Category: INFLUENTIAL BUSINESS LEADERS Sept20 Profiles

JEFF LOCASTRO, A PROACTIVE BUSINESS LEADER, GOING BEYOND THE REALM OF TRANSACTIONAL APPROACH

In the digitalised world, the power of data from managing internal resources to connecting customers has amplified significantly. While most of the businesses have curated a lot of data, they are still lacking the ability to capitalise it. Here comes the role of Neener Analytics that analyzes online social footprints to help lenders maximize revenue, improve margins, and deliver better customers by identifying the manifest financial risk character of their customers through an array of next-generation analytics. What Neener Analytics is doing is amazing; it fundamentally alters the analytics paradigm forever.

While many brands are following the old transactional approach, Jeff LoCastro, the visionary behind Neener Analytics initiated his endeavors and is playing the role of a game-changer. This is not Jeff’s first rodeo. He was a member of the initial executive team of the inventors of an online social network: Classmates.com and was one of the first to extract innovative insights from social network data; innovation beyond simple demographics and advertising and became a pioneer in the monetization of social network ‘membership.’ While the marketplace focused on ‘transactional” features, Jeff was one of the first to connect affinity and behavior to understand non-linear correlations. Based on his ability to extract unique insights, Jeff pioneered the first-ever effective CPA (cost-per-action) model which became the basis of all future social analytics models, as well as the foundation for all social media monetization.

Among his many awards, including 2 Best of Show @ Finovate, and Rising Star Award @ India Fintech Forum, Jeff was most recently selected Top 10 Inspiring CEO to Watch 2020 by Enterprise World and by MirrorReview Magazine as Top10 Most Disruptive Tech Entrepreneurs 2019.

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS  

Neener Analytics has come up with a solution for 1-click AI-based financial risk decisioning technology using Human Data; a regulatory compliant AI-based financial risk decisioning technology using social media or any media used socially to help lenders, insurance companies, and all risk-based businesses better decision and understand specific, individual, risk outcomes for thin-file, no-file and credit-challenged consumers.

Besides, the company is building a Delivery Platform around its Decisioning Platform core. The Platform will engage the potential borrower at multiple points of contact including POS using Web, Postal, Email, Chat, QR, Mobile, App, or Text/SMS and include all the KYC including facial recognition, income verification, and employment validation.

THE INSPIRING STORY

“I’ve built a number of companies. Each one seems different but, there was always a through-line. And that through-line is really my story. I’m a serial entrepreneur. I don’t know how else to be. I’m addicted to creating and building things. I don’t know where the “addiction” came. Maybe I was just born with it. But I have always been surrounded by people who were doing that: building and creating,” Jeff LoCastro shared.

“My grandfather was a serial entrepreneur, my father was a serial entrepreneur, and his friends were serial entrepreneurs. I often joke that I never knew anyone who had a “real” job. My first job was with an entrepreneur. And I’ve just always asked “why?” and “how?’ I’ve never understood the idea of “you can’t do that.” As you can imagine that notion got me into a lot of trouble as I was growing up but I am supremely attracted to ideas where I’ve been told it can’t be done,“ he further added.

GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT

“I always answer that question by saying, “besides my son?” As a Founder, I think my greatest achievements are always the Ideation and the Creation of the Dream, and seeing Others Buying Into my Dream, believing in my dream and working alongside me to make it real, and then Customer’s Buying Into my Dream as well… and then paying for it. Imagine: someone paying you money for your dream. It’s pretty cool,” Jeff proudly said.

THE WORK-LIFE BALANCE

“Indeed. I am the first one to say that I don’t know what work-life balance looks like. And I’m not joking when I say that. There’s seemingly 12-million moving parts at any given moment that all need precise attention. The skill I think is being able to switch gears quickly and mentally setting aside the previous “gear.” Challenges are overcome with focus. If you are only halfway in, things spin out of control pretty fast,” asserted Jeff.

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES OF JEFF LOCASTRO

  • Share the Vision: Great leaders have a way of getting great people excited about the future; the ability to inspire.
  • Create a Mirror: Always make sure the team sees that you are willing to give as much as you demand from them.
  • Chart the Path: Great leaders can see the path before them and can show their team that it’s real. Pretty important: A vision with no path is just a fantasy.
  • Empower Execution: Great leaders allow great people to get things done. Sounds simple to say, but bad leaders are control freaks. Great leaders question, and course-correct.

THE DRIVING FORCE BEHIND THIS SUCCESSFUL JOURNEY

As mentioned above, Jeff LoCastro is addicted to building things. And, he gets tremendous satisfaction from doing that which they said could not be done. Before he launched Neener Analytics, he asked 10 people that he believed to be smart if what he wanted to do was doable. Each said “No.” Then Jeff knew it was doable. So, the thing is that if everyone knew it was doable, it would have already been done. It is doing the undoable that gets Jeff out of bed every morning. Doing big things!

ONE MAJOR CHARACTERISTIC OF A LEADER 

The ability to Inspire! If you don’t have that, then the rest is just meaningless. People don’t follow good ideas, but they will follow inspiration. Inspired people can move mountains . . . sometimes literally.

COMPANY’S FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Jeff said, “We’ve suddenly had a lot of interest from global companies and lenders. That is very exciting in that each can scale us overnight in their respective verticals and we are fortunate in that our solution is both cyclical and counter-cyclical. For risk-focused businesses to understand engagement risk is critical whether the economy is good, or the economy is bad.”

WORD OF WISDOM

You don’t always get what you want, but you get what you need. It’s the truly lucky ones who find that they are one-in-the-same.

ELLEN VOIE: EMPOWERING WOMEN IN TRUCKING INDUSTRY THROUGH HER VENTURE

An internationally recognized speaker and a businesswoman with a sustained passion for woman empowerment, Ellen Voie is one such dynamic lady in the business world who has been encouraging and supporting women in the trucking industry.

The Women In Trucking Association, under the capable supervision of Ellen, has established its position as an industry leader to promote the employment of women in the trucking industry, to remove obstacles that might keep them from succeeding, and to celebrate the successes of its members. After forming in 2007 with the support of a passionate leadership team, highly engaged members, and committed sponsors and partners, this non-profit organization has made an impact globally.

In 2012 Ellen VOIE was recognized by the White House for being a “Transportation Innovator Champion of Change.”  This distinction gave the organization a higher level of both credibility and visibility in the trucking industry.

THE INSPIRING JOURNEY 

Ellen VOIE started her career in 1978 when she was hired at a steel fabricating plant in central Wisconsin. She worked in the drafting department, designing material handling equipment, such as steel pallets, bins, and racking. In 1979 she was transferred into the Traffic Department. She earned a diploma in “Traffic and Transportation Management,” and later became the Traffic Manager.

In her personal life, Ellen VOIE married a professional driver, and they started their own trucking company. Besides, she did free-lance work as a transportation consultant, ran a small carrier, raised two children, and attended college to earn her bachelor’s and then master’s degree in communication.

After twenty years, her marriage ended. Ellen VOIE accepted the position of Executive Director of Trucker Buddy International, where she led the program for six years. Then, she was recruited by Schneider National to lead their retention efforts.  Her job was to initiate corporate-level programs designed to attract and retain non-traditional groups, which included female professional drivers.

At the time, she was completing her pilot’s license, and she belonged to an organization for female pilots. It struck her that there wasn’t a similar group for women in the trucking industry, so she started one.

That was in 2007 when the Women In Trucking Association was formed!

DIFFERENTIATING FACTORS

As a member-based organization, their goal is to listen and provide the needed resources.  For an association, this typically means information such as best practices, research, and as much data as possible.  In 2007, there was very little data in the trucking industry related to gender.  In fact, many trucking companies didn’t even track the percentage of female drivers or managers hired.  The organization’s focus is to listen and learn and then provide the resources their members need to create a more diverse culture.

COMPANY’S FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

In thirteen years, the Women In Trucking Association has grown to about 5,200 members in ten countries. One of their goals is to expand into more international economies, to have a greater understanding of how to attract and retain women in other nations.  Not all challenges are the same.   For some, such as India, it might be cultural, and for others, such as in Western Australia, it might be due to the nature of the challenging terrain. They are also working to create more local and regional groups by forming chapters.

HURDLES IN THE PATH & THE BIGGEST FAILURE

“The goal during turbulent times is to be adaptable.  We need to make decisions in an agile way so we can be proactive instead of reactive.  For example, we decided to cancel our annual conference and to change it to a virtual event.  This created a challenge to deliver the needed and desired content without compromising the interaction.  We are all getting better at virtual meetings. However, it still removes the personal connections we make at an event, and our goal is to ensure our attendees feel included, educated, and entertained enough to want to come back next year”, stated Ellen.

She doesn’t look at any actions as failures; she views them as learning opportunities. There are decisions she has made that have turned her in a different direction, but that’s part of the journey.  She can’t think of anything she could have or would have done differently.

THE “SECRET SAUCE” and “VISION” IN LIFE

Ellen proudly said, “As a leader, my approach is to lead by example.  I work hard and expect our team members to work hard, as well.  Since we are a virtual organization with remote staff, it makes it more challenging to motivate and support, but we do that through consistent interaction.  More importantly, we hire people who can work independently and who are self-motivated.  We don’t count hours, and we don’t over manage.  Instead, we treat each individual as an adult and measure outcomes instead of hours.  This makes work-life balance easier when our team members choose their workdays and establish their own schedules. Outcomes are the goal, not timesheets or check-ins.”

Ellen’s vision, or perhaps her superpower, is that she looks ahead to the future.  She sees the opportunities to create change and grabs them.  She does not let anyone tell her she can’t succeed! Ellen is driven when it comes to looking forward and making the industry a better place.

NEW IDEAS

 New ideas as a CEO include creating more opportunities for various demographic or professional groups to learn from our expertise.  For example, female professional drivers could be segregated by whether they work in teams or solo, owner-operators or company drivers, or by the type of freight they haul, such as flatbed, automotive, dry van or refrigerated.  Ellen loves to see more of an individualized approach to these connections.

BEST ADVICE RECEIVED

Ellen Voie shared, “The best advice I ever received was to move out of my comfort zone.  Each one of us needs to test our limits to see what we are capable of accomplishing.  Without pushing ourselves, we’ll never experience the sense of accomplishment that comes from the challenge.  I have sky-dived, Bungee jumped, and learned to drive an 18 wheeler, fly a plane and ride a motorcycle.”

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