Business Chief USA April 2019

HHH USA 

EDITION 

APRIL 2019 

www.businesschief.com 

Digital 

transformation 

through agile, 

creative 

partnerships 

RAGINGWIRE 

A GLOBAL 

PLATFORM FOR 

HYPERSCALE 

ENTERPRISE 

Designing, building and operating 

mission-critical data centers 

City Focus 

A manufacturing 

hub 

ENTERPRISE 

SOFTWARE 

ON A GLOBAL 

SCALE 

TOP 10 

Franchises 

in the USA

FOREWORD 

W 

elcome to the April issue of 

Business Chief USA. 

This month’s cover story features 

Kevin Dalton, Senior Vice President of 

Construction and Critical Facilities 

Engineering and Design at RagingWire 

Data Centers. “The new data 

centers have to be super 

reliable and scalable, but 

the one big consideration 

for hyperscalers is 

speed to market. 

Demand is so intense 

that these customers 

can’t meet it with their 

own resources, which is why 

they are reaching out to organizations 

like RagingWire,” says Dalton. 

“The past few years at Vodafone have 

been some of the most exciting, challenging, 

and rewarding years of my 

career and I don’t see it slowing down 

any time soon,” says Andrew Morawski, 

President and Country Chairman 

Kevin Dalton, 

SVP, RagingWire Data Centers 

of Vodafone Americas. Morawski talks 

with Business Chief about the dawn of 

the 5G era and its implications for 

Industry 4.0, IoT and communications. 

This month we’re also talking business 

with T-Mobile, SAP, WestGUARD 

Insurance Company, Plymouth 

Rock Assurance, Glidewell 

Dental, SGK and the 

WERC Association. 

Don’t forget to check out 

our city focus which 

explores Chicago’s proud 

manufacturing history, and the 

ways in which the city’s private and 

public sectors are working to ensure it 

thrives. Our Top 10 this month breaks 

down the United States’ leading franchises. 

Enjoy the issue! 

Harry Menear 

harry.menear@bizclikmedia.com 

03 

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EDITION 

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

HARRY MENEAR 

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CONTENTS 

12 

RAGINGWIRE DATA CENTERS: 

RagingWire mission-critical data centers 

for hyperscale cloud and large enterprises 

40 

52 

Americas: 

The 5G future 

THE DIGITAL 

DISRUPTION 

OF DELIGHT

62 

Equality, diversity 

and respect: 

How Marian Salzman 

is defining the business 

conversation 

PEOPLE 

POWERED: 

SIX THINGS 

I LEARNT 

FROM 

CRE ATING A 

SUSTAINABLE 

SOURCING 

MODEL 

82 

City Focus 

CHICAGO 

94 

72

CONTENTS 

108 

T-Mobile 

124 

SAP 

146 

WestGUARD 

Insurance 

Company

158 

Plymouth Rock 

Assurance 

186 

SGK 

172 

Glidewell 

Dental

206 

WERC 

Association 

214 Finning 

International 

Gore Mutual 

Insurance 

Company 

232

250 Ardene 

282 Cirque 

du Soleil 

264 

City of 

Richmond

164 

RAGINGWIRE 

MISSION-CRITICAL 

DATA CENTERS 

FOR HYPERSCALE 

CLOUD AND LARGE 

ENTERPRISES 

WRIT TEN BY 

JOHN O’HANLON 

PRODUCED BY 

TOM VENTURO 

APRIL 2019

RagingWire Sacramento CA3 

Data Center Skywalk 

165 

usa.businesschief.com

RAGINGWIRE DATA CENTERS 

166 

As part of NTT, RagingWire is one of the largest 

data center providers in the world, connecting 

customers to a global network of more than 140 

data centers in 20 countries and regions 

o say the world is facing an 

T 

unprecedented explosion of 

information may be a cliché, 

but it’s true. Globally, the data center 

market is estimated to reach revenues 

of around US$174bn by 2023, largely 

driven by the massive growth in cloud 

computing and the migration of large 

enterprises from in-house data centers 

to colocation facilities. These are the 

fundamentals behind the strategy of 

RagingWire Data Centers. 

RagingWire was one of the early 

start-ups that helped create the data 

center colocation industry back in the 

early 2000s. Since then, the company 

has steadily grown its presence across 

the US, with campuses in the top data 

center markets of Ashburn, Virginia, 

Dallas, Texas, Silicon Valley, Chicago, 

Illinois, and Sacramento, California. 

In Ashburn, the #1 data center market 

in the world which is known as “Data 

Center Alley” for its large concentration 


167 

RagingWire Ashburn VA3 Data Center 

– Security checkpoint 

of colocation data centers, RagingWire 

operates a 78-acre, securely fenced 

campus with room for seven large data 

center facilities, one of which is opened 

and two of which are under construction 

now. Combined with two other data 

centers RagingWire previously opened 

in Ashburn, the company owns space 

for a total of nine Ashburn data centers 

which could offer a total of 236 MW of 

critical power. 

In Dallas, RagingWire owns a 42-acre 

data center campus which is home to 

a marquee 16 MW facility. Four more 

large data centers are planned for the 

campus, which would bring the campus 

total to 144 MW of critical IT load. 

In Sacramento, California, about 

90 miles east of San Francisco and 

outside the earthquake zone of the 

Bay Area, RagingWire built three 

data centers with a total of 53 MW 

of critical power, all running on 100% 

renewable energy. 



168 

Recently, RagingWire announced 

plans to build new data centers on 

coveted land in Silicon Valley (Santa 

Clara to be exact), and in Chicago. 

These new locations complete Raging- 

Wire’s portfolio in the most popular U.S. 

data center locations, but the company 

is also planning developments in 

other emerging markets as well. 

NTT BRINGS GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY 

TO RAGINGWIRE CUSTOMERS 

Today RagingWire is focused on 

meeting the demands of large enterprises 

and cloud providers which 

increasingly outsource data center 

capacity to take advantage of greater 

economies of scale, efficiencies, 

speed to market, security, space and 

reliability than they would have if they 

housed their mission-critical computers 

at their own facilities. 

In January 2014, NTT acquired an 

80% equity stake in RagingWire. Four 

years later in January 2018, having 

doubled RagingWire’s capacity, NTT 

exercised its option to purchase the 

remaining shares. 

By joining the NTT family, Raging- 

Wire became the platform for NTT’s 

EXECUTIVE PROFILE 

Joe Goldsmith 

Joe Goldsmith is Senior Vice President and Chief 

Revenue Officer at RagingWire Data Centers, 

responsible for all aspects of go-to-market strategy 

and execution including: sales, marketing, 

product management, business development, 

channels, and sales operations. 

Goldsmith is a proven sales executive with more 

than 25 years of experience, including more than 

a decade in the data center industry. 


“Hybrid IT is the 

new world order 

and I don’t think 

you will find any 

CIO in America 

who has not 

contemplated or 

executed a cloud 

component to 

their overall 

strategy” 

— 

Joe Goldsmith, 

Senior Vice President and 

Chief Revenue Officer 

at RagingWire 

169 

RagingWire Dallas TX1 Data Center 

– Lobby 



170 

“The new data 

centers have to 

be super reliable 

of course, and 

scalable, but 

the one big 

consideration 

for hyperscalers 

is speed to 

market” 

— 

Kevin Dalton, 

Senior Vice President of Construction 

and Critical Facilities Engineering and 

Design (CFED) at RagingWire 

RagingWire Sacramento CA3 Data Center 

– Lobby 

data center business throughout the 

Americas, and became part of one of 

the largest data center companies in 

the world with strong financial backing 

and more than 140 facilities in over 20 

countries and regions. 

RagingWire’s customers value the 

global reach enabled by NTT. According 

to RagingWire Senior Vice President 

and Chief Revenue Officer Joe 

Goldsmith, “Though Asia represents a 

huge market for the cloud and softwareas-a-service 

(SaaS) providers, it’s not 

one in which most of the US-based 

cloud service providers have deep 

infrastructure. Being able to support 

them in the European and Asian 

markets is really powerful for us.” 

EVERYTHING HYPERSCALE PLAYERS 

NEED, AND NOTHING THEY DON’T 

It makes less and less sense for 


171 


Kevin Dalton 

Kevin Dalton is Senior Vice President of 

Construction and Critical Facilities Engineering 

and Design (CFED) at RagingWire Data Centers, 

responsible for leading the team that designs 

and delivers world-class data centers. 

Kevin is an expert in leveraging supply chain 

optimization and modular pre-fabricated 

construction techniques to drive rapid growth, 

improved quality, and speed to market. 

Throughout his career, he has set the standard 

for next generation data center designs. 


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173 


hyperscale cloud providers like Google, 

Amazon, Alibaba or Microsoft to take 

the time and expense to build the 

capacity they require in a data center. 

The hyperscale players are driving 

the market right now, says Kevin 

Dalton, Senior Vice President of 

Construction and Critical Facilities 

Engineering and Design (CFED) at 

RagingWire. “We’re meeting [the 

hyperscalers’] changing needs, which 

include bringing their operating 

expenses down through more efficient 

cooling, better management of energy 

and the like,” Dalton says. “The new 

data centers have to be super reliable 

of course, and scalable, but the one 

big consideration for hyperscalers is 

speed to market. Demand is so intense 

right now that these customers can no 

longer meet it from their own resources, 

which is why they are reaching out 


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CLICK TO WATCH: ‘THE RAGINGWIRE GROWTH PLAN 

– WHERE THEY WILL GO’ 175 

to organizations like RagingWire.” 

We are in the early stages of a tech 

boom driven by huge opportunities 

with the Internet of Things (IoT), 

artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, 

and nobody doubts that soon self-driving 

vehicles and smart cities will 

create new demands for data centers 

and the servers, storage, and networking 

devices that live there. Combine 

these new and emerging demands 

with continued growth in enterprise 

computing and the future looks bright 

for RagingWire. 

As Goldsmith puts it: “The hyperscale 

players’ core strength lies in building 

and developing software, infrastructure 

and cloud services. There are many 

markets where they simply don’t have 

the ability to catch up with the demand. 

That’s where they can turn to a third 

party like us that can help them achieve 

their business objectives by fulfilling 

their data capacity requirement.” 

Goldsmith mentioned that enterprises 

like insurance companies, banks or 

large manufacturers may still have 

some on-site processing or a data 


A simpler approach 

to a future-proof 

data center. 

With scalable pre-fabricated solutions like Vertiv SmartMod 

and the quickly deployed Power Module, Vertiv is standardizing 

modular systems so you can get your data center running, faster. 

Vertiv.com

“We have been 

innovating in the 

area of modular 

design and 

supply chain, to 

both shorten 

construction 

lead times and 

to lower costs” 

— 

Kevin Dalton, 

Senior Vice President of Construction 

and Critical Facilities Engineering 

and Design (CFED) at RagingWire 

center, but most are executing a hybrid 

strategy that includes legacy applications, 

proprietary systems, private 

cloud, and public cloud. 

“Hybrid IT is the new world order 

and I don’t think you will find any CIO in 

America who has not contemplated or 

executed a cloud component to their 

overall strategy,” Goldsmith said. 

BUILDING DATA CENTERS BIGGER, 

SMARTER, FASTER 

Kevin Dalton’s job is to locate, design 

and construct new data center space. 

To do this, he and Joe Goldsmith work 

closely with customers to understand 

their business plans and capacity 

requirements. “This is an iterative 

process for us in collaboration with 

our customers,” says Dalton. “Clearly, 

without access to reliable, cost-effective 

power and fiber connectivity you 

can’t have a data center. Cost of land 

and labor are other challenges.” 

But these are secondary to being 

in the right location at the right time. 

RagingWire is constructing, for example, 

a new four-story data center, SV1, in 

Santa Clara, California, in the heart of 

Silicon Valley. The 160,000 sq. ft. facility 

is going up on a 3.3 acre site, with 64,000 

sq. ft of data floor space and 16 MW of 

scalable, critical IT power and will be 

operational in 2020. 

New data center space in Santa 

Clara is rare. The vacancy rate among 

at least 30 data centers in the area is 

under 8%. There will be no lack of 

takers for RagingWire’s new facility. 

To be prepared for the ground-shaking 

that is characteristic of the Bay Area, 

RagingWire’s SV1 Data Center will feature 

a seismic-stability system used by NTT 

in its data center in Japan, a location 

177 



178 



NTT 

(RAGINGWIRE’S 

PARENT COMPANY) 

$118bn+ 

Approximate 

revenue 

283,000 

Approximate number 

of employees 

140 

Data centers 

worldwide 

179 


Delivering mission critical services throughout 

the Lifecycle of your Data Center 

Recent Project News 

RagingWire SV1 Data Center: NTT Facilities Group led 

the design of a world class data center, coordinating an 

international team of Japanese and US engineering 

firms. The SV1 Data Center will be the first Base 

Isolated data center in Silicon Valley. 

Isolation Device 

Granparktower, 3-4-1 Shibaura, 

Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023, Japan 

https://www.ntt-f.co.jp/english 

Call: 81-3-5444-2621 (Japan) 

http://nttf-us.com 

Call: 1-408-436-2829 (US) 

• General Contracting 

• Construction Management 

• Project Management 

Mission 

Critical 

Lifecycle 

Solutions 

410 Forest Street, 

Marlborough, MA 01752 

https://www.eecnet.com 

Call: 1-800-342-5332 (US) 

• Cooling Assessment 

• Energy Assessment 

• Onsite Facility Operation 

• Preventive and Demand Maintenance

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘KELLY MORGAN FROM 451 RESEARCH REPORTS 

ON THE DALLAS DATA CENTER MARKET ’ 181 

prone to earthquakes. A subterranean 

pendulum isolation system protects 

the building from the ground moving 

below it. Using the same system, NTT’s 

Tokyo facilities were unharmed by the 

catastrophic 9.1 magnitude earthquake 

and tsunami that devastated eastern 

Japan in 2011. 

This is a great illustration of one of 

the advantages that RagingWire gains 

from its parent group, however Dalton 

returns to the agility RagingWire offers 

as the main differentiator across the 

USA. “We have been innovating in the 

area of modular design and supply 

chain, to both shorten construction 

lead times and to lower costs,” Dalton 

says. “There are huge advantages in 

having standard designs where we 

can pretty much drop in electrical and 

mechanical modules at any location 

around the country. Time to market is 

vital to the cloud providers.” 

With this approach, the equipment 

for an electrical room can be reduced 

to a couple of elements that fit on a 

flatbed truck for delivery to a core and 

shell at any location in the country. 


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“Most of our 

customers have 

green policies so 

being able to offer 

them renewable 

energy helps 

them maintain 

those green 

credentials” 

— 

Kevin Dalton, 

Senior Vice President of Construction and 

Critical Facilities Engineering and Design 

(CFED) at RagingWire 

Another advantage of partnering with 

vendors, he adds, is that they are willing 

to hold an inventory of fully functioning 

and tested modules – the old way of 

build to order takes too long to meet 

hyperscale cycle times. 

Close management of the supply 

chain, allied to sophisticated forecasting, 

means that much of the construction 

can be done ahead of time. 

Customers need to know exactly when 

their facility will be up and running. 

Once the core and shell of the building 

are in place, installing the infrastructure 

should take no more than a few 

months. Purchasing agreements with 

global equipment manufacturers lead 

to volume discounts that can be 

passed on to customers. 

“We do as much work in advance as 

possible to procure the equipment and 

ship it to the integrator so they can put 

it together for us, test it and hold it as 

inventory ready to ship,” Dalton explains. 

It’s all about consistency in design, so 

that customers can deploy systems and 

RagingWire and their NTT colleagues 

can manage data centers worldwide. 

Design drives operational synergy. The 

modular approach allows RagingWire to 

replicate facilities in different markets 

while tailoring the data centers to take 

advantage of the unique characteristics 

of the geography. 

REDUCING TCO WHILE INCREASING 

RENEWABLE ENERGY 

In a market that is expanding at the 

rate of the cloud, total cost of ownership 

(TCO) is a major consideration for 

providers when building a business 

case. RagingWire is addressing TCO 

at every level. Power represents the 

183 


BUILDING BETTER 

MODULAR ELECTRICAL SOLUTIONS FOR DATA CENTERS 

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CLICK TO WATCH: ‘RAGINGWIRE DALLAS TX1 DATA CENTER 

VIRTUAL TOUR’ 185 

biggest operational cost, and mechanical 

systems such as cooling are the 

largest consumers of power. In the 

data center industry, the ratio between 

mechanical systems and computing 

equipment is assessed using the 

power usage effectiveness (PUE) 

metric. “Efficient cooling systems lead 

to efficient data centers that reduce 

your operating expense and ultimately 

lower the total cost of ownership for 

the customer,” explains Goldsmith. 

Over the years, data center designs 

have become highly efficient. The quest 

now is to find affordable and reliable 

renewable energy sources. RagingWire 

has taken a proactive approach to 

renewable energy at its three data 

centers in Sacramento, Calif., which 

together offer 680,000 sq. ft. with 53 

MW of critical IT power. In Sacramento, 

RagingWire now offers 100% renewable 

power that is 100% available and 

backed by a 100% uptime service level 

agreement (SLA) to customers. 

Sustainability is a major priority for 

customers, emphasizes Kevin Dalton. 

“Most of our customers have green 



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policies so being able to offer them 

renewable energy helps them maintain 

those green credentials. In Sacramento, 

we work with our utility partner, the 

Sacramento Municipal Utility District 

(SMUD), to ensure that our energy 

utilization is a combination of wind and 

hydro, solar and biomass. We are also 

working with energy providers in all of 

our locations to develop renewable 

energy options for our customers.” 

Recycled concrete and repurposed 

steel are other ways he cites to reduce 

the amount of material sent to landfills. 

EARNING A REPUTATION AS A TRUSTED, 

STABLE PROVIDER 

For Joe Goldsmith, a big benefit of 

being under the NTT umbrella is that 

the parent represents a single, stable, 

and substantial source of capital. 

“Unlike a lot of the data center providers 

in the market today, especially the 

private-equity backed companies, we 

have a single source of capital,” 

Goldsmith says. “We don’t have to go 

from bank to bank when we want to 

come into a new market, raise debt, raid 

equity, look for investment partners, or 

manage to restrictive covenants. This 

“Efficient cooling 

systems lead 

to efficient data 

centers that 

reduce your 

operating 

expense and 

ultimately lower 

the total cost of 

ownership for 

the customer” 

— 


Senior Vice President 

and Chief Revenue Officer 

at RagingWire 


– Data Floor 

187 



“Unlike a lot of the data center 

providers in the market today, 

we have a single source of capital. 

We don’t have to go from bank 

to bank when we want to come 

into a new market, raise debt, 

raid equity, look for investment 

partners, or manage 

to restrictive covenants” 

— 


Senior Vice President and 

Chief Revenue Officer 

at RagingWire 

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– Showcase Conference Room 

189 

takes uncertainty out of the equation, 

and that is something the hyperscale 

players really appreciate.” 

RagingWire’s capital plan is refreshed 

annually, and this gives its 

clients confidence that their future 

plans don’t depend on a company that 

might run into difficulties. “Another 

thing in our favor is that we are not 

subject to the consolidation that is 

going on right now in the data center 

market,” Goldsmith says. “It’s too easy 

for a data center start-up to be more 

interested in their exit strategy than 

their growth strategy and customer 

service. Customers don’t want the 

volatility that comes with new owners, 

new contracts, new pricing, and new 

operations. They like to know that the 

site will be operated in a proven and 

consistent way by people they know 

and trust.” 


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LEADERSHIP 

40 

Americas: 

The 5G future 

We talk to Andrew Morawski, Director and 

Country Chairman at Vodafone Americas 

about the wide reaching and disruptive 

implications of 5G for telecommunications, 

IoT, drones, self-driving cars, virtual reality 

and medicine 

WRITTEN BY HARRY MENEAR 



41

LEADERSHIP 

42 

Looking back on a career in communications 

spanning the past twoand-a-half 

decades, the President 

and Country Chairman of Vodafone 

Americas, Andrew Morawski discovered 

a passion for technology and its 

applications in the space early on. 

From communications pioneer Nortel 

Networks, Morawski’s career has 

also seen him work for Telstra 

International and Cable & Wireless 

Worldwide, which have provided 

him “with a global view of business 

that has been key to [his] role at 

Vodafone. Vodafone is truly a global 

company and we are working to 

help businesses that are based in 

the Americas region connect 

globally,” he says. 

Worldwide, Vodafone, which employs 

over 110,000 people across 25 countries 

and reported a net revenue of 

US$48.2bn in 2018, “is sitting at the 

heart of how technology is changing 

the world and we have the opportunity 

to help shape how businesses succeed 

in the digital world,” according to 

Morawski. In the Americas, Vodafone 

employs approximately 300 people 

and its customers are “some of the 


leading global brands with significant 

operations in the US,” he explains, 

“and I am able to bridge my experience 

in operations with my passion for 

technology.” Business Chief spoke 

with Morawski about the next paradigm 

shift already beginning to reshape 

both the telecommunications space 

and technology as a whole: the mass 

adoption of 5G. We found out about the 

myriad far-reaching applications and 

implications of the next big step in 

Industry 4.0, and got Morawski’s take on 

the operational challenges and technological 

opportunities on the horizon. 

5G refers to the next generation of 

mobile communications. The technology 

promises faster data download 

and upload speeds, as well as wider 

currency, more reliable connections, 

and reductions in latency to basically 

nil. 5G is made possible by better use 

of the radio spectrum through which 

data is transmitted, according to a BBC 

report, which in addition to faster 

connections, will allow far more devices 

to access the mobile internet simultaneously. 

In addition to the way people 

download, upload and browse content 

over the internet, 5G is expected to 

43 


LEADERSHIP 

44 

$46bn 

Approximate 

revenue 

Vodafone Americas 

provides services to 

70% 

of Fortune 500 

companies 

111,000+ 


of employees 

have far-reaching consequences for 

the field of artificial intelligence (AI), 

drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics 

and a host of other cutting-edge 

technologies. Above all, 

perhaps, the rise of 5G 

coverage will elevate the Internet of 

Things (IoT) to new levels. 

“IoT is an area I’m very passionate 

about. It is a game-changer for businesses 

across every industry as it offers 

access to real-time data, which 

enables increased efficiency, better 

customer experience and improved 

visibility into performance,” says 

Morawski. “In my opinion, IoT is the 

catalyst for other emerging technologies 

such as AI and machine learning, 

so I predict each to continue to grow in 

importance across businesses.” The 

ability for more devices to access mobile 

internet at greater speeds that 5G 

provides will, he predicts, empower 

other emerging technologies. “AI, 

machine learning, and data analytics 

gain value when fed with businesscritical 

data. With more devices and 

endpoints in the business connected to 

networks via IoT, more data becomes 

available that can be analyzed through 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘5G COULD IMPROVE PATIENT CARE’ 

45 

“Drones will 

become a more 

common sight, 

delivering 

everything from 

gifts to medical 

supplies” 

— 

Andrew Morawski, 

President and Country Chairman, 


AI, machine learning, and data 

analytics instances.” 

Although Morawski admits that, 

“it’s hard to see the full impact of 5G 

so soon, given that we expect it to be 

around for a decade, we can already 

see some elements that could have 

a significant societal impact.” Still, he 

predicts that “drones will become 

a much more common sight delivering 

everything from gifts to important 

medical supplies.” Back in 2016, Ericsson 

and China Mobile began testing 

drones operating over 5G networks. 


LEADERSHIP 

46 

The potential for end-to-end low latency 

over high-traffic networks that 5G 

delivers will allow larger numbers of 

drones to operate in urban and rural 

areas, with massive implications for 

logistics and transportation. On the 

subject of mobility, according to 

Morawski, “an integrated transport 

system, with more connected vehicles 

(both autonomous and driven) can make 

roads safer, less congested and change 

the nature of commuting.” He also 

speculates that, “in the more distant 

future, remote healthcare could make 

a significant impact, enabling specialist 

doctors to treat patients wherever they 

are in the world,” as instantaneous data 

monitoring and consistently low latency 

could make specialist knowledge and 

skills readily available from the other 

side of the world. 

5G will also, Morawski expects, have 

a dramatic effect on the US and global 

workforce. “5G is set to be as much 

as 100 times faster than existing 4G 

networks. This would give us the ability 

to download a full HD movie in under 10 

seconds on a 5G network instead of 

10 minutes with 4G. This will be game 

changing for how we share and consume 


“At Vodafone, 

we see 

telecoms as 

the center 

of digital 


efforts for 

our customers” 

— 




47 


LEADERSHIP 

“There is a direct 

connection between 

cybersecurity practices 

and business success” 

— 




CYBERSECURITY 

48 

With the number of devices and 

digital traffic set to explode thanks 

to 5G, having the cybersecurity 

measures to protect that data is more 

important than ever. 

• 86% of high-growth 

companies believe that 

having strong cyber 

security enables new 

business opportunities 

• 24% is the increase 

in financial benefits 

IoT adopters expect 

to see from having 

strong cyber security 

• 91% of under 35 year old 

decisionmakers expect 

cyber security budgets 

will need to rise over the 

next three years to meet 

toughening challenges 

• 89% of businesses said 

that improving their cyber 

security would enhance 

customer loyalty and trust 


digital content. [The technology] will 

improve efficiencies and facilitate 

the use of virtual and augmented 

reality, which we expect enterprises 

to start using to provide training and 

remote worker and customer support. 

We will even see the speed, reliability 

and low latency of 5G potentially used 

in smart factories and other enterprises 

such as hospitals to support new 

connected applications.” 

For Vodafone’s operations in the 

Americas, Morawski reveals that 

the mass-adoption of 5G could have 

significant, but manageable consequences. 

“At Vodafone, we see telecoms 

as the center of digital transformation 

efforts for our customers, as digital 

transformation continues to be a main 

priority for enterprises. In terms of what 

still needs to be done, we are in the 

process of transforming our Vodafone 

owned networks to be able to take on 

5G,” he says. “We believe 5G will enable 

a major shift in our customer’s experience, 

yet it probably won’t cause significant 

changes in customer behavior like 

the jump to 4G did. 4G ushered in the 

significant shift in the consumption of 

video and streaming services through 

49 


LEADERSHIP 

50 

“Vodafone is truly 

a global company 

and we are working 

to help businesses 

connect globally” 

— 





devices at a rapid pace. 5G won’t change 

that behavior, but it will greatly improve that 

experience.” He also notes that “as much as 

we would like it to, change doesn’t happen 

overnight. Change management is a core part 

of my role at Vodafone as we ensure we can 

meet the needs of our customers both today 

and for the future. To me, it is important to set 

objectives that align with necessary changes 

and provide clear directions on where and 

how we make those changes.” 

“When looking to the future of Vodafone in 

a 5G world, Morawski says: “The past few 

years at Vodafone have been some of the 

most exciting, challenging, and rewarding 

years of my career and I do not see it slowing 

down any time soon.” 

51 


TECHNOLOGY 

THE DIGITAL 

DISRUPTION 

52 

OF DELIGHT 

Business Chief sits down with 

CEO Vinod Muthukrishnan to 

explore the ways in which his 

startup CloudCherry is using 

predictive data and analytics 

to disrupt the customer 

relationship management space 




53

TECHNOLOGY 

54 

There aren’t many CEOs that can look 

back on as eclectic a career as Vinod 

Muthukrishnan, the man at the helm of 

consumer experience startup CloudCherry. 

From nine years in the Merchant Navy, where 

he served as a navigation officer, he pivoted 

to Market Simplified, a fintech startup providing 

mobile solutions to financial institutions worldwide. 

He founded CloudCherry in 2014, which 

has since grown into a disruptive, Cisco-backed 

customer experience management company. 

CloudCherry is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, 

with offices in Singapore, Dubai, Bengaluru 

and Chennai. 

Muthukrishnan, reflecting on the challenges 

and benefits of moving from sector to sector, 

notes that “a fresh perspective shows you 

things that being stuck in the weeds for the 

last six months doesn’t.” Conversely, “there’s 

nothing that compensates for a deep awareness 

of a domain,” he says. “Every time I’ve 

been in an alien environment, I’ve done two 

things: initially, I have taken a first principles 

approach to the problem. Then I surround 

myself with people who know that domain 

really well.” The combination of expert advice 

and fresh eyes is, he maintains, a winning 

strategy. “It gives you an advantage because 

you’re not weighed down by the baggage you 

accumulate when you’ve been in a domain for 

20 years.” In retrospect, he says: “I’ve always 


55 

chased problems I believed were 

worth solving.” Today at CloudCherry, 

Muthukrishnan is using data analytics 

and machine learning to disrupt the 

customer relationship space on behalf 

of a diverse roster of brands spread 

across multiple markets. 

The genesis of CloudCherry was a conversation 

between Muthukrishnan and 

several of the company’s founding 

team. “We tried to count on two hands 

how many brands we loved and would 

never leave,” he says. “And we realized 

that we were generally having fairly 


TECHNOLOGY 

56 

“We tried to 

count on two 

hands how 

many brands 

we loved and 

would never 

leave, and we 

realised we 

were generally 

having subpar 

customer 

experiences” 

— 

Vinod Muthukrishnan, 

CEO & Co-Founder, CloudCherry 

subpar customer experiences.” 

Muthukrishna and CloudCherry’s other 

founders saw this as puzzling, given 

the emphasis placed on customer experience 

by so many leading brands. “Like 

true techies, we believe that there’s 

a software to solve every problem in 

the world.” Muthukrishna was certain 

the issue lay with the technology being 

used to process and analyse customer 

data, which was resulting in the efforts 

of companies and the needs of the customer 

becoming lost in translation. He 

laughs, “We naively assumed there 

was no software that truly helped brands 

understand the customer experience. 

Obviously, down the line, we realized that 

such software was out there, but the 

problem persisted.” The two issues remaining, 

they realized, were that the 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘B2B CJM GENERAL’ 

57 

majority of customer data was gathered 

through surveys, and that, once 

customer data was collected, companies 

had little guidance to act upon it 

efficiently without engaging expensive 

consulting firms. Now, in 2019, Cloud- 

Cherry specializes in both the collection 

and analysis of customer data, turning 

it into efficient, actionable insights for 

the client company. “Our whole quest 

is to find the causal relationship 

between factors,” says Muthukrishnan. 

“There are three very simple ideas 

upon which CloudCherry is built,” 

he continues. “One: the customer 

experience is all about journeys; it’s not 

just a point-in-time survey or an app 

store review. A deep understanding of 

customer journeys, understanding 

where customers are coming from, 

where they’ve been and where they’re 

going is at the heart of understanding 

customer experiences. So CloudCherry 

offers complete customer journey 

understanding for a brand.” Secondly, 

Muthukrishnan stresses the idea that 

the customer’s journey is a subjective 

experience. “It’s very important that we 

know what happened on a customer’s 

journey,” he says, explaining that “if you 


TECHNOLOGY 

58 

were to go to a store, it’s very important 

to know how often you come in, how 

much you usually spend, what products 

you like, who you are. Often, all this 

data sits in siloed systems throughout 

a company.” By bringing together all 

available data on its clients’ customers, 

CloudCherry can create a complete 

picture of its customers’ habits and 

wants, which can then be turned into 

solutions. The company’s third core 

tenet, Muthukrishnan explains, was to 

“move away from a retrospective way 

of looking at data towards a more predictive, 

proactive approach.” This third 

pillar is where a lot of the company’s 

utilization of cutting-edge technology 

comes to the fore. “We put a lot of 

emphasis on our machine learning to 

make sure that we’re actually able to 

tell brands ahead of time what they’re 

supposed to do,” he says. 

Despite the data-driven precision 

with which customer behaviour is dissected 

by CloudCherry, Muthukrishnan 

insists that, far from reducing them to 

a collection of inputs, “digital is supposed 

to make the interaction more human. 

I actually believe we’re going back to 

the times where experiences, because 

of the lack of technology, used to be 

personal. Businesses used to make 


eye contact. They used to call you by 

your name because you were one of 

their 100 customers. They knew you.” 

By using machine learning, bots, numerous 

data inputs he suggests, modern 

brands are recreating that “back to 

basics” service, but at scale. 

Of course, different markets value 

different elements of service, and the 

needs of customers vary on a case 

by case basis. Between markets, 

Muthukrishna demonstrates, different 

technologies might be key to providing 

good service. “In Malaysia, QR codes 

are a huge hit. In North America, they 

are not. In Singapore, reliability and 

predictability are very important to 

customers, whereas, in India, customers 

want to be wowed.” Helping 

Muthukrishnan and CloudCherry 

navigate these global markets is the 

“All of our 

focus and 

energies are 

on making 

sure our 

predictive 

analytics 

are ahead of 

the curve” 

— 



59 


TECHNOLOGY 

60 

“We put a lot 

of emphasis 

on our machine 

learning to 

make sure that 

we’re actually 

able to tell 

brands ahead 

of time 

what they’re 

supposed 

to do” 

— 




company’s diverse cast of investors. “We have 

Pelion Ventures from Salt Lake. We have The 

Chennai Angels from India, Vertex Ventures 

from Singapore and obviously Cisco,” he says. 

“Cisco is very interesting because they are 

a strategic investor. They’re hands on. They 

understand what’s happening. At the same 

time, they have great respect for who runs the 

business.” Within their own region, each investor 

brings a different skillset to the table. For example, 

our Singapore business has hugely 

benefited from the introductions that Vertex 

has made for us. They’re a very well-known 

name in the region.” 

Looking to the future, Muthukrishnan is 

excited about both the rising tide of the customer 

experience market and the course 

CloudCherry has plotted. “All of our focus and 

energies are on making sure our predictive 

analytics are ahead of the curve,” he says, 

noting that, more and more, we are heading 

for a survey-less world. “What do you do in 

a world where the customer isn’t really telling 

you what they want directly? We’re optimizing 

for a world where the standards of customer 

listening are going to be radically different.” 

61 


PEOPLE 

62 

Equality, diversity 

and respect: 

How Marian Salzman 

is defining the business 

conversation 

MARIAN SALZMAN, SENIOR VP 

OF COMMUNICATIONS AT PHILIP MORRIS 

INTERNATIONAL DISCUSSES 

CONVERSATIONAL CURRENCY, THE 

BATTLE FOR EQUAL PAY AND RESPECT, 

AND THE FUTURE OF PHILIP MORRIS 

AS A SMOKE-FREE COMPANY 




63

PEOPLE 

64 

Marian Salzman, Senior Vice 

President of Communications 

at Philip Morris, the world’s 

largest tobacco company, doesn’t 

smoke. As a veteran of three decades 

at the highest level of PR and marketing, 

Salzman has shaped the lens 

through which the world perceives 

some of its most iconic brands. From 

Apple’s ‘Think Different’ campaign to 

the digitalisation of Rolling Stone 

Magazine, and from the popularisation 

of the word ‘metrosexual’, to her latest 

role in transitioning the world’s largest 

cigarette manufacturer into a smokefree 

future, she has always been a bold 

wielder of conversational currency. 

“I’ve led a marketing communications 

and PR life,” says Salzman. “I’ve had 

something like 38 job titles over the 

years, but very few employers. I had my 

own company, which sold to Chiat\Day, 

which became Omnicom. I worked at 

Omnicom twice over the course of 

six or seven years. I worked at WPP, 

I worked at Y&R as their first in-house 

Futurist, and then later on worked at 

J. Walter Thompson as Chief of Staff 

and then Chief Marketing Officer. And 

then I worked at Havas for almost 15 

years.” Since April 2018, Salzman has 

served as the Senior Vice President of 

Communications at Philip Morris 

International and she can look back on 

a career spent at the highest levels of 

media communications and public 

relations, the battle for equal pay and 

equal respect, and the future of Philip 

Morris as a smoke-free company. 

“I think Philip Morris spent a long time 

searching for somebody who had my 


65 

“I’ve led a marketing 

communications and 

PR life… There aren’t 

many people out there 

who have a combination 

of global PR and bigger 

budget experience” 

— 

Marian Salzman, 

Senior Vice President of Communications, 

Philip Morris International 


PEOPLE 

66 

“I have never 

seen a company 

that cares more 

about getting it 

right on this topic 

of inclusion 

and diversity” 

— 


Senior Vice President of Communications, 


kind of background, and there aren’t 

many people out there who have 

a combination of global PR and bigger 

budget experience,” says Salzman. 

“It’s easy in the PR world to do a lot on 

a budget, it’s only at the CEO level 

where you’re going to have enough 

experience with big budgets – and 

obviously Philip Morris has the luxury 

of working with big budgets.” In 2017, 

the US Federal Trade Commission 

reported that marketing and promotional 

spending by the nation’s largest 

tobacco companies was just shy of 

US$1mn per hour. From her role as the 

CEO of global PR firm Havas, Salzman 

certainly has the necessary experience. 

On the other hand, Salzman is no 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘PHILIP MORRIS INTERNATIONAL – 

CREATING A SMOKE-FREE FUTURE’ 

67 

stranger to creating cultural paradigm 

shifts on a budget. Philip Morris was 

also interested in the fact that she had 

“done a lot of things that had gone viral”. 

“I wanted to prove that you didn’t need 

money to make news,” she says. “You 

needed conversational currency.” 

Salzman proved that point in 2003 

during a campaign for beverage giant 

Miller Beer. “I was the person who 

publicised and promoted the word 

metrosexual. It was 2003, and we 

needed a place for Peroni to live in the 

market in adjacency to Stella Artois 

and the rise of designer vodkas for 

men.” Salzman found the word in use 

by the New Zealand media. Armed with 

a research piece entitled The Futureless 

Gender, Salzman was featured on 

the front page of the UK newspaper 

The Daily Telegraph explaining the 

term. In 2003, the American Dialect 

Society named metrosexual its word of 

the year, “and the rest is sort of buzz 

marketing history”. While her success 

as the propagator of metrosexual is an 

undeniable demonstration of Salzman’s 

ability to shape the global conversation 


PEOPLE 

68 

$29.6bn 

Approximate 

revenue 

1847 

Year Philip Morris 

was founded 

80,600+ 


of employees 

– on a budget no less – she emphasises: 

“I’ve spent the last 15 years of my life 

trying to come up with something to 

wipe that off my tombstone.” 

In her new role at Philip Morris 

International, Salzman believes she 

has found exactly that. “I have never 

seen a company that cares more about 

getting it right on this topic of inclusion 

and diversity,” she says. Philip Morris 

International is an Equal-Salary company, 

ensuring that it remains committed 

to equal pay for men and women. 

Salzman is devoted to ensuring that 

along with equal pay comes equal 

respect and recognition and notes the 

challenge of being 

a top-level female executive at the firm: 

“I’ve never really been iconic. I’ve always 

just been someone who worked hard. 

I feel now, as one of two women on 

our Global Executive Committee, an 

extraordinary burden on behalf of all 

women to get it right.” In addition to 

fighting for women in the boardroom, 

Salzman is applying her ideals to the 

business of cigarettes. “One of the 

things I’m most passionate about is 

that we need to do a better job making 

sure women get information about 

harm reduction,” she explains. “Because 

of regulatory restrictions on things you 

can and can’t do with women in media, 

it’s tougher to bring smoke-free 

information to that demographic.” 

Philip Morris is currently organising 

a women’s initiative in order to mitigate 

the health risks placed upon half the 

world’s population. “You’ll see us 

launch communications campaigns, 

over the course of the next several 

months that will include women who 

quit, woman who smoked themselves, 

and make themselves into role models 


“The fact men 

are becoming 

smoke-free at 

a much higher 

rate than 

women makes 

it a feminist 

issue” 

— 



of Communications, 


69 


PEOPLE 

70 

as a consequence.” However, the 

creation of a smoke-free world is 

more than a gendered issue for 

both Salzman and Philip Morris. 

“We are a company committed 

to dramatic transformation; we’re 

taking people from combustible 

cigarettes, either to quitting or to 

move over to something in our 

smoke-free portfolio,” Salzman 

says. According to Philip Morris, 

6.6mn people have already begun 

using the company’s flagship 

smoke-free device. The IQOS 

heats tobacco up to 350°C 

(in comparison to the often-higher 

than 600°C produced by combustible 

cigarettes). As a result, “the 

levels of harmful chemicals are 

significantly reduced compared to 

cigarette smoke”. Salzman’s experience 

at the helm of companies and 

PR campaigns with high budgets will, 

she expects, prepare her to orchestrate 

this monumental shift in strategy 

for the company that owns Marlboro, 

Chesterfield, Benson & Hedges, 

Virginia Slims and L&M, a collection 

of some of the most iconic cigarette 

brands in the world. “This year is the 

“I hope my 

tombstone 

says: ‘She 

helped 

the planet 

become a 

land of nonsmokers” 

— 



of Communications, 



year we re-enter civil society with 

a smile,” Salzman says. “I hope we 

will be able to turn the conversation 

towards getting people to give up 

their conventional combustible 

tobacco and move towards 

safer alternatives.” 

Looking to the future, Salzman 

believes that 2019 is going to 

be the year she helps lead Philip 

Morris into the next phase of 

its evolution. “This is the year 

I champion more women being 

hired in more roles where they 

can make a difference for the 

company, and then for themselves 

and their families. By the time we 

get to 2025, I think the most 

important job of someone in 

my position is to be sure I have 

a successor, and that she is ready 

to step in and lead.” Salzman can 

look back across a career filled with 

hard work and undeniable results. 

She concludes: “I hope my tombstone 

says: ‘She helped the planet 

become a land of non-smokers’.” 

71 


SUSTAINABILITY 

PEOPLE POWERED: 

SIX THINGS I LEARNT 

FROM CREATING 

A SUSTAINABLE 

SOURCING MODEL 

72 

As sustainability becomes 

a pertinent topic in boardrooms 

across the globe, 

Suranga Herath, CEO of English 

Tea Shop, examines how 

businesses can create a more 

sustainable sourcing model 

WRITTEN BY SURANGA HERATH, 

CEO of English Tea Shop 



73


74 

Today more, than 1.66mn farmers 

and workers are in Fairtradecertified 

producer organizations. 

In my view, no other organization has 

done more to make consumers stop, 

consider and care where their food, 

drink, clothes and jewelry come from 

than Fairtrade. 

Inspired by Fairtrade and consumer 

demand for ethically-sourced products, 

there is an emerging trend for manufacturers 

to develop their own sustainable 

sourcing models – even the likes of Tesco 

and Sainsbury’s are following suit. 

While a proactive commitment to 

sustainable sourcing is to be applauded, 

setting up an entirely new sourcing 

model – and doing it well – is no mean 

feat. I speak from experience of 

converting English Tea Shop to run 

on a Creating Shared Value model 

throughout our supply chain from 

seed to cup. The impact of creating 

and implementing our own sourcing 

model has been profound not only for 

the farmers but for our business and 

all those in our community, or our 

Prajāva as we like to call it. 


“While a proactive 

commitment to 

sustainable sourcing 

is to be applauded, 

setting up an entirely 

new sourcing model 

– and doing it well – 

is no mean feat” 

— 

Suranga Herathn, 


75 

So, based on my experience over 

the years, I wanted to share some of 

the key things I’ve learnt about setting 

up a sourcing model. 

1. BE CLEAR ON YOUR MOTIVATIONS. 

The very first step should be asking 

yourself why you’re setting off on this 

path. Is it to help support and share 

value with those in your supply chain? 

Is it to improve transparency? Is it to 

have a more secure and reliable supply 

chain? Is it so you can source increasingly 

high-quality produce? Is it 

because ethical sourcing is important 

to your customers? Is it to be better for 

the environment? Is it all of the above? 

What’s important is considering what 

long-term outcomes you want to achieve, 

both for your business, and for those 

in the supply chain. 

2. START SMALL AND SCALE UP. 

Unless you’re starting a new business, 

it’s probably best to take a long-term 

approach to sourcing. Having direct 

relationships with producers is both 

essential and time-consuming, and 



wrong thing when trying to do the 

right thing. That’s why close relationships 

are so important – you have to 

have an innate understanding of what 

people want and need, rather than 

just doing what you think they need. 

The stronger your Prajāva, the better 

placed you will be. 

76 

building close relationships even more 

so. It may be best to start working with 

one producer or co-operative under 

your model, or on one project, and to 

grow from there. 

3.YOUR BUSINESS MODEL IS ONLY EVER 

AS STRONG AS YOUR PRAJAVA. 

Prajāva is the Sri Lankan word for 

community and taking a wide view of 

who this includes is vital. Creating 

shared value throughout a supply 

chain takes a great deal of thought 

– and it’s surprisingly easy to do the 

4.BUILD A BUSINESS OF 

BUSINESS PEOPLE. 

This is one of the absolute best ways 

of sharing value through your supply 

chain. For us, this means helping our 

farmers to improve the quality and 

quantity of their yield through support 

education and a trusted route to 

market rather than just paying a 

minimum price. For those who work in 

our factories, we have a profit-sharing 

initiative called ‘Big Game’ which 

involves them in programmes such as 

open book management, knowledge 

sharing and budget games with the 

goal of making English Tea Shop a 

significantly employee-owned 

business. This ultimately drives 

employee engagement and increases 

productivity too – there has now been 

a 31% increase in value added per 


77 

“Unless you’re starting a new 

business, it’s probably best to take 

a long-term approach to sourcing 

— 





“The impact of creating 

and implementing our 

own sourcing model 

has been profound 

not only for the farmers 

but for our business 

and all those in 

our community” 

— 



78 

employee since the Big Game 

initiative was introduced. Without 

wanting to be too trite about it, helping 

people help themselves is much more 

sustainable and powerful. 

5.FIGURE OUT THE MEASURING 

AND MONITORING SYSTEM. 

If you’re going it alone, you need to 

find a robust way of benchmarking the 

outcomes of your model. Failing to do 

so could cause more harm than good. 

This could involve developing a 

framework for measuring social and 

economic impact for your investments 

and efforts and then tracking how 

business is directly and indirectly 

impacted as a result of such social 

progress. 

6.MAINTAIN A LASER FOCUS 

ON CREATING SHARED VALUE. 

Creating a sourcing model is not 

without its ups and downs and there 


are times when commercial realities 

come knocking that can put you in 

difficult positions. My advice would be 

to focus your sourcing model on 

creating shared value that is, value for 

people throughout your supply chain, 

but also for your business. For me, this 

is what makes a model truly sustainable 

in that it is then protected from 

short-termism during leaner periods. 

As our society becomes even more 

ethically-minded, it will soon be the 

norm for businesses to adopt and 

drive growth through sustainable 

sourcing models. We’ve already seen 

a good selection of early adopters 

make their mark, and I hope that the 

fruitful results produced will encourage 

others to take a leap of faith. 

79 


April 29-30, 2019 

The Ritz Carlton, Atlan

ta | Atlanta, GA

CITY FOCUS 

82 

City Focus 

CHIC 

Business Chief takes a look at 

Chicago’s proud manufacturing 

history, and how the public and 

private sectors are working to 

ensure that it thrives 



AGO 83 


CITY FOCUS | CHICAGO 

84 

L 

ocated on the southern shore 

of Lake Michigan, Chicago, 

Illinois, is the third largest city 

in the United States with a population 

of over 2.7mn. The city has a long and 

proud tradition of manufacturing dating 

back to the 1820s, when large reserves 

of lead were discovered on the banks 

of the Mississippi, 160 miles west of 

Chicago. A decade later, Illinois resident 

John Deere invented a steel plow 

that, by the 1870s, saw his company 

grow into one of the largest manufacturers 

of agricultural equipment in the 

world. Today, Deere & Company manufactures 

and distributes equipment and 

machinery used in agriculture, construction, 

forestry, and turf care. Still 

headquartered in Illinois, the company 

reports annual revenue of over US$30bn, 

according to Forbes Magazine. 

However, the manufacturing highs 

experienced by America’s ‘second city’ 

are matched by its precipitous lows. 


85 

While manufacturing remained a large 

part of Chicago’s economy throughout 

the first half of the 20th century, with 

an estimated 1,400 companies working 

to create military goods during the 

Second World War, the city’s municipal 

architecture and rising labour costs lead 

to a reduction in the scale of its industrial 

dealings throughout the post-war 

decades. According to the Encyclopaedia 

Britannica, “estimates of industrial 

jobs lost during the first four post-war 

decades run as high as one million”. 

According to an Economist report, 

large foreign manufacturing companies 

like Foxconn and Electrolux are 

reducing their manufacturing commitments 

across the United States, citing 

higher tariffs and higher wages. At the 

same time, “Caterpillar, a legendary 

American maker of heavy equipment, 

reported disappointing profits for the 

fourth quarter thanks in part to a slowdown 

in China’s economy, which has 



86 

“The number of 

manufacturing jobs in 

the United States rose 

by 468,000 in the past 

two years” 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘BILL DALEY JOINS CHICAGO MAYOR’S RACE’ 

87 

been hit by America’s trade war”. 

While the economy’s biggest manufacturers 

experience setbacks, however, 

a new breed of modern manufacturer 

is stepping up to the plate, and there 

are signs that the bigger companies 

are more agile than expected. The 

Economist report notes that “manufacturing 

is undergoing a revival, 

especially among agile smaller firms 

and those using advanced techniques”. 

The number of manufacturing jobs in 

the United States rose by 468,000 

in the past two years. 

THE DALEY FAMILY 

Having entered fourteen mayoral elections 

in the city’s history, the Daley family 

is close to being Chicago royalty. Bill 

Daley, who served as President Obama’s 

Chief of Staff and as President Clinton’s 

Secretary of Commerce, announced 

his mayoral candidacy in September 

2018. Manufacturing has always been 

a keen focus for Daley, who argues it is 

“time for Chicago to return to its industrial 

roots”. 

Crain’s Chicago Business reports that, 

in a speech in January, Daley proposed 



that the city devote itself to attracting 

100,000 manufacturing jobs over the 

next 10 years. He suggested that the 

city also offer $1bn in incentives to 

persuade manufacturers to return from 

overseas and the American Sun Belt. 

North Branch Works Executive 

Director, Mike Holzer, commented: 

“It targets the big needs… and makes 

a point of capturing home-grown 

research and development efforts and 

turning them into businesses and jobs”. 

88 

YOUR FUTURE IS OUR FUTURE 

In January 2019, Mayor Rahm Emanuel 

presided over the opening of a new 

$45mn manufacturing and engineering 

center, a 57,000 sq. ft facility at the 

Richard J. Daley College in the heart of 

Chicago. According to the Chicago 

Sun Times, “the Manufacturing Technology 

and Engineering Center is the 

largest and most advanced facility at 

any of the City Colleges’ campuses.” 

The center will serve students looking 

to attain certification, associate degrees, 

or accumulate credits in preparation 

to transfer to a four year college to 

pursue careers in manufacturing and 

engineering technology. 


Mayor Emanuel addressed the 

students attending the opening: 

“You’re our children, your future is our 

future, and we are going to invest in 

that future”. 

TRUMPF SMART FACTORY 

Companies like Tumpf, a German 

machine tool manufacturer creating 

highly specialized products, have 

experienced dramatic success in 

New England and Chicago thanks to 

high-tech smart factories designed 

for versatility, customization and short 

production runs. Trumpf, which counts 

John Deere among its customers, 

experienced a 21% increase in sales 

over the mid-2017/18 financial year. 

Trumpf’s smart factory functions 

as a factory and a showroom, demonstrating 

the possibility of the highly 

customizable, cutting edge manufacturing 

infrastructure to its Illinois 

clients. Currently, the factory is configured 

to make specialist goods 

related to the production of sheet metal, 

a significant aspect of Chicago’s 

manufacturing economy: 40% of the 

United States’ sheet metal is made 

in and around Illinois. 

89 



1780 

(circa) Year settled 

2.7mn 

Approximate 

population 

90 

Nearest airport 

13km 

Chicago Midway 


BIG BUT AGILE 

While Chicago never saw the automotive manufacturing 

glory of Detroit, it has one of the country’s oldest 

relationships with the auto industry. Originally used to 

produce the revolutionary Model-T, Ford Motor Company 

has operated a factory in Chicago since 1924, according 

to Bloomberg. Until recently, the factory was used to 

produce Ford’s sedans – models which have seen poor 

sales in the last few years, casting doubts over the 

security of the factory’s workforce. 

However, in February 2019, Bloomberg reported Ford’s 

announcement that the automaker will invest $1bn in two 

of its Chicago factories and hire a further 500 workers, 

as the company pivots production away from its sedan 

line and towards more profitable sport-utility vehicles. 

“We’re playing to our strengths,” Kumar Galhotra, head 

of Ford’s North American operations, told reporters in 

January. “That means we’re allocating our capital 

differently. 90% of our capital is now going into trucks 

and utilities.” 

The added investment will bring the total number of 

Ford employees in Chicago to 5,800. The almost-centuryold 

factory will be given a complete, high-tech refit, 

including updated lighting systems, security and a new 

body and paint shop. 

This combination of investment from large manufacturers, 

educational institutions, politicians and small, 

agile firms means that, whatever shape or size it may 

be, Chicago is working to manufacture a bright future 

for itself. 

91 


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arch.com

TOP 10 

94 


TOP 10 

Franchises 

in the USA 

95 

Business Chief lists the top 10 franchises in 

the US, according to Franchise Direct. With 

headquarters ranging from Massachusetts to 

Kentucky, the franchises sit within the food, 

hospitality and convenience store sectors 

WRITTEN BY SOPHIE CHAPMAN 


TOP 10 

96 

10 Baskin-Robbins 

Est. 1953 

The ice cream and cake restaurant chain, Baskin-Robbins, is based in 

Canton, Massachusetts. Having launched in 1953, the company now 

manages 700 stores and carries 1,200 flavors. The firm holds a Guinness 

World Record for the largest cup of ice cream, and has employed 

celebrities and politicians such as Barack Obama, Julia Roberts and 

Randy Quaid. As of December 2018, the company’s total revenue 

was valued at US$24.3mn. 


97 

09 Domino’s 

Est. 1960 

“Like most corporate success stories, Domino’s started out small – 

with just one store in 1960. However, in 1978 the 200th Domino’s store 

opened, and things really began to cook,” the firm claims. As of the 

third quarter of last year, the company operated a network of 15,300 

franchises in more than 85 markets. “Domino’s has built its 50+ year 

success around its franchisees – independent business owners with 

a common vision and mission to be the number one pizza company in 

the world. Much of this success has come from our franchise business 

model, which is primarily an internally-based franchise system.” 


TOP 10 

98 

08 Subway 

Est. 1965 

The Connecticut-based sandwich shop chain was launched in the 

1960s to pay for Fred DeLuca’s school tuition. Peter Buck financed 

the project with $1,000 to open the first shop – the company now 

operates in more than 100 countries across the world. DeLuca and 

Buck decided to start franchising in 1974 when they realized they 

would not meet their goal of opening 32 stores. “Today, the SUBWAY® 

brand is the world’s largest submarine sandwich chain with more 

than 40,000 locations around the world,” the company says. 


99 

07 7-Eleven 

Est. 1927 [as Tote’m Stores] 

The founder of 7-Eleven, Joe C. Thompson Jr, stated: “Give the customers 

what they want, when and where they want it.” The franchise 

is the largest chain convenience store in the US, and is owned by 

Japan’s Seven & I Holdings. The business is headquartered in Dallas, 

Texas. As of December 2018, the company operated, franchised, and 

licensed 67,480 stores across 17 nations. “In our 24-hour world, today’s 

consumers are busier than ever and want more from one location, 

whenever they want it. The U.S. convenience store industry is feeding 

this 24/7 consumer demand, taking in approximately $680bn in 

sales every year,” claims 7-Eleven. 


TOP 10 

100 

06 

Dunkin’ Donuts 

Est. 1950 

“With over 3,100 stores in over 30 countries outside of the US, 

Dunkin’ Donuts has been serving loyal customers around the world 

for over 60 years,” states the company. The brand was established 

by William Rosenberg in 1950, and now serves on average 5mn customers 

per day. The company owns Baskin-Robbins, and so Dunkin 

Donuts claims to have “almost 120 years of combined franchising 

experience and more than 17,400 points of distribution in nearly 

60 countries worldwide.” 


‘The firm’s first 

franchise was in 

1952, and by 1963 

there were 600 

restaurants across 

the US — making 

KFC the largest fast 

food operation 

in the nation at 

the time’ 

101 

05 KFC 

Est. 1937 

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Harland Sanders founded his 

first restaurant in 1937 under the name Sanders Court & Café. The 

firm’s first franchise was in 1952, and by 1963 there were 600 restaurants 

across the US – making KFC the largest fast food chain in the 

nation at the time. The company claims to be “one of the few brands 

in America that can boast a rich, decades-long history of success 

and innovation.” The business established the KFC Foundation in 

2015, which has provided $18mn in funding to more than 6,400 of its 

employees and students to help with education and personal finance. 


TOP 10 

102 

04 

Marriott International 

Est. 1927 

Founded in Washington in 1927 and now based in Maryland, the hotel 

franchise owns 30 brands. In 2017, the company recorded having 

almost 1.3mn hotels. The company has five core values: putting people 

first, pursuing excellence, embracing change, acting with integrity, 

and serving the world. Following their food and drink business, the 

Marriott family opened its first hotel in 1957 in Arlington, Virginia. 

The company is currently the largest hotel chain in the world. 


103 

03 

Pizza Hut 

Est. 1958 

Pizza Hut was established by two brothers who studied at the Wichita 

State University in 1958. The second store opened six months after 

the first, and six months after that they had opened an additional four 

locations. The Yum! Brands-owned company operates more than 

16,900 stores across the globe. Kentucky-based Yum! Brands also 

owns KFC and Taco Bell. In the fourth quarter of 2018, Pizza Hut saw 

its worldwide system sales increase by 2%. 97 of the brands’ stores 

were refranchised throughout the year. 


TOP 10 

104 

02 

“Every day, more than 11mn guests visit 

Burger King 

Est. 1954 

Burger King restaurants around the world. 

Founded in 1954, Burger King is the secondlargest 

fast food hamburger chain in the 

world,” states the firm. The Miami-based 

company was acquired by 3G Capital in 2010, 

making it a privately held business. In 2018, 

Burger King’s system-wide sales increased 

by 7.4%, while it saw net restaurant growth 

of 5.5%. The company’s revenue sits at 

more than $4bn. 



105

TOP 10 

106 

01 McDonald’s 

Est. 1940 

Known as the largest franchise in the world, 

McDonald’s has grown from a single store in 

San Bernardino to a franchise of more than 

37,000 restaurants. The company was 

founded in 1940, and since its revenue has 

hit $22bn. “McDonald’s continues to be 

recognized as a premier franchising 

company around the world. More than 90% 

of our restaurants in the U.S. are owned 

and operated by our Franchisees,” claims 

the company. 


‘Known as the largest franchise in 

the world, McDonald’s has grown 

from a single store in San Bernardino 

to a franchise of more than 37,000 

restaurants’ 

107 


108 

Customer centricity 

at the heart of digital 


WRIT TEN BY 

MARCUS LAWRENCE 


usa.businesschief.com 

109

T-MOBILE 

T-Mobile, the Uncarrier network, has 

incorporated disruptive technologies 

to overhaul its internal operations 

and online presence to maximise 

customer centricity 

110 

B 

ased in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile 

US has undergone a significant digital 

transformation process over the past 

five years, in tandem with a drastic overhaul of 

its business model. CEO John Legere, who took 

office in 2012, has reenvisoned the company’s 

operations by focusing on customer centricity. 

Now known as the ‘Uncarrier’ network, T-Mobile 

has become wholly concentrated on maximising 

customer freedom, rewarding customers for 

choosing T-Mobile and showing appreciation 

for their continued loyalty through ongoing offers. 

The move has seen a series of departures 

from standard industry practice, with a level of 

success that has gradually molded the sector 

around T-Mobile’s vision. Mandatory fixed-term 

contracts, limited early upgrade options, international 

usage fees, contract termination fees and 

more have been upended at T-Mobile, both to 

the benefit of its customers and the growth of its 

subscriber base. 



111

The feeling you get following 

your vendor’s ERP roadmap… 

Sometimes, it’s hard to see how IT teams 

can deliver game-changing initiatives when 

a significant amount of their budget and 

resources are spent on a vendor-dictated 

roadmap … a never-ending journey with costly 

software maintenance, mandatory updates 

and upgrades and ultimately a rip-andreplace 

move to the cloud. 

In the end, funding their roadmap could mean 

not funding yours. Don’t lose sight of your 

options. Learn how Rimini Street can help. 

Get your free software support 

assessment today. 

It’s Your Roadmap.

Powering digital transformation with 

a Business-Driven Roadmap 

By Glenn Cahaly 

I spend most of my time talking to 

Oracle and SAP customers and the 

conversation is essentially the 

same these days: 

“To change the game, our company needs to put users 

first and technology second. The good news: Our leadership 

team has identified what we need to compete and grow the 

business, and we understand the IT initiatives required. The 

bad news: we have very little capacity for innovation because 

we spend the majority of our budget and time on vendordictated 

ERP roadmaps, which can include risky updates, 

costly upgrades and rip-and-replace projects to move to 

their cloud solutions prematurely.” 

Whether you are a CFO, a CIO, an IT leader, Procurement or 

IT Asset Manager, these words probably sound familiar. The 

vendor’s product roadmap should be an input into your 

strategy; it shouldn’t be your strategy. Yet ERP applications 

are such an important component of the IT you use to run 

your business that it can be easy to fall into the pattern of 

letting your vendor call the shots. If you don’t upgrade, you 

can fall out of compliance. And regardless of how much you 

pay, you get progressively less value from each upgrade. All 

the while, the vendor is shifting its R&D investments away 

from the products it sold you and giving you seemingly no 

option but to continue to move. Unlike a vendor-dictated 

approach, a Business-Driven Roadmap starts with an 

organization's 3-to-5 year business strategy and then 

defines the game-changing IT initiatives that will support it. 

Rimini Street accelerates clients' to adopt a Business-Driven 

Roadmap strategy by providing capacity that accelerates 

their ability to innovate and reduces vendor lock-in, allows 

them the flexibility to design a roadmap based on their 

unique requirements, and provides the agility to take an 

orchestrated approach to their technology strategy. When 

clients move to a Business-Driven Roadmap approach 

powered by Rimini Street, they are liberated from the 

vendor-dictated roadmap and enabled to take control of 

their IT destiny and future-proof their investment to 

accommodate continuous change. 

Get your free roadmap 

assessment today 

Learn More 

1 

Gartner - “IT Key Metrics Data 2018: Executive Summary” December 11, 2017 

Free up IT capacity: According to Gartner 1 , as 

much as 90percent of the IT budget goes to 

ongoing operations (“keeping the lights on”). 

That leaves a measly 10percent to invest in 

game- changing initiatives. Organizations 

becoming trapped in an endless cycle of enterprise software 

upgrades is a big reason why. If you’ve customized your ERP 

and integrated it with other software, you don’t dare upgrade 

without extensive testing. Free yourself from this busywork, 

and you can get back to making technology investments 

that make a difference. 

Extend the lifespan of existing investments: 

Most enterprises have spent years implementing, 

integrating and customizing their ERP to meet 

business needs — only to have their vendors tell them it’s 

time to abandon all that in favor of a “new and improved” 

but immature platform. Vendors want to establish new 

revenue streams and reposition themselves for the cloud. 

That roadmap serves vendors’ needs, not those of enterprises 

seeking to build on investments they have already made. 

That’s why you need a Business-Driven Roadmap approach 

that includes third-party support for your ERP. 

Innovate with flexibility: Cloud computing 

should give you more options, not fewer. 

Your ERP vendor has a roadmap to take you 

to the cloud — specifically, to its proprietary 

corner of the cloud. Fortunately for those wary of even 

deeper vendor lock-in, open cloud options exist to improve 

the cost and performance of your ERP operations while 

keeping you in control. You won’t find many on the vendor’s 

technology roadmap; you need to follow your own and we 

can help you get there. 

Design with your future enterprise in mind: 

How are you rationalizing your software 

decisions? You won’t find the answer exclusively 

on one vendor’s roadmap, unless you’re 

convinced it has the best product in every category. 

Born-in-the cloud software represents some of the greatest 

innovations in enterprise technology. The best of them come 

with APIs that allow you to connect them to other APIs and to 

your installed base of software. Rather than struggling with 

laborious integrations, you have the opportunity to 

orchestrate software around the use cases that matter 

most to your business. 

Learn why over 2,600 clients chose Rimini Street’s ultraresponsive 

service, breaking free from the burden of vendor 

support so they can focus IT resources on initiatives that 

support their Business-Driven Roadmap strategy. 

113

Drive digital strategies. 

Deliver competitive 

advantage. 

The future of procurement awaits. 

Turn disruption into opportunity by innovating 

procurement with digital capabilities, advanced 

analytics, agile operations, and optimal experiences 

for customers, suppliers and employees. Learn 

more at read.kpmg.us/FutureProcurement 

Anticipate tomorrow. Deliver today. 

©2019 KPMG LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent 

member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. Some of the services 

or offerings provided by KPMG LLP are not permissible for its audit clients or affiliates or related entities. 181205

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘T-MOBILE – HOW WILL 5G CHANGE EVERYTHING?’ 

115 

Nielsen Mobile Insights reported in 

early 2017 that T-Mobile had ranked 

first in customer service satisfaction 

through the entirety of 2016. In the 

company’s press release at the time, 

Legere said: “We have the best care 

team in the business – at this point, 

that’s not even up for debate. But, like 

everyone else at this company, our 

care team takes ‘we won’t stop’ pretty 

literally. They’ve got their sights on 

being the #1 care team in any industry, 

anywhere – not just wireless.” T-Mobile 

has made good on this promise as its 

subscriber base continues to boom. 

In January 2019, T-Mobile’s Q4 2018 

report highlighted the net addition of 

2.4mn subscribers to its network, making 

the quarter its best ever for acquiring 

new customers. Since 2013, at 

the advent of the Uncarrier marketing 

strategy, T-Mobile’s customer base has 

rocketed upwards by 46mn, bringing 

the total to 79.7mn at the end of 2018. 

In the same report, T-Mobile noted: 

“Not only are customers coming to 

T-Mobile, but they are also staying 

longer. T-Mobile posted its best- 


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“We have the best damn 

care team in the business 

– at this point, that’s not 

even up for debate” 

— 

John Legere, 

CEO at T-Mobile 

117 

ever fourth quarter branded postpaid 

phone churn result this quarter 

showing the power of the company’s 

value proposition.” 

The digital transformation that has 

accompanied and facilitated this 

drastic change of operations, and 

subsequent success, has seen the 

incorporation of a host of exciting, 

disruptive technologies that focus on 

maximising the quality of T-Mobile’s 

service offering. Salesforce has been 

a key partner for T-Mobile over the 

past five years, with its Lightning and 

Pardot platforms aiding significantly in 

the automation and personalisation of 

the online customer experience. In a 

Dreamforce 2017 interview with John 

Carney, SVP of Communications and 

Media at Salesforce, T-Mobile’s EVP of 

Marketing and Experience, Nick Drake, 

described the firm’s use of the Salesforce 

platforms in driving the innovative 

operations from an internal base. 

“We are now incredibly excited about 

the implementation of Lightning that’s 


Rewiring the T-Mobile 

Supply Chain with Digital 

Technology platform 

T-Mobile is known for its resolute pursuits and 

unwavering focus on customer experience. Digital 

Transformation was the preferred strategy and supply 

chain was one of the chosen areas for transformation 

in order to build foundational capabilities. The tenets 

of the Digital Supply chain transformation included 

Customer Centricity, Real-time Inventory visibility and 

Asset traceability, Time to market and integration with 

other partner ecosystems. 

Tech Mahindra, #15 in the Forbes Digital 100 ranking 

2018, collaborated with T-Mobile to take up the 

challenge of going beyond the brief through architectural 

simplifications and automation through a co-created 

framework for transformation. 

Whilst the idea was to shatter the architectural 

monolith, the efforts were centered around “ Small 

and RoI-driven” bets among the others which include 

Inventory serialization, reverse logistics serialization, 

IMEI tracking, and applications that were delivered 

successfully through 100% agile mode of execution. 

The resulting KPI’s were higher NPS, reduced time 

to market, reduced inventory cycle time and better 

control over operating costs. The next time a 

customer connects with any T-Mobile touch point and 

is able to access real-time inventory, check product 

availability, trade-off an old phone for a new one in a 

frictionless manner, it is the Digital transformation in 

action, enabled by a robust T-Mobile - Tech Mahindra 

partnership. 

Tech Mahindra’s ability to deliver value to the 

business with a state-of-the-art digital platform and 

transforming the culture of the operations has helped 

T-Mobile achieve digital maturity in a record time. 

To learn more visit us at, https://www.techmahindra.com/cwce.html

119 

$40bn+ 

Approximate 

revenue 

2002 

Year founded 

44,000 


of employees 

just occurred, as we’re seeing radical 

efficiency appearing in our business,” 

Drake said. “From a lead generation 

perspective, we’re using Pardot to 

prioritise who we should be contacting, 

Einstein is going in in the near future to 

help us become more intuitive and predictive 

about who we should be calling 

and what our most qualified leads are,” 

he continued. “It’s enabling our teams 

to put the next natural customer experience 

step into place.” Lightning has 

enabled T-Mobile to personalise the 

Salesforce CRM platform to its brand, 


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as well as significantly increasing the 

efficiency with which its representatives 

can manage pipelines through a 

deeply intuitive user interface. Pardot, 

Salesforce’s CRM-integrated B2B 

marketing automation solution, enables 

T-Mobile’s marketers to create, 

launch, and manage campaigns and 

initiatives with ease, ramping up their 

lead generation rates. 

This technological focus on the 

customer, coupled with T-Mobile’s 

pioneering subscription strategies and 

offers, is further strengthened by its 121 

COMPANY FACTS 

• T-Mobile’s customer base 

has increased by 46mn 

since 2013, reaching 79.7mn 

at the end of 2018 

• T-Mobile added 2.4mn 

subscribers to its network in 

Q4 2018, its best quarter ever 

• T-Mobile has tripled its 

4G LTE coverage since 2015 

• Revolutionary CEO John 

Legere took office in 2012 

asynchronous messaging capabilities 

launched in 2016. Provided by LivePerson, 

a market leader in conversational 

commerce solutions, T-Mobile’s Team 

of Experts service enables its customers 

to continue through each stage 

of their digital journey with the same 

representative, providing a continuity 

of service that is often sorely lacking 

across other live chat services. In a 

September 2018 press release from 

LivePerson, Drake said: “The frustration 

of endless robotic phone menus 

and transfers from rep to rep can 

ruin a customer’s experience – so we 


T-MOBILE 

122 

ended it. Now with T-Mobile’s Team 

of Experts, our customers can get 

assistance when and how they want 

to – including via messaging.” 

In Drake’s interview with John Carney, 

he noted that the decision to introduce 

this service was driven by an understanding 

of modern smartphone usage, 

particularly the focus on messaging 

and video streaming. Today, the commitment 

to T-Mobile customers’ love 

for watching video on their smartphones 

has seen the firm launch a free 

Netflix subscription with its T-Mobile 

ONE family package. This attention 

to detail can be traced back to John 

Legere’s influence as CEO, who has 

reportedly instructed each of the company’s 

executives to speak to customers 

every day, thereby instilling the 

laudable culture of customer-centricity 

through consulting with those customers 

about what they want from their 

network provider. 

T-Mobile’s next major step in its 

digital journey is no secret: the muchanticipated 

leap to 5G. Not only has 

the firm tripled its 4G LTE coverage 

since 2015, it has been working hard 

to ensure it is one of the first to market 


with its own 5G network. The firm 

has laid out its 5G Vision, promising 

the gigabit-speed network standard 

for everyone, everywhere. Industry 

experts anticipate that 5G will be one 

of the most transformative leaps in 

wireless technology’s history, and 

T-Mobile says it is the only carrier in the 

US capable of establishing a strong 

and well-distributed 5G network in the 

early years of its release. With T-Mobile 

set to launch its 5G coverage this year, 

it says that the network will not only 

offer significantly faster download 

and upload speeds but that it will also 

enable it to offer lower prices per gigabyte 

for its customers. Highlighting this 

promise of bringing down its prices is 

emblematic of T-Mobile’s bold strategy 

since Legere took the reins, knowing 

and proving that investing in customers 

will continue to draw subscribers like 

never before. 

123 


206 

INTELLIGENT DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION ON 

A GLOBAL SCALE 

WRIT TEN BY 


PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 



207

SAP 

A comparatively recent strategy of inorganic 

growth at scale has significantly expanded 

SAP’s markets and furthered its ownership 

of the intelligent enterprise. We speak to 

the strategy’s architect Arlen Shenkman, 

Executive Vice President for Global Business 

Development and Ecosystems at SAP 

208 

S 

AP is the defining enterprise software 

company of our time. Industry leaders 

in almost every sector, private and 

public, were getting to grips with the concept 

of enterprise resource planning (ERP) back 

in the 1990s when, in the face of determined 

competition, SAP succeeded in adapting to 

the rapid evolution that was taking place at 

the turn of the century. Not only did it expand 

its platform to embrace additional functionality, 

but it started to prepare itself for the exodus 

from on-premise enterprise software to the 

as-a-service model that resides in the cloud 

today. SAP’s is the fastest growing business 

cloud by a wide margin. 

At its inception, the company had a strategy 

of having regional resellers but today it is 

reaping the benefits of having decided very 

early on that it was going to be a global 

company. It entered China in the early 1990s 

and now China is its fastest growing market 


209 

in defiance of any gloom around its slowing 

growth. “We are not having challenges 

in China — we are doubling down 

in China,” declared SAP’s CEO Bill 

McDermott as recently as January 29th. 

Arlen Shenkman’s association with 

SAP spans 15 years and in that time, 

he has helped evolve the company’s 

global growth strategy in a number of 

important ways. Trained in corporate 

law and corporate finance he brought 

with him broad experience with large 

international firms, much of it to do with 

mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 


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Around the world, leading companies and organizations 

are using cutting-edge technologies to transform 

their business, drive innovation, and win in an 

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cut above their competitors in many ways, but what 

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Platform technologies are helping these businesses 

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In a high-pressure, competitive industry like manufacturing, 

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Retail/Wholesales 

Companies in the retail/wholesale industry must offer 

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Further, they need to give managers real-time insight 

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application landscape, introducing an integrated 

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Warehouse (BW) powered by SAP HANA for 

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of performance for even the most demanding SAP 

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SAP 

212 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘SAP BUSINESS WOMEN’S 

NETWORK – DEFINE THE WAY’ 

213 

2005, he was invited by SAP’s then 

CFO Werner Brandt to build out an 

M&A practise for the company. Before 

then, though it had made a number of 

smaller acquisitions, SAP’s growth had 

been largely organic and by strategic 

partnerships with technology companies, 

notably IBM. 

TRANSFORMATIVE ACQUISITION 

AT SCALE 

Brandt however recognized that to meet 

the challenges of the market and the 

limitless potential presented by data it 

would be necessary to place M&A 

activity at the center of future development. 

“Our objective was to do transformative 

acquisitions. We really started 

down that road in 2007 with the acquisition 

of BusinessObjects in the analytics 

space, and that expanded our addressable 

markets considerably.” The $6.78bn 

acquisition of BusinessObjects was 

a watershed moment for the company 

both on account of the major financial 

commitment and because it brought 

business intelligence tools to SAP’s back 

office transactional systems. 

By 2010, SAP was ready to make its 

next transformational jump with the 


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SAP 

216 

$5.8bn acquisition of Sybase, which 

gave SAP users the option of running 

their operations from mobile devices, 

paving the way for real-time analytics 

and removing barriers between business 

applications and business intelligence, 

says Shenkman. “We then went on with 

a series of acquisitions to expand our 

cloud capabilities, ranging from Success- 

Factors to Ariba and Fieldglass and 

the travel and expense management 

services company Concur.” 

The $8.3bn Concur deal in 2014 

coincided with the launch of the latest 

version of the S/4 HANA business 

suite. As Bill McDermott observed at 

the time: “With Ariba, Fieldglass and 

Concur, SAP is the undisputed business 

network company. We are redefining 

how businesses conduct commerce 

across goods and services, contingent 

workforces, travel and entertainment. 

With the SAP HANA platform, the possibilities 

to innovate new business 

models around Concur and the network 

are limitless.” 

Following the successful completion 

of this phase of strategic M&A activity 

Shenkman served for two years as 

CFO of SAP in its largest market, the 

USA, before being invited by the CEO 

to work directly with him in the newly 

created role of Executive Vice President, 

Global Business Development and 


Ecosystems in May, 2017. His job, he 

explains, is to help the company get 

to grips with the opportunities it has 

to grow externally. “We tend to define 

that as inorganic growth: oftentimes 

that can be a new strategic partnership 

or an acquisition or a strategic 

investment, but in essence our charter 

is really to help the company put its 

arms around strategic initiatives with 

global partners. We’re looking for 

initiatives that enable us to expand 

our portfolio and continue to help our 

customers and our ecosystem with 

the digital transformation that most 

of them are going through.” 

“Data only has value 

when it helps you 

make better 

decisions and 

makes employees, 

customers and 

product users have 

a better experience 

with you” 

— 

Arlen Shenkman, 


Development & Ecosystems at SAP 

217 


Arlen Shenkman 

Arlen Shenkman serves as executive vice president for 

global business development and ecosystems at SAP. He is 

responsible for business models, investments, and mergers 

and acquisitions. Before his current role, Shenkman served 

as CFO of SAP North America, SAP’s largest business unit, 

responsible for all finance functions in North America, 

including forecasting and planning, identifying efficiencies, 

and ensuring the region’s overall financial 

health. As part of the leadership team, Shenkman 

was engaged in driving new sales. 


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219 

ter 

THE INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE 

The word ecosystem in Shenkman’s job 

title reflects the realities facing business 

today. A holistic view of organizational 

activity as an organism or a living entity 

influenced by the activity and changes 

in every place, internal or external, that 

touches it, is made possible by the 

convergence and management of 

data in the cloud. We can see here 

the beginnings of what SAP today 

describes as the intelligent enterprise. 

In this new world the notion of categories 

is perhaps invidious, but that 

said, the most recent SAP acquisition 

($8bn) of Qualtrics has outlined a new 

category, that of experience management 

(XM). The experience economy 

is a reality – 80% of customers have 

chosen to switch brand because of 

a negative experience and the impact 

of yearly loss of trust due to abuse 

of data privacy and brand loyalty is 

put at a staggering $2.5tn, and the estimated 

market size for customer experience 

solutions, platform and integration 

to operational systems stands 

at $100bn. 


SAP 

220 

“One of the 

things that really 

excited us 

was the idea 

of creating 

a category 

around 

experience 

management” 

— 






221

SAP 

1972 

Year founded 

96,000 


of employees 

222 

Qualtrics is a technology platform 

that organizations use to collect, manage 

and act on experience data. Experience 

management may be described 

as a system whereby teams, departments 

and organizations can manage 

the four core ‘experiences’ of business: 

customer, product, employee and 

brand. “One of the things that really 

excited us when we were considering 

this acquisition,” says Shenkman, “was 

the idea of creating a category around 

experience management. This is often 

narrowly defined as a customer’s, 

an employee’s, or a product user’s 

experience. But Qualtrics is truly 

a horizontal platform that allows you 

to get feedback and information 

around the holistic experience from 

all of these. This gets really interesting 

when you bring it together with our 

product portfolio, which links together 

that operational data with experiential 

data. How is it possible to have an 

intelligent enterprise without understanding 

how your customers, 

employees, product users, and everyone 

exposed to your brand, feel about 


223 

you?” It is hard to have a holistic view 

without really understanding what 

is happening to the business from an 

external perspective, and why that 

is happening.” 

Simply put, Qualtrics brings together 

the mass of experiential data trawled 

from whatever source – customer, 

brand, employee or the product itself. 

Rather than crunching these numbers 

in the back office and subjecting them 

to traditional feedback and survey processes, 

it gives companies the ability 

to adjust policy based on this data in 

real time – addressing issues like 

competitiveness drops, employee turnover 

or customer churn before they 

have time to develop into a problem. 

The integration of this ability with 

SAP’s ecosystem eliminates the old 

distinction between front office and 

back office. ‘Intelligent enterprise’ 

ceases to be a mere buzzword once 

the business is viewed organically, 

rather like the human body or a natural 

ecosystem in which latency can mean 

the difference between extinction 

and survival. 


SAP 

224 

DATA IN THE ECOSYSTEM 

Data, of itself, is dumb, says Arlen 

Shenkman. “There has long been 

a debate in large companies and among 

enterprise software specialists about 

the intrinsic value of data. My personal 

perspective is that data only has value 

when it helps you make better decisions 

and makes employees, customers and 

product users have a better experience 

with you. That can’t happen unless you 

know what they think about you.” 

For 50 years SAP has been focused 

on customer success driven by the 

quality of its products: that remains the 

focus, but today it’s no longer enough. 

There’s no doubt that the acquisitions 

of the past ten years have deepened 

and broadened SAP’s reach. Innovation 

can’t happen in isolation, he insists. 

“Without doubt M&A has driven a very 

robust portfolio of products, each of 

which enhances our focus on the success 

of our customers – and that, we 

believe, is the key to our own success 

as a global organization.” 

So, it’s probably not quite the thing 

to regard the Qualtrics acquisition as 

a complete reinvention of the company. 

SAP always had this focus, based on 

customer service delivered through 


its global presence and the global 

presence of the 18,000 partners that 

implement, build and innovate on its 

platforms. “This is where the complexity 

of our ecosystem comes in. We have 

very large global partners like Accenture, 

Capgemini, Deloitte, EY, and PWC. 

We work closely with the major public 

cloud providers, and hardware and 

software partners, and we have many 

smaller regional suppliers from around 

the world. The core of the SAP ecosystem 

is a very strong set of companies 

around the globe that develop software 

that resides and integrates with an SAP 

platform, whether on-premise or a cloud 

solution like SuccessFactors, Fieldglass, 

Ariba or Concur. Over the years, SAP 

has carefully cultivated our ecosystem. 

Every partner contributes certain expertise 

that allows us to deliver a more 

intelligent enterprise.” 

225 

THE LANDSCAPE SURVEYED 

There’s no doubt though that Qualtrics 

is a bit of a game changer for SAP, and 

one that will take a while to settle in. 

It is impossible to say never again, but 

the man with the overview of the ecosystem 

is able to claim a degree of satisfaction 

with its current state. “We love the 


SAP 

226 

“The core of the SAP 

ecosystem is a very strong 

set of companies around 

the globe that develop 

software that resides 

in and integrates with 

an SAP platform” 

— 




Qualtrics acquisition and we are really 

excited about building a category 

around XM, however I am not aware 

of any hole in our portfolio that would 

represent a strategic gap for us,” 

he says. “When we look over the 

landscape today, what our development 

teams have built and the cloud 

assets that we’ve amassed over the 

past eight years, we’re very comfortable 

with that portfolio.” So, no more 

large scale acquisitions are currently 

in his sights. 


The breadth of the SAP portfolio is 

legendary of course with capabilities 

spanning ERP, procurement, CRM, HR, 

MRP and so on you’d be hard put to 

identify any weakness. There will doubtless 

continue to be smaller acquisitions 

as the potential of technologies like AI 

and IoT are realized, but from here on in, 

SAP can concentrate on its core mission. 

“The journey for so many of our customers 

is digital transformation. SAP is helping 

them all the way, from finding the right 

place for them to start to deploy some 

solutions to implementing them. Some 

of the companies we work with are 

already through that journey; others 

are not. With 425,000 customers in 

180 countries it’s not surprising they 

are on different timetables!” 

The acquisition program since 2010 

has hugely expanded what he calls 

SAP’s addressable markets. “We have 

crafted a strategy to ensure our customers 

go through their digital transformation 

and move to the cloud successfully, 

deploying SAP technology to become 

the best businesses they can be.” 

227 


LOGO HERE 

The secret 

behind 

Berkshire 

228 

Hathaway 

GUARD 

Insurance 

Companies’ 

growth 

WRIT 

TEN BY 

LAURA MULLAN 

PRODUCED BY 

ANDY TURNER 



229

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY GUARD INSURANCE COMPANIES 

Competition may be rife in the insurance 

sector but Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 

Insurance Companies is proving it has 

the right strategy for success 

230 

P 

erhaps no greater question faces companies 

today than: ‘How do I scale my business?’ 

Nowadays, business headlines are inundated with 

stories touting the best tips and tricks for growth but surely, 

more than anything, it’s better to follow in the footsteps 

of a company which has done it before? Insurers searching 

for the best tried-and-tested methods to scale their 

business need look no further than Berkshire Hathaway 

GUARD Insurance Companies, a fast-growing trailblazer 

in the US insurance market. 

Preparing the foundations for growth 

Since its founding in 1983, GUARD companies have gone 

from strength to strength and today, now known as Berkshire 

Hathaway Guard Insurance Companies, the business stands 

as a prominent subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway – underwriting 

through its insurance companies: WestGUARD, 

AmGUARD, EastGUARD, NorGUARD and AZGUARD. 

The group provides commercial (and, most recently, personal 

lines) insurance coverage and services to businesses of all types 

in the US. In fact, in 2017, the group issued over 250,000 

policies to businesses across the country. However, this 

success wasn’t achieved because of luck or ‘just good 

timing’: throughout its history Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 

has worked hard to redefine and reshape its strategy, 



231


232 

“We’re growing 

every year by 

20-25% which 

shows that this 

is not a steady 

state company” 

— 

Sy Foguel, 

CEO and President, 

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 

aligning the organization to achieve 

meteoric growth. 

The CEO, Sy Foguel, joined the 

company in 2007 when the group 

was acquired by Clal Insurance 

Enterprise Holdings Ltd., an international 

insurance group of which he 

was Executive Vice President. “At the 

time the company was writing around 

US$200mn of Workers Compensation 

premium in a dozen states,” he recalls. 

“Our vision from day one was to use the 

company as a platform to become a 

one stop shop for the insurance needs 

distributed by our agents. We started 

to introduce additional lines of coverage 

and built all the infrastructure.” Later 

in 2012, the organization changed 

hands again and became a whollyowned 

subsidiary of National Indemnity 

Company, which is part of the 

Berkshire Hathaway Group. “Today, we 

are a $1.6bn company,” Foguel adds. 

COO Carl Witkowski, who has been 

with the company in different roles 

since 1989, adds that before gaining 

the backing of Berkshire Hathaway, 

GUARD first had to forge its own path 

in the insurance market. “We were a 

small regional company and there 

were two key things we had to offer: 

superior service and efficiency,” he 

observes. “Our retail agents are a key 

part of our DNA – they’ve been our 

distribution force.” Like any small 

operation, efficiency has always been a 

well-versed mantra at GUARD. “We 

needed to be efficient to survive 

as a company and so our expense 

ratios needed to be managed,” 

he continues. “When we were later 

acquired, it was a great example of 

when preparation meets opportunity.” 

Critically, as the insurer has continued 

on its upward trajectory, it has taken 

care to retain this same start-up 

philosophy and mentality. 


233 

SPEARHEADING DIGITAL 

TRANSFORMATION 

“In 1989 GUARD was a small two-state 

company,” Witkowski recalls. “I was 

brought in to hone its processes, create 

efficiencies and develop a managerial 

infrastructure.” As part of this process, 

the enterprise re-platformed directly 

onto a browser-based modern architecture 

and went increasingly paperless 

– readying itself for a digitally-savvy 

future. “We probably had one of the first 

browser-based client systems in the 

United States,” adds Witkowski. “We 

also became one of the first paperless 

insurance companies, with both 

accomplishments partially enabled by 

our R&D approach to technology 

yielding over a dozen patents.” With 

a wealth of experience in insurance, 

Witkowski has witnessed firsthand how 

the sector is moving from the paperbased 

work of the past towards a new 

age powered by technology and data. 

Many businesses contend that data 

is the ‘new oil’ and the same sentiment 

rings true at Berkshire Hathaway GUARD. 

With reams of data at the insurer’s 

fingertips, Foguel, who is an actuary by 

profession, believes that this appreciation 



234 

of data gives the organization 

a significant edge. “Whether it’s for 

claims processing or policy selection 

and pricing, we always manage data 

down to the scintilla level. This means 

we can provide our analysts and actuarial 

staff the data they need to make good, 

real-time decisions,” he explains. 

Digital transformation can put a 

strain on any business’ wallet but at 

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD, the 

enterprise has shrewdly taken a build, 

rather than buy, approach. “A lot of 

resources, time and effort are 

consumed when companies decide 

to replace their policy administration 

system, portals, claims system, 

or spend their time integrating multiple 

third-party systems” observes Witkowski. 

“It distracts the business and slows it 

down. Because of this, we don’t 

replace any systems. Instead, we 

evolve our systems. Therefore, we 

don’t waste the resources and we don’t 

throw away that investment. However, 

we still must make the system very 

easy for an agent to use, as we don’t 

work directly with consumers.” 



Sy Foguel 

As Chief Executive Officer and President, Sy Foguel leads the strategic 

planning and positioning of the organization, helping to promote 

initiatives that make realization of both short- and long-term goals 

possible. His involvement with the company has been marked by 

numerous accomplishments. While at Clal Insurance of Israel, he 

was the individual who first recognized the potential of a small, 

regional monoline carrier (i.e., GUARD in 2006) and was instrumental 

in the acquisition of this organization in 2007, which ultimately 

resulted in him being named Chief Executive Officer and President 

of GUARD. Since 2007, the company’s annual premiums have more 

than tripled (despite very challenging economic times) while 

maintaining a combined ratio well below industry peers and 

diversifying into new lines of property and casualty coverage. In 

2012, he then helped orchestrate the profitable sale of GUARD to 

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (specifically National Indemnity Company) 

and has continued in his role as CEO/President — rebranding the 

group as Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies and 

becoming a nationwide carrier 

Prior to his current tenure, Foguel had accumulated diverse international, 

executive-level insurance industry experience, including roles as 

CEO of IDI Bituch Yashir of Israel, Executive Vice President 

of Clal Insurance of Israel, and Senior Vice President of 

Arch Insurance in the United States as well as being in 

charge of other international insurance ventures 

such as a Lloyd’s Syndicate and a Romanian entity. 

Sy is an honors graduate of the Computer Engineering 

and Mathematics Faculties at the Hebrew University 

in Jerusalem, is a certified actuary in both the US and 

Israel, and is a member of several actuarial societies 

in both countries (ACAS, FILAA). 

235 



236 


Carl Witkowski 

Chief Operating Officer Carl Witkowski joined the organization in 

1996 after working for nearly a decade as a consultant. Throughout 

his tenure, he has spearheaded numerous initiatives such as 

transforming the organization to 100% paperless processing in the 

early 2000’s and leading the re-platforming of our proprietary 

systems to a browser-based environment. Similarly, Witkowski’s prior 

leadership experience in the health care field has enabled him to 

serve a key role in formulating and shaping managed care strategies 

that have allowed Berkshire Hathaway GUARD to excel in delivering 

superior claims service that provides quality care to injured workers 

while containing costs. As current President of GUARDCo, he ensures 

standards of excellence and best practices are achieved. 

As part of his current duties, he leads Berkshire Hathaway GUARD’s 

information and technology group and is also “curator” of the 

company’s “human capital” and culture. In 2001 (the only year the 

company participated), GUARD was named the second Best Large 

Place to Work in Pennsylvania. All operational units currently fall 

under Witkowski’s leadership, including Claims processing, Small 

and Intermediate Business Unit underwriting, and Customer 

Service and Support functions. 

Witkowski has extensive past management, executive, 

and leadership experiences. He exited his two-decade 

career in behavioral health as Clinical Director of one 

of Pennsylvania’s most diverse behavioral health 

organizations. He was also engaged in private practice 

(providing both clinical counseling and management 

consulting), was a graduate faculty member of Marywood 

University for 12 years, and is a frequent presenter on 

information technology and human capital topics 

at national conferences. 


“Our retail 

agents are a key 

part of our DNA 

– they’ve been 

our distribution 

force” 

— 

Carl Witkowski, 

Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice 

President at Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 

237 



238 

LEADERSHIP AND COLLABORATION: 

A PERFECT MIX 

Technology may be a fundamental cog 

in any business growth strategy but 

when it comes to true success, it’s 

ultimately down to the people. Abandoning 

hierarchies in favor of a culture 

that “rewards individual performance 

and celebrates team accomplishment”, 

Foguel points out how “everyone treats 

this company as though they have 

ownership in it – there’s respect for 

one another”. 

“There are never more than three 

or four degrees of separation in the 

company,” he notes. “Our greatest 

success is our ability to make decisions 

quickly. We’re also flexible enough to 

implement them on a very quick timeline.” 

The insurer has taken this positive work 

culture one step further using technology: 

by creating a robust agency portal and 

leading call center, the firm has strived 

to create a close-knit culture between 

the company and its agents. 

In all aspects, it seems agility is 

interwoven into the company’s DNA. 

This not only applies to technology: 

indeed, Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 

has worked diligently to offer bigger 

and better product propositions to 

1983 

Year founded 

500+ 


of employees 

HQ 

Wilkes-Barre 

Pennsylvania 

“We don’t 

replace any 

systems. 

Instead, we 

evolve our 

systems” 

— 

Carl Witkowski, 

Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice 

President at Berkshire Hathaway GUARD 


239 

its customers. “GUARD itself is not 

a new company but in the last decade 

we’ve acted like a fast growing startup,” 

enthuses Foguel. “We’re growing every 

year by 20-25% which shows that this is 

not a steady state company in any form. 

We’re always innovating and we always 

have four or five projects on the go.” 

In fact, just last year the firm announced 

various partnerships with IoT companies 

and AI applications, including a pilot 

with Safe Drive Systems (SDS), to 

create a collision avoidance system 

and fleet management systems (FMS) 

technology for its commercial auto 

lines, and a project with Plank Re to use 

AI to further automate the workers’ 

compensation underwriting process. 

Berkshire Hathaway GUARD is truly 

a strong role model for how to profitably 

scale quickly and steadily. Businesses 

should keep an eye on the firm to see 

what they’ll do next. 


Digital transformation 

and innovation 

at Plymouth Rock 

240 

WRIT TEN BY 

OLIVIA MINNOCK 

PRODUCED BY 

ANDY TURNER 



241

PLYMOUTH ROCK ASSURANCE 

Tom Lyons, Chief Operations 

Officer of Plymouth Rock 

Assurance’s Direct Response 

Channel, discusses how an agile, 

creative approach has allowed 

the insurer to adapt its offering 

to a changing market 

242 

T 

oday, customer service is all about choice 

and innovation and the increasingly 

competitive insurance sector is no 

exception. Consumers want to communicate in the 

most convenient way for them, and they expect 

personalized service as well as products tailored to 

their specific needs. Across an increasingly 

demanding landscape, auto and home insurance 

carrier Plymouth Rock Assurance has stepped up 

to this challenge and adapted its offering to survive 

– and thrive. Tom Lyons, Chief Operations Officer of 

Plymouth Rock Assurance’s Direct Response 

Channel, has closely watched the changing industry 

over his 12 years at the company. He has observed 

key consumer habit changes and notes an important 

shift: consumers increasingly want the ease of 

doing business through a distribution channel of 

their choice. This is the very reason the Direct 

Response Channel for Plymouth Rock was born. 



243


244 

“That’s the key to direct 

distribution: how do 

we make it easy for the 

consumer to buy the 

product, while still 

feeling well informed?” 

— 

Tom Lyons, 

Chief Operations Officer, Direct Response 

Channel, Plymouth Rock Assurance 

“In New Jersey, property and 

casualty insurance market share has 

evolved from being independent and 

exclusive agent dominated to more 

direct dominated,” Lyons explains. 

For example, in 2003, New Jersey was 

71% dominated by independent and 

exclusive agents. Today those same 

agents make up around 47% of the 

market. In comparison, the Direct 

market share in 2003 was 29% and 

now stands at 53%. Plymouth Rock 

has had to adapt to this transformation 

in the industry while continuing to invest 

in and support its independent and 

Prudential exclusive agent networks. 

Traditionally, the insurer distributed 

its products solely through an agency 

model. In order to step up and compete 

with the evolution of direct writers, 

a key element of Plymouth Rock’s 

transformation was to build a direct 

capability that complemented and 

strengthened its agency distribution 

offering. “Within our geographic 

footprint, you’ll see that a lot of the big, 

national direct writers entered our 

markets and began gobbling up market 

share from the agency channels,” Lyons 

comments. “To combat that, we piloted 

building out a direct-to-consumer 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘PLYMOUTH ROCK ASSURANCE 

30 SECOND TV SPOT’ 

245 

response channel about 10 years ago 

to see if we could make the economics 

of growing through direct distribution 

work. We also needed to help our 

agency channels compete in a digital 

marketplace.” While initially a pilot 

venture, failure was not an option. 

Plymouth Rock needed to build an 

economical and scalable direct 

business to compete in the marketplace 

and to fuel growth. Over the past 

decade, it has transformed into 

a multi-channel distribution model. 

Plymouth Rock’s goal is for its Direct 

Response Channel to be a partner to 

its agency channel, as opposed to 

a competing business. “From the initial 

launch of the Direct Response Channel 

through today, our focus has been 

helping the Plymouth Rock Enterprise 

compete in this evolving digital landscape. 

We are continually on the hunt 

for new marketing sources, partners, 

and technology to leverage for the 

benefit of our agents,” says Lyons. 

Since being founded in 1982, 

Plymouth Rock has expanded significantly 

across the northeast US. Initially, 

Plymouth Rock distributed its products 

in Massachusetts and eventually 



246 

moved into New Jersey in 1993. It also 

has been active with independent agents 

in Connecticut and New Hampshire for 

more than 20 years. Currently, Plymouth 

Rock’s Direct Response Channel is 

actively writing in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

Connecticut and New Hampshire. 

The company plans to enter New York 

in the latter part of 2019. 

As the market changes and develops, 

Plymouth Rock no longer just competes 

with local rivals. National and global 

companies also have become competitors. 

“Our direct national competitors 

have economies of scale in terms of 

their marketing and telesales acquisition 

dollars,” says Lyons. “In many cases, 

they have thousands of sales reps 

in their sales centers and very large 

national advertising budgets. 

To compete with that, we have to be 

extremely targeted and selective about 

where and how we spend our marketing 

dollars and how we sell our product.” 

In many ways, Plymouth Rock is 

maintaining an entrepreneurial startup 

mentality as it grows. It is careful how 

it spends its money and the relationships 


it forms, and it is adept at listening to 

each colleague within the fast growing 

organization. 

A significant advantage for Plymouth 

Rock is its deep understanding of the 

market and how consumer needs and 

expectations continue to evolve. Lyons 

is keenly aware of the shift to self-serve 

in the market and what this means for 

his organization. “Back in the old days 

of insurance, it was routine for customers 

to go to their local agent to buy insurance 

products, face to face. Nowadays, 

many customers want to be able 

to transact right from their smartphone 

or tablet and buy the product online or 

over the telephone. However, they still 

seek the comfort and confidence of 

knowing that there’s a licensed agent 

ensuring they make the right decisions. 

That’s the key to direct distribution. 

How do we make it easy for the 

consumer to buy the product, while still 

feeling well served and well informed?” 

In order to provide the best possible 

experience for customers in a changing 

landscape, Plymouth Rock has worked 

with innovative startups that might 

otherwise be seen as disruptive 

competition. “We’ve worked with a lot 

247 


Tom Lyons 

Tom Lyons is the Chief Operations Officer of the Direct Response 

Channel for the Plymouth Rock Management Company of New Jersey. 

He is responsible for all aspects of Plymouth Rock Assurance’s auto 

direct‐to‐consumer marketing and sales efforts, marketing analytics 

activities, and inbound and outbound Sales Center operations. 

He also oversees all aspects of Teachers’ Insurance Plan of NJ. 

Tom joined Plymouth Rock in 2007 as a Marketing 

Representative in the Prudential Agency Management Division. 

The following year, he became the first Supervisor of Plymouth 

Rock’s Direct Sales Center, eventually being promoted to the 

Director position. In this capacity, he built out and oversaw 

the growth of the inbound, outbound and telemarketing 

sales operations. tlyons@plymouthrock.com 


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“What sets Plymouth 

Rock apart from 

our competitors 

is that we try to form 

really strategic 

partnerships with 

these companies: it’s 

not just one size fits all” 

— 

Tom Lyons, 



of insurtech companies both from a 

technology and a distribution perspective,” 

says Lyons. “What sets Plymouth Rock 

apart from our competitors is that we 

try to form tailored strategic partnerships 

with these companies. It’s not just one 

size fits all.” For example, the insurer 

has partnered with other alternative 

distribution partners, which it calls 

Super Agents, throughout the country. 

The company has integrated with these 

partners through LeadCloud, a leading 

data integration partner. “Regional 

direct writers need to be scrappy 

and agile in how we form partnerships 

and how we integrate with them,” 

Lyons emphasizes. There’s a fine line 

to those arrangements, but several 

have worked out well for Plymouth 

Rock and its partners. “Transparency 

and collaboration is at the forefront 

of how we form these strategic 

partnerships to ensure win-win 

relationships,” says Lyons. 

As well as startups, Plymouth Rock 

maintains relationships with more 

established tech partners in order 

to leverage the latest technology for 

a truly superior customer experience. 

Working with Salesforce.com, 

a customer relationship management 

(CRM) system, gives the company a 

unified 360-degree view of both 

current and prospective customers. 

“We monitor the customer journey all 

the way throughout their lifecycle with 

us through every touch point,” Lyons 

explains. “We understand if they like 

to communicate with us via email, chat, 

text or phone, so we can tailor the 

customer experience specific to those 

individuals. In addition, partnerships 

with IBM and Acxiom are instrumental 

for data management. We are pursuing 

multichannel marketing, where we 

execute a variety of different marketing 

249 



250 

channels to fit customers’ needs. 

Some consumers would prefer we 

market to them through email and 

display advertising, whereas others 

prefer direct mail or social media 

advertising. It’s about tailoring our 

messaging and approach to fit the 

needs of the customer.” 

Another interesting area of partnership 

Plymouth Rock is beginning to 

explore is with financial institutions. 

“This is an area of expansion and 

growth,” says Lyons. “We’re finding 

that these financial institutions are 

able to round out their client base 

by offering a Property and Casualty 

insurance product with us, and in doing 

so, improve their customer retention. 

The strategic partnerships we form are 

key to what Plymouth Rock does. 

Our partnerships are not about ‘you do 

this and we do that’ – they are creative 

and agile. Plymouth Rock is currently 

working with many financial institutions 

in this regard and is actively seeking 

out new partnerships to advance 

our respective businesses.” 

Internally, Plymouth Rock’s research 

and development team is always on the 

lookout for emerging technologies. 

Its agile, flexible approach allows new 

“Regional direct writers 

need to be scrappy and 

agile in how we form 

partnerships” 

— 

Tom Lyons, 




ventures and solutions to be piloted 

quickly before successful initiatives 

are rolled out across the organization. 

Every innovation implemented is 

measured in relation to its impact on 

customer experience, which is closely 

monitored. “We do customer surveys 

and focus groups to understand what 

customers like and don’t like about 

being insured with us, and we often 

make changes based on that. Keeping 

our finger on the pulse of consumers 

and being responsive to their needs 

helps keep us competitive and at the 

cutting edge of innovation,” Lyons says. 

Another key element to finding the 

best solutions for its business and 

customers is Plymouth Rock’s culture 

of collaboration. It is not only external, 

but permeates the internal organization 

as well. “We have a culture where 

everybody in the organization, regardless 

of rank, feels empowered to give 

recommendations or suggestions,” 

Lyons says. For example, the popular 

Get Home Safe® benefit that’s unique 

to Plymouth Rock allows the company’s 

customers access to a free taxi ride 

home as a safer alternative to driving 

when necessary. This innovative 

service was suggested to the CEO 

251 



1982 

Year founded 

1,800+ 


of employees 

252 

HQ 

Woodbridge 

New Jersey 

“Plymouth Rock was 

founded on the 

principle of putting 

service first. That is 

still part of our DNA.” 

— 

Tom Lyons, 



by an employee in the lunchroom many 

years ago. It has now been rolled 

out across the enterprise. “We have 

a culture of collaboration and transparency 

across our various business 

units,” Lyons says 

“These units empower an entrepreneurial 

spirit and an innovative approach 

to all of our business initiatives. 

And there is always collaboration to 

ensure the best practices of the various 

groups across Plymouth Rock.” 

Through this entrepreneurial spirit 

and a commitment to collaboration, 


253 

the Plymouth Rock Direct Response 

Channel has grown significantly. 

“We plan to grow our business quite 

rapidly over the next several years 

and feel our multi-channel approach 

to distribution should fuel growth in 

these new states for both our direct 

and independent agent channels,” 

Lyons explains. Throughout this 

journey, he is confident the organization 

will not lose the unique touch that 

led to this success in the first place, 

with customer service being at the 

forefront of everything it does. 

“Plymouth Rock was founded on the 

principle that a higher standard of 

customer service would make us stand 

out in an already-crowded industry. 

Treating our customers with courtesy, 

valuing their time, and understanding 

and empathizing with their issues has 

been crucial to our success. That is still 

part of our DNA. We respect the brand 

equity that Plymouth Rock has built since 

day one and honor our cultural values.” 


254 

RESOURCING 

DENTISTRY, 

TRANSFORMING 

BUSINESS 

WRIT TEN BY 


PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 



255

GLIDEWELL DENTAL 

Glidewell Dental, on the cusp 

of its 50th anniversary, has 

transformed its business 

model to become a technology 

company that acts as a virtual 

extension of the dental 

practices it serves 

256 

J 

ust how did Glidewell Dental become the 

largest privately owned dental laboratory 

in the world? In 1970, spurred by a desire to 

make rehabilitative dentistry accessible to all, Jim 

Glidewell, CDT, applied a unique blend of technical 

knowledge, business principles and marketing 

philosophies to expand his one-man kitchen table 

operation into a multifaceted technology company 

among those at the forefront of the oral health 

industry today. His focus from day one has been on 

developing new equipment and techniques with the 

objective of keeping dentistry affordable for both 

clinician and patient. He has consistently reinvested 

the profits of the business into its industry-leading 

R&D department (in which Glidewell himself remains 

heavily engaged) which has given dental practices 

access to many award-winning products, such as 

BruxZir Solid Zirconia restorations. There can’t be 

that many founders and CEOs still leading their 

company half a century on, yet preparations are 

underway for a yearlong 50th anniversary celebration 

in 2020. 



257


“How could 

Glidewell 

guarantee 

consistency of 

the products? 

For me that was 

the starting point 

in our journey 

toward digital 

258 transformation” 

— 

Mike Selberis 

CTO, Glidewell Dental 

Mike Selberis joined Glidewell as CIO 

in 2008, just a year before the first 

BruxZir product hit the market. In that 

role he has overseen the increasing 

adoption of technology platforms to 

run the business; however, he also sits 

on the American Dental Association 

(ADA) and ISO Standards Committees 

for CAD/CAM, and leads a team of automation 

specialists responsible for a 

growing number of innovations in the 

field of mass customization. As we’ll see, 

this is central to the company’s future 

growth and relevant to Selberis’ promotion 

in 2016 to Chief Technology Officer 

(CTO), which extended his oversight to 


hardware engineering, CAD/CAM 

software and material sciences. 

The launch of BruxZir solidified 

Glidewell as the leading manufacturer 

of zirconia materials for the dental 

market. Zirconia (zirconium oxide) is 

an ideal material for making dental 

restorations thanks to its toothcolored 

shading and impressive 

durability, and BruxZir is the top 

selling brand in the United States, 

having been prescribed for more 

than 18mn restorations. Its rapid 

adoption by dentists and patients 

alike has spearheaded a global shift 

from full-cast and porcelain-veneered 

restorations to monolithic 

ceramic crowns and bridges. 

ENTER GLIDEWELL.IO 

Far-sighted investment in material 

science made in the first decade of this 

century paved the way for the development 

of the software- and hardwarebased 

technology that is transforming 

Glidewell Dental, and disrupting global 

dentistry, Selberis believes. When it 

comes to restorations, dentists expect 

reliability, speed and consistent quality. 

Traditionally they are accustomed to 

dealing with small dental laboratories 

employing five people or fewer, where 

259 


Mike Selberis 

Mike Selberis graduated from California State 

Polytechnic University, Pomona, in 1987 with a B.S. 

in Electrical/Computer Engineering and joined 

Glidewell in 2008 as CIO. He has more than 22 

years of engineering and management 

experience. Selberis currently holds a seat 

on the ADA and ISO Standards Committees 

for CAD/CAM, assisting in the development 

of an industry standard for CAD/CAM 

interoperability. In 2016, he was 

promoted to CTO. 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘GLIDEWELL.IO IN-OFFICE SOLUTION WITH 

CHAD C. DUPLANTIS, DSS’ 

261 

there is a limited amount of variation 

from one restoration to the next. Glidewell, 

however, has always aimed to 

provide premium restorations on a large 

scale to help meet public demand. “How 

could Glidewell guarantee consistency 

of the products?” Selberis ponders. “For 

me, that was the starting point in our 

journey toward digital transformation 

utilizing software with technologies such 

as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics 

in order to predictably produce the 

optimal outcome for each patient.” 

The challenge was to provide a personalized 

service in higher volumes, in a 

way that would work for both clinician 

and patient. Traditionally, someone 

needing a crown would visit the dentist 

for a physical impression of their teeth, 

which was then sent to the laboratory 

where the prosthesis would be made. 

The digitization of the manufacturing 

process was essential to eliminating the 

variability inherent in the old system; 

however, the patient would still have to 

book a follow-up appointment to 

receive the final prosthesis. 

Imagine if you could book a single 

hour-long appointment and leave the 

dentist’s office with a zirconia crown in 



262 

place! By eliminating unnecessary 

appointments, the dentist can limit 

administrative work and maximize his or 

her chair time, while the patient will have 

to take less time off work and undergo 

less stress. So Glidewell’s R&D came up 

with a solution that could deliver just 

that. “Last year we launched the 

glidewell.io In-Office Solution, which 

allows a dentist to produce a BruxZir 

zirconia crown that can go straight into 

the patient’s mouth when the tooth is 

prepared. That’s something only our 

company has been able to achieve!” 

Instead of taking a traditional 

impression, dentists using glidewell.io 

capture a digital rendering of the 

patient’s dentition using an intraoral 

scanner. For this entry point of the 

process, Glidewell secured an alliance 

and distribution agreement with Align 

Technology, whose iTero Element 

intraoral scanning system leads the 

North American market. Glidewell 

Dental has provided digital laboratory 

fabrication services for hundreds of 

thousands of iTero restorative cases, 

and was familiar with its advantages. 

Once the patient has been scanned, 

Glidewell’s fastdesign.io software is 

able to automatically propose a design 

“glidewell.io allows 

a dentist to be 

able to produce a 

zirconia crown that 

can go straight into 

the patient’s mouth 

in a single visit, 

while the patient 

is still in the chair” 

— 

Mike Selberis 



for the restoration, which the dentist 

can accept or revise according to 

preference. From the same software 

interface, the dentist can either prescribe 

and request a restoration from Glidewell 

Laboratories, or send the design 

direct to the fastmill.io In-Office Unit for 

immediate chairside milling. 

This package effectively provides the 

dentist laboratory capabilities in the 

comfort of the office, explains Selberis. 

“We allow them to take the strongest 

industry-standard material, a BruxZir 

zirconia crown, and mill it without 

having to put it into a furnace.” Normally, 

at the laboratory the crown would 

have to cure in a furnace for some 

hours, but as supplied with the fastmill.io 

it is pre-hardened. Nobody else has 

been able to mill zirconia in its hardened 

state, he adds with pride. 

“It’s thanks to our vertical integration, 

because we are the source of the 

material, develop the CAD/CAM software 

and the AI piece, and engineer and 

manufacture the in-office mill, that we 

are the only company that can bring 

this purpose-built system to market.” 

CLOUD FORMATIONS 

Glidewell has created an ecosystem 

with a single focus, to make the 

263 



264 

experience more pleasant for the 

patient and more efficient for the 

practitioner. By compressing years of 

lab expertise into a small form factor, 

glidewell.io has attracted high demand 

since it came on the market in March 

2018 – not surprising when the clinician’s 

investment can be recouped 

within a year. “Because of our vertical 

integration we’ve been able to develop 

this technology at a system level, at a 

much lower price. To allow this, we 

developed our all-in cloud strategy 

together with Amazon Web Services 

about five years ago, when we began 

developing our CAD/CAM software on 

their cloud and this allows us to very 

easily extend the benefits into the 

dentist’s office.” 

And yet the synergy between 

clinician and lab goes much further than 

this. “glidewell.io is an ecosystem that 

provides the solution in the dentist’s 

office but also networks seamlessly 

with our laboratory,” he explains. “So, for 

the things that they can’t do chairside, 

they can communicate with us much 

more easily. We have provided this 

platform as an extension of the 

laboratory, as if it were another member 

of their treatment team. We have made 

1970 

Year founded 

HQ: 

Newport Beach 

California 


it much easier for them to consult with 

us as needed.” For unusual cases 

featuring added complexity, Selberis 

emphasizes that today’s automatic 

design proposals may not be the sole 

solution. “As much as we’ve done to 

simplify a significant portion of everyday 

casework, there are always outliers 

requiring the sophistication of a human 

technician. Through digital transformation, 

we make it simple for them to gain 

assistance from us however they 

choose, marrying human and artificial 

intelligence to provide the best crown 

possible for each individual patient.” 

265 

TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS 

Raising that experience to a yet higher 

level Glidewell has introduced an IoT 

button along the lines of the Amazon 

Dash button. “Our Glidewell Wi-Fi 

connected pickup button has one job 

only. As things stand when you send 

cases to the lab either their driver 

comes out or a carrier will be booked. 

Typically, dental practices do business 

with up to four different labs so they 

spend a lot of time on the phone and 

there’s a lot of scope for delay and error. 

I looked for a way to simplify that and 

that is how the Glidewell Pickup button 



266 

was born. When you have one or more 

cases ready you just press the button to 

automatically schedule the case, 

generate a shipping label, and it will be 

picked up by a FedEx or UPS driver 

within a couple of hours.” 

glidewell.io and the Pickup 

button are important milestones 

on the company’s journey 

towards fuller automation. It’s 

all about providing a simpler, 

more personalized customer 

experience. To help decide the 

‘next best action’ for assisting 

an individual customer, Glidewell 

has partnered with customer 

“It’s our ability to take 

all the knowledge 

we have gained over 

the years and turn 

our data into a tool 

that will enable us to 

further enhance the 

dentist and patient 

experience” 

— 

Mike Selberis 


experience and automation specialist 

Pega, to provide an AI solution with the 

goal of servicing a ‘segment of one’. 

“Big Data and analytics are a start, but 

the real value comes when you can turn 

data into insight, into action, which 

means making coordinated decisions in 

real time, across all channels,” says 

Mike Selberis. “We probably service 

over half of the USA’s dentists, so to 

take the most appropriate actions at the 

right time for each customer we need a 

system that is automated, and that is a 

part of our digital transformation.” 


267 

50 years on, Selberis remains 

convinced that technology will deliver 

still better outcomes for dental 

patients. Work continues on a 3D 

printing solution that allows dentists 

to design and create, using the 

glidewell.io platform, a temporary 

crown or bridge from composite 

material, nightguards, surgical guides, 

and study models, again at a single 

visit. Furthermore, definitive restorations 

featuring additive manufacturing 

techniques are almost certainly in the 

future. “It will likely take years to fully 

leverage the work we have started, 

But it’s our ability to take all the 

knowledge we have gained over the 

years and turn our data into a tool that 

will enable us to further enhance the 

dentist and patient experience. So we 

will surely become more of a knowledge 

and technology driven business.” 


LOGO HERE 

186 

SGK: optimising brand 

performance through 

digital transformation 


187 

WRIT TEN BY 

CATHERINE STURMAN 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG DANIELS 


SGK 

The need for omnichannel 

solutions is providing ample 

opportunity for the marketing 

supply chain industry. Chief 

Technology Officer at SGK, 

Francois Estellon, tells us more… 

188 

S 

upporting clients in optimizing their 

brand performance through customized 

content and packaging solutions, 

SGK has successfully blended the right 

combination of talent, services and technology 

in the management of infinite content requirements 

across ever-growing brand touchpoints. 

Knowing that even the best ideas are only as 

good as their execution, the business has 

applied this knowledge across the entire 

brand ecosystem, spanning multiple channels, 

contents and geographies. 

Transforming the way brands relate to their 

customers, SGK rethinks how brands are created 

and sold, and how their assets are produced 

to protect their equities to ensure a fully optimized 

investment. 

Spearheading a multitude of technology-led 

initiatives, and benefitting from an extensive 

career across manufacturing and supply chain 

product development, SGK’s Chief Technology 



189

“The AWS platform 

enables the flexibility 

and speed IT needs 

to transform Matthews 

International, with 

the technology 

leadership for us to 

innovate for the future 

of our business” 

Davor Brkovich 

Head of IT and CIO 

Matthews International 

www.BuildOn.aws

“ WE ARE THE IT PEOPLE WITH 

LABELS & PACKAGING KNOWLEDGE 

AND THE LABELS & PACKAGING PEOPLE 

WITH IT COMPETENCE” 

Modular production 

workflow suite for … 

• File processing 

• Asset management 

• Soft proofing 

• Workflow automation 

• The Standard in 

PDF Editing 

• Designed for 

Labels & Packaging 

• OS X and Windows 

www.hybridsoftware.com 

Design: www.gd90.de

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘SGK CONTENT SOLUTIONS’ 

193 

Officer (CTO) Francois Estellon jumped 

at the chance to take on a new challenge 

in a sector which he had yet to explore. 

“SGK was a new industry to me. I love 

to try to draw differences and parallels 

between various industries. A third-party 

view on operations and the way we 

do business can bring different 

perspectives. You have to maintain a 

balance between learning something 

new while trying to inject some knowledge 

from your previous life,” he explains. 

“I like to spend time with our clients 

and our talented client-facing team 

to understand their challenges, how 

our organization can help them and 

how it should drive our technology 

focus. Our customers have real 

challenges that need solving urgently 

and we need to focus on this as 

a tech-driven organization. In the 

marketing supply chain industry, 

we are one of the most established 

businesses and collaborate with great 

global brands. Mars, Coca-Cola, 

Pepsi, Procter and Gamble, Unilever, 

Apple… you name a global consumer 

product or food company, and we 

probably do business with them. 

It’s a pretty interesting space,” he adds. 


SGK 

194 

INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS 

Through an effective blend of creative, 

technical and business-orientated 

individuals, SGK has built a collaborative 

culture which places technology firmly 

at the center. Developing products, 

such as packaging and ads, as well as 

PDF files, renders, metadata and more, 

the company’s creative brands such as 

Brandimage and Anthem support the 

establishment of brand identities and 

effective marketing communications 

and programs that enable its clients 

to strengthen their overall positions 

in their chosen market. 

“Our Equator brand focuses on 

the unique needs of retailers, while 

IDL creates exciting and interactive 

instore displays and immersive brand 

experiences. Our production brands 

also bring strategies and ideas to life. 

Schawk produces brand assets 

and protects brands, ensuring flawless 

execution and consistency, while 

Saueressig delivers rotogravure 

solutions and technical expertise 

in the reproduction of brand assets,” 

says Estellon. 

As brand owners continue to 

experience complex demands 

stemming from a rapidly evolving 

marketplace, SGK’s long-term 

technology roadmap has focused on 

simplifying, standardizing and automating 

services, applying a manufacturing 

approach to the creation of marketing 

deliverables. “This removes unnecessary 

hidden-factory costs by creating 

and managing content seamlessly 

across systems and marketing 

channels while offering greater agility 

in the creative development process,” 

affirms Estellon. 

“The guiding principle of our roadmap 

is to embrace leading-edge 

concepts without carrying legacy debt 


to what has come before. This is on top 

of generating revenue from new digital 

products and services, reaching new 

markets and opportunities to supply 

different customer outcomes though 

technology. We also want to improve 

our speed to market, and enhance 

quality through automation. Production 

is a big part of our DNA and we 

need to continue improving.” 

Partnering with a number of companies 

which share SGK’s guiding principle 

for technology, the business has 

become cloud-first (utilizing Platformas-a-Service 

(PaaS) for running 

existing applications, managing 

artwork and content file storage and 

shares), alongside an API-first, User 

Experience and User Interface Design 

(UI/UX). The adoption of artificial 

intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) 

and national language processing 

(NLP) will also be additional accelerators 

for SGK’s production teams. 

195 

RETAIL EDGE 

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) 

in particular may face significant 

disruption in the coming years, and 

with the race to provide consumers 

choice through omnichannel sales 


SGK 

196 

options, brand products will need to 

be available not just through traditional 

packaging, but through a multitude of 

e-commerce channels. The marketing 

supply chain will therefore need to 

become nimbler in providing marketing 

assets. This, coupled with store 

brand competition and changing 

consumer tastes and behaviors will 

provide brands with increased 

opportunities to utilize innovative, 

connected packaging solutions, and 

differentiate themselves with the types 

of experience and information offered. 

“The time to produce assets has also 

been impacted, not only as a result 

of technology, but shifting market 

expectations,” says Estellon. 

“For example, we’ve been able to build 

a supply chain for easy access 

production. Historically, if you see a 

picture of a liquor in a magazine, this 

seems to be a photography asset. 

We would book a photographer, a studio, 

and take a picture of the assets. These 

are renders now. We take models to 

bottles, take the models to liquid, we take 

the packaging we develop, and we build 

a render for all the liquor brands in the 

world. We are able to build a supply chain 

in weeks. Eight or nine projects, that’s 



Francois Estellon 

As Chief Technology Officer for SGK, the brand solutions division of 

Matthews International Corporation. Francois Estellon is responsible for 

defining the vision of the role that technology plays in the development of 

our products and services, for enhancing the delivery of our current and 

future products and services with software solutions, and for leveraging the 

data in our business to create more value for our clients. 

Estellon sits on the Advisory Board for the special interest group on digital 

transformation at Penn State called CODE (Consortium for the Digital 

Enterprise), a research and advisory group focusing on Digital Trends within 

Enterprise Computing. He is also a Board Member for the Pittsburgh 

Technology Council. Estellon was twice named a Pittsburgh CIO of the Year 

award finalist and a Top 100 Technology Leader by Computer World in 2016. 

Prior to joining SGK, Francois Estellon worked for PwC Germany as 

a Senior Consultant for a large company’s global ERP implementation. 

Eventually, he started his own consulting firm which quickly grew into 

a multi-million dollar operation across Germany, France, Canada and the 

U.S. The company was sold in 2006 and Francois took a leadership role 

in the newly formed global consulting footprint. 

In 2008, Estellon joined Caterpillar Global Mining, a division of Caterpillar, 

Inc. as Director for Global Application, and soon became Global CIO for the 

$5 billion company. Moving forward in 2013, Estellon joined Gardner 

Denver, a $2.5 billion private equity-owned engineering conglomerate. 

As CIO for the company, he was responsible for the global IT footprint. 

Gardner Denver successfully completed an IPO in early 2017. 

Estellon studied industrial engineering at the Grenoble Institute of 

Technology in France and received a master’s in supply chain and 

manufacturing management from Linkoping University in Sweden. 

Francois Estellon is a sought-after thought leader and speaker 

by the technology industry and regularly publishes on 

the topic of leadership in technology at: www.cio.com 

197 


SGK 

198 

huge from photographic assets to free 

assets. Now it takes weeks instead of 

years, so that’s important for us.” 

With growing demand for increased 

information to be placed on packaging, 

SGK is driven equally by creative 

content and data. Estellon explains 

that creating a new package requires 

a significant amount of metadata: from 

nutrition, ingredients, barcode and QR 

codes, all the way through to brand 

and allergy statements, and often in 

a multi-language environment. “Using 

technology to recognize, capture and 

enhance data sets is therefore critical 

for us and for our clients. As an industry 

leader we are also working to establish 

standards in taxonomy and metadata 

definitions for the verticals we serve.” 

The way in which consumers interact 

with brands has clearly led SGK to 


transform its service offerings. 

Restructuring teams to remove all 

internal silos between development 

and deployment has seen the 

establishment of integrated, holistic 

solutions, where teams can gain 

greater understanding of the brand 

ecosystem outside their particular area 

of expertise, become more flexible to 

clients’ needs and identify optimisation 

opportunities to develop innovations 

which address marketplace demands. 

By improving brand and business 

performance in relation to cost, speed 

and market share, these tools have all 

proven invaluable to SGK’s clients. 

199 

FOUR PILLARS 

All industries are being driven towards 

more digital engagement, leading SGK 

to provide a user centered experience 

which remains contextual for a client’s 

business. Building four platforms 

which provide strong foundations for 

its end-to-end supply chain operations, 

the company has developed a new 

Service Delivery Platform, HubX. This 

platform is not only scalable, but fully 

covers the end-to-end supply chain 

and delivers a complete, user-centric 

client experience. 


“HubX will put users 

in control of their 

content workflow, 

simplifying tasks 

through automation, 

connecting to 

back-end systems 

and enriching 

project data points, 

guaranteeing 

process efficiencies” 

— 

Francois Estello, 

Chief Technology Officer 

“HubX is an interface which grants 

clients greater control, visibility, 

efficiency and access to data for 

all content projects, from brief to 

asset release, and will bring a number 

of innovations to the fore,” explains 

Estellon. “HubX will put you in 

control of your content workflow by 

simplifying tasks through automation, 

connecting to back-end systems to 

enrich project data points, driving 

process efficiencies. It also delivers 

real time reporting, and showcases 

project data and spend, revealing 

quality insights.” 

“Previously, we didn’t have a global 

ERP system. We now utilize SAP as 

our middle office to produce a single 

view of data. We’ve been transforming 

our production line, and partnered 

with Hybrid to revamp our digital 

production environment,” he adds. 

“We want to focus on operational 

improvements that bring customer 

value: efficiency, quality of artwork 

and velocity/responsiveness. 

This extends towards simplifying, 

streamlining our processes, and 

empowering employees with digital 

tools to help deliver better customer 

outcomes. HubX brings the value of 

that investment directly to our clients.” 

The transformation of SGK’s digital 

infrastructure has been fully tied 

together through its strong Application 

Programming Interface (API) system. 

Leveraging readily available microservices 

from Amazon Web Services 

(AWS), the company has even built a 

robotic process automation (RPA) tool 

called Logic Builder to complement 

201 


SGK 

“We collaborate with great 

global brands. Mars, 

Coca-Cola, Unilever, Apple… 

you name a global consumer 

product or food company, 

and we do business with them” 

— 

Francois Estello, 

Chief Technology Office 

202 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘SGK HUBX’ 

203 

HubX’s capabilities. “It’s a little bit like 

Lego bricks – we have the base bricks 

and can now build solutions to benefit 

our customers by shuffling these 

around and building new ways of 

leveraging our investment. It gives us 

the ability to innovate and scale rapidly,” 

depicts Estellon. “For example, we 

were able to build a supply chain for 

our 3D assets production in a matter 

of weeks by leveraging our customer 

front end, our production workflow 

and render software, all secured 

through our API system.” 

OPERATIONAL AGILITY 

The business is continually looking 

at the next trend or technology to 

support its evolution, and is now set 

to launch a new solution to further 

improve customer connectivity, 

Estellon refers to it as “a platform 

that is built on our combined expertise 

in software development”. 

“A lot of people in our marketplace 

have a software solution but it remains 

independent from their business,” 

he explains. “They cannot sell it as 

software. If clients work with us, they 


SGK 

204 

gain access to the platform. I think it’s 

really game changing in our industry, 

where we want to change the way our 

clients do business with us.” 

However, although sales are a vital 

part of overall brand performance, 

accessing metrics such as views, 

clicks and likes all factor into how 

consumers now engage with digital 

content. Consequently, brands will 

need to take a closer look at the array 

of content consumed, which all filters 

into a company’s brand strength. 

To counteract this, SGK has 

successfully launched an array of its 

own internal startup brands, enabling 

clients to address specific tools across 

the supply chain, either independently 

or in conjunction with the company’s 

other services. “ColorDrive, for 

example, helps clients manage their 

print quality by providing a cloud-based 


solution that allows for easy evaluation 

and comparison of printer performance. 

It makes complex print analyses more 

digestible for those who may not have 

highly specialized print expertise,” says 

Estellon. “5Flow is also an independent 

software company within our holding 

– they develop configurable workflow 

platforms for clients to manage 

their artwork supply chain and approval. 

The key advantage of these tools 

internally is that they allow us to 

broaden and deepen our partnership 

with clients by helping them solve 

complex issues. From a client 

perspective, they have access to tools 

that can ease their management 

of the supply chain and ensure their 

brands are more consistent and 

accurate on the shelf.” 

Reinforcing smarter content and 

packaging solutions, and remaining 

increasingly efficient, connected 

and global, SGK creates content and 

packaging ecosystems capable of 

humming with extraordinary efficiency, 

as it turns brand activities into 

connected content experiences 

which inform, entertain and delight 

consumers in unexpected ways. 

Its ability to scale will allow the 

business to leverage resources and 

local talent to deliver better brand 

consistency, operational agility and 

process efficiency, where technology 

will be the key driver in cementing 

SGK’s ongoing position across an 

evolving competitive landscape. 

205 


288 

Words 

of Wisdom 

from Women 

at WERC 



289

WAREHOUSING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH COUNCIL 

IN AN INDUSTRY THAT IS 

MADE UP ALMOST ENTIRELY 

OF MEN, ONE ORGANIZATION 

IS WORKING TO IMPROVE 

GENDER DIVERSITY AND 

BOOST THE BOTTOM LINE 

290 

he Warehousing Research and Education 

Council’s Women @ WERC program 

T 

was designed to meet the unique needs 

of women pursuing a career in the warehousing, 

logistics and supply chain industries. Through 

networking, mentoring and educational opportunities, 

they aim to make it easier for women to 

build their careers while at the same time promoting 

the bottom-line benefits of increased gender 

diversity in the supply chain workforce. 

“I would love to see more women at the leadership 

level throughout our industry; one way to 

do that is to make sure we attract more women 

to the field at the college level, as these young 

people are the ones with the potential to be 

our next leaders,” said Kristi Montgomery, Vice 

President of Innovation, Research and Development 

at the Kenco Group and one of the newest 

members of the WERC Board of Directors. 

Montgomery is encouraged to see WERC’s 

increasing diversity on the Board and among 


1977 

Year founded 

1,700+ 


of employees 

291 


Nimble. 

You need to learn fast, stay lean and be gutsy to remain competitive in this 

brave new world. 

WERC has an unrivalled education program. We’ve got an in-depth online 

training, live webinars and self-guided learning choices to fit every schedule. 

Our annual conference offers exceptional peer-driven learning opportunities. 

You won’t find better education anywhere. 

werc.org 

Better Everywhere.

CLICK TO WATCH: WERC’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2019 

293 

more women in leadership roles 

markedly outperform those without. 

Still, most supply chain organizations 

do not have gender diversity goals. 

As the program has developed, both 

female and male members of WERC 

have identified four priorities to help 

increase diversity and inclusivity within 

the logistics workforce. These include 

offering resources and strategies for 

building allies within the industry, enhancing 

equality within the workplace, 

advancing careers and growing leadership 

opportunities, and fostering organithe 

membership as a whole, “but, I 

still think the industry has room to 

grow and improve, and one of the 

best ways women can do that is to 

network with each other,” she said. “If 

you’re new to the industry, find a mentor; 

if you’re like me and have been 

around for a while, find those people 

that you can help to grow in their careers 

and become industry leaders.” 

Studies show that gender diversity 

in the supply chain boosts competitiveness, 

productivity and financial 

returns, and that companies with 


WAREHOUSING EDUCATION AND RESEARCH COUNCIL 

“At the heart of the research 

is a conversation between 

warhousing professionals 

and the researchers. We 

want to answer questions 

that are relevant and 

provide real benefits 

to the industry” 

— 

Karl Manrodt, 

Professor of Logistic 

294 

zational cultures that support healthy 

and productive work-life blending. 

When it comes to building professional 

relationships, Gwendolyn 

(Gwen) W. Rogers says being an active 

member of WERC (for 25 years) 

was key. Rogers volunteered at the 

Conference registration desk for the 

several years and she recommends 

it as a fantastic way to meet a lot of 

people in a very short period of time. 

“I tend to be a reserved person,” she 

adds, “so at every Conference I have 

specifically tried to step out of my 

comfort zone and always sit with new 

people at every session and meal.” 

Former WERC Board President 

(2010-2011) Catherine Cooper, Founder 

and CEO of World Connections, credits 

her time on the Board as offering her 

a chance to develop skills outside her 

profession that she would not have 

otherwise. “For example, public speaking 

in front of 1,000 people—you don’t 

often get to do that in a company, but 

you do at WERC,” she explains, add- 


ing she also mastered financial statements 

while working with WERC. 

Many of WERC’s veteran women 

said relationships and mentoring 

is key, and several opportunities to 

provide mentorship to young women 

have come to former WERC Board 

President (2004-2005) Susan Rider, 

President of Rider & Associates, 

through her WERC connections. 

“The first thing I would tell them is, 

‘you have to develop a thick skin. You 

can’t get insulted when you’re at a 

warehouse and it’s all men, and they 

use bad language. And, if you walk 

into a warehouse in heels and a mini 

skirt, don’t be surprised when you get 

cat called,’” she says, noting that her 

advice is rooted in her own experience. 

At her first job in the field, she had two 

revelations within her first week: “There 

truly were practically no women in the 

field at that time. I’d heard people say 

98% men in the industry, but it was closer 

to 99.8% men,” she chuckles. “And, I 

realized very quickly that, as a woman, 

I had to know twice as much to gain 

respect and credibility in the industry.” 

“I strongly encourage women who 

are new to the industry to tap into the 

women who have been here a while. 

We’re all here to help each other, and we 

want to,” she said. “WERC is a perfect 

resource for making those contacts.” 

295 


FINNING 

INTERNATIONAL 

214 

A DIGITALLY–LED 

CYBERSECURITY 


WRIT TEN BY 

CATHERINE STURMAN 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 


TECHNOLOGY 

215 


FINNING INTERNATIONAL 

Finning International has 

transformed its cybersecurity 

efforts, built strong partnerships 

and created a culture built on 

collaboration – Chief Information 

Security Officer Suzie Smibert 

tells us more 

216 

I 

ndustry 4.0 is changing the game for the 

traditional industrial sector. New technologies 

and innovations have seen original 

equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers turn 

towards new solutions to ensure greater efficiency, 

improve safety, meet compliance requirements 

and guarantee substantial savings. However, such 

advances come with additional risks that can threaten 

the security of consumer and machine data, with 

breaches found to be the most costly in the United 

States and Canada by the Ponemon Institute. 

With firm routes in Canada, Finning International 

now amasses an impressive global footprint, spanning 

three geographies. Employing more than 13,000 

people worldwide, the business has accrued a world 

class network of product support services across 

British Columbia, Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, 

the Northwest Territories and a portion of Nunavut, 

as well as the United Kingdom, Ireland and South 

America. Its formidable reputation in industrial 

markets, such as mining, construction and agriculture, 

has enabled the company to become a key figure 


TECHNOLOGY 

217 



218 

“We’re seeing 

a lot more 

digitization, 

connected 

assets and 

abilities 

to enhance 

performance 

solutions” 

— 

Suzie Smibert, 

Chief Information Security Officer 

in working with customers to achieve 

the lowest equipment owning and 

operating costs while maximizing 

uptime across their operations. 

However, to counteract the growing 

threat of cybercrime across Finning’s 

international footprint and remain ahead 

of the curve, Chief Information Security 

Officer (CISO) Suzie Smibert has 

looked to place security at the forefront 

of every employee’s mind. Demonstrating 

effective leadership as Finning looks 

towards its long-term vision and digital 

strategy, Smibert has been key in 

transforming its image of a sole reseller 

and service provider to that of an 

innovative, technology led company. 

“My background is primarily in 

information security, which knows no 

sector boundaries. Finning was an 

interesting company to me when it was 

presented as an employment option as 

it was an industry I had never been part 

of previously. It’s an organization with 

impressive reach with of the potential 

to transform how heavy machinery is 

used on a global scale,” says Smibert. 

“One of the things that gets me the most 

excited about this company is that we 

are not afraid of thinking outside of the 

box, creating technology, thinking of 


TECHNOLOGY 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘FINNING PERFORMANCE SOLUTIONS’ 

219 

how can we optimize our customers’ 

fleets and how we can provide customers 

with the best equipment,” she adds. 

“When you are a CISO, oftentimes you 

have your recipe that you use in one 

organization, move on to the next and 

use the same recipe with slight modifications 

for that specific business. As 

Finning represented an industry I’d never 

worked in, I didn’t know if my recipe 

would work. So, it was more exciting 

not to just ‘rinse and repeat’, but push 

myself towards something new.” 

With damage related to cybercrime 

projected to hit US$6trn annually by 

2021, it has been essential for a leading 

company such as Finning to take 

a closer look at updating its systems, 

remove redundancies and streamline 

its operations, which will filter into 

its long-term aim to promote digital 

innovation and engage further with its 

diverse customer base. 

“In information security there is a lot 

of convergence happening. Currently 

there are an unsustainable number of 

products and tools on the market which 

make it difficult to manage budgets, 

complexity and maintain the skills to 

manage, in some cases as many as 50 



220 

platforms at a company. I’m also seeing 

tools that are providing the right amount 

of security, but could be better utilized 

and leveraged, whether inside of outside 

of the security portfolio, across multiple 

stress factors,” explains Smibert. 

“At Finning, our customers are evolving. 

We are seeing a lot more digitization, 

connected assets and abilities to 

enhance performance solutions for 

how our customers manage fleets and 

utilize our equipment,” she adds. “An 

example of this is, instead of just having 

a driver unit, now we can optimize how 

the machine is functioning by leveraging 

data.” The monetization of data is 

being seen across every industry, yet 

Smibert is driven, and rightly so, to ensure 

that the business remains pedantic 

around how data is used, whether the 

right level of consent has been granted, 

and whether the correct contractual 

agreements are in place, all to guarantee 

consumer trust and transparency. 

“Security, compliance and regulation 

can be a necessary evil. It can take 

time to explain and demonstrate that 

having security controls to protect our 

customer data, employees’ data, meet 

privacy regulations wherever we are 


TECHNOLOGY 

operating,” she reflects. 

“Internally, it takes a lot of relationship 

building amongst teams to help them 

realize that we’re not going to slow 

them down or prevent a product from 

being launched. We’re going to make 

sure a product is not recalled because 

it was secured at the engineering stage 

and conception stage, as opposed to 

when it goes live. Reassurance that our 

role is not a showstopper to business, 

but is a enabler and can help us win 

more business by demonstrating to our 

customers that we are serious about 

their data, their privacy, and are taking 

control that is above the industry 

standard. Having these controls in 

place is an incentive for our customers 

to consider us as a provider rather than 

going elsewhere.” 

ROBUST SECURITY 

The establishment of the General Data 

Protection Regulation (GDPR) across 

its European operations has seen 

Finning join the UK government’s Cyber 

Essentials scheme which supports 

businesses in protecting themselves 

against common cyber threats. However, 

most importantly, it works to ensure that 

the business adheres to what Smibert 

coins as “the most stringent” framework, 

where the business has mapped each 

control it needs to follow, and has 

selected the hardest to achieve, applying 

this to its operations not just in Europe, 

but worldwide. 

“We figure that if we set the bar high 

221 


Suzie Smibert 

Suzie is a security practitioner with more than 18 years 

of experience and is currently Finning International 

Chief Information Security Officer. Working with 

the leadership team, Suzie provides leadership, vision, 

strategy and experience for all things security. She 

and her team are responsible for managing 

information security risks, protecting information 

and technology resources globally for Finning. 


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TECHNOLOGY 

“Our role is not 

a showstopper to 

business, but is 

an enabler and 

can help us win 

more business” 

— 



and require ourselves to meet the most 

stringent requirements everywhere, and 

by transforming our behavior, thought 

process and policies, we will be able to 

tell our users the same story wherever 

they work in the world,” states Smibert. 

“I travel to our operating regions frequently, 

and many of my coworkers are also 

nomads, working from every one of our 

facilities, different regions, different 

countries. We can’t expect them to know 

which behavior to adopt wherever they 

travel. If we tell them one set of behaviors, 

one set of policies to meet, it makes our 

job easier in the back end, and makes it 

much easier on our workforce.” 

By harmonizing, centralizing and 

simplifying Finning’s digital infrastructure, 

Smibert has looked to promote 

cross-collaboration and rework in-region 

management teams. Hiring “tremendous 

talent” predominately from Calgary, she 

has been leading the transformation 

of Finning’s security and enterprise 

architecture services and embedded 

next generation multi-tool sets, allowing 

the business to improve its response, 

detection and management capabilities. 

“We have security individuals assigned 

to squads in the DevOps team. While 

they don’t sit in DevOps, they do report 

into the management team and exist as 

a service provider to that group, and 

continue to report into my organization. 

“We do security as code. A lot of our tasks 

and requests are automated, when they 

are deemed low risk, it goes straight 

into code.” 

PROMOTING COLLABORATION 

As the business continually evaluates 

emerging products and technologies 

which could drive greater value, Smibert 

explains that the business undertakes 

whole-market evaluations in advance 

of a product’s shelf life in order to remain 

resilient, and looks not only to longstanding 

players in the market, but also 

223 



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TECHNOLOGY 

225 

to innovative startups that can bring 

something unique to the table. “Many big 

companies only work with organizations 

that are tried and tested. At Finning, we 

take well-calculated risks and work with 

startups, or we consider open source 

products after careful evaluation so that 

we can get the best return on investment 

and efficiency in our protection 

and detection capabilities,” she says. 

Partnering with established players, 

as well as pioneering startups, is 

something to which Finning remains 

thoroughly committed, in order to drive 

further growth across the business 

and strengthen its security operations. 

Collaborating with cybersecurity leader 

CrowdStrike, for example, has allowed 

the business to embed next-generation 

antiviruses across all of its digital 

environments, and gain chip intelligence, 

security protection and detection at all 

of its endpoints. Not only that, it has also 

helped Finning practice better internal 

collaboration with broader technology 

teams, identify applications or software 

that are no longer used and manage 

its license with more efficiency. 



“We were able to not impact the end 

user, give them the visibility and tools 

they needed, but in the back end, save 

a significant amount of money not only 

with our security portfolio, but our data 

science team, employee productivity 

services team and networking teams. It’s 

been quite powerful for us. CrowdStrike’s 

main play is security, but we’re using it 

outside of what it’s normally known for.” 

226 

WELCOMING DIVERSE TALENT 

Additionally, observing technology as an 

enabler and not a sole tool in the creation 

of a thriving collaborative culture, Smibert 

has worked alongside the communications 

team and change management 

group as the business continues on 

its transformation journey, providing 

exceptional support to employees as 

well as ample opportunities for personal 

and professional development. 

“As part of our awareness program, 

we’ve enlisted a psychiatrist to help us 

define how our people learn and how 

they retain information. Instead of having 

an article on our webpage every couple 

of months, we have videos, face-to-face, 

gamification, and a variety of approaches 

to reach and engage our employees. Not 

everybody learns in the same way, so 


TECHNOLOGY 

COMPANY FACTS 

• Finning has accrued 

a world-class network 

of product support services 

across Canada, the 

United Kingdom, Ireland 

and South America. 

• Embedding next 

generation multi-tool sets 

has seen the business to 

improve its response, 

detection and management 

capabilities. 

• Finning looks not only 

to longstanding players, 

but towards start-ups 

that can bring something 

unique to the table. 

• Collaborating with 

CrowdStrike has allowed 

Finning to gain chip 

intelligence, security 

protection and detection 

across its endpoints. 

with change management 

and psychology, 

we’ve transformed our 

communication to craft 

a message in a way 

that is not too techy, 

rather it is approachable 

and relatable,” 

she explains. 

At Finning, Smibert 

is keen to stress that 

its employees are its 

strongest assets, 

and so upskilling its 

workforce will not only 

benefit employees but 

will also protect the 

organization, leading 

the business to avoid 

common cultural 

pitfalls across its 

various geographies. 

“We are in different 

countries in South 

America, and for 

someone that’s not 

going very frequently, 

they might think 

a Chilean and an Argentinian think 

the same and both speak Spanish, so 

everything should then be the same. 

227 



1933 

Year founded 

12,000+ 


of employees 

228 

In reality, it’s not,” she states. “There 

are subtleties, even if they both speak 

the same language, operate and retain 

data. Our communications groups were 

fantastic in helping us avoid addressing 

employees or teams in a way that would 

not resonate with them. When you think 

of awareness and how you can really 

reach and influence your employees, it 

gives you massive return on investment.” 

LONG-TERM OPPORTUNITIES 

With such a global footprint, Finning 

remains committed to contributing to 

a number of charitable causes, but one 

key focus has been behind the delivery 

of science, technology, engineering 

and mathematics (STEM) education. 

Across each of its operating regions, 

the business has sought to inspire the 

innovators of tomorrow by supporting 

the growth in STEM-based roles. 

Partnering with leading STEM outreach 

organization, Actua in Canada, Finning 

provides financial support, volunteering 

and hands-on opportunities to those 

interested in areas such as programming 

and coding. 


TECHNOLOGY 

229 

“Finning wants to see more influx of 

inclusive and diverse talent in the field 

of STEM, so we partnered with Actua, 

which is a camp for students and young 

children, hosting engagement events 

on university campuses. I volunteer to 

help students understand the world 

of technology and the world of cyber 

security. In the past year, we did exercises 

involving coding machines, allowing 

them exposure to technology,” says 

Smibert. “Some of my coworkers have 

invited students to come into a branch 

to see the heavy equipment and what 

a power systems engineer might do, so 

that they get attracted into the culture 

and the field of STEM.” 

Looking at further opportunities, the 

business has also recently acquired 

100% of 4Refuel Canada and 4Refuel 

US. As a leading mobile on-site refueling 

company supporting customers across 

the construction, transportation, power 

generation and oil and gas sectors, it will 

provide a multitude of advantages for 

Finning, as more than 95% of 4Refuel’s 

profitability is generated in Canada. 

“By having 4Refuel join us to serve 



230 

customers across the different geographies 

where our customers operate, 

we’re going to reduce their potential 

downtime because they will have access 

to fuel to keep their operation going, as 

opposed to having to wait for delivery, 

or having a site that might not have all 

of the fuel capacity that they need. 

This is definitely one element where 

this acquisition will help us ensure our 

customers are up and running as much 

as they want, allowing them to be more 

nimble and at the end of the day, 

profitable,” says Smibert. 

“Additionally, having 4Refuel will 

allow us to expand in some of our 

customer fleets where we might not 

have a service contract, primarily 

non-Caterpillar equipment. This will 

give us visibility in terms of the other 

assets that are used by our customers, 

“I volunteer to help 

students understand 

the world of tech– 

nology and the world 

of cyber security” 

— 



and how they’re utilizing the other 

equipment. It is our hope that by 

providing holistic service that customers 

will think of us as the first place to 

buy their next piece of equipment.” 

Finning’s continued drive to fully 

expand its product and service offerings 

across Canada will see the business 

work towards a goal of acquiring 100% 

connected assets to deliver further 

support, and allow its data science 

and analytics teams identify business 


TECHNOLOGY 

231 

opportunities to partner with its 

vendors and customers and create 

long-term opportunities. 

“Our next aim is to connect everything 

and create new technologies that are 

going to transform and empower our 

customers and their partners to build 

and power a better world,” adds Smibert. 

In many places, once you have your 

initial transformation things slow down. 

The leadership at Finning hasbeen 

tremendous, and the willingness to put 

ourselves in uncomfortable positions 

to achieve greater good, and do better 

for our customers, is something I’ve not 

seen elsewhere. It’s an inspiring part 

of our culture and a big part of what 

keeps me engaged in working here.” 


232 

DIGITALLY 

DISRUPTING 

THE CANADIAN 

INSURANCE 

SPACE 

WRIT TEN BY 

LAURA MULLAN 

PRODUCED BY 

JAKE MEGEARY 



233

GORE MUTUAL INSURANCE 

Gore Mutual Insurance may 

be Canada’s oldest property 

and casualty insurance firm 

but thanks to its latest digital 

transformation it’s more 

agile than ever 

234 

ounded in 1839 – 28 years before the 

F 

founding of modern Canada – Gore 

Mutual Insurance is defined by its rich 

history. The insurer has borne witness to two world 

wars, having pledged $50,000 and $100,000 to 

support the Canadian war effort in WWI and WWII 

respectively. The Canadian insurance company 

has also seen the advent of automobiles, offering 

automobile insurance for the first time in its 

centennial year, and then went on to help the 

victims of the catastrophic Grand River Flood. 

Later, in 2015, when new legislation offered the 

chance to demutualize, the firm decided against 

this, harking back to its long held desire to help 

communities in their times of need. Rooted in a 

tradition of courage and cooperation, Gore Mutual 

may be Canada’s oldest property and casualty 

(P&C) insurer but it isn’t bound by its historic legacy. 

Gore Mutual 

employees on site 


235 

In fact, in many ways, it has always 

been at the forefront of innovation. 

With almost two decades of 

experience at Gore Mutual, Jamie 

McDougall, Vice President, Business 

Intelligence & Analytics, has had a 

lasting impact on the firm’s digital and 

insurance footprint. Marrying his 

innate knowledge of the claims and 

underwriting business with a zeal for 

technology, he affirms that digitisation 

is helping the company “enable our 

broker partners in an increasingly 

digital world”. “We are using the 


Impacting 

Business Results 

For almost two decades, Earnix data scientists, 

financial experts, and software engineers have 

worked to create a comprehensive analytics 

software solution that solves some of the most 

difficult product, pricing and channel challenges 

faced by financial institutions. With Earnix - 

insurers, lenders, and other financial institutions 

can now incorporate into their product, risk, and 

delivery systems the same advanced analytics that 

make personalization possible for the tech giants. 

www.earnix.com 

Follow Us:

Gore Mutual Insurance Partners with 

Earnix to Improve Analytic Agility 

and Speed Time to Market 

Gore Mutual, a Canadian mutual insurance company that has provided community protection 

to personal and business customers for over 175 years, has partnered with Earnix to provide the 

best service possible to their broker network and customers. As part of an initiative to better 

understand their end customers and improve responsiveness to a constantly changing market, 

Gore has partnered with Earnix to continually improve analytical processes and better 

operationalize the speed of rate deployment to the marketplace. 

Analytical Process Improvement. 

Gore traditionally has done risk and demand 

modeling, in order to understand customer 

propensities and exposure and determine the 

appropriate costs of risk transfer. As Gore has 

advanced to managing this modeling process 

holistically, through the use of an end to end 

data management, analytics, and pricing 

platform, they have realized the ability to 

understand their customers at an even deeper 

level. Gore utilizes predictive analytics to 

derive insight from the information that they 

receive, and in turn support the effective 

underwriting of risk accepted. Understanding 

and applying risk and demand thresholds to 

customer segments enables a more effective 

insurance transaction for all stakeholders. 

Speed Rate Deployment. 

Managing the rate deployment process at 

organizations like Gore requires accounting for 

many variables. Price changes must be made, 

approval and governance of changes must be 

received, and proposed changes must then be 

deployed to the market. Gore knew that only 

an end to end system with real time rating 

engine capabilities, integration to touchpoints 

such as core and policy admin systems, and 

the ability to monitor rate change performance 

would be the best solution for them. 

Gore has turned to Earnix as a partner to 

provide an end to end pricing and personalization 

platform, which takes their operationalization 

of analytics to the next level. Earnix will 

provide a real time rating engine that is connected 

to all of Gore’s core platforms – including 

policy admin systems in the back office, 

and customer interaction systems in the front 

office. The ability to develop, execute, monitor, 

and refine multiple pricing structures and 

strategies with high performance and reliability 

allows for improved governance and control. 

For Gore, the capability to deploy rates 

and rate changes in real time allows the pricing 

process to be operationalized very quickly. 

As Gore works to distribute these analytic and 

time to market improvements across the 

business, many other future advancements 

are being considered as well. Machine learning 

tools and capabilities are being researched, 

as a way to automate processes 

and understand their customer base even 

further. Being able to use the Earnix rating 

engine capabilities to take any analytical 

model developed by any tool and use it in 

a real time manner is also an exciting 

possibility. The partnership between 

Earnix and Gore is creating a strong 

foundation for future advancements, 

including the use of analytics and 

personalization in every project 

that Gore undertakes.


1839 

Year founded 

500 


of employees 

238 

explosive developments in digitization 

data, business intelligence (BI), 

self-service analytics, machine 

learning (ML) and artificial intelligence 

(AI) to enable a mature business 

transformation that is both genuine 

and thoughtful,” he explains. 

The handling of data is nothing new 

for the insurance industry, but disruptive 

technologies are helping to 

uncover endless new opportunities. 

Gore Mutual Insurance has identified 

BI and analytics as one such innovation 

which is a “strategic priority”. With 

the aim of making its use more 

pervasive in the business, Gore Mutual 

established BI and analytics as a separate 

entity and asked McDougall to 

take on the role of Vice President of 

Business Intelligence and Analytics. In 

doing so, Gore Mutual has sought to 

put more meaningful data, analytics, 

insights and information at its leaders’ 

fingertips so that they can make better 

decisions whilst enabling conversations 

across the business. “Ongoing 

advances in data analytics allow us to 

be more agile and gather insights in 


Gore Mutual employees 

assessing fire damage 

239 


Jamie McDougall 

Jamie McDougall is responsible for advancing Gore Mutual’s business 

intelligence, analytics and actuarial capability, which are central 

to the company’s ability to continue providing leading products 

and solutions to its customers. His previous experience as Gore 

Mutual’s Vice President of Claims and Vice President of Personal 

Insurance are key to his current role, which also involves leadership 

in the implementation of major data and systems transformation 

across all lines of business. Prior to joining Gore Mutual, he 

spent several years as a Management Consultant in process 

improvement and performance management with a boutique 

consulting firm and completed his MBA with the Haskayne 

School of Business at the University of Calgary. 


TRANSFORMING THE 

INSURANCE WORLD 

Visit our Site

FROM INFORMATION 

TO INSIGHT 

What gives Opta Information Intelligence a 

competitive edge in the market? What makes 

it unique? 

I believe our number one competitive edge is 

that our people possess an extraordinary amount 

of information about the Canadian market and 

specifically the Canadian insurance industry. In 

addition to this, we’ve also amassed the largest 

property data set in commercialized property. By 

utilizing the wealth of our dataset and our analytical 

capabilities, as well as our ability to understand 

the Canadian insurance market we have a 

unique perspective in the market. 

What advantages does the company’s technology 

offer? What outcomes can customers expect? 

We offer superior property information intelligence 

for underwriting purposes. Canada is the 

second largest country in the world; there are 

varying degrees of elevation, areas where there 

is floodplains or unprotected fire zones and then 

there are urban centres which have their own 

risks. We understand the Canadian geography 

and are the number one data provider to help 

organizations turn this into actionable insights. 

How has Opta Information Intelligence supported 

Gore Mutual Insurance in its latest digital 

transformation? 

Gore Mutual Insurance has been a very strong 

partner and believer in Opta’s solution. The 

company has also been a very helpful co-development 

partner in services that we’ve brought 

the Canadian market such as iClarify, which is 

the number one personalized property underwriting 

quoting tool in the country. With Gore’s 

digital transformation, I believe that we were able 

to understand its unique position in the Canadian 

market place and respond with solutions in a 

customized fashion that help improve efficiency 

and drive improved underwriting results. 

Could you provide another example where Opta 

Information Intelligence has helped to enable 

digital transformation? 

When the Fort McMurray fire happened in Canada, 

nobody was able to really understand which properties 

were total loses and damaged or which 

ones weren’t. This was because you weren’t able 

to get on site for weeks after the fire. We were 

able to utilize advanced artificial intelligence (AI), 

satellite imagery and train computers to recognize 

which homes were lost and how much those 

losses would be. We hired a satellite to go over 

the area and within days of the fire, we were able 

to deliver a solution which demonstrated to a lot 

of insurers, the power of artificial intelligence, 

the potential of data and the realm of the possible. 

What does the future hold for Opta Information 

Intelligence? Are there any upcoming developments 

we should watch out for? 

We’re exploring opportunities within Fintech and 

Municipal markets within Canada. Our massive 

amount of data and profes sional attributes can 

offer new insights to differ ent markets but ultimately 

our number one goal is to always be a 

relevant and meaningful partner to our Canadian 

insurance customers.


242 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘GORE MUTUAL’S DISCOVERY CONCOURSE TOUR’ 

the business,” says McDougall. “It 

helps us improve our broker experience 

and the experience of our 

consumers. We’re becoming more 

proactive and not just reactive. We are 

driving improved claims and underwriting 

operations,” he adds. “The new 

entity is ensuring clarity of focus. It 

indicates to the organization that this 

is an enabling set of technologies and 

we recognize their value in the 

insurance space.” 

Good BI requires good data – and 

this was top of the agenda for Gore 

Mutual as it embarked upon its latest 

digital transformation efforts. “We’re 

heavily focused on creating curated, 

quality data assets to build trust in the 

information,” says McDougall. Forging 

a promising partnership with Information 

Builders, the Canadian business 

has worked hard to master its data 

and build quality data assets. “We 

utilized their platform as a way to 

distribute information and insights to 

the appropriate individuals so that we 

can make better and more informed 

business decisions,” he adds. “It has 

absolutely delivered concrete value to 

our consumers, to our brokers and to 


our business.” This has allowed 

Gore Mutual to provide more 

sophisticated pricing to the market, 

whether offering auto insurance or 

even flood and earthquake insurance. 

Gore Mutual has also 

developed close ties with integrated 

software company Earnix, using 

its software to further empower the 

organization. 

In the fast-moving world of 

technology, close collaboration is 

everything. Championing this spirit, 

last year Gore Mutual built its 

Discovery Concourse in its campus 

“We’re becoming 

more proactive 

and not just 

reactive. We are 

driving improved 

claims and 

underwriting 

operations” 

— 

Jamie McDougall, 

Vice President of Business Intelligence 

and Analytics, Gore Mutual Insurance 

243 

Gore Mutual – Innovation Lab 


“More than just another 

pretty dashboard...” 

Achieve profitable growth using trusted data and 

dashboards that use all of your P&C data. 

Underwriting gets all 

history, with current 

and go-forward 

views, to manage risk 

Actuaries get granular 

pricing and reserving 

data to be more 

accurate and faster 

Claims knows where 

to cut leakage, tighten 

steps, and improve 

service 

Information Builders can help. 

We bring clear, actionable, and complete data – fast – to your 

executives, brokers, managers, and underwriters. 

With one unified, historical view of your business, you can drill down to address risk, pricing, and market 

segmentation. Shift from product-centric to customer-centric views of your business – giving a unique view to 

insured parties, brokers, policies, underwriters, assets, and claims. 

Just like that, your entire team can leverage all of your data to manage your book of business more effectively. 

See the impact we’ve made for other P&C companies 

informationbuilders.com/omni-insurance

“In our business, 

responsiveness 

to the consumers’ 

needs is critical: 

we want to be 

there when they 

need us” 

— 




in Cambridge, Ontario. This is a spot 

where continuous innovation seems to 

be in the air and where the hands-on 

creation of insurance solutions is 

commonplace. Featuring a high-tech 

innovation lab, McDougall says this 

area acts as a hub where “brokers, 

insurtechs, reinsurers, technology 

partners and Gore Mutual employees 

from different departments can 

collaborate on solutions to solve 

industry issues”. 

This proactive stance is a must in the 

insurance world. The nature of risk is 

ever-changing – and insurance needs 

to transform with it, not only to remain 

commercially viable but also to protect 

customers. “In our business, responsiveness 

to the consumers’ needs is 

critical: we want to be there when they 

need us,” notes McDougall. “If we 

know that a dramatic storm is coming 

or a forest fire is burning, we can be 

proactive and identify the exposure, 

policies, and those consumers at risk. 

At times we have proactively called 

brokers, identified the consumers in 

their portfolio that are at risk and then 

proactively contacted them to ensure 

that they’re okay and that they didn’t 

experience loss. This data offers 

transformative value that we can bring 

to the business.” As well as using its 

own analytics, Gore Mutual has 

worked shoulder to shoulder with Aon 

to try and understand the “complexity 

of catastrophic loss protection” when 

creating models for flood or earthquake 

risk. The firm has also forged 

ties with DMTI for detailed location 

information, which McDougall 

describes as “a quality data provider”. 

Another key insurance industry data 

partner, OPTA Information Intelligence, 

has enabled Gore Mutual to improve 

245 



Gore Mutual – Discovery Concourse 

Model with confidence 

in Canada 

Impact Forecasting’s enhanced flood model for Canada, covering both fluvial and pluvial flood 

perils, enables insurers to delve into the latest scientific data to support both primary underwriting 

and portfolio risk management. Moreover, high resolution flood hazard and risk maps provide 

detailed and methodologically-consistent insights into flood risk across populated Canada. How can 

YOU benefit from partnering with Impact Forecasting to tackle risk assessment for this increasingly 

important peril? 

NEW! We are working on an earthquake model in collaboration with Global Earthquake Model 

foundation to leverage the state-of-the-art local science and data to complement our suite of 

products available for Canada – watch this space! 

If you would like to demo our catastrophe modelling solutions and risk mapping products, 

please contact sarka.cerna@aon.com

247 

its assessment of risk through 

advanced information tools as well as 

through OPTA’s developing of advanced 

analytics and modelling. Gore 

Mutual’s openness to enhancing its 

abilities through quality partnerships is 

a credit to the insurer and a recognition 

that in advanced analytics there 

are many paths to success. 

As well as industry partnerships, 

McDougall is keen to shout about 

Gore Mutual’s remarkable network of 

brokers as well as its internal team. 

Attracting and retaining talent may be 

a challenge for some businesses, but 

“Our value 

proposition for 

attracting and 

retaining talent 

is about creating 

a very complete 

and holistic value 

proposition for 

employees” 

— 






248 

at Gore Mutual McDougall asserts 

that individuals seeking “breadth of 

scope, accountability and ownership” 

are easily attracted to the firm. “We’re 

large enough to be dynamic and 

creative,” he adds. “Our value proposition 

for attracting and retaining talent 

is about creating a very complete and 

holistic value proposition for employees.” 

McDougall has evidence to 

back up this claim: last year Gore 

Mutual was awarded for being a 

‘Best Workplace in Canada’ and also 

recognized as a ‘Best Workplace in 

Financial Services and Insurance’ by 

Gore Mutual – Cambridge Campus 

“I’m confident that 

Gore Mutual will 

continue to evolve 

to become an 

increasingly 

analytic yet always 

human business” 

— 




the Best Workplaces Award and Great 

Place to Work® Canada respectively. 

In February 2019, the business was 

named an ‘Employee Recommended 

Workplace’ for putting employees’ 

health, wellness and workplace 

experience at the forefront of its 

operations. McDougall is confident 

that 2019 will remain a banner year for 

the firm as there has been a “resurgence 

or recognition of the mutual 

proposition”. 

On the road ahead, Gore Mutual is 

set to keep its finger on the pulse of the 


249 

latest technology trends as it constantly 

evolves and grows into a leading 

mid-market modern mutual insurance 

company. Yet it’s clear that despite this 

bright future, the firm won’t forget its 

historic legacy any time soon. “Gore 

Mutual will be 180 years old this year 

and we’re very proud of our history,” 

concludes McDougall. “The organization 

started as a district mutual fire 

insurance company and has become 

ingrained in the communities where we 

live and work – it’s part of our story.” 

“We’re a modern mutual,” he asserts. 

“We continue to grow and invest in our 

people, our business and our communities. 

I’m confident that Gore Mutual 

will continue to evolve to become an 

increasingly analytic yet always 

human business.” 


250 


A journey toward 

CSR leadership 

in the fast 

fashion industry 

251 

WRIT TEN BY 

HARRY MENEAR 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG KILLINGBACK 


ARDENE 

Canadian fashion retailer 

Ardene is on a journey to become 

a corporate social responsibility 

leader through greenhouse 

gas mapping, supply chain 

accountability and innovation 

252 

E 

very business faces the constant 

challenge of remaining true to its core 

values, particularly when growing at 

speed. Over the past 37 years, Canadian apparel 

retailer Ardene has grown from a single 500 sq ft 

accessories and jewelry store in Montreal to a 

network of over 375 stores across North America 

and beyond. Since the company’s inception, 

Ardene has had one key principle in mind: to “do 

good business, while also doing good in the world.” 

Today, Ardene is working harder than ever to 

ensure it is a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility 

(CSR) and sustainable supply chain practices. 

In addition to waste reduction strategies, community 

outreach initiatives and health and wellness 

programs for its employees, Ardene is currently 

embarking on an ambitious project to completely 

map its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in order 

to more effectively understand the next phase of its 

sustainability journey. 

We spoke with representatives of Ardene’s CSR 

team to explore the company’s core 


253 

sustainability goals: complete GHG 

mapping, increase supply chain 

accountability, product innovation and, 

most importantly, sharing Ardene’s 

message about a sustainable future. 

“As a family company with a young 

workforce, upholding ethical practices 

is part of our DNA; it is important for us 

to take care of our people, our 

customers, and of course the world 

we live in,” says a representative of 

Ardene’s CSR team. 

With all of the company’s sustainable 

initiatives rebranded under the name 


REAL ESTATE POTENTIAL. 

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in which we operate. Our objective is to maximize traffic, sales, and market share to align with our retailers’ 

strategic objectives and fully realize on the unique opportunity that each property represents. With Morguard’s 

broad geographic and product diversity, we can realize your expansion requirements. 

55 CITY CENTRE DRIVE MISSISSAUGA, ON T 905-281-3800 

DAVID WYATT T 905-281-5397 CANADA 

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CLICK TO WATCH: ‘ARDENE IS A FAMILY-OWNED CANADIAN VALUE 

FASHION RETAILER BASED IN MONTREAL, QUEBEC’ 

255 

Ardene Collective, the company’s CSR 

team is emphasizing the fact that 

sustainability “will not be a simple effort, 

but will require that we all continue to 

shift our frame of mind and daily 

thinking as one collective team”. 

Ardene organizes its sustainability 

initiatives into four pillars: People, which 

includes the wellness of its workforce, 

including extended partners; Planet, 

which covers recycling, waste, energy 

and water; Product, which deals with 

merchandise, packaging and supply 

chain efforts; and Policies, which 

includes compliance and certifications. 

‘Sustainability 

will not be 

a simple effort, 

but will require 

that we all 

continue to shift 

our frame of 

mind and daily 

thinking as one 

collective team’ 


ARDENE 

ARDENE FOUNDATION 

The Ardene Foundation 

is the company’s dedicated 

charitable organization, 

dedicated to enacting its 

corporate social responsibility 

and community goals. To date, 

the foundation has donated 

over 1mn articles of clothing 

and footwear, and raised more 

than $4mn for non profits. 

256 


$4mn 

Raised for non-profits 

1mn 

Articles of clothing and 

footwear donated 

257 


ARDENE 

‘In areas of 

empowerment, 

poverty, education 

and health, we 

leverage the 

strength of our 

communities and 

try hard to shape 

a better world’ 

Congratulations 

to Ardene on your world class Sustainability 

Transformation and CSR efforts. 

We are proud to be your Partner. 

Visit our Site

259 

“Because of our presence and brand 

awareness, we have the opportunity to 

bring about big changes with regard to 

sustainability,” says Ardene’s representative. 

“We already have programs 

we’re proud of, like community engagement, 

our garden, the end of single use 

plastic and Styrofoam, store hanger 

re-use programs and more. But we’re 

ready to make an even bigger impact.” 

These changes range from small-scale 

steps, like replacing plastic water 

bottles with boxed water in stores and 

offices, to large-scale operations like 

analysing the company’s entire supply 

chain to be more sustainable and 

efficient. 

“In the past it was very easy, especially 

in the fashion world: you need it, you 

ship it. Today, one of our first thoughts 

is: ‘How can we do this better? How 

can we create fewer emissions from 

our transportation?’” explains Ardene’s 

representative. “We’ve already scaled 

back and consolidated all our shipments 

in order to optimize the movement 

of merchandise. Now our 

products move as directly as possible 

from the source to the end store, and 

we have dedicated weekly shipping 


ARDENE 

‘Because of our footprint 

and brand awareness, we 

have the opportunity to 

bring about big changes’ 

260 

days. Air freight has also been decreased 

tremendously through smarter 

planning, as well as vessel shipments 

and trucking.” Furthermore, all of 

Ardene’s international shipments now 

travel directly from the company’s 

vendors to their destinations, drastically 

reducing the company’s carbon 

emissions. 

In order to fully understand and 

further reduce its carbon footprint 

today, Ardene is mapping its GHG 

emissions according to the Greenhouse 

Gas Protocol, a set of standards 

employed by 90% of Fortune 500 

companies. Ardene believes that full 

knowledge of its supply chain will help 

combat the unsustainable elements 

inherent in the apparel industry. 

Additionally, the company has 

partnered with the Sustainable Apparel 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘ARDENE FOUNDATION IS ARDENE’S 

DEDICATED CHARITY ORGANIZATION’ 

261 

Coalition (SAC), a global alliance of 

retailers, brands, suppliers, advocacy 

groups, labour unions and academics 

that aims to mitigate the environmental 

impact of the industry. “This alliance 

can help us make real change in our 

company and our supply chain. The 

SAC offers tools, such as the HIGG 

Index, that enable brands, retailers and 

facilities of all sizes – at every stage in 

their sustainability journey – to accurately 

measure and score a company or 

product’s sustainability performance,” 

says Ardene’s representative. 

“If you go back even a hundred years, 

there hasn’t been a lot of progress in 

the process of garment construction, 

which still tends to be very resourceand 

labour-intensive work. In the past, 

many companies didn’t have any social 

or environmental record of what 

vendors overseas were doing. Now, 

Ardene has systems in place to ensure 

our factories are socially and environmentally 

compliant, and we continue to 

improve these through our partnerships 

with the SAC and others. We have 

a code of conduct and conduct audits,” 

says Ardene’s representative. “Next, 

we’re looking at raw materials and 


ARDENE 

4,500+ 


of employees 

1982 

Year founded 

375 

Number of stores 

worldwide 

262 

packaging too. We have begun the 

process of product and packaging 

innovation, whether in the fabrics and 

material choices we make or the way 

we package goods.” 

Ardene also works to ensure its 

positive impact on the world through 

the Ardene Foundation, a division of the 

brand dedicated to enacting positive 

change across the globe. Ardene has 

donated over 1mn units of apparel and 

footwear and raised over CA$4mn for 

various charitable organizations. 

“We work with multiple charitable 

organizations both at home and abroad 

to ensure our customers and staff 

understand that giving back and doing 

good is a hands-on part of our culture. 

Whether it be in areas of empowerment, 

poverty, education and health, we 

leverage the strength of our communities 

and try hard to shape a better 

world,” says Ardene’s representative. In 

select stores and through its site, 

Ardene sells its line of biodegradable, 

eco-friendly shoes, which are made 

from antibacterial, moisture-wicking 

and pesticide-free bamboo rayon. The 


company continues to grow its selection 

of sustainable products under the name 

Ardene Collective. 

Ardene recently launched a donation 

box program in select stores, where 

customers can ensure gently used 

clothing and shoes avoid landfills. The 

business also continues its policy of 

refusing to incinerate post-season 

clothing and continually donates used 

products to charities at home and 

abroad. According to a CSR representative, 

the company’s next steps are to 

partner with upcycling organizations 

that turn used merchandise into raw 

material to be re-used, further decreasing 

waste. 

Looking back over the past decade, 

Ardene has made great strides along 

its sustainability journey. Looking 

forward to the future, the company is 

hitting the ground running. Ardene’s 

representative concludes: “Our 

sustainability and CSR efforts are an 

ongoing journey. In the short term, we 

will continue with our new and existing 

initiatives, the largest being our 

greenhouse gas emissions mapping 

and reduction, and our efforts in supply 

chain accountability, product innovation 

and education. In the future, we 

foresee more sustainable raw materials 

in our products, a closed loop through 

increased upcycling initiatives, sustainable 

building initiatives and more. We 

are optimistic about the future.” 

263 


264 

Results-oriented 

leaders embracing 

technology 

to address 

WRIT TEN BY 

SEAN GALEA-PACE 

PRODUCED BY 

CRAIG KILLINGBACK 

climate threats 



265

CITY OF RICHMOND 

266 

Mayor Malcolm Brodie 

of the City of Richmond, 

British Columbia, and City 

staff, Peter Russell, Senior 

Manager of Sustainability, 

and Alen Postolka, 

District Energy Manager, 

discuss how the City’s 

climate actions are 

transforming Richmond. 

A 

city with its sights firmly set 

on becoming a leader in the 

field of sustainability, 

Richmond, British Columbia, has not 

only delivered outstanding results but 

also advanced a novel and replicable 

model for developing municipal 

district energy systems. Mayor 

Malcolm Brodie believes that taking 

action on climate change is vital due 

to Richmond’s location as an island 

city that is one metre above sea level. 

“Farmers started building dikes over 

100 years ago and we’ve continued 


267 

that program. Since then, the City 

implemented a flood protection 

strategy and a dike master plan to 

respond to climate change impacts,” 

explains Brodie. “We’re one of the few 

cities in our province that owns and 

operates a diking and drainage utility 

which provides secure funding for 

new capital projects.” 

“Every year, we collect money from 

residents specifically for the utility 

and that allows us to invest an average 

of around US$13mn annually in 

infrastructure improvements,” adds 

Peter Russell, Senior Manager, 

Sustainability & District Energy. 

“Our climate change mitigation work 

is just as important as our work in 

climate adaptation. We invest heavily 

in our district energy program, now 

bringing many benefits to our city.” 

INTRODUCING OLD TECHNOLOGY 

IN AN EXPANDED CAPACITY 

Richmond’s first investment in district 

energy, the Alexandra District Energy 

Utility, employs geo-exchange 

technology which uses the earth’s 




Malcolm Brodie, Mayor of Richmond 

268 

Malcolm Brodie has been a member of Richmond City Council 

since 1996. Following a by-election, he was sworn in as Mayor 

on October 29, 2001 and was re-elected in 2002, 2005, 2008, 

2011, 2014, and most recently in October 2018. Mayor Brodie 

has represented Richmond on the Board of Directors of Metro 

Vancouver since taking office in 2001. He currently serves 

on their Water Committee, Performance & Audit Committee, 

Finance & Intergovernmental Committee, Mayors’ Committee, 

and the Industrial Lands Strategy Task Force. He has 

represented Metro Vancouver on the Municipal Finance 

Authority and the National Zero Waste Council, and is currently 

the Chair of both these organizations. He is also a member 

of the TransLink Council of Mayors. Before 

election to Council, Mayor Brodie was 

a practising lawyer and had a long 

record of service to Richmond in the 

volunteer community. In honor of his 

contributions and achievements in 

the community, Mayor Brodie is a 

recipient of the Commemorative 

Medal for the 125th Anniversary of 

the Confederation of Canada, the Queen 

Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal, the 

Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee 

Medal, and the Canada 150th 

Anniversary Medal. 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION’ 

269 

geothermal energy from deep below 

the surface to provide domestic hot 

water, space heating and cooling 

services to buildings in the service 

area. With over 700 boreholes, the 

City has utilized the technology on a 

larger scale than ever before, affirms 

Alen Postolka, District Energy 

Manager. “Geo-Exchange is a very 

simple technology and has existed 

for over 30 years on a smaller scale. 

We’ve implemented it in a much 

bigger way. It works by drilling a 

borehole into the ground around 250 

feet deep and inserting high-density 

polyethylene pipe loop in the 

boreholes,” says Postolka. “The water 

is circulated through the loops with 

the water going through the ground, 

extracting the heat.” You can find 

further information on how the 

geothermal system works here. 

www.luluislandenergy.ca/videos 

Richmond has now won 15 awards 

for its district energy work to date, 

including the 2016 System of the Year 

award from the International District 

Energy Association for the work 

completed at the Alexandra District 

Energy Utility. Richmond has led the 



270 

“The Olympics 

opened many 

doors for the City, 

including the 

expansion of rapid 

transit in our city 

centre, now called 

the Canada Line.” 

— 

Malcolm Brodie, 

Mayor, City of Richmond 



271

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SECTOR 

way for other cities to follow in its 

footsteps, says Russell. “Our awards 

are proof that we are doing the right 

thing, it’s important ‘third party 

validation’ that we are achieving the 

City Council’s goals for climate action 

and liveability. As a result of our 

success, we’ve experienced a high 

level of interest in our district energy 

program from cities like Edmonton, 

Halifax and other utility companies. 

We are now seeing those cities invest 

in similar technology,” says Russell. 

“This is how cities work, we share 

information and are all willing to 

cooperate and support each other’s 

work. It’s led to us presenting our 

unique model at conferences and 

being profiled in articles with international 

distribution.” 

EXPANDING DISTRICT ENERGY SERVICES 

An early opportunity emerged to get 

district energy planning work going in 

Richmond’s City Centre. As a host city 

for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, 

the City committed to constructing a 

premier venue for the games: the 

273 


Peter Russell is the Senior Manager, Sustainability and 

District Energy for the City of Richmond, B.C.; his team 

focuses on community, corporate and district energy 

programs and environmental protection. He is a trained 

environmental engineer, an award-winning professional 

planner and an experienced sustainability manager, 

having worked with the cities of Vancouver and Surrey, 

B.C., prior to Richmond. Russell also worked with 

cities across B.C. as a consulting planner for 10 years, 

developing sustainability, land-use and energy plans. 

Russell holds a Bachelor degree of applied science in 

environmental engineering and a Master degree 

in science in community and regional planning. 



274 

Richmond Olympic Oval for speed 

skating events. To raise a portion of 

the funds to build the venue, the City 

leveraged a number of consolidated 

waterfront sites in 2006, selling some 

of the land to a multi-family residential 

developer, while retaining a major 

parcel in the centre on which to 

construct the Oval. Significant 

residual funds raised from the 

disposition were used to replenish 

and further grow the City’s land 

inventory. The City then entered into 

a Memorandum of Understanding 

(MOU) with the developer to assess 

the viability of district energy in the 

area. “The Olympics opened many 

doors for the City, including the 

expansion of rapid transit in our city 

centre, now called the Canada Line,” 

says Brodie. “The Canada Line 

bolstered our City Centre Area Plan 

by creating a lot of interest for 

developing in our downtown; staff saw 

the opportunity to ‘get ahead’ of 

development and they presented the 

Council with a business case that 

included a focus on renewable energy 

and competitive customer rates.” 

This foundational work led to the 

establishment of the City’s 2nd district 


275 

“Every year we 

collect money from 

residents specifically 

for the utility and that 

allows us to invest 

an average of around 

US$13mn annually 

in infrastructure 

improvements.” 

— 

Peter Russell, 

Senior Manager, 

Sustainability & District Energy 



276 


Alen Postolka is the District Energy Manager with the 

Lulu Island Energy Company responsible for advancing 

the development of district energy systems in the City 

of Richmond, BC. He is a professional engineer, a 

certified energy manager and certified professional 

with 25 years of experience in mechanical engineering, 

building science and project management. 

Postolka holds degree a Bachelor of Science 

in mechanical engineering from the 

University of Zagreb. 


277 

energy service area, now called the 

Oval Village District Energy Utility that 

provides space heating and hot water 

services. The City also established 

the Lulu Island Energy Company as a 

wholly-owned municipal corporation 

to manage the all district energy 

initiatives on behalf of the City. The 

first building was connected in 2014 

and the system now serves over 

1.9mn sq ft buildings, which are 

primarily multi-family residential. 

“We were already expanding our 

infrastructure in Alexandra District 

Energy Utility system, which had 

examined different options for how to 

finance, manage and deliver expanded 

services in city centre. This work 

led to our senior management and 

City Council to direct us to procure an 

operating partner with the necessary 

experience and resources,” explains 

Postolka. “Following a rigorous 

procurement process, Corix Utilities 



$541mn 

Approximate 

revenue 

1879 

Year founded 

2,250 


of employees 


was selected and we started to negotiate 

and look at how they can help us to deliver 

this project,” added Postolka. 

Corix is a privately held corporation, 

principally owned by the British Columbia 

Investment Management Corp., with offices 

in Vancouver, B.C., and Wauwatosa, Wis. 

Both parties would enter into an MOU to 

define roles and responsibilities in 2011, 

a process for working together and a 

compensation commitment to Corix 

should an agreement not be reached. 

The process for working together included 

two distinct stages: first, a due diligence 

phase that included infrastructure, business 

and financial planning, and, finally, 

development and execution of a long-term 

concession agreement. In 2014, Corix and 

the Lulu Island Energy Company executed 

a concession agreement that will see Corix 

design, build, finance and operate the system 

over 30 years, while Lulu Island Energy 

Company would manage the infrastructure. 

Richmond City Council is the regulator of 

utility rates. “Corix has been a great partner. 

We have a great working relationship with 

their team; they’ve served our customers 

well and have delivered our capital projects 

on time and on budget, in fact, often under 

budget,” says Russell. 

279 



280 

FUTURE PLANS 

With a vision in mind for the future of 

the city, Postolka believes Richmond 

must adhere to its business plan to 

accelerate its growth in renewable 

energy. “We expect growth to continue,” 

he says. “We’re making sure that 

buildings outside of the current district 

energy system service areas that we 

can’t economically connect yet are 

built to be ‘district energy-ready’. This 

approach ensures the buildings are 

designed to be connectable in the 

future. They have in-building energy 

systems but that when our pipe comes 

to their front door, we can easily 

connect them to our low carbon district 

£1.5bn+ 

Approximate 

revenue 

2002 

Year founded 

1,800 


of employees 

“Geo-Exchange is a 

very simple technology 

and has existed for 

over 30 years on a 

smaller scale. We’ve 

implemented it in 

a much bigger way” 

— 

Alen Postolka, 

District Energy Manager 

energy system.” The City’s work is 

consistent with its 2041 Official 

Community Plan which defines 

Richmond’s land use and development, 

social, economic, and sustainability 

policies over the upcoming decades. 

Russell believes the city will continue to 

grow and develop in key areas. 

Through the plan, the City aims to add 

another 80,000 people throughout the 

city, with the vast majority being 

directed to the city’s high density, 

mixed use City Centre. “The city is 


281 

experiencing sustained investments, 

in new multi-family residential buildings, 

transit, and infrastructure improvements,” 

says Russel. “We intend to 

do the same for district energy.” 

The City of Richmond benefited from a 

unique starting point: a city centre area 

ripe for redevelopment and a supportive 

City Council. Today, supplied with 

thermal energy from the City’s wholly 

owned Lulu Island Energy Company, 

district energy customers benefit from 

Richmond City Council’s mandate to 

provide customer service excellence 

and competitive rates using low-carbon 

energy systems. “When it comes 

to our climate action work, there is an 

expression that ‘nations talk and cities 

act’… our approach is really important 

because we have to be poised to take 

our position in the 21st century as 

opposed to being stuck back in the 

20th century,” concludes Brodie. 


282 

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: 

BREAKING 

THE SILOS 

WITH DIGITAL 


WRIT TEN BY 

SOPHIE CHAPMAN 

PRODUCED BY 

ARRON RAMPLING 



283

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL 

With her team of costumers 

and operational buyers, 

Fulya Oguz reveals to 

Business Chief how Cirque 

du Soleil manages unique 

procurement on its digital 

transformation journey 

284 

W 

hat we do is very unique,” reveals 

Fulya Oguz Operational Procurement 

Manager, Supply Chain at Cirque 

du Soleil. “On a day-to-day basis I might be 

talking with an operational buyer about a lift 

that will pull up a 25-ton tent in one corner 

of the world, and then move on to discussing 

the lingerie required for our Zumanity show.” 

The Canadian entertainment company was 

established in Montreal, Quebec, in 1984. 

In the past 35 years the business has expanded 

on a global-scale, having offered shows 

to more than - 200mn viewers globally across 

450 cities. 

Due to the colorful nature of the performances, 

the procurement team is often 

required to source non-conventional products 

in order to achieve the high-quality 

productions promised in its reputation. 

“Our goal is to invoke imagination, 

provoke fantasies, and evoke 

emotions. In order to enable that 



285


“Operationally 

we have to be 

efficient and 

operationally 

we have to be 

on time” 

— 

Fulya Oguz, 

Operational Procurement Manager, 

Supply Chain at Cirque du Soleil 

286 


CLICK TO WATCH: ‘BEAUTIFUL, INTRICATE COSTUME DESIGNS 

AND MATERIALS OF CIRQUE DU SOLEIL’ 

287 

we buy extremely specialized and 

unique, custom-made products,” says 

Fulya. 

Fulya manages the operational procurement 

team within the company’s 

supply chain operations, which focuses 

on strategic sourcing, travel management, 

customs and logistics. “My team 

consists of project managers and operational 

buyers that specialize in different 

commodities. Essentially, my team supports 

all the Cirque units, including 

studios, buildings, IT, touring shows, 

production and of course costumes 

workshops,” she states. Her mandate 

is to ensure all internal business units 

are supported with solid contracts, 

efficient procurement processes, and 

good risk management. For Cirque du 

Soleil, efficiency is important in ensuring 

all the customer-facing aspects of the 

company function perfectly. “Operationally 

we have to be efficient and we have 

to be on time,” Fulya explains. The live 

shows require reliable equipment and 

bold sets and costumes, and without 

efficiency from the procurement team 

these may not be readily available. 

Innovation is a key driving force behind 

functions. With growth influencing oper- 



288 

ations, the team is introducing new 

technologies to manage procurement 

and ensure vital efficiency. “As our 

President Daniel Lamarre has said ‘At 

Cirque du Soleil we don’t talk about 

diversity, we live it every day with different 

nationalities influencing our 

growth.’ I think it is very important as 

we’re a worldwide company and our 

global presence has increased considerably 

over the years. And, of 

course, this growth influences and 

impacts all of its business units and 

their operations. So, everything we 

do we have to do it even more efficiently 

and effectively,” explains Fulya. With 

growing demand, the team is focusing 

on introducing new, creative solutions: 

“It’s a creativity-driven business. We try 

to acquire the best and brightest talent 

in the field of procurement, while capitalizing 

on the highest technological 

advancement and tools available.” 

In order to introduce new technologies, 

Cirque du Soleil began by questioning 

how it conducted business. By 

addressing what could be eliminated 

from everyday operations, it could then 



289 

Fulya Oguz 

Fulya Oguz joined Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group in May 

2011 as the Operational and Costume Procurement Manager. 

Fulya leverages her more than 20 years of industry knowledge 

and experience to lead the charge on countless projects across 

the world. As a leader within the rapidly growing company, she 

manages critical relationships throughout all internal divisions 

of the business, in support of operational procurement. Fulya 

helps support many of Cirque’s largest shows, handling pivotal 

enterprise processes for negotiation, budgeting, purchasing, 

inventory logistics, operation management and vendor 

intelligence. Having worked within the IT, retail and 

online spaces like Oracle, Ice.com and Diamond.com, 

she brings a unique and vital business and technological 

perspective to Cirque’s continued growth. 


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decide where to start investing. “To 

support our supply chain transformation, 

we invested in an e-sourcing cloud 

platform, shortly followed by an e-procurement 

cloud platform. The e-sourcing 

platform was introduced with the 

intention of streamlining our communications. 

As a buyer, we receive requests 

in all forms – from emails to verbal.” 

Cirque du Soleil has been able to process 

an increased volume without increasing 

the team. The cloud has enabled timeefficient 

operations, allowing Cirque 

du Soleil to communicate globally and 

shorten its response time. The team 

also found that the solutions enabled 

statistic tracking, analysis and traceability, 

while connecting different 

departments. “We can invite different 

partners within the same tool – it breaks 

the silos. Everyone can participate,” 

Fulya continues. 

Innovation is not the only priority for 

Fulya, with Cirque du Soleil also ensuring 

it sources its products in the most sustainable 

ways. “As a citizen of the world 

we have to value sustainable methods 

and watch our footprint. We have to 

integrate these principles in our procurement 

practices,” says Fulya. “Today

1984 

Year founded 

4,500 


of employees 

291 



292 

“As a citizen of the 

world we have to 

value sustainable 

methods and watch 

our footprint. We 

have to integrate 

these principles in 

our procurement 

practices” 

— 

Fulya Oguz, 

Operational Procurement Manager, 

Supply Chain at Cirque du Soleil 

Photo © Cirque du Soleil – Suspended 

Pole act from the show CORTEOD 


293 

Photo © Cirque du Soleil – Hoop Diving from LUZIA 

Photographer © Matt Beard 



294 

CLICK TO WATCH: ‘A BOOST OF ENERGY WITH...VOLTA | OFFICIAL 

2018 CIRQUE DU SOLEIL SHOW TRAILER’ 

we have performances all over the 

world and we have to showcase unique 

products, meaning the fabrics and 

props we use are not readily available 

or reachable.” In 2017, the company 

transported fabrics from France to 

Canada on the Avontuur sailboat. The 

successful journey emitted zero carbon 

as the engineless boat required no fuel. 

This led to the firm committing to making 

at least five journeys through this method 

by 2020 in order to reduce its environmental 

damage when acquiring its specialized 

materials. When creating the 

LUZIA show, the firm used 6,000 litres 


Photo © Cirque du Soleil 

of water per performance. In order to 

offset the huge quantities used, Cirque 

du Soleil would ensure that every liter 

would be recycled during the duration 

of a stay in a given city. “When we say 

sustainability and the environment are 

very important to Cirque, we really 

mean it,” Fulya adds. 

Since joining the company eight years 

ago, Fulya has helped transform the 

operational procurement team. As she 

continues to break the silos and be 

a part in ensuring the company’s shows 

are staged on time, the head of the 

operational department aims to ensure 

the solutions – allowing this to happen 

– are implemented across the world. “In 

regards to technology, we have already 

decided what we’re going to use and 

we’re working on it. The next step is making 

sure the cloud platforms are accessible 

all over the world,” states Fulya. 

“That’s an extraordinary responsibility 

in a magical environment.” 

295 


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