Womens Era Archives

Ekta Ahuja: Transforming Homes with Innovative Services

With more than 19 years of experience at the forefront of the interior design industry, Ar. Ekta Ahuja is one of the most well-known interior designers in Pune. Ekta received her architecture degree from Dr. B.N College of Architecture, Pune, and soon she worked with Ar. Hafeez Contractor, who is an icon in the field.

Later Ekta founded her own Architecture & Interior Designing house named; Tejomaya Architects & Interior Designers, which is a true reflection of effulgence, brilliance, and splendour that echoes through every architectural and interior design it creates with finesse. Ekta and her team’s relentless passion for contemporary art and design inspires them to create a stunning vision of luxury, style, and grandeur like never before.

The ever-evolving style from Ekta is often best defined as ‘classic contemporary’ creating a stylish and nonchalant dialogue. Ekta’s use of neutral tone in furniture and adding colours with artifacts, artworks, and soft furnishings creates unique, memorable, and inspired spaces.

Transforming Homes

Thanks to an experienced, highly qualified, and dynamic team of interior designers, technicians, architects, and project managers specializing in various aspects of design, Tejomaya Architects & Interior Designers’ employees allow it to offer the best experience for its clients.

Ekta and her team manage the entire process starting from the conception stage through the completion stage. The team is equally happy to work on both residential and commercial projects, both in Pune and outstation.

Tejomaya offers multiple services for its clients, which include;

Interior Architecture & Space Planning: Tejomaya Architects & Interior Designers are one of the best residential interior designers in Pune. As the founder of the firm, Ekta takes a complete overview of every project, so that every aspect of the scheme is completely integrated and is in line with the clients’ brief. The architectural design team is very much well versed, when it comes to providing various internal services like state-of-the-art AV, Automation, HVAC, Lighting Systems, and MEP.
Interior Space Planning: Sometimes, a small change can bring a huge difference to a troublesome area. Interior Space Planning is Ekta’s specialty, and this service helps to bring out the best of any space without having to make any major changes.
Furniture Design: Rather than following a distinct house, Ekta and her team ensure that every project Tejomaya undertakes is perfectly tailored to its clients’ needs, tastes, and style.
Lighting Design: Just like every human, all rooms and buildings have their personality, and most of the time few touch-ups and proper lighting design consultation, one can make it stand out. So, Ekta and her team work with their clients throughout the whole process to get the best out of it.
Landscape: Tejomaya Architects and Ekta is best known for their pre-construction consultations. Ekta feels an impressive space or structure that often leaves a long-lasting memory and impression that can be bought to light by natural lights and landscapes. Ekta and her team use these features extensively indoors and outdoors.
Interior Styling Consultation: As every room or building has its personality and stories to tell, Ekta uses many materials, textures, and colors to make each place comfortable, and welcoming.
Old Property Renovation–Restoration-Remodel: Under Ekta’s leadership, Tejomaya architects identifies the proper methods to transform old properties for the new intended usage.

Tackling Challenges

During the initial days of Tejomaya architects, it was more of a one-woman show, with Ekta only. However, with time, the company grew and hired new architects, supervisors, and other team members.

Although, the main challenge for Ekta was always recruiting the right talent because Tejomaya architect does bespoke designs. So, the organization needs to have a good amount of talent, who can follow Ekta’s design sensibilities, and show clients’ personalities in their designs.

Inspiring Employees

The pandemic was a tough time for everyone, but the planning and organizational skills of Ekta and her team helped them to sail through. Since everybody moved to a work from home concept, it increased Ekta’s horizon to hire new talents across the country.

Ekta Ahuja also witnessed that people understood the value of a good home, so her industry and business has flourished post-Covid. So, once work starts flowing, the team automatically gets motivated. Also, being in the office after a long time has motivated people to a large extent. Additionally, when a bunch of creative minds works together it’s a different outcome. She says, “Learning is a continuous process and it can happen only when you are exchanging ideas in our field, so that’s the biggest motivation for them to work in a team and see their project come up and site getting done.”

Future Roadmap

For the future, Ekta Ahuja and her team at Tejomaya are venturing into a lot of architectural work, so Ekta wants to increase the horizon of her firm and is looking to expand her team pan India. She also has an architectural department, which is doing more and more architectural work.

Advice for Young Entrepreneurs

When we requested Ekta to provide some suggestions for the young entrepreneurs. She says, “The most valuable advice I have always received, and I would like to pass it on that you should always stand by your values and beliefs as if you don’t stand by something, you’ll fall for anything.”

Company Name: Tejomaya Architects & Interior Designers

Management: Ar. Ekta Ahuja, Founder

URL: tejomayadesigns.com

Wies van ‘t Slot: An Award-winning Business Woman, Mother,& An Outcast Visionary Entrepreneur

With a passion to do things differently. More transparent above all, and more digital, Wies van ‘t Slot, Director, 365Werk spearheads her brand to do just that – Digitalize the recruitment and hiring process. She aimed at creating her own culture in her teams and this is what kicked her off and keeps her speeding forward. Forty two-year-old Wies became director and co-owner of 365Werk six years ago, after a career in the Randstad and YoungCapital world.

Full of ambition and full of confidence, Wies van ‘t Slot, a passionate, enthusiastic, hard-working entrepreneur, is the mother of three beautiful boys (13, 11, 9). Being a mum has always been her active wish, as has to be an entrepreneur. The inspiring lady had been dreaming of leading her own company for quite some time before she actually had collected enough guts to go out and give it a shot. “Being an entrepreneur is who I am. It’s who I’ve always been”, said Wies.

More about the Firm

In a shrinking market, the online employment agency, 365Werk has managed to grow, year after year. Besides, Wies started concentrating on the service, saying: if we want to be as online as possible, we need the best human service ever in combination with that’. It was a decision and a focus that really led the team to where they stand now. Investing in the software continues undiminished, A-level service is their main goal. To achieve that, the way the teams are composed and working together is key.

In the last six years, 365Werk has been honoured with FD Gazellen Awards four times, a prize for companies with the largest rise in revenues. Also, because of the rapid growth of 365Werk, Wies has been recognized as one of the hundred most successful businesswomen in the Netherlands.

Clientele & Branding Strategies

365Werk is operating in four different industries: catering, logistics, cleaning, and business services. To ensure their service level keeps surpassing the expectation of their clients, the 365Werk team regularly investigate their wishes and criticism. Their wishes are put directly on top of their innovation agenda. Wies and her team always keep in mind that they have to stay flexible, being able to adapt to new insights and desires.

“We are young, fresh, different, a bit puckish, cheerful, not formal at all. Our message is that anyone can be a boss. That’s our tagline as well. Thanks to us, you’re able to manage how, when, and where you’re working”, asserted Wies while talking about her unique branding strategies.

Impacts of Covid-19 & Solutions

From one day to the next, 365Werk lost about two-thirds of their revenues, mainly due to their hospitality and catering clients being closed down. Immediately following that shock, they started mediating their people to other branches. Meanwhile, they went out to connect more clients from businesses that weren’t torn down by the crisis. One of the riskiest parts of their strategy was that Wies decided to stop sending bills to her clients in hospitality, to protect them from stressing out. The plan worked out beautifully when the government started to help out businesses, which she had anticipated. Today, their client portfolio is more differentiated than it ever was, thanks to the strategy during the deep Covid crises.

From the Founder’s Desk

From within my organization, I can’t see any challenge other than always keeping in mind our teams having an eye on diversity. And of course, there’s the ever-going struggle to use ‘female skills’ like empathizing and being vulnerable on the one hand, and being strict and clear on the other, without growing the label ‘bitch’. Outside my own company, challenges are bigger. Inside the business networks, I feel part of, there are only a few women. It’s always difficult to mix naturally with large groups of men. Whereas they seem to be pals, talking about guy’s stuff, I will never completely fit in. Partly because the stuff palls talk about doesn’t really interest me, but mostly because palls tend to feel forced to switch subject and attitude when a woman is around. That’s something no woman wants to happen.

Wies’s Approach to Entrepreneurship

First of all – and this sounds a bit trite – you have to maintain your own course, stay close to who you are. In her opinion, the worst thing you could do is try to change the way you act. Being a woman in a male-dominated surrounding offers opportunities to your advantage as well. For example, it’s much easier for me to stay top of mind than it is for a man in a blue blazer.

Challenges Faced by Women Entrepreneurs & Wies’s Advice

Wies said, “In my country, the biggest challenge is facing criticism regarding motherhood. A lot of people don’t understand or do not wish to understand how a mother can spend so much time being an entrepreneur whilst having young kids. The danger of being labelled a “bad mother” is one of the biggest factors of woman entrepreneurship being relatively rare. ‘How do you manage at home?’ is a F.A.Q. to a female entrepreneur. Men never receive that question.”

She continued, “I think the way to handle this pressure is to believe in what you are doing. The only way to feel free to do so is to make sure things at home are well organised. Once you’re convinced your family is taken care of, and your professional ambition is undisputed, you should be able to withstand the criticism of that kind and move forward in order to achieve your goals. Just accept that people might have other opinions.”

The Current Hurdles

Wies’s main worry now is how to move the company to the next step, with revenues of around 60 million euros. It’s a big and fantastic challenge to figure out in which way my teams are up to it and to prioritize the tasks ahead. It means She is looking into investments, opening new branches, hiring new talent, and strengthening the IT backbone.

A Day in Wies’s Life

The alarm rings at 06.30. Wies gets up, goes out to have a short hike with her dogs, returns to have breakfast with her husband and sons, takes a shower and leaves at 08.00 for a twenty minutes drive to the office. Every day, the leading lady’s agenda is filled with numerous appointments inside and outside the office. Most of the time, she arrives back home at around 1800 so she can assist her kids with their sports training and have dinner. A couple of times a week she goes out in the evening to the gym, on other nights there’s a network meeting. And sometimes she is at home, watching Netflix with her husband.

365Werk in the Next Five Years

“The next few years are dedicated to growing even faster. We’re going to achieve that thanks to a combination of IT and an ever-improving service. Our means is to extend our efforts on making the best ‘Tinder for work’. That’ll give us the possibility to stay strong and grow. In the next five years, we’ll definitely open more offices around the country and strengthen our brand”, Wies proudly shared.

Words of Wisdom

Just do it. Take it step by step, but get started. You don’t need extensive plans, because they’ll change along the way. There are a thousand reasons not to start as an entrepreneur. Don’t listen to them. Give it a shot, the best shot you have.

Farah Hawilo: Trust Capital TC – Enriching lives, creating Reliability!

Businesses come and go, what stays is the presence, the impact, and the name of the enterprise. Business is more about creating a relationship between the company and the customers than selling something to someone.

A company is always on the search and hunt for the next big innovation, which could carve their name in the hall of fame, but, what about the existing products/services they offer?

There are a lot of companies offering similar products/services but only a few prevail and take the top spot. What makes the customers follow these names only, and overlook any other, despite discounts, extra benefits, etc.?

The answer is Trust and Reliability.

Farah Hawilo is one of the leading and eccentric businesswomen of 2021. She is not only an effervescent leader but also a great persona, inspiring budding entrepreneurs and exiting businessmen/businesswomen.

Farah Hawilo is the Executive Director of Trust Capital TC. Trust Capital TC provides a secure, reliable, and transparent environment to trade CFDs on Forex, Metals, Commodities, Indices, and Cryptocurrencies.

Offering direct access to the financial markets with the benefits of competitive pricing, tight spreads, low commission, and negative balance protection.

Since Brokers do not share a good image in the market, Farah Hawilo and her company aim to eradicate that by providing services that are unmatched, top-notch, and completely transparent. Trust Capital TC revolutionizes the traditional image and perception of Brokers.

Farah Hawilo, and her will to create something extraordinary and change the face of trading and the air around it, makes her one of the most dynamic businesswomen to watch in 2021

“To achieve something that you’ve never achieved, you have to do something that you’ve never done”

The Company, the Journey

Trust Capital TC started a revolution in the securities market. Licensed in 2018, with a mission to provide an environment where traders have transparency and reliability. Their base of operations is set up in Cyprus, with the representative office in Dubai UAE.

They offer a trading platform for clients to invest, whether they are retail or professional clients. They offer a lot of instrument support, such as Forex, Metals, indices, energies, Commodities, and now cryptocurrencies.

To cater to clients of all kinds and offer different account types suited for all kinds of investors, professional or starting out, Trust Capital TC offers a one-stop solution.

Being a broker, a company faces many claims, which are on the negative side. But Trust Capital TC rises as the knight in shining armor for all those cheated, mistreated, or conned by traditional brokers. The defining characteristic feature of Trust Capital TC is the education they offer, and that too free of cost! They conduct webinars, seminars, and provide online education. They also have a program called the Forex Mentor, providing one-on-one training.

Trust Capital TC and its team know trading into Indices, Forex, etc. is a risky job. They offer education so people and their clients can learn. They impart education, not to get accounts, but to establish trust and eradicate improper knowledge which stains the occupation of trading as a whole. They are the change, by being the change!

They also offer practice accounts, so people can practice trading with virtual money. This does not stop here as Trust Capital TC monitors the account with them, and tries to give them some tips, etc. on how to trade and how to get better, and much more.

One of the most challenging tasks for Trust Capital TC and its team was to get their license. As they moved and chose Cyprus as the base of operation, CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) had introduced regulatory changes, implied stringent rules, and regulations. As the leverages were reduced to 1:30 from 1:100, making it less risky for traders, brought in a lot of compliance work, etc. to get a license.

Moreover, to get the license they had to plan and regulate policies, in adherence to the regulations, keeping it completely transparent at all times. With dedication, hard work, and luck on their side, they were one of the last companies to get a CySEC license!

After the license, next was the task of setting up the company, but that was something they were already prepared for, making it easy for them to establish their firm.

What pushes Trust Capital TC to grow and succeed?

A lot happened during the pandemic, and for Trust Capital TC it was a make-or-break situation. There were many changes going on in the markets and people’s mindsets too. The shuffle in employment opportunities pushed people to become more aware of what trading can offer, especially as a second income source.

To tap this space, Trust Capital TC conducted online webinars, a lot of them. Projected towards educating and creating awareness about trading online, what it means to invest online, and it is not as difficult as it seems. This not only led to more clients, but traders who are educated, aware, and understand trading, which Trust Capital TC strives to achieve.

People of different fields also became more interested in trading, because Trust Capital TC broke many myths along its journey for its clients and students.

‘You can only trade if you know finance’.
“This is not true; you can learn anything that you’re interested in. All it takes is time, effort, and education. This is why we are here to help”. – Farah Hawilo, Executive Director, Trust Capital TC

Trust Capital’s roots for its long-standing success

What makes Trust Capital TC successful and the first choice of traders is its reputation with its clients. As there are hundreds of brokers, spread across different instruments, regulated, and not regulated, etc. The unregulated ones, unfortunately, have made a bad reputation. There are many cases where clients face difficulty receiving their profits, customer service was bad after they opened an account, and so on.

Trust Capital’s ethics is to have great customer service and to make sure client is aware of every stage of their account. Even after they closed the account, they make sure they’re doing okay. They keep a check and make sure their clients receive anything they need, along with the surety of debiting/crediting funds on time. They do frequent follow-ups, making sure the client has received profits, is up to date, etc.

Another factor making Trust Capital TC sought-after and acclaimed is the transparency with cost. Their pricing is everywhere, on the website, and on terms and conditions, etc. They make sure the client doesn’t miss anything because it is the money that they’re investing. So, they make sure to take care of that very much and be transparent with the client!

Services offered by Trust Capital TC, and what sets them apart

Trust Capital TC offers a variety of instruments to trade in, right from Forex, Metals, Gold, Silver, Commodities, Indices, and now offering Cryptocurrency. They offer CFDs (Contract for Differences) on these instruments. CFDs are more based on speculation, thus allowing one to trade without purchasing an instrument. This means one can trade with a higher quantity, with a lower amount. CFDs on crypto are being offered by very few, but with reliability and trust on Trust Capital TC, there is no better option out there!

As mentioned earlier they provide education too. They have created a mobile app that helps the client track their trades, making their trading simple and easy, thus, saving their on-screen time. Clients also get pop-up notifications showing trade information, etc. They also receive other benefits right from the calendar of news to calculators that they might need, and much more.

They also offer affiliated partnerships. If someone wants to refer clients, they have a program for them. Also, liquidity offering is also provided. If it’s a corporate account and they want to open an account, get liquidity, etc. Trust Capital TC also provides that.

There are a lot of factors that set Trust Capital TC and its services apart. They make sure that pricing is competitive. They offer different account types with different pricing and different commission. So, clients can choose accounts, pricing, etc. to their needs.

They also provide as many payment methods as possible. They have PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, credit card debit card, and bank transfer, so no one feels restricted with one payment method.

Also, the free education is a huge plus, because almost all the Brokers have great offerings but only a few offer education, and that too on a condition if you’re a funded client with them.

Trust Capital TC also offers immersive and proactive customer service. It’s 24 hours, 24×7, all days a week, even when the markets are closed, making sure clients receive regular updates about everything, are always in the light!

New additions to Trust Capital’s service arsenal

They are in the works of offering equities, which would make Trust Capital TC a one-stop-shop for the client. Clients will be able to open a trading account with them and trade Apple, Amazon, and other equities. The best part being, one account with Trust Capital TC enables you to trade a variety of instruments, right from crypto to gold, crude oil, currency, and much more!

What makes it interesting as now equity CFDs will be available to trade along with education, making Trust Capital TC a complete solution for traders and investors.

How Trust Capital TC goes ahead with changing times and trends

Trust Capital TC offers various instruments to trade and invest. They are integrating new instruments, such as cryptocurrency, which is being offered by very few in the market. Also, the regular additions and updates to the mobile app, making the whole experience seamless. Moreover, the team is always looking for changing trends, new technology, etc. which can be integrated to make sure their services are unrivaled and always the best the industry has to offer!

The Leading Lady, Farah Hawilo

Farah Hawilo started her education in finance, got her bachelor’s degree in banking and Finance in Lebanon. Right off the bat she started working and initiated her journey to get some experience in the Forex industry.

She started from customer support, to learn all the ins and outs of the Forex world, right from client account opening, back office, etc. She also pursued and accumulated few certificates including risk and investment compliance by Reuters, Bloomberg terminal, etc. that fetched her more knowledge, skills, helping her get up the ladder.

All this prepared her and provided her the knowledge she needed to start her company. Followed the start of Trust Capital TC, where she was handling different roles and departments, such as operations, HR department, Compliance department, dealing with sales, etc.

Farah Hawilo feels the highlight of her professional journey is getting the CySEC license, owing to stringent norms, compliance, regulations, etc., and nurturing her company to become a successful and respectable name in the market.

From there to open up a new office in Dubai, dedicating herself to bring more awareness and education amongst traders, eradicating the bad image around Brokers, and expanding the business is one of the major highlights of her career!

What Farah thinks are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur

Number one is to be true to what you are doing. If you’re working on something and comparing yourself all the time to similar businesses, you won’t ever be ahead of the competition. Your work should keep you more into a tunnel vision, towards the goal, in the end, to have other people look at you, copy you, and not the other way around!

Be true to yourself, true to what you are doing, and at the same time don’t only look at it as a profit-making making business. It will get there as long as you have your ethics and the company. You have to make sure about the way you treat your employees, make sure to relay the message that the employees are not working for you, they’re working with you. To build a culture where works towards the same goal.

Always keep learning. No One Ever Knows enough. Keep trying to develop yourself, make sure you’re up to date with whatever new is going on in the markets and technology because times are changing very fast.

“They say you have to do what you love but to be honest to get to that goal you want; you have to go through phases, where you are not enjoying the process so much. I was doing compliance work, working in different departments that were not my initial passion. But in the end, this is what led me to the goal. You’re going through phases that you don’t love and you don’t enjoy at that point. You have to get through them. And you will reach your end goal!” Farah Hawilo adds.

Team of Trust Capital TC

Every member of Trust Capital TC goes to work with the goal of personal development, which is something that they love in the company.

They don’t go for a nine-to-five shift, they focus on their personal development in the company, and how to best provide their clients. Trust Capital TC and its environment promotes learning and pushes its team to pursue certifications, seminars, and education.

So, this approach helps the team grow and motivates them to apply their knowledge and skills, bringing out the best of Trust Capital TC!

This culture inspires the team to branch out, and do even more than their job description. Inspiring a feeling of oneness towards the company, providing clients with 110% dedication and focus, and innovating along the way, make the team of Trust Capital TC exceptional and one of the best there is!

Farah’s views on constant vigilance- as a need or strategy

You cannot be naïve about what you’re doing, the company, etc. thus. You have to be aware, and keep up with the changes. So, definitely, it’s a need and a strategy!

You need to see what’s going on around you, need to see what market is offering, so you can offer better.

“Whether it comes to marketing your products, you always have to be listening”

You have to be doing your research, see the trends, etc. Then comes the part of keeping up with the trends around practices, this is where your strategy kicks in!

Farah’s take on the competition in the market, and how she deals with it

On a personal level, one has to get some balance in the personal life. As the work doesn’t stop after 5 or 6 p.m. and keeps going. So, you have to have that balance, for your mental health, for your well-being, etc. you need to balance.

Also, spending time with oneself is important. Give your thoughts space and time, moreover, give yourself the time you deserve!

On a professional level, always read the news. Stay in tune with what’s happening, so you can keep up. “If you get drowned in your work only and you’re not aware of what’s going on the outside, you won’t be able to reach the daily tasks that you want to reach.” – Farah Hawilo adds.

Nora Osman: The Natural Change Agent

As a New York-born first-generation American, Nora Osman was raised by her immigrant parents, who instilled the values of working hard and taking care of others as a priority. At a very tender age, she learned that everything is possible if you believe in the American Dream. Nora also believes, “you alone are responsible for mapping your own journey in life and making your dreams a reality.” Until high-school, Nora travelled to several countries and attended international schools, which eventually gave her exposure to a diverse world and unique learning. This life-changing experience taught her to be independent, curious, and open. After completing her High School, Nora attended a state university in Long Island, graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree with a focus in Business Management.

Professional Journey

Nora’s professional journey started with her role in accounting. However, she soon started showing interest in mainframe, networking, and personal computers. By the time Nora left her first company, she was handling their entire IT portfolio, serving as the Operations Manager. This experience gave her much-needed exposure to multiple stacks of technology. Additionally, it also opened the door for her to work at a software solutions company. While developing her systems engineering skills, Nora also started cultivating skills in communication and sales. This background helped her to take on her first true management role in a health insurance company in New York City. Over a span of a decade, she began her journey in service management and learned about people, processes, and tools. She managed multiple areas like Service Desk, Desktop Support, Engineering, Application Support , and Budget management.

Nora’s vast knowledge in ITIL helped her gain an edge in building sustainable business processes with her team. However, this expansion eventually catapulted her career and resulted in multiple roles like Director, Sr. Director, and VP of different technology areas in different industries.

Later she started her own business in partnership with her husband and co-authored a book with three other writers. To date, she remains most passionate about helping people in many areas of professional development.

Although Nora had direct experience and exposure as a business entrepreneur in the culinary space, she takes pride in herself when it comes to having a business-centric mindset in IT in general. She loves to understand the business purpose first and foremost and build others’ respect for this same calling.

Motivating the Team

Nora is a huge fan of Simon Sinek and she truly believes in his mantra “Start with why.” She makes sure that she and her team start the work with an understanding of the true purpose of the work. People want to know why what they are doing matters, and once they do, they then need to feel empowered to figure things out and to use creativity to achieve the goal. Nora encourages her team to “think outside of the box, assume there are no constraints, and then answer the question, how would you approach things?” And aside from giving them space to think and develop a plan, she loves to encourage them along the way, showing genuine interest in their progress, giving constructive feedback, and taking pride in their evolution.

Awards and Accolades

In her 25 plus years as an IT leader, Nora has championed innovation and problem-solving in the service management space of multiple organizations, ranging from commercial insurance, software development, health insurance, financial services, and healthcare. Amongst Nora’s biggest accomplishments is her specific track record of establishing highly functional/motivated teams that transform the organization, exceeding its mission, and delivering an outstanding customer experience.

Nora is very proud to have developed leadership skills in many individuals and having helped them to choose a career path, which otherwise was beyond their wildest imagination. Exponential growth is of utmost importance to her, and she hopes to leave a legacy of servant leaders, who could make a difference in this planet we live on.

“With that said, I’m proud to have seen several members of my team achieve personal recognition and awards in customer service and also climb the steep ladder of success with promotions.”– Nora added.

In 2021, Nora was recognized as a finalist for an Employee Engagement Leader of the Year award by Reworked, which was a notable accomplishment for Nora.

Tackling Customer Experience Problem

Nora Osman believes, while in the technology space it’s all about solving a business problem. Technology doesn’t exist for its own purpose, it solves our needs. She is passionate about solving the customer-experience problem, developing strong people awareness of how process and human interaction matter even more than tools.

She has also found that many leaders are entirely focused on getting from point A to point B, but they aren’t thinking of how that journey will impact others, including the employees who have to do the work to deliver service or the customers who are using this service. So she helps to connect the dots in these areas, and motivates everyone to keep the balance between employees and customers.

Helping Others to Lead

Nora’s vision is entirely centered on elevating others, their strengths and talents, and igniting the flame that’s within them. She lights the torch that they carry, and then she likes to provide a sounding board and support along the way. The combination of Nora’s strengths helps her to be a natural change agent. Because she capitalizes on her innate creativity and her ability to truly understand people while being a skilled problem solver, she embraces the challenge with less resistance than most. The striking thing about Nora Osman is her ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable, as that pit in the stomach excites her since she knows she is learning and growing and doing something that’s real and of value. Intuition for Nora Osman is a catalyst for action, and she trusts it innately.

When it comes to suggestions for budding entrepreneurs she advises, ‘look, listen, and learn’. She adds, “Look with curious eyes, and see the world around you, the need, the pain, the problems, and the ways to solve them, and see the beauty in all this. Listen with an open heart, with the intent to understand, and with a kind spirit, and listen to your own thoughts and intuition. Learn all that you can, about others, and how to help them, about ways in which to do this, and always learn to focus on the why.”

Quote:

“Do what’s right, and not just what’s easy…what’s easy isn’t always right, and what’s right isn’t always easy!”

Lexis Serot: A Thought-Provoking Leader, Humanitarian, and a Doting Mother Setting New Benchmarks

A path-breaking leader, Lexis Serot is driven by a passion for transforming lives and providing life-changing experiences. She is spearheading the motto of Collaborating, Empowering, Supporting, and Protecting others through her organization, LittleWins.

She is the Founder and a model leader at a young, rapidly growing organization. Her vision of leadership is about setting an example and leading a unique path to achieve desired purposes and goals.

“The reason I started LittleWins is a huge part of who I am today. I wanted to tell my daughter that when life presented an “at-bat” I swung like hell. With my daughter, I saw firsthand how difficult it was to access the proper care and equipment that could enable her to reach her fullest potential. Every detail of LittleWins has been carefully designed, with compassion, respect, and love for this community.”

A Ground-Breaking Leader

Lexis is well versed in the care, therapies, and equipment that help her daughter – and people with a range of abilities. She has navigated a frustratingly complex system that leaves people with disabilities and their families feeling isolated and alone. Understanding the need of the hour and being shocked by the disparities that, limit many people’s access to durable medical equipment, she decided to address this problem by founding her company.

Based on her experiences, interactions, and an “unrelenting desire to make a change,” Lexis began laying the groundwork for LittleWins in 2018. The name is personal and relatable to her community because every progress milestone for a person with disabilities is a little win for them and their family.

All About LittleWins

One in six children and one in four adults in the U.S. have a physical, developmental, behavioral, or sensory impairment. Most can’t afford the durable medical equipment they need or wait months for insurance companies to approve it.

Lexis believes that access to equipment and supplies should be simple. The mom of four, including a daughter who has cerebral palsy, founded LittleWins.com to connect and support people with disabilities and individuals who actively work to provide a better quality of life for others.

LittleWins.com harnesses the power of the community to help its members buy, sell or donate medical equipment, get information, and connect with others. Members list and browse equipment by category and location on the company’s website. They connect directly with buyers and sellers through the site’s app. They share tips, experiences, and advice on LittleWins’ social pages.

“People with disabilities deserve to say, ‘there is nothing I’m not worthy of.’ LittleWins goes to bat for every one of them,” says Lexis.

Since 2018, Lexis has continually adapted the LittleWins.com website with web and e-commerce developers. She directs a marketing assistant and marketing communications agency. She works closely with her legal and financial advisors. She collaborates with regional and national organizations that support people with disabilities. She partners with other entrepreneurs, who offer products and services to her community. She created and posts regularly on LittleWins’ online support forum, receiving and providing feedback to help people with disabilities and the families that support them live their best lives.

Coming Together for fulfilling a Bigger Purpose

Lexis is a passionate advocate and cheerleader of the work of national and local organizations that serve people with disabilities. She works with durable medical equipment suppliers such as NuMotion to identify used equipment that can fulfill the needs of LittleWins community members. She connects regularly with other entrepreneurs – such as Communikind founder Cimeran Kapur– and promotes their services on LittleWins.

She joined forces with another woman entrepreneur, Hotsy Totsy Haus CEO Christi Leonardi, a deaf single mother, to create LittleWins-branded, natural ingredient bath bombs, that are now being sold, on the LittleWins website.

Lexis regularly works with NuMotion, National Seating & Mobility, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and Clearbrook.org, which empowers adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live their fullest lives possible.

Building a Resourceful Community

Lexis’s relentless efforts to build an online community of people with disabilities have paid huge dividends. More than 6,000 followers now visit LittleWins.Facebook and Instagram pages; and 800+ visitors go to the LittleWins website every week. To date, LittleWins.com’s 7,500 + community members have donated, purchased, or exchanged more than 200 pieces of equipment. They also exchange experiences and advice daily on the site’s secure messaging app.

The Team LittleWins “Empowering Communities and Smashing Stereotypes” Private Facebook Group. Now 400 members strong, the Group, led by Lexis, is a platform for families and people with disabilities to share their stories, provide advice and experiences on products and services and provide mutual encouragement.

After launching LittleWins.com in 2019, Lexis began to explore how the site could serve her community’s needs beyond durable medical equipment. To build the LittleWins brand, she launched a line of LittleWins apparel – beanies, trucker hats, and t-shirts.

The LittleWins blog and podcast feature educational posts, stories about her clients, inspirational leaders in the disability movement, interviews with durable medical equipment and adaptive technology experts, and more.

Lexis continually mines feedback from the company’s surveys and emails that can inform how it can create (or support) solutions to common challenges for people with disabilities. She is preparing to launch a medical supply subscription box program that will provide people with disabilities and their families exactly the right supplies they need, when and how they need them.

Combined, these initiatives are raising awareness of LittleWins’ mutually-supportive community, and the used durable medical equipment items that are available on LittleWins.com

The Big Wins of LittleWins

During the past year, Lexis launched two new projects, with a third about to launch. LittleWins teamed up with Dine-It-4ward to raise money for the Cerebral Palsy Foundation.

LittleWins sponsors events that, support services for people with disabilities, such as the abilities Expo, Virtual Run/Walk of Clearbrook, a leader in creating innovative opportunities, services, and support for people with disabilities; Farm Fresh Food Bank, The Kids Equipment Network, and front line responders. She also put together the first-ever music festival to accommodate people with disabilities this past summer.

She’s donated hospital beds to people who needed them during the start of stay-at-home orders. For this effort, Lexis Serot took out an ad to reach people who had hospital beds but no longer needed them. She picked the beds up from each donor’s home, disinfected them, and delivered them to people who needed them.

Lexis Serot gives virtual shout-outs to companies that actively support people with disabilities through their product marketing and hiring practices. She shares stories of LittleWins community members and their loved ones.

In 2021, Lexis Serot was named a Top 100 Healthcare Visionaries by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare, previously known as the Smart Health Conference. She has been asked to be a keynote speaker at this year’s conference, to be held in Dubai. LittleWins was also awarded honorable mentions, by Fast Company’s 2021 World-Changing Ideas.

Lexis’s Ultimate Vision

In addition to her day-to-day leadership of LittleWins.com and full-time care of her four young children, Lexis’s entrepreneurial spirit, drive, and relentless pursuit of growth for LittleWins.com are rooted in her desire to help others. Her deep belief in the unique service she’s created, her ability to tell her personal story, and her talent for connecting with people who share her vision and journey.

She believes that community-based models – supportive online villages like LittleWins – can re-unite everyone to solve shared challenges, reach common goals, and make sure everyone has an equal shot at success. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, she has used the power of online communication to tell the stories of her customers and her community.

The Road Ahead

Lexis Serot envisions a world that values people of all abilities – a world that actively supports their right to the help, equipment, and services that help them achieve their full potential. She reckons that everyone’s attitudes toward people with disabilities are improving, she believes – pointing to companies whose policies and practices support workplace equality. “But we still have a long way to go,” she notes. “We must celebrate and tap into our differences on a much broader level.”

Lexis Serot exemplifies leadership in 2022 – an entrepreneur in evolution who derives satisfaction from helping others – and continually finds new ways to serve them a better and brighter future. She has even launched version 3 of the LittleWins website at the beginning of this year. This version update was spearheaded by the community and what they wanted to see from LittleWins and how it could be better. The latest update includes a premium membership which allows members a fixed shipping rate through FedEx and the ability to print their labels at home.

Susan Semmelmann: An Exemplary Woman in Design

Our homes are our sanctuaries; our comfort zones, a place where we can acquire a sense of belonging. We personalize this place to meet and suit our preferences. However, with all of the intricacies, options, and decisions to consider, the decorating process can become daunting. In such cases, seeking advice from interior designers help us bring balance and elegance to our space. They adapt to our tastes in creating environments that make us happy to reside, under the banner of interior design.

Interior design is a space that is equally dominated by both men and women, but one must acknowledge the extra creativity that women bring to the table. From extending their finesse and artistic skills to creating brands that are loved by people all over the world, women interior designers are carving a niche for themselves. One such young and inspiring Interior Designer is Susan Semmelmann. Susan has worked tirelessly over the years to build her design firm — Susan Semmelmann Interiors. Susan designs amazing one-of-a-kind feature elements that can be included in the home throughout the construction phase. Her brand is known for catering to various lifestyles and having a blend of contemporary, modern, vintage and bold vibes. the inception in March 2019, she has expanded by leaps and bounds in merely three years. Currently, the company has 70 projects in the pipeline, and Susan’s expertise is in high demand.

Susan brought her 23 years of design and construction knowledge to the table. She stepped out in faith, armed with vast experience and a crystal-clear vision, to start her new venture with no clients and only a few willing staff. Her customer list swiftly grew, and she now needs to hire more designers and critical personnel to keep up with Demand. Her key goal in growing her company is to retain loyalty, relationships, and connections among her employees. She believes, that if fundamental values are prioritized, work will always reflect a high degree of excellence, resulting in a trusted brand. “The quality of life lies in how you choose to see it. It’s all about perspective,” she adds.

Transforming Styles into Spaces that Rejoice Living

Susan has remarkably carved her journey to attain her current stature. With the help of her team at her design firm, she continued to work with her clients to create inspiring and innovative designs that meet their tastes and styles. Through networking, word-of-mouth, and recognition from peers and contemporaries, Susan Semmelmann Interiors has become a hot topic. Much like Susan’s firecracker personality, she and her team’s designs are utterly unique. “We are a turn-key design firm that can walk our clients from construction through completion. Soup to nuts. We provide many levels of custom consultation and design options, as well as hundreds of top-quality vendor lines offering art, décor, and furnishings,” she asserts.

She states that every project uniquely identifies itself as each space has its own identity and feel. While designing a project, endless factors are incorporated together. Almost everything in the environment, including what lurks deep within the senses, acts as a stimulus; be it a piece of music, a painting, enticing objects, nature, culture, and most importantly people and their stories. Susan’s competitive advantage is her ability to build a home that is truly theirs, integrating elegance, comfort, and function while remaining within their means and budget. Aside from having a thorough understanding of their requirements, she was able to save time and make the entire process fun and painless.

If you can dream it, she can Build it!

Keeping supply-chain constraints into consideration, the company focuses on broadening product access and availability to satisfy clients’ needs. Her clients undoubtedly agree to the fact that Susan Semmelmann Interiors puts the ‘custom’ in custom-made. The firm’s construction detailing options include floor-to-ceiling feature walls, fireplace surrounds, ceiling details, cabinetry, tile design, and integrated lighting, to name a few. Semmelmann Interiors also has an in-house collection of beautiful custom drapes, bedding, and upholstered furniture made from quality fabrics sourced directly from mills. Their exclusive offerings also include custom-crafted mattresses, seats, ottomans, mirrors, and headboards. Momentarily, the designed pieces chosen for projects are not found in retail, so it intends to customize the desired items.

‘The Spirit of Living is in the Giving’ is the motto that encapsulates Susan’s purpose for doing what she does. “I have the amazing privilege to use the vehicle of top-notch client service and fabulous design to invest back into my community and make a difference,” she says. Susan Semmelmann’s star is blazing across the interior design landscape of Dallas-Fort Worth and beyond. She thrives on giving stellar service to her clients and also shines a light on charitable pursuits near and dear to her heart.

Future Endeavours

Susan and her team are developing something spectacular in Fort Worth in an attempt to build dreams for their clients. She mentions, “What started as a cautious commitment to take on 2,500 square feet of office space has grown into a 10,000-square-foot firm with aspirations for an online presence and off-site storage to retain items and merchandise.” The Vickery location will house the firm’s office as well as Fort Worth Drapery and Fort Worth Design Studio. The concept is to open these resources to the public and give other designers more options to offer their clients. Moreover, being a compassionate personality, Susan is committed to sharing and desires to enlighten others with her insights.

“Susan Semmelmann Interiors is 100% invested in making our clients’ dreams a reality. They are trusting us with their hearts’ desire for their homes. It’s an honor to be part of that process, and we don’t take it lightly. We simply partner with them by bringing our resources and expertise to the table to build something beautiful!” one of her clients emphasizes.

Lona Alia: Helping Distributed Companies & Remote Workers

With the pandemic wreaking havoc, organizations across the globe moved to work from home otherwise known as working remotely, which helped people move out of their comfort zone and work from anywhere. Those that were part of the first wave before the pandemic started were called digital nomads and their numbers were growing exponentially each year. However, the pandemic and more remote working opportunities are making this lifestyle much more common than ever before. So, SafetyWing, headquartered in San Francisco was founded to build the first global safety net for remote companies, remote workers, and nomads worldwide. It offers medical insurance for nomads and remote companies around the world. It is also developing other insurance products such as retirement, income protection insurance, life insurance and more. Its products are built and designed by a fully remote team of nomads distributed across three continents.

Meet Lona Alia, who is a venture-backed Y Combinator Founder at StyleLend, and Head of Revenue at SafetyWing. Lona is also an advisor to start-ups and EU for innovation, remote work advocate, and expert at building fully remote teams. The avid traveller in her has taken her to more than 80 countries. She is interested in building things that people want, teams that employees want to be a part of, and companies with a mission, that is greater than making money.

Be Insured

As an insurance company SafetyWing provides multiple insurance services for its clients;

Nomad Insurance: Nomad insurance is a global travel medical insurance that covers people across the planet, while outside their home country. This policy is specifically made for digital nomads. It can be purchased while already aboard, covers home trip visits, and operates as a monthly subscription.
Remote Health: Remote health insurance is fully-fledged health insurance for those who are working as remote teams. It provides a flexible solution that no other company offers.

Through Remote health insurance, full-time nomads can stay safely abroad, no matter where they go or how long they stay.

Influencing Factors

Freedom is the biggest factor that influenced Lona. She always wanted freedom over her time and location. She wanted to be able to live the best life possible under her terms and not have to follow orders, which eventually drove Lona to start her first company.

Lona believes freedom is the only condition for happiness. And she has found that independence in the flexibility that SafetyWing affords it’s team to work from anywhere in the world.

The Best Company Culture

Lona says, “We have created the best company culture in my opinion that exists out there.” SafetyWing’s team members are happy to be given the freedom and flexibility to work from any location and most times zones that are in line with the Americas and Europe. They have the freedom to be creative and be entrepreneurial within their positions in the company.

Authenticity is one of the ingredients the organization values very highly. “Be the same on the outside as you are on the inside. Be brave enough to say what you think is true instead of what other people want to hear.”- adds Lona.

Tackling Challenges

Lona Alia believes, keeping the company’s culture intact while growing rapidly is very important to the success of the company, their customers and their team members. The entire team of SafetyWing values it’s culture so dearly that every team member makes sure to have regular brainstorming sessions quarterly as a team to come up with tactical steps that are necessary to implement in order to preserve the organization’s culture.

Future Roadmap

SafetyWing currently offers 2 products to its customers. However, the organization is planning to launch at least two more services for its clients in the coming year;

Remote Doctor: This service will help SafetyWing’s clients to consult with a doctor remotely. No matter where the clients are, they will be able to get premium medical care from the comfort of their homes.
Remote Retirement: This is a retirement product that prepares SafetyWing’s clients for their future when they are ready to leave work.

Advice for Leaders in Organizations during the Great Resignation

When asked about suggestions for organizations on contributing to a balanced industry, Lona Alia says, “Listen to your team members the same way you listen to your customers.

Your team is creating tremendous value for your company and they should be treated with care, respect, and appreciation. Implement the things they want and you will be surprised how much your bottom line will benefit.”

Also, when it comes to advise for female entrepreneurs, Lona Alia says, “You live in the best possible time to be alive in terms of global opportunity. No matter where you come from if you have an internet connection you can learn the skills needed to get the position that you want by standing out from the crowd.” She adds, “Put a presentation together of what you can do for the company you want to work for and reach out to the hiring manager and present it. You will be surprised with how few people go above and beyond.”

Christine Stoffel-Moffet: Helping Companies to Succeed

Everyone in this world has a story. Now it is up to us how we acknowledge the learnings along the journey of life. Christine Stoffel-Moffet is one such person who acknowledges all the learnings during her journey. She has enjoyed a wonderful career of more than 30 years in technology. Additionally, she also excelled in the areas of operations, sales, and marketing, which enabled her to become a multidimensional transformational leader.

Many people in the arena of global sports know Christine as the Founder and CEO of one of the most iconic sporting consortiums and annual conferences in the world S.E.A.T.

She leveraged her collaborative leadership style by building SEAT to be known across the Globe as a “Community” of like-minded professionals creating life-long relationships through sharing experiences, sharing projects, lessons learned, and the true essence of thought-leadership. Over the last two years, she served as the Interim Head of Enterprise Technology at NASCAR.

With her massive experience of driving transformation across the organization, as well as for 15 years through SEAT transforming leaders and global industry, she decided to take 30+ years of technology, operations, and business experiences and her entrepreneurial mindset to launch her new consulting company, Christine Moffett LLC to help as many organizations embrace evolution and transformation as possible!

Innovative Solutions

Thanks to the encouragement of several of Christine’s global sports colleagues and friends, the offerings of Christine Moffett, LLC are complementary to each other and leverage her core specialties as an executive leader.

Christine’s business consulting offerings are:

Mentoring & Coaching: Through coaching and mentoring, Christine provides individuals an opportunity to be heard. Through this process, Christine provides unique perspectives and insights giving them the tools to become the very best version of themselves with the ultimate goal of finding success in life through happiness, confidence, and empowerment.
Virtual CIO/CXO: Christine provides fractional, interim, or temporary executive-level strategy, guidance, advisory services, and supports HOW and WHEN businesses want it. From technology, data strategy, digital transformation, business operational optimization, network, and data security, staff coaching, mentoring, training, and optimization to leading your organization to embrace innovation and strategy for business growth.
Interim CIO- Transform IT Organizations: Through this service, Christine looks to guide under-performing and culturally-broken technology organizations to evolve into confident, service-oriented, strategic, collaborative, and innovative organizations becoming trusted advisors across their company through compassionate leadership, mentoring, skill assessments; enabling empowerment to deliver a well-defined strategic technology roadmap alongside the business and reducing technical debt to increase the operational bottom-line.
Board and Advisory Roles, including Start-ups: With 30+ years of expertise, she welcomes opportunities to leverage her multi-dimensional, executive, and global perspective, with unique insights in a collaborative format through Board positions or Executive Advisory roles.
Event Consulting: Christine believes a conference event should not be treated just as an event but as an adventure and a journey that everyone in attendance has the amazing opportunity to experience something special and feel proud that they attended. While creating successful, exciting, and engaging events for the global sports and entertainment industry, she has developed various unique methodologies that, if followed, will take an event from ordinary to extraordinary

Tackling Challenges

As a business leader, Christine faces multiple challenges. However, the biggest challenge she faces as a business owner is continuing to create new and creative ways to market her services enabling business visibility and growth. While the other challenge is to continue finding those ‘gem’ clients. For Christine, gem clients are those who are willing to change, willing to listen and have a deep desire to be the best company they can be for their employees.

Christine’s motivation comes from reading. She is an advocate of Audible, so she can listen to books while driving, working out, and doing daily chores. Once she used to tell people that she is a great multi-tasker. However, with growing experiences, she now looks to continue learning every day, which will eventually grow her experiences and knowledge.

Motivating People at Work

Christine believes keeping people around her motivated in order to be innovative and productive is a mindset and it’s all about attitude. She always keeps a positive mindset and constantly inspires creativity by involving people to be a part of the journey.

During her long leadership career and being a parent Christine has discovered that motivating people can be accomplished by trusting, showing appreciation, rewarding, and showing belief. So, she always suggests finding unique ways to inspire them every day!

A Business Leader’s Journey

As a business leader, Christine’s journey has been filled with heartbreaks, joy, fun loss, failures, excitements, successes, and basically everything that has made her who she is today. She has no regrets of mistakes along the way, only lessons learned along this journey and Christine is striving to continue being the best version of herself, every day.

For her there’s nothing more thrilling than mentoring and coaching professionals at all levels, helping them to look at their own situations through a completely different lens. Christine believes her journey as a business leader provides her the opportunity to share her life experiences with others in a hope that they are not alone, there are people to support them and listen to them.

Helping People to Succeed

Success to Christine is helping people to move beyond their current vision of themselves and be able to provide them mentoring and support to evolve as an individual and as a professional beyond what they ever believed could be possible.

Success to Christine is being able to use her 30 years of technology, operational, sales, and marketing experiences through her business consulting and advisory services, in order to enable organizations to transform their company or organizational culture, business processes, and strategy to embrace innovation, employee empowerment, increased operational optimization and renewed excitement in their business mission and visions for the future.

Christine says, “It’s exhilarating to watch professionals as well as organizations desire to change, and then for me to be able to be a catalyst in the change, is incredibly rewarding!”

Fai Chan: Redefining the Beauty through Science

Like many of you, we too are on a hunt for clean skincare products that also goes distances with the results. Deli Aroma has long been one of our go-to brands for that exact reason. We appreciate how intentional they are with sourcing natural ingredients at the peak of freshness, and it is clear such emphasis maakes a visible difference with results.

Fai Chan, Founder and CEO of Deli Aroma LLC understands the cause and wants people to feel better about themselves, by harnessing science to deliver. With her experience in the beauty industry and passion for research and innovation, Fai founded Deli aroma LLC in the year 2014. She is focused on making effective and ethical products available in the market.

She was born in China but grew up in Hong Kong, got married, and immigrated to the United States when she was 30 years old. She applied what she had learned in her previous life and maintained a positive relationship with the citizens of the USA—who not only treated her well but also provided her with possibilities in the fields in which she was interested. One of the many reasons behind setting up the business was to increase her self-worth. She recalls a meeting with the tour guide in Hawaii who advised her to get a job to improve her self-worth. He explained to her, “those who have self-worth appear differently than those who have not.”

A Coin has Two Sides

Deli Aroma LLC is a research-oriented company that strives for its excellence in providing custom-made integrative approaches to people with health concerns. The products made are tested repeatedly for ensuring their effectiveness and safety. It came up with an approach, ‘a coin has two sides.’ It implies in researching the treatment regimens of all-natural medicines and mainstream medicine’s intervention can make things better in an inescapable way.

While skin beauty can be achieved through a skin-deep approach, a bone-deep methodology can bring customers less work and more long-term results. Deli Aroma takes concerns in both inside and outside aspects of protocols, taking part in research conferences and peer-reviewed publications. It desires not to be limited to traditional medicines but also explores pharmacology with toxicology, to keep the company abreast of time.

The foundation for this paradigm was laid by Deli Aroma in Fai’s latest publication on Alzheimer’s healing in Drug Designing Journal Open Access. She believes that it is best not to interfere with her teammate’s jobs when they are working independently. “Your teammates won’t be able to grow if you intervene too much. The most difficult thing to strike a balance on is this,” she says. She attempts to establish an environment where they are free to express themselves; backed with her knowledge and skills from her marketing degree, she is interested in targeting the market niche to ensure that her works are of market value. She believes in exemplifying the positive aspects of one’s practice and creating some pleasant encounters while maintaining company ethics, making people to returning to Deli Aroma. She feels that one must not give up on his/her dreams even though the results are not pleasing as expected. “Building people up and encouraging each other to live the ‘best’ life they can is very important than letting negative emotions take control of your life,” she mentions.

Fai Chan believes that ‘invisible hands’ have aided her in achieving many goals in life. “I am a slacker, but I believe in reciprocity in this world. You need to lend your hand to others before you can receive other people’s help to advance too. That is why I do a lot of charitable work,” she says and believes to have charitable associations to help unite and achieve a greater good in both business and non-business spheres. “I devised a five-year strategy to encourage the work of a few artists. If this world is all about money, we won’t be able to develop our greater inner calling on the spiritual side,” she implies. She understands that many artists rely on others, thus she proposes establishing a balance between materialism and spiritualism. Being a curious and hardworking individual, she spends most of her time in research expressing research as her second nature. Moreover, she is a believer of God thus she paraphrases the Bible, “There is a time for everything. When you are on bad days, you will know that this will pass away… When you are in good company, then you should cherish what you have, as this will pass away too.”

Future Endeavours

When asked about her plans regarding Deli aroma, Fai Chan responded, “In three years, I intend to open my laboratory and assemble a team to carry out further ground-breaking research. For the time being, I can only build on what others have done in terms of foundation work to build on my own. After setting up my lab, I can have more in-depth and untouched areas in science or medicine that haven’t been discovered yet. I enjoy discovering new things, and discovering new things adds excitement to my life. Although I was able to tackle some of the challenges that lead to more advanced healing in this world, it is the exploration that offers the most fulfillment.”

To conclude, being an entrepreneur, she assures to ensures maintaining the quality of the products. Fai Chan considers this as a personal responsibility to provide happiness along with benefits to the people using her products.

Karen Seror: The Disruptive CMO

Some seemingly insignificant events often say more about us than a resume…

Promised a scientific career in the family tradition, Karen Seror decided to make a 180° turn and listen to her growing professional instincts: to make a career in marketing and communication and infuse it with her taste for success and challenge.

Karen graduated with honors from her marketing school and has never regretted this choice. It is certainly her appetite for disruption, while surpassing herself, and her taste for excellence which are the two fundamental pillars of her career path. These have led her to join the sector of new technologies which promise to shape the future. She has, as a result, accompanied young startups that have revolutionized businesses, markets, and uses.

Karen first joined the web hosting company AMEN when it was created in 1999 as the marcom manager alongside the co-founders Patrick Chassany and Oleg Tscheltzoff.

AMEN was the first French company to democratize hosting and domain names. Patrick, the charismatic and bold CEO for whom everything seemed possible, instilled in her a taste for challenge and team spirit forever. With almost no marketing budget and facing an extremely large target group (individuals and SMBs), Karen took advantage of the digital revolution to make them the European leader in just two years. AMEN was sold in 2004 to Via Networks and then to the Dada Group in 2008 for $20 million.

This success led AMEN’s founders to propose a new adventure with the creation of FOTOLIA that

aimed to redraw the photography market by creating the first marketplace of royalty-free visual assets

priced at 1 Euro. By removing the price barrier, photographers could generate substantial or additional revenue from sales volume and companies could acquire affordable images to communicate more legally.

Once again, a disruptive approach in a very traditional and conservative market and the conviction that the internet was the ideal channel to democratize the use of images.

Karen also understood the importance of local specificities in a global market and the agility needed in order to keep up with market evolutions. “Think Global, Act Local” is her motto.

Since 2020, Karen Seror has led global marketing for GAMESTREAM, the world leader in Cloud Gaming solutions for the B2B market. In simple words, GAMESTREAM offers everyone the ability to play quality console games instantly and with unlimited access, on all devices (PC, tablets, SmartTVs, and set top boxes) via an internet connection, without consoles, without downloads. This has earned them the nickname, “the French Netflix of video games”.

Here again, Karen accompanies the success of a game changer that disrupts the traditional business models of gaming – much like Spotify and Netflix did for music and television – by democratizing the joys of the video game experience itself.

In these different roles, Karen has been at the forefront of several disruptions that have shaped the digital economy. Among them:

Digitalization

“Digitalization aims at transforming traditional processes, objects, tools or professions through digital technologies in order to offer new revenue and value generation opportunities on a global scale.”

As with all the start-ups Karen has worked for, this principle of empowering payments, processing numerous logistical steps online, and massive content distribution has had a real impact on the productivity of GAMESTREAM’s services, all of which have allowed her to target the international market and quickly ensure the final profitability of their offers.

The Cloud Economy

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of the cloud by changing the way we work, making telecommuting the norm overnight. Once considered a mere technological option, it has quickly become an essential part of business-as-usual across all industries.

The second age of the machine is the cloud economy. Driven by the pandemic, the European market reached 7.3 billion euros in Q2 2021. “The whole world is going digital. And we are seeing e-commerce become commerce itself,” says Seror.

As it has developed, we have seen the creation of an ecosystem based on two pillars: the high-performance hosting of applications and the feeding of them with content to generate regular revenues. “Content is key and complements technology,” Seror states.

The Subscription Business Model

Karen Seror : “In just a few years, the distribution of services has undergone an interesting transformation. The unit purchase (pay per product/service) has given way to subscriptions allowing us to build customer loyalty and for companies to predict their annual revenues, which is very reassuring for investors! The popularity of subscription services with tacit renewal, symbolized by Spotify or Netflix or other office software, is no longer in question and Gartner has predicted that 75% of companies selling directly to consumers will offer subscription services by 2023. The challenge is to have the right approach to pricing, on boarding, and data analysis.”

Seror goes on, “This ongoing transformation of sales models provides an exciting field to explore for a Marketing Director, especially in the digital sector, and thanks to GAMESTREAM, I have the opportunity to observe many other service monetization models that are developing alongside the sacrosanct subscription model”.

“With the upcoming arrival of the Metaverse and NFT, new and exciting challenges are offered to marketing managers in all types of industries who, like me, have lived through several digital revolutions…” says Karen Seror, The Disruptive CMO.