The 10 Most Remarkable Business Leaders Ruling The Modern Industry in 2022_Profile Archives

Bala V Sathyanarayanan: Creating a Diverse and Engaged Workforce

Meet Bala V Sathyanarayanan, the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Greif a 145-year-old Fortune 500-sized global leader in the industrial packaging products and services industry. Greif operates in over 220 locations spread across 40 countries and four continents.

He is an NACD Certified Corporate Director with a passion for creating the highest standards of boardroom excellence. Bala currently serves as Chairman and Board Director of Balmer LawrieVan Leer Limited and as the Board Director for Columbus Council for World Affairs. Additionally, he is on the board for the Center for Executive Compensation in Washington, D.C.

Bala’s parents always encouraged him to work hard and serve the people around him. A lesson also taught by growing up an Eagle Scout. So, he took lifelong advice and worked very hard to make a difference to the individuals, teams, and organizations he has worked. Servant Leadership is at the core of who he is and how he leads.

He says, “I believe that when you give your energy to an important mission, you are helping every stakeholder achieve clarity for their organization. You can do this by sharing your goals with others, inspiring them, and giving them hope for their dreams, or just showing them what is possible when you set your mind to something.”

Bala graduated with an Advanced Management degree at Harvard Business School. Additionally, he has received a Master’s in Human Resource Management from Rutgers University, New Jersey. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications Engineering from SVCE and an MBA from the University of Madras.

Before joining Greif, Bala served as the Executive Vice President of Xerox Corporation, where he led the HR and Business Transformation of the company. Prior to that, he served in multiple leadership roles at companies like Hewlett-Packard, Avaya Inc, Coca-Cola, and Otis Elevator Company.

A recipient of many global awards, Bala was also named in the list of Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business by the Asian American Business Development Center (AABDC), Executive of the Year by Columbus CEO Magazine, Top Inspiring Business Leaders of the Year in 2020 by Industry Wired Magazine, 10 Most Influential Business Leaders to follow in 2021 by CIO Insights Magazine.

Helping Companies with Path Breaking Products

Founded in 1877, Greif is a leading industrial packaging and services supplier. Spread across 40 countries, Greif remains committed to being the highest performing customer service entity for its global and regional customers. The organization’s core values shape its future and have helped it to stay on top of its competitors.

Greif ‘s Global Packaging Division helps its clients with steel, fiber, and plastic drums; intermediate bulk containers (IBCs); FIBCs; container liners; closures; filling, and reconditioning services. These products are used to protect and safely transport shipments around the globe. Bala says, “Our colleagues are here to help customers develop new packaging solutions or to partner with them to solve difficult supply chain challenges.” Greif ‘s technical expertise and years of experience enable it to guide customers through their product selection journey.

On the other hand, the Paper Packaging and Services (PPS) division of the organization manufactures containerboards, coated recycled paperboards, uncoated recycled paperboards, industrial and corrugated products, and offers recycling services. The PPS division serves the construction, paper products, textiles, automotive, explosives, and many other industries in North America. The Paper Packaging and Services Division has a closed loop system that successfully recycles recovered fibers, which provides Greif a competitive advantage through flexibility, supply security, and sustainability.

Tackling Challenges

Bala and his team’s biggest challenge related to talent optimization lies in the heightened focus and need to develop, attract, and hire new talents required to align with the organization’s business needs in the labor market both for today and in the future. Additionally, they need to balance the need to hire and maintain Greif ‘s essential workers at the plant while optimizing the firm’s approach to creating a more flexible, responsive, and engaging work environment for those who have an ability to work in a hybrid setting.

“We’ve been faced with rethinking our approach to learning and have pivoted to the launch of a completely virtual Greif University to continue meeting the need to educate our colleagues and ensure our investment in their continued global growth. This also results in us revamping our Leadership Development approach to stay in front of the trends in learning approaches that will likely be sustained post-pandemic.“- states Bala.

The Pandemic

Just like most other companies, Greif also had to adapt to every changing phase of the pandemic to develop, adapt, and update its protocols and monitor the safety of its Engaged workforce in more than 40 countries worldwide. Throughout this devastating pandemic, Bala and his team have developed various new protocols and either needed to change or emphasize them as more information became available in the public domain. From the beginning, the entire team followed the science and was guided by the best scientific organizations. Bala explains that they were also able to put various global and regional task forces in place, which led Greif through this pandemic.

The Future

Bala and his team’s primary mission is to create a world-class, motivated, diverse, and engaged workforce to help Greif deliver its global vision. Bala says, “My role is that of a strategist, an activist inside the organization to shake things up, helping the organization become more innovative. My mission as the Global CHRO is to manage the present while laying the foundations to help sustain global success for the future; we call it our Build to Last strategy.”

“My future aspirations involve helping others and using my unique gifts to make a difference by creating thriving communities across the countries that Greif operates.”– Bala adds. He plans to achieve these goals by focusing on the strengths of the organization’s Executive Leadership team which includes being candid, the love of learning new things, and the desire to make a positive impact on Greif ‘s global customers by providing them with excellent customer service.

Hudi Shehu: Transforming Organizations with a One-Stop Solution

Armed with the desire to transform online businesses and help other enterprises to overcome the same issues he had faced during his early days, Hudi Shehu founded Postjer Ltd. which provides a variety of services to help businesses establish and improve their online presence.

Postjer is a website builder and CMS that helps to develop websites, online businesses, and blogs using the most contemporary technologies like drag and drop, WYSIWYG, poster editor, and many other features that come with the package.

Born and brought up in Memaliaj, a small town in Southern Albania, Hudi’s passion for technology started growing at the age of 6 when his family created the first radio in his hometown.

He says, “My passion for technology and my adventure with it began at an early age, and I also learned how a business operates from my family.” At the age of 14, he started creating online media and managing numerous local company websites. He also began selling Gerid clothing in Albania and multiple other European countries with the help of his family.

As he learned a lot of things about online businesses and how to manage a family business, Hudi realized that technology is the future of business. He has always tried to start businesses by providing hosting for local businesses, but he was only able to do this only for a couple of businesses as the digital transformation had some limitations in Albania.

However, the complexity of using multiple platforms during the pandemic situation has now provided Postjer the much-needed opportunity to deliver a better user experience.

Uniqueness

Hudi believes, Postjer is unique because of its young team, which is very passionate about technology. This team is working hard to develop a platform that can be easily described as unique for all the capabilities it will offer, and many of these aspects will enable significant flexibility. Brilliant for various businesses, this platform will make it simple to build websites and online stores, handle content and technological upkeep. So, what distinguishes the company is that it is always thinking and upgrading for the benefit of the community, expanding the Postjer ecosystem with the most recent technological breakthroughs that are often relevant to various enterprises.

Mission and Vision

Hudi says, “My mission, objective, and dream have always been to build a team that thinks and works for the community, to become one in order to provide as much simplicity as possible to the building of websites, online stores, their maintenance, and the cost reduction of many enterprises. He adds, “My mission and dream are to create more digital platforms that provide individuals and small and medium enterprises with strong and simple interactions.”

Every day Hudi and his team strive for achievement, but the final target remains the same, which is to offer every customer a chance to expand their businesses online, allowing any company, irrespective of capital or budget, to experience the benefits of digital transformation. Initially, Postjer was only a website builder platform, but this year the team realized that a component of this SaaS platform would become an essential marketing tool, automation system, and data management system for online retailers.

Picture of the Future

As the CEO of Postjer, Hudi will not stop with just one platform. The organization will continue developing various other platforms available to a wide range of organizations, communities, and enterprises. It believes that during a second phase, elements of developing web applications will be there, but it will also be a part of the Mobility industry, as the company is in the process of including an application dedicated to reserving only electric vehicles to make people aware of the renewable energy sources.

Empowering Individuals and Organizations

Hudi says, “We aimed to have individuals that are enthusiastic about technology, making user-friendly products, and having a group that would produce stories in many areas of technology in our team or other people who join us. What I constantly tell new employees that join us or the team is that our sole purpose is to empower any individual or organization to participate in the digital transformation.”

“This is a philosophy shared by all members of the Poster team, and we are all striving to improve every day in our quest to build sustainable and adaptable goods.”- he concluded.

Iris Santiago: Helping Clients by Providing Customized Healthcare

Meet Iris Santiago, the Chief Operations Officer of In Home Personal Services, which was born to provide customized health care tailored to meet every client’s individual needs.

In Home Personal Services is a non-medical senior care provider. It ensures comfort, compassion, and quality care in the home to those who need that assistance for an independent lifestyle.

Iris is a licensed Occupational Therapist and Certified Professional in Human Resources. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy from one of the Universities in the Philippines.

Iris often says, “It always brings a smile to my heart whenever I hear that a client we cared for is grateful for the impact we made in his or her life.” She believes it is not about the compliment itself but the thought that she and her team at In Home Personal Services have made a significant difference in someone’s life is very rewarding.

For Iris, her role is a lot more than just a job; it is her calling. She aspires to further extend this program to other care providers enabling them to provide better quality care to a client or a loved one.

The Steadfast Leader

Iris’s clinical expertise has been well paired with her business acumen and sense of care for others. Before coming to the U.S., Iris worked in a community rehab and a hospital-based rehab for more than seven years as an Occupational Therapist.

Once she arrived in the U.S., she was quickly recruited as the Human Resources Director at IHPS. Over the next decade, she worked very hard and was ultimately promoted to the Agency Manager, eventually the Administrator, and now the Chief Operations Officer.

She says, “It may sound cheesy, but we provide our services with heart. All programs and services are really central to our clients, and all of our sister companies have the same goal of becoming to be a one-stop shop for our clients. Our services are affordable but with quality at its best.”

The best part about Iris is her humble nature. She immigrated to the country and took an executive position without formal training and experience. As the HR Director, she further developed her knowledge and experience by getting her professional HR certification through the HR Certification Institute in 2010.

The Founder’s Word

When we asked Michael A. Collura, the founder and President of IHPS, why did he choose Iris all these years ago? He says, “When you meet Iris right away, you can tell she is intelligent, driven, and genuinely cares about people. These are not common qualities to find in people today. So, we had to act fast when she first applied. It was clear that her career path forward was going to be so much more in the years to come. He also added, “When the time came and my own Mother, In Home Personal Services’ other Founder, was to move on from the company, there were some pretty big shoes to fill. Iris quite simply was the only one in our brand’s history that could fulfill the role, and as such, with the support of the entire company, Iris was promoted to the Administrator. Over these past years, it is clear she is capable and ready, and one day she will take over for me as I look to retire, and Iris Santiago will be our CEO.”

Preparing for Challenges

For In Home Personal Services, caregivers are the most critical asset. However, employing a caregiver is not an easy task to do with a lesser number of caregivers and very high demand. So, over the past few years, the organization has come up with an innovative solution and has built and improved its own school for caregivers.

Currently, In Home Personal Services is the only organization that offers caregiver certification for all fifty states in America. This solution eventually became one of the major differentiators for the brand.

As an organization, IHPS believes the pandemic has opened the eyes of those who used to take healthcare professionals for granted. In IHPS, no one ever wavered in the face of uncertainty, fear, and confusion during the initial stages of the pandemic. The whole IHPS team now hopes to bring a fundamental change in inequality and access to care and gratitude towards the people who work on the frontline.