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Actionable Tips To Unleash Business Data On A Budget

Data is the most powerful asset for modern businesses because it uncovers valuable insights that lead to the best decisions. But entrepreneurs often fail to miss out on the information resources on their customers, operations, and finances. It translates into lost opportunities to increase efficiency and profit margins in the long run. Fortunately, leveraging data is easier than you imagine. You only need the right approach and roadmap to handle what you have and leverage it to your advantage without breaking the bank. Here are a few actionable tips to unleash business data on a budget

Start small 

Data collection can be overwhelming for business owners, considering the sheer volume and variety available. Trying to go too far too soon can get you off track with inaccurate numbers or the inability to use the information effectively. Moreover, you may fall short of resources when it comes to collecting information from various sources. Choose a couple of metrics to measure when starting from scratch. You can add more data later as you gain experience with the process. 

Identify the information you already collect 

While starting small is the best tip, you can dig deep to identify the information you already collect. Surprisingly, you may be doing a lot of work, even without an intentional strategy in place. For example, most companies collect marketing information such as customer demographics and data on internet traffic. Likewise, almost every business keeps details of its finances for tax and banking purposes. You can save a lot by using the information you already have. 

Outsource expertise 

Data collection and management entail complex processes. You cannot expect to cover them with the right expertise on board. The best option for business owners running on a tight budget is to outsource data engineering expertise because it is far more affordable than hiring an in-house team. You can go the extra mile with the savings by opting for offshore services from regions like LATAM because tech talent is available at a low cost here. 

Be selective 

Another valuable piece of advice to make the most of your information is to be selective and measure things that eventually affect your customers. For example, retailers should keep track of metrics like queue wait times and abandonment rates because customers look for shorter queue times. Service providers can focus on data related to service time and travel time to jobs as they affect customer experience. Know what matters to your customers to stick with only the most valuable insights. 

Use data for decisions 

This one is a no-brainer because data offers value only when you use it to make better business decisions. The hard work collecting and analyzing goes to waste if you fail to utilize it to improve your processes, enhance customer experience, and boost your profits. You can even rely on it to fine-tune your business strategy in the long run, so do not miss out on the opportunity. 

Unleashing business data is the best thing you can do for your business. You should not have qualms about spending a bit on setting up a system for the collection and analysis of information. Follow these tips to achieve the goals on a budget.

How to Stay Productive as an Entrepreneur

As an entrepreneur, more often than not, you will have too much work and very little time to finish it. Let’s face it, juggling between tasks can also get overwhelming. This is why making the most of every minute and striving to be productive is imperative for any successful entrepreneur. If you are not productive, it is a matter of time before your business crumbles. So, how can you ace productivity as an entrepreneur? Here are some essential tips on staying productive as an entrepreneur.

Develop a Work Routine  

Routine instills discipline and prevents time wastage. Therefore, develop a routine for your work. Set aside hours that are solely dedicated to working only. Every day, start working and finish working at the same time.

Make the Most of Your Morning Hours  

How you spend your morning hours will dictate the productivity of your day. Start your day by determining the tasks that need your attention. Categorize the tasks as critical and urgent and those you can delegate. Start by tackling tasks that are critical for your business’s growth. Your morning hours are the power hours, and you should leverage them for the tasks that need more focus and attention.

Leverage Technology  

Today, technology is a critical factor in the success of any business. As an entrepreneur, I need to hack tech to ace productivity. You can improve your processes, services, and products to optimize productivity and enhance profitability through technology. The remote access features can enable you to access and control your office devices from any gadget or location. If you have a Mac, you can learn productivity hacks like how to access and control it from any location and device as stipulated by this guide how to access your mac remotely. It will help you boost your ability to collaborate with your time. With the help of technology, you can also improve your customer service and gain a competitive advantage.  

Avoid Multitasking

Contrary to the belief that multitasking helps save time, it is a time waster. Multitasking distracts your mind and attention. As a result, it kills productivity because you can hardly focus on a task. Therefore, if you want to be productive, avoid multitasking, especially in tasks requiring full attention.  

Take Breaks Between Work  

Taking a break between work can help you to boost your productivity. Breaks will help you recover from work stress, and therefore you will be able to focus better. Moreover, the breaks can restore your energy levels and reduce fatigue. Therefore, you will perform your tasks better.  

Manage your Team   

Manage your team to ensure that their productivity is optimum. Lead by example and work hard, and your employee will follow in your footsteps. Encourage collaboration and teamwork among your employees, and they will work together to give the best results. Create a work environment that supports open communication and employee feedback. Moreover, motivate your employees by recognizing their effort and rewarding their hard work.  

Wrapping up  

Staying productive is very paramount if you want to succeed as an entrepreneur. Productivity will boost the growth of your business. You should also strive to create a system that enhances productivity in your workplace. Remember, time means money. The more productive you are, the higher your income in business.

 

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.”

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