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Mike Van Pelt: Helping Men Gain Control of Their Lives
Meet Mike Van Pelt, the founder of True Man Life Coaching and the host & Creator of the True Man Podcast. Mike’s passion and experience in coaching, guiding, and mentoring men have come from his earlier involvement in leading Christian men’s groups, along with his own journey to redirect his life journey and achieve success. Mike brings over two decades of deep organizational expertise and thought leadership in account management, consulting, and leadership development. He has a B.A. degree in Business Leadership and a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Arizona.
Known as the “Comeback Coach,” Mike founded True Man Life Coaching as a specialized coaching service to help others reach their maximum potential and achieve excellence. Mike’s primary purpose in starting True Man Life Coaching was to assist men who have misinterpreted the directions of their lives. He believes men want success and satisfaction in each and every area of their lives and are looking for a roadmap of discovery back to their true minds and hearts. His goal is to become an instrument of guidance and healing to lift the heavy heart loads that many men carry with them every day.
Helping Men Gain Control of Their Lives
Initially, Mike started his business as a business consultant, helping small businesses plan for success. However, during the Covid pandemic, he pivoted into men’s life coaching, because it offered a much more personal way to walk alongside men and help them find their way in business and life.
Mike works mainly with men who are at the midpoint in their lives. He believes that this is a crucial time in a man’s life because many have regrets or wounds from their past, and they are ready to move in a new direction. Often, they are looking to recover from these past wounds and are beginning to consider their legacy and how they want to make a positive impact. The greatest satisfaction Mike has is seeing the light come on in a client when he begins to understand his full potential.
“If you need help, raise your hand and ask for help. If you have good people around you, they will show up to help you. If they don’t, change the people around you.”
Under Mike’s leadership, True Man Life Coaching offers 1-on-1 coaching, small group coaching, and mastermind groups. It also provides coaching services to businesses and organizations looking to coach their employees from a Christian perspective.
Standing Apart
Mike’s ability to listen to what’s on a man’s heart and mind and help them process the outcome they want during the coaching process sets him apart from other coaches. While this might sound simple, in a world flooded with coaches, Mike seeks out the answers men already have inside them. He helps his clients reflect on and refocus their past experiences and find the answers they need to create a new roadmap.
The Biggest Accomplishment
Initially, Mike had to zero in on how to best connect with potential clients on the True Man Podcast. This podcast helps Mike reach his audience weekly and talk about topics that are important to men on their life journey.
The True Man Podcast has provided an excellent opportunity for Mike’s potential clients and strategic partners to hear, know, like, and trust him before making a business decision to work together. Mike has also expanded this to a YouTube channel to further bolster his outreach.
Currently, Mike is working on his first book and planning for the first True Man Men’s Summit in 2023. Along with his book and the summit, Mike is available to speak at any Christian or business event. In addition, Mike is a regular guest on other podcasts, speaks at business and professional conferences, and strategically partners with other leaders who share a similar passion and focus.
In addition to being a coach, Mike is happily married to Jill, his wife and best friend of 26 years. They are also proud parents of two talented teenagers. When not coaching, Mike enjoys spending time at one of many family activities or getting in a quick round of golf with friends.
Arun Prasad: Enabling Businesses to Operate Effeciently
Meet Arun Prasad, the CEO of Money Convey, a technology platform providing blockchain solutions for institutional and individual clients to meet their financial demands and provide new opportunities to maximize their potential. Money Convey is the Oracle Corporation for Web 3. It offers businesses access to its scalable, privacy-enabled layer 1 blockchain network. The blockchain network’s value proposition lies in its architecture, which enables customization, scalability, and flexibility to deploy low-cost privacy-focussed blockchain applications.
Money Convey’s blockchain infrastructure is designed to help institutions utilize their data most efficiently. It also helps to communicate quickly, solve interoperability problems, and manage digital identity.
The Farsighted Leader
As the organization’s CEO, Arun brings his technical expertise to the table, enabling businesses to operate efficiently and validate data for their process movement. Arun completed his Master’s degree from New York University in Industrial Engineering. During his time at NYU, he served as the president of the Tandon Consulting Club, which incubates students for consulting roles. As the club’s President, Arun organized several corporate events and seminars, which kept him closer to students.
Before pursuing his Master’s degree, Arun managed Priyaa Groups, his family’s apparel business in India, which grew 10x and expanded to multiple new locations under his leadership. Now, as a New Yorker, Arun has his eyes set on helping institutional and individual clients with blockchain technology and founded Money Convey in 2022 to do that.
“My grandmother had Diabetes, and I have seen her go through various treatments all my years growing up. The issue is that the body learns to adapt to the medicines, and in conditions like Diabetes, the number of organs failing increases over time,”- Arun said. “Therefore, physicians need to work on new techniques and technology that could not solve a growing problem. That led me to a quest to find a better technique that could accommodate growing technology to solve new problems. Blockchain was the solution for the quest.”
When the Pandemic Presented an Opportunity
Arun came to the U.S. during the pandemic in September 2020. While the pandemic was terrible for most, it gave him a level playing field. “The Pandemic gave the opportunity for people to explore more technology and learn more about blockchain. The awareness towards the technology we offer has grown exponentially throughout the pandemic.”– He said.
Online networking helped Arun as an entrepreneur as it allowed him to talk to experts through virtual meetups, which would not be possible in person. The pandemic also resulted in massive investments in the healthcare system, giving rise to startups that need Money Convey’s technology. Presently the organization is working with several startups focused on providing a better solution for their users and helping them achieve groundbreaking solutions through its blockchain technology.
“I consider my team as my greatest achievement; building a team based completely out of New York and talent coming from prestigious universities is something that I feel is an achievement.”– Arun stated.
The X Factor
Money Convey’s business works on network effects. With one client, it can engage with other clients of theirs. Moreover, as the company focuses on data management, its network effect will be stronger due to the overall increase in data usage since the pandemic.
Though a startup, Money Convey maintains the standards of an established company in anything it does. The organization spends a lot of its resources on R&D, supporting and customizing tailor-made solutions for its clients. It has built an architecture that serves the needs of enterprises. Lastly, it has a strong management team with prior experience building and managing companies.
Eyeing the Future
Being the founder of Money Convey, Arun is still working on developing the technology that helps businesses grow and thrive without long waiting times and errors while ensuring better security, accessibility, interoperability, and traceability. Under Arun’s leadership, Money Convey aspires to design a blockchain network that is deliberately cultivated so that these networks can forge connections across platforms, spread information, and spark collaborative actions. As a result, the organization can address sprawling issues in ways that none can accomplish.
Ivette Torres Carías: Creating Exceptional Brand Loyalty
Meet Ivette Torres Carías, the Regional Business Development Manager at Webhelp Onelink, a premier partner in outsourced omnichannel customer experience services. Webhelp’s primary purpose is to revolutionize the BPO industry through innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and happiness culture, generating value for its associates, clients, and the community.
Founded in Paris, Webhelp is now located throughout Latin America, supporting some of the biggest brands spread across the U.S, Latin America, and Europe. Webhelp’s values of happiness, leadership, engagement, innovation, excellence, and solidarity are the basis of which its employees approach their work and life.
Alongside its Game-Changing Culture, Webhelp brings a complete portfolio of services, focusing on BPO, automation, thriving for conversations, and development of self-service to reduce digital effort and drive customer autonomy, positioning self-service, chatbots, and voice bots. It also connects channels and systems for seamless, digital customer journeys anywhere, anytime. The firm utilizes omnichannel, messaging, video chat, and platform integration. Webhelp focuses on bot interactions and customer experience efficiency to help with quicker and more personalized experiences, introducing machine translation, voice transformation, RPAs, and email automation. Most importantly, Webhelp’s team learns from its customers’ voices to improve quality and provide actionable insights using best-in-class monitoring, voice recording, transcription, speech, and analytics.
A Dedicated Leader
As a Business Engineer with a master’s degree in Business Management, Ivette loves to learn, which has been a crucial part of her personal and professional life. Presently she is pursuing a degree in Theology and learning Portuguese as her third language. During the third year of her associate’s degree, she liked the dynamic daily life of a project manager and decided to dedicate her life to project management.
“I have built my career in the business development field designing solutions and supporting the commercial process inside Webhelp, this year is my fifth anniversary, and I am happy with the path that I had the privilege to walk; I started as a project manager in 2017 and based on the different opportunities and the support of my leaders and mentors I am now part of the leadership in our PMO.”– Says Ivette.
Aside from her professional career, Ivette loves serving in several volunteering programs. Initially, she started volunteering in High School as a math teacher. Later she got an opportunity to work for a program in her local community where she could work with specially-abled people. Before that, Ivette hadn’t had the necessary opportunity to interact with the community, which opened a new world for her. She discovered several different techniques to teach and learn.
“In life, there are good days and challenges; I invite you to create opportunities for the people around you and find something that fills your purpose in life. I always say that you can find a purpose by identifying one problem that annoys you the most and work each day until it is less of a problem and more of a solution.”
Ivette now teaches them not only how to read and write but also math and other subjects, which can help them get a high-school diploma. Currently, she is also a part of a church program to reduce illiteracy among people with special abilities.
A Team Effort
As a passionate team player, Ivette knows that her greatest accomplishment is a team effort. She says, “I have a team of 8 members that I am beyond proud of; seeing them grow, learn, and lead has been the most rewarding experience in my career so far.”
Webhelp recruits talents at an entry-level level, and Ivette knows how they face their fears and build their voices. Her role is to support them and remind them what they can do. She doesn’t take it as her accomplishment as when she was provided with the challenge of leading a team at a very young age; she also had doubts, fears, and second thoughts about it, but now she has realized that a bit of encouragement has the most significant impact of all and it also helps put people on charge.
When the Pandemic Bought New opportunities
Ivette believes the pandemic bought a lot of opportunities for the BPO industry. The pandemic halted face-to-face interaction to a large extent, which escalated the need for remote assistance worldwide.
“A lot of companies needed a solution to Customer Service, and others had to learn how to sell remotely, and on fortune, we had that portfolio of solutions.”– Ivette states.
During the pandemic, Webhelp changed one of its major clients’ path in digital transformation and moved their interaction to 50% digital. This eventually helped the company achieve brilliant results and reduce overall billing by 15%.
Webhelp is well known for its tailor-made services. Irrespective of the industry, product, or location, Webhelp has a solution to improve its customer’s journey. Now with years of experience, the organization is ready to accommodate its services to a different reality.
The Primary Differentiator
Ivette believes that Webhelp’s primary differentiator is its people. She says, “The culture, mindset, and vision we have as a company impact the services we provide.”
Ivette still remembers her first day when she met someone at C-level who said, “we take care of you to be at 200% of your personal life so you can be 100% inside our company.” At that point, she understood that the company’s culture is entirely focused on its employees as a person, and the contributions they make to the company are secondary.
Eyeing the Future
Webhelp is focusing on transitioning from traditional channels to digital and self-service platforms, including the human touch, as it wants to have a holistic approach. With offices in 8 countries, providing services to different regions, Webhelp will continue to develop other solutions and expand its service portfolios, such as Content Moderation, Data Annotation, and B2B Sales, among others, to provide an end-to-end solution to its clients with a customer-centric focus.
Luis Guardado: Creating Unforgettable Human Experiences
Luis Guardado is a highly engaged professional with over a decade of proven experience leading several Project Management Offices across the Americas, serving in different multinationals like HSBC, United Nations, and OneLink.
Presently Luis is serving as the Vice President of PMO and Solutioning for the Americas region at Webhelp™, supporting its Corporate Strategy Design and assuring a flawless execution of the Regional Strategic Portfolio, and leading the Pre-sales, Business Development, Solutioning, and Digital Transformation endeavors.
In 2021, he was recognized and awarded the ‘Best PMO of the Americas’ by PMOGA™, ‘Best Project Manager of the Americas’ by CCW™, and “Best PMO in LATAM” by BRPO™. Later in 2022, PMOGA™ recognized him as one of the ‘Top PMO Leaders of the Year”.
A Master in Business Administration, Innovation, and Finance, Luis is also an international speaker and university teacher providing Strategy, Portfolio and Project Management, Business Development, Design Thinking, Leadership, and Neurosemantic lectures.
As a veteran business leader, Luis represents several boards in educational institutions and NGOs dedicated to promoting knowledge-sharing entrepreneurial efforts and social assistance to communities in need.
Creating a Seamless Customer Journey
Alongside its game-changing culture, Webhelp brings a full portfolio of services, focusing on BPO, and automation, thriving for conversations & development of self-service to digitally reduce effort and drive customer autonomy, positioning self-service, chatbots, and voice bots. The organization also connects channels and systems for seamless, digital customer journeys anytime, anywhere, with the help of omnichannel, messaging, video chat, and platform integration. Webhelp is focused on bot interactions and customer experience efficiency to provide quicker and personalized experiences, introducing machine translation, voice transformation, RPAs, and email automation.
Tackling the Pandemic
Since its inception in 2000, Webhelp has been a pioneer in innovation. It envisions a process as an infinite loop, which goes from the design of the solution to the evolution. This holistic approach ensures a never-ending process that causes massive disruption and proposes evolutionary and innovative solutions for its clients. The pandemic accelerated these processes throughout the company. For one of its major clients, Webhelp rewrote its path in digital transformation, which moved its interactions to up to 50% digital. This eventually helped to achieve overwhelming results, like a 34% improvement in First Call Resolution and reducing their cost per interaction by more than 67% and approximately 15% of the overall billing.
A Different Organization
With a talented management team, Webhelp is a people-first company. It has several talented professionals leading change, managing the end-to-end process, and approaching this experience coherently with the overall user experience.
While having new programs and onboarding new clients, Luis and his team map the potential opportunities presented, and they sit with their clients and set the expectation moving forward in their partnership. Webhelp goes beyond the vendor-client relationship and transforms it into a win-win experience. The organization creates solutions and integrates the technology as part of the overall strategy; it analyzes, designs, and sets guidelines for continuous improvements. Webhelp doesn’t sell technology; instead, it sells end-to-end solutions and remains responsible for the outcome. The organization’s added value is the flexibility of its in-house innovation team to meet the requirements and transform the customer experience through embedded consultancy.
Future Roadmap
Webhelp is pushing digital and self-service solutions while expanding its digital offerings and focusing on database management to improve business and customer intelligence as it moves beyond the traditional BPO and includes consulting, insights, and technology. A well-defined three-step strategy supports this. At first, Webhelp focuses on expanding its reach, which can expand its operations, offer a global footprint for its client base, and provide them with the best-shore solutions and alternative ways of working. Second, Webhelp transforms the core, increasing value creation with a transformation approach through technological, customer journey design, and data capabilities. And finally, it plans to extend its services and selectively develop other BPO services such as Content Moderation, Data Annotation, and B2B Sales, among others, to provide an end-to-end solution to its clients with a customer-centric focus.
Dr. Hany Saqr: Assisting People Across the Globe by Offering Humanitarian Services
Founded in 1992, Life for Relief and Development (LIFE) is a non-profit based out of Southfield, Michigan. Being a non-profit organization, LIFE is dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to people irrespective of their race, gender, religion, and cultural background. Since its inception, LIFE has distributed over $550 million in humanitarian aid and relief to over 46 countries and increased its support to more than 55 countries. Life works diligently to help the poor and needy in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Haiti, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Syria, the U.S., and several other nations. In case of any natural disasters, LIFE rushes to answer the call for help and provides essential humanitarian assistance immediately. Along with emergency relief aid efforts, the non-profit organization also supports areas like education, family and refugee assistance, community development, health, and season help during Ramadan, Udiyah, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
The Veteran Leader
Dr. Hany Saqr is the CEO of LIFE. A retired physician and college professor, Dr. Saqr received his Medical Degree from Egypt and completed his Master’s and Ph.D. at Ohio State University, where he took a job as a Scientist and Clinical Assistant Professor.
“For a long time, I have seen the work that LIFE does and saw it as inspiring. One of the specific areas that I really wanted to see grow was the orphan department. Orphans have always had a special place in my heart, and I was excited for the opportunity to lead an organization that helps support orphans around the world.”- Dr. Saqr explains.
Breaking Barriers
One thing that makes LIFE different from other non-profits is its capability to work in 55 countries worldwide. Several countries have certain legalities and political barriers that prevent organizations from working in their area. However, LIFE has worked to break down those barriers and provide aid to the needy. While many organizations focus on specific projects, LIFE focuses on the daily needs of communities, helping to improve their lives by digging water wells, sending medical aid to local hospitals, books, and educational tools to schools, food aid, and clothing to widows, orphans, and the needy.
“LIFE works in 55 countries, each unique with its own political and societal issues. Some countries are experiencing wars, while others are experiencing poverty and economic downfalls. These issues can create a barrier for LIFE when it comes to sending aid and support to countries in these distressing situations.”– explains Dr. Saqr
It is also one of the very few organizations that work to assist the Native American populations in the U.S.
The Dedicated Team
With all poverty and economic issues in the world, LIFE’s team is dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance globally to those in need in 55 countries.
Their fast-paced nature helps LIFE deploy them quickly in case of natural disasters.
“The smiles on the faces of our beneficiaries and the success stories we receive from the field are what keeps us going and passionate about the work we do globally.”- says Dr. Saqr. “At LIFE, we believe that “teamwork makes the dream work,” and each department has their own responsibilities that make our work possible and the organization run smoothly.”
Future Roadmap
Life has grown immensely over the past two years and has expanded its operations in the U.S. and overseas. Currently, the non-profit is spread across all 50 states in the U.S. and has recently registered and opened offices in Yemen, Kenya, Malaysia, and Somalia. It is also working on its registration in Lebanon and the U.K. and exploring expansion in Bosnia and Ukraine.
From leading the marketing for world-class restaurants to mindfulness and coaching with horses.
For Maria, life is about balancing what you are good at, what you love and what makes your soul happy.
Maria, born and raised in Menorca, Spain, is living her best life in Dubai, where she leads the Marketing and PR at Infini Concepts for many popular restaurants, and she combines her job with her passion for healing and mindfulness.
The Mindfulness Part
Maria became an energy healing practitioner (Reiki) to help herself recover from a brain injury, and she not only recovered, but her whole life took a different and positive turn.
Maria does Reiki for people and horses and is certified in Horse Guided Empowerment with MrazMethod. She conducts private and group sessions in Dubai and Spain, helping people find answers with the help of the horses. She also leads international retreats where she works with a selected group of people to connect with themselves through holistic techniques, including Reiki, coaching with horses, sound healing and more.
When Maria recovered from her brain injury, she understood the importance of pursuing dreams while nourishing the soul with what makes people happy.
In our fast-paced world, many people, especially high-level executives, forget to dedicate time to themselves and slow down their ‘fight or flight’ mode. When this happens, people fall ill, shut down their spiritual side, and, in the end, can’t function in a balanced state of life.
Maria believes that her mission is to help people with stressful and demanding jobs recognise that holistic practices and mindfulness are necessary to succeed and thrive in their careers, personal life, and everything in general.
The Marketing Part
As a Marketing Director for Infini Concepts, Maria, specialized on F&B Marketing, manages the marketing and PR activities for 5 brands in Dubai. She also takes part in developing the branding and identity for new projects.
Maria is a resourceful and reliable person with an in-depth understanding of the food & beverage industry with 10 of experience in the UAE and three years of experience in the hospitality industry in Spain.
Her background in F&B Operations gives her a broader idea of how restaurants operate and understand the business from within.
Maria is creative with experience identifying target audiences and devising digital campaigns that engage, inform, and motivate.
Maria manages different teams and is always on top of her game when it comes to market trends.
She enjoys working hard for Infini Concepts as her work is measured on productivity and allows her to combine her job with the holistic part of her.
She believes that working in a place where inclusivity, equality and humanity matter is the core of being very good at your job.
About Infini Concepts
Infini Concepts is a Dubai-based hospitality company with a distinctive focus on uniqueness, creativity, and impeccable attention to detail. The Infini Concepts team’s collective passion for empowering brands and bringing concepts to life has resulted in 15 years of successfully operating, managing, and creating within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region’s food & beverage industry. Since its inception, Infini Concepts has built an impressive portfolio consulting for renowned brands such as Cé La Vi, Billionaire, Amazónico, and Cirque Le Soir, to name a few. In addition, Infini Concepts currently manages in Dubai own brands such as TABŪ, Miss Tess, Hayal-Flavours of Istanbul, The Other Side, The Unlucky Cat, The Health Co, and King of The Mambo in Sri Lanka.
Maria understands the need to combine the two very different parts of her life to function in a healthy and happy place.
One book:
‘Breaking the habit of being yourself’ by Dr. Joe Dispenza
One quote:
‘Apres l’effort le reconfort’
Jerry Inzerillo: Celebrating heritage and supporting localization to drive tourism’s future
Meet Jerry Inzerillo, the Group CEO of Diriyah Gate Development Authority (DGDA), who is leading the $50.6 billion effort to re-center Diriyah on the global map as a crossroads of culture, arts, science, and commerce.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jerry entered the hospitality industry as a busboy at the age of 13, where he quickly climbed the ranks to become a titan of the industry. And recently voted ‘’Hotelier of the World’’ by Hotels Magazines.
Jerry has served in a wide range of roles across hospitality and entertainment over his career, including as president of Kerzner Entertainment Group, where he raised the profile and positioning of its properties in South Africa, the Bahamas, Dubai, Morocco, Mauritius, Mexico, the Maldives, as well as conceptualized and positioned the start-up of its One&Only and Atlantis brands.
In his personal life, Jerry has long been involved with philanthropy, especially with respect to children, education, and HIV/AIDS. He was honored with a Knighthood by the Knights of Malta in Rome, Italy, in 1996. Jerry is also a founding advisory board member of the Clinton AIDS initiative.
In June 2018, Jerry was appointed by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to be the founding Group CEO of the newly created DGDA, where he was tasked with developing and implementing a master plan to transform Diriyah, the ancient capital of the First Saudi State.
DGDA is driving the transformation of Diriyah through a range of initiatives, the chief among which is tourism, with the goal to attract approximately 27 million visitors by 2030.
“Diriyah will be the world’s largest mud-brick city, designed in the Najdi architectural style native to the region and using traditional construction methods and materials where possible. This grounds the project in Diriyah’s history and ensures that we are authentically paying tribute to this 300-year-old city,” Mr. Inzerillo said.
Championing Saudization
Jerry has identified that one of the greatest vehicles to raise awareness of Diriyah’s accomplishments is through the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 strategy. First conceived by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Vision 2030’s goal is to transform and elevate Saudi society, while drawing on the huge number of young, talented human capital living in the country to drive this Vision forward.
Diriyah is one of the cornerstone projects of Vision 2030 and as such, Jerry has made it his mission as Group CEO to align DGDA with the Vision’s core tenets, including those around the development and empowerment of Saudi talent.
Upon the Diriyah development’s completion, 55,000 jobs will be created, producing significant opportunities for Saudi Arabia’s population. Under Jerry’s leadership, DGDA has positioned itself at the forefront of encouraging inclusive employment opportunities in line with Vision 2030 Diriyah’s objectives are specifically encouraging the roles and prominence of women and young people within the organization and prioritizing Saudization and ensuring exciting roles for Saudi nationals. Indeed, 85 percent of DGDA’s staff now consists of Saudi nationals, 14 percent of whom are from Diriyah, with more than a third of employees being female and 16 percent of leadership positions occupied by women.
Future roadmap
Jerry is leading DGDA to build a world-class destination, from restaurants and hotels to cultural centers and residential areas.
In the entertainment sector, Diriyah is opening its premium dining district, Bujairi Terrace this year, hosting leading Saudi brands alongside Michelin-starred restaurants. Diriyah has also been host to the Formula E races, major boxing matches, and the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale.
In terms of tourism, Diriyah continues to be a global player. DGDA will be home to a 38-hotel-strong hospitality offering that includes 14 global brands which have already been announced, such as the Four Seasons, Armani, Ritz-Carlton, Rosewood, Six Senses, and many others. Diriyah is also preparing to open the UNESCO World Heritage Site of At-Turaif to the public permanently for the very first time later this year.
The tourism industry leader said the project was of great significance to Saudi Arabia and the world. “Diriyah’s uniqueness lies in its ability to tangibly connect the destination to its deep-rooted history and cultural past while driving innovation to bring it into the future. Its buildings will be constructed using handmade mud bricks in the traditional Najdi style that is native to the region,” he said.
“We are very excited that our first assets will be ready to open this year, including the historic and spectacular At-Turaif, which will officially welcome guests from around the world for the very first time.”
Balaji Vaidyanathan: Spearheading Strategic Marketing Initiatives
Balaji Vaidyanathan is an integrated marketing specialist with 2 decades of experience in B2B and Consumer Marketing. As Director and Head of Marketing for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEEMEA) at Franklin Templeton based out of Dubai, Balaji is responsible for building the marketing value proposition, brand, and digital presence, developing the strategic footprint across CEEMEA, performance managing regional teams, focusing on both institutional and retail businesses and driving marketing efforts for global and EMEA strategic projects, amongst other initiatives. Prior to this role, Balaji was with Franklin Templeton in their India office, leading all brand, advertising, investor education, and several other initiatives.
“When I joined Franklin Templeton in India in 2010, I was drawn to it because of its well-respected and established global brand, remarkable heritage, work culture, and other aspirational facets,”- Balaji recalled. “Coming from an Indian company, I saw the opportunity to grow through global exposure and the chance to work with teams across regions and functions. Having studied various aspects of the firm, I believed I had many ideas I could bring to the table, and I sensed that these would be well received.”
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Franklin Templeton is a global leader in asset management with more than seventy years of experience worldwide. With 1300+ investment professionals spread across 23 countries, Franklin Templeton manages an AUM of $1.3tn, diversified across asset classes, geography, and client type.
Before joining the mutual fund industry, Balaji started his career as a group management trainee with the Aditya Birla Group, where he moved into a marketing role after an initial stint in sales. He was responsible for advertising & brand building, new product launches, managing the creative and media planning agencies, including ATL, communication, sales promotion, etc. After close to 5 years with Aditya Birla Group, Balaji worked with Lotus India Asset Management (now Invesco Mutual Fund) and then Edelweiss Financial Services in various capacities in the domain of marketing.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, London, Balaji holds an MBA in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. Additionally, he also has a diploma in Digital Marketing from NIIT and the Digital Marketing Institute.
Over the years, Balaji has become an angel investor and a mentor to various- start-ups in the space of deep tech, EdTech, health tech, and sustainability. He is also a part of the Advisory Board (Middle East) for the global CMO Council, which presently has more than 15000 members from senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries.
Changing Investors’ Mindset
Along with his team, Balaji is constantly striving to create awareness about the benefits of long-term investing. Their initiatives seek to equip investors with an understanding of the importance of planning for their long-term goals, particularly retirement, and make them appreciate the benefits of starting early, investing regularly, and staying invested for the long term to benefit from the power of compounding.
“In this era of easy credit and instant gratification, where everyone seems to be in the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) mode, we need to try to inculcate better savings and investing habits,” Balaji explained. “This entails first setting income aside for investments and then spending what is left rather than investing what is left over after spending. Wealth creation is making one’s money work hard for you, which can only be done through discipline, long-term commitment, and astute planning.”
Key Trends
Balaji feels this is a fascinating and dynamic time due to rapid and exponential technological developments and the constant evolution of customer preferences and expectations. Thanks to AI, data, and analytics, predicting patterns in customer behavior has become much more straightforward, and data-driven marketing strategies have become less of a gamble than before. However, one can’t undermine the contribution of creativity, agility, and innovation to the mix.
A few of the marketing trends Balaji envisage revolves around using web 3.0 and tapping into the potential of the metaverse. “As customer journeys evolve, we will see more brands focusing on an omnichannel approach to influence customers’ decision-making processes, and products and services will offer more hybrid and cohesive customer experiences. We will have to face the challenge that brand loyalty will become a fading concept, and a customer is only as loyal as her last experience with the brand.”- he explained.
Additionally, he feels, Regionalization is another major emerging trend as targeting tier-1 audiences gets saturated. This, alongside deep customization, will be a great brand differentiator, and personalization will become the key to hearts.
Also, User-generated content has ushered in a new era that closes the gap between creators of content and their audiences. As a result, audiences now seek to interact with content and content creators and with each other. This tests a brand’s authenticity like never before but also opens the opportunity to collect valuable insights into target audiences and their preferences.
“From a marketer’s perspective, these are exciting times ahead, and one will need to consistently up his or her game to stay ahead of the curve and ensure their brand is able to become the preferred go-to brand for their customers.”– said Balaji.
Awards and Accolades
Over the years, several prestigious institutions and peers have acknowledged Balaji with various awards and recognition for his work. As a marketing leader, Balaji puts his heart and soul into every campaign he has spearheaded or partnered with, and he always feels a great sense of accomplishment when they meet their mark or help him learn new things.
“At the end of the day, it’s always about the trust you built for your brand amongst customers, the knowledge that your work has helped improve people’s financial futures and helped investors understand the importance of financial planning/ planning for one’s goals,”- he explained. “That is the ultimate satisfaction – when you see the customer had been able to reach her goals in the long term because she believed in your brand and narrative.”
Top 10 Tech Trends for 2023
Nowadays, technology is evolving at a rapid pace, resulting in breakthrough progress and groundbreaking innovations. The world has always been mystified by technological innovations and its potential application. As per MediaPeanut, tech industry development increased by 5-6% every year. Grabbing evolving technologies can make businesses and the world stand out in a competitive edge. Emerging trends in technology refurnish every sector and make people’s lives easier than before.
In 2022, technologies like data analytics, Metaverse, and Robotic automation were the popular trends in the market which greatly impacted the work and development of IT companies. In this article, we pick the top 10 strategic trends in technology for 2023.
- AI and machine learning
AI and machine learning have been the two popular trends in the IT sector in the past few years. AI and its applications have captured almost every industry and business by automating the working process. No-code AI and drag-and-drop interface methods will help businesses and web developers to create more prominent and reliable product services. Machine learning is a subset of AI, which also ensures exciting future opportunities for skilled professionals in this field. According to a Statista report, the global AI market will reach up to half a trillion US dollars by 2023.
- Metaverse
Metaverse is one of the popular technology trends that has repeatedly captured people’s attention worldwide. AR and VR technologies are popular technologies in recent times. Tech experts predict that the Metaverse will add $5 trillion to the global economy. Tech giants like Microsoft and Nvidia are collaborating with Metaverse for future digital projects. GenZ youngsters are also showing keen interest and excitement in virtual technology. Many companies are already starting to take training with the Metaverse for sustaining in the AR and VR virtual world. So, basically, 2023 accelerates the metaverse tech and determines the future path of this technology.
- Advancement in Web 3
Web 3 is the third generation in the evolution of the web, which can prove as significant in upcoming years. Web 3 browsers are concerned with decentralized applications in Blockchain technology. Many companies in the world today offer decentralized products and services to their customers. Non-fungible tokens will be a useful feature in the Blockchain for 2023. NFTs will be the first step towards the decentralization industry by 2023 because Blockchain is another trend in virtual tech that may revolutionize the future investment and financial sectors.
- Quantum Computing
Quantum computing is another remarkable trend of technology for 2023. This trend finds application in finance, banking, fraud detection, and many more fields. Quantum computing offers advantages like superposition and quantum entanglement on computer devices. Quantum computing uses the principle of quantum mechanics capable of accelerating the speed of computers a trillion times faster than today’s traditional computers. Tech companies like Google and Microsoft are also taking part in quantum innovation.
- Progress in Sustainable development
After realizing the seriousness of carbon emissions, world leaders and business tycoons move towards sustainable development. A major step towards a green environment is EVs, as the Rise in manufacturing of EVs in 2022 indicates that people are shifting their choices and needs towards sustainable products. Businesses in the world are making high investments in renewables to produce green and clean energy for the future. It is predicted that by 2024 almost 33 percent of electricity will come from renewable energy sources.
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Business leaders and manufacturing industries are constantly focusing on the autonomous system. There are already self-driving cars introduced in the market, which represent the future of automation. Robotic automation will assist businesses in improving their CRM (Customer Relationship Management). RPA is used in companies to train and help employees to improve the quality of work to achieve great outcomes. With the help of AI gadgets and machine learning tools, robots can be proven as excellent replacements for humans in most sectors in the future.
- Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things is one of the revolutionary technologies, which allow people to transfer information and data using the internet. Smart computing, phones, and gadgets are useful aspects of IoT. This technology provides security, advanced devices, and efficiency, which makes it promising for future use. Data research shows that by 2025, there will be about 75.44 billion IoT devices.
- 3D Printing
One of the popular trends in innovation is 3D Printing which is used to create models and prototypes. 3D Printing is also known as additive manufacturing, which formulates three-dimensional objects by layering method. 3D printing innovation uses AI, machine learning, and modeling. Thus it creates opportunities for developers and AI experts to try something innovative in this field, looking at future aspects.
- Genomics
Genomics is related to healthcare technology which specifically studies DNA and genes. This technology carries out gene mapping, gene structure, and genomic sequence, which will help healthcare experts to identify rare diseases. Health issues in our daily lives can also be solved with the help of genomic technology. It’s one of the applications in the forensic study also because it helps to find out criminals using any small biological evidence. So genomics can open several doors of opportunities in the future.
- Extended Reality
Extended reality is upheaval in the trends of technology. It comprises Augmented and Virtual reality, which creates the virtual world concept. This technology will greatly bring change in the education, gaming, healthcare, and training sectors. Industries associated with these fields are constantly improving the way and features of technology. The GenZ population is more attracted to this concept of a realistic virtual world. However, many people make opinions that real-world experience can destroy due to this technology. But if we look with a positive perspective it can open endless paths of opportunities in the future.