The 10 Influential Business Leaders to Watch in 2019_compressed

2019 | Volume 09 | Issue 8 

The 10 

Influential 

Business Leaders 

t o W a t c h i n 2 0 1 9 

PASSIONATE BUSINESS LEADER 

Industry Outlook 

How Artificial Intelligence 

(AI) Shall Impact Business 

and Lives in the 

years to come 

Rahul Kumar Jain 

Founder & MD 

Arihant Global Services 

Editor’s Pick 

A Leader: Hiring 

Transformation 

Anil Raikundlia 

Founder | MD 

ANIL 

RAIKUNDLIA 

A Man with the Midas Touch

E 

Leadership Shaping the Business Growth 

hen it comes to achieving success in business, strategy can be one part of the whole success, and not the only 

Wreason for success. There are a lot of things that sum up success in a business; and without a doubt, leaders are 

one of the primary reasons. A leaders’ role revolves around forming values, visions, and employee’s motivation. 

They are the key to shape the company’s culture and repute, within and even beyond the company’s wall. 

Leadership play a very essential role in shaping the behavior and attitude of subordinates. Leadership is focused on the role 

of leader as a motivator with great innovation and amazing creative habits which ultimately lead to business success, and also 

increase the productivity. Today, not only new-age leaders but many of the seasoned leaders out there are adopting and 

applying new tactics leadership and increasing the business success ratio. 

Thus, there is need of a great skilled professional leader to lead the subordinates in their daily activities to achieve the goal of 

any organization. Any organization with good leadership strength and ability will further achieve great success not only on 

the business but also in the personal extent. 

Well, in today’s modern age, it is important to get the right leader with great competences to stay afloat in a competitive 

business environment. Insights Success has come up with the special issue “The 10 Influential Business Leaders to Watch 

in 2019” to applaud such influential business leaders who exhibit their commitment to responsible growth and progress. 

Here, we have tried to focus on leaders who are setting examples and working for the betterment of society. 

Some of the below-mentioned personalities have grabbed our attention most to become the influential business leader in this 

edition. They have shown what it means to think out of the box, to take the risk, to trust in the process and commit to the 

journey no matter how wild the ride is! 

On the Cover of the magazine, we have featured a special story of Anil Raikundlia, MD at Maple Consulting & Services. 

Passionate business leader, Anil is aiming to see Maple Consulting & Services become a global brand and hopes to operate

“ 

Leadership is all about pushing yourself beyond the limits, 

so, others can feel motivated and driven 

“ 

Shruti P. Jambhale 

all over the globe in the near future. The company helps start-ups grow, revitalizes family-owned businesses and partners 

with private companies to re-engage their workforce and MNCs to reorganize business units. 

We have enrolled a passionate entrepreneurial figure, who has come up with the most unique solutions, Rahul Kumar Jain, 

the Founder & MD at Arihant Global as a ‘Passionate Business Leader’. Rahul assures full integrity in every small effort, 

while his company, Arihant Global Services provides quality and reliable services for mobile advertising and IT solutions. 

Apart from this, we have also listed the following personas who are building the unique path. Ashish Kumar Saxena, 

Founder at AKS Information Technology Services Pvt. Ltd. A tycoon with deep technical knowledge carrying out 

innovative ideas and providing world-class security through AKS Group which helps clients to enhance their security 

posture. Ram Sharma, CEO & Founder at Bank-Genie. A big dreamer, Ram is re-imagining banking and presenting 

tomorrow’s technology in today’s world through Bank-Genie which develops a fin-tech platform that enables banks and 

financial institutions to transform digitally. Anand Sahay, CEO at Xebia Group. Anand is a technophile business leader 

leading Xebia Pvt Ltd. which provides innovative solutions and services to help your/an organization become a digital 

winner. 

Along with this, we have an exclusive ‘Interview with Insights Success’. Here, nemophilist Amit Jain, Director at Rising 

Star Tours & Travels; the Results-oriented Ajay Lulia, Director & CTO at Synergy Technology Services Pvt. Ltd.; and 

Permanent Learner Ravi Ganesh Venkataraman, Chief Executive Officer at Cloudnine; talk about their overall journey 

and the influences made by their firm, service offerings, winning honors, current and future perceptions. 

This magazine includes leader’s thoughts as well. Pradeep Valsangkar, the driving force behind GCS Consulting Services 

discusses the topic “How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Shall Impact Business and Lives in the years to come”. 

So, flip the pages of our magazine and explore interesting insights into the world of business!

C o n t e n t s 

Cover Story 

Passionate Business 

Leader 

14 

08 

Anil 

RAIKUNDLIA 

A MAN WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH 


Exemplifying 

Professed Leadership 

CXO STANDPOINT 

40 


How Articial 

Intelligence (AI) Shall 

Impact Business and 

Lives in the years 

to come

INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS 

20 

30 

36 

Ajay Lulia 

Transforming IT 

World by 

Fostering Creativity 

Amit Jain 

Catalyzing Best 

Traveling 

Experiences 

Ravi G. 

Venkataraman 

Talking about his 

Journey across the 

Healthcare Segment 

24 

ARTICLE 


A Leader: Hiring Transformation 

18 

28 34 

Anand Sahay 

A Technophile 

Business Leader 

Ashish Kumar Saxena 

A Technocrat 

Shaping his Path 

Ram Sharma 

Dreamer | Believer 

| Creator

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal 

Managing Editor 

Contributing Writers 

Shruti P. Jambhale 

Rahul, Devasish & Sneha 

Art & Design Head Amol Kamble 

Associate Designer Poonam Mahajan 

Art & Picture Editor 

Co-designer 

Business Development Manager 

Business Development Lead 

Shweta Ambilwade 

Savita Pandav 

Megha Mishra 

Joan Ranbhise 

Business Development Executive Rutuja Shendre 

Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha 

Digital Marketing Manager Prashant Chevale 

SME-SMO Executives Manoj, Ketki 

Circulation Manager 

Tanaji 

sales@insightssuccess.com 

September, 2019 

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Copyright © 2019 Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd., All rights reserved. The content and images used in this magazine should not be reproduced or 

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Reprint rights remain solely with Insights Success. Printed and Published by Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. 

RNI NUMBER: MAHENG/2018/75953

Anil Raikundlia 

Founder | MD




t o W a t c h i n 2 0 1 9 

Anil 

RAIKUNDLIA 

A MAN WITH THE MIDAS TOUCH 

Cover Story

Some start with a vision for a 

company and others start with a 

vision for their professional 

careers. A few manage to merge the 

two and those individuals are the most 

successful leaders as their path to 

professional success is one of 

authenticity and genuine fulfillment. 

“Skills are cheap, passion is 

priceless.” - Gary Vaynurchuck, 

American-Belarusian entrepreneur 

‘‘ 

I AM PROUD OF ALL 

THE ACHIEVEMENTS 

I HAVE MADE SO FAR, 

ESPECIALLY STARTING 

AND MANAGING 

MY OWN COMPANY 

AND THE SUCCESS 

WE’VE ACHIEVED 

‘‘ 

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET 

Factors according to you that Influence 

Business Relationships? 

Factors that can help nurture your business 

relationships are: 

• Genuine appreciation and concern for peers 

• Time allotted for trust and relationship building 

• High Emotional Intelligence 

• Active Listening 

“Passion is core to who I am.” -Anil 

Raikundlia, Founder at Maple 

Consulting & Services 

The one who strongly believes that 

passion is more than just feeling deeply 

about a purpose. It’s about vision. It’s 

about energy, excitement, and 

enthusiasm. It is passion that helped 

Anil to inspire others and identify with 

his vision. “I truly feel that 

Commitment & Consistency while 

chasing your passion will always keep 

you high in energy and full of bliss to 

enjoy your life.” feels Anil. 

Success Saga 

When Anil was managing a role as 

Head of Operations and Human 

Resources in a traditional 

manufacturing company in 1994, he 

knew that somehow he wanted to find 

a path that focused on more efficient 

planning and execution. And, thus he 

started experimenting in different ways 

with varied people to find better, faster,

‘‘ 

THE MOTTO HAS 

ALWAYS BEEN TO KEEP 

AND KEEP TRYING TILL 

I TASTE SUCCESS 

IN WHATEVER I 

ENDEAVOR TO DO 

rapidly based on the adoption of 

powerful and disruptive technologies. 

Years ago, it was Internet searches and 

job boards. After that came the 

enterprise technologies and 

accompanying service-level 

requirements. The newest phase of this 

technological revolution involves 

social media, artificial intelligence, 

robotics, and other algorithms that 

further dis-intermediate the role of 

traditional talent acquisition. 

Many CEOs feel that adopting AI is 

the need of the hour. There’s this fear 

factor that if one is not on the AI 

bandwagon, then that company is 

going to lose out to competitors that 

are going to be eating the market, 

because they’re using technologies to 

make decisions faster and better than 

you. 

“I believe machine learning, data 

science, and statistics are great for 

finding patterns in data.” states Anil. 

Further, he added “But the most 

important thing is making decisions 

that leverage the patterns found in 

data. This requires a completely 

different set of skills: discrete 

mathematics, operations research, and 

optimization. These skills, I find are 

massively underrepresented in the 

industry.” 

As with most industries, margins get 

tighter over time, so every company 

constantly needs to be able to provide 

‘‘ 

more for less and 

handle larger business 

volumes, all while 

making few mistakes. 

That’s taken a lot of 

players out of the 

game, leading to some 

consolidation in this 

industry. 

Future Roadway 

The market 

is slowly 

moving 

towards a 

third party consulting model 

with a marked dependence 

on technology. The objective 

will remain same for many 

more coming years - to help 

organizations make better 

people decisions, 

methodically increase the 

risk-taking capability of 

leaders and ensure that 

leadership teams have 

diverse strengths essential 

for sharpening the 

competitive edge. 

The company is developing 

its own customized line of 

tech products to help its 

clients move forward. Also, 

it is aiming to go global in 

the near future and is already 

making inroads in 

South–east Asian markets. 

Anil’s Success Mantra 

“Self-awareness and 

authenticity is key to career 

success. Don’t try to be 

something you can’t be - 

don’t try to be me. Be you. 

The hallmark of a good 

leader is to exercise strategic 

clarity. As the driver of your 

business, it is important to 

get everyone on board with 

where we see the 

organization going. Every 

employee must understand and apply 

that sense of purpose to every 

operational detail. 

You also have to be flexible about how 

global teams work. There are 

differences in how global markets 

operate. Thus you need to adapt to 

global markets and communicate your 

requirements correctly.” 

QUICK FACTS 

• One word that describes 

you and why: 

Determination as I never 

give up till I succeed in all 

my endeavors. 

• Current Book you are 

reading and why: 

Steve Jobs: Life, lessons 

and rules for success for 

his sheer tenacity and 

enthusiasm for his life and 

products. An inspirational 

read. 

• A Movie you watch again 

and again and why: 

The Rocky series or Jo 

Jeeta Wohi Sikander for 

their never say die 

attitude. 

• One Social Media Platform 

you use the most and 

why: 

A private person, I don’t 

‘check in’ on social media 

but LinkedIn is a good 

platform for work and 

networking.

RAHUL KUMAR 

JAINExemplifying Professed Leadership 


Passionate Business 

Leader 

Mobile communications are 

vastly spreading in India as 

well as in the whole world. 

The various messaging tool, surveys 

and daily routines of one’s life clearly 

show that mobility (a component of 

digital marketing) has become an 

inevitable need of the world in the fastmoving 

life. The main thing which 

helps the business grow is customer 

connectivity and satisfaction without 

disturbing their personal lives. 

Mobility is exactly doing the same, it is 

connecting the businesses and 

customers swiftly and smoothly. Hence 

the scenario is a very bright and 

rapidly growing future for the mobility 

industry; Part of Digital 

communication or life. 

Websites and mobile apps are the 

digital forefronts of a business, which 

would rather be at the fingertips of 

customers when they need it. Digital 

marketing and mobility within 

businesses are about empowering your 

brand providing measurable and 

tangible results that help you stand out 

in today’s marketplace. To achieve this 

goal there are some unique Digital 

marketing service providers as required 

and just-in-time when one needs it. 

14 

September 2019

एक कदम हम बढाये, ु न साथ इसे मंिजल बनाये ! 

Knowing the Man Who Made It Happen 

“ 

Think 

Digitally 

Act 

Globally 

September 2019 

“ 

Entrepreneurship has no age limit and providing the best 

customer services has no bar. He believes, simple and plain truth 

can lead anyone to the top. Meet Rahul Kumar Jain having an 

undying learning attitude and innate innovation which has made 

him an impregnable competitor in numerous business segments. 

Rahul, the Founder, carries more than 10 years of experience in 

Sales & Marketing. He has dealt with many business identities 

such as Telecom, VAS, FMCG, Marble industry. He skilled in 

B2B companies in India. Initiating his career at the age of 11, 

Rahul believes, there is no age for work and innovations. He 

takes pride to be awarded as “Entrepreneur of the year”, “The 

BIZZ award”, “Winner of Best MSME Awards” and many more 

accolades. His areas of interest include Business Association, 

Entrepreneurship, and consistent learning. His expertise also 

includes a huge experience in Sales, Marketing and relationship 

building. 

Rahul, rowing through imprecise vision, facing several ups and 

downs, ultimately found the way towards a glorious life. He is 

amongst the millions who struggled, failed and surged towards 

victory, happiness, and pleasure. Self-motivation and exemplary 

confidence have led his business to the current state. He is 

accompanied by his better half Sunita Jain. Her seamless 

contribution, strong, never-ending support have made Rahul set 

up Arihant Global Service India Private Limited (India’s 

fastest solutions Provider Company in Mobility Domain and 

outsourcing module) 

15

The solutions are awesomely designed to make them useful 

for retaining user contentedness. Their products produce the 

best ROI for the SME’s and SMB’s with easy availability. 

The services are exclusively made available on the cloud to 

utilize as per user convenience and affordability. Arihant 

Global’s In-house Sales and Marketing teams have multiple 

years of experience in selling SMS broadcast services, 

voice, missed call or other mobility solutions all over the 

country through its partnered business module. Thus the 

company continues to lead businesses on all fronts with 

customer-centric strategies. 

Advising the Juvenile Enterprisers 

Rahul believes that every entrepreneur should have a clear 

goal and then step for a business start-up. He thinks, 

building a team of self-motivated players and caring for 

them is imperative for a business to develop progressively. 

According to him being ready for the worst results and 

compromises at certain stages will take a person at the best 

level. Never losing hope in any situation and assuring full 

integrity in every small effort is the key Mantra for any 

achievement. 

The company and its Unique services/products 

Going back to history, the struggle to earn bread and butter 

started by selling Papad’s door-to-door facing rigorous 

challenges but gradually improving the ability and 

ultimately becoming an award-winning organization. 

Arihant Global Services India Private Limited (called as 

Arihant Global) is structured and designed to give its 

customers a first-class experience, no matter what the 

company or deal size is. It is purely into the outsourcing 

module, which means the company is doing business 

exclusively for the wellness of others, just adding their 

skills to bridge the gap between customer and company. 

The firm places its customer experience management at the 

core of the business strategy. It majorly focuses on mobility 

and digital marketing segments. The domain has expertise 

in online business promotion, Text SMS, mobile survey, 

lead generation tool, client engagement, contractual 

callings, and next-level business promotion and mobile 

advertising solutions. The company deals in online 

solutions and services which connected to each size of 

businesses as of now. Company takes pride to call itself as 

an online Business consultant. 

Businesses in India are making better progress and things 

are going digital rapidly. However, now businesses are 

taking a proactive approach to training their workforce for 

the future and have clearly defined decision-making process 

of all executives and interactions. Planned strategy, 

employee coordination, transparency will lead to work 

strength and customer feedback/ survey will bring external 

benefits. 

16 September 2019




t o W a t c h i n 2 0 1 9 

ANAND SAHAY 

A Technophile Business Leader 

The world of business is 

changing rapidly as ever. 

Today’s global and 

competitive business environment asks 

for constant innovation, and innovative 

technologies are reshaping the world. 

One has to be on the learning curve 

and need to keep continuously move 

up the levels. All the smart and genius 

persons have to leverage intellectual 

capital for growth, creative destruction, 

and keep on innovating. 

One such passionate business leader, 

Anand Sahay is currently leading a 

niche technology company Xebia. with 

authority in Agile & Lean startup 

methodologies and strong expertise in 

cutting edge concepts such as DevOps, 

Big Data, and Data Science. 

Meet the Techie 

Anand has completed an MBA from 

Duke University -The Fuqua School of 

Business and did Electrical, 

Electronics and Communication 

Engineering from Birla Institute of 

Technology. A senior IT leader, Anand, 

carries more than two decades of 

experience in building and leading 

global high-performance teams for 

driving sustained business growth and 

creating shareholder value. He has 

been a software programmer, client 

engagement manager, business 

development professional, head global 

IT operations, and currently holding 

the position of CEO at Xebia. 

Having worked with prestigious 

companies like Interglobe, HCL, 

Polaris, and Samsung, he has always 

loved technology and its applications 

to create value for customers as well as 

stakeholders. Now, for Xebia India, 

Anand is responsible for its P&L and 

manages the technical, commercial and 

operational aspects of its business. 

Key Performance Indicator 

When one thinks about the world’s 

most innovative companies, then 

names like Tesla, Emirates, DHL, GE, 

Hyundai, Barclays, Xerox, Delta are 

obvious to get reflected in mind. But, 

as a blockbuster movie is possible only 

after the collaborative efforts of the 

entire team or crew, the success of 

these inspiring businesses is impossible 

without their technology partners, and 

Xebia is one of their inseparable 

partners. 

The Dutch-born technology firm is 

globally serving to companies in 

diverse industries from its offices in the 

Netherlands (HQ), US, France, UAE, 

and India, since 2001. Xebia’s tech 

solutions related to new and emerging 

technologies are providing impetus to 

the world’s leading airlines, banks, 

strategy consulting firms, government 

organizations, retailers, media firms, 

and many more. 

Always one step ahead of the 

businesses need, Xebia explores and 

creates new frontiers for its valued 

clients with the latest technologies and 

customized solutions. As a mainstream 

frontrunner, backed by an international 

team of more than 1000 passionate 

technologists and pioneering 

craftsmen, Xebia provides the cuttingedge 

tools, training and consulting 

services that help businesses work 

better, smarter, and faster. 

Agile transformations; DevOps and 

continuous delivery; big data and data 

science; cloud infrastructures; agile 

software development; quality and test 

automation; and agile software 

security are Xebia’s signature offerings 

in the global market. In reward to 

benefiting industries with cutting-edge 

technologies and innovations, Xebia is 

regularly nominated by Gartner and 

Forrester for excellence in new 

technologies. Besides, the organization 


Anand Sahay 

CEO 

“ It’s my 

Responsibility 

to 

Accelerate 

Your 

Business! 

“ 

is rewarded by Deloitte, PwC, and 

other agencies of repute for creating 

new frontiers in IT training services. 

The Crew of Xebia 

Under the indomitable leadership of 

Anand Sahay, CEO at Xebia, Xebia 

Group of companies is thriving on 

three distinct principles: Authority, 

Focus, and Values. 

A strong leader, Anand, who has led 

turnarounds for companies by handling 

failures head-on and implementing 

heavy change management to turn 

companies into a global enterprise with 

strong financial. In the last fiscal year, 

Xebia Group’s turnover was USD 100 

Million, and it is expected to rise by 50 

to 55 percent in the year 2019-20. 

Anand has a strong ability on the 

market repositioning of service 

offerings and adept in keeping the right 

balance between cost, risk, and growth. 

He quickly builds a high-performance 

culture and takes bold steps to put 

companies in the path of recovery and 

growth. 

The Upcoming Future 

As a business leader of a global 

corporation, Anand is planning to 

implement innovation under difficult 

circumstances, manage crisis 

communication, changing 

management, market repositioning, 

managing and restructuring, building 

and managing culture and its conflicts. 

By using his astute understanding of 

the market and the structural 

weaknesses/ fault lines in the company 

to lay down the right foundation for 

companies to deliver the value it 

aspires to and create shareholder value. 

With his acumen for identifying new 

upcoming technologies, Anand is 

creating unique service offerings and 

continues to do so; to create innovative 

service lines, products, and potential 

market. 


19

AJAY LULIA 

Transforming IT World by Fostering Creativity 

n an exclusive interview with 

IInsights Success magazine, Ajay 

Lulia, the Director & CTO at 

Synergy Technology Services Pvt. Ltd. 

talks about his overall journey and the 

current industry scenario. 

IS: Kindly brief us about you and 

your journey since the beginning of 

your career. 

With 22+ years of experience in the 

information technology industry, Ajay 

thrives in challenging, fast-paced IT 

organizations delivering advanced 

technological systems, solutions, 

architectures, and applications. 

Ajay Lulia dropout from a collage did 

his diploma and post that discovered 

interest into computers and started 

coding in Foxpro while doing 

computer education. His journey start 

from there where he worked on various 

technologies in various companies 

across India and overseas while 

mastering into web technologies. He 

co-founded STS in 2006 post working 

for 10 years in IT industry and is 

currently working as Director & CTO. 

IS: How do you describe yourself in 

one-word or one-sentence? 

Results-oriented. 

IS: What is your source of 

motivation? 

My source of motivation is growth of 

my company in terms of resources and 

technology. 

IS: Kindly tell us about the 

challenges you faced to withstand 

the complexities of the industry. 

We always used to follow technology 

and work on new technologies as and 

when needed, this was limiting our 

group and we used to miss being 

leaders into new areas. We at STS then 

created a research and development 

department called Synergy Accelerate 

(https://www.sts.in/synergy-accelerate) 

here we have formed a team that works 

in new technologies and then 

inculcates the same into the teams 

across offices. 

IS: Kindly describe in detail about 

your company and its unique 

services/products. 

STS was established in year 2006 with 

a moto to provide better solutions to 

industry by following best industry 

practices and creating open culture for 

all the members of company. I brought 

all the ideas which I saw missing while 

working for various companies in India 

and overseas and I believe that has 

paid us well. 

IS: Brief us about the current 

industry scenario from your 

perspective. 

IT industry in India always had 

tremendous future since we have been 

and are creating top IT professionals 

since many years. When it comes to 

current industry scenario then I believe 

in Disruptive Innovation is the key and 

this can be easily defined by Enabling 

Technology using Innovative business 

model to create coherent value 

proposition. 

IS: State us your major 

achievements and your company’s 

achievements under your leadership. 

We started with team size of 6 people 

in services and we currently stand at 

175 resources. One things that was 

missing was to train them into new 

technologies and I had two options, 

either get some training company and 

train my workforce or create small 

team do research and then deliver the 

same to teams. I created small team 

and names it Synergy Accelerate 

(https://www.sts.in/synergyaccelerate). 

Synergy Accelerate team 

used to research various things like 

Mobile development, Big Data, Alexa 

etc. Currently team is working on 

Machine Learning and RPA. 

IS: State your passions, aims, and 

goals. 

My passion is to work on new 

technologies and be leader in cutting 

edge technologies, my aim is the have 

team of 1000 in next two years and my 

goal is envision ourselves as leaders in 

providing IT services and solutions, by 


Interview with Insights Success 

delivering high quality services and ensuring client 

satisfaction. 

IS: How do you see yourself and your company in 

the near future? Tell us about your future goals. 

We being IT services company we are always 

evaluated either by the size of company or 

verticals we work on. We have plans to grow 

exponentially into multi cities. We are exploring 

option to open office tier II cities as to get fresh 

talent and also keeping cost low by passing the 

benefits back to our clients. 

IS: What would you advise to the budding 

entrepreneurs? 

I believe one thing hard work pays off and if you 

complement with a lean startup than one will grow 

easily without looking for external source of funds. 

Entrepreneurial Mindset 

Factors according to you that Influence Business 

Relationships. 

“Capability to deliver things and Level of 

communication like being open, honest and 

regular communication with relationships 

will definitely influence businesses.” 

Fast Facts 

• One word that describes you and why: 

Passion, this helps me feel a deep 

sense of being led in a worthy 

direction towards my goal. 

• Current Book you are reading and why: 

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can 

Matter More Than IQ by Daniel 

Goleman, I believe EQ is required for 

any work is as much IQ is required. 

• A Movie you watch again and again and 

why: Lakshya, depicts everyones life 

before objective for life is realized. 

• One Social Media Platform you use the 

most and why: Twitter, best way to 

communicate by limiting the text. 

• You are proud of: my work and my team 

Ajay Lulia 

Director & CTO 


21



You might be seeing varying definitions of 

Yleadership for the past century and still everchanging. 

Initially, leadership meant to control 

and power, but today, a leadership that develops shared 

goals and effectiveness which influences people to 

achieve a common goal became more prominent. Now it 

meant to accomplish the goals together. Leadership is at 

par when groups aim to achieve certain goals both 

independently as well as in a group. Leadership is not an 


25

act alone, but a process that transforms leaders and people 

into a team that mutually works in favor of the whole lot to 

reach motivational and moral goals. Working through a pain 

point can turn things around and leaders excel in it. 

A Personage Motivating the Team 

People have the full potential to learn things but might get 

spasmodic when someone is instructing. They, however, 

need consolation and encouragement with something to 

look forward to for them to show it in better performance. 

It's hard to change old habits, but the faster a leader adapts 

to a new model of humankind and nabs it, the faster they 

learn to emphasize additional performance percentage. 

A leader is capable of explaining the importance of a task. 

Communication is the key to motivation for employees that 

inspires them to be more productive and make them 

understand how it fits into the bigger picture. Leaders try 

not to blame employees but still make them aware of their 

responsibility and accountability for what they do. This 

makes the employees more engaged and optimal in their 

productivity with negligible errors. Furthermore, their tasks 

and success may become a motivation factor, which can 

build their self-esteem and confidence in their work. 

Democratic leadership also termed as participative, is one 

of the styles of leading where the leader includes employees 

in decision making even if someone else has the final say. 

Due to this employees feel appreciated and also understand 

that if it is a big organization, decisions cannot be made 

considering a single person’s opinion. 

Putting It All Together 

A leader is born with certain qualities that fits them in the 

role. Leaders adorn themselves with committed and focused 

practice which makes them an eminent leader. An emergent 

leader interacts well with the others gains authority through 

the others in the organization who has more acceptance, 

support, and trust from the employees. Leaders act more 

dominantly, intelligently and confidently while executing 

their responsibilities. Leaders that are especially based on 

interactions with people make themselves much prepared in 

communication skills which calls attention to their acumen. 

They highly focus on customer satisfaction since a happy 

customer will come back and praise the company. Who 

wants their company at the top, always keep the employeefirst 

approach. 

As a result, the employee may be engaged to do well with 

both internal and external customers. A good leader knows 

how to delegate tasks right, based on not only skills and 

experience but also in a way that gives employees space to 

grow, learn and challenge themselves who may show the 

ability to outrank certification with innovation. 

Successful leaders always remain confident and mentally 

balanced which helps them to have an optimistic view that 

allows them to overcome anger and negative emotions 

faster. They identify their limits and it’s also their metaemotion 

which helps them acknowledging how they feel 

and deal with it accordingly. A leader has a positive external 

force hence self-control and empathy with a strategic 

leadership become some of their core skills. 

Abstaining Overconfidence and Challenging Risks 

The ethos of a company are set from the top, so senior 

figures should set the tone for risk management culture. 

You cannot control people through policies, procedure and 

policing but leaders do it through a strong risk management 

culture and absolute integrity in all. 

Leaders prioritize the foundational level of capability in the 

most important areas, be aware of development gaps and 

ensure the measures in place to compensate for the risks. 

They try to keep the process simple because working on 

multiple development goals while attending a demanding 

job may lead to a quick loss of focus, motivation and also 

lead to financial loss. Experience and relationships are the 

primary way leaders inculcate to avoid risks. 

They try to enlist the support of human resources, 

managers, mentors or coaches. Appointing an 

accountability partner whom they trust and the one who 

checks in and challenges them on their progress or provides 

with ongoing, uncensored feedback becomes an imperative 

decision. By taking these steps in risk leadership 

development leaders to enhance their profile within both 

company and risk professionals as a whole. 

So Are you missing the opportunity in Risk? But the leaders 

aren’t, following the above secrets. 

- Rajkunwar Bhosle 

Editor 


Ashish Kumar 

Saxena 

A Technocrat Shaping his Path 




t o W a t c h i n 2 0 1 9 

The science of today is the 

technology of tomorrow. There 

have been a number of techies 

in the world, that have created a 

change in this world. Every now and 

then we see new start-ups and fresh 

ideas in this innovative businesses era. 

One such veteran Ashish Kumar 

Saxena has come with his 

entrepreneurial spirit and formed AKS 

Group of companies. He is tycoon 

with a deep technical knowledge 

carrying out innovative ideas and a 

managerial ability. 

Know Him Better 

An alumnus of IIT Delhi (M.Tech), 

Ashish did his B.Sc (Engineering) in 

Electrical from HBTI, Kanpur. He 

started his career as an Instrument 

Engineer in Tata Chemicals Ltd. in 

1976 and thereafter joined Indian Air 

Force (IAF) as an Aeronautical 

Engineer (Electronics) in 1977. 

Continued in IAF for more than twoand-half 

decades and took premature 

retirement in 2003. 

During his service, he was awarded 

‘Vishisht Seva Medal’ by the President 

of India for his distinguished service. 

In IAF, he held the appointment of 

Chief Engineering Offices as Wing 

Commander and during his last tenure 

he was looking after Information & 

Electronic Warfare (IEW) Trained in 

US, France and Sweden on IEW. Later, 

worked as Vice President (Technology) 

in Network Security Solutions and 

managed the creation of Computer 

Emergency Response Team-India 

(CERT-In). 

In the year 2006, he founded AKS IT 

Services Pvt Ltd. After a few years, in 

the year 2012, he founded AKS 

Institute of Cyber Technology. And, 

then in the year 2015 cofounded 

HaltDos.com Pvt Ltd. along with his 

son, Anshul Saxena. 

Exclusive Solutions 

AKS Group deals in Cyber Security. 

AKS IT Services provides auditing 

(Network & Applications), consulting, 

compliance and computer Forensics 

services. AKS Institute provides Cyber 

Security Training and HaltDos, product 

Development Company, develops 

Cyber Security Products. We have 

developed a Distributed Denial of 

Service (DDoS) attack mitigation 

solution, Web Application Firewall 

(WAF). These products are certified by 

Govt of India, STQC (International 

Common Criteria Test Lab). First time 

in India, such a complex DDoS 

mitigation solution has been developed 

successfully which is Artificial 

Intelligence based and EAL2+ 

certified. It is only one-of-its-kind in 

the world, which provides Integrated 

DDoS mitigation and WAF in a single 

machine. 

Overcoming Challenges 

There are numerous challenges in 

doing business in India. Here are few 

them shared by Ashish. 

• First, Slavery mindset of our people 

that Foreign products are better than 

Indian Products and foreigner can 

provide better services. 

• Secondly, delay in payments. 

• Thirdly, corruption. GST has helped 

a lot in simplifying taxation system. 

Samadhan yojna has also improved 

the payment system. 

Even though he is a self-motivated 

person, he derives motivation from his 

son, Akash Saxena. He said, “My son 

Akash has inspired me to become an 

entrepreneur and trying to fulfill my 

commitments towards Akash who is no 

more with us.” 


“ Innovation is my 

Passion 

“ 

Ashish Kumar Saxena 

Founder 

Key Achievements 

Successfully carried out 8400+ 

Application security audit, AKS Group 

is now carrying out SCADA systems 

audits in Power Sector. Also, it has 

indigenously developed AKS Forensics 

workstation, DDoS mitigation solution, 

Web Application Firewall under Make 

in India. 

AKS Group has received various 

awards like Express IT innovation 

Award 2015, DSCI Innovation Award 

2016, IIT Delhi Innovation award 

2017, SIDBI, Economic Times most 

Innovative MSE award 2018, 50 

Innovative leader award 2018, etc. 

Current Industry Scenario 

Cyber Security is the need of the hour 

by all countries. Indigenous 

cybersecurity products are a must for 

critical information infrastructure. 

Cybersecurity industry will continue to 

grow even in faster pace times to 

come. “We are in Cyber Security 

domain which is growing at a faster 

pace.” –Asish added further. 

Future Lifestyle 

The foundations of the company are 

strong and it is keeping them abreast 

with the latest technology, which will 

continue to grow with a much faster 

pace. Also, now preparing to launch 

Cloud-based WAF, CDN, DNS & 

DDOS in the next month named as 

EDGEO. “We are planning to spread 

our business globally.” –stated 

Aashish. 

A Million Dollar Advice 

“Hard work and passion are must for 

success. 

Downfall does occur and that’s the 

part of life, what matters is 

perseverance. 

Lage Raho success will be yours!” 

–said Ashish. 


29



CATALYZING BEST TRAVELING EXPERIENCES 

In an exclusive discussion with 

Insights Success Magazine, Amit 

Jain, Director at Rising Star 

Tours & Travels talks about his 

company and gives his insight on the 

current industry trends. 

IS: Kindly brief us about you and 

your journey since the beginning of 

your career. 

I completed diploma in travel trade in 

1990 and eight years later, I started 

Rising Star Tours & Travels. Being 

an avid traveler filled with perpetual 

fernweh, I identified the existing gaps 

in the tour and travel industry in India 

and the challenges that travelers face 

on a regular basis. This 

acknowledgment led to the foundation 

of Rising Star Tours and Travels—a 

one-stop destination for all the 

traveling needs. Rising Star Tour & 

Travels is aimed to make travelling 

easier and simpler that almost every 

individual in the society can travel 

across the world and enjoy the 

boundless beauty of the nature. I 

started this entrepreneurial journey 

alone, but was supported by family. 

With sheer dedication and relentless 

efforts in making this startup a success, 

I established a wide network of tour 

operators first in India and later, in the 

overseas market. Meanwhile, company 

achieved affiliations from the reputed 

organizations in the tour & travel 

industry such as TAAI, TAFI, IATA, 

ADITOI, and OTOAI. and approved 

by Ministry Of Tourism, & 

Government of India. 

Delivering the best of services at the 

prices that customer is ready-to-pay is 

always the focus of Rising Star Tour & 

Travels. The company never 

compromised on services part and this 

reflects in its growth over the years. 

Rising Star Tour & Travels won the 

Best Outbound Tour Operator Award in 

2016 and Golden Star Award in 2018. 

IS: How do you describe yourself in 

one-word or one-sentence? 

Amit Jain is a catalyst for change and a 

strategist for success. 

IS: What is your source of 

motivation? 

Nature and its beautiful landscapes. 



the complexities of the industry. 

One of the biggest challenges I faced 

was the money-centric mindset of 

customers. The primary focus of the 

customers was money, and then the 

travel experience. We, however, were 

clear from the start that we have to 

deliver the best of services and travel 

experience, even at the lowest budget 

that the customer asks for. Since 

inception, we neither compromised on 

services part nor on customer 

satisfaction. And, this reflects the rapid 

growth of our company over the years. 




It’s our customer-centric approach that 

sets us apart from the rest. As we are 

committed to providing an 

unparalleled level of customer service 


KNOW HIM BETTER 

• One word that describes you: Passionate - 

because it keeps me on my toes to do 

something and achieve something 

• Current Book you are reading: Secrets Of 

Millionare Mind - wanted to change my 

blueprint of money management 

• A Movie you watch again and again: Chak 

De India - it proves nothing is impossible 

• One Social Media Platform you use the 

most: Whats aap - most handy most 

assesed most accepted 

• You are proud of: My Family 

and value, we have a dedicated team that remains available 

24*7 to assist the customers and address their queries at the 

earliest. The proactive communication, short 

turnaround time, affordable and customized tour 

packages, and an extensive professional network 

are our USPs. To deliver impeccable travel 

experience and service par excellence is our 

commitment. And therefore, strategic quality 

control processes are in place to ensure that 

no aspect of the travel is left to 

chance. 

IS: Brief us about the current industry 

scenario from your perspective. 

Technologies have taken almost every 

industry by storm, fuelling its growth 

and digitizing its operations. 

Banking and finance and 

Automotive are always the 

early adopters of the latest 

technological advancements, 

and now, the tour and travel 

industry is also making way 

to join the club. With 

Artificial Intelligence (AI), 

Internet of Things (IoT), 

Augmented Reality, and 

Virtual Reality, the travel 

companies can deliver a worldclass 

experience to the customers 

and tap on the unreachable but 

potential customers. Intelligent chatbots that 

handle uncountable bulk customer queries in 


Director 

Rising Star Tours & Travels 


31

ENTREPRENEURIAL MINDSET 

“Factors according to you that Influence Business Relationships:” 

• Communication: A stabilized and thoughtful way of sharing meaningful and 

timely 

information between you, employees and the customer, both formally and 

informally. 

• Friendliness: Approachability; easy to reach and share feeling a customer builds 

with you. 

• Value System: Ethical and moral policies that you imbibe in the organization. 

a human-like way, VR Hardware or 360-Degree video creation using VR to entertain travelers or guide them on cruise 

interior, and real-time tracking of the luggage are some of the examples how technology is being used in the sector. 

Clearly, the future of travel industry looks promising enough from technology’s point of view where automation and 

agility will invade the traditional landscape. 

IS: State us your major achievements and your company’s achievements under your leadership. 

We are honored to receive Golden Star Award of ‘The Leading Tours & Travel Agency of the Year’ (Delhi). The credit 

goes our team, their endless dedication, unbeatable love and strong support that kept us motivated and work hard to 

achieve this award. 

Apart from offering various bespoke travel packages for domestic and international destinations, we organize frequent 

trips for visually impaired (VI) people to various tourist destinations in India and we are the first one to offer this unique 

itinerary. Since the first trip, we have received many queries for such trips; people all over the country want us to continue 

conducting such tours. We took a pledge to change the life of at least 1000 VI people a year through travel. If all things 

fall into place, we will create a platform for people with disabilities to travel to even the farthest corner of the world with 

ease. It’s the vision of RSTT to create a platform where one disabled community becomes the support system of another 

community of differently disabled. Till date, we have organized 4 successful domestic trips for visually impaired people 

and of late we have organized the first foreign tour. 25 VI persons and volunteers of Rising Star Khilte Chehre have 

enjoyed the 5-day tour to Bangkok, Thailand. 

IS: State your passions, aims, and goals. 

Exploring nature’s beauty all over the world is not only my passion but the aim of my life. And, as far as our future goals 

are concerned, we are determined to achieve a turnover of INR 100 crores in the next two years. As Indian tour & travel 

industry is still fragmented and relatively small, opening a franchise model to become a helping hand to small travel 

agencies is also one of our top priorities. 

IS: How do you see yourself and your company in the near future? 

For the next couple of years, Rising Star Tours & Travels will aim to go digital and start a franchise model. As responsible 

corporate citizen, the plan is to strengthen the digital presence of the firm and introduce a franchise model in order to 

uplift the small travel agencies. Moreover, it’s the principal objective of Rising Star Tours & Travels to make the brand a 

common household name. 

IS: What would you advise to the budding entrepreneurs? 

My advice to the budding entrepreneurs would be that this is the one industry which have a huge scope of growth with 

minimum investment as compared to other industries and till 2025 it will grow 3 times which is it now contributing 10% of 

the world total gdp. 


Ram Sharma 

Dreamer | Believer | Creator 




t o W a t c h i n 2 0 1 9 

“Don’ t waste time in thinking... Just take the leap.” 

Abig dreamer, Ram Sharma is 

the Founder & CEO at Bank- 

Genie, re-imagining banking 

and presenting tomorrow’s technology 

in today’s world. An innovative and 

creative entrepreneur by nature, Ram 

has worked in both the banking and 

technology environments. With over 

two decades of experience he is 

bringing together a thorough 

understanding of banking procedures 

and processes, software design and 

implementation, a pioneering spirit and 

a never-say-die attitude in all his 

endeavors. 

The Beginning 

Ram Sharma began his career as a 

banker in the year 1993 with an Indian 

private bank then moved on to a 

banking technology company 

‘Temenos’. Bitten by the 

entrepreneurship bug,-he started his 

own banking consulting company from 

Mysore, India. He then called the 

banking consulting company to a 

NASDAQ listed company, started his 

second startup sold that too, to a Swiss 

based company. 

After a few years of non compete with 

the previous buyer, he started off again 

and this time he was very clear that he 

wanted to start a banking product 

company to help the unbanked people 

of the world. So, he with his key 

members, came up with the idea of 

branchless banking where banks can 

establish branches in the remotest 

corner of any country to serve the 

unbanked. That’s how BANK-GENIE 

was born! 

The Flagship Product 

Bank-Genie’s flagship product is a 

mobile native software running on a 

tablet, POS device or smartphone.This 

enables banks and financial institutions 

to create virtual, integrated, secured 

and seamless retail branches freeing 

‘the teller’ from brick and mortar 

branch. The state-of-the-art solution 

enables banks to set up branches where 

customers can access complete set of 

banking services at a fraction of the 

cost of a full traditional branch.“What 

we have done with Bank-Genie is to 

take out all the dependencies and 

connectivity of a bank teller to branch 

facilities.” -said Ram. Further, he 

added, “We have modeled the company 

on large industry leaders like Temenos 

and large value companies like Apple.” 

Overcoming Challenges 

Selling to Banks is a difficult 

proposition as banks tend to buy 

software from established and proven 

vendors. It was initially difficult for the 

team to break this wall and earn the 

trust of the banks. Once, it had 

successfully implemented at UniBank, 

Ghana it was smooth sailing as banks 

had started to see value in company’s 

offering. Further Ram said, “Today, 

one of the key challenges faced by 

banks and financial institutions is their 

inability to set up multiple branches or 

access points due to capital and 

operational constraints.” 

Major Achievements 

Secured Series A funding from SBI 

(Softbank investments) and FMO 

(Dutch development Bank) 

Reached 7th position globally on the 

IBS SALES LEAGUE table in terms 

of sales. 

Expanded the product portfolio from 

one product to a suite of 7 products. 

Ranked as one of the TOP 50 products 

in digital banking products. 

Received the Red herring award for 

one of the TOP 100 companies in Asia. 

Ranked as one of the 50 global leaders 

in digital transformation by BIG 

AWARDS 

Industry Outlook: Banking Sector 

The growing influence of fin-techs and 

non-banks seems an accepted fact now. 

Investment in online lending platforms 

by both startups and incumbents is still 

significant. While it is unclear how 

many fin-techs will become successful, 

this seems a sign of maturity in the 

industry as fin-techs become part of the 

mainstream banking system. In 

Europe, PSD2 (Revised Payment 


Ram Sharma 

CEO & Founder 

“ 

Bank-Genie always 

believed in the goal of 

creating a banking 

technology product that 

can help Banks create 

virtual branches 

anywhere 

“ 

Service Directive) and the open 

banking standard are having the 

intended effects—spurring innovation 

and creating a more level playing field. 

But incumbents have not been caught 

flat-footed—they have responded well 

to the challenge. 

Encouragingly, open banking is 

catching on in other parts of the world, 

despite the lack of a regulatory 

mandate. And, in the United States, 

banks are expected to test the waters in 

2019. But, across the globe, the retail 

banking industry is fast embracing a 

mobile-centric customer experience. 

Investments in mobile technologies 

have increased meaningfully with Asia 

Pacific leading the world in the rapid 

adoption of digital banking due to 

consumers’ constantly evolving 

demands. 

Meanwhile, consumers’ experiences in 

other industries are upping the ante for 

most banks. Deloitte’s recent global 

digital banking survey across 17 

countries showed that banking 

consumers have a stronger emotional 

connection to technology brands like 

Apple, Amazon, and Google than to 

their banks. Some of these companies’ 

ability to blend experiences from the 

physical and digital worlds is 

considered a good model for banks. In 

response, banks are deploying a mix of 

strategies to stay ahead in the game, 

including higher technology spending 

on channel improvement—branches, 

ATMs, call centers, and digital 

banking. JPMorgan Chase (JPMC) has 

adopted “mobile first, digital 

everything,” while Santander has four 

investments in the online lending space 

alone. 

Driving Forward 

Banking solutions company Bank- 

Genie with corporate headquarters in 

Singapore has announced it will 

establish its presence in Manila to 

service a growing clientele that 

includes Universal Banks, Saving and 

Lending Banks, Rural Banks and 

Multi-Finance Institutions across the 

globe. Also, the company aims to 

accomplish the number one position on 

IBS Sales League and achieve their 

goal of transacting one billion 

transactions on their Genie Platform on 

a daily basis. 


35

THE BELOW EXCERPT IS ANEXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH 

RAVI G. 

VENKATARAMAN 

CEO at CLOUDNINE GROUP of HOSPITALS 

Talking about his Journey across the Healthcare Segment till date 

IS: Kindly brief us about you and your journey since the 

beginning of your career. 

RV: Prior to joining the healthcare industry, I had the 

privilege of been associated with multiple industries and had 

the opportunity to traverse through the entire value chain of 

functions – right from manufacturing, supply chain, 

distribution, sales and marketing, strategy and M&A and 

have been running P&Ls for over the last decade. My first 

job was as a young engineer working in Godrej & Boyce on a 

project for ISRO for manufacturing components for the 

PSLV – so truly Rocket science! Post my MBA I was 

associated with Titan Industries as a part of the team that set 

up the Jewellery manufacturing set up which now is famous 

as Tanishq. I joined Coca-Cola when they commenced 

bottling operations in India and held various roles with them 

– right from buying through sales and distribution to running 

bottling operations. Subsequently I had a stint with Airtel 

wherein I led their DTH business in the South India. Prior to 

joining Cloudnine Group of Hospitals as the CEO, I was with 

Metro cash & Carry wherein I held multiple roles in India 

and Asia in the areas of Strategy, M&A and Commercial 

operations and Merchandising. I have always been attracted 

to new and unchartered zones and even in established 

organisations have chosen jobs that are more entrepreneurial 

and like start-ups. 

Ravi Ganesh Venkataraman 

Chief Executive Ofcer 

Cloudnine Group of Hospitals 

IS: How do you describe yourself in one-word or onesentence? 

RV: I see myself as a “permanent learner” at every stage 

IS: What is your source of motivation? 

RV: I get my highs by trying out new things and exploring 

unchartered territory. I believe that the human mind is 



capable of way much more than what 

we give it credit. Hence learning new 

skills is something that’s my biggest 

motivator. 



the complexities of the industry? 

RV: Most of the roles that I have 

performed required me to learn skills 

which I had never expected to learn. 

The biggest challenge is to be able to 

learn from everyone and everything 

around you while at the same time 

leading your teams and the business 

successfully. 




RV: Cloudnine Group of Hospitals 

began its journey in 2007, and now 

stands as one of India’s most advanced, 

technologically equipped maternal, 

childcare and fertility care group of 

hospitals in India. Technology is at the 

core of this organization that has 

revolutionised childbirth in India’s 

urban centres, and hopes to drive this 

change in rural India as well. The 

founding group of promoters with their 

experience and global awareness, 

coupled with research through 

customers, providers, payor networks 

found a gap in service as against the 

demand available for maternal and 

childcare services in India. Our entire 

ethos is based on our Chairman, Dr 

Kishore Kumar’s Philosophy that 

“Pregnancy is a wellness and not an 

illness”, till we started our services. It 

was found through our research that 

choice for couples were either nursing 

homes or corporate hospitals both of 

which had their own merits and 

demerits and our objective was to 

provide personalised experiences with 

the highest technical expertise and the 

best of clinical talent, all along 

cherishing the journey of pregnancy 

within an infrastructure catered to 

“Celebration, Comprehensive Care 

and Clinical Excellence”. After the 

milestone of marriage, childbirth is one 

of the most cherished moments in 

one’s life and our services in 

handholding the couple through this 

life stage and being their trusted 

companion for everything that they 

need during this time have been a core 

offering. 

The entire thought at Cloudnine is that 

maternity and birthing are perhaps the 

most precious moments in a mother’s 

life. That is something we would like 

to celebrate and we do that with all the 

the vigour and enthusiasm. This has 

been the core purpose of our journey 

over the last 12 years, and has kind of 

propelled us to the heights that we 

have reached today, where we give 

every customer a pure Cloudnine 

experience. 

IS: Brief us about the current 

industry scenario from your 

perspective. 

RV: The space that we operate in is an 

interesting one with the macro on 

account of rapid urbanization and 

increase in women in the workforce 

being important drivers for growth. 

There is a clear emergence of the 

woman as the central decision maker in 

matters related to pregnancy and 

childbirth – as opposed to the past 

when there would be others taking 

critical decisions on behalf of the 

woman. This in turn has fueled the 

demand for a superior and fulfilling 

experience through the pregnancy 

journey while of course expecting 

clinical excellence. Today, Cloudnine 

Group of Hospitals is the market leader 

in this space and has led the 

transformation in the industry, by 

making the experience of childbirth a 

joyous and memorable one. Besides 

providing top class clinical care and 

superior facilities Cloudnine has also 

ushered in a host of novel concepts 

such as Lamaze & Yoga classes, Baby 

showers, involvement of the father and 

other family members in the journey. 

Obviously the success of Cloudnine 

has spurred up several competitors to 

enter this market. But being the 

pioneer Cloudnine is committed to 

leading the field with its relentless 

focus on the Customer and excellence 

in operations. 

As in any growing company especially 

in a sector like maternal and child 

healthcare where there is a stiff 

competition, the key challenges have 

been to ensure we put in enough means 

and mechanisms to ensure we stay on 

top of our customer promise and 

maintain our clinical quality 

excellence. We invest a lot of time and 

resources in training and motivating 

our teams to perform at their best 

levels. A key focus area for us has been 

to keep the company culture evolving 

and engrained whilst allowing for 

regional independence in creating new 

balanced environments. We have been 

able to attract top clinicians across the 

cities we operate in and we 

continuously learn from their 

experience and value addition to enrich 

our growing story. 

IS: State us your major 

achievements and your company’s 

achievements under your leadership 

RV: As the first mover and pioneer in 

this sector, our ability to innovate has 

constantly helped us succeed. 

Innovation across customer experience, 

clinician engagement, staff training, 

technology intervention through both 

medical and digital means to further 

enhance outcomes have always helped 

us set a high benchmark of excellence. 


37

One of our key distinction has also 

been the fact that we are extremely 

transparent in our service offering and 

that has helped us cut through the 

otherwise hard to traverse industry 

mechanics on pricing. We have 

provided over 70000 mothers a truly 

Cloudnine experience as they gave 

birth their bundle of joy! There is 

frankly no greater accomplishment 

than seeing the smiles on faces and joy 

in the eyes of these families. 

IS: How do you see yourself and 

your company in the near future? 

Tell us about your future goals. 

RV: This is an important question. We 

are looking at all our customers getting 

a pure Cloudnine experience here. And 

when we say Cloudnine, it basically 

means Uberization of Healthcare. And 

this is what we actually look at – that 

there is easy choice. It’s all available at 

the click of a button. Information is 

present, there is data access, one can 

make payments, write reviews and take 

feedback from us. 

We are looking at all our customers 

coming together as a large ecosystem. 

We are bringing in a set of partners 

who will support this ecosystem with 

their products. So the mother and child, 

which is the core of this ecosystem, is 

supported by not only Cloudnine but 

all of Cloudnine cohorts in having a 

great journey, superb celebration for 

this absolute grand moment in their 

life, which is the birth of their baby. 

The world around us is now digital and 

our customers expect the same from 

us. We have therefore intensified our 

digital efforts – both for our customers 

as well as our doctors. We created a 

very friendly app for customers which 

enables them to do most of the 

transactions with us digitally – eg. 

doctor selection, appointment booking, 

payments. Similarly, we have enabled 

our doctors with digital technology 

wherein using a digital pen their 

prescriptions are fully digitised and 

stored and shared seamlessly with the 

customer. We see ourselves as pioneers 

in using digital technology in 

healthcare and one can expect many 

innovations in this space from us in the 

years to come. 

The entire medical industry has been 

largely a doctor driven industry. It’s 

where digital transformation has been 

limited or slow, and is also one place 

that perhaps requires the maximum 

amount of digitalization because the 

fundamental need for the customer to 

have all access to information, data and 

to know that she’s been treated in the 

right way and she has access to past 

records – are core to this particular 

business. But unfortunately this has not 

been something which has been driven 

as hard in the medical industry as it 

should have been. What we are trying 

to do in Cloudnine is to actually start 

the journey right from day one 

completely digitally. So for example, 

when a customer walks into a 

Cloudnine hospital, she’s given a tab 

and enters all her registration data 

through the tab. There is no paper. All 

critical information, which is in the 

past was captured on a piece of paper, 

could lead to errors, the same errors 

gets captured as a data entry – this is 

completely eliminated. The power 

shifting from the hospital or provider 

to customer is the big shift. And this 

shift can only happen when we use 

digital means. This is a big 

transformation happening in 

healthcare. It may not come across as 

big but when you actually start seeing 

the impact of this, it shifts so many 

things. For example, more than 40 

percent of our appointments today are 

being made through the app. The 

customer is actually not calling up new 

hospital or a call center but clicks on 

the app, chooses her doctor and makes 

her appointment. That’s a very, very, 

very big shift. We would like to see 

this virtually become 100 percent in 

the near term. 

We will continue to strive to reach new 

heights in delivering on our objective 

of Healthy Mothers and Happy Babies. 

We have recently accelerated our 

initiatives at helping mothers who are 

unable to conceive through Fertility 

programs and centres. We are setting 

up best in class fertility centres across 

the country with the highest standards 

in clinical and ethical practices. 

IS: What would you advise to the 

budding entrepreneurs? 

RV: My advice would be as follows: 

• In your early years be a sponge – 

soak up everything that you can 

learn from especially your 

customers 

• Have a clear business model with 

the customer at the core and follow 

the philosophy “customer is the 

King” for your success. 

• The goal of every business is to be 

profitable so have a clear path to 

profitability 

IS: What are the factors according 

to you that influence Business 

Relationships. 

RV: All Business relationships are 

based on value propositions. A 

customer pays you for the value that 

you provide. Similarly you pay your 

suppliers for the value that they 

provide. Even your investors invest in 

you because of your capability to 

create value for them. The stronger 

your value proposition the higher your 

share of the customer’s wallet and 

hence higher the competitive 

advantage for your vs other 

competitors. 


How Arti cial Intelligence (AI) 

Shall Impact Business and Lives 

in the years to come 

In the year 1986, when I was pursuing my master’s 

degree from IIT Mumbai, we had a full course in AI. It 

had a very interesting computer game called “Predict 

the Animal”. The game allowed you to think of an animal 

and after asking you some questions, to which you only 

had to reply in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, the machine accurately 

predicted the animal you had thought of. The game started 

by asking a simple question like, is it herbivorous or 

carnivorous? So, if say, you had thought of a ‘cow’, and 

replied herbivorous, the game may respond that it is a goat. 

Because at that stage of the game the only animal listed as 

herbivore in its animal database was a goat. When the 

game realized that it has made a wrong prediction, it would 

give up and ask you, what question could it ask to 

distinguish between a cow and a goat? You will probably 

say, “Is it huge and bulky”? to which the answer for goat 

will be ‘No’ and for cow will ‘Yes’. The game shall start all 

over again and the computer, while playing the game shall 

also learn to distinguish between different animals and ask 

right questions for the purpose. After playing the game for 

a few rounds, the computer always predicted the right 

animal after asking a few questions. The earliest versions 

of Artificial Intelligence algorithms were taking shape at 

that time. 

Since then AI has come a long way over the last 33 years. 

Today Artificial Intelligence is making its presence felt 

across all domains of businesses. Whether it is Retail or 

health or education or finance sectors, AI based 

applications are making a ubiquitous presence across all 

sectors. So, what is AI? How does it differ from Human 

Intelligence? Earliest computer programs were linear in 

About the Author 

Wg. Cdr. Pradeep Valsangkar is 

a postgraduate Engineer from 

the IAF. He completed his 

M.tech in Computer Science 

from IIT Powai and MBA from 

FMS Delhi. He is also a 

graduate of Defence Services 

Staff College of India. After 

leaving service he has worked 

in various capacities across 

different ITservices companies. 

He has been working as a 

senior consultant of the world 

bank for last 15 years, a visiting 

faculty at Institute of 

Management technology and 

runs his consulting firm Global 

Consulting Solutions. 



Wg. Cdr. Pradeep Valsangkar 

MD&Chief Consultant 

GCS Consulting Services Pvt.Ltd. 

nature and had a fixed logical flow. The computer executed 

this algorithm on the available data and produced the same 

result every time it executed the program. However, 

humans realized that the natural intelligence did not behave 

in such a static manner always. It applied the contextual 

information to processing of the data and came out with 

different results depending upon the context in which it 

operated. Thus, for example, a given number was big or 

small in context with which it was referred to. Thus 35 

degrees Celsius was high for humans to bear but low for 

water to boil. This ability of the humans to learn from their 

environment and adapt to the changing conditions needed 

to be replicated in the computers. This meant writing 

computer algorithms that adapted and changed every time 

it encountered contextual data. More data it crunched, more 

the algorithm learnt and more it adapted itself to the 

changing conditions. These adaptive computing algorithms 

lead to many different sub fields with in Artificial 

Intelligence. These fields included Natural Language 

Understanding, Machine Learning, Robotics, Deep 

Learning &, Neural Networks. 

Today AI based applications are driving several sectors of 

the economy. Industrial Robots have automated the 

production of several industries. Auto Manufacturing is one 

major example. Robotics based production is much faster 

and is also more accurate leading to much lesser wastage in 

terms of material and faulty manufacturing. Retail sector is 

now able to accurately predict the buying behaviour of its 

customers on the basis of the deep learning algorithms 

crunching the customer data on a real time basis. This 

enables the retail stores to adjust their inventory just in 

time to satiate the customer demand. 

A prominent home application of AI is Voice activated 

intelligent bots like Alexa. These devices are making it 

much easier to operate general home appliances and 

demand music and entertainment and news on demand 

through voice actuated AI applications run on a small 

device plugged in to a home socket. 

Machine learning algorithms are helping major social 

media giants like Facebook to fine tune their 


41

advertisements to specific log ins on the basis of their 

browsing history. Data pertaining to billions of searches on 

Google is helping to provide the browsing history and 

buying behaviour of people and helping the retails industry 

to finetune its products and Advertisement spend. 

AI is also finding major use in the field of medicine. IBMs 

‘Watson’ is an early example of an online doctor capable of 

diagnosing a given disease on the basis of the symptoms 

and providing medication for the same. The field of surgery 

is replete with many surgical instruments with AI and 

robotics capability helping human surgeons undertake 

complicated surgeries. Recently an operation done in 

Indiana Police in USA, a surgeon using a Google Glass 

was automatically supplied with imaging and diagnostic 

data pertaining to the organ S/he was operating on 

seamlessly. This meant that the surgeon did not need to 

take his/her eyes off the organ to refer to the imaging or 

diagnostic data while performing the surgery. 

Driverless cars are fast becoming a reality. The driverless 

car developed by Google has already clocked a million 

mile. The city of Singapore has already launched the first 

driverless Taxi service in the city. It is expected that in a 

decade or so, driving as a profession shall vanish and most 

of the cars on the streets will be driverless cars. 

The speed at which Artificial Intelligence based 

applications are proliferating across all domains of the 

economy, it is very difficult to predict its complete impact 

over the coming decade. Almost all sectors of the economy 

shall be impacted by AI based applications and devices. 

Driverless cars shall certainly become a reality. That shall 

mean many less cars on the road and nearly zero accident 

rates. (Since automated driverless cars shall always avoid 

collision using AI and proximity devices.) 

The communication as we know shall undergo a complete 

change. Holograms (Virtual and Mixed reality devices) 

shall change the communication experience across the 

entire spectrum. Someone sitting in India shall be able to 

deliver a lecture in the USA as if the person was present 

there. Online real time translation shall also mean that the 

lecture given in one language will be translated online and 

delivered in any other language of choice using Natural 

Language algorithms. 

Enormous proliferation of IOT (Internet of Things) devices 

across all sectors of an economy shall mean that these 

devices shall generate voluminous data. Such data (in Tera 

and Peta Bytes) will only be possible to be crunched and 

made sense of using AI and machine learning techniques. 

Thus, IoT controlled Devices driven by AI based 

applications, continuously fine tuning their actions on the 

basis of analysing big data produced by IOT devices shall 

govern our life in the year 2030. We will not drive to office, 

we will interact with virtual people using holograms rather 

than real people, machines shall do most of the mundane 

routine work, social media is likely to impact the way 

people shall interact with each other and socializing as we 

understand today may undergo a complete change. 

Will such an influx of AI in our lives impact the jobs. Will it 

mean that a number of jobs in the economy shall be lost to 

smart Robots, who shall do the same job better, at a lesser 

cost and more accurately? The verdict on job losses is 

mixed. If we go by the history of automation, we find that 

automation has always created more jobs rather than taken 

away jobs. Advent of computers and automation has 

always helped expand the economic activities faster and 

has helped grow the economies across the globe. However, 

there is a possibility that the types of jobs may undergo a 

change. People may have to re-skill themselves in to using 

newer technologies and some professions may be lost for 

good. Blue collar jobs are likely to give way to white collar 

jobs. People at the bottom of the pyramid may find it very 

difficult to find jobs because of robots and IoTbased 

devices undertaking all mundane repetitive jobs done by 

humans. This may turn out to be a blessing in disguise and 

the quality of human effort will undergo a change for the 

better.

The 10 Influential Business Leaders to Watch in 2019_compressed

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