversations with their peers who see the value of DEI to themselves and their organizations

• Having the humility to learn by reading books and articles, having conversations, watching movies on the topic

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The Biggest Leadership Mistake You Can Make

Written by Rajeev Kapur, CEO of 1105 Media, Inc., is the author of Chase Greatness: Enlightened Leadership for the Next Generation of Disruption. Rajeev is a seasoned high tech executive with broad global experience leading and driving innovation and the overall strategic agenda, P&L and sales for entrepreneurial start-ups, $20-$40 million midsize companies and with Fortune 500 companies such as Dell Technologies where he managed P&L’s as large as $1.6 billion domestically and internationally.

The most important thing an Enlightened Leader can do is to view people as individuals and, in turn, respect who they are and what they’re all about. When you make everyone

feel as though they belong and avoid creating unnecessary divisions, you open the doors to communication, cooperation, innovation, and motivation.

Most of all, you create higher employee engagement, which means nothing but good news for business

results. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), which has over three hundred thousand HR and business executive members in 165 countries, puts it like this: “Employee engagement has emerged as a critical driver of business success in today’s competitive marketplace. High levels of engagement promote retention of talent, foster customer loyalty, and improve organizational performance and stakeholder value.”

When your employees feel included in a company’s agenda, they generally respond by approaching their work with more enthusiasm. When they feel left out or unheard, however, the opposite happens. A part of their spirit gets crushed, and they often end up going through the motions. Many leaders would say they don’t care about their employees’ spirits. To that I would say that those leaders won’t realize the potential those employees have to offer.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE INSIGHTS


Too many times, leadership unwittingly creates disengagement simply because they’re completely focused on a business challenge. For instance, an executive may experience some early success and begin to feel they know better than everyone else—so they ignore employee input. Instead, they expect everyone to get in line. There is always a backlash to this kind of “my way or the highway” attitude that negatively impacts a business operation. Believe me, I’ve seen it happen for myself—because there was a time when I made it happen. And it almost stopped my career in its tracks.

Back in the 1990s, I had brought in, with the help of my team, over a billion dollars of revenue for Dell when I was heading up their West Coast sales operation focused on the Medium Size Business segment in the states. Frankly, my ego got too big. So, in 2000, when Dell sent me to China to help turn around their sales in that mammoth country, I had the biggest eye-opening experience of my life.

I went there ready to dominate their burgeoning computer market. After all, Michael Dell had asked me to go there himself because the existing team there was struggling—so I was kind of full of myself. I also totally ignored the fact that I was in a completely different culture that did business in a completely different way.

I wanted to do it MY way. I was convinced I only had to use the Dell model as I had in America and China would soon be buying billions of dollars of product from my company. That wasn’t how it turned out. You want to know how bad employee disengagement can get? Here’s how bad. I’d be in meetings and some of the locals who worked for us would start talking Chinese to each other. What were they saying? I had no idea.

And when I found out, I wasn’t pleased. They were telling each other to simply nod and go along with whatever I said, encouraging everyone to patronize me by saying things like, “Just play along with the guy, then we’ll go out and do things the way we want to do them.”

In other words, my employees actually disengaged me.

After six months of misery, I finally realized it was ridiculous to try and make an entire country conform to me, a complete outsider. The people working for me in China hadn’t cared about what I had to say because I didn’t care what they had to say. I had no idea how to sell effectively in China—but they did because they were an actual part of that country’s culture.

I finally said to myself, “We have to do something different.” I decided we had to modify the Dell culture, one tailored to Chinese culture that would connect with its people, not push them away. This culture had to be a hybrid of the best of what worked in the US and the best of what it took to be successful in China. As a starting point, I promoted two people to be the face of this new hybrid culture. They would be local, and they would speak Chinese, so they had credibility with potential customers. They also obviously had to understand the Dell operation and adapt it to China. Finally, they needed to be fluent in English and understand Western culture because they would be interfacing with me as well as management back in the States.

I identified the two people I believed fit these requirements and I made sure one of them was a woman. I told them, “We have to make some progress here, but we can’t do it if I’m the face of the effort. You two have to represent us here because they will trust and respect you, not me.”

From there, I did something that was new for me as a leader in China—I got out of their way. I worked things behind the scenes while they went to the front lines with their sales teams. They started implementing the things we needed to implement, and pretty soon, we saw the needle move. Because I eventually succeeded in China, Dell soon assigned me the task of helping to turn around their operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, India, and Taiwan. Each of these countries had their own cultures and challenges, and I had to tailor our approach to each one—or I might once again have people talking trash about me in another language.

Right now, at my company 1105, I have a similar situation. We have five companies that are welded into the holding company, but all five are very different. They serve different customers, they have different levels of maturity, and they do different things. Again, if I handled each company the same, the majority of them would probably be in trouble. It’s like being the CEO of five companies at the same time.

After China, I learned my lesson. To me, the first order of business in these leadership situations isn’t to play control freak and lay down dictums that just won’t work for all concerned. Instead, I find it useful to sit back a little, observe and then learn about the dynamics of each. Your employees are no different than countries or companies in that they all have their own unique characteristics. And you must understand who they are and what they’re about in order to get the best out of them.

One size does not fit all … unless maybe you’re talking about a poncho.



Are Marketers Responsible for Protecting Customer Data?

Written by Christine Alemany, is the CEO at TBGA. She has a passion for helping emerging companies grow and scale. Christine has more than 20 years of experience reinvigorating brands, building demand generation programs, and launching products for startups and Fortune 500 companies. In addition to her work at TBGA, she advises startups through Columbia Business School’s Entrepreneurial Sounding Board and is a teaching fellow at the NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center.

It has been more than two years since Google announced its plan to minimize third-party cookies in its Chrome browser in the name of online privacy. Google promised that by early 2022, it would devise

an alternative that would increase its user privacy while simultaneously satisfying internet users, advertisers, and publishers alike.

To be fair, the tech giant has rolled out a few attempts, including the controversial Federated Learning of Cohorts, though none seems to have emerged as a worthy cookie replacement. So in June, Google pushed the phaseout timeline back to 2023 to give companies more time to sort out their plans for a cookie-free world.

The end of cookies will mean brands

lose a powerful, proven tool for tracking internet browsers and serving relevant targeted ads along the way. It is still unclear what will succeed cookies, but Google claims that 30-plus proposals are in progress, four of them currently being tested. However, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation staff technologist Bennett Cyphers, “This is all just part of the trend away from generally available third-party persistent identifiers.”

Data privacy and security concerns have been around for as long as computers themselves, but privacy concerns have grown to become an era-defining cultural issue. In the past few years, we have seen the implementation of measures like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation and the California

Consumer Privacy Act, but they are just the tip of the iceberg.

Today, the EU is moving forward to create “a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected” with two mammoth pieces of EU tech legislation: the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act.

In the U.S., states such as Washington, Virginia, Oklahoma, and Minnesota are considering some form of data privacy regulation, but a patchwork of laws could create confusion and leave companies vulnerable to litigation. Lacking a federal stance on privacy regulation and facing increasing consumer pressure, companies would be wise to rethink their consumer messaging around data usage.



A New World Order on Data Privacy

Gone are the days when consumers were willing to trade their privacy for a free browsing experience with no questions asked. A 2020 poll of 1,000 Americans determined that 93% will switch to privacy-minded organizations, 91% prefer to patronize businesses that guarantee them access to their personal data, and nearly 40% will spend more money with organizations that value their privacy. Furthermore, consumers do not take kindly to entities that make it hard to exercise their data rights: Respondents said companies that do not offer them clear access to their data are untrustworthy (59%), unethical (44%), and lazy (16%).

In light of this, savvy companies are placing a heavy emphasis on privacy and security to win back consumer trust. Unlike Google, browsers like Firefox and Safari have blocked third-party cookies by default for quite a while now. Apple, in particular, has used privacy as a competitive differentiator, evidenced by the September launch of iOS 15. The update boasts a range of privacy upgrades intended to obstruct ad trackers, mask Safari web browsing, and reduce the user behavior data that apps like Facebook can collect.

However, the best organizations do not base their business models on selling user data. Internet search engine DuckDuckGo, for example, has become a paragon of consumer privacy because it does not identify searchers or tie their search queries together.

The Right Messaging Can Make All the Difference

Despite data privacy concerns being at the fore of public discourse, not all privacy changes are made with consumers in mind, even though

they can and will impact them. To preserve the delicate consumer-brand relationship, the latter must be more transparent about the adjustments they make in the ways they collect, store, share, and delete data.

Consumer distrust, after all, is at an all-time high. One 2021 KPMG report showed that nearly 90% of consumers are concerned about data privacy, another 68% are nervous about the amount of data being gathered, and 40% do not trust businesses to manage that data ethically. The answer is greater transparency.

Approximately three-fourths of consumers want clarity around how their data is used, yet only about half of business leaders are delivering that transparency, per KPMG. Nonprofits have stepped in to address this gap. For example, The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates Big Tech companies, created a tool called Blacklight to help internet users see who is watching while they work, learn, explore, and shop.

Being open about any privacy changes will provide a strong point of competitive differentiation, especially for smaller or younger companies. The fact remains that if a customer does not have an established affinity for a brand, they will move on to one they can trust.

The Future of Consumer Data Use

Consumers’ ever-increasing understanding of the value of their data has made them more protective of it, but businesses can and will continue to use that data until there are more comprehensive laws in place. However, that day may be closer than one might think.

By 2023, Gartner predicts, modern

privacy regulations will protect nearly two-thirds of the globe’s data (up from just 10% in 2020). In the U.S., we are seeing a bipartisan congressional effort to revive conversations around data privacy and security through a series of hearings, a boost in Federal Trade Commission funding, and the proposed creation of a new privacy bureau to check Big Tech. Meanwhile, the EU is pushing forward with the Digital Services Act package.

Who knows what will come of that, but it shows that representatives are beginning to feel the heat and that regulations are on the horizon. Apple demonstrates that companies can leverage the value of privacy to attract customers and fend off competitors, and they do not need to wait for government oversight to get started. Companies that fail to read the room will not emerge unscathed. Some have already taken note. By the end of 2022, more than 1 million companies will have named senior-level privacy officers to ensure compliance and improve customer satisfaction, per Gartner.

In a world without cookies, businesses can and should focus their attention on first-party data. Gathering data directly from customers is the cleanest, most valuable option. Acquiring enthusiastic permission from customers to collect their data requires openness, strong tactics, and high-quality marketing tools, but it is well worth the effort. The aforementioned KPMG report showed that 40% of consumers would share more data if companies were transparent about how it was collected, used, and shared.

Data privacy has undergone several notable changes in the past few years in attempts to assuage consumer concerns over data use — and it’s safe to bet that more are ahead. Future-minded companies should take a proactive approach and begin positioning themselves as responsible corporate citizens dedicated to privacy and transparency.



Create Your Future and Ascend to GreatnessLeaders must be proactive in creating a better future that can put the enterprise on a more predictable path to ultimately climb the summit of elite.



Elite companies thrive and endure because they excel at creating a better future. So, how do companies create a better future and ultimately become elite? What’s their secret formula

for creating such an extraordinary company? These questions are answered in my new book, Ascend to Greatness: How to Build an Enduring Elite Company. The idea for my book emanated from my lifelong quest to answer the Holy Grail question in

business, “What specifically makes a company elite and, importantly, how do you build and sustain such an exceptional organization?” I believe remarkable companies are built and sustained by following the elite enterprise model that is unveiled in the book.

Ascend to Greatness charts a course that takes the reader on a step-by-step journey focused on metaphorically climbing the ultimate summit, where the air is thin and where only the elite can successfully climb. In today’s turbulent and uncertain business world, it is vital that leaders be proactive in shaping a future with a more positive outcome. As Peter Drucker said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

Three Foundational Pillars of Business

The elite enterprise model is built on the three foundational pillars of business—leadership, strategy, and execution—all impelled by seventeen principles. For a company to climb the summit and become elite, it must first get the right leadership team in place. Once an elite team is built, the company must develop a brilliant strategy. The strategy must then be superbly executed. Yet, getting all the foundational pillars and core principles right—at an elite level—is no easy task.

If you closely examine elite companies that have endured, you will find—without exception—that they are excellent at all three foundational pillars. On the other hand, companies that have either fallen or have never reached the summit of elite, you will likely find that they have not performed well on some or even all of the pillars.

Why Do So Many Companies Miss the Future?

Companies that fail to create their future do so at their own peril. The inability to properly create the future can have severe adverse consequences. The evidence is just too compelling to ignore. Let’s examine one key data point that shows what can possibly happen to companies that are unable to create a brighter future.

If you examine the history of the Fortune 500 list (1955 to 2021), you will probably be shocked to learn that nearly 90 percent of the company names on the 1955 list don’t appear in the 2021 list. Such statistics should alarm all leaders. Obviously, over this period, some companies merged, restructured, and some even disappeared completely. This is normal in a dynamic and highly-competitive marketplace. However, I would argue that a nearly 90 percent disappearance rate is excessive and perhaps points to other reasons for the failure of an unknown number of enterprises. I suspect that some leadership teams were unable to see the future. This idea was captured perfectly by the cofounder of Google Larry Page when he stated, “The main thing that has caused companies to fail, in my view, is that they missed the future.”

Of course, without a proper study being done, it is impossible to draw any definitive conclusions for the excessively high disappearance rate. I suspect that an undefined percentage of companies disappeared primarily for the reason stated by Mr. Page. Missing the future can mean many things. I believe that the demise of companies



can usually be narrowed down to one or more of the following: loss of discipline, outsized hubris, complacency, not enough of the right people in the right positions, and inadequate lifelines to weather unexpected storms.

Elite Leaders Build Great Teams. Elite Teams Build Great Companies

So, what is the antidote to counter the illness of missing the future that has afflicted so many enterprises in the past? The answer is actually simple, it’s all about the leadership team making the right choice that they want to create a better future. Leaders must first decide that they want to ultimately ascend the summit and become an elite enterprise. Once this fateful decision is made, elite leaders can commence their journey by first building great teams. Elite teams then build great companies.

Seventeen Core Principles Drive the Foundational Pillars

The three foundational pillars of leadership, strategy, and execution are underpinned by seventeen core principles. These proven principles—along with key metrics and mechanisms—are the drivers of excellence. There are six principles under leadership, six under strategy, and five under execution.

Leadership. Leadership success is all about having the right people. I call this people excellence. Without enough of the right people occupying the right positions, an organization is destined to fail. Since people

excellence is so crucial to becoming elite, I have segmented this vital element into four core principles.

These four principles are all interrelated to building an elite leadership team. People excellence begins with each leader needing to possess five essential leadership characteristics that are consistently manifested at an elite level. People excellence is then followed by the need to properly identify the elite teams that will lead the company, and ensure that the right people are in the right positions. The remaining two principles under people excellence is the need to excel at talent acquisition and at talent management and leadership development, which includes succession planning.

The foundational pillar of leadership also includes the need for a distinctive culture and creating a learning enterprise. Since culture is the cornerstone of enduring greatness, it should be at the top of the list for all leaders. Learning is critical to developing talent and for ensuring that constructive lessons are learned from both mistakes and successes.

Strategy. Strategy begins with the principle of purpose, values, and vision. Strategy is then simply how an organization is going to successfully realize its stated vision, guided by its purpose, while strictly adhering to its core values.

For a company to achieve its vision, it needs to have an innovative business model. The business model is segmented

into two separate core principles, the unique practices of the company and its organizational structure. The unique practices are the specific activities on how a company will differentiate itself in the marketplace. These activities provide unambiguous guidance to everyone in the organization on what to do and what not to do. The organizational structure is then designed to execute those elements in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Visionary leaders consistently focus on building an enduring elite company. A crucial principle that is needed for accomplishing this objective is the building of lifelines. Lifelines are utterly indispensable. They not only protect a company against adverse turbulent events but they also help build exceptional capabilities. I believe that there are seven essential lifelines that must be built for a company to withstand any turbulence.

The other two remaining principles of innovation and technology and a high-performance plan are driving forces that enable and accelerate the execution of the vision statement. Innovation and technology need to permeate the organization in all areas so that the company does not lose its way. Innovation is a strong incubator of ideas for new products and services. While technology can provide the enterprise with a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

A high-performance plan,



which is more commonly known as the strategic plan, consolidates and summarizes all the key breakthrough objectives of the enterprise in both quantitative and qualitative terms over a stated time span. Each time frame is then used as a building block to ultimately reach the summit, that is, to realize the vision of the company.

Execution. The third foundational pillar is execution. Execution excellence begins with the core principle of disciplined execution. Disciplined execution must be driven by an integrated management system that has its grounding in continuous improvement. Every process and every daily activity that occurs throughout the enterprise in delivering its products and services, hiring and developing people, and building exceptional capabilities requires discipline and a mindset of continuous improvement.

The next principle is a growth engine. The equity markets truly value organic and inorganic growth. That’s because growth is widely viewed as the lifeblood of an organization. Disciplined growth is one of the most difficult challenges that all leaders face. Without discipline, an enterprise at some point will likely stumble by making some bad investment decisions, which cumulatively can have a significant adverse effect on the performance of the company.

The remaining three principles under execution include commercial, operational, and

Written by Salvatore D. Fazzolari,

is the founder of Salvatore Fazzolari Advisors LLC. He was formerly the

CEO, president and chairman of Harsco Corporation. He received his

bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and is fluent in Italian.

Fazzolari has extensive experience in both industrial and consumer markets.

Currently, he provides advisory services to private companies, serves as a board member and partners with

private equity firms. Fazzolari is a thought leader in building enduring

elite companies. He currently resides in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

administrative excellence. Commercial excellence is inextricably linked to the principle of growth engine. Commercial excellence includes creating innovative new products, possessing strong contract negotiation skills, implementing successful pricing strategies, delivering an extraordinary customer experience, building strong brand loyalty, and optimizing sales channels. Operational excellence includes enhancing the supply chain, delivering a superior product, possessing strong technical and engineering capabilities, standardizing processes, and managing inventory effectively. And, administrative excellence includes maintaining a nimble governance framework, establishing an efficient global shares services center, and managing risks well.

Metrics and Mechanisms Are Indispensable

Metrics and mechanisms need to drive the three foundational pillars and the underpinning seventeen core principles. It’s impossible to build an enduring elite company without the proper metrics and mechanisms. Metrics are well understood by everyone. What’s important is to select the ones that can measure what’s truly critical to the company. Mechanisms, however, are another matter. My experience has shown that some CEOs don’t utilize mechanisms as frequently as perhaps they should. Enterprises that underutilize mechanisms are likely losing out on some important benefits to culture and performance.

The Journey Never EndsLeaders need to understand that the

journey to climb the summit never ends! To achieve elite status, an organization must climb a multitude of summits over a long horizon. Each summit must equate to the bold vision of the company. As each vision is realized over the stated time frame, a new vision is established. This cycle is then repeated.



Eliminate Leadership Burnout: 4 ways to balance your everyday work life



Seventy-seven percent of Americans are reporting that they’re burnt out. And 95% of our workforce is saying they’re considering a new job. Numerous studies show that job

stress is far and away from the major source of stress for American adults and it is escalating. Increased levels of job stress as assessed by the perception of having little control but lots of demands have been demonstrated to be associated with increased rates of heart attack, hypertension, and other disorders. Stress causes fatigue, burnout, depression, irritableness, insomnia, stroke, and even early death.

It’s no secret that times are tough right now on our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Many are wondering, ‘how much longer can I go like this?’. While this is clearly a huge opportunity for us collectively, it’s an even bigger opportunity for us individually. When you can become the inner leader of your sense of alignment, purpose, energy, and wellbeing, you’ve reached a new level of mastery in this game of life. Enter: mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the intentional act of curiously investigating the present moment. There’s no judgment or pain when you’re being mindful. You’re simply being more aware by observing what’s happening instead of being swept away by it. When you’re mindful, you’re not thinking about what didn’t get done yesterday or how much you need to complete for tomorrow; you’re just focusing on this present moment and are deeply tuned in to all that it has to offer.

Health-care company Aetna conducted a study with Duke to determine the return on investment of its mindfulness programming. Aetna figures that the productivity gains alone amounted to $3,000 per employee, an eleven-to-one return on its investment. In short, there is an incredible return on investment both personally and collectively as a team when mindfulness is taken seriously at work.

Here are four ways you can start to eliminate burnout and ignite balance in your everyday work life through simple mindfulness practices.

1. Give yourself permission to be human. To give permission to be human is to have radical compassion to exist as you are, not who or where you want to be. When we mess up, we have to forgive ourselves. When we do well we have to believe we’re worth celebrating. And when we are going through the daily stressors of life, we have to have grace for how complex and difficult it can be to be a human. Meet yourself where you are, giving yourself full permission to be human and get help from someone who embodies the type of calm you want in your own life. I developed a “Permission to Be Human Pledge” to remind myself of this opportunity each day: I promise to honor what makes me perfectly imperfect. I promise to meet myself where I am, not where I want to be.

I promise to suspend judgment and ignite compassion. I promise to set healthy boundaries to protect my energy. I promise to prioritize my well-being by embodying my values. And in doing so, I promise to give myself and others permission to be human.

2. Start meetings with intention. Consider setting intentions for your meetings so you can pause to ground in the present moment instead of rushing non-stop from one to the next. Take 30 seconds to 1 minute. Close your eyes and take deep breaths while reminding yourself of why this meeting matters and what you intend to feel as a result of it. For example, “This meeting matters because it’s a chance for me to get on the same page with my team members after being away on vacation. I will feel reconnected and rejuvenated as a result.” Allow those feelings that you intend to create to wash over you as if they already happened. Then use that intention to get clear on when you’re on or off track during the meeting itself.

3. Use mantras. Mantras are words or short phrases said (silently or out loud) repeatedly to help you focus. Mantra means mind technique. The mantra “Just this” is a wonderful tool to help you close down the multitasking



and focus on just what you have in front of you. Just this meeting. Just this email. Just this conversation.What might be possible in your life if you focused on just this?

4. Spend time in nature. As humans, we are an expression of nature. Being one with nature is innate to us, yet many of us have become completely disconnected from that truth—especially when we live in places like bustling cities that don’t have a lot of accessible nature nearby. Perhaps you’d consider an outdoor walking meeting instead of the usual office space? Or maybe you can take your lunch to a park and eat there by yourself or with others—it’s always your choice how you use your breaks. I have a really fun if-then policy. If a meeting gets canceled, then I go spend time in nature. Because I live in the city, that is usually a walk to my nearby park and back. While I’m there, I make a point to admire the trees and critters running around, take in the fresh air, and sometimes even take my shoes off and plant my feet in the earth for some grounding. So if an hourlong meeting gets canceled, I take a fifteen-minute walk in nature and still have forty-five more minutes to get back to work with greater clarity and focus after connecting with the wisdom of Mother Nature.

5. Take a technology detox. We must disconnect from technology to reconnect to our humanity. Truly. We’re not built to be staring at computer screens for extended periods of time. We’re not built to be on

Zoom all day long or scrolling on social media for hours on end, comparing ourselves to others. We must draw a hard line in the sand to determine what we need as individuals to be well and not consumed by technology. Perhaps you want to find a quitting time each day, where tech is off at 5:30 p.m., no exceptions! And especially not work emails when they are truly not an emergency. Or maybe you don’t start to look at your phone until after you’ve been awake and taken care of your own needs for an hour. Maybe you’d want to take it a step further and take retreats or

Written by MaryBeth Hyland, is a company culture expert, facilitator and mindfulness coach engaging with people globally to ignite alignment between their values and behaviors. She earned a BA in Social Work, MS in Nonprofit Management, and has over a decade of experience transforming workplace cultures. Her awards include Circle of Excellence, Innovator of the Year, and Top 100 Women. The Washington Post, HuffPost, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal have recognized her as a powerful thought leader in values-based culture.

vacations where you commit to divorcing from your tech while you’re away.

So consider this: what’s one thing on this list that you might try today? What’s the first baby step you might take to own your power and shed what doesn’t serve you? No matter where you are in your journey to creating a sense of wellbeing in your life, know that it starts by making another choice for yourself. When you make these changes in your own life, the ripple effect is significant in yourself, your team, and the community at large. Just remember to go one step at a time, without judgment of pace.



Critical thinking, schema, and the action plan

Let’s do a quick recap of what we have learned in this series on critical thinking. There are a number of skills we identified as necessary for critical thinking:

• Logical thinking• Nonlinear or lateral thinking

• Reasoning• Embracing change• Self-awareness and cognitive

bias• Perspectives and objectivity• Distinguishing between facts

and values

• Using if-then statements• Problem solving• Using our instincts• Evaluating information and

assessing options• Drawing conclusions



Written by Dr. Jim White , is founder and president of JL White International. He also is chairman and CEO of Post Harvest Technologies, Inc. and Growers Ice Company, Inc., and founder and CEO of PHT Opportunity Fund LP. White is the bestselling author of five books, including Broken America: Ten Guiding Principles to Restore America and Opportunity Investing: How to Revitalize Urban and Rural Communities with Opportunity Funds. Throughout his career, he has bought, expanded, and sold 23 companies operating in 44 countries. He holds a B.S. in civil engineering, an MBA, and a doctorate in psychology and organizational behavior.

How do we incorporate this list into our life? First, we acknowledge that these skills take practice. Lots of it. The more we practice, the easier and more automatic a process it will be.

I’ve said it before, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to be inquisitive. Curiosity about the world, and asking rich questions, cannot be overemphasized.

One thing I’ve always found helpful in this process is developing a routine. I would recommend reflecting on each day as part of our nightly ritual. Lying in bed, think back. Did we learn anything new that day? And especially, did we make any new mistakes? Right there, we have an opportunity for growth if we think critically.

Now that we have outlined what critical thinking is, and how to go about it and incorporate it into a routine, we can utilize our critical thinking skills to make an action plan. The action plan can concern anything – our career, health, family, or personal finances.

Let’s say our action plan concerns leadership of our company and our goals for 2022. For this exercise, let’s say our main goal is to improve employee engagement and performance.

First, we create a schema. A schema is a mental plan or structured framework on any given concept. Perhaps the basic building blocks of our existing schema arrange employees in a hierarchical pyramid with leadership at the top. In this structure, clearly leadership is more highly valued as it is “higher” in the schema.

But critical thinking tells us that we can create a new schema to view the relationship differently, perhaps with company leadership and company

employees as two sides of the same coin. In other words, it doesn’t matter which side a flip of the coin lands on… the value of the coin doesn’t change. This new schema changes the value placed on company personnel.

Add to this schema some new conceptual structures that critical thinking tells us to employ, such as industry challenges, political climate, the economy, the pandemic… and start making a network of interconnectivity. As experts in our company, we have the ability to organize discrete pieces of knowledge into a larger schema of understanding.

Suddenly, concepts such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and company culture, mission and values take on new meanings with new possibilities for action.

Transforming our schema allows us to become transformative leaders ourselves, inspiring and motivating our employees and amplifying the success of our companies as well as the good we can do in our communities.

In this world of economic uncertainty, political fragmentation, and continuing global health and safety crises, it is more imperative than ever to use critical thinking as we navigate our businesses and our lives.

As one final thought, I would like to add: Words are powerful, and stringing the right words together is another necessary skill. Let’s close this series by highlighting some of my favorite quotes on critical thinking:

“Words are pegs to hang ideas on.” - Henry Ward Beecher

“Good questioners are good thinkers.” - Alison King

“All perceiving is also thinking, all reasoning is also intuition, all observation is also invention.” - Rudolph Arnheim



EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

London Business School (LBS) takes the prestigious title of the world’s business school for 2022, that’s ac-cording to the CEOWORLD magazine. MIT Sloan School of Management earned itself a respectable second place, with Wharton School is ranked third. The 2022 rankings placed Harvard Business School in fourth

ahead of Saïd Business School (Oxford Saïd or SBS) into fifth; while Columbia Business School (CBS) ranked sixth and the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) School seventh.

Overall, among the top 10 business schools, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by INSEAD Business

School, Haas School of Business (Berkeley Haas), and the Yale School of Management (also known as Yale SOM).

Cambridge Judge Business School took the No. 11 spot, followed by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business (No. 12) and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University (also known as Kellogg) (No.13).

Meanwhile, the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (commonly referred to as NYU Stern, The Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) ranked No. 14 in the CEOWORLD magazine’s ranking of the best business schools in the world for 2022. UNC Kenan Flagler Business School

Best Business Schools in The World For 2022


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

came in fifteenth place, followed by Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (sixteenth), Stephen M. Ross School of Business (Ross; formerly known as University of Michigan Business School) (No. 17), Duke University Fuqua School of Business (eigh-teenth), and IESE Business School ranked nineteenth.

Out of the 100 best business schools in the world for 2022, Alliance Manchester Business School (Alliance MBS) ranked No. 20th. Several parameters are used to compile the ranking, which is based on the satisfaction levels of individual students, industry professionals, and corporate recruiters. So, if you are thinking about boosting your prospects with a postgraduate-level degree in business, we have got just the thing for you; here are the best international business schools that can help advance your career:

Rank Business School City Country Score Rating

1 London Business School London United Kingdom 99.81 AAA

2MIT Sloan School of Man-

agementCambridge, MA United States 98.38 AAA

3 Wharton School Philadelphia United States 95.95 AAA

4 Harvard Business School Boston, MA United States 95.56 AAA

5 Said Business School Oxford United Kingdom 95.3 AAA

6 Columbia Business School New York United States 95.19 AAA

7Stanford Graduate School

of BusinessStanford, CA United States 94.98 AAA

8 INSEAD Business School Fontainebleau France 94.73 AAA

9 Haas School of Business Berkeley, CA United States 94.71 AAA

10 Yale School of Management New Haven, CT United States 94.54 AAA

11Cambridge Judge Business

SchoolCambridge United Kingdom 94.42 AAA

12University of Chicago Booth

School of BusinessChicago United States 94.21 AAA

13Kellogg School of Man-agement Northwestern

UniversityEvanston, IL United States 93.9 AA

14Leonard N. Stern School of

BusinessNew York United States 93.57 AA

15UNC Kenan Flagler Business

SchoolChapel Hill, North

CarolinaUnited States 93.56 AA

16 Tuck School of BusinessHanover, New

HampshireUnited States 93.52 AA

17Stephen M. Ross School of

BusinessAnn Arbor, Mich-

iganUnited States 93.18 AA

18Duke University Fuqua

School of BusinessDurham, North

CarolinaUnited States 92.96 AA

19 IESE Business School Barcelona Spain 92.86 AA

20Alliance Manchester Busi-

ness SchoolManchester United Kingdom 92.37 AA

21International Institute for

Management Development (IMD)

Lausanne Switzerland 92 AA


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


22UCLA Anderson School of

ManagementLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUnited States 91.9 AA

23Cornell SC Johnson College

of BusinessNew York United States 91.85 AA

24 HEC Paris Paris France 91.37 AA

25Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

United States 90.97 A

26McDonough School of Business, Georgetown

UniversityWashington D.C. United States 90.82 A

27National University of

Singapore (NUS Business School)

Singapore Singapore 90.8 A

28 Olin Business School St. Louis, Missouri United States 90.31 A

29Eli Broad College of

Business, Michigan State University

East Lansing, Michigan


30Mannheim Business School

(MBS)Mannheim Germany 90.27 A

31USC Marshall School of

BusinessLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUnited States 90.16 A

32Indian Institute of Manage-

ment AhmedabadAhmedabad India 89.92 A

33 ESADE Business School Barcelona Spain 89.92 A


ment CalcuttaKolkata India 89.83 A

35Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Seattle, Washing-ton


36Rotman School of Manage-

mentToronto, Ontario Canada 89.51 A

37Tepper School of Busi-

ness at Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Penn-sylvania


38Purdue University Krannert

School of ManagementWest Lafayette,

IndianaUnited States 89.34 A

39Penn State Smeal College

of BusinessUniversity Park,

PennsylvaniaUnited States 88.89 A

40 Warwick Business School Coventry, England United Kingdom 88.88 A

41 HKUST Business School Hong Kong Hong Kong 88.88 A

42China Europe International

Business School (CEIBS)Shanghai China 88.62 A

43Robert H. Smith School

of Business, University of Maryland

College Park, Maryland


44 IESE Business School Madrid Spain 88.57 A

45 ESMT Berlin Berlin Germany 88.5 A


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


46WHU Otto Beisheim Gradu-ate School of Management

Dusseldorf Germany 88.4 A

47Rotterdam School of

Management at Erasmus University

Rotterdam Netherlands 88.21 A

48 Melbourne Business School Melbourne Australia 88.19 A

49George Washington

University - GW School of Business

Washington D.C. United States 87.73 A

50Gies College of Business at

the University of IllinoisChampaign,Illinois United States 87.7 A

51 SAIT School of Business Calgary, Alberta Canada 87.64 A

52Faculty of Management Studies at University of

DelhiNew Delhi India 87.44 A

53 HKU Business School Hong Kong Hong Kong 87.12 A

54Emory University’s Goizue-

ta Business SchoolAtlanta, Georgia United States 87.07 A

55 Geneva Business School Geneva Switzerland 86.67 A

56 CUHK Business Schools Hong Kong Hong Kong 86.62 A

57Nanyang Business School at Nanyang Technological

UniversitySingapore Singapore 86.1 A

58Munster School of Business

and EconomicsMunster Germany 85.9 BBB

59Cranfield School of Man-

agementCranfield, England United Kingdom 85.8 BBB

60Mendoza College of Busi-ness, University of Notre

Dame

Notre Dame, Indiana

United States 85.72 BBB

61UCI Paul Merage School

of Business, University of California

Irvine, California United States 85.54 BBB

62Graduate School of

Business, Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)

Seoul South Korea 85.17 BBB

63Frankfurt School of Finance

and ManagementFrankfurt Germany 85.08 BBB

64Vanderbilt Owen Graduate

School of ManagementNashville, Tennes-

seeUnited States 84.6 BBB

65EUROPEAN INTERNATIONAL

UNIVERSITY (EIU - PARIS)Paris France 84.58 BBB

66University of Cologne Busi-

ness SchoolKoln Germany 84.23 BBB

67Boston University Ques-trom School of Business

Boston, Massachu-setts



EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


68W. P. Carey School of

Business at Arizona State University

Tempe, Arizona United States 84.08 BBB

69Indiana University - Kelley

School of BusinessBloomington,

IndianaUnited States 83.97 BBB

70 Vlerick Business School Ghent Belgium 83.69 BBB

71HHL Leipzig Graduate

School of ManagementLeipzig Germany 83.49 BBB

72EIDM - Ecole Internationale

de Mode et LuxeParis France 83.11 BBB

73 Fashion Design Institut Dusseldorf Germany 82.97 BBB

74Durham University Busi-

ness SchoolDurham United Kingdom 82.89 BBB

75USD School of Business, University of San Diego

San Diego, Cali-fornia



ment LucknowLucknow India 82.78 BBB


ment BangaloreBangalore India 82.75 BBB

78Carlson School of Manage-

mentMinneapolis, Min-

nesotaUnited States 82.72 BBB

79IFM Business school - IFM

UniversityGeneva Switzerland 82.56 BBB

80Fisher College of Business,

Ohio State UniversityColumbus, Ohio United States 82.38 BBB

81Nova School of Business

and EconomicsLisbon Portugal 82.32 BBB


ment KozhikodeKozhikode India 81.63 BBB


ment IndoreIndore India 81.46 BBB

84Scheller College of Busi-ness, Georgia Institute of

TechnologyAtlanta, Georgia United States 81.4 BBB

85Xavier Labour Relations

Institute (XLRI)Jamshedpur India 81.32 BBB

86Antai College of Economics & Management, Shanghai

Jiao Tong UniversityShanghai China 81.31 BBB

87 Macquarie Business School Sydney Australia 80.6 BB

88 Tippie College of Business Iowa City, IA United States 80.53 BB

89 Vlerick Business School Leuven Belgium 79.77 BB

90SDA Bocconi School of

Management RomeRome Italy 78.85 BB


ment ShillongShillong India 77.82 BB


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


92Strathclyde Business

SchoolGlasgow United Kingdom 77.69 BB

93School of Management

(SoM) at the University of St.Gallen

St. Gallen Switzerland 77.59 BB

94University of Bath School of

ManagementBath, England United Kingdom 76.51 BB

95Athens University of Eco-

nomics and BusinessAthens Greece 76.29 BB

96Desautels Faculty of Man-

agement, McGill UniversityMontreal, Quebec Canada 76.27 BB

97 Cox School of Business Dallas, Texas United States 75.61 BB

98TIAS School for Business

and SocietyTilburg Netherlands 74.62 BB


ment RohtakRohtak India 74.16 BB

100UCD Michael Smurfit Grad-

uate Business SchoolDublin Ireland 74.07 BB

101 Babson College Babson Park, MA United States 73.58 BB

102UBC Sauder School of

BusinessVancouver Canada 72.75 BB

103Boston College Carroll School of Management

Newton, Massa-chusetts

United States 72.72 BB

104University of Edinburgh

Business SchoolEdinburgh United Kingdom 71.45 BB

105 Vlerick Business School Brussels Belgium 70.74 BB


Shanghai China 68.65 BB


ment RanchiRanchi India 68.27 BB

108School of Management at

Fudan UniversityShanghai China 67.5 BB

109 UNSW Business School Sydney Australia 67.33 BB

110 Alberta School of Business Edmonton Canada 67.1 BB

111Birmingham Business

SchoolBirmingham United Kingdom 66.67 BB

112Southampton Business

SchoolSouthampton United Kingdom 65.57 B

113Smith School of Business

Queen’s UniversityKingston, Ontario Canada 65.34 B

114Rady School of Manage-

mentSan Diego United States 65.29 B

115University of Queensland

Business SchoolQueensland Australia 64.63 B

116 TIAS School for Business Utrecht Netherlands 64.15 B


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


117School of Economics and Business - Universidad de

NavarraPamplona Spain 63.8 B

118 Emlyon Business School Paris France 63.78 B

119 Ivey School of Business Ontario Canada 62.59 B


ment RaipurRaipur India 62.29 B


San Francisco United States 61 B


ment TiruchirappalliTiruchirappalli India 60.53 B

123Sydney Business School,

University of WollongongSydney Australia 59.76 B

124 ESSEC Business School Cergy France 59.76 B

125Darla Moore School of Busi-

ness, University of South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina

United States 57.77 B


Business School (CEIBS)Shenzhen China 57.65 B


ment KashipurKashipur India 57.38 B

128 Emlyon Business School Bhubaneswar India 56.31 B

129Coller School of Manage-

ment at Tel Aviv UniversityTel Aviv Israel 56.29 B


ment UdaipurUdaipur India 56.2 B

131 TIAS School for Business Eindhoven Netherlands 55.98 B


ment NagpurNagpur India 55.89 B

133 Emlyon Business School Casablanca Morocco 55.73 B

134 TIAS School for Business Taipei Taiwan 55.46 B


ment AmritsarAmritsar India 55.37 B


ment Bodh GayaBodh Gaya India 55.31 B


ment SirmaurSirmaur India 55.19 B

138The College of Business and Economics at Qatar

UniversityDoha Qatar 54.95 B

139 University of Dubai DubaiUnited Arab Emir-

ates54.92 B

140 TIAS School for Business Beijing China 54.69 B


Business School (CEIBS)Zurich Switzerland 54.63 B


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION



ment VisakhapatnamVisakhapatnam India 53.99 B

143 Emlyon Business School Shanghai China 53.74 B

144 EAE Business School Barcelona Spain 53.59 B

145College of Business

Administration at Kuwait University

Kuwait City Kuwait 53.55 B

146 Monash Business School Melbourne Australia 53.41 B

147United Arab Emirates

UniversityAbu Dhabi

United Arab Emir-ates

53.28 B


ment SambalpurSambalpur India 53.25 B

149 IAE Business School Buenos Aires Argentina 53.13 B

150 EGADE Business SchoolSan Pedro Garza

Garc?aMexico 53 B

151 Adelaide Business SchoolAdelaide, South

AustraliaAustralia 52.83 B

152Lancaster University Man-

agement SchoolLancaster United Kingdom 52.52 B

153 TIAS School for Business Shanghai China 52.5 B


ment JammuJammu India 52.4 B

155Graduate School of Busi-ness, University of Cape

TownCape Town South Africa 52.35 B

156GIBS Business School, Uni-

versity of PretoriaPretoria South Africa 52.24 B


Business School (CEIBS)Accra Ghana 51.85 B

158The American University in

Cairo School of BusinessCairo Egypt 51.8 B

159Schulich School of Business

at York UniversityOntario Canada 51.7 B

160Sprott School of Business at

Carleton UniversityOntario Canada 51.61 B

161Gordon S. Lang School of

Business and Economics at the University of Guelph

Ontario Canada 51.41 B

162 Lakehead University Ontario Canada 51.34 B

163Keio Business School, Keio

UniversityTokyo Japan 50.88 CCC

164IPADE business school of

Universidad PanamericanaMexico City Mexico 50.73 CCC

165Waseda Business School at

Waseda UniversityTokyo Japan 50.59 CCC


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


166Imperial College Business

SchoolLondon United Kingdom 50.39 CCC

167Graduate School of Busi-

ness Administration at Kobe University

Kobe Japan 50.28 CCC

168ESAN Graduate School of

BusinessLima Peru 50.13 CCC

169Nagoya University of Com-merce & Business (NUCB)

Nagoya Japan 50.04 CCC

170 La Trobe Business School Melbourne Australia 49.97 CC

171Tokyo University of Science

School of ManagementTokyo Japan 49.9 CC

172American University of

BeirutBeirut Lebanon 49.87 CC

173Catolica Lisbon School of

Business & EconomicsLisbon Portugal 49.64 CC


London College of Fashion ranked No. 1 on the list of the Best Fashion Schools In The World For 2022, ac-cording to a new study by the CEOWORLD magazine, Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) placed second on the list, followed by the Central Saint Martins at No. 3. The 2022 rankings placed Parsons School of

Design in fourth ahead of the Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University into fifth; while School of Arts, Design and Architecture – Aalto University ranked sixth; and

Savannah College of Art and Design seventh.

Overall, among the top 10 best hospitality and hotel management schools in the world for 2022, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by the School of Design at Royal College of Art, Istituto Marangoni International – Milan, and the Bunka Fashion College.

Best Fashion in The World For 2022

ART AND CULTURE


Rank Institution Campus Country Score Rating

1 London College of Fashion London, England UK 85.97 AAA

2Fashion Institute of Technology

(FIT)New York US 85.7 AAA

3 Central Saint Martins London, England UK 85.65 AAA

4 Parsons School of Design New York US 85.33 AAA

5Westphal College of Media Arts &

Design at Drexel UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

US 85.31 AAA

6School of Arts, Design and Archi-

tecture - Aalto UniversityEspoo Finland 85.24 AAA

7Savannah College of Art and

DesignSavannah, Georgia US 84.4 AA

8School of Design at Royal College

of ArtLondon, England UK 84.28 AA

9Istituto Marangoni International

- MilanMilan Italy 84.13 AA

10 Bunka Fashion College Tokyo Japan 84.09 AA

11National Institute of Fashion

TechnologyNew Delhi India 84.01 AA

12 Fashion Design Institut Dusseldorf Germany 83.46 AA

13 University of Westminster London, England UK 82.8 AA

14 ESMOD Paris Paris France 82.77 AA

15Royal Academy of Fine Arts

AntwerpAntwerp Belgium 82.23 AA

16Shenkar College of Engineering,

Design and ArtTel Aviv Israel 81.84 AA

17 Polimoda Florence Italy 81.6 AA

18 Marist College - PoughkeepsiePoughkeepsie,

New YorkUS 81.24 AA

19 Pratt Institute, New York New York US 81.14 AA

20University for the Creative Arts

(UCA Rochester)Rochester, Kent,

EnglandUK 81 AA

21 ArtEZ Institute of the Art, Arnhem Arnhem Netherlands 80.01 A

22 Stephens CollegeColumbia, Mis-

souriUS 79.05 A

23Miami International University of

Art & DesignMiami, Florida US 78.18 A

24Istituto Marangoni International -

FlorenceFlorence Italy 77.94 A

25Royal Danish Academy of Fine

ArtsCopenhagen Denmark 77.78 A

26 Bath School of Art & Design Bath, England UK 77.72 A

27Ryerson University School of

FashionToronto, Ontario Canada 77.56 A

28 Manchester School of ArtManchester, En-

glandUK 77.1 A

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION



29 Institut Francais de la Mode Paris France 76.43 A

30Geneva University of Art and

DesignGeneva Switzerland 76.33 A

31 IED Istituto Europeo di Design Milan Italy 76.32 A

32 Academy of Art UniversitySan Francisco,

CaliforniaUS 75.34 A

33 Rhode Island School of Design Rhode Island US 75.19 A

34 Art Institute of Tampa Tampa, Florida US 74.98 BBB

35 Nottingham Trent UniversityNottingham,

EnglandUK 74.89 BBB

36 Thomas Jefferson UniversityPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

US 74.83 BBB

37 California College of the ArtsSan Francisco,

CaliforniaUS 74.76 BBB

38 University of Brighton Brighton, England UK 74.61 BBB

39 Swedish School of Textiles Boras Sweden 74.6 BBB


- ParisParis France 74.33 BBB

41 AMFI Amsterdam Fashion Institute Amsterdam Netherlands 74.19 BBB

42Ravensbourne College of Design

and CommunicationLondon, England UK 74.17 BBB

43Institute of Textiles and Cloth-

ing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong Hong Kong 74.14 BBB

44University for the Creative Arts

(UCA Epsom)Epsom, England UK 73.98 BBB

45 Art Institute of Atlanta Atlanta, Georgia US 73.91 BBB

46Virginia Commonwealth Universi-

ty School of the Arts (VCUarts)Richmond, Virginia US 73.58 BBB

47 Design School Kolding Kolding Denmark 73.51 BBB

48Faculty of Design, Architecture

and Building (DAB) at University of Technology Sydney

Sydney Australia 73.49 BBB

49 School of the Art Institute Chicago Chicago, Illinois US 73.47 BBB

50 Moore College of Art & DesignPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania

US 73.35 BBB

51 Domus Academy Milan Italy 73.33 BBB

52 RMIT University Melbourne Australia 73.3 BBB


- LondonLondon UK 73.11 BBB

54 Art Institute of Austin Austin, Texas US 73.09 BBB

55Fashion Institute of Design and

Merchandising, Los AngelesLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUS 73.06 BBB

56 Otis College of Art and DesignLos Angeles, Cali-

forniaUS 72.84 BB

ART AND CULTURE



57 Middlesex University London, England UK 72.53 BB

58Kyiv National University of Tech-

nologies and DesignKiev Ukraine 72.45 BB

59Fashion Design School at Otago

PolytechnicDunedin New Zealand 72.4 BB

60 University of Applied Arts Vienna Vienna Austria 72.39 BB

61 La Cambre Brussels Belgium 72.16 BB

62 George Brown College Toronto, Ontario Canada 72.11 BB

63 LIM College New York US 72.1 BB

64 University of North Texas Denton, Texas US 72.09 BB

65 Accademia Costume e Moda Rome Italy 71.59 BB

66Ullman School of Design at Uni-

versity of CincinnatiCincinnati, Ohio US 71.39 BB

67 Art Institute of Dallas Dallas, Texas US 71.34 BB

68 Columbus College of Art & Design Columbus, Ohio US 71.19 BB

69 Marist College - Florence Florence Italy 71.09 BB

70 Art Institute of Houston Houston, Texas US 70.45 BB

71 Paris College of Art Paris France 70.09 BB

72 Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Milan Italy 69.4 BB


MumbaiMumbai India 68.82 BB

74 University of Central LancashireLancashire, En-

glandUK 68.7 BB

75School of Design at Edinburgh

College of ArtEdinburgh, Scot-

landUK 68.65 BB


ShanghaiShanghai China 68.23 BB

77 University of NorthamptonNorthampton,

EnglandUK 68.06 BB

78 Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti Rome Italy 67.83 BB


- MiamiMiami US 67.6 BB

80 Northumbria UniversityNewcastle, En-

glandUK 66.82 BB

81WdKA Willem de Kooning Acad-

emyRotterdam Netherlands 66.43 BB

82Salford School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology at University

of SalfordSalford, England UK 65.69 BB

83 National Institute of DesignAhmedabad,

GujaratIndia 65.47 BB

84Oslo National College of Art and

DesignOslo Norway 65.44 BB

85 University of East London London, England UK 65.22 BB

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION



86 Marist College - NYC New York US 64.8 BB


ShenzhenShenzhen China 64.11 BB

88 Art Institute of San Antonio San Antonio, Texas US 64.06 BB

89Arts University Bournemouth

(AUB)Poole, England UK 63.82 B

90 De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester, England UK 63.81 B

91 Limerick Institute of Technology Limerick Ireland 63.64 B

92 Glasgow School of Art Glasgow, Scotland UK 63.45 B

93 AMD Akademie Mode & Design Hamburg Germany 63.39 B

94Greater Brighton Metropolitan

CollegeBrighton, England UK 63.38 B

95 LaSalle College Montreal, Quebec Canada 63.27 B

96 Art Institute of Virginia BeachVirginia Beach,

VirginiaUS 63.11 B

97 Jannette Klein Universidad Mexico City Mexico 63.06 B

98IED Barcelona - Istituto Europeo

di DesignBarcelona Spain 63.05 B

99 Koefia Academy Rome Italy 62.94 CCC

100 Fashion Design Studio - TAFE NSW Sydney Australia 61.41 CCC

ART AND CULTURE


The Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cor-nell University ranked No. 1 on the list of the best hospitality and hotel management schools in the world for 2022, according to a new study by the CEOWORLD magazine, the William F. Harrah College of Hospitality at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas

placed second on the list, followed by the School of Hospital-ity Business at Michigan State University at No. 3.The 2022 rankings placed the Johnson & Wales University’s College of Hospitality Management (COHM) in fourth ahead

of the UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management into fifth; while Oxford School of Hospitality Management ranked sixth; and International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Fairleigh Dickinson University seventh.Overall, among the top 10 best hospitality and hotel management schools in the world for 2022, the eighth, ninth, and tenth positions are held by the Penn State School of Hospitality Management, School of Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University, and the Collins College of Hospitality Management at Cal Poly Pomona.

Best Hospitality and Hotel Management Schools In The World For 2022

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


RANK University Country Overall Score Rating

1Nolan School of Hotel Administra-

tionUnited States 99.81 AAA

2William F. Harrah College of Hospi-

talityUnited States 98.38 AAA

3School of Hospitality Business at

Michigan State UniversityUnited States 95.95 AAA

4Johnson & Wales University’s

College of Hospitality Management (COHM)

United States 95.56 AAA

5UCF Rosen College of Hospitality

ManagementUnited States 95.3 AAA

6Oxford School of Hospitality Man-

agementUnited Kingdom 95.19 AAA

7International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Fair-

leigh Dickinson UniversityUnited States 94.98 AA

8Penn State School of Hospitality

ManagementUnited States 94.73 AA

9School of Hospitality Business

Management at Washington State University

United States 94.71 AA

10Collins College of Hospitality Man-

agement at Cal Poly PomonaUnited States 94.54 AA

11School of Hospitality Leadership (SHL) at University of Wisconsin


12Howard Feiertag Department of

Hospitality and Tourism Manage-ment


13Fritz Knoebel School of Hospitality

ManagementUnited States 93.9 AA

14Institute of Hotel Management

Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition

India 93.57 AA

15Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality

AdministrationUnited States 93.56 AA

16

School of Hospitality and Tourism Management in the Spears School

of Business at Oklahoma State University


17 Les Roches Switzerland 93.18 AA

18SAIT’s School of Hospitality and

TourismCanada 92.96 A

19 Hotelschool The Hague Netherlands 92.86 A

20School of Hotel and Restaurant

Management at W. A. Franke College of Business


EXECUTIVE EDUCATION



21Kendall College of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management at National

Louis UniversityUnited States 92 A

22Hospitality & Tourism Management Department at Isenberg School of

ManagementUnited States 91.9 A

23PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism

ManagementHong Kong 91.85 A

24Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospi-

talityUnited States 91.37 A

25School of Hospitality and Tourism

Management at University of SurreyUnited Kingdom 90.97 BBB

26College of Merchandising, Hospi-tality and Tourism at University of

North TexasUnited States 90.82 BBB

27Zuyd University of Applied Sciences,

MaastrichtNetherlands 90.8 BBB

28Hospitality Management (HM) Pro-gram at The University of Alabama


29 Cesar Ritz Colleges Switzerland 90.3 BBB

30 Culinary Institute of America United States 90.27 BBB

31 RIT’s Saunders College of Business United States 90.16 BBB

32 Hotel Institute Montreux Netherlands 89.92 BB

33Barcelona School of Tourism, Hospi-

tality and GastronomySpain 89.92 BB

34College of Hospitality at Johnson &

Wales UniversityUnited States 89.83 BB

35 Pace’s Lubin School of Business United States 89.72 BB

36 Culinary Arts Academy Switzerland 89.51 BB

37Saxion University of Applied Scienc-

es, ApeldoornNetherlands 89.45 BB

38 Culinary Institute of New York (CINY) United States 89.34 BB

39State University of New York College

at PlattsburghUnited States 88.89 BB

40Nanyang Institute of Management’s School of Tourism and Hospitality

Singapore 88.88 BB

41 Sejong University South Korea 88.86 BB

42 Swiss Hotel Management School Switzerland 88.62 BB

43 Hotel Management School Geneva Switzerland 88.58 BB

44Emirates Academy of Hospitality

ManagementUnited Arab Emirates 88.57 BB

45 Glion Institute Switzerland 88.5 BB

46 Hotel Institute Montreux Switzerland 88.4 BB

47Georgetown University School of

Continuing StudiesUnited States 88.21 BB

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION



48School of Hospitality Administration

- Boston UniversityUnited States 88.19 BB

49Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and

Recreation ManagementUnited States 87.73 B

50 Bournemouth University United Kingdom 87.7 B

51 Manchester Metropolitan University United Kingdom 87.64 B

52International Management Institute

LuzernSwitzerland 87.44 B

53 Griffith University Australia 87.12 B

54

University College of Hospitality Management and Culinary Arts of Sant Pol de Mar, Barcelona (EUHT

StPOL)

Spain 87.07 B

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION


Global Passport Ranking, 2022

It’s not or British or American. The United Arab Emirates’ passport is now the world’s most powerful, according to CEOWORLD magazine’s Global Passport Ranking for 2022. This was followed by FINLAND, ITALY, GERMANY, SWEDEN, DENMARK, AUSTRIA, LUXEMBOURG, SWITZERLAND, and SOUTH KOREA. The United Arab Emirates passport was deemed ‘world’s most powerful for 2022. The UAE passport holders can now enter 160 destinations around the world visa-free, according to the index, which ranks the strength of 199 passports.

Even though the United States is further down the ranking, the American passport still yields considerable power. U.S. passport holders can travel to 149 countries without major restrictions. And the worst?

Afghanistan finished the bottom of the Global Passport Ranking, with just 34 countries granting Afghans entry without obtaining an advance visa, according to the research findings. Passports have different colours, designs and shades but there is a lot more to a passport than that. Not all passports have the same power around the world. Every passport has a different status. Some passports afford their bearers more freedom than others.

So powerful passports mean that the countries are ranked in one order and they accept visa-free or visa on arrival. Let’s now get a quick look at some of the most powerful passports in the world:

These are the world’s most and least powerful passports, 2022

CEOWORLD Rankings


RANK COUNTRY MOBILITY SCORE VISA-FREE + eTA VISA ON ARRIVAL VISA REQUIRED

1 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 160 105 55 38

2 FINLAND 153 112 41 45

3 ITALY 153 112 41 45

4 GERMANY 152 113 40 46

5 SWEDEN 152 112 40 46

6 DENMARK 152 112 40 46

7 AUSTRIA 152 111 41 46

8 LUXEMBOURG 152 111 41 46

9 SWITZERLAND 152 108 44 46

10 SOUTH KOREA 152 107 45 46

11 NEW ZEALAND 152 102 50 46

12 NETHERLANDS 151 111 40 47

13 BELGIUM 151 111 40 47

14 PORTUGAL 151 111 40 47

15 SPAIN 151 110 41 47

16 AUSTRALIA 151 101 50 47

17 FRANCE 150 111 39 48

18 CZECH REPUBLIC 150 109 41 48

19 MALTA 150 109 41 48

20 NORWAY 150 108 42 48

21 POLAND 150 108 42 48

22 HUNGARY 150 108 42 48

23 GREECE 149 108 41 49

24 SLOVAKIA 149 106 43 49

25 IRELAND 149 105 44 49

26 UNITED KINGDOM 149 105 44 49

27 UNITED STATES 149 103 46 49

28 ESTONIA 148 107 41 50

29 LITHUANIA 148 107 41 50

30 LATVIA 148 107 41 50

31 ICELAND 148 106 42 50

32 SLOVENIA 148 106 42 50

33 CANADA 148 104 44 50

34 LIECHTENSTEIN 147 104 43 51

35 JAPAN 147 104 43 51

36 CROATIA 146 104 41 52

37 SINGAPORE 145 105 33 53

38 CYPRUS 145 112 38 53

39 ROMANIA 145 107 42 53

40 BULGARIA 144 103 43 54

41 MONACO 144 101 44 54

42 CHILE 138 100 44 60

CEOWORLD Rankings



43 ARGENTINA 138 94 44 60

44 SAN MARINO 137 97 40 61

45 ANDORRA 136 90 46 62

46 HONG KONG 133 101 32 65

47 MALAYSIA 133 93 40 65

48 ISRAEL 131 93 38 67

49 BRAZIL 131 88 43 67

50 VATICAN CITY 129 88 41 69

51 URUGUAY 127 84 43 71

52 UKRAINE 127 82 45 71

53 MEXICO 126 80 46 72

54 BARBADOS 123 89 34 75

55 BRUNEI 123 80 45 75

56 PERU 123 78 36 75

57 BAHAMAS 119 83 36 79

58 MACAO 119 81 38 79

59 TAIWAN 118 72 46 80

60 SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS 117 83 34 81

61 COLOMBIA 117 75 42 81

62 PANAMA 116 74 42 82

63 COSTA RICA 116 73 43 82

64ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA

115 80 35 83

65 SERBIA 115 73 42 83

66 SEYCHELLES 113 81 32 85

67ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES

113 80 33 85

68 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 112 78 34 86

69 NORTH MACEDONIA 112 68 44 86

70 PARAGUAY 111 65 46 87

71 EL SALVADOR 109 68 41 89

72 GEORGIA 109 65 44 89

73 MAURITIUS 108 76 32 90

74 GRENADA 108 74 34 90

75 RUSSIA 108 69 39 90

76 MONTENEGRO 108 63 45 90

77 SAINT LUCIA 107 72 35 91

78 VENEZUELA 107 60 47 91

79 MOLDOVA 106 63 43 92

80 DOMINICA 105 70 35 93

81 VANUATU 105 67 38 93

82 TURKEY 105 62 43 93

CEOWORLD Rankings



83 SOLOMON ISLANDS 103 66 37 95

84 HONDURAS 102 61 41 96

85 ALBANIA 102 60 42 96

86 TONGA 101 63 38 97

87 SAMOA 101 62 39 97

88 TUVALU 99 63 36 99

89 GUATEMALA 99 58 41 99

90 NICARAGUA 99 56 43 99

91BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

97 56 41 101

92 KIRIBATI 96 58 38 102

93 MARSHALL ISLANDS 94 53 41 104

94 QATAR 93 54 39 105

95 SOUTH AFRICA 91 54 37 107

96 MICRONESIA 90 49 41 108

97 PALAU 89 46 43 109

98 KUWAIT 87 46 41 111

99 ECUADOR 86 41 45 112

100 BELIZE 85 53 32 113

101 JAMAICA 83 48 35 115

102 MALDIVES 81 43 38 117

103 FIJI 81 42 39 117

104 GUYANA 81 40 41 117

105 BELARUS 81 38 43 117

106 BAHRAIN 80 38 42 118

107 TIMOR-LESTE 79 39 40 119

108 KAZAKHSTAN 79 33 46 119

109 SAUDI ARABIA 77 36 41 121

110 OMAN 77 32 45 121

111 BOLIVIA 76 32 44 122

112 NAURU 74 35 39 124

113 SURINAME 73 29 44 125

114 BOTSWANA 72 40 32 126

115 AZERBAIJAN 72 30 42 126

116 THAILAND 72 25 47 126

117 PAPUA NEW GUINEA 71 30 41 127

118 ARMENIA 71 30 41 127

119 LESOTHO 70 37 33 128

120 INDONESIA 70 29 41 128

121 CHINA 70 26 44 128

122 MALAWI 69 36 33 129

123 TUNISIA 69 30 39 129

CEOWORLD Rankings



124 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 69 25 44 129

125 CUBA 68 28 40 130

126 ESWATINI 66 36 30 132

127 TANZANIA 66 35 31 132

128 NAMIBIA 66 33 33 132

129 KENYA 65 32 33 133

130 ZAMBIA 65 32 33 133

131 MOROCCO 64 27 37 134

132 KYRGYZSTAN 64 23 41 134

133 GAMBIA 63 37 26 135

134 CAPE VERDE 63 29 34 135

135 MONGOLIA 63 23 40 135

136 UZBEKISTAN 63 22 41 135

137SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE

63 20 43 135

138 GHANA 62 33 29 136

139 RWANDA 62 24 38 136

140 UGANDA 61 28 33 137

141 TAJIKISTAN 61 21 40 137

142 SIERRA LEONE 60 35 25 138

143 ZIMBABWE 60 30 30 139

144 SENEGAL 59 27 32 139

145 BURKINA FASO 59 26 33 139

146 PHILIPPINES 59 22 37 140

147 BENIN 58 25 33 140

148 INDIA 58 20 38 140

149 JORDAN 58 18 40 141

150COTE D IVOIRE (IVORY COAST)

57 23 34 141

151 MADAGASCAR 57 20 37 141

152 MOZAMBIQUE 57 20 37 141

153 GABON 57 18 39 141

154 ALGERIA 57 16 41 141

155 BHUTAN 57 13 44 141

156 TURKMENISTAN 56 14 42 143

157 NIGER 55 25 30 143

158 MAURITANIA 55 21 34 143

159 EQUATORIAL GUINEA 55 15 40 144

160 GUINEA BISSAU 54 22 32 144

161 GUINEA 54 22 32 144

162 ANGOLA 54 20 34 144

163 TOGO 54 20 34 144

CEOWORLD Rankings



164 EGYPT 54 14 40 144

165 CAMBODIA 54 11 43 144

166 MALI 53 25 28 145

167 BURUNDI 53 16 37 145

168 COMOROS 53 13 40 145

169 VIETNAM 53 12 41 147

170 LIBERIA 51 21 30 147

171 CHAD 51 17 34 147

172 CAMEROON 51 14 37 147

173 HAITI 51 10 41 147

174CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

50 14 36 148

175 LEBANON 50 12 38 148

176 DJIBOUTI 50 11 39 148

177 KOSOVO 49 14 35 149

178 LAOS 49 11 38 149

179 NIGERIA 48 20 28 150

180 CONGO (DEM. REP.) 47 12 35 151

181 CONGO 47 11 36 151

182 SOUTH SUDAN 46 13 33 152

183 LIBYA 46 11 35 152

184 ETHIOPIA 46 10 36 152

185 SUDAN 46 9 37 152

186 BANGLADESH 45 15 30 153

187 SRI LANKA 45 11 34 153

188 NEPAL 44 9 35 154

189 ERITREA 44 8 36 154

190 NORTH KOREA 44 8 36 154

191PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

43 10 33 155

192 IRAN 43 8 35 155

193 MYANMAR [BURMA] 43 6 37 155

194 YEMEN 39 8 31 159

195 SOMALIA 38 8 30 160

196 PAKISTAN 38 6 32 160

197 SYRIA 35 5 30 163

198 IRAQ 34 4 30 164

199 AFGHANISTAN 34 4 30 164

CEOWORLD Rankings


Best CEOs In the World Of 2022

CEOWORLD magazine has revealed its annual list of the most influential CEOs and Business Executives in the world. The issue features CEOs and top business executives, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Tech honchos like Apple CEO Tim Cook, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang. Unsurprisingly, Tim Cook came first in the CEOWORLD magazine’s global ranking of the world’s best chief executives across all industries for 2022.

He is followed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, who is the CEO of Alphabet (Google). The 2022 rankings placed Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy in 4th spot ahead of Tesla’s Elon Musk into 5th, Meta (Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg ranked sixth; while Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway ranked seventh, and Dr. C.C. Wei of TSMC Taiwan eighth. Overall, among the top 10 best CEOs and business executives in the world for 2022, the ninth and tenth positions are held by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Visa Inc. chief executive Alfred F Kelly Jr.

The World’s Most Influential CEOs And Business Executives Of 2022

Rank Chief Executive Officer Company Country

1 Tim Cook Apple US

2 Satya Nadella Microsoft US

3 Sundar Pichai Alphabet (Google) US

4 Andy Jassy Amazon US

CEOWORLD Rankings



5 Elon Musk Tesla US

6 Mark Zuckerberg Meta (Facebook) US

7 Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway US

8 Dr. C.C. Wei TSMC Taiwan

9 Jensen Huang Nvidia US

10 Alfred F Kelly Jr Visa Inc. US

11 Jamie Dimon JPMorgan Chase US

12 Alex Gorsky Johnson & Johnson US

13 Doug McMillon Walmart US

14 Bernard Arnault LVMH France

15 Brian Moynihan Bank of America US

16 Ulf Mark Schneider Nestle Switzerland

17 Michael Miebach Mastercard US

18 David S. Taylor Procter & Gamble US

19 Andrew Witty UnitedHealth Group US

20 Amin H. Nasser Saudi Aramco Saudi Arabia

21 Ma Huateng Tencent China

22 Craig Menear Home Depot US

23 Daniel Zhang Alibaba China

24 Severin Schwan Roche Switzerland

25 Darren Woods Exxon Mobil US

26 Albert Bourla Pfizer US

27 Peter Wennink ASML Holding Netherlands

28 Akio Toyoda Toyota Japan

29 James Quincey Coca-Cola US

30 Bob Chapek Walt Disney US

31 Shantanu Narayen Adobe US

32 Michael Wirth Chevron Corporation US

33 Ramon Laguarta Pepsi US

34 Chuck Robbins Cisco Systems US

35 Richard A. Gonzalez AbbVie US

36 John Donahoe Nike US

37 David A. Ricks Eli Lilly US

38 Brian L. Roberts Comcast Corporation US

39 Marc N. Casper Thermo Fisher Scientific US

40 Tan Hock Eng Broadcom US

41 Hans Vestberg Verizon Communications US

42 Nicolas Hieronimus LOreal France

43 Safra Catz Oracle US

44 Marc Benioff Salesforce US

45 Robert Ford Abbott Laboratories US

46 Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen Novo Nordisk Denmark

CEOWORLD Rankings



47 Walter Craig Jelinek Costco US

48 Mukesh Ambani Reliance India

49 Julie Sweet Accenture Ireland

50 Patrick P. Gelsinger Intel Corporation US

51 Charles W. Scharf Wells Fargo US

52 Robert M. Davis Merck US

53 Rainer M. Blair Danaher Corporation US

54 Cristiano Amon Qualcomm US

55 Rajesh Gopinathan Tata Consultancy Services India

56 Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan Novartis Switzerland

57 Dan Schulman PayPal US

58Christopher John

KempczinskiMcDonald US

59 John T. Stankey AT&T US

60 Ben van Beurden Shell Netherlands

61 Carol B. Tome United Parcel Service US

62 Pascal Soriot AstraZeneca UK

63 Bob van Dijk Prosus Netherlands

64 James P. Gorman Morgan Stanley US

65Reed Hastings/Ted

SarandosNetflix US

66 Walter W Bettinger II Charles Schwab US

67 Mike Henry BHP Australia

68 Rich Templeton Texas Instruments US

69 David I. McKay Royal Bank of Canada Canada

70 Steve Angel Linde plc Ireland

71 James L Robo NextEra Energy US

72 Christian Klein SAP Germany

73 Lance M. Fritz Union Pacific Railroad US

74 Marvin Ellison Lowes US

75 Jacek Olczak Philip Morris US

76 Axel Dumas Hermes France

77 Sasan K. Goodarzi Intuit US

78 Patrick Pouyanne TotalEnergies France

79 Bharat Masrani Toronto-Dominion Bank Canada

80 Geoffrey S. Martha Medtronic Ireland

81 Darius Adamczyk Honeywell US

82 Lisa Su Advanced Micro Devices US

83 Noel Paul Quinn HSBC Holdings UK

84 Kenichiro Yoshida Sony Group Japan

85 Alan Jope Unilever PLC UK

86 Giovanni Caforio Bristol Myers Squibb US

CEOWORLD Rankings



87 Karen S. Lynch CVS Health US

88 Michael Sievert T-Mobile US US

89 Pietro Beccari Dior France

90 Gregory J. Hayes Raytheon US

91 Roland Busch Siemens Germany

92 Paul Hudson Sanofi France

93 Robert A. Bradway Amgen US

94 Sashidhar Jagdishan HDFC Bank India

95 Jane Fraser Citigroup US

96 Gary E. Dickerson Applied Materials US

97 Stephen Squeri American Express US

98 Herbert Diess Volkswagen Germany

99 Jakob Stausholm Rio Tinto UK

100 Dave Calhoun Boeing US

101 Larry Fink BlackRock US

102 Matt Comyn Commonwealth Bank Australia

103 Tobias Lutke Shopify Canada

104 Ivan Menezes Diageo UK

105 Jim Umpleby Caterpillar US

106 Arvind Krishna IBM US

107 Kevin Johnson Starbucks US

108 David M. Solomon Goldman Sachs US

109 Michel Doukeris Anheuser-Busch InBe Belgium

110 Hamid Moghadam Prologis US

111 Tom Bartlett American Tower US

112 John C. May John Deere US

113 Emma Walmsley GlaxoSmithKline UK

114 Ryan Lance ConocoPhillips US

115 Fabrizio Freda Estee Lauder US

116 H. Lawrence Culp Jr. General Electric US

117 Brian Cornell Target US

118 Bill McDermott ServiceNow US

119 Shemara Wikramanayake Macquarie Australia

120 Tom Rutledge Charter Communications US

121 Jim Taiclet Lockheed Martin US

122 Oliver Bate Allianz Germany

123 Bernard Looney BP UK

124 Scott Charlton Transurban Australia

125 Douglas L. Peterson S&P Global US

126 Jack Bowles British American Tobacco UK

127 Yousef Al-Benyan SABIC Saudi Arabia

128 Mike Roman 3M Company US

CEOWORLD Rankings



129 Salil Parekh Infosys India

130 Pablo Isla Inditex Spain

131 Gary S Guthart Intuitive Surgical US

132 Guillaume Faury Airbus Netherlands

133 Waleed A. Al-Mogbel Al Rajhi Bank Saudi Arabia

134 Jean-Pascal Tricoire Schneider Electric France

135 Kevin A. Lobo Stryker Corporation US

136 Kristin C. Peck Zoetis US

137 Thomas H. McInnerney Mondelez US

138 Brian Chesky Airbnb US

139 Belen Garijo Merck Group Germany

140 Sanjay Mehrotra Micron Technology US

141 Carlos A. Rodriguez Automatic Data Processing US

142 Billy Gifford Altria Group US

143 Anders Opedal Equinor Norway

144 Francois-Henri Pinault Kering France

145 Alexey Miller PJSC Gazprom Russia

146 Paul Perreault CSL Limited Australia

147 Timotheus Hottges Deutsche Telekom Germany

148 Timothy Archer Lam Research US

149 Brian J. Porter Scotiabank Canada

150 Daniel O’Day Gilead Sciences US

151 William S. Demchak PNC Financial Services US

152 Jean-Laurent Bonnafe BNP Paribas France

153 Frank Slootman Snowflake US

154 Vincent Roche Analog Devices US

155 Faisal Omar al-Sakkaf Saudi National Bank Saudi Arabia

156 Bruce Flatt Brookfield Asset Management Canada

157 Evan G. Greenberg Chubb Limited Switzerland

158 Andrew Cecere U.S. Bancorp US

159 Francesco Milleri EssilorLuxottica France

160 Kelly S. King Truist Financial US

161 Ola Kallenius Daimler Germany

162 Joaquim Silva e Luna Petrobras Brazil

163 Ernie Herrman TJX Companies US

164 Al Monaco Enbridge Canada

165 Jim Farley Ford Motor US

166 Benoit Potier Air Liquide France

167 Terrence A. Duffy CME Group US

168 Daniel S. Glaser Marsh McLennan US

169 Francesco Starace Enel Italy

170 Jay A. Brown Crown Castle US

CEOWORLD Rankings



171 Jerome Lambert Compagnie Richemont Switzerland

172 Lynn Good Duke Energy US

173 Masayoshi Son SoftBank Japan

174 David Cordani Cigna US

175 John G. Morikis Sherwin-Williams US

176 Stephen A. Schwarzman Blackstone Inc US

177 Mary Barra General Motors US

178 James M. Foote CSX Corporation US

179 Samuel N. Hazen HCA Healthcare US

180 Sandeep Bakhshi ICICI Bank India

181 Ernest Scott Santi Illinois Tool Work US

182 Bernd Montag Siemens Healthineers Germany

183 Thomas Polen Becton, Dickinson and Company US

184 Thomas Buberl Axa S.A. France

185 Darryl White Bank of Montreal Canada

186 Mats Rahmstrom Atlas Copco Sweden

187 Sanjiv Mehta Hindustan Unilever India

188 Bjorn Rosengren ABB Switzerland

189 Jeffrey C. Sprecher Intercontinental Exchange US

190 Noel R. Wallace Colgate-Palmolive US

191 Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan Iberdrola Spain

192 Dara Khosrowshahi Uber US

193 Gary Nagle Glencore Switzerland

194 Mario Greco Zurich Insurance Group Switzerland

195 Frank Bisignano Fiserv US

196 Oliver Zipse BMW Germany

197 Piyush Gupta DBS Bank Singapore

198 Leonard Schleifer Regeneron Pharmaceuticals US

199 Martin Brudermuller BASF SE Germany

200 Charles J. Meyers Equinix US

CEOWORLD Rankings


STATS GATE

The World’s Richest People (Top Billionaires, 2022)

Elon Musk had a net worth valued at $256 billion, making him the richest man in the world, followed by Amazon’s founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos (net worth: $190 billion). LVMH’s Chairman and CEO, Bernard Arnault, is the 3rd-richest person in the world, with approximately $143 billion in current real-time

total net worth. Microsoft mogul Bill Gates ranked 4th with a

personal wealth of $1335 billion, followed by Warren Buffett with $130 billion. The list of the world’s wealthiest people can vary from day to day, depending on their latest net worth and financial performance. Seven of the top 10 billionaires made their fortunes in technology, with Bernard Arnault, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, and Reliance Industries founder Mukesh Ambani the exceptions.


STATS GATE

Larry Page ranked 6th with a personal wealth of $126 billion, followed by Sergey Brin with $120 billion. Steve Ballmer is placed 8th with a net worth of $106 billion. Larry Ellison ($102 billion) occupied the 9th position on the top 10 richest people in the world list, followed by Mukesh Ambani (No. 10, $96.4 billion). Top billionaires: Here’s a countdown of the 100 wealthi-est people on the planet by net worth:

RANK NAME NET WORTH INDUSTRY COUNTRY

1 Elon Musk $256 billion Technology United States

2 Jeff Bezos $190 billion Technology United States

3 Bernard Arnault $143 billion Consumer France

4 Bill Gates $133 billion Technology United States

5 Warren Buffett $130 billion Diversified United States

6 Larry Page $126 billion Technology United States

7 Sergey Brin $120 billion Technology United States

8 Steve Ballmer $106 billion Technology United States

9 Larry Ellison $102 billion Technology United States

10 Mukesh Ambani $96.4 billion Energy India

11 Gautam Adani $93.6 billion Industrial India

12 Mark Zuckerberg $84 billion Technology United States

13 Michael Bloomberg $82 billion Media and Telecom United States

14 Carlos Slim $78.5 billion Diversified Mexico

15 Francoise Bettencourt Meyers $76.5 billion Consumer France

16 Changpeng Zhao $67.6 billion Finance Canada

17 Zhong Shanshan $67.2 billion Diversified China

18 Jim Walton $65.4 billion Retail United States

19 Rob Walton $64.9 billion Retail United States

20 Alice Walton $63.4 billion Retail United States

21 Charles Koch $58.5 billion Industrial United States

22 Julia Flesher Koch $58.5 billion Industrial United States

23 Michael Dell $54.9 billion Technology United States

24 Phil Knight & family $52.1 billion Consumer United States

25 MacKenzie Scott $51.8 billion Technology United States

26 Jacqueline Badger Mars $49.3 billion Food and Beverage United States

27 John Mars $49.3 billion Food and Beverage United States

28 Amancio Ortega $48.8 billion Retail Spain

29 Zeng Yuqun $45.4 billion Industrial Hong Kong

30 Zhang Yiming $44.5 billion Technology China

31 Klaus-Michael Kuehne $42.9 billion Industrial Germany

32 Francois Pinault $42.8 billion Consumer France

33 Len Blavatnik $39.2 billion Diversified United States

34 Jack Ma $37.9 billion Technology China

35 Ma Huateng $37.6 billion Technology China

36 Stephen Schwarzman $36.8 billion Finance United States

37 Azim Premji $34.6 billion Technology India

38 Giovanni Ferrero $33.4 billion Food and Beverage Italy


STATS GATE


39 Pallonji Mistry $33.3 billion Industrial Ireland

40 German Larrea $32.9 billion Commodities Mexico

41 Li Ka-shing $31.1 billion Real Estate Hong Kong

42 Ken Griffin $30.6 billion Finance United States

43 William Ding $30.4 billion Technology China

44 Leonardo Del Vecchio $29.2 billion Consumer Italy

45 Leonard Lauder $29.1 billion Consumer United States

46 Shiv Nadar $29.1 billion Technology India

47 Dieter Schwarz $27.8 billion Retail Germany

48 Miriam Adelson $27.2 billion Entertainment United States

49 Tadashi Yanai $27.2 billion Retail Japan

50 Eric Schmidt $27.1 billion Technology United States

51 Takemitsu Takizaki $26.7 billion Technology Japan

52 Vladimir Potanin $26.3 billion Commodities Russia

53 James Simons $26.3 billion Finance United States

54 He Xiangjian $25.8 billion Consumer China

55 Iris Fontbona $25.6 billion Commodities Chile

56 Alain Wertheimer $25.6 billion Consumer France

57 Gerard Wertheimer $25.6 billion Consumer France

58 Jensen Huang $25.4 billion Technology United States

59 Gina Rinehart $24.3 billion Commodities Australia

60 Leonid Mikhelson $24.2 billion Energy Russia

61 Sam Bankman-Fried $23.8 billion Finance United States

62 Thomas Frist $23.1 billion Health Care United States

63 Lee Shau Kee $23.1 billion Real Estate Hong Kong

64 Henry Cheng $22.9 billion Retail Hong

65 Carl Icahn $22.7 billion Diversified United States

66 Abigail Johnson $22.7 billion Finance United States

67 Lukas Walton $22.5 billion Retail United States

68 Dan Gilbert $22.4 billion Real Estate United States

69 Jorge Paulo Lemann $21.5 billion Food and Beverage Brazil

70 Qin Yinglin $21.2 billion Food and Beverage China

71 Andrew Forrest $21.1 billion Commodities Australia

72 Alexey Mordashov $21 billion Industrial Russia

73 Vladimir Lisin $20.8 billion Industrial Russia

74 Thomas Peterffy $20.8 billion Finance United States

75 Lakshmi Mittal $20.8 billion Commodities India

76 Radhakishan Damani $20.7 billion Retail India

77 Ernesto Bertarelli $20.5 billion Diversified Switzerland

78 Susanne Klatten $20.1 billion Industrial Germany

79 Elaine Marshall $20.1 billion Industrial United States

80 Aliko Dangote $20 billion Industrial Nigeria


STATS GATE


81 Harold Hamm $19.9 billion Energy United States

82 Wang Chuan-Fu $19.9 billion Consumer China

83 Budi Hartono $19.6 billion Diversified Indonesia

84 Huang Shilin $19.4 billion Industrial China

85 Guillaume Pousaz $19.4 billion Technology Switzerland

86 Donald Bren $19.1 billion Real Estate United States

87 Alisher Usmanov $18.8 billion Diversified Russia

88 John Menard $18.8 billion Retail United States

89 Peter Woo $18.7 billion Real Estate Hong Kong

90 Pang Kang $18.7 billion Food and Beverage China

91 Michael Hartono $18.5 billion Diversified Indonesia

92 Stefan Quandt $18.5 billion Industrial Germany

93 Jiang Rensheng $18.5 billion Health Care China

94 James Dyson $18.4 billion Consumer United Kingdom

95 Robert Kuok $18.4 billion Diversified Malaysia

96 Andrey Melnichenko $18.3 billion Industrial Russia

97 Yang Huiyan $18.3 billion Real Estate China

98 Wang Wenyin $18.2 billion Commodities China

99 Laurene Powell Jobs $18.1 billion Media and Telecom United States

100 Donald Newhouse $18 billion Media and Telecom United States


STATS GATE

Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

Citizenship and Residency by Investment Programs have become quite popular since the last decade. There are many countries, especially in Europe and the Americas that offer several such programs as part of their goals to boost the economy and attract foreign investments. Essentially, these programs require the applicants to invest a certain amount in certain areas in exchange for which they are extended permanent residence and ultimately citizenship (if applied for).


STATS GATE

TOP Citizenship by Investment Programs

Country Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Antigua and Barbuda $100,000The right of free movement to Antigua and Barbuda, Hong Kong, Russia, Singapore, the UK, and Europe’s Schengen Area, among others

3/4 months

Malta €690,000 Visa free 182 countries 14 months

Bulgaria €512,000 Visa free 169 countries 2 years

Montenegro €350,000 Visa free 122 countries 3 months

Grenada $150,000 Visa free 131 countries 4 months

Dominica $100,000 Visa free 137 countries 3 months

Saint Kitts & Nevis $150,000 Visa free 152 countries 2 months

Vanuatu $130,000 Visa free 132 countries 1 months

Saint Lucia US$100,000 Visa free 115 countries 4 months

Turkey US$250,000 Visa free 110 countries 2 months

Montenegro €250,000The right of free movement to Montenegro, the countries in Europe’s Schengen Area, Russia, and Turkey, among others

5 months

TOP Residence by Investment Programs


Greece €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Malta €175,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Portugal €350,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Spain €500,000Europe’s Schengen Area. apply for Spanish citizen-ship after 10 years

2 months

Ireland €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Monaco €300,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Austria €40,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 3 months

Italy €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 4 months

Latvia €50,000

The right to live, work, study, and undertake business in Latvia. Residence valid for a five-year period. Ability to apply for permanent residence after five years. Ability to apply for citizenship after five years of holding permanent residence.

3 months

Turkey $250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Australia €1,500,000 5 years to citizenship 12 months

New Zealand €1,800,000 Eligibility for citizenship after 5 years of residence 6 months

Canada €1,000,000 3 years to citizenship 2 years

Jersey €1,000,000 UK visa-free travel 2 months

Mauritius €326,925 The right to live, work, and retire in Mauritius 6 months

Malaysia €70,000 10-year multiple-entry visa 6 months


STATS GATE


United States €500,000 Citizenship after 5 years of legal residenceVarying processing time

United Kingdom €2,500,000The right to live, work, and study anywhere in the United Kingdom 1 months

Thailand €68,000Long-term, privilege multiple-entry permit as well as luxury, VIP treatment 3 months

South Korea €300,000 The right to live, work, and study in South Korea 2 months

Singapore SGD 2.5 MILLIONEligibility for citizenship after 2 years of permanent residence

12 months

Monaco €500,000The right to live, work, and undertake business in Monaco. Eligible for citizenship after 10 years of continuous residence in Monaco

2-4 MONTHS

Switzerland CHF 250,000

The right to live and study in Switzerland. Eligible to apply for permanent residency (C permit) after 10 years. C permit holders may apply for Swiss citizenship.


Best Practice Toolkit by the CEOWORLD magazine

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CEOWORLD magazine


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Best For Booking Flights1. Kayak2. Expedia3. Priceline4. Orbitz5. Skyscanner6. TripAdvisor7. Agoda8. Booking.com9. Priceline10. Momondo

Best Hotel Booking Sites

1. Booking.com2. Hotels.com3. Expedia4. Orbitz5. Travelocity6. Priceline7. Hotwire8. Kayak9. Agoda10. Google Hotels

Best Luxury Car Rental Companies

1. Enterprise Rent-A-Car (https://www.enterprise.com/)

2. National Car Rental (nationalcar.com)

3. Hertz (hertz.com)4. Alamo (alamo.com)5. Sixt (sixt.com)6. Avis Rent A Car (avis.com)

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CEOWORLD magazine


Top Citizenship and Residence by Investment Programs

Immigrant investor programs are programs that allow individuals to obtain residence or citizenship of a country in return for making qualifying investments. Citizenship by investment programs are the most effective way to secure an alternative citizenship and passport with all its benefits, in exchange of a dedicated investment. Whether it is for business transactions, the perks of becoming a Global Citizen, or simply have a ‘Plan B’, there is a program that will suit your needs. A multitude of countries host Citizenship by Investment Programs (CIPs) through which high net worth individuals can become citizens of those countries by investing in their economies.

Residency by investment programs often provide the option to physically relocate with the right to live, work, study, as well as access to healthcare, in a given country in exchange for a dedicated investment.

Citizenship by InvestmentCountry Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Malta €1,150,000 Visa free 182 countries 14 months

Bulgaria €512,000 Visa free 169 countries 2 years

Montenegro €350,000 Visa free 122 countries 3 months

Grenada $150,000 Visa free 131 countries 3-4 months

Dominica $100,000 Visa free 137 countries 2-3 months

Saint Kitts & Nevis $150,000 Visa free 152 countries 2 months

Vanuatu $130,000 Visa free 125 countries 1 months

Saint Lucia $100,000 Visa free 132 countries 3-4 months

Turkey $250,000 Visa free 115 countries 2 months

Residence by InvestmentCountry Minimum Investment Key benefit Time

Greece €250,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Malta €330,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 4 months

Ireland €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Spain €500,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Jersey €1,400,000 UK visa-free travel 2 months

Monaco €1,000,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 6 months

Cyprus €300,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 2 months

Portugal €280,000 Europe’s Schengen Area 3 months

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